Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
folder
1 through F › Firefly
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,833
Reviews:
21
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
1 through F › Firefly
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,833
Reviews:
21
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Firefly, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Blue Hands
Chapter Sixteen:
The men (including Simon) were all out rounding up fifteen specific horses that Jane Cobb’s client picked out. The client happened to be Carl—Jayne’s only big brother—who decided to bring the whole family along to watch the fun that ensued of four grown men racing around a large pasture on horseback trying to rope the fifteen most rambunctious horses out of the whole herd.
Sandra, Carl’s wife, was not as amused as her husband (shirking work yet again). Her young sons James and Walter were completely enthralled by the prospect of finally hanging out with their uncle Jayne.
Uncle Jayne was too gorram busy to roughhouse with his nephews. He was busy chasing down a particularly stubborn colt that Carl had pointed out specifically for him to track down.
River, still grinning from earlier that morning and ignoring the questioning looks that Inara and Zoë were shooting her way, was watching the round up with total concentration on Jayne.
The fall air was not too hot nor too cold and if asked, Ma Cobb would say that it was a perfect day outside.
Perfect days were meant to be ruined.
Bruce, who had been lounging in an ungainly heap in the grass, shot up to all four legs and let out a rumbling growl. His hackles raised and his tail stood straight in the air at attention. River pried her eyes away from Jayne long enough to look at the big dog in curiosity—then reeled back as if someone had slammed their fist right in her nose. She hit the fence post with a frightening crack and stared sightlessly out at the sky.
The women gathered around her in seconds and flooded her with questions. Carl grabbed his boys by their shirt collars and held them back as he whistled for his younger brother’s attention.
Jayne kicked Sunshine into a full gallop and yanked the mare to a halt beside the fence.
“River! What’s the matter?”
The last time this had happened, she’d seen Reavers.
The pit of Jayne’s stomach dropped out. He jumped over the fence and gently shoved the women-folk out of the way to get to the assassin girl prone on the ground and ignored Bruce’s agitated snarling.
“River?“ he grabbed her face and forced her eyes to meet his. “River!”
She gasped—having been holding her breath without realizing it. “Two by two… Jayne, they’re here. Two by two, hands of blue…”
“Shit!” Jayne snarled and shoved her into Zoë’s arms.
“Jayne!” Zoë protested. “What are you—”
He unlatched the gate and lead Sunshine out of the pasture. “Goin’ back to Serenity to weapon up. You keep both eyes on her, dong ma?”
Kaylee was getting that scared look in her eyes. “Jayne?”
He swung a leg up on Sunshine’s saddle and settled himself quickly. “Get Mal, Kaylee-girl. Tell ‘im what’s goin’ on, then get yerself inside the house. All ya’ll get inside the house!”
He kicked his heels into Sunshine’s ribs and the mare took off at a breakneck pace towards Harmony.
*
Jayne checked the cortex after strapping Vera across his chest and loading himself with as many guns and grenades as possible. The M60, River’s TMP, and their shared XM-26 were a heavier load than he was used to, but taking out those Blue Hand hun dans was enough of an incentive to suck it up. Juggling the large M60, Jayne tapped the screen and discovered a delightfully shitty nugget of information.
Serenity was landlocked.
“Son of a bitch,” he growled.
He needed to get back fast. Sunshine wasn’t going to make it with the added weight.
That left the mule.
Jayne quickly dragged his horse inside the ship and hitched her to the stair railing.
*
Simon was fervently wishing he’d asked Jayne to teach him how to shoot properly ages ago. He and Kaylee were about matched in that area of life in the Black and it made him feel completely powerless.
There was a rumble in the distance.
Simon looked to River as she curled up further on the sofa beneath a knitted afghan and prayed that it was Jayne. Mal edged to one of the porch windows with his gun raised by his temple and dropped it after a moment’s scrutiny.
“It’s the mule,” he said. “Didn’t know Jayne knew how to drive it…” he added.
Zoë, mare’s leg at the ready, cleared her throat. “I caught him readin’ the manual the other day, sir. Said he was bored.”
“Yee soo. He’s comin’ in awful fast.”
