Maddie Cobb sat quiet at the Eavesdown Docks, dressed in her best outfit a plain white cotton skirt and a blue and green flower print blouse, back straight, hands folded tightly in her lap, facing straight ahead, nervous as all hell. She hadn't seen her brother in ages. Not since she was little anyways. Ma always got letters from him…and money. He'd always tried to hide how he made that money from them, but Ma had known better. "Just like his father" she'd always say. That of course probably wasn't a good thing because Ma Cobb had had a soft spot for outlawin' types, from her first husband who skipped out of town not long after their son was born to Maddie's pa, a no-good guitar picker who's name she never learned.

It was funny for Maddie to even think of Ma gone. It made no kind of sense. Maddie'd been the one sick with the damp long for the last six months. Then the minute she gets better BOOM Ma comes down with pneumonia and is dead in two months. Viral pneumonia, the doctor had said. Maddie'd tried to get Ma help, but the money for the drugs just wasn't there. Everything they'd had had gone for Maddie's treatment.

She sighed and looked down at the single bag, which contained all her worldly possessions. There wasn't much, a few changes of clothes, Ma's scrapbook and Maddie's little box of treasures.

For a moment, Maddie closed her eyes, calling up hazy images of her older brother. There wasn't much there either, just vague memories of getting lost one time when he was supposed to be watching and giving him a whole mess of feathers one time while they were fishing, him catching four big reds, and him saying those feathers were his good luck. She smiled faintly remembering haw when she'd thought Jayne was just another word for big brother. A quiet tear dripped down he face. God, she prayed, please don't let him make me go back. I don't want to go back. Cassen will make me a whore like all those other girls in town. I can't do that. Please, Lord, protect me. Please St. Flora of Cordoba, St. Dymphna, St. Anthony of Padua, Please, protect me. St. Rose of Lima, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. Mary Magdalen…

Maddie's silent litany of saints was broken by a sudden and surprised shout, "Maddie, That YOU!"

Maddie opened her eyes and smiled faintly when she caught sight of her brother standing stock still in the crowd, like a stunned bull ox. He looked different than she remembered him, he had a beard thing, but she supposed that was to be expected. He was still her big bubba though.

"Hi, Jayne." She said in a quiet, shy voice.

He ran up, grabbed by the shoulders, looked her square in the eyes as he always had when she was little, and with confusion clear on his face (this had also been quite common when she was small) demanded, "What're you doin' here, girl?"

Immediately the tears began to well up in her eyes. "I. I didn' know where else t' go. Ma. Ma died an' an' Cassen was gonna…" She broke down into uncontrollable sobs and Jayne awkwardly attempted to calm her down.

"Ma's dead?" He said in a kind of lost voice.

Maddie nodded tearfully, "She caught the new-moan-ya an' all the money you sent last was done spent makin' me better." She swallowed hard, "Tried t' get the money. I even got me a job at the shrimp house, it. It was too late."

Jayne release her from his inexpert hug. "How'd you git here?" He asked holding her at arms length.

Maddie bit her lip. "Ma still owed a lotta cash t' Cassen and said he was gonna git it outta me one way or another." She took a deep breath and watched Jayne's face to make sure he understood her meaning. He did. Jayne remembered Cassen and his threats of prostitution well. "I sold everythin' we had, but I knew it weren't gonna be 'nough so I skipped town. You said in yer letters that y'all spent alotta time on Persephone so I paid a freighter t' take me out."

Jayne's eyes narrowed. "Looks like you knew I was gonna be here t'day." He said indicating her bag.

Maddie shrugged, "I asked around."

"You didn't tell 'em you was my sister, dija?" Jayne asked suspicious.

"Naw, Said you owed me money. Seems alotta folk are pretty keen on you bein' got out, big brother." Maddie said smiling.

Jayne laughed, "You sure have grown up, Maddie." She smiled up at him. "So, where you stayin' sis?"

Maddie's eyes shot down to her feet and she shuffled uncomfortably, "I was kinda hopin' I could stay with you?"

"Now, Maddie." Jayne said trying to sound stern and big brotherly, but mostly just getting the overly protective big brother part, "Serenity ain't no kinda place for a little girl."

Maddie set her jaw hard, "I ain't a little girl, Jayne. Yer the lil' girl. I'm eighteen years old. 'Sides Cassen bound t' send somebody after me. I jus' know it. The way he hated Ma an' all."

Jayne frowned; Maddie could tell he did not like the way this conversation was going. "Ma said in her letters that everything was goin' fine 'sept you bein' sick an' all."

"Yeah, well, Ma didn' wan' you comin' back an' gettin' the law on you again." Maddie said, angrily. "There're folks back home still talk 'bout the time they almost strung you up."

Jayne's eyebrows furrowed deeper, "Gorramit, girl. Fine, come on, but you'd better keep up an' not git lost again." Maddie hastily grabbed up her bag and followed after her swiftly moving brother saying a silent prayer of thanks. Her problems where certainly far from over but at least she'd found Jayne.


Ok. SO I was writing this other Firefly fic (which you may still see) and wasn't really getting any where when I had this dream. It was strange and a little disturbing, but it inspired me to write this. It should get published pretty fast. I've first drafted most of the story already and am diligently typing it up and fixing it.

Please reveiw, I have two guns. Sure there those little plastic keychain guns, but... My dog knows where you sleep.