As always everything belongs to Joss. All of these are written in chronological order, but can be read as stand alones (only vague references to other installments). Ratings are shiny, comments are shinier!

Intro -

Things had been looking up for Jayne. Well, as up as they can get, all things considering. It had been six weeks since the crew had been stranded on this moon, waiting for Serenity to be space worthy again. It'd been nearly two weeks since he started his tutelage. He never thought he'd actually like learning. But he had to admit, if there were things for him to learn, the stuff River was teaching him was the stuff to learn. What did surprise him was how hard it was. It was the challenge of it and watching himself improve... that had made him feel like he wasn't carrying so much. Truth was, between everything that happened on Miranda and on Mr. Universe's moon and having no physical outlet to vent any of it while his shoulder healed, Jayne had been feeling weighed down by everything. 'Nara once told him that no one wanted to hear what he was thinking. Lately he wasn't so comfortable hearing his own thoughts either.

When his bullet wound had been all but healed three weeks ago, Jayne started forcing himself to spend at least an hour a day regaining the strength he lost during his recovery. When he thought on it, he knew that the obstacle that made exercising so hard wasn't just because he was healing from an injury of the flesh. Just didn't seem right to be at the bench without his spotter there with him. Course, he tried not to think on it at all. