Welcoming Committee: Part 4 by Nailani Williams

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

Summary: After the BDM. Zayne, pairing. Taking place after, “The Bravest Thing” Jayne’s going home to Deadwood and he realizes that only his Mama’s happy he’s home.

Rating: PG-13

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I know I did. I also hope you enjoy this part, LOL it was a tough one to crack out with my family and friends hanging out with me all week. Thanks for reading and remember more feedback, more chapters, I swear...feedback is my Thanksgivng stuffing, LOL! ~ Lani

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Zoe:

I had worked myself up into a find state of worry by the time Jayne and I made it up to the rock path that led to the front of the Cobb Ranch House. Jayne just kept squeezing my hand and humming that nursery rhyme River was singing back on the ship. When we were just outside the front door, I panicked.

“Jayne, maybe it’s too soon, maybe this isn’t proper,” I rambled and he touched my face with out saying a word. He leaned into me raising my face up to kiss me, but he stopped only inches short of my lips.

“Stop worrying she’s gonna love you,” he whispered and I relaxed. He placed a small gentle peck on my lips and then banged the front door so hard I thought he was going to knock it off the hinges.

“I’m coming! Hold your horses,” I heard a woman’s voice from the other side. “Nathan Torres, if that’s you young man I’ll tan your h-” she opened the door and found Jayne standing there, his yellow hat on wearing a big ole smile. The woman flustered and for a moment I thought she was gonna faint.

“Jayne?” she said breathlessly. She was about the same size of Jayne’s cousin Mary, she was thin, but curvaceous, and she had long curly brown hair, that had a small smattering of white strips of graying hair in it, down to her shoulders and those blue eyes. I noticed she wasn’t wrinkled, that besides a few laugh lines and crows feet she looked no older than Jayne.

“Baby,” she whispered and took him in her arms. Jayne went to his knees and folded his huge body around her. He was shaking.

“Ma,” I heard Jayne sigh and she held him, his head at her bosom, and kissed his forehead. She stepped away a bit to look at him. Removing his silly hat so she could get a good look at him.

“I prayed for you everyday,” she said, wiping stray tears from her eyes. “Welcome home,” she said. I heard someone coming down the stairs.

“Ma, who’s at the--?” I finally saw a blonde amidst the Cobbs’, he was younger than Jayne, shorter, and thinner, but the eyes were Jayne’s eyes. I surmised that he was Matty. Jayne’s younger brother.

“Jayne?” he said in shock stopping in the middle of the stairs. He then looked at me. “What the hell are you doing back here?” Matty said, very unfriendly like.

Jayne broke away from his mother and then went to hug Matty who tried to push him away. Jayne pulled Matty to him and hugged him anyway and then just as quickly he let him go. Matty stomped away angrily. Jayne just hunched his shoulders.

“Mama, this is Zoe,” he introduced us and she gave me one of the warmest smiles I’ve had ever experienced. She took both my hands and squeezed and then she hugged me.

“Thank you for bringing him home,” she said, and I speechlessly nodded.

“Beverly, have you seen where I put the horseshoe studs?” I heard a deep male voice call out to her from inside the Ranch. Beverly’s eyes went wide, taking Jayne’s hand, she ushered us inside the ranch into the large living room area.

“Jayne… I got something to tell you and I really need you not to be mad at me about this,’ Beverly began in a rush.

“Mad about what?” Jayne said, confused.

“Bev, honey, I put them in that box above the black mare’s stall, but now--” The man was coming into the kitchen area from the back of the Ranch through double glass doors that led to the stalls on the side of the house. I was trying to get a look at him, but all I could she was a tall man about the same size as Jayne wearing a cowboy hat and thick leather gloves that were caked in mud.

“Jayne, I know this might be a shock to you, but I married last spring,” Jayne's Mama stammered. “I love him, Jayne,” she said and Jayne’s eyes went wide when the man finally came into the living room. He took off his hat and looked at Jayne, then me, and then at Beverly. His was an older man, his hair was long and white, pulled back into a ponytail. He was sporting a goatee.

“Well, well,” he smirked, and I looked at Jayne who looked like he was about to blow. I took his hand to keep him calm.

“Bishop, what the fuck are you doing in my home?” Jayne said, and his mother slapped him.

“Don’t you dare use that language in my house, Jayne Cobb,” Beverly chastised, Jayne took a deep breath.

“What kind of sick game you playing at, Bishop?” he yelled and Bishop hunched his shoulders.

“Ain’t no sick game,” he hunched his shoulder and I thought it was about time I knew what was going on.

“What’s going on?” I asked Jayne and he growled.

