I own nothing.

River sat quietly next to Monty in one of the empty bunks next to the bridge. It had been converted into a meeting room that was also used for weapons storage. Since joining up with Monty on the Prospero, River had quickly secured her position as first mate when the original, along with half the crew, had tried to backstab Monty. River was quick to dispose of them and the decision to make River first mate had been unanimous. Although Monty was indeed, like Mal was on Serenity, the controlling power on the Prospero, the rest of the crew had agreed enthusiastically as River was known for being the most sound minded when it came to work and the running of a ship and its crew. They both sat at a large metal table bolted to the floor next to the many racks of guns and explosives as they carefully charted a course that would save them the most time and fuel.

"I don't understand why we have to set down on Ita," River said in a neutral voice, "I'm sure it would be better to get the part brand new."

"I ain't gonna argue on that, but we ain't got the funds, seein' as how we've had so many crewmembers laid up," he replied, giving her a pointed look. River huffed, "How is it my fault that they all believe 'no' means 'yes'? You hit them, too."

"Yeah, yeah," Monty muttered, waving her off, "guess I should be grateful that ya ain't hit George yet."

"George is still in love with his ex-wife and he is not my type," River explained, as she unfurled one of the navigation charts, "and I'm sure my reaction to their...invasive behavior was much less violent than others."

"Yeah, I bet Jayne wouldn'ta let 'em keep breathin'," Monty said slowly, grinning when River tried to hide her blush by focusing more doggedly on her charts. "Girl, why're you still here? I'm not sayin' I ain't happy ta have ya, but-"

"Discussing matters of mutual attraction through written correspondance is time consuming and many of the things we would like to converse about have yet to come up," she said primly, "besides, Jayne is not known for monogamous relationships, but for his lack thereof."

"Well, if we go to Ita ta get that part, maybe we can find some parts might be worth somethin' somewhere else," Monty said, changing the subject. River relaxed, "Yes, I'm sure we'll find somehting."

Monty patted her shoulder, "You've always been good at that." He jerked his head in the direction of the charts. "Yer better at this than me, you figure it out."

"Yes, Sir."

River watched him stand and leave the room before she let out a long sigh and kicked her legs up on the table, wrinkling the charts slightly. Seeing as they were all faded and ripped in places, she doubted a few wrinkles would seriously hurt them. Thinking on Jayne and how far apart they were from one another always tended to frustrate and annoy her. Yet whenever she got up the nerve to ask herself if maybe it was wrong of them to keep up whatever it was they were going with, her stomach would drop and twist painfully just like her heart and she wondered if Jayne felt the same way. She couldn't help but wonder most of all, if he really had changed as much as she hoped.

River let out another sigh and leaned forward to finish charting the course. It only took another twenty minutes and she quickly left the room and stepped onto the bridge. The new pilot, Mickey, was seated at the control panel playing with a Rubik's cube and whistling jauntily. He looked up at her from under his shaggy blond hair and grinned. "Hey, there, Riv! So, got everything ironed out with the Cap?"

River smiled and nodded. Mickey was only two years younger than herself and the two got along famously. With him around, things were always exciting. They played games, watched vids and chatted with other young spacers on the cortex. Monty had taken to calling them the twins, as where one went, the other went. River plopped down in the copilot's seat as Mickey set down the Rubik's cube and took the coordinates she'd copied down. His green eyes flicked over them quickly before he raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Ita? We're still going to Ita?"

River nodded and Mickey slumped back in his chair. "Wouldn't it just be best to buy the part brand new?"

"Monty says we're low on funds," she huffed, "I know we're not, but...Captain's orders. Thinks we might find something useful. Also, it would be nice to pick up some spare parts in case of emergency. That way, if anything breaks, we'll have something to use for a quick fix."

"Need to get us some better cortexes," Mickey said, smacking the fuzzy cortex screen to clear the picture, "these are sorely outta date. Don't look good for us to be WAVEing people and not being able to hear or see them."

