“Simon, gorram it” Kaylee’s voice was almost cross; the man was nearly useless in the engine room. Before she could continue with her criticism the Captain was yellin’ over the comm.

“Kaylee we need to be flying not dropping like a stone.”

“We’re workin’ as fast as we can Captain” Kaylee lied as she looked round the engine room. “It’d go faster if I had Jayne here.”

Earlier when she’d woken up from her dream of sex, Jayne, love and safety, she’d felt happy and rested. Her stomach tingled when she realised that she’d gone to sleep while the man brushed her hair. Her throat tightened when she noticed he was sleepin’ propped on the floor beside her.

For a while Kaylee had just lay there and watched him sleep. He was off guard and relaxed, the man must trust her some, to go to sleep while she was there. His face weren’t pretty; there was too much strength there for pretty, but he was swai.

Kaylee had given into temptation and run her hand lightly down the side of his face, fingers strokin’ through the hair of his goatee along the strong jaw line. She was rewarded when Jayne on wakin’ lifted his hand up and grasped her fingers gently, blue eyes unreadable. They’d been sittin’ there starin’ at each other in some sorta holdin’ pattern when the proximity alert went off.

**************************

“Jayne” the Captain turned to an empty space; the man had already gone taking his weapons with him.

This morning when the proximity alert went off and they had discovered the derelict ship, Mal had been pleased.

Unlike the last derelict they had found, this one had been abandoned only because of engine failure. He had sent Zoë, Jayne and Kaylee over to see if anything was salvageable. They were still collecting when the alarm went off for the second time.

He was stunned to see that the ship looming beside them was the Walden, and that the captain was asserting his right to the salvage. Mal knew, from his previous experience with the catalyser, that the other captain couldn’t be trusted.

The Captain knew that he couldn’t use threats; the Walden was bigger than Serenity, so he tried persuasion and when that didn’t work, bribery.

But the other captain wouldn’t be reasoned with, docking and boarding the derelict and shooting grappling lines at Serenity. Mal’s crew on board the derelict had fought back the boarders returning to Serenity just as Wash pulled the boat free from the grapplers.

**************************

Simon was feeling out of his element again. Since Zoë and River were putting out fires and the Captain required Jayne’s guns and muscles he had offered to assist in the engine room.

Kaylee’s hasty comments stung. In spite of his willingness; he had no idea what the pretty mechanic required of him.

He always marvelled that for one so adept at medical things, he was so inept at engineering. He never could fathom Kaylee’s method of assessing what to repair first or her explanations as to what he should do to assist.

He couldn’t even manage to stop Kaylee picking up or carrying items that were much too awkward for her in her one-armed state. A feat Jayne managed with little or no effort.

The mercenary came striding in, snatched a heavy part out of the girl’s hand and glared at her. She glared back, but at no time while Simon was watching and helping where he could, did Kaylee repeat the awkward lifting.

He watched as they worked together, sometimes not even exchanging words, each knowing what the other wanted. Jayne swearing steadily took Kaylee’s orders without bluster, questioning or complaint.

Several hours later during a brief hiatus, he watched their hissed argument over Kaylee needing rest and Jayne needing medical assistance. When the hisses started degenerating into snaps and snarls he had intervened, suggesting that Kaylee rest in the hammock while he checked Jayne’s injury.

The big mercenary had actually given him a grateful glance as he sunk to the floor while Kaylee subsided onto the hammock. Unfortunately the break had been all too brief, with the running battle beginning again and the crew working throughout the night to keep the boat flying.

**************************

Kaylee unconsciously leant back against Jayne, his bulk supporting her entire weight as they listened to the Captain’s jubilant voice and Wash’s cheerin’ echo over the comm.

“We’ve lost ‘em!”

“Shiny” Kaylee was exhausted. They’d been runnin’ and fightin’ for near on two days, she was glad it were over and they were still alive. Serenity was goin’ to need lots of work still, but that could wait till they’d all had had a sleep. She wanted to sleep for hours. ‘Cept she couldn’t move. She was still leanin’ against Jayne, didn’t want to move, ever.

Jayne waited for Simon’s offer to walk Kaylee back to her bunk, but the hun dan just stood there. The man needed talkin’ to. Jayne had already made up his mind to have a chat with the fool ‘bout the sexin’, now he was gonna have to talk ‘bout treatin’ Kaylee right too.

The girl should be sleepin’ in her bunk right now, but she was still leanin’ against him.

He didn’t care if she stayed there forever.