The next week passed by relatively uneventfully. River and Inara's separate treatments both continued, with only small signs of improvement from both patients. The bacteria in Inara's lungs had started to decrease in number, but more treatment was obviously still needed, and the dark-haired former companion had already begun to lose small amounts of hair due to her painful treatments. River's cognitive functioning seemed to be improving, as she was less likely to speak in riddles or have violent temper tantrums now, and more likely to speak in proper nouns.

However, River had also become noticeably less...perceptive as her brain treatments continued, as evidenced by the fact that she was now finishing other people sentences less frequently, and the reader was now more likely to seem surprised by the revelations of others. For example, when River asked Simon why he rarely talked to their father outside of the infirmary, Simon's sister had genuinely been surprised when her older sibling sighed and said. "I didn't want to say anything to you about this, mei-mei, because I know you have been getting along better with both our mother and Gab...our father. And I thought you knew...um..."

Simon had busied himself cleaning some of his surgical instruments then, as he thought about the right words to say to his sister about this awkward subject. Finally, the gifted young woman's elder brother settled on, "Gabriel doesn't think that Kaylee's good enough for me. He said as much about a week ago, right in front of her. And Re...mom, I think she agrees with Gabriel, but she's too nice to say so. They both seem to think Kaylee's a gold digger, or just wants me because I'm a doctor, or some such nonsense. Gorramit! They're both acting like the same stuck up Buhn Dahn as they were when they wouldn't help me find out what was happening to you at the Academy! You do what you want, mei mei, but if they're going to just keep on being like that..."

Simon had shook his head. "I don't want them in my life again, River! I won't play the part of the dutiful son again if it means that I have to listen to them talk about Kaylee like she is a Meh Lien Duh Jyah Jee! I Can't! So, until this Yu Bun Duh show is done filming, I'll continue to have polite chats with Reagan from time to time, and I'll keep helping Gabriel treat you and Inara, since your sanity and our friend's life are more important than some petty familial dispute! But...if nothing changes before "Walking Alongside the Tams" is done filming...I don't want anything to do with our parents ever again!"

River had sighed then. "I didn't know. I couldn't read any of that in your head, Simon. I'm sorry. But...maybe if you and Kaylee just sat down and talked to mom and dad, they would realize that Kaylee is a really shiny person, and the four of you could start getting along again. If all of you just sat down and talked...I'm sure mom and dad would like Kaylee as much as I do. I just know it!"

Simon had just sighed at River's words and said. "How could you possibly know that, River?! Since your treatments started, you're barely a psychic anymore..."

River had quickly bolted out of the room then, and was only at that moment that Simon comprehended how much his words had hurt his sister. The young doctor had tried to chase his sister down then, shouting "River!" the whole time. But of course, Simon's sneaky little sister had not let herself be found for the rest of that day, and the gifted young woman had refused to talk to her brother, or anybody else, about her dwindling psychic abilities ever since.

Still, despite all of the stressors present on "set", life went on for the cast members of "Walking Along side the Tams." Simon and Kaylee's relationship continued to bloom, despite the former's disapproving parents, as did Malcolm and Inara's. And even though the scruffy captain and the stylish ex-companion still had heated arguments from time to time, they always passionately made up later Zoe was still in mourning, but she was beginning the process of coming out of her shell and interacting with the other Serenity crew members more often now. Jayne, on the other hand, seemed to become even more withdrawn than usual as time passed, especially around River, for reasons he did not feel like sharing with anyone.

River was starting to become something of a social butterfly, as her steadily returning sanity and less awkward speech made it easier for her to socialize with her family members, Serenity's crew members, and even some of the cameramen. Taking some advice she had gotten from both Inara and Kaylee, the psychic also made it a point to smile more...with mixed results. Although the rest of the Tams, and Kaylee, all praised River's attempts at grinning, the other members of the reality show's cast would wince a little when the former unwilling subject of an Alliance experiment would open her mouth a little too wide, showing too many teeth, every time she smiled. And Malcolm Reynolds even commented on one occasion that River's new smile. "Was a mite creepifying."

