Mal looked from where he was lying in the med bay, watching as his merc and his second-in-command stood over him. Jayne helping Zoe by cleaning up around her as she removed the bullet from his leg and stapled him back together. Once again a deal had gone south, but this time he hadn't had Zoe with him and he had Jayne lying in wait a bit further away from the meet sight in case they needed the element of surprise.
They had needed it. Things had gone wrong from the time Mal had turned up alone, something that Jayne had protested. Seeing him alone their client decided just to take the goods, not pay for them and make sure that Mal couldn't follow them by shooting him. Jayne hadn't allowed them to escape though shooting first the one that had shot Mal before picking off the other three men as well. He had then quickly assessed the situation; Mal hadn't been in too much danger so he took his time and stripped the men of anything of use, money and weapons mainly before slinging Mal over his shoulder.
He had then gotten both Mal and the shipment back to Serenity without any trouble. Looking at him now Mal couldn't help but think how swai he looked. It wasn't something that he had thought before, but after seeing the man in action earlier that day the thought came to mind. Mal suddenly realised that what Wash always said was actually true, competence is sexy.