Fandom: Firefly/ Serenity Setting: After Serenity so there are SPOILERS for the movies in it! Watch out! Rating: R- ish I think! Disclaimer: Not mine! All belong to this car rental guy from Veronica Mars or so I have heard! Just playing with them for a while! Summary: This is my version of a Firefly Christmas story! My first ever Firefly fanfic... hope you guys like!

Dedicated to k8cre8 and Daikath for getting me a Serenity bag - Wheeee! And also because k8cre8 is a hell of a beta reader!!!

Serenity was humming along silently and Jayne was bored. They had been flying without a break for about two weeks now and hadn't managed to find a job. That meant no fighting. Hence the boredom. Worse: it meant no money. Soon their stores would be pretty low. Clearly, they needed food, booze and other every day stuff, all of which would be difficult to get without money. All of that made Jayne even grumpier than usual, and so it wasn’t a big surprise when he responded with naught but a deep groan as Kaylee bugged him that Christmas was coming. "Oh come on Jayne, just draw! Everyone else has! It’s just a small gift! It’s fun! Don’t be a spoil-sport" Kaylee smiled her irresistible smile and Jayne set down the weights he had been lifting with a loud sigh. Fun?! Yeah right! Kaylee was talking to the wrong guy. Worse, he knew she wasn’t going to give up, either. So he took one of the last two slips of paper from the silver bowl Kaylee was holding in front of him. " See that wasn’t so hard!" Kaylee grinned and went off to the bridge to bother the Captain with her Christmas spirit. Jayne quietly unfolded his piece of paper.

" River"

Was written on it with huge, black letters. Jayne couldn’t hold back a loud curse. Tsao gao! Of course he had to get her! One of the people he least liked on the ship! One of the bloody Tams! "Hey Jayne! Get ready…. we have a job!" It was Mal´s voice which tore him out of his thoughts. "We'll land on Persephone in two hours! Take your coat, it’s damn cold down there!" With that, the Captain was already back on his way to the bridge. Jayne looked back at the tiny piece of paper in his hand. It still said "River." After a few minutes, he suddenly started to laugh maniacally. He'd give her a present for sure! Something she'd never forget! He knew just what it would be, and that made him cheerful for the first time in weeks.

The weather was really cold on Persephone which wasn’t really surprising to Jayne since it was Winter on that planet. Nevertheless the snow kept getting on his nerves. He couldn’t think of any reason why nature invented this cold, slippy substance called snow anyway. It wasn’t like it was of any use! Again he cursed when it started snowing harder. He put the last three crates onto the mule, signalling Mal he was nearly ready. At least they had a job now. It wasn’t much. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, he thought and worked on. He found it kind of ridiculous bringing Christmas presents from one planet to the next. He never had been one for Christmas anyway and thought lots of it was only commercial shit anyhow. He detested the so-called "Christmas spirit" and didn’t even like the idea of celebrating Christmas with the crew. The only times he'd liked it was when he celebrated Christmas as a kid with his mom. But that was long gone. He was a grown up man now! And grown ups, thought Jayne, didn’t need the silly Christmas spirit thingy. Especially not in a crew, which was, now that he reflected on it, more like a working environment! Bringing love and closeness and such things into that environment was never a good idea. All you had to do was look at what happened after Wash and Book died. That did nothing but send the whole crew into a deep and desperate distress. Well, except for him.He knew better then to mourn two men whom he barely knew. Sure, he did respect them but more than that? Ridiculous. A man should care for himself first, after all! The last crate landed onto the mule with a loud thud and Jayne got onto it. Now they only had to get back to Serenity, and he could get on with his plan. Due to Kaylee´s cute Christmas gift exchange, each one of them would be going into town to shop, and he didn’t want to waste a chance like that. A chance for each of the Tams to be alone.

River was getting much better. Ever since the incident on Miranda her stability increased and her nightmares became less. Of course, they'd never fully be gone, but at least it was a start to a normal life. Now that the Operative had let them go, they pretty much had an ordinary life and hadn't even been bothered by the Alliance once. Still, Mal made sure they wouldn’t get too close to an Alliance cruiser and she was eternally grateful for that. With the Captain finally accepting her and Simon into the crew, the crew even more had become her family. And she loved it the way it was. Now she was on her way to get a tiny Christmas present for that big hunk Jayne. She hadn't a real idea what to buy, yet, but it was great to be allowed to go out alone again. She would browse through the market for a while and maybe she could find a cool new weapon or some of that polish stuff for Vera?

