More Than Friends

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Jayne couldn’t believe his luck – he’d just meant to keep an eye on Kaylee, makin’ sure she was safe. Now they were actually goin’ somewhere to talk, which meant that she might still want him. He hoped she did; what was he gonna do if’n she decided to just keep goin’ her own way and wanted him to continue goin’ his? This had to be done just right, he told himself. “So, uh, how long you stayin’?” he asked, just like he hadn’t checked their dock pass soon as he saw ‘em land.

“Few more days, then we – oh, this it?” Kaylee looked around as he guided her into a bar. He’d picked it because it kinda reminded him of the Maidenhead on Beaumond, and it was a good spot to look over the new arrivals comin’ from the yard. “Can we sit up there?” She pointed to the top level and looked up at him, all expectant-like.

“If’n you want, sure.” He guessed it was a good thing he was slowly bein’ able to talk around her, instead of just trippin’ all over himself by not knowin’ what to say. Now he just had to deal with findin’ the right words to say. She skipped on ahead of him up the stairs to find a table she liked, and that allowed him to just follow her real slow and look his fill. Gorram, but she was a fine one.

When Kaylee finally decided where she wanted to sit, he sat across from her as she threw herself in a seat like if’n she didn’t run for it someone else would take the table. It made him smile, and she smiled back when she looked up an’ caught him at it. “It’s shiny to see that smile again,” she said, wrigglin’ in her seat and makin’ it mighty hard for him not to just reach for her right then and there. Jayne signaled to one of the servers he knew and got Kaylee a menu, which she buried her face in immediately. “Lord, I’m hungry. Wash was gonna cook – and there ain’t no way you’ve forgot how bad Wash cooks – but Cap’n said we was all gonna eat out together.” She set the menu down with a startled look on her face. “I told ‘em I’d catch up after I fixed my laces, they don’t know where I’m at,” she moaned. “Maybe I should just…” Kaylee looked from him to the entrance down below, not knowin’ what she should do.

Alarm widened his eyes – she weren’t gonna leave him so soon? “You ain’t leavin’, are ya?” He didn’t even get a chance to say but ten words to her yet, and reached out a hand to cover hers on the table before he knew what he was doin’. “I mean, you just got here,” he finished, his brain goin’ all stupid from the look on her face as well as the feel of her hand under his. ‘Cause he started to think on what all she used to do to him with those hands of hers, and how her skin had felt all soft, warm, and good when he’d – he shook his head to get rid of the images and pulled his hand back quickly. “I mean, you just…got here.” Yeah those are the proper words to tell her, you dumb sonova… “Just gimme some sake,” he sighed out as the server came back.

Kaylee just smiled an’ smiled, like she knew somehow that he was so hard it hurt. She propped her chin up on her hands, big brown eyes lookin’ him over slowly. “You look real good, wenshen,” she said softly. Her food and Jayne’s liquor were placed in front of ‘em right then as she was about to say somethin’ else, and he glared up at the server who looked like she was just havin’ the time of her gorram life. “You know each other?” Kaylee asked curiously, grabbin’ her chopsticks and diggin’ in.

He had a time not grinnin’ at the way she was attackin’ the noodles, and sipped his drink. “I come in here most days, is all. Nothin’ much else to do after workin’ in the yard on whatever ships need weldin’.”

“So you already knew how long we was stayin’,” she said, raisin’ her eyebrows at him.

Jayne coughed. “Didn’t know how else to start talkin’ to you.” Her eyes got all sparkly at him, so he guessed that meant he wasn’t doin’ too bad so far. He put his palm down on the table and slid it halfway across to her, real slow. “How’ve you been?”

Her hand came across, just as slow, so just their fingertips were touchin’. “I been worse before I got the letters.”

“Letters? From who?” It felt real nice, bein’ able to touch her even just a little. He felt the blood drain from his face when she hauled a mighty familiar lookin’ piece of paper from her pocket and held it up. Gorramnit to di yu! He was gonna flatten Monty the next time he saw the man. “But, those weren’t…I didn’t…they’re not…” Aw, hell.

“You didn’t write ‘em?”

“Well, yeah I did, but that was…I ain’t never thought Monty’d just give ‘em to ya like he did,” he said helplessly.

“You weren’t never gonna give to me your own self, Jayne Cobb?”

