Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss.

Rating: PG-15 for profanity, references to things socially unacceptable.

Setting: Post series, in my AU, after Kaylee has left Simon for Jayne

Pairing: Jayne/Kaylee

A little one-shot prompted by Squish’s request for stories for the FireflyHolidays comm over at LJ. Comments are sincerely appreciated.

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The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Jayne was always leaving things in his pockets. Kaylee’d learned to check the big man’s clothes when it was her turn to do laundry after the time he’d left a handful of ammo in the knee pocket of his brown cargo pants. Made a hell of a racket bangin’ around in the washer, they did, and she was just glad they never made it into the ship’s flux-fueled dryer.

There was also the time when Wash had laundered the pants in which Jayne had cached a note with the combination for a bank job they were doin’, and it emerged as illegible, smeared bits of lint stuck to everything. Mal was not amused.

She’d picked up a pair of Jayne’s fatigues from the pile of dirties to toss into the washer and wasn’t too surprised when the crunched up scrap of lined yellow paper tumbled to the deck. “Hmm… wonder if that’s important?” she mused, nibbling the corner of her pretty mouth. “Guess I better check.”

She teased the crumpled wad open and flipped it writing side up. The rough printing could have come from no one on board other than Jayne.

“GIT KAYLEE SOMTHIN FOR V.D.” it read.

The little mechanic shook her head and read it again, suddenly feelin’ cold and sick. She knew the kind of women the big merc went with, and truth to tell, she should have considered this possibility before gettin’ intimate with the man. She and Jayne hadn’t been sweeties all that long, but surely he wouldn’t have knowingly… not if he was… and why the dì yù was he waitin’ to tell her?

Oh lord, what was she gonna do? If she went to Simon, he’d need to test her to treat it properly and