It was supposed to be a milk run. Captain decided that he would only take River with him when he went to meet the contact. Her psychic abilities would give them an edge and free up Jayne to accompany the heavily pregnant Zoë to shop while Kaylee and Simon stayed behind on Serenity to repair the engine. Jayne had grumbled about having to go with Zoë shopping, but Mal had just given him a look that said, I will shoot you. So Jayne had gone and that’s where the trouble started.

Jayne and Zoë where in the shopping district. Zoë didn’t like having her pregnancy keeping her from doing things, she was stubborn about that, so Simon said as long as she didn’t over due it, she could go into town and walk around. He drew the line at going out on jobs, and Mal backed him up on that.

At the moment, Zoë was looking at baby clothes, and Jayne was keeping an eye on the crowd that jostled them on all sides. He didn’t know how he missed seeing the men who surrounded them, but he noticed the moment he felt a gun barrel in his side. He also noticed a gun pressed against Zoë’s belly endangering the unborn child within. For that reason Jayne gave up without a fight, allowing the men to slowly herd them away from the marketplace and into an alleyway where they were both disarmed.

The men turned out to be eight in number and where hoping to use Zoë and Jayne as leverage to make the captain fork over the cargo. They led Jayne and Zoë away from the alley and into a dank warehouse. Once inside the warehouse the two of them were locked in what appeared to be an old freezer unit that luckily wasn’t working.

Seeing that Zoë looked uncomfortable, Jayne laid his jacket on the ground and helped her to sit on it. She was reluctant at first. “I’m fine,” she insisted.

“Gorramit, Zoë, you’re eight and half months pregnant. I ‘member when my Ma was that far ‘long. So quit yer complain’n have seat.”

Zoë glared at Jayne but eventually took his help in sitting down on the heavy camouflage coat. Once Zoë was settled, Jayne searched through the room looking for a weapon or a way out.

He was interrupted when the door opened and one of the men came inside. Jayne stopped his inspection and glared over at the man who came in.

The man who entered leered at Zoë and motioned to her with his gun to get up.

“Where ya take’n her?” Jayne asked with a growl in his voice.

The man turned his gun on Jayne and said, “Going ter have a little fun before we contact yer captain.” The leer on his face left no doubt as to what Jayne meant. Zoë’s eyes got hard as rocks as he protectively cupped her belly with her hands.

“You idiot, look at ‘er.” Jayne said.

“So?” The man said, “Me and the boys ain’t picky. Make it easier to handle ‘er, is all.”

Jayne’ eyes widened. Despite what a lot of the people on Serenity thought, Jayne wasn’t stupid. He knew what would happen to the baby if the man took her out of the room. He looked over at Zoë, who had lost her husband, and had only the baby to keep her whole and sane. Jayne took a deep breath trying to stifle his fear and he turned to the man.

“Look, leave ‘er alone. She won’t be no fun. To much of a cold bitch, yer dick might freeze off.” Jayne said ignoring the scathing glare Zoë gave him.

“Yeah well that leaves you and we ain’t picky like I said.” The man told him directing the muzzle of his barrel toward Jayne and away from Zoë.

“Yeah well, you and yers ain’t man enough for that.” Jayne baited the man holding his attention and keeping it off of Zoë. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Zoë was looking at him with shock.

“We’ll see about that,” the man snarled and motioned with his gun for Jayne to leave the freezer.

Jayne forced his feet to move taking him out of the relative safety of the freezer. He looked once more at the rounded belly that held Wash’ legacy and took a deep breath before exiting the makeshift cell. The door shut behind him with loud bang that made his heart jump.

One of the other men tied Jayne’s hands together, then pushed and pulled him to where the other six men waited. There was some initial complaints that it wasn’t Zoë they had brought out, but the men were drinking and their inhibitions slowly left them.

There was an empty crate that the men had been using as a table to play cards on. Jayne was pushed face down over the crate. He didn’t fight, one of the men was stationed with a gun close to the freezer prepared to shoot Zoë if Jayne fought.