Only a few streets away, Jayne walked through the market, not really bothering to look around for a Christmas present. Now that he had signalled the men it was settled anyway. When he got back to Serenity, Christmas presents probably would be the last thing any of them would be thinking about. They would miss Simon at first, but he guessed they would eventually get over it. With Simon and River gone, it would mean less trouble for all of them anyway. Oh and of course there was the money! He'd gotten enough, that, if he’d wanted to he he could cover the ship’s operation for three months Maybe he'd even give the crew a cut, He was happy enough to share! The guys had promised him, that after they had gotten Simon and more importantly River, they would give him double his asking price. What more could a man ask for? Maybe it was really Christmas after all! Jayne was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t see it coming. Before he could react, a large board hit him squarely in the head. Lifelessly he slumped to the ground. Immediately, a few market people rushed to help the fallen stranger, trying to wake him up, but Jayne remained unconscious.

The harsh daylight blinded his eyes and it took Jayne a few moments to adjust to the brightness, before he could make out who was leaning over him. The reddish hair was a bit tousled but as he blinked the face soon grew into a well-known smile. " Hey! There you are again!" Jayne then slowly sat up, still staring like he was seeing a ghost, which probably was true. "Wash?!" It was more then a statement then a question, since there was no doubt who was sitting right next to him on the ground. "Yeah! Big surprise, huh?" For the first time in years, Jayne was actually at loss for words. His head still hammered like he had been hit by a truck and he had no real idea what the hell had happened. He had to be dead! The Wash guy just sighed. "No. You are not dead. But I am, which tells me that the Universe has a most inconvenient sense of humor. " Jayne shuddered and rubbed his eyes again. Maybe he had been drinking? Yes. That was it. He’d overdone the booze again. "Jayne, you weren’t drinking anything, remember?" Wash said and Jayne looked even more scared.. "Would you believe I'm actually hear to warn you? Apparently, when you die, you get to do duty as a cliché., well, I got cast as the ghost of the Christmas past." Jayne started to laugh like hell and forced himself to stand up. "Ha! Now you busted yourself! I have to be dreaming because there is no way that any fictional character from some Darwin book could be visiting me!" He turned to go. " Dickens, Jayne! The Christmas Carol is by Charles Dickens! I guess I should just be glad you got my name right!" Wash sighed and grabbed his friend by his arm. "And honestly, where would you go? … Look!" He pointed to the ground where the unconscious form of Jayne was still lying in the dirt. Jayne immediately froze and started to look around, watching the people still hunching over him. " They can’t see you Jayne! And you won’t wake up at least for a while yet! ‘Cause first I have to show you something and prevent you from making a big mistake! Or, at least, this latest big mistake." Wash grabbed Jayne´s other arm and soon they were up in the air, flying. Jayne wasn’t sure if he should start to laugh or cry. This sure had to be one of this weird hangover dreams. Suddenly, the air grew a lot colder and they started to fly faster and faster. Strange lights appeared next to them only to vanish again into streaks of light due to the speed of their flying. Bile rose up in Jayne´s throat and he was sure if this were real he would be dead. This was probably the punishment for all his drinking! The Wash guy next to him just laughed at his pale face. " Never thought you'd get scared that easily! Don’t worry we'll be there in a second!" And with that they slowed down and landed onto something which looked like some kind of village square. Looking around Jayne suddenly knew where they were! This was none other than the town hall of his home village. Yes! There was the little church and only few inches further was the little town hall where he once was busted throwing stones into the windows Yep that definitely was home! Wash guy was now standing next to him, eyeing his reaction to this place very closely. "You remember?” he asked. Jayne just snorted. Yeah. Of course he remembered his home village! But he had still no idea what this guy, who looked like his dead friend Wash, wanted from him. Before he could answer they suddenly heard voices from behind them. Immediately both of them turned around. Jayne wasn’t sure if he was dreaming again. There, walking through the huge amount of freshly fallen snow walked a woman together with two little boys. That wouldn’t have been that strange by itself, except, this woman looked exactly like his mum. Well, that is, if his mom had been much younger. And the boys walking behind her… he could have sworn that one of them looked like his cousin Thomas. What scared him more was the second one, who looked exactly like he himself did, when he was around age ten. The woman turned around and called after the boys, who had lagged a bit behind, to throw snowballs at each other. "Jayne ! Thomas! Will you two come now? The Christmas service is going to start soon and God doesn't like boys who show up too late!" The boys just giggled and ran after her, while the real, grown up Jayne was just stood there and stared after them. Crazy! Yeah that was it! He had just gone bonkers! Like that little girl whom he had sold to those bounty hunters just a few minutes ago! This was probably his punishment for that! "Come on, let’s follow them!" the Wash guy said, and Jayne complied, since he thought he had no other choice anyway. So the two of them watch as the mother and the young Jayne go to the church service. After it was over, they wandered home where the young Jayne got his first knife for Christmas. They watched them celebrate Christmas happily with lots of family and friends. Young Jayne even gave the blessing. "That couldn’t be you. No bursting to flames inside the church, and I think you even meant that sweet little prayer. Remembering to pray for puppies? I could hug the little you.” The Wash guy laughed and Jayne just snorted again. Hey, he had been a child back then! Whatever. All that had stopped when his dad had left them a few years later. Now he just wanted this to get over with and he told the Wash guy, “I don’t care one hairy fig if I’m drunk or crazy or dead, I’ve had enough of this.” "Tsk, Tsk! Such language from our sweet cherub! Don’t worry, our time will be over soon!" Wash said and again they were launched up into the air. This time the flight seem to go by even faster and only seconds later Jayne found himself on some kind of big farm, which he had never seen before. People seemed to be rushing in from everywhere and obviously some kind of party was happening inside. "Go in …!" Wash motioned Jayne and soon they found themselves inside some kind of big Christmas ball of what looked like the higher society types. Nope, Jayne definitely had never been here! " It’s not all about you Jayne!" Wash declared and took his friend by the hand, leading him through the dancing and chattering crowd. Jayne followed rather unwillingly, the beautiful women on either side keeping him more interested. But after discovering once again that they couldn’t see him at all, he gave up and just watched. It didn’t take long until they reached their goal, which was a rather small corridor somewhere behind the kitchen. There, sitting on the floor was a little boy, playing with some kind of small ball, looking slightly sad. A second later a woman walked in, leading a small girl behind her. " Simon! Didn’t I tell you to look after your sister!? She nearly caused a faux pas by throwing food on Mr and Mrs. DeLucre! Do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t managed to stop her? " The little boy just sighed and listened to the women going on about how important this ball was for their place in society and how ungrateful he was for not appreciating it! The little girl was now seated next to him and his mom disappeared again, leaving them alone. Simon sighed once again, but then smiled at his sister. "Did you at least manage to hit Mrs Delucre´s hideous dress?" River just giggled in response and now Simon was laughing too. "Never mind!" He said and took the little sister into his arms. " Merry Christmas River!" And with that, he gave her the ball and she began playing with it.

