Abby Leighton: You are very astute. But shhhh! Don't tell anybody! It's supposed to be a surprise. I must say, though, I get a lot of people who ask, but you're the first to guess. Good job.

Chapter 18

River, Jayne, and Angel, sitting in the crook of Jayne's arm, walked down the main road in Lydontown on Boros. They just finished the shopping trip Inara and Zoë sent River on, and now were just making excuses not to go back to the ship yet. It was a mostly quiet afternoon. Naturally, Jayne had to do something to liven it up. When they passed a bookstore that had tables full of half priced books and River stopped to brows the science section, Jayne found his opportunity.

River was shocked. "What do you mean you don't believe that evolution is real?! It has been the leading scientific theory of human origin for more than five hundred years!"

Jayne shrugged. "That ain't what the preacher at home said, is all."

"Malicious book is full of lies," she huffed.

"Is that?" Angel asked and pointed.

Jayne looked to where the barefoot toddler sitting in the crook of his arm pointed. "A horse."

"Hoss, hoss, hoss…."

"Now, that ain't right whatcher sayin' about the Good Book," Jayne defended. "I ain't sayin' your science books are full'a lies, am I? Just sayin' I ain't so sure they got it right, is all."

"Not lies then. Metaphors misconstrued and taken as truths with no empirical observations to back them up."

"Is that?" Angel repeated.

"A shop," River told her. "Whereas evolution has concrete physical evidence in the fossil record of Earth That Was. Preserved species from millions of years ago. Human ancestry from Australopithecine Afarensis to Australopithecus Africanus, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus—stop laughing! Erectus as in 'walking upright' not in a sexual connotation—then Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. That would be us."

"Is that?"

"It's a buggie," Jayne answered while her ma went on and on about finding dates, and songs by bugs, and radiocarbon dating. Another couple of minutes and Jayne couldn't hold his snickers back any longer. The girl just got so riled up about sciencey stuff.

River stopped walking and turned to face him. She tilted her head to the side, and asked, "Are you messing with me?"

Jayne broke out in an all out guffaw. "Yup. Your face when somebody questions your science is priceless."

She considered hitting him, but he was holding Angel and several of the bags, so it wouldn't be fair. Besides, even when he was exasperating, he was cute. "Jerk."

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed.

They started walking down the street again, and he noticed River frowning and looking back and forth across the street. "What's wrong?"

"I need to find a restroom facility," she said. "Rather quickly."

He snorted, and started looking around for a decent place to go that would have a toilet. There was a Mom'n'Pop diner across the road and up a ways. It looked pretty clean, and the midday clientele appeared to be good folk rather than the seedy kind that frequented the bars and saloons.

"Over there. Come on." Jayne lead the way carrying bags and baby, and as soon as River figured out their destination, her pace quickened until she was a few steps ahead of them.

"Is that?" Angel pointed to a dog tied up to a post on the boardwalk and surrounded by a group of boys who were teasing it.

"A dog."

"Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog."

River rushed inside and asked an older woman who held a serving tray where their facilities were as Jayne found a little booth to set Angel and the bags down. The woman pointed to a short hallway in the back, and River smiled her thanks. She came over to Jayne's booth and set down the bags she carried. Then she hurried off.

"You want anything while you're waiting?" the woman asked Jayne. "We got lemonade, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins," she smiled and clucked Angel under the chin, "and cookies."

"Tuties!" Angel demanded. She knew that word. Her Aunt Kaylee snuck her cookies when she babysat. They were Mmmm.

Jayne chuckled. "I guess you can bring us a cookie—er, two cookies. Wait, make it five cookies."

The woman shook her head. "Five cookies it is. Just a second."

She went to fill the order, and Jayne concentrated on keeping the bags from falling all over the floor. There were at least six that he counted. He thought there might be smaller bags inside a few of the bigger ones. He didn't know what was in most of them. There were some girlie products like shampoo and sweet-smelling soap, along with foodstuffs and thread and patches. River even got some yarn and long needles because she finally decided to teach herself to knit. Then there was all kinds of baby stuff. And it was heavy, especially since he was carrying Angel around, too.

The matronly waitress returned with a plate of five cookies. "Here ya go. That's nine bits."

Jayne lifted awkwardly in his seat digging for the money he kept in his pockets.

The woman said, "I just gotta say, you're daughter is about the cutest thing I ever saw, and I can see where she gets her sweet tooth from."

He froze. "My what now? No, no, no, no, no, no. Angel ain't mine!"

