Gwenfrewi72: Thanks for catching my huge mistake. It had been a while since I had started this story and somehow I had totally missed the fact that Wash was dead... I need to read my story more closely. In my defense I was excited to start writing again.

Anyway, Here is Chapter 3 agin

Negotiations

The twenty crates were already stowed on board, by the time Mal and Jayne had returned to the ship. Zoe had seen to it that they were tied down properly and ready to go. The thin man, as Mal had labeled him in his head, was wheeling his large crate into the cargo hold. Mal couldn't quite put his finger on what really bothered him about the thin man.

"Are we ready to lift Kaylee?" Mal said as the girl came to his side.

"Everything is shiny Captain." She said with one of her famous smiles. "The thrusters are fully functional but I really could use some more ground time to..."

"We'll see about that ground time in about two weeks, we are lifting in 30 minutes." Mal cut her off before she went into one of her long winded speeches about converters and wires and...other stuff that he didn't fully understand.

Kaylee smiled in her sweet way and made her way back to the engine room.

Mal sat on a crate and watched the thin man tie down his cargo.

"Darkness... swirling... anger overwhelming all senses...."

"Shut up littl' witch" Jayne said as he walked up the ramp into the cargo hold. The thin man looked up at the girl with a quizzical look as she laid lazily in her perch.

"Don't pay her no mind now." Mal told the man, not wanting to loose a paying customer. "She just has a funny way of talking."

The thin man just grunted and quickly finished tying down his crate and picked up his bag as he moved towards the passenger dorm.

"I know, I know... no scaring off of the paying passengers... Next time I'll wait till we lift." River said with a smile and scampered to go ready the ship.

"Good morning Captain." Jarad said with a yawn as tossed his bag down on the deck.

"Jarad." Mal said with a grimace. He grabbed a communicator and clicked it on. "Lets fly."

Mal hit the button to close the cargo door as he felt the engines come online and showed Jarad to the passenger dorms.

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Mal had trouble sleeping that night. All day he had watched his two passengers carefully. There was something going on between the two. He didn't trust Jarad as far as he could throw him and the thin man was giving off all sorts of weird vibes. It wasn't just that he was quiet but he kept looking at River as if she had ratted him out for something he'd done. Seeing that he wasn't going to get much rest he pulled on his boots and decided to take a walk around the ship.

Usually he enjoyed it when the ship was quiet. The quiet hum of the engine radiating throughout the ship. The quiet that all was well in his world. That quiet was missing tonight. Replacing it was the quiet before the storm. Mal felt for the reassurance of his trusty side arm. With a sinking feeling deep in his gut knowing that it would be used soon.

Mal found his way to the cargo bay to see Jarad and the thin man quietly arguing.

"I will not renegotiate with you. You agreed to a 15% cut and that's all you're going to get." The thin man said.

"But that was before I found out what you were moving, this could be dangerous for all of us." Jarad replied

"Again 15% was the agreed upon price."

Jarad shifted his weight as if to change gears with his argument, "Yes we did. But now things have changed. What if the captain and crew were to learn of what they are really carrying on board their ship. I know Malcom, he thinks of this piece of crap ship to be his home. I think that a 50/50 split..."

"Look..." The thin man's eyes flashed. "I don't take threats lightly."

He grabbed Jarad by the neck with a lighting quick move. "I don't like you but since you found this idiot captain that doesn't have a clue what's going on...I'm going to give you a break... I'm not going to kill you..."

He roughly shoved Jarad into a large crate. Jarad jumped up and swung at the man with a knife he pulled from his belt. The two men danced around each other, looking for an opening. Jarad swung and missed as the man jumped at his arm and disloged the knife. Throwing him into some canisters on the ground. By now the crew was beginning to wake and gather.

"Alright some entertainment. And here I thought this was going to be a dull run." Jayne said quietly as he moved next to his captain.

Jarad regained his footing and lunged at the man again. This time when the man grabbed him there was a sharp crack as the man broke his arm. Jarad cried out in pain and dropped to his knees cradling his arm.

Mal felt like he had heard enough and stepped out of the shadows where he had been listening from.

"Ah now, that was just cute. A little lov'rs quarrel." Mal said as he drew his gun. "Either of you care to explain what the problem was between you two?"

The thin man looked him in the eye and spoke, "Just a misunderstanding."

"Well that is how most wars are started. Why don't you elaborate on that before you and I have a misunderstanding."

By now the doctor had been woken and had started looking at Jarad's arm. "It's a bad break captain, I need to get it set."

Mal just nodded at him and spoke to Jayne, "Jayne, why don't you see if you can't make our guest more comfortable."

Jayne smiled wickedly and quickly tied the thin man's hands and guided him out of the cargo bay.

"Why can't we find normal passengers? Other ships have them, why do we get all the crazy people." Jayne said looking directly at River

River gave him a look as if she might attack him and burst into giggles when he slightly cowered.

Zoe rolled her eyes and faced the Captain. "What's the plan sir?"

"Let's let Jayne take a crack at our thin man. I'm going to have a talk with Jarad. You and River take a look through the mans things and cargo and let's see what might have caused this argument."