Chapter 6

AN-This took longer than I'd hoped but here you go! Chapter six is up! Please review and tell me what you think!

How can time pass so slowly…and at the same time go so fast? Madi wondered despondently. After all, she'd only been with Jayne…could it be? Only two nights (one of which she could hardly remember)? And yet it made perfect sense. She didn't know him, he didn't know her. It was as simple as that. And there was no way she wanted to spend another second in his presence if he was going to keep acting like an idiot. …because that's the way he was acting…and Madi didn't like it. Yeah.

Breakfast had been eaten and Madi was going to slink back to her room and hide again. Lord knew if she spent much more time in the presence of her husband…She sneered at the thought. Well, things could get ugly.

And that captain looked like he'd rain hellfire and destruction down on her head if she knocked any of his crew around.

Stupid Jayne, stupid life, stupid laws that allow you to get married without waiting! Goddamn Niska!! …and stupid me. I should've just kept running. I'd stayed in Beaumonde too long.

"Madi!" The cheerful one, Kaylee, called out just as she was leaving the Mess. Wash and Zoe and the Captain were all headed to the bridge. Jayne was clomping to the sink area to help with the dishes the Shepherd had already started. Madi didn't like the way he looked at her so she was about ready to go anywhere to stay away from the holy man. Priests, and the like, had always unnerved her. I suppose it's 'cause they don't take too kindly to gamblers…

Inara had already left for her private shuttle after talking with Kaylee What I wouldn't give to be able to fly out of here. And Simon was shepherding River away. The younger girl tossed Madi a smile over her shoulder as they left the room but it was different from the ones she used to give out. Something had definitely happened to her old friend. And the way Simon was acting…It didn't look to be temporary.

"Madi!" Kaylee called again.

"Oh!" She snapped her head up "Sorry, I didn't sleep well last night."

Kaylee grinned from ear to ear and nodded knowingly "Ah, I just bet you didn't. Come on! Inara and me want to git to know yeh a little better! We'll have girl time in her shuttle!"

And with that Madi was swept up and plopped down in the middle of an alien land.

And I thought the Mess was great for a ship, this place is…gorgeous.

"I see Kaylee's convinced you to come away from Jayne for a little while." Inara gave a soft, wry smile.

"Uh, yeah. That wasn't too hard for her."

"So!" Kaylee bounced up on the bed and grabbed a pillow to clutch to her chest. "Tell us all about it. Don't spare us any mushy details on Jayne's part neither."

As infectious as her smile was, and as much as Madi wished she could relax and have fun and make friends…she knew it'd be better if she didn't.

After all, she'd spent some very important developmental years running from anything and everything and she'd learned quickly not to get tied up with people and never to tell the truth.

"I don't normally drink so early in the morning, but this is a special occasion. I wish I had something better to offer…but, uh…" Inara held up a wine bottle and Kaylee beamed then gestured toward it with the tasseled pillow.

"That's my wine there. I created an inter-engine fermentation system." Clearly, she was proud of herself.

"Well, after the night before last…" Madi tried to smile but was pretty sure it came out a grimace. "I really shouldn't."

But as Kaylee urged and Inara poured elegantly, Madisyn's mind drifted off. She tried to categorize the reasons why she shouldn't drink.

One; last time you blacked out some.

Two; last time you ran into Niska's men.

Three; last time you got married and had sex with a complete stranger and woke up in space with nothing but your clothing and a new name!

Course, you did get a pretty ring out of it…And you got to have sex with a hunky stranger…who protected you from your enemies and held you when you were scared…

Yeah, it was all great fun…until it sucked!

Now he doesn't want to have anything to do with you. Stupid, burly man! And instantly Madi was swirling in a sea of sad emotions. Rejection'll do that to a girl. As will fear and hurt and anger and confusion.

So she grabbed Inara's biggest cup and plopped herself down on a couch.

"Where would you like to start?" she tried to make her jaded tone humorous for the benefit of the other ladies, then she downed the entire glass in one go.