"Okay, are we done now? I'm getting mightily bored here!" Jayne whispered, even though he knew that the kids couldn’t hear him and Wash just sighed. To hell with him! It was like he never showed any feelings for anyone… except for his mom. Maybe. So it wasn’t really a big surprise that the flight back to the market place today was awfully silent. Wash had hoped that Jayne would feel for Simon and River but Jayne continued to call them "spoiled brats" and so he gave up. " Listen Jayne… you are about to make a big mistake! Two other, much less attractive and witty ghosts will come and visit you and I for hope to hell, or whatever scares you, that will listen more to them than you listened to me!" With that Wash vanished and the world around Jayne went black once again. When Jayne woke up this time he was back in the market place in the real world. After shushing away the people who were still watching over him, he got up and walked further through the market, shaking his head. Now that was a strange dream! He'd never thought anyone could dream such rubbish while being knocked out! Whatever! Now all he had to do was get back to Serenity and enjoy the money he just got! Plain easy, that! This time, he hadn’t counted on the flowerpot which was accidentally, yes, purely accidentally, dropped on his head by the gruelling fate a mere 20 minutes later, just before he managed to reach Serenity. And again he fell, unconscious, onto the dirty ground, this time unseen by anyone.

Cursing, Jayne got up for the umpteenth time to look around. Well, he was still in the tiny alley he remembered being in, so this just was a weird coincidence, right? And hey, it was not like he believed in such things as ghosts anyway! "If I were you, my son, I would reconsider such beliefs in the future.” Jayne turned around at the sound of a well-known voice and looked directly into the face of Shepherd Book. Tsao gao!

Tbc