Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
folder
1 through F › Firefly
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,834
Reviews:
21
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
1 through F › Firefly
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,834
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.
Recovery
Chapter Seventeen:
He woke up in his bed and couldn’t help the brief thought that it had all been a dream brought on by too much apple pie and home made whipped cream.
The throbbing of his entire head told him otherwise.
“God A’mighty…” he groaned.
A hand dropped onto his shoulder—one that was way too pale to belong to family and much to refined to be anyone but Simon. “Don’t strain,” he warned.
“Right,” Jayne growled. “’Cause I totally feel like gettin’ up and doin’ the foxtrot all afternoon. What the hell happened with my gorram ear?”
Simon grinned triumphantly. “Top Three here just saved your hearing. Your eardrum burst, you have some bruising on your brain, and your sinus membranes need time to grow back. But you’ll be back to your ornery self in no time flat.”
Jayne blinked wearily at him—one of his pretty blue eyes looked an awful lot like Mal’s had not too long ago, blood vessels having burst along with his eardrum.
“I feel like someone used my head for Bruce to chew on,” Jayne croaked.
Bruce himself raised his massive head from the mattress beside the injured man and huffed indignantly.
Something nagged at Jayne’s mind. “Matty?”
Simon patted Jayne’s shoulder reassuringly. “He’s fine. You two will have matching scars in your shoulders now,” the reassuring hand tightened. “He blurted something out when I started anesthesia on him…”
He ain’t dead, I’m gonna ruttin’ kill ‘im…
“Something about my mei mei leaving your room yesterday morning.”
Despite the pain that shot through him, Jayne raised his voice to the heavens. “WALTZING MATILDA SAMUEL COBB! I’m gonna ruttin’ murder you in yer sleep!”
*
River, huddled underneath the afghan again (this time in Zoë’s lap) and jerked to attention when Jayne’s hoarse shout reverberated through the entire framework of the house. She literally climbed over the first mate’s half-napping form and ran headlong up the stairs.
River tossed Simon halfway across Jayne’s room and grabbed a hold of Jayne with all her available appendages. The force of her landing knocked the rest of Jayne’s air clear from his lungs.
“Oof!”
Bruce jumped off the bed in annoyance and nudged at the back of Simon’s knee. The doctor rolled his eyes in exasperation and actually allowed the large dog to push him out of the room.
“You’re better,” River whispered against the raspy stubble on Jayne’s neck. He reached a hand around her back and rubbed the tension out of her spine.
“Gettin’ there, sweetheart,” he rumbled.
“I was worried.”
Jayne shivered when her lips rubbed against his neck again. “Ain’t gotta worry no more. Yer brother patched me up good as new.”
River raised her head (a move Jayne pouted at) and gave him a look. “You have obviously not seen a mirror yet.”
Jayne’s eyes widened in panic. “What’d he do to my gorram face?”
She trailed her fingers lightly beneath his left eye. “Subconjunctival hemorrhage. Eye injury. Cannot be fixed by Simon’s hands. Will heal on its own.”
Jayne calmed down and let his other hand joined the curious one on River’s back. She was wearing the flowing purple blouse he liked and one of Inara’s skirts—the off-white one with ruffles at the hem. The fabric of both were so smooth that his fingers snagged lightly on them. He pouted again and dipped those curious hands of his beneath the edge of her blouse to touch her skin.
Smooth as the fabric… Why don’t my fingers snag on her skin none?
River smiled again and dropped her face back into Jayne’s neck.
“So what’s wrong with my eye, woman?”
She tugged on his right earlobe with sharp little teeth. “Blown blood vessel. Red where there was white. It does not look better in red. I like your blue eyes.”
“Mm. My best feature,” Jayne struggled to speak. It was pretty hard to concentrate with her doing all sorts of sinful-feeling things to his ear.
“In competition with your flexor digitorum profundus and your brachioradialis.”
Jayne surprised her. “Muscles in my forearm?”
She stopped moving against his ear. “Jayne?”
He grinned. “Hell, River, guns or muscles, I know ‘em. Ain’t completely stupid.”
She nipped a bit harder at his jaw line. “Not stupid.”
“Mm,” he repeated.
*
“’Matilda?!’ Damn, I thought ‘Jayne’ was bad enough, but ‘Matilda?’” Mal snorted into his tea after River disappeared upstairs. Matty, his arm in a sling, shifted uncomfortably on the sofa and rubbed at his hair with his left hand. Katie, who had just finished crying her eyes out over the whole ordeal, latched on to her injured older brother like a leech.
Mal laughed. He didn’t notice the disapproving expressions on the faces of Serenity’s women. “What is it with yer ma and namin’ her boys with girl’s titles?”
