Part four: the third night and the start of the fourth day.

This was getting to be a very long chapter, as is, so I've split this day up. It just means more chapters.

Disclaimer: At this point, Joss can claim Jayne, Kaylee and the crew. He probably wouldn't want to claim the rest, but they're mine anyway.

Rated: There's very little here, but I'll call it PG, maybe.

Feedback: Is so very shiny. I love it all. Give it me, give it me good. Comment or email: wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

***

Parts: one, two and three.

*** (thanks to andraste_tree for the lovely banners, too). ***

"Hey Ma." Jayne came to stand next to them, taking the cloth out of the woman's hand. "Why don't you go sit down? Kaylee'n me'll finish up here."

Kaylee smiled down into the sink. He'd given her time, gave her space all the way through dinner without making it obvious. Maybe the twins had gotten good since she was gone. Or maybe it was something he'd figured out for himself.

He took the next plate from her hand without blinking.

"I wanted to ask you somethin' before." He started and she breathed in to steady herself. "But now I don't."

The air went out of her lungs and she couldn't help herself from looking up at him, trying to figure out what he was gonna say from his eyes alone. They weren't much help.

"I got things to say, Kaylee, an I want you to listen to 'em, but I don't want nothin' back. Okay? I don't want nothin' from you, 'cept for you not to laugh."

"Jayne." She plunged her hand back in the water. "I wouldn't..."

"But people do. I ain't smart, I know it, don't ever pretend to be, but it seems whenever I try and be serious 'bout stuff, there's people laughin' at me for it. The captain, Wash, Zoe." He paused. "Even you now and then. I reckon that's why I don't talk much sometimes."

She passed another plate over.

"You got a great family, Kaylee, an' I keep sayin' that, but it's true. All these people... I don't have anything like this. Sure, I got my Ma an' Pa an' Mattie, but they're happier when I'm not there. I know it. But this?"

She watched him out of the corner of her eye and saw him frowning down at the dish as he dried it.

"Closest thing I got to all this is Serenity. Much as I joke 'bout it, I don't reckon I'd want to leave. Don't reckon I could."

He didn't say anything for a long time, just wiped the cloth over the same space on the dish over and over before setting it on the pile. She quickly hurried to finish the last plate she'd been neglecting before he noticed.

"Bein' here, with you, it's had me thinking." He still wouldn't look directly at her. "Maybe we're just foolin' your folk an' maybe it don't mean nothin'."

She gave a quick look over her shoulder, but no one was paying them any attention. Not one whit.

"But it means somethin' to me, Kaylee. It means a helluva lot more'n you think an' even if we go back to the ship an' you don't ever wanna say another word about it, I'm gonna remember it."

"Jayne..."

But he was on a roll.

"I meant it, Kaylee." He reached past her, to pull the plug out of the sink and she watched the water start to swirl. "I didn't tell you all this 'cause I wanted anything from you. Don't you worry none about me."

The water eddied round and round and her eyes followed the suds as they spun, closer and closer to being sucked down the drain. Her hands clutched the bench as she felt his bulk lean over to her.

She closed her eyes, biting her lip as she felt a large hand cup the side of her face and she let her head be pulled over a little. It was soft, the feel of his lips on her forehead.

He couldn't fake that.

"Jayne?" She opened her eyes to look up at him, saw his face inches from hers, his eyes watching her closely and she felt his fingers curl against her cheek. "It means something to me, too. I mean, I want it to."

"Hey you two." Frank stood at the end of the bench. "Not in the kitchen, please. There's children about."

Automatically, they stepped apart, creating space between them.

"Daddy." She felt her whole face blush as she looked to the floor and suddenly she was fourteen again. "It weren't nothin'."

"Yeah, nothin'." Frank pretended to growl as he walked over to the cooler to look for leftovers, but she could see the twinkle in his eye. "I was young, I know nothin'. Just keep your nothin' private, you hear?"

***

Jayne followed her into their room. It wasn't hard to figure out her odd lookin' little charades meant she wanted to talk alone. Hell, he figured Ivy woulda been able to figure out that's what she was hinting at.

"You mean it?" He couldn't stop himself from asking her as he closed the door behind him.