Uh oh. Kaylee’s eyes was gettin’ all narrow and everything that just meant bad things for him. “No. I mean, yes. I mean…gorrammit, he stole ‘em from the trash!” She just gave him some sort of look an’ went back to eating, pullin’ her hand from the table and back to her lap. “So, uh, Mal hired someone new?” Now, what made him think that that was somethin’ she wanted to talk on? Real slick, Jayne.

She finished her food and wiped her mouth before lookin’ back up and answerin’ the question. “We’re on our seventh hired gun, actually. None of ‘em wants ta stay around, for some reason.”

“So Mal ain’t exactly replaced me, is what you’re sayin’?” Maybe, just maybe…

“Ain’t nobody in the ‘verse can replace you,” Kaylee told him, stretchin’ both hands over the table for him to take. “Jayne, I-”

“Jayne Austin Cobb! ”

The wild yell made him look around, a smile breakin’ across his face as he recognized Mattie’s voice. “Can you hang on just for a bit? I’ll be right back, I swear,” he said hastily, standin’ up to go down a level where Mattie leaped at him for a hug.

_ _ _ _ _


The words, “I love you” died on Kaylee’s tongue as his name was yelled, and he left her to hurry down to the dark haired woman who was barrelin’ up the stairs of the second level to get to Jayne. Hurt welled up in her, sharp and sudden when she saw the woman hurl herself into Jayne’s arms and be greeted with a hug – Kaylee looked away when he leaned down to kiss her, and she grabbed at her lightweight jacket angrily. She couldn’t believe what a fool she’d been, to think Jayne had waited for her and wanted to come back to be her man again. He’d tried to tell her about the letters, she realized; there was a good reason he’d tossed ‘em out, after all. If he thought she would just stay and let herself be humiliated, he had another thing comin’. Maybe he’d even thought that he could get some touch for free, but then his new woman showed up…

She felt like she might sick up her dinner. I gotta get outta here, I can’t stay an’ watch him with another woman, I just can’t do nothin’ of the sort, she thought desperately. Lord, he was even leadin’ her back up to the table and she was startin’ to smile, reachin’ out a hand. “Kaylee, like ya t’meet-”

Kaylee turned sharply and went runnin’ down the steps. “I gotta go, Mal’s gonna be worried ‘bout me.”

“Kaylee? Kaylee, don’t leave,” Jayne called after her. She heard him tell his new gal that he’d be right back for her an’ then he was runnin’ after her, catchin’ at her elbow as they got near the entrance. “Hey, what’s goin’ on? I just wanted you to meet my-”

She turned on him, suddenly so full of anger she couldn’t see straight. “I can’t believe you,” she hissed. “Lurin’ me back here like you wanted to get back up with me again, an’ not sayin’ a word when I’m embarassin’ myself by talkin’ on the letters, an’ then bringin’ your new girl up ta meet me like that without even a warnin’! Now if’n you’ll excuse me, I’ll get out of your sorry life an’ go back to mine!” Kaylee pulled free and whirled to leave.

Jayne grabbed her again. “My new girl? Kaylee, that’s just my…”

A server walked past her with a tray full of drinks, and she grabbed one to throw into his eyes. “You ruttin’ hun dan, let go of me!” She yanked her arm from his grip once more and walloped him hard across the face.

“Kaylee, wait….!”

She ran into the busy street, angry tears near blindin’ her as she tried to make her way to where the rest of the crew was.


_ _ _ _ _ _


Jayne stared in disbelief as Kaylee ran from him, wipin’ the sake from his eyes. “Oh, no,” he moaned, rubbin’ his hands over his face. “This can’ t be happenin’…” A touch on his arm made him look down at his little sister, who was at his elbow demandin’ an explanation. He cast one more helpless look at the door, then Mattie was pullin’ him away from it and back up to their table.

“What in the ‘verse is goin’ on, Jayne? Weren’t that the mechanic you were writin’ about when you first joined up with that Reynolds fella?”

He sighed. “Yeah, that was Kaylee.” The tea lights at their table had burned down into pools of wax when he finally finished explainin’ what all had happened – Mattie was just starin’ at him like he was the biggest chou wan ba dan she’d ever seen. “…now she thinks you and me are sexin’ each other, an’ it looks like she don’t never wanna see my face again,” he finished.

Mattie stared at him some more. “Ge ge, you’ve gotta be the dumbest wonang fei in the ‘verse.”

