"Zoe, maybe I ought ta go back downstairs. I ain't really that hungry," Kaylee tried as she was pushed towards the table.

Rustling around in the cupboards, Zoe didn't turn as she responded. "You just sit down. I'll get somethin' going in just a minute, and as soon as you've had breakfast we'll give him another check. Don't worry, Kaylee, he's not goin' anywhere. I know as well as you do how stubborn he is. He'll be just fine for a half hour." Wish we had some real food, she lamented. Poor girl's so pale. Been a hell of a day for her already. Hell of a day for all of us, and it ain't even really breakfast time yet. With a sigh, she began to prepare protein mush, figuring that with a little sugar it might even be semi-edible.

Knowing Zoe wasn't going to let her go back to Jayne without having eaten something, Kaylee sat down and stared at the table, looking up only when Wash came through the doorway and gave her a little wave. She tried to smile, but she knew it had come out all wrong from the strange look the pilot shot back as he moved to step up behind his wife.

"Mornin', love," he chirped brightly, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"It is mornin'," Zoe agreed, pausing in her cooking long enough to give him a kiss. "Had ourselves some excitement already today." Ain't no point in not comin' right out with it, everyone'll know soon enough.

"Delicious tales of derring-do to be told? I hope we at least got paid." As he spoke Wash took his own seat, pausing only long enough to remove a plastic dinosaur from his pocket before sitting. "Although I'd guess we didn't from the look on your face, Kaylee," he teased.

"Ain't the money," she answered lamely, not looking up at him.

"She's upset about the excitement. You leave that girl alone, husband, and let me tell ya what all happened while you were still in bed."

"My cold, lonely, miserable bed," the blond clarified. "I hardly slept a wink without you, lamby-toes."

Zoe was about to reply when Inara's greeting stopped her. The Companion sat across from Kaylee, smiling, and was disturbed by the miserable glance that was her only response. Damn you, Simon Tam. I sincerely hope you haven't gone and said something foolish again. I swear, sometimes I wonder why she keeps going after you. "Where is Mal?" she asked, partially to distract herself from the urge to smack the idiot doctor who had clearly hurt Kaylee's feelings again and partially because she remembered they had been out on a job last night. Zoe was back, so obviously they were done, but Mal wasn't present in the dining room for some reason. "I hope that the job went well?"

"It did and it didn't. More didn't," Zoe replied, carrying a steaming pot of brownish muck to the table and handing around bowls. "Captain's fine, though. I believe he and Simon are cleanin' up the cargo bay some."

"Mal and...Simon?" Inara repeated, refusing a bowl. She had eaten a fresh peach in the privacy of her shuttle rather than subject herself to what she knew would be a protein-laden repast, and smelling the ersatz oatmeal the other three were dishing out she was once more grateful that she could always afford to have real food if she wanted it.

"Isn't it normally Jayne's job to clean up down there?" Wash frowned, wincing as he shoved a spoonful of tasteless texture into his mouth.

"Normally, but he's a bit out of service for much of that. Like I said, job was more bad than good. Could a been a lot worse, if he hadn't done what he did." She could feel two pairs of eyes boring into her head, but gorramit, she was hungry. They were just going to have to wait a minute until she'd had a bite or two.

"Well, wife? What'd who do to make what better?"

"Hold on." I got two bites in. Guess that's better than none. Shoulda known I was gonna have to tell the story before I could eat in peace. "We'd wrapped up the deal, were walkin' away when one of them decided the captain would look better with a hole in the back of his head." She heard a horrified feminine gasp, but didn't stop. "Jayne saw the fella fixin' to pull the trigger, pushed the captain out of the way." She knew she was leaving a lot out, but they didn't need gory details, at least not in front of Kaylee. As for Simon's less than exemplary performance...it didn't really seem like it was her place to let that information out. That was a call she'd let Mal make.

"So...what, Mal gave him the day off as thanks or something?" Wash sounded skeptical.

"No. Gave him the day off cause Jayne caught the bullet for him." Another sharp intake of breath from the Companion interrupted her. "Simon figures he'll probably be all right." She tried to keep her voice from sounding tight over the last part, but failed to cover up her worry.

"Probably?"

"Pretty nasty wound. Hit him in the chest, then he was layin' out in the dirt for fifteen, twenty minutes before we could finish the fight and get the mule out to him."

"That's horrible," Inara whispered. "You're certain he'll be fine?"

"A course he will be," Kaylee almost snapped. "Wish people'd quit actin' like he ain't gonna be okay," she added, her voice dropping as shame flooded her face for speaking so harshly, and to Inara of all people. Next to the mercenary, the cultured woman was her closest friend on the ship; normally she wouldn't have dreamed of answering her so rudely. Been an awful strange mornin', she allowed herself. "Sorry, 'Nara, I didn't mean to be so mean."