Kaylee nodded and he couldn't help but look at the way her front teeth pinched her bottom lip in, the way her eyes sparkled and her cheeks stained bright red with blood.

"You know." Jayne had never been good at this bit, he'd never had to try very hard with the women he'd chased. "I ain't lied since we been here."

"Huh?" Okay, puzzled wasn't exactly what he'd been going for. "What's that got to...?"

"I mean, what I said yesterday, about watchin' you with the doc. It was true." He sighed. "I been noticing you for a while."

"Oh." And there, her eyes were kinda sparkly again. He liked that. "Really?"

He nodded.

"So..." She started again. "Does that mean, you meant everything else, too?"

Another nod.

"All of it?"

That was a smile on her face now. Jayne figured that was a real good sign. She was stepping closer to him, too, and he knew that was an awfully good sign. It wasn't an awfully big stretch for him to reach out and touch her hair again.

"Kaylee." Wasn't too hard to bend his head down and place his lips right in front of hers. "All of it."

Wasn't much at all for him to push forward while pulling her to him. Just too easy to kiss her like he'd been kissing her, like he wanted to. And she kissed him back, mouth opening like it had before.

With her soft sigh and her breath against his, hot tongue sliding along his teeth and her hands coming up to grasp his face. Her shoulders fitting nice in his hands, like putty made to fit.

The way her whole body heaved when she stopped to take a breath made him blink.

"Yeah." She sighed with a happy blush. "Yeah, I definitely want more of that."

"Good." He shrugged. "'Cause I ain't sleeping on the floor again."

Her mouth fell open so fast, the color draining from her face, that he had to laugh out loud.

"Relax. I won't jump you tonight." Jayne sat down on the bed and lifted his right foot up to rest on his left knee as he began to untie the laces of his boot. "Can't promise you nothin' for the rest of the week, though."

***

"Hello?"

Kaylee woke to find her face smushed squarely into the pillow as she lay on her belly. That was Lilly's voice, she was sure of it. She tried to shift herself out of the haze of sleep.

"Shh kid." Came Jayne's soft whisper and something made Kaylee stay still. "Your aunt's sleeping. What's up?"

"I... I... I had a bad dream."

She recognized the tremble in Lilly's voice, the soft pause of it.

"Well, ain't that what your parents are for?"

"Daddy says I'm too old for it and it shouldn't bother me, none." A small, soft swallow in the dark. "But Auntie Lee used to let me cuddle up to her when she was here before."

Small part hopeful, small part sad and a larger part wheedling and manipulation. She'd taught her niece well and the lessons obviously hadn't been lost over time. Kaylee smiled a little to herself.

"Oh." She could just about feel Jayne next to her, thinking it over before he melted and gave in. "Ok, then. Hop on up."

"But, but there ain't no room when the two of you are in there."

Yeah, Jayne, she thought, figure that one out.

"Sure there is, look." And there was Jayne's hand, reaching over her back and down around her waist, scooping her up against him, her back to his chest. "Plenty of room, just don't wake her."

There was a small dip in the mattress, a shift of weights and she felt the added heat of a small body settling itself in next to her. She couldn't resist reaching out a hand to run it lightly over Lilly's back. Still so small and familiar, yet too large for her liking.

She'd been away too long.

"So what was it about, this nightmare?"

Whispers in the dark around her head.

"Reavers."

Jayne breathed in, she felt his chest rise all against her back, his hot breath on the back of her neck and his arm tightened slightly around her.

"Oh, kid. Don't you listen to me. There ain't no Reavers around."

"But you said..."

"But I said nothin'. How old are you?"

"Nine."

Nine years. And for seven of them, Kaylee had been here, had known Lilly since she was born. Had known all the ins and outs of the child's life, shared jokes and tears and made her laugh and made her sulk. Now there was a gap in that.

Her fingers curled into the cotton of the child's clothes.

"You ever see an actual Reaver in your whole nine years here?"

"No."

"Then what makes you think...?"

That was about the time she felt herself drifting off and away from them both.

***

Jayne waited until Kaylee was busy getting ready for the day before he very carefully, very casually, cleared his throat.