However, nobody seemed to be more disturbed by River Tam's changing behavior than Jayne Cobb. At first, the mercenary had been glad that the young woman's behavior had been less violent and unpredictable lately. But as time went on, and the new, more sociable River began spending more time around other people, including around the mercenary himself, the "hero of Canton" became more and more agitated by River's constant questions about matters both personal and inane, like. "What planet do you come from? How many family members do you have? What's your favorite food? Do you have a favorite color?" All of the "psychic's" questions bothered Jayne, for two reasons. One, the mercenary wasn't the best talker in the 'Verse, and he tended to avoid engaging in small talk to often...something the "new River" wasn't allowing him to do. Furthermore, although the idea of River being able to pull thoughts straight out of his mind used to creep out Jayne out, the mercenary realized he had gotten used to River's psychic abilities long ago. He had started taking it for granted that the "crazy girl", at least, would always be able to understand what he was thinking, even when Jayne himself didn't always know how to articulate his thoughts with words. Evidently, as evidenced by all of her questions, the treatment which was responsible for River's improving mental state had also somehow removed the silent understanding that Jayne and River had developed since the day River had threatened that she could kill the mercenary with her brain.

But none of these changes in River's behavior bothered the mercenary more than the girl's flirting. The formerly crazy girl would now bat her recently extended eyelashes in his direction sometimes, or laugh far too hard at the mercenary's jokes, or smile way too long in that forced, unnerving manner of hers when River was in Jayne's presence. When the mercenary had asked Kaylee what was behind River's suddenly flirtatious behavior, Kaylee had just laughed. "River just took me and Inara's advice to practice flirting with men she felt comfortable around, that's all. That way, River will be prepared when she finds a shiny young man that catches her fancy."

Jayne supposed that explanation made a heck of a lot more sense than River liking him all of the sudden. And Kaylee's words seemed to be confirmed when Jayne saw River talking and making eyes at one of the cameramen the day after the mechanic had explained River's suddenly girly behavior, However, Jayne found it suspicious that this occasion had been the only time the mercenary caught River flirting with anyone other than himself. And in any case, no matter why the gifted young woman was doing it, Jayne found it unnerving every time the woman who had once slashed him in the chest with a kitchen knife, the same woman who Jayne had once attempted to sell out to the Alliance for money, made eyes at him.

Things finally came to a head after a long afternoon of the youngest Tam following the mercenary around the set of "Walking Alongside the Tams" and asking question after question, while constantly batting her eyes at Jayne and laughing at every other word out of Jayne's mouth. Sometime around 2 PM that day, Jayne decided he couldn't take River's strange new behavior anymore. "That's enough, girl! Enough questions! Enough flirting! Enough laughing at jokes that we both know aren't funny! Now, I'm pleased as punch that you ain't crazy no more, but right now, you are acting stranger than when you were whimsical in the brain pan! Because this..."

Jayne gestured to River, whose hair had been groomed to perfection that day, and who was currently wearing a fancy dress, socks and high-heeled shoes. "Is a person I don't even know! The River Tam I knew was crazy, but she didn't care what other people, what any man but her brother, thought about her. She always did precisely what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it. She was the kind of girl that didn't dress all girly for nobody! And I respected the Guai out of that girl for that! And yeah, sometimes she went all rutting helpless, but sometimes she was a the best warrior I'd ever seen, like one of those angels of death that I heard about once when my mama used to make me go to Sunday school. That girl wasn't the type that needed to flirt with a man, and if she did set her sights on some poor Hwen Dan, she probably would have just reached out and taken him! And that girl didn't need to ask me what I thought about something and wait for me to babble out a poorly worded answer like some moon-brained moron, because she would already know what I was thinking! That River Tam was easier to talk to! So as glad as everyone is that you ain't insane no more, I gotta say, I liked you better when you were gorram crazy!"

River just nodded at Jayne's words, then wordlessly walked away from the mercenary, then all the way back to her room. The former psychic didn't even stop even when Jayne shouted. "Hey! C'mon! I didn't mean that!" But even without the ability to read the mercenary's mind, River knew that Jayne meant every word he had said.