"Yes, we end up looking incompetent," River agreed, staring out into the black as she twirled her hair around her fingers, "not to mention George is about to have an aneurysm over how often the environmental controls break every other week."

"Ship needs a massive overhaul," Mickey grunted as he flipped off the cortex, "Nav Sat's been on the fritz...God, a month on Ita."

"I know."

"You know, I'm happy we're getting the ship in working order, but," Mickey waved his hands around in exasperation, "it's Ita Moon! Nothing but salvage heaps for miles and to break that up, they stick in a whorehouse or two and a bunch of crappy bars. No restaurants, no nothin'! Not even a decent open market!"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm staying on the ship," River said, pulling her knees up under her chin, "spending time around rancid drunkards is in no way appealing. I'd much rather spend my time doing manual labor."

"Yeah, but what if Monty gets us a job?"

"Well, then it'll take place on Ita because he said Prospero is to stay docked for the duration. All pertinent repairs are to be made within the alotted time."

"I think every repair this ship needs is pertinent."

"I concur."

Mickey quickly set the coordinates and picked his Rubik's cube up. "So, that hot mechanic from Serenity send you anymore captures yet?"

River punched his arm. "That hot mechanic is dating my brother, and no, not yet. I did send a WAVE last night informing them we might be on Ita for a lengthy amount of time, so I might get one soon."

"You know, you still haven't told any of us why you left," he said softly, concentrating extra hard on his Rubik's cube, "or why you didn't go with Jayne."

"I just..." She flopped back in the seat and let her legs slide down and away from her chest as she huffed out a long sigh. "I'm not sure. I just felt I needed to be on my own. No one to take care of me, hurt me...do anything to me or for me. I thought it was just about self-sufficiency, but now that I've found that...Well, there has to be more..."

"Told Jayne any of this? I mean, you know, that you're gonna make him wait around for you?"

River sat up and blinked at her friend. "I'm not making him wait for anything!"

Mickey let out a bark of laughter, "Bullshit, Riv, I know exactly what you're doing!"

She raised an eyebrow in question at him and his expression sobered slightly. "You're waiting for the other shoe to drop." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Seen a lot of people do it. Something good comes along, real good, and people don't take it for what it is because they've been let down so many times. They let it slip away and even though they think they're protecting themselves, they miss out on the chance to be a part of something amazing. Say, you tell Jayne 'Sayonara', well then you don't have to put up with him possibly cheating on you or leaving you. And that's it! It's a possibility. You don't know if he's ever gonna do it. He may, he may not, but the only way you're gonna know is if you actually try for it."

"So you admit there's a chance he'll do something bad?" River felt herself wilt slightly. Jayne had changed just as much as she had, but...

Mickey shook his head. "A man like Jayne doesn't go around writing four page letters to some girl giving him mixed signals just because he feels like it. There's some real feelings in there; love. I'm sure he's even said so or close to it, but honestly, if he were in it for sex only, it'd be way too much effort and too long of a wait."

River nodded slowly and bit her lip.

Jayne groaned inwardly as he reached the mess. She was there. Their newly hired cook, Giana, was there. For the past month, Jayne had had to put up with Giana trying every which way she could to subtly and not so subtly work her way into his bed and it was getting quite ridiculous. Because of her advances, Jayne spent most of his time in his bunk, pacing back and forth. She was everywhere, hovering at crew meetings, in passageways by crew bunks. When he got shot, she wanted to play nurse. It irked him that he was constantly on the lookout and it was getting so the slightest thing spooked him. If someone called his name, he flinched, fearing that she would hear and come running his way. Nine times out of ten, she did.

Jayne scooped an extra large helping of protein onto a plate and started for the door when the Captain called out, "Hey, you gotta a WAVE earlier from someone."

Jayne turned slowly and frowned. "Who?"

"Uh, some funny pilot on some ship called the Prospero said he had a message for you from the first mate."

Jayne nodded and turned back around. "Thanks, Cap."