"Oh!" Her eyes widened. "I figured…you seemed so…."

"I'm just watchin' her is all," Jayne insisted as he handed her the money.

"Sorry," the waitress apologized as she left.

A sigh caught his attention, and he looked up to see River coming toward him. "Much better," she said. "Oh, cookies. Are they chocolate chip?"

She picked up the top one and nearly had a bite in her mouth when she paused. "Where's Angel?"

"She's right—" Jayne looked at the booth next to him where he'd set the girl down, but she wasn't there. He looked under the table and even got up to look. She wasn't there.

"Jayne!" River yelled.

"She was right here two seconds ago, my hand to God."

Both started looking around the floor for the tiny child who, hopefully, had not inherited her mother's skill at hiding. They asked the other diners if they'd seen her, and finally Jayne went to look outside. Down the raised walk in front of the stores, Angel toddled toward the dog she'd seen earlier. The mutt was scared and, growling, it tried to back away from her, but the rope wouldn't let it go far.

"Shit," he hissed. "Angel!"

He ran for her. As he got closer, he heard her repeating, "Dog, dog, dog," over and over, and the dog in question tensed to leap at her. Three big steps away, Jayne caught up with her, and swooped her up before the dog could come any closer.

"Don't you ever do that again," he growled at the laughing girl who thought it was the best game ever.

"Angel!"

River came running down the boardwalk and pulled her daughter out of Jayne's arms and into her own. She hugged her so tight that Angel finally caught on that something was wrong, and started whimpering.

Jayne saw one of the men from town come up to the post the dog was tied to and pull out a folding knife. He cut the dog's biding and shooed it off. "That thing was left here days ago. Probably half starved by now. I hope it ends right back with whoever abandoned it. Serves him right for not taking care of the dog the way he should."

"Or at least puttin' it down humane like," Jayne added.

The man nodded and spit off to the side. "Glad you managed to catch your little 'un there. Hate to see a baby end up as dog food."

"She ain't mine," Jayne protested to the man's receding back.

"Jayne?" River said. "Can we go home now?"

He looked back, and she was doing the bounce-sway he'd taught her long ago. "Yeah. Let's get the bags, and we'll go."

&&&

After Zoë signed for the services with the maintenance people from Lydontown's small dock, she and Dewey sat down in the lounge with a coloring book, and waited for the crew to return. It was one of those books that started teaching numbers and the alphabet. Together they completed a connect-the-dots picture of a floppy-eared dog then each took a color and started filling the picture in. Zoë purposely chose unnatural colors. She used sky blue and magenta and bright orange to give the dog spots while Dewey picked realistic brown and black to fill in the ears and pink for the nose.

Zoë tried to make the tongue green, but Dewey blocked her. She reached under his arms and tickled him until he squirmed in her lap.

"What were you saying about a green tongue?" she teased without letting up on his sides and underarms. "I can't hear you."

"Can't…can't have a," he said through his giggles. "Dogs don't got green tongues, Mommy!"

Zoë heard him before Dewey realized what he said. She smiled down at her little boy, but when his brain caught up with his mouth, he didn't smile. Dewey pushed his way out of her arms with a scowl on his face.

"Sweetie—"

"You are not my mommy."

Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a carefully blank face. "Dewey, honey—"

"You are not my mommy!" he screamed.

Zoë reached out for him, but Dewey bolted for the stairs. She ran after him to keep him from hurting himself on the stairs. He was fast for a three-year-old and scrambled up the steps ahead of her. Zoë caught him before he reached the hall outside the mess.

"Let go!" he yelled when she wrapped her arm around his waist.

"I don't want you gettin' into anything that might hurt you."

"No!" He flailed as she held him against her. Zoë trapped his hands in case he tried to pinch her.

"Dewey, it's okay. Honey, calm down. It's okay, you don't have to call me mommy. I understand. Shh. It's okay."

He fought and cried, and Zoë held on. She rocked him and soothed as best she could no matter how much she'd hoped that he thought of her as his mother. "It's alright, sweetie. I know just how you feel."

"Nuh-uh!" He sucked in a wet sniffle.

"You'd be surprised," she said. "When I was little, I lived on a ship with my mom and dad. But there was about a year when they sent me to live on Verbena with my granny. Now, I'd never lived on the ground before, an' I never went to a real school, but now I was faced with of all manner of new things. I remember there was a teacher in my new school, Ms. Hanley, who was real nice to me. She helped me with my times tables, and taught me how to write in cursive.