To his credit, Jayne had tried to smooth things over with River by convincing Kaylee to speak to the younger woman on his behalf (although he had needed to bribe the mechanic with strawberries he picked from the Estate's garden to get Kaylee to talk to River for him). However, even the message Kaylee had relayed to River about her argument with the mercenary, that Jayne "Didn't mean anything by it." and that "He's glad you ain't crazy no more," hadn't lifted River's spirits. So the gifted young woman had avoided Jayne as much as possible throughout the rest of that week. Also, for reasons unknown to Jayne, both Simon and the elder Tams were now giving the mercenary the silent treatment and glaring at the large man on occasion

There were times, however, when everyone on the cast of "Walking Alongside the Tams" was forced to gather in one place together, and "broadcast nights" were one of those times. During one such evening, the cast members were all sitting around the TV in the living room, with Simon and Kaylee sitting on a sofa as far away from the elder Tams as they could, while Jayne sat as far away from River as he could manage. Despite the tension present between several of the cast members, however, most of the occupants of the room were currently bored out of their minds.

Unlike some of the previous broadcasts, which had featured interviews from several members of the Serenity's crew, tonight's broadcast had only featured one such interview: that of a lucid River Tam talking about her experiences being experimented on by the Alliance. Most of the cast members agreed that the gifted woman's recounting of her experiences at the Academy were quite moving. Especially the moment were River had cried for a few seconds when she told the cameraman that "Scientists stuck needles in my brain" (a display which made everyone in the room but River look away from the screen for a moment, and a certain mercenary to look very intently at his shoes while the rest of the interview had aired). However, the fact that River could no longer remember much of what the Alliance had done to her since her father and brother's brain treatments had overwritten much of the government conditioning from River's conscious experience made River's interview more devoid of factual content than Malcolm's detailed descriptions of the Alliance's atrocities during the war. Or Zoe's morbid account of the death of Hoban Washburne at the hands of the Alliance's most brutal creations: the Reavers.

Furthermore, outside of River's interview about her time at the Academy, most of the episode of "Keeping up with the Tams" was just boring. Sure, the introduction to the show had recently gotten fixed, although not quite to the Serenity crew's satisfaction, as the beginning of each episode now tacitly acknowledged that the rest of that "boat's" crew had "heroically aided the Tam siblings in their quest to get the truth of the Alliance's evil machinations out to the 'Verse." But even that change didn't keep Mal and his crew from wanting to sleep through the rest of the episode, which mostly just consisted of the camera crew trying to stir up drama between the cast members who were avoiding each other (all of whom had just answered 'no comment' when asked about their various interpersonal difficulties). Other than these pointless attempts at melodrama, the rest of the episode had mostly consisted of coverage of River and Inara's treatments for their very different maladies. But since forward progress for both of these subjects had been slow, and neither the youngest Tam nor the former companion were exhibiting any severe, visible side effects yet, even those parts of the night's episode were somewhat boring."

Finally, after the episode rapped up, Jayne scowled and said what everyone else in the room was thinking. "Well, that was a waste of time. Can we go now?"

The "host" for the show shook his head. "Not just yet. Mr. Niska has a surprise for all of you that should be arriving shortly."

The host then gave Jayne a pointed look, even as the sound of a shuttle landing echoed throughout the estate, and and the mercenary's eyes widened. "You didn't."

The host just smiled, causing everyone else in the room to turn to Jayne before the captain asked. "What is the man talking about, Jayne? Do you know what's going on here?"

Jayne ignored the question as he glared at the show host. "I swear to you, if he got hurt in any way during transit, if his condition is the least bit unshiny I will personally put you in a body bag!"

While the rest of the crew members looked at Jayne with looks of alarm on their faces, the mercenary's heated remarks actually brought a smile to River's face. "You mean he's here. I finally get to meet..."

"Mattie." Jayne breathed out as he stood up to face his younger brother, who had just entered the room with numerous bags. The mercenary quickly composed himself however, and after taking a quick look at the scrawny man in front of him, who, apart from being less muscular, half a foot shorter, and clean-shaven, could have been Jayne's twin, the elder brother shook the younger one's hand. "It's good to see you, little brother."

Matthew Cobb just nodded and smiled for several seconds, before he quickly let go of Jayne's hand and forced his elder brother into a hug. The mercenary's eyes widened for a moment, and it took the larger man several seconds to break out of the shorter brother's forced hug. "What was that for?! You know I ain't the hugging kind!"

