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"What is this, Daddy?" Francesca asked, chewing on a strand of hair and holding up a cardboard box.
Jayne tugged the lock of hair out of her mouth and tucked it behind her ear. Then he took the discovery from her grasp and admonished the young girl to be careful.
"This was the first thing I ever bought fer yer Ma, Frankie. It's fragile," he added as he pulled the package from the box.
Fascinated, she asked, "Really? What did you buy it for?"
"Her birthday--long ways back. Well, I guess it wasn't all that long ago, but it was before you were born...before we even got married. Yer Ma kept it in this here box to protect it, keep it safe."
At her expectant look, he knew he had to elaborate, so he sat down to explain.
"Ok. See, we was at this casino--"
"What's a Casino?"
"Fancy place were you lose a lot of money. Unless you are a genius, or with a genius, then it's only bad for them's that'r uptight pretentious folk--"
"What's a genius?"
"Someone real smart-like. Got themselves some schoolin' so they's, well--top 3 percent...or better."
"So, who was the genius?"
"Why, yer Ma, of course," he answered incredulously.
"And you didn't lose your money?" she asked, impressed.
"Nope. Made a fistful of coin that night, actually--"
"What were you doing there?"
"We had a job--" he started.
"What kind of job?"
"Only kind that count: one that paid--"
"So you made even more money?"
"Yeah, I guess I did--"
"What did you do with it, besides buy Mommy the present?"
"Stuff. Look, Frankie...you want me to tell ya the story or what? 'Cause we could cut this little break short and get back to packin' and movin' all this stuff to the other rooms," he told her, impatiently.
Francesca nodded contritely and looked down. Jayne could see her bottom lip begin to wobble, so he sighed heavily.
"Awwww, don't do that. I'm sorry, baby. C'mere," he called her over. "I didn't mean to snap atcha. Yer Pa's just a bit tetchy lately. Them babies don't seem to EVER sleep at the same time. And with River doin' her best to feed 'em both with what she's got...well, you'd think that after almost three gorram months they'd..." he trailed off and sighed again.
"You miss Mommy? She has been so very busy," the girl offered.
"Yeah. Kinda hard to sleep good now without her next to me for a whole night--like you and your wubby. Maybe with all of us movin' to the dorm to have more space, things'll get better--don'tcha think?"
"I know it will. Will you finish the story now?"
Jayne smiled and lifted her up onto his lap and put the package in hers. He kissed the top of her head then continued.
"So we're at this fancy flying casino, and...well, we was all so busy that somehow, everyone forgot her Birthday had passed--even Aunt Kaylee! I felt real bad for it, so when I saw this in the store window, I just knew I had to get it for her. I went inside, paid the man way too gorram much for it, and had it wrapped so that it would be a surprise. Then, I took it back to my--her room where she was...uh, painting, yeah painting."
Laughing, the big man added, "She took for-ruttin'-ever opening it too! She wanted to save the paper--this here paper it's wrapped in as a matter of fact."
Lightly fingering the paper and marvelling at it's texture, Francesca looked down to study it more closely and told him, "It feels rich, Daddy."
"Well, it oughta considerin' what I paid for it!" Jayne complained loudly, but half-heartedly. "Anyway, mine was her first gift all night and she musta liked it a whole bunch," he added, then smiled at the memory of what occurred later.
The precocious girl cocked her head and asked, "How do you know?"
Flustering a bit, Jayne finally answered, "'Cause--well, she told me she did! Yep, that's why."
Satisfied, the girl said, "Oh, OK. Show me it's secrets Daddy...what is it?"
Jayne untucked the folded corners and revealed the beautiful Mother-of-Pearl inlaid box. The little girl's enormous brown eyes widened in awe, and then narrowed to focus in extreme curiosity. The chuckling father turned the box over and wound the key--then opened it to reveal the delicate Ballerina and to start the music.
"Oh, Daddy!" Francesca said breathlessly. "It looks just like Mommy when she dances!" she exclaimed a few seconds later.
"Ha! That's what I thought when I saw it, baby," he told her. Jayne then leaned down to whisper conspiratorially, "But your Ma is a whole lot purtier. And so are you," he added kissing her head again.
That made Francesca giggle.
Suddenly, Jayne had an idea. "C'mon," he said as he pulled her to her feet. She looked at him, confused.
"Put yer feet on mine, Frankie," he suggested, and she immediately complied.
"Yer Ma taught me how to dance...well, dance right anyway." He held her tightly by the hands and he began to move slowly around the small room.
Francesca leaned back to look up, adoringly, at her Father. "I love you, Daddy," she told him with an enormous smile.
She looked so very much like River at that moment that his breath caught and he once again thanked whatever benevolent deity had gifted him with this family. ALL of his family--everyone on Serenity.
Laughing, he lifted her up into his strong, steady arms, and they continued to dance until well after the music ended.
Finally, after moving all of their belongings into the two adjoining rooms and settling the children down to sleep in the beds next door, the couple lay on their new bed--spooning for the first time in weeks.
River casually mentioned that she had heard the music box.
"Frankie found it and wanted to know the story," Jayne told her as he hugged his wife tightly to him, breathing deeply of her apple-scented hair.
