Title: Coming Together (10 of 10) The End!!!! Rating: pg-13 to be safe Fandom: Firefly Pairing: Jayne/Kaylee Word Count: 4034 Summary: Reavers!! Warning: Sequel to story 'Pulled Apart'. Characters and places do not belong to me.

Authors note: Thanks to squish_67 for betaing. She rocks so, so much. If you want to read Pulled Apart or the previous chapters in this story, check out my journal, they're all there. Here is the last part, I hope ya'll enjoy it.

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91. Close

Kaylee stared at the door, waiting for any sign of what was going on out there. Inara was already getting the shuttle ready to take off. River was quiet, paying particular attention to Sky who was cooing and laughing some. The mechanic just wished River would come out and said what she meant when she said they’re all gone..

"River," Kaylee pleaded.

"It’s quiet," she said absently. Of course it’s quiet Kaylee thought. Ain’t no one t’ make noise if’n they’re all dead! She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

"You’re afraid. You shouldn’t be," River said, looking up at Kaylee. There was a sudden pounding on the shuttle door. Kaylee jumped at the noise and ran to open it up. Reavers didn’t knock as far as she knew. The first thing she saw was Simon, she could have jumped for joy at that moment. It meant the Reavers were the ones gone.

"Watch out, Kaylee," the doctor said gently, moving around her. Kaylee watch him skirt by her and turned to see Zoe and Book holding Jayne up and carrying him into the shuttle. The mechanic was shocked into silence at the sight of him covered in blood and bruises. She could have swore she even saw teeth marks.

"Jayne!" she called, moving to follow after Zoe and Book as they laid Jayne on the bed. A hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she could get real close to the mercenary. Kaylee was so shocked she let the arm pull her clean out of the room, only looking to see who had her once Jayne was out of sight.

"Cap’n, Jayne’s hurt, he needs t’ be brought to the infirmary," she said, moving to go back inside.

"Infirmary is full o’dead Reaver’s right now, can’t be used. I know Jayne’s hurt, and there ain’t nothin’ you can do ‘bout that right now. I need you to look at me, Kaylee," Mal said, taking her chin and turning it to face him.

"Don’t tell me there ain’t nothin’ I can do, Cap’n," Kaylee said, the hurt pouring out of her voice. "Jayne saved my life an’ I love him. There’s gotta be somethin’ I can do."

"There is, just not in there," Mal said.

"Shénme?"

"You sending that decoy shuttle out, well when they saw that, the Reavers sent out their own shuttle after it; split their forces. We were able t’fight them back ‘cause there weren’t so many, but soon as they reach that shuttle, they’ll know it’s empty and they’ll be coming back, only this time were almost out of ammo and we’re one man short, dong ma?" Mal tipped her chin up to look at him again when her eyes went downcast in thought.

"There’s more of ‘em comin’?" she asked, her voice unsteady.

"Shìde," Mal nodded.

"What’re we gonna do?" Kaylee asked slowly.

"Right now we’re still in the Reaver ship’s magnetic grapple. You know any way we can turn that off?" Mal asked. Kaylee let out a long breath and tried to think. It was so hard, her head was so fogged up and all she really wanted to do was go back and check on Jayne.

"Well…might be…but not on Serenity, Cap’n. Ain’t no way t’break from that least way far as I know," she said worriedly.

"Then we’ll have t’go on their ship," Mal said, taking Kaylee’s shoulders and leading her away from Inara’s shuttle.

"What?! Cap’n, we can’t go on a Reaver ship!" Kaylee exclaimed, feeling her stomach twist sourly.

"Calm down, Kaylee," Mal said, strangely calm. "We ain’t out of the woods yet. We’re close, but we ain’t out. We wanna live, we gotta do this. You and me." Mal took her shoulders in his hands and squared her to face him. "Can you do this Kaylee?"

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92. Gift

After they had gathered some tools, Mal lead Kaylee quickly towards the airlocks. He could see the shock and fear in her face at seeing all the blood and bodies. Mal didn’t have the time to coddle her though, they had to break away from the Reaver ship and make way for Whitefall. There they could clean ship and make any repairs they needed.