“’Spect he’s worried, sir.”
They watched Jayne almost slam into the hitching post, lock the mule in place, and leap off the big machine with more weapons than they’d ever seen him carry.
Zoë whistled low. “That the M60, sir?”
Mal raised an eyebrow. “I’m thinkin’ more on how that looks like his entire gorram arsenal.”
River piped up from beneath her blanket. “It is.”
Ma Cobb came up from the basement with a shotgun in one hand what looked like an M16 in the other. “Simon, git yer skinny pi gu in the basement with the others. River-honey—”
She was interrupted by her son barging into the house. He tossed the TMP at River and she caught it smoothly, checked the slide, and turned the safety off. “I must do this, Ma,” River said. Simon’s face crumbled at the determined look in his mei mei’s eyes. He kissed her forehead before he did as Ma Cobb asked.
Jayne noticed his mother and how she was armed and knew better than to tell her to go hide with the rest of the family in the basement. “Got reloads?” he asked her.
She gave him the “yer-stupid” face and jerked a thumb at her back. “On my belt, son.”
Jayne nodded.
“Spare a piece, Jayne?” Mal asked.
Jayne nodded again and handed his captain Betty and Jean. Without being asked, he hefted Nancy and Laura and dropped them into Zoë’s arms. The XM-26 was checked, loaded, and given to River just as fast.
“Knife,” River requested.
Jayne plucked his secondary Bowie knife from his boot and gave it to her handle-first.
“We’re landlocked, Mal.”
The captain swore a blue streak.
Matty came running out of the basement with a bandolier of five aught six rounds across his chest and one of his mother’s M16s at the ready. Jayne did not look happy at this.
“Git back in the basement.”
Matty hefted the machine rifle and set his features into one Mal recognized from Jayne’s repertoire of facial expressions. It was the “don’t-fuck-with-me-dong-ma” face.
“Ain’t happenin’, Jayne-pain. Way I see it, from what Cap’n Mal here told us this here crew is gonna need as many helpin’ hands as possible. I can shoot near as good as you, brother.”
“Matty…”
The younger man’s brow’s furrowed. “I’m helpin’ you an’ yer girl here, Jayne.”
River twitched and tightened her grip on her guns. “…Closer…”
“Ain’t got time for this, Matty,” Jayne growled.
Mal glanced out the window again. “Land skiff, comin’ up fast. Pretty gorram flashy…”
Jayne abandoned his argument with his brother and joined Mal at the window. Quick as you please, the merc yanked the window open, brought Vera to the ready, and popped off two quick shots that hit the skiff directly in the all important engine block.
Zoë watched in fascination as the skiff dropped to a dead stop.
Jayne was more furious than Mal had ever seen him. He ejected the spent cartridges and slammed his way outside. “I’m endin’ this right now,” he growled.
River followed on his heels and kicked the front door closed behind her before anyone else could follow.
*
The Blue Hands were completely unprepared for the two shots that took out their transportation. Their normally scotch-guarded appearance was marred by a cloud of gravel dust and trail dirt and Number One automatically removed a slender black device from his inside jacket pocket.
“Only to incapacitate,” he informed his colleague.
Number Two nodded his understanding and placed his body in a first position. “Jayne Ulysses Cobb,” he called out through the settling dust.
The report of the same Callahan that damaged their skiff sounded and the bullet impacted Number Two in his vulnerable shin.
He flinched, but rose above the pain to remain standing.
“River Tam,” he added.
Automatic weapons fire echoed through the valley. Number Two took five bullets to the chest armor he wore but remained stationary.
“You are both bound by law,” he continued.
More gunfire erupted—this time from further away and lacking too little direction. Two was clipped once more by one of Zoë’s shots and he groaned in agitation. “You will come with us or your friends will suffer the consequences.”
Jayne cleared the rim of debris first—the Callahan in his left hand and an M60 at the ready in his right. “Fuck you,” he spat.
Number Two sighed heavily but showed no signs of any sort of submission. Number One clicked the slim black device on to its lowest setting and simply waited.
