Title: Continuous Frustration
Series: Bad Blood
Pairing: It's going to have a bit of all the canon, plus Rayne!
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I owned them that would make me a professional writer/God, and if I were a professional writer/God this story would be done by now…since it isn't I think it's safe to say that I don't own 'em.
Authors Note: I'm sorry…that's all I can say really. I had a terrible month followed by projects and exams up the wazoo, thanks to said projects and exams my brain was completely over flowing with needless information, and then I started having problems at work so…my Muse decided Canada looked better then my brain and she took off.
I just started summer school (costs less money and its quicker so I can get out of college as fast as possible without selling my soul) so I would imagine updates will be a good deal like this one with the long waiting. I'm terribly sorry to anyone that's been interested in the story and wanted to see where it was going, I know that waiting can be a real pain. And to those of you that read it and forgot about it, yeah I don't blame you.
Oh, and maybe it's just me, but my favorite thing about waking up is lying in bed and stretching just after you wake up, seriously it's sometimes the only thing that will actually get me to wake up in the morning.
I love my bridge builder! Mik109
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The warm air hung in the room along with the total silence. It would be eerie if it weren't so damn peaceful. This place was beautiful, there was no denying that, but that beauty hid something from everyone an' that made him more then a little uneasy.
The Guild was up to something, and if there was anything Mal didn't like, it was the Alliance, or the groups that supported the Alliance, bein' up to something. They were more then willin' to hold him an' his crew on Harvest for as long as they needed, an' Mal couldn't shake the feeling that in part had something to do with i who /i they were lookin' for.
The warrant may've been taken down, but that didn't mean the Alliance didn't still want his pilot for something. The girl had a brain bigger then the whole damn Verse. No way Miranda was the only dirty little secret she had sneakin' about in her brainpan.
"Tell me you have good news, Zo." Mal asked with a slight cringe. He already knew she didn't. They'd been on Harvest for damn near two weeks with no news of their apparently lost crew members.
"The good news is they ain't dead." Zoe answered as she walked over to Mal's side. "But no one knows where they've gone either, sir. It's like they've just disappeared."
Mal sighed deeply and turned towards his second. "No one just disappears, Zoe, especially a guy like Jayne. Someone knows where they are. We just ain't found 'em yet." Mal answered as he turned and began to walk back towards his room. He needed to figure out who was most likely to want his merc dead.
"An' its likely we aren't going to." Zoe said stopping Mal in his tracks. Mal turned and looked over his shoulder at Zoe, giving her his patented blank face, which really was more of a mix of confused and angry if you asked her. "We've been here twelve days, sir. That means they've been off the ship for almost eighteen days."
"What're you sayin'?"
"I'm sayin' that askin' about for them ain't doin' it, sir."
"And what exactly do you think we should do? It's not like we can just count it as a loss and move on. I can't pilot the damn ship all the time an' you an' me ain't enough when we go on runs. As odd as it might be to think on, we need those two misfits more then I care to admit." Mal answered her. "So unless you've got a brilliant plan on how to find 'em, we're gonna keep askin' around. Somethin's bound to come up sooner or later."
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Jayne's eyes slowly drifted open. His body felt heavy, like it had been stuffed with cotton, while his head had the odd sensation of floating. He blinked a few times trying to clear the haze from his eyes and realized the feeling was a lot like the one he got when he woke up in the med lab after one of Mal's regular jobs.
He breathed in deeply, taking in the musky sent of the room. Unfortunately, breathing in that deeply hurt like hell. He groaned deeply at the burning in his back and side as he turned his head to bury it in the pillow he was using, ignoring the small damp spot where he must have drooled on it.
"Morning, sleepy."
Jayne's head jerked up at the sound of a vaguely familiar female voice. He lolled his head to the side opposite of where he had been looking when he first woke up, and found River beaming down at him from a poorly stuffed sofa seat she must have pulled over to sit next to the bed.
"Have a nice nap?" She asked, the bright smile never leaving her face.
"Nap, huh? How long I been asleep?" he asked with a small yawn. "Don't feel like more'n a day." He muttered more to himself than her as he turned his head away from her in a vague attempt to work out the kinks that had just shown up.
River shook her head even though he wasn't looking at her. "No, you've been asleep for a long time."
"Yeah?" He turned his head back towards her, his neck in well enough order for the time being. "Well, time flies when you're having fun." He grinned over at her sarcastically.
