Thanks to Kit-cat99 and Annie, your reviews make me smile!

The months pass slowly, River's healing seeming to drag by. They pull jobs and live normally, Zoe and Wash and River staking out the helm as Kaylee waits in the engine room and Simon hovers near the air lock, ready to lock up and tend wounds with his red medical bag near at hand.

Jayne and Mal hardly need the tending, mostly gliding through jobs. On occasion, even River's warnings can't protect them from a tussle though.

This time around, Wash settles the ship as Zoe stands with a slightly showing baby bump under her vest beside him. River drums her fingers, anxious for the time of her feet hitting dirt.

"Mal's not gonna let you leave here, even if we are just trying to hook a job."

She rolls her eyes at Zoe's words and begins to reply when the sounds of booted feet approaching comes near. "Alright, who the gorram hell put them things on my guns?"

Wash turns to face a very upset Jayne as he holds Vera and tries in vain to pop some contraption off her trigger.

"We picked those up last resupply stop. To make sure that when the baby goes about it can't shoot off your guns."

Jayne glares at River. "Kid ain't even here yet!" he whines. "An' even if he," Wash rolls his eyes, "was then it ain't like the babe's gonna be in my bunk touching my guns!"

Zoe shakes her head with a small smirk, "But rightly you have the most guns. We all keep our weapons locked away on our person or in locked drawers in our bunks. Yours are displayed. The ones in the arsenal got the safety guards as well."

Jayne grumbles as his hand still works at the contraption.

Wash grins, "I decided to go to your bunk, you leave it open a lot which is pretty dangerous, and put on the guards. Figured you'd have time to fiddle with them and get used to them."

Jayne's jaw drops, "You went to my gorram bunk?"

Wash nods and stands, slinging an arm around Zoe. "Yup. Couldn't have my wife getting in their, unhealthy fumes and such. And River said she would but I kinda guessed Mal'd dislike hearing she went alone to your bunk."

River sticks her tongue out at Wash who grins wide.

"I can't even get this stupid ruttin gorram feng le thing off my Vera!" Jayne roars, fiddling and almost dropping his favorite gun to the ground.

"Hey!" a voice barks and boots can be heard, "What the hell's all this fussin' about?"

Mal comes in with Kaylee and Simon at his back, Kaylee tilting her head and staring at Jayne as Simon moves to River and hands her the temp cast she should be wearing.

All in all, her body was healed. Scars lightly marred some of her skin, her ankle and ribs had healed nicely. Simon was certain all that was left to get right as rain was her wrist, still mending and knitting itself to be strong, and her fading bruises.

"I don't want to." River mumbles to him.

At the same time Kaylee ventures, "Is that a baby lock he's messing with?"

Mal blinks and tries to figure out when his family took the turn for weird.

River smirks toward him and he holds her gaze for a moment, letting her read in his eyes rather than on his face or in his thoughts his adoration for her.

Zoe sees the look though they try to be discreet, having taken to dancing around each other when in the presence of the crew. The others couldn't decide if it was because they were trying to act as if they weren't so hopelessly in love or if it was to try and hold to one scrap of normalcy from before the job that seemed to change everything and cement the crew as family.

River stands and leaves the temp cast in the copilot chair. She moves to Jayne, pushes his bumbling hands away so he supports Vera and she disengages the contraption, holding it up for him to see in detail.

Jayne snatches it and glares at Zoe and Wash. He whirls to Mal, nearly braining River and Kaylee, who had crept forward to see the metal guard up close, but the two friends pulled each other down, ending up toppling to the metal grating in a tangle of helpful limbs.

Jayne barely acknowledges them, looking to Mal who smirks at the ground by his feet. Simon moves to help River and Kaylee up, snapping the temp cast to River's left wrist and explaining quietly to her once more why it needs to stay on. Mal feels a swell of anger as the cast reminds him that them smudges ain't grease or dirt on his girl, they're bruises from a fight weren't hers. River snorts and Simon flails wordlessly as Mal sees her eyes roll and he lets go of the angry thoughts and listens to his irate merc.

"They cain't be messin' with my girls! Tell them to take back their ben dan guards!"

Mal's lips twitch and he looks around Jayne at the pilot and first mate. "You two torturin' Jayne again?"