"So, Ma." He widened his eyes slightly, putting on his best innocent boy face. "What's all this about the Mullins family?"

He heard Betty behind them, giving a surprised cough before she went back to nursing Ivy. Ma frowned at him over the remains of the breakfast table.

"Where'd you hear a name like that?"

"Here and there."

"Well." She busied herself picking the dishes up so she wouldn't have to look at him. "You just leave it here and there, then. They're not people you want to start getting involved with."

That was not what he'd been expecting.

"Why? What's wrong with 'em?"

She avoided his gaze. Betty did, too, he noticed.

"They live a town over and that's not far enough for my liking." Mary clattered the dishes into the sink louder than she normally did. "They're trouble. The whole lot of 'em are trouble, always have been."

He could feel his hackles rising just a little.

"There's all kinds of trouble."

"No, there ain't." She fastened him with a hard glare and he got the feeling that she knew what he was hinting at. "There's some honest folk out there bein' forced to do dishonest things and that I can truck with. You an' the Captain of that ship, I got no problem with. Then there's just bad folk doin' bad things."

"But..." There was more venom in Mary's voice than he'd heard since he'd landed and it made him curious. "Didn't Kaylee know a Stanley Mullins once?"

"Maybe when they were kids, probably went to the same school." Crinkles appeared in the corner of her eyes. "But she hasn't seen him for a long time, she knows better'n that."

"She does." Betty finally joined the conversation. "Don't you worry, Ma, Kaylee's got her head on straight."

The door to the small bedroom opened and Kaylee walked out, fresh faced and the ends of her hair curled slightly with damp. She looked squeaky clean and Jayne let his eyes linger for a few seconds.

Nobody said much after that.

***

"Why do you do that?"

Kaylee smiled to herself as she looked over to see Lilly sitting cross legged on the bed, watching Jayne curiously. To tell the truth, she'd wondered that very same thing on more than one occasion and even more so today.

"'Cause it has to be done."

She knew, even without looking back at the bed, that Lilly's eyes were tracing the path of the blade, same as hers, as it scraped down Jayne's throat. His skin shone a bright pink in the wake of it.

"But..." A slight hesitation. "Men with scruffy beards are handsome."

Jayne answered with a small cough and Kaylee turned to look into the other small mirror in front of her, not meeting his eyes as she busied herself with trying to get her hair in a neat pile.

"Where'd you hear that, kid?"

"Didn't need to hear it." Lilly drawled out, sounding to all the planet as if it was a known fact that no idiot would ever dare question. "Everybody knows."

"Handsome, huh?" Even though she wasn't looking at him, Kaylee could just about hear the preen in his voice, before he turned to look at the bed. "Bet you wouldn't think I was handsome if I had a scraggly mane of knots hangin' from my face. Catchin' food scraps and small animals, dirty whiskers fallin' to my knees."

"Ew." In the mirror, she saw Lilly scrunch up her nose.

"That's why I do it." He caught Kaylee's eye in the mirror and winked. She grinned. "S'pose I could always braid it, tie it up nice and tight, swing it over my shoulder. You reckon' I could be all mean an' intimidating like that?"

Kaylee turned on her heels to sigh at them both. Lilly giggled.

"You can't do that, anyway. Boys don't braid hair."

"Nah huh." Jayne drew the small towel across his shorn chin. "I know how to braid real good."

"Bet you don't." Lilly sat up on her knees, already throwing the challenge down. "You're just sayin' that, 'cause you think I'm young an' I'll believe anything."

"Bet I can." Jayne matched her glare.

"Come on, you two." Kaylee couldn't help smiling at them both. "Before we degenerate into name calling and pillow fights."

"Kaylee." Jayne didn't take his eyes off Lilly as he grabbed the back of a chair and twirled it to sit in front of him. "You come here and sit still for me."

"What?" She hesitated. "Oh, Jayne, I ain't gonna..."

"See?" Lilly grinned. "She knows you can't do it and she's only tryin' to save your face."

"You sit." Jayne growled. "It's a matter of pride, now, Kaylee. I ain't gonna back down."

And she knew he wouldn't. Knew without a doubt that he would find some way to prove Lilly wrong and him right and it was just easier to give up her brush to him as she sat obediently.

