“My stomach hurts.”

Kaylee sat with her back to the wall. The blood in her mouth was starting to dribble down her chin onto her shirt. Not that it made a lot of difference, considering that there was a hole all the way through her. She’d been stabbed, practically impaled with a Reaver pike, right where her stomach met her chest. A few inches higher and she’d already be dead.

‘Not that it makes much difference. Pretty soon those Reavers are going to bust through that door and eat me alive. Just like Simon. And Zoe.’ She looked down at her ruined shirt. Hell, her ruined body. ‘It’s a shame I was wearing this when it happened. I really like this shirt.’ Things were getting hazy. She felt dizzy and the blood that had pooled in the cups of her bra felt sticky and itched. She shifted and cried out. Only a little, but Jayne was about three feet away from her, rifling through Simon’s medical bag.

“I know your stomach hurts, you’ve got a gorram hole through it!” He held her still. “And don’t move! That can’t be helpin.” Jayne emptied the bag out onto the floor. Bottles and rolls of bandages rolled off in all directions, the hollow sound they made against the concrete floor made the darkness surrounding the merc and the mechanic even bigger. Kaylee laughed to herself softly when she thought of how Simon would feel with his neatly organized bag poured out onto the floor.

“Ah, hell!” Jayne scrambled after the escaping supplies. Then Kaylee couldn’t see him. She wasn’t afraid of the dark. But she didn’t want to be alone.

“Jayne.”

Nothing.

“Jayne!” Kaylee called at the top of her voice. She wasn’t very loud and it sounded strangled. The dark around her was closing it. When it finally took her she didn’t want to be alone.

Blood oozed out her mouth. Some of it flew when she cried out. Jayne heard it spatter on the floor in the darkness.

He came running back. He had one of the bottles he’d been chasing clutched in his hand. “What? What is it?” He was starting to panic. She’d lost a lot of blo