Title: Lost

Series: Bad Blood

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: looks around confused yup, no piles of money for anyone to take me to court over.

Authors Note: Lady Cleo made me a pretty header for my lj which pretty much inspired all of my Rayne interaction in this chapter, plus (for some odd reason) a good chunk of that Kaylee/Simon part, so I am forever in her debt for that. (plus she writes one of the best Rayne stories ever)

I've decided to go with a shorter chapter this go round because who knows how long it would take for me to get the next part of this written and I figure something is better then more nothing. This is about 4,950 ish words…and I had to fight for pretty much 3,830 of them. I am very unhappy with the muse right now… glares at her

Thanks as always goes to mik109 for making it all sound better with her awesome beta skills, even though her net is down, she's like magic that way.

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It was hot, which was not all that uncommon on the rim granted, but it was also humid. The muggy air seeming to hang on every word, not to mention move, a person made, though the truly unbearable part came from how close everyone was around you.

River frowned at how the crowd seemed to part around Jayne and come crashing back into her as they slowly made their way through the crowded streets of Bristol. She huffed angrily as another heavy set man came crashing into her side particularly hard, and briefly mused to herself that it was a grand scheme plotted out by universe to make this whole ordeal as wholly excruciating as it could possibly be and took to again cursing every event that had led up to this point, including the birth of a certain mercenary.

She glared ahead of her only to see Jayne standing at a street corner looking around him in obvious confusion. She pushed through the throng of people and came up next to, the now frowning, man.

"Jayne."

"I've been here." He stated, cutting her off from anything she would have said otherwise. "I've been on this crap heel planet before, an' I've been in this crappy city." He stated looking down at her as he angrily pointed his finger at the ground.

"I told you our location days ago…" she scolded as she grabbed a hold of his arm to keep from being pushed over as another pedestrian rammed into her.

Jayne pulled a face and waved a hand at her in annoyance.

"And you had no recollection of the planet, let alone anyone on the planet." She continued ignoring the fact that he was paying absolutely no attention to her.

"I jus' gotta figure out which bar it was." He muttered to himself as River continued on.

"I find it hard to believe you would just remember the planet or, if you have been here before, have forgotten it so easily." River glared at Jayne as he spun around in place, taking care to read every sign in view while simultaneously ignoring her. "What are you doing?"

"I told you. I gotta figure out which bar it was."

River stared up at him and slowly tilted her head to the side, as though looking at him from another angle would help her to better understand his current thought process, which if she was being honest she wasn't entirely sure he had in his possession at all.

Jayne stopped his spinning and growled quietly when none of the bar signs seemed at all familiar. He glared one last time down the long street just to his left and then to his right, which is when he noticed the petite brunette currently attempting to glare him to death. "Don't give me that look."

"You have no idea where we are."

"That ain't true. I'm just a little turned about is all…" River arched her eyebrow at him and Jayne was, as loath as he was to admit it, a little intimidated by her. "I haven't been here for over fifteen years okay."

She blinked up at him and made the conscious effort to close her mouth and not gawk as Jayne straightened up in a subtle attempt to regain his sense of control over the whole situation. River suddenly found the toe of her boot extremely interesting and ducked her head down to get a better look at it, but it had nothing to do with the way he was staring at her.

Jayne shook his head slightly and glared up at the midday sun. "Look, nothin's familiar an' tryin' to find the bar I frequented over fifteen years ago is gonna be damn near impossible so we might as well just pick a place and head on in." He finished with a wave of his hand at the buildings around them, most of which happened to be bars. "Might be we get lucky an' I'll see someone I used to knw." He looked around the street once again and barely held back a groan. "Which is unlikely as all hell…We're probably gonna hafta go to more'n one bar, too."

The sound of the bustling city clanged and chattered around the pair as they stood at the street corner, one glaring all around him, the other... River huffed at the heat and turned to fully face Jayne, giving him a determined face. "Then we should get started."

