Aria A Cappella

Part 2

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your feedback! I also wanted to apologize for the long wait for this chapter…my computer blew up (both figuratively and literally) and I just got this new one. Über-spiffy, I must say. Also, my school musical rehearsals have kept me at school until around 8 every night, at which time my mummy makes me go to bed. So…sorry. I shall delay you no longer.

Jayne carefully picked up the handgun. He hefted it in his hands, smiling to himself, and remembering gunfights in which this small, concealable weapon had turned the tide in his favor. He shut his eyes and pictured one such scene again. Three men, all heavily armed, guns trained on him. It seemed like a hopeless fight. But they weren't watching as closely as they should have, weren't paying enough attention…because they thought he was unarmed.

He opened his eyes only as far as narrow slits and aimed at a lamp. Bam. He flung his arm to the other side. Bam. One left. He spun around fluidly toward the door and was jolted to see Simon peering into the room.

"Gorramit, doc," he grumbled, sliding the gun into an ankle holster and beginning to clean another weapon, "didn't they never teach you not to sneak up on a man with a gun at that fancy school of yours?"

"I made a promise to you, Jayne." Simon ignored him and took a step in as though he had been invited. "I believe you remember it?"

Jayne didn't respond. He surely did remember. How could he forget?

"I promised that whenever you are in the infirmary, you are safe and I will never harm you. That still holds." He took another step forward, and Jayne almost yielded and took a step back. The doctor was a significantly smaller man in both height and breadth, but right now, he was one of the scariest things Jayne had ever seen. Including himself. "But I'll tell you now…if you even consider laying a hand on River or harming her in anyway, there will be no reason to bring you to the infirmary."

Jayne stared in horrible wonder into Simon's hard, icy eyes. For one of the first times in his life, he was completely speechless. Simon blinked, and the illusion of mass disappeared. He shrunk immediately back to his proper size in Jayne's eyes.

"We understand each other, I assume?" He asked with a slightly sleepy looking smile. Jayne, the spell broken, looked quickly down with a grunt. Simon nodded. "That's good." There was a crash from outside and he quickly darted backwards and took off down the hall. "River! Don't--that's not going to fit in your bag!"

Jayne, assured it was safe, looked up and shook his head in shock. Who would've thought the soft little doctor could be so threatening? He really loved his crazy sister. Pushing the thought that he had actually been intimidated for however short of a moment by Simon Tam from his mind, Jayne went back to his weaponry.

He was interrupted a second time by a knock on his door frame.

"Can you spare a moment?" Shepherd Book asked.

"Sure, preacher," Jayne shrugged, and lifted up a particularly threatening rifle and examined it.

"Mite large for undercover work, isn't it?" Book asked politely but pointedly. Jayne just grunted at him. Not deterred, the shepherd came forward and lifted one of the smaller guns from the far end of the bed. He held it up, aiming at the ceiling. "Now, this is the kind of gun you would take for a mission of this nature. Lightweight, easily concealable, laser targeting system and silencer. Very discreet, very useful."

Jayne didn't even bother commenting on the unusual knowledge of weaponry. He did, however, snatch the gun out of Shepherd Book's hands and slipped it inside the jacket Mal was lending him. Apparently the Alliance was experimenting with a new weather system on Maat, leading to unpredictable temperature changes. It could be sunnier than summer one minute, and a blizzard the next. Not really his style, but did provide more places to hide guns.

"Now, Jayne," Book leaned back against Jayne's dresser, folding his arms and obviously getting into sermon mode. "I understand that a young man of your occupation and, ah, personality type sometimes has difficulty restraining himself from partaking in some of the temptations he is bombarded with."

"No need for pretty talk out here," Jayne said thought a mouthful of bullets he was holding until he could pull open the pouch Inara had sewn into the jacket's lining.

"Yes, well," Book laughed slightly, "old habits do die hard, don't they?" Jayne shrugged and spat his bullets into the cloth. After shifting his weight, Book rose back to a full stand. "What I'm trying to say, Jayne, is that the good lord put brains in your head. It would be in everyone's best interests if you used that to think."

He exited without another word and Jayne stared after him, puzzling out the meaning of his statement. It hit him in a few minutes.

"HEY!"

"Oh, you're still in here," Mal appeared in front of him. "Good, I need to talk to you about—"

"Would y'all give it a rest!" Jayne slammed a pair of pistols into his pocket. "I'm not plannin' on sexing the crazy girl, or nothing like that!"

"Well," Mal nodded firmly. "it does my heart good to know that. 'Course, personally, I just wanted to let you know that Madame Rosseau is providing a skiff to transport you and River to her estate. It would be poor thanks for her hospitality to crash her transport."

"Oh," if he had been any other man, Jayne would have blushed. But being Jayne Cobb, he just shut his mouth and nodded. Mal gave him one last look before exiting, laughing to himself.

"We'll touch down in about an hour," he called back over his shoulder.

"Are you sure you're fine, River?" Simon rubbed his sister's arm worriedly. River smiled at him; at least, it was assumed she did. To prevent any onlookers who might happen by from recognizing her, a large hat with a thick dark veil had been plopped onto her much smaller head.

