Jayne was asleep in his bunk. He came to, earlier than normal. Okay, it was black outside, but his body knew it hadn't had its accustomed seven hours' sleep. Crazy was standing in his bunk, looking at him. She was wearing a long pink nightdress with thin straps at the shoulders.

“I need you.”

He sat up, alert, “Hey, how the holy hell did you get in here?”

“Your code was very easy to break. I need you.”

“Gorram girl, ya could have given me a heart attack!”

River smiled, “I'm not a girl; I'm a woman. One who needs orgasms to make her whole.”

“Now come on...” then his brain caught up with what she'd said, “Hey; ya need to get off, there's other ways, darlin'. Kaylee's got these battery operated doo-dads she don't need no more since she hooked up with your brother.” He grinned wolfishly.

“Used them. They helped a lot. Now, I need a man. One who will pleasure me regularly. The only options I have on board are Captain Daddy and you. *He's in love with Inara. You are the only logical choice left.”

Jayne pulled a teeshirt on and got out of bed, wearing that and his boxers, “Look, moonbrain; I ain't being someone's booby prize. Plus you're at least twenty years younger than me. One day you'll find a fella your own age. Plus your brother would have my man parts off for touchin' ya. An' we tend to be violent around each other. That ain't a good forbodin'. Now, just git!”

“Won't hurt you again, I promise. I need you.”

Jayne seized her by the shoulders, but gently, “Moonbrain. Next dirtside we hit, I'll gladly pay for ya to visit with a nice clean boy whore. One who'll be gentle with ya. I ain't gentle.”

“I saw you with Helen in the tin foil whorehouse. You were very gentle with her. Don't I please you?”

“It ain't about pleasin' or displeasin'. It's about what's right.”

“I'm not a virgin, if that's what concerns you. And I can't have children.”

Jayne's nostrils flared, “Gorram, girl!”

Her eyes were suddenly wide and she looked like a frightened doe, “They hurt her. They tormented her. They made it so she can't have babies, then they took turns. Many men.”

Jayne pulled her into his arms reflexively, to comfort her, “Gorram. If ya ever see any of 'em again, tell me and I'll shoot 'em for ya. Ain't right, doing that to a woman. I may be every kind of hwoon dahn you ever met, but I'd never, *ever force or take a woman unwilling...” He tried to ignore how good she felt in his arms. And how her nipples were rock hard and poking into him.

“I know.”

“An' I'm at least twice your size. I'd be worried about hurtin' ya when we...”

River gave him a look, “*You'd be worried about hurting *me? Remember the Maidenhead bar?”

“Yeah and my goolies remember that real well. I'd be worried 'bout letting you near 'em.”

She put her hand on his chest, “I promise, there'd be nothing but pleasure between us. In secret, in my bunk or yours. Every night, if you're capable.”

Jayne's eyes flared, “Capable?!!? Have you any idea of how often I can go, girl?”

River smiled, “I'm a psychic. Of course I know. I'd never have a headache. I need everything you have to give.”

Jayne groaned, “Wuh de mah; you're temptin' me. But how would we keep it secret?”

River's smile was the knowing mysterious one every woman has in her arsenal, “Think of it like a really...interesting...game of Tall Card, keeping our hand hidden from everyone else. I know you've been fantasising about me ever since I killed all those Reavers. Want to test my fire power and see how hot I can run. For your information, *very hot. Plus I'm incredibly limber. I could do the splits really slowly down onto you...”

Jayne closed his eyes and groaned as blood pumped eagerly southwards, “River...”

She trembled with arousal in his arms, “Yes, big bear. Show me. Burn with me. Fill me, pleasure me. Please.”

Jayne was holding himself back by a thread, “I'm real big all over, darlin'.”

River was actually shaking now, “I know. Yes; please. I want *all of you. We'll fit.”