Ten minutes later, both Lilly and Jayne had all but forgotten she was there, she was sure of it. Lilly was standing to her side, just out of her line of vision, watching intently at the way Jayne's fingers stroked through her scalp.

Not that she blamed them, Kaylee had all but forgotten where she was herself. It felt good, real good in ways she'd forgotten, to have someone slide their fingers through her hair, pulling only slightly so that the skin on her head stretched pleasantly. Never painfully.

Rhythmic tugs and, every so often, one of his fingers would stray a little far down the side of her head, spread out over the skin of her neck or over her cheek. A thousand small caresses she'd never have thought could mean much at all.

And how wrong she would have been.

"Kaylee?" She raised her eyes to see Joe standing in the doorway. "You got a minute?"

***

They walked slowly, just ambling along the dusty road into town and Kaylee breathed slowly. Counting. Waiting. Letting her brain mull over it for a while. Then she turned and punched him on the arm.

"Ow! Hey! What's the matter with you?"

"You!" She glared. "You couldn't just leave things alone, had to go mention that name around my Ma. You even think? 'Course Betty's gonna go tell Joe and there I was, not even knowin' what he was talkin' about."

"Kaylee..." He had his hands on her shoulders, trying to make her look up at him.

"He's the gorram sheriff, Jayne, there's reasons I didn't want him involved!"

"C'mon, Kaylee, what was I s'posed to do? I mean, here we are, finally gettin' somewhere." And which where he made abundantly clear by giving her a real cheeky wink. "And you're off sending secret letters to some sweetie you had as a kid."

"What?" She felt the laughter choke back in her throat and tears spiked the corners of her eyes as she tried not to cry with it. "You thought what? Me an' old Stock Still Stanley?"

"Well..." She couldn't help but smile at his confused frown. "... ain't those his initials carved with yours in that tree? I been listening long and hard, Kaylee, an ain't no one else on this here planet with the initials SM."

"Oh, god." Her hands came up to cover her mouth. "Oh, Jayne, I'd be laughing right now if I didn't feel the need to bathe all over. Just the thought of me an' that boy..."

She gave an exaggerated shudder.

"So you never?" She shook her head. "But that letter Mick was talkin' about..."

"Just some dealings." Kaylee placed a hand on his arm and guided him forward. "Not entirely legal like, but nothing we don't do all the time. It's just..."

"Not something you want Joe nosing around?" Jayne caught on quick.

"Exactly." She grinned at him.

"Then..." He paused and she knew what was coming next. "Whose initials are they in the tree?"

"First boy I ever kissed." It wasn't an answer, she knew it, knew he wouldn't let her get away with it, but maybe she could delay it a little while with a smile and a little flutter of her eye lashes. "An' lucky for you he weren't the last."

Distraction is key, she told herself as an answering spark entered his eyes. And it wasn't as if she was hiding things, not really, she was sure she'd tell him eventually. Somebody was bound to, it was just too much all at once.

And she kinda wanted to enjoy him all to herself right now, all muscles and smiles just for her.

"Really?" Oh, but his voice did things to her when he let it go all deep and growly like that. "Lucky for me, huh?"

She nodded.

His hands kneaded her shoulders gently, back and forth in a slow movement that made her head lean back.

"M'sure it's a little lucky for you, too." His breath was hot against her neck and it made her shiver. "'Cause I ain't heard you complain once, yet."

"No..." A small whisper. "No complaints."

Then his mouth on her skin again, hands pulling her forward and closer to him. Big hands that, when he spread them down her back, covered nearly the whole span of it.

"Jayne..." The word scratched its way out of her throat.

Less than an hour before she'd wondered just why he'd shave away the stubble of hair that she'd thrilled to have scratching at her, tiny small blades against the softness of her skin. Now she couldn't stop her hand from spreading out over his neck, over the smooth skin of it and she wondered why he'd ever let it get scruffy at all.

She turned her mouth to kiss at it, let her lips seal around the square of bone halfway down his jaw line and sucked gently.

"Now." He pushed her back slightly. "You gonna answer my question or not?"

Kaylee pouted and his eyes glittered at her.

