Chapter 11

River peeked into Jayne's bunk head first. It was quite irritating not being able to tell what people were doing or where they were. Very inefficient to have to search all over the ship to find them, and then maybe they were busy once you did. Jayne was lying on his bunk, hands behind his head staring at the ceiling. River wondered where his mind was. With Inara maybe or back being a slave or maybe not really anywhere at all, just flitting from one thing to another. Sometimes that's what she did when everyone was asleep and it got quiet.

Jayne noticed River peering down at him from his port. "Hey Ni Zi, how are you doing with not being able to read everyone now?" he asked.

River was startled. This new Jayne was much more perceptive than the old. "Frustrating, can't tell when it is ok to bother someone."

He chuckled, "Come on in, its ok to bother this someone anyway. Don't mean to keep puttin you off, but I'm not quite ready for the God questions yet. You'n me'll have to sit down with Inara for that."

River held on to the edge of the port and carefully rotated her body through a slow somersault and dropped to her feet in the room. "It's ok, only fair. Inara was with you when you took me to see Him."

She came over and sat next to his bunk, her feet tucked partially under her. Jayne turned in the bunk and propped himself up on his elbow to rest his head on his hand.

"You healed me. We don't have to talk about God, but I have been needing to tell you since it happened." She looked at him from behind her hair trying to judge if it had been ok to tell. "Not all the way, I don't think even God could heal me all the way", she said, a wistful tone in her voice.

Jayne reached out and tucked River's hair behind her ears first one side, then the other. He put his fingers under her chin and raised her face so she was looking at him. "What do you mean I healed you, River?" Jayne was very concerned, this didn't sound good at all. Or rather it sounded too good to be true so might mean she was actually worse.

A single tear ran down River's face, "You and Inara, when you took me to see God. He burned my mind, burned away things that were there that weren't mine. Got rid of things that didn't fit."

Reaching out and pulling River into a hug Jayne held her while she sniffled for a moment. It didn't last very long before she stood up. "You should go to her, she won't take her smoother until she sees you." She quirked her lips at his startled look, "Didn't read her, don't need to read people for some things. Like you said I'm a genius." As he started to ask she added, "She's in the passenger cabins." With that parting comment she scampered up the ladder her dress swirling, looking for all the world like a small child playing.

Well I'll be a qīngwā cào de liúmáng, maybe she is better, Jayne thought. Then he followed her up to find Inara.

Inara lay snuggled in the bed holding her pillow and watching the door she had left cracked open for Jayne. She hoped he would come tonight. She needed to know if he was all right after the way things had gone at the dinner table with Mal and the crew. Inara really hadn't felt comfortable asking anyone to help her to his bunk and Kaylee had needed to fuss and take care of her for awhile to make sure she felt welcomed back.

So here she was tucked in at the other end of the ship, warm and cozy and she felt less comfortable than she had in that hole in the snow with Jayne holding her.

A dark shadow blocked the light from the hallway. She raised her head up. "Jayne?" she called softly.

"How are you feeling Inara?" He asked.

The low rumble of his voice soothed her almost immediately. She let her head settle back on the pillow with relief. "My leg is cramping from all the walking and standing I did tonight, but I'm fine. How are you?" She asked.

"I'm really sorry about earlier, I thought I could just be old Jayne at least for a little while, didn't even realize what I was doing 'til too late." Jayne leaned against the door jam.

Why wasn't he coming in? Inara wondered, losing the relaxed feeling that his appearance had given her. "Its fine Jayne, I wasn't faking it well either. When you were showing me off to Simon, I was so relaxed and comfortable with you that I didn't even think about being naked until Mal showed up." She raised her head up and asked, her fear at the answer making her voice quiver, "Why aren't you coming in, Jayne?"

He looked down watching his foot as he kicked at the floor. "I wasn't sure you'd still be comfortable with me coming here after all that went on today."

She sat up letting the blankets drop to her waist and exposing her perfect breasts to the light from the doorway. She mock frowned at him and put her fists on her hips. "Jayne Cobb you are asking the wrong question entirely!"

Jayne stopped kicking at the floor and looked up at her. His jaw dropped at the stunning woman displayed before him. The shadows covered and revealed her golden body in a way that designers since the beginning of time had striven to recreate in mere cloth. He gulped, "What is the right question Inara?"

Her radiant smile calmed him, "You should be asking if there is any possible way I could be comfortable without you here after all that has happened today!" She opened her arms, beckoning him to come to her.

Jayne grumped at her, "Well I suppose I could come in for a bit and see to that cramp in your leg, just don't be tryin any a those companiony wiles on me. I know all about such tricks and they won't work on me."

Her peal of delighted laughter rang throughout the ship as he closed the door.

Jayne sat on the edge of her bunk and pulled her into a tight hug. They sat that way holding each other as the tensions of the last few hours bled away. He pulled away from her, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "Lay back now and let me see to that leg." He stood and started undressing.

Inara's eyes glowed and her tongue flicked at her lower lip as she watched him undress. "And what precisely are you going to do with my leg", she asked with a catch in her voice as he pulled down his pants he wasn't wearing underwear. She slid the blankets off, exposing her lower body.

"Ancient secret massage technique, I'm not allowed to tell." His eyes flicked to her waist, noticing that she was wearing the panties he had made her.

