Everyone was waitin’ fer the job that night, so there wasn’t much ta do. Kaylee an’ Jayne sat in the little room off the kitchen most of the day. They changed position every once in a while. Mostly they were just… tagether.

The crew, ‘ceptin the doc, were pretty acceptin’ ‘a the stuff goin’ on between Jayne an’ little Kaylee. Nobody really said much, ‘cept Inara, who only said she was glad they was happy.

Jayne was happy. He liked ta think Kaylee was, too. He’d thought about holdin’ Kaylee, kissin’ her, playin’ with her hair, all that, fer so long he kept expectin’ ta wake up. He was in a haze—on a high a thousand times better thn’ kosu weed. Kaylee. Kaylee weed.

Gorram, he was happy. Felt off ta be so happy. But for Kaylee… he’d allow it.

She had her head in his lap. Her eyes were closed. Jayne thought she might’ve fallen asleep until she sighed.

“I oughta be doin’ somethin’.”

He brushed her hair off her forehead. “Ship ain’t runnin’. What do you reckon you’ve got ta do?”

She sighed. “I dunno. Somethin’. Don’t feel right ta be just sittin’ here bein’ all happy an’ warm with you. I feel like Mal’s gonna come in here an’ yell at us.”

She opened her eyes. “Not that I’m complainin’.” She smiled.

Jayne put his hand along her jaw an’ traced her lips with his thumb. Strange, how he couldn’t help touchin’ her.

“Yer ruinin’ my reputation, Little Kaylee.”

“You have a reputation?”

“’Course I do. I’m a womanizin’ hard-assed mercenary. I ain’t supposed ta cuddle.”

She sat up. Jayne could see she was holdin’ back a laugh. She got up an’ dusted her lap off. “Maybe I can see if Inara’s busy.”

Jayne growled an reached out fer her. He grabbed her around the waist an’ pulled her onta his lap. He jabbed her in the ribs, makin’ her squirm an’ laugh like anythin’.

Someone cleared their throat. Jayne stopped ticklin’ Kaylee an’ looked up.

Mal was standin’ with his arms crossed. “Hate to interrupt, but I believe we got a caper to pull off.”

Kaylee sat up an’ tucked her hair behind her ear, grinnin’ an’ lookin’ more thn’ a little sheepish.

“Now? What time is it?” Jayne looked toward the window. It was black outside.

“Time to go. Get a move on. We’re leaving in five minutes and I want you armed.”

Jayne watched ‘im go.

“Told you he’d come in an’ yell at us.”

Jayne turned ta Kaylee an’ smiled. Leaned over ta kiss her nose. “Gotta go arm myself fer the caper.”

He stood up. Kaylee grabbed his hand an’ held on fer a bit. Jayne looked down at ‘er.

“I’ll miss you.” She smiled her sweet little smile.

“Yer comin’ too, baobai. Condition of the plan.” Jayne smiled.

Kaylee raised her eyebrows. “Yeah?”

Jayne nodded. “Yeah.

***

They took the mule this time. It was just Mal, Zoe, Kaylee an’ Jayne. The doc hadn’t wanted ta revisit the past an’ of course Crazy stayed with ‘im. Said she had ta keep an eye on ‘im. Inara said she “wasn’t fit for looting,” but she smiled at Mal when she said it. Jayne was startin’ ta think maybe there was somethin’ goin’ on between the two of them.

Mal stopped the mule a good distance away from the compound.

“Zoe and Jayne, you go in first. Check things out. If things look level, you come tell us. If things don’t look level… you come tell us.”

“Good plan, Sir.”

“Thanks.”

Jayne winked at Kaylee. She smiled. Then he jumped off the mule an’ followed the Zoe-shaped figure toward the blazin’ lights of the compound.

“I did what you said.”

“I figured.”

“I talked to her.”

“Did more than that, I reckon.” Jayne could hear the smile in Zoe’s voice. “Not that it’s any of my business.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime. I was part of a functioning marriage for a while, as you may recall.”

She never talked about that. Her sayin’ somethin’ stung Jayne more than he thought it would. Not that Zoe meant it ta be hurtful. Jayne just didn’t like thinkin’ about… It’d been almost a year. But he still didn’t like thinkin’ about it.

Zoe changed the subject. “So should we sneak in or should we just walk in the door?”

