Jayne's Girl
Author: Kevin Schultz
Rated: PG, just to be safe.
Disclaimer: Firefly and its characters/settings are not mine… only the dog is mine.
The ruttin' thing wouldn't leave him alone.
Jayne Cobb looked across the dusty mid-town road at the dog. It was a fair enough lookin' thing, he admitted. Its coat was a mix of brown and white, its eyes the same brown as its fur. It had a hopeful look in those eyes, and for some reason, the dang dog kept following him around the town.
Sitting down on a nearby crate, Jayne stared at the thing. Maybe intimidatin' it would scare it off, he thought.
The dog just stared back, wagging its brown tail hopefully.
Jayne grunted in annoyance. He stood up, trying to ignore the dog from this point on, and went into the shop. After purchasing some boxes of ammunition, he exited the shop, only to see the dog sitting patiently next to Jayne's crate. Hefting his bag of ammo over his shoulder, he yelled at the dog, "Scram, runt!"
To which the dog perked its ears and smiled at him.
"Gorramit," Jayne muttered. He trudged off, heading back to the ship. He tried ignoring the fact that the dog was trotting happily along behind him.
Serenity was ready to go. Jayne could hear the engines spinning up as he climbed the ramp into the ship. For a pretty girl, Kaylee sure could keep them engines running good, he thought.
"Welcome back," Zoe Washburne said as she hit the button to close the entry. The doors and ramp slowly rumbled and creaked, as Jayne made his way through the stacks of crates in the hold. "Get your ammo?"
"Yeah," Jayne grunted.
"Why do we always gotta stop at Horatio for your ammo?"
"Cuz I like the shells from this one particular shop on this one particular planet the best, that shiny enough for ya?" Jayne snapped.
Zoe raised her eyebrows as she turned from the console to head up the stairs. "What's eatin' you?" she asked as she started climbing.
"Nothin'," Jayne grumbled as he left the hold heading for his bunk.
Serenity lifted from the ground and headed into the atmosphere and towards the freedom of space.
Jayne dropped his boxes of ammo onto the little table in his room. He opened the top of one of them, peered inside, smiled, and headed over to his bunk. Pulling back the curtain draped along the wall, he carefully lifted his most favorite gun in the world out of its special display area.
He carried Vera over to the table and set her carefully down. "I got your favorite, Vera," he whispered, glancing around to make sure no one could hear. "Just the way you like them."
Outside in the hallway, River Tam paused as she came to Jayne's closed door. She pressed an ear against the door, listening. Hearing Jayne speak to an inanimate object as if it were alive... well, that was something River could understand. Even so, it was Jayne. She giggled.
Hearing the giggle from outside, Jayne scrambled to throw a blanket over Vera and his new ammo boxes. He realized it was River from the sound of the laughter. "Scram, runt!" he barked at her.
Her laughter danced through the door as she tiptoed down the hall.
Jayne threw the blanket off Vera and sat down to inspect his new cartridges. After a time, he heard another, quieter sound at the door. He figured it was River again and ignored it at first. After a few minutes, the sound came again. Jayne slowly stood up, moved over to the door, and wrenched it open. He looked out to see -- nothing.
Until he looked down, and saw the dog from Horatio. It was sitting down, looking up at him and smiling.
"What the..."
Everyone was in the hold. Mal, Wash, Zoe, Book, River, Simon, Kaylee. Jayne, too. And the little dog, currently being petted by Kaylee, who was oooh-ing and aaah-ing over it.
"Isn't she adorable?" Kaylee grinned up at the group clustered around the dog.
"'She'?" Jayne frowned.
"I always knew someday, some lucky lady would find you," Wash said, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he fought back the laughter Jayne knew he wanted to release.
"Shut it," Jayne barked, glowering at the grinning pilot.
Mal looked at Jayne. "Why'd you bring a dog on my boat?" he said sternly. "You know my rules 'bout critters."
"Weren't me," Jayne protested. "Musta snuck on board when I got back. I don't want it."
Kaylee looked up at Jayne sadly. "Aw, why not? She's so cute!"
"Don't want no thing dependin' on me, needin' me to feed it, clean up after it."
"Can I have her, then?" Kaylee asked hopefully.
"No," Mal said firmly. "Dog's gettin' dropped off next port of call. Don't want no critters gettin' in our way. Come job time, thing gets underfoot, never know what might happen. Things might go south big-time."
River knelt down next to the dog. She peered into the dog's big brown eyes. "Sophie," she said.
"Huh?" said Jayne.
"Her name is Sophie," River continued.
"How do you know that?" asked Kaylee, her eyes wide.
"Because that's her name," River explained, as if that made it all perfectly clear.
"Oh...kay, then," Wash said. "Next stop is Sunfall. Nice enough place, I'm sure she'll be fine there."
Kaylee stood up and moved to Mal's side, her eyes pleading. "Cap, you sure we can't, y'know, find some way to keep her? She looks sweet enough, I'm sure she'll be no trouble."
Mal glanced at River. "Yeah, sure," he muttered. "That's how it works."
"Really?"
"No!" Mal said, turning back to Kaylee. "Mind's made up. Dog gets dropped at Sunfall. You keep her out of trouble til then, dong ma?"
Kaylee looked crestfallen. "Understood, captain."
Jayne considered the matter closed, and stomped away back to his bunk.