Mal stopped in front of the airlock through which the Reavers had come. "I’ll go up first," he told her, Kaylee only nodded. He wished he could give her the time she needed. It was just time they didn’t have. "Don’t want you lookin’ ‘round when we get up there, little Kaylee. We’re just gonna find the ship controls and disengage Serenity." She didn’t say anything but he could see the understanding in her eyes so Mal started up the ladder. When he reached the top he looked down to see Kaylee still waiting nervously at the bottom. They didn’t have time for this.

"Mei mei?"

"Yeah, Cap’n?" she asked distantly.

"You gonna come up here now?" he asked.

"Cap’n…"

"You’re the one with the gift, Kaylee. I hired you on as my mechanic for more than just your people skills. I can’t do this without you. Jayne ain’t gonna make it if we don’t get away from here. So what are you gonna do?" He waited for a moment watching a myriad of emotions pass over her face. Finally she put her hand up on the ladder rung and started up.

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93. Plastic

Kaylee tried not to look around the ship as she moved for the bridge. That would be where she would start from. Crouching down in front of the control panel, she popped the cover off. Her hands traced the wires up so she could decipher what each one went to.

"How’s it comin’?" Mal asked. She could tell he was anxious. She let out a sigh and concentrated on what she was doing. The whole ship smelt like death and decay. She wanted to get out of there just as much as he did.

"Think I found the wires that lead t’the power source. I can cut these and Serenity should be released. If I switch these wires and remove this cable here, when the Reavers get back, they’ll be humped."

"Do it," Mal nodded. Kaylee pulled the cable out and reached into her pocket to pull out her wire cutters. She snipped the appropriate wires, then pulled out the others she needed, switching them . She plugged the first wire into the new port, then reached for the second one, doing the same.

"Anything else?" Mal asked.

"Just need t’flip the main power switch off over….over there," she said, looking over at the console until she found it. Mal took a few quick strides over to it and grabbed the large switch in his fist he pulled at it. It was stuck. Mal grabbed it with both hands and pulled as hard as he could. The switch resisted for a moment, then finally came back.

There was a blinding flash of light as a thunderous roar and Kaylee was knocked back by an invisible force. The wind knocked out of her, it took a minute for her to realize what had happened. She pushed herself back to her feet and looked around, her ears were ringing—something had exploded. Her head was pounding something fierce. The console to her side was in shambles now, and Mal was near unconscious up against the wall where he had been thrown back.

"Cap’n?" she called.

"S’trap….boobytrap…" Mal managed out. Kaylee hurried to his side, checking him over. There was blood on his shirt. She carefully moved his hand back to see a large piece of plastic from the console embedded in his side. "We free?" he asked.

"We’re free cap’n, Switch musta been a decoy, but the explosion blew all the controls to high hell, they won’t have power t’hold us no more. Come on, we gotta get ya back down there," Kaylee said, trying to help him to his feet. He tried to get up, but finally just slouched against the wall again.

"Get Zoe or the Shepherd," Mal shook his head.

"What if they come back?" Kaylee asked nervously.

"Move fast, mei mei," was all he said as his eyelids fluttered for a moment. .

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94. Words

Kaylee ran for the airlock, dropping down the ladder with a loud thud. She could hear footsteps approaching her and knew someone else must have heard the explosion. She rounded the corner towards Inara’s shuttle when she nearly ran into Book. He steadied her with his arms and looked down at her face.

"Kaylee, we heard a loud noise. Are you okay? Where is the captain?" the shepherd asked. Kaylee opened her mouth to try and explain what happened, but no words were coming out. There was a whole mess of them just trying to push their way through, but they’d all bottlenecked in her throat. She finally just turned and pointed up towards the airlock. Book seemed to understand and ran past her. Wash went by her too, she hadn’t even realized the pilot was there. Kaylee turned and watched as they ascended the ladder and disappeared into the Reaver ship. She held her breath and waited.

