Disclaimer: Firefly & Characters aren't mine. Money sure as heck isn't mine either (gorramit!). My heart is just dancing in their 'verse for a little while.
Exchanging Words –11
Jayne eased from the mule. His jaw set and shoulders flexed to keep the muscles from pulling in the direction of pain. Shepherd Book frowned with concern. River cackled and slapped a hand over her mouth when Jayne narrowed his eyes at her. Both responses brought a flush to Jayne's cheeks.
"Not a word, ya got that girl! Not a gorram word." He hoisted his arsenal from the back and choked back his groan as he stepped the angle of the ramp like he was leaning into a gale. "You watch your mouth Kaylee or-"
"Or what?" She was upended in the back cart, digging around for something but her voice carried well.
Man didn't utter a syllable, just kept moving slow as a snail. Reached the hatch and leaned against it for a moment before stepping through. Sweat beaded his forehead and he muttered, "I'll be in my bunk."
Shepherd hefted a crate onto his back and followed Mal up the ramp asking, "Everything go all right?"
"Bout same as usual." Mal shrugged, not about to steal Jayne's thunder. Man gets shot in the ass has a right to tell the woe his own self. "Shoppin go all right?"
"Better than expected and coin left." Shepherd nodded at Kaylee as she danced by with a cardboard tube nearly large as her and a medium sized box balanced on her shoulder.
Shepherd informed Mal, "Zoe waved us – said they'd be back in the morning."
Scrap King's men stood around while Mal and the Shepherd unloaded the cart. Bid everyone a good day and drove off in a cloud of dust. River peered into the boxes, oohing and aahing over items like they were setting tribute before her.
"Where's the doc?" Mal shoved crates around so Kaylee could sort her parts easier.
"Cooking. He was chopping and dicing like a professional when I left." Book grinned.
"Kaylee!" Mal hollered, startling River. "Gonna go settle up the fuel bill and dockin fees. Don't ya bust my boat with that thing!"
"Yes Cap'n." Her distracted voice echoed back from the crew quarters.
River grabbed Mal's hand and turned it palm up, teasing it with her forefinger. She forced his finger and thumb to touch, like a pincher. "Seeds grow. Roots and tendrils. Vines tiptoe around the sunlight. Singing in the rain. Dancing in the dark. Toe hurts when you stub it. Heals crooked. Can't kiss it better."
Mal extricated his hand from hers, but she just grinned all the more. She patted his cheek before whirling back to the boxes.
Book offered Mal an explanation, "Simon was sharing some poetry with us the other night. Since then, River's been fixing it. Poor boy is near beside himself with classic works twisted to … new forms. Personally, I'm rather enjoying it."
"Yes, well, seems harmless enough. Be back after bit." Mal clomped down the deck, calling over his shoulder. "Might wanna look in on Jayne if you've a mind, Preacher."
River glanced up from her examination, giggling at the Shepherd's frown. "Man parts aching. No call to be treated so during a complicated rescue op."
"Nuff of that talk, girl." Mal's voice drifted back to her.
River dusted off her hands and rose from the presents. "Kaylee waterfalled to Mal. Caught her. Splashed Jayne with haunted water. Pierced him to shame with her sorrow." She shrugged and wandered away, "I'm hungry."
Shepherd Book went to see about Jayne. The rest of it was mostly obvious but the piercing and shame did give him concern.
--oooo--
Dinner was quiet. Jayne listed to the left. River spouted twisted poetry that made her brother cringe. Simon worried that no one was enjoying his culinary adventures and Book watched everyone with both eyes. Mal ate like a man who had never tasted food, ignoring the tension. Kaylee didn't show up.
"Isn't Kaylee going to eat?" Shepherd Book finally broke the silence.
Mal looked up at the expectant faces, swallowing and frowning. "She's working on a project. She'll remember to eat eventually."
"Then the bartering went well?" Simon sighed, trying to draw conversation had never been such work at this table.
"Yes, better than usual." Mal glared at Jayne when he snorted. "Excuse me. Got to get things locked down." He gulped the last of his coffee and left them to the awkward poetry.
Simon set his utensils down and rubbed his temples. "Jayne, if you want me to check your dressing, I'll be glad to do so after dinner."
Jayne set his mug down with a fist. "What dressing is that doc?"
Simon winked at the Shepherd. "The one you might need checking."
River leaned around Simon to stare at Jayne. She patted her brother's arm, "He doesn't want you to check out his ass."
If Book hadn't choked on his coffee, Jayne might have had more to say. As it were, he managed to shove his chair from beneath him and lumber to his feet. Glaring at River before walking with jerky paces toward the cargo hold.
Simon leaned on his hands, "Do you get the feeling we're missing out on something hi-larious?"
Shepherd Book looked over his shoulder, wiped his eyes and whispered, "I am sure of it. I'm also sure we should be patient and considerate, allowing Jayne to share his feelings when he's ready."
River rolled her eyes and Simon grinned, "I think Jayne is always ready to share his feelings, Preacher."
"Or, we could just keep our eyes and ears open and wait for the best moment to … be enlightened." Book sat back in his chair and waggled his eyebrows.
