CHAPTER 8
A week after the copper ore job on Ares, Jayne's double vision was still there in full force whenever he looked at River. She could be sitting with Angel, quiet and normal-looking, and he'd think, 'Looks just like the ruttin' Virgin Mary.' And the next minute he started thinking about what she looked like when she was interrogating that sumbitch cargo thief. He had not known she could move her hips like that. And that thought led to worse places, and he had to get to thinking on something else right quick before he started staring in earnest, or River overheard his thoughts.
Though she hadn't been looking, nor had she even wanted to know what Jayne was thinking those times in the last week that he had zoned out on her, River heard. She didn't quite know what to do with those thoughts. Any of the thoughts about her, really. There were several versions floating around his head. She did not know which to prefer.
Was it the tension from the last job, or the anxiety about the upcoming one that had the crew thinking so loudly? River wondered. Whatever the cause, she was hearing too much. It had been so quiet in her head for so long, no intruding thoughts unless they were too strong to ignore, that the resumed volume pressed down on her skull. She couldn't think, couldn't concentrate. She needed to be alone for a while.
"Jayne?"
He looked up from his task of arranging his guns on the table in the mess now that dinner was over and the room cleared. "Hm?"
"Would you watch Angel for a little while? I need—" She reached up and rubbed her forehead with the hand that wasn't busy holding Angel. "There are some things I have to do, and I can't do them and watch her at the same time. Would you? Just for a bit?"
Her eyes were clouded and pinched at the corners. Her skin was paler than usual. And there was a little crease between her brows.
Jayne frowned. "Yeah, I'll watch her. Sure you wanna leave her with me, though? Kaylee's—"
"Kaylee is working on the G-line," River interrupted. "Very delicate, unless you want to be floating around Serenity, and me not to be able to steer. Simon is doing inventory, Mal is doing math about fuel costs, food costs, maintenance, and pay cuts, and Inara is speaking with Zoë about Wash."
"Looks like I'm the last option, huh?" he grunted, feeling something that was akin to disappointment.
"No, just explaining that there is no one else free for the job should I choose to go ask them," she clarified.
"Oh." He glanced up, then back to his guns. "Sure, I'll watch her."
"Thank you." River sighed, and put Angel into her high chair. She went over to the pantry and got out some cereal O's and a stick of the pungent Zwieback bread sticks that River had read that babies were supposed to have when they began teething. The things reeked, but Angel seemed to enjoy them. Once the breadstick and O's were placed on the tray of the high chair, River leaned down to kiss the little girl's forehead, and stepped away from the table.
"I'll collect her in an hour," she told Jayne with a tight smile, the edges not able to pull upwards as they usually did.
Jayne reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop her departure. River tilted her head to the side to look over her shoulder at him. One brow rose to ask what he wanted.
"You sure you're all right?"
River's smile came a little easier this time. She rotated her wrist in his light grasp so that she could take hold of his wrist in turn. She squeezed softly to reassure him. "She's fine. Just a little headache."
He let her go, feeling her slim, cool hand slide out through his big, meaty one. When the pilot was out of earshot, he turned to Angel and asked, "She does know they ain't takin' you away if'n she gets a cold, right?"
"Guf ma doostngurtf. Ferbur dimpem vsstoth," Angel responded.
"Yeah, she's stubborn." Jayne picked up the first of his guns and began disassembling her. "Fer someone as smart as yer ma is, an' a reader to boot, you'd think she'd know the Cap wouldn' do that."
"Durg tust wombupnah."
Jayne looked up at the baby. "Ya want me to watch out for her? Make sure she don't run herself ragged?"
Angel leaned forward in her chair and said, very seriously, "Habnuxtifugle." Then she smiled and held her partially gnawed on bread stick to him. "Guh?"
"No thanks. You keep it. I'll take one'a the O's, though." He reached over and snatched one of the cereal pieces from her tray, laughing when she did. "Wanna learn my guns? This one I'm cleanin' is Mary Lou. She's a Derringer, only holds a handful'a bullets. But if'n you got a clear shot, one's all you'll need. Goes in like a pea, comes out like a pie."
The next half hour passed in amiable company between the big man and the tiny not-quite-toddler. Jayne introduced Angel to all of his guns. He told her the make and model of each, what kind of ammunition they held, and even pointed out his own customizations. It was nice having an audience who listened to him and didn't remark on how weird it was for a grown man to name his guns like they were teddy bears.
All Angel did was coo and jabber on in baby-speak. A few time it sounded like words, but weren't quite. She was getting closer, though.
