One month later….

Kaylee watched as Jayne walked away from Serenity. The sun shone off of a store front window in the small town on Paquin, making him disappear quicker. It was a desert-y place, sand blowin every which a way and hot. He looked back only once and seemed to reconsider, seeing her standing there in pigtails and her pink dress.

Then he looked away and turned a corner so he was out of sight.

Kaylee turned away from the bay doors, not feeling the floor beneath her, not feeling the hum of Serenity’s life, in short, not feeling anything, but a big icy weight in her stomach. She was to the bottom of the stairs when her legs gave. She began to sob, feeling as though every part of her was empty, like she was just going to float away. Kaylee put her hand to her heart, needing to feel it beating there, needing to make sure it was still there. She clung to the railing, crying a month’s worth of tears.

‘You should be glad he’s gone,’ part of her snapped. ‘No more crazy talk about revenge for his sister, no more meanness to ya, no more worrying what to tell your baby about her daddy bein crazy.’

“Oh mei mei!” Inara had immerged from her shuttle. She ran down the stairs and swept Kaylee up in her arms.

*****

Jayne kept walkin.

He told himself over and over that this was for the best, what he’d wanted. What both of them had wanted. He’d seen her standing there, getting smaller and smaller, her face never changing: about to cry, but waiting, waiting for him to disappear. Not wanting to cry in front of him. And he’d wanted to go to her, so’s she wouldn’t have to cry, tell her he loved her and kiss her all over and breath in her smell.

But instead he’d kept walkin.

There was one image burned into his brain: Maddy lying cut to pieces and with a bullet through her. Lookin like something the devil’d spat outta hell.

Lord knew it had been hard to be so mean to little Kaylee with only that image to block out her hurt face, but he hadn’t wanted her to miss him once he was gone. T