Chapter Rating: PG Disclaimer: I didn’t make up Firefly. It was Joss Whedon, I swear!

“Well if the cap is looking for me then I can’t stay!” Kaylee didn’t want to leave, but she was too angry to stay. The fact that Simon had said those things to her…well she was just fit to scream. She needed to lose herself in Serenity. Maybe she could finally get that gorram binary gear belt working even if she only had the old tranny box for parts. “Ahw, to hell with the captain! Can’t you stay a little while?” Jayne didn’t understand why Kaylee wanted to leave so bad. Usually when he fought for a woman she got real hot for him. “Jayne…if you wanna know the truth so bad, I’m just to gorram mad at Simon. And I don’t wanna be with you cause I’m mad at Simon. I can’t explain it.” Jayne pulled her into him. “So…you do want me right?” Kaylee paused. “What do you think?” she leaned in to kiss him. Jayne flinched back. “That ain’t my deal Kaylee girl, dong ma?” Kaylee just looked down at her boots, nodded and left.

***** It was easy to slip away from that anger when she was working. Serenity sang when Kaylee poured her heart into her. But Serenity was quiet today. Kaylee’s heart was elsewhere.

***** The door to her shuttle opened. Inara looked up and smiled. Kaylee had come to visit her. “Kaylee! We haven’t spoken in a while.” Inara studied the mechanics face. Something was troubling her.

“What’s bothering you?”

Kaylee looked into ‘Nara’s eyes and saw what she’d been looking for: somebody she could trust and who loved her. “Oh, ‘Nara!” Kaylee said. “Simon said the most horrible things to me and now I can’t stop being angry! He ditched me and he never loved me!” “I thought you were going to leave him.” Inara hated to see Kaylee so upset. “Well I was, he just beat me to the punch and now I just feel like something’s wrong with me!” With that Kaylee started to cry all over again. Not the huge sobs of the night before, but the kind of strangled tears a tough girl cries when she wants to hide it. “Ah meimei!” Inara circled her arms around Kaylee. “There is nothing wrong with you.” “Gorramit KAYLEE!” Mal blundered into the shuttle. “I have been looking for you all morning, now I need you to get down into that engine room and…” Mal trailed off when he saw them. Inara gave him a hard look. Kaylee snuffled and smiled at the captain. “Don’t worry Cap. I put everything together this morning ‘fore you found me. The gear belt should hold for at least another three weeks.” “Oh.” Mal backed out of the room.

***** Inara turned back to Kaylee. “I’m sure that whatever Simon said wasn’t that bad.” “After all he cared about you a great deal.” “No he didn’t! Kaylee said venomously. “Those things he said outside Jayne’s bunk, accusing me like I was some kind of prarie harpy. He never would have said them to you or even Zoe.” Kaylee stopped realizing what she had let on. “Jayne?” Inara said. “You were with him last night and this morning.” It was less of a question as a statement. She hadn’t known that Kaylee felt anything for Jayne or the other way around for that matter. It was strange for Kaylee to just go off and sleep with anyone. “’Nara, I didn’t have sex with him. Everyone who knows thinks we did. ‘Cept for me and Jayne o’ course.” “Well then, what happened?” Inara was anxious. What if Jayne had hurt Kaylee or done something to her? She didn’t trust the mercenary; Mal had even warned her against him, told her he wasn’t to be trusted. “We got drunk,” Kaylee smiled at the memory. “and then we talked. He made me feel better, like I wasn’t wrong, the way Simon was makin me out t’be.” Kaylee look straight at Inara. “Then we slept in the same bed, the whole night. But nothing happened.” Suddenly Mal’s voice came over the com. “Everybody get to the bridge. We have work.”