Rubble Rayne Chapter 6

Simon needed clarification, "So, is someone following us or not?"

Mal sat back in the pilots chair and scanned the concerned faces of his crew, "Like I said, I don't rightfully know for sure." He sighed, "Me an' River, we've been monitoring the radar. Now and then, there's just a ghost of something, right on the edge of our scope. Popped back up a minute ago."

Kaylee crossed her arms defensively, "So...we are being followed?"

The captain nodded his head, "Could be." He smiled, "Or, it could be some innocent coincidence, a freighter going our way, a hiccup with the machinery." He looked up to the disbelieving faces of his crew. Yeah, he wouldn't have swallowed that either. "Good news is they're keeping their distance."

Jayne huffed and added dourly, "For now."

Mal fixed him with a glare.

"So what's our next move cap'n?" Zoe- ever the soldier.

Reynolds stood up, "We stay on course, but we burn hard, get as much black as we can between us. There's a moon with an abandoned mining settlement on route, if our shadow manages to stay with us, we'll make our stand there." He was rallying his troops, doing what he did best, "We'll be ready." He said looking earnestly at his crew. "In the meantime, Kaylee I need you to get me everything this ol' girls got to give."

The red head gave a small salute, "Aye aye captain. Consider us skedaddled."

Satisfied, Mal nodded, "Good."

"What about our passengers?" Inara asked "What do we tell them?"

He raised his eyebrows, "What they don't know won't hurt em', at least not for now. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Prepare your gear, but on the quiet. No need to alarm folk just yet."

As the crew left the bridge Mal turned back to the scanner. The faint blip remained, neither waning, or gaining. Reynolds clenched his jaw, why couldn't people just leave things alone?

Jayne was busy stripping Vera down. His girl needed to be in tip top condition if there was going be a fight. He laid her parts gently on an old sheet covering his bunk, he'd prefer to lay her out on a table, but the captain had told them to be discreet- Vera weren't exactly discreet.

She was coming apart nice, his fingers knew this routine well.

The echoing thunk of boot against metal interrupted his concentration.

River lowered herself into his cabin and closed the hatch. She moved to the middle of the room and started to look around, scrutinising everything, biting at her lip as she did so.

"Can ah help you?" Cobb asked as he laid the last of Vera down.

"I'm on a treasure hunt." Came the reply, she frowned a little then before correcting herself, "No, a quest!"

Jayne stood up, "Look I'm busy, th' capn said we aught t git ready, so..." He motioned to the steps.

"Yes, the king has ordered his loyal subjects to take arms."

He sighed as she brushed passed him and started to root through a pile of dirty clothes. "I know it's here," She mumbled, pausing to take a cautious sniff of a shirt, "You're the keeper, and I'm the knight." Turning to face him she frowned momentarily, before brightening, "Or maybe you're the dragon!"

With no regard for his personal space, she moved near, inspecting him with squinted eyes.

It made his skin prickle.

"Talkin crazy again." he said on reflex.

Staying close, she scanned his face.

Cobb squared himself and folded his arms.

"Breathing fire," She smiled, "I see your scales and sharp teeth! It's somewhere in your cave." She was excited now and tapped a finger to her mouth. "But where is it?"

Jayne looked down at her. She sure was beautiful. He was about to crack wise, when the insult died on his tongue.

What'd ya want from me?" He asked instead.

For a moment he saw her consider this, then plainly she said, "You have my axe."

Cobb was confused. Then, slowly, it dawned on him.

The axe. How'd she know about the axe?

He was considering whether to tell the truth, or to lie, deny any knowledge, when he realized his eyes (treacherously) had traveled to his secret hiding spot.

River smiled broadly, tiptoed over and placed a hand on the grip of his pull out wash basin.

He, held his breath.

She opened it cautiously, then dropped down to peer underneath. Reaching out with a theatrical, "Aha!" She slid the weapon out of its resting place amongst the plumbing.

Jayne watched her reacquaint herself with its weigh- its feel, and a clammy, guilty flush engulfed him.

He had a habit, unsavory maybe to most-it was simple; whenever he'd managed to cheat death he'd take a keepsake, just a little something to remind himself to stay sharp.

After the carnage on Mr Universes station, he'd picked it up and hidden it away.

She turned towards him, tutting as she approached.

Cobb's mind flashed back to an ungodly scene. Doors sliding open. The girl, stood atop a pile of reaver cadavers, sword in one hand, axe in the other. An angel of death. He'd never seen anything like it before. Nobody had.