"I'm not doing the dishes!" River crossed her arms on the table and glared at the table.
Kaylee hustled into the dining area, "Don't try and use the water for a couple hours – gotta shut it down. Ooooh, look!" She grabbed a large roll and they could hear her yumming as she slammed through a panel in the deck of the kitchen. As she squirmed beneath them, her voice echoed up toward them, "Real bread - so good to be home."
Mal stormed into the dining area, his boots squishing, as wet as his clothes. "Kaylee! What the hell is with the passenger showers? There's water spewing out of the drains! Kaylee!"
"She squirms beneath. Following the veins. The flow of her heart." River pointed at the floor.
Simon groaned, "Can't you go back to fixing the Shepherd's broken Bible?"
"He needs his symbol. You need to laugh." River shrugged, "I like fixing you better."
"Kaylee! The water issue? Are we gonna need to swim for it?" Mal squatted in the corridor between the dining room and the cockpit.
"I'm working on it Cap'n, keep your pants on!" Her voice was followed by several loud clangs and a shuddering gasp from the kitchen drain.
"Kaylee!" A fountain came from the drain splashing all the way to the dining room.
"Just a little back flush problem, Cap'n. Serenity is a contained system - nothin to worry bout, just a-" Kaylee clattered, banged, squealed a few choice words and a prayer. "There, okay – has it quit?"
Mal watched Book, Simon and River scatter from the drain rain. "It's still a little problem, Kaylee."
"Hmmm, let me try this... Now?"
The fountain trickled and evaporated. Mal announced to the deck, "Water's quit, my anger ain't. I told you! Didn't I tell you?"
"Yes, you told me." Kaylee giggled. "Might wanna swab up the deck. Give ya something to do while you're waiting to kill me."
"Oh I ain't gonna kill ya, girl. Just gonna torture you - a lot!" He stomped the decking above her head all the way to the dining area.
Dripping but grinning expectantly, the three watched Mal steam to a halt. "A back flush problem." The veins in his neck swelled and the twitch above his eye developed a staccato rhythm. Another clank sounded below and Mal ran a hand through his damp hair before stalking from the room, grousing over his shoulder. "You heard her, start swabbing."
"Can we sing pirate songs?" River asked the Shepherd.
"Anything to stop the mangled poetry." Simon sighed with relief.
"Actually, pirate songs have a measured beat that lends itself to the straight jacket of classic poetry." River gnawed at her lip, waving her toes in a puddle of water. "We could put your poetry to the familiar tunes -"
"Mop and sing, River, please. Just mop and sing." Simon started clearing the table.
"Swab and sing." River corrected him.
Shepherd Book started off about coins on the eyes of sailors. In the passenger showers, Mal ground his jaw together in time to the festive voices. Jayne twisted in the infirmary, using a mirror and the glass on the wall to check out his dressing.
Kaylee installed item number two. Her working through the night had nothing to do with Mal's growling and stomping about. She just wanted it to be perfect come morning… that's all, really.
--oooo--
Jayne stumbled to the kitchen for the coffee. Morning came on him less painfully after a night in his own bunk. He turned round to find Kaylee slouched on her arm, extended along the table. A plate was before her. Mostly eaten before she'd fallen asleep. Her hair had fallen out of its knot and was trailing toward the food.
"And they complain about my table manners." Jayne snorted. Crossing to the table, he flicked her shoulder with his fingers. "Don't ya got a bunk, girl?"
Kaylee shot upright, startled and gasping. Jayne settled a hand on her shoulder so she didn't end up with hot coffee splashed on her. "Easy. No call to get riled. Your hair was dripping into your food."
"Morning Jayne." She rubbed her face. "Coffee? Yes."
She got up as Jayne eased into a chair and huddled over his mug.
"Ya forgiven me yet?" She whispered from across the table, disturbed his morning stupor.
"Just shut up bout it." Jayne flicked his gaze at her worried face and back to his mug.
"I ain't said a word, honest. Won't till you do." She nodded.
"Like you and the Cap'n ain't gonna say a word till one of us does?" Jayne smirked and gulped from his mug.
Kaylee grinned and patted Jayne's large hand, "Don't reckon we'll have to say a thing. Not like it's some big secret."
"Mal may see it different. Man don't like being discussed behind his back." Jayne warned her.
"Then maybe ya oughten't do it." Kaylee grinned and scooped up her dinner plate and mug. "Gotta go sort our haul."
Jayne's hand shot out, gently, he looped her wrist, "You can't work it all away, girl. It'll catch up with ya."
Kaylee's eyes widened then narrowed. "Got no idea what ya'r talking bout, Jayne. Got work to do and am gonna do it."
He let go of her and nodded. "Said my piece. Ain't obligated to do more'n that."
Pausing at the door, Kaylee spun around, her voice was strained but determined, "Won't make it go away but … it's better than … lettin it plague me."
Jayne nodded. Kaylee went about her business.
Mal ambled in and slapped Jayne on the shoulder. "Best to let her be."
"You just gonna let her work till she drops on the deck?" Jayne shook his head, disgusted.
