“Now, your leg is healed but you have to be careful still. You need to take exercise such as stepping motions to rehabilitate the muscle. Why don’t you talk to Jayne and see if you can borrow one of his weighs to work with. Just make sure that if it starts to hurt that’s when you stop for the day! Ok?” “Yes, thank you Simon, don’t worry, I’ll be careful.” Alana rolled off the examination couch and pulled down the leg of her shorts to cover the dark red coloured scar which ran across the back of her thigh. She smiled at the doctor as he lovingly put away his instruments. She walked out of the infirmary and over to the doors of the cargo bay where she could hear that Jayne was in his favourite place; lifting weighs on his bench. She ran her hands through her hair and smoothed down her vest top before stepping quietly into the room. She paced slowly over to him, trying to make as little noise as possible, not wanting to disturb him but Jayne was a tracker. He waited until she was just a few steps away when he spoke without sitting up. “Hey Alana, if I didn’t know better I’d be thinkin’ you’re tryin’ to get the drop on me.” He rested the weigh bar back in its cradle and sat up grinning. She smiled at him and crossed the rest of the cargo bay so she stood a few feet away from the mercenary. “Jayne, how are you? How did you hear me? I know I didn’t make any noise…” “I heard you breathin’, the slight rustle of your clothes, guess I’m just tuned in to that kinda stuff. Trackin’s what I do best. So what’s up?” She smiled at this, straight to the point as always with Jayne. Alana was getting used to life on board Serenity, she had grown to love how simple things were here, and so different from the cloak and dagger life she had been forced to lead as a companion. “I’ve been talking to Simon about recovering from were my leg got cut up by those mercs. He suggested doing some work with weights to exercise the muscle. I thought you might be able to help me sort something out?” Jayne stood up and grabbed a towel from a crate. He wiped the sweat off his face and draped it round his neck. “You wanna do some weight trainin’? Sure, that fine. I’d need to rig somethin’ up so’s you can work that muscle. Leave it with me, I’ll get it worked out and come find ya when it’s sorted, ‘k?” “Thank you very much Jayne, that’s really nice of you. I’ll be on the bridge.” She turned and walked away swaying her hips; well aware he was watching her go. She smiled to herself as she mounted the stairs, which went up to the bridge, and glanced back over her shoulder at Jayne, who turned away quickly. As she disappeared from sight he shook his head and went to look for the bits and pieces he needed.

***

Alana leaned back in the pilot’s chair and flipped the autopilot switches turning the ship over to the navigated course she had programmed into the computer. She idlely toyed with a small plastic dinosaur, which seemed to live on the console, and let her mind wander. She thought to herself how things in life can change so completely within such short spaces of time. She went from being a happy teenager living her parents before the war to being packed off the companion training house by the Alliance after her father died and they refused to give her mother his air force pension. She had hated her time at the training house but had found out she could have been a highly successful companion if she had wanted. Alana had been taught to fly from a young age by her father and knew it was when she was happiest. As a part of her training the companions all learned how to fly a shuttle but she would often sneak out after lessons and borrow the shuttle to practice manures in. Inara was the one who had caught her and who had encouraged her to practice more. Alana would be eternally grateful to her friend because it was she who had arranged for her first job, a year ago, and when she had been in search of work again had been able to arrange her current place onboard Serenity. Although if she hadn’t decided to take this job she would never have been taken by the mercs who cut her half to ribbons but she was beginning to realise that life was never easy. A cough from behind her made her jump and she swung round to find Jayne leaning on the doorframe, watching her closely. She was always surprised by how quietly the large man could move but she smiled when she realised it was him. “I got your weight thing rigged up… Down in the cargo bay… You wanna… Shall I show you?” “Yeah, ‘k then. I got auto-pilot running so we can go work out for a while.” She stood up and followed him. She couldn’t help but watch the way he moved as he walked, the way the muscles shifted under his shirt as he gripped the handrails. Alana realised she had to get a grip on herself, in such a confined area as Serenity it would be too easy to let the sparks fly but there was a danger of causing friction with the other crew members. She shook her head as they stepped down into the cargo bay and noticed the exercise area had a weird rope and pulley system rigged up. Jayne walked up to the setup and gave the rope a pull, which made a weight lift at the other end. He looked round at her and grinned a slightly goofy smile. “You’ll need to be givin’ it a try and see how it is weight wise for ya…” She sat down by the weight and Jayne took the loop on the end of the rope and slipped it round her ankle. She then perched on the edge of the box and raised her leg and felt the weight pull gently on the tender muscle on the back of her thigh. Jayne stood back and watched her smooth skin moving as she worked the weight he had fixed for her. “Now… You gotta take it easy… only do ‘bout 30 reps cos otherwise you might strain it…” “Would you rub it better for me if I did Jayne?” Alana asked and put her head on one side coquettishly with a cheeky smile. The big man blinked slowly and then grinned widely, “Hell, you want me to rub anything for ya… I’m there!” She laughed freely and grinned back at him. She looked down and did a few more reps as he went back to his weight bench and a started doing bicep curls while watching her out of the corner of his eye. He found it hard to tear his eyes away from the way the fabric of her shorts moved across the smooth skin of her thigh and couldn’t help imagining his hands caressing the softness that he knew he would find there. They were roused from their own separate thoughts by Kaylee and River coming racing down the main gantry stairs and River slid to a halt in front of Alana with Kaylee crashing into her as she had stopped so suddenly. “Hey River! Don’t do that! I just bit my tongue there!” Kaylee said with tears starting in her eyes. “Alana,” River was staring directly at her, “Be careful…don’t strain what’s damaged… take things slowly.” Alana looked up into the young woman’s face and saw her deeply earnest expression, “Thanks River, I’ll be careful… try not to worry so much sweet heart.” “I have to worry ‘cos I can see it all…” And with that slightly cryptic comment she went racing off in through towards the infirmary with Kaylee trailing after her looking slightly confused and pained and clutching her hand to her mouth. Jayne put his weights down, stood up and walked back over to stand by Alana. He cleared his throat, “I’m thinkin’ you’re ‘bout done on them for today… don’t wanna strain yourself… like River said…” Alana fixed him with her penetrating stare and lifted her leg again so he could help her take off the weight. He crouched down in front of her and she rested her leg on his knee. He slipped the rope loop back off her ankle and let his hand linger on her calf for just a moment. He realised what he was doing and looked up at her and saw that she was watching his every move. He swallowed hard and put her leg down on the floor of the cargo area again. He coughed loudly to clear his voice, “I think it’s ‘bout time for dinner… I need to get showered ‘fore we eat so… I’ll see you up there…” He stood up and walked slightly awkwardly up the metal stairs towards his bunk. Alana stood up and called his name. He turned with his foot on the bottom step. “Jayne, I just want to say thanks for this… it’s gonna be a big help… I’d like it if we can work out together more often?” He nodded in agreement and walked slowly up the stairs. Alana watched him go and had to drag her eyes away to stop her from watching his body moving under his clothing. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and headed through to her bunk as well… a cold shower might be just what the doctor ordered.