"Or when you're in a drug induced state of comatose." River stated in that all too scientific voice she used sometimes.
"Coma…what?" He asked turning his head towards River as he lazily rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What the hell do you mean coma?" He questioned hoarsely as he tried to look at her, though due to the midday light streaming in through the window just behind her he mostly just squinted at her. "How long I been out?"
River bit her bottom lip "247 hours, 35 minutes and 29 seconds, but you've been coming in an out of consciousness for…" she trailed off as she noticed him staring at her in disbelief.
He shook his head slightly before looking around the small room once again. "River….Where the hell are we?" He began to push himself up and off the bed so he could stand, or at least sit up straight, which was proving to be more difficult than it should have been.
"Don't!" River shot forward, her hands moving to lie gently on his shoulders. With a small push, she made him lay back down. "You've been unconscious for over 10 days. Your body's muscles have begun to atrophy from the lack of movement." Jayne shot her a pained and confused glare as she sat back in her chair. "Don't worry, the effects are only temporary and you will recover quickly due to the fact that you're…well…very large."
Jayne's face scrunched up in a confused anger as he lay on the small bed. With a low groan, he closed his eyes tightly and wished, not for the first time since he'd gotten stuck off ship with the crazy pilot, that he could just wake up from this horrible nightmare that had become his life.
River shifted uncomfortably on the chair she was perched on. She really hadn't expected the conversation to go this way.
She was prepared for him to be angry about being tortured, and then, thankful that she had saved him, thankful she had worked so fervently those first two hours after she had found him and thus kept him from bleeding to death, thankful she had run to the nearest town and gotten them transportation, thankful she had found them a place to stay until he was well enough to leave, thankful she did all of that and kept them from being noticed by anyone. She had expected him to be angry at anyone but her. He wasn't allowed to be angry with her. If anything, he should be thanking her.
With a deep and angry sounding sigh, Jayne looked back over to River. "Where the hell are we?"
River clenched her jaw slightly; still offended that he could even entertain the notion of being angry at her. "Newhall, in a small town not far from the capital city." She answered tersely.
"Newhall?" Jayne's eyes moved from River to stare at the wall in front of him as though it would tell him where he had heard that name before. The wall, in fact, was not in a very talkative mood, and Jayne was left with the nagging feeling that there was an important fact he should remember about Newhall.
"There aren't any Cortex connections on the planet except in the capital." River continued on, answering the question she knew he was about to ask.
"Well, we better get goin' then. Sooner we get a message out to Mal, the sooner he can come and pick us up which means this little trip from hell can be over."
River stared at him with that classic 'you're being a boob' face she saved for her brother all of the time. "You can't move yet. You're still hurt."
Jayne groaned as he again began to push himself up and off the bed. "I've had worse." He argued as he straightened his arms. Pain ripped through his body as he froze in a half push up, half laying down position.
"No, you haven't." She chastised as he continued to just sit there in his awkward position.
"Sure, I have." He continued, deciding it was probably a better idea to try moving his legs before he moved his upper body so much. "I've been shot plenty a' times." He slowly moved one leg forward into, what he currently decided, was a far more uncomfortable position then the one he had just been in. "An' stabbed…" He groaned again as he tried to make his other leg move to join the first one.
"You almost died."
Then he froze, the pain shooting through his body almost forgotten as her words hit him. It wasn't so much what she said, which coming from a man with such great self preservation instincts as his really said somethin'; as much as it was the way she said 'em. They were all quiet and sad, like the idea of him bein' dead bothered her almost as much as it bothered him.
He slowly turned his head to look at River, who sat ramrod straight and still as ever in that stained chair just looking at him. An' for some damn reason that he couldn't think of, the fact that he should thank her came floating into his head. As he stared into those big brown eyes of hers he really felt like he ought to say somethin' just so's she knew he was glad she hadn't let 'im die.
Jayne shook his head slightly and clamped his still open mouth shut, though he couldn't remember openin' it. His mouth suddenly felt too dry and he started to realize how very uncomfortable his current crouching position was for his back. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, figuring that just getting it over with would probably be easier then just sittin' there all uncomfortable like tryin' to figure out how to say thanks. "River.."
"You took care of me," She cut him off quickly, realizing how awkward he felt saying thank you to anyone. After all, just knowing that he would have said thank you was all she really needed. "Now, let me take care of you." She finished as her hands moved back to his shoulders before she gently helped move him back into his original spot on the bed.