He hurried to the bridge, taking big mouthfuls of food as he went. Once on the bridge, he settled down in the co-pilot's chair, ignoring the pilot's curious stare. "Thought I was taking dinner shift?"

"Naw, I'll take it. Got a call ta make," Jayne answered back as he WAVEd the Prospero. The pilot grunted and tromped off toward the mess. A boy with floppy blond hair answered the WAVE, giving a toothy grin. "Greetings fellow Spacer! You've reached the Prospero, the ship to call on to meet all your smuggling needs! How may I direct your WAVE?"

"Mickey," Monty hollored from far off and the boy winced. Jayne rolled his eyes. "You must be the funny pilot."

"Yessir."

"Well, I got a message that yer first mate wanted a word with me-"

"Oh," the pilot exclaimed as his eyes widened with recognition, "you must be Jayne."

"Yeah..."

The boy grinned. "Yeah, our first mate sure does wanna talk to you. More'n talk to ya, I'd say."

Jayne was about to ask him what in the hell he was going on about when he turned away and screamed as loud as possible, "River! Your boyfriend WAVEd back and he wants to talk to you!"

"Mickey!" River screeched in a mortified voice from far off.

"What?!"

Two hands filled the screen as Mickey the pilot was shoved out of the way by a redfaced River. "Sorry about that, Jayne. Mickey is a little bit...mentally unstable."

"Takes one to know one," the boy muttered from off screen before adding loudly, "nice meeting you, Jayne!"

River darted an exasperated glare over her shoulder before smiling at him again and saying shyly, "Um, hi."

Jayne couldn't help but grin. "Hey."

River let out a nervous giggle and averted her gaze. "In a day or so we land on Ita Moon and we will be docked there for over a month."

"Ita," Jayne repeated, frowning, "not sure if we're going that way 'er not."

He spooned another mouthful of protein into his mouth and chewed slowly, thinking. There was no way he could get the Captain to drop down there. The Captain had a thing for Giana and because Giana had a thing for him, he was most usually up shit creek without a paddle. "I can't make any promises, Riv, but I'll try to see if I can't get the Captain to swing that way."

She brightened, smiling broadly. "You'd do that?"

"Hell, yeah! Ain't seen you in months."

She blushed again. "Thank you, Jayne."

He shrugged and smiled at her. "So what's this about you bein' first mate now?"

"There was mutiny amongst several crewmembers stemming from Monty's continually defending my honor and my tendencies to break their arms whenever an unsolicited sexual overture was directed at me." River sighed, "They did not learn their lesson from you Jayne. They were very dumb."

"You kill 'em," he asked heatedly, "'cause if not, I'm gonna!"

"Captain Monty wouldn't let me," she said with a shake of her head. Jayne huffed. "Why not?"

"He said a being a hired gun with two broken arms was punishment enough."

Jayne nodded shortly. "I suppose that's true."

River fiddled with something offscreen. "So, how are things?"

"They're alright, I guess," Jayne shifted in his chair, setting his empty plate aside. "Riv..."

River looked up at him under her eyelashes and they simply stared at each other. The silence that stretched on between them was heavy, thick. River bit her lip and looked away. Jayne swallowed down the lump in his throat and said in a hesitant voice, "you know, all you gotta do is ask an' I'll...s'all you gotta do, girl."

He saw her nod and she cleared her throat. "I miss you," she said, suddenly as if she was forcing herself to say something she hadn't been able to say before. "I found what I wanted out of myself, but it left with you."

Her face scrunched up at her words. "I'm sorry, that makes no sense."

"Makes sense, River," Jayne replied. He felt hoarse all of the sudden. "It makes sense jus' fine."

A/N: Hazzah! I have returned bearing Rayne-y goodness for all! Like what happened with "Twenty-Four" when my computer decided to push up some binary daisies, it took a bit of "Feel the Silence" with it. It was a serious tragedy. Honestly, there were tears and lots of 'em. Of course the tears only came after I realized I couldn't revive my computer. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to salvage the chapters of my other fics. All I have to say is my flash drive is now my new best friend.