"It's all right, meimei," Inara replied, reaching across the table for her hands. As much as it bothered her that the mechanic spent time alone with Jayne-she had never seen evidence of much good breeding in the man, and could just imagine what kind of thoughts he might have about the girl-she knew that Kaylee saw something in him that she didn't. That I didn't before, at least, she conceded as Zoe's words sank in. If he saved Mal's life, though... "I know it's a bit shocking."

"Yeah. Who'd have guessed Jayne could do something decent?" Wash joked, freezing when Kaylee and his wife both leveled certifiable Looks at him. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked nervously.

The mechanic just frowned at him and pulled her hands away from Inara's. Standing, she looked over at Zoe. "I'm goin' back downstairs," she told her.

The second in command pursed her lips, but didn't argue. "At least take the bowl with ya. Eat somethin' while you're down there." When Kaylee had left, carrying her breakfast, she shot Wash another glare.

"I was only joking, wife! I like him as much as anyone else here, after all."

"Yeah, well, until I had a little wake up this mornin', none of us sittin' here seemed to like him very much," Zoe pointed out. "When was the last time either of you gave him a compliment or thanked him for doin' somethin'?"

"I always figured it was safer to avoid addressing Jayne directly," Wash put forth. "I like my face in one piece."

Inara was equally defensive. "Really, Zoe, he isn't exactly the most approachable person. Besides, I don't know that he's ever done anything I should have thanked him for."

"How about all the times the captain and I have come back alive? Ya coulda thanked him for any one of those. I ain't sayin' that the rest of us ain't been just as bad about it, but lookin' back, can either of you honestly say that you can think of a time when Jayne was given the recognition he deserves for what he does around here?"

"What does he do?"

"Covers our asses, that's what," she growled. "And I don't know about you, but I ain't taken out the garbage or cleaned the cargo bay since he came on board. Man's made some of our best meals, too. Even manages to make protein edible from time to time."

"He's also exceedingly crude and ill-tempered," Inara pointed out. "Some of the things I've heard come out of his mouth aren't fit to be thought, let alone spoken."

"That don't mean he don't deserve bein' shown appreciation for the good things he does," Zoe snapped back. "An' maybe you don't notice much sittin' up there in your shuttle, Inara, but he does his fair share of good around here. Just cause we ain't bothered to notice it don't mean he ain't been doin' it."

"I just fail to see-"

"You fail to see a whole lot. You fail to see what he does for us. You fail to see Mal pinin' over ya. And if I ain't mistaken, you're failin' right now to see why Kaylee has gone back to the infirmary to sit with him. Would you rather he'd a died? Would you rather Mal gave up on ya and went after someone else? Would you rather Kaylee keep goin' after that useless ruttin' doctor who don't do nothin' but push her away and try to let crew bleed out in the dirt?" When Inara just stared at her, shocked to silence by her tirade, she repeated herself. "Well, would ya?"

"I-of course I don't want..." She trailed off, swallowing heavily. Of course I don't want any of those things, she thought. Mal is...pining after me? Did she mean that?

"Wait a minute, wife," Wash interjected. "What do you mean about Simon?"

"What?" She spun on him.

"About Simon letting crew bleed out in the dirt. What did you mean?"

Gorram it. Now I've gone and done it. She hadn't meant to let that out, but out it was. "The doctor's just a bit too willin' to let personal feelings get in the way of doing his job sometimes, that's all," she replied lamely. "That ain't the point, though. The point is, Jayne saved Mal's life out there today, and the two of you sit here acting like that ain't nothin'. Like he ain't nothin' to you. But I know for a fact that both of you-all a us, in fact-owe our lives at least once over to him. And so far as I can remember ain't no one ever thanked him for that."

Wash reflected quietly for a moment. "I guess you're right," he said finally. "We do. And we never have. Huh. Guess I just figured he'd be offended or something."

"Well, you're gonna start thankin' him when he's done somethin' to deserve it. Dong ma?" Deciding from the look on her face that a refusal would result in a very long period of forced celibacy, he nodded rigorously.

Inara looked up from studying the grain of the table. "I think I'll just go check on Kaylee," she whispered. What she really wanted to do was rush to the cargo bay and demand that Mal tell her whether or not he really did care about her, as Zoe had said, but propriety held her back. Such an action would be undignified at best. At worst, it would frighten and confuse him, possibly driving him away from her forever. It's practically a miracle that I haven't managed that already.

"You do that," Zoe huffed, sitting back down and pulling her breakfast, now cooled into a near-solid, towards her. As the Companion left the room, she dug her spoon determinedly into the bowl, grimacing as she chewed the gummy mush.

Wash slid over until he was across from her and leaned forward. "Zoe?"

"What is it?"

"...Why did Kaylee act all funny and then go back downstairs, anyway?"

Throwing her head back in exasperation, she sighed and addressed the ceiling. "Why is it that men ain't never able to see what's straight in front of them?"