Double Take

He'd had plenty of interaction with that she-snake since she'd near unmanned him in The Maidenhead. He'd had plenty to say about her deadly little tendencies, too. She was a danger to him—she'd proved that twice now—and a danger to the rest of them. Hell, she woulda shot Mal, her own dear Captain Daddy, if her brother hadn't used them magical words of his.

Still didn't quite get how that worked, but he'd found out it wouldn't work on him and that was good enough.

And then they were on Miranda, and she was carryin' on somethin' awful, askin' the Almighty to turn her into a stone. Jayne'd heard what she was really sayin' and damn if he didn't feel the exact same way. 'Course, he didn't want to say it out loud, 'cause it was only gonna make the horrible worse.

Then there was that god-awful recordin' and the girl retchin' in the corner, and damn if he didn't feel the same way, again. Which was unsettlin', 'cause weren't no way he wanted to be feelin' the same anything as the moonbrain.

The standoff on Mr. U's moon, though—that was what he couldn't stop thinkin' about, even if he had no desire to discuss it. They'd done what they could in front of the blast doors, and when they'd retreated to wait behind 'em, all hell'd really broken loose. And even though he'd meant to live, he weren't so sure he was gonna with the doc dyin' and them runnin' out of ammo and the girl still cowerin'—

She was goin' through them doors a'fore he could stop her, and damned if he hadn't meant to try. Reaver-death weren't no kind of death, even for a snake.

But the bag was in, and the doors were closed, and all he could do was wait. Try not to imagine things and fail miserably. Zoe beside him and he couldn't rely on her, what with her injury and her loss. And Kaylee and the doc were out and 'Nara—hell, 'Nara was a whore, not a fighter.

But that girl was a fighter, and she weren't gonna make it neither, which meant this was his last stand. He really was gonna be killed by his own worst fear.

He weren't rightly sure how long Mal was gone, how long them doors had been closed, but Mal came back and asked after the girl and Jayne really didn't want to answer.

The doors opened and it took him a few blinks to register what he was seein'. And when he did, though his mouth dropped open, everything was silent.