Prompt 11- Angel. 771.
Jayne's ma had always told him that people were just another creation of God and if'n you looked hard enough you could see yourself in the other creations.
Simon Tam often reminds Jayne of a chicken, running around without a clue of what to do, but then, when he is being a doctor, he reminds him of a cloud- high, proud and calm, untouchable.
That is when Jayne likes him the most. When Simon starts behaving like a calm, cool, cloud Jayne feels safer and better about being around the man in a crisis.
No good to have a chicken running around when your gorram life is in peril.
Kaylee reminds him of star; very bright and shiny, glittering high above his reach, yet tempting men like Simon to touch her.
Maybe once Jayne would have resented him, resented that. But Jayne is earthly and doesn't really want to reach up and touch the heavens any more than he already is doing.
He isn't like Mal who craves the blackness of space, nor like Wash who wants … wanted to sail it. He's happiest when his feet are touching dirt and his hands are deep in soil—not that he'll ever tell anyone that. Jayne thinks of himself as soil—dirt, common as anything and often ignored, but just teeming with possibility and life.
Humble, honest and hard-working. Yeah, he's like soil.
Zoë reminded him most of himself.
Zoë was a tree, with deep roots and long arms, hard in strength that would weather any storm but dependant on her sources of water- Mal and Wash.
Inara was the sun and even a fool like Jayne knew what happened if you tried to get too close to the sun.
Mal would only burn when he touched her and would hate himself. Mal was space and space needed the shadows, no matter how he craved the bright flare of the sun.
Wash had been the wind, flying free and soaring above all, light and comforting.
Shepherd Book was harder to describe and Jayne had thought on it many a night. The man was good and honest, like the earth, and often light, like the sky but there was a darkness to him that went beneath that.
In the end Jayne decided Shepherd Book was like the ocean. Paddling in the shallows was fun and could make you laugh and feel warm and loved, cool liquid lapping against you. But wade any deeper and the dark things that lurked in the depths could hurt you; hurt you bad.
In all those nights when he couldn't sleep, Jayne had often wondered what River was. She was a broken child, a feng le girl, an adversary, a money trap, a goldmine, a tortured soul, a pain, an annoyance, a benefit, a mission, a weapon, a girl, a woman.
He held her in his arms and walked her to the infirmary, a cloud and a star lagging behind him as he placed her gently on the bed.
"Thank you," Simon said with a breath of relief. "I'll stay here with her tonight; make sure she doesn't wake everyone up again."
"Nah," Jayne found himself saying. "I think the girl's done warn herself out. I think you'll be fine."
Simon bit his lip as he regarded his sister and then the sleep-warm body of Kaylee, beckoning temptingly to him.
Jayne watched amusedly at his indecision.
"All right," he finally decided. "We can take my room?" He blushed even as he said it and Jayne bit back a laugh at Kaylee's exasperation.
"Hell, Simon, Jayne knows what we're doing."
"But I don't wanna hear it!" he added. "Gonna get me some shut eye too."
Simon gave River one last check and left the infirmary quietly, following his star and leaving Jayne to make his own way out.
Jayne waited until Simon's footsteps echoed away and then he moved closer to the table.
Her chest rose and fell as she breathed deeply, her lashes like dark bruises against her skin and her hair a halo around her head. Her features were serene and delicate, belying the deadly grace she held inside.
"You know," Jayne whispered. "My ma used to read to me from the good book and she done tol' me that an angel once killed 185,000 men in one night. They don't flap around an' be all useless and pretty, they are Gods warriors." His fingers touched her cheek so gently before he pulled them back, swallowing hard before turning and walking away quickly, trying not to think about angels falling to the earth.