Disclaimer: I own nothing it all belongs to Joss and I owe him the tremendous gratitude that he's provided such great charactars and a 'Verse for them to roam about. :)
If there are typos please let me know. It is late and I am sleepy but I feel like this is postable :) (This is the chapter I'm using to launch the meat of the story, thanks for dealing with the incessant dribble as I establish reasons the two killers would ever tolerate each other much less develop feelings ;) I think we all know it's destiny!
"Now ma," Jayne stood before the WAVE unit in his bunk. It had gotten too much for him, seein' the girl just layin' there like she was dead, then up chuckin' in front of the whole crew like he did, an' then havin' to explain to 'em that the moony girl who just saved their asses from a horde of reavers and helped them nearly take down the entire Alliance may just die. All because he'd upset her and made her run from him. "Now don't go gettin' all emotional," he returned to his mother.
"Well if you'd send a WAVE more 'an once in a coon's age I wouldn't get so choked up atchyur handsome face. How's my Jayney?" She was the only person in the whole 'Verse who he allowed to call him that.
"Well ma," he rubbed the back of his neck "All physical an' stuff I'm doin' just fine. Got us a good doc on the ship."
"Ah yes," Mrs. Cobb replied "the one with the loony sis?" He flinched. Those words really stung when you kinda cared about someone... not that he did, of course.
"I wanted to talk atchya about her, she's hurt, real bad."
"Well I promise me an' the family is gonna keep her in our prayers." She smiled a reassuring smile at her son. How could he tell her? How was he gonna tell his mom that he was feelin' all moony himself, and all over a little girl. He smiled back, the smile not quite reaching his eyes. His mom noticed sparkle gone from him and knew the girls condition was more dire than she expected and his attachment also exceeded her pervious judgement.
"Oh, I see" Mother Cobb read his silence "there's more to this than you tell." She knowingly winked at her son.
"It was all my fault."
"No it weren't. It was them purple-bellied som'bitches. Don't you ever compare yourselves to them. I didn't raise no hun dan."
She had such confidence in him. He was a wretched soul but he couldn't lie to the woman who brought him into this 'Verse and raised him and fed him and loved him. He couldn't hold back from his mama, woman would move the whole 'Verse for him and anyways, she was the only one who could make sense of what was going on in his gorram head. He babbled on about everything that had transpired between him and River. He told her about his near betrayal at Ariel, about his near betrayal before Miranda, about the dance that changed his life, about her confessions, about his guilt. Mrs. Cobb just sat silent for a while on the other side of the screen.
"Now Jayne Cobb," she started off quietly "you hear me and you hear me good, I didn't raise no gorram bounty hunter. I didn't raise no man ," her voice rose in a crescendo "who furthers himself at the misfortune of the helpless. You done had the price of seven moons put on your head before and my stomach clenched with every WAVE I received 'cause I just knew some hun dan had turned your dumb ass in. You deserved it though, this poor girl ain't got no one but her weakling brother. It's now up to you, Jayne. You promise me that you're gonna watch out for them, just like they was your own family."
"I will ma," her harsh words had cut him to the core. He wasn't going to turn River in anymore, but all she'd done was scold him and he didn't have anymore answers than before. Just a lot more guilt.
"I'ma knit that dear girl a hat. Does her brother like socks?"
"Can you knit one of those roses like you always put in Lily's hair?"
"Why Jayne, you ARE sweet on the little lass?"
"No!" He answered a bit too quickly.
"Mmmhmmm, well I got my prayers going up tonight. I'll keep you all in them. Love you, Jayney."
"Love you, ma."
"I don't know what happened, sir. A Firefly class transport ship just knocked us off course. It damaged the NAV system and I lost the controls."
The private looked at his commanding officer. Sergeant Beauregard Houghton paced around the conference room of the IFO ship. Why was all of this so damn difficult? The Alliance was weak after the Miranda broadwave and they could deal the final fatal blow to the regime if only they had the intel and the money. Operation TAM was going to do that for them. But something had gone very very wrong. Now he sat with dwindling funds, no bounty, and an ammo hold that a monastery could be proud of.
"Do we have intel as to how she disobeyed the trigger?"
"The shuttle was in the middle of a WAVE transmission when we detonated the OBE."
"Yes, and you couldn't retrieve they ship after the Off Board Explosive?"
"No sir, like I said the Firefly transport ship skidded us off course. They retrieved her."
"Ah yes, under Captain Malcolm Reynolds if I remember correctly." Sergeant Houghton paced around the conference room a while longer. Malcolm Reynolds was a name he hadn't heard in years. He hoped their paths would never cross again, yet here he found that Malcolm Reynolds was the exact man he desperately needed.
"Fuck!" Jayne leaned back on his bunk and propped his feet up on the wall. Little was as important to him as being near her and willing her to get better, yet it was the one thing he couldn't bring himself to do. That would take a lot of explainin' and starin' with the crew and he wasn't up for it. He wasn't sure what his next move should be and decided to ask from help from the person least likely to receive him well but most knowledgeable in his plight. He climbed from his bunk and stormed through the ship. "Inara," he knocked on the Companion's shuttle.
"Jayne?" She was as startled as he expected her to be.
