"Spring is my favorite season. I like the flowers."

"We're lying on Serenity's floor, little girl. No flowers anywhere."

"Remember when I told you I can kill you with my brain?"

"Not something I'm gonna forget anytime soon, River."

"Well, call me little girl again and you won't need to remember it, Jayne."

Cobb's laughter made River's head jiggle on his stomach. She'd been using him as a pillow for hours now. Mal had looked at them in bewilderment, Inara had smiled sweetly and Simon and Kaylee had run away giggling. Jayne still hadn't asked her to move.

"I'm a big girl now, Jayne. I'm an auntie."

"Being an auntie don't make you a woman! Hell, look at Kaylee: she's a mom and still she's like a little kid!"

"Doing what you think about doing to me, at night before you fall asleep, would that make me a woman?"

"River Tam! I told you to stay out of my head, didn't I?"

River's laughter could be heard as far as the medical bay. Simon and Zoë looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I'm 25, you know." Jayne could see the tender expression on her face, from his new vantage point – right beneath her, since she'd decided to sit on him. "I'm not looking for the great romance of my sister's books. I'm not expecting anything from you."

"I want you to have that. That all-encompassing love. That I-can't-live-without-you kinda nonsense. You deserve to feel that."

"And still you forget who I am. I don't need that, Jayne. I can have it, if I want. It's in Zoë's every thought about Wash. It's in the looks Mal and Inara share. It's in every breath Simon and Kaylee take." River put her hand on his temple. "But you… you say what you think – and mean it. You think my quirks are funny, not worrying like Simon does. When you see me dance, or fight, you can't believe how gorgeous and sexy I am – you can barely think of anything else. You play tough, but you love us with the fierceness of a thousand stars. I want that! I want that fierceness – that power – to be mine. Can you give me that, Jayne?"

She already knew what would happen next.

That didn't mean, though, that Jayne's lips on hers, his fingers in her hair, his strong thighs between hers when he laid her on the ground and rested his weight on her, gave her any less pleasure.

Just like the words he pressed against her mouth: "Anything you want. Everything I am. Take it, it's yours. You already know that."

"I do. But I like to hear you say it."