"Ed wants to help!" Edward announced, bounding into the kitchen.
"With dinner?" Jet was dumbfounded. No one ever offered to pitch in on chores - though Jet had caught Spike sweeping once or twice and had seen Faye's hands wrinkled in a way that indicated prolonged exposure to water which proved she was the one who occasionally did the dishes whenever Jet himself got distracted after meals in the bonsai room or repairing the zipcraft.
But help with dinner? Hell, Spike wasn't even allowed in the kitchen if cooking was his intent and Jet had the distinct impression Faye was clueless about how anything went together when making a meal.
He eyed Ed suspiciously. She was prone to distraction but also a lot smarter than probably anyone else on board. He doubted she had much kitchen experience but everyone had to start somewhere and she was clearly interested. That was the first step - wanting to be in this room.
"All right, Ed. I don't have much left to do for dinner tonight, but tomorrow you can join me for the full prep if you still want to help." He offered.
She looked briefly crestfallen before flashing him a smile. "Okay!"
No way could he let that flicker of sadness fester.
"Hey wait, there's one thing I could use your help with tonight. I've got to keep an eye on the meat here in the pan. But I need some garlic to put a zing on our meal. And peeling garlic is a lot more fun than peeling vegetables, which is what you'll be busy doing tomorrow." Once he determined how safe it would be to arm her with a knife, that is.
Ed beamed at him. "Garlic - got it! How does it work?" She looked around the kitchen, clearly unsure what she was trying to find.
Smiling, Jet pointed to a mesh bag hanging from a hook above the little table he used to cut everything up. "Those are garlic bulbs. They've got all sorts of layers keeping them together and protecting all the little pieces called cloves that we need for dinner. What you wanna do is take one and start twisting it until it sheds the skin. Then you'll be able to start twisting each little piece one by one to get the outside off of those parts. What we're after is the hearts of those clumps."
"Oooh, garlic hearts, good for smarts!" Ed set to her task with gusto, standing over the garbage with a bulb in her hands. "It's good for lots more, you know." She abruptly yelped and Jet nearly jumped out of his skin.
"What happened? You okay?" He was immediately at her side and trying to ascertain what made her scream. There was no blood anywhere he could see.
"Sharp! The garlic doesn't want to be naked." She remarked. She held a clove up and tapped the tiny end. "That part hurt Ed."
"Oh shit, Ed, I should have warned you. I usually crack them with my metal fist - I forgot about that part."
She hadn't cried aside from her yell of surprised pain. In fact even now she seemed more curious than anything else. Jet watched as she began squeezing the cloves more carefully and judged it was safe to return to the pan of meat on the burner. Still, it would probably be smart to give her something else to focus on while she worked.
Though his eyes were elsewhere, he gave Ed the majority of his attention. "So Ed, wanna tell me more about the health benefits of garlic?"