In my universe, Wash never died but Shepard Book did... sorry. Story is set roughly two years after Serenity. All Chinese translations are italicized close by. So have fun tell me what you think, comments are my life!
The dusty, run down town of Orin wasn't the worst place the crew of Serenity had gotten a job. But it definitely was not one of the best. It was a fairly dangerous frontier, a place where a man could elevate his wealth and lose it, including his life, by the end of that day. Orin thrived on cattle runners, deep space mechanics, whores, gamblers, and bartenders. But for Serenity, Orin was a town that contained a particular individual who would keep the old Firefly in the air for many months.
Captain Reynolds had lined up a higher paying job, although it was a little different than what the crew normally did but as usual the jobs were far too thin these days. According to Jordan Terrace two moons back from Khum Dang had informed Mal that there was an irresistible bounty on a bandit the locals had dubbed Orin's Blade. Apparently he was making quite a fuss for the interplanetary feds, and they were getting tired of it, they decided to give the local arms first shot at it. Terrace, however, had made some serious long lasting enemies in Orin.
His proposal was solid, Serenity's crew went to Orin and commandeered the criminal, turned him over to Terrace who then would turn The Blade over to the proper authorities. Which wasn't something Mal or any of the others would be capable of, they were in no better sorts with the authorities than Terrace was with the small town. The rendezvous had been set, The Blade would be given to Terrace, and Mal would get half of what the authorities was offering immediately. It seemed like a fairly easy job to the crew, the only thing was, they were going to have to find Orin's Blade first.
Serenity landed gently just outside of Orin, it's crew stepping out onto the terra overlooking the town. Mal and Inara holding hands like long after high school sweethearts, Kaylee and Simon whispering cute nothing into each other's ears. Wash and Zoe were smiling at each other while loading up the skiff, and River stared into the desperate town. Jayne walked down Serenity's ramp and holstered his, one of many, pistol.
"All right criminals, listen up." Mal said finally bringing together the attention of his crew, "Me, Zoe an' Wash are going to take the south side of this town, and because of its being less dangerous the rest of you are going with Jayne to the north side. If you see the guy don't approach 'em just call me, we're lookin' for him," He glanced at Jayne, "And we're not here to kill 'em either."
Jayne gave a disappointed grunt, "Now how come I get stuck with the girly folk, Mal?"
"I'm going too." Simon said looking towards making Jayne roll his eyes, mutter Chinese and walk away from the 'pretty doctor man.'
"'Cause I'm trustin' you to keep 'em safe Jayne." The Captain answered back, "Now, Kaylee get yourself back to the engine room and make sure we're going to be able to make it off this rock when we need to." He kissed Inara and glanced to the young mechanic, "And keep Serenity l-"
"Locked." Kaylee piped up with a grin, "Yes, sir!"
The crew split up, the Captain taking the skiff and Jayne, Simon, Inara and River walking the hundred yards into Orin. The dusty streets were filled with merchants, grocers, and busy people along their way. Stores lined the roads, shops, houses, casinos and bars everywhere. And the citizens didn't exactly look like polite folk. Jayne let loose a wide grin, "This is my kinda place."
Inara saw three unwelcoming characters leering at her, "Yes, we can imagine."
"A rough town for a rough man." River commented quietly.
Jayne pointed to the first decent looking establishment that wasn't in the middle of a bar fight. It was a subtle kind of charm to it, good alcohol, room for everyone to conspire in their illegal, or legal events, and good times all around.
As the crew walked through the doors Simon groaned, "Uh, I'm not sure if a place actually called Hole in the Wall is a safe place to stop."
The mercenary frowned, "Mal says we gotta ask around the locals about this guy, 'tsa good enough place as any, Doc."
Inara nodded, "I hate to agree with him but it doesn't look too bad.
Across the room there was a long bar staffed by three women, a few people scattered around, in the back there was a huge group of people cheering and drinking. They were loud but they seemed completely harmless and were keeping to themselves mostly.
As the crew approached the bar a drunk man grabbed Simon loosely around the shoulders, "'Ey, Happy Hero Day folks!" The man pulled away from the startled Doctor and slapped credits down onto the bar, "Selene, drinks for the nice people!" He turned back to the confused patrons raising his glass, "Hero Day!" He gulped and wandered off laughing.
The four people tentatively sat at the bar while the tender made their drinks. "Don't worry about Trager Evans, he's a happy drunk with enough credits to waste, so most of the other patrons don't care how much he hugs."
Jayne quickly tossed back his drink and quickly swiped Crazy's before she could taste it. Simon took his with a nod and a question, "What was his yelling about? What's Hero Day?"
Selene chucked warmly, "You guys aren't from around here huh?"
"Is it that apparent?" Inara asked politely sipping her wine.
