Disclaimer: Of course they're not mine. I just play with the pretty toys, then put them back before anyone sees.

Comments: This scene just came into my head. Don't ask me why. It's very short. I had to get it out of my brain before I could function, so there it is.

Feedback: Please? Comment or email: wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

***

Zoe sits at the table, just staring at her hands, not really thinking anything. There's nothing much to think, really. She'd thought she was over the hardest of it, after two months she'd been praying she was over the hardest of it, but today was like a slap in the face.

Their anniversary.

Something slides across the table. A bundle of paper and cloth that settles itself just out of her reach. Zoe stretches out her hand, but stops before she actually touches it.

"Here," His voice breaks into her quiet. "I was thinkin' ya might want something like that today."

She sighs.

"What is it, Jayne?"

It's red, whatever it is.

"A slinky dress, you remember?"

Her fingers curl into a tight fist, away from it, and she presses her nails into the pads of her palm, so hard it she fan feel the spears of it all up her forearm. Her eyes narrow.

"Get away from me. Now. And take your dress with you."

"What?" He sounds all confused and then breathes in. "You think it's from me? Hell no, Zoe. It's from Wash."

Her eyes close as he sits down.

"See, he asked me to keep it for ya. Was gonna surprise you with it one day. He said you'd be sniffin' around Kaylee and Mal and everyone else on board. I was the only one ya wouldn't go lookin' to for it. Guess he was right."

"Why now, Jayne?"

She hears him swallow and takes a small amount of pleasure in his awkwardness.

"It were too soon, way I saw it, you wouldn't have wanted it. But you might now."

He was right. Her fingers open and she lets them rest in the softness of it. Slinky. Wash had always gone to great trouble to surprise her with things, which was a monumental task on a small ship like Serenity, especially when Zoe could wean secrets out of Mal, Kaylee and even Inara with very little trouble on her part. She could imagine his face as she opened it, he'd have been more excited than she would.

"Thank you." She whispers it as she stands up, her fingers closing in the material, lifting it out of the package and with her as she walks away. Zoe turns as she reaches the door. "And Jayne? I'm sorry."

"Ain't nothing."

***

Jayne watches her walk away and takes a mouthful of the whisky in his mug.

"Jayne Cobb?" He looks up at Kaylee's voice, all warm and sparkly like her eyes. "You're a good man."

"What?" He grumbles it. "I don't know what yer talkin' about."

"Wash came to me a week before we hit Beaumonde, askin' to borrow some money for a present for Zoe. He didn't have near enough. We didn't get paid until after the job an' we sure didn't have time then to buy nothin'."

"So?" He takes another swig.

"So?" Kaylee sits next to him at the table. "I'm guessin' he came to ask you, too. Now, I ain't sayin' anything else, but I sure am anxious to know why you sold off some of that weights set you used to use all the time."

"Used to." He says with a hard set to his mouth. "I ain't got no use for it no more."

"Like Zoe's got use for a slinky dress from Wash?"

He looks at her.

"She took it, didn't she? She ain't cryin' no more. What's your problem?"

"Like I said." She grins. "You're a good man."

"Yeah, well, don't go 'round tellin' no one."

*** End.