A/Ns:
Welcome, I started this fic with a specific image in mind, and I don't expect it to be long. All the gruesome medically oriented detail is in this chapter.
Disclaimer: Firefly in its entirety belongs to its creator Joss Wedon, and the Mutant Enemy, Inc., Universal Pictures, and 20th Century Fox thereof. Not mine, and I am not gaining any monetary value for any work of writing committed to page. This is fanfiction, no copywrite infringement is intended.

"Jayne!!" River swerved around faster than light, firing off two more shots before throwing her empty gun with enough strength to buy the time to properly keel the third guy over. Mal and Zoe were fighting to the right, River and Jayne had been caught and systematically pushed away from their Captain and his First Mate.

By the time she got to the large bodied merc his yellow t-shirt was stained a crimson hue. "Jayne! Jayne, no red! I told you no red!" She fumbled at his shirt before a hand gripped hers and held them steady. He had toppled down under the force of a solid land vehicle veering for his body. It ended up running over his leg before River capped off the pilot and her gun-mounted passenger.

"Musta forgot. Just a scratch." Blue eyes shooting up, he pushed River away with a bellow of pain in time to save her from getting an axe to the neck. She swung in mid fall, and kicked out the attacker's leg at the knee. It cracked and bent sickeningly forward in tandem with the man's stiffled scream.

River was on top of the man choking the life out of his throat before scrambling a hand down to grab at the knife Jayne tossed at her. Pity they wouldn't be able to show his corpse at his funeral without serious reconstruction. Three more shots rang out, Zoe's signature shot gun plowed through a bandit who had taken to trying to kill the Captain, another gunman from the dwindling band of ne'er-do-wells fired off his pistol, before Jayne shot him squarely through the throat.

River staggered for a step as her body quivered, then twisted as she fell to her knees in front of Jayne.

"No red." she gagged on the words as the last she heard was Jayne's long thin line of cursing when he grabbed her body mid-fall.

"Gorrammit, Mal! MAL!" Jayne screamed over the dying gurgles of the battle field exploded with a grenade - Captain had let Jayne bring some this job. Lucky them. Still bleeding from the gouge taken out of his shoulder, Jayne leaned over River's limp body before ripping his shirt off and using it to staunch the blood.

"The hell!? What happened!?" Mal slid over, the crew's payment still firmly in his pocket.

"Seem to be in a gunfight, Sir!" Zoe yelled as she fired off her shotgun again. By now the rest of the bandits that had tried to take over the ship were vacating the area faster than an egg scrambles on the surface of a star.

"Shit, she breathin'?" Their little Reader looked more'n a mite pale lying there half in Jayne's arms.

"Bullet went right though. Get the doc!" The body of the twenty year old government trained assassin bucked under the shock of a post shock seizure. Biting his cheeks Jayne picked her up and stood on his clearly decimated ankle. If the way his armoured boot's position was any indication, the man shouldn't even have been able to stand. He did, for her, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he held his beloved River. The bandits had thought enough before hand to run it over with what was the closest similarity to an Earth-that-was tank. 'Course he'd seen it coming so instead of killing him, it had run over his boot. Another long line of curses flooded the Cargo Bay as Jayne knocked himself up against the railing walking up to the Infirmary. Zoe pushed the correct button and Serenity closed herself up for take off, as a shuddering and unconfident Inara fluttered through taking the cumbersome ship up in River's absense. After the ship was secure, Mal and Zoe raced back to where Jayne struggled with River. Her convulsions weren't helping his broken-down instability none, and the Captain and Zoe could see it. Grabbing ahold of River, Mal tugged her away from the struggling merc and ran her to an Infirmary where Simon waited pacing with an ashen taste in his mouth. Zoe watched Jayne stumble forward with the loss of River's added weight and tumble to the stairs.

"Godammit!" The first order of business was to tend to River, he could wait he wasn't. . . Zoe's arms under his shoulders stopped any burgeoning thought processes before they began to develop.

"C'mon, Jayne. You're bleedin all over." He didn't even give much thought to bein' shot up himself. Kaylee was busy pushing everything non-medical off the mess table before Jayne was uncerepticiously thrown onto it by the remaining crew members.

"I'm fine, see t'River!"

"She got plenty seein' t'her. Simon and Mal're both in there. Stretch out." Zoe prepped a hypodermic needle with a healthy dose of fast acting painkiller before plunging it into Jayne's uninjured arm muscle.

"You're bleedin! Oh my gawd, what happened t'your boot, Jayne!?" Kaylee was afraid to touch it, no human foot could survive unbroken in such a confined state. Laying out, Jayne grit his teeth and nodded to Zoe.

