Title: Hard to miss
Type: Pre-Rayne fluff,

Rating: R, Mild sexual activity
Word count: 5k +
Big Thanks: To Ceslas for the beta and the positive reaction, does wonders for my confidence. There's been some tiny additions so any remaining mistakes are mine all mine.

Hard to miss...

Jayne Cobb stood, propping up a street corner far enough from the Eavesdown docks to have half way respectable people walking the streets. He was hoping to catch the eye of some woman who wasn't too respectable to consider a no strings attached tumble with a bit of rough. The tactic had worked for him before.

He would have preferred to keep things simple and pay a whore, but after putting some money towards the fixing up of Serenity, his pockets held just enough cashy money for a decent drink or two. Jayne Cobb had seen too many people die lately, two that had mattered and he wanted to remind himself he was still living. He had a powerful itch to scratch.

Some time after noon the streets filled up, people hastening out to lunch, or to do some shopping. He had to flatten himself against the wall to avoid the bustling crowds. He considered giving up, there was much less chance of making a connection when the streets were full and people were rushed.

He was just about to push himself into the throng and make his way to a bar, when a woman stumbled against him, buffeting his body and nearly poking his eye out with the tip of her parasol. He opened his mouth to swear, then froze, an enticing smell assaulted his nostrils and warmed his nether regions.

He was very sensitive to smell, it came from tracking he guessed, or maybe it was one of the reason's he was so good at it. That was as far as he wanted to analyse the skill, doing was always much more fun than thinking on things.

Before he could put out a hand to help, she was gone with a swish of silk against his hand. On instinct, he pushed himself from the wall and set off in pursuit, following his nose.

The crowd cleared a little at the end of the street and he got a better look at her, not that he could see that much, the upper part of her body was hidden under the outsize, gaily coloured parasol with a long fringe. He stepped in behind her and shot an assessing look at her green silk covered behind. It looked nice and pert, bit on the thin side maybe; he hoped the rest of her lived up to the promise of her rear end.

"Need an escort lady? Streets are mighty dangerous, 'specially for a peach like yerself." he stuck his best come and get me smile on his face, hoping she would stop to see what a fine, noble, specimen of manhood was offering her his protection.

She stopped, turned and the parasol tipped to one side.

"Gorramn it!" The face underneath was all too familiar. He figured Inara was missing a dress and now he came to think about it, wasn't that the parasol Kaylee had bought at some market a couple of months back?

River Tam looked up at him innocently. "You think I am a fruit? Why would a fruit need your protection? Will someone try and take a bite?"

Jayne ignored that, he was damn sure she knew what he'd meant by peach and was in no mood to discuss it, "what ya doin' here crazy?"

"Wanted to go for a walk."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "Because now I can, I thought I might find someone I could talk to, thought a nice boy might buy me tea," she looked up at him, vaguely hopeful, "or an ice planet".

Jayne looked back down at her; if that was a hint, he wasn't inclined to take it. Now that he could see it clearly the dress didn't fit properly, it was a touch too tight on the waist and a little loose on the hips and the chest. Plus a dress like that left her face looking naked and even younger than usual, a woman wearing a dress like that usually had a face full of make up as well.

"Ain't gonna find no nice boy's, might find some dirty old man 'cos you look like a kid playin' dress up in ya momma's clothes. Side's a fella finds a slip of a thing like you hanging round the street's on her own, they ain't gonna be thinking of tea an' ice planets, they're gonna think of gettin' into yer pants."

River flushed slightly, she looked away from Jayne, an unconvincing look of indifference on her face.

When he was paying attention there were certain things Jayne had an unerring instinct for, women in the mood for sex was one of them. He grabbed her arm, "That's what yer after, ain't it, ya wanna pick some fella up. That's why ya sashaying around in 'Nara's dress tryin' ta look all grown. Don't rightly know what they call that in the Core but we got words for girls like that on the Rim."

River yanked her arm away, "You are in no position to give lectures Jayne Cobb you stand on street corners looking for casual sex, you visit whores, how dare you judge me."

"Hell I ain't interested in what ya do, just reckon a real man, one as is worth havin', ain't gonna want a barely all there little stick with googly eyes an' her hair in a snarl."

River's hand strayed to her hair, she had actually brushed it before leaving the ship and she couldn't believe it had ravelled itself into a knot already. She realised that Jayne was merely being insulting as usual; perhaps he didn't think that she was a stick or that her eyes were googly either. As for not being all there, she was much better, but what did he expect, miracles?