After a few moments she heard noised above and saw Wash climbing back down the ladder. There was a paused then Kaylee saw Book’s feet climbing down as well, with Mal slung over his shoulder. When they reached the ground, the shepherd slowly lowered Mal to his feet and the pilot and preacher each wrapped one of the captain’s arms around their shoulders so they could support him.

"Cap’n?" She was so glad she’d finally found her voice.

"I’m fine, Kaylee, just a little weak is all," he mumbled out.

"I think it’s superficial," Book started, "but Simon will have to look at it to be certain."

"Let’s get him to Inara’s shuttle and then I’ll get us the hell out of here," Wash said. Book nodded and the three men headed past Kaylee towards the former companion’s shuttle.

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95. Wall

Kaylee watched as the men headed down the hallway. She didn’t know what she should do now. Inara’s shuttle wasn’t all that big, probably didn’t need another body in the way, but she wanted to check on Jayne and make sure the captain was alright. Slowly she followed after the men and paused just outside the shuttle.

She could see Jayne on Inara’s bed, unconscious and all kinds of bloody. She wanted to go in there, but she was afraid. When Wash and Book laid Mal on the couch, Simon paused in his working on Jayne and turned to check on the captain.

"He’s going to be fine. The piece of plastic is keeping him from bleeding too much. When I finish with Jayne I will take it out and stitch the wound. For now we need to leave it in place and keep him still. Can you do that?" he asked, looking at Book. The shepherd nodded and Simon quickly returned back to Jayne.

"I’m getting us the hell out of here," Wash said once Mal was situated. He hurried out of the shuttle, giving Kaylee a squeeze on the shoulder as he passed.

Jayne’s body stirred on the bed as Simon did something she couldn’t really make out and Kaylee felt her heart clench. Was he waking up? She took a deep breath and prepared herself for whatever was gonna happen next. She was never good at building walls around her heart like the captain, she didn’t know if she could be brave like Zoe or Jayne, she had to try though. Slowly she stepped into the shuttle and moved to Jayne’s side. Without a word, Zoe took Kaylee’s hands and placed them where her own had been, holding gauze over an open wound to try and stop the bleeding.

"Just hold it there," the first mate said. "I’m going to check on the captain." Kaylee nodded and looked down at the mercenary’s face. It was hard to tell it was him under all those cuts and bruises.

"How’d this happen?" she asked Simon after a few minutes of silence.

"Jayne left the line and we couldn’t hold it. When he finally came back, we were almost overrun. He tried to push them back, a couple broke through before any of us could shoot him down. They didn’t have a whole lot of time with him before the captain killed them, but they did enough damage." Kaylee nodded. She knew why he had left the line. The guilt it the pit of her stomach rose. She’d hurt both the captain and Jayne without even trying. She wished she could have those walls up, maybe then it wouldn’t hurt so bad.

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96. Blocked

"You can let go of that Kaylee," Simon said. It was the second time he had said it and she still wasn’t paying attention. "Kaylee?" he tried again.

"Huh?" She looked up at him, confusion written all over her face.

"You can let go of his wound now, I’m going to sew it up," he explained carefully.

"I’m blockin’ the blood from comin’ out," she reminded him softly.

"You are, and you did a wonderful job of that, now I’m going to suture it so there’s no more blood coming out at all, dong ma?" He watched her as she still didn’t remove her hands. "Kaylee, you have to let go."

"He’ll bleed," she shook her head.

"I’ll fix him," Simon assured. He reached out and took her hands, removing them from Jayne’s body. She looked upset, but didn’t fight him. "I think you should lay down, Kaylee."

"I’m alright," she shook her head. Simon just nodded, he was too tired to try and argue with her.

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97. Free

Kaylee felt the slightly bumpy landing as they broke atmo to Whitefall. Not her favorite planet, but she’d kiss the ground if they didn’t see any Reavers there. When Serenity finally settled on the ground she let out a sigh of relief. They were safe, they were free. After their console blew there was no way the Reavers would be able to track them down even if they managed to get their ship going again. No, they were as safe as they could be for now.