……..

Five cups into Kaylee's Engine wine and Madisyn was having trouble remembering to censor herself. Her speech had already deteriorated since she got aboard Serenity. After all, why bother being proper when you no longer care about impressing anyone. But now it'd worsened dramatically.

"An' then," She gestured with her cup, just managing not to spill because it was nearly empty. Inara and Kaylee were laughing in hysteria over Jayne's rescue as they were all splayed across Inara's massive bed "he swept me up in his damned muscle-y arms an' he carried me up the stairs and threw me on my bed!"

"Ah!" Kaylee exclaimed happily, "so there was premarital sexin' after all! What was it like!?"

Madi frowned in thought and the other girls followed suit. Had the blond been thinking clearly she would have found the Companion's frown humorous; Inara's face was not made for such things.

"No," Madisyn mused "no he didn't take my clothes off yet. But he crawled on top of me and held me down and…."She sighed and shivered. "The things that man kin do with his mouth are…unspeakable!"

"It's so weird to think of Jayne like that! I mean! It's Jayne!" Kaylee squished up her nose.

"Jayne?" Inara asked skeptically, slurring just a little. "Jayne Cobb, Jayne? The brutish muscle who flies the black aboard Serenity and never 'kisses em on the mouth', Jayne?"

"Well, he kisses me on the mouth." Madi smiled a little smugly before she lost her levity. "Or at least he used to." She looked crestfallen and felt burning in the back of her eyes.

"There, there." Kaylee put an arm around her newfound best friend. "Jayne's just a stupid boy. We'll figure somethin' out. After all, somebody on this boat needs some sexin' afore we all get kuang zhe de. An' Wash an' Zoe don' count fer it."

"True." Inara agreed. "What we need is to seduce him back to you! It won't be hard. He's clearly infatuated."

"He is?" Madi perked up, hope swelling in her breast, but; "Wait! Then why won't it be hard?!" panicked Madi, misunderstanding Inara's words.

Inara looked confused but Kaylee started snorting in laughter and spilled her wine down herself.

"No, he'll be hard Madi." She reassured, licking the alcohol off her arm.

"Pardon me," There was a knocking outside and then the old Shepherd came in.

He glanced around the room and stood stunned when he saw the women. All three had taken off some article of clothing (because as Madi'd said; "It's too gorram hot in this gorram ship!!!") and looked positively sinful in their half-drunken dishabille, in Book's eyes.

"Oh, excuse me." he muttered quickly.

"Shepherd Book!" Inara and Kaylee cried out simultaneously. Kaylee with joy and affection, Inara with a drunken version of her graciousness.

"Come on in!" Kaylee's smile grew even wider as she threw her arms open to him. "We broke out my engine wine!"

"Yes, Shepherd Book, if you would join us we'd be…" Inara struggled to stifle a very unladylike burp, looking horrified by herself, "uh, delighted."

"Um," he struggled for words, "perhaps another time." And with that he turned tail and ran from the shuttle.

………….

"Gorramit! Ain't got time to be dealin' with this Zao gao." Jayne muttered to himself as he clomped down the hall between the Mess and his bunk. He was gonna go sulk alone in his room. Nobody'd bug him in there. They knew better.

But then he remembered that the last time he was in his bunk so was Madi. Gorram that tasty piece o trim! She threw all my plans up in t' air!

What plans? A skeptical little piece of his mind spoke up. And it sounded oddly like his mother's voice. You're just floatin' round the black with nothin' to tie you down. 'f yer not careful you'll just float away. Like to get spaced with no mooring.

And Jayne had nothin' to say to that. 'Course, he figured he could just keep on boozing and brawling until his back started to creak like his father's. Then he'd settle his self down someplace nice and quiet like, only get into a couple barroom brawls ever' once in a while…life'd be good.

"Jayne!" the captain's voice barked out from the bridge. "What're you doing?"

"Nothin'. Can't a man walk round this ship no more?" He answered defensive like.

