Mal didn’t want him to leave. Funny that.

Jayne argued with him ‘bout everythin’. Thought he could run the ship better, fought with Simon and River, was mean, selfish, and annoyin’ to have around. But the captain depended on him too. The man was the best tracker around, could use any weapon ever made, fight like a demon.

Mal trusted him a bit more now since Miranda and the battle with the Reavers. Jayne had done his share of fighting, Mal knew that because the others told him ; how Jayne had pulled Zoë out of the firing line, for that alone Mal owed him. With Zoë out for the count, it was Jayne who was watchin’ his back when out on a job and Jayne who was doin’ most of the scut work round the ship.

Of course helpin’ round the ship was probably just so he could get his mind off all that had happened, after all that was why Mal was working so hard too. Working hard was also a way of avoidin’ what was occurring around them.

The tension between Kaylee and Simon was reaching epic proportions. Mal had hoped that now Simon had actually made a move that the pair would be happy, but it wasn’t to be. Kaylee’s smile was dying, Simon was uncomfortable and things took a turn for the worse. Inara tried talking to them; he tried talking then yelling at them. But they were both pretending that nothing was wrong, Kaylee trying to smile, Simon getting more and more stiff and polite. Their work was sufferin’ too, Kaylee’s especially. The care she took of Serenity was still good, but nowhere near the work she had lavished on the ship before. Dinner time was a punishment sitting with the two of them, the tension was so thick. Jayne just stayed away from the table which made their numbers even smaller, because if he wasn’t there, most of the time River didn’t make an appearance either. That was disturbin’; the ships’ two resident killers seemed to have come to some sort of understandin’. Though they still argued most of the time he never needed to prevent actual bloodshed. In fact the pair of them appeared to be keepin’ each other calm which was downright creepifying. They were spending an awful lot of time with Inara too, which was new and unsettling. River and Jayne were much more welcome at her shuttle than he was. He was real worried that River might be developing feelins for Jayne, that the big man might take advantage of her.

The captain hadn’t known what Jayne felt for Kaylee until the day Jayne had stormed down to the infirmary grabbed Simon round the neck and hoisted him in the air. Appeared he had found Kaylee cryin’ in the engine room and couldn’t take it no more. Mal was grateful that Jayne’s threats to Simon looked to have worked; the doctor and Kaylee’s relationship had ended.

Simon retreated to the infirmary and at least Kaylee’s work began to improve. But now she appeared to be angry at Jayne, blamin’ him for somethin’.

Kaylee rarely blamed Jayne for anythin’ she remained friends with him whatever he did. They shared jokes, worked together real well, and chatted all the time. Kaylee did most of the chatting of course. That made her behaviour toward him even more obvious. For kind carin’ Kaylee was being downright mean, she was ignorin’ Jayne at dinner, avoidin’ him whenever possible and not asking for his help in the engine room. Not askin’ for help was what caused Kaylee to be injured while working on the engine, it was only luck she hadn’t been killed. Jayne seemed to think this was more his fault than hers and stunned the Captain by saying he was leaving. Mal tried to argue him out of it, but Jayne just shook his head stubbornly. “Should go, Kaylee will do better if I ain’t around.”

The captain couldn’t argue with that, he agreed that for the moment Kaylee might do better if Jayne weren’t around. Didn’t have to like it though, so he made Jayne promise to check in with them from time to time, and made sure that he saw the man off properly.

They were all in the cargo bay except for Kaylee and Zoë, Simon was standing against the wall near the exit and Inara was glaring at him from the catwalk. River had her arms round Jayne’s neck crying her eyes out. The big man gently prised her arms away pushing her at the Captain. Jayne picked up his bag, looked around and walked away, never looking back. Mal tightened his hold on his little albatross, afraid she’d follow after all.

“Captain, want to tell me what the hell is goin’ on?” Mal looked round in relief at the sound of her voice, seeing in her eyes that his second in command was back. How in the ‘verse was he going to explain losing another crew member?

But maybe he wasn’t going to have to explain, cause Kaylee came running in, tearstained face set in a determined expression. “I’m goin’ after Jayne Captain” she announced “Can ya wait for us?” “Got all the time in the ‘verse Kaylee” he looked at Simon’s thunderstruck expression wryly “You both coming back?” “Ya can bet on it Captain” she said running down the ramp to follow in Jayne’s footsteps.