He buried his head in his hands. “Yeah…reckon so.”

“You know, if’n you told her straight out in the first place this wouldn’t be happenin’ but since you’re a gorram houzi de pigu-”

Jayne lifted his head sharply to glare at her. “You done callin’ me names yet, mei mei? I can just toss you onto the next outgoin’ ship,” he threatened.

She just blinked and smiled, tossin’ her hair. “Ma would get real mad atcha if’n you so much as tried.” After a few minutes of glarin’ at her, he had to smile – Mattie always could find a way to make him laugh, no matter how upset he got. It’d always been that way ever since she was a little’un and he was the one takin’ care of her while their Ma got some sleep after a hard day at the factory…no matter that he was the oldest and she was the baby, they always told each other everything. It’d always been that way and he thought it probably always would be. She could sure be a brat sometimes, though. “You feelin’ ta go after her?”

“Only thing that was stoppin’ me in the first place was you,” he reminded her. “Don’t think it woulda made no difference, though. I ain’t never seen her so het up before.” Jayne sat back in the chair, draggin’ his fingers through his hair in agitation. He winced as his fingers hit a snarl, which just made Mattie think it was funny that he hadn’t cut his hair. “D’you think I should go try t’find her?” he asked helplessly. He wanted to go after Kaylee, to tell her that it was all just a stupid mistake, but did she really want to see him? Jayne brought a hand up to touch his cheek, where she’d smacked him. Sure didn’t feel like she wanted to see him ever again. “Lord, Mattie – I don’t know what to do.”

His little sister reached across to take his hands in hers – at least, what would fit because her hands were so teeny – and smiled up at him, shakin’ her head. “She must be somethin’ real special to get you so messed up, Long tou lao da.”

“Yeah.” He thought of Kaylee’s face, her sweetness, how she was always cheerful even when it was ruttin’ irritating, how kind she was. “Yeah, she sure is.”

“Maybe you can be around first thing in the mornin’ when they fuel up – if they ain’t done that already – an’ it can look all accidental or somethin’.” She was bouncin’ in her chair, she was so excited about it. Didn’t sound like the best plan Jayne’d ever heard of, but it was worth a shot. It was a hell of a lot better’n just givin’ up, and maybe Kaylee would have calmed down enough to let him speak his piece.

Not like he had one, but still.

_ _ _ _ _ _


Mal sighed and shook his head when he saw Jayne appear at the end of the ramp, like he’d been waiting for a spell for the rest of ‘em to wake up. The big merc showed no signs of getting ready to come up, so Mal went down to see what he wanted. “Mal,” Jayne greeted with a nod.

The captain fought not to stare in startlement at the man’s shaggy hair and general ragged appearance. “Jayne.” He eyed the merc speculatively. “Somethin’ I can be helping you with this fine mornin’?”

“Yeah…need ta see Kaylee, if’n she’ll come out an’ talk. We, uh, ran into each other last night and-”

“We heard all about it,” Mal said coldly. “You got no call humiliatin’ that girl so, and a whole lot of nerve to come callin’ on her the next day.” Kaylee had been near hysterical the previous night after her run-in with Jayne, and they hadn’t known quite what to do. Now he was just asking to speak with her like it was a normal occurrence? Jayne had never been that rich in intelligence, but this took the cake.

Jayne sighed. “Mal, you don’t understand-”

“No, I’m thinkin’ that I do. Maybe all too well.”

“Mal, I-”

“In fact, why don’t you get along before she gets up? Don’t want her to be-”

The big man lunged for him, grabbin’ him by the collar and snarling in his face. “ Daxiang baozhashi de laduzi! That was my gorram sister!” Jayne shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth and Mal was ready to go for his sidearm when the barrel of a gun was pressed to the infuriated merc’s temple.

“Think you might want to let him go now, Jayne,” Zoë said calmly.

Jayne released him with a hard shove that flung him against the side of the ramp, turning on his second angrily. “You know what? If’n you wanna shoot me so ruttin’ bad you better go ahead an’ do it now ‘cause next time you put that in my face, I swear to Tien I’ll make you regret it.”

“Zoë,” Mal said quietly. She lowered the gun reluctantly, still eyeing the angry man. “Jayne, what in the hell is wrong with you these days? And what in Buddha’s name did you do to your hair?”

