DISCLAIMER: Joss is a genius, and he created all these marvellous people. But I get to play with them in the sandpit! CHARACTERS: Jayne, River RATING: PG SPOILERS: Ariel FEEDBACK: *nods violently* Yes please! NOTES: Requested by FuzzyBen, part of the Fireflyfic Challenge THANKS: to neongraal for reading this over for me, and making carefully thought-out comments.

I used to have a set of Russian dolls. Then I became one. They opened me and there was another inside, waiting. Twisted the top half so the head sat backwards, but still hid the child within. That was the plan: hatch smaller dolls, two by two, line them up, a perfect marching army.

So pretty.

***

Jayne wasn't pretty. He'd been sitting in the Outer Cargo Bay for two hours now, leaning up against the inner door - the outer door was damn cold. Two hours since he'd only just avoided being sucked out that outer door: 'keel-hauled' by Mal. It looked like he'd probably be here for a while yet. No one had come down, and he wondered what Mal had told the crew, if anything.

A knock behind him, on the door. Despite himself, he jumped. "Who's there?" he growled. No answer, so he scrambled to his feet, looked through the wndow.

No one was there.

"Wash? Zoe? Kaylee?" He paused, scanned the Inner Cargo Bay. No movement. "Doctor? Shepherd? C'mon now, this ain't funny!" Nothing.

It didn't matter that the outer door was cold. He stepped back, leaned against it and felt the chill through his shirt. Kept his eyes on the window. Jumped as a voice came over the radio.

"You're dead, Jayne."

"River! You little ... " he stopped himself, tried again. "Whaddaya want? Come to gloat?"

"You don't know it yet, but you're dead. No pulse, no heart, no life. Dead leaves, drifting down." He could see her now, holding the radio and swinging her legs, sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

The hairs on his face and the back of his neck pricking at him. "Open th' door, River."

"I could ..."

He waited, head cocked.

" ... but you're trapped anyway." Her voice changed from a sing-song lilt to something hard and painful. "And you deserve to be. I know what you did. I know everything you do. You're a bad man, no child inside. No help for you."

He propelled himself upright, banged his fists against the door. "River! Let me out of here! I'm sorry! I'll make't up to you. It was a mistake!"

***

She slipped away as he pounded and yelled, his voice fading but his mind clamouring. It sounded like the forest, full of bad things.

They would eat him, in the end.