The younger brother laughed for several seconds, and soon the crew of Serenity (sans Jayne) was laughing with the younger brother (who coughed hard several times after he finished laughing) before he said. "I know! Why do you think I do that every time I see you, Jayne? It was worth it just for the look on your face!"

Jayne grumbled. "If you weren't sick, I would give you a thrashing you'd never forget for going and doing something like that in front of all my friends! How'd you get strong enough to hold me in place that long anyhow?! Ma and pa must be feeding you well for you to get strong enough to do that, with your damp lung and all!"

The younger brother's face fell a little bit. "Um, actually, your...benefactor has set me up to get cured of my damp lung, and they already had me go through the first round of treatments back home so I would be well enough to come finish up treatment here. Ni...I mean, our benefactor promised to pay for the whole thing, as long as I become part of the cast of "Walking Alongside the Tams" for the remainder of the show's air time. But there's something you should know."

As the doctors Tam started arguing with the host about being given a new patient without being consulted about him ahead of time, the rest of the cast watched the two brother's conversation closely now as the younger Cobb continued speaking. "Pa's dead. Me, ma and our brothers and sisters all attended his funeral the day before I left to come here."

Jayne immediately cast his eyes downward. "Oh. I'm..." The mercenary coughed. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Mattie sighed. "Jayne...I know that you and pa didn't see eye to eye on lots of things, and I know that's why you left, but..."

Jayne shook his head. "That don't mean I wanted him dead. How did it...how did it happen? And how's ma? Maybe if I'd have been there..."

Mattie shook his head. "It wouldn't have made any difference, Jayne. He had a stroke in his sleep. It weren't your fault. And the family understands why you left. That you and pa weren't getting along, and that you thought you could earn more money for the family as a merc out in the black than at a factory or shipyard anyway. No one blames you for not being there, not even ma, who took pa's death pretty hard."

Jayne shook his head. "Still...I should have been there for the funeral."

Mattie sighed. "It couldn't be helped. You were here. Doing important work for the 'Vers. It won't be safe for you, or me now, to come home, tensions with the Alliance and the rest of the 'Verse being what they are. Ma and Pa both understood that. In fact, when pa saw you on the TV screen, speaking out against the Alliance...that's the first time I ever heard him say he was proud of you."

Jayne nodded, struggling to keep tears from falling of his eyes. "Pa really said that?"

Mattie smiled. "Yeah. But enough about the home front Are you going to introduce me to this bunch of degenerates you've been hanging out with?!"

Everyone in the room smiled at the younger Cobb's words and light-hearted tone before the elder brother chuckled and gestured to all of the other members of the cast, one by one. "Sure! This here's the captain, and Serenity's current pilot, Malcolm Reynolds, but most of us just call him 'Mal'..." The man in question just nodded as Jayne kept speaking. "Then there's Zoe, apart from me, she's the brains of the operation." The dark-skinned woman in question just smirked and rolled her eyes as the merc continued speaking. "Her late husband, Wash, was the best pilot in the 'Verse too, before Reavers got him..."

Jayne cleared his throat. "Anyway, this here's Serenity's mechanic, Kaylee. She can fix a ship better than anyone I've ever met, and she annoys me less than anybody else on that ship" The bright eyed mechanic smiled warmly and waved at Mattie, and the younger Cobb responded with a more flirtatious grin of his own...before Simon Tam wrapped his arm around Kaylee's waist in a protective fashion while Kaylee looked at the ground in embarrassment.

Jayne laughed at this display, then added. "And she's spoken for, Di. I was going to warn you before you tried to start your womanizing ways up again, but it seems I was too late."

Mattie smiled. "Sorry. But you can't blame a man for trying, especially when he doesn't know a woman is spoken for, right?"

Simon Tam sighed and nodded in response to the younger Cobb's apology and Kaylee perked up considerably and gave Mattie a friendly (but not too friendly) smile before she shrugged and replied. "No harm done!"

Jayne rolled his eyes. "Anyway..." Jayne gestured to Inara. "This is Inara. She use to be a who.." Seeing the dark looks from every other member of Serenity's crew, the merc quickly amended his words. "I mean...she used to be a Companion, but she sorta quit, and no she's a full member of the crew. And before you go getting any ideas, Mattie, she's with the captain."

