Author's Note: Futurefic (though it's set not that far from the present time on the show) written for the LJ ff_friday challenge. June 19's subject: change. Length: 972 words. Btw, pigu = ass, and Bisa is an African name that means "greatly loved." With Serenity's crew, I couldn't think of a better meaning for the baby's name.
Modus Operandi, Interrupted
By Trisana McGraw
For once, Kaylee wasn't full of good-morning chatter as she entered the galley; instead, she slumped into her chair and dropped her head onto the table. Inara gave her a sympathetic look while trying unsuccessfully to cover a yawn. Jayne smirked at the two women, and then went back to shuffling a deck of cards while whistling tunelessly.
Irritated by the constant flap of cards, Kaylee lifted her head to glare at the mercenary. "Jayne, could you please keep it down?" she muttered, placing her fingers at her temples. "I'm really not in the mood for any more noise." Inara patted her arm.
Jayne shrugged but put aside the cards. "What's got little Kaylee so grumpy?"
Kaylee sent him a second glare more vicious than the last and considered hitting him for his teasing, but at that moment Mal walked in, looking as worn out as the women.
"I love my goddaughter more than is right for any person to love another being, but she's so gorram loud," he groaned, starting to make some coffee.
"May I have a cup, Mal?" Inara asked; he nodded and pulled two mugs out of the cupboard.
"Me too," Kaylee added. "Who woulda thought such a small thing would have such huge lungs?"
"I don't get it, Kaylee," Jayne said. "You sleep right next to the engine."
"Yeah, but an engine's rumbling is constant, somethin' you eventually get used to. It ain't like a baby, where it screams, then it's quiet, and just when you think it's over, all the noise starts up again."
"Huh. Well, I just slept through it."
"Don't make me hurt you," Kaylee groaned, closing her eyes. "Are you tellin' me that you're not the least bit bothered by the baby?"
Jayne sighed. "I got my problems with her, darlin' little thing she may be. If not bein' able to put my guns on the table anymore weren't one thing. . . . Well, you remember that hooker I brought back to the ship last night?"
Inara rolled her eyes disgustedly, while Mal interjected, "Yes, and explain why you had to bring her back here?"
"I told ya, I got her off the street. She didn't exactly have a nice place to take me to, so I thought it'd be polite to take her home with me." He received another eye-roll from the Companion. "Anyway, we was gropin' outside my bunk, ya know, kinda gettin into the mood, and Bisa just crawls right past us, stops, and starts starin'."
Mal brought over the three cups of coffee and took a seat next to Inara. "Then what? You better not have continued what you were doin' before she came by."
"Well, no." Jayne looked affronted. "We was about to go into my bunk, but she kept starin' at me like I was doin' somethin' wrong." The other three quickly took sips of coffee to hide their smiles.
"It's not funny!" Jayne protested. "Girl nearly made me lose my interest in the hooker, and that wouldn't've been good for anybody. A man can't function like that, not if he's gonna be faced with those innocent, accusin' eyes every day. I mean, they're just so freakishly –"
"What, Jayne?" Zoë asked calmly as she entered the galley, carrying Bisa. "What about my daughter's eyes?"
Every moment he took to rephrase made greater the risk of getting his pigu kicked by Zoë, so Jayne quickly replied, "They're freakishly beautiful." He shook his head. "Just so gorram – oh, sorry, forgot – beautiful."
"You better believe it," Wash said, entering a moment later and taking a seat next to his wife, giving both her and his daughter a peck on the cheek. "How did the conversation shift to my daughter's baby browns, anyway?" he asked.
All eyes, including the "baby browns," looked to Jayne. He blinked several times, clearly uncomfortable, before responding. "I just felt kinda guilty `cause last night she was starin' at me before I was about to hook up with that . . . you know." His forehead creased. "The whor – I mean, the prost – the lady from the street." His eyes kept darting to the oblivious Bisa, who had lost interest and was now playing with Zoë's hair. "Things are diff'rent now that she's around; I feel like I gotta censor myself."
"Not to mention that she's loud," Mal added. "My heart still swells with overwhelming love for her," he hastily added as Zoë gazed at him.
Slowly, she smiled, showing that she wasn't offended. "We know; imagine what it's like to be right next to this set of lungs all night. Wash and I knew going into this that a baby would call for a lot of unpleasant work and some change, not just for the two of us."
"Yep," Jayne added under his breath.
"But we love her," Zoë finished, giving Bisa a kiss, which made the baby giggle.
"You're right," Mal commented. "Whatever you do affects the whole crew; and we all love this little thing more than `most anythin'. I'm just tryin' to think if she's the most troublesome of all the passengers on my ship."
"I dunno," Jayne replied, picking up his cards again. "My vote's still for the goody-two-shoes doc and his wacko sister."
Bisa gurgled something incomprehensible and tried to climb out of Zoë's lap. Zoë gently placed her on the table, and Bisa crawled over to Jayne, who had begun shuffling his cards again. Grinning toothlessly, she clapped, then reached out one tiny hand for the cards.
He shook his head, wearing a bemused smile. "Too pretty for your own good," he told Bisa, tapping her on her button nose with one finger. Kaylee and Inara shared grins, both knowing that having a baby on board was worth the lost hours of sleep and changes of lifestyle.