Jayne grinned as he lifted the last gun closer to him and began to break her down. "And lastly, this one is Vera. She's my favorite. Callahan full-bore auto lock. Double cartridge thorough gage. I customized the trigger 'cause the original was too stiff. Not that I want her goin' off at a touch, but I need her to shoot when I want her too, not a second or two after."
Angel gurgled, her mouth making, "guh-guh" noises, along with a few "ffithruhgs."
She was trying so hard. Jayne hoped she got out a word soon so River would stop fretting over whether or not her baby was stunted. How could the genetically engineered daughter of a genius be stunted?
Oh, no. Jayne paused in screwing the barrel back on Vera. If the doctors at the Academy really changed Angel to be even better than her ma, how were they going to deal with the girl when she started walking? She'd be everywhere, and asking questions all the time, and who knew what she would get herself into. They were going to need to get Angel a bell to wear around her neck.
He shook his head, and finished reassembling his very favorite gun. "And that's it. Say bu-bye to Vera now, Angel."
"Fee-tha."
He froze. Jayne looked up at the baby in the highchair, just grinning away, and scrunched his eyes in attempt to make sure he heard right. "Did you just say…?"
Jayne lifted Vera up slightly.
"Fee-tha!"
Jayne couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face. "You just said Vera!"
"Feetha," Angel reiterated with a nod. She clapped her hands and repeated the name of Jayne's gun over and over while he sat back in his seat and laughed.
After the first shock, Jayne jumped up and strode over to the hatch leading up to the bridge. "Hey! Girl—er, River! You gotta come down here an' hear this!"
River lifted her head from her drawn-up knees when she heard Jayne call. She had to put her head down a while ago because of the pounding in her temples, but if something had happened to Angel, she needed to go see what it was. River pushed herself out of the pilot's seat and down the stairs to the galley where Jayne stood smiling.
"What happened?"
"Angel said her first word! See? Told ya she weren't stunted."
A smile bloomed on River's face from behind the wall of her migrain. "She said her first word?"
Jayne nodded. Bootsteps sounded on the stairs at the other end of the mess, and Kaylee and Mal stepped into the room.
"What the hell's goin' on?" Mal asked. "Somethin' wrong with the kid?"
"Angel said her first word," River answered. She turned to her daughter and waited to see what she said.
Kaylee squealed. "Really? Oh, what'd she say? My first work was 'cake'. What was yours?"
"Mine was 'cow' if I recall my momma's stories correctly," Mal answered, a smile grown on his face, as well.
"Mine was 'nose'," Jayne said.
They all looked at River. She shrugged. "I didn't have a first word. I had a first sentense. I told Simon that his shoes were tied wrong. What did Angel say?"
Jayne grinned. "Watch this." He held up his favorite gun and nodded to Angel. "Go for it."
"Feetha!"
The captain's, Kaylee's, and River's mouths dropped. "Did she just say...?"
Jayne nodded. "She said Vera!"
"Feetha! Feetha, Feetha, Feetha, Feetha."
Kaylee smacked her hand over her mouth to hold in the giggles. Mal pinched the bridge of his nose, and shook his head. "I don't believe it. I don't ruttin' believe it."
Jayne looked to River, expecting her to be happy that Angel had said her first word and that she could stop worrying about the girl--the little girl being mentally stunted. Instead, River was standing still, shaking her head.
"She said Vera?"
"Yeah."
"Her first word...was Vera."
"Uh...yes?" Jayne shrgged. He didn't see the problem here.
River shook her head one last time, her mouth setting in a hard line, and she walked forward to release Angel from her high chair. All the while, she mumbled, "Vera. Her first word was Vera. Perfect. Lovily. My own fault, really. Reader. Should have seen this coming."
"Hey, what's your problem?" Jayne stepped over to her, and grabbed hold of her wrist. "Though you wanted me to watch her?"
"That was before you corrupted her," she snapped.
Kaylee gave Mal an "I'm not staying around for this" look and headed in the opposite direction of River and Jayne. Mal stayed behind to make sure neither of his crew did bodily harm to the other while innocent eyes were present.
Jayne sputtered. "Corrupted? What the hell's that mean? I ain't corrupted nobody!"
"First words are supposed to be 'cake,' or 'cow,' or 'nose,' or 'ship,' or 'Teddy,' or--or...'momma!' Not the name of your favorite gun!"