"Can I come in a sec?" She motioned him in and offered him the bench at the end of the bed. She was taking down the velvet curtains and folding them into a a storage chest. "You leavin' again?" he grew concerned.
"Um, no actually," she hesitated divulging too much information to anyone on the ship as gossip had a way of growing into little ugly monsters that made things awkward and painful. "I'm stepping a level down as a Companion. I…" She stopped short. He had enough information.
"Hey," Jayne smiled an almost defeated smile as he looked up at her "I got a secret too, I won't tell yours if you don't tell mine."
"Jayne Cobb has a secret?" She sat on the foot of her bed opposite him, "I'm your most captive audience," she smiled and rested her head on her hand.
"I don't even know where to start, 'Nara. All my thoughts are just jumbled up here," he pointed at his head. "I think I'm growin' fond."
"Fond? As in 'in love?'"
"I don't know 'bout 'love,' but definitely fond."
"Who's the lucky woman?"
Not so much 'woman.' "Well, I know it's not right but… River."
"River Tam?" Inara laughed. "The girl you've tried to ship back to the Alliance twice now? That's taken you down as many times? That you've tried to get off the ship countless times? Forgive me if I find this turn of events… amusing."
"Yeah but 'Nara, didn't you see how she killed those Reavers, or when she blew up their ship, or that gorram dance at the fire…" he trailed of getting his unwelcome arousal from the memory in check.
"She was quite beautiful."
"Then she kept teasin' me. It was a cruel prank, 'cause of all I'd done to her, she wanted to break me. It worked though, even though I know exactly what she was doin' it worked. I want her to wake up. I wanna apologize, and, hell, I wanna buy her flowers."
"Jayne Cobb? With the heart of ice? Mr. Blue Eyes himself?"
"You ain't helpin'" he glared at her.
"Sorry," she slipped a smile.
"Yeah, she told me a lot. Like about her time at the Academy an' what they did to her. Stuff she ain't even told Simon."
"She cried didn't she?" Inara smiled at him again. His lack of answer was taken as an affirmation. "You never could resist a woman with tears in her eyes."
"I was about to apologize and she just took off all of a sudden. To the bridge, then the WAVE, then she ran away, then she crashed and almost died, and here I am in your shuttle like a schoolgirl beggin' for advice."
"You think she feels something too?"
"I ain't got no idea. Why would she just tell me all her secrets?"
"Well, you can either take the gamble and maybe win the pot, or you can walk away with the chips you have but never gain anymore."
"What if she don't wake up?"
"She will. Go apologize now. She can hear you."
What is this place? Oh God! Is this Heaven? Did I die? Where's Book? Where's Wash?
"I knew you'd find me," Wash slid up and nudged her. "Mei mei, you took quite a beating."
"I AM dead."
"No. No, no no. Not for not tryin' though. You gotta be more careful."
"Yeah, the signal activated me again."
"I saw. I'm still on this ship. I try to stay outta everyone's way. I can't leave my lamby-toes just yet."
"She misses you."
"I miss her too." Wash came around to face River. This world, realm, dream, whatever-it-was, was blurry. Wash was there in form, kind of - definately his spirit was as bright as ever though. She wished she could see him better. She could always tell when he smiled though. She realized small details jumped out at her – she admired the floral print on Wash's shirt. He kept this afterlife very bright. Even death couldn't dim the joyous pilot. "You're shapin' up to be a great pilot. Leaf on the wind, River. Leaf on the wind." He winked at her. Why was his face so blurry?
"I'm scared," she admitted. "Am I going to die?"
"No, I'm only here to guide you through this. It's scary to be alone."
Yeah, it WAS scary to be alone here. There was no fear with him here though. He'd wandered all this time alone. She had so many questions. When did he know he was dead? Did he see Zoe get hurt? Did he help her kill those Reavers? Did he help he pilot Serenity. Now that she was sane, she really regretted not getting to know him better. "I promise you won't be alone, Wash. Anytime you want to come visit me, please do. Can you let me know? Not like Zoe, but I miss you too."
"I am working on lettin' people know when I visit. I don't want to be creepy though. 'Hi, dead man comin' through!'" The two spirits broke into laughter.
"Where's Jayne right now?" she abruptly asked.
"Jayne? You don't want to know where Simon is?"
"He's with Kaylee, he has a remote monitor of me in her bunk."
"Can you see the ship? I thought you would be trapped in your head."
"I am. Simon's just really predictable." The two laughed again.
"Jayne's with Inara right now," Wash offered to be her eyes.
"Oh," she couldn't hide her disappointment. There was something about that night she danced to his guitar. She worried that she was wearing the memory out because she played it over and over in her head. The tingle of her skin as she felt his eyes travel up her flesh.
"You didn't think you'd feel like this didjya?" Wash stepped in as a less uptight brother. He'd seen her tease him and knew her motives, but he saw right through them.
"No," she found it so easy to be honest with his spirit. Wash was just as amazing in his afterlife as he was on the ship in true flesh and blood. "I don't know if it's because he's my only viable option or if it's 'cause I actually like him."
"Well, you're gonna get a chance to find out, here he comes!" Wash winked at her. "I'll *ahem .. leave you two alone." He chuckled as he left her and went to find Zoe.