He looked at her with what she could only describe as a sad puppy face as he laid down again. He buried his face in his pillow and breathed out a deep sigh of annoyance as she pushed his shirt up so she could see his entire back. Jayne groaned again as she surveyed the damage. "This is a bit worse than a bitty scratch on the arm."
"Yes, it is." She answered in that distracted scientific voice he was certain she learned from her brother.
Jayne glared at the wall in front of him for a few moments before deciding the walls in hotels were all boring. He looked over his shoulder and back towards River who was engrossed in checking his injuries. "You ain't exactly a doctor, 'less you've been hiding something kind of important from all of us."
"No, I'm not. I've never had schooling for proper medical procedures, and injuries sustained during my time on Serenity have been sadly lacking in severity so I have little experience to work from." She again answered in her slightly distracted scientific voice, which Jayne was beginning to realize he really did hate.
"Musta've learned something from that brother of yours," Jayne shot back over his shoulder, deciding that even a distracted conversation with her was better then just staring at the wall. "Lao tian ren, you've got his bed side manner." He muttered, the words muffled by the pillow he had again buried his face in.
River shook her head even though Jayne couldn't see her. "Could never do what Simon does."
"That's not exactly the kinda thing a guy wants to hear when he's going under the knife, qing ren." Jayne shot back at her, a small smirk playing across his face.
River ducked her head, letting her hair fall around her face, as she beamed at the endearment. "Then you have nothing to worry about," She answered looking back up into his face as he stared back at her over his shoulder. "I'm not using any knives." She finished with a small smile.
With a small huff of amusement, Jayne let his head fall back down onto the pillow, his head cocked to the side this time so he could still talk. "Yeah, I guess good ole Mickey did that enough for ya, didn't he?"
River frowned down at Jayne's mostly healed back. "Most of the damage has healed." She said as she moved from the edge of the bed over to the night stand, pointedly ignoring the mention of Mick. "Does it still hurt?" She asked as she began to rustle about inside a black duffle bag Jayne had just now noticed. "The ship's supplies of soothers are almost out. We have enough for another day or so if you need them."
"You've been takin' care of me for the past…240 some odd hours?" He asked, getting her to look up from the duffle bag and to him. "Usin' just what you snitched from that gorram boat we were thrown on?"
She stared at him with unsure eyes for a moment uncertain how to continue. She hadn't expected him to care how she had taken care of him, or how she had done anything she had done for the past 10 days for that matter. She knew he wouldn't be angry about her stealing from the men that had tried to kill him rather he would in fact most likely be thrilled by the idea, but even that didn't answer why he cared. She slowly nodded her head again, deciding that the last injection of smoother she had given him must still be in his system and was therefore the cause for all of the behavioral oddities he had been demonstrating.
He shook his head slightly in disbelief. "Well, they were well supplied then weren't they?"
River nodded slowly again, removing the medicine she had been hunting for. "It's fortunate that they had recently re-supplied. If they didn't have such a ready supply of different medicines, you would most likely have died from the blood loss, let alone the damage done to your back." River moved over to sit at the edge of the bed.
"Lucky me."
"The impairment to the Latissimus Dorsi and the Trapezius muscles alone would have taken conventional methods years to fix…"
He tensed slightly at the word 'years'. He didn't like the sound of 'years to fix.' Years was a long time to get fixed! "Wait, so…" He stared at her, trying to seem as calm as possible when the only thing going through his mind at the moment was her voice repeating 'years to fix' over and over again. "I'm okay, right? I mean, I'm not going to be all scarred, right?"
"Yes and no," River shook her head as she twirled the small tube of medicine she had gotten from the bag in her fingers. "This helps with the regeneration of damaged tissues. The epidermis and dermis have already healed enough to insure that any scarring will be unnoticeable."
Jayne stared at the small tube of what he had thought was ointment, which River was holding. "We should get some of that stuff for Mal. As often as he gets shot, I bet he'd like it."
"It's created from a mass of dedifferentiated proliferating cells of salamanders. The creation of the mutated blastema breaks eight different genetic laws, which makes it highly illegal to produce, let alone to attain." She recited off the facts as she removed the cap from the tube. "This might sting." She muttered before she applied it to his back.
Jayne gritted his teeth against the stinging that shot through his back.
