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....LOL

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:

Swai: Handsome

Huge thank you's to Cassie E and Starrbaby who helped me stay sane writing this one. Even though they didn't know they were doing so at the time...LOL

Had a bit of trouble getting this one to come out so I was happy with it, but they inspired me to keep trying so here it is.

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River sat on the catwalk outside Inara's shuttle, swinging her legs back and forth while she watched Jayne cleaning the deck below. He had been working out a while ago but had decided it was better to find another way to keep himself occupied. She knew it made him uncomfortable that she was up here watching him, but there wasn't much else to do and she was enjoying it. Besides, he could have gone and cleaned any of the other decks had he really wanted to get away from her.

She let her mind drift over the last couple of hours. Mal had called a meeting and most of the morning had been spent trying to figure out what her revelations to Jayne the night before meant. Inara and Book where in her shuttle looking for any info on Blue Sun that might help. They weren't going to find it on the Cortex but it gave them something to do. Simon was going back over his notes trying to match up old patterns with the new information. Kaylee was working on the engine and Mal, Zoƫ and Wash were trying to figure out which planets had the strongest Blue Sun presence so they could add them to the "planets to be avoided because of River" stack. Thankfully most of them were already there because they were Core planets or Alliance friendly.

Which left her and Jayne with not much of anything useful to do. She was used to it but Jayne was feeling restless.

Neither of them had told what had started the whole thing. When Simon had asked Jayne had mumbled something about her seeming to be having a flashback to the Academy. Which started a flood of questions about what her supposed flashback had been about from Simon, but she gave him her standard "can't remember" line and that was that. She understood why Jayne had lied, none of the couples on board would be able to deal with knowing that she felt everything they did. She wondered how Jayne would feel once he realized that included him and the things he did in his bunk alone. Really, Book was the only one who had never invaded her thoughts in that way.

It didn't happen all the time, there were so many thoughts and feelings floating around that she could usually keep her mind occupied till they were done. It wasn't the same as being able to push the thoughts and feelings away, not the same as being able to shut them off like she used to be able to do, but it worked most of the time. Once she had gotten the hang of it. If one train of thought was too disturbing just jump on to another. Only, sometimes they caught her unaware and she couldn't jump in time, and it was the hardest with Simon. They were so close and his feelings for Kaylee so strong...and it hurt just a bit that she was no longer his focus. Even though she was happy for him. And sometimes the feelings were simply too strong to ignore.

Last night it had been all 3 couples at once. She wondered if that had been random or if she was starting to act as an amplifier and what she picked up from one couple was being transmitted to the next starting a chain reaction. She already knew she could influence others, she'd done it twice to Jayne now. Once to keep him sleeping while Early was on board and then again this morning to wake him up. It had never occurred to her to try it on anyone else though so she wasn't sure it would work as well on them. Jayne's mind was different then the others. Open and receptive, strong. Like most on the crew he had his own measure of abilities.

She liked how his brain worked. It was the most straight forward one on board unless you counted Kaylee. Kaylee's was all sunshine though and as nice as it felt pouring down from Kaylee she didn't think she was strong enough to look straight into her. Jayne's was darker, not as dark as Mal's, nor as complex. Mal's was dark and cold where as Jayne's was dark and warm, space dark verses earth dark. She was like Mal, space dark. But being in Jayne's mind was like being in a burrow, warm and dark and solid around her. She felt grounded there. The giggle bubbled up and she let it pour out.

She waved at him as he glanced up at her. He shouldn't scowl so much, he was much more swai when he smiled.

He worried too much about numbers. Age meant nothing. Not really. It was just a human way of understanding time, but breaking time into handy little bits was pointless. True, in most cases a higher number meant more accumulated experiences. But there were exceptions to that. She was one. Not that she hadn't missed things that most girls her age should have had, like dates and kisses. Things Kaylee had plenty of by the time she was her age. However, Kaylee was older and had felt nothing of being tortured or having her brain shattered. Worst thing Kaylee had felt was a bullet in the gut, but she knew of the other things, even if she had not felt them. River had felt kisses and caresses and everything else involved in sex, even if she had never felt it for herself. So which one of them could be said to be more experienced? Didn't really matter, they were different, but not necessarily unequal.

It was true she was sometimes childlike, but then, so was Jayne. Most would not call his reaction to being teased about his name being a girls as being "mature". She smiled slightly and wondered just what his "man parts" looked like. For some reason she never got anything visual from him during those times, it was all feeling. If she ever did get to touch Jayne she knew just how to make him quiver.

He was looking up at her again, scowling. Guess that chuckle had not just been in her head after all.

Her eyes drifted shut as he turned away muttering "Gorram girl". It was nice the way his voice was changing, less hard now then it had been yesterday, more husky. Like it was turning into an endearment. She savored the fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach. Wasn't time yet, he needed to come to terms with her a little more, she wanted to enjoy the flush of first awareness for a while longer. He was not a man that dealt easily with emotions. None of the men on Serenity did...except Wash.

In many ways she was all emotion, it was just that most of them were not her own. Maybe that was why Jayne was becoming so important to her, with him she always felt. The others feelings were still there, but she actually felt something of her own. Something other then fear. Some new emotion she had never felt before that while it was tied to him did not come from him. And he drove away the one emotion she was used to feeling, fear...and that was odd. When had she started feeling so safe around him? Didn't matter, he would never hurt her now, for all his bluster. Had been that way for a while. Had crept up on them, unaware.

Last night had just ripped the veils away. Left them both exposed.

If she was all emotion then he was all physical. They both felt, but he felt with touch. She wondered that her and Simon had both ending up being attracted to people who were so physically demonstrative. Hugging had never been big in the Tam household...might mess up Mother's fancy dress, put a wrinkle in Father's nicely pressed shirt. Kisses were placed a quarter of an inch from the cheek. Even her and Simon had not hugged often, and it had always been a quick, light thing...except for when she had gone off to the Academy. She had clung to him then in some nameless need to hold onto something solid. Until he had pushed her away, all uncomfortable with his little sisters unseemly display of affection in front of strangers. Little had they known the strangers were their parents.

He had hugged her more times since they arrived on Serenity then he had in the 14 years of her childhood.

And she had spent an entire night wrapped in Jayne's arms, then rubbed the knot out of his neck because she had needed more. His pain had bothered her, but that had not been why she had done it. She had given massages before, usually to the other students in her dance classes when they had a muscle cramp. It had always been a means to work the soreness out, never a means to provide physical contact before. But then, none of her fellow dance students were Jayne.

So here she was starting to feel, emotionally and physically, and reveling in it...while Jayne was starting to feel and fighting it. Even the physical that he normally was so comfortable with.

She wiped the tear away as Inara and Book came out of the shuttle to head down to dinner.