The Bravest Thing Part 6 by Nailani Williams

Disclaimer: No Copyright Infringement intended so Joss put down the Sword of Truth!

Summary: Taking place after the BDM. Jayne and Zoe, pairing. Jayne’s secret personal grief from his past ends up pushing him closer to Zoe than he could ever imagine.

Rating: PG-13

A/N: Sorry, last part was so sad, but unfortunately my Jayne is a little more morose, than Joss’. Thank for the feedback, it really keeps me going! Tamsibling dropped a line…Woo hoo! Your fan fic rocks hard!

I know the Zanye ain’t everybody’s cup of tea…but I like being on the under dog’s side, LOL!

Teaser: Wash won’t leave me alone so we might see him in so sort of way in the future. Just not this part LOL! ~

Zoe:

We were ten hours away from Bernadette and Jayne was avoiding me like the plague and I couldn’t figure out if it was my reaction to our almost kiss by the light of morning he was worried about or was it his own issues he was working through?

All I really knew was that I missed him and his avoiding me was making me plenty mad. I was on the catwalk watching him work out when River came and sat next to me. She looked up at me until I stare down at her.

“He’s being pieced back together, like a huge Jayne puzzle, he wants to come to you whole,” she whispered with a smile.

“You reading him after he asked you not to?’ I asked and she looked away and blushed.

“He’s projecting so loud I can’t help, but over hear,” she hunched her shoulders and I smirked.

“Well you keep you’re far reaching ears to yourself around me young lady,” I teased and she giggled.

“He visits me too, you know,” River said and I sighed.

“Wash?” I asked and she nodded.

“He keeps me laughing until my stomach hurts when I wake up,” she said and I smile wistfully.

“Yup, he does that,” I said and River nodded.

Mal came from the cockpit and called us all in there. Inara’s was going to tell us about our job she set up for us. Ten minutes later, we were crowding around waiting to be briefed, I was pleased when Jayne decided to stand next to me.

Inara explained our job to us. We were to pick up two former companions one male, John; one female, Bethanie. They had just got married and they needed transportation to their new home in Deadwood. They were being escorted by a hired gun for protection. All we had to do is load them and their things on to Serenity and safely get them to Deadwood. I noticed every time Inara said Deadwood Jayne twitched.

“Are you okay?” I asked him and he nodded.

“Deadwood, that’s my homeworld. It’s also the place were I settled down and started my own family,” he finally said to me when I followed him to his bunk after the meeting.

“You mean, that’s where it all happened,” I said and he nodded. “If you don’t want to go, I can see if Mal can swing on to one of the other ports and you can hang out there until we’re done with the job,” I offered, but he shook his head.

“It’s okay. My mama and brother’s still on that planet, and it’s been forever since I paid my respects to my wife and children,” I said and she nodded.

“If you need me at anytime through this job, you don’t hesitate to say so,” I said and went to leave. Jayne grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. Suddenly, he kissed me, his hands in my hair, his tongue slipped inside my mouth. I grabbed the back of his head as he wrapped his arms around me. We broke apart reluctantly for air I stared at him amazed.

“Jayne?” I said my fingers touching my swollen lips.

And for the first time I saw Jayne Cobb blushed red, “It was time. And well…well you look mighty fine this morning,” he shyly didn’t meeting my eyes, I smiled.

“Why didn’t you talk to me this morning Jayne, you barely said hello to me I thought you didn’t want any of this,” My hands were on his chest and he scratched the back of his head, nervously.

“I thought that you didn’t want to be bothered with me after last night, I thought maybe you thought that it was too soon,” he rambled. “I didn’t want to rush you,” he sighed and then took my hands.

I smiled and kissed him quickly on the lips, “Is Jayne Cobb becoming all gentlemanly?,” I teased.

“Jayne Cobb, ain’t no gentle man, girlie,” he grumbled. I laughed.

Jayne:

We were kissing again, when Mal interrupted us. He gave Zoe a looked that said, “Gotcha!” We ignored it.

