Title: The Miner's Daughter
Author: Niki
Rating: G
Character(s): River/Jayne
Prompt: 037. Resurrection
Word Count: 624
Summary: "That girl's got you wound up 'round her finger."
Six years in the mines made his back weak.
Six years in the mines ruined his eyesight, stripped muscle off of his bones like varnish and when he coughed it came up black.
Seven days a week, 14 hours a day and he bore it all on once-broad shoulders because he didn't have no other choice.
Most of the men down there didn't have a choice. Most of 'em had families to feed and houses to pay for and decent, honest work was scarce. Some of them chose it, but those type of men were few and far in between. It weren't the type of work no one imagined for themselves when they were kids at their daddy's knee.
"You goin' out drinkin' with us, Cobb?" Every other Friday the men got paid. They cashed their paychecks and spent o'er half of it at the pub on watered down whiskey and cheap women who'd let 'em do stuff they didn't even dare ask their wives to do.
"Nah," he said, chipping away at the rock wall. "I gotta get home."
"That girl's got you wound up 'round her finger," Miller scoffed.
Jayne ducked his head and took another swing. "Reckon she does," he said.
Weren't no use denyin' it. All the girl had to do was bat those pretty eyes and he was all kinds of turned around and agreein' to stuff he didn't ever mean to agree to.
Weren't no use denyin' that he spent every day waitin' to punch out his time card so's he could get back home to her. He felt bad enough leaving her home all day while he worked. But they needed food and a place to live and he weren't good for much 'cept shootin' people and workin' the mines.
And a mercenary's life weren't no way for the girl to live.
Felt like forever before he was limping his way home, taking the side streets so's he didn't get caught up in the rush.
She was sittin' out on the steps when he came around the corner and a big bright smile lit up his girl's face. He couldn't help but smile back at her, no matter how much his back ached or his eyes burned.
"Hey, girl," he said, holding out his big arms for her. "What'chu doin' out here?"
She threw herself into his arms and held tight to his neck and he wrapped his arms 'round her waist, ignorin' the dull throbbing in his knees.
"Waitin' for you, Daddy," the little girl said with a big smile. "Did you bring me a candy bar?"
Jayne grinned. "Dunno, Lil girl, why don'tcha check Daddy's pockets and see?"
His girl giggled and her little hands tugged insistently at the zipper of his coat pocket, her little hands searching the insides for the candy bar she knew he'd hidden there. When she found it, she gave him a big kiss on the cheek.
"Git on in the house, girl," he said, lowering her to the ground with arms strong enough to hold up her whole 'verse. "Daddy's gonna smoke himself a cigar, then we'll make some dinner."
Her little bare feet slapped against the wood porch and she disappeared into the house. "And don't you eat that candy bar 'fore you get some real food in your stomach, dong ma?"
Jayne closed his eyes and lowered his aching body down to the porch steps. Sometimes, if he tried hard enough, he could pretend that he didn't see her mama in those big brown eyes. Or hear her in that soft little voice.
Sometimes he could even pretend that River was waitin' behind that door and not buried next to Kaylee and Simon on Haven.
Sometimes.