“You askin’ me?”

“This is your plan, Jayne.”

Jayne smiled. His plan.

“I reckon we can go right ta the door. My girls’ll be good on their word. Plus I’ve got Vera.”

Turned out Jayne didn’t need Vera. Stella an’ Marie was standin’ right outside the main door waitin’. They came runnin’ over. Slowed down when they saw Zoe.

Marie crossed her arms an’ looked Zoe up an’ down. Then she turned ta Jayne. “You brought yer wife?”

“She ain’t my wife.”

Stella looked from Jayne ta Zoe an’ back ta Jayne. “I don’t think I get it.”

“Is she a twin? I bet she’s a twin. Stella, she’s a twin.”

Stella gave Marie the kind of look Mal was always givin’ Jayne.

Marie shrugged. “What?”

“I don’t think she’s a twin, honey.”

Marie looked back at Zoe.

“I’m not a twin.”

“Damn.”

“My name is Zoe. Zeek here’s real name is Jayne.”

Marie looked at Jayne an’ narrowed her eyes. “I thought the sly doctor’s name is Jayne.”

Zoe shook her head. “His name is Simon.”

“Who’s Simon?”

Marie turned ta Stella. “The sly doctor’s name is Simon. Jayne’s really Zeek. Er… Zeek’s….” She trailed off.

Stella looked at Jayne. “So you’re Jayne. The sly doctor.”

Zoe sighed. “No. The sly doctor’s name is Simon. And he’s not sly. This is Jayne. There is no Zeek. I’m Zoe. And we’re not married.”

“So you’re… I don’t… so he… ni ta ma de tian xia… look at that gun.” Marie was starin’ at Vera.

Stella let out an’ appreciatin’ noise.

Marie looked up at Jayne. “Can I touch it?”

Jayne grinned. “Sure. Be real gentle, though.”

Stella an’ Marie both crept forward an’ held out a hand ta touch Vera’s side. Marie moaned.

Zoe cleared her throat. “Can we talk about the job?”

Marie looked over at Zoe an’ pouted. Looked real ornery ta have her moment ruined like that. “Yeah, it’s set up. Wife or not, you’re still bossy.”

“And holding a gun.”

Stella cut in. “It didn’t work out exactly as we planned, though.”

Jayne looked at ‘er. “What happened?”

Stella scuffed her foot. “Well… ya see… the plan was, we were gonna get the guards real good an’ liquored up. Get ‘em so they was real tired-like.”

Marie chimed in. “So they’d fall asleep.”

“So they’d fall asleep. But ya see… there wasn’t as much liquor as we thought there was, seein’ as there was that big shindig last night.”

“An’ the guards take an awful lot ta even get tipsy.”

Stella nodded. “Big men.”

“An’ ya see, Stella an’ me, we’re real… yanno… desirable. Popular with the wrong type of man.”

“So we keep some Belladonna around. Makes anyone fall asleep like nothin’, if ya put it in wine. Even the wrong type of man.”

“Even big men.”

“So we put it in the whisky. All of it.”

“All’ve the whisky er all’ve the Belly… whatever?”

Stella smiled at Jayne. “Both.”

“An’ then everyone started playin’ this drinkin’ game. It’s called… Stella, what is that game called?”

“Kumquat.”

“Right. An’ what it is is there’s a deck’ve cards an’ you say ‘neg’ er… what is it?”

“Kumquat.”

“Yeah. An’ then they flip the card over an’—“

“What happened with the Belladonna?”

Stella an’ Marie both glared at Zoe.

Stella turned away real slow toward Jayne. Marie kept on glarin’.

Stella cleared her throat. “They’re all asleep.”

Jayne lowered his eyebrows. “Thought that was the point.”

Marie pried her eyes away from Zoe. “Nah. The point was ta make the guards fall asleep.”

“You know how long it’s gonna take ta move half a mil in platinum? We was gonna have the girls help us.”

Marie chewed on her lip. “But they’re asleep.”

Stella nodded. “They’re asleep.”

Marie stood on her tiptoes an’ tried ta peer over Jayne’s shoulder.

Jayne looked at ‘er, then turned ta make sure there was nothin’ behind him. He turned back. Stella an’ Marie was lookin’ at ‘im.

“Where’s Kaylee?”

***