Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still own nothing. If I did own Firefly, I would be much, much richer.

Chapter 2

"What in the gorram hell is going on?"

Jayne narrowed his eyes but stayed focused on River, "would you shut your gob for a second, Mal?" The girl before him shrank, feeling Mal's growing anger. "Crazy-" the merc. began but was yanked away by the furious captain. Simon rushed to his sister and began to check for injuries.

"Jayne, I thought we talked about this," Mal seethed. "You were to stay away from River. Do you want to go back in the airlock?" Jayne shook Mal of and pointed to River who had gone back to mumbling incoherently and shaking. Simon was frantically trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Lookit, Mal!" Jayne snarled. Mal blinked. The hired gun had never been this angry before. "She was tryin' to tell me what's wrong 'afore you came stompin' in an' yellin'." Wrapping a hand around his gun, Mal stepped closer to Jayne and looked up into the bigger man's furious eyes.

"It looks to me like you scared a little girl into having another one of her fits. She's been on the mend, you boo hway-hun duh puo-foo! Hasn't had one of her fits in months until now." Jayne quivered with barely restrained anger.

"She's had plenty a' crazy fits!" He roared. The entire room froze. "You just didn't know about them!" Mal was the first to recover.

"How would you know about her fits?" the captain asked, outraged at Jayne's words.

"Because she came to me for help in dealing with them," the merc growled, calming down now.

"What?" Simon gasped, his mouth gaping open. Jayne nodded.

"I got to knowin' how to make sense a' her crazy-talk after a while," he answered. "I would figure what she were tryin' to say an' fix it 'afore any of you even got to knowin' she had a problem." He turned to a startled Simon to say, somewhat accusingly, "she don't need no drugs. They make her confused an' cloud her head. Don't do nothin' 'bout th' crazy, just make it harder for her to figure which is real an' made up." The doctor's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I don't understand. She told me that the medications were helping."

"Yeah, well," the big man said, beginning to move slowly back toward River. "Seems to me that what she says an' what she means is two different things."

Mal snapped out of his shock and blocked Jayne's path.

"Now hold up here a second, I'm not lettin' you go near River," he said tensely. "Sweet story or not, you were lookin' mighty intimidating to the girl and I find I don't much appreciate that."

"Gorrammit, Mal!" Jayne roared again, his control over his temper hanging on by a thread. The enraged yell sent all of the crew not already there running to the kitchen to find out what the commotion was all about. "Something big is gonna happen an' she needs help makin' sense a' it 'afore it's too late!"

"And you're telling me that you're the one to do it?" Mal asked incredulously.

"Ain't no one on this ship better at understandin' her than me," he asserted.

"I say we give him a chance, Cap'n," Kaylee smiled, walking up to Mal and tugging on his sleeve to get him to stop glaring at Jayne. For once, the merc. was glad for Kaylee's sway on the captain. If she agreed with Jayne, it wouldn't be long before Mal gave in to the mechanic's will. Sure enough, Mal groaned and closed his eyes.

"Fine," he snapped, "but if you make one wrong move, I won't wait to take you to the airlock, if you get my meaning," he hissed with a glare Jayne didn't see. The merc. was already kneeling on the ground before River, pulling her focus back to him.

"Hey, Crazy," he growled softly, "look at me, ya hear? Just look at me." To everyone's shock, River's eyes met the big man's and her mumbling ceased. "Good girl. The pea you was talkin' 'bout," he began. River nodded.

"The pea that is hurting her brain."

"Yeah, that pea," he continued. "I need you to tell me if this pea is like the last one." She nodded again.

"The same, but different. Harder to find. Mosquitos biting and flying away."

"Do you need another picture to swat it?" He asked. This time she shook her head.

"She doesn't think so. The picture unlocked her brain. There are no more locks, only questions.

"What do you need to answer this question?" After considering this for a bit, she seemed to come to a conclusion.

"She must close her mind to linear and consult her mother."

"Do ya' want me ta' stay?" Smiling and patting his big hand, she shook her head again.

"No. If she needs rhythm, she will follow the red." With that, River jumped up and skipped from the room. Jayne slowly stood as the others stared ,gaping at the man they thought they had known. Wash, the first to recover, broke the silence that had befallen them.

"Well, that was just about the strangest thing I've ever seen," he said, "and that includes people juggling geese."