Weren’t unusual for Jayne’s stomach to wake him up. Not at all. His Ma’d always said he had some kinda tapeworm in it – Mal went asking the doc once or twice to check for the gorram same thing – but Jayne figured all that ass-kicking he did had to get fueled by something. Not too different from the ship, she burned what she ate just like Jayne did, except her food was all manner of shiny and deathifying.

Kaylee’d mentioned that once, when he asked what Serenity ate. She showed him the fuel cells and smacked his hand right off them when he tried to open one up. He only wanted to know how spaceship fuel smelled. He’d seen diesel and gasoline, didn’t figure anything went into the ass end of a gimungous space bug would be no different. Thought wrong there, but then he’d never thought about engines until little Kaylee came along and couldn’t lift stuff on her own. Girl started in with a story about Earth-That-Was and nuclear fusion and all manner of horrifying deaths, and the only thing saving him from sleep was them pretty dimples in her face. So what he did was, he said something that got her to laughing and stopped the storytelling, which meant he was back on safe ground where he didn’t feel so gorram dumb.

Not that there was much Kaylee-laughing anymore. Or laughing from anyone else. Miranda happened, and all manner of badness with and because and after it, and by the time Mal got them back in the sky where they belonged, weren’t nobody even able to crack a smile anymore. Made things too damn quiet.

Jayne stomped down the corridor towards the kitchen. Nighttime didn’t mean much out in the black, but it was when crew pretended to be asleep, and that suited Jayne just fine. Boat felt five kinds of empty when everyone on it was trying not to be seen by everyone else. His big boots thudded down the stairs by the table, stomped hollow across the floor into the kitchen, and he knew if anyone heard him they’d pretend they didn’t. He set himself to finding food didn’t smell like something dead.