Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

Takes place shortly after the series ended. I forgot to mention that part 1 included chapters 1-5, part 2 includes chapters 6-10. Thanks to Cassie E for providing insperation on how to deal with Timmie's history in chapter 7, I had been trying to figure out how much to tell on that and she helped me see that less can be better. The Wash/Zoë bits in chapters 8 and 9 are for Sarah J., her comment about being a Wash/Zoë shipper is what got me to thinking of exploring that relationship.

Many thanks to William Topley and The Blessing for their song "Delta Rain", it helped inspire this piece. River sings bits and pieces of it to Jayne.

* Quote from Delta Rain, by The Blessing

Chinese translations:

Ch 7) Hwoon dahn: Son of a bitch

Ch 8) Mei-mei: Sister

Ch 10) Wang bao dahn: Dirty bastard

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A Week Later:

Jayne couldn't remember having a worse gorram week. The wave from Matty'd come two days after River'd come ta see him in his bunk. Two days of hopin' and prayin' she couldn't have known. Two days of endurin' trying to act normal so's none of the others'd know. Not that they couldn't tell somethin' was up from the way River hovered over him all the ruttin' time. And Simon'd been actin' mighty strange towards him too. Kept tryin' to drag him in for a check up. Part of him had wondered if River'd told him, but she hadn't.

If anything it'd gotten worse after they found out. Hell, even Mal kept lookin' at him all sympatheticlike. Hadn't even groused at him none about makin' the trip ta Liberty an' it's moons. He snickered slightly at what Mal's expression had been though, when he'd learned that was where he grew up, Liberty's second moon. No one'd ever bothered namin' the two moons, fortunate considerin' how Liberty herself was