River bit her lower lip as his body tensed and quickly finished applying the medicine. She put the now closed tube down on the bed next to her before she leaned over and began to gently blow on his back in an attempt to help lessen the stinging from the medicine.
Jayne's body tensed further the second her soft breath washed across the skin of his back. He had never in his life been so thankful to be in enough pain that his body didn't react like it would normally in a situation like this. Ain't like it was every day he had a pretty girl petting and cooing over him. Every muscle in his body had gone ridged and he gritted his teeth even harder as the stinging slowly began to fade.
River leaned back after a moment and bit her lower lip again as she stared down at Jayne's overly tense form. She sighed quietly before looking over to the chair she had been sleeping in for the past 10 days then back down to Jayne, who remained unmoving and tense, sprawled out on the bed.
No, she hadn't expected this reaction at all.
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Mal ran a hand down his face with a deep sigh and groaned at the low clap of thunder that came in through the open doors and windows. His foot steps echoed in the long hallway as he resolutely marched towards…wherever he was going. It was damned impossible to not get turned around in the long and winding halls of the ornate companion house.
He always said it was better to keep moving than get stuck in one place, made it a point to live by that motto for a long time now, and it didn't seem like the time to stop listening to himself. Besides, Mal had all the time in the 'Verse to do whatever he wanted, wasn't like he had anyone waiting up for him and he needed time to clear his head and get things in order.
Nothing was going even remotely right for him, which in all honesty he was used to. For a month or two things were runnin' smooth an' it started to get to him. Ship had been in good shape, jobs had been going a bit better than usual, hell he hadn't even fought with Inara since…
Another clap of thunder rumbled in through the open windows and Mal stopped walking. He glared out of the huge windows that lined the hallway, as lightning flashed in the distance. This weren't the place he should be tryin' to clear his head that's what his cockpit was for, that was what his mess was for, hell it was what his whole gorram ship was for. It was places an' times like this he longed for the black. Somethin' was off about the place; somethin' that made his skin itch, but he couldn't quiet place it.
The quiet patter of footsteps just behind him had Mal's hand falling to his hip, and the very empty holster there. He bit back the groan of anger as he remembered the very strict rules Inara placed on him an' the crew while they were stayin' in the training house, one of which was no weapons. He glared down the hallway in front of him, ears straining to pick up on the footsteps he had just heard.
The open shutters pounded against the walls of the training house as the wind began to pick up and another shudder of thunder rumbled out. With a short snort of laughter, Mal shook his head, all of the stress of the last few weeks was finally gettin' to him, he was on edge a mite jumpy. He gave a quick glance over his shoulder and was greeted with an empty hallway, just like he thought.
Shaking his head, Mal continued on this walk to…where ever it was this hall lead to. As he turned a corner the next to silent sound of footsteps rang out. Mal slowed down his walking and listened hard. There was no mistaking it, someone was following him.
He decided to play it dumb and continued with his walk down the hallway, just 'cause he heard someone walkin' didn't mean they were followin' him. Mal rolled his eyes at himself, of course whoever was behind him was followin' him, weren't another soul on this side of the training house, which was exactly the reason he had chosen to walk there. Growling quietly to himself, Mal spun around to see…absolutely no one behind him. Maybe he was going mad, maybe after all of these years and everything he had been through he had finally snapped.
Mal turned and began to walk back towards, or at least in the direction he believed lead to, the main sittin' area where he had last seen Kaylee an' Simon. After a few more minute,s of walking the footsteps began again. He shook his head and decided to ignore the sound, choosing to instead concentrate on getting back as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately enough for Mal, his ability to ignore things was on par with his ability to have a civil conversation with Inara, so it didn't take more then a few minutes for him to have had enough. He didn't like this place much as it was, last thing he needed was someone doggin' his steps. With a determined glare, Mal spun once again and found himself alone in the hall.
Mal looked around him slowly, thoroughly confused. He knew someone was following him. He knew he heard footsteps echoing down the hallway that weren't his. He knew somethin' fishy was goin' on. With a small grin to himself, Mal took two large steps and leaned against the wall, staring back the way he had come from. If whoever it was that was following him wanted to hide, then he'd just wait 'till they checked to see if he started movin' again.
After a few moments of nothing happening, Mal began to get bored with waiting, after all patience was a virtue he never real cared for. He pushed off the wall he had taken to leaning against and determinedly marched down the hallway, making sure to scan each open door he passed.
