A/N: I'd like to apologise to anyone who is disappointed by the gap between updates on this fic, or the fact the chapters are on the shorter side. It's sort of the nature of the beast with the way I'm writing it and my fic-load right now, but I'm doing my best and I appreciate every kind review sent my way. Thanks all :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 5

"I really did not plan on using my medical skills on the two of you, especially not in such quick succession," said Simon as he did his best to ease the wound in Jayne's leg.

"Is what it is, doc," he told him, biting on his lip when the pain spiked some. "Gorramnit! Swear to God, always bites more when the lead comes out than when it goes in."

"I'm happy to say I wouldn't know," said Simon with a tight smile. "This should help though," he said, giving Jayne a shot of something strong for the pain.

River walked around the medical bay as if she were dancing, sometimes watching Simon work on her lover, sometimes seemingly not looking at anything at all.

"Her own wounds were superficial," she reminded her brother, spinning around.

Her dress rose in the twirl and revealed a bandage on her leg. There was another on her arm and a suture holding together a cut near her hairline. Despite her injuries, she had been inordinately happy when she returned to the ship with a similarly beat up band made up of Mal, Zoe, and Jayne. Simon never thought to see the day when his little sister would get into a bar fight, not least on the Independents side of a Unification Day brawl. It wasn't as if he could blame her for being anti-Alliance after all that had happened to her. Simon was of the same mind as she when it came to the evils inherent in the so-called government, but he did not feel the need to use his fists and feet to hammer the point home.

"Having your face seen in public probably isn't the best thing right now," he reminded River, grabbing for her arm as she spun by him, but she evaded easily with a child-like grin.

"Too slow!" she told him, poking out her tongue. "Besides, she had protection - friends and family - and more than able to take care of herself now."

"Ain't that the truth?" said Jayne with a grin. "Shoulda seen her, doc. Like a bird soarin' and a hammer swingin' all at the same time. That's my little woman."

"He makes poetry of her motion," said River happily, before turning a little more serious. "Not in front of brother," she told Jayne, apparently reading the direction in which his mind had travelled next.

Simon dropped his medical tools into the tray with a clatter and turned away.

"We're done here," he said flatly. "Please, go."

Jayne let out a low chuckle as he moved to get up from the bed. River moved to assist, trying not to giggle herself. They left together, heading off to their room and Simon was glad to be left alone a moment, though he had company again rather sooner than expected.

"Everything alright with those two?" asked Shepherd Book with concern.

"Yes, they'll be fine," Simon said with a smile. "Is there news of the Captain and Zoe?" he checked.

"Not that I've heard," said Book sadly. "Though I have confidence in their resourcefulness. They seem to know what they're doing, even if the situation at hand might go awry."

"I wish I was as flexible in a crisis," said Simon sadly, eyes on his instruments and the cleaning up that needed to happen, even if his mind was wandering terribly. "River and Jayne, they've adapted to the situation so easily. I presume it is something akin to what Jayne has known all his life, and River is only glad to have her freedom, but I... I'm not this person. I wonder if I know how to be," he sighed helplessly. "I'm sorry, I had no intention to treat you like a priest at confessional."

"Should you need someone to talk to, son, I am more than happy to listen," said Book kindly. "You know, it's a very brave thing you've done, giving up the life you knew, your family, a position as a wealthy doctor, to go on the run from the Alliance in order to help protect your sister."

"She doesn't need my protection." Simon shook his head. "Jayne appears to be everything she needs, I'm just..."

"You're her brother, the only family she has left," Book reminded him. "Whilst I'm sure the two of them are dedicated to each other, they do need you. With the trouble they find themselves in, your medical skills will come in quite useful, I am certain on that," he said with a smile he couldn't help.

Simon smiled too. "Perhaps you're right. Sometimes I wonder how any of us came to be here. Though the Captain told me he could find uses for all three of us aboard, and I don't disbelieve him, he's taking a monumental risk by having us here."

"For all his bluster, I do believe the Captain to be a man of honour," said Book, nodding his head. "He couldn't live with himself if he allowed that poor girl to go back to such a fate as she has already suffered."

Simon nodded his agreement, it was all he could do. Even considering for a second what River would go through if the Alliance, or even their parents, got her back, it was too much to bear. Plus there was whatever punishment he and Jayne would surely face for assisting her escape. He really couldn't stand to think about it one moment more.

