A/N: Shiny to have gained some extra reviewers recently - I thank you all.

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Act Three

Jayne's head was banging like a drum when he woke to light too bright upon his face. One arm came up to shield his eyes, but the other he found would not move at all, as if a weight were crushing it. It was only when he peeked out from under his own limb he realised the weight wasn't so very heavy, but was in fact covering the whole left side of his body.

The sight of River, curled up beside him, didn't startle Jayne as much as it probably should've. She felt awful soft and warm pressed up against him, lookin' like some kind of fallen angel as she slept on, head on his shoulder and dark hair splayed out all around. Vague memories told him nothing really happened here, despite the fact the girl was there beside him in nothin' but her birthday suit! He had told her she was beautiful though, and that had been no lie. Scary as hell she could be when awake, in sleep she was something special.

Jayne would never say as much, but waking up to the sight and feel of her up close to him, it was somethin' good, somethin' he wanted to remember for a long time yet.

"Good morning, Hero" she smiled, eyes opening all of a sudden and spoiling the quiet moment he'd been enjoying too much, "Have not slept so soundly in many moons" she said as she sat up slowly, the covers falling away and revealing her still naked chest.

"Yeah, well, get yourself dressed, gorram' crazy woman" Jayne told her gruffly as he pulled himself up out of the bed, wincing a little at the way his head still throbbed as he reached for his T-shirt and re-dressed.

"Called her woman" River observed, though she didn't make a big deal, just pulled on her clothes as he'd told her, knowing he was trying to be decent and keep his back to her, but just as aware he could see her reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall.

His usual names for her - Crazy, Girly, and Moonbrain - she didn't mind them, but woman was new, and appreciated, whether he realised it or not.

All River really wanted was for Jayne to see her for what she really was and not what she appeared, just as she saw him. So much more than a brutish mercenary, had a kind side that others didn't see because he never cared to show.

Jayne headed out of the bedroom with River following behind, paying mind to the fact that if Mal or the Doc realised how the pair of them had spent the night, he might find himself in some deep fei-oo all too fast. Title of hero was no use to him floating alone in space, chokin' on miles of airless nothin'.

"He robbed from the rich, and he gave to the poor, stood up to The Man, and gave him what for..." River sang loudly as they headed on down the stairs, causing Jayne to throw an arm around her shoulders and cover her damn mouth with his hand

Fortunately, Simon and Kaylee were out the door already, him grovelling all the way for having offended her, only willing to leave when Mal insisted he was sure River had gone back to Serenity last night. He now saw the truth, that the young woman had spent the night in the arms of his merc, and that was beyond unsettling

"Ai Yah Tien Ah..." the Captain exclaimed, slapping a hand to his forehead and looking suitably shocked, "What in the hell were you two doin'...? I don't know why I'm askin' this!" he said, changing direction in a moment and looking away from the odd couple as Jayne let go of River and she rolled her eyes at his antics.

"We slept" she said innocently, "No touching that the Captain could not approve of" she insisted with a shake of her head as Mal looked intently at her, thinking it was unlikely she would lie, "Saved your soldier from much worse" she said smartly, looking between her Captain and Jayne who looked less than thrilled by the whole situation.

"So you say" he grumbled, Mal watching the odd exchange that concluded with River sticking out her tongue at the man beside her.

"This Moon just gets weirder by the second..." the Captain said to himself, deciding that right now he didn't have time to worry about what may or may not have happened between these two members of his crew, "C'mon living legend, you got a little appearance to make" he pointed out, mindful of this job of theirs going south.

Explaining his plan to his oblivious merc made Mal feel better about his day. Problems a plenty would want looking into after their jaunt around Higgin's Moon, but they would wait. Doc would wanna know where his sister had spent the night, and someone needed to have words with the girl about her choice of teddy bears, but now was not the time or place.

River read these thoughts right out of her Captain's head as she followed the men across town. She knew he wouldn't prove of herself and Jayne, but one day things would happen, and Mal, along with Simon and the rest of the crew, would just have to learn to live with it. Speaking of living, she saw a fault in Mal's plan today, something she so often did yet never spoke a word. Usually, she knew things would work out, today someone was guaranteed to die, and only she had the foresight to ensure that it wasn't any member of her new-found family.

"Morning, kids" Wash greeted them as he drove up on the mule with Zoe clinging to his waist.

"Is that Jayne? Is that really him?" she joked "Wash, pinch me, I must be dreaming'"

"Hell, I'll pinch ya" the man in question offered, earning himself a smack from the warrior woman that he honestly didn't mind at all.

"Just get on over to town square, Jayne" he was quickly instructed by Mal as the Captain climbed on the back of the trailer the mule was pulling, "River, you wanna jump on here?" he offered her but she shook her head, looking almost panicked as she backed up a step and hid partially behind Jayne's large form.