"It ain't like I was tryin' to get her to say it!" he defended himself. "Shit, had I know'd you were gonna be so techy about it, I wouldn't'a called ya down to hear her. I thought you'd be happy to hear she said her first word."
"Any other word." She unbuckled Angel, and swung the girl up into her arms. "Angel, I think you and Jayne need to spend less time together."
Mal couldn't disagree with that statement as he was a big proponant of Jayne spending less time with the both of them, but he didn't want this fight to escallate to the point were his two scariest fighters were refusing to work with each other. "Okay, now. Jayne?"
The merc glowered over at him. "I ain't done nothin'!"
"Didn't say you did. I just don't want you threatenin' my pilot," Mal said. "Lil' Albatross, you head on up to the bridge with Angel and stop bickerin' with my mercinary."
"That was my plan, Captain," River snapped. "You stole it."
The Captain's eyebrows raised. "And you are gettin' a might snippy." He looked the girl over, and frowned. "You feelin' alright? You look a little peeked."
"I'm fine. Just a headache."
"Which is why I was watchin' Angel in the first place," Jayne grumbled.
"Changed my mind."
Jayne was about to say something else, but Mal cut him off. "Little Witch, go. Jayne, take a gorram seat and finish cleanin' your guns."
River spun away, and charged up the stairs to the bridge. Jayne huffed at her back. He mumbled under his breath about River still being crazy, about how unfair that eveybody always assumed the worst of him, and that he was done taking care of that girl--Angel if'n this was the thanks he got.
Mal rubbed the bridge of his nose, and headed back out of the mess. He honestly couldn't figure the two of them out. First they seemed like they was getting to be friends, were getting, in fact, scarily close it seemed to him, and then they were fighting in the kitchen. After weeks of quiet, maybe it was just time for the next crew blow-up.
Jayne put Vera back down on the long towel he'd spread out on the table along with his other guns. He'd just finished with them when Angel had started talking and he'd called River down to hear, so with jerky, angry movements, he carefully rolled his guns up in the cloth, biggest to smallest, so that he could carry them back down to his bunk. He settled the roll under his arm and collected the oil and cleaning brushes. Still wearing the scowl that little crazy girl had given him, Jayne stomped out of the galley, and headed toward the his bunk.
He kicked open the hatch, stepped on the first rung, but stopped there. With a glare up to the bridge, he stepped back and headed up the small flight of stairs making sure that his footsteps were as loud as possible so that they pounded in River's headachey skull.
River gritted her teeth and tried to check Serenity's course setting so that they arrrived on Persephone in two days to meet with Badger while keeping a squirming, whining Angel in her lap. The baby was having fun in the galley with Jayne, and she did not like the change of scenery, especially with her mother not being in a playing mood. When Jayne's heavy steps sounded on the stairs, River wanted to scream and throw one of the dinosaurs at his head.
"What now? You've decided to take Angel out drinking?" River accused. Angel twisted in her arms to look back at the mercinary.
"Ya know," Jayne growled, "just 'cause she didn' say 'mama' first don't mean she don't know who you are."
"I know."
"Do ya? 'Cause it looks like your makin' an awful big fuss over nothin', and blamin' me for it, to boot."
River made a low, pained sound in her throat. Jayne's anger and frustration battered her brain, while Angel's confusion over her mother's actions, along with the baby's want to go play with her friend, created a wish-washing queazy feeling in her stomach.
"Go away," River begged. "Don't want to talk to you righ now. I have a rutting migrain, so would you please just go the hell away!"
"Fine," he grunted. "Do what'cha want. I don't give a good gorram."
He turned and stormed back down into his bunk locking most of his emotions in with him. River sighed with the marginal relief of distance between herself and Jayne's anger, but the thundering headache remained. Angel whimpered when Jayne's hatch slammed behind him, and River's resolve to make it through the rest of the day broke.
"I think we need to go to bed early tonight, don't you?" she asked Angel as she set the auto-pilot. "That's a rhetorical question. We're going to bed whether you think it's a good idea or not, unfortunately. I'll find Mal and tell him that he needs to put Serenity to sleep tonight. Then, off to bed for us. Sleep is regenerative, and I'm sure we'll be better tomorrow." River rubbed her temple. "I'll feel better tomorrow."
Once auto-pilot was set, River stood and secured Angel on her hip. She headed for the engine room, where she knew Kaylee was still fiddling with the environmental controls, and asked that she tell the Captain that he needed to do the final power-down that night. Kaylee, of course, said that she would. After answering her friend that, yes, she was fine, River took Angel down to bed.