Jayne’s head was throbbing. He wanted to look to River to see if she was doing alright, but that would mean taking his attention off the Blue Hand freaks and he wasn’t about to do that.
A gust of fall wind cleared the concealing dust cloud enough that the backup support on the porch of the Cobb ranch found their proper targets and fired. Through the pain in his skull, Jayne noticed a laser sight flickering on the Blue Hand he’d nicked in the shin and barely had time to duck before the crack of a five aught six round from an M16 (his mother’s or his brother’s shot, Jayne never knew) bored a hole in Number Two’s forehead.
Grey matter and blood exploded everywhere and Jayne automatically covered River with his body.
Number One barely glanced at his fallen subordinate before he stepped closer and turned the setting up just a bit more.
Jayne grimaced and tasted blood. His nose was bleeding.
Through a haze of pain, Jayne lifted the M60.
Number One snatched his own pistol out of some hidden pocket and aimed it at the house.
“I have no qualms about killing women or children, Jayne Cobb.”
Jayne felt something burst in his left ear and heard nothing but a thrumming liquid pulse on that side. He gasped in pain and felt River whimper beneath him sympathetically.
“Drop the machine gun.”
Another round from an M16 destroyed the remaining Blue Hand’s ear—ironically his left—and the monster fired his weapon directly at the source.
From his good ear Jayne heard his little brother cry out in pain.
River lurched from underneath him and finished the job Matty started. She unleashed an entire clip of rounds from her TMP without a blink and stood once Number One fell to the dirt with a squelch—his head gone completely. Fury in her expression, the young woman dropped the empty semi-automatic pistol and proceeded to pump his corpse full of the deer slug rounds that were housed in the XM-26.
Jayne watched his girl turn a monster into hamburger meat and ground his heel on the black device that was still trying to liquefy his brain.
River felt something lift in herself as she looked down at the mangled body. She turned to look at Jayne and dropped to her knees beside him—enveloping him in a hug all at once. They held onto one another for several moments and Jayne tried to lift River off the ground to head back inside.
All the adrenaline his body had been running on evaporated in seconds and he stumbled. River tried to hold him up, but he was just too heavy for her. They both dropped back to the dirt and just sat there and held on for dear life.
TBC
The men (including Simon) were all out rounding up fifteen specific horses that Jane Cobb’s client picked out. The client happened to be Carl—Jayne’s only big brother—who decided to bring the whole family along to watch the fun that ensued of four grown men racing around a large pasture on horseback trying to rope the fifteen most rambunctious horses out of the whole herd.
Sandra, Carl’s wife, was not as amused as her husband (shirking work yet again). Her young sons James and Walter were completely enthralled by the prospect of finally hanging out with their uncle Jayne.
Uncle Jayne was too gorram busy to roughhouse with his nephews. He was busy chasing down a particularly stubborn colt that Carl had pointed out specifically for him to track down.
River, still grinning from earlier that morning and ignoring the questioning looks that Inara and Zoë were shooting her way, was watching the round up with total concentration on Jayne.
The fall air was not too hot nor too cold and if asked, Ma Cobb would say that it was a perfect day outside.
Perfect days were meant to be ruined.
Bruce, who had been lounging in an ungainly heap in the grass, shot up to all four legs and let out a rumbling growl. His hackles raised and his tail stood straight in the air at attention. River pried her eyes away from Jayne long enough to look at the big dog in curiosity—then reeled back as if someone had slammed their fist right in her nose. She hit the fence post with a frightening crack and stared sightlessly out at the sky.
The women gathered around her in seconds and flooded her with questions. Carl grabbed his boys by their shirt collars and held them back as he whistled for his younger brother’s attention.
Jayne kicked Sunshine into a full gallop and yanked the mare to a halt beside the fence.
“River! What’s the matter?”
The last time this had happened, she’d seen Reavers.
The pit of Jayne’s stomach dropped out. He jumped over the fence and gently shoved the women-folk out of the way to get to the assassin girl prone on the ground and ignored Bruce’s agitated snarling.
“River?“ he grabbed her face and forced her eyes to meet his. “River!”