"Silly. Not a power in the 'verse can stop River."

He laughed, but tears were forming in his eyes. Jayne rolled his own eyes at the display of affection, but Simon ignored him.

"I'm sorry, River, but…the last time I let you go, I didn't see you again for two years." River shuddered at that statement and Mal set a hand on each of the sibling's shoulders.

"She'll be fine. She's got the scariest bodyguard a girl could ask for. All they need worry about it getting to the house without getting stopped by any Feds."

"Don't give them any reason to pull you over," Zoë advised Jayne. He nodded, and slid into the pilot's side of the skiff and drummed his fingers on the control panel as the tearful farewell continued outside. Finally, River was guided into the other seat in the small transport.

"'Bout time," Jayne grunted, powering up the engine and lifting off. River waved excitedly out her window as the rest of the crew shrank to toy size as they flew towards the city.

Jayne leaned back in his seat and looked around. It was a nice enough rig. Similar to a miniature version of the shuttles on Serenity, there was room for four passengers to sit comfortably, but more could be packed in if necessary. He glanced down at the ground whizzing past below. It was all cracked, dusty desert. Wash and Zoë had debriefed him on life on Maat. It was comprised mostly of desert, due to faulty terraforming. Most life was concentrated heavily in the cities, which were artificially supplied with water and stretched much farther vertically than horizontally. The only people who didn't live in the massive cities were the very poor who clung to the outskirts and the very rich, who mainly occupied huge, hovering estates a few miles outside of the main metropolis. Madame Rosseau was one of the latter.

A sudden shadow fell across their craft. They had entered Regan, the premiere city of Maat. River gaped upwards through the glass ceiling of the cockpit at the pale aqua buildings that stretched far above them, some of which were difficult to distinguish from the sky they threatened to brush against. Even Jayne couldn't help but look around. A woman reclined on one of many long white fins that protruded from one floating building. Apartment complex, he guessed. There was a market farther down, flirting with the ground, where children flocked amongst the many stalls, hapless mothers trying unsuccessfully to herd them.

Jayne was so engrossed in the fascinating planet that it took a few moments to realize his craft was slowing down significantly.

"What the-"

"Big Brother's come home," River murmured. Jayne stared at the dark cloth that masked her, then a powerful sense of dread pulled at the pit of his stomach. Feds. The gorram Alliance had stopped their craft.

They sat there in silence for a few agonizing moments before the officer pulled up along side them. He stepped out onto a platform that had unfolded out of the side of his skiff for that express purpose and leaned down, peering through the window.

"You want to tell me why you're flying above the traffic lines? Cause I'm sure you've got a good reason." Jayne began to open his mouth, but River, of all people, interrupted him.

"I'm terribly sorry officer," she said, leaning over Jayne, in a coy but superior voice that had once belonged to her Aunt Marian. "He doesn't know any better. This is his first time on a central planet."

"Newlyweds?" the Fed asked, staring curiously at her, trying to gaze through the veil. River leaned forward even more, setting a hand on Jayne's leg to support herself. He glanced down at the small, pale hand and sighed, leaning backwards into his seat. They were dead.

"I found him while I was making a stopover on one of the border moons on my way home," she said in a conspiratorial whisper. "He was so adorably rough that I just couldn't leave him. Father will be furious." She giggled nastily, as though imagining her livid father. Jayne glanced over at the Fed without moving his head. Unbelievably, he was laughing too.

"Well, you keep your hubby in line, ma'am, and things will work out fine," he said. "I suppose I can let you two go without a fine, being newlyweds and all. But there's one condition."

"Name it," she murmured in a sensual voice that Jayne wondered where she had picked up. The officer leaned in through the window, completely ignoring Jayne.

"Let me see the lovely face of the blushing bride."

Jayne stiffened in his seat and it was all he could do not to squeeze his eyes shut. After all his close scrapes and daring escapes…he was going to die sitting helpless in a skiff with a crazy girl who was pretending to be a snotty society girl. But River, ever calm, just clucked her tongue at him.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, sir. I'm sure you would see the family resemblance, and I can't have you going and spreading the word about me and my honey before I get home. I want to see the look on Father's face when he finds out what a naughty girl I've been."

There were a few seconds of dreadful anticipation, but, miraculously, the Fed withdrew.

"Oh well. Carry on, citizens." He climbed back into his craft and the platform disappeared back into the side. He leaned out the window and winked at River. "I'll keep my eye out for you."

He sped away. Jayne sat dumbstruck for a few minutes before turning slowly to face the now-silent River.

"What the rutting hell was that!"

"Saved us," she said serenely.

"Don't do that again! Leave the saving to me, I can do it with guns and stuff. No more of that psychologicy go se, yeah?" River shrugged.

"Officers love a pretty girl."

"But you're not pretty," he grumbled under his breath. River smacked his arm, eyes blazing.

"Tell Simon," she threatened.

"Fine!" He shivered, remembering the young doctor's warning earlier that day. "You're pretty. Very pretty. The prettiest gorram girl I ever saw."

"Oh, stop."