The other man sighed and turned to face him. “Look, you lettin’ me talk to Kaylee or not? I got things to do today.”

Mal glanced at the still-empty mouth of the ship, then back again. “You say that was your sister she got so upset at seein’?”

“Yeah, that was what I was tryin’ to tell her last night when Mattie showed up.” As suddenly as it had appeared, the anger drained out of the big man and he simply looked tired and heartsick.

He blinked. “Mattie is your sister?” Their mother must have had no shortage of odd names to label her critters with, Mal thought wonderingly. A boy named Jayne and a girl named Mattie? What the others must be named, he’d be interested to find out. He was about to speak again when a voice rang out.

“Cap’n, you want me to get goin’ now or…” Kaylee trailed off as she caught sight of Jayne, who straightened up and cleared his throat nervously. “What d’you want?” she demanded, her voice goin’ from sleepy to pissed in about 3 seconds flat.

“I’ll leave you to it, then…Zoë?” they went up the ramp and Mal gave Kaylee a small shove down the ramp. “Talk to the man, mei mei,” he suggested. Lord above, they really were the two biggest idiots ever born. The sooner they worked it out, the sooner Serenity could have its mercenary back and the ship would run smoothly again. His hopes of returning normality began to die a slow, painful death when he heard the raised voices that meant that Jayne was simply being angry at gettin’ slapped instead of explaining about his sister, and that Kaylee was gettin’ fired up enough to smack him again.

“And you ain’t never gotten up enough courage to tell me about what you done on Ariel,” she was yellin’ loud enough to wake the dead. Jayne’s reply was lost as Wash came up to them to ask what was going on, then River joined them at the edge of the ramp to peer over curiously.

“He’s going to get slapped again,” the Reader said thoughtfully.

The crack of Kaylee’s palm against the side of Jayne’s face echoed sharply in the still air, and Mal stepped to one side to allow the furious mechanic to stomp past him and fling herself up the cargo bay steps so she could work off her temper in the engine room. Jayne just stood there staring after her in disbelief before he shook his head and slowly turned to leave. Mal sighed and watched him go. “Well, folks…let’s get fueled up and on our way.”

Zoë slipped a hand through the crook of Wash’s elbow. “We need a reliable gun hand, Sir. Should we call him back?”

“Best not…be more trouble than we need right now. They’ll either sort it out somehow or they won’t.”


_ _ _ _ _


Why’d it all have to be so messed up? Kaylee curled up in her hammock, arms around her knees as she tried not to cry. If they’d just come out and told each other how they felt, none of this would’ve happened and they’d be here together right now. Only not together in the hammock, Jayne was much too heavy for it. Probably break it just by puttin’ one hand on the ropes, she thought, rememberin’ the times when he’d threatened to get in it if she weren’t payin’ him enough attention. But that time was long past, and it didn’t look like she’d ever pay him any more attention. Serve the hun dan right, too – how dare he show off his new girl to me an’ then show up to make sure I weren’t mad at him! Like I’m s’posed to show up at their gorram weddin’ or somethin’ like that. “Like I’m supposed to wait for him to get sick of her an’ then come runnin’ when he crooks a finger!” She scoffed and kicked the side of the engine housing.

Kaylee knelt and ran an apologetic hand over the place her boot had struck. “I’m sorry,” she told the engine. “It’s just… He don’t love me and I ain’t supposed to love him no more after all he’s done. He never told me ‘bout Ariel, either…oh, I knew about it. Was just waitin’ to see if he’d tell me his own self and he’s come awful close lotsa times.” She sighed gustily and stood up. “And why’m I even talkin’ to you? No offense, but it ain’t like you can give me advice…maybe I should go see ‘Nara. She’s been waitin’ all this time for me to come talk to her ‘bout Jayne, but I just weren’t feelin’ like talkin’ to no one.” She’d wait ‘til they were in the black again, she decided, but then she’d go see her friend. It’d been long enough.

She thought about Jayne while she helped Wash prep for take-off, wonderin’ where the big man was as Serenity lifted from the Silverhold shipyard. She knew she weren’t supposed to care, not anymore, but still…

Two days later they landed Serenity on St. Albans for another medicine run, which pretty much meant ‘easy money’. Higgins, the hired gun, was actin’ even more strange than usual but Kaylee paid him no mind as she checked over the Mule one last time before Mal scolded her for “fiddlin’” an’ took off with the usual group of Zoë, Higgins, and River. On her way back up to the engine room to start takin’ off the color codes she’d put up for Jayne, her comm unit beeped. “Musta forgotten somethin’.” She shrugged and opened the channel.

