A/N: Thanks to those who leave reviews on each chapter - I really appreciate that :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

The ship was all a commotion since Saffron come aboard. Jayne was sure no one little girly girl ever caused such a stirring of folks, but then he thought of his River and all she could do, all the manner of confusion and bother she had brought into many a life and none so much as his. Jayne wouldn't trade his little woman for the world, but gorramnit them womenfolk could cause no end o' trouble, sometimes without even tryin' all that hard!

As Jayne went seekin' out River herself, he checked in at the bridge just in time to hear the second and her little man gettin' into a real doozy of a fight. Next he went by Inara's shuttle, sure he heard her cryin' in there but not wantin' to stop long enough to listen and know for sure. Best to keep movin', find River and get to their own room where they couldn't get dragged into no more dramas.

"Feel like I spent all day chasin' you all over this gorram boat," Jayne groused as he came upon her sat in the galley by herself.

T'wasn't a meal time, breakfast was long over and dinner far off as far as he could tell, but there sat his little woman staring at the table just as if she expected a meal to miraculously appear. Hell, if that were a thing bound to happen, Jayne'd take up the habit right now, but it weren't.

"I know you got an all-powerful mind, bao-bei, but you can't make food just happen like that," he told her, before considering. "Can ya?" he checked.

"The Captain took a wife."

River's response had nothing to do with Jayne's question or anything at all he said or thought in the last while. That wasn't altogether unnatural for her, but still managed to catch Jayne unawares. He supposed he never would get used to it one hundred percent. Truth to tell, he kinda liked that. Made things a mite more interesting.

"Yeah, from what I saw o' her, she ain't bad to look at," Jayne admitted, leaning on the back of the chair at the end of the table. "'Course she ain't a patch on you, River-girl."

It was as if she didn't hear him at all. River just continued to sit and stare, her head tilted at an odd angle to her body, watching her own fingers prise crumbs out of the grooves in the old worn galley table. She could just be bored and her hands were making something to do, but that wasn't much like her. River was all about the math, the science, the plan. There was always more goin' on than a normal person could see. Just as like she was makin' a scale model of the ship from those breadcrumbs, a hundred or thousand times smaller than Serenity actually was. Wouldn't surprise Jayne if that was exactly what she was doin', though he hadn't a mind to ask.

"Captain and the girl. Pilot and Second. Guh-guh and Kaylee too, if his head ever escapes his pigu!"

She spoke so strongly in the last, making a sudden grab for a glass left idly on the corner of the table. River threw it hard and fast against the wall and watched it shatter into a thousand tiny shards. Jayne flinched just a little, glad nobody was there to see such a thing.

"What the hell's gotten into you, little woman?"

"Everyone a pair, a mate, a life together," she said then, laughing in a way that made Jayne wonder what the joke was, 'cept even River didn't seem to find it funny somehow. "They love, they become one, they... Jayne-man and River-girl! We!" she forced out the word she needed and hated having to fight so hard to find. "We are meant for life!" she declared, staring right into Jayne's eyes.

Took him a minute to catch on, which weren't altogether uncommon with Jayne, but when the penny finally dropped, his eyes were wider than canyons.

"You askin' me to marry ya?"

At that, River finally smiled.

"He will accept?" she checked.

Jayne opened his mouth to answer but then closed it again real fast. That was more than enough to wipe the happiness from River's face in a second.

"Feh feh pi goh!" she muttered crossly, jumping up from the table and storming out the far door.

"Hey, River!" he called after her. "I never said I wouldn't! Gorramn, womenfolk!" he complained, wishing he had another glass to hand that he could throw hisownself.

"What happened here?" asked Book as he walked in moments after River walked out. "Was there some kind of accident?" he checked, noticing the broken glass and Jayne's less-than-happy expression.

"T'weren't no accident, that I know for sure," he grumbled. "Fact of it is, might be all I do know in this gorramn minute. Preacher, you're lucky you don't get to socialise with womenfolk is all I can say."

"Ah. I can assume then that yourself and River have had a lover's quarrel as it were?"

"You can call it that. Gorramn crazy woman just asked me to marry her!" Jayne declared, wondering the next minute if he should've said as much. "I guess now you're gonna give me some speech about how we shoulda been wed afore we ever took up bunkin' together or some such."