"Nope, planning to distract her. Can't do that till she's tired enough not to notice my wiles." Mal winked. Jayne liked to fell off his chair. Mal raised his coffee mug and followed after Kaylee.
"How you feeling this morning, Jayne?" Shepherd Book came up from the passenger stairs, bright eyed and chipper as Kaylee of a morning.
"Like the 'verse is upside down. You?" Jayne held his mug out for the Shepherd to refill.
"I'm not sure what Kaylee did to the showers, but it was the best hot shower I can recollect since before I went to the Southdown Abbey." Book rolled up his sleeves to start preparing breakfast.
"She bartered for all kinds of pieces and parts, your guess is as good as mine which one does what." Jayne shrugged. "King Feron delivered the rest just a bit ago. Heard Mal visiting with the boys, woke me up."
"Sure is impressive how much was bartered from one wreck." Book whipped eggs.
"Kaylee stashes all manner of bits and pieces. Wasn't just the wreck what brung all these riches." Jayne leaned back and grimaced when he tried to settle his ankle across his knee.
"You let the doctor check out your … dressing?" Shepherd knew better than to look directly at Jayne when he asked, just kept mixing batter for pancakes.
"Don't need no doctor for a scratch." Jayne sneered.
"Course not. Then you're not helping the Captain shove crates or hauling parts to the engine room because you're just feeling ornery?" Book ladled the first splat of batter on the hot griddle.
"That's right." Jayne laughed. "Just my loveable ornery self."
Shepherd Book nodded, watching the bubbles form in the batter. Softly as he'd ever spoken to Jayne, Book asked, "Was it that bad?"
Jayne shook his head. "No worse than usual. Just, Kaylee, done got stretched a mite more than she maybe shoulda."
"Not the Captain." Book flipped the pancakes.
"Hell no. Mal was grinnin like a canary what found sunflower heaven. Just … someone that reminded her a bit too much of Mal I 'spect." Jayne frowned into his mug.
"And so she shot you?" Book ladled more batter, pausing to listen when Jayne looked across his shoulder and around the room to make sure no one would hear or see his grin.
"Right in the gorram ass! Gal couldn't hit an Alliance cruiser if'n it was in her face and she plugs me defendin a corpse." Book leaned over the griddle when Jayne eased to his feet so's he could tell the story proper, "See, this is how it were…."
Their laughter followed the scent of breakfast to the cargo hold where Kaylee and Mal were shoving crates into a semblance of order. Mal opened another crate and wiped sweat from his forehead.
"Just how many of these are pieces of parts?" He complained.
"Best deals that way. King charges too much for labor on reconditioned parts. I can do it on the fly and be sure it's done right, just what Serenity will need this way." She patted his shoulder as he flopped down on the lip of the crate. "Go have some coffee, you unloaded all this. I can dig through here - Hey!"
Mal's arms snaked out and surrounded her waist, tugging her across his lap, unbalanced. His grin suggested he didn't need no coffee. "And how my s'posed to learn to do all this if I go have coffee?"
Smiling brighter than the Beaumonde sun, she caressed his cheek. "You ain't interested in learnin bout parts."
"Not engine parts, no." He leered.
Kaylee rolled her eyes, stifling her giggle. "You wanna be in the sky by tomorrow, you best let me up." She tugged on his hands.
"You got that little plumbing problem tended?" He grinned, tucking hair back into the twisty knot on her head.
"Do." Kaylee cradled his face between her hands and tugged him to her. Parts and plumbing ignored.
"Don't look now, wife, but seems the Captain is ignoring Jayne's wisdom about kissing on the mouth. You think we ought to send for the doctor now or after he keels over?" Wash's drawled tones popped Kaylee off Mal's lap like corn over a fire.
She swung around behind Mal, placing her hands on both his shoulders. Needn't have bothered, he wasn't the least bit put out. He covered the hand on his left shoulder with his own, smirking right back at Wash, "Just can't help myself."
"Looks like things were profitable at the Scrap King's, sir." Zoe waved at the crates and cartons scattered around the cargo hold.
"It was. Go stow your things and then see about helping us sort through Kaylee's plunder." Mal suggested.
Zoe nodded and followed Wash through. "Honey," she asked as they reached the hatch, "Look to you like the Cap'n was sorting Kaylee's plunder without needing help?"
"It did wife, it did." Wash waved her through. "Maybe we'll find time to sort plunder our own self - if Mal don't work us to death first."
Kaylee's arms slid down and she rested her chin on his head, "Shh, I wanna hear it."
Mal nodded, cocking his head.
They were not disappointed.
"OhmydearGodinheaven!" Wash's scream of rapture was followed by Zoe's shout, "Item Number Two - come to momma!"
Mal rubbed his hands along Kaylee's arms, "Don't think cause I gave in on that bathtub that Item Number Twelve will ever find its way on my boat. Ever. Got that?"
Kaylee kissed the top of his head. "Yes, Cap'n."
"Best get to work. They ain't gonna come back anytime soon and help." Mal sighed and tugged himself free.
"I sure hope not." Kaylee grinned before bending into the crate and muttering. "After all that work, they better soak until they's wrinkled as raisins."
--oooo--