"Your Mama was just as beautiful as anythin' you can imagine," Jayne said, beginning the familiar story that Rosie knew by heart. "She weren't wearin' no fancy gown like some brides do, but then, I reckon she used up all her patience with fancy things when she married your Daddy. Your Mama's always been the simple an' straightforward type, an' that's what I love most about her."

"What about me, Papa?" Rosie piped, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"You didn't quit squallin' the whole time, no matter how much your Baba an' your aunties fussed over ya," Jayne said fondly. "Don't know what the preacher musta thought, you there hollerin' your little head off an' lookin' like the spit of yer Daddy. Reckon he either thought I was a fool or a hero, but I weren't neither."

"You were just my Papa," Rosie beamed. "What about Baba, why didn't Baba marry Mama, instead of you?"

"Well," Jayne smiled, "when a man marries a woman, he has to give her all of his heart, an' your Baba already gave his away."

"To 'Nara, who I see in captures when Baba's sad," Rosie stated. "But you gave Mama your heart, just like Daddy did."

"That's right," Jayne said. "I surely did."

~*~

"This ain't no pretty piece of glass," Zoe said, her brow furrowed. "Jayne, why'd you gimme this?"

"It's a ring. Needed a ring to get married with," he said simply, shrugging and refusing to meet her eyes. "It was my Ma's."

"It was your -" Zoe couldn't help feeling she'd never met this man, her... her husband? before. "Jayne, this is a real diamond. Hell, size o' this coulda bought you three whores for three days."

"Gorramit, Zoe, if I'd'a wanted whores, I'd'a had whores," Jayne growled, and the fire in his eyes startled her. "Don't you know by now it's you? There ain't no one else. I can't be Wash for ya, but I can be a good husband to ya, and a good father to little Rosie."

"You already are," Zoe said softly. "Jayne, I can't ask ya to give up more than you already have done."

"I ain't askin' ya to love me," Jayne answered just as softly. "Just let me take care of you and your little girl the best I can."

"Jayne," Zoe said, a smirk in her voice, but fear fluttering in her stomach... at least, she thought it was probably fear. "I know how you like your whorin'."

"Married man don't take to bed with none but his wife. Ain't no obligations on your part, Zoe. Married men still got hands."

Zoe couldn't remember a crude remark sounding so sweet before in all her life.

~*~

"An' then we all lived happily ever after?"

"So far," Jayne laughed. "More or less."

"Husband," Zoe smiled, waddling into the common area, "make yourself useful. My feet are killin' me."

Rosie grinned and scooted out of her Papa's lap to make room for her Mama's feet, and as Zoe settled in on the sofa, Rosie curled up next to her, her little ear pressed to her Mama's belly. "Is the new baby gonna smell as bad as Michael?" She asked, wrinkling her nose. Michael was Simon and Kaylee's newborn.

"Worse," Jayne said, "'cause the new baby's a Cobb, an' Michael's a Tam. Tams are prissified little clean things, an' Cobbs like to get dirty."

"I like to get dirty," Rosie commented. "I'm practically a Cobb, 'cept I got the stars in my blood, ain't that so, Mama?"

"That's so," Zoe agreed, making a half-sigh, half-grunt as Jayne's fingers worked a knot in her left foot. Rosie's eyelids were starting to droop. "Why don't you have your Baba get you ready for bed, Starchild?"

Rosie made a face. "Don't want to go to bed. Want another story."

"Reckon it's Baba's turn for a story," Jayne pointed out. "Ain't it, now?"

Rosie scowled. "Two o' you best come tuck me in after, or I'll stay up all night waitin'."

"That a threat or a promise, little one?" Zoe asked, her lips twitching as she tried not to smile. "We'll be along presently."

~*~

Pink pajamas with dinosaurs on them hadn't been the easiest thing to find out on the rim, but Mal had managed to find the fabric and sent it along to Inara, who'd stitched up a couple of sets in different sizes, so Rosie wouldn't grow out of them too fast. Rosie scrambled into the largest of them and clambered into bed. "Okay, Baba," she said. "Time for a story, now."

Mal raised an eyebrow. "Didn't your Papa just get done tellin' you one?"

"That was an anytime story," Rosie said, rolling her eyes. "I need a bedtime story."

"Okay," Mal said, running through his repertoire mentally. "You want one with dinosaurs?"

"Hmm," Rosie said, pretending to think. "Nope. I want to hear about when Mama an' Papa was courtin'."