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. Thanks to Cassie E for providing insperation on how to deal with Timmie's history, I had been trying to figure out how much to tell on that and she helped me see that less can be better. Sorry this one is so short, the next one should be longer. :-)

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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Matty looked around at his guests, been a long time since it'd been any but him, Amie and Ma here. Pa had died shortly after him an' Amie had gotten hitched four years ago. Jayne hadn't come back for either occasion, not that Matty blamed him none. Too many painful memories and both Andy and Sal had still been alive back then. Andy had passed on last year though, that left only Sal. With any luck that hwoon dahn'd never know Jayne had been back.

His gaze drifted over to the li'l mechanic, Kaylee. It was amazing how like Timmie she was, least, personality-wise. He wondered how Jayne dealt with that. Hoped it brought him more comfort then pain. She was a shiney one, might be she could light up the whole 'verse. Much like Timmie had once lit up this whole moon. Till that bastard Will and his two cronies had gotten their hands on her.

He'd never seen the body, but he'd seen Jayne's face when he came back ta the house after he'd found her. Seen the blood on his hands from carrying her to that quack doctor who'd failed ta save her. Remembered the Sheriff comin' ta visit Ma and Pa to let them know Jayne'd killed Will and he'd asked him to leave and not come back, so's he wouldn't have ta toss him in jail for it. Andy and Sal had done time for their part in it all. Not that either of them ever seemed to feel any regret over it, 'cepting that they'd been caught.

He became aware that River was watching him. She had such a sad, intense look on her face that he couldn't help but wonder if she knew what he was thinkin' on. It was downright creepifying the way she seemed to look right into a bodies mind. Almost as bad as that look of her brothers.

"So, what was Jayne like as a boy?" Kaylee asked, all chipperlike. "An' how'd he get his name?" She looked over at him with a mischievous look and Matty laughed.

"Well now, that is a tale." He told her conspiratably, ignoring Jayne's scowl. "There was four of us Cobb kids that lived, Ma had a couple miscarriages 'tween me an' the others. Allie's the oldest, then the twins, Jayne an' Timmie. 'Spite how it sounds Allie an' I were named fairly normallike, Alison and Matthew are our given names. But Jayne and Timothy ended up gettin' the others names. Ma didn't notice till she'd gotten home from the hospital that one of the nurses had switched their name tags, by then she'd already been callin' them by the wrong names for a couple'a days, figured it'd be best not ta confuse them by switchin' 'em back. So's they got stuck that way."

"We think that's what made Jayne all grumpylike, he always was an' ornery thing. Only one could ever get him ta smile was Timmie." He glanced over at Jayne, then went on when it seemed he was doin' Ok. "Timmie died a number of years ago now, when she was 19. Allie's married an' livin' on Liberty, don't visit much these days. Seems her husband is kinda fancylike an' she don't like rememberin' on where she came from. Always was a bit of a snob."

Jayne snorted at that. It was somethin' of an understatement.

It sure felt good havin' a chance to tell the old stories again. Matty loved tellin' tales, he always had. So he was happy tellin' Kaylee an' the other's all about Jayne as a child. Had 'em all laughin' more then a time or two with the scrapes his older brother had gotten into as a young'n. None of 'em seemed shocked he'd been a holy terror when he was a kid.

Certainly not like they'd been shocked by Ma's dying message to Jayne. He still weren't sure what to make of all their reactions, but it'd been clear most of them hadn't never thought on Jayne havin' any call to hold onto River. An' all of 'em seemed to find the idea a mite disturbing. 'Cept maybe Kaylee and River herself. Girl was a mite youngish, but that weren't that uncommon. Happened more then occasionally out here on the Rim, heck, he was a number of years older'n Amie. Man couldn't be too picky where he found love. Didn't come around often enough.

He noticed that Simon had moved over to whisper something to the Captain, at the man's nod he headed over his way.

"Matty," he said, getting that serious Doctor look to him, "Jayne's told us you've been sick with the damp lung, I was wondering if you'd let me take a look? We might have some medicine that will help."

He glanced over at Jayne a little panicked, but Jayne just smirked at him. He already knew Amie'd be no help gettin' the Doc off him, she always said he should get more help then he had. But the only doctors he'd ever been to had never helped much, Jayne always called the Doc in town a quack. Even before...anyways, he'd had enough of doc's when he was little. Was a sickly thing as a child, had grown out of it by his teens but he'd never been as big an' healthy as his siblings.

He felt Jayne's big paw rest on his shoulder, hadn't even been aware his brother'd headed over. "Doc's a good'n, if any can fix ya up it'll be him. He's fixed me up a time or two." Matty caught Simon's shocked look, so the Doc was no more used to Jayne praising him then he was to hearing Jayne say any doc was good. He sighed, knowin' if Jayne and Amie ganged up on him he'd be better off ta give in gracefully.

"Jus don't eat all the food 'fore I get back." he growled at Jayne.

"Would I do a thing like that?" he asked, managing to look offended, then hurt as everyone said in unison.

"Yes."