Chapter 1: Present day: July

Jayne leaned against the building, smoked his cigar and watched his girl shop. She didn’t like it when he smoked in their bunk. He chuckled at the memory; she didn’t come right out and ban it, just made it to his benefit not to. He straitened up when he noticed the man, nothing obvious, he just seemed a mite too interested in his girl.

The man noticed Jayne as he came up beside him.

“You seem to be staring at my woman, why is that?” Jayne fingered his gun.

“Not a lot of women around these parts and she is very handsome.” The man looked Jayne over. “How much?”

Jayne scrunched his face a bit, not understanding the question. “How much what?”

“For your woman. I’ll go up to 4,000. Any more and I’m gonna want to check her out.”

Jayne fought the urge to just kill the man. “You offering me 4,000 for my girl?”

“Sorry, you want more?” He thought for a minute, looked the woman over again. “Ok, how about 5,000?”

Jayne looked thoughtful for a minute. ‘Shit, 5,000. I can get a lifetime of whores for that. Or maybe a week with a real companion.’ He watched her as he thought to himself. ‘Was only supposed to be for the ride out here and back.’ He chewed on his cigar some more, it helped with the thinking.

She could feel the men stare at her, she always knew when Jayne watched her, but this was different. She turned and saw the two men. She caught Jayne’s eye and slowly smiled at him. It reminded him of the smile he got when he talked her into marring him.

Chapter 2: Two months prior: May

Jayne wasn’t sure he had heard Kaylee right. “Three months? Kaylee you gotta be wrong about that.” He walked up behind her and the shopkeeper. “Mal ain’t said nothing to me about a long trip.”

Kaylee jump, she hadn’t realized that Jayne was back there. She knew Mal had not told Jayne about the trip and didn’t know what to say.

Jayne looked at her face. “Gorram it, how come I don’t know about this trip.” He knew he could force it out of Kaylee, but he didn’t want to make her cry. He turne