"I was dirtside for a while, but I was still pretty shy. I never have made friends easy, you see. But Ms. Hanley liked me, and one day I was talking to her and I accidentally called her 'mom.' I was so embarrassed and mad at myself. Took me a long time to figure out why it was I let that word slip out."

Dewey snuffled again. "Why did'ja?"

"It wasn't that I thought Ms. Hanley was my mom, or that I forgot my real mom. It was because I missed my mom, and my teacher reminded me of her. That's all." She ran her hand over Dewey's messy red curls. "Maybe that's why you called me mommy, you think? Not because you thought I was your mom, or because you forgot your mommy, but just that I reminded you of her. Think that might'a been it?"

He shrugged.

Zoë squeezed the boy's shoulders before she risked asking, "Maybe one day you'll be able to think of me like a second mommy. You don't have to call me that now, though. Or ever if you don't want to. You call me whatever you want." Dewey went to wipe his nose on his wrist, but Zoë stopped him, and pulled a hankie out of her pocket. "Here. Use this not your hand."

Dewey blew his nose, and Zoë set him on his feet. "Come on. Let's go clean up the coloring book and put River's pencils back in her box. Then we'll go and start dinner."

He nodded. While they were cleaning up, River, Jayne, and Angel returned. The adults looked shaken although Angel appeared to be in good spirits.

"What happened?"

"Unforeseen incidents led to increase in stress hormones."

Zoë looked at Jayne.

"What she said. Unforeseen stress. Here." He lay the bags down on the couch. "Some a'this are yours. Don't touch the cookies."

"I want cookies," Dewey said.

"Well, too bad," Jayne snapped. "Didn't buy 'em for you."

River set Angel on her feet, and stomped over to the bundle that held the cookies. She took them out, broke one in half and gave the pieces to Dewey and Zoë. She ignored Jayne's protests and started eating the cookie that she set down when she realized Angel was missing.

"How come you get a whole one?" Dewey asked.

"Because Jayne lost Angel, and I deserve it," River said.

"She should get a whole one if she's the one that got lost," the boy argued.

"She does get a whole one." River took her daughter's treat to her and resumed her walk to their room.

"I bought 'em!" Jayne yelled. "How right is it I only get one?"

River spun around. She jabbed her finger at him, and said, "You lost Angel."

"I got her back!"

"You still lost her. Lucky I'm leaving you with one at all."

"But—"

"We will see you at dinner, Jayne."

Zoë stifled her laughter with the half cookie River had handed her, and continued to look through the bags. She remembered having that kind of conversation with Wash. Well, not that exact conversation, and she certainly would have been denying her husband more than his sweets, but it was the basic format.

"What are you laughin' at?" Jayne growled.

"You know," Zoë said, ignoring his question, "I never seen you let anyone else steal your food. Funny that you allow River."

"She steals my food all the gorram time," he grumbled. "She just makes sure Angel ain't watchin' when she does it."

"Yeah, she keeps doin' it, and you keep lettin' her. Just funny is all." She gathered up her bag and the coloring book. "Come on, Dewey. Our supper won't fix itself."

Zoë and Dewey went up the stairs next to the infirmary. Jayne, determined to go to his room and do something constructive and not at all sulky until dinner, popped his last cookie in his mouth, and stalked back through the cargo bay to use the stairs that lead to the nose of the ship. He walked straight passed Inara and Mal on the catwalk without so much as a hello.

"What's got his drawers all in a bunch, I wonder?" Mal jibed.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it has something to do with River," Inara said.

He looked at her slight smile and frowned. "What's really goin' on with them? River an' Kaylee were having a little girl talk this mornin' which I deemed in my best interests to stay out of, then Kaylee comes up to the bridge to tell River somethin' all cryptic-like."

"I don't know anything for certain, but the signs are all there that they've developed romantic feelings for one another." She made a little face. "Jayne and romance in the same thought. It seems wrong."

"They ain't been…you know, all…." He did some smooshing gestures with his hands. "Have they?"

"They haven't acted on their attraction, yet, if that is what you're trying to ask."

"I hate to think what'll happen if they do. Life's complicated enough out here without bringing yet another romance onboard. It's a flyin' love cruise."

"I'd hardly call thievery and smuggling a cruise, Mal," she teased, but became solemn a beat later. "Mal, you know I took an eighteen month sabbatical when we released the signal about Miranda. I told them I needed time for my injuries to heal and to deal with everything that happened psychologically."

