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. Part 3 includes chapters 11-15. A short little Wash chapter. Sorry Cassie, have to wait a bit longer for more River and Jayne...hehehe...

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:

Ch. 13) Wuo de ma: Mother of Jesus

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Wash stretched as he walked onto the bridge, hearing the satisfying pop of vertebrae. It had been a real good night, he could get used to this baby making thing. He froze in shock as his eyes fell on his dinosaurs.

"Wuo de ma." he rubbed his eyes and looked again, yep, they were all lined up wearing little tiny Jayne hats. "That girl just ain't right."

With a grin he checked the instruments then grabbed his two favorites, a T-Rex and a Stegosaurus. After a moment of checking out the hats he started making them do a little jig.

"I'm a little coconut, lying on the cocoa ground, everybody steps on me, that is why I'm cracked you see...I'm a nut...I'm a nut...I'm crazy..."

"That ya are," Mal drawled from the doorway, "how's my...what the..." he sputtered as he looked at the dinosaurs in horror. "She gonna make those for every damn thing on my boat?"

"Can't wait to see you in yours, Cap'n." Wash chuckled.

"Somehow, I don't think all your dino's having one is gonna save you none." Mal said smugly, "An' just wait till she starts working on our sweaters."

"She didn't do half bad making these," Wash said in her defense, "might be the sweaters won't be so bad. Maybe we should pick her up some different yarn though." he gave the hats a critical look, "Not so sure I want a pink sweater with green sleeves. Might want to look into getting her black yarn, lots and lots of black yarn...or a nice brown."

"Yea, I'll consider that." Mal gave the hats another look then shuddered and stalked off the bridge, passing Zoë with a nod.

"Consider what...whoa..." Zoë halted abruptly beside him.

"Getting River lots and lots of yarn in a nice neutral tone." Wash told her, "Before she takes it into her head to make us all sweaters."

She pulled the hat off his Velociraptor thoughtfully, "Or pastels, we could get her some nice pastels." her lips curled up in a little smile.

"Pastels might work," Wash grinned up at her, "it would relieve the need to tell the Captain we're trying to have a kid. Of course, if River started knitting baby clothes he would probably space Jayne before we could tell him they were for us."

"Somehow I doubt River would let the Captain do that." Zoë said dryly, "And if he was going to he would have done it by now."

"Yeah, would be a shame to see him spaced now that he's gotten almost human." he shook his head at the thought, "Who would have guessed. One almost human mercenary, just add crazy girl."

He let his fingers entwine with hers as she lay her hand on his shoulder. Enjoying her presence next to him.

"We should tell him Zoë," he said softly, breaking the long silence. "Before we succeed. He's going to need time to adjust to the idea."

"I know," she smiled down at him, "I'll talk to him soon, just want to enjoy trying for a bit before having to deal with Mal."

"Alright, and he has had a rather stressful time lately," he gave her hand a squeeze, "what with the whole Kaylee and Simon thing, and the him and Inara thing, and the River and Jayne thing. We really should let the man get his equilibrium back before we yank the rug out from under him again."

"You know, it really is rather amazing how she got them all to fit," Zoë said with a hint of wonder in her voice as she went back to examining the hats, "it's not like these things have normal shaped heads."

"Maybe she could teach you how," he said hopefully, "I promise if you knit me funny hats I will wear them."

"I know you will, dear," she patted his shoulder, "I'm going to go see what's for breakfast."

"See you in a few." he grinned up at her as she bent down to kiss his cheek, turning to watch her walk out of the cockpit. He wondered idly if it was wrong that he enjoyed watching her walk away from him so much. Of course, he also enjoyed watching her walk towards him. View was pretty amazing either way. After he checked to make sure the auto-pilot was keeping them on course and the proximity alert was set he followed her towards the mess.

"Yum, protean mush." he said as he slid into the chair next to Zoë. "My favorite."

He looked around, noting that Kaylee and Simon were the only ones not there. And River was looking at him expectantly.

"Dino's look mighty fine in their hats," he said with a grin, "They thank you."

She beamed at him and went back to what looked dangerously like an orange and blue hat. It wasn't just the combinations of colors that was so disturbing, it was the shades themselves. They just were not pretty colors to begin with and putting them together only made things worse. It wasn't really River's fault, they were all left over bits Jayne's Ma hadn't used up. Next port he was definitely going to make sure she got some better yarns. Things that blended. All joking about black aside he thought some jewel tones would be nice, maybe earthy colors.

"And pastels," she said softly, her eyes twinkled at him, "some pastels would be nice."

He glanced over at Mal and Book, glad the two of them were off by the other door. Jayne caught his eye with a smirk as Zoë agreed with River on the pastels.

"Any particular pastel you think we need more of?" he heard Zoë ask. He glanced back at River as she got a faraway look.

"Blue and pink." she said firmly after a moment, "Don't snort Jayne," her head tilted to the side as she gave him a sly smile, "your's are all pink."

Wash laughed at his panicked look. It made him feel a little better about the pink and blue implications that had Zoë smiling dreamily.

"Did I miss somethin' funny?" Mal asked as he came over, looking at Wash and Jayne's guiltily bowed heads and Zoë and River's matching serene smiles. Wash peeked up in time to see Mal's dumfounded expression as Zoë answered.

"No sir, we were just discussing what color pastel yarn to get so River can teach me how to knit baby clothes."

So much for letting the poor man get his equilibrium back first.