PART TWO: WHERE THERE'S A WILL, JAYNE FINDS A WAY
Jayne liked to think he was a simple man. He liked weapons, women, and money - in that order. He'd signed on to work with Mal because it promised him more of the third and better chance of the second. The first, well that he could manage all on his own.
Since that tze sah ju yi mess on Meranda, they'd been gettin' plenty of job offers, an' the captain was only takin' the law-abidin' ones. Seemed pointless to Jayne, for them to be goin' straight after so many years of bein' the criminals, but the pay was good so he didn't complain.
Only thing that he had to gripe about was the lack of his second favorite thing. Weren't no whore houses on any of the last dozen rocks they'd set down on. Now, Jayne could go a while if'n he needed to. Hell, there'd been times when he'd been without 'nythin but his palm for longer than he cared think on. But those had been out in the black, stuck in a ship with an endless sea of stars 'tween him and anything he could sink himself into. Lately that hadn't been the case. There'd been plenty of places they could've gone that had ma tze, Mal jus' wasn't landin on 'em.
He'd spent all of the night before alternating between prowling his bunk, polishing Vera, and takin' himself in hand, and decided he'd had enough. He was goin' to march right up to Mal and demand that they stop at the next moon that had a decent whore house. Hell, who was he kidding? He'd settle for a Pig Farm at this point. Didn't much care how fancy the girls were, only that they were clean and takin' coin. He had a whole speech planned out. Didn't they stop on central planets for the doc's medical bits and bobs? And on the mechanic outposts for Kaylee's parts? Well his guns were just as important to the crew as those things, and if he didn't start gettin' some action, so to speak, then his guns were gonna explode.
Nobody wanted that. Not nohow.
He stomped up to the cockpit all ready to make his case only to stop short just as he stepped inside.
"-sure about this, little Albatross? Seems a mite risky to me. Tenzeen's at the corner of no and where. Sides, this job doesn't pay as high as some'o the others."
"Tenzeen? Take it," Jayne finally found his tongue and didn't bother to hide his excitement. "Don't ruttin' care what the job is, take it!"
"Jayne," Mal greeted him with a tight smile, backing half a step away from where River was curled in the pilot's chair. "As always, your opinions about my decisions will be given their due consideration. That is, none at all."
"Gorramit, Mal, this is serious."
"I can see that by'n the fact that it's got you all in a quiver. But I still don't need your input on what jobs we take. Specially when all you're thinkin' bout is findin' your next Vera." Mal started to turn back to River, but Jayne's truly hurt expression stopped him.
"How dare you," Jayne growled. "Nothin' and no one could ever replace Vera, you cold wong ba duhn. But even if that was possible, you keepin' me supplied in guns is what keeps this crew outta the ground. We'da been popsicles when your wife left us jammed up that time without Vera, remember? And wasn't it my ammo that got us through that bloodbath with the reavers? Don't think that jus' cause we're takin' legit jobs nowadays that we don't need no gunpower."
"Told you," River sing-songed quietly. Mal looked between the two of them with an exasperated sigh.
"Fine," he groused. "But only cause I was already givin' the job serious consideration. Could be that we do need to shore up our defences, just in case."
"Yes!" Jayne pumped his fist in the air excitedly, ignoring the amused looks from River and Mal. "What's the job?"
"Smith there's havin' trouble gettin access to proper supplies. Wants'ta see about recruiting a ship to bring 'em out direct."
"Smith on Tenzeen? What's'is name?"
"Starsic, Will Starsic."
The look on Jayne's face would'a been comical if Mal wasn't half afraid the man was havin' a brain bleed. "Will Starsic? Our job's for Will ruttin' Starsic?"
"That a problem?"
"That's not a problem, that's Christmas! How shi sung chung he's the best smith at this end of the 'verse! Never had the chance to work with him direct, mind, but I've seen his stuff. Hell, Vera's mods were done by Starsic. Man's a genius when it comes to weapons. Reputation a mile wide for bein' meaner'n a rattlesnake and bout as much of a stuffed shirt as you 'bout right'n wrong. Cutters Code, heard he calls it. Won't work for slavers, alliance, or blacklisters. Has a good enough business that 'e don't need their coin anyhow."
"Don't work with feds, huh? Well, that just makes me all warm'n fuzzy inside. River, get us there double time. I'm more'n happy to work for a fellow rebel."
River gave the men one of her classic enigmatic smiles and increased the ship's speed, not bothering to try and hide the fact that she'd already input the coordinates before Mal had agreed to the trip.
…..
The job wasn't the most dangerous caper they'd ever done, but it was like to be the strangest. They'd been met by the smith's sister, a stooped woman dressed in far too many layers for the planet's perpetual and oppressive heat, then left to dither as the smith himself was 'preoccupied' by other matters. River'n Jayne were the only ones to take the news in stride. River just smiled in that just-you-wait way of hers, and Jayne was too busy inspecting every bit of work the smith had laying in the shop to complain.