Unable to think of anything to say, he stood captivated as she turned the thing over in her hand.

River moved close, "Knights slay dragons you know."

"There ain't no dragons." The merc grumbled, his mouth dry.

The girl seemed to consider this, then she reached out and started to unfasten his belt buckle.

He'd been ready for a fight, not fornication. Cobb was blindsided, "River?"

"I need your assistance." She stated business-like. "I've done my research, I know everything there is to know about it. Read everything, watched everything," She rolled her eyes, "But... there's nothing like practical experience to get something right."

Jayne glanced from the weapon to the fingers calmly unzipping his pants. Longing quickly and absolutely engulfed him.

"I want to be ready, practiced, for when Augustus and I..."

The mercs hand shot out, grasping around her wrist. He clenched his jaw.

She frowned, annoyed by his interruption. "You are being most infuriating!"

Cobb narrowed his eyes, "Ahm' infuriatin?" He shoved her hand back to her side, "you're th' one's made ma life in ta' a kwong-juh duh space opera! Poking about in ma business, ma room, ma head!" He focused, "An' now ya' wanna poke around in ma pants, so you don't look like a fool 'n front of yer lover boy." He shook his head, "It ain't me that's infuriatin. Dong ma?"

The girl's knuckles tightened around her battle axe.

Maybe he should have gone a bit easier, he sure as hell didn't want to fight her, quite the opposite.

River raised her chin, "I just need to touch it for a bit, assemble data, analyse it when it..." She scrunched up her nose, "yields." Then reaching out her hand once more, she continued to unzip.

Jayne knew the right thing was to stop her, and his pride wanted him to stop her- his Johnson on the other hand, did not.

Nobody need find out he reasoned, she hadn't mentioned any of the other stuff to anybody else yet. Maybe she never would.

So what if he was an experiment to her, a dry run for the real deal. His eyes roamed over her, such refined beauty. Quickly he decided it didn't matter, he still wanted this to happen.

She tugged his pants down a little and his cock sprang forth, half hard already.

The girl looked down curiously, before reaching out and gently closing her hand around it. She smiled then, and her eyes glowed. She started to move her hand up and down, slowly, methodically.

Jayne swallowed, trying to focus on her touch. He balled his fists, but couldn't help himself looking down at the axe. The sight of her stood there, weapon in one hand, his junk in the other.

It was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen.

"Am I doing it right?"

He nodded, unable to offer more as he concentrated on not embarrassing himself.

"Should I hold it tighter?"

Cobb nodded again.

She firmed up her grip, just the right amount. It felt real good.

River locked eyes with him, a small amused smile gracing her lips. She had started to speed up her rhythm and his cock strained beneath her palm.

"Lao tien ye!" A wave of pleasure forcing the words from his lips. This was all so very wrong.

The satisfaction he felt as she stroked and pulled him though, it made the idea of asking her to stop sound absurd.

Complete helplessness. She could do whatever she wanted to him, and he knew he wouldn't (or maybe couldn't) stop her.

It frightened him, the lack of control, but it also made him hard.

Watching her sweet face as she raised an eyebrow, bit at her lip with concentration. It was bringing Jayne close.

Just as he was beginning to think that he wouldn't be able to last any longer, the girl withdrew her hand.

The merc tried to regain focus. He was about to break, beg her to take a hold of him again; finish what she'd started, when she began to pull the straps of her dress down.

"I read that visual stimulation, mammaries in particular, are the perfect accompaniment to manual gratification."

Two small, perfect breasts were exposed, then the girl reached forward eagerly to continue her work.

Jayne exhaled. It was too much to take in, the feel of her, the sight of her.

Her nipples were large and erect, pink and enticing. He wanted to run his fingers over them, feel the stiffness, cup the soft flesh around them, but he dared not move. He didn't want to spoil this, scare the girl off.

She was in charge.

He moaned softly as she quickened pace.

"Does it please you?" She asked innocently.

"Hell yeah." He breathed out.

He was hard as rock, it wouldn't be long. He looked down at her unabashed stare, the axe grasped confidently in her hand, her soft pillowy lips. The slight jiggle of her boobs as she worked her hand.

"Curious. My panties are beginning to feel moist," She looked quizzical, "Is that normal?"

