Ursa Major, Ursa Minor

Chapter Twenty-Nine:
Kaylee made her yellow cake from scratch for breakfast and heaped on some extra of the chocolate icing she’d managed to make after finding some baking chocolate stashed way behind the sugar in the pantry. It was probably Matty’s idea.

Jayne always did like cake for breakfast. And Kaylee’s real cake was something to write to the fancy Core cooking programs on the cortex about.

She even managed to scrounge up the biggest pans they had. Jayne would get a decent-size slice and maybe leave slivers behind for everyone else.

Kaylee smiled as she munched on an apple.

*

Inara had reluctantly left that evening with Georgia to finish the girl’s lessons and get her on home (on a planet Mal would pay not to go to ever again), so Mal was missing the extra weight the shuttle leant to Serenity on her port side and the warmth of the love of his life.

Who was still considerably mad at him.

Not that he could blame her.

He was still considerably mad at himself. After all his talk about family…

Mal shifted sideways on his bunk and let his feet rest on the cool floor. He needed to talk to Jayne. Explain what he’d done and why he hadn’t been with Zoë when she mounted her rescue mission.

Families were supposed to be truthful with one another.

He got dressed for the day and quietly made his way to the mess.

Something awfully shiny was creating a delicious smell in that kitchen of his.

*

She woke up laughing—the smell of cake in the air and the last vestiges of Jayne’s drugged-up dream still hanging onto the insides of her eyelids.

It was of conversations between a bear wearing a T-shirt, a smaller bear wearing a dress, a duck that River once kept as a secret pet when she was younger, and Bruce.

They’d all been arguing about the price of tea on Persephone.

It was so absurd that River giggled into Jayne’s neck. “Feeling better?” she asked.

Jayne experimentally shifted his eyes up to the ceiling and pursed his lips. “Less loopy. Head still hurts a mite and I could murder a gallon or two o’ water, but I do believe I’m feelin’ better, darlin’.”

River dropped a smacking wet kiss on his mouth and hopped out of bed. “Come! We’re having cake for breakfast.”

Jayne grinned. “I love cake for breakfast.”

*

Kaylee’s laughter was contagious. Jayne and River were stuffing their faces with cake and flicking water at each other from their mugs.

Simon and Zoë (dressed casually for once with one of Wash’s outrageous shirts over top a sleeveless blouse she owned) were both trying to eat their own pieces of cake without spraying the food everywhere as they laughed at the childish antics of the two gun hands.

Mal walked in the room amid all this.

There was a cake slice on a plate in front of his usual chair. Kaylee had obviously put it there.

Mouth full of cake, Jayne broke free of his giggle fit and smiled up at the captain. “Mornin’, Cap.”

Mal eased into his chair. “You seem a lot more spry today, Jayne.”

Jayne swallowed his cake. “’Good morning to you too, Jayne. Feelin’ better?’ Sure, Mal, I feel right as rain,” he spoke without the thick layer of sarcasm that usually accompanied statements like that.

Okay, that was creepifyin’…

To his left, Zoë shoveled some more cake in her mouth and set into Mal with a glare as she chewed. The humor that had been filling the room seemed to evaporate and suddenly, Mal wasn’t feeling much like eating. He fiddled with his fork and stared at the two fluffy layers of yellow cake and chocolate icing on his plate.

“Jayne…”

“It’s okay, Mal. I’m not sayin’ I understand why or nothin’, but I ain’t gonna hate you fer stayin’ behind,” Jayne said. He didn’t look up from his food—instead focusing his attention on pressing moist cake crumbs between the tines of his fork to clean his plate.

Mal stared at him.

Jayne licked the crumbs off his fork and turned to Kaylee. “Mighty fine cake, Kaylee-girl. I ‘preciate it.”

Kaylee’s sunny smile was a reward in itself. “Aw, I was just butterin’ you up ‘cause I need yer help in the engine room. Got some liftin’ I can’t do that needs to be done. It’ll be just like the old days!”

Jayne grinned and took the empty plates at the table to the sink. “Find me when you need me then,” he said and disappeared into the cargo hold.

Eyes returned to Mal.

“Huan ren may forgive the captain easily, but…” River struggled with herself. “I do not.”

She sprinted after Jayne. Kaylee’s expression fell into sadness again and Simon and Zoë worked hard on telling Mal what they were thinking without actually saying anything. He got the message.

“Look, it was a fool thing to do and believe me when I tell ya’ll I been kickin’ myself ever since you two scuttled off with my shuttle—”

“And there it is,” Simon grumbled.

“What was that, Doc?”

