Title: Lock and Key Series: Coulda Pulled the Trigger Rating: pg Pairing: Jaylee Word Count: 702 Warnings: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox and Universal Summary: Kaylee has gotten herself into some trouble

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

Coulda Pulled the Trigger: http://meimei42.livejournal.com/1654.html#cutid1 Tell 'em I'm Sorry: http://meimei42.livejournal.com/6002.html#cutid1 Paid in full: http://meimei42.livejournal.com/6830.html

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"Where is she?" Jayne asked cocking Vera as he held three men at gun point. They exchanged looks between each other before finally saying nothing.

Jayne was a decent tracker and these boys who had nabbed Kaylee hadn’t been exactly trying to cover their tracks. River’d been able to intercept a wave sent out for Milo, it was coded, but there was no way they weren’t talking about Kaylee. There was chatter about the package being ready for shipment and the such. River had been certain it was Kaylee they were talking about. Whoever had grabbed her, they were locals and not equipped to send her back to wherever it was she got herself into trouble. They just wanted the money they’d get for finding her. But that meant she was still here and still in town.

The town was small, few houses here and there, not a whole lot of hiding spots. Jayne found the wave booth Kaylee has sent her message from and had followed her trail back to this lone ware house. There’d only been the three men in the whole gorram place, and still no sigh of Kaylee. Jayne was getting a mite annoyed.

"Where is she?" he demanded again.

"Don’t think these boys are likely to give up their package. Maybe we ought to make them understand we mean business," Mal suggested.

Jayne pulled the trigger, hitting one of the men in the head and splattering blood against the wall. "We mean business," Jayne said, his voice filled with ten kinds of threats. One of the men began to laugh incessantly as he watched his partner fall down to the ground in a pool of blood.

"Jayne! What in the gorram hell do you think you’re doin’?!" Mal snapped, looking at the dead body.

"Don’t tell me you’re getting all prissy on me, Mal. These boys right here were about t’sell little Kaylee into a whore house. Deserves worse than a bullet in his head," Jayne growled. "And what in the gorram hell are you laughing at?!"

The man tried to stifle his laughter, but he couldn’t. "I’ll show you…where she is," he said. Jayne motioned with his gun for him to do it. The guy stepped over his dead partners body and headed down a hallway before stopped and pressing in a panel of wood in with his palm. A small door swung open revealing two switches and a number key pad. The man pressed the first switch and a panel of wood slid into itself to reveal a darkened window. The next switch he pushed lit up the room behind with window to a brilliant white. The walls were white, the floor and ceilings were white. Everything was white except for a small crumpled up form near the corner. Jayne could see Kaylee cringe at the sudden flood of light. She stood up coughing as she did.

"Why were you laughing?" Mal asked, swallowing thickly when he saw Kaylee. She was pale and thin. She looked sick.

"The man you killed…well he was the only one with the code to get into this room. Didn’t trust us with it. You’ve screwed yourself. That holding cell is reinforced steel with bullet proof glass. You’re not going to find a way in." Jayne put Vera to the man’s head.

"Open the door," he growled.

"Can’t," the man shrugged. Jayne moved his gun to the other man and who only shrugged in return as well.

Kaylee walked over to the window and cupped her hands over her eyes to try and see out the window. It was clear she couldn’t see them. She brought her free hand up to her mouth and began coughing once more. Her hand braced herself against the window as her eyes fluttered for a moment. Jayne’s heart jumped out of his chest as he watched her sway and tumble to the ground unconscious. The mercenary turned his attention away from the men and pounded on the glass.

"Kaylee!" he yelled. He could hear Mal’s gun click in the back ground.

"Who else knows how t’get into this room?" the captain asked, his more low and threatening that Jayne thought he’d ever seen it.