"Far be it for me to force my beliefs on others," said Book, hands raised in mock-surrender. "It's true that in my faith it is frowned upon to have carnal knowledge of another without the benefit of marriage, but it is for every man, and woman, to decide for themselves and make their peace with God their own way."

"Me and God is alright, Preacher," said Jayne, eyes raised momentarily to the ceiling. "'S me and River I gotta worry on. Why in the gorramn 'verse would she wanna marry me anyhow?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck. "I ain't no catch."

"Perhaps the Captain's marriage put the idea into her head, though I suspect the larger part of her reasoning would be simply because she loves you."

It sounded so simple when he said it that way, and it weren't as if Jayne didn't know River loved him. He felt just exactly the same about her, even if'n he weren't so good at sayin' them kinda pretty things. River knew, she always knew. One of the best things about the two o' them was that he never did have to tell her any of the mushy stuff he felt about her 'cause she could tell just from lookin' at him or whatever. 'Parently she was pretty damn sure he wanted to be spliced to her too, and when the moment come for him to say as much, he didn't. He couldn't fix that, couldn't go back and make it right. Jayne wasn't so sure he should change it. Never did see his-self as the marryin' kind, not since he was a young 'un back on the homeworld. 'Course, he never saw meetin' River and feeling this way about her neither.

"Got me some thinkin' to do, I reckon," he muttered, walking by Book and out the door before another word was spoken.

"Yes, I believe you just might," the Preacher said as he watched him go and then smiled.

Something weren't right. Jayne weren't always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he knew when he was bein' played, especially by a woman. Little Saffron was a pretty thing but she hadn't the fire that the likes of River carried around inside. Weren't near as smart neither, though he reckoned more than she claimed mebbe. When they come across each other on the catwalk, she seemed a might jittery, and then she started in on him with her wiles, sayin' stuff about Mal not makin' her wedding night all it should be. There was a time when Jayne woulda happily been any man that little Saffron wanted if'n it meant a night with her in his bunk, but that time had long since passed.

"Hey, I got me a woman already," he told her. "Ain't that I don't appreciate the offer nor nothin', but my bao bei and me, it ain't... 'S more than just gettin' sexed."

"Wow, that's real romantic," said Saffron, eyes turning to steel in a second.

Weren't altogether enough warning for a man like Jayne to take note of, but when she spun a flying kick his way, he was fast enough to move outta the way. Then the action really kicked up a notch.

A yell went up and Jayne looked sideways in time to see his River come running from the bridge. She come flyin' at Saffron like a wild cat, not givin' the red-headed piece a chance to react before she knocked her upside the head. Jayne didn't mean to be enjoying the show but couldn't help it as the two women grappled some.

"Da shiong la se la Ch'wohn Tian!" yelled Wash as he came up from the bridge, just in the second that River knocked the other woman out. "Seriously, what is going on?"

"Wish I could tell ya," said Jayne, looking to River for explanation.

"She was a liar. Bad plans being made. Accomplices with electrostatic pulse technology!"

"I'm sorry." Wash shook his head when she looked at him. "I don't... I'm having a little trouble understanding."

"Seems maybe this one ain't all she seemed," said Jayne, peering down at Saffron who really did seem to be out for the count.

He nudged her shoulder with the tip of his boot and she didn't flinch at all.

"Must be bound," River insisted. "By rope and by law, or what passes for law."

"Maybe we should talk to Mal about this," considered Wash.

River rolled her eyes. "He requires luck for his task," she told him, though explained no further.

The commotion had got attention from another quarter by now. Inara came out from her shuttle to ask what was going on. When she heard that Saffron had been trying to seduce Jayne because Mal would have none of her, and then from River that sabotage was Mrs Reynolds aim, she immediatly panicked as to the state of the Captain. None had ever seen the Companion move quite so fast as she did in getting to Mal's bunk, whilst Wash decided maybe now was a good time to get back to the bridge. River looked to Jayne.

"She must be bound," she repeated, glancing to Saffron. "Before it's too late."

"Figure we can manage that," he said, lifting the woman's limp body up from the ground as if she was nothin' at all. "Reckon maybe your brother oughta take a look at her? Could be you've been the death of her, bao bei," he said with a smile he couldn't help.

"She knows her own strength." River rolled her eyes. "Knows almost everything, he has said."

