Jayne lingered for a moment and with a quick shake of his head, he tried unsuccessfully, to make a graceful exit.

CRASH!!!! He fell against the crates that had been concealing him, causing them to tumble down to the deck. Continuing to fall, he landed just a few feet short of two pairs of bare feet standing toe to toe.

Facedown on the deck, Jayne struggled to find a good excuse for being in the shuttle. "Uh...thought I heard something in here...s'all!" The gruffy speech reverberated off the deck since Jayne was too embarrassed to raise his face to the pair. "Guess it was nuthin'..uh..sorry to disturb..." he continued, still trying to find his, graceful exit.

Mal and Simon, being caught off guard, quickly retreated from the now prostrate merc, whose speech had degenerated from semi-coherent excuses, to barely legible gibberish.

Pushing himself up from the deck, still keeping his head down, Jayne thrust his left foot back in a feeble attempt to get out of the shuttle. His foot caught another stack of crates knocking the lot down on top of him.

CRASH!!! The stack fell, crates hitting him along the length of his body. "Ai ya huai le!" He growled still scrambling, head down, to make it to the exit.

The remaining boxes had fallen between the now panicking voyeur and his freedom.

Ignoring the pain, Jayne rose up on his elbows, and drove himself forward even harder, striking his still lowered head dead center on a fallen crate. "Hun dan!" He yelped, rising up on his knees, his right hand quickly moving to the knot forming on the top of his head.

***

The loud noises emanating from the spare shuttle, echoed throughout Serenity. Inara heard it first. Donning a silk robe, she quickly raced out of her shuttle to investigate the source. Seeing what appeared to be candlelight across the cargo bay, she began making her way along the catwalk towards the noise.

***

The crashing echoes reverberating throughout Serenity broke the music being created in Zoe and Wash's quarters.

"What was that?" Wash exclaimed, "Sounds like someone's thrashing around in the cargo area"

"I dunno honey." Zoe answered. "We need to check it out"

They both quickly dressed. Zoe grabbed a pistol from the closet, while Wash searched franticly for something to make himself look powerful. Grabbing the small metal trashcan by the sink, he followed his Amazonian wife up the ladder towards the cargo bay.

***

Deep in meditation, Book was also alerted to the commotion. "I was afraid this was gonna go bad." He thought to himself, as he rose from his chair, making a swift dash for the door.

***

"Ow..." Jayne cried, holding his head, his eyes welling up with tears. "I gotta get out'a here"

Quickly pulling himself together, he attempted to vault the remaining obstacles that stood between him, and an end to his growing embarrassment. As he did, his right foot caught one of the crates, cutting his escape short. Spilling out of the shuttle in a loud clatter. Jayne finally willed himself to raise his head to avoid any further catastrophe. As he did, his eyes came in contact with another set of bare feet.

River stared down at Jayne, a grin on her face. "Little peep, now can't sleep, eh' Jayne?" She whispered, reaching her small hand down to him.

"Fa kuang nu hai" He growled back, pushing her hand aside as he continued forward, raising to his feet, wishing he could have got away from the scene undetected.

Making a mad dash along the catwalk, he came face to face with the rest of the crew, now gathered at the crossway, bewildered looks flashing across their faces as he approached them.

"What the Hell is going on Jayne?" Zoe questioned, Jayne still making a beeline towards them. "What was all that noise?"

Jayne continued his march, pushing the crewmembers aside, as he franticly tried to escape the consequences of his ineffective plan.

"Jayne, where are you going?" Inara probed as Jayne pushed her to the side.

His mind wrecked, Jayne was unable to formulate any excuse and blurted the first words he could think of. "I'll be in my bunk."

Translations:

Ai ya huai le - shit on my head

Hun dan - damn it

Fa kuang nu hai - crazy girl