"What’s all the shakin’ for?" Jayne mumbled, his eyes still closed.

"We’re landing on Whitefall," she said softly.

"Don’t talk, Jayne. You’ve been badly injured, and you shouldn’t waste your strength," Simon said.

"Reavers gone?" he asked, his eyes opening some for a moment, then finally giving up and closing. "Whole body hurts."

"I’ll get you a smoother," Simon said, moving away to grab the medicine.

"Reavers are gone," Kaylee nodded. "You were a big hero, killed ‘em all."

"What can I say?" Jayne cracked a smile and winced.

"Don’t say nothin’ at all," she smiled back. Simon returned with the medicine and shot it into Jayne’s neck. The mercenary tensed for a second, then fell back into a deep sleep.

"He gonna be okay?" Kaylee asked.

"I’ve done just about everything I can for him. It’s up to him now. I should really look at the captain," Simon told her. Kaylee nodded and took Jayne’s hand in her own, giving it a slight squeeze.

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98. Hole

The gaping hole in the captain’s side was easy enough to sew. Simon irrigated the wound and sutured it before the captain had much time to complain. The piece was far enough to the side that it didn’t nick anything important. The captain would be sore for awhile, but he would be just fine.

Simon gave Mal a smoother and let him rest. Both of his patients were as fixed up as they could be. Turning he spotted Kaylee sitting on the bed next to Jayne. She seemed very shaken up, but that was something he would have to deal with when he wasn’t so exhausted. Inara was sitting at the edge of the couch, watching Mal with teary eyes, though she said nothing. River was on the floor, still holding Sky, as her eyes moved between Kaylee and the former companion. Whatever she was seeing or hearing, Simon was too exhausted to be curious. There was still so much more that needed to be done.

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99. Better

"Hey you," Kaylee whispered as Jayne’s eyes slowly opened. He was still pretty pale, but he was getting a lot better. Least that was what Simon had said. Her hand slipped into his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. He’d been having a nightmare just before he woke up, thought she wouldn’t say anything about it, didn’t want to make him feel less manly.

"Hey, Kaylee girl," Jayne smiled weakly.

"How you feeling?"

"Gôushî bùrú," Jayne mumbled. Kaylee smiled and kissed his forehead.

"Brought ya some food. Thought maybe you’d be hungry." Her face fell some when he shook his head. "Well when you’re hungry you just let me know."

"I will," he nodded. There was a moment of silence, not awkward, just there. She felt Jayne give her hand a weak squeeze and Kaylee looked down for a moment.

"I’m sorry you got hurt on account o’me," she told him softly.

"None of that now. You ain’t the one who tried t’eat me alive," he shook his head.

"Got both you and the captain in trouble. I’m hopin’ I ain’t bad luck or somethin’," she said softly.

"Never," Jayne shook his head.

"Gotta say Jayne, thought it was real heroic you comin’ t’save my life like that. I’ll have t’think of a way t’thank you," she grinned a little wider.

"I could think of something," Jayne said, his eyes suddenly darkening. Even laid up he was horny!

"When you’re better," she told him with an amused smirk.

"You never said anythin’ ‘bout my letter," Jayne reminded her.

"What letter?" Kaylee asked. When his eyes went suddenly wide she flew into fits of giggle. "Oh that letter."

"It was dumb, wasn’t it?" Jayne shook his head.

"No, I thought it was sweet," Kaylee smiled.

"Sweet?"

"Sweet," Kaylee confirmed.

"I ain’t good at apologizin’," Jayne said after a moment.

"No need. We’re good, Jayne." Kaylee smiled and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his lips. She wanted to be careful not to hurt him. When she tried to pull back, she felt Jayne’s hand coming up behind her and pulled her back down as the mercenary deepened the kiss, parting her lips and sliding his tongue into her mouth. Kaylee felt a shiver go down her spine as she gave into the blissful few moments before finally pulled back and looked at him.

