Payback

Rated: PG-13 (language)

Category: Gen, Mal/Zoe/Wash/Jayne/River Friendship.
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Summary: Mal's Got His Own Reasons For A Certain Job After Miranda.

Note: Written for the ff_friday prompt of 'Well, That Was Dramatic'.

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The explosion rocked Serenity even at the distance River had managed to put between the ship and its source.

Mal stood on the bridge behind the young girl. He was bloodied, bruised, and fractured, but far from broken.

Jayne stood on his left, looking slightly better.

Zoë stood on his right, looking slightly worse.

This job had been hell, but it'd been worth it.

As the last waves of the blast shook Serenity, the trio released their holds on the support beams that had kept them upright during the explosion.

Zoë stared at the debris field that was all that remained of space station Niska, hard eyed and angry.

Mal gave the trash the slightest nod of satisfaction.

Jayne sniffed once irreverently and then cleared his throat. He turned to leave the bridge and see to his wounds, but as he did so, he couldn't help but comment on the massiveness of the explosion. It seemed to him that Mal had gone a little overboard with the charges on this one, but in all fairness, he really couldn't blame him.

"Well, that was dramatic," said Jayne.

"Yep," answered Mal.

"Had to make sure you got him good, huh? Pay him back for what he done to you?"

Mal shook his head. There was no doubt that this one was personal, and he didn't mind scattering that psychopath and his fortune all over the black one bit. He'd have done it on principle alone, even without the occasional numbness that stung his left ear or the nocturnal visions of mechanical spiders burrowing under his skin. Hell, even the sizable fortune they stood to gain from this job wasn't Mal's real motivation. Not this time.

The truth was that Mal was just plain angry, and blowing something up made him feel a little better. He was so angry most of the time that he couldn't see straight, and if taking his rage out on those just might have deserved it turned a profit, well, he wasn't going to turn it down.

Mal grinned a little, and a short, sarcastic laugh escaped his throat as he answered Jayne in a voice that could've breached Serenity's hull.

"Oh, it's payback, alright. But not for me. That, Jayne, was for Wash."

Jayne's brow knitted in confusion as Mal spun and left the bridge with Zoë hard on his heels.

River turned in her chair to face Jayne.

"It's not hard to understand," she said.

"Says you. Mal was way worse off than Wash after his time with that bastard."

River tilted her head to one side.

"Pain inside is relieved by pain outside."

Jayne opened his mouth to argue, but just then a conversation replayed in his mind and a twinge of sadness pulled at his insides. He'd told Shepherd Book that death always made him want to fight, or rut, or… do anything, and he'd meant it.

And suddenly he understood. He remembered the idiotic stunts that Mal had pulled lately. He remembered Zoë taking risks on the past few jobs that she'd have never taken before Miranda. He remembered his own behavior in a recent bar fight that had gotten way out of hand.

River smiled at him and nodded.

Jayne left the bridge without another word.

XXX

Jayne took seventeen stitches and a whole lot of antibiotics after that job.

Zoë needed two bullets removed.

Mal got a cast, which caused no end of complaining and thus punished everyone on board.

But their bodies healed with time.

And eventually, with more time, a lot of liquor, and Serenity, so did their souls.