He asked if we could pull ourselves apart long enough to prepare the cargo bay so we could, “ properly receive our visitors.”, which basically meant could you two sweep up the dust up. I instantly thought that Mal had been spending way too much time with Inara. Who, until this morning, I had been referring to her as the incredible vanishing woman, since she only seemed to come out of her shuttle for moments at time since her and Mal got together.

Zoe and I worked in silence mainly because I kept thinking about Deadwood. I wasn’t wary of my home world, I knew how to survive there and I wasn’t about to tell Inara’s friends that they were walking into a lion’s den, full of every type of ne’er do well, you could possibly think of.

When I was growing up it was hectic, being that most of Deadwood’s residents were former criminals. My own Pa was one, but even criminals needed lawmen, and my Pop became one. My mama, who was the strongest woman in had known in the verse, became the back bone of our family. After Pop was killed, she took care of me and my little brother, by herself. She kept us out of trouble and safe until we were of age.

That’s when the bug hit me. I had to go out and make money by any means necessary. I was tired of watching my Mama struggle. So, I left Deadwood and met up with a few of my dad’s old gang and began my training in all things not on the right side of the law. After I became a little too dangerous, they gave me a shuttle unleashed me on the verse. I became a merc, a bandit, a thief, in the fine tradition of the Cobb’s I became a ne’er do well.

After years and years of doing nothing right, I met Vera, a preacher’s daughter of all things, and married her. I took her home to my mama and choose to settle on Deadwood when Vera told me she was preggers. My life all came together when we had Ruby.

I remembered she was a long birth, it took over thirty hours of labor, for Ruby to make her way in to the world, but when she did, everything came into the clear for me. From the moment they put her into my arms I knew I had to do everything in my power to make sure I stayed alive for her. Four and a half years, it all fell apart. I fell apart, after their deaths. I got myself into terrible debt because I gambled away everything I owned. I even gambled something’s I didn’t own. I slept with a different whore each night and I drank myself into oblivion.

Then my momma traveled 200 miles from her home in Sol Star, to mine in Sadieville and dragged my ass out of the whorehouse by my ear. She nursed me back to a point where I didn’t want to eat a bullet. Instead, I lived to kill that summa bitch who killed my family. And when I did, it was an empty victory, though I did savor it as long as his sorry hide could hold before crossing into hell.

It wasn’t long after that, that business opportunities and new partnership offers, start to present themselves. I left home again, vowing to pay Mama back for everything of hers that I had ever gambled away. She just kissed me and cried, I guess she knew that I wasn’t coming back. Deadwood didn’t feel much home any more, and I doubt it ever will again.

Zoe:

I looked across the cargo bay and saw that Jayne looked lost in thought. He was brooding something fierce. I went to him and touched his shoulder.

“You alright,” I asked and he forced a grin.

“Yeah, just thinking about…stuff,” he said and I nodded. I needed to get his mind somewhere else. He had been on an emotional rollercoaster since he revealed to me the secrets of his past. I knew he deserved a break, so I turned away from him and undid the top button of my blouse and adjusted my girls so my cleavage was very noticeable. I picked up the dustpan and bent down in front of where Jayne was sweeping, nonchalantly. I heard him gasp above me.

“Zoe, um your shirt,” he said, his voice was thick and low, I grinned. My head was down so he couldn’t see me blush.

Jayne:

I knew what she was doing. I must’ve been brooding again. I smirked, wondering just how those beautiful mounds would feel in my hands. I finished sweeping the dirt into her dustpan and I watched as she stood up. She was blushing hard and not meeting my eyes. And then I remembered, Wash once let it slip that he was the only man she had ever been with.

Suddenly, all the lust-filled imagery I was having gave way to something else, something that was warm and tender. Something that was making my pants mighty tight and my heart clench. Above all else, I was honored by her caring for me like she did. I caressed her arm before she left me to empty the dustpan and she smiled at me so wide it made my heart speed up.

I didn’t much know what was happening between us. I didn’t know exactly how far this attraction went or what it would lead to… but I knew I liked it, because I knew know matter what, she’d always have my back and I’d always have hers.