The job had gone off without a hitch, which was a miracle in and of itself. Mal and Zoë had boarded the luxury liner bound for Ariel, disguised as newlyweds, and like one, two, and three, Mal, Zoë, and a medium sized ship’s safe were off the liner and back on Serenity. There was cash in the safe, which the Bulger brothers had not bothered to mention, and there was the folder, a coin collection from Earth-That-Was. A very valuable coin collection, one which they were being paid very very well for delivering. “Are we gonna tell them about the cash?” Jayne wanted to know. “Yes, Jayne, we are gonna tell them about the cash. The Bulger brothers could be a right solid source of work for us in the future, and I am not going to screw that by getting greedy over some bonus cash.” “But let’s at least keep some of it for ourselves, Mal. They’re never gonna know, who’s gonna trace cash?” Mal’s frustration with Jayne came, more often than not, because the man was not nearly as stupid as everyone, Jayne included, thought he was. More often than not, Jayne was right, just right from a different perspective than Mal’s. Jayne’s rational was simple and direct, and in spite of himself, Mal had a fair passel of liking for Jayne’s sense of simple and direct. But Mal was Captain of this boat, and whatever that counted for, he was going to have the last word. He glanced at Zoë, who always got a nervous look when Mal and Jayne had words. The three of them were alone in the cargo bay, Kaylee was busy with whatever Kaylee spent her day doing to the engine, and the Doc and his sister were somewhere else. Even the Shepherd and Inara were off doing something (though probably not what the good Shepherd would like to be doing with her, Mal thought, hating himself instantly for the unkind thought). “Jayne, how long has it been since we had a job?” The Captain was about to use logic on him, Jayne didn’t like that very much, and his only reliable answer to logic was his fists, and that wasn’t going to work on the Captain. Jayne knew easily he could take Mal in a fair, or unfair fight, but that didn’t stop him from being a little bit afraid of getting on the wrong side of the Captain. “Long enough.” “”And how long has it been since anyone on Persephone--one of the best commerce planets out there for folk like ourselves, I might add--since that whole thing with Badger and Inara’s boyfriend with the sword?” Knowing this argument was going to go nowhere, and would get there at a top speed, Jayne just thrust his hands in his pockets and said “Fine!” as he sauntered away. Mal looked at Zoë, who looked back at him. “He’s not entirely wrong about the cash, sir,” she said. “I know he’s not, and I would love nothing better that to make a quick stop between here and Persephone and blow some money on actually feeding this crew, get y’all some better vittles than what we’ve got on here, but you know as good as I know how hard work is for us to find. The Bulgers will more’n like be expecting some cash out of the safe, and why wreck everything lying to them now?” “Sir, I don’t argue the point, but one of these days Jayne isn’t going to back down so easy.” “He is if he’s paid,” Mal said, hoping that this would always remain true.

Wash put Serenity down on the eastern side of Persephone, in the Calumet Docks section. Eavestown Docks were busier, more crowded, and therefore more anonymous, but that was badger’s territory, and they weren’t doing any business with badger today, a fact which might make the little crime boss feel a might slighted. Mal and Zoë were with Wash in the bridge, joined by Jayne, the preacher, and Kaylee. The Doc and his sister were elsewhere, and that was just as well. Mal had no issue with the Doc being on his bridge, but River Tam could get into all sorts of mischief, and worse, she could get there lightning quick, and there were just too many things on the bridge and the engine room where she could do untold damage. Or she could just ruffle everyone’s hair and make raspberries at them. With River, it was always a fifty/fifty shot. “Me and Zoë are going t’town and do our business, and providing no unseen events take place, we should be back within a couple of hours with a nice fat passel of cashee money. However,” Wash fidgeted whenever the Captain said words like however. However meant that Mal was going to point out one of the ways that their entire plan could go all south, and often did. “Just to keep everyone the honest and friendly folk that they naturally are, Jayne, whom the Bulger Brothers never has met, will trail along behind us. I’m not expecting any trouble; however” there was that word again, Wash thought, “it never hurts to be prepared.” Mal and Zoë left the main cargo hold, and Jayne slipped out of an escape hatch in the engine compartment that Kaylee had set up some months back. Inara, of course, was long gone in her shuttle, satisfying the needs of the clients she had a chance to meet for a change. Two hours later, everyone was back, happy and well paid. This was just going way too easy, Wash thought. Nothing on Serenity was supposed to go that easy.