A calculating look replaced her indignant expression.

"I cannot be that unappealing; my proximity caused your member to begin the engorgement process." River saw the 'you what?' expression on his face and sighed. "You have," she paused and looked irritably at the area in question, "had, the beginnings of a stiffy, woody, boner, hard on, the horn, little soldier at attention…"

"Ain't 'cos it's you, my pecker ain't discriminatin' like the rest of me."

River looked quizzically into his eyes, "Hardly discriminating to choose a bed mate based on a smell."

Jayne didn't stop to wonder how she knew about his John Thomas' behaviour, or the smell, because she undoubtedly plucked it straight out of his head, he shrugged.

River regarded him steadily, "I will change my brand of shampoo."

"Whatever," he sneered, "You goin' after some nice boy? Hah!"

River bit her lip, she looked a little crest fallen, "N-no, the mood has passed."

"Well can ya get outta here, you're damagin' my mood and I ain't gotta a hope of gettin' what I want wid ya hanging around."

River stuck her tongue out and left.

888888

Four and a half hours later Jayne Cobb stomped up the cargo bay ramp carrying a niggling headache from drinking bad whiskey and a foul mood from his failure to get sexed.

He didn't like admitting it and didn't want to analyse it, but River's brief presence had left him distracted and uncomfortable. He'd gone to a cheap bar and sat for a good while, drinking watered down whiskey with a raw unfinished taste that told him it hadn't been aged enough. If it had been a kid, it wouldn't have been on solids and definitely still in diapers.

The only thing to be said for it was that it had turned enough cashy money for two decent drinks into enough for six.

By the time, he'd shaken off his unaccustomed mood the streets had darkened and filled with working girls (and boys) and other people who made their livings on the wrong side of the law. If he'd hung around on street corners, he was likely to get offers he didn't want, from folk's with grubby eyes and money in their sweaty, grabby fingers.

He hated the Core.

Out on the Rim there'd have been a damn good chance the proprietor of almost any cathouse would have known him and many of them would give him credit for at least a quickie. The owners and the girls changed over so fast on the Eavesdown docks he hadn't recognised anyone.

He wondered if he should tell Simon about River's little adventure and that bothered him because his largely indifferent distaste for the girl seemed to have evaporated. He still avoided her when he could, Jayne couldn't recall spending any time in her company other than in the galley since they'd reached the Eavesdown docks and even then he'd kept his distance.

He kept worrying at the problem as if it was stubborn splinter stuck in his fingertip. It seemed the girl saving his manly self from being Reaver chow had left him feeling obligated. He couldn't decide whether it obligated him to keep her secrets, or to tell her brother she'd been doing something dumb.

She was still dangerous, she was still trouble but he supposed she was something like crew.

He went to his bunk and tried to sleep, but his headache just got worse. He gave up, got up and swung by the infirmary so that he could wreck the place looking for painkillers before going off to work out his frustrations on the weight bench.

Once he got there, he couldn't work up the enthusiasm to get going, he sat down and started work on a good self-pitying sulk instead, because at least, when he thought about his own problems, it drowned out any concern about hers.

He had a good head of steam on an 'ain't fair, ain't had a chance of a willin' woman fer weeks an' crazy's gotta ruin my mood. Streets were prolly full a' red hot, Core bred fancy pieces just waiting for a fella like me ta make their day, gorramn it,' sulk, when the focus of his brooding descended the cargo bay stairs. She trod deliberately downwards dressed in a ratty t-shirt and shorts with her hair all newly washed, fluffy and curling damply at the ends.

She made a beeline for his position and stood there, one arm folded across her chest, a wash bag hanging from her other hand, glaring down at him.

"What you want crazy?" he spat, wanting in no way to deal with her peculiarities right now.

"What do I smell of?" she demanded.

"Huh?"

"What do I smell of?" she literally stamped one little foot; "I have washed my hair in a different shampoo and used a different soap."

"Ain't interested."

"Your interest is not required, your co-operation is. What do I smell of?" she made a wafting movement with her hand as if she was trying to send her smell his way.

Jayne glared up at her a moment, his jaw working, "You wanna know moonbrain! Hell I'll tell ya!" He sprang to his feet, grabbed River by the shoulders, shoved his face into the crook of her neck and inhaled violently.