“Kaylee?”

Of course, it had to be Higgins…the man had been after her ever since he found out about Jayne when they was on Silverhold. It was kinda strange, how he’d taken interest all of a sudden, askin’ her more questions than he’d ever done before… she’d had to tell him that she weren’t interested, but he’d seemed to take it well enough. “Yeah, what’s up? You lose somethin’?” His next words nearly made her drop the hand unit.

“It’s, uh, the Mule. Something wrong with it, I think…we crashed. Captain’s hurt, needs help.”

“Is he…?”

“Just bring the doctor, will you?” Higgins snapped at her.

“We’re on our way,” she cried, breakin’ the connection and runnin’ to find Simon, yellin’ up to the bridge. “Wash, we’re takin’ the spare shuttle,” she called. “Mal’s hurt.”

Simon scrambled to get his gear together while she had a hurried conference with Wash. “I can just fly the ship over, they can’t have gotten far,” the pilot offered anxiously.

“Naw, we’ll just use the shuttle – she’s prepped an’ ready to go, but I’ll call on ya if’n we need more help.” She glanced over at Simon, who nodded to show that he was ready. “Wish us luck,” she called to Inara, runnin’ off to the shuttle. Her hands were shaking as she went through the startup sequence, and she prayed that there weren’t nothin’ seriously wrong with Mal. Simon placed a supportive hand on her shoulder and she took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Okay, let’s get to ‘em, Dr. Tam.”

She flew the shuttle to the coordinates Higgins had given, so preoccupied with worry that she hardly noticed when four Alliance craft flew from concealment to box her in. Her blood froze as she realized the trap they were caught in, and she reached for the comm panel to get a message to Wash before the Alliance ships could block the signal. “Wash, get outta here now, dong ma? Higgins turned us in – don’t let ‘em take Serenity,” she yelled. Kaylee didn’t know if he’d heard her at all…static was all that answered her.

_ _ _ _ _


Wash rearranged his dinos for the tenth time and was just sitting back to scrutinize their placement when the radio came alive with intermittent bursts of static and nearly made him fall from his chair in shock. “...outta here…Higgins…us in…take Serenity…”

He grabbed the radio. “Kaylee? Kaylee, answer me – Kaylee!” Nothing. “Damn it, what’s going on?” he yelled. What did the message mean? She’d sounded like she was surprised, but why should she be…? Something about Higgins. Wash hadn’t trusted the man any farther than he could throw him, and from the size of the beer gut Higgins had, he wouldn’t even be able to get him off the ground. He replayed the message in his head, thinking of possible meanings before he finally realized what must have happened.

“Inara? Would you mind coming up here? We’ve got to make a break for it,” he called over the intercom, initiating the start sequence. Whoever Higgins had gone to, they had most likely been expecting Serenity to fly to the rescue and not the spare shuttle – that meant that they only had so much time to lift off to safety. Maybe he could overfly the area and scout out how many people had the others – he wasn’t about to let them just capture Zoë without a fight, but he paled when he saw the Alliance ships coming at them. "Zoë, I’m so sorry,” he breathed. They didn’t have a chance against that many…he counted twenty troop carriers and at least fifteen smaller craft.

After some very intricate maneuvers, he’d shaken their pursuers and gone back the way they’d came at full burn – with luck, the Alliance wouldn’t expect it and it would give them time to regroup and decide on the best course of action. But what could he do? He wasn’t cut out for rescue operations, and he wasn’t that sure Inara’s status as registered Companion would be worth a damn once they were captured. She was currently trying to get in touch with some of her contacts, saying that one of her clients may have some news for them…Wash hoped she managed it, because how else were they supposed to…?

He sat up straight, the idea striking him like a thunderbolt. It wasn’t fancy, and probably wouldn’t work, but…it might. Reaching for his Cortex screen, Wash punched in a code. “Silverhold main dock,” a bored young man yawned, idly fanning at a buzzing insect flying in his face.

Wash grinned. “I’m looking for Jayne Cobb.”


tbc…

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*knocks Jayne and Kaylee’s heads together*