Mattie shrugged and looked at Inara. "Of course she is, I knew a woman as lovely as you wouldn't stay single for long once you were actually on the market. The captain's a lucky man. But I am still very pleased to make your acquaintance Miss Inara..." Matt bowed politely.

Inara allowed herself a small smile and finished the man's sentence. "Serra. And that's nice of you to say, Mr. Cobb. But you are probably right." Mal just shrugged, unable to disagree that he was lucky to have Inara in his life now, whatever the circumstances around their relationship may be, before Inara politely nodded her head back in Mattie's direction. "And I'm pleased to make your acquaintance as well."

Jayne turned towards his brother, half-grunting "showoff", before the merc turned around and introduced Mattie to the remaining cast members. " These folks are Dr. Gabriel and Reagan Tam, the two folks who came up with this reality show nonsense."

Gabriel just shrugged, and Reagan crossed her arms in front of her torso and huffed as Jayne finished making introductions. "And these other two are their kids, Simon and River Tam. Dr. Simon's our ship's medic. He can be a real pain in the Pi Gu, sometimes, but he's good at what he does, so the captain keeps him around." Simon rolled his eyes while River just smirked at the same time as Jayne introduced her. "River...well...River's a Jack of all trades, I guess. Or Jane...Never mind. Point is, she's good at lots of different things, when she's not too busy being whimsical in the brain-pan to do anything. Which has been more often lately. She's even helped save all of the crew's collective Pi Gus on a couple of occasions, including myself. Just don't get on her bad side. She once told me she could kill me with her brain, Is that still true, little one?

River smirked harder, and just for a moment, she had the same predatory look in her eyes that she had possessed when she had been killing Reavers on Mr. Universe's satellite. "Does he really want to test her, and find out?"

But the moment quickly passed, and a surprisingly pleasant smile came across River's face as she turned her gaze towards Mattie. The younger Cobb brother responded in kind before he spoke to all four Tams while bowing. "Pleased to meet you all, doctors Simon and Gabriel Tam, Mrs. Reagan Tam, Miss River Tam."

All four members of the Tam family bowed their heads slightly towards Mattie before Gabriel replied. "Me and my family are pleased to meet you as well, Mr. Cobb. I must say, I am surprised to meet someone from outside the Core-worlds who has as much knowledge of Osiris custom and a way with words as yourself."

Mattie just chuckled, even as the crew of Serenity (minus Inara and the Tam siblings) glared slightly at Gabriel for his choice of words as the younger Cobb brother resumed speaking. "Some of us living on the Rim are more educated in the ways of the 'Verse than you might think, Dr. Tam. Unlike the rest of my siblings, I was lucky enough to be able to graduate high school. And there are even a few universities and other centers of higher learning in Border and Rim space. Sadly, I never had the funds to attend any of them, but after I got sick.."

Mattie chuckled humorously. "I had some time on my hands. So me and my ma both got as many used books as we could get our hands over the last few years of my involuntary retirement, and I've read every one of those twenty six books, cover to cover, multiple times. One of those books just happened to concern proper etiquette and courtship rituals in the 'Verse."

Gabriel Tam smiled. "So you're self taught? That's quite remarkable."

Mattie shrugged and blushed slightly.. "Um...I guess so."

In a sudden burst of speed, River ran up to Mattie, until she was uncomfortably close to, but not actually touching, the younger Cobb's left arm. The youngest Tam then leaned towards Mattie's left ear, for several seconds, but nobody else was able to make out what, if anything the "psychic" had whispered into the young man's ear before she pulled away and offered Mattie her right hand with a smile and said. "We are all pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Matthew Cobb."

Matthew grinned widely as he lightly kissed the offered hand. "The pleasure is all mine, I'm sure. I'm enchanted to meet you, Miss River Tam."

River smiled back at Mattie and batted her eyelashes at the man for several seconds after the youngest Cobb let go of her hand. The young woman the retreated back towards her family members while speaking. "Good. She...we are all delighted to have you here and I hope that you and I can converse again soon."