"C'mon then, smirky." She huffed as she grabbed his elbow. "We got stuff to do in town."

***

"Mal!" Wash's voice came over the com. "Mal, we got a wave."

It didn't sound like Wash's frantic 'we have to start running from the law' voice, so he assumed he had time to buckle his belt before hiking it into the bridge.

"Hey you two." Jayne and Kaylee beamed at him from the screen. Well, Kaylee beamed. Jayne sat there. "How's it goin'?"

"Hey Cap'n!" Bright and cheery, he hadn't realized that he'd missed her around the ship. It had only been, what, three days so far? "We're good. How's everyone? Zoe? Inara? River? Simon?..."

That could go on all day.

"I know who's on my ship, Kaylee." He broke in. "We're good. Got nothing to do now we're just hovering out here. Job's tomorrow, then we're good to land."

"Well." She gave him a face. "You're the one had to lie to my daddy."

"You told me to!" Mal ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't going to go through all that again. "You both seem miraculously unharmed. Everything going well?"

"You could say that."

Was Kaylee glowing? She was. Kaylee was glowing. And Jayne was trying not to smirk. Oh, gorram. He was fairly sure he didn't want to know.

"Your hair looks nice." He prompted a change of subject. "You do that yourself?"

"Jayne put it up!"

Oh, he really didn't wanna know.

"Ain't that nice?" Pause. "We still on for Christmas lunch?"

"You don't show up, Captain, an' my momma's gonna hunt you down in the blackest corners of space, just so my daddy can thump you one."

"'Kay then. I'm sure this wave is costin' you guys money you don't really have, so we'll say goodbye now."

"Say hi to everyone for us!"

"Will do."

He clicked off the screen and sighed.

"That was interesting."

Zoe stood behind Wash.

"I warned them." Mal explained. "I warned Jayne and I warned Kaylee. In separate incidents. My conscience is clear."

"I don't think they listened." Zoe gave an indulgent smile.

"They never do." He sighed. "Still, it's only been a few days, what harm can that be?"

"There are trees in the yard." River stood in the doorway, twisting a finger into a strand of hair at the side of her head. "Roots are growing."

***

"Hey." Jayne caught her wrist on the way out of the communication shop. "There's somethin' I forgot to ask Mal. I'm just gonna go back for a sec, okay? I'll meet you at your father's shop."

She furrowed her brows, eyes scanning his face, but then nodded.

"'kay then."

It was still awkward, just the way that she paused a minute before leaning up to peck his cheek, as if she weren't sure she should be doing it. He watched her go then stood at the counter, counting the coin in his pocket. Not much, really. Probably not enough to connect to the ship again.

"Jayne? Isn't it? Jayne Cobb?"

He looked up at the woman more closely this time, to check to make sure he didn't know her. Not that he was expecting to. Apparently, 'round these parts, being an item with Kaylee made you an automatic celebrity of sorts and he should have been used to it by now.

"Yeah." It made him stand up a bit straighter. "That's me."

"Well." She smiled, all gray hair and blue eyes. "Didn't get to see much of you the other night at the Frye's, but I liked what little I saw an' I like what I see today."

"That's..." He searched for the right word, but that word was just flyin' off away from him, leaving him standing there all slack jawed.

"You best be treating that girl proper, you hear?"

"Yes." This he could answer to. "Wouldn't dream of doin' otherwise. Got a real trustworthy source says I'd be missin' a few layers of skin if I did an' that'd be the last of my worries."

She let out a breathy laugh.

"Yes, it would at that." Apparently, the image of him being flayed alive was amusing. "Oh, but half this planet thinks they're her parents an' the other think they're her big brothers. She's a favorite among us, little Kaylee."

"I'd noticed that." He swallowed, real innocent like. "Woulda thought there'd be more competition. An old flame or some such."

"You would, wouldn't you? This bein' such a male planet an' all." She cast a slow gaze over the rest of her shop, but there wasn't anyone else in it that Jayne could see. "Guess you noticed that, too, huh? We got more boys bein' born here than girls."

"Why is that?"

