20. Flowers

Jayne scowled at the vendor. Who did this hundan think he was talking to? Jayne knew when he was being swindled and there wasn’t any way in the verse he was paying that kind of money. The big mercs eyes roamed over to the parked mule, checking on its contents, making sure no one was thinking of taking the supplies he had so diligently procured. He had gotten a lot of water, no telling how long they would be stuck out at the wreck before they could move Kaylee. Jayne had gotten her some protein bars, the good ones all chock full of stuff to make her feel better.

Now that all his supplies were together, Jayne was ready to leave. He just had to take care of one last thing. "Ain’t no way I’m payin’ more’n three," he told the vendor with a shake of his head. The salesman said nothing for a moment and so Jayne turned to leave. The bald little man jumped up and ran around his table of wares to catch up with Jayne.

"Wait!" he called. "Three is fine. I’ll take three," he said. Jayne grinned and handed the man his coin. He walked back to the table, picked up the small bouquet of flowers and headed back for the mule with a grin on his face. Little Kaylee was gonna love waking up to the sight of these.

******************************

21. House

They’d just walked right into his house and taken it over like they had some right. Mal could’ve put bullets through them all if they didn’t have his hands tied so tightly. He’d listened intently while they argued. Jed wanted to shoot the whole lot of them, but the others seemed to be waiting for something, something none of them were letting slip.

Mal eyes his crew, his family. They were alright, if a little worse for wear. River was out cold. Jed had gotten tired of hearing her go on and on about love and hate that he just cracked the girl over the head with the butt of his gun. It wasn’t a pretty sight and Simon had nearly gotten a thumping too for the way he thrashed about. The doctor was calmer now though. They’d let him check her over and he decided she’d be fine, she’d have a headache when she came to, but she’d be fine.

Sky was having a rough time. Wouldn’t let nobody hold her except her mama. Not even Wash could get her to stop crying. The men had tied his first mate with her hands in front of her so she could hold the baby and keep her shushed. Zoe’s eyes were so cold and blank; Mal couldn’t help but think she must have an ace up her sleeve.

Wash was a little dazed, the preacher too. Both had got ambushed by Jed’s men. Book had a good sized goose egg on his forehead to prove it. Wash had a pretty black eye for show and tell.

Mal tugged at his restraints. He had to think of something. Kaylee wasn’t anywhere in sight, so the captain had to assume she was still in the infirmary. He couldn’t count on help from her direction, but Jayne was another story. His merc should be coming back soon. The kind of tracker that he was, Jayne should be able to realize right off the bat that something wasn’t right. Mal hoped he wasn’t putting too much faith in the man. No,not with Kaylee on ship; Jayne was selfish, but he was protective of that girl. Wouldn’t risk letting her get hurt.

Mal felt the same way about his whole crew. They were his gorram family and this was his gorram house and these people were trespassing. They would have hell to pay when this thing played itself out.

***********************

22. Dream

Zoe stared down at her daughter’s eyes. They reminded her of her mother. Pretty eyes she used to stare up into whenever she was scared. Now she was staring down into them, wanting to give those eyes the strength her mother once had given her.

Zoe was a quick thinker. She had been unsure of the men from the start, so she had taken precautions. She had hidden a small pocket knife in the swaddling of Skylar’s blankets. Men hadn’t even thought to look there when they checked her for weapons. It wasn’t the sharpest thing, but it was cutting her bonds decently enough.

Rocking her daughter back and forth to a soft lullaby covered the first mate’s movements fairly well as she sawed away at her binds. Another couple minutes and her hands would be completely free. Beyond that she hadn’t thought of a plan. She’d been thinking up a thousand different escapes, but none of them included have a little baby girl in her arms. The thing she kept coming back to was Jayne. He was about the most sensible plan she could dream up, but that’s all she could really think of it as—a dream. Jayne was a good man in a fight, but there was no telling how many bars and whorehouses there were in that town Jayne had gone too.