This short conversation between Mattie and River drew mixed reactions from the cast members. Malcolm and Zoe seemed indifferent to the whole thing, although the captain did smirk slightly at the exchanging of words between the two young adults. Kaylee and Inara seemed pleased about River's flirtatious behavior towards the younger Cobb, if their smiles where anything to go by. The other Tams, however, had more subdued reactions, as Gabriel and Simon Tam both gave Mattie warning looks that fell just short of glares, silently promising a lot of pain in the younger Cobb's immediate future if he took advantage of River in any way. Reagan Tam's reaction was a bit more ambivalent, as she whispered in River's ear that "Matthew seems like a nice man, but be careful..."

However, if was Jayne's reaction that surprised everyone, including the mercenary himself, the most, as the older Cobb simply said. "I'm just gonna go to my room now. Nice to see you again, Mattie." The large man left the room then, but nobody missed the dead serious look on Jayne's face as he did so. Jayne saw and felt the others' questioning stares, but he didn't let that stop him from marching back to his bedroom as fast as he could.

The mercenary half-way shut, half-way slammed his bedroom door behind him before he sat on his bed and cursed. Buh Dahn! What's wrong with me!? What do I care if the crazy girl flirts with Mattie or not! She'll flirt with anyone now, and she's just a stupid girl, anyway!"

But none of Jayne's spoken thoughts made his rapid heart beat any slower, stopped the man's blood from boiling in his veins, or loosened the knots that had been in his stomache since the moment River had offered her hand to Mattie. And it was in that moment that Jayne realized that, for the first time in his life, he was jealous of his little brother. This was a novel experience for Jayne.

True, Mattie had always been the clever one, at least when it came to book smarts. Words and figures had always come easier for Mattie than they had for Jayne, which was why the former had graduated high school and the latter had barely finished the fourth grade before he had decided to join his pa working in the factory full-time, before he had been old enough to strike out on his own as a mercenary. But Jayne had never cared much for schooling anyway, and he had been happy to leave the books and learning to his younger brother. And yeah, Mattie had always been more popular with the ladies than his elder brother, at least before the younger Cobb got sick, but Jayne hadn't paid that any mind either. After all, any man who made a decent amount of coin could always pay to lay down with a woman often enough to scratch that particular itch, and Jayne hadn't ever had any use for women outside of the pleasure that decent whore could provide him on occasion, for a platinum or two a night. Besides, ever since Mattie had gotten sick, Jayne had felt little besides protectiveness and pity towards his younger brother. Until today, that is.

For some reason, River giving into Mattie's charms so easily had brought out emotions in Jayne's person that the mercenary didn't like one bit. Feelings that had been threatening to come back to the surface of Jayne's conciousness ever since River had started acting less crazy after Miranda. Jayne mentally berated himself for his foolishness, reminding himself that he had always vowed never to get so hung up on a woman that his emotions made him stupid, because in his line of work, being stupid could get you killed. So the mercenary had always told himself he would never end up like Mal, who frequently became confused when he was around Inara, or Simon, whose words still sometimes got confused around Kaylee. And the mercenary had always been adamant that he would never end up like the now-deceased Wash, who had treated Zoe like she hung the moon, and was his primary reason for existence.

Yet now, for the first time in all thirty years of life, Jayne was forced to admit to himself that he was feeling...something for River Tam. Something that was quite different, and much more intense, then the brotherly affection he felt for Kaylee and his flesh and blood sisters. But the emotions Jayne was feeling for the youngest Tam were also somehow different, deeper than the lust he had felt towards the many women the mercenary had bedded and/or leered at since he had hit puberty many years ago. Honestly, Jayne didn't know what he felt towards River, but he refused to call it love.

No, Jayne told himself, he couldn't possibly be in love with the crazy girl who had been laying down in that pod, naked as the day she was born, when the mercenary had first laid eyes upon her. A young woman he had felt guilty for finding attractive even then. Guilt which had only intensified when the mercenary had discovered that River Tam was crazy.

Since Jayne had learned about River's unstable mental condition almost a year ago, the mercenary had attempted to look at River as little as possible. Jayne had even attempted to avoid the crazy girl and her pain-in-the-neck brother when he could, and be as unfriendly towards the brunette as he could when outright avoidance was impossible. This was a task that River Tam had been all too willing to help Jayne with, since the reader usually liked to keep to herself. Then, when River had slashed Jayne's chest with a kitchen knife sometime later, and Jayne had retaliated by trying to sell the Tams out to the Alliance, the mercenary was convinced he had finally created a large enough rift between him and the Tams that River would avoid him entirely. But to Jayne's great surprise, even that event, and his subsequent attempts to get River off Serenity after the Alliance started hijacking River's mind somehow, could not dissuade the young woman from socializing with Jayne on occasion. Nor could the merc's attempts to distance himself from the "reader" keep River out of Jayne's very vivid dreams. Dreams which were tainted by guilt over Jayne's multiple betrayals of River and her older brother.

