Disclaimer: All hail Joss! Nothing is mine. All is his. Bow down before the tubby little genius!

A/N: Okay, it's not much but I thought I'd put it up in case it inspires me to more. Thanks for all the nice feedback, thusfar.

The next morning Jayne woke up with a ferocious headache, a very vague recollection of the past twenty four hours and a taste in his mouth he usually associated with too much fun. This morning however, he was in restraints- Jayne’s lifestyle was such that waking up in restraints wasn’t all that unsettling, especially with the symptoms of a hangover but it looked like he was in the infirmary this time. Pushing past the fog of pain and confusion he sorted through his fuzzy memories. He went out with Mal and Zoë to collect a payment. Things turned rowdy. He took a hit. They made it back to the ship. The infirmary- that’s why he was here. Doc stitched him up. The doc . . . something was nagging at him there but all he could remember was a pale face peering at him intently. Ruttin’ doctor.

Why the hell had he been tied down? Jayne felt a moment’s panic wondering if the doc had been fooling them all and was sly and had tied him down for some nefarious purpose- after all he didn’t seem to want Kaylee and that was a sign of somethin’ in Jayne’s book. Well, if that was the case Jayne would-

The big man opened his mouth to start bellowing to be released when Simon appeared. He looked particularly hesitant, standing in the doorway and Jayne had to wonder why that was. Normally he’d come strutting into a room like he owned the whole gorram ship.

“You’re awake.” Simon observed.

No shit.

“Wow- that fancy educatin’ really paid off for you, doc.” Jayne said sarcastically, glaring at the doctor with his usual contemptuous anger. “You’re a ruttin’ marvel of modern scientific thinkin’. Now-” Jayne took a deep breath, “-Let. Me. The. Hell. Up!” The big man’s voice was getting progressively louder with every word until he was almost roaring. It seemed to snap Simon out of whatever spell was keeping him standing at the door like some kind of stupid statue. He rushed over and loosened the straps enough so Jayne could shake them off.

The big man moved and before Simon could react he found himself pushed against the counter with a hand around his throat.

“I ain’t too partial to wakin’ up in cuffs, doc. What’s the big idea, huh?”

“I sedated you while I extracted the bullet. Then you were thrashing around in your sleep and I didn’t want you to tear the wound back open.”

Jayne peered intently into the doctor’s eyes and tightened the grip around his neck. It sounded believable but somethin’ seemed off . . . He fumed at the idiot doctor in his grip. He wasn’t looking like somebody who had taken advantage of an unconscious man- it would be against his precious morals, no doubt. But Jayne was troubled by a vague feeling of . . . violation.

Ah- Screw it. He felt like go se, he was hungry as hell and Mal’d kill him if he roughed up the little maggot. With a grunt, Jayne shoved the younger man away roughly and limped/ stomped off towards the galley. Behind him, Simon rubbed his neck and thanked God that Jayne didn’t remember their little conversation. He just wished to God he could forget it too.

But Simon couldn’t forget what he had heard and seen and the knowledge of Jayne’s feelings had made him aware in a way he had never been before. Simon wondered vaguely if River felt this way- as though a curtain had been ripped away from the world and suddenly a million hidden things had come spilling out. And suddenly nothing was what you had once thought it was. Simon could see everything.

Jayne watched Kaylee all the time. At dinner, Simon soon learned Jayne always sat on the opposite side of the table from the mechanic where he could observe her from under his eyelashes while he pretended his plate was the only thing that interested him. Sometimes when she spoke Jayne would forget himself and he would stop moving for five seconds- ten seconds as he absorbed every gesture, every intonation as she smiled and teased the rest of the crew.

Jayne listened especially hard when she spoke to Simon. The evidence was subtle but it could be seen in the way Jayne glanced up at the sound of the doctor’s name on Kaylee’s lips. That first night after the incident in the infirmary Kaylee turned to say something to Simon and he could see clearly how Jayne’s grip tightened on his spoon until his knuckles turned white. When the captain interrupted to ask a question and drew Kaylee’s attention away, Simon saw the muscles in Jayne’s shoulders relax.

Perceiving all of this suddenly Simon wondered if the rest of the crew was blind. It was so obvious once you knew what to look for. The big man’s belligerent indifference made a good front but it couldn’t hide the quickness with which he passed Kaylee a dish or the way he reflected her moods when she talked. And Jayne’s constant and obvious awareness of Kaylee was making Simon aware too.

Jayne was right: she never took the last biscuit and she always seemed to know who was having a hard day and she cared enough to try and fix it. Sometimes that meant helping someone with dishes, sometimes it meant telling a really dirty joke, sometimes it was just a sympathetic smile at the right time but she always seemed to know what everybody needed to feel better. And she cared that they did.

Everyone else kept a certain distance. Life on the rim was hard and it made for hard people who played everything close to the vest- affection and friendship included but not Kaylee. Her love shined out of her without reserve or fear. In this way, Simon had come to consider her the bravest member of the crew.