Ma Cobb emerged from the kitchen where she’d been cleaning weapons with Carl. She leveled the captain with an impressive glare and plastered the back of his head with an open palm.
“Ow! The hell?!”
Another smack.
“Ma!”
“That one was fer swearin’, ya gorram lunk.”
“Swearin’?!”
She pointed a gun-grease covered finger in Mal’s face. “The first was fer suggestin’ that I am a complete ben dan when it comes to the namin’ my of progeny.”
Mal looked appropriately scolded.
Kaylee, who was watching over James and Walter with Jayne’s sister-in-law, twisted her lips in an effort to keep from smiling. Zoë didn’t even bother trying to hide it. She grinned so hard that it hurt her face and her heart—just knowing that Wash wasn’t physically in the room to enjoy this with her.
“She has a point, Cap’n. I think yer bein’ unfair. And you did swear,” Zoë wagged a finger at him. Beside her, Inara clapped a hand over her mouth to hide a laugh.
“So did she!” Mal whined.
*
River was frustrated. She wanted to make Jayne feel better, but she could tell his head was burning with pain even when his throat emitted those happy noises she was beginning to catalogue.
She knew a thing or two about head pain. Dark, quiet rooms and long naps usually took care of it. Or a big, hearty meal followed by a nap in a dark, quiet room.
River pulled away from Jayne’s neck, admired the hickey she’d made for just a second, then spoke very softly. “You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
“That long?”
“It took Simon some time to fix you, huan ren.”
“Mm. Ain’t too good lookin’ when one of my eyes is all bloody lookin’.”
River smoothed the back of her hand across his furrowing brow. “You need nourishment.”
“I could eat a whole gorram turkey,” he admitted.
River took his hand and crawled off him. “I will take you to the kitchen. Do not stand too fast or your head will hurt worse.”
Jayne shifted on the bed and rolled to his side first. “Ain’t no arguments comin’ from me. Feel like I got someone doin’ the two-step on my noggin.”
She helped him slowly come to a stand and wrapped an arm around his back. “Walk slowly, Jayne.”
“I am,” he whined.
River buried her face into his ribs and breathed him in—just relieved to have him up and around and grumbling. As she helped him navigate the staircase, she listened intently to the comforting noises that issued from his strong lungs and, especially, the deep thrum of his heart.
The sound of him made her heart beat faster.
TBC
He woke up in his bed and couldn’t help the brief thought that it had all been a dream brought on by too much apple pie and home made whipped cream.
The throbbing of his entire head told him otherwise.
“God A’mighty…” he groaned.
A hand dropped onto his shoulder—one that was way too pale to belong to family and much to refined to be anyone but Simon. “Don’t strain,” he warned.
“Right,” Jayne growled. “’Cause I totally feel like gettin’ up and doin’ the foxtrot all afternoon. What the hell happened with my gorram ear?”
Simon grinned triumphantly. “Top Three here just saved your hearing. Your eardrum burst, you have some bruising on your brain, and your sinus membranes need time to grow back. But you’ll be back to your ornery self in no time flat.”
Jayne blinked wearily at him—one of his pretty blue eyes looked an awful lot like Mal’s had not too long ago, blood vessels having burst along with his eardrum.
“I feel like someone used my head for Bruce to chew on,” Jayne croaked.
Bruce himself raised his massive head from the mattress beside the injured man and huffed indignantly.
Something nagged at Jayne’s mind. “Matty?”
Simon patted Jayne’s shoulder reassuringly. “He’s fine. You two will have matching scars in your shoulders now,” the reassuring hand tightened. “He blurted something out when I started anesthesia on him…”
He ain’t dead, I’m gonna ruttin’ kill ‘im…
“Something about my mei mei leaving your room yesterday morning.”
Despite the pain that shot through him, Jayne raised his voice to the heavens. “WALTZING MATILDA SAMUEL COBB! I’m gonna ruttin’ murder you in yer sleep!”
*
River, huddled underneath the afghan again (this time in Zoë’s lap) and jerked to attention when Jayne’s hoarse shout reverberated through the entire framework of the house. She literally climbed over the first mate’s half-napping form and ran headlong up the stairs.
River tossed Simon halfway across Jayne’s room and grabbed a hold of Jayne with all her available appendages. The force of her landing knocked the rest of Jayne’s air clear from his lungs.
“Oof!”
Bruce jumped off the bed in annoyance and nudged at the back of Simon’s knee. The doctor rolled his eyes in exasperation and actually allowed the large dog to push him out of the room.
“You’re better,” River whispered against the raspy stubble on Jayne’s neck. He reached a hand around her back and rubbed the tension out of her spine.