“This…man , if you’d call him that, was part of my father’s gang. He’s a crooked shady hwoon dan and he shouldn’t be in here playing house with my mother!” Jayne went after the Bishop, Bishop did a swift side step, grabbed Jayne by the arm, twisted it, and threw Jayne down to the floor face first. I winced when he landed and Bev looked at me like she was so annoyed with her boys.

“Member when I was trying to teach you about finesse and you asked me what’s the point? That was the point,” Bishop said, with his foot on Jayne’s back.

“Get off me,” Jayne yelled.

“Not until you apologize to your mother for coming in here all disrespectful like,” he demanded. Jayne sighed from the floor and then begrudgingly apologized and Bishop let him up.

“I can’t believe you still move that quick at your age,” Jayne grumbled.

Bishop grinned, “It’s genetics.”

“Or witchcraft,” Jayne grumbled. Jayne’s mother brushed off Jayne’s clothes and then took his jacket. She took mine and quickly exited the room.

“Truthfully Bishop, why are you here?” Jayne asked and Bishop sat in a big fluffy recliner.

“Unfinished business with your mother,” he said cryptically and Jayne shook his head.

“You did this to spite me!” Jayne yelled. “You knew I hated you and so you seduce my poor kindly mother so you can torture me. Like my young adulthood wasn’t enough for you!” Jayne pouted sat down on the loveseat with and sigh and I sat next to him.

Bishop laughed then, a eerily familiar laugh. I looked from Jayne to Bishop quietly. Beverly entered the room carrying settings for tea. She served all of us and then finally she poured some for herself and sat down by her husband.

“Ma, why him? Of all the…” Jayne ended with an annoyed groan his hands over his face and Beverly smiled sweetly looking at her husband.

“I love him Jayne isn’t that reason enough?” she said. Jayne pouted shooting I daggers at Bishop , Bishop just grinned warmly at him. And then Beverly turned her full attention on me. My stomach flipped. “So, Zoe, right?” she asked and I nodded. “How long have you and my son known each other?”

“Oh, about three years,” I said and she nodded.

“Is that how long you’ve been together?” she asked and I shook my head.

“We just recently got together,” I said and she nodded.

“Matty!” Beverly called for her youngest, who appeared minutes later from the basement.

“Yes, ma,” he said, covered in a rubber apron he had protective glasses on his head.

“We have tea,” she said and he looked at Jayne and then at Bishop.

“Tea doesn’t seemed to relaxing for me now, maybe later,” he said, shooting eye daggers at Jayne.

“Maybe later we can talk,” Jayne said.

“We don’t have anything to talk about,” Matty replied angrily and Jayne stood up.

“I want to know why you’re treating me like go-se! Sorry Mama,” he yelled.

“You don’t just leave us and come back like nothing’s happened,” Matty yelled, “I almost died Jayne and you didn‘t even care enough to come home!” Matty stomped back down into the basement, slamming the door behind him. Jayne swore under his breath and then grabbed his jacket and went outside. I went to follow him, but Beverly touched my arm.

“Would you mind helping me with supper?” she asked me and I smiled.

“Of course not,” I nodded.

Jayne:

This homecoming had gone to hell in a hand basket. Not only was my mother married to the man that saw fit to torture me from age 16 to 21...my only brother hated my guts. It was like a nightmare I couldn’t wake myself from. I cursed again, walking the dirt path behind the old red barn.

I was assaulted with memories. The first time my daddy taught me how to swing a bat, the first time he taught me how to shoot, the first time Matty ever fell sick with fever, the first time I courted a girl. The first time I had trim. I walked all the way past the red barn down to the Cobb family cemetery. Down rock steps close to the creek that ran the length of Cobb property. To the graveyard by the church that connected Cobb land to the Mason’s property.

I went to their graves that were located in the center. Vera’s grave was clean and she had fresh flowers on her site. I read her headstone, “Here lies Vera Lillian Appleton Cobb, beloved wife and mother of two. May the Angels keep her in Heaven.” I closed my eyes and prayed for her. When I opened my eyes she was standing in front of me.

I jumped, “Women you can’t just appear to me like this you’re gonna scare years off my life!” I yelled and she smiled, lovingly.

“Bishop isn’t who you think he is, Jayne,” she whispered to me and I sighed.

“If you came here to nag me from the great beyond… you can go,” I grumbled. Vera knew I was just being surly, so she just shook her head in with great amusement.

“Well, you only see me when you need me,” she said, poking me in the chest. “And whether you think you do or not… is not really the point. Bishop is a good man,” she argued and I rolled my eyes.

“I told you what he did to me after I went to train with him,” I said.

“You also said it was the best preparation for what you were getting into and that the training was invaluable,” she folded her arms in front of herself.

