A/N: Sorry for the delayed updateage, inspiration went away a while, but I'm getting it back now... Thanx for the continued reading/reviewage - I appreciate it :-)

Edited - re-posted as it seems I posted the un-betaed version of this yesterday! Thanx to Lianne Rose for the heads up! :-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4 - Girl All The Bad Guys Want

"Okay, you're free to go"

Jayne Cobb heard his signal to get the hell out of detention, but he didn't hurry to move. If he went running for the door it just proved to the teachers in this school that he cared about being detained in the first place, and he refused to give them the satisfaction. Pulling himself out of the chair, he mock-saluted the teacher as he passed by the desk at the front and exited, letting the door swing on its hinges and slam shut behind him.

Wandering down the halls, his back pack on his shoulder and his hands shoved in his pockets, he was in no hurry to get anywhere. He could rush over to the movie theatre, try and catch his friends when they came out of there, but he honestly couldn't care to. He'd end up wanting to launch either that asshole Bester or prim-and-proper Simon Tam, whichever one bugged him the most first. Mal would be mooning over Ms Serra, and Wash and Zoe would be going at it in the back row or something... Nope, didn't thrill Jayne none to get in the middle of all that.

Heading home seemed like a decent enough plan, though his Pa would guess by the time of his appearing that he'd got another detention. He could use not being yelled at by the man again, and that sad and disappointed look on his Ma's face, it just weren't worth it.

Wandering down the halls, kicking at an abandoned can the janitor hadn't found yet, Jayne looked through the glass panels in a couple of doors to see if anything interesting was going on inside. A few empty classrooms, one with a teacher marking papers, nothing of any interest, as he moved on through the halls of Firefly High, running his hand along a row of new lockers with doors ajar that rattled together noisily.

Turning the corner, Jayne realised he was now in the PE department. A couple of girls exited the locker rooms in front of him, starting to whisper and giggle as they walked by him. Jayne smirked, sure they were sayin' stuff about him and how built he was or some such. They were gone from his sight a second later, and Jayne went back to wandering.

Glancing in through the next door he came to, he was about to pass by the gym when he realised there was something within worth looking at. He'd forgotten that River Tam would be staying after school tonight for her martial arts class, though that was now long over and instead she was alone in the room, still clad in her skimpy leotard as she danced around the empty space.

Though the girl bugged the gorram hell out of Jayne when she was yammering on in riddles and being all smart and such, he liked her well enough this way. She had a body most girls would kill to have, and guys would kill to get their hands on, which she used to fly around the room with the grace and poise of a dancer, at the same time showing through sweeps of her legs and arms that she could be nothing short of deadly if you got in the way of a strike.

Far as Jayne could tell, the girl had no idea she was being watched, which made her not quite as sharp as she ought to be if she thought she was a fighter. Had to have your wits about you for that kinda thing, and she seemed so caught up in her twirling around, she'd never have a clue if somebody come up behind her and...

Jayne was stunned when his hand landed on her shoulder and suddenly River's whole body changed. Her fluid movements became strong and precise in a moment, and before he hardly knew where he was, the older boy was flat on his back, the girl that had floored him sat atop him in some kind of victory.

"What the gorram hell you do that for, girl?" he complained, as the shock she had used to her advantange now subsided, and the wideness of her eyes then proved she'd had no idea who she was wailing on til she was done doin' it!

"Was startled" she declared, a little breathless from the whole experience and just this side of uncomfortable to realise where she was sat, her legs split across the hips of a boy she didn't know so well as his expression shifted from shock and pain to something else entirely, "Sorry" she said as she rolled off Jayne and got to her feet, reaching a hand out to help him up from the floor.

Jayne didn't take her offer and got up under his own steam, dusting off the back of his pants as he looked across at her. She was blushing he was certain of it and less so 'cause she was embarrassed by the way she brought him down. Nah, Jayne knew it was all about how they'd landed up on the floor together, up close and personal as you might say. She might have an unlikely power to her, but River was still a young girl and not used to getting close to guys

"Gotta say, you're pretty strong" he conceded, "for a girl" he added, and though such a thing might've been taken offensively by some, it didn't bother her.

River only giggled girlishly behind her hand, caught between embarrassment and genuine amusement and what had occurred. She had been sure from the start that Jayne was not simply the ape-gone-wrong-thing that Simon liked to call him behind his back. There was much more to him than that, and it seemed today was the day River would find out just how much.

* * * * *

Sat in one long line in the movie theatre, it seemed that of the six teens in the front row, only one was really enjoying the whole experience. There in the aisle seat was Wash, eyes as wide as saucers and a grin on his face that wouldn't shift as he stared up at the huge screen, watching the dinosaurs pass by in glorious Technicolor. He was like a kid at Christmas, his girlfriend observed from next to him, and for his sake Zoe was glad she came, but honestly, she hadn't been this bored in a good long while!

Next to her was Mal, looking almost as uninterested as she was and instead of paying much attention to the movie, continually distracting Bester in whispered conversation so he wasn't trying to put the moves on Kaylee on his other side. For her ownself, she seemed happier when he wasn't all over her, and Mal had his suspicions that was all down to Simon Tam being on her other side. The fancy kid didn't say much, but he had offered to buy Kaylee popcorn when Bester hadn't thought of it, and jokingly promised to protect her should the dinosaurs escape the screen and attack her.