Mal straightened up from leaning against the rail of the catwalk to face her. "Yeah, I know."

"Fifteen months have already passed. I only have another three. I…" she closed her eyes and struggled to find the right words. "I'm not sure where to go from here. I don't want to leave Serenity again. This is my home more than any place I've lived my entire life. I don't want to leave you, either. I love you. I have for a long time, but I love my job, too. And I don't know what to do. I don't know what you want from me."

Inara released her breath. It was a long time in coming, but she finally said it.

Mal crossed his arms. "So you want to go back to—" his mouth started to form the word whoring, but he bit it off—"being a Companion?"

"I…I'm not sure," she admitted. "I want to keep helping people. I know that my job comes between us, and I understand the reasons for that. But what we're doing is very, very illegal, Mal. I know that some Companions take lovers on the side, and as long as no one becomes too possessive and the relationship remains discreet, no one is punished. But taking time out from your duties to be with someone exclusively without payment is prohibited. Actually leaving the Guild for someone—especially before you've repaid them for your training—is punishable as severely as embezzlement, or inside trading, or tax evasion. It could mean years, even decades on a penal moon for both of us."

"How long does it take to pay them back for whore training?"

Inara flinched. "Back to that word, I see. And it takes many years. The training at a Companion academy is extensive in all the arts, as well as them providing you with food, shelter, and clothing during apprenticeship. That's a lot of money. I still have over half of the cost to repay and I've been sending in my dues for almost eight years. It will be at least another decade before I get it paid off and am free to do as I like."

"So I'm supposed to let you go back to whoring while I wait here, is that it? Told you, 'Nara, I can't do that!"

"This isn't the way I wanted this to go," she said slowly. "I only wanted to remind you that we had some decisions to make."

"Sounds like you already made yours." He spun around and started up the stairs.

"Running away. Of course. It's what you do best."

"Qing wa cao pi yan!" he hissed as he marched back to her. "I can't do this. I ain't one to share, not this, and that's exactly what your askin' me to do."

"You can't just keep me locked away here forever," she insisted.

Strangely enough, it was Saffron's voice that came to him from back when they pulled the Lassiter job. She said the same thing to Haymer. It should'a been a ruttin' sign, but he never thought to be on the receiving end of it.

"Naw. 'Parently I can't." He left, and this time Inara didn't stop him.

&&&

It was a very tense Christmas due to Inara and Mal's avoidance of one another. They sat as far away and out of the other's line of sight as possible. After dinner, River and Zoë took the two little ones into the lounge where they had the artificial tree set up and let them attack the brightly wrapped toys while the grown-ups exchanged gifts. Kaylee and Simon got things going. Simon handed his sister a flat rectangular present wrapped with cheery seasonal paper.

River tore the wrapping off with a happy grin. "The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe."

"I overheard you reading Ligeia to Angel at bedtime once," Simon said. "Which, by the way, why were you reading her a ghost story to go to sleep by?"

"It is a beautiful story about true love overcoming all odds," River explained. "The narrators beloved just happens to be dead at the time and goes through the process of metempsychosis in order to inhabit his second wife's body, is all."

"She did what?" Jayne asked.

"Her soul left her body, and then when the narrator remarried and his second wife died, Ligeia's soul incorporated itself into the dead woman," she said. "It's quite romantic."

Everyone else at the table stared at her. But she got stares like that all her life, so she didn't mind. She flipped through the book to a random page and started reading.

"It was many and many a year ago

In a kingdom by the sea

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me°."

Kaylee leaned back and put her head on her husband's shoulder. She rested a hand on her belly where there was maybe the tiniest bump, and listened to River. It was such a beautiful, sad poem. The girl in it was loved, and the words actually sounded like waves washing up on the sand.

"Annabel Lee," she whispered.

Simon looked down at her. "Hm?"

"Annabel Lee," Kaylee repeated. "It's a pretty name. I like it. Annabel Lee Tam…what'da ya think?"

"Annabel Lee Tam," he tested. "The 'bel' part should be spelled 'b-e-l-l-e' though. I guess it works. We'll add it to the list."

Kaylee grinned and leaned up to kiss his cheek.

River smiled at them. She reached under the tree and pulled out two boxes. She handed the flat rectangle to Kaylee and the thicker one to her brother. Her sister-in-law ripped the paper off immediately and squealed over the picture frame that had a place for every year that she and Simon would be married. Around the outside were multi-cultural symbols of luck.

