“Where are you headin’ to doc?” Jayne asked as he watched Simon walk towards the engine room. Jayne knew exactly where Simon was heading but he just liked to watch the doc squirm. Simon finally noticed that Jayne was around and stopped.

“If you must be noisy, I’m on my way to the engine room to talk to Kaylee.” With that he started to walk again. But was stopped again by the big man ape.

“Ya know Kaylee is a very special woman to me and the rest of this crew and I don’t want to see her hurt by some pretty boy.”

Simon looked at Jayne with a disturbed look on his face. ”Please don’t call me pretty.”

“I’m just sayin’ that if you said those things to her just because we were getting’ attacked by Reavers because you though that that would give her the motivation that she needed to fight…well you would hurt her and I don’t like seein’ Kaylee hurt. Neither does Mal.” Jayne said as he lounged back in his seat placing his feet to rest on the table. Simon felt the anger rise from his crest. “I would NEVER hurt Kaylee on purpose. It’s true that I never responded to her forwardness before now but I didn’t want to start something with her that wouldn’t be able to keep up. I mean I have River to worry about and the fact that I’m a wanted fugitive doesn’t help much either.”

Jayne took is feet off the table. “Tell me somethin’ doc. When did you start having feelins for our little Kaylee? “Simon gave a smile. He pictured Kaylee in her overalls with a Chinese baby blue jacket over them and a paper umbrella shading her chestnut colored hair that was placed with two small knots on top of her head from the afternoon sun. He remembered just looking at her with feelings that he never experienced before rushing thru him.

“Since the first time I laid eyes on her.”

Jayne nodded as Simon continued.

“When I first walked past Serenity I never even looked at it’s destination but to Kaylee. I knew that I had to make sure that River would be someplace safe and when I saw Kaylee’s smile that day…I knew that she was somebody that I could trust.”

Jayne stood and walked over to where Simon stood and stared at him sternly “If lil’ Kaylee wants to be with you then by all means go ahead, but if you do anything to upset her you will answer to me and Vera. Dong ma?”

Simon didn’t answer Jayne but finished walking the rest of the way to the engine room. Looking around he finally spotted her legs sticking out from underneath the engine. Simon slowly started to walk closer to the engine. He didn’t want to scare Kaylee with his sudden presents so decided to stay quiet until she came out from underneath the heart of Serenity. This giving Simon time to think about what he wanted to say to Kaylee. But the time was cut short when he heard a voice.

“What are you doing here Simon?” Kaylee hadn’t come out from beneath the engine but knew he was there.

“How did you know it was me?”

“I can see your shoes. Nobody else wears black dress shoes.” Simon glanced down and looked at his shoes.

“True”

”Did River send you?”

Simon jerked his head up suddenly. “Why would River send me?”

“She told me to go see you.”

“Are you sick?” concern was leaking from his voice.

“No”

“Then why did my sister tell you to come to me?” Kaylee finished with the engine but needed to get to the cockpit to finish the last of the major repairs. She climbed out from under Serenity’s heart causing Simon to notice the white bandage that she had put on the cut earlier. Concern shined in Simon’s eyes again. “Kaylee what happened?”

Kaylee touched her forehead briefly before she walked past Simon to her tool box.

“River startled me when I was fixin’ the engine a little while ago and I hit my head on a sharp piece of the engine.”

“River was right; you should have come to me.”

“It’s fine Simon.”

“It could be deep and need stitches or it could get infected.” He said coming over to Kaylee and trying to get under the white bandage Kaylee stopped and waited so Simon could look at her head because she knew that he wouldn’t stop with his concern until he did. She knew that Simon would act that way when it came down to some medical problem.

“Well it will need a couple of stitches but the bleeding stopped. Let’s get you to the infirmary.” Simon said going to grab Kaylee’s hand but Kaylee pulled away.

“I don’t have time right now Simon.”

“But Kaylee you need to get that taken care of.”

“I will, I promise, I just need to finish something up on the bridge first.” She started towards the exit. Simon wasn’t going to let this drop. He stayed close on her heels as she walked thru the hallway leading to the common room that he had past by with Jayne just a few minutes before. Neither noticed that Jayne had moved to the corner chairs and away from the table but listened in with amusement.

“Kaylee, about what I said before about me not being with you…” Simon started. Kaylee knew that this part of the talk was coming the, ‘I made a mistake when I said that' and the 'I don’t want to get involved’ speech. Kaylee knew that if she heard Simon say that it was all a mistake she would just die. So she did what she had to do. Turning she gave Simon a small fake smile.

“It’s ok Simon. There’s no need to explain.”

“There’s not?” Simon asked confused. He wondered if River told her of his true feelings he had for the mechanic when she was in the engine room with Kaylee earlier.

“No there isn’t. I know you said what you did because you knew that I was trying to be sweet on you for a long time so you thought since we are going to die anyway I might as well tell her what she wanted to hear…”

Simon was shocked at what she was saying and tried to deny it.

“No that’s not…” he was cut off.

“It’s ok I understand. Let’s just forget you said anything ok?”

Just then all the people in the common room heard Mal yell from the bridge.

“KAYLEE”

Kaylee left Simon and headed towards the yelling. “I’m comin’ Cap'n tight pants.”

Jayne watched Kaylee go with a confused look. “I didn’t see that comin’.”

Simon stared after Kaylee. “What just happened?”

Zoë who had caught the end of Kaylee’s speech when she entered the room, decided to make her presents know and walked up behind Simon. She placed a gentle hand on the young doctor’s shoulder.

“Looks like you got out of it again doc.”

Simon’s eyes dimmed.

“Ya, but I didn’t want an out this time.”

TBC

Translations: Dong ma? = Understand?