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Jayne was hiding. He was under table. He hated hiding under the table but the was no where else to go. It wasn't going to be a good day. Half the whiskey had been gone when he woke up. Normally he would take to the woods when that happened, but the rain had him trapped inside. Mother wouldn't let him go out in case he got sick. He flatten his back against the wall and tried to make himself as small as possible.
"IRENE!" His father's voice permeated the small shack. "Where is that gorram boy?"
"Out, I suppose," Irene Cobb answer mildly. "He was gone when I got up."
"You give that boy too many liberties," Mitchell Cobb snapped. "He ought to have enough respect to tell you when he's leaving. That stupid brat went out in this? He'll catch his death. I'm telling you right now if that idiot gets sick from bein' out in this weather, you ain't spending my good money on no gorram doctor!"
"Because beer is a much better thing to spend it on."
Jayne flinched at the unmistakable sound of a punch finding its mark. A few minutes later he heard his father's heavy boots stomp out and the front door slam. Slowly he crawled from under the table and went to his mother, sitting in her chair by the window. He wound his tiny arms around her neck. She had a fresh bruise blooming around her left eye.
Irene pulled her 6 year old son onto her lap as much as her pregnant belly would allow. The boy was already big for his age. He would be needing new britches soon if he kept growing at this rate. She didn't know where she would get the money for the material, but she would worry about that another day. She brushed his hair from his eyes and kissed his forehead.
Jayne touched her eye. She smiled sadly and took his hand. "I'm okay, Darling. Promise me something, Jayne."
"Ma'am?"
"Promise me you won't be like him. Promise you won't hit a woman, just because you can," she said.
"I promise, Mama..."
Jayne awoke with a start. He didn't like the memories having that girl on board was bringing back. He had kept that promise. At least to his mind he had. He hadn't ever hit a woman what hadn't hit him, shot at him, or otherwise tried to kill him first. Well, except for Reavers, but they weren't women, he wasn't even sure they were female, or human for that matter.
He tried in vain to get back to sleep, but bruised faces, busted lips, and sad eyes permeated his dreams.
Wash laid his head on the small gurney. Whatever Simon had given Kala had knocked her out. She hadn't made a sound in hours. He had sent Zoe on to bed earlier, saying there was no sense in both of them being tired and swearing that he would get some rest when he could. He knew she would have stayed right there beside him all night if he had wanted her to and that was enough.
This was one of those times he hated their jobs. Their gypsy lifestyle wasn't good for keeping up with family. If he had been around, it wouldn't have happened. He told himself he went to flight school to help her. To be able to take care of her and while he had done that, or at least told himself that money did that, he hadn't been back on that planet for more that a fortnight since getting his first job as a pilot.
A knock caused him to look up. He expected to see Zoe back to insist that go get some sleep, or Mal, since he figured he was still due a chewing out for not clearing the mission with the Captian before starting on it. Instead it was Inara.
"Wash, I'll stay with her, if you would like to get some sleep," she offered kindly. "I'm used to the odd hours."
He shook his head. "Thanks, but I..., just want to be here."
She nodded and stepped inside. "Mind if I keep you company, then?"
He shook his head again, even though he wasn't sure how much company he could be. He picked up Kala's hand, staring at the large diamond on her fourth finger. Nice family. Want for nothing. She loved him. Those had been the assurances she had told him when he questioned her marrying someone she had only met a few months before. Finally she had brought up the fact that he and Zoe had only been together four months before they got married. His claims that knowing her for 3 years prior negated that fact were silenced.
"For what it's worth, I know Braxton Thursdale. Well, I don't know him, I know of him. His reputation precedes him. He has a black mark on him in the clientele register," she said.
"What does that mean?" Wash asked. He had never had much interest in Companions. He liked Inara alright but he had never been interested in buy women for whatever reason you were buying them for. A hazard of growing up the way he did he always figured.
"It means he hurt a companion and from what I do know about it, she's lucky not to have married him," Inara replied. "She very lucky to have you to help her get away from him."
"Yeah, I've been great," he scoffed. "I thought.., I thought if I could just keep from being a whore, the rest would work itself out. Not that I have anything against people who are in that business," he added hastily, remember who he was talking to.
Inara smiled, sensing no malice in his words. Unlike Mal and Jayne and even once, Zoe, Wash had never called her a whore, at least not to her face. "It's okay, Wash, I tend to think there is a lot of difference between being a companion and just being a whore, despite what the Captian may think." She looked at the girl laying in front of her and said, "But a man doesn't have to pay for you to think he has a right to hurt you. Why did you think she would be a whore?"
He shrugged. "Most girls who grow up in brothels tend to take up that business." For some reason talking about this was easier with Inara than the others. Perhaps it was that Inara felt no shame about selling her body or for anyone else who did. To her it was just something that was part of the job. Zoe knew everything, of course. Well, she knew the facts. But no one else. He could only imagine Jayne glee if he found out wash was the bastard son of a whore.
"Did you...,"
He nodded. "Our mother, she worked at a brothel. I was born there. So was Kala. One day I came in the parlor and Kala was sitting in some man's lap and he was asking her the most awful questions. Then Madam Anna whispered something in his ear. I can imagine what it was because the man shoved Kala to the floor and jumped up sputtering 'no' and that he was 'just having fun'. Our mother just sat there watching as if it was the most natural thing. Kala was ten. She was ten and Madam Anna tried to sell her and no one there saw anything wrong with that." He shook his head a if to clear the memory. "I swore then and there that she would never have to do that as long as I was around to stop it."
Inara patted his arm. Companions weren't turned out to work until they were 18 and even then, they weren't bought for sex until they were 21. However, the scene he had just described was way too common in some of the brothels on the outer rim. "So is that why you kept your distance when we helped Nandi?"
He nodded, "I was happy to help, don't get me wrong, but I know what that boy's life will be like and while it will be better than with that creep father, it won't be an easy life." Then he flashed a grinned, "Well, that and being madly in love with and married to a woman who could kill me with her bare hands."
Inara laughed before settling into the silence.