Instead, Jayne closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as the first man unbuckled Jayne’s belt. He then unbuttoned and unzipped Jayne’s cargo pants and let them slide down to his knees and then pushed Jayne’s boxers down as well. Cold air hit Jayne’s bare skin and he fought a shiver.

The man who had pulled Jayne from the freezer went first. There was no preparation, no lubricant. The man shoved his cock deep into Jayne’s ass and began pumping away. The pain was bad, but Jayne refused to make a sound. Instead he concentrated on taking his mind far from his body, something mercs learned to do after being shot up all the time.

The other men laughed and egged the first man on, placing bets on how long the man would last. Eventually the man came, spilling his seed into Jayne’s torn body and relinquishing his place to the next man.

They weren’t content just to rape him. They also hit him across his back, or left handprint bruises around his waist. When all eight of them had their turn, the first man cut the ropes binding Jayne’s wrists and allowed Jayne to pull up his pants and boxer and secure them.

With the first man behind him holding a gun to his back, Jayne limped to the freezer and went inside when a second man opened it.

Upon entering, Jayne noticed that Zoë was breathing funny. The first mate looked up at Jayne’s entrance, and her eyes held sympathy and gratitude. There was also pain, and Jayne realized that Zoë had gone into labor noticing the wet spot on the floor.

“Ah shit, now ain’t the time.” Jayne said ignoring his own pain and kneeling down beside the first mate.

“Tell that to the baby.” Zoë said not unkindly.

“Ah hell, Zoë I ain’t the doc, I don’t know what to do.” Jayne said.

“Well, doc or no, this baby’s coming. Help me get my pants off.”

Normally Jayne would have made a crude remark or a joke, but Jayne didn’t feel like anything was even remotely funny. Instead he was quick to obey Zoë. He also helped her remove her own coat and used it to lay over her knees.

Zoë told him what to check for, and what to do and Jayne followed her instructions. Before Zoë began pushing, Jayne removed his soldier T-shirt and used it to catch the baby and wrap the little crying boy in its khaki folds. He didn’t have a knife to cut the umbilical cord, so he just laid the T-shirt wrapped baby on Zoë’s chest and then checked to make sure she wasn’t bleeding too bad.

At that moment, Jayne heard some gunshots outside the freezer and Jayne moved to place his body between mother and child and whatever might come through the door.

Jayne thought his knees would give out in relief when the door opened and Malcolm Reynold’s stepped through with River Tam right behind him.

The captain reholstered his gun and moved to be at Zoë’s side. He looked over at River, “Tell them we need a stretcher and get yer brother in here.”

River nodded and left the room. She returned a few minutes later with her brother and the stretcher. Simon cut the umbilical cord and delivered the afterbirth. He cleaned her up and stiched the torn vaginal area. Jayne and Mal then placed her on the stretcher and picked her up and carried her out of the freezer and past the eight men filled with bullet holes. Jayne felt satisfaction upon seeing them dead, and was surprised when Zoë reached up to grip Jayne’s wrist in a comforting grip.

Once inside the shuttle that was parked outside the warehouse, River sat down at the pilot’s seat and flew her back to Serenity.

In the shuttle, Jayne collapsed into a chair and laid his head back closing his eyes in misery.

“Doc, you need to check on Jayne.” Zoë said her tone brooking no argument from either the doctor or the mercenary.

Simon caught that tone and nodded moving away from Zoë to where Jayne sat. Simon used his instruments to check Jayne for concussion and then his blood pressure, frowning when he found it was a little low.

“Jayne are you bleeding?” Simon said looking over Jayne’s bare upper torso for injuries.

Jayne nodded, but said, “Aint’ nothing you can do ‘bout till we get to Serenity. I ain’t looking to strip down in front of everyone.”

Simon gave him an odd look. It only took a few minutes for River to fly them back to Serenity. They used the stretcher to take Zoë to the infirmary though she balked at being carried. Simon helped Mal carry her rather than allowing Jayne to do so. At Mal’s orders River headed toward the bridge, though she gave Jayne’s arm a comforting squeeze and whispered, “Thank you,” before heading doing so.