Sunfall was one of Jayne's favorite planets. Lots of good hunting grounds. A nice cool morning tracking hopperbirds was a great way to take a guy's mind off of... well, just about anything, actually. You could be one with your gun, one with the hunt. Nothin' like a little blood-lettin' to perk a person up.
When Serenity touched down a short distance from the little village of Ra, Jayne was waiting at the ramp, ready to go. He had Vera with him, and his new batch of ammo in a handy pouch by his side. He noticed Sophie sitting nearby, watching him carefully.
"Kaylee!" he called grumpily. "Time to say farewell to your little mutt! Heh."
The rest of the crew were starting to arrive in the hold, and they all hurried over to Sophie. Kaylee and River gave Sophie huge hugs and pets, which the dog completely loved, her tail wagging overtime. The men pet her as well, having gotten fond of the little creature.
Except Mal, who went right to the controls, punched some buttons, and watched as the ramp lowered into the bright morning sun. "All right, 'nuf messin' about. Off she goes."
Kaylee pleaded with Mal once more, and once more Mal remained adamant. The dog was to leave immediately.
"Git," he said firmly, looking Sophie straight in the eyes. The little dog looked up at Mal, perked her ears, wagged her tail hopefully. Mal pointed to the ramp. "Git! Now!"
Kaylee turned and quickly left the hold, heading for her engine room, not wishing anyone, least of all Simon, to see her tears welling in her eyes.
River waved at Sophie as the dog slunk sadly down the ramp. Sophie stopped once at the bottom of the ramp, looked back at the crew, saw Mal's stony look, then trotted slowly out of sight.
"'Bout time," groused Jayne. "Off to kill some critters. Don't wait up!"
"We never do," Zoe zipped back at him.
Jayne waited til Serenity was out of sight before he unslung Vera. He looked around, headed towards a particularly good-looking, brushy area. Yeah, he thought, this should be good. Should be plenty of hopperbirds in here. Time to play!
He spent about an hour, slowly moving through the undergrowth. So far, he had failed to rustle up any birds. Usually by now he had at least two or three in the bag. He had no idea why things weren't going so well this morning. He wasn't doing anything different. Weird. Kind of annoying, too.
He kept at it for another hour. Still nothing. No sign of anything. A few tiny buzzerwings, but they weren't anything worth shooting at, just tiny little birds about the size of a pack of cards. He was about to give up, when he suddenly heard movement up ahead in the brush. He tensed, readied Vera.
Sophie's head popped up out of the brush.
"Gorammit!" Jayne hissed. "Get outta here, mutt!" No wonder he hadn't seen anything. Ruttin' dog was scarin' everything away, he thought. He motioned at Sophie to scram, but Sophie wasn't getting the message. Suddenly Sophie's ears perked up, and her head dropped below the line of brush once more.
Jayne watched as the signs of Sophie's movement through the undergrowth tracked in front of him from left to right. Then, quick as a shot, a hopperbird leapt up from out of the brush, right in front of where Sophie appeared to have headed. Jayne brought Vera up, took a bead on the bird, squeezed a shot. As he heard the blast, he saw the bird drop. The bird spiraled slowly, coasting down towards a clump of dense trees in the distance. He kept his eyes glued to it as it fell, then lost it in the trees.
Sophie trotted over to Jayne, grunting excitedly. "Gorammit, dog, you scared that bird into--" He broke off as he suddenly realized what he was saying. He puzzled over it for a moment. It took a little bit of pondering before it finally clicked. Sophie had flushed the bird out for him.
"Huh."
Maybe this dog wasn't so useless after all.
Jayne headed towards the clump of trees where the bird fell. "C'mon, Sophie," he said. "Let's go find that bird." They moved cautiously into the thick of trees, Sophie's head down to the ground, her nose sniffing and snuffling as she tracked the scent of the downed critter. Jayne searched the area himself, his eyes scanning. Soon enough, Sophie darted towards a particular spot. Jayne hurried over, in time to see Sophie pinning the wounded bird. "Good dog!" Jayne said, surprising himself with the compliment.
Jayne reached for the bird, having to say a quick "Drop it!" to Sophie for her to let go, grabbed the bird by the neck, cranked it to snap the neck, then dropped it in one of the sacks hanging from his belt.
Sophie sat and looked happily up at Jayne, her tongue hanging from her smiling mouth, her brown eyes bright and shining.
Jayne sighed. "Guess you ain't so bad after all, dog."
Two hours later, Jayne and Sophie headed back to Serenity, another seven birds in Jayne's pouch. Sophie trotted happily by Jayne's side, her tail wagging in satisfaction.
As they climbed the ramp, River watched them both. Her brother, Simon, just shook his head. Jayne rolled his eyes. Stupid doc, so what if he never understands me, Jayne thought.
"Jayne..." Simon began.
Jayne halted and swung around towards the doctor. "You got a problem with my dog?" Jayne said, lifting his eyebrows.
Simon shook his head once again.
"Better not," Jayne grunted as he led Sophie out of the hold.
Simon turned to River. "Captain Reynolds is not going to like this."
River fixed her big brown eyes on her brother. "He'll adapt. She's part of the crew now."
"I don't know..."
"We are."
Simon sighed. "I guess we are. Still... I don't wanna be around when he finds out."
They heard a thump and a crash from beyond the door to the crew quarters, followed by Mal shouting, "Jayne!!" Much cussing ensued.
...The End...