"Don't rightly know, no one does." She sighed dramatically. "'Course, if we were one of those fancy core planets, there'd have been a team of specialists swarming 'round trying to figure out why. Testing the atmo and pressure and the like, pumping all the ladies of childbearin' age full of boosters and lord knows what else. Hell, they'd probably brew up little girl babies in little dishes in their labs an' we'd be right even with boys and girls."

"Hey Mauralee." Jayne turned to see a stooped over old man thump a com disk on the far side of the counter. "Same as usual, order to the Weatherlies. Tell me you ain't bendin' this poor man's ear about your girl baby theories again?"

"Well, it's true." She crossed over to him and picked up the disk. "Now you just shoo and let us chat a while."

"I know when I'm not wanted." The man shuffled towards the door. "Don't you let her chew your ear off, boy, you tell her when to stop."

"Git, you fussity old man!" Mauralee yelled out the door, then turned back to Jayne. "Where were we? Oh, that's right. Did you know Kaylee was the first girl to be born 'round here in around five years or so?"

"No." This was news. "I didn't know that."

"She was. Weren't no girl for five years before and not for about, say, two years after, I think. You see why she's so special to us. Was a good day when Joe announced he was expecting, him an' Betty. Girls seem to run in the Frye's."

She gave him a speculating look.

"You hang around here long enough, they'll be at you an' Kaylee to keep up that tradition. You know it, yeah?"

He tried to cover with a cough to clear his throat and ended up choking on it instead. She laughed.

"Oh, now, don't you worry. Way I hear it you'll be gone in a few days. Never expected that one to hook up with a local boy after that business. And here everyone swore black an' blue she was gonna end up a Matthews."

Jayne's eyes widened slightly.

"As in Mick and Mike Matthews?"

"Them's the very ones." She nodded. "Whole town planned that wedding from the time they was little kids 'til the time they was about ten or so. You shoulda seen them, two little tykes as they were. Cute as a button. Holdin’ hands and all that, couldn’t tear ‘em apart.”

Jayne had all but forgotten reconnecting with the ship and Mauralee, it seemed, had completely forgotten her shop. Made him wonder who she got to talkin’ to most days and how hungry she was just for an ear.

“All the boys ‘round these parts anywhere close to her age grew up knowin’ she weren’t interested. Guess that stuck.” She sighed. “Not to say that she didn’t play around a bit when she got to that age, ‘cause she did at that, it’s just… I guess you could say she was never serious about any of ‘em, not the ones from around here, anyways.”

“Well, what happened?” He prompted, feeling his jaw clench slightly and beginning to understand what the old man had been going on about. This woman would talk his ear off if he let her. “When she was ten?”

“Oh well.” She breathed in, bracing herself for the impact. “That’s when the young Matthews boy died isn’t it?”

“Died?” Jayne gaped. “But Mick and Mike…?”

“They lived, sure.” She shook her head. “But the third one, Steven? He came down with the sickness that year, most of the planet did, mind, but young Steven, he just didn’t get back up again.”

“I didn’t know…”

He wasn’t sure what to say and his eyes flickered back towards the street, searching the distance as if Kaylee would still be there, waiting.

“No, well, guess they don’t talk about it much, do they? Never did.” Mauralee took another deep breath and eyed the coins in his hand. “You’re not gonna get much for that, young man, but I reckon you make a capture and I’ll tack it to the tail end of Ol’ Cecil’s for you.”

“Uh,” Jayne blinked, suddenly remembering why he was there. “Sure, sure. Thanks.”

“No problems.” She grinned. “Just you keep young Kaywinnit Lee Frye happy and we’ll call it even.”

The words clicked over in his head.

***

“Hey.” Wash looked up at the beeps that sounded. “We got a message coming in.”

He flicked the switch and Jayne’s nervous form filled their screen. He could see Mal frown from the other chair.

“Hey Mal.” Screen Jayne gestured to a piece of paper in his hand and nervously licked his lips. “I was gonna ask you to pick up a few things, if that’s okay. Take it outta my cut if’n you need it, we’ll talk more when you get here.”

As Jayne began to read out a varying and completely random, as far as Wash could tell, list of items, Mal gave a little laugh.

“Well ain’t that cute? Man thinks he’s getting a cut.”

***

More soon...