“Put us up in the air, Wash, but not too high,” Captain Malcolm Reynolds said with a good-natured ring in his voice. “We’re taking a quickity hop over to Eavestown, pay a visit on our dear Mr. Badger.” “Sir, why exactly would you want to bother with that psychotic?” Zoë asked in her pragmatic, why-do-I-always-have-to-be-the-sensible-one voice. “Because that psychotic happens to be just the sort of a psychotic we can get work from, Zoë, and it’s about time we made friends with that little psychotic once again. I don’t honestly conjure that we can have too many friends, do you, Zoë? And because we have a little bit of nice, shiny cashee money to spend, and I think we could all do with a nice shopping spree to fill our galley.” Wash looked up at him wide-eyed. “Did you say you were going to stock up our galley with new food?” “Yes, that ‘twould be my intent, after Jayne finishes getting drunk and whored up enough to carry him over a spell.” Wash entertained about twenty simultaneous fantasies regarding fresh, tasty food. “Sir, are you having an affair with my wife?” The question made both Zoë and Mal snap their heads around. “Wha-, I, dap, ah…no!” “Would you like to have one with me?” Mal looked at Wash, looked at Zoë in a you’re responsible for that look, back at Wash, and just shook his head and walked away.

Passing through the common areas, Mal crossed paths with Shepherd Book, Bible in hand, a habit he had taken to since River had made the effort to correct his scriptures. “Shepherd, feel to do a bit of grocery shopping today?” “Captain, that sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. To what do I owe such an event? Your share of your booty?” “Shepherd, you owe this to us good folk being honest, stand-up criminal types, the sort’s get rewarded for our honesty,” the Captain said with a smile. “Sir, I am very confident in my belief that I don’t want to know what that means,” the older man said. “You don’t want to, preacher, and that is more’n likely for the best,” Mal said. “But rest assured Jayne will learn exactly what I mean.” The captain seemed very pleased with himself, and that was enough for Shepherd Book. The man was a constant state of conflict, and the Shepherd knew that his relationship with Jayne Cobb was a strained one at best, one where the larger mercenary treated the Captain with fear induced respect, though the preacher knew that could change in a heartbeat. But he seemed quite happy about what was about to transpire between himself and Jayne, and that was good enough for Book.

Jayne Cobb’s bunk room was too small for his free-weight set up, so he kept everything in the main cargo hold. Mal had used to grouse at him about the space it took up (which it didn’t, really, but Mal just had to grouse at him about something), but since the preacher had boarded Serenity, and taken to lifting with Jayne, mal had backed off him about it. In truth, Jayne was happy to have a work-out partner, and the preacher-man was one hell of a lot stronger than he looked. Jayne, a veteran of innumerable violent encounters, looked at the Shepherd in a very respectful light, thinking the older man must have been something in his day. Whatever his day might have been. Because it gorram sure wasn’t in some monastery. Jayne saw the preacher take a Fed down with three hits, and stand his ground against Jayne himself. And it was here that he had 350 pounds suspended over his chest when he heard the Captain calling “Jayne? Oh Jayne?” The larger man eased the bar into its rest as he thought I’ve done something he’s pissed off about, which was closely followed by I haven’t done anything for him to be pissed off about. Lately. Jayne stood up and squared his shoulders, inflating his chest, not so much to intimidate Mal, but to steel himself for the beating he was expecting. “Jayne, we took a little over eleven thousand hard credits out of that safe, which happened to be more than the Bulger Brothers were expecting, and happened to surprise them quite pleasantly at our honesty. Do you know what they did?” Jayne really had no idea where this conversation was headed, and that never made him happy. He just shook his head and shrugged. “They split the cash down the middle with us, and we are to be back here in three weeks to move some cargo for them,” the captain said very happily, and with a suddenness that always unsettled Jayne immensely, the joy dropped out of Mal’s face, replaced by a grim, angry glare. “So in the future, why don’t you just assume that being captain of this here boat means I know what is the best course of action for us, is that clear to you, Jayne?” “Yes, Mal,” was all Jayne could manage. He hated when Mal got like this, because that was when the Captain was at his most unpredictable. “Good,” was his reply, a happy light coming back into his face, a fact which kept Jayne further off balance. “Now, you know my rule: no splitting up of earnings until we are in the black, for now the money goes somewhere safe, but I find myself with extra currency today, so…..” Mal took a small sack out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Jayne. “This is for you while we are planet-side, and if I find out for one minute you did anything besides squander this on liquor or whores, I will be a very upset man.” The bulk of what Mal had just said to Jayne was lost, with the exception of the words, money, liquor, and whores, and a general sense that this was being encouraged. He squeezed the sack of coin tight in his hand and asked how long he had. “Five hours, not a minute more.” Jayne did the math quickly in his head in terms of how much damage he could do in five hours, and smiled. “But keep your comm turned on just in case we need to leave in a hurry,” Mal called after him. “And no propositioning Inara if you have any money left.” “But ain’t she a-” The two men looked at one another for an awkward moment. “I’m gonna go get changed,” Jayne said finally. “Probably wiser to make yourself presentable.”