He pushed her back to arms length and sneered at her.

"You smell of fake apple soap an' fake strawberry shampoo, that T-shirt smells like stale detergent 'cos you put too much soap in when ya do yer wash, you bin sittin' in the pilots chair 'cos I can smell that funky fake leather an' your sweatin' some 'cos yer a bit salty even though you just had a shower. An' you smell like girl 'cos it don't matter how much soap ya use there ain't nothin' cep't me getting a real bad cold gonna stop me smelling that." He glared at her, "Satisfied now?"

River didn't respond, she was looking at the floor, holding her breath, flushed pink in the face. He frowned down at her, confused, shouldn't she kicking him or something? Or at least babbling something gorramn confusing?

River glanced up at him through her eyelashes. She'd started breathing again with a hitch, faster than usual, her flush straying down her neck and under her shirt.

Jayne took a good, thoughtful look at her. At some point while his nose had been pressed into her hair and his lips had been ghosting her skin, his un-satisfied John Thomas had started to take an interest. His fingers tightened on her shoulders and he looked down at her, a feral speculation coming to life in his eyes. Jayne Cobb stopped thinking of the girl in his hands as a not so crazy but occasionally useful pain in the butt and started to think of her as a possible solution to his immediate problem. It seemed fair, the girl had ruined his earlier plans, plus she was showing all the signs of wanting to get sexed, wanting to get sexed badly if a fella just grabbing her shoulders was enough to get her motor turning. There wasn't a man handy that he could think of would do it better.

He'd be doing her a favour really.

He ran his eyes down her, he might have a preference for girls with a bit more heft to them, but now he was really looking, there was enough to look at.

"Let's see here, maybe I missed a few, gotta go back and check." He pushed his face into her neck again and started snuffling and rooting around. His senses on the strain to gauge her reaction. River froze and squeaked, he thought she was going to run, but her head dropped hesitantly to one side, giving him greater access. She began to tremble slightly, just a tiny vibration and that was all kinds of interesting. "Reckon I'd better just taste ya little, helps me get the smells clear." He muttered against her skin before running his tongue gently up her neck finishing off with a little nuzzle to her earlobe.

Her breath hissed through her teeth and her trembling increased. Her tiny frame was tensed like a strung wire, as if she didn't know what to do with her body, as if she wanted to run, but couldn't. The arm across her chest dropped and wavered undecided; finally, it came to rest on her own thigh, her hand fisted in the fabric of her shorts.

He allowed his hands to drift, working her skin lightly, ghosting across the sensitive points in her back, floating down towards her rear end; she didn't seem to mind because she took a stumbling step closer.

He filled his hands with round, warm flesh and let his palms explore all the dips and curves, easy and light, looking to warm her into eager acceptance.

He slipped one hand from her rear, slowly up the inside of her shirt, easing the fabric up a little, finding the sensitive spots on her back again, reaching around so that he could tease the side of her breast a little. All of it slow, making her whimper and step tighter to his body, shifting herself against him.

His mind sang the smug 'I'm gonna get me laid song.' Bit's and pieces in his grey matter tried to point out that there might be consequences, but he stomped on them. She was there and Jayne Cobb had the skills to make her mindless and willing.

The noise she made at the back of her throat, the smell bursting from her skin, and, as she shifted her stance, the graze of two pebbly tips brushing against him through their shirts, told him to go for gold. He slid a hand, achingly slow, round to her front, gently stroking her belly and preparing for the right moment to slide it down.

The feel of her warm skin against his calluses surprised him, it buzzed through his entire body.

Her innocence (and the niggling feeling that she was crew now), might have made him pause if his options had been a bit more open, or if their encounter on the street hadn't given him an insight into her desires, or to be plain, if he had actually thinking with his brain at that point.

His not so little soldier was now fully at attention.

The one coherent thought tickling his brain was that he could do the girl a service and break her in nice. The next fella, he figured, would thank him.

He felt her freeze and erroneously assumed it was his hand on her front, just dipping towards her most sensitive spot that spooked her.

Bam!

The girl clobbered him on the side of his head with her sponge bag.

While he clutched his ear and spat swear words there a scuffle of feet and the sight of River Tam running up the cargo bay stairs three at a time.

