PART 31: HE DRANK

It was an all out feast and celebration, albeit impromptu. They had just finished a job on Santos and gone to the town fair that evening. The next morning around 5am, Jayne and Sky arrived back on the ship, him punch drunk, her with a plastic bouquet of flowers, their hands joined on a bottle of whiskey and a marriage certificate. It had been a long time since Mal had shots for breakfast, but he did it for Jayne. The two were neck and neck right up to the third one at which point Jayne was laughing so hard he passed out and bumped his head.

The rest of the morning was a bit fuzzy for Mal. In fact, the first part was pretty fuzzy as well. The others had awoken to there rabble-rousing, and as Sky ministered to the fresh welt on Jayne’s forehead, Kaylee challenged Mal and River to a shot relay. So there he was taking a shot, running around the table, taking a shot, running around again, trying desperately to keep up with the girls and not trip over the chairs. Weren’t fair, Kaylee and River having not started their morning with three shots on an empty stomach the way Mal had.

Simon had set out some wafers and water right away, encouraging responsible drinking, until Kaylee offered him a belly button shot, at which point the Doc cracked his knuckles and took on the challenge. River cheered on wobbly legs, pouring another round for herself and Jayne. By 8am, Inara and Sky were the least drunk of the crew, having got straight to preparing breakfast. Despite everyone’s protests that Sky should sit down and enjoy herself, she insisted on cooking seeing as she had a craving for French toast and no one else knew how to make it right.

“Hey, Zoë,” Mal greeted the blurry looking girl standing in the doorway. “Come in and celebrate with us. Your Uncle Jayne got hitched last night.”

He handed over his whiskey glass, encouraging her to taste and laughed out loud at the face she made. Her nose wrinkled and her eyebrows scrunched together and she hissed fresh air into her mouth to follow the b