Disclaimer: Joss's, not mine

Spoilers: series, BDM

AN: You'll notice I took some license and decided that the Operative completely cleaned up the Tams' records. Hence Simon can scrub in on a surgery on an unknown world, with no difficulty over the fact that he's been a fugitive.

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Better in Red

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“Get over it.” River firmed her lips together and lifted her chin out and away from the man who lay on the recovery room cart.

“Scuse me?” Jayne responded querulously. “I’ve just had the inside of my nose ripped apart an’ put back t’gether. Not a lot of fun. I’ll have my moment of sympathy, thanks.” One could be excused for thinking he had a severe cold, listening to him speak. He did sound rather pitiful, in fact.

But the girl at his side wasn’t swayed. River sighed long-sufferingly and shook her head.

“You’ve had your moment five times, now. I’m having difficulty comprehending the cause of this whining. You’ve endured bullet wounds, knife stabbings, broken bones, numerous surgeries … your suffering now is of less magnitude than many of those instances.”

Jayne tried to glare at her, and it hurt, which only made his need to glare that much worse. He was in a bad gorram mood, and couldn’t show it the way he usually would. So, maybe he’d given into a few gripes. He hadn’t whined, exactly …

“Yes, you did.” River ran assessing eyes over the packing that filled Jayne’s nose. There was also a small clear tube inserted into the packing of each nare to allow him to breathe, and eat more easily. It didn’t actually look very comfortable. In fact, he looked rather like an extinct Earth-That-Was animal, a walrus. Capitulating somewhat, she laid her hand on his and gave it a few pats, while restraining her smile at the inner image she had of a walrusy Jayne. Maybe she could talk him into growing a mustache, to help the impression along.

Jayne curled his fingers up to grab hers and not let go.

“