Jayne growled and lifted River up to him, his mouth descending to her neck, where he kissed and licked. She tasted of peaches and honey. River was kissing him right back, her hands curled into the fabric of his tee shirt. She made little urgent needy sounds which spurred him on. Then she started fondling him and fire raced all over Jayne's body. He tore off her nightdress, then his clothes and sank with her onto the bed. He couldn't stop; the urgent need to mate with River had suddenly taken him over and he was practically helpless. Her slender hands were everywhere as he licked down her body. His mouth centred in to the soft folds at the juncture of her legs and he suckled avidly. River tasted better than any woman he'd ever known. Within moments, she was arching and bucking against him; then coming, hard. He slid up and River's long dancer's legs were over his shoulder. She looked down at him; hot, hard and fiercely ready. He looked into her eyes and saw the wonder and the need there. Then he slid in, inch by slow inch. River's head went back and she started coming again. She felt so good around him that his head swam with lust. When he was fully inside, he began moving. Slowly at first; then, urged on by her hands and whimpering, he went faster. River kept coming over and over again. He held out as long as he could, but she was hot, lush and tight around him. His climax pounded through him and out of him until he nearly fainted. Some time later, he came back to himself with River still wrapped eagerly around him.

He smiled down at her, “Gorram. Best I ever had.” He felt himself re-hardening inside her.

River smiled right back, “Indeed. We work perfectly together.” Then they started all over again.

So, it continued. They let their public relationship thaw to a certain working respect, whilst in private they sexed each other every night until neither of them could move. Every orgasm River experienced with Jayne flooded her brain and body with healing pleasure. They worked their way through every position in the kama sutra. They did sexy role play. The only thing Jayne never did was kiss River on the mouth; he kissed her everywhere else though and River was content with that. On jobs, they had each other's backs and the rest of the Serenity crew came to appreciate the new and improved tag team. Zoe was busy with the much-wanted baby she'd conceived just before Wash died and Kaylee had a baby as well. Mal grumbled a lot about having a creche on his ship, but everyone saw how he doted on the babies. Then he and Inara finally broke through the barriers between them and soon there was a whole lot more sexing up going on. Simon was pleased when he found that River was not only stabilising but slowly getting better. He put it down to his medical intervention and River neither did nor said anything to dissuade him.

After they'd spent nearly six months together as a couple, River and Jayne, along with Simon and Zoe went with Mal to rob an abandoned Alliance Blue Sun medical facility built into a huge asteroid. Simon provided expertise with pointing out items that would fetch a good price on the black market. Then he sat with Mal while they accessed the computer and downloaded a heap of files. There was a chance that there might just be something in there which could shed more light on what happened to River during her captivity. Everyone was preparing to pull out when a deeply buried booby trap explosive device was detonated. Mal, Zoe and Simon ran for the exit. Close behind them came River and Jayne. The first three got back on Serenity, via the connecting airlock. Jayne turned around in the airlock and was leaning towards River, who was a few feet behind him.

“C'mon, River.”

His hand reached for her. Their fingertips brushed. At the moment of contact, there was a massive lurch. River got sucked backwards even as the airlock connection tore loose and the safety seals closed, protecting both Jayne and River. The asteroid bloomed into silent orange fire shortly afterwards. Serenity went spinning, nose over base and rolling at the same time; pushed half way to the nearest moon before Mal finally wrestled her back into normal flight.

Jayne was still staring out of the tiny piece of safety glass, “River!” There was no way anyone could have survived that fireball.

Simon was nearby, “What happened to River?”

Jayne pointed, almost mute with shock, “River...”

Simon went white, “Oh, God. Mal; we gotta go back for River.” He knew it was hopeless, but he had to try. Even if it was only to collect her lifeless body.

Mal sighed over the comm, voice grim, “We lost a lot of fuel getting back into regular flight. I'll squeeze what I can out of her, but we really could use a refill. I'll do what I can.” He knew what they were likely to find.

Jayne walked to his bunk on autopilot, numb. There, hanging near his girls, was the beautiful swirly blue dress River had worn on Miranda. He took it down. It smelled of River; peaches, roses and sex. Then the pain hit; hard, deep and tearing. Jayne felt as though he was being ripped in half. Huge hot tears splashed onto the dress. He held it to his face and realised with utter clarity what had happened somewhere along the line.

