Jayne left the whorehouse a bit early the next morning so he would have time to do a little shopping before going back to Serenity. First, he went to a men's outfitters and bought a brand new pair of cargo pants and a couple of pairs of new socks and underwear. The store had a consignment section as well where he selected a couple of almost-new tee shirts, including a light brown one with a Blue Sun logo on the front. The collar and sleeves were torn off, but to Jayne's mind, that just made it cost less. With the money he saved on the tee shirts, he was also able to get a brand new hard-wearing cotton shirt, buttoned, with black and gray stripes, along with a trim black vest to go over it. Just in case he had to go somewhere formal or he needed something to be buried in.

His next stop was at the town's hardware and armory where he picked up an assortment of bullets, gun oil and a new chamois. He also got a new tube of sealant and patch kit for his EV suit, a tin of saddle soap for his boots, two short lengths of heavy chain, and a bit of durable rubber tubing.

Jayne was enjoying his shopping trip so much, he decided on breakfast out and stopped at a wagon in the main square where he bought a bowl of noodles in some kind of meat broth – probably better not to ask what kind of meat – and a steamed bun.

As he sat at the makeshift counter and noisily slurped up his noodles, he spied just the thing he was looking for out of the corner of his eye at a stall on the other side of the square and finished his meal quickly, taking the rest of the bun with him to eat on the way.

When he had gotten back to the ship and dumped his purchases in his cabin, he went in search of the captain.

"Where's Mal?" he asked Kaylee, since she was the first person who crossed his path.

"I ain't talkin' ta you," she replied in a grumpy tone and brushed past him on the way to her cabin.

"Suit yerself," he said, even though he knew she probably couldn't hear him by then.

He went back to the cargo bay and was halfway across the deck when Zoë and Mal walked into the Firefly.

"Didja get the job?" Jayne asked, when the three met at the top of the ramp.

"Mornin' to you too, Jayne," Mal countered. Zoë rolled her eyes and carried on towards the fore stairway to go to the cockpit, leaving the two men alone to start a fight or not as they saw fit.

Mal, remembering Zoë's advice, decided to back down. Just a bit. A very little bit.

"Yes, we got the job. It's a pickup on New Beijing to be delivered to Kronos. Should take about a week for the whole run. Legal cargo, too, though that don't pay as much as the illegal stuff. Somethin' else on your mind?"

"Oh, yeah, Mal. I saw a second-hand set of weights and a bench in town. Wondered if I might get it and set it up in the corner back there. Won't take up too much room and anybody wants kin use it when I'm not."

Jayne waited for Mal's decision while trying to look like he wasn't asking too big a favor. After about a half-minute of silence to let Jayne squirm a bit, Mal gave his verdict.

"Good idea. Can't have you goin' soft when we're in space. Don't expect me to spot you, though. I got enough other things to do on this ship."

Jayne was more than willing to let Mal win this little I'm-the-captain pissing contest, especially since it meant he could have his weights. As Mal was about to turn away, Jayne added, "Kin I borrow the mule ta carry them back in?"

Mal's sense of humor finally got the better of him and the corner of his mouth quirked up as he answered, "Yes, son, you can borrow the car, but have it back here by noon with the tank full."

As Jayne called out a hurried "Thanks, Mal" and went to get in the vehicle, Mal finished with, "And I don't want you takin' no girls over to Passion Point while you're out, neither, dŏng ma?!"

Jayne got a really good deal on the weights and bench by standing a little too close to the man in the stall and using Binky to clean the dirt out from under his fingernails while they were negotiating the price. The transaction now complete, he loaded up the mule, then drove it to a fuel station to top up the tank.

When he got back to Serenity it was almost noon. He parked the mule and went back to the intercom near the inner hatch, punching the button and telling Wash he was on board.

The pilot's voice crackled out from the speaker. "Close 'er up, then, Jayne. Everybody's here," and Jayne pushed the buttons that raised the cargo ramp and closed the pressure doors. Soon after, they were aloft and in space.

