I own nothing, firefly belongs to the minds that created the show
Dear Journal,
I did something real dumbass today. Got real tired of having my ma yellin' at me all the time to get educated or sumtin' so I ran off. Took a few changes of clothes and went down to Persephone's air docks. But per-maybe-haps I'm gettin' ahead of my self. My name is Jayn Cobb, named after my sonofabitch father, who took off after one make out session with my ma. One thing ya gotta understand is that I'm from canton originally, one of them dirt poor border planets. Folks there tell me I aught to be proud havin' a hero for a father, but back to my story. I was walkin' through Persephone, makin' darn sure that biggass knife I carry at my hip was visible. Lots of folk around here were lookin' for a play toy. Ya see, I'm sixteen, I look about twelve, and I can pass for fourteen. I tell most folks that I'm twenty one. So anyway the knife deters people. I comes across this ship, offerin' passage. There's this girl in front of it, holdin' one of those umbrella's as is only useful for giving shade. I hoisted my money pouch, deciding that it should by more than enough. I stole it from my ma. I don't feel guilty worth a penny though. If she hadn't been so quick to have a go around with the hero of Canton I wouldn'ta have even been there to steal it from her.
So this girl, she can't be more than twenty-five, says to me "You lookin' for passage? We got some real nice spots for sale," she smiled, real innocent, real nice.
I smile back, less innocent, less nice, "yeah, don't much care as to where, anywheres that ain't here is fine" I gave her the whole pouch of money.
The girl laughed. "My name's Kaylee, this here is Serenity," she patted the side of the boat, crazy I know but she did. "What's yours? Name I mean"
"Jayn Cobb," I say's finding it kinda funny when she looks at me like I'm a lair or sumtin', people do that to me a lot though, look at me like I'm lying.
"How old are you?" Kaylee's looking at me still, kinda like she's readin' me, so I tell the truth, dumb I know. "sixteen, is that gonna be a ruttin' problem?" I try to growl, adding the curse to sound tough.
Kaylee looks at me like she wants to say somewhat more, but instead she waves over my shoulder. "Cap'in, Zoe, Jayne," she yells, this huge grin spreadin' crost her face.
Wait a sec, did she just say Jayne? Oh well, it's to late to run out now. I turn to face them.
"My Cap'in, Zoe, and Jayne," she indicates each one with a point of her finger. "This is Jayn Cobb," she indicates me with that same finger.
The tall muscled one in the middle gulped like he'd done something wrong, that would be my da then.
"Jayne?" the smaller brown haired man asked, fiddling with the waist band of his tight pants. Takes me a sec to realize he's talkin' to my da, not to me. "Anything you wanna tell us?"
"Uh, no?" Jayne sounds hopeful, like he knows that ain't the answer his captain's lookin' for.
The captain rolls his eyes. "we'll discuss this in the air," he turns to Kaylee, "Inara and all them on board?" he asks.
Kaylee nodded. "Simon just got back, the Shepard and River never left, and Wash is ready to take off, so every thing's shiny captain."
Jayne edges past, awful wussy for such a tough guy, a dog that expects a beatin' somethin' I full intend to do to him later. The ship takes off, rocking slightly, a sudden jolt throws me sideways into Jayne. I don't know who's more surprised, me when I hit him, or him when he catches me.
"O.K. Jayne, you have any pressin' desire to explain to me how comes there's a kid runnin' around here with your name?" forget him being the smaller man the captain is real threatening.
"I dunno Mal, I been to a lot of companions," he rubbed his lightly bearded jaw.
That did it, I'm not real ruttin' proud of it, but I snapped. I reached into my bag, past the clothes and my books. A pulled out a worn ceramic garden troll and my biggest knife. I threw both in his face. "How many of them companions did you give these to?" both fell to the floor. Everyone was watching but I didn't care, sixteen years of hate was comin' out of my mouth. "How many of those girls were Susan of Canton? How many did you leave pregnant and broke?" I stopped breathin' hard.
Zoe, the black woman, broke the heavy silence, "Sir, I think this qualifies as a problem"
Jayne just stood there the whole time, like he was deaf as well as dumb. People came in, a girl, looked about my age, and as moon-brained as they come. A man following protectively behind her. A grey haired black man, real purty lady, and a semi-large blond man followed directly behind them. I'm the only stranger here, an outsider, facing down what appeared to be the whole crew. Well, oh shit, they can deal.
"The girl hears shouting so she brings Simon to help captain daddy keep the rock safe," yup, that girl is definitely as moon brained as they come. "The Rock is safe?" River was lookin' at Jayne like I already beat the gorram rutting crap outta him.
There was a jolt of the boat. Kaylee said something in Chinese, never did learn to speak it myself, and jogged off. She had teddy bears on the legs of her pants, real cute.
"The girl would like to know why the man aper called Jayne never told anyone he had a daughter," River cocked her head at me'n Jayne.
"Didn't know I did mooney," Jayne growled, but it was half hearted. This River girl obviously surprised him.
The black man, he has to be the Shepard, says to me "I can definitely see the resemblance," he lifted the brim of my stained brown hat without permission. I jerked back. He laughed, full throated and deep. "Yes, I can most definitely see a resemblance,"
I still don't see what was amusing.
The other man, Simon, seemed to be a step behind everyone else. "Jayne has a kid?" he really seemed confused, I almost felt sorry for him.
"Yes, it would appear so," Inara spoke for the first time, her voice was pretty, it matched the rest of her I guess.
"'Nara, take Jayn back to the unused shuttle, help her find what she needs," captain Mal ordered.
Inara made to put a hand on my elbow. I twisted out of the way, not meaning to be rude or nothin', it just kinda happened. I can always blame it on genetics, seems to me that my da ain't real big on manners either.
On my way out I paused only to look at Jayne. With as much venom as I could muster I said, "I hope you get spaced... Dad," I left the knife and the troll right were they were.