She gasped—having been holding her breath without realizing it. “Two by two… Jayne, they’re here. Two by two, hands of blue…”
“Shit!” Jayne snarled and shoved her into Zoë’s arms.
“Jayne!” Zoë protested. “What are you—”
He unlatched the gate and lead Sunshine out of the pasture. “Goin’ back to Serenity to weapon up. You keep both eyes on her, dong ma?”
Kaylee was getting that scared look in her eyes. “Jayne?”
He swung a leg up on Sunshine’s saddle and settled himself quickly. “Get Mal, Kaylee-girl. Tell ‘im what’s goin’ on, then get yerself inside the house. All ya’ll get inside the house!”
He kicked his heels into Sunshine’s ribs and the mare took off at a breakneck pace towards Harmony.
*
Jayne checked the cortex after strapping Vera across his chest and loading himself with as many guns and grenades as possible. The M60, River’s TMP, and their shared XM-26 were a heavier load than he was used to, but taking out those Blue Hand hun dans was enough of an incentive to suck it up. Juggling the large M60, Jayne tapped the screen and discovered a delightfully shitty nugget of information.
Serenity was landlocked.
“Son of a bitch,” he growled.
He needed to get back fast. Sunshine wasn’t going to make it with the added weight.
That left the mule.
Jayne quickly dragged his horse inside the ship and hitched her to the stair railing.
*
Simon was fervently wishing he’d asked Jayne to teach him how to shoot properly ages ago. He and Kaylee were about matched in that area of life in the Black and it made him feel completely powerless.
There was a rumble in the distance.
Simon looked to River as she curled up further on the sofa beneath a knitted afghan and prayed that it was Jayne. Mal edged to one of the porch windows with his gun raised by his temple and dropped it after a moment’s scrutiny.
“It’s the mule,” he said. “Didn’t know Jayne knew how to drive it…” he added.
Zoë, mare’s leg at the ready, cleared her throat. “I caught him readin’ the manual the other day, sir. Said he was bored.”
“Yee soo. He’s comin’ in awful fast.”
“’Spect he’s worried, sir.”
They watched Jayne almost slam into the hitching post, lock the mule in place, and leap off the big machine with more weapons than they’d ever seen him carry.
Zoë whistled low. “That the M60, sir?”
Mal raised an eyebrow. “I’m thinkin’ more on how that looks like his entire gorram arsenal.”
River piped up from beneath her blanket. “It is.”
Ma Cobb came up from the basement with a shotgun in one hand what looked like an M16 in the other. “Simon, git yer skinny pi gu in the basement with the others. River-honey—”
She was interrupted by her son barging into the house. He tossed the TMP at River and she caught it smoothly, checked the slide, and turned the safety off. “I must do this, Ma,” River said. Simon’s face crumbled at the determined look in his mei mei’s eyes. He kissed her forehead before he did as Ma Cobb asked.
Jayne noticed his mother and how she was armed and knew better than to tell her to go hide with the rest of the family in the basement. “Got reloads?” he asked her.
She gave him the “yer-stupid” face and jerked a thumb at her back. “On my belt, son.”
Jayne nodded.
“Spare a piece, Jayne?” Mal asked.
Jayne nodded again and handed his captain Betty and Jean. Without being asked, he hefted Nancy and Laura and dropped them into Zoë’s arms. The XM-26 was checked, loaded, and given to River just as fast.
“Knife,” River requested.
Jayne plucked his secondary Bowie knife from his boot and gave it to her handle-first.
“We’re landlocked, Mal.”
The captain swore a blue streak.
Matty came running out of the basement with a bandolier of five aught six rounds across his chest and one of his mother’s M16s at the ready. Jayne did not look happy at this.
“Git back in the basement.”
Matty hefted the machine rifle and set his features into one Mal recognized from Jayne’s repertoire of facial expressions. It was the “don’t-fuck-with-me-dong-ma” face.
“Ain’t happenin’, Jayne-pain. Way I see it, from what Cap’n Mal here told us this here crew is gonna need as many helpin’ hands as possible. I can shoot near as good as you, brother.”
“Matty…”
The younger man’s brow’s furrowed. “I’m helpin’ you an’ yer girl here, Jayne.”