Mal was quite proud of his plan to bring the gang here, if only to help out Kaylee. Still, it wasn't so bad letting the little man see his precious movie in company, and it was as good a distraction as any from the thoughts and daydreams that clouded Mal's head all too often. Inara Serra, she had bewitched him that was for sure, and yet their would-be romance seemed as likely as the dinosaurs being resurrected like they were in this here movie.

With a sigh, Mal settled back in his seat, deliberately letting his arm slip off the edge of his chair and throwing the dregs of his soda right over Bester's shorts-clad thigh. A shriek went up, which all tried not to laugh at, advising the boy to go get himself cleaned up before it stained. It honestly made Mal consider locking the idiot in the men's room til the movie was over, give his mei mei and Simon a little more alone time, but Malcolm Reynolds was a better man than that... well, today, anyway.

* * * * *

Jayne wasn't exactly sure how he landed up offering to walk the would-be doc's nutty little sister home after school, but somehow here they were, him on the sidewalk, her up on the low wall, balancing like a high-wire walker, both silent for the most part up to now. There weren't exactly a lot to be said, not a whole lot to be had in common 'tween a rich genius girl, and a boy from the less-good side of the tracks, who barely passed each grade he came to.

"So, er... what you was doin?'" he said after a while, watching his own boots kicking stones across the pavement, "That ain't no regular karate or nothin'. Ain't ballet neither" he said of the style of dance or martial arts of whatever the hell it was she'd been practising in the school gym, "What'ya call that?" he asked her.

"Hybrid" she shrugged, putting out her arms to keep her balance, "Best of both worlds. The grace of the dance, the power of the weapon" she said, hopping off the end of the wall when she came to it and moving past Jayne in a sweeping twirl that landed her on his other side, "There is no real name, no rules" she smiled up at him, a little dazzled by the sunshine, "My invention"

"Shiny" he nodded once, before they went back to their strangely comfortable silence for a while longer.

When they came to a bend in the road, Jayne stopped walking, looking one way and then the other.

"'M guessin' you gotta head that way" he said, pointing towards the hills where the few big fancy houses in the town sat.

"Yes, house is this way" River nodded her agreement, "Home? Not necessarily" she sighed.

"Serenity ain't such a bad place to live" he told her as they headed down the street towards her house that apparently was not a home, "I was born and raised in the same house, never known any different"

"Place is nice, people are nice" smiled River as she glanced his way, "but big houses are almost always lonely, without the love and laughter of family to fill the void" she explained, in that weird way that Jayne was finding only she could.

Still, if he paid attention, he found she made a little more sense than he'd once assumed. That didn't mean what she was saying was right of course, and he wasn't afraid to tell her neither.

"You think family is always happy and laughing?" he shook his head at her wacky ideas, "Ain't like that at all, girl"

River looked across at him, staring so hard he could feel her eyes burning into him without even glancing her way. It was like she was trying to see inside his head or some such. Jayne almost believed that was just what she'd done when she spoke up the next minute.

"Possible to be lonely even when he's surrounded" she said thoughtfully, "That she understands. Outside looking in, everything seems warm and chocolate-covered. Not what it seems" she said, as she looked up at the fluffy clouds passing over head, looking so delicate and such to Jayne, he wondered how she didn't float right on up their into the blue.

Suddenly she looked from the sky to Jayne with a grin on her face that suggested she knew something he didn't. Just as he was gonna ask her what it was, she spoke up.

"Race you to the corner" she said, rushing off at top speed.

It took Jayne a whole three seconds to decide she was worth chasing after.

* * * * *

Unfortunately, with the sidewalk only able to take two persons side by side, the gang of friends headed back from the movie theatre were forced to split into pairs. This was no problem to Wash and Zoe, or Kaylee and Bester, but it landed Mal in the awkward position of being stuck talking to Simon Tam. He didn't mind the guy so much, hell, he'd be a better match for little Kaylee than her current, and Mal was all for getting the pair together since it was obvious it was what they both wanted. Still didn't change the fact that Simon yammerin' in his ear about the doctoring he wanted to be doin' in the future was borin' his new friend to the point of wantin' to beat him over the head with the nearest blunt object.

'Course it weren't long before Mal lost interest completely in what Simon was sayin'. Getting distracted was easy enough but the person he caught sight of in a nearby bar was more than just a little distracting. Simon walked a fair distance by his ownself before he noticed Mal was gone. Walking back he looked in through the window that the other guy had his nose practically pressed against.

"Isn't that Ms Serra?" he asked, "Wow, I didn't think she would be the type to be drinking alone in a bar, especially this early in the evening" he added thoughtfully, though Mal heard not a word of it.

All he could see was Inara, the most elegant woman he knew, poised on a bar stool with a martini in her hand and an expression that could only be called pained. At eighteen Mal knew he shouldn't go into said bar to talk to her, and yet he could also hear the fake ID in his wallet calling for his attention.

"Mal?" Simon tried to regain his attention but failed pretty miserably in his task.

"You go ahead, catch up with the others" he said, staring through the bar window still, "I got business here"

Simon looked bemused, especially when Mal crossed to the door and let himself inside, admitted by the security man who accepted the false identity card he showed as genuine. Still, it was not Simon's business what Malcolm Reynolds got up to, however questionable he thought it was.

To Be Continued...