“He’s cold-hearted, Vera, he’s not a proper match for Mama and you know it,” I sighed, in frustration.

“What I know is that even the cold-hearted can be tempered by love. You changed when you met me,” she touched my cheek with her small hand. The strong smell of vanilla hit me. “You are changing again, now.”

“Don’t start up with that, you know it’s to soon to tell if I love Zoe or not,” I pulled away.

“It’s not too soon, you’re just being yellow when comes to facing what’s right in front of you,” Vera laughed. “It’s easier for you to hold on to a ghost,” she whispered, suddenly looking sad.

I touched her face, “You ain’t so easy to forget Vera.” I said and she looked up at me.

“Loving Zoe ain’t forgetting me Jayne, it’s moving on with your life, you’ve been almost as dead inside as me and the kids since we died. It’s time to drop the act Jayne,” she disappeared, only her voice was left in the wind.

I looked over to Ruby’s grave, knowing she wasn’t in there. I never was able to coerce that bastard who killed them to tell me the correct coordinates to where he really buried her. Her gravestone was clean and had fresh flowers on it as well. “Ruby Jane Lynn Cobb, gone so soon, but never forgotten,” her grave read.

“You deserve to be happy,” I heard Vera’s voice.

“That’s debatable,” I answered.

Zoe:

I had never really help prepare a real meal before. There was only protein mash on Serenity with the occasional treat of fresh vegetables or if we were planetside long enough, real meat, but we usually let Inara prepare that. I watched with a learning eye as Beverly cleaned the chicken and stuffed it with stuffing. My stomach growled it’s appreciation at the idea of what it would taste like when it was done.

Beverly laughed, “Here girl, have a carrot. You can’t be starving yourself.”

‘It looks so good,” I sighed in wonderment as she placed the bird in the oven with a smile.

“In about two hours it’ll taste as good as it looks and I’ll make sure you get an extra portion,” she promised and my stomach growled again. I took a bite of my carrot.

Jayne had been gone for about an hour and I was worried about him. He looked so sad after he found out about his mom’s remarriage. Bishop came into the kitchen stealing himself a brownie Beverly made before Jayne and I arrived.

“Bishop, stay outta my desert,” she scold slapping his butt,” he laughed licking his fingers.

“So, you’re Jayne’s woman, tell me how is that like?” he grinned devilishly and I noticed I seen that grin before, just on a different person.

“It’s interesting,” I said, looking from Beverly to Bishop again. Something was not right between them, it was as if they were having a silent argument since we arrived.

“How was Jayne like as child?” I asked him, he laughed and leaned against the door frame.

“Pretty much the same as he is now, except he shoots better, at least he managed to retain that much,” he smirked.

“Be nice,” Beverly scolded.

“I am being nice considering,” he grumbled. “I have every right to be pissy, right now, and I’m fighting every urge!” he muttered angrily.

Beverly went to him and touched his face, “I know you are, but it’s far from time to go saying anything now,” she whispered looking back at me. I didn’t take offense, they were keeping something from Jayne and I already think I figured it out.

Bishop and Jayne were similar. Similar in height, weight, but that wasn’t what clued me in. It was the smile, that devilish grinned that spoke their secret. Bishop was Jayne’s father, I was nearly a hundred percent sure of it. The thought hit me like someone threw me a weight and I caught it. I leaned back on the kitchen counter in realization. Beverly caught my look and cussed.

“Damn it, Cole Bishop, see what you did?” she cried and Bishop shook his head.

“So she knows,” he put his hands in the air.

“Please, whatever you do… don’t tell Jayne,” she pleaded with me and I sighed.

“I won’t, but I have to ask…Why keep the information from him now?” I asked and Bishop folded his arms in front of his chest and looked at his wife.

“She’s scared that if we tell him the he’s gonna hate her,” he said and Beverly gave him an unfriendly look.

“That’s not it,” she said and then she sat down at the kitchen table. “I have two sons and one whose health ain’t all that good. Matty knows already and you see how he’s acting out! He hides in the basement, welding with his daddy’s old equipment. He’s angry with Jayne for leaving and even more angry that Bishop’s Jayne’s father, even though Jayne wouldn’t consider Cole much of a father since he didn’t raise him,” Beverly tried to explain.

“Why was that, if I may ask?” I said and she nodded.

“I was fourteen when I fell in love with Cole,” she said, pointing to Bishop. “But Cole Bishop could never stay stationary, he always wanted to break atmo and have an adventure. When Cole was seventeen, he disappeared for a bit and joined a surly sort of mercs known verse side as The Four Brothers where he met Jaime Cobb.”