Smiling, she asked, "Mature content. I hope you edited it to an appropriate level of content and context for a 4-year old removing references to Mature Themes, Graphic Violence and Sexual Situations. You did, right?"
"Course I did," he huffed. "Figured you could tell her some more A-proprit kinda stuff 'bout us seein' as how I know you can do it better. You always use the differen't voices and stuff and that's Frankie's favorite. Anyway..." he trailed off.
She turned over within the circle of his arms and looked at him expectantly.
"What?" she asked.
"Oh. Weren't nothin'."
"Zhang-fu, I could always just read your--"
"Ai ya! All right," he grudgingly acquiesced. Jayne put his arm around River's shoulders and she rested her head on his as she waited for him to continue. "I...danced with her. Like I did with you that night--only she weren't nekkid," he added with a lecherous grin and a twinkle in his eye. "River, gorram Baby-Girl--she's real graceful. Maybe when you are up to it, you can teach her some o' that kinda stuff."
"Teach her what, my big, fuzzy, clock-dweller? I've been teaching her how to dance since she could stand," she told him. "Like a butterfly, she was born to danc."
"Guessin' that's kinda meaning she's just like her Ma? River-girl, she is you're spitting image! Wonder why she acted like she didn't know what we were doin', like she didn't know how?"
"Because, simple like calculus: Wisdom imparted from mother to daughter takes a long time to germinate and it's practical application not achievable within the first 14-15 years at best...thus it is reserved for use at a later date. Francesca is is 50 each of us, but is solely her Father's progeny." At his blank look, River added "she is a 'Daddy's Girl'. Makes you a hero, the things you say become gospel, the things you do become legends and myths and fairy tales.
The statement made him grin proudly; after all, he knew he was a good Papa and took pains to give his better'n he had--not that he was complainin' 'bout his Ma or nothin; they'd done the best they could. "Well, there's lotsa stuff that I can teach her too, you know," he reminded her.
River crawled sinuously on top of him and said with a seductive smile, "I know. And it is always enough for tenure. Ummmm...yes, Professor Humbert deserves his bits of apple-flesh for a job well-done," she added, purring and offering herself up for tasting.
Missng her innuendo and reference, Jayne told her, "Lotsa stuff you got outta them books, too. Bet 'Nara never woulda given 'em to ya if she'd known."
River huffed a bit and answered, "Possibly, but unlikely. 'One must see to one's own personal, sexual-health and education first,'" River mimicked in her best Inara-voice. Unstoppable Force will always triumph over immoveable object. Needed those user's guides to understand and care for my model-Jayne; playbooks necessary to make him mine--only had to chase him until he finally stopped and caught me; simultaneous score for both sides--Touchdown!" she told him as she traced her finger down his 'Happy Trail', her final word punctuating the path of her hand as it wrapped firmly, possessively, around him.
Jayne laughed and asked as his hands spanned the swell of her buttocks, "So this is like our Victory Dance?" When she grinned and nodded, he pulled her down for a kiss...but paused, their yearning lips separated from each others' by a shared breath.
"What?" River whispered, breathlessly.
With a pout, Jayne told her, "Just waitin' for the babies to cry and spoil our fun."
Shaking her head, she firmly stated, "Not relevant."
Confused, he asked, "Well, why not?"
Rubbing herself against him she said, "Brother-Boob volunteered himself and Not-Really-Feeling-Like-Strawberry-Sunshine to take the extended watch. 'Need th' practice with handlin' more'n one of them, just in case, you know?' she told me," River said, imitating Kaylee to perfection this time. "Installed receiving comm in child's room earlier; promised to attend them at the first sounds of wakefulness. Francesca would simply slide down the rabbit hole to have tea in Wonderland with Inara, or climb up her Zoe-Tree to be told of the Technicolor World and Terrible Thunder Lizards."
As she moved to sit astride him, Jayne slowly realized what his wife was saying. "So, you mean...no interruptions?" he asked, his voice tinged with excitedment.
"Exempting unforseen Acts by Diety's and catastrophic mechanical failure, no. None are anticipated; the interruption that you have created with all of this verbal communication is most distressing. I can think of a much more pleasurable use for your mouth," River purred as she leaned forward to press her breasts against his chest.
Grasping her bottom in his large hands and lifting his hips to thrust firmly against her, he answered with a cocky smile, "I bet you can, Baby Girl. I bet you can."
River always got what she wanted.
A short while later, Jayne felt a moment of panic. He tugged her leg off of his shoulder and stopped mid-thrust, his arm muscles quivering with excitment and from exertion.
"Wait," he told her breathlessly, lifting his head only slightly and looking at her through his lashes.
"Wait? What, NOW?" River asked incredulously, and slightly frustrated at yet another interruption. She lifted her hips to meet his, attempting to draw him back and finish what he started while her fingers wrapped tightly around tufts of the hair on his chest and pinched his nipples hard.
He groaned out the word "Baby-girrrrrrrrrrl," in response and pulled his torso up and away just a little, but her strong thighs grasped firmly to make sure he remained seated within her and her hands moved to encircle him so that her nails could scratch heavy marks down his back and would bite sharply into his buttocks.