Wash feigns a too innocent look, "Us? Cap, we would never torture at Jayne. Just, ya know, poke him a bit. Maybe get Riv to put soup in his hair. Or have Simon and Kaylee paint pretty pictures on his bunk door. Never torture though."

Jayne's pitiful groan makes Zoe crack up and the man damn near pouts as his head falls and his fist tightens around the metal guard, the other hand holding Vera over his shoulder carefully.

"Wash'll be showing ya how to take off the guards. I want you to be able to get one off in ten seconds. You're my weapon's man, you see to it you know how to handle all the pieces comes with your girls. Dong ma?"

Jayne brightened at the new challenged presented to him that related to his girls. In his mind, he was already thinking of all the guards as new add-ons for the guns and he figured he had an advantage since not many would check to see if the gun was covered by a trigger guard. "I'll learn how to do one in five seconds."

Mal grins broadly at the muttering and nods once, knowing the flow Jayne's head must be spinning toward as the man turns to Wash. "After dinner?"

Wash nods silently, surprised, as Zoe buries her face in his shirt and laughs at the change of events. Jayne walks out happily and Kaylee giggles to hear his mumbles about his new plan and his mix of humming with it.

"Alright. So, we're settled. I want ya'll to stay put. I'll go troll for some contacts, be back in an hour. Ain't got a job by then, I'll fetch Jayne and we'll be gone till we get work."

River mumbles as he talks and once he's done, eyes fixed on his girl, she becomes louder. She rants in Mandarin, eyes blazing.

The others sit back and watch, knowing the two were dancing around each other again. It didn't make a lick of sense, after River'd been let out of the infirmary the two tried to act like they weren't sharing a bed every night come sleep time. It was interesting to see their interactions.

Mal watches River's face as she goes on, memorizing the glow her upset gives her. He'd held her every night since he had the heart wrenching trial of trying not to lose her. He wouldn't allow himself to kiss her, wouldn't allow himself to ruin what they were just finding out they had. River, on the other hand, was trying to keep her curious hands under control when the lights went out-wanting and needing her memories with her other half to be free and pure, without the hindrance of the wounds given by another.

Despite the crew knowing the relationship existed-not the extent, though quiet a few minds assumed it was rather dirty while others, namely Simon, imagined there was nothing to those stares he sometimes caught the captain and his mei mei trapping each other in-the two people in question didn't say a word of how bonded and tied together they were. They'd woken together on the couch and immediately parted to set upon tasks that needed done. When the others were about, they were the picture of platonic interactions. The stares tripped them up though.

Mal's musings stop as River's tirade ends and he clears his throat. "Well. Anyone else want to talk me deaf or...?"

River's chin sets stubbornly and Simon steps back from her, Kaylee feeling his insistent tugging and answering with a small step his way.

Mal smirks ever so slightly and Zoe bites the inside of her cheek as she tries not to break the spell of their glare with the laughter wanting to bubble out of her. River and Mal are both having a silent conversation, both refusing to be the one to look away and go silent first.

As River tilts her head Wash recognizes the challenge she's issued and then Mal's small smirk turns to a grin.

"New plan," his voice is full of mirth, the four mesmerized audience members know the gauntlet was accepted. "Me an' Riv'll go out to find a contact. We'll be back when one of us finds a job."

Zoe glances at River and then back to Mal, then to her husband as she whispers, "This is gonna be interesting."

Simon clears his throat and River finally looks from Mal. "She'll wear her cast." He nods and then waits for the two to talk on the terms of their competition for work.

River smirks to Mal, "Don't leave without me."

"I'm not needin' to cheat."

"All the same."

Mal chuckles and nods, "Well alright, get your pi gu moving-we got a job to get."

River moves out of the helm and Mal follows without so much as a glance to the others. Zoe laughs and shakes her head as Wash rubs a hand to her back absently.

"Reckon they're gonna wager chores?"

Kaylee snorts, "If I was them, chores wouldn't be high on my list of goodies to wager."

Simon shudders, "And I just lost interest in this game of theirs."

Wash sighs, "Poor, protective brother boob. When are you gonna realize your mei mei is not so little?"

Zoe nods once, looks at Simon with a smile. "He's right, she's not. An' she don't go around talking on how she has to put up with your relationship. An' she's a reader."

Kaylee giggles, "Well, she don't complain less we start in around food or some such."

Simon groans and drops his head, "River and Mal are just courting. There's no...no, nuh-uh."

The three laugh as the doctor scowls.