Chapter 3 – I DO CARE, ALTHOUGH I AM NOW FREE

Mal wished wholeheartedly that his boat had not, in fact, been impounded, because he wanted to be able to fly into space again, and Serenity was his favorite ship in the whole entire 'verse. If she was impounded-

Ryan interrupted his internal dialogue, "Mal… I don't think impounded means what you think it means."

He stared at Ryan, as if Ryan were insane. What did Ryan know about flying boats across the galaxy? What did Ryan know about anything? Ryan was probably born in that prison cell or something!

Ryan sighed. "It's not-"

"THEY POUNDED MY GORRAM SHIP INTO A MILLION PIECES, THEN POUNDED THEM PIECES TOGETHER INTO A LITTLE CHUNK OF SPACE DEBRIS!"

Ryan put a hand on Mal's shoulder, and stared at him, very seriously. "Mal. Impounded means they put her in a shipyard. The worst case is that she was resold to somebody."

"What are you-" Mal sat up off of the ground a little.

"What kind of ship was she?"

"Firefl-"

Ryan tried very hard not to laugh at him. "No seriously. Okay, well, nobody stole her then. That piece of crap is probably better off smashed into pieces anyways."

River woke up again, finally, and blurted "But Mal! I don't think you understand that impounded isn't when they smash a space ship a bunch of times!"

Ryan stared at her, said, "Already covered that, Darling."

"Well," said River, "I guess that means we have to find Jayne."

"Jayne?" asked Mal, confused.

"Who's she?" Ryan hadn't met her yet, so it was a perfectly reasonable question for him to be asking.

"She's the one watching the ship!" River smiled, because she knew something they didn't. "She was hiding, and she's been living in a cupboard ever since!"

"River," Mal stared at her, "Jayne is a man…"

"I know!" She sounded excited, "But I was saying she because Ryan said he was a girl!"

"Man named Jayne? I knew a-"

Mal interrupted Ryan by bursting into tears again. "IT AINT FAIR. WHY IS JAYNE ON MY BOAT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?"

"-was a complete bastard, though. I'm sure your Jayne is better than my Jayne."

Since Mal was too busy being melodramatic, River cut in. "Jayne Cobb."

Ryan covered most of his face with his hand. "Shit. That's the same Jayne. Why would he bother to stay on the ship?"

Mal wailed, with much gusto. "HE WANTS TO STEAL HER."

"Or," River said, careful not to upset the captain more, "He wants to fight people, and staying on an impounded boat would mean lots of security personnel walk through for him to shoot at."

"It aint fair! He's fighting the Alliance without me AND using my boat without permission!"