Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

Takes place shortly after the series ended. Another Jayne/River piece. What can I say, I can spend hours pondering the mysteries of what makes those two tick. I have no clue how long this one will be, or even where it is heading. I'm just hoping they continue taking me along on this journey for a spell.

Many thanks to William Topley and The Blessing for their song "Delta Rain", it helped inspire this piece. River sings bits and pieces of it to Jayne.

Chinese translations:

Hwoon dahn: Son of a bitch.

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Mal paused to stretch, his gaze following Inara as she headed toward the mess. Part of him still in shock that after he'd run out of insults to fling at her last night and pulled her roughly into his arms she'd kissed him. Might be that he never got over being shocked at that.

All these months of her saying she was goin' to leave soon as they got to a decent port. 'Course, he'd made damn sure they got no where's near one. She'd known what he was doing, had called him on it a million times. But then, she'd been mighty picky about what she considered a decent port. Hadn't been anything stopping her from finding other transport to someplace decent neither. He hadn't been the only one lookin' to find ways to keep her on Serenity.

Still a lot of things to work out between them, but for the first time he had some hope they might actually try. With a slight smile curling his lip he followed Inara into the mess.

"Whoa there...'Nara?" he'd near 'bout run into her. What was she staring at?

Mal glanced over Inara's head to see what had made her stop and saw Jayne sitting there, head thrown back and snorin' like a freight train with River curled up in his lap.

"Hwoon dahn" he spat out, his good mood evaporating in an instant.

"Mal, wait" Inara's voice cut through his rage enough to make him stop and look at her. "We don't know what is going on here." How can she sound so calm about this. Jayne, holding River? He'd known Jayne too long to think this was as innocent as 'Nara seemed to. He glanced back over at the two and straight into River's solemn gaze.

"no touching..." she said firmly and Mal found himself wondering if she meant to tell him that her and Jayne hadn't touched in the way he was thinkin' or he that he had better not touch Jayne and toss him out the airlock. Her giggle did nothing to clear the confusion. She looked even more fragile and delicate then usual sitting there. Gracefully she pushed herself up with the tiny hand she had on Jayne's chest and whispered.

"Jayne, time to wake..." and the big man snorted and stirred under her, giving a groan as he tried to lift his head.

"Gorramit" he muttered as his hand went to the back of his neck to try and work out the knot there. It was downright unsettlin' how he'd woken at her command like that.

"Someone mind tellin' me what the ruttin' hell is going on here?" Mal was rather pleased at how calm he sounded considerin' what he really wanted to do was wring Jayne's neck.

Jayne looked over at him with a wary look in his eyes. River, however, seemed more interested in climbing over Jayne like a monkey. Mal watched dumbfounded as she wedged herself behind Jayne and pushed at him to get him to scoot forward in the chair. The big man seemed to think she wanted him to get up at first, till those tiny hands tugged on the back of his shirt guiding him to sit on the edge instead.

"Mornin' Mal," he sounded like he expected Mal to shoot him, guess he wasn't as dumb as he looked, then he nodded to Inara, "mornin' 'Nara"

"Good morning Jayne, sleep well?" Inara chuckled and Mal followed her gaze to River, who was now happily massaging Jayne's neck.

Mal wondered if he'd woken up in the right 'verse this morning.

"No," Jayne grumbled, "feels like I slept all night with my head hangin' off the back of a chair." Inara laughed and went over to start the coffee.

"Captain here, waitin' on that explanation." Mal glared at Jayne. Was that an accusing look in Jayne's eye?

"Girl had a bad night, everyone else was...busy," Jayne gave him that accusing look again, then gestured vaguely at the chair, "an' then we jus' sorta fell asleep, that's all."

"wasn't all..." River protested from behind him, "tell him..." Mal watched as Jayne twisted around to look at River, a puzzled look on his face. Then he seemed to remember something.

"Oh, right," he said "forgot 'bout the Blue Sun thing, sorry girl." and he smiled at her relieved look. Jayne, smiling at River. This was all kinds of not right.

"Mal, ya remember when River slashed me with that knife?" Jayne was looking up at him like an excited schoolboy now.

"Not like to forget, way you keep remindin' us all." Mal drawled back, wonderin' at Jayne's total lack of malice. Normally when he brought this up he was looking for sympathy or tryin' to remind him how dangerous River was.

"Well," he continued, "turns out she was attacking the shirt I was wearin'. It was my Blue Sun one. She told me that they was behind that school she went to. She said they was behind the Alliance somehow, not quite sure what it's all 'bout. But that creepy ass sayin' she has, ya know, "two by two, hands of blue", that's 'bout them."

And Mal heard Wash's voice describing to him the "reinforcements" that had show up on Ariel. Two of them getting off the ship, wearing dark suits and blue gloves on their hands. He'd filed it away with Wash's geese juggling story.

"Huh..."