“’My shuttle.’ You boast about this crew bein’ a family and then you say this ship yers alone. But we all work together to keep it in the air,” Zoë clarified.

Mal ground his teeth. “It ain’t how I feel, Zoë. Just let me finish. Stayin’ behind while ya’ll went and were big damn heroes had me feelin’ like I’d left my little brother behind in a deep, frozen pond to go inside and have myself some gorram coco. Didn’t feel right. Still don’t. And I got no clue as to how to fix this big ass rift that’s formin’ between us, Zo.”

His first mate stared at him with a blank expression. Mal could almost see Wash sitting quietly beside her with his hand on his wife’s shoulder and felt even more like an irresponsible brother. Because he hadn’t said those words yet.

“I’m sorry. About everything.”

Zoë watched the tension mount further on Mal’s shoulders and broke a bit inside. She sighed. “Okay, Mal.”

Simon squeezed Kaylee’s hand for strength. “That’s something you’re going to need to tell my sister as well, Captain,” he broke his stare and turned to the girl by his side. “How about I do the dishes since you cooked?”

“Shiny.”

Zoë clapped a hand on Mal’s shoulder as she stood. “Bring yer cake. We got us a planet to pick.”

“Feelin’ the need for some downtime, Zo?”

“Yes, sir. I hear Verbena’s got hot springs…”

*

You’re mad at Cap.

River glanced up from her pencil moving across her sketchpad and met Jayne’s eyes. She had him laying on his back on the weight bench and was sitting on his stomach—using his chest as a drawing surface.

Yes, I am mad at the captain. How did you get this scar?

She trailed a fingernail across the scar in his right cheek. She used that same fingernail to smudge that detail in her drawing.

You’re changin’ the subject. And it was a knife fight I got into. With my brother.

River’s mind focused on her artwork until it was finished. She flipped the pad around for Jayne to critique.

Can I talk now?

“Yes, Jayne.”

“Looks just like me…” he grinned and teased her thighs with his fingertips. “Wish I could draw.”

“Kaylee needs you in the engine room.”

Jayne squeezed her thighs. “Okay, woman. Lemme up so I can go do man work. Go draw yer brother.”

He deposited her in his spot on the weight bench.

River managed to pinch his ass as he left. The yelp Jayne gave was anything but manly.

*

Kaylee popped up from under the engine cowling when Jayne knocked on the door. “Yer hired muscle is here,” he announced with a wink.

Kaylee grinned. “Hey, Jayne!“

He plopped himself into her hammock (“swinging death trap”) and watched her tighten a few bolts on Serenity’s whirring engine. “What’d ya need me fer, mei mei?”

Kaylee shifted to shoot him a wink. “Nothin’, really. Just missed ya hangin’ out with me like ya used to. Could help me with keepin’ the cables for the grav plating in order while I work on the system…”

Jayne smiled at her and propped his hands behind his head while he swung lazily in the hammock. “Sure thing, Kaylee-girl.”

She worked swiftly on the part she was tuning up—humming the jive tune that she’d downloaded from the cortex a while ago as she did so. Unconsciously, Jayne tapped his toes to the beat of the song and began humming along with her. Kaylee snickered and joined in on the beat—drumming a pair of ratchets on the cowling and picking up speed with the song.

This was the scene Mal walked in on.

He couldn’t keep from smiling. “You two havin’ fun?”

“Just like the old days, Cap,” Kaylee beamed. She nodded at Jayne and he helped her shift the cowling back in place. “We goin’ somewhere special?” she asked.

Mal hooked his thumbs in his suspenders and raised himself on the balls of his feet.

“Verbena. Last haul was enough for a goodly vacation. And maybe a few new parts.”

Kaylee’s eyes lit up. “Oh, shiny! I heard Verbena’s got some real fancy shops.”

“And hot springs,” Jayne added his two cents and tugged his work gloves on. Without seeing Mal or Kaylee’s slightly shocked expressions at his comment, the big man went to work on straightening out the cables that Kaylee needed unknotted.

“Where’d you hear ‘bout that?” Mal asked.

Jayne grunted and shrugged. “Ma always wanted to visit. She read ‘bout ‘em in a bro-chure. Pa always said it weren’t worth it when he worked so gorram hard to get our water heater to work properly.”

Mal visibly relaxed. “Huh. You know where River is? We need to have us a chat.”

Jayne shifted and sat on his heels—arms dangling across his knees and head tilted in contemplation. There was something else going on behind the squint of his eyes, though. He focused on River—oddly still felt her simmering anger with Mal, and got a creepily clear visual of where she was.

“Damn.”

“What?” Mal asked.