Zoe, who Mal had counted on to help push things along - after all, her patience, which had been thin before little Wash had come along, was positively nonexistent now that she had a little'un to attend to - but she was a lost cause. From the first bite she'd taken of the smith's sister's food, she'd been nothing but smiles and accommodatin'. It'd be another day? Three more meals? That's fine - are there seconds of this? Kaylee'n the doc weren't much help neither, still caught up in the bliss of bein newly engaged.
Mal had been about to cut his losses and get them the guai off the worthless planet when a transpo ship showed up. Was meant to be carryin' supplies for the smith, bits he needed from off world. Like'ta would've been an easy transaction, too, except the suppliers wanted double the agreed on amount for the merch. When the stooped sister refused, the crew got a bit techy. One of 'em drew their gun, then all hell broke loose.
When the dust finally settled, the two transporters that weren't corpsified fled back to their ship, the stooped sister had become a six foot tall built-like-a-brick-house yao nu named Wilma- better known as Will, and Jayne was practically drooling at the feet of the woman who'd saved his life.
Over dinner that night, Will shared her story with them. Raised by a father who'd wanted a son and a mother determined to keep her a daughter, she'd learned to mod a mag and cook a meal equally well. Out in the more distant planets, though, smith work was more lucrative work, so she'd set up her shop. Not long after, she had a reputation for clean and thorough work. Still, there were men enough that wouldn't take work from a woman. Since her breasts were too big for her to pass as a man - Jayne's face had turned a bright shade of puce at that comment - she'd contented herself to being Will's 'sister.' The arrangement had worked well for years. Long enough for her to get a rep for being the best.
But being based on a small, outer planet meant she had to work with transporters for her goods. Some were honest and reliable, but most were sporadic at best, and more'n that tried to cheat the woman who dealt with them, not realizing it was shrewd Will herself.
Mal would've been happy to take on the transport jobs - after all, the pay would've been more'n worth the trip - but two nights later there'd been a change in plan. Stead of leavin' with a job, they'd left with a new crew member. One who'd moved right into Jayne's bunk as if she'd always been there. Mal wanted to complain. He tried. But 'tween the meals that woman could whip up from next to nothing an' the jobs she brought in, the new arrangement was nothin' but beneficial for him.
…
It should have been difficult, Jayne thought, to adjust to the permanent addition of a woman in his life. He'd never before shared a bed with a woman for more'n a night, let alone thought about till-death-shall-you-part. Then again, he'd never been with a woman who could bench press him and - heaven help him - out shoot him. So instead of fights and adjustments and compromises he wouldn't have been willing to make, he found his biggest change was havin' someone who knew what the feh feh pi goh he was takin' about when he said the TES28 converters were too light on the ass end and the barrells needed a vert mod. That, and all the wild sex. The wild, frequent, loud sex.
Thankfully for the rest of the crew, River'd found a way to soundproof their bunk a week later. If Mal hadn't known any better, he'd've thought she'd been workin on it before Will had joined onto the crew.
"Course I did," she whispered to him with a smile, slipping her arms around his waist from behind.
"Da shiong la se la ch'wohn tian, woman, are'ya tryin ta give me a heart attack?"
"No blockages," she cocked her head to the side and appraised him. "Myocardial infarction unlikely. Perhaps someday, if you don't cut back on the katsudon."
"You know exactly what in the ruttin' hell I mean, River Tam. Sneakin' up on people's like to give 'em a start."
"Noted. Wear the boots next time, then. So you can hear my approach."
Mal looked down at her delicate, bare feet. "That's not- I mean, don't do nothin' contrary on my 'count."
"Like my bare feet," River surmised with a soft blush.
"That's not what I- gorramit girl, you talk me in circles. I ain't makin no comment 'bout your feet, clad or no. An' if you knew that gwai ma jeow was fixin to happen, ya could'a warned me."
"Warned you what? Jayne would find his other half, Serenity would find a cook an' a smith? Would you have believed me?"
"Course I would have!" Mal insisted. "Might'a thought twice 'bout makin the stop, but I know better'n to doubt your foresight."
"If you hadn't made the stop, Will wouldn't be there to teach Wash to modify his pistol for a lefty, an' Simon'n Kaylee would only have two kids stead of three, which would mean-"
"No, wait, stop. Not my place to hear all that. Future's your business, darlin, not mine. I'll just keep us grounded in the present, thank you very kindly."
"Fine." River stretched up onto her tip toes to press a kiss to Mal's lips. He froze up for a moment, then let out a slow breath, smiled against her, and kissed back. This kissin' business was still new to him - with River as the kissee, anyway - but it certainly wasn't unpleasant. "And to answer your question," River added when they'd parted, "no, they don't. Will can't. But they never regret it, and they have so many honorary nieces and nephews around that it hardly matters."
"I didn't ask," Mal insisted, holding his hands up.
"Yes, you did."
"Fine, I did." Mal kissed River's smiling lips once more, then rested his chin against the top of her head as he held her. "An' they're happy together?"
"They are. Jayne could've looked the whole 'verse over and not found a better match."
"Good thing he had you lookin' for him, then."
"Good thing," River agreed.