Jayne watched her go, scowl metamorphosing into a smirk. He'd been hit by women before, a fair proportion of which had still been vulnerable to the Cobb brand of charm. River could have done him a whole heap of worse damage than could be achieved by some purple fluffy bag with a picture of a kitten on it, all kinds of interesting, definitely, might be worth following her, yeah.

His sense of self preservation along with his conscience (much smaller but present never the less) both of which had been shoved in a corner sulking for the last few minutes, tried to make themselves heard. His sense of self-preservation was waving a mental picture of a scalpel and his conscience was trying to wave a picture of the airlock, but being too small to get it off the ground it satisfied itself by jumping up and down and pointing. The other shoe dropped.

Like snow off the roof in a sharp thaw, the smirk slid off Jayne Cobbs face.

The tightness in his pants evaporated too.

88888

Ten minutes later, having run through his options he was banging on Inara's door.

He was confronted by an irate Inara with an imperfectly tied robe over some lacy thing. For once he had no desire to peek, he'd sworn off leering, letching and peeking, saving his own ass was definitely at the top of his list.

"What do you want?" she snapped, none too friendly.

"I dun screwed up and I can't undo it but I reckon you can help."

Inara frowned at him, "And you think I would help you why?"

"'Cos I din't mean no harm, just forgot myself for a minute an' I think I scared her."

"Her?"

"Uh… River."

Inara had long finger nails and every one of them on her right hand sunk to the full in his arm as she dragged him in.

"What did you do Jayne Cobb?" she hissed.

"Gorramnit woman, get yer claws outta me. Din't ravish her or nuthin' if that's what yer thinkin'." Inara's nails withdrew, she seemed relieved. Jayne checked the damage, four neat bleeding holes on the underside and one on the top of his arm. He glared at her, then realised he shouldn't start griping if he wanted her help.

"Tell me what you have done and I will do what I can to help River, if that helps you as well then so be it."

He pouted for a moment, and then shrugged; he was unlikely to get a better offer. "Fair 'nough, I was hanging around down town, hopin' to catch some woman's fancy, 'cos I ain't got the money for a whore, when there was this smell went straight to my John Thomas."

Inara's lips twitched very slightly, she was still concerned for River but Jayne had promised that he hadn't forced his intentions on her. Since Inara was more than sure that River could make mincemeat of the mercenary anyway she was inclined to believe him.

"Smells can be very powerful triggers; it forms part of the Companion training."

"Yeah, real interestin'," Inara narrowed her eyes at him, "anyway," he hurried on, "the smell seemed to be workin' for me so I spoke to the woman who was hid behind a parasol n' it was River."

Inara frowned again, "River was out on her own? Did she say why?"

"Said she wanted a walk an' wanted to see if she could find a boy ta talk to. She'd got one of yer dresses on I reckon, some green thing, ain't seen ya wear it , but it looks like one of yours. She had Kaylee's parasol hidin' her face too."

Inara got up and went to check her wardrobe. The green silk dress, brought on a whim on a day when Mal had been so maddening she would have brought anything to get some retail therapy was gone.

She sat down again, frowning thoughtfully, "What did she say when you spoke to her?"

"She wanted ta see if a fella would buy her tea or an ice planet, but she was after more n' that if ya catch my drift." Jayne waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Inara frowned, she had no difficulty getting Jayne's drift, she'd seen the signs herself and she wouldn't question Jayne's assessment either; other than herself there was no one on board with better sexual instincts.

"Is that the problem? Do you want me to talk to her about, what, dating, courting, personal grooming, how to meet boys, safe sex, sensible sexual practice?"

"Naw… well ain't sayin' it might not be a bad idea, Doc 'ud dress her in pigtails n' bloomers if he had his way."

"Yes he is abnormally incapable of seeing his sister as a young woman."

"Yeah, whatever, anyway, I came back to the ship earlier than I expected an' went to the weight bench, River comes up an' she wanted me to..." his voice lost itself.

"What Jayne, what did she want you to do?" asked Inara, urgently, her hand gripping his arm again.

"Uh, she wanted me to smell her," he mumbled, it all seemed a bit silly, now he came to think about it.

"What!" snapped Inara impatiently.

"She wanted me to smell her."

"Why?"

"'Cos she figured her shampoo smell got my motor turnin' an' she'd washed her hair."

Inara frowned a bit more, working this out, "Do I understand that she was aware of your arousal on the street and wanted to see if changing her smell would change your reaction."