"This is gettin' ridiculous." He muttered to himself as he looked around the bend in the hallway and still came up with nothing. Running an annoyed hand down his face, Mal turned to start his way back down the hallway and towards the others, the faithful thumping of footsteps following just behind him.
Since spinning around didn't seem to work, and tryin' to loose 'em was pretty much impossible, Mal was left with only one option, to out think them. He quickly racked his brain trying to come up was a suitable plan for discovering his stalker. As he walked down the hallway searching for a suitable, and fast acting, plan of action he caught sight of something beside him. It was subtle and muted but there in the now closed windows that lined the hallway, he could make out the shape of whoever it was behind him. Or in this case the whoevers.
There, plain as day, only a few feet behind him was a group of no more then six trainees, all gathered together and staying close to the wall, and thus the doorways they could use as hiding spots if he chose to turn around again.
Mal slowed to a stop, mouth hanging slightly open. "Huh." He stood for a moment, attempting to come up with something to say, but everything he thought of seemed to die before it ever had the chance to reach his mouth. He turned slightly, not enough to see the group behind him, but enough to send them quietly rushing to hiding.
Mal gave a glance behind him as he slowly began to start his way down the hall for the last time. With a few more quick steps, Mal found himself surrounded by ivory colored walls and huge richly colored pillows and seats.
"Hey, Cap'n. Thought you was goin' for a walk?" Kaylee chirped from her seat amongst the overly stuffed pillows and overly made up trainees.
"Kaylee…" Mal began in an as offhanded voice that he could muster "There a bunch a girl's followin' me?" He finished quickly giving her his 'I'm slightly annoyed and this is not a joke' face.
Kaylee stared up at him for a moment before leaning to the side and around him. Sure enough there was a group of 6 girls huddled together scooting into the room as covertly as possible. "Yup."
Mal nodded his head at the extremely cheery reply from Kaylee, slowly the nod turned into a shake of his head as his small bemused grin turned into an annoyed one. "Why?"
Kaylee beamed up at him. Honestly, there were times when the man was more than just dense. "Oh, Cap'n, they think you're swai." She answered biting her lower lip to keep from laughin' at the face he pulled at that news.
"Swai?"
She nodded quickly, still holding in the giggle that wanted to break loose from the face he just couldn't seem to shake. "They're just curious is all." She explained as he continued to look at her as though she'd gone an' sprouted another head. "They ain't ever seen a space pirate before."
Mal rolled his eyes and breathed out an angry sigh. "I ain't a pirate, Kaylee."
"I know that, but they got it in their heads that chya'are." Kaylee looked up at Mal, case of the giggles forgotten. She quirked her mouth to the side and shook her head a little as he continued to mope. "You should count yourself lucky, at least they're tryin' to sneak about when they're followin' you. They just flock after Simon gigglin' and the like."
"Of all the places in the gorram 'Verse…" Mal let his head fall back and took to starin' at the ceiling, holding in the sigh that usually would have come along with the act. He was sighin' more'n was healthsome as of late as it were. "There a single place here I can get some peace?"
"Don't get all touchy Cap'n, they've been followin' us all around," Kaylee pressed on "but I think me an' Zoe are gettin' followed for different reasons then you an' Simon. Well, other reasons for some of 'em, after all they ain't all…"
"Kaylee!" Mal cut the girl off before she could not only finish that sentence, but possibly go into detail as to how she knew they were all…you know. "Just…tell me where they're not."
"How should I know?" She asked, smiling brightly at him from her spot on the sofa seat. "Unlike some people I ain't tryin' to avoid 'em all."
Mal glared down at his mechanic half heartedly; honestly it was harder to glare at that girl then it was fightin' that gorram Operative back at Mr. Universe's. Shaking his head Mal turned to make his way back out of the room. As he strode over to the door that lead back towards the rooms they were given for their stay he caught sight of the six girls that had been following him. He gave them a hard stare as he marched out of the room, the sound of quiet giggles followed him the whole way.
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Jayne groaned deeply, the pain in his back pulling him from his sleep. He sighed to himself, silently damning his own mind for allowing himself to wake up from the first really peaceful night of sleep he'd had in longer than he cared to admit.
He decided to fight against his ever waking mind and kept his eyes firmly shut, maybe if he just ignored the burning in his back it would fade some and then he could get back to sleep. So he growled deeply and wrapped his arms around whatever it was he had pressed to his chest more firmly and shifted in the bed, trying to find the most comfortable position.