River twitched and tightened her grip on her guns. “…Closer…”
“Ain’t got time for this, Matty,” Jayne growled.
Mal glanced out the window again. “Land skiff, comin’ up fast. Pretty gorram flashy…”
Jayne abandoned his argument with his brother and joined Mal at the window. Quick as you please, the merc yanked the window open, brought Vera to the ready, and popped off two quick shots that hit the skiff directly in the all important engine block.
Zoë watched in fascination as the skiff dropped to a dead stop.
Jayne was more furious than Mal had ever seen him. He ejected the spent cartridges and slammed his way outside. “I’m endin’ this right now,” he growled.
River followed on his heels and kicked the front door closed behind her before anyone else could follow.
*
The Blue Hands were completely unprepared for the two shots that took out their transportation. Their normally scotch-guarded appearance was marred by a cloud of gravel dust and trail dirt and Number One automatically removed a slender black device from his inside jacket pocket.
“Only to incapacitate,” he informed his colleague.
Number Two nodded his understanding and placed his body in a first position. “Jayne Ulysses Cobb,” he called out through the settling dust.
The report of the same Callahan that damaged their skiff sounded and the bullet impacted Number Two in his vulnerable shin.
He flinched, but rose above the pain to remain standing.
“River Tam,” he added.
Automatic weapons fire echoed through the valley. Number Two took five bullets to the chest armor he wore but remained stationary.
“You are both bound by law,” he continued.
More gunfire erupted—this time from further away and lacking too little direction. Two was clipped once more by one of Zoë’s shots and he groaned in agitation. “You will come with us or your friends will suffer the consequences.”
Jayne cleared the rim of debris first—the Callahan in his left hand and an M60 at the ready in his right. “Fuck you,” he spat.
Number Two sighed heavily but showed no signs of any sort of submission. Number One clicked the slim black device on to its lowest setting and simply waited.
Jayne’s head was throbbing. He wanted to look to River to see if she was doing alright, but that would mean taking his attention off the Blue Hand freaks and he wasn’t about to do that.
A gust of fall wind cleared the concealing dust cloud enough that the backup support on the porch of the Cobb ranch found their proper targets and fired. Through the pain in his skull, Jayne noticed a laser sight flickering on the Blue Hand he’d nicked in the shin and barely had time to duck before the crack of a five aught six round from an M16 (his mother’s or his brother’s shot, Jayne never knew) bored a hole in Number Two’s forehead.
Grey matter and blood exploded everywhere and Jayne automatically covered River with his body.
Number One barely glanced at his fallen subordinate before he stepped closer and turned the setting up just a bit more.
Jayne grimaced and tasted blood. His nose was bleeding.
Through a haze of pain, Jayne lifted the M60.
Number One snatched his own pistol out of some hidden pocket and aimed it at the house.
“I have no qualms about killing women or children, Jayne Cobb.”
Jayne felt something burst in his left ear and heard nothing but a thrumming liquid pulse on that side. He gasped in pain and felt River whimper beneath him sympathetically.
“Drop the machine gun.”
Another round from an M16 destroyed the remaining Blue Hand’s ear—ironically his left—and the monster fired his weapon directly at the source.
From his good ear Jayne heard his little brother cry out in pain.
River lurched from underneath him and finished the job Matty started. She unleashed an entire clip of rounds from her TMP without a blink and stood once Number One fell to the dirt with a squelch—his head gone completely. Fury in her expression, the young woman dropped the empty semi-automatic pistol and proceeded to pump his corpse full of the deer slug rounds that were housed in the XM-26.
Jayne watched his girl turn a monster into hamburger meat and ground his heel on the black device that was still trying to liquefy his brain.
River felt something lift in herself as she looked down at the mangled body. She turned to look at Jayne and dropped to her knees beside him—enveloping him in a hug all at once. They held onto one another for several moments and Jayne tried to lift River off the ground to head back inside.
All the adrenaline his body had been running on evaporated in seconds and he stumbled. River tried to hold him up, but he was just too heavy for her. They both dropped back to the dirt and just sat there and held on for dear life.
TBC