There was laughter around the table as everyone told stories of jobs they once had. Wash told of his experience as a fry cook, Shepherd had stories of life at the abbey, Mal and Zoë had war stories. She hadn’t had much work before comin’ on Serenity so her stories didn’t take long. River had no stories and Simon, poor honey, his were just dull.

Kaylee noticed that while Jayne joined in the laughter and questions he offered no stories of his own. He never did. The only jobs she knew about were the one with Marco that Mal had hired him away from, and of course the job on Canton.

When everyone else had made their way to bed and she and Jayne were sharin’ the last of the booze, she cuddled up against his shoulder and asked him. “Don’t ya have any stories?”

“None that are good enough for ya to hear.” Jayne answered stunned by the warm feel of her cuddled up against him. Did she think he was the doc or somethin’? Cause he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she’d done that to him. Once, ‘n’ this was it.

Kaylee insistent voice interrupted his thoughts. “Aw come on Jayne. Ya must’ve had some jobs that weren’t that bad. That ya liked.”

Jayne was silent, he didn’t like thinkin’ much ‘bout his past. He’d done too many things he weren’t that proud of. Things he definitely couldn’t tell shiny Kaylee ‘bout. She was lookin’ at him all expectant like though, ‘n’ he’d had enough to drink to make him more talkative than usual.

What could he tell her that weren’t too bad?

His first job had actually been legitimate. At fourteen he’d been hired as a gopher on a cargo boat. He got three square meals a day, coin to send home to his ma and the captain weren’t bad. But the man got hisself killed six months into the job and the second in charge wanted a boy to share his bed.

Jayne weren’t interested in being sly. It was alright for them that were that way, but not him, he liked girls. So he jumped ship the first chance he got.

He took a breath. “Second job I ever had was at a ##########, got hired as the bouncer. I was fifteen but lied and told the madam I was twenty, was pretty big even then, so it took her a week to figure out my real age. She kept me on though and got t’other bouncer to teach me stuff.”

The captain had been on his way for a coffee when he heard his crews’ voices. He stopped on hearing Jayne’s first words. He’d like to know more what made his mercenary tick but knew the man would never talk to him. Maybe he’d just stay here and eavesdrop.

“Everyone in the house made a sort of pet of me. Could already shoot ‘n’ track but Joe the other bouncer taught me how to use a knife. Fight properly with my fists.” The guy had been decent to him. “Showed me how to look after my weapons, clean ‘em properly, didn’t mind I was a bit slow.”

“What ‘bout the girls, Jayne, did they teach ya stuff too?” Kaylee raised her eyebrows at him.

“Sure.” He grinned his sexy grin at her “Hadn’t done much but kissin’ and fumblin’ afore that, but those girls taught me plenty ‘bout getting’ sexed up.”

He’d learnt other things from those girls and the madam too. The importance of coin, of doin’ your job well no matter what, so ya earned coin.

Jayne went on with his other obsessions “Food was beautiful. They had a vegetable and fruit garden and the cook, ai ya she could make anythin’ taste good. Made good tips too, could send plenty back to Ma.”

Kaylee was fascinated with what Jayne was tellin’ her, helped make sense of him a bit. No way was she goin’ to ask him what a fifteen year old boy was doin’ out in the black on his own. “How long were ya there?”

“Near on two years.” The longest he’d been anywhere till he came to Serenity.

The thought jolted him. Till the trouble came he’d been comfortable at the ##########. Sort of thought of everyone as his family, didn’t want to go that way again.

“Why’d ya leave?” She asked, regrettin’ the question immediately when his face went hard and set, blue eyes flinty, lips compressed.

Jayne hadn’t thought ‘bout the last bit when he started tellin’ the story, leastwise in this case he hadn’t done wrong.

“Killed a man” he muttered. “Hun dan was torturin’ one of the girls. We got in a fight and I broke his neck.” First time he’d killed anyone, shook him up some, made him sick to his stomach.

“Ya were doin’ ya job, protectin’ the girls. No-one could blame ya for that.” Kaylee was indignant on his behalf.

“Girls didn’t. Local sheriff didn’t. Fella’s family did.” Jayne was as usual blunt. “The family were the local nobs. Had lots of money, position, wanted revenge. The sheriff said he weren’t goin’ to arrest me. So the madam turned me in.”

“She what?” Kaylee couldn’t believe it.

“Turned me in for the reward, to stay in good with the nobs, wasn’t expectin’ that.”

Jayne for sure hadn’t expected it, couldn’t believe it, he’d liked the madam. He got angry just thinkin’ ‘bout how dumb he was. “I just stood there; more stupid than usual and let them lock me up. They were goin’ to hang me.”

Kaylee clutched his arm unthinkingly, man was so tense, and she was wishin’ she’d never got him started on this. “But ya got away right, I mean, here ya are, ornery as always.”

He nodded “Joe and one of the girls snuck me out that night. We made it look like I broke out. I didn’t want ‘em in trouble on account of me. All the girls put their money together to buy me passage off the planet. Caught a ride with a bunch of smugglers and never looked back.”

“See, ya friends came through for ya, helped ya out.” Kaylee pointed out the good parts of his story.

“Yeah they did,” Jayne grunted.

He’d almost forgotten ‘bout that. He’d been so focused on the madam’s betrayal that he’d forgotten his friends’ help. The risks they’d taken for him.

“Did they get in trouble for helpin’ ya?”

“Nope. Things went like we planned ‘n’ the bad guys just thought I escaped. Girls and Joe never got found out. None of ‘em really trusted the madam after that, Patty, the girl that got hurt, when she got better took over as madam. Far as I know, she’s still there.”

“How’d ya know all that Jayne?” Kaylee asked. “Did ya keep in touch with ‘em?”

“Joe and me wrote each other for a while till he got killed in the war, haven’t heard from any of the others.”

Kaylee was pattin’ his arm ‘n’ makin’ little soothin’ noises like she did sometimes when he got hurt. No way was he ever gonna let on how comforted that made him feel. He sighed and sat back, the story was over but it had got him thinkin’.

Thinkin’ that he was well on the way to feelin’ that the folks on Serenity were family, even more so than the girls ‘n’ Joe back at the ##########. He drifted a lot since then, never stayin’ too long with one group, doin’ too many bad things, till he’d almost hit rock bottom when the captain offered him a job.

He looked up as the captain, givin’ him an unreadable glance, came in to get a cup of coffee. “What’d I do this time?”

“Nothing. Just wondering if you’re going to stay there all night?” Mal indicated Kaylee who had fallen asleep against Jayne’s shoulder.

“I can wait till she wakes up,” he shrugged. He wasn’t goin’ to move and maybe hurt Kaylee’s still plastered arm wasn’t goin’ to hurt her or anyone else on board neither. So the thinkin’ and feelin’ were goin’ to the back of his mind, and stayin’ there. He was just goin’ to be reactin’ doin’ what he was asked. It was safer that way for him and everyone round him.

Hun dan = bastard Ai ya = damn