Jayne unloaded his newest purchase and set it up in the corner he had indicated to Mal, arranging the weights according to size. With a week in space, it would be a good long stretch to build up his training regimen again. Weights would also make his workouts more fun and more effective, really bulk up his muscles to even more intimidating proportions, and he looked forward to it with relish.

Next, he went back to his cabin and picked up the rubber hose, using Binky to slice it neatly in half, and threaded a piece of chain through each half. All he needed now was a pair of pliers to pull open the chains' links on each end so he could fasten them to hang down from the metal grating on the cargo bay's aft landing near his weight set. It would be the perfect place to do pull-ups, and since Jayne was the only one on the ship tall enough to maybe hit them with his head, they'd be out of the way too.

The only place he could think of to look for a heavy-duty set of pliers was in the engine room, and he set off towards Serenity's tail, chains in hand. When he got there, the room was empty, so he found Kaylee's tool box and selected the proper implement, hurrying back to the cargo bay and fixing the makeshift exercise equipment in place.

As he was on his way back to return the pliers, he ran into Kaylee again, who froze at the sight of the big man. Her face had a horrified look, and it took him a moment to register that her eyes were focused on the purloined pliers in his hand. Seems he'd crossed a line again.

Kaylee narrowed her eyes and came up to him, snatching them out of his hand as she said in a hard, unyielding voice, "You don't ever touch my stuff, Jayne Cobb, and you don't ever touch me," and she turned and ran towards the engine room.

Jayne stood for a moment, his heart somewhere down around his boots. At least she didn't cry this time, he thought, and he decided to break in his new gym and give himself some time to think things through again. Oh, well, the day had started out okay, anyways.

Twenty-three, Twenty-four, twenty-five. No sense doing too much all at once. He'd already worked up a good sweat on the weight bench so the pull-ups were kind of like icing on the cake. Speaking of sweat, he thought maybe he should have a quick shower now that he was among people who might be a little more particular about those kinds of things. Too bad that whore had stolen his pretty soap the night before. Guess she'd had nothing better to do since he'd spent most of his paid-up time sleeping. At least she'd left his purse alone.

When he'd finished showering and put on all fresh clothes from his new purchases, he went to the mess to see what was happening in the way of food. Wash must have already set a course and put the ship on autopilot since he had joined everyone in their meal, and as Jayne sat down, the pilot commented, "Hey, Jayne, if you had a shower, how come it doesn't smell like a lady's boudoir in here?"

Wash only giggled at his own joke until Zoë jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, at which point he looked at her like a guilty gradeschooler.

Jayne didn't take the bait. As he reached for the pot of potatoes, he casually said, "Gave that there cake o' soap to the whore last night. She was extra-special nice ta me."

The silence around the table was sudden and lasted for quite a long time, broken only by the sound of Jayne's plopping mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables onto his plate and spearing a large hunk of grilled meat to add to the pile.

It wasn't easy for Jayne to keep his eyes on his plate and play out that he was unconcerned about the frosty atmosphere in the room, what with everybody's eyes on him. Except, he supposed, for Kaylee's. He had to do it, though. He had to force Kaylee away from him for now, and the only way he could figure to do that was by being mean and nasty and brutish, let them all think he'd been messing around with her earlier and didn't care one way or the other.

He'd done some rough calculations before his workout, writing sums on a scrap of paper, and if the upcoming jobs were as good as the one he'd just been paid for, it wouldn't be long before he could reveal his true feelings to Kaylee, and by that time, Mal and the rest of them would have had a chance to get to know him better and wouldn't be standing in their way. They'd know that all he wanted was to look after Kaylee and treat her like the queen she was, maybe give her a couple of little ones to run around under his feet in his old age. He hoped she'd understand why he'd had to do it this way, why he'd had to make her think he didn't care. And since he'd gone too far now to take it back, all he could do at this point was hope. And pray.

dŏng ma? – understand?