He held on for longer than he expected, then grasping her shoulder to steady himself, he pushed up into her grip and let himself go.

Her face was full of amazement as he spilled.

Pleasure shot through him. The release, feeling like no other he'd had before.

His legs felt weak.

She studied his face, transfixed by his expression of bliss, tilting her head as it slowly ebbed away.

River raised her hand and inspected it. She placed a cum covered finger to her lips and tasted it. Pulling a face, she quickly reached forward and wiped the remainder off, as best she could, on Cobbs shirt.

"Interesting." She said, starting to hitch her dress back into place.

The merc followed suit, tucking himself away, zipping up in a haze.

He wanted to say something, do something. Take a hold of her maybe?

"Thank you," River said in a matter of fact manner, "That was most informative."

She smiled, spun her axe then turned to leave.

Jayne rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. Almost at the foot of the steps, she'd be gone soon.

He couldn't help the words bursting out of him, "Don' go doin that to Augustus, OK?."

She paused, turning back to look at him, giving him her full attention, "Why not?" She asked.

He wanted to say: because I don't want you doing that to anyone else but me, what he found himself saying was, "Summin's not right bout that boy."

Her eyes turned icy and after a dramatic huff she hissed out, "Jayne Cobb, you're an idiot!"

Pouting and scowling like a child, she set off up the steps, slamming her boots down as hard as she could on the way.

Jayne sat down on the edge of his mattress. What'n the hell had gotten into her again?

She'd got what she'd wanted hadn't she?

He looked down at his T shirt. Pulling it over his head, he balled it and threw it on top of the dirty pile.

Nothing he did was ever right with her.

He turned back to Vera. At least she was straightforward.

It had never taken him this long to clean and reassemble a weapon before.

His mind was in turmoil. Thoughts, which were normally superficial, predictable, were now morphing into what ifs? Cobb did not like, what ifs.

Why was his brain going off on tangents he didn't understand? Things that had seemed a certainty a day or two ago, weren't so certain to him anymore.

What did he want?

He thought about this as he clicked Vera's sights back into place.

What did she want?

Augustus.

Prepping would have to wait. He threw on a shirt, time to find Zoe and crack that boy's crate open.

He had just climbed out of his cabin, face fixed with determination, when all the commotion began.

Jayne lurched forward, a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach followed by a weightlessness.

Something was wrong. Serenity had lost momentum.

Recovering from his stumble, he was just about to head to the bridge to investigate when Mal barrelled passed.

"What'n the hell's happenin'?" Cobb called after him.

"Don't know, but I mean to find out." The captain replied over his shoulder as he hurried off towards the engine room.

Jayne scowled, set his jaw and followed.

Kaylee's face was etched with determination, she studied her engine, her baby. What could have happened? She had been purring, building up speed, running like a dream when all of a sudden she powered down.

Mal watched and waited patiently. He knew better than to rush her, girl new her businesses, whatever the trouble was, he was confident she'd find it.

Cobb reached up and rested his arms against the top of the doorway, leaning in, he almost filled the entrance completely.

Zoe had joined them, Inara following shortly after.

It was starting to feel a bit cramped in the engine room and the tension didn't sit well with the merc, "Well, is it busted fur good this time or not?"

Kaylee popped up from behind the trunk of the machine, a perplexed expression and a healthy amount of grease on her face. "Just don't make no sense."

Mal, keen to get moving shifted his feet, "Care to elaborate?"

"She ain't broke. The auto shut cut in." The red head shook her head, "But I weren't pushing her that hard, makes no sense."

She moved around and crouched, peering at a dial. "Huh."

"Is that a good Huh, or a bad huh?" Inara inquired.

"A good Huh, I think. I just need to reset some things and our girl will be ship shape and ready to fly. But…" She turned to her captain, "It's gonna take a while to get her back up to speed."

Mal frowned, "In the meantime they're gaining on us."

Kaylee scrunched her face up as she delivered the rest of her bad news, "Yeah, and I don't mean t' heap some more gloom on, well, yer gloom but, someone's been in here tinkerin with her settin's."

The captains face darkened, "You tellin me there's been some sabotage?"

She nodded with a weak apologetic smile.

"There's a rat on my boat people, an' we need to catch it before it does more harm."

Jayne straightened himself, "Th' boy." He growled.

Before anyone could say a word he'd turned and thundered away, filled with the sole purpose of finding Augustus and cracking that crate.

Time to wring the truth out of him.