----------------------------------------------------

"Is it safe?"

Simon's face scrunched up in confusion as the disembodied voice echoed through the large room. He chanced a tentative glace to his left, and then right. When he noticed no other people in the room, save Inara with whom he was currently speaking, he shrugged off the question as nothing more than the wind or an echo from another room.

"Was it hard to fix the engine on your own?"

Simon gave Inara a lopsided smile. "I didn't do it on my own. If I had been on my own, we would be dead by now."

Inara grinned back at the younger man. "That's not true."

"Oh, it's true…believe me it's true."

"Pst…is it safe?" The disembodied voice once again echoed out into the room.

"Inara," Simon began as he gave the large room they were sitting in another tentative look around. "You just heard that right?"

"Heard what?"

Simon gave one last cautious look around before leaning in closer to Inara. "That voice…" he asked in a harsh whisper that even she had to strain to hear.

"If you mean Mal's half-hearted attempts at being covert, then yes I did."

"You just ignored me?" Mal asked angrily as he strode into the room, all the while glaring at her.

"I attempted to, yes."

Mal glared down at the perpetually poised woman, who was making it a point to remain unaffected by his manly intimidation, or at least that's what he was telling himself. "No ignoring the Captain." He stated with an angry wag of his finger in her general direction.

"Really, Mal…"

"You haven't seen any of those trainees around here, right?" Mal asked as he looked over his shoulder at Simon, completely ignoring Inara's comparison of his bullying being on par with that of an untrained puppy.

Simon stared up at the man trying to figure out what the trainees had to do with being safe in the training house. "No."

"Good!" Mal fell back into the large seat next to Simon and leaned his head against the back of it. "Means I can get some peace." He muttered as he closed his eyes and sighed in contentment of finally being able to sit for a spell.

"They're following you too I take it?"

Mal's head lolled to the side and one eye cracked open so he could see Simon. "Yup, an' I plan to make myself scarce for the rest of our stay." He answered, again closing his eyes and stretching his legs out to lie on the top of the table in front of him.

Simon nodded and put his tea cup on its saucer, moving them both farther away from Mal's feet as he put them on the table. "It would be easier to avoid them if you knew where they were."

Mal shrugged casually. "Takes the excitement out of it."

"Yes, because being what we do for a living isn't exciting enough."

He chuckled lightly, keeping his head leaned back and eyes firmly closed. "I like a bit of variety in my excitement."

Simon smiled and shook his head. "I have enough excitement in my life; I'd rather know where they are." He stated as he stood up from his seat. "So I think I'll go find Kaylee, and, hopefully, she'll know where they all are."

Simon mumbled a goodbye to Inara and left the room, heading for the last place he had seen his bao bei.

"Of all the places in the 'Verse to get a following." Mal muttered off-handedly as he tried to catch up on some of that sleep thing he had been missin' as of late.

"Yes, you're cursed to have a gaggle of swooning girls following after you. How horrible."

Mal leaned his head forward and opened his eyes so he could stare at Inara on the seat across from him. "I sense a bit of hostility there now 'Nara. Wouldn't be jealous that everyone's taken a fancy to someone other than yourself now would ya?" He said as he flashed her one of his cocky grins.

Inara resisted the need to roll her eyes at him and instead took to just staring at him in obvious annoyance, which Mal took to mean that he had won the would-be fight they may or may not have just been having. Honestly, he wasn't exactly sure where he stood with Inara anymore, which wasn't all that much of a change of pace, but he had an idea about it. They still fought and bickered, she would nag and he would offend and then they would be angry for days on end without really knowing how the argument started, but that was them and that was how they did things on his boat and Mal wasn't lookin' to change that any time soon. They were a stubborn pair so it was always a mighty feat when one of them would win an argument, even if they weren't entirely sure if it was an argument they were really having in the first place.

Mal smirked and leaned his head back, eyes slowly sliding shut in peace.