The bartender shrugged and refreshed Jayne's glass at his pestering waves, "Just most people know what it is. Some of the locals like to pick a day once a month to get drunk in honor of Orin's Blade. He's a vigilante who's been around for a few months. He's really winning the town over."
"Yeah, we heard about him." Jayne spoke up, "'Cept we heard he done killed a lot 'o lawmen and such." He took another gulp from his cup, whatever he was drinking was already buzzing through his head slightly. He looked the bartender up and down, she had a wavy mass of black hair ending just above her shoulders, framing her flawless face, bright brown eyes, plump lips. She had ample curves encased perfectly, in a tank top and tight pants. Jayne licked his lips when he thought about how soft the woman's skin must be, he adjusted himself on his stool.
The woman scoffed, "That's what the Magistrate told the sheriff to say. Man really wants the Blade out of Orin. But everyone knows that he'd never hurt anyone who wasn't minding his own."
"Have you ever seen this, Orin's Blade guy?" Simon asked tapping his fingers against the wood.
Selene shook her head, "Nah, not me. My life's not that exciting."
Oh, I could make your life real gorram exciting, Jayne thought taking another sip of his alcohol.
"Know anybody whose life is that exciting?" Inara questioned.
Selene picked her head up and looked around the bar, ignoring Jayne's gaze, she pointed, "Derra Jenkins, said the guy saved her last week. Ran in here screaming about it, hasn't stopped talking about the whole thing."
"Thanks." Simon muttered as the woman walked away from the crew, "Inara and I will go and talk to the girl. Will you be okay here?" He asked his little sister.
River nodded and smiled, touching the merc's back, "Jayne will protect me."
Jayne heard his name, tearing his eyes away from the bartender he jumped around to his shipmates, "Huh? What?"
Simon rolled his eyes and stood up as Inara patted River's back, "You might want to watch him."
Jayne rolled his eyes and diverted his attention back to Selene for a few second when he realized that Crazy was staring at him, "What Moonie?" He asked whipping his head around.
River gave a small smile, "She doesn't like you, thinks you smell funny."
The mercenary's eyes squinted, he casually sniffed his shirt. Yeah he smelled a little, showering and getting his clothes clean after spending three straight weeks aboard Serenity wasn't the easiest thing in the 'Verse. Jayne cocked his head, "She at least think I'm good lookin'?"
River tilted her head sharply while she gazed at the bartender, "Mhmm, undetermined."
A swarm of Chinese flew from Jayne's mouth, "That don't help me none girly."
The teenage girl blinked as if she were bored, "She likes your muscles. And your knife."
Jayne slammed his fist down onto the bar, "Now we're gettin' somewhere!"
Selene strode back over to the Reader and the Mercenary, "Refill?"
Jayne shot Selene his most charming smile and handed her his glass, "Name's Jayne, missed yer's." He lied smoothly.
The woman refreshed Jayne's glass, "Selene." She answered placing the alcohol in front of him, gazing at him a few seconds too long. She looked down and started cleaning glasses making Jayne grin a bit. "Ever been to Canton?"
Jayne's eyebrow hitched, well that was a mighty strange thing for her to ask, unless she knew who he was. He smiled again, he just might be able to get some trim without having to pay. "Seen my statue have ya?"
Selene glanced up first at the little crazy and then to Jayne with a small grin, "You're Jayne Cobb?"
"As I live an' breathe." Jayne answered with a grin of his own.
"Well then, in the spirit of Hero Day." Selene said, grabbing three glasses and a bottle, "Drinks on the house." She poured them all drinks knocking hers back first. "Something to write the folks about anyway, drinking with heroes an' such."
The woman turned her back towards the two crew members to clean more glasses. Jayne lifted his shot, gulping it down just as fast as Selene had, giving River a glance. The girl sniffed her drink carefully before drinking it, the Reader swallowed the stuff easy enough but gave Jayne a bad face, "Yuck."
Jayne laughed feeling the alcohol running through his veins, the world was getting a little blurry. And he suddenly wanted more to drink. Jayne leaned forward on his stool, reaching his arm out, half drunkenly, towards the attractive bartender's back. His fingers had only just barely brushed the woman's back when she turned grabbing Jayne's arm and pulling it hard forcing his torso down onto the wooden bar. Selene leaned over grabbing Jayne's knife out of its sheath on his thigh.
The mercenary had barely registered the events happening when suddenly his knife was stabbed three inches into the bar, much too close to Jayne's face than he cared for. "I'm no whore Jayne." Selene stated neutrally, "And I ain't about to be touched by a man till I say he can. If you're looking for company there's girls down the street can help ya, but you best have your coin 'fore hand. So Kàn nǐ zìjǐ." Watch yourself.
The bartender let go of Jayne's arm releasing his from the bar and stalked away. He gave a nervous laugh rubbing his injured arm, "Wa kào. My kinda woman." Holy Crap. River giggled and pointed at him, "Match for the Hero of Canton, seventy three percent probability." She tilted her head to the side again, "I think."