Whatever fightin' had happened with 'em before, it seemed to be over now, or at the very least not mattering in such a circumstance. Jayne was glad o' that, but he knew this whole marriage thing weren't done. River was all kindsa hurt when he didn't seem willin'. Looking at her now, havin' borne witness to what she was capable of, and remembering all they'd been through up to here, Jayne wondered why he ever thought of not wantin' to be tied to his little woman forever. Sure as the worlds turned, he wouldn't wanna be with nobody else.

"Doc!" he called into the infirmary.

River started shushing him, for no good reason Jayne could see, at least until he got to the open door of the medical room and saw what she must've known was there. Kaylee moved away from Simon awful quick and the boy was blushing the colour of a tomato.

"Well, what we got goin' on here?"

"No business of theirs," River reminded her man, moving past him to the drawer and retrieving the medical tape.

"What's going on?" Simon asked, as Jayne dumped the unconscious Saffron onto the bed.

"Kind of a long story, Doc, but your sister will tell it to ya. Seems she knows more about it than most."

Mal took great pleasure in riding along in the shuttle when Inara flew them out to the nearest back-water moon so they could dump Saffron there for good. When she had come to, she had no choice but to confess her plans to him, and to the fact their marriage weren't nothing but lies. She was no longer welcome aboard Serenity and if she ever showed her face again was guaranteed to be riddled with holes for her trouble.

"Such is marriage sometimes," said River sadly, watching from the viewport as the shuttle flew out of sight.

"Only when one o' you is a thief and a liar, I reckon," said Jayne from beside her. "Ain't gonna be like that for us two."

River's eyes were wide as anything when she turned to look at him then. Jayne had almost expected her to know what he would say afore he said it. Oftentimes she did, but he figured that making his decision so fast as they just stood standing here, maybe he would have her fooled. Seemed so.

"He speaks of him and her?" she checked, gesturing between them. "Truly?"

"You ever known me not speak the truth to you, River-girl?" he checked. "Even afore we was bunkin' together?"

She smiled, knowing he was right. For all that Jayne Cobb may be known in the 'verse for being a lying, under-handed deceiver when necessary, with her he had always been truthful, and a gentleman until such time as he didn't need to be anymore. Nobody in the 'verse could be more suited to her as she was now, that River knew of herself. She was damaged, but Jayne made her feel whole. Together they were one being and stronger for it. They made sense in a world that made none to River most of the time.

"Er, I done talked to the Shepherd before," said Jayne then. "He knows all the words to be said, make it legal enough, if'n you still wanna..."

She didn't need more words about words. River knew she wanted Jayne, only him, always, forever. She threw herself into him, lips crashing into his own, arms and legs both tied around his muscular frame. He caught onto her easy enough, not fit to argue with her kissing on him like that. For as long as it lasted he went right along with it.

"He understands why it matters," said River when they finally broke for air, her body still gripping tight to his own. "Feels the same," she said, nodding her head, sure in her statement, not asking questions of him anymore.

"Ain't much for fancy words, bao bei. You know that well and good," he told her, "but yeah, I'm all in for this adventure with ya."

That earned him another searing kiss, but no more. When he suggested such a thing, she struggled back to her feet and for maybe the first time ever told him no. Everything else was to be kept until the wedding night. He looked confused a spell until she confirmed that would be the night to follow this day, and sent him to find the preacher fast.

It was a small affair, by virtue of the fact it had to be. Jayne asked Simon to stand up with him and Kaylee attended River. They wore normal clothes, would eat a normal dinner after, but that didn't matter. River knew no fancy dress nor flowers in her hair would improve her day. She didn't need a band, a church, a great 'shindig' as those aboard would call it. She only needed Jayne, forever, always, that was the point.

It took a lot for her to find the right words to say, to make it right and correct in tense and pronouns. She struggled with it still, but made an effort for this, for him. They said mostly words repeated from the Shepherd's book, very little of their own, except Jayne-man's extra promise to always have her back and protect her to his dying day. River smiled, said she agreed to do the same, and by the power of God and the 'verse, Shepherd Book bound them for life.

"Mrs Cobb." River smiled after their kiss that sealed the deal. "She wears it proudly."

"Y'ain't half so proud as I is, River-girl," he promised her. "Hey, I got me a wife," he told the assembled crew, who all laughed and cheered in response.

It had been a strange couple of days, no doubt on that, but they'd ended happy enough. That was a thing worth holding onto, for just as long as they could.

To Be Continued...