Disclaimer: All the pretties belong to Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.
Summary: The girl watches him watch her. Unrequited affection from an outside perspective.
…
He watches her now. He watches her with the doctor and with the captain. He watches her at dinner and in the cargo bay. He watches her when she's happy and when she's scared.
And the girl watches him watch her.
The girl's mind is fragmented now, so broken apart that she can hardly maintain a linear thought progression. It's easier for her to concentrate on effect following cause when she has something to focus on, so she focuses on Jayne Cobb (big man, strong man) watching Kaywinnit Lee Frye (smart woman, bright woman).
Ever since Kaylee was shot by the Federal, Jayne has watched Kaylee differently from before. The girl isn't sure how she knows it's different, since she was in cryogenic suspension when Kaylee was shot, but she knows it's true. The girl knows that Jayne has looked at Kaylee ever since he stepped foot on Serenity, but after watching the entire surgery to fix Kaylee, he watches her.
Sometimes the man with the woman's name catches the girl watching and demands to know what she's doing. The girl tries to explain, but her words get all muddled in her head and she knows that the meaning is lost.
"What are you starin' at, girl?"
"You watch when you think no one else can see, but I see. You want her to see but she never does. She is fixated on the antithesis."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
He blames Simon for Kaylee getting shot and the girl can understand his logic even if she believes it is fallacious. He doesn't understand why she would act the way she does towards Simon when he was so willing to let her die to save his life and the life of his sister.
No one knows that Jayne wanted to kill the Federal because he wasn't allowed to kill Simon. The girl isn't sure how she knows this, she just knows it. She also knows that if Kaylee had died, Jayne would have killed Simon, even if Simon had done everything in his power to save her.
"Like satellites in motion. Gravity attracts two separate bodies at the speed of negative nine point eight one meters per second squared until they collide. Only way to avoid collision is to gain sufficient speed to overcome the force of gravity."
"I got no interest in a science lesson. You got a point or can I get back to my weights now?"
"A larger mass is needed to affect the trajectory of the satellites in order to avoid collision."
The girl watches the man walk away and knows that she failed to get her point across to him. She can see his frustration in the contracted muscles in his back and shoulders and in the glare he focuses on the infirmary when Kaylee and Simon can be heard laughing from within.
The girl loves to hear Simon laugh like he used to when they were children. Simple. Carefree. She is happy that Kaylee can make him laugh like that. She is sad that Kaylee making Simon laugh like that makes Jayne sad.
"One of two results will occur. The two satellites will collide and flame for a short period until the surrounding oxygen is consumed and nothing is left in the wake but wreckage. Or the orbit of the smaller of the satellites will be caught by a planetary mass and both satellites will be left intact but separate."
Of all the things the girl knows that she shouldn't, she wishes she knew the outcome of this situation.