**************************

23. Past

Kaylee knew how to do this, she really did. Her head was swimming and making it difficult though. She had tried to sit down and let her thoughts clear, but she kept coming to the same conclusion. Jayne or Mal wouldn’t have locked her in a room by herself, didn’t make any sense. Which meant someone else had. Which meant that the crew was probably in trouble. She had twiddled her thumbs with worry for a few minutes before she remembered something.

She was a gorram mechanic, she could override the locking mechanism. Only everything was so foggy, when she stared down at the control panel she had popped off, it was like trying to be a doctor when all you ever knew was machines. The color coded wires meant something, she just couldn’t think of what.

"What the hell did ya drug me with, Simon?" she mumbled under her breath. Things were slowly coming back to her though. She was able to trace some of the wires up, see where they were coming out of so she could figure out what they did. When she had the wires she needed, Kaylee stripped away the coating and touched them together. She was thankful for how quiet the swish of the door was. As silently as she could, Kaylee stepped out into the corridor and crept towards the cargo bay. She froze when she heard voices. Couldn’t make out much of what they were saying, but their voices told her they were friendly.

Taking a deep breath, Kaylee crouched down and took a couple steps forwards until she could see deeper into the cargo bay. There they were, the whole crew, all tied up. She swallowed and looked around to see who had done this. She counted four men, all with guns. Kaylee silently stepped backwards. Jayne wasn’t with the rest of the crew. That meant one of three things. They had him somewhere separate from the rest of the group, Jayne was dead, or Jayne wasn’t caught. She prayed for the last one to be it.

Going up the stairs to the crew quarters was agonizing. Each step brought a sharp stabbing pain to her side. She managed to pull herself through it, heading for Jayne’s bunk. Man had enough guns to go around. Kaylee crouched down and punched in the override to unlock his bunk. It opened and she climbed down. The ladder was even less fun than the stairs.

Jayne’s room was in a disarray; things had been thrown about. Guns lay everywhere on the floor. Kaylee picked up the first one she found and checked it for bullets like Shepherd Book had taught her. She held onto that one and picked up a few more. When she had three guns with bullets, she wrapped them in a shirt and pulled herself up the ladder. It took a few tries to get up, her whole body leading a revolt against her.

Kaylee headed towards the cargo bay again. She hated guns, hated the way they felt in her hands, but that was the past. She didn’t have a choice to let her fears get the better of her. She had to help the captain.

*****************

24. Future

Mal didn’t know where she’d come from, but there was his mechanic, gun shaking in her hand as she pointed it up at Jed. How she had picked him out of the bunch, he didn’t know. Kaylee was a smart kid though.

"Easy girl," Jed said, taking a step closer to her.

Kaylee didn’t move, pulling back the hammer on the gun. Mal could see from where he was the safety was off. She was ready to shoot.

"Want you to untie ‘em," Kaylee repeated. Her voice was shaking as she spoke. Jed looked ready to pounce on her.

"Just hand me that gun you got there and no one will get hurt," Jed eased himself closer to her. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Zoe placing Skylar in Wash’s lap. Her hands were free and so were Wash’s. Mal’s eyes met with the first mate and she silently handed him the small pocket knife she was holding. He took it and immediately began to saw his binds away.

"No, I said I want you to untie ‘em or I swear I will shoot you," Kaylee said, stronger this time. Mal was racing to cut the rope holding him while Kaylee distracted their guards.

"Ain’t playin’ with you no more," Jed said, lunging at her to grab the gun. Mal jumped hen gun shots were fired--it was Kaylee. There were six shots in all, then just a quiet clicking as her hand continued to pull the trigger. Jed was on the ground, blood pooling around him. Things would be different now for her. Folks didn’t shoot other folks and just be fine with it. The three other men in the room already had their guns out and trained on her ready to shoot. That’s when Mal heard the gun cock.

