Once the two ships docked, everyone collected in the cargo bay, anxious to meet the other crew. Apparently, the other crew reciprocated the curiosity, because when the airlock doors opened, they found seven people waiting on the other side.

"I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity," said a tall man in a long brown coat. "This is Zoe, my first mate, and the other lovely lady here is Inara," he introduced the two woman standing next to him.

"Hey, I remember you," called a young woman from the catwalk above, addressing Rick. He looked up to see the woman from the dock the other day.

"That, up there is Kaylee, my mechanic. Next to her is her husband Simon, our Doc, and his sister River, and the big guy on the box is Jayne. The big man looked up and nodded from where he was sitting on a crate. Jason shook Reynolds' hand and began introducing his own crew.

Sarah barely paid attention, as her eyes had widened with surprise upon seeing Jayne. The man was busy appraising Jason, and did not seem to notice her.

"Well, if it isn't the Big Damn Ruttin' Here of Canton," said Sarah finally, stepping around Jason and walking up to the man. Jayne almost jumped at being addressed that way. Getting off the crate uneasily, he soon found himself standing face to face with a woman that barely came up to his chest in height. Jayne never really liked being referred to by that title, but it was the next thing the girl said that made his jaw drop open. "Hello Pa."

"Excuse me," he asked the freckle faced girl.

"You heard me, I was just saying hello to my old man," said Sarah coldly. Without even thinking, she pulled Pipsqueak from her pocket and pointed it at Jayne's broad chest. The cargo bay of Serenity suddenly fell silent as everyone turned to the young woman who was now pointing a gun at the mercenary.

"Jayne," said Mal from where he had been talking with Jason, "you mind telling me why there is a young woman old enough to be your daughter holding a gun on you and, well, claiming to be your daughter?"

"Don't rightly know Mal," replied Jayne. "Believe you must be mistaken miss, I don't recall ever being a family man."

"Don't suppose you do," replied Sarah. "But maybe you remember a ship by the name of Esperenza?"

Jayne's expression shifted slightly as the name registered with recognition. It had been over twenty years since he had last been on that boat. It had been the first ship he ever set foot on when he left home as a teenager. It had been a big ship with over thirty crewmen. He had only been with it for a few months, till a disagreement with the first mate had forced him to leave, but it had been a good ship. As the memories drifted back to him, he remembered one crewmember in particular, a redheaded woman who had worked in the kitchens. What was her name?

"Maybe you remember a woman named Eileen," prompted Sarah.

That was it, thought Jayne, Eileen, with her thick red hair that was as fiery as her loins. Jayne smiled at the memory, that girl had been a fine piece of trim. Only person he ever met what had no last name, on account of being an orphan. The memory of her freckle covered face surfaced clearly in his mind, and as it did, he saw a strong similarity in the face of the girl before him. "No," said Jayne. "No ruttin' way."

"Yes, Pa. She was my Mother."

"But…"

"You left before she found out she was pregnant. You bedded her for two months and then just left. When the captain found out she was knocked up, he put her off the ship. Cuz of you, she got ditched on a little go se ball called Higgens Moon. That name maybe ring any bells for you, Pa?" Sarah almost spat the word every time she used it to refer to Jayne.

"Canton," said Jayne, not liking where this conversation was going.

"Yes, Canton, Pa. We had a fine life there for near twelve years till you decided to come back. Ma had a job running the local tavern, kept us fed, and once you got used to the smell, nice and homey."

"Don't sound too bad," said Mal, interrupting her story. "Now you mind not shooting my public relations specialist?" Mal turned crossly back to Jason. "Can’t you control your people?"

“Sarah,” asked Jason soothingly. “I think you should put the gun away.”

Sarah ignored both captains, and continued her story. "Then one day, you waltz in and order yourself a drink. It twelve years later, but my Ma remembered you. Do you remember her?”

Jayne had had a lot to drink that day, just before the heist that had earned him infamy on the small moon. The details of that night where hazy, and a part of him had always thought it had been a bad dream.

"She never even wanted anything from you, just for you to meet your own daughter before you went your way. Soon as you saw me though, you disavowed ever knowing her. You called her a liar. Said you never met her. You brushed the both of us aside like we were so much trash. And, you were so gorram drunk the whole gorram bar heard you as you stormed out, leaving her in tears!" Sarah was almost screaming now.

Kaylee raised her hand to cover her mouth.

"Next day, you go and make yerself the gorram town hero. Do you know what happened to my Ma after that? Do you know how they treated a woman who had the misfortune to have called the Great Jayne Cobb a liar and a dead beat?" Sarah had tears in her eyes now, and the tone of her voice was bordering on hysterics. “They treated the both of us like we was no better than common whores.”

"She lost her job, near lost our home when she couldn't find another, and when the fever took to her that winter, we couldn't even afford a doctor. I buried her with my own hands in that gorram mud as no one would even come to help! Some nights I wake up and I can still feel it caked under my finger nails."

"I spent five more years on that pile of crap before I could get off it! And every gorram day I had to look at your ruttin' face on that gorram statue, with that gorram name that I wasn't even allowed to use no more! I was Sarah no-name, Sarah the ugly whore’s ugly daughter." Sarah's voice was now horse from yelling and the gun was shaking in her hands.

"Mal, some help here would be nice," the mercenary looked to his captain.

"On second though," said Mal, "I reckon you can shoot him."

With a scream, Sarah threw the tiny gun into Jayne's face. Jayne didn't even move as it bounced of his forehead and clattered to the deck. Then Sarah kicked him square in the groin. As her foot connected, even Mal was forced to wince at the sound. The big man doubled over in agony.

"Well Jayne," said Mal. "I gotta say I see a resemblance." No sooner had he uttered the words then Inara hit him on the arm for the heartless comment.

