A/N: Thanks to all who have been reading and responding. BEB - your comments crack me up!

Here's hoping that this chapter is also "feedback-worthy!" Please read and respond ...

And thanks once more to Leiasky for - well, you know.

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A NEW DAY, ch. 9: Common Ground

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Jayne found Simon making notes in a chart in the clinic, his eyes darting to the monitors around his son and back to the book. Entering and closing the door quietly behind him, he wasn’t sure the younger man had heard him until he finally said, “Go away, Jayne.”

Shaking his head and grimacing at the back of the man’s head, Jayne told him, “Not ‘til we talk about your sister.”

Still not facing him, Simon continued to write and said, “There’s nothing to talk about.”

His patience wearing thin, Jayne approached him and said heatedly, “Gorramit Simon, you can’t blame her for this.”

At that statement, Simon’s entire body tensed. Placing down his pen and standing up to his full height, he turned slowly to regard his brother-in-law and Jayne took a step back involuntarily at the anger that burned in his gaze. Jayne had never, not once, been intimidated by the doc, but that look in his eyes certainly made the mercenary reconsider his position on just how deadly Simon could be.

“I can’t blame her for this?” he asked coldly, incredulously, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the counter. “I don’t think you are in any position to tell me what I can and can’t do.” Holding Jayne’s look for another moment, Simon again turned to his chart and added, “And she most definitely is to blame for this.”

Having no other choice and little patience, Jayne allowed his frustration to boil to the surface. Grabbing Simon by the elbow, he whirled him back around and bit out, “Damn it Simon, how she was ‘sposed to know this was gonna happen?”

“She didn’t,” Simon retorted, his eyes still blazing. “But I did. I knew it would end badly and you know who it always ends badly for – me and