"Unseen variable will ruin everything" she insisted, "Can't leave Jayne"

"I ain't got time to argue with you, little one..." Mal sighed, his choice of words unfortunate in the circumstances.

"I am woman, Jayne said" she snapped, looking all kinds of angry and fearsome, compared to the sweet little girl she usually acted like, "Can make own choice" she said definitely, practically stamping her foot like a child, a strange irony given the words she had just spoke.

Wash looked back at Mal, silently checking if they were okay to go or not, as River's hand went to Jayne's arm, causing him to look at her.

"Have to trust me" she all but whispered, "Have to stay, have to" she insisted, and there was something about the way she looked, the way she said those words that had Jayne believin' her somehow.

"Let her be, Cap'n" he said, glancing back at Mal, "She ain't doin' no harm" he shrugged, making Mal wonder all over again about the sanity of his ownself as well as certain members of his crew as he instructed Wash they were to go now.

* * * * *

Jayne couldn't help but love the feeling of being worshipped by such a crowd as this. Stood before a statue that bore his face, beholding the sight of a whole moonful of Mudders, cheering only for him, it was a mighty fine thing for the man who never received so much as a kindness of words from any other person he knew.

Amongst the mud splattered faces and ragged clothes, stood the figure of a young woman who was surprising Jayne more these past few hours than even this whole gorram planet had. River was like no other female he ever met or ever cared to. She seemed so stuck on him, it was almost cute, and at the same time scary as hell, though he wouldn't admit it.

Concentrating on the crowd and the task at hand, Jayne realised he wasn't gonna keep them happy 'less he made the speech they were demanding. 'Course that was a hell of a lot easier said than done.

"I'm no good with words, don't use 'em much, myself..." he started to explain as River kept her ears on Jayne's words but her eyes peeled for the danger she know would come, "But I want to thank y'all for bein' here and for thinking so much of me. Far as I see it, you people been given the shortest end of a stick ever offered a human soul in this crap-heel 'verse... but you took that end, and you, y'know... you took it, and that's... well, I guess that's somethin'..."

Jayne concluded what might have been the 'verses most pointless speech and yet it was much appreciated by those that would worship him and his apparent kindness. River even heard Mal and Kaylee speak well of their crew-mates speech, though she was not interested in their presence, or the worried thoughts her Captain was having about her. No, River had more important things to be concentrating on, because someone in the crowd was not on Jayne's side and was instead hell bent on bringing her man down.

"Here it comes" she whispered to herself, wincing before the shotgun blast was ever heard.

The applause was gone in an instant and when River opened her eyes again she saw the ugly sight of a twisted old man, holding the gun that had just been fired into the clear blue sky.

"Stitch Hessian" she heard Jayne sneer, though she spared no time to glance his way, "Where you been hidin'? You gone and got yourself lookin' mighty hideous"

River moved silently through the crowd, mindful of any move Mal might make if he caught sight of her. She had to be careful, had to be in position at the right moment to ensure no innocents lost their lives today.

"Yep. Now Jayne gets his..." the Foreman of the Mudders muttered, but River knew better than that.

"No, he does not" she whispered, though not a single soul heard her, all eyes and ears focused on Stitch and Jayne alone.

The two men faced off against each other, the truth that River had always known being easily revealed. Hessian tried to suggest that Jayne dropping him from the plane made him no hero, but that wasn't true. There were many more reasons for the altercation that had let to this bad old man being ejected from the hover-plane before the money ever fell to the Mudders aid.

Oh, River may be crazy but she wasn't stupid, she knew it was never Jayne's plan to share that which he had stolen, but he was no more the devil that Stitch Hessian would paint him than he was the true blue hero that the crowd gathered here would insist.

River felt the rush of usual fear that ran through Jayne as he reached for his knife, the only weapon he had been permitted to bring here to this moon. She had weapons of her own and more powerful than even the old man before her with the gun in his hands.

As Stitch cocked the gun with plans to fire at Jayne, River made the move that came as naturally as breathing to her. Mal could hardly believe his eyes, and Jayne was equally as shocked as the young woman they'd never seen be proper violent in the whole course of knowing her, ducked down and swept Stitch Hessian's legs from beneath him, knocking him onto his back with the shot gun still in his hands. The bullet he'd fired had gone well wide of its mark as she knew it would, but there was no chance for celebration as Stitch grabbed the elegant leg that would try to keep him pinned, spinning poor River off her feet and onto her back in a second, switching their positions and leaning over her with the gun pressed into her chest.

"Now" he sneered, "What do we have here?"

To Be Continued...