That's when she moved.
With a little groan, that sounded far too much like a mewl, River snuggled down into Jayne's embrace.
His eyes shot open and his breath caught in his throat as he was met with the smooth curve of the girl's neck a hairsbreadth away. "Aw, go se."
Jayne's entire body went rigid as he wracked his brain to figure out why she'da climbed into bed with him an' made herself all cozy like. All he remembered was River givin' him another smoother 'cause his back was hurtin' somethin' fierce 'fore he went back to sleep, and unfortunately everything after that was kind of a blur. He stared at the small girl wrapped up in his arms and mentally kicked himself. For the first time since they'd landed on Harvest, Jayne was happy to be split up from everyone else, 'cause if any of the crew were to find 'em like this there would be some hell to pay.
River breathed in deeply and rolled away from Jayne, giving him the chance he was waiting for. He pulled his arms back and moved further onto the other side of the bed, an' as far away from the feng le pilot as possible.
Pain shot through his back with the small roll though, and he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from yelping. The smoother River'd given him last night was most definitely outta his system now. Every little ache and pain was slowly making itself known to his ever waking mind, which annoyed him to no end.
River yawned loudly bringing Jayne's attention back to her. She groaned happily and stretched her arms out above her head. Jayne watched as she extended every part of her body, slowly stretching everything.
She hummed happily as she finally arched her back up and off the bed, allowing the muscles in her back to stretch for the first time in days. She laid quietly on the bed, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth and eyes firmly shut. "Thank you." She mumbled sleepily as she turned her head and opened her eyes to look at Jayne.
He stared down at her, confused in more than one way thanks to the stretching she had just done. "Huh?"
"Thank you." She repeated, smiling over at him.
Jayne stared at the still smiling girl on the other side of the bed before he shook his head and moved into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, and further away from her. The pain that shot through his back at the simple movement brought his mind back to reality. "What the hell are you doin' in bed with me?" He barked out, choosing to not look at her when he asked.
"You told me to." She answered, the smile evident in her voice.
Jayne's head snapped to the side so he could glare at her over his shoulder. "The hell I did." He shot back at her, even though that sounded vaguely familiar to him.
River rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling of the room. "You did." She answered back, ignoring the angry tone to his voice. "You asked me to sleep in the bed and not on the chair."
Jayne's eyes jumped from River's reclining form over to the wall on the other side of the room as he mulled things over, that definitely sounded familiar. Jayne slowly closed his eyes in a vague sense of horror as last night started to come back to him.
"What about you? You jus' gonna sleep in that ke pa old chair again?"
"Go to sleep." River said quietly pushing Jayne down into the bed.
"Can't be any matter of comfortable." He continued on ignoring her insistent urges to just lie down. He gave her a lop-sided grin.
"You'll be sorry in the morning." She began again. "The smoother I gave you should last at least four hours and…" she trailed off as he continued to grin up at her. "Just go to sleep, Jayne."
"But what about you?" he asked as he leaned back in the bed.
"You're very drugged…you get flirty when you're drugged."
"I'm always flirty." He said with another grin. "'Case you haven't noticed I like girls…"
River shook her head, fighting back the grin that wanted to break loose. "I've noticed. Now, go to sleep."
"But.."
"The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner I can go to sleep." She cut him off, talking in circles wouldn't do either of them any good.
Jayne fell back onto the bed and watched as River slid down into the completely stained and hideously ugly sofa chair next to the bed. "Why don't you just sleep right here? It's a big bed, plenty a room for two."
"There's barely enough room for you, besides you like to cuddle when you sleep." River answered back smiling down at him.
"I do not cuddle."
"Zi de yin u gou…you couldda just ignored me!" He shouted as he pushed himself off the bed, the anger rushing through his system helping to dull the pain in his back.
"You wouldn't let me go to sleep until I agreed." River answered slowly, beginning to take offense at the tone he had begun to take with her.
Jayne scoffed at that as he glared around the room in search of his boots. "Yeah, 'cause a doped up mercenary is really going to be able to do somethin' 'bout you ignorin' him."
River pushed herself up so she could sit on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling off the side. She glared at Jayne's back, wishing, and not for the first time, that she could find a way of ridding herself of the mercenary without any backlash from the local authorities, or the crew for that matter.
"You kept whining and wouldn't lie still until I got into bed with you."
