DISCLAIMER: I wish I owned Jayne …But alas …..I Don't
NOTES: Sooo everybody saw thew BDM ..Except for me …….(sniffle) we Germans get to see it in November: HEhhe except for those Lucky enough to score Tickets for a preview …like Me! YAEY!
So in my happiness a short new chapter ….Don't have any time since I am in the process of Moving! Do not worry! I intend to continue all my stories!
FRAILTY
„You want to know a secret?" River asked. Malcolm Reynolds looked up from pushing a heavy crate through the freight room with a frown. River Tam looked back at him wide eyed, with the shadow of a secretive smile on her face. She was sitting on top of several neatly stacked crates, her legs dangling over the edge. She looked the epitome of girlish innocence and childish joy, though she´d had to be as quick and silent as a cat. He did not even remember seeing her climbing up there. He narrowed his eyes, watching her. She seemed pretty much together right then, no wailing or haunted looks. In fact the doctor's sister almost looked kind of smug the way she loomed over him from top of those crates.
"A secret?" Mal asked. River nodded, giggling a little in that eerie way that never failed to make him nervous. Across the bay he could see Jayne straightening up from his own crate- pushing, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
River leaned forward and downwards to Mal. "You have one box too many." She whispered to him, but her breathy voice still rang across the room. She held up her finger as though to emphasize the number. "One…"
Jayne made a face, looking from Mal to her in a sour manner.
"What's she going on about?"
Mal shrugged, looking at her. "One box too many …..no fit. No room." She said, suddenly jumping down and landing safely on her naked feet, nimble as a cat. Then she made a few dancing jumps, twirling through the rows of already stacked crates as though they were a maze for her to get lost in. From up on the catwalk, Zoë watched, raising her eyebrow as she perused the freight they were smuggling.
"Could she be right?" she asked. Mal huffed, giving her an indignant look.
"I think I know how much freight my own ship will hold, thank you very much! Calculated it exactly…." He padded his pockets for the piece of paper, just as River pulled it out of the pocket of her dark blue dress. She held it up as though she was holding the Holy Grail.
"Got muddled up, too many numbers …miscalculated. ", she sing-songed. Twirling towards Jayne who gave her an angry, almost warning look. For a moment Mal was wondering whether he saw something like defiance flash though River's eyes. But then she just thrust the piece of paper into the merc's hands and strolled up the stairs. "One box …too many. It'll never fit!" she said smugly, disappearing into the corridor.
Jayne pursed his lips, not looking after her, but unfolding the crumpled up paper. Sure enough it was the page filled with Mal's calculations.
Somebody had written over and across Mal's handwriting with a red pen. Here and there several columns were completely crossed out and replaced with her own estimates. Mal raised his eyebrows. He faintly remembered the preacher telling him about lil' River Tam trying to "correct" his bible.
"Where' d she get a red pen?" Mal asked in annoyance, moving over to Jayne. He took the notes from him, staring at River's corrections. The mercenary shrugged at him with a foul look. "How am I supposed to know? She's crazy."
The thought that Jayne's seemed to say that a lot lately crossed his mind.
"What I want to know, Sir, …" Zoë said with an amused expression. "…is if she might be right." Mal looked at his second in command, then back to her River's scribbled notes.
"Something tells me she just might be …" he mumbled, his eyes moving over the crates.
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"That was some stunt you pulled!" Jayne growled a few hours later. He had been looking for her long after everybody had gone to sleep. He even had successfully dodged Wash who was looking for a night-time snack in the kitchen. She was sitting on top of some of those ruttin' heavy crates in the freight bay again, now stacked so high, that they almost reached the catwalk. River's dark eyebrows drew together and she was rubbing her forehead. It made him wonder if her head hurt. "What was I supposed to do?" she returned, sounding tired and weary. "Walk up to the captain and just tell him that …."
"Beats jumping around like a moon brained colt and making a spectacle of yourself like that, if you ask me!" He leaned his arms on the railing, looking at her.
"This is not a game!"
"No …it's not." River hissed. "You think this is fun? You think I like playing the crazy girl, skipping around one minute, wailing like a madwoman the other? Speaking the truth masked in riddles…sometimes hoping that some of the information I am trying to divulge will make it through, especially when things are important? I hate it and it wears me out. Do I look like I am having fun?"
"Might just help if you came clean then …" Jayne told her smugly. River rolled her eyes.
"I told why that is not an option. Maybe you feel comfortable with risking everybody's life but .."
"Now you hold on there, Gorrammit. If memory serves me right, you apparently have no qualms of risking mine in the process."
He could tell she was angry now by the way her brows drew together and her face became tense and hard. "You weren't supposed to know …it was an accident."
"Yeah, but I found out and ruttin' good it did me!"
"I didn't exactly plan that!"
"Well ….maybe you might wanna get it in that smart head of yours that you cannot plan everything!" he hissed, trying to keep his voice down.
"I am only too aware of that, Jayne Cobb. You think I'd be here if I could? You think I'd been to that …..place?" her voice choked on the last word. It sounded almost like it ached her to say it. River bit her lip and looked away. For a moment Jayne was taken aback …He'd seen her weak, but not like this ….she looked her age now. He could see her throat working, trying to keep it all together. For the first time she looked ….frail. Jayne growled, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of her face amidst all that messed up hair. Her yelling he could take, but bein' around crying womenfolk …he was no good with that.
"You ain't gonna cry, now are ya'?"
