"And one day, all of this will be yours. And you will be a great leader."

"Not so fast!"

"Ah, no! Why are you here? Why now?"

Wash was interrupted from his dinosaur soap opera by a beep on the dashboard. He looked at the navigation screen before grabbing the com. "Hey, Cap. We're approaching now. Landing in about ten minutes." Wash grabbed the controls and started guiding Serenity down.

Mal gathered the rest of the crew in the hold. "Alright. Once we hit planetside, Zoe, Jayne, and I will go in to meet the contact. Should be quick and easy, in and out. Everyone understand what they're supposed to do?" Everyone else gave a quick response. Mal nodded and clapped his hands. "Good." He walked over to the com system and said, "Wash once we leave the ship, I want you to lock her up tight. Don't open it unless you hear from us. Got it?"

"Got it, Cap."

Zoe walked up to Mal. "Job's supposed to be quick and easy. What's with the lockdown?"

Mal smirked slightly and replied, "I may be optimistic; I ain't stupid."

Wash landed Serenity on Athens with little resistance. "You're good to go, Mal."

Mal called out, "Zoe, Jayne. We're leaving." The trio walked off the ship and turned back to make sure the door closed. Wash locked everything up, made sure the remote com systems were working, and sat back. He grabbed his dinosaurs again and picked up exactly were the drama left off.

…

Jayne didn't know why he had to go on this ruttin' mission. No way they needed three people to meet this contact, especially if they weren't expectin' trouble. But so long as the money kept comin' his way, he'd keep quiet. At least until Mal told him to stay outside meeting place.

"What was the point of me coming if you were just gonna leave me anyway," Jayne whined.

Mal replied, "We need you in case there's trouble. As unlikely as it is, we may need another gun on our side. You know how quickly things can go to hell. Especially with new business associates."

Jayne continued, "But Mal…"

"But nothing. I'm the captain; you're staying here until we need you." With that, Mal and Zoe walked into the building, leaving Jayne all by himself.

"Well, that's just great," Jayne mumbled to himself. "If I was just gonna stand around, why couldn't I do it on the gorram ship?" He huffed as he leaned back against the wall, preparing to wait.

A few hours later, Jayne woke up with a start. He didn't know how long he'd been out there or where Zoe and Mal were, but his neck was killing him and he was even more angry than before. He started cursin Mal, Zoe, and pretty much everyone else he could think of as he stood up and slowly stretched. Jayne paused when he heard shouting off to his left. He turned towards the sound as he pulled his gun from its holster. The voices were getting closer and closer, he readied himself for whatever trouble was heading his way.

Before he really knew what was happening, a flash of copper hair ran past him, grabbing his arm and dragging him along behind them. After stumbling for a moment, Jayne quickly found his footing and ran beside the person. The stranger grabbed him again to pull him into a building before shutting the door and locking it behind them.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing," Jayne yelled at the stranger. The person turned around, revealing a very well-dressed woman with soft features and bright eyes. Jayne felt his anger almost immediately dissipate as he ran his eyes over her body. She was wearing a dress and heels with expensive looking jewelry, clearly wealthy and upper class. The woman stood in front of him, studying him as readily as he was her.

Jayne tried to find his voice again, and just as he built up enough to say something, the woman started taking off her dress, leaving him dumbstruck and silent again. She noticed him just standing there looking at her, and she asked, "What're you waiting for?"

"Wh-what?" Jayne stuttered out. The woman rolled her eyes as she pulled the wig from her head, revealing brown hair that reached to her shoulders. She stood in front of Jayne in a leather bodice tucked into brown cargo pants. As she checked the straps on her leg holsters, she said, irritated, "Whip it out already."

Again, all Jayne could say was, "What?"

"I said, whip it out. I don't have all day."

This was all too much for Jayne. First, this beautiful woman drags him into a dark, deserted building before starting to strip and even though she was still wearing clothes, the skin tight leather was affecting Jayne in ways he would normally not care about but for some reason was making him feel all matters of embarrassed. And now she's telling him to whip it out. At least, that's what he thought she was saying.

The woman scrunched her brow in confusion at Jayne's blank expression. Once she realized he really had no idea what she was talking about, she threw her hands up in exasperation. "Wo Pi Gu Cao! That's just great, of course I manage to screw this up. It was supposed to be nice and easy and instead I strip in front of a complete stranger and tell him to whip it out! Wǒ tā mā de!"

Jayne started, "Hey, it's alright…"

"No, it's very much not alright. Now my actual contacts have probably left which means I have to go back to my boss empty handed. She will not be happy, at all." The woman sighed while running her hands through her hair. "But that's not your problem. Sorry I wasted your time." She unlocked the door and peered out. Once she determined the coast was clear, she turned back to Jayne and said, "Sorry again."

Jayne called out, "Wait. What's your name?"

She walked back over to Jayne and stuck her hand out. "Jade. You?"

Jayne grabbed her hand and shook it as he said, "Jayne."

"Nice to meet you Jayne, but I really have to go. Bye."

Jayne watched her leave and stood staring at the door. He said to himself, "What the hell was that?" No woman had ever silenced him like that. He couldn't understand why she had affected him so much. And now that she was gone, he didn't know why he was waiting there, almost wishing she would open the door again. He shook his head to clear it as he left the building, heading back towards Serenity. Jade was gone and he'd never see her again so there's no use thinking about her still.

…

Mal was complaining when Jayne made it back to the ship. "I should've known better. Nothin's ever easy for us."

Wash joked, "At least no one was shot."

Mal was very much not amused.

Jayne said, "So I take it we ain't getting paid?"

Mal turned to him, and shouted, "And where were you?"

Jayne thought back to the woman who was still on his mind, Jade, as he said, "I, uh, got distracted."

Mal rolled his eyes. "That's just great. We don't get paid and my mercenary gets distracted."

Kaylee asked, "Who were you supposed to meet anyway? You never actually told us what this job was."

Zoe spoke up, "Someone hired us to shuttle some supplies to a merc here that's protecting the town outside the city. But she never showed up."

Simon questioned, "She?"

Zoe said, "Yeah, the merc's name was…"

Jayne and Zoe both said, "Jade."