The girl, tears now running down her cheeks, turned and ran back through the airlock into the other ship.

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Sarah was lying on her bunk when she heard a knock at her hatch. Four years she had been away from Canton and she had not cried once, but when she finally meets her father she turns into a mess. She hoped it was not Jason. Sarah didn’t want for him to see her like this. Though even as she though this, she imagined what it would be like for him to put his arms around her, to hold her till it stopped hurting. No, thought Sarah, pushing the thought from her brain, Jason didn’t want her like that.

“Go away,” she yelled, her voice still hoarse.

“Sweetie, you ok down there,” came a strange woman’s voice. “I’m coming down.”

Sarah quickly sat up as the hatch opened and the woman began climbing down. Just what she needed, thought Sarah, a gorram busybody. As the woman came into view, she could see it was the other ships mechanic. Sarah had forgotten her name.

“You look like hell girl,” the other woman came and sat on the bed next to her, putting her arm around Sarah.

“I’ll be fine.”

“What you said up there,” asked Kaylee. “That’s a hell of a thing to go through.”

“Well, it’s true, if that’s what you wanna know, I swear on my momma’s unmarked grave.” Sarah sniffed and whipped her runny nose on her sleeve.

“That ain’t what I mean. Come here,” Kaylee pulled the girl into a hug. Normally, she would have said that the girl needed to talk. Trouble was, there was not too much else to say on the matter. Kaylee could tell the girl had pretty much poured her soul out with that story a few minutes ago and was now wallowing in every bit of hurt and self-pity that went with it. One part of her story did still stick in her craw, though. Something that could cause the girl even more heartache if she didn’t get it sorted out. “And don’t ever call yourself ugly.”

“Well, I sure as hell ain’t pretty.” Sarah was glad for the change of topic, even this was better than stewing on her past.

Kaylee regarded the girl with a scandalized look, “You ever look in a mirror lately?”

“I try not too,” replied Sarah, wondering for a moment what Jason saw when he looked at her. Near as she could tell, he didn’t. Maybe this topic wasn't much better, thought Sarah. “Just, I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” Sarah stammered.

Kaylee sighed, perhaps it would be best to get the girl’s mind off on something else. “Fine, but don’t think we’re done with this discussion.”

For several minutes the two woman just sat there, saying nothing. Then Sarah caught Kaylee off guard with something entirely unrelated. “You're supposed to be the mechanic for Serenity. Could you take a look at our engine? We had to swap it out last week and it ain’t been running right since.”

“Alright, but only if you agree to spend some quality time with me and ‘Nara. We gotta do something about your hair,” said Kaylee, picking up one of Sarah’s tangled locks.

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Jason regarded the data disc that was on the table between him and Reynolds as the two crews crowded into the kitchen of Serenity. "So you want me to smuggle this to the independents on New Shadow," asked Jason. "How come, may I ask, you aren't doing this yourself?"

"We got ID'd when we smuggled it off of Londinium. There is no way they would let us through the blockade."

"And what, may I ask, is on there that is so gorram important?" Jason eyed the other captain.

"Just about everything you could want to know about any Alliance capital ship from a patrol boat to a Tohoku class cruiser; design schematics, weapons systems, computer and communications networks, armor weaknesses, everything."

Jason whistled. "That's the kinda thing that can land a man in front of a firing squad," he said.

"Your ship has no record of criminal activity; what's more, you’re a registered mail currier. There is one military base on the planet still under Alliance control. They are supplying it from off planet. You should be able to get through the blockade if you pose as one of the supply ships. Payment will be twice the normal rate, half the money now, half after."

"Payment that ain't worth a damn if my entire crew gets executed for treason," replied Jason, pushing the data disk back to Reynolds.

"I think we can do it," said Linda, speaking for the first time. "We get searched, we can always destroy it."

Jason considered this. "They can get it back," said Sarah, who had surprised everyone when she had returned, dry-eyed and no longer in a Jayne killing mood. It had taken a couple hours, but eventually she had calmed down from her meeting with her father, no small thanks to Kaylee. It also helped that the mercenary was conspicuously absent. She had not wanted to return at all, but Jason had said he had wanted everyone present when they got down to discussing the job. "With the right tools," she continued, "they can restore the data even from a shattered disc. Maybe not all of it, but enough to know what it was, enough to hang us."

"I'll think on it," said Jason before getting up from the table, leaving the disc lying on its surface.

After the other crew left Serenity's kitchen, Mal looked a Zoe. "He ain't gonna do it," he said flatly.

"Can you blame him, sir," she replied.

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Before Jason made it back to the airlock, he found his path blocked by a thin girl. He had forgotten her name, but remembered that she was the doctor's sister. He was about to go around her, when her words stopped him in his tracks.

"I can help you find your sister."

"Excuse me," asked Jason.

"Your sister, she is like me. I know where she is."

"What?"

"You sister was a reader, a psychic, a witch, wasn't she. I am too."

"I'm gathering that." Jason found the girl more than a little disconcerting. The ease with witch she could rummage through his mind was startling. Even his sister had never had such aptitude.

"Neither did I," said River. "Not until the Academy. They cut into my brain; made me a monster, but my brother got me out, made me whole again; mostly whole," she corrected herself.

"If you do this job for Mal, I will tell you where she is."

TO BE CONTINUED

Authors Notes:

In response to the recent feedback: chapter 12 is the first time you find out Emma is older. I've been hiding the fact for just the right moment, the same with Anastaisia being a Browncoat. I'm glad both revelations had the desired impact. Thanks to MerryK, BrerRabbit, and rmonroe for comments. I try not to beg, but I do appreciate it.

Finally, it ain’t my ‘Verse, I just like playing with it.