Inara shook her head and stood up from her seat, half empty tea cup left forgotten on the table in front of her. She took a moment to stare down at the man lounging comfortably on the plush seat before she shook her head and began to leave the room.

"If you're not careful Mal, you're going to loose your Serenity." She stated simply from the door of the room.

Mal's head shot up and he stared over at her.

"After all, I do know where the trainees are."

"That ain't even funny, 'Nara!"

----------------------------------------------------

The two slowly made their way through the crowd of people as they made their way to the nearest bar. The pair pushed past a small group of obviously intoxicated men as they entered the bar while a large neon sign above the door blinked away even in the midday sun. Jayne took care to steer River away from the group, since it was just a matter of time before one of them lost the last meal they had, and over to a safe distance and through the front doors.

River scrunched up her nose, just like she had done when she entered the bar on Harvest, and gave Jayne a pitifully sad pout over her shoulder as the sounds, not to mention smells, of the bar crashed over them.

"Don't give me that look. Ain't like I wanna be here." She made a small noise of protest, whether it was from the statement which, even he had to admit, held no truth what-so-ever or the fact that he was currently pushing her into the bar he wasn't sure.

Bristol was known as a layover point for more than its fair share of ships an' the city showed it. There were bars, Casinos, and brothels as far as the eye could see and all of the low lives that came with 'em. Jayne kept a firm grip on River's shoulders as he moved her through the cramped and crowded bar room.

Once they were in a spot where they weren't likely to be run over by drunks, Jayne reminded, "Ain't none of this trip's been fun, and that ain't likely to change any time soon. We just gotta suck it up and keep on until we can get Mal to get his worthless pigu here to pick us up."

Jayne looked around the fairly crowded room as the pair stopped next to the bar. "Look, I'm gonna check around, see if I recognize anyone, or if'n anyone recognizes me. You stay here an' out of trouble."

River stared up at Jayne as he pointed an accusatory finger at her. She rolled her eyes and slid into a chair at the bar. "Tong ni dang dao."

Jayne ignored the girl's muttering and started to make his way towards the other side of the bar.

River shook her head and turned towards the bar. She looked up and down the bar in an attempt to find the seat with the fewest aberrations of moral fiber near it. She slowly made her way down the bar until she reached the seat at the end.

She sat there for what felt like forever, though in reality it couldn't have been more then fifteen minutes, dutifully ignoring all of the long stares and bad pick up lines that were being thrown her way.

"You might wanna see ta your beau." A sweet sounding voice ringed out.

River looked up at the woman on the other side of the bar as she cleaned a recently cleaned mug. "Excuse me?"

"Your fella…the big guy ya come in here with." The barkeep said, nodding to the back of the room since her hands were both still busy with the mug. "He's over there with the girls…ain't a man alive I seen able to resist the lot of 'em, not without some persuasion on their gals parts."

River stared at the woman in front of her, confusion etched on every feature, as she attempted to decipher what it was that barkeep was trying to get at.

The barkeep rolled her eyes slightly and shook her head a bit before flashing the young woman a bright smile. "You gotta go stop your boyfriend 'fore he goes and does something stupid."

River slowly turned and looked towards the back of the bar, where the woman was pointing to. "Jayne?"

A brilliant smile broke free on the barkeep's face. "His name is Jayne? Humm…"

River nodded and looked back over her shoulder to where Jayne was standing. "It would be pointless to attempt to keep him from making a foolish choice, it's inevitable…and he's not my boyfriend." She finished with a bemused stare at the woman.

"Oh, well it's just that y'all look so cute together s'all." The woman shrugged innocently. "Oh well, I guess it's nothin' to worry on then. Can I get ya anything to drink?"

River sat firmly in her chair, looking over her shoulder at the table Jayne was currently hovering around and all of the girls that happened to be hovering around him. She stared straight at him for a long moment before a small frown found its way onto her face. She turned back to the woman behind the bar and gave her a weak grin before shaking her head no.