"Yeah, I think, anyway I weren't in a good mood so I snapped at her a bit an' when she wouldn't go away I grabbed her, not in any wrong way though, an' had me a sniff an' told her what she smelled like."

"And then what happened."

"She looked like she liked it so I sniffed her again."

"Really?" Inara's lips twitched, her clear gaze making Jayne feel powerfully silly.

"Yeah I got kinda close an' had a good sniff, around her… uh neck area, hands might have wandered a little, well more n' a little, nuzzled her ear a bit too. I swear 'Nara, she was likin' it fine, then all of a sudden she din't."

"Oh…" Inara's lip's twitched a little more, despite her frown, "What did she do?"

"Hit me on the lug with one of them bags you women folks carry to the shower. Can't rightly imagine what she had in it, felt like one of Kaylee's spanners. Ain't like I wouldn't have treated her nice neither." Jayne's sense of grievance re-surfaced, along with his scowl.

Inara's hand covered her mouth; Jayne glowering at her didn't make it any easier to control herself. "Jayne, why did you come to me and what do you want me to do?"

"Mal 'ud shoot me first 'an ask questions later. Simon 'ud scream like a girl 'an I'd never get to explain nuthin, whole situation 'ud just get worse. Kaylee can't see further than the end of the Doc's dick just now, less it's to do with the engine and Zoë ain't the kind to interfere, 'less Mal ordered her to, even if she din't, ya know, have Wash on her mind." Jayne stopped; a ghost of some emotion flickered across his face so fast that even Inara, expert at reading people didn't catch it.

"I might'a gone ta Book, he'd have experience, I reckon, at straightening out young un's, but I can't." Inara's hand relaxed on Jayne's arm and then squeezed gently, the best she felt she could do for the big gruff mercenary to express sympathy and comfort.

If he felt it, Jayne didn't react, just carried on, "So, ya gotta be the best option, ya got experience with girls that age with the teachin' an' all. A girl lookin' ta whor… companion herself out has gotta have some of the same worries as a regular girl lookin' to get sexed the first time," he stopped to think a little, "far as ya can call River regular of course."

"I'll talk to her, but if she wants to complain about you to Mal or Simon I'm not going to stop her, she's a vulnerable girl Jayne."

"Yeah, real vulnerable, tell that ter the Reavers," groused Jayne.

8888888

A short while later there was a tap on River's door.

"River, it's Inara."

The door slid open and River peeked out. "Where is Jayne?"

"Hiding down the corridor sweetie, can I talk to you."

River opened the door fully and allowed Inara to come in.

"He told you what happened," stated River, her face flushing vividly, hugging and rubbing her arms as if she was cold.

"Yes River, why don't we sit down?" River plumped down on the bed next to Inara as she put a comforting arm round her shoulders, she could feel River shivering and looked at her carefully. Satisfied, for the moment, that she was seeing the symptoms of acute teenage embarrassment as opposed to an imminent episode, she dismissed her immediate impulse to call for Simon.

"I am mortified." River's voice was high pitched and scratchy, her vocal cords tightened by stress.

Inara gave her a comforting squeeze, "I think he is a little embarrassed as well. And worried, I think he thinks you will tell your brother or Mal and that they might be less than forgiving."

"Nothing to tell really, though they are both the Princes of overreaction, scalpels or the airlock, makes it very difficult." said River sadly.

"Why did you go out on your own? The city is quite dangerous, even for someone as talented as you."

River blushed an even deeper shade of red. "I wanted to see if boys would notice me, to see if I was pretty enough, to see if the glue holding my pieces together would be visible to others."

Inara took her by the chin and gently turned the young woman's face to hers, "You are beautiful River, and if you want I can help you buy some clothes and show you how to use make up, but I'm not really sure that you are telling me the whole truth."

River hung her head.

"River sweetie, I've noticed you," Inara searched for words for a moment, "looking at Jayne."

River shrugged. "He is right there in front of me, he is hard to miss."

"I can't help wondering if your bumping into him today was the accident he thinks it is."

River went from red to crimson.

"It's understandable River, he has a certain crude attraction, but just because he is there it doesn't make him a good choice for you." Inara stroked River's hair, "Think of everything you lost, Jayne isn't a man to give any of it back to you."

