A/N: Okay, guys this is a short one. When I was writing it, I couldn't decide whether or not it was out of character, so I NEED REVIEWS. To everyone who reviewed/added to story alert or all that jazz, thank you. You make me feel like I'm not just a dorky failure! YAY! Anyways, here's some insight into what Jayne deals with in the relationship and a li'l bit of cuteness. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, you are my hero. I love you.

Chapter 4: Brothers and Sisters

River sensed Jayne from across the ship. He was in someone else's bunk. Kaylee and Simon's. He never went into another person's cabin unless it was necessary. Hated it. What was he doing?

It wasn't that she didn't trust him, it was just that he had made it clear that he would get trim almost anywhere he could find it. And he and Kaylee had been on the ship together long before she had come into the picture. "It's utterly ridiculous. They would never." She chanted to herself over and over, curled into a ball as she rocked back and forth. That was the position Simon found her in when he walked into the bunk passageway.

"Mei mei…what's the matter? River, what's wrong, River?" Simon gushed, running over to where his sister was huddling on the floor.

"They stripped her brain. Made her incomplete. Can't love someone if they don't know what love is. Two by two didn't love. The others love. Not her. She can't. Not really. She'd have to be human to love." River explained, her face strangely calm as tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks.

"River? Mei mei, why don't you come with me to the infirmary? Maybe I can help." Simon urged, pulling her up next to him and guiding her down the hallway.

"Simon. She's sick."

"Yes, mei mei, I know. Mal told me that you got sick on the job the other day."

"Reoccurance is an issue. Timing is inconvenient and unexpected." River rambled. Simon looked at her like she really was crazy before she clarified. "It's happening again." He still looked confused. "Now."

"What, Riv—oh, it's happening now. Wait, just hold it in, wait!" He broke into a run, pulling her along behind him to the infirmary where he quickly shoved a clean bedpan to her face. "Here." As if on cue, River barfed into it.

"Eew." She winced. "Gross." Simon hurriedly took the bedpan away, sanitizing it in one of the infirmary's giant sinks.

"River, is there something wrong with your medicine? I could try lowering it further, but I really thought you had seemed to be getting better." Simon looked at her, concern in his eyes.

"I don't take my medication anymore, Simon." She revealed in a moment of perfect clarity.

"Riv—" he began.

"They fog up her engine, make it stop working right. She-I can't think. Can't see. They blind me to the thoughts, the sounds, the feelings. They make me into a machine. I want to be human again."

"Mei mei—" He began again.

"No. I won't take them, Simon. You can't make me." And, with that, she kissed him on the cheek, skipping out of the infirmary to relieve Captain of his flying duties.

Jayne was emerging from Kaylee and Simon's quarters, still thinking over what he had just seen and done, when River spotted him. She sank into the wall, trying to become one with the ship. She felt more tears drip down her face, thinking back to the minutes where Simon had found her.

He would have never known she was there if a little sob hadn't escaped her lips.

"Hey, there, girlie. Whatcha doin'?" He stood close to her, the shadow of his figure hiding the tears on her cheeks. Only when she sobbed again did he dip his head down to her level. "Riv, wha's wrong?" She just shook her head.

He grabbed her hand, glancing anxiously at Mal's back in the pilot's chair, before quietly pulling River to and into his bunk. Once there, he wrapped his arms around her, burrowing his face in her hair.

"Riv, wha's goin' on?" He questioned, his arms caressing her rigid back as she stood unmoving in his embrace. "I ain' a mind-reader or nuthin', darlin'. You gotta tell me wha's wrong." He pulled back, cradling her head in his hands as he forced her to make eye contact with him.

"The man with the girl's name was in Kaylee's bunk." She said, finally, but that was her only explanation.

"Yeh. S'what?" He looked at her, blinking in confusion.

"So, there was imminent probability of copulation and adultery." Jayne just stared at her blankly.

"Yah think I cheated?" He guessed, looking offended. "Riv-girl, I ain't touched 'nuther girl since I've been with yah. Yah know that."

"She doesn't know that. He doesn't like it when she—I look in his head. His explanation is necessary instead." River sniffled, but relaxed against his chest, keeping her eyes on his.

"River, I didn' cheat on yah. I gotta wave from home an' yah broke th' cortex in my room last night. Kaylee was on the bridge an' offered her's."

"A wave from home?"

"Yeh, my brother's sick. Ma thinks he's gettin' worse. Tha' was my sister Lilly tellin' me to stop home the next chance I got."

"A wave from home?" She repeated, trying to process.

"Yeh, a wave from home, moonbrain." He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. "Yah went all crazy o'er nuthin'. Yah shoulda known I wouldna cheated on yah. I may be cop-u—cop—ruttin' with yah, but I still know yah can kill me with that brain o' yers iffen I touch anuther girl."

"And this girl would refuse other men as well. She likes her girly man." She wrapped her arms around his neck and her ankles latched around his waist.

"Girly man? Oh, yer gonna pay fer that, crazy."