Chapter Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I didn’t make up Firefly. It was Joss Whedon, I swear!

“Well if the cap is looking for me then I can’t stay!” Kaylee didn’t want to leave, but she was too angry to stay. The fact that Simon had said those things to her…well she was just fit to scream. She needed to lose herself in Serenity. Maybe she could finally get that gorram binary gear belt working even if she only had the old tranny box for parts.

“Ahw, to hell with the captain! Can’t you stay a little while?” Jayne didn’t understand why Kaylee wanted to leave so bad. Usually when he fought for a woman she got real hot for him. “Jayne…if you wanna know the truth so bad, I’m just to gorram mad at Simon. And I don’t wanna be with you cause I’m mad at Simon. I can’t explain it.”

Jayne pulled her into him. “So…you do want me right?” Kaylee paused.

“What do you think?” she leaned in to kiss him. Jayne flinched back. “That ain’t my deal Kaylee girl, dong ma?” Kaylee just looked down at her boots, nodded and left.

*****

It was easy to slip away from that anger when she was working. Serenity sang when Kaylee poured her heart into her. But Serenity was quiet today. Kaylee’s heart was elsewhere.

*****

The door to her shuttle opened. Inara looked up and smiled. Kaylee had come to visit her. “Kaylee! We haven’t spoken in a while.” Inara studied the mechanics face. Something was troubling her.

“What’s bothering you?”

Kaylee looked into ‘Nara’s eyes and saw what she’d been looking for: somebody she could trust and who loved her. “Oh, ‘Nara!” Kaylee said. “Simon said the most horrible things to me and now I can’t stop being angry! He ditched me and he never loved me!”

“I thought you were going to leave him.” Inara hated to see Kaylee so upset. “Well I was, he just beat me to the punch and now I just feel like something’s wrong with me!” With that Kaylee started to cry all over again. Not the huge sobs of the night before, but the kind of strangled tears a tough girl cries when she wants to hide it.