River fluttered her hands as she spoke, her words accelerating rapidly to a babble, "Can't loose what you never wanted, order, civilization, decorum; all irritating irrelevant distractions from reality, didn't fit, so confused, cuckoo in the nest, the food is important, not the fork you eat it with."

Inara looked at River with sympathy but a complete lack of understanding. "Sweetie…?"

River rolled her eyes, took two deep breaths, put her words carefully into order in her head and interrupted Inara's search for the best thing to say,

"Why do you want the Captain?"

"W-what?"

"Why do you want the Captain? Justify it as you would ask me to justify my choices. He is moody, trapped in the past, resistant of moving forward, he wants to control everything, he is dismissive of your profession. For every reason there is for me not to want Jayne there is one for you not to want the Captain, but you do."

Inara opened and closed her mouth for a moment then smiled ruefully, "I am not going to win this argument am I."

River tapped her head, "Resident genius."

"I'm not saying I agree with you River, but, he made advances to you and you hit him with a toiletry bag, it's not very consistent."

"I was fooling myself, I wanted him to want me," murmured River sadly, "but when I finally got the courage to open my mind and see his thoughts, he wasn't seeing me, just reacting to pheromones and his failure to gain sexual gratification." River sighed, "want him to want me as a whole package, not a convenient set of animated orifices."

Somewhere in the depths of her psyche that flicked Inara on the raw, "What are you going to do?"

"Re-assure him that I will not tell Simon or Mal, continue, wait, frustrating but necessary."

"Wait for what?"

"Until he sees me. Until he wants me for longer than until the end of his orgasm."

"Oh," Inara paused to digest this, "have you considered he might not, men can be very blind," she said gently, placing a hand over River's.

"There speaks the voice of experience," said River wryly, Inara flinched visibly this time. River pecked a kiss onto Inara's forehead by way of apology, "Sorry," she said contritely, "appropriate or inappropriate, sometimes it all comes out."

Inara smiled at her, but it didn't quite meet her eyes.

River pecked her on the forehead again and stood up, she selected an outsize, sludge coloured, chunky knit, high-necked sweater, with a badly executed daisy motif on the front and put it on.

Inara frowned, the thing was repugnant, "Surely that thing is too warm to wear aboard ship?" she said tactfully.

River grinned, "Do not want to look even slightly attractive, otherwise Jayne may be distracted again. If I have to hit him too many times he may be discouraged." She started guiltily, "I have put your dress in the wash, I brought an ice planet to cheer myself up and…"

Inara's smile widened and became far more genuine, "It's alright River, it wasn't my favourite, just ask next time, ok?"

River nodded and stepped into the corridor.

She tracked Jayne down to the infirmary where he was absently fiddling with a scalpel. Internally she grinned; the big ox felt the need to have some form of weapon to hand.

He spotted her out of the corner of his eye, but refused to look at her. As she stepped into the infirmary he stepped back a pace or two. He was so tense his shoulders were somewhere up round his ears, she could feel his confusion, worry and anger, the last being directed at himself, which she found interesting.

She took a deep breath and tried to still the remaining shivers in her body, "Your concern is unfounded, I do not intend to attack you and I do not plan to discuss the occurrence with Simon or Mal, would both look foolish."

"Oh, well, that's alright then. Sorry, I guess. Ain't entirely sure fer what but that's regular with women." He relaxed a little against the treatment bed, relief disoving his muscles, "If you wanna, I got friends in damn near every cat house on the Rim, they'd find ya a decent fella to have a tumble with. Ain't that I don't understand or nuthin', hell when I was eighteen I had me a permanent hard on."

River flushed and swallowed, "Thank you, no, at least not yet, it was a mistake."

"Fair enough, offer stands, won't tell yer brother."

He frowned at her.

"What's that ugly thing yer wearin'?"

River looked down at her sweater, "It is warm and functional, its appearance is irrelevant. Simon brought it for me, he thinks the flower is abstract."

"Bout the colour of puke is what it is, ain't seen any flower that looks like that neither, less it's bin trodden on. Ourghta wear something with some colour an' shape to it, red I guess, red 'ud be good."

"I will bear that in mind," her heart sang a tiny, slightly smug song, "You see me." She smiled.

"Well yeah moonbrian, yer standin' right there."

River sighed, "Never mind. I can wait." She skipped out of the infirmary and away.

A nebulous feeling of panic gripped Jayne, "Wait fer what?"