"Somethin' with treads ran over it's what. Gorrammit help me get this off!" The pain killers were beginning to fog out his perriferal vision as the ship lurched out of the small moon's atmosphere. Inara's shaken voice came over saying that they were out of harm's way and the auto-pilot was set. Her footsteps weren't far behind the sound of her voice as she raced in to check on the rest of the crew.

"What happened -- OH!" Inara's startled shriek ended with her upturned gaze and a prayer on her lips.

Even with the painkillers, Jayne's body was broken enough to make him grunt unwillingly. Better 'n biting his tongue. Zoe sawed at the laces of the boot, and started cutting away the hard fibers and old leathers, as she worked Kaylee patched up his shoulder, still wide-eyed and about to puke as Jayne's foot seemed to crumble uselessly to gravity's pull once all the pieces of the boot were off. Zoe's confidence only showed a glimpse of temporary doubt when she bit the insides of her own cheek.

Mal exited the Infirmary once he was assured that he was no longer needed to help with River, and came into the Mess Hall in time for Inara to run into his chest, before whimpering and running for the nearest head. A nauseous Companion was rare enough to get Mal to hurry. Sniffing up a steeling breath at the sight of Jayne's foot and ankle Mal sent Kaylee to go check on Inara.

"'S broken, Sir"

"I got eyes, Zoe. Reset it."

"Sir. . . " Zoe looked to Jayne, glad that his eyes were glazed over with the amount of drugs in his system. "There ain't no bone left t'set,"

Blinking, Mal took a moment to truely look at Jayne's foot and ankle. WIthout the boot to stabilise it somewhat, the only thing holding Jayne Cobb's appendage as part of his body was the mostly unbroken skin. The bones had been pulverized into sticky dust.

"Jayne. . . " River's weakened voice stumbled to their ears along with her body, being held up by a half-frantic Simon.

"She wouldn't stay in the . . . oh good god. Get him to the Infirmary now!" River stumbled into Jayne's unbleeding shoulder with a wave of blood-loss induced weakness. "Jayne." She sobbed out his name as she brushed his hair away from his forehead.

"Think. . . think my foot's broke. Bad broke." he whispered out, glad to see River awake and walking. Their contact was abruptly disconnected as Mal and Zoe took places on either side, and lifted the heavy merc with tandem grunts. Simon had already escaped back to his Infirmary and had out a very sharp saw. Once Jayne was positioned on the chair, Simon locked Inara and Kaylee out.

"River, are you sure you want to be here for this?" River nodded at her brother and took her place at Jayne's head cooing as soothing words as she could handle saying and hugging onto his shoulders with her good arm.

"Whassis? Cap, why's th'doc got a saw?" Jayne's mood was quickly changing from 'loving the painkillers but damn this hurts' to 'why the fuck is Zoe strapping me down?'

"Your foot's gone. Needs t'come off. Here, bite this." Mal stripped off his belt and doubled over the thickness, fitting it between Jayne's teeth. The painkillers had been meant for mid-level pain, not amputation. From the way his foot was beginnning to balloon with swelling, Simon knew they didn't have time to wait for anesthetization.

"Hold him steady!" Mal and Zoe each took a side, River still cooing soothing babble into his ears. Jayne whimpered and shut his eyes, nodding resolutely at the doc to do what had to be done.

"He wants you to be quick and solid. Do it, Simon!" River looked up with tears in her eyes. She and Jayne had literally fallen on top of each other after the Maidenhead. In fact, after the Feds disengaged their weaponry, Jayne had lept exhausted to his feet and taken her into his arms bloody weapons and all. The couple had been inseparable since then, daring anyone on the crew to stand in their way. No one did.

Being the emergency doctor he was trained to be, Simon took his position straddling Jayne's injured leg and began to saw. A strangled scream followed Jayne's instinctive attempts to buck and fight away from the searing pain. His eyes never left River's as she screamed in associatedly felt pain. Mal and Zoe shared a knowing series of glances as finally the foot was completely severed and landed on the floor with a splat.

"No red. Norednorednorednored" River babbled, as Mal lept across the room to grab Simon the flesh sealer gun to cotterize the wound. Simon cleaned up the puddle of Jayne's foot himself as the stronger dose of painkillers finally sent the amputee merc to sleep. River still refused to leave his side, curling up on his chest until Mal carried her onto the cot they had placed in beside Jayne's chair. Even with a foot or two of distance between them, their hands stayed linked together.