"Thank you so much!" Kaylee leaned down and hugged River.

Simon pulled the paper off of his gift with more restraint. Inside there were three books: one on midwifery, one on common infant and childhood ailments, and the last on what to expect during pregnancy and the first year.

"I thought you could use all the help you could get," River explained.

Simon tried to smother a grin and gave her his "You're such a brat" look. "Thank you, River."

Gift giving went fast after that. Everyone passed presents back and forth. River gave Mal a copy of Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner as well as a little porcelain albatross ornament she suggested he hang on the bridge. "Now see? You upstaged me! My present to you ain't nearly so nice."

He handed her a new drawing pad he had wrapped in a pillow case that he wanted back. River pitched it back at his head with a laugh, and handed Zoë a drawing of her and Wash together, and another of her and Dewey. To Inara, she gave a stylized calligraphic drawing of the Chinese characters for love and beauty in a field of flowers with cranes flying above.

"Thank you, sweetie." It meant a lot to her since Mal was still barely acknowledging her existence. Speaking of the pigheaded man, she pulled a wrapped cylinder from under the tree and handed it to him. "Here. I made this before we fought. It would be unbecoming of me not to give it to you just because I'm angry with you."

Mal took it hesitantly as if it would blow up. He pulled the bow off of one end and slid a scroll cylinder out. He unrolled it and saw the characters for Independence written in Inara's careful hand just like she did on the neck of his ship.

"Thanks." He cleared his throat and stood. "I'll be right back."

Inara watched him walk to his bunk and hoped.

Meanwhile, Kaylee handed out her gifts. Jayne got a tin of peanut brittle, Zoë got some lotion that smelled like freesia because Kaylee caught her eyeing it when they hit land a few months ago, the Cap got patches for his clothes put on his chair for when he came back, and Inara got hair combs.

Simon gave Kaylee a box and whispered in her ear, "One is for every day, and the other is for special occasions."

Kaylee bounced as she opened her present. Inside was a tool belt with painted floral designs pressed into the leather, and in a separate, smaller package nested inside was a pair of silk stockings. "Yee! Oh, Simon, they're wonderful! My gifts not nearly so nice."

She handed him a wrapped oval and watched as he unwrapped the sign she'd burned Dr. Tam Best doctor in the 'Verse into. "It's ta put in the infirmary."

Simon kissed her with a smile on his lips. "It's great, bao-bei. I love it."

Jayne made not-so-discreet gagging sounds, and Kaylee glared at him.

Mal returned with a thick square box and carefully handed it to Inara. "I got this for you before we talked. Here."

"Thank you." She peeled away the wrapping that someone else obviously did for him, and lifted the lid off the box. Inside was a white tea pot with delicate blossoms painted on the sides, and winding stems and ivy around the spout and handle. There were four tea cups with the same painted design. They were all clearly second hand. The handle of one of the cups was glued back on, and a few of the rims were chipped as was the spout of the tea pot. Inara saw that they were well loved. "Thank you, Mal. They're lovely."

Neither was ready to apologize yet, so they accepted their gifts and moved on with the evening.

Inara then passed out the presents she bought for the crew. Zoë received a new hair brush. She gave Simon and Kaylee a belated wedding gift: a red silk blanket, the traditional wedding color, with a fish embroidered in gold—a symbol of plenty and fertility. She would have given it to them at their wedding, but her friend hadn't finished the embroidery yet. Jayne got a new knife polishing kit, and she gave River a new music player with two memory sticks of ballets and one blank so that River could save her own music choices.

Jayne put off giving his one gift—besides the rocking horse and blocks for Angel. In the midst of Kaylee's raptures over Inara's present, he handed a little bundle in brown paper to River. She smiled her happy, lopsided grin and pulled the tape off. When the paper was off, her smile quirked into puzzlement.

"You bought me socks…with the heads of bovine sewn on the sides."

"Yeah." He was losing confidence in his gift. They were maroon yarn knitted thick for warmth. "Cuz ya never wear shoes. Figured your feet get cold, an' these got those little grippy things on the bottom so ya don't slip."

"Cows, Jayne?" Mal asked.

Jayne shifted in his chair. "When we transported them cows, she did the whole communin' with the beasts, an' how they weren't cows inside."

Kaylee made a sound like a swallowed scream. Jayne looked around. "What? D'ja see a bug?"

She shook her head and buried her grin in Simon's shoulder. For his part, Simon just sighed and looked away. What could he do?

