DISCLAIMER: Me own nothing, Joss owns all……..Me love Joss!
NOTES: Long Time, No update. I know! But this idea just did not leave me alone!
Answer to a Jaynegang Challenge…..that includes Jayne dressing up and playing the protector. Mine is with a twist. Still hope you Enjoy! This will have more chapters
What you see
„ I look like an idiot! " Jayne spat, trying to adjust the tie around his neck for what had to be the hundredth time.
"Aaaaw …no you don't!" Kaylee said from where she was leaning against the wall with a sweet grin. She walked over to him, untangling the mess he had made with the tie.
"Gorrammit!" Jayne growled, shrugging his shoulders. He felt like going to a carnival, dressed up as he was. "Can't even hide a decent gun in this thing." Kaylee rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You're not supposed to hide a gun, Jayne. You're supposed to look spiffy so you and Mal can get into the casino and snoop it out!"
Jayne gave a tortured sigh, looking at himself in the mirror. He was dressed up in a three piece suit, complete with one of those ridiculous vests the doc always wore.
"I look like a ruttin´ fool!" he said again with a thunderous voice that would have grown man scrambling for cover, but Kaylee just giggled at him.
"I think you look just right."
He made a face. This thing felt like it was hell bent on suffocating him. No wonder the doc always behaved as though he had a pole shoved up his backside…..at least part of that snobbish behaviour had to be the damn clothes!
"Don't see why she has to come though….." he murmured. Kaylee shot him an impatient look. "Cause Simon knows his way around places like that, fancy places, you know. And River …well ….she just gets to go where Simon goes. She won't make a ruckus …Simon promised."
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Apparently ……that was not true, as Jayne had the displeasure of finding out. Only five minutes in the mass of fancy people, drinking and gambling their brains away….and they had lost her. "I told her to hold my hand!" Simon said again, trying to ignore Jayne's murderous glance. Right, like that simple precaution would keep the crazy girl from going her own merry way in a crowd as loud and lusty as the people currently celebrating all around them.
Mal rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he saw his nice plan breaking apart.
"Well …can't have gotten far. We split up, look for her …and try to get the scooping done while we look around. Whoever finds her waits for the others in front of the exit, got it?"
Jayne mumbled something unintelligible, but turned around to move through the crowd. It took him only a few moments to spot the back of her …she was heading off, away from the crowd into a narrow corridor. Since he was a good deal taller than most of the people around him, he caught sight ofthe interested, significant looks of three young men gave her, grinning at each other as they followed her.
"Damn that stupid girl to hell…" he thought. " Never knows how much trouble she gets herself into …or us for that matter!"
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There was something in her face, a sudden slump of her shoulders as she looked up from where she was backed into a corner and saw him coming. A certain tension that had been in that small body, draining away. But Jayne had no time to ponder that …Mal was gonna have his neck if they even bent a hair on her head. He grabbed one of the boys by the neck.
"You're so pretty ..Why won't …hey….get your hands off me!" the guy said, looking Jayne up and down. Jayne raised an eyebrow at him." Looks like the lil´lady won't be needin´your company." He said simply, giving the young foppish man a push for good measure.
"Do you know who I am? Do you know who my father is?" the boy asked him furiously from where he had fallen on his scrawny ass. Jayne crossed his arms in front of his chest, ignoring the groan of the uncomfortable cloth of his jacket as it was straining to accommodate the play of his muscles. "Don' t know, don' t much care."
He had seen it coming, both him and one of his friends launching themselves on him at the same time. It made Jayne chuckle…he'd been longing for a brawl ever since he had been forced to put on this stupid-ass suit. It was almost too easy to be true, they were no fighters …no finesse, no technique …things Jayne had never really needed due to his brawn. Hell, they didn't even have that. He put their lights out in less than two minutes. Shrugging his shoulders in discomfort at the suit again – no good fighting in constricted clothes like that - he was about to turn to grab that damn crazy girl, when ….
He heard a muffled thumping sound at his back and whirled around. The picture which greeted him made his eyes widen in surprise and bewilderment.
She had the third guy pinned to the wall by his neck, the knife he had meant to strike with slipping from his hand to the floor. A nasty, two edged blade…..
She had the assailant pinned to the wall with one of her feet, her leg extended straight upwards without effort, her foot applying a crushing pressure to the man's windpipe. The position made him wheeze helplessly, struggling like a rabbit caught by a snake. The position or angle did not seem to discomfort her though. Her balance was flawless, effortless on the balls of her other foot, planted firmly on the ground. It was a thing of beauty.
She looked at Jayne...and for once Jayne really looked at her. Not a furtive glance, but a straight, inquisitive look. She did not seem frail or weak or the least bit confused. She was all attention, fierce and proud and it spoke to a part in Jayne he had long since forgotten. She had saved his life, or at least saved him from a nasty wound.
River exhaled, a deep, relaxing breath and with an elegant twist of her foot, she shut off the attacker's air supply until his body went slack and he lost consciousness.
Two feet firmly on the ground again, she shifted her body carefully into what he immediately recognized as a fighting stance. Jayne only admired the subtlety of her moves, her watchful eyes never leaving his face for a second ….until Jayne understood …granted, it had taken him a little longer to catch on. But when understanding dawned on him, he stared at her in baffled, shocked silence.
He could feel a wave of annoyance and anger rise in him, just looking at her now …..those eyes of hers full of alertness and security. There was no doubt, no confusion…no babbling or flinching...the crazy girl was nowhere to be seen. Damn her!
"Damn …" she took another deep breath, straightening as she looked at him. She could read it in his face, in his eyes …..That one word said it all. And suddenly her meandering away from them in the crowd, the look she had given him when he'd turned up….it all added up…..even plain enough to see for Jayne.
"You're not crazy" he said soberly with a hint of annoyance mingled with surprise.
She'd played them all …like some damned flute. He shook his head and growled at her, pointing a finger in her direction. "You are not crazy, Gorrammit!" .
River Tam swallowed, looking at him with a serious face that looked completely different to him now that he understood. Still, it seemed too young for all the things he could see in her dark eyes. "You cannot tell them!" she said simply. "They cannot know!"