“My River; my rainbow. I never realised until now that I love you.” He could almost swear he heard her whisper back, 'I love you too.” Then the grief really hit.

It was some time later that Jayne went into the galley. He'd cried until there were no more tears in him, then washed his face, set himself back into mercenary mode and emerged. The rest of the crew would never know that he was now hollow inside. While they limped back to the asteroid, Simon fetched a notebook computer and started examining the evidence they'd acquired. After an hour or so, he started swearing in particularly elegant and fluent Chinese.

“Wassup, doc?”

Simon looked at Jayne, “Can you get everyone else and ask Mal to listen in? Because this...this is a bombshell.”

“Ya are lookin' a bit grey around the gills, doc.”

When everyone was listening, Simon began, “There's stuff in here specifically about River. Things they archived away from the Facility where I found her. They...well, basically, they arrested the ageing process. A lot. *Then there was a highly secret; well, I guess you'd call it a wrinkle in time. Several subjects who had their physical ageing slowed right down were taken through the wrinkle to another place. I've got specifications here for some kind of gate with a stable wormhole, as far as I understand the physics. I haven't found where or when they went, yet. They received combat and sexual training. Think of a mixture between a Companion and a Sensei. They were given the ability to recruit others. The Alliance was basically creating the beginning of a race of super soldiers who were also psychic and sexual experts. And River's not eighteen going on nineteen, not any more. In fact she's ten years older.” Simon's tone was stunned and shocked.

Jayne's brown was furrowed, “River's nearly thirty!?! She don't look that old!”

Simon sighed, “And she won't look 'that old' for a very long time. They altered her permanently. In fact, if she has sex without barrier protection, it'll be passed to her lover. They'll be slowed down in getting old too. Hell of a recruitment drive.”

Jayne shot to his feet, “What! She didn't tell me nuttin' about this when we...”

Mal's pistol was at his temple the next second, “Exactly *what have you been doing with River?”

Jayne turned to him, defensive and pleading, “*She came to me. She practically begged me. Said the orgasms would make her better. Mal, she was in my bunk and naked.” Jayne left out that the naked bit had come later, “And I hadn't had trim in way too long.” Jayne glanced at Simon, “I swear, *she begged *me. An' told me they'd raped her in the facility. She said I could make it all better. My hand to Buddha, I'd never take a woman unwilling. An' I don't know if it were the same for her, but I came to love her. Never said nuttin'. Thought there were twenty years between us.”

Simon shook his head, “Closer to ten years, Jayne.”

Mal didn't stop looking at Jayne, “Does Jayne's claim hold any credence against the records? Could orgasms actually help River?”

Simon looked up, “I don't need the records. Sexual pleasure would be felt very intensely by River. I don't think the amygdala can be fully repaired, but intense positive sensations would enhance the healing process and help new pathways form in the brain. I've been documenting a marked beneficial upturn in River's condition for the last six months. I thought it was just my medical regimen, but I now see that it was also Jayne.”

“Huh.” Mal's gun hand dropped away from Jayne.

Simon continued, “And River might not know how old she actually is. With everything they've done to her, she may well not. If she survived by some miracle...”

Mal sighed, “You saw that fireball. I think it's highly unlikely.”

Jayne set his jaw tighter than usual, “I'll fetch her body home.”

Simon looked at him; really looked, “You weren't kidding. You really love her.”

He nodded curtly, “Till the day I die. I don't ruttin' care 'bout all the other stuff. She crept into my heart while I weren't noticin'. If'n I'm gonna age slower, so be it. She's my rainbow.”

Jayne walked away, head high, processing all the new information. The sexual decisions of a woman of nearly thirty were a whole lot different to those of a teenager. Maybe she had cared for him a little beyond the amazing 'verse-class sex.

They limped to the asteroid. It was burned, black and empty. Not a sign of life. Kaylee rocked her son, tears running slowly down her cheeks. Mal did a sensor sweep.

