Jayne Cobb was at the end of his rope. He was hot, sweaty and had a killer headache. The kid next to him kept squallin' in his mother's arms and the business man behind him kept jostling River. The damn transport shuttle was so full of people, he figured all they needed now was for the air-circulation system to go on the fritz, and he'd be pulling out Roxanne and going mental worse than moonbrain on a bad day.
River lurched into him again. He could feel her body press into his back and that just made him crankier. The gorram killer woman-girl-woman, whatever- the- hell she was had been on his mind lately. She'd grown into quite a beauty and with them workin' together often, he was starting to scare himself with the thoughts he was havin' on her. If Book'd been around, he'd a had a nice long chat with him. Considerin' she was now twenty, no wasn't she almost twenty-one?, he found it harder and harder to ignore her and treat her like the skinny, crazy little pain-in-the-ass she'd been when she and her brother first came onto Serenity.
She'd been gettin' real close ta him lately too. Always walkin' at his side on jobs, sitting next ta him in the mule or in the galley and she seemed to be around when he was spendin' his free time lifting or readin' in the bay or crew lounge and he was definitely noticin'. She also was lookin' real good as of late. Today she was done up right pretty she was. Her hair was brushed and shiny and clean. She was wearing little flat gold sandals, a denim skirt and a cute little t-shirt with a picture of an old AK-47 assault rifle from way back when on the front. 'Now why'd she hafta go an wear that shirt' he thought, granted he liked it an all, but he couldn't help wonder if she'd picked it out just for him. Now they was going off ship an' all so that was more than likely the reason, but damn if she didn't look all kinds a cute.
Interrupting his thoughts, River gasped and quickly shoved her way from behind Jayne and tucked herself up close to his front. She looked up at him, eyes a little wider than normal and whispered to him, "The man in the suit is a copper."
Jayne looked down at her, wonderin' what the hell that meant. He was gettin' better at figurin' out what she was sayin', but he was beyond that now. "What?... so what if he's a cop Moonbrain, you ain't wanted no more so don't worry on it. Just try'n relax til we get to the gorram dentist." Jayne shifted his weight slightly trying to get some space in between them. "An why are ya pushin' all up on me?" not that he minded that much.
River huffed, "Because Jayne, I told you he was copping! and you're a brick wall."
Something clicked through the haze of his headache and it dawned on him what she was tryin' ta tell him. He got a murderous look in his eyes. "Are ya sayin' that hun dan done copped a feel?"
She gave him that d-u-h look that was normally reserved for Simon. "Yes, and I don't like it. I promised Simon I would be good and not bother you or make a scene so I put a wall between he and I."
"Well why didn't ya just say something!" Again he found himself on the receiving end of the d-u-h look. Those big brown's a hers did something to him. And he found his mood darkening if that was even possible.
Lately, it seemed everywhere they went, punk-ass boys and horny men were eye sexin' her or talkin' some kind a shit to her. Didn't matter if she was with Mal, Zoe, her brother or him. Some moron always had to try an make time with her. Normally, she just ignored it, but normally they weren't touchin' on her and grabbin' her ass.
He looked down at her again and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Crazy, I ain't at the top a my game today an' I should a realized what ya was sayin' sooner."
She blinded him with a big smile, and did she just push up a tad closer to him? yeah, she did and then suddenly, there it was again, that feelin' that overtook his senses. He was gonna make that son of a bitch pay now for touchin what was his. 'Whoa, where did that come from he wondered?' He chalked it up to the headache and quickly spun around and found himself face to face with the greasy bastard.
"You try an' squeeze my ass and I'll knock out yer bottom teeth too!" he snarled and then knocked out the man's top two front teeth with a quick punch. The pervert yelled and covered his mouth as blood began to trickle down his chin.
"And don't get any a yer gorram blood on my shirt ya idiot or I'll break yer nose too! Ya best learn ta keep yer hands offa what's mine." 'Geeze, there it was again, why'd he keep sayin' that' he wondered? Jayne sighed and turned around facing River. "That fuckin' idiot ain't gonna bug ya no more Riv."
She smiled up at him wondering what he'd done since he had only turned away from her for a few seconds. She'd tried to hear what he had said to the man, but she couldn't make it out with the baby screaming next to her. She did notice that the creepy man was now shoving his way towards the back of the shuttle away from Jayne. "Thank you Jayne, you're a good wall."
"Damn right," he grunted in response.
Thankfully at the next stop, the woman with the screaming baby stepped off the transport, freeing up a seat against the wall. Jayne pushed River to the side and sprawled out on the seat. Before River could protest that he did't give her the seat, he grabbed her arm and pulled her down to sit on his lap. The transport lurched into motion as she settled into Jayne, wrapping her arm around his waist and leaning into his strong body to steady herself. She closed her eyes and blocked out the swarm of thoughts that permeated the transport, laying her head on his shoulder. Luckily, her tooth wasn't aching too badly yet.
Jayne closed his eyes and tried to make it all go away. 'What a fucked up day'. Lil' crazy needed some kinda dental canal root thing on her tooth before she got an infection or some crap and Simon was supposed to take her to some high falutin' dentist on Persephone. But, that had all gone to shit when Zoe'd gone and got herself shot on the job they was workin' when the local law got wind a what they was doin'. They'd had ta high tail it back to the ship as Simon quickly shoved a piece of paper with an address on it inta his hand with a wad a cash and babbled something about taking crazy to the dentist. Mal was screamin' at Simon ta fix Zoe and Kaylee was cryin'. He was going to protest, but Mal went an pulled his gun out, so he caved in and now he found himself sittin' on some piss-ant shuttle making his way to a damn dentist appointment with a lap full a killer woman, a heinous headache and Serenity long gone inta the black.
Their stop was next, and Jayne abruptly stood up almost knocking River to the floor. He grabbed her arm before she went down. "Come on girlie, let's get this shit done."