Jayne had changed from his t-shirt and denims to a fresh t-shirt and denims, wearing his favorite knife over his right buttock, and his .45 semi-auto on his right hip. He picked up a small .380 semi-auto, looked at it for a moment, and decided to tuck it into his left boot. Jayne was a man who believed you could never be too well armed for any situation. In the cargo area, Shepherd Book, Wash, and Zoë were on the mule, ready to head into town. Wash and Zoë were going to find a restaurant to enjoy a romantic meal at, and the Shepherd was giving them a ride. “Ho up, all! Let a fella catch a ride with you!” Jayne called to them. The big man jumped into the wagon portion of the mule. Wash, at the handlebars, looked back and sniffed the air. “Jayne, you are washed, changed, and even scented,” he said. “That’s not natural.” “just shut up and drive, little man,” he growled back good naturedly. Wash drove into town, and turned controls over to the Shepherd. “We will find our way back to the ship,” Zoë said. “I’ll get off here too,” Jayne said, eyeing a bar seedy enough to be well populated with whores. “Well then, “ Book said. “I’ll be on my own here. Nobody had better be late for dinner when we get back into the black!” Truth was, Book was quite happy to be on his own in a marketplace with spending money and a free hand. Vegetables were more of his specialty, along with spices, and these he purchased at a variety of vendors. He haggled vigorously with a woman selling potatoes and onions, who was not in the least bit put off by his Shepherd’s uniform. He walked away feeling he had got the better of her, and knowing full well he hadn’t, but all he needed now was some paprika to serve up home fries for the crew. During his time in the abbey, he had found, among other talents, and joy of cooking, and as he meandered through the marketplace, he saw acres of potential. Eggs and meat, of course, were trickier matters, and he ignored the majority of selling tables before he purchased eggs and a variety of meats and fish. Young Kaylee, glorious soul that she was, had devised a very good flash freezing system on the ship, and if they were quite wise with their rations, they could avoid protein cubes for some time. Book found that he had a full mule and spare money. The simple solution at this point was return to Serenity, drop off what he had acquired so far, and come back for more, which was exactly what he did. He returned with an empty mule with something very special in mind.