River's grin came back wider than before. She was glowing again as she pulled the socks on her feet. "Do they moo?!"

They didn't but that was okay. She handed Jayne his present. He shook it and heard a rustling inside. He tore the paper off. "Chocolate chip cookies! What, not homemade?"

River threw a discarded bow at him. "Put them in the toaster oven, you big baby."

Jayne was about to toss the bow back when Angel's angry squeal caught his attention. Dewey had some of her blocks in his hand and she was having a fit trying to get them back.

"Little monster," Jayne growled as he grabbed the red block out of Dewey's hand and picked the girl up to make sure she got it.

"An' you wonder why folks think you're her pa!" Kaylee squealed.

Jayne frowned. "Wha'ya mean?"

"She spends all her time with you or you an' River together. You give her things, and protect her, and talk and listen to her."

"Her first word was Vera," Mal reminded him.

Simon snorted. "Please, if I hadn't handled both your blood work myself, I would wonder if the universe was a far stranger place than I gave it credit for."

Jayne looked back and forth between the crew as he got nervous. It didn't make sense.

Just because he spent some time with Angel wasn't enough to make folks think he was her pa. Not that he was with them all the time. Not even most of the time. There wasn't a lot to do in the Black, and they were…you know. There.

Of course, that didn't explain his selflessness in going with them into town on Boros. Or the stupid socks. So maybe he was spending too much time with them. He wasn't anyone's father, and he had no plans to be. That meant no more spending time with the two Tam girls.

River felt a change in Jayne when he put her daughter back down on the floor to play. "Jayne?"

He glanced up at her, and then away as quickly. He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. Something was very wrong.

As soon as Angel was asleep, River crept back up to the kitchen and found Jayne and Mal cleaning up the discarded wrapping paper, ribbons, and empty boxes. She hesitated in the doorway, and implored the Captain with her eyes to let her and Jayne have a minute.

Mal mentally sighed. He got the message. With a mighty stretch—possibly a bit over-the-top—he yawned, and said, "Think I'll leave the rest of this fer tomorrow. Gonna hit the sack. See ya tomorrow, Jayne."

Jayne looked at him like he was nuts. Wasn't it Mal who shanghaied him and demanded they clean up now instead of letting it set all night? He looked around to see what made him change his mind and found River coming down the stairs from the direction of the passenger dorm stairwell.

Ruttin' hell, he thought. She still had those stupid cow socks on.

"Jayne? Are you well?"

"Fit as a fiddle," he answered shortly and continued to stuff paper into the garbage bag he held.

"You don't feel alright," she insisted. "Not like this morning. You're different. Rougher. Foggy. I don't know how to explain."

"Well, seein' as you're crazy and don't make sense most of the time anyway, maybe you should stop tryin'."

River's eyes went wide, and she leaned back like he took a swing at her. It was a long time past that he called her crazy and wasn't teasing, and what he just said he said with conviction.

"I'm not being crazy. I just wanted to know what was wrong. Did I do something to make you mad?"

He didn't look at her when he answered, "Nope."

River shifted her balance back and forth. "Did you not like the cookies?"

"Ain't opened 'em yet."

"Was…was it what they said about you and Angel? They were just teasing!"

"Look," he stopped picking up garbage and faced her. "I ain't mad about what they said. Got me to thinkin' is all. Maybe they're right."

"Oh?" She hoped. She hoped he'd make a move, or give her the okay to make one.

"Maybe I do spend too much time with the two of ya. Don't get me wrong, it was sorta fun for a while. Guess I'm just tired of playin' house now. No offense."

River's throat squeezed shut. It took her three tries to get out, "Playing house?"

"Yeah, you know. The babysittin' an' the doin' stuff together an' the pretendin' to be a happy little family."

"That was playing?" she whispered.

"Wasn't never nothin' else." He smirked. "Didn't get'cher hopes up, did I?"

"No," she answered quickly. "But I…I thought we were friends."

"Ain't really got any friends, an' if'n I did, it wouldn't be someone I worried about turnin' on me with a bit of sharp in her hands."

River flinched, but she took her cue from him and used anger as her shield. She looked him in the eye regardless of the welling tears in her own. "No wonder you're so lonely and bitter, then."

Jayne let her get mad. He let her walk out. It was better to cut the tie now than have it bind him too tight later on.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Qing wa cao pi yan—frog-humping ass-crack

°stanza 1 of Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe