Jayne got to his feet on hearing Mal's words. "Fine, have it your way, but don't blame me when she robs you all blind."
"So is the kid okay?" Mal asked Simon after Jayne had left them.
"Yeah, I gave her some fluids. She should be waking up anytime," Simon said.
"Well, I wanna see her," Kaylee said sadly. "Poor kid has been alone and abused and her own father don't even wanna see her...Sometimes Jayne makes me so mad…"
"He never said he didn't want to see her," Badger spoke up, his first input on the situation. "He said she couldn't stay here. The girl did steal from him after all."
"Of course you would be on Jayne's side," Inara said, unimpressed.
"I'm not on anyone's side," Badger said. "Just trying to point a few things out is all. Jayne's not as stupid as you think. It could be that the kid is a regular con artist."
"I saw her up close when found her," Zoe said, "She had real tears on her face."
"To be fair, people can make themselves cry," Inara said. "I learned how as part of my training."
"You can make yourself cry?" Mal asked, a little disturbed by that. "How many other things you been faking?"
Inara only smiled in response. Kaylee got up from her chair. "Can I go see the kid now Captain?" She asked.
"Yeah, go ahead. We're done here." Mal said. He got up as well and followed Kaylee to the medbay to check on Charlie.
To Mal's surprise, Jayne was already in the medbay when they got there. He was sitting in a chair next to her bed watching her warily like someone might watch a rattlesnake about to strike. The kid was dressed in a hospital gown and had a blanket tucked around her. Now that he had a closer look at the girl, Mal could see that she did resemble Jayne. She had the same eyes, the same shade of brown hair, the same shape ears as Jayne did. It didn't really take a DNA test to see that she was his daughter. Kayle went into the room and took a chair on the other side of the bed and glared at Jayne as she sat down. Simon went in as well and set to work at the computer in the corner.
"You worried?" Mal asked Jayne from the doorway.
"No, I ain't worried," Jayne said, but his tone wasn't convincing.
"Kaylee, let me know when she wakes up?" Mal said and he left them.
"How can you be so cold?" Kaylee finally spoke up.
"Cold? She's the one who took advantage of me here!" Jayne protested. "I was trying to do something right for once in my life. I took her in and I gave her food, offered to send her to live with my mom because my work was too dangerous to bring her along. I even let her practice shooting with Vera. And she was all grateful and happy over that. Claimed it was the best thing that happened to her. Then she just up and left."
Kaylee was still angry but she said nothing.
"Was she any good?" Simon said from the corner. "At shooting, I mean."
Jayne smiled a little. "Yeah, she was pretty good."
"So you do like her," Kaylee said on seeing Jayne's proud response to Simon's question.
"I never said I didn't like her. I said we can't trust her. There is a difference," Jayne pointed out.
"Maybe she had a reason to steal from you," Kaylee said defensively. "Maybe she needed the money for something that she never told you about,"
"No. After she left, I did some checking. She robbed lots of people. Most times she pretended to be a lost orphan and would convince unsuspecting rich old ladies to take her in...and then she'd take the family jewels or bank codes," Jayne explained. "I was just another victim in her long life of crime."
"Long life of crime?" Simon said, "She can't be more than thirteen years old."
"She's twelve," Jayne said, "And she's been doing this since she was eight."
"What does she do with all the money?" Kaylee asked, confused.
Jayne shrugged, not knowing the answer.
"Well, you two have one thing in common," Simon said. "You both like money and guns."
"Shhh…" Jayne hushed them both. "She's waking up."
