Title: AfterMidnight
Author: Christine
E-mail: Kaylee can't sleep...
Pairing: Jayne/Kaylee(I just can't get enough) with mentions of Simon/Kaylee.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Once again its been brought to my attention that I don't own anything Joss has created, I just wish I did. Firefly is his and Mutant Enemy's, I just like to play with his characters for a while to amuse myself.
Spoilers: Takes place after Objects in Space. In this version, I chose to have Inara stay on Serenity unlike what she says at the end of Heart of Gold.
Notes: The names of planets that I use in my story actually are ones that the writers on the show came up with. There's a picture of the worlds of Firefly online; I uploaded it to my server so you can view it here if you want to.
Prologue
This was the time of night she loved. Well after everyone else on the ship turned in for the night, she was still up checking over her beloved Serenity, making sure all her parts rotated just right. She used to try to sleep sometimes without checking the engine room every night if she was really tired, but would only be forced to toss and turn restlessly before giving up and leaving her room to double check on her ship. After awhile, she realized that the engine room gave her a sort of peaceful, calming feeling; even though it was the loudest room in the ship. Just knowing each piece was working correctly let her relax a bit.
Except for tonight. Tonight even the clanking of the ship that usually calmed her nerves wasn't doing anything. She sat there in her multicolored hammock swinging back and forth staring at the engine and tried to wish away the tears that were welling up behind her pretty hazel eyes. She knew why she was upset, although she tried numerous times to deny it to herself. Today was the day she realized that she and Simon were just too different to ever have any sort of relationship other then friendship. They were from two different worlds, literally. He was upstanding and proper, and she was a former poor farm girl, now a poor mechanic. He spoke proper English, and she never got the education to speak like he did. She said 'ain't' and he said 'is not'. She was beneath him, and she knew it. He would argue with her that he's in the same boat she is now. No money to speak of and no longer a licensed doctor, but that didn't matter. He still acted like he had money, and still practiced his medical expertise on the ship, so in her book it was virtually the same thing.
It also didn't help that lately her dreams had been waking her in the night. Not nightmares, not even close, but Kaylee almost wished they were nightmares instead of the lust filled dreams that filled her subconscious. It would have made sense for her to have been dreaming of Simon in that way, and truth be told, she did sometimes. But in addition to realizing her relationship with him was going nowhere fast, she was starting to dream of someone else. When she woke breathless in the night with a light sheen of sweat on her body, the name that passed her lips didn't start with an S. It started with a J.