"Not 's long 's I say he can't. No go get those girls outta Inara's shuttle. It's getting 'bout time for lunch and Kaylee's set to cook an' I ain't smelled anything coming from that Mess yet an' I'm not about to have my crew starve on me."

Jayne just stared at him for a beat, eyes narrowing in suspicion and confusion and maybe just a bit of a challenge. "You want me to go to Inara's shuttle to fetch the womenfolk?"

"That is what I said isn't it?" Mal leaned out the Bridge's threshold but Jayne could still see into the room behind him. Zoe was leanin' over Wash's chair and the two o them were smotherin' their laughter like schoolboys at Sunday service.

"An' you're not just gonna com em?" he looked pointedly at the intercom not two feet to Mal's left.

Captain Reynolds followed his gaze then straightened. "Com's not workin' proper." He said quickly. "Now go on down there right quick."

Jayne moved to argue again but Mal cut him off with a quick look and gave the muscle a reason to move when he challenged; "Now Jaynie, I turned down a perfect acceptable job out on Whitefall on account of the recent incident with the Reavers. An' I assumed you'd prefer as to not go there any time soon. But I do believe the offer's still open if'n you'd like to take that one instead'a this."

Jayne wasn't a man to admit defeat too often. But he'd admit it if he were beat. Don't do no good not to.

Stifling curses and grinding his teeth he turned on his boot heal, giving his back to his captain. "Fine! I'll get the gorram women. It's not like I got anythin' more important to do. Like checkin' our defenses or nothin'."

Serenity wasn't a big ship and it didn't take long to reach Inara's shuttle. Jayne hadn't even finished muttering his profanities. But he took a big breath and buried it deep. He was used to controllin' himself when he had to.

And just because he didn't really want to deal with Madisyn at the moment, didn't mean he wanted to rip her head off.

Jayne stepped up to the door, breathing deeply and raised a fist to knock. Mal normally kept him away from Inara's shuttle. Not that Jayne had the coin to spend on a Companion. Hell he'd prefer just some sleazy broad at a bar. Doxies were cheaper anyway.

Standing outside the shuttle he heard something.

…He heard giggling. Feminine giggling. And it stirred something in him. He'd not heard that carefree sound in years. Not since before he'd taken up a mercenary's life of pain and solitude.

And damn it! Of course he had to be able to pick our Madi's laugh.

Damn it, you should be the one makin' her laugh, man.

Bi zui, we've been through this Jayne. She ain't nothin' to us, and you ain't nothin' to her, so just leave it there. You're gonna protect her. That's all. You ain't gonna worry 'bout her happiness, just her safety. Yeah.

But hell, you never do nothin' for free. If she wants to pay you back for protectin' her with a little somethin'somethin', well then, who're you to put up a fight?

Stop it!

Jayne knocked. Then stood there feelin' stupid. Should he stick his head in and announce the captain's orders? Should wait for one o them to answer the door? Or should he just yell through the damned thing?

Wait. Were they nekkid in there?! Were they throwin' pillows around in their unders like the girls he'd seen in that video?

"I know!" Madisyn's voice drifted out. The door wasn't closed all the way. "You'd think that a big guy like him'd be all rough and hard but…Jayne can be very tender. He was…well, it's not like I have much to compare it to but…God!" There was a sound like a body being hurled onto somethin' soft. Like a bed.

Oh God! Is she all sprawled out on a bed? Is she talkin' 'bout me? Yeah! Why's she tellin' them 'bout our sexin'!?!

"Ugh!" She groaned. "I wish he'd just get over whatever it is he's all hung up on and just take me back to his bunk!"

Jayne knocked again, unsure of what he should be feeling. Should he be ecstatic that she wanted him? Or should he be worried because he didn't want to hurt her and he wasn't gonna take her back to his bunk? Or should he be mad because she was talkin' 'bout what they did in their own private time?

Yeah, anger seemed the best choice.

"Oh! Jayne." Inara'd opened the door.

