Someone to Watch Over Me
PART 5
Dinnertime came and Kaylee and Simon were the last ones to stumble into the mess. River and Jayne sat next to each other, but not overly close. Kaylee and Simon took their seats and grabbed at the plates being passed around.
Throughout dinner, Simon watched River and Jayne. They didn't say much to each other. In fact, they barely acknowledged the other's existence. If Simon hadn't been there he would never have suspected that anything was going on.
And that's when it hit him, they had been doing this and getting away with it for over eight months.
Simon was suffering from double vision, one image showed him River and Jayne, the two deadliest people on board who went on jobs together, but could barely stand each other. Their arguments after returning from a job were infamous.
They would deconstruct exactly what the other had done wrong: too fast, too slow, too high, too low, too loud, too many bullets wasted, too many dead, not enough unconscious, too many unconscious, not enough dead . . . they always had some problem with what the other had done. No one knew how long they went on with it because eventually everyone would leave them to it.
Simon wondered if all that had just been a show to get some alone time because now the other image was haunting him. The one of Jayne holding her tightly, soothing her and openly admitting his love. His heartfelt promises ran through Simon's mind. Jayne may be a man of few words, but he sure did make them count.
Simon then noticed that Jayne's left hand and River's right were suspiciously both missing from the table. Simon "accidently" dropped his napkin and, stooping to pick it up, he glanced under the table across at the two.
Jayne's hand was resting on River's thigh, higher up than Simon would have wanted it and River's was placed on top of his, gently stroking his knuckles. Simon sat up and was hit with a large dose of double vision. He knew their hands were still under the table, but he watched as River asked Jayne repeatedly for the rolls and was ignored.
It wasn't until Mal ordered Jayne to "Just give her the damn bread," that Jayne sighed and grabbed the basket. Shoving them at her, he grunted in response to her sarcastic "Thank you ever so much," and the table went back to normal.
Simon wondered why they were keeping up the act when he knew they planned on telling everyone about them at the end of dinner. What he didn't realize was that River and Jayne were
so used to their act that they did it without even thinking about it.
Right now, River was paying much more attention to Jayne's hand squeezing her thigh than to whatever silly roll nonsense was coming out of her mouth.
Simon waited until Zoe got up to start clearing away dishes for River or Jayne to start talking. Now, he couldn't wait any longer, "Hold on, Zoe, I have an announcement."
Zoe raised an eyebrow, but sat back down. Simon looked over at River pointedly.
She sighed, "Actually, I have one."
The table's focus shifted to River as she took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."
The table sat looking at her in silence, waiting for the "just kidding" and a wide smile.
Neither came, instead she continued with, "Simon and I determined that I am about four and a half months along."
Mal, not able to think of anything to say looked around at the others. He grew suspicious when he saw that only Inara and Zoe shared his look of shock. "Wait, how many of you knew already?"
Simon said, "Well, obviously I knew, and I told Kaylee this afternoon."
Mal looked at Jayne, waiting for his explanation. When Jayne refused to meet his eyes, a terrible thought formed in his head and he sharply asked, "Who's the father?"
Mal's glare hardened as River placed a hand on Jayne's shoulder. Placing his own on top of hers, Jayne gave it a little squeeze and looked up to squarely meet Mal's gaze. "I am."
Mal stood up, but so did River and she was the one who spoke first, "Don't you dare throw anger at my baby's father." Mal choked. "He has done nothing wrong, he has already promised Simon he will always take care of the baby."
"What about taking care of you?" Zoe asked, her anger a quieter, less in your face kind than Mal's.
Jayne's fist slammed into the table, "Gorramit, can't a one of you remember that she can take care of herself? No wonder you can't let her grow up, if you all think she needs to be protected and shielded from a world she is more'n capable of takin' on. Her strength's the most beautiful thing 'bout her and not a one of you sees it."
Jayne sat back, drained by his bit of speechifying. He was surprised when River sank into his lap and kissed him, "You see it, and that is more than enough for me."
Jayne smiled and it was that smile that convinced the others. They had never seen one quite like this. It wasn't a leer or a sneer or even his joking smile. It was . . . sweet. Mal shuddered a bit when that word shot through his head.
"I'm surprised –" Inara started.
"Ya, I think there's a lot of that going around," Mal cut her off.
Inara glared a bit, "Yes, but I meant– Jayne, I would expect you of all people to know about protected sex, please tell me you haven't been relying on the woman to do it, it's your responsibility, too."