“Now Jaime Cobb was older than Cole by ten years and he had seen his full of killing and done his share of crime and he was ready to settle by the time Cole brought him to Deadwood. Jaime began courting me, but my heart belonged to Cole.”

“Then the bug to leave Deadwood bit Cole again and he left me for his adventures. Not long after he left, I found out I was pregnant. My daddy pitched a fit, and told me that I had to get married. I wanted to wait for Cole, but my daddy wasn’t having it,” she sighed.

“Then Jaime, stepped up. He begged me to marry him, but I waited for Cole. I waited up until I was in labor before I wed Jaime, because I refused to allow Jayne to be born a bastard.”

“What happened to you?” I asked, Cole and he shook his head.

“I got pinned on some Core planet. I was jailed for ten years, by the time I got out she was pregnant with Matty and happily married. It broke my heart to leave her again after I had all that time to reflect. I wanted to kill Jaime for being her husband, but instead I did the right thing and left. I reunited the Four Brothers, we were only three brothers, though,” he said, sadly.

‘So why didn’t you come back after Jaime Cobb died?” I asked and he snorted.

“Beverly wouldn’t have me,” he looked at her and smiled.

“I was angry with Cole. I mean to me he just disappeared, left me pregnant with his child, at that time I didn’t care that he was pinned and it was right after Jaime died that he strolled back into town wanting a relationship. I was enraged by that, so I told him to go to Hell.”

“So how did Jayne eventually train with you and the Four Brothers,” I asked and they smiled.

“I kept writing her letters, begging for her to let me see my son, begging her for forgiveness, seven years later, she finally writes me back. She tells me my son wants to follow in my footsteps and she was afraid that if he went into the black without my knowledge that he was going to come back home in a box… so I told her to send him to me. I trained him for a year and a half and then he became the fourth brother, he rolled with us until the others became weary of his skill, so I cut him loose when I was sure he’d be able to make it on his own.”

“But you two still weren’t together when he came back here to settle with Vera,” I stated and Beverly shook her head.

“Cole was traveling the verse, I heard he got married,” she said looking at Bishop.

“I got married for a little bit, but as much as I wanted her to be Beverly… she wasn’t, so we eventually got a divorce. After that, I just basically ran the Four Brother’s well until we became the three brothers, and then the two brother’s, finally when I was almost fatally shot I decided to come back home to Deadwood and settle, by then Jayne had had his experience and Beverly was nurse aiding him back to sanity. I stayed away until he was better and then after he left we got together, but she didn‘t agree to marry me until last spring,” he nodded with a smile.

“Why so long of a wait before you got married again?” I asked Beverly.

“It took me that long to make up my mind,” she laughed. “I wanted to stay angry with him, but I realized that I loved him too much.”

“So why don’t you tell Jayne?” I asked her taking her hand. “He needs to know this.”

“I couldn’t stand to break his heart again, especially not after Vera and Ruby,” she cried and I squeezed her hand.

“He’d forgive you for not telling him until now, he loves you Beverly,” I assured her. “God forbid something happens to Bishop, he’d never forgive you if he never got the chance to work things out with his father.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she sobbed and looked at me and then at Bishop.

“Then I will,” Bishop said, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“Do you really think this is the best thing? You know him now a little better than me,” she asked me and I nodded.

“ I’ll tell him if you want,” I offered, reluctantly and she smiled.

“Thank you, but we’ll take care our own messes. Bishop and I will tell him tomorrow morning,” she said.

“We should tell him as soon as he comes back,” Bishop protested and Beverly rose to her feet to check on supper.

“You know where he is right now, you know he won’t be in any mood to have this dumped on him,” Beverly said and Bishop sighed.

“At least then I’d be able to tell him--”

“Nothing you say to him will help him so let’s just drop all of it until the morning,” Beverly said firmly and Bishop conceded.

Jayne:

I could smell Ma’s dinner from the old red barn as I walked the dirt path back to the main house and my stomach growled in anticipation of Ma’s home cooking. I saw Zoe helping Mama set the table through the window. I stood outside and watched her for a moment. She was smiling and laughing with my Ma. I felt something warm in my chest swell. I snuffed it out with a deep breath. Too soon for all of that, especially when you don’t know whether she’s coming or going Cobb, I chastised myself.

I walk in through the front door and the happy mood I viewed from the window suddenly vanished. I just assumed Mama let everyone all know that I went to pay my respects to Vera and Ruby. I took off my coat and when I turned around Zoe was there. She kissed my cheek and I look at her surprised.

“Come, dinner’s almost ready,” she said taking my hand and leading me to the table.

She seemed different, she seemed warmer to me like her normally walls were down. I wondered how long it would last…well at least, how long it’d be before I screwed it up?