"You done good, little Kaylee," Jayne’s voice echoed from the entrance to the cargo bay. Vera’s barrel was pointed right down at the men who had their guns on the mechanic.

*******************

25. Alcohol

Jayne had seen the horses and wagon outside of Serenity from a long ways off. Something wasn’t right about it and so he stopped to check it out from afar. It was the two sentries that had tipped him off. Mal wouldn’t have no reason to be setting watch. Lead Jayne to the conclusion that these folks weren’t friendly folks.

Finding some hills, Jayne parked the mule and continued in on foot. He’d need stealth and riding in on a gorram mule would be like tying a cow bell to his neck. The men seemed to be paying particular attention to the west; made it easier for Jayne to come from the north. The first sentry didn’t even know he’d been hit when the knife sliced across his neck. Jayne had eased his body to the ground and stalked off to find the second man.

He approached him from the side and that was when Jayne heard the gun shots. He jumped the man, snapping his neck, then ran for the cargo bay entrance to see a man riddled with holes drop to the ground and three men raise their weapons up at his little Kaylee.

That wasn’t happening. Jayne cocked Vera and pointed her down at those chùsheng xai-jiao de xiang huo. The men stilled. Jayne took a few cautious steps into the cargo bay. The men turned their attention away from the girl who had wasted her whole clip on the dead guy and focused on the more prominent threat—Jayne. Mal and Zoe were on their feet in seconds. Kaylee was focused enough still to hand them both a gun. She was a smart kid, grabbing guns for the others. His guns if he wasn’t mistaken. When this was all over, he’d have to buy the girl a round of drinks.

***********************

26. Clouds

Zoe and Mal made quick work of tying the remaining three men up. Book had picked up River and carried her to her room while Simon had pulled Kaylee out of the cargo bay and back to the infirmary. No one had much of a chance to say anything to her before the doctor had whisked her off. Jayne didn’t like that much, but he didn’t say anything. Doc was just trying to help her, couldn’t fault him in that.

"Think we should just shoot ‘em," Jayne said with a shrug. Mal and Zoe were busy trying to decide what exactly to do with their new captives. Jayne wasn’t fond of people who tried to put holes in the women he loved. If he’d had his way, they’d be dead by now.

"We ain’t killin’ them, least not yet," Mal said firmly. Jayne rolled his eyes. He moved to go back to the infirmary to check on Kaylee when a rumbling began to shake the ship. Outside dust clouds began to kick up.

"What the hell is that?" Mal muttered under his breath. "Zoe, Jayne, you’re with me. Wash, take Sky and gather up everyone else. Go to shuttle one and lock yourselves in." Not a hundred yards away a ship was setting down next to Serenity. Jayne checked Vera over then looked over at Mal.

"What the gorram hell is this?" Jayne asked.

"Slavers…my best guess; Wouldn’t come out and say it though." Mal looked at the three men who were tied up. "Is it slavers?" he demanded.

"It’s slavers, a whole crew of ‘em too. Won’t be able t’fight ‘em off with just the three of you," Sal said.

"Sounds like a challenge t’me," Jayne said with a grin.

*********************

27. Box

Mandle stepped off his ship, his crew of eight following after him. Mark followed the crew, lagging behind some. Mandle could see his friend was reluctant to do this. But it was better than killing off a whole crew of people. Times were hard and truth be told Mandle could use a new lot of slaves.

As he approached the ramp to the crashed ship though, Mandle could see things were not as they were supposed to be. Three guns were trained on him. He didn’t like this. His eyes shifted towards Mark who looked as bewildered as he felt.

"Where’s Jed!?" Mark demanded, pushing himself to the front of the crew.

"He’s dead, riddled with hole. Best take a step back son or you will be too," the man in the middle warned. He was wearing a brown coat…former Independent soldier if Mandle guessed right

"This ain’t what you promised," he growled. Mandle liked Mark as a person well enough, but he had promised the buyer new slaves. There would be hell to pay if this didn’t work out. Mandle didn’t like complications and this surely was complicated.