The barkeep gave the young girl a sad smile, one that reminded River of Kaylee, which just made her face fall that much more. "There anything I can do for ya, honey? A girl like you ain't supposed ta sit sad at a bar all night."

She gave the barkeep another small smile and shook her head. "The only thing I need is a working Cortex connection."

"Sorry, ain't but one of those here." She gave River a small grin. "And less'n ya know Mont ain't no way you're gonna get to it."

"Mont?"

"Yeah, Montgomery. He kinda owns this place…and by this place I mean the planet."

"The planet?"

"Yeah, that's why he's got the only workin' Cortex feed."

River quirked an eyebrow as she looked over to where Jayne stood schmoozing with the working girls in the corner and obviously enjoying himself entirely too much. "Where would I find him?"

----------------------------------------------------

The dark clouds rolled high in the sky as Simon made his way outside and down the winding path through the garden.

"I thought I would find you out here." He said as he came up behind Kaylee, who was standing in the middle of a small patch of grass completely surrounded by flowers of every color imaginable.

Kaylee smiled back at him. "Hey, whatchya doin' out here?"

"Escaping." He answered smiling back at her.

"Oh, the girls gettin' ta ya again?" She asked, holding back her laughter.

"Not yet, which is why I came out here…my subtle attempt to escape the inevitable I suppose." He said with a lopsided grin.

A few drops of rain slowly began to sprinkle in around the pair. Kaylee grinned and looked up at the sky. "I think it's gonna rain."

The few drops steadily grew in number as the two stood in the middle of the garden. "I think it is raining Kaylee."

A crack of thunder echoed in the sky above them as the rain began to pick up in intensity.

"Com'on." Kaylee shouted grabbing a hold of Simon's arm. She half-pulled, half-dragged, him towards a tall wooden gazebo that had been built next to a group of, now blooming, cherry blossom trees.

"Does it ever not rain here?" Simon asked as he ran a hand through his now soaking wet hair.

Kaylee giggled and sat down one of the wooden benches that had been built into the middle of the gazebo. "Sure it does, just not often. River told me it was the dry season here."

"She would know…" He mumbled staring out at the heavy downpour of rain around them, a sad smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh, Simon."

"I should never have let her go on that job with them."

"You didn't exactly have a choice Simon, what with the Cap'n orderin' her to go an all…"

"No, I should have tried harder…I should have….I should have done something. She shouldn't be out there like this."

Kaylee shook her head and sighed. "Simon, she ain't the fourteen year old girl your folks sent away, an' she ain't that broken girl that popped outta that cryo box on Serenity two years ago." Kaylee said slightly vexed that Simon still treated River like she weren't able to handle nothin' when she had more'n proved she could take care of herself. "She don't need ya babyin' her an' she don't need no fixin'."

"I'm not trying to fix her Kaylee, and I know she will never be the little girl I grew up with again. I know that…It's just that…" Simon sighed as he ran his hand through his hair again, only this time it wasn't because of the rain. "I've spent so much time trying to help her be herself again. Miranda did something I could never do for her. She doesn't need me giving her injection after injection anymore. She doesn't need me to tell her that everything will be alright anymore because it is. But that doesn't mean I can just ignore the feeling that I should be doing something to help her."

"Oh, Simon, we are helpin' her ya know. It's jus' that we can't do all that much when we don't know where they are an' all."

Simon nodded despondently and walked over to the edge of the gazebo. "I know that. I really do." He looked over his shoulder at Kaylee. "It's just that…what if the reason we can't find her is because she's hurt, or worse that the Alliance has her again?"

"Don't you think like that, Simon. It's different now." Kaylee urged as she got up from the seat. "She's got a family now and they ain't about to let somethin' happen to her. An' whether you care to admit it or not Jayne's a part'a that family." She moved over to stand next to him, placing a gentle hand on his back. "Jayne'll keep 'er safe." She said softly, doing her best to comfort and reassure him.