Jayne, his belly half full of rice wine and good God alone knew or cared what else, headed up a flight of stairs with a brunette whore on his right arm, and a red headed whore on his left. He was a genuinely happy man. As he let his two new friends lead him off to temptation and sin, he glanced out the stairway window and caught sight of the Shepherd driving and empty mule, and thought I’ll give ‘em both a good one for you, old man! Book was looking for fruits, syrups, and flour. He never had much of a talent for baking cakes, but he could more than make up for his shortcomings in a pie. These things were easy enough to find, and now the Shepherd had one more thing in mind……. Rice wine was easy to come by, as were any number of homemade vodkas, gins, or simple fuel ignite that would strike a man blind as well as numb. But true, gentleman’s whiskey, that was another matter entirely, and that would take some searching. As he searched and wandered, his eyes took inventory of everything. He saw the underground of Eavestown docks as clearly as he saw Kaylee’s bright smile. Slave traders stood over in front of that shack, heavily armed under their coats, holding any number of unfortunate souls in their basement cells. On more corners than not were drop peddlers, dealing out little doses of death to anyone with the coin to purchase them. He saw the repair shop in the distance and knew that they could dismantle a ship the size of Serenity in the space of two hours, and have the parts off-planet in even less time than that. Whorehouses were common enough, but Book knew where the flesh peddlers catered to the more exotic, brutal tastes with their slaves. Loan sharks did business in saloons and restaurants, and weapons traders, the sorts of weapons the Alliance frowned deeply on civilians possessing, were not too hard to find. All of this took place under the nose of heavily armed, trained Feds, who turned a blind eye to the trades of those who paid for a blind eye, and came down on those who didn’t. This was an underground world, but Book could see each and every player as easily as if each wore a label on his or her forehead. The only thing that ever really changed were the faces, all of whom had changed so much since he had been in the world. Here was a ramshackle with a red door, and book knew he had found his last shop. He pushed open the door, and a dimly lit shop with shelves of bottles and jugs was barely visible, as was the older, heavy set woman who sat behind its counter. Even less visible were the two young, armed men who stood on either side of the door. Trouble was always something to be avoided. And the best way to avoid trouble was with trouble of your own. “Welladay!” The woman exclaimed. “My eyes don’t serve me so well anymore, but I can see a preacher’s collar there! I don’t know as I have ever seen a man of God in my shop!” Book didn’t come any further into the shop. ‘I believe I can see why,” he said. “Peddling t’Devil’s piss is what I’m about, eh, preacher-man?” “Most likely something like that,” Book said, sorry he had come in here. Not all of the faces had changed. But he would have to brass this out as best he could if he meant to get out of here. “I’m looking for gentleman’s whiskey, but if you don’t carry it, I will just be on my way.” The squintiness and merriment ran out of the woman’s face. Wariness and hatred took their place as she took several steps back. “you’ve got your nerve coming around these parts again, Derial Book, haven’t you?” “Madame, I am a Shepherd passing through these parts just trying to buy a present for my ship’s captain. You really must have me confused with someone else.” ‘What you are is a lying piece of go-se,” she hissed. Both of her guards had raised their weapons. They didn’t know who this old man was, and felt kind of silly training weapons on a preacher, but they got paid to do, not to think. “You left your mark on my guts, you sadist bastard!” Memory came flooding back with the force of a hammer into his forehead. Delilah Hausen had been running tailor made narcotics off world for some time, and when an undercover Fed got too close to her and had been fool enough to let himself get made, his skinned head had been delivered to the Fed Station governing all of Persephone. Derial Book was called in. Derial book had no interest in clandestine military matters, though his ranking allowed him all of the privileges of such. Derial book was a law enforcement specialist who existed outside of the law. He filed no reports, served no papers, and paid no due process. Derial Book simply got results. And he had gotten results with Delilah Hausen. She held out on his ship in close orbit, a ship designed purely for interrogation. She held out longer than he would have bet on, had he been a gambling man. He had very little interest in her, or her drug labs, but rather who she was shipping off world to. She held out until he let her know that she had little or no reason to worry about recriminations from those whom she would name. If he found any evidence when he got there, then there would be no arrests, only eliminations. This was what the Alliance paid him for. She cracked in, of course. They all cracked in. There was only so much the human body, mind, and spirit could endure. He began every session with this statement. Some heeded it. Most did not. But everyone talked. And if they made him work, if they made him do unpleasantries that got his hands and clothes dirty, if they made him endure their screams and pleas, then he had an old straight razor, an artifact of Earth-That-Was, that he would use to carve an X across their abdomens, as a reminder of how one should behave when dealing with a truly serious man. Her goods had been shipped to Gladys, a therefore moon in the ass end of nowhere that would have been a poster child for a Reaver attack had it not been so well fortified. He and his team entered their base. He and his team were the only ones to leave, along with a crate full of skinned heads that went to each individual supplier’s world, as a reminder of why filling this newly made vacuum would be such a bad idea. Book was in trouble, he had no illusion about that. He wasn’t the man he once was, in terms of age or spirit. The two guards crossed their rifle barrels across the door, and Delilah drew a large and unpleasant fish-gutting knife. She smiled a wicked smile. “I really never saw this chance coming my way, Mr. Book. And in a Shepherd’s outfit! I guess nothing really is sacred.” “Delilah, that was all a very long time ago. We are different people now, let’s try to remember that.” Book knew there was no talking his was out of this, but he had to try while his mind raced to think of something else. “You kept me on that ship of yours for four days, lawman. How long do you think I can keep you in mine?” She nodded at the two guards, who took him by his arms. “Derial Book, we are going for a ride.”