"You still aren’t gettin’ sexed ‘till you’re better, no matter how good a kisser you are," she told him firmly. She could see a thoughtful look pass over his face before he finally spoke. For a second she thought he was going to make a joke, but instead he reached out and took her hand in his.

"I gotta say this ‘fore I fall back asleep ‘cause of them meds the doc gave me. I can feel ‘em working." He let out a long breath and looked her straight in the eyes. "I love you somethin’ fierce little Kaylee. Thought them Reavers were gonna kill me and I realized I don’t tell you that often. I just wanted t’say it." Kaylee felt her eyes water a bit, it was true, Jayne didn’t go around saying how he felt, but she knew that he loved her. Hearing him say it though was making her heart beat just that much faster.

"I know you do, Jayne. I love you too." She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "You should get some rest."

"Don’t think I got much choice in that," Jayne said, smiling lazily. Kaylee could see the medicine was starting to have it’s effect on him. He’d be out like a light soon enough. Getting herself comfortable on the stool again, she held his hand and watched him fall asleep.

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100. Together

Mal’s side hurt to high hell, but he had wanted to take a look around the ship anyway. It had been near four days since they were invaded and the captain had been laid up in Inara’s shuttle since then. Even when Jayne got moved out to the infirmary, Inara had requested that he stay with her in her shuttle. Mal hadn’t protested at all and after convincing Simon, Mal’d been set up as comfortable as he could be in Inara’s bed. Which was pretty comfortable.

Zoe’d taken control of the ship and had done a fine job too. He knew he’d made her his first mate for a reason. Now it was time for him to take back control of his ship, though. He was the captain and he knew most of the crew, even Zoe, was waiting for him to pick up the reins again.

Jayne was recovering, slowly but surely, he’d be better in a few weeks and Kaylee was doing everything she could to make that process even speedier. The mechanic spent every moment she could in the infirmary with him. Simon had taken good care of both himself and the mercenary, really earning his keep over the last few days. The doc may have caused Mal quite a bit of trouble in the beginning, but the man had proved himself more than a bit useful.

Inara had started bringing some of Mal’s things from his bunk to the shuttle. The gesture made him smirk, she was slowly but surely moving him in with her. It wasn’t something he was going to fight. Since Inara’s leaving the guild things had just seemed to fallen into place between the two of them. They fought like cats and dogs still, but things works and Mal was glad for it.

Everyone seemed to pull together and help out these last couple of days, especially with Mal being unable to do too much. Wash and Book had cleaned most of the Reaver bodies up along with Zoe’s help. The rest of the girls had done what they could to set the ship back right, cleaning the floors and putting the infirmary and other rooms back together like they used to be. Even little River helped. It made Mal proud of his crew. He didn’t need to tell them what needed to be done, they just did it.

The captain carefully made his way to the lounge, taking in every room of the ship as he passed by it. You could hardly tell Reavers had wrecked havoc on his ship. Mal arrived at the lounge, surprised that everyone was there already. Everyone but Jayne who was still laid up in the infirmary.

"You’re all here," Mal said, looking around.

"We are, sir," Zoe nodded.

"Well I guess I should get down t’business then. I called this meeting t’let everyone know that tomorrow morning we will be leaving Whitefall. Kaylee, I’m gonna need you to do a diagnostic on Serenity, make sure she is flight worthy." Mal paused and looked around at his crew again. They were really the ones who were gonna keep him flying. "I wanted to say too, that I don’t think we would have made it through what we made through without each other. We’re more than a crew, we’re a family. We really came together on this. I ain’t never been so proud to know some of you than I have these last few days. There isn’t a thing that’s gonna keep this crew down. We’ve beaten the odds and come out on top. I have all you to thank for it too."

"Thank you, sir," Zoe said with a stoic smile. The rest of the crew smiled and murmured their thanks as well.

"That’s all I had to say, we all know what we gotta do people, so lets get down to it." Mal smiled; soon they would be out and the black and things would be normal again. Well as normal as they got for Malcolm Reynolds and his crew.