"Right." He nodded, staring out at the garden as the rain poured down around them. "…Jayne."

"Oh, com'on, he ain't that bad."

"Not that bad?" Simon asked incredulously as he turned to stare at Kaylee with what she hoped was mock horror, even though she knew it was most likely just utter horror. "He's only attempted to get River and me kicked off of the ship ever since we got there."

"That ain't fair, he's changed since then." She chided, moving her hands to rest on her hips. This conversation was going bad just about as quick as all of the ones they had had before Miranda.

"Changed? Kaylee to change a person has to care…and have a brain."

"If that's how you're gonna be then fine, you can sit out here alone." She announced, moving to storm out from under the cover of the gazebo.

"Kaylee, it is pouring, you can't…"

"People've walked in the rain before, Simon. Ain't like it's gonna kill me." She said as she moved toward the steps of the gazebo.

"Kaylee…"

"Why do you hate him so much, Simon?" She snapped, spinning back around to glare at him. "Why can't ya just accept him for who he is insteada always cuttin' him down? What's so bad about him, Simon?" She asked angrily, still standing on the steps of the gazebo.

"Kaylee…"

"No, Simon! I wanna know." She demanded angrily. "I want ya to tell me why he's so bad, why ya can't trust that he's changed." She asked sadly, finally moving away from the steps leading out into the rain.

"Because he can't change, Kaylee," Simon explained, almost at the point of shouting. "People and places and things change but not him, because unlike people and places and things nothing touches him. He never lets anyone near him Kaylee."

"Like you do."

"I had a reason…"

"An' he don't?" She asked quickly, cutting him off before he could finish his thought. "He's been out here a long time Simon, a lot can happen to a man the amount'a time Jayne's been out here."

Simon grinned sarcastically. "But he's still the same Jayne."

"He ain't always been like this, Simon." Kaylee explained with a shake of her head.

"Exactly!" Simon shouted pointing a finger at Kaylee. "He is everything I'm not, Kaylee. He's big and uncivilized, he uses brute strength to get everything in life, he never thinks, he never feels….He kills people, Kaylee, that's what he does." Simon explained slowly a look of perplexed revulsion. "He is everything I never want to be. He stands for everything I don't want to stand for. Being out there changes people. Doing…what we do, it changes people."

"What are you tryin' to say, Simon?" Kaylee asked nervously.

"This isn't the kind of life I want to lead, Kaylee. I don't want my sister going out and committing crime with wanted fugitives on a daily basis. I don't want my fiancée sweet talking the scum of the 'Verse to keep the ship in working order. I don't want to be patching up bullet holes in the captain of an old ship on the edge of the universe. I don't want to run from planet to planet breaking the law to make money. I don't want to be this; I don't want her to be this and I don't want you to be this. But the problem of the matter is that I'm starting to care less and less about all of that. The problem isn't that the crew was shot at, or that the ship broke down. It's that when it happens, it's business as usual." Simon shook his head and moved back to the edge of the gazebo, leaning heavily on the railing that surrounded the sides of the small wooden building. "She could die out there, Kaylee… You could die out there. I'm terrified that one of these times when the job goes south that'll be it. You two are all I have, Kaylee…I can't…I'm not strong enough to loose you, either of you."

"Simon…"

"Wash died Kaylee…Shepard Book died." He said unsympathetically. "They're dead and the Captain, and Zoe and Jayne kill. My entire life has been turned on its head. I'm not the man I wanted to be." He said turning back to stare out at the garden. "Nothing is the way I wanted it to be." He muttered quietly to himself.

"You're scared."

Simon's head shot up and he spun around to stare at Kaylee. "What?"

"Jayne's been out in the black longer'n any of us an' you're scared that the longer we stay out here…that you stay out here," she corrected with a point in his direction. "The more you'll be like him." She stated firmly before she began to shake her head sadly. "An' it ain't so, Simon. Jayne ain't had a family since he left home, not 'til he got on Serenity. He was livin' job to job, he didn't have friends… He didn't have no one that cared 'bout him."