Jayne followed the stretcher to the infirmary. Inara and Kaylee had been waiting at the shuttle entrance and followed them down.

Zoë told Mal that he and Kaylee needed to leave and give her and Jayne privacy. The look in Zoë’s eyes told Mal he had better listen. He nodded at her, then with one last puzzled look at Jayne he herded Kaylee out of the infirmary and away from the passenger dorm.

Inara stayed to assist Simon, something she had been training to do the last few months ever since she had resigned from the Guild. She helped clean up the baby while Simon helped Jayne to lay down on the counter that they used for a second bed.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Simon asked though he had an idea already upon seeing the blood covering Jayne’s cargo pants.

Jayne didn’t answer, and Simon noticed he had lost consciousness. Simon was quick to insert an IV and start a blood transfusion using the stored blood from the fridge while Zoë answered, “He was raped.”

Inara gasped at that, but Simon just nodded and began to cut away Jayne’s cargo pants and boxers.

Sometime later, Simon finished stitching up the tears in Jayne’s rectum and inserted another IV with an antibiotic after covering the mercenary with a sheet up to his shoulder blades. Inara had cleaned up the sleeping mercenary of blood, semen and birthing fluids after having cleaned up the baby and Zoë. They left the infirmary to allow Jayne to sleep and Zoë to breastfeed her son.

Mal was waiting for them outside the passenger dorm.

“Can I go in now?” He asked Simon.

“Jayne’s asleep, try not to wake him. Zoë’s feeding the baby, but she said to come inside if you think you can handle that.” Simon answered.

“How are they?” Mal asked.

“The baby is fine. It’s a boy by the way. Healthy, seven pounds and five ounces. Zoë’s fine, she just needed a few stitches, not uncommon. There was no physical trauma to either her or the baby.” Simon answered.

“And Jayne?”

Simon hesitated, but knew that Mal would need to know. In a small ship that spent days in space far from any planet or space station, everything affected the entire crew. “He was apparently gang raped.” Simon answered finally.

Mal’s face held no expression. “He going to be alright?”

“He was bleeding badly from a few of the tears. I stitched him up and gave him some blood. The tears will heal in a few weeks. The stitches will dissolve on their own in a week. Physically he’ll be fine.” Simon answered.

Mal heard the rest of the unspoken words and nodded. He then left them behind to head to the passenger dorm and into the infirmary.

Zoë was still feeding the baby, and Mal walked over to her to look down at the Zoë’s and Wash’s son. “He looks just like him.” Mal said.

Zoë smiled, “He does.”

Mal glanced over at Jayne who was sleeping on his stomach, face turned towards them.

“What happened Zoë?” Mal asked.

“They wanted me, sir. They were planning to rape me, but he wouldn’t let them. That crazy hundan offered himself in my place.” Tears were forming in Zoë’s eyes.

Mal hugged Zoë’s to him, careful of the feeding baby at her breast.

She cried softly into his shirt, the fear and shock of the past few hours pouring out of her. She cried quietly, just as she always had. Crying for her baby, for her dead husband and for a mercenary who Mal would not have believe would sacrifice himself for anyone else.

When eventually, Zoë had cried herself out, and could concentrate on the baby in her arms, Mal gave her one last hug and then walked over to where the sleeping mercenary lay. He looked down at the man who had betrayed him once before and reached out with one hand placing it gently on the soft hair on Jayne’s head. A deep, fierce feeling of pride welled in his heart and Mal cupped Jayne’s head in his hand as he had once done to a young man who had died in the arms of an electronic love ‘bot helping to get a message through. He leaned down until his lips were mere inches from Jayne’s ear and whispered to the unconscious merc, “Thank you, Jayne, for their lives. You did good.” And he lightly kissed the merc’s temple as one would a son that a man could be proud of and then straightened to go find a doctor and a former Companion who could teach him how to help his mercenary through the days ahead.