Then, ever since River had told Jayne she had forgiven him for all his transgressions against her and Simon, the way that the mercenary and the gifted young woman interacted with each other had dramatically changed. Jayne just wasn't sure that was a good thing. True, it was kind of nice that he and the "psychic" were starting to get along better now, and it certainly helped Jayne's conscience some to know that he had been forgiven for several of his bad deeds. Even so, over the last week, River had decided to spend a lot more of her time around Jayne since that strange conversation between them at the villa's bar, and that was becoming a problem for Jayne. With the reader spending more time around him, and unburdened by feelings of guilt towards her person, those old feelings the mercenary had felt towards River since he first laid eyes on her had returned with a vengeance, and Jayne had already caught himself staring at the brunette for several seconds too long on a few occasions, Adding to these troubles was River's returning sanity, which was making the young woman seem much more approachable, a factor compounded by River's flirtatious behavior towards his own person.

In short, the changes that occurred over the last week concerning how the mercenary and the reader were interacting freaked Jayne out, as these changes had increased Jayne's desires for a person he had always known he couldn't, nay, shouldn't have. And Jayne's dreams now contained visions of things the mercenary had never consciously allowed himself to hope for: like a relationship with the hazel-eyed young woman that would last for longer than the mercenary's usual one-night stands with women. And that made Jayne very nervous.

So Jayne had pushed River away, using the brunette's new mannerisms (that did, in fact, freak Jayne out a bit), which came from her returning sanity, as an excuse to do so. Apparently, Jayne reflected sourly, he had pushed River right into his younger brother's arms. And as much as the mercenary tried to tell himself that he should be fine with that, that he should be relieved that River was pining over someone else now, someone who, by most accounts, including Jayne's own, was a much better person than his elder brother, and closer to River's age besides, Jayne wasn't okay with River's flirtatious behavior towards Mattie. Not at all.

Jayne grunted and quickly tucked himself into bed and turned off the light, then he quietly muttered to himself. "Stop being so gorram stupid about this! It's better this way! Now the crazy girl won't be distracting you no more, and Mattie can finally get laid again for the first time in..." But the mercenary couldn't even finish that sentence, and Jayne had to quickly push that mental image out of his head before it made him throw up. Still, the mercenary told himself, it was stupid to be jealous of Mattie over something as trivial as flirting now that his younger brother was well enough to walk around again for at least short periods of time. And even if he was a little jealous of his younger brother, it must be because most of the crew of Serenity had instantly liked Mattie, when it had taken years for some of the crew to find Jayne even remotely tolerable. It definitely wasn't because Mattie had flirted with some stupid girl.

After all, Jayne though to himself before sleep finally claimed him over an hour later, he would have to be crazier than the youngest Tam herself had ever been to be in love with River.

AN: Hello again, readers! First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your continuing support of my story. I would especially like to thank Hawki, galwidanatitud, , and bjq for reviewing my last chapter!

Sorry that you had to wait this long for a new chapter but a combination of RL stuff, technical difficulties, and a bad case of writer's block prevented me from posting this sooner. Also, I have been wrestling with what direction I want to take some of the characters in this story, knowing that no matter what I do, I will probably be disappointing some of you with the direction I take. However, I eventually decided to go with the story direction, and character pairing, I have been leaning towards for a while now (some of you reading this chapter can probably guess were I'm going with this). Unfortunately, since I am sort of new writing for this fandom, I am not sure if I pulled off the shipping elements in this chapter off well. So please, be honest in your feedback for this chapter, and let me know if there are aspects of any of these characters I am portraying incorrectly. But any feedback you all could give on this chapter would be appreciated.

And finally, a big thank you goes out to my beta-reader! Without your encouragement, I probably wouldn't have even had the courage to write a story for this complex fandom, so thanks again for your help and encouragement!

Until next time, I am...

-supercode