"Always hate the afterwards of these kinda adventures," Jayne grumbled, trying to get comfortable on the bed.

His injured leg had a dull ache around the wound since the doc shot him up with painkillers, which was coupled with a dull ache in his head from the same doping. Jayne reckoned he could sleep for a week given half the chance, and yet he didn't like the fact he was already drifting in and out. The Captain and his mate had gone and got themselves pinched, which made Jayne more nervous than he planned to let on. So far they was still undercover and there was a chance they could all come out o' this okay. 'Course if Niska got wind that plans had gone askew on the way to Paradiso, bad things would come for all of them. The old hwun dahn knew nothing of River nor Simon being aboard, and they had no part in this job. Jayne had pitched in, figuring it couldn't hurt none. 'Course he hadn't exactly planned on getting a hole blown in his leg.

"He worries," said River from her place perched on a chair across the room. "Chain reaction that will blow the world away. Not far to fall, as the Crow flies."

Her eyes were wide and glassy, staring through Jayne rather than at him. It'd be a creepy ass expression she was wearing if he didn't know and love her so much, and if she she weren't smiling pretty as a picture the whole time.

"You got a notion that everythin's gonna turn alright, bao bei?"

"Relative term," she shrugged, eyes returning to the notepad in her lap as she coloured in a sketch previously made. "Goodnight, Man-Called-Jayne," she said with a smile, knowing he was already all but sleeping.

River concentrated on shading in the spaces on her latest work of art. She liked the colours, the deep red, shining golden yellow, and icy blue. She felt the whole rainbow running through her, and for as long as she could concentrate on it, she was a girl again. She laughed and played in the sunshine, knew her worth, worried about nothing. It was another piece of herself that she could hold onto, similar to the part that was Jayne's bao bei. When they lay together, she was woman, strong and warm and passion-filled. These were only puzzle pieces, fragments of what she was and what she could be. In between were other bits. Some did not fit, others could not be quantified. Even River was not sure how they all went together to make her, but hoped someday an explanation would be found.

At least she had a home. Osiris seemed a million miles away, a lifetime and more. She did not think of parents, of a house on the hill. Sometimes she thought of Nancy, but it hurt her heart, so she tried not to. River liked her new home here. She was planning to stay, safely floating in Serenity.

"Once you've been there, you never leave. Learn to live there," she muttered, words paraphrased from an overheard conversation between Zoe and Simon.

Serenity Valley had been a place of pain, of suffering and death. The ship that bore its name was so different. It was light and hope, a way to keep flying. Flying forever free.

River's eyes closed a moment, a wave of near-perfect calm washing over her. Her body swayed with the force of it, and then stopped very suddenly. Her head cocked to one-side as if listening, and yet there was no sound to be heard.

"Not over yet," she muttered to herself, before returning to her picture. "But nothing to worry on," she said, in a frighenly accurate interpretation of Jayne's voice.

He snored in his sleep, shifting in the bed, and River smiled.

Jayne wanted to ignore it, but that just weren't possible. He hardly noticed River join him on the bed. Figured it happened whilst the drugs still had him out for the count. She was curled around him like a bear hugging onto a tree. Jayne was happy enough for her to be all up close that way, at least while she was sleeping all peaceful like. Problem was, River-girl weren't seeming so peaceful no more.

She muttered in her sleep sometimes. Mostly, Jayne hadn't an idea of what she was sayin' nor nothin'. She seemed worked up at all and he'd whisper words of comfort, stroke her hair off her face until she slept sound again. This was different. This was words he recognised from before, and the sound of 'em now made his blood run cold.

"Two by two, hands of blue. Two by two, hands of blue."

Jayne hugged River closer, rubbed her back and spoke comfort to her. Still she kept up the mantra, her whole body shivering as if cold as ice, though the heat of her was burning in through his clothes.

Eyes closed tight shut, Jayne saw a whole mess of pictures behind his eyes. The house the Tams used to call home. That sneering Barnes Patter who couldn't be trusted no farther than he could be thrown. Suited men on the doorstep with blue gloves on their hands.

"Two by two, hands of blue."

He reckoned they'd be safe here, and knew River felt it to. Serenity seemed like a place they could call home. Keep flyin', stay safe. Maybe they was wrong after all, but Jayne hated to think so. All he knew for sure was that he'd protect his bao bei with his life if it come to it. He loved her that gorram much.

To Be Continued...