Jayne turned back to her and leaned down menacingly over her belligerent form. "First, I do'nt whine. And, second, you got onto the bed I was in, not into bed with me. Let's be clear about that."
River sighed angrily. "You are a stubborn pig headed man. If I hadn't done it you would have cause yourself more pain and we were out of smoothers. So I thought it best to humor your, obviously drugged pigu! Besides, I've slept in that gorram chair for over a week, by Buddah wo gai xie xiu ye. It's not like it was easy to take care of you all of this time."
Jayne blinked as River finished off her speech by leaning up toward him and yelling in his face. The crazy girl had beaten him up before, but she'd never yelled at him. He found he didn't like it. And, that made him damn mad.
Straightening up, he sneered, "Well, I'm better now so we'll just go send ourselves a nice wave to the Cap'n and get the hell of this rock."
"I told you the only place that has Cortex feed is in the capital city."
"Yeah, an' that don't make a lick a sense. How can a whole gorram planet only have one place where they can get any feed?" He asked angrily as he snatched his boots off of the floor.
"Upper atmospheric anomalies cause high levels of electro magnetic interference." River stated, her head cocked to the side and staring in the general direction of Jayne. He slowly turned to glare at her over his shoulder. "It can't get through." She said simply as she stared at Jayne with what could only be described as her 'I forgot you don't understand big words' face, something she was coming to use more and more around Jayne as the days went by.
Jayne rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "It can't get through, gorram back ass planet."
"What are you doing?"
"What's it look like I'm doin'? I'm gettin' ready ta leave."
"You can't. It's too far away." She explained from her spot on bed. She watched as he continued to lace up his boots and ignore her. "Too much stress on the Latissimus Dorsi could cause further damage and the Trapezius needs more time to regain it's strength and…"
Jayne stared at River as she counted off all of the reasons he couldn't leave, "Girl!" He cut her off before her head exploded or some such. "Calm down, I feel fine."
"You're a liar."
His head shot up at that and he leveled a hard glare at her. "What did you say?"
"You're a liar." She said again, unflinching at the quite intimidating glare he was sending her way. Intimidating or not, she was right. Besides, he'd glared at her before. "You don't feel fine. If you felt fine, you wouldn't have been so grumpy when you woke up."
"I ain't a mornin' person, girl. I'm always grumpy when I wake up."
She shook her head giving him a bemused look as she pulled her leg up to her chest. "Weren't grumpy yesterday." She explained as she rested her chin on her up drawn knee.
"Like I said earlier, that's 'cause I was still a bit loopy from all them drugs you used on me." He snapped back trying to wipe that small grin right off her face. "Ya know for a person who hates gettin' doped up so much ya sure are quick ta deal it out."
With a small sigh and a roll of her eyes, River gracefully stood up from the safety of the warm bed and moved over to where her boots were sitting next to the wall. "Liked you better when you were drugged." She mumbled as she slid to the ground to put her boots on.
"What a surprise, I liked you better when you were drugged too." Jayne shot back at her, along with a forced grin before turning back to where his gun belt was laid across the table.
Jayne gritted his teeth and groaned deeply at the feel of something hard hitting into his lower back. He turned around and glared at River who was sitting across the room from him with only one boot on.
"That ruttin' hurt!" He barked out as the stinging in his back slowly started to die down. "What the hell happened to all that 'you ain't fully healed' go se?"
"Dai tian xing dong ren." River muttered angrily as she stomped over to where he stood and snatched her boot off the ground.
Jayne glared down at the girl standing in front of him, fist clenched tightly in an attempt to keep himself from strangling her, after all weren't likely Mal let him back on Serenity if'n he killed the doc's little sis. "I swear if'n you were anyone else…I'm this close to losin' your skinny ass soon as we get to…" It finally struck Jayne that he had no idea what the capital of Newhall was. "Whatever the hell the capital is." He finished lamely.
River shook her head slightly and moved away from him to once again sit on the edge of the bed. "Bristol." she said as she finished lacing up her second boot, choosing to ignore the angry way he was pulling his belt through the loops of his cargo pants.
Jayne froze the second the name left her mouth, belt held in a white-knuckled hold. "Bristol…" he muttered out.
"Jayne?" River asked, trying to cover the concern that had made its way into her voice. "What is it?"
He turned and stared at River with more anger that she had ever seen before. "Mook."
TBC
