Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss but since he's not using them right now I decided to play. I promise to put them back when I'm done...
A/N: Written for the Big Damn Rewatch over on livejournal. Let me know what you think!
Y'all see that man hanging out of the spaceship with the really big gun? Now I'm not sayin' you weren't easy to find. It was kinda out of our way and he didn't wanna come in the first place. Man's lookin' to kill some folks. So really it's his will y'all should be worried about thwarting."
As Mal yammered on, Jayne surveyed the situation under him.
"Looks like the Doc and his sis got themselves inta all kindsa trouble. And why's it always me hangin' outta the bottom of this ship?" Jayne muttered to himself.
As he watched the attempted purging below, Jayne found himself unexpectedly concerned. The crazy girl was still tied to that post and some of those torches were getting more than too close for comfort.
As he continued to survey the scene, Jayne saw River turn her head and gaze up at Serenity…and him. She looked at him with such trust and happiness that for a moment Jayne thought his heart would stop.
Suddenly, he found himself becoming more and more alarmed. Why was Mal taking so long to get her down? If one of those yokels got fire happy? Moonbrain would be toast. Jayne broke into a cold sweat-what was Mal doing? Jayne's world narrowed to one girl and the fire around her.
When she was finally taken down, Jayne breathed a sigh of relief. It was only that night after the crew had eaten and Jayne was in his bunk for the night that Jayne had a chance to think about the events of the day.
Just what had caused the panic he had felt that afternoon? And since when did he let anyone steal food off his plate? He didn't care about Crazy…did he? He certainly couldn't afford to. His only loyalty was to himself, his Ma and Mattie. Anyone else was a distraction. If River was going to be that kind of a disturbance it was time for her to go.
So Jayne began to look for a way to get the Tam siblings off Serenity-for good this time. It was all for the best anyways…right?