Easter
Time slips and slides away. Days in the black fade away and are left in our trail behind us, with the stars.
"Twinkle, twinkle little bat, how I wonder where you're at..."
"Well that's plan down unsettlin'," muttered Jayne.
I blink my big, dark, soul seeing eyes at the man and ask him what he means.
"You're singin' a song about bats. Like vampires and such..."
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana," I state and then laugh hysterically.
"I'll be leavin' now..." he said, getting ready to take his guns off the kitchen table and retreat to the safety of his bunk. I was sitting on the only free space on table top, surrounded by weapons, trying to blend in. I have it on good authority that it was my talking that gave me away.
"No, Jayne, stay. You know about vampires?"
"Sure do," he said, looking at me as though he was worried I was going to physically convert into a bat and attack.
"Did you know that in every culture from Earth-that-was there was some sort of vampire myth?"
"Makes sense," was his casual reply.
"Really, how do conjure this theory?" I asked, intrigued.
"Well, think 'bout it. Humans always are afraid of monsters. Every culture probably had some form of werewolves too, right?" he looks at me and I nod, "Bad things happen to people and us beings don't understand that we are capable to do that to one a-nother. Thus, all these scaries are invented to explain it. Come on, you're our witch, you should know this."
I look at him and ask, "So, your hypothesis is that the invention of vampirism and lycanthropy is the human way to explain the inhumane?"
He just grunts and continues to clean his gun.
"Witchcraft and other superstitions created to reason human behavior? The mentally ill diagnosed with demon possession. That is quite a brilliant conjecture, Jayne."
"Hey now, crazies may have been thought to have a demon in 'em, doesn't make demons not real. Said monsters and such, didn't say a thing about demons."
I look at the man and ask him, "You believe in demons?"
"Hell yeah, evil exists. Evil is in some folk. That's the devil work what there," Jayne stated, with complete certainty.
"You have been conversing with the Sheppard?"
"Yeah, but I believed in that stuff before. Evil is the-um- manifestation of the devil. Good is the manifestation of God."
"But the symbol-"
"The what?"
"Sheppard Book's Bible," he nods, "says that God is more powerful than the devil."
"Yeah, that's true."
"Than why did the Alliance win?" I ask
He looks at me, looks at his guns, than looks at the girl again. "Cause, we screwed up."
"What?" I ask, needing further clarification on his ideas.
"Adam and Eve were some idiots who traded paradise for a ruttin' apple. God created us with free will; that is how human kind all ended up here."
"Do you have any justification for the inconsistencies in the Book?"
"Sure do, what's that science-y statement for when humans make miscalculations..."
"Human error?"
"Yeah, the Bible was written by humans, so some mistranslations from the divine to us occurred."
"Human error?"
"Yeah, God gave them the big pictures and important points, it's in their details where some things might get muddled. It was perfect till it was written by the imperfect."
"Human error?"
"Your record broken are sumthin' girly?"
"Your theology is far from flawless-"
"Hey, now, never-"
"But, it is very compelling. Alright, you have converted me."
"What now?"
"I am now one of the Sheppard's lambs. Faith fixes you, you don't fix faith."
Jayne looks at me, skeptical, and says, "Well, that's nice."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dinner time came. Simon had officially been banned from cooking. Kaylee and Book had cooked as wonderful dish as one could create with protein food stuffs.
Jayne, like normal, was first, waiting impatiently to eat. Kaylee and Book are still puttering around the kitchen working on fixing the meal.
Wash enters and takes a seat. Zoe and Mal follow after him.
River pranced in followed by a happily confused looking Simon.
River took her normal spot between Jayne and Book sitting at the head of the table. The food was laid out and Jayne reached out and started packing up his plate. Till his hand was taken into Moony's.
Sheppard Book head leaned down as he began to silently saw grace, but he was disrupted by River grabbing his hand.
Quickly, everybody around the table was holding hands, besides the Captain.
"What's goin' on?" asked the befuddled Captain.
"River has found religion," said Simon, with a smile.
"She has?" asked the Sheppard.
"Well yeah, I thought you would have-" began Simon, only to be interrupted by the Captain.
"Little one, has the Sheppard been fillin' your head with this nonsense.
"Not nonsense!" exclaimed River and she added, "besides, Jayne was the one who showed me the light."
Book, looking at Jayne, asked "You've been talking about theology to our young River?"
Jayne just shrugged and said, "Um, I guess."
"Dear Lord," said River, her young voice softly cutting through the conversation, "I thank you for my dear family. For my brother, and Captain Daddy, Auntie Zoe, my wonderful siblings Kaylee and Wash, for our wonderful, wise Sheppard Book, and I thank you for our dear Companion. I am very grateful for grandma Serenity, my comforting home. You gave your son to us, Easter has passed us by, and we are forgiven for He has risen. Oh, I almost forgot. Thank you for the baby growing in Zoe's belly and my future husband Jayne Cobb. In Jesus's name, Amen."
Mouths agape as Zoe blushed and Jayne muttered about moonbrains. But Mal stared at the young woman before him, who had gone through so much, been hurt so badly, and the ice wall around his heart started to melt.
A/N: God bless you all, I hope you had a happy Easter!