Title: Paid in Full Series: Coulda Pulled the Trigger Rating: pg Pairing: Jaylee Word Count: 720 Warnings: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox and Universal Summar: Kaylee has gotten herself into some trouble

Authors note: Third installment in a series. Angst. Here are the links to the last two parts.

Coulda Pulled the Trigger: http://meimei42.livejournal.com/1654.html#cutid1 Tell 'em I'm Sorry: http://meimei42.livejournal.com/6002.html#cutid1

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Kaylee’s hands shook as she tried to send out the wave connection. She’d been trying to get her message out of the last week. When River’s face showed up on the screen Kaylee almost burst into tears she was so happy.

"Oh River!" she cried.

"Knew it was you," the young girl said with a small smile. Her smile faded though. "Something’s wrong." It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

Kaylee nodded her head, trying to come up with the words to say what she needed to say. That was when she saw Jayne’s big head pop on screen. "That you, Kaylee girl?" he asked. She opened up her mouth to respond, but he spoke up first. "You alright?"

"No…no I’m not alright," her voice cracked as she spoke and she felt another sob get stifled in her throat. "Got myself into some trouble. Been movin’ ‘round a lot. Tried t’get hold of Serenity, but you’re never in range."

The way Jayne’s face darkened sent a shiver down her spine. "Where are you?"

"Whitefall, in a town called Milo. ‘Bout fifty miles from where Patients is," Kaylee said, licking her bottom lip and looking away from the screen for a moment. "Can’t stay here long though, Jayne. Got people lookin’ for me." Her eyes moved back up to the screen and she coughed, covering her mouth up as she did.

"Lookin’ for you for what? What kinda trouble did you get yerself into?" Jayne asked, settling himself more in front of the screen as River moved out of the way.

"Bad kind. Work was scarce, had t’borrow some money t’eat. Only when I had enough money t’pay ‘em back, said I owed ‘em a lot more in interest and that they weren’t interested in my money. Said they was gonna put me t’work and I knew what they meant by that. Meant t’sell me off t’a whorehouse t’pay off my debt. Been runnin’ ever since, only these men, they don’t give up that easily." She swallowed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"We’re a few hours from Whitefall," River informed Kaylee.

"I hate askin’ for help when I left everyone the way I did, but I don’t know what else t’do," Kaylee said.

"Don’t you worry none ‘bout askin’ us for help. We’ll be there quicker than you can say catfish." He sat straight up and pushed the comm button to call Mal to the bridge. Jayne stopped cold when he saw two figures coming up on the screen behind Kaylee. "Kaylee!" he called out. She had enough time to whip her head around before a hand clamp over her mouth while an arm reached and grip her around the waist, pinning her arms to herself. She was yanked to her feet as the screen went black.

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Jayne jumped up as the connection was lost. "Get her back!" he growled. River looked between him and the screen and tried to dial back the connection, but it wouldn’t go through.

"The system is problematic," she said, more to herself than Jayne. The merc wanted to put his fist through something. Shouldn’t have let her go, should have thrown her over his shoulder and hauled her back on the ship. Captain and him could have locked her in the hull until she changed her mind.

Jayne reached for the comm and turned it on. "Captain, we got ourselves a situation!" He moved back to River’s side and looked to see what she was going.

"Setting a course to Milo," she informed him before he could ask. Jayne nodded. Mal was on the bridge after a few moments, looking between the two of them as he tried to figure out the problem.

"What’s going on, Jayne?" there was a touch of annoyance in the captain’s voice. It had been there since Kaylee had jumped ship. Mal especially directed it at Jayne, he’d been the one to let her go, it was his fault everything was happening.

"Kaylee’s in trouble. Loan sharks, think she just got nabbed by some slavers," Jayne explained quickly. "River’s setting a course for Whitefall, we should be there in a couple of ours." Jayne brushed past the captain and headed towards his bunk.

"Where you goin’?" Mal called after him.

"T’get Vera ready."