Mark’s face was turning red with anger. "What do you mean, dead?" he asked, fists clenching.

"Meaning he’s not alive," the bigger of the two men replied. He had a sadistic sort of grin on his face that made a man even of Mandle’s size a bit worrisome and he wasn’t a slight man.

"It’s eight against three," Mandle tried to reason. "I have buyers waiting for me. I’m not leaving without a product."

"You can take these louts then," the woman said, moving to the side, then returning with the three tied up men. Mandle looked them over, they were Jed’s boys. The whole lot of them trouble makers, but strong. These were the boys who had messed things up for him. He wasn’t about to get himself in trouble over these boys. Mandle could see the anger flash across Mark’s eyes, it wasn’t his concern though.

"Fine," Mandle said. "Boys, get the boxes." The carrying boxes used to smuggle his slaves were small and cramped. Was usually helpful in breaking a man’s spirit before you had to hand them over to your buyer. They’d certainly need that here.

"You can’t take them!" Mark shouted.

"You promised me slaves," Mandle said. "I made commitments. I am not risking my life because of your brother’s failure and I am not risking my men’s lives either. You go on home and forget this ever happen." Mark’s nostrils flared, but he said nothing. There was nothing he could say.

***********************

28. Round

Mal moved through the ship, checking on everyone. Kaylee was asleep again; Simon had knocked her out so he could stitch up the wound she had managed to break open. Wash, Zoe and Sky were in the lounge, talking and playing with their daughter. River had woken up with a powerful bad headache. It had put her in an awful mood, keeping Simon’s attention for the rest of the night. Book and Jayne had headed out to pick up the mule Jayne had left in the desert when he noticed something was amiss with Serenity. There was a whole lot of work to be done still, but everyone’d had a rough night. They could get started first thing tomorrow.

Finishing his rounds, Mal made his way back to the infirmary. He took a seat next to Kaylee and took her hand in his. He could see the small bit of gun powder residue on her hand from when she fired the gun. It would be awhile for her to come around to that and be okay with it. Mal wasn’t even sure he was okay with it.

***********************

29. Toys

Jayne watched her. He could see she was close to coming to. When her eyes opened, he smiled. "Hey there, pretty girl. How you feelin’?"

"Sleepy," she replied, blinking a few times before finally forcing her eyes to stay open. "You?"

"I’m fine. Brought you something," he told her, reaching to grab the flowers off the counter and handing them to her. The smile that lit of her face was worth ten times what he’d paid for them.

"Aw, Jayne. That’s right sweet of you," she said softly.

"Brought you something else for when you wake up some more," he told her, picking up the part from the floor and showing it to her. "Captain said it needs fixin’ and figured when you were feelin’ a little better, might be fun to tinker with it. Brought you some tools too."

"You brought me toys," she beamed, a lazy smile on her face. "I’ll fix it later. First I want a kiss." Jayne grinned. That he could do. He stood and leaned down over her, kissing her forehead, then the tip of her nose and finally her lips. When he pulled back to look at her face, she was already halfway to dream land. He smiled to himself and turned to leave so he could let her sleep.

************************

30. Train

This wasn’t good. This whole train of thought was going down a bad path. Kaylee was happy; he should just leave it at that. But jealousy was rearing its ugly head. No—he had River to think about. He didn’t have time to play love games and try and win her affection again, but his mind wouldn’t stop thinking about it. How much trouble would it actually be? Kaylee had wanted the two of them to be together for so long, it might not take much to sway her back in his direction.

He wasn’t thinking straight. Simon never denied he cared about Kaylee, he just never thought he would be so upset if she turned to another man. Not when Simon had been the one to push her away. Maybe it was just because it was Jayne. Simon wasn’t sure. All he knew was Kaylee was doing things to him, things he didn’t understand. He had no idea how he was going to deal with this.