River worked on the frayed and fried wiring in the conduit above the engine room. The Operative had agreed to issue government funds to help finance the rebuilding of Serenity, and once Kaylee was well enough to leave the Galahad's infirmary, the repairs went much faster. Conversely, River found, once her brother was deemed well enough to help fixing the boat, repairs slowed considerably. They hadn't had sex yet, but making out and groping sessions distracted them from their task daily. Sometimes hourly.

Kaylee was currently getting distracted by her brother just below River's work station. She could feel their hormones rising and their thoughts fill with sensations of the other. It was sort of icky.

River put aside the pliers and wire cutters, and leaned down out of the duct just as Kaylee and Simon slid to the floor. Simon had his shirt off, but Kaylee was still mostly dressed. Though if those wandering hands had anything to do with it, they wouldn't be for long.

&&&

Jayne tromped down the hall from the bridge. It took some maneuvering for Mal, Zoë, and him to fit that new glass in the frame up there especially with him still only able to use the one hand. The other two were still up there with the sealant gun putting the finishing touches on their new windshield, and he was to go out and disengage the cable reel from the top of the boat. He needed Kaylee's help, though. One because he needed the other arm, and two because he didn't want to do something stupid and get fried again.

The first thing he saw was River Tam's head poking out of a vent in a ceiling duct with her long hair spilling down. He frowned and tried to see what she was doing. Once he noticed Kaylee and the Doc on the floor with their hands in all manner of interesting places, he figured it out.

He snerked, and cleared his throat real loud.

They jumped apart. Kaylee rolled to glare at Jayne where he laughed in the doorway. "What?"

"Hey, don't go takin' that tone with me," he teased. "I was doin' ya a favor. Figured you wouldn't want to be sexin' for an audience."

At their confused expressions, Jayne pointed up. Simon flicked his gaze upward to find his little sister grinning down at him.

"River!" He turned scarlet. "Y-you were up there that whole time?"

"I was waiting to see how long it would be before one of you remembered," she giggled.

Kaylee slapped her hand to her face. "Oh my gawd!"

Obviously, the only ones who found this funny were River and Jayne.

Jayne shook his head. "I'm guessin' that the rewirin' in here ain't done yet." Kaylee shook her head, and he sighed. "All right. Come on, girl. You can help as good as Kaylee, I bet, with that genius brain of your'n. An' this way if you two lovebirds wanna go at each other, you'll have some privacy."

River slid down from the duct and leaned down to help her brother to his feet before she left the room. At the door, she turned back wearing a little-sister-grin. "Do try to complete your task before you start to play."

Kaylee reached for the handle of the door and eased it shut. "Good-bye, River."

"Bye!" She leaned into the last few open inches before Kaylee completely got the door closed and yelled, "Have good sex!"

Simon's retort was cut off by steel.

Jayne and River both doubled laughed outside. When they were settling down, Jayne pointed to the stairs. "Come on. We still got work to do."

River nodded and started toward the stairwell. She wasn't moving quite as fast as he'd like—or that was what he would tell someone if they asked—so he smirked, and slapped her on the ass. "Ain't got all day!"

She yelped and spun around. Her mouth was open in surprise and eyes wide as soup bowls. She looked so comically shocked he couldn't help but laugh.

"I couldn't resist. 'Sides, I owed ya one, remember, grabby?"

The exact color of red she turned was hard to describe. He thought it was probably somewhere between the filling of a cherry pie and candied beets. Or maybe cranberry sauce. He was kind of surprised that so much blood got into her face at one time.

River was at a loss for words, but finally settled for, "Don't do that again."

She turned around and continued down the stairs, but put her hands back to guard her rump as Jayne laughed and laughed at her.

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snerk snort + smirk