Fandom: Firefly Title: Cut Off Author: Mordsith (Dani) 30_angsts Theme(s): 17. Eto...;Hmmmmm...(~engulf in darkness) Pairing/Characters: Jayne/Kaylee Rating: PG-13 Disclaimer/claimer (if needed): Summary: The ship crashes and the lights go out Word Count: 999

Author's note: Established J/K. Not betaed. I was feeling kind of angsty and I have had a bit of writers block so I forced this piece out. Not so great, but I needed to try and break through the block.

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Kaylee forced her eyes open, trying to clear the fog out of her mind. The light above the engine room flickered rapidly, making the mechanic cringe. Her head pounded already and the lights going on and off wasn’t helping it. The wires must have been knocked loose. If she could get to the main control box she could stop the flickering. Bracing her hand on the ground she moved to push herself to her feet, a choked out cry escaped her throat instead as blinding pain flooded every nerve in her body. It was an effort to stay conscious.

She slouched back against the engine room wall, trying to work her mind around the pain, figure out what had happened. Everything was a hazy messed and the only thing she knew was that something was very wrong. Something was very wrong.

As her senses became focused once more and her pain returned to a dull throb that echoed throughout her body, she was able to survey her surroundings. The first word that came to mind was crash. That was the only explanation she could come up with for why the engine room was tossed about like it was. Serenity must have crashed. Her tools were strewn everywhere, everything not bolted to the floor was in the wrong place. She could see things from where she was sitting that needed fixing, but fear of more pain kept her rooted in her spot.

There was a commotion outside the engine room making Kaylee rise up as much as she could, to see through the small window in the door. Jayne’s face appeared, blood just above his eyebrow as his eyes scanned the room. They landed on her and widened some. It took a moment for her to realize what he was looking at. Her eyes followed his and widened in her own surprise. A hunk of metal had pierced all the way through the top of her thigh, blood soaking both of her legs. Kaylee was too shocked to do much else but stare for a long moment before finally looking back up at Jayne. His head was down, face contorting with effort as he tried to push open the door, only managing to get it to move about an eighth of an inch before it wouldn’t budge anymore. Her eyes were beginning to grow heavy as she watched him push.

“Kaylee,” he called.

“Hmmmm?” she replied, eyelids fluttering slightly as the urge for them to close them grew.

“Kaylee, I need you to open your gorramn eyes,” he snapped. Her eyes refocused and she looked up at him through the window. “Is there anything blockin’ the door?” he asked. She scanned the doorway. The whole frame seemed awkward and slightly crushed in. She shook her head as looked up at him again. He nodded and began to push on the door once more, his features straining.

The lights flickered again and a soft humming noise to the side of her began to wind down. When the noise finally stopped, the light went out, engulfing the entire ship in darkness. She gulped, trying to stay clam, trying to stay awake. She could hear Jayne grunting with effort, but the door continued to not budge. There were other voices outside that joined his followed by beams of light—flashlights. Most of their talk was muffled, but whatever they were saying, she knew it wasn’t good.

Kaylee’s whole body shivered as she tired to stay with it, stay awake. Darkness fought her though. She was freezing. Why was it so cold?

“Gorramit Kaylee, you stay awake,” Jayne growled. The door moved a quarter of an inch more and hope filled her. Maybe they would be able to get it open. But things were fading fast and at a speed that frightened her. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t get the door open. There was a long stretch of time when everything was quiet except for the sounds of grunting and hushed talking. She focused on that, like a moth to the flame. She let attention dwell on those outside the engine room. When it grew too quiet though, she began to get frightened.

“Jayne?” she said hoarsely. There was a beat before Jayne finally answered.

“We’re gonna get you out of these, girl. Just hang on,” he said unconvincingly.

“It’s cold,” she told him. He let out a long breath and looked at her through the window.

“We’re comin’, mei mei,” Mal’s voice came from the other side of the door. She nodded, her head leaning against the wall as she closed her eyes. The pounding in her head began to lessen to her relief, the outside world slowly dimming around her. She wanted to just sleep and make this all go away.

A loud, metal crunching noise jarred her from any kind of sleep she thought she might get. Her eyes open and she watched as a crow bar began to peel back the doorway. It created a hole large enough so that Jayne could step through followed by Simon with his medical bags. Both of them looked beat up as well. The blood on Jayne’s forehead had dried, but she could see other cuts and bruises and Simon’s left wrist was wrapped up in a slightly bloodied bandage.

The mercenary knelt to her left, Simon her right. Jayne’s big hands reached out, pushing her hair out of her face and placing a kiss on her forehead. “You did good,” he told her softly.

“Ship’s broke,” Kaylee whispered. Jayne nodded and looked over at Simon. The doctor looked her leg over intently before finally meeting Jayne’s eyes.

“She’s lost a lot of blood, but the metal missed the artery. We’ll have to be very careful removing it so we don’t accidentally knick anything vital,” Simon said.

“She gonna make it?” Jayne asked.

“She’ll make it,” Simon nodded.

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Jayne replied.