The heavily aroused Merc hissed and groaned and moaned with pleasure, but managed to clear his head, "Did ya...aaahhh ah yes...you know...uuummm oh man...talk with the Doc...hhiissss hell yeah...you know, about them shots?" he hurridly finished.
With a predatory gleam, River heaved and flipped them both over; she pinned his shoulders to the bed and ground down upon him.
"No more needles," she growled, her hair wildly framing her face. Then she leaned down and bit him hard on the chest--twice--leaving faintly forming bruises as her mouth's calling card, while one hand moved behind her to scratch his thighs.
Again, he groaned in pleasure at how his wife continued to man-handle him but between her bites, pinches, scratches, and love-taps he kept trying to get out his concern.
As she continued to ride him, River's fingers roughly twisted his nipples and her teeth firmly held and pulled on his bottom lip, Jayne mumbled, "No...ah, yes...I mean...gawd Baby,...please...don't stop that but...oh...you gotta let your man have his peace."
"He is, he will. Pieces of me once again shattered into one," she replied as she yanked his hair back and to the side so that she could suck ferociously at his neck.
"Ai ya, "Peace," not "piece"! Baby-Girl, you are in rare form tonight, ain't'cha?" he asked with a leacherous grin and waggle of his brows. Her response was a feral growl.
Suddenly no longer content with having her lead, Jayne snatched River's head back by her hair and grabbed her hip. Then he quickly rolled them both over, trapping her hands between them as he did.
"Now, did ya talk to the gorram Doc 'bout getting them shots or do I gotta tie ya up and torture ya some more with my tongue?" he asked as he teased her by flicking the tip out to lick sweet salty sweat from just under her ear. Slowly his breathing returned to closer to normal.
"Repeat please?" she squeeked "Unable to process...wait. Shots, yes. Of course I did--we discussed many options but ultimately decided on altering Feminine hormone levels and stabilizing them through pharmaceuticals for the purpose of temporarily preventing conception. Introduction to body via monthly intra-muscular injection to the gluteus maximus."
"Oh, right," he nodded, not quite SURE of what she just said. Be he understood part. "Thank heavens," he murmured with a sigh into her hair as he lowered himself onto her, relieved.
The Merc continued to make love to his wife...but began this time to caress slowly--he moved within her almost gently. The glassy look in her eye as she spoke earlier was something he had missed, and he had been waiting to touch her, to taste her, to melt into her...for months now.
Evidently, however, River balked at the retraint he was showing. She was still a bit frenzied, so she yanked her hands from between them and once again sunk her nails into his firm buttocks; then she bit his shoulder savagely and rose impatiently to meet his thrusts--with this, River wordlessly urged him to take her more forcefully, more quickly. Jayne released another hiss when she licked the wound, and bit another on the opposite shoulder...while the silky feel of her hair as the waves trailed around and down his arm made his toes curl. Her mewl of pleasure/passion prompted him to grab the locks into aa meaty fist, roll them both over to one side, and with a loud crack
He spank her.
"You are playing with Fire, Prometheus," she whispered into his ear, a delightfully wicked grin hidden as she planned how to go about chaining HIM up in the future.
He did it again and she squirmed against him frantically.
Rubbing her ass cheek gently to soothe the burn, he told her "Plenty more where that came from!"
"That was surprisingly arousing; do it again!" she ordered him, still trying to press against his body, or ride his thigh.
So he did.
Keening from the pleasure she cried out, "I want you NOW; I need you." Whimpering, she finally begged, "Jayne, please! Do not hold-back, nor worry about injuring me," she commanded him.
With his weight still supported almost completly by his right elbow, he laughed assuridly, roughly hauled her hips up to meet his and began to thrust more powerfully. He did not hold back; he unleashed the full magnitude of his passion for her, on her, in her, around her...something that never failed to take River's breath away, even after all this time. It was a feeling she reveled in, experiencing it all so completely that the tips of her hair tingled.
THIS was what it felt like to be alive, she thought triumphantly to herself.
Quickly flipping him over, River firmly pinned his hands to the mattress by his head. Forcefully she tucked her legs under her and straddled his hips, then she mounted him roughly and rode him fiercely. Yes, Jayne definitely got back every bit as good as he gave, and he watched her, enthralled, as she brought them both to explosive orgasms.
After a second round of unrestrained sex, River lay on her stomach as Jayne slowly trailed kisses down her back. When he got to her bottom, he palmed one of the globes and asked, "So, did it hurt?"
Without lifting her face from the pillow, she asked, "Did what hurt? Clarify please."
"The shot, woman! I am already down here 'cause I figured I oughta do somethin' 'bout these hand prints. Didn't mean to make nothing hurt more...I could try and kiss it better for ya," he responded with a smirk, and then proceeded to do so, firmly laving her buttocks with his silky tongue.
River moaned loudly, enthusiastically, as his goatee arousingly tickled and scratched her tender flesh, and she leaned to the side to tell him, "Oh, that. I am not certain, but I will definitely let you know--I am scheduled to get the first one in two weeks."
"Maybe," she added with a naughty smile.