DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE !!! All Hail Joss .....bring on the great movie!!!
NOTES: Sheesh...took me forever! The muse is unwilling and very lazy!! Still I tried my best and hope I managed to make it a little funny.....
BORROWED
There is a smile in her face, somewhere between amusement and satisfaction about his acknowledgment that her actions indeed affect him and for an instant Jayne isn't sure whether to laugh or to yell over the smug look on her pretty face.
"Couldn't you just go and borrow that from someone else, like your brother? Bein´ a smartass that he is, he'd have plenty of that too spare, wouldn't you think?"
He leans down to bring his face closer to hers, to better loom into her wide brown eyes.
"Cause judging from the mess we seem to be in, I kinda have the sneakin´ suspicion that I need my sanity for myself right about now!"
River's eyes follow some unseen movement in the ceiling again, before she shrugs her shoulders at him. Almost as though she does not quite follow his course of reasoning, like she has her own opinions about that, but feels it might be better if she kept that to herself for now.
"No....you were the only one close enough!" she tells him, patting his shoulder in a reassuring way. He watches with rising irritation as she moves past him towards the ladder under the hatch.
"Hey, hey, hey ...not so fast, Where do you think you're goin´?"
He manages to grab a hold of her wrist before she can start to ascend he ladder.
River turns, looking at his hand curled around her wrist, then to him.
"We don't have time for this....now." she says quietly and with emphasis, seemingly almost bewildered that he does not understand the need to act.
"Oh ..I think we'll take the time for you to explain exactly what the gorram´ hell you did to me and how that's gonna affect ... me!"
She sighs, giving him another very impatient look.
"I told you ...I borrowed from your sanity. So I could function and help. If I didn't you would not know about the danger...."
She definitely makes more sense to him now, that's for sure. He can understand her. She has still a weird way of speaking and phrasing things, but at least it's not the riddles in which she usually speaks. Now that he thinks about it, there's a really disturbing thought crossing his mind.
"What do you mean I was the only one close enough? I would not have been so close if you had not sneaked in here in the dead of night!"
River looks at him, arching an eyebrow as though to drive home the point that he damn well knows better ....that it's not really physical closeness she was referring to.
"We gotta stop them ...now. I sealed the vent- exits before I came down here to wake you, but that will only keep them for so long. They will have some difficulty forcing them open......not enough space to manoeuvre. Should slow them down...that's why they make the slithering noise, like a snake that can't shed its skin"
Jayne presses his lips together and for a moment it looks almost like a pout. The girl has some nerve; first leeching on the contents of his brain and then talking to him like he´s the child!
Still she looks at him with that imploring trust, like she knows he´s gonna do it......
"Fine..." he finally growls, grabbing Vera from her place under the bed.
"You stay at my back, let me go first ...if you get shot, Mall's gonna have my hide!"
She smiles at him, stepping aside so he can squeeze past her. There's hardly enough room for him to get past and his thighs brush up against her for a moment.
The contact brings back flashes of another kind of contact......
Of breathy, whispered words.....encouraging and coaxing, the alluring softness of her pale, pale skin......the scent of her silky hair......
Jayne mumbles a curse under his breath and tries to think of other things.....like the marauders trying to take over Serenity....at least there's gonna be someone who'll have the full benefit of the frustration he is feeling now!
"Are you sure?" he asks at the top of the ladder. Better make sure before he opens the ruttin´hatch.
"About what?" She looks so darn innocent, standing there with one hand on the ladder already, returning his inquisitive stare with wide eyes.
"bout them not havin´much space to manoeuvre in the vents."
"Very tight space, makes you very slow ...even if you crawl. Hardly enough space for me when I crawl through ....!"
Jayne narrows his eyes at her, but as usual there is no sign of mockery or deceit in her face ...she means it. Somehow the idea of River Tam sneaking her way through Serenity in the vents makes him even more uneasy.
"Why do I even ask?" he mumbles to himself. Preparing to open the hatch.
"We have a bond , you know."
"No we don't !" Jayne hisses petulantly, unable to believe that he´s still bickering with her like this even as he sticks his head out through the hatch in order to scan both sides of the corridor.
It hardly seems to disturb her.
"That's why I can lean on your mind, borrow from your sanity to support the integrity of mine. We have a bond ....a connection because of the dreams." She continues in an explanatory whisper.
They both glance towards the bed for an instant, then Jayne shakes his head to clear his mind.
"Can we focus on that other thing now for a moment, River? You ...know that situation where some people are trying to take over this ship and murdering us in our sleep?"
She shrugs at him, still smiling happily and for a moment, Jayne can't help but think that she is enjoying herself.
"Can I have a gun?"
"NO!"