Jayne came out of the saloon feeling exhausted and satisfied, and wanted to get a jug to bring back on board before his time ran out. He looked around, scratching himself in an absent-minded way, wondering where he could get a batch of hooch for his bunk room, when he saw the mule. He wasn’t entirely sure it was Serenity’s mule until he walked up to it, and saw those stupid dinosaurs that Wash had everywhere you looked. (Wash had once told Jayne that on Earth-That-Was, they used to make theater shows about fire breathing dinosaurs that destroyed whole cities. Jayne always wished he could have seen one of those.) The Shepherd was off on his own, and this was nowhere for a preacher to be out on his own. There was a sack in the wagon with fruits and flour and syrups, but no Book. The last traces of drunken sex ran away from Jayne’s head as he placed a reassuring hand on his .45, and got his bearings, preparing a plan. He was no leader, like mal, or even a good soldier like Zoë, but he did know his way around a scuffle, and he felt a scuffle coming soon. And come soon it did. He saw book being led out by two goons with rifles, followed by 300 pounds of butt nasty giving orders, and he fell in behind them. When they reached the warehouse, he fell back, and made a plan.

Book let himself be led in, and felt his wrists being bound behind him. This was how it would end, he thought, and wondered if it wasn’t what he genuinely deserved for his previous life. The first guard, the bigger of the two, spun him around and backhanded the preacher hard, knocking him hard down to the ground. His shorter partner followed this my a kick to the guts. “Jess and Tegron here are just going to beat on you for a little while, Inspector Book. That should keep everyone entertained for a while, don’t you think?” Book’s contrition did not entirely overcome his sense of survival. He climbed to his feet, not to realistically fight his way out of this, he wasn’t fool enough to think that was going to happen, but maybe just maybe he could give one of these goons something to remember the experience by.

Jayne had his pistol out, and had shimmed the door unlocked to let himself in. Three steps, and he was to where they were beating on the Shepherd. “’Scuse me, but am I interrupting the party?’ The two goons turned on him. Jayne shot the taller of the two twice in the chest, dropping him where he stood. His gun was trained on the other goon instantly. “Think twice,” Jayne said with a smile. Jayne took his knife out and cut Book’s wrists free. “Preacher, you do keep some funny company.” “Seems to me I’ve thought that about you,” Book croaked. With a speed that belied her size, Delilah was extracting a large piston from under her skirt. Book and Jayne saw her together, but Book moved faster. He had Jayne’s big knife out of its sheath, and hurled it across the room into the big woman’s chest, who looked down at the hilt of the knife with a look of surprise and horror across her wide face. Quick as lightning, book spun, and drove his rigid fingers into the remaining guard’s throat, sending him staggering back and choking. Stepping forward, Book took both sides of the guard’s head and spun it around, breaking his neck. Jayne looked at the older preacher in shock, who retuned his gaze with his head tilted down. “This is my past come to haunt me, and if you weren’t here, it most likely would have killed me,” Book said. “And I am very ashamed for what I just did, and for what you saw me do.” Jayne, in his typical direct Jayne fashion, said simply, “You’re a bad man, Shepherd Book.” “I was, once, in another lifetime, and I suppose I always will be.” The older man looked down at the ground and then looked up, nakedly, at Jayne. “It would be a kindness to me if the others on Serenity never knew what happened here.” Jayne remembered back to a day when he felt ashamed, when he had begged Mal not for mercy, but for a story to the rest of the crew that didn’t make him look so bad. “Shepherd Book, you are just a lucky man I came along when I did. Amazing that there are people out there who would rob a Shepherd for pie fixings.” Book smiled. “Pie fixings.” “Right, the pie you’re gonna bake and set aside for me,” Jayne said with a smile.