“My stomach hurts.”

Kaylee sat with her back to the wall. The blood in her mouth was starting to dribble down her chin onto her shirt. Not that it made a lot of difference, considering that there was a hole all the way through her. She’d been stabbed, practically impaled with a Reaver pike, right where her stomach met her chest. A few inches higher and she’d already be dead.

‘Not that it makes much difference. Pretty soon those Reavers are going to bust through that door and eat me alive. Just like Simon. And Zoe.’ She looked down at her ruined shirt. Hell, her ruined body. ‘It’s a shame I was wearing this when it happened. I really like this shirt.’ Things were getting hazy. She felt dizzy and the blood that had pooled in the cups of her bra felt sticky and itched. She shifted and cried out. Only a little, but Jayne was about three feet away from her, rifling through Simon’s medical bag.

“I know your stomach hurts, you’ve got a gorram hole through it!” He held her still. “And don’t move! That can’t be helpin.” Jayne emptied the bag out onto the floor. Bottles and rolls of bandages rolled off in all directions, the hollow sound they made against the concrete floor made the darkness surrounding the merc and the mechanic even bigger. Kaylee laughed to herself softly when she thought of how Simon would feel with his neatly organized bag poured out onto the floor.

“Ah, hell!” Jayne scrambled after the escaping supplies. Then Kaylee couldn’t see him. She wasn’t afraid of the dark. But she didn’t want to be alone.

“Jayne.”

Nothing.

“Jayne!” Kaylee called at the top of her voice. She wasn’t very loud and it sounded strangled. The dark around her was closing it. When it finally took her she didn’t want to be alone.

Blood oozed out her mouth. Some of it flew when she cried out. Jayne heard it spatter on the floor in the darkness.

He came running back. He had one of the bottles he’d been chasing clutched in his hand. “What? What is it?” He was starting to panic. She’d lost a lot of blood. Jayne’d seen blood before and plenty of it, but never that much blood, especially blood belongin to somebody he loved.

“Gonna die soon, Jayne.” Kaylee looked him in the face. “Don’t wanna die alone. Hate bein alone. I’m about to be alone for the rest of forever, so’s I don’t want to be by myself now.”

Jayne sat down next to her. He didn’t need to tell her or himself that she was going to survive. Even now, she was fading and soon she wouldn’t even be able to talk or smile. Or move. Or breathe.

“Jayne.”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me about your family.”

“What for?”

Kaylee smiled at him weakly. “Cause I’ve always wondered about your mama and your sister, ever since they sent you that sweet hat.”

“Well, Maddy. She ain’t never been off planet an’ I send her things from all the places we go if I can swing it. I miss her sometimes even though she’s a right pain what with all the men-folk she runs amok with. She reminds me of you sometimes.

“My ma didn’t want me to leave home. But I didn’t want to buy it on some sun baked rock mining for salt, so’s I left. I send them money all the time. Not ‘cause I feel guilty or nothing, I just like to take care of them.

“ My ma used to tell me that a man who couldn’t look after the women around him wasn’t good for much else. And look at me. I can’t even look after you.”

“S’okay, Jayne.”

Kaylee smiled at him. “You’re looking after me fine.”

“But that’s not true. Coulda shot that Reaver dead. Coulda saved you. But I didn’t. To busy saving my own skin.”

“It’s okay Jayne. Thanks for…for…” Kaylee stopped. Jayne looked at her. Her eyes were open. She was smiling at him, gently.

“Kaylee?”

She kept smiling.

“Kaylee?”