Jayne shook his head like a dog to get rid of the sensation, but it lingered in the back of his head. “Creepy as all get out…” he murmured. “She’s down in Zoë’s bunk drawin’ her. An’ she’s still mad enough to spit.”

Silence.

“Hey, I don’t understand it no more than you, Mal. Givin’ me a ruttin’ headache, too…” he rubbed the heel of his hand against his forehead—where one of those horrible needles had left a mark.

Mal just noticed it, but there was also a bone deep bruise beginning on Jayne’s forehead. It’d be an ugly dark blue or yellowish-green in a day or two.

“Vacation’s a good plan, then,” said Kaylee. “Gonna go apologize to Riv, Cap?”

Mal cleared his throat. “Sure. You two behave now. Don’t screw around none when ya should be workin’.”

Kaylee pouted and yelled at him as he disappeared down the hallway, “The hummin’ helps me work, Cap!”

*

Simon, sitting on his stool in the med bay, swallowed an uncomfortable lump in his throat and stared at the capture in his hand. It hadn’t even been turned on yet, and he was already feeling ill. Sucking in a deep breath, Simon clicked the play button.

“Recording. Project ’36-SC,’ subject 3-750—subject 2-359 is absent. Situation will be rectified soon enough.”

The first Blue Hand—the one he and Zoë had taken care of—moved out of the path of the capture rig and Simon’s hands shook as he watched one technician turn on a wicked looking apparatus that had two needles plunging deep into the sides of Jayne’s head.

He hit fast-forward and the Jayne in the capture went through torture and screamed mutely. The technicians moved about him unconcerned and removed the first device—replacing it with one that was all too familiar to Simon.

He’d seen them use that on River.

One technician was sterilizing the needle. “Readings are good. He’s a lot smarter than he looks. Probably would have been a good candidate for the Academy… I mean, you saw him fight on those security feeds, right?”

“Sure did. This guy is one scary mother fucker. Some reprogramming and he’d be the strongest thing the Academy ever released. I mean, all the others were just kids.”

“2-359 is pretty strong. You hear what she did to that one guy down in main medical?”

Simon watched the tech slam the needle into Jayne’s forehead and swallowed thickly as the man groaned through his teeth.

“Fuckin’ tore that guy’s diao off. With her bare hand. All ‘cause he said somethin’ about likin’ how teenage girls smelled.”

“This guy’s gotten pretty damn close to her.”

Simon didn’t want to hear this, but as soon as the first tech made his observation, the second pulled back the plunger on the needle.

“No kidding?”

“Yeah, Mr. Stevens said this guy and Tam had ‘recent sexual contact’ when they brought him in.”

“Like, full on?”

“Tested this big guy myself. He’s got 2-359’s DNA all over him. And I mean all over.”

“Wow. Lucky zhu. Hey, his blocks weakening?”

“Yep.”

“Position eight. Draw her out.”

Jayne’s eyes closed. He looked so defeated.

“Shit. Stress levels increasing… His heart is giving out. Go get the pads.”

Jayne was smiling. The instruments were going off like crazy and he was just smiling. The heart monitor registered a flat line and he was just smiling… Simon kept half an eye on the timer as he fast forwarded again—counting four minutes and twenty-six seconds until he saw the heart monitor blip again.

He stopped when one of the Blue Hands returned.

“Did you learn anything about him?”

“Oh, yeah. He would have been a fantastic Academy candidate. He’s intelligent in ways you wouldn’t imagine. Strong as a bear… Hell, we only had to bring him back to life because he made his heart stop.”

“Subject 2-359 is on her way. 3-750 has developed a mental link with her. Once we knocked down that last mental wall, 2-359 broke her silence.”

Simon stabbed the stop button and flung the capture into the spare bed. He pinched the
bridge of his nose and dropped his forehead onto his desk. This was not good.

*

River’s smile left as soon as she climbed out of Zoë’s bunk. The sketchpad came up between her and Mal and the captain was suddenly faced with Zoë’s smiling visage in pencil.

“Jayne said you were coming to talk,” she murmured.

Mal’s eyes traced the lines of the drawing and he nodded. “Want to apologize to ya, albatross.”

“Jayne explained.”

A creepy feeling ran along Mal’s spine. Jayne had spoken to River between the time it had taken Mal to get from one end of the ship to another… Spoken to her through a link that had been created in their brains by an Alliance experiment…

“I’m sorry, mei mei. I’m sorry I didn’t help.”

River took the sketchpad back from Mal. She threw her arms around him and hugged.

“Apology accepted, Captain Daddy.”

Mal’s heart caught in his throat. He kissed his pilot’s forehead and sighed. “Thank you, mei mei.”

TBC