The image of River leaning over Jayne and the hateful look in her eyes haunted him all the way to the Sheriff's office. What in the ruttin' hell could she have seen in the mercenary's mind to change her attitude toward him so drastically; hell it'd only been a month ago that she'd threatened to kill him with her brain and only two weeks before that that she'd taken a knife to his chest. In fact, in the 6 months Simon and River had been on the ship, he didn't think he'd seen them voluntarily talk to each other let alone touch one another. And why was she thanking him? There were simply too many things about this entire fiasco that made absolutely no sense to him, not that much in his life ever did.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind as he dismounted the mule in front of the Sheriff's office and tried to focus on that Zen thing Inara was always going on about. He pushed open the door quickly and smirked when he heard a grunt of pain from the other side; he stepped around the door to see one of the already injured deputies trying to staunch the flow of blood from his nose.

"Sorry," he offered half-heartedly.

He wasn't in the least but the deputy was a man of the law and it didn't really pay to antagonize them; especially if he had any notions of performing any criminal activities on this planet anytime in the near future. If Jayne hadn't already ruined that for them.

Speaking of his soon to be ex-mercenary, it was nice to see that the man had inflicted some pretty substantial damage himself. The deputy standing in front of him sported several very visible bruises that weren't from his run in with the door, and a noticeable limp. Book had been right; Jayne always was good for finishing a fight. And as much as Mal hated to admit it, Kaylee and Wash had been right too, he hadn't ever seen Jayne actually throw the first punch in a fight. So why would he have done it this time?

The grey haired Sheriff was once again seated behind the desk, this time munching on what Mal hoped was an early dinner, but judging from the size of the man's midsection, was only a snack. Mal had to wonder when it was that the Sheriff had done any real peace-keeping duties.

"Back so soon, Captain Reynolds?"

"Here for my man's weapons," he answered tersely, not wanting to waste any extra words on the Sheriff.

The Sheriff pursed his lips in annoyance as he reached behind the desk. "Was hoping ya'll wouldn't remember them, they's some mighty fine pieces of armament. Would have gone a long way toward making up for all that coin your man lost us."

Mal cocked his head, not liking that statement, "thought all your doctoring bills were covered in his bail."

"They were, but the two deputies he attacked were about to make a very profitable arrest."

The cold ball of dread settled heavier in Mal's stomach, but he did his best to put on a pleasant face. "Really, who were they after? Do a bit of bounty hunting myself, might be worth my while to stick around for a few days."

"Well, seeing as we ain't seen hide nor hair of them since, so I suppose it can't hurt to tell you." He shot the Captain a dark look as if he didn't really agree with his own statement. "The Alliance is offering a good bit of coin for those siblings they've had a warrant on for awhile now. Brother and sister actually; what were their names, Thomas… Townsend… Travis.." The Sheriff had pulled out a stack of warrants and began flipping through them.

But Mal had stopped listening long ago; nestled within that stack he'd seen pictures of Wash and Kaylee and he could only guess that the ones for Jayne, Zoe, and himself were somewhere in the pile as well. His anger at Jayne flared; the man had come so close to getting them all pinched and delivered straight into Alliance hands.

"Tam! That was it, knew it started with a T."

Mal froze for a fraction of a second, before regaining his composure. "So," he started conversationally, "your men were thinkin' on trying to find those two."

"Hell no, they had them, or would have if your man hadn't chosen that moment to start a fight he couldn't finish."

And everything suddenly clicked.

The cold ball of dread currently residing in his stomach instantly turned to one of guilt. Jayne had been protecting the trouble-magnet siblings; just one more thing Mal would never have thought possible. And they had all immediately assumed the worst of the merc; actually, he corrected himself, he, Zoe and Simon had assumed the worst, the others seemed to take it for granted that there was something else going on.

Mal silently thanked every star in the 'verse that the Sheriff was a big enough idiot not to have connected the two incidents; he didn't even want to imagine what they would have done to Jayne if they'd realized that he had any connection to Simon and River.

The Captain looked at the weapons that had been laid on the desk- a pistol and two knives- as the Sheriff put the stack of warrents back down underneath it. His knuckles quickly turned white with the strain of not decking the Sheriff then and there.

"Where's the other pistol?"

The Sheriff didn't even bother to look guilty as he reached beneath the desk and pulled out the pistol that was never far from Jayne's hip or hand.

Mal snatched the beautiful gun and left the office without looking back.

The drive back to Serenity was a blur, Mal's mind was consumed with replaying every single thing he'd said and done since receiving the Sheriff's wave first thing that morning. Day wasn't even over yet and it was already in the running for one of the worst in the year- ok, so it'd been an eventful year, but defiantely one of the worst days this month.

And the worst was probably yet to come.