My poor readers. Holding out hope that this will be finished. I have received a few private messages (Hi KrisEleven. Hi Marshpelt) and now I have been compelled this thing that has been weighing me down for all these weeks. Wait a second? My last chapter was in 2010? What? I've been writing this (or to be more accurate NOT writing this) for years.

Oh to hell with this! If I have finished NaNoWriMo there is no excuse for this to linger above my head with the dreaded WIP label!

New resolution. I will not be writing 36 in 2011 for one reason. IT WILL BE FINISHED! After all Duke Nukem Forever took over a decade to complete and that was an amazing game, right.

Right?

Get your cunning hats on Ladies and Gents, if you are still with me (and I don't blame you if you aren't). This landing's going to get pretty interesting; particularly since I'm starting off with Jayne and River in a post-Trash scene. (Don't worry Kris. Your Mal and River story is on its way.)

Six

Simon hadn't re-entered the surgery, and Jayne was never more thankful for anything in his entire life. As soon as the pins and needles began to scuttle up his arms and legs, signalling that feeling had finally returned to his body, Jayne moved to heave himself from himself off the stretcher and shuffle back to his bunk. That way, him and Doctor Pansy could forget about this whole betrayal misunderstanding and go back to what they did best - glowering and hating each others gizzards in silence.

Jayne knew what would happen between him and Simon. Not too sure about what was going to happen between him and the psychotic sister. He didn't like her. Jayne didn't like anyone really, but there was something about the bare footed lunatic that grated against his skinn. And it wasn't Mal's unwillingness to turn them over to the alliance for the fact she was like having a target on your back that attached heat seeking missiles.

In fact this annoying, gnawing feeling had been lingering since Ariel.

Jayne Cobb wasn't one for philosophy. He wasn't one to ask the grand questions about life, the universe and everything. He saw little point in staring at stars and navels when there was real work to be done.

But there was one question that he really needed an answer to. One niggling loose thread that no matter how hard Jayne tugged he couldn't unravel. How had the girl known what he was going to do. There was only one person who could unravel it.

And there was no way in the 'verse he was going to ask her.

As it so happens, trying to dismount from a medical stretcher after having your veins pumped full of immobilizing drugs is harder than in may originally seem. Jayne was no sooner off the stretcher, than he was on the floor staring at a pair of tiny feet.

'Need a hand?'

Jayne looked up at River and tried to roll to his side. 'No.'

'I wasn't going to physically offer you a severed hand.' River said as she watched the huge bulk of a mercenary, try and pull himself up. 'It's an expression. A turn of phrase. It means "to offer assistance to person or persons in need of aid."'

'I know what it means!' grunted Jayne, dragging himself up to his feet using the stretcher as a brace. 'What kind of idiot do yer take me for?'

There was not a hint of amusement on River's face as she replied 'The kind that tries to move of their own volition after being heavily sedated.' River took a step towards Jayne. He backed away. River's eyebrows furrowed.

'You're scared of me.' Jayne didn't know if this was meant to be a statement or a question. If he had any pride left he would have denied that accusation. However he was currently leaning on a stretcher after being zapped by a trash droid, threatened by Doctor Blue-Eyes, a losing control of his body. He had already lost a life-time's worth of pride in one day.

'Too right I'm scared of you, yer little freak.' said the burly gunfighter to the slender bird-like girl. 'Yer crazier than a ferret in a turbine. How do I know yer ain't gonna snap all of a sudden and cut up on me. Again.'

River gave a giggle. 'Don't be silly. That was because of what happened on Osiris. All water under the bridge now sailing to the ocean to be eaten by a decomposing whale.'

Jayne let the whale bit slide. 'No you didn't you lying… liar.' He said. 'Yer stabbed me before we went to Osiris. In fact that's when I when I knew I had better get you and yer brother the hell off this ship.'

'Yes,' River sounded like she was trying to explain a story to a child, 'and because you were going to sell us out I tried to stop you before hand.'

Jayne looked down at the tiny woman. 'But that doesn't make a lick of gorram sense! I wouldn't have contacted the alliance –not right then anyways- if yer hadn't sliced me open, yer little freak.'

River gave an exasperated sigh ''I'm not a freak. Light refracts into my interface at a different index to yours. And I would have attacked you if you weren't going to sell us out. Here we are.'

Jayne looked around in a stunned haze. Somehow during this conversation River had managed to wedge herself under his arm and walk him all the way from the infirmary, through the cargo bay and up into the hallway that lead to his room. She carefully dislodged herself and propped Jayne up against the wall. River looked him up and down with her hands on her hips before pointing at him with a commanding finger.

'No rich foods. No swimming for two hours. No heavy machinery. Yer shirt is inside out.'

And with a merry smile River skipped down the hall. Jayne tried to turn their little chat over and over in slow giant cogs of his brain before calling after her.

'When yer said you could kill me with yer brain, was this what yer meant?'