Chapter 10

The ladies walked down to the fire arm in arm, as Inara was not sure Maggie could make it on her own. Mal came to greet them “Got some more papers for you to sign, annulment papers.” He handed Maggie a sheaf of papers “Jayne has already signed, just need you to and then this whole mess will be over.” “Jayne signed annulment papers?” Maggie whispered looking from Mal to Inara. “Yeah, not sure he knew what they where, but he signed them.” Mal looked at Inara and wondered why they both looked so upset. “Any reason he shouldn’t have?” Mal questioned the ladies reaction. “No, just all happening a little fast.” Inara took the papers and led Maggie back to the house “She’ll sign them and get them back to you.” “Why would Jayne sign?” Maggie was very close to tears, had it really meant that little to him. Then she got angry “He’s just like the others. Oh God what have I done.” Taking the papers from Inara she signed them “Kaylee told me how much he liked women, I just thought… oh Inara, I’m such a fool. I let another man just use me. I thought I was learning, I kept Marco at bay for three years. It took Jayne just one day to get to me.” Maggie moved over to the stove and fingered Betty “Think I need to talk to Him.” With that she walked out the door, paper in one hand, Betty in the other. Maggie found Mal and Jayne near the fire, drinking with Book, Zoë and Wash, they waited for Kaylee, Simon and River to finish dinner. She walked up to Mal and handed him the papers. Mal took the papers, cleared his throat and raised his glass. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. “Time to celebrate that this whole mess is almost behind us, let’s drink to the shortest marriage on record.” “Shortest marriage?” Wash asked looking around. “These here are the annulment papers. Sorry I couldn’t stop the marriage, Jayne, but I did make it painlessly short.” Mal laughed. “What are you talking about? What’s an annulment?” Jayne was looking down right scared, he had seen Betty in Maggie’s hand and had the feeling he is was in a lot of trouble. “It means the marriage never took place.” Book answered him. Looking at Maggie he realized something was up. Maggie could hardly breath, was Jayne just playing dumb or did he really not know what the Captain had done. “Never took place? I was there, I remember it.” Jayne said walking towards Maggie. “Well, according to the church it never took place!” Maggie said pointing at Jayne with Betty. “What’s the problem? Things are just like they were this morning. It’s as if tonight never happened.” Mal said looking at Jayne “Thought you’d be happy? Something going on I should know about?” “Nothing’s going on Mal, nothing important. I’m sure Jayne is very happy with the results of today.” Maggie answered and left the group. Jayne wanted to follow her, but Mal grabbed his arm when Kaylee said dinner was ready. “Something you want to tell me Jayne? Maggie looks a might upset.” “Not sure Mal, knew she didn’t want to get married again. Maybe she’s just overjoyed at the thought of not having to be stuck with me.” Jayne stormed off to the table, where Kaylee was setting out the food. “didn’t take me long to fuck this up.” Jayne thought to himself. He sat down at the table, grabbed a plate and reached out to snag a steak. “No Jayne!” Kaylee slapped his hand away “Your is still on the grill, it’s so big it’s going to take awhile longer. Maggie said you wanted it well done. Where is she anyway?” “Don’t know, don’t care.” Jayne grumbled getting up he walked away. “What the hell am I going to do.” he said to no one. He found himself at the back staircase looking up to the door. “What the hell.” he stormed up the stairs and pounded at the door. “Maggie! Open the door.” waiting a few minutes, then pounding again “Open it or I’ll break it down!” “Don’t want to see you right now Jayne.” Maggie said trying hard not to let him know how upset she was. “Damn it Maggie, get away from the door.” It took just one kick and he was in. Maggie just sat on the bed holding a pillow to herself. “What the hell do you think your doing, you not going to give me a chance to explain or anything?” Jayne yelled at her, he yanked her up and turned her around to face him. For the first time he saw that she had been crying. “Explain what, how you bedded me and then ended the marriage?” Maggie has now given up all pretence of control “Jayne just go away.” using Betty to point at him “I don’t want to hear your excuses. You got what you wanted, now just go.” Maggie pushed at Jayne with Betty. Jayne pushed Betty out of the way and grabbed Maggie by the shoulders, turned her around and held her close. He pressed her back to his front and crossed his arms in front of her, to pin her arms down. If it had been anyone else he would of just broken their arm. He held her close enough that she could not swing the pan, he tried to explain “Look, I ran into the Captain leaving the house, he shoved the papers at me and said they were some sort of wedding papers. I just signed them to get him to leave me alone. I had no idea what they were, you think I would of signed them if I had known?” Jayne turned Maggie so he could look her in the eye “We never spend enough time anywhere to get to know anyone. Never thought anyone would want to be married to me, that you want to be with me just…...” Jayne leaned in to kiss a tear from her face. At that moment Book came in “Jayne! Let her go!” seeing that Maggie had been crying “What do you think your doing?” “Not really any of your business Shepard.” Jayne responded “This is between Me and my wife.” Maggie whispered “Not your wife anymore Jayne. Remember, you signed the papers.” she looked up into his eyes and saw how much those words hurt him. “Jayne, let her go and tell me what's going on.” Book said looking at the two of them. “I want her to be my wife again, really liked being with her.” Jayne answered still holding Maggie in his arms. “What do you mean, being with her?” Book asked looking puzzled. “Maggie and I spent time after the wedding…. Getting to know each other.” Jayne answered with a sly smile, holding her even closer. “So you two consummated your marriage?” Book looked thoughtful. “Con..su.... what?” Jayne asked. “Yes Book, we did.” Maggie answered for Jayne, now she was smiling shyly. “Then the annulment is annulled.” Book replied smiling at the pair.