“Ah!” he pointed at the screen, “Just there. A homing beacon. There's a moon way over there with vegetation and a breathable atmosphere. Nothing much on the Cortex about it. Too far away from the regular space lanes to attract attention, I guess. No, the Cortex says it's uninhabited. Hmm. Ah; there used to be a hydrogen gas giant right here. I remember. Some hwoon dahn fired a rocket at it 'bout two hundred odd years back. Turned it into a mini sun. The terra form seeding must have taken enough to grow plants.”

Jayne looked at him, hope in his eyes, “Mal...?”

Mal gave him a crooked smile, “Yes, we're going. Better pray the fuel holds out.”

Jayne gestured at the com, “Any point callin' for a refill?”

Mal shrugged, “You can certainly try.”

So, they crept forward. Kaylee nursed the engine and Mal the controls. They glided in to the moon. Mal managed to find a river and make a water landing which ended with Serenity's nose buried in mud.

“Well, I hope that refill does come, because we're not getting out of atmo without it. At least we've got water and maybe food. We'll manage for a good while.”

Jayne tooled up with Binky and one gun. He used his tracker instincts as he searched, augmented by memories of River. That whisper he'd heard, the one that seemed to have come from her. It called to him. After a couple of hours, he smelt her. Jayne began running. The river gave out to a small sea or lake. Soft golden sand fringed by luxuriant plant growth. The sound of insects. There, in a small bay, was a life-pod wedged in the beach. Jayne grinned. He *knew it was River. He began running over the sand. As he got close, the hatch opened. River stood up, wrapped in a long, translucent green piece of almost nothing. She stood, turned and saw him.

“River!”

She smiled right back, “You found me!”

“I love you!”

She laughed joyfully, “Love you too!”

Jayne thought his heart might explode with happiness, “Thought you were dead, my rainbow.”

He tore off his clothes. As he eagerly climbed the life pod, River let the green material drop. She was naked underneath.

“Not a little girl any more.”

Jayne grinned, “Hell, no. Simon says you're nearing thirty.”

“I know. They trained me for killing and pleasure.”

“Hoping for the pleasure right now.”

“Always, my Jayne.”

He caught her and they sprawled on the outside surface of the pod. He held her head and his lips met hers for the first time. Connection. It was like coming home, like finding the gold at the end of the rainbow, like the meeting of two long-parted halves of one greater whole. Their minds and souls met and merged as easily as their bodies had so many times before. In seconds they were both aroused to the point of pain; then Jayne was sliding into River's eager wet heat. Any pleasure they'd had before was magnified tenfold by the intensity of this soul deep union. Flesh and blood couldn't stand it for very long, not the first time. River came, Jayne came. Then he rolled over so that River was on top and they went for seconds, then thirds. Finally they both slid gently back into the pod together.

Jayne grinned, “We just got married, didn't we?”

River stroked his face, “Yes. There is no possible deeper union available to humankind.”

“And I'm like you – kinda. You made me the same as you.”

She smiled apologetically, “I honestly didn't know you'd inherit what I have at the beginning. I only started to remember fully when we were in the asteroid. It launched the memories in my mind; the travelling in space and time, the full aspects of the training, everything. But you're strong; not just in body, but in mind. Determined, like me. A beautifully focussed weapon. I know you'll cope. I'd been reading you since Miranda and I knew you wanted me with a white hot passion. I wanted that; needed all of it. Needed *you. I reckoned there was a very good chance we'd find love as well. You are the perfect mate for me.”

Jayne chuckled, “You are a gorgeous *naughty woman!”

“*Your naughty woman.”

“You ain't gonna recruit any other fellas, are you?”

River's hand drifted down and curled around him, “No, never. You're enough of a handful, Jayne Cobb.”

Jayne's eyes widened, “River Aphrodite Tam, you are a *very bad girl.” His grin was wolfish, “And I'm more 'n a handful, ya minx!”

“I know,” her voice started getting breathy, “At least two handfuls. Like a prime stallion.”

Jayne's hands were getting busy, but slowly and teasingly, “Reckon we got time for another round 'fore the crew finds us. Benefits of us rim boys, darlin'; we got powerful appetites.”

“Show me, my darling sugar bear.”

Jayne laughed, “For the rest of our long lives, my forever rainbow...”