"You've got no idea how good you got it joinin' Serenity insteada some other crew. You ain't gotta worry 'bout ever havin' to live like that. You ain't gonna be like him 'cause ya got us… Ya got me." She said sadly, trying desperately to make him understand. "The longer we stay out here, an' on Serenity, the more he'll be like us 'cause he's finally around people that care." Kaylee shook her head sadly and gave Simon a long hurt look. "We's family now. Ya best start actin' like one." She said before she turned and stormed off through the rain, leaving Simon alone with his thoughts in the middle of the storm.

----------------------------------------------------

Jayne leaned on the bar next to River, bottle of beer in one hand. "Learned anythin'?"

"The harvest in Salt Gap this year went poorly. Maybelle and Roy only ever get along when they are having sex. Drunks should not be allowed to acquire tattoo's. People should think twice before picking a Latin name for their ship because Phthirus Pubis is a very poor choice. A large group of men that came in earlier firmly believe that we've all lived lives almost exactly, if not frighteningly similar, to the ones we are living now and that we've met everyone we associate ourselves with before. And two adults, no matter how consenting, should refrain from taking naps together because it is considered abnormal by others." River answered in a monotone voice as she continued to stare at the bar top.

"What?" Jayne asked confused, none of that made any sense. What did takin' naps and getting' drunk have to do with knowin' everyone from a past life? What the hell was that thing about Latin, and who the hell was Maybelle and Roy, an' what the hell did they have to do with gettin' a wave to Mal?

"Three men of various sobrieties have attempted to entice me back to their rooms, Jayne…three!" River said angrily, now glaring at the bar top instead of staring at it. "And one very odd woman with an accent, but I think it was the alcohol she had consumed rather than her actual sexual preference."

"A woman?" Jayne asked in amazement. "A woman…" he muttered out again with a devious smirk and a nod of his head.

River glared at him as he took a drink from his beer and waggled his eyebrows at her. "You're over there flirting with whores while I'm stuck at the bar fending off drunks that want to…cop a feel!" She shouted furiously.

He nearly choked on his beer, an' as loath as he was to admit it, it weren't cause of her yellin' rather it were the idea of some drunk guy gettin' fresh with her.

After a deep gulp, Jayne put his beer on the table and glared down at River, deciding that it was better to be incensed over the fact that she thought he was flirtin' away with some whores in the back rather'n think on all of these "drunks" she had been dealin' with all night.

"Hey!" Jayne shouted, pointing an angry finger at the small girl seated in front of him. "I weren't flirtin' I was looking for information!"

He refused to waver under the intense glare that River was sending him; part of him secretly envied the intensity she had mustered while the other part wanted nothing more than to just look away before her brain killed him. "'Sides,it ain't like you was doin' much to help our cause."

Both of River's eyebrows shot up at that, and her mouth quirked over to the side. "The only working Cortex station is owned by the same man that owns this planet." She explained, making sure to do so slowly with very small words so he could not misunderstand her.

Unwilling to appear shocked by this completely new and fully helpful information, Jayne scrunched up his face as he raised his beer back up to his mouth. "Really?" He asked casually, choosing to ignore her patronizing tone. She'd had a bad night so he was willin' to let her slide a bit.

"Montgomery."

Jayne's fist tightened around the glass bottle he was holding. "Montgomery? As in Montgomery Klein?" He asked through clenched teeth as he glared at the bar top.

"Yes."

The glass shattered into pieces as Jayne tightened his hold of the glass bottle even further. "Na er de yi gou."

"Jayne?"

"Montgomery Osric Orrin Klein." He growled out as he slowly released his death grip of the shards of glass in his hand. "…Mook."

River frowned and shook her head slowly. "How is it that you always know these people?"

TBC…

That is if it cooperates with me