"I know that, 'Nara, s'one of the first things my pa taught me."
River placed a calming hand on his chest, "Actually, it's my fault, we talked about it and I decided to get the shot, I didn't want to have to deal with something each time." She looked at Jayne with a saucy smile, "Jayne is quite fun to surprise."
"Then what happened? The shot is nearly 100 effective."
"Simon's drugs," she made a face.
"Huh?" Kaylee turned to Simon, he hadn't explained that.
"Yes, I continued to adjust her medication, not knowing she was on the shot, one of them must have reacted, making the shot useless. Unfortunately, she must have gotten pregnant almost immediately so she never did get her period or she would have known it had stopped working."
Everyone had sat back down by now and Mal spoke up, "So that's why you've been eating everything in sight."
Jayne felt River tense up, he quickly tightened his arms around her and said, "You're still drop dead gorgeous." River relaxed back against him with a happy sigh. "And remember you could always kill the mean captain with that big ol' brain of yours."
"True, true," and then she giggled, a giggle so happy it made everyone around the table smile.
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Kaylee was back to practically bouncing in her excitement over the baby.
River paused for a moment, "No, it didn't even know it was a baby until I told it, it was."
"Wait, what?" Mal exclaimed, "told it?"
"Yes, apparently River has been talking to it. That's how we found out, she described a voice that she has been hearing for a while now," Simon supplied even though he still had a hard time believing it.
"Yes, I had many theories, Jayne said guardian angel, I thought perhaps a conscience, but baby makes more sense."
"Ya know how odd that sounds?"
"Well, who was the last psychic pregnant woman you met, sir? I'd imagine this is going to be interesting." With that Zoe got up and began clearing the dishes.
The tension broken, the others began to drift away. River's voice suddenly stopped them.
"I would like some volunteers to help Jayne pack."
Mal raised an eyebrow, "Your better judgment finally kick in? You shoving him out after all?"
The identical glares that River and Jayne gave him were thoroughly unnerving. "No, captain, we would like to move in together. I have chosen my room because it will become very difficult to navigate the ladder down to Jayne's bunk. Besides, with Simon practically living with Kaylee, the baby's cries shouldn't wake anyone up in that part of the ship."
Both of Mal's eyebrows shot up at how well thought out it was, "You decided this when? Didn't you just find out?"
"Ya, we found out, but there was plenty of time before dinner," Jayne answered.
Simon gaped, "You mean you talked? I thought you were . . . celebrating."
Simon had sort of come to terms with the fact that they were having sex. After all, the physical result was rather hard to ignore, but he hadn't really thought about the relationship part of their relationship.
"Yes, Simon, we talk. I talk, he listens, he talks, I listen, you all might find us bizarre, but we are rather normal."
"Or what passes for normal on a boat full of crazies. Now who wants to help me move?"
"I will," Kaylee spoke up.
"Thank you, Kaylee. Captain?" River looked at him almost pleadingly.
"Alright, little one, I'll help." River beamed.
Inara stood up and held out her hand to River, "Come on, we can go rearrange your things to make more room for Jayne." River nodded happily and with one more kiss for Jayne, she hopped off his lap and walked off hand in hand with Inara.
"Zoe?"
"I'll finish this up, sir, and be along in a while." Zoe said, rinsing the first plate.
"Ok," and Jayne, Kaylee , and Mal walked off toward Jayne's bunk.
Simon waited by the kitchen counter, Zoe's back was to him, but he knew she was aware of him.
"What do you want, doc?" Zoe tensely asked.
"I, I just wanted to say . . . I'm sorry."
Zoe remained tense as she turned slightly to see Simon over her shoulder, "Ain't one thing I can think of that you need to be apologizing for. Now go help your sister, she's the one who's going to need you." She turned firmly back to the sink.
She waited until he had left the kitchen and gone downstairs before her shoulders slumped and the tears started. She had been off birth control for five months before Wash's death. Once a month, they had gone to Simon for a pregnancy test. Five times they had gone, five times it came back negative, but she was nothing if not stubborn. She had held out hope that it would eventually work . . . it hadn't.
AN: Ooo, Zoe just had to sneak in there didn't she? I did something different with this fic because Zoe would not go away. I thought I could just write her story into the background, but then I was three chapters into it without one mention of River and Jayne. So, I made it its own story. What that means for you: there is already a completed sequel, but it is very angsty Zoe. To make up for this though, I've also got another sequel that's almost done that is back to Rayne family goodness. I love my readers, thank you for the reviews!