And while she looked a little more mussed than usual and smelled a little strongly of little Kaylee's wine, she wasn't coming out of an obvious playful girl-fight.

He was a little disappointed. But still angry.

"Captain wants lunch started." He grunted. He didn't want to look into the room. Not because he was afraid of layin' eyes on Madisyn. Course not. He just…didn't want to.

"And that's supposed to mean…?" damnit! She would have to say something to me wouldn't she?

"It means Captain's ordered me to come down 'er and tell y'all to get into the Mess. Kaylee's cookin'."

"Oh." Madi climbed off the bed, looking like she struggled to think of somethin' to say. "Well…fine then." She looked around for a beat before letting out a little gasp. Her damned pretty little eyes lighting up. "Then why didn't he just com us? Ha!"

"Com's down." Jayne grunted, holding onto his anger to keep from grabbing her. While Inara seemed generally unruffled, Madisyn was stripped down to a skimpy top looked somethin' like and undershirt. And he hadn't noticed the slit on the side of her skirt came up high on her thigh! He held back a groan. Damned woman was gonna drive him Kuang zhe de!

No! Angry remember. He wanted to growl. Did kinda.

"Oh." She said again. "That's stupid." She said like it was his fault. Sounded more like she meant He was stupid. Kaylee and Inara climbed past him out onto the catwalk.

"What? Are you pickin' a fight or somethin'?!" How'd we get to this again?

"Don't need to pick one if it's standing right there!"

He groaned, Inara and Kaylee looked back and forth between each other, part amused, part against the situation unfoldin' before 'em.

"Well, isn't that convenient? Why the hell 'r'you talking 'bout me when I'm not here, woman?!"

"Because I can, man! You clearly don't have any claim to me, so you can't tell me what to do!"

"Well, seems as I remember weddin' vows go along the lines of wives promisin' to obey their husbands so-"

She interrupted him with a loud laugh. It seems as soon as they started speaking to each other, volume got higher and higher. "Ha! So far as I remember wedding vows include promising to love each other so…ha!"

"Well, shit, woman." Jayne's face was all screwed up in anger. But he let out a breath he didn't remember holding and the fight came out with it. He didn't need to be fighting with this girl. Even if she did confuse the hell outta him. That voice that sounded like his mother's voice rang around his head again; saying all sorts of thing about being nice to Madisyn and making her his real wife-like figure.

Madisyn gave a pause at his quieter, tired tone. "Yeah, shit." She said, confused. But at least she weren't yellin' no more.

The rest of the ship seemed to dissolve, Kaylee and Inara fading away into nothing as Jayne looked down at the little woman before him. The one who'd come into his life and turned everything upside down.

"'M…sorry." He mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. Apologizing wasn't his normal way of speakin'.

Madi's eyes got all big and her forehead wrinkled up in that cute way of hers. She looked around again like she could find something to hold onto but after a little bit her shoulders slumped a little and she took a deep breath.

"I guess I'm kinda sorry to. Fighting like this is stupid. And I didn't mean to be…uncooperative…or anything. I shouldn't have thrown things we can't remember, and can't defend, up like that.

"Yeah, me too." They were awkward quiet for a minute there. Then Jayne let out a gusty sigh, "sure would be a lot easier if…I wish I could remember more of our wedding."

"Well, hell." Madi snorted delicately and swept past him out to the catwalk. "I wish I could remember more of loosing my virginity."

AN-well, that took quite a bit longer than I had intended. Hopefully though, I'll be able to get the next chapter out more quickly. I wanted to get more of the rest of the crew (mainly Wash, 'cause he's making me love him, and Book was begging to give Madi a lecture) but I needed to get something out so…next chapter's just as good as any right? Oh, and I hope you like the last line I'm leaving you with. Madi spit it out into my head a few days ago and I've been dying to share it with you all.

As usual, please review or send me a message. Tell me what you think, how you feel, I don't care. All feedback is lovely.

Much Love!

~Ceilidh