“Gettin’ there, sweetheart,” he rumbled.
“I was worried.”
Jayne shivered when her lips rubbed against his neck again. “Ain’t gotta worry no more. Yer brother patched me up good as new.”
River raised her head (a move Jayne pouted at) and gave him a look. “You have obviously not seen a mirror yet.”
Jayne’s eyes widened in panic. “What’d he do to my gorram face?”
She trailed her fingers lightly beneath his left eye. “Subconjunctival hemorrhage. Eye injury. Cannot be fixed by Simon’s hands. Will heal on its own.”
Jayne calmed down and let his other hand joined the curious one on River’s back. She was wearing the flowing purple blouse he liked and one of Inara’s skirts—the off-white one with ruffles at the hem. The fabric of both were so smooth that his fingers snagged lightly on them. He pouted again and dipped those curious hands of his beneath the edge of her blouse to touch her skin.
Smooth as the fabric… Why don’t my fingers snag on her skin none?
River smiled again and dropped her face back into Jayne’s neck.
“So what’s wrong with my eye, woman?”
She tugged on his right earlobe with sharp little teeth. “Blown blood vessel. Red where there was white. It does not look better in red. I like your blue eyes.”
“Mm. My best feature,” Jayne struggled to speak. It was pretty hard to concentrate with her doing all sorts of sinful-feeling things to his ear.
“In competition with your flexor digitorum profundus and your brachioradialis.”
Jayne surprised her. “Muscles in my forearm?”
She stopped moving against his ear. “Jayne?”
He grinned. “Hell, River, guns or muscles, I know ‘em. Ain’t completely stupid.”
She nipped a bit harder at his jaw line. “Not stupid.”
“Mm,” he repeated.
*
“’Matilda?!’ Damn, I thought ‘Jayne’ was bad enough, but ‘Matilda?’” Mal snorted into his tea after River disappeared upstairs. Matty, his arm in a sling, shifted uncomfortably on the sofa and rubbed at his hair with his left hand. Katie, who had just finished crying her eyes out over the whole ordeal, latched on to her injured older brother like a leech.
Mal laughed. He didn’t notice the disapproving expressions on the faces of Serenity’s women. “What is it with yer ma and namin’ her boys with girl’s titles?”
Ma Cobb emerged from the kitchen where she’d been cleaning weapons with Carl. She leveled the captain with an impressive glare and plastered the back of his head with an open palm.
“Ow! The hell?!”
Another smack.
“Ma!”
“That one was fer swearin’, ya gorram lunk.”
“Swearin’?!”
She pointed a gun-grease covered finger in Mal’s face. “The first was fer suggestin’ that I am a complete ben dan when it comes to the namin’ my of progeny.”
Mal looked appropriately scolded.
Kaylee, who was watching over James and Walter with Jayne’s sister-in-law, twisted her lips in an effort to keep from smiling. Zoë didn’t even bother trying to hide it. She grinned so hard that it hurt her face and her heart—just knowing that Wash wasn’t physically in the room to enjoy this with her.
“She has a point, Cap’n. I think yer bein’ unfair. And you did swear,” Zoë wagged a finger at him. Beside her, Inara clapped a hand over her mouth to hide a laugh.
“So did she!” Mal whined.
*
River was frustrated. She wanted to make Jayne feel better, but she could tell his head was burning with pain even when his throat emitted those happy noises she was beginning to catalogue.
She knew a thing or two about head pain. Dark, quiet rooms and long naps usually took care of it. Or a big, hearty meal followed by a nap in a dark, quiet room.
River pulled away from Jayne’s neck, admired the hickey she’d made for just a second, then spoke very softly. “You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
“That long?”
“It took Simon some time to fix you, huan ren.”
“Mm. Ain’t too good lookin’ when one of my eyes is all bloody lookin’.”
River smoothed the back of her hand across his furrowing brow. “You need nourishment.”
“I could eat a whole gorram turkey,” he admitted.
River took his hand and crawled off him. “I will take you to the kitchen. Do not stand too fast or your head will hurt worse.”
Jayne shifted on the bed and rolled to his side first. “Ain’t no arguments comin’ from me. Feel like I got someone doin’ the two-step on my noggin.”
She helped him slowly come to a stand and wrapped an arm around his back. “Walk slowly, Jayne.”
“I am,” he whined.
River buried her face into his ribs and breathed him in—just relieved to have him up and around and grumbling. As she helped him navigate the staircase, she listened intently to the comforting noises that issued from his strong lungs and, especially, the deep thrum of his heart.
The sound of him made her heart beat faster.
TBC