Following his gaze, Inara ran her thumbs under the waistband of the panties and ran her hands back and forth lifting the band off her flesh. She looked up at him, "I've decided you're going to have to make me another dozen pairs of these Jayne. They make me feel warm and comfortable, as if you were holding me in your hands."

Jayne licked his lips and raised an eyebrow. "Don't reckon my hands would be making you precisely comfortable if they was holding you like that," he gave her a wicked grin.

"Hmm, perhaps comfortable wasn't precisely the word I was looking for then", Inara responded, sliding the panties down a couple of inches and back up.

Sitting back down on the edge of the bunk Jayne lifted her leg gently into his lap and began kneading the tense muscles. He worked up her quad, then along the inside of her thigh. She sighed and closed her eyes. His hands went back down to her knee and then she felt intense pressure just above her knee. Biting her lower lip she looked down to see what his hands were doing. He had pressed deep into the tissue above and behind her knee with one hand and was slowly manipulating her lower leg making circles. "Just breath through it băobèi, won't let go if you are holding your breath", Jayne said.

Inara smiled inside to hear Jayne's use of an endearment. As she took a few slow breaths, Inara felt a warmth surround her leg at the knee and then spread upward as the muscles let go and the pain lessened.

She closed her eyes again as he began kneading her leg, her breathing getting faster as he gently worked the muscles. His hand wrapped firmly around her inner thigh in the crease of her leg, the fingertips sank into her hamstring just below her bottom and his thumb pressed into the muscles below her hip bone. Again the pressure increased until it was right at the edge of what she could take. This time she controlled her breathing as he moved her whole leg in an intricate pattern. Again she felt the warmth begin in the muscles underneath his hand and spread up into her hip and down into her thigh as the whole joint relaxed. She sighed at the relief, the only pain left was a slight throbbing from the actual wounds.

He stroked and kneaded her leg from top to bottom a few more times causing her breathing to speed up again. Inara bit her lower lip as his fingers traced the crease of her thigh along the edge of her panties. She smiled at him, "You are a man of hidden talents Jayne, the cramping is completely gone."

Jayne glanced down at himself, where it was obvious that the final part of the massage had turned him on as well, and grinned at her, "And some not so hidden ones too, if I do say so myself."

Inara slid back in the bed and tugged at his hand urging him to join her. "Then we shall have to see what we can do about getting that 'talent' tucked away out of sight where it belongs." She held her lower lip in her teeth and peeked up at him through her eyelashes.

Gaah, she looked absolutely delectable, Jayne thought as he slid into bed beside her.

Mal slumped in the pilot's seat staring into the black. A glass of whiskey dangled from his fingers. His thoughts were flying all over the verse as he occasionally sipped from the glass. Jayne was..what the gorram hell was Jayne now? Inara and Jayne ... he winced and took another sip. Inara looked so ēng le shăguā happy! Another wince and another sip. He grimaced, Jayne thought he was a good man. Whatever else Jayne was he was still a yúbèn de wáng bā dàn. The faint echo of Inara's laughter drifted to his ears. Wince, sip. Mal didn't think he'd ever heard her laugh like that, sure as guĭ not because of him.

He had to figure out how to apologize to her, like there was anything new about that. Sigh, another sip. Aught to be ai ya good at that by now. Owed Jayne for getting him to shut up before he really messed up. Mal shook his head chuckling. Maybe there was something to the Jayne is god theory. Jayne saying the right thing to diffuse the situation was something of a miracle, to be sure. Especially since Mal hadn't been any too pleased with him either.

Wonder if they'll stay on Serenity now that Jayne isn't just a merc? Where'n the tiān xiăo de had that thought come from? Course they'd stay, still family regardless of what ever was going on. Wouldn't they? Mal took a big swallow of whiskey at that thought. Then another when he realized he'd thought of Jayne as family. Distant cousin at best. By marriage.

Probably shouldn't rightly be thinkin of them as 'a they' may not last. He cheered up some. Funny things happened when people got thrown together in stressful situations, didn't always last or mean that much. The soft glowey look Inara had given Jayne when she smiled at him in the infirmary floated through his minds eye accompanied by the laugh that had echoed through the ship. Yea Riight. He started to take another sip and realized the glass was empty. He poured himself another couple of fingers of whiskey, thought about it, then poured a couple more.

Vacation. They needed a vacation, they'd been running hard the last month with no stops and the couple of months before that hadn't been much better. He frowned, nowhere too civilized til they got some idea of what the attack had been about. Couldn't relax much if every time someone left the ship they had to keep looking over their shoulder.

They needed the time though, Inara had some healing to do and everyone needed a little time to adjust to the new Jayne, even Jayne hisself Mal reckoned. And Mal needed the time to adjust to whatever was going on between Jayne and Inara. Reckon he needed to see where the new Jayne fit in the operation too. Couldn't really wrap his head around a fighting Companion type person so he'd have to think on that some. He started to take another sip of whiskey and realized his glass was already empty.

He carefully set the glass on the console and stood up. He wavered and held on to the chair until Serenity stopped with the swooping and such. He'd have River dig up someplace in the morning, someplace with a little green and maybe some water and warm, definitely warm. They could just camp for a spell. Have to wave Monte and see if he could handle the load of silk they was supposed to pick up in a few days.

Mal staggered off to his bunk calmer, if not quite at peace with all the change.