Jayne rolled his eyes and grabbed his knife giving it a hard tug… it didn't budge at all. "Wǒ tā mā de." Fuck Me. He whispered pulling on the knife again. River smiled, "Still have your man parts, boy with a girl's name?"
Jayne was still tugging on the knife when Simon and Inara walked back over, "We should be getting back to Serenity, Mal's going to want to hear what we heard." Simon said. The mercenary groaned as his crew walked off and threw some credits onto the bar, looking up he jumped seeing Selene standing right in front of him with a smug grin.
Jayne glanced back down to his knife, much to his dismay Selene yanked it out of the wood as if it were nothing, offering it to Jayne handle first. "Come back anytime." She said in a slightly threatening tone. Jayne nodded nervously taking the knife and threw more than enough credits on the bar, "Keep the change."
On the walk back to Serenity Jayne was quieter than usual. No woman had ever put the fear of God into him, like that nutty bartender. And he definitely wasn't used to people getting the drop on him, woman or not. But the hardened mercenary pushed it down and kept walking, thinking about it wasn't going to help his pride any.
When they finally got back to the ship Mal and the others were waiting for them and the crew decoded to gather in the kitchen to discuss. Inara spoke first, "Simon and I questioned a girl who claimed to have been save by this Orin's Blade man, only what it says about him on the bulletins is completely false. This girl said that she'd been on her way home when she was cornered by three men, you can only imagine what they meant to do with her." The crew shifted knowingly, "But then a man in a long black coat and a hood over his face jumped down from a rooftop with two long swords. He beat the men unconscious, took their money and gave it to the girl before running off. From what we can tell this man isn't even a killer, he's considered a hero."
The crew took in the new information as Mal stepped up, "Me, Wash and Zoe heard 'bout similar things. Some of the locals told us that this Blade guy started out interferin' with the Magistrate's cronies, keeping 'em from taking what don't belong to them. Which is a very good reason fer accusin' him of serious murder." Mal stated.
"But, if he's not actually hurting people, are we still goin' after him?" Kaylee asked.
"That's up to the Captain." Zoe answered for Mal, provoking Wash to speak up, "I think this guy just needs some help, I mean he's running around in a hood and two perfectly good swords and just beats the bad guys up. Who does that?"
River smiled and gazed off into space, "Doesn't like killing. Had too much. Just wants the quiet." After everyone had turned their attention to the Reader she shook her head, "His swords are shiny and noble."
Mal sighed, "A vigilante who doesn't kill anyone, doesn't seem like he should be turned over."
"Ah, gorramit, Mal. We ain't had a job in weeks and this is big money!" Jayne whined leaning hard on the table.
"And, I'm aware 'o that Jayne." Mal shouted back before tapping his hands, "What we do is, go back into town tonight. Walk around and see if we can find this guy, get the drop on 'em, bring him back to the ship. Figure out what we do then."
The crew nodded and acknowledged standing up, "Me an' Jayne; Zoe and Wash; River, Simon and Kaylee you're a team. Inara you'll stay on Serenity just in case there's any trouble. So I hope you're all ready to stay up tonight."
The crew dispersed quickly and Jayne found himself in his room trying to decide which of his weapons to bring with him tonight. If they got lucky Jayne could bag this stupid idiot Blade and get back to that hole in the wall to see if he could get lucky. It's been some time since he'd gotten tail, and all the time he spent in the black wasn't helping him any.
After choosing a few pistols and cleaning them properly the mercenary picked up and examined his knife closely. There were still a few wood shavings left on the blade, Jayne swore loudly in Chinese and wiped his prized knife down. How dare that woman touch his knife, and go and make him look like the fool? He groaned low in his throat when he visualized that troublesome bartender.
Her full curves in all that tight clothing, soft breasts threatening to spill out of her top with quick motions. Remembering the strong look in Selene's eyes; the smug knowing grin on her face was enough to make a man kill a dozen times over for a single touch. True Jayne mostly found himself in the company of whores but he wasn't incapable of seducing a woman either.
He leaned back against the wall next to his bed just beginning to imagine running his hands all over that pretty pale flesh. Selene's warm body flush underneath his, sweaty, taunt, and welcoming. Begging for him t-
"Jayne, stop staring at Vera and get up 'ere and help!" Mal yelled loudly, rudely interrupting Jayne from his thoughts.
"Yeah, be right there Mal!" The mercenary shouted back, gathering his weapons and adjusting his cargo pants a little. They had suddenly gotten a little snug. He strapped away his weapons and climbed the ladder out of his room.
He briefly wondered the chances that they'd find Orin's Blade during the night, Jayne pulled on his fingerless gloves, wasn't so necessarily worried about beating the man's ass. Just making sure he got bedded by a beautiful woman afterwards.