Here I am at it again. I say hello and how are you? And then I ask "Ready for more?"

Then I have to say, regretfully, that I do not in any way own the Firefly 'Verse cause that would be bad, bad, bad of me.

I can still say I want it though. Hehe.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Jayne frowned, hearing his name and glanced up to see the doc and Mal talking. All he could see of Simon was his back and Mal stood in front of him, looking at the shorter, stockier doctor with an I-am-in-the-mood-to-hit-something look.

Jayne snorted. Mal could patent a look, so he could. Those two could have their staring contests all they wanted; 'cept for that one time Simon had punched Mal that was all their talks lead up to. Jayne was more concerned with a feeling of...he wasn't sure what.

He looked at the netting in his hands. It was ruined for cargo work; best thing to do with it would be to junk it and get another one for stowing small canisters. But he had an idea. If he cut the materiel and added that bit of leather for straps and the excess canvass that had been sitting in storage for months and would probably rot there if it weren't used up proper…well the moon brain had been needing a good vest when she went out on jobs. Her flowery dresses were just so….delicate…that they wouldn't stop a bullet or anything else that hit her. And he knew that if acted kinda nice to Kaylee she'd give him some steel plates from the scrap yard and he could fashion some type of body armor and if he could figure a way of inserting the plates into the vest so that they wouldn't pinch or constrict her movement or hurt her delicate skin…

There was a slight commotion as the women folk started coming down from Inara's shuttle. Jayne wasn't sure why he had been listening for that, but he had and his attention fixed on the stairs they'd walk down in a few minutes intently, the netting forgotten in his hands. He was so focused on it he didn't even hear Mal coming up behind him.

"Jayne there's something we're gonna have a talk about now." Mal growled out, but it was too late. The girls were coming down the stairs and Jayne's eyes almost fell out of his head, or at least they felt like they should. He knew, he just knew, that he had dislocated his jaw when it had dropped to the floor.

River walked down behind Kaylee and Inara but in front of Zoe. She was wearing some kind of slinky silk dress that fell way too short, it bared her legs up to above the knees, that had tiny straps to keep it on her slim shoulders. It was purple, Jayne thought…no, not purple, more like a mix of red and sky blue…whatever it was it looked good with her hair falling wildly down her back in riotous dark curls and her eyes made bigger and darkened with kohl. Then he gave up the onerous task of trying to think and just stared.

Mal frowned, noticing that he didn't have his merc's attention at all and turned to see what the hell the big man was staring at. He caught sight of River and his newly discovered paternal instinct started gibbering madly in a corner. Then he saw Inara and the rest of him started gibbering madly and what all the little gibbering parts of him were saying didn't make a lick of sense to his star-struck mind.

Simon looked over at the two drooling men and turned, just as the new passenger came out of the passenger dorms and started walking towards him. She didn't reach him before his eyes fell on Kaylee and there were three men, bug-eyed and drooling on the deck. She looked at the women descending the stairs and suppressed a chuckle. She didn't think a platoon of sharpshooters could have disabled the men-folk of Serenity as quickly or nearly as effectively as these women had, just by walking down all made up. She had to admit to herself that they looked very nice, for humans.

"Hello." Siama de Caerulaeus said, cheerfully to the women now on an eye-level with her. "I just came out to say I had to step off the boat for a little bit before we lifted off, but it seems as if people's attention is a bit preoccupied with the exotic sights."

That caused Mal and Simon to break out of their stupor and looked vaguely stunned and a little embarrassed. Jayne stayed in the trance, though now he was frowning and looking thunderous. He had just realized that the moon brain was going to be walking out of Serenity looking like that and there were gonna be a whole lot of men that would see her walking out of Serenity looking like that. And he wouldn't be there.

River smiled and continued walking past him without turning seeming to notice his dark expression. He knew she was ignoring him and it was making him mad something fierce. Wasn't right for her to walk out looking like that and just…ignore him. He was singularly un-ignorable. Jayne didn't realize he had started to growl, even when Mal looked at him funny.

Inara laughed pleasantly and the compliment and found herself liking this lovely woman with the wonderful sense of humor. "Thank you. You must be Miss Caerulaeus. I am Inara Sera, formerly of House Madrassa," she curtseyed elegantly, "and these are my crewmates Kaylee Frye, Zoe Washburne, and--"

"I've already introduced the lady to Miss Brooke and Simon." Mal interjected hurriedly to avoid disaster.

--"Miss Brooke." Inara finished smoothly, cause River had already told her about what Mal had done. Her eye flashed annoyance at Mal for a second and then retuned to Siama, friendly and kind. "Its nice to meet you."

"The same, Mistress Serra de Madrassa." Siama said with a regal nod. She felt some admiration for this woman. She had heard much about Companions during her years as liaison with the Parliament and what she had learned suggested profound discipline and grace; some things she respected greatly.

Then she looked at River and admired the way the girl cleaned up. She appreciated beauty, it was one of the few things she liked, and he had to admit that the girl was lovely. Siama looked at the other women, they all were.

She turned to Mal who was barely recovered from his Inara-induced state and asked haughtily, "I understand that you'll not be leaving until the morrow?"

"Um, right. I want the boat up first thing."

"Good. I have some last minute things to tie up. I'm sure I'll be back before liftoff. Good day, Captain." She said and just before she exited the hold she turned and looked briefly at River. "Good luck."

River smiled and nodded. "Quantifiable."

Siama's perfectly shaped eyebrows rose but she made no comment as she turned and left.

"That's a strange woman." Mal said, almost to himself.

"Not a woman," River said.

"You saying she's a gorram man?" Jayne asked belligerently, just to get her attention. All she gave him was one of her 'you're an idiot" looks that she usually reserved for Simon or Mal. Jayne felt insulted and he started to glare.

Mal saw the glare and remembered his very important airlock speech which he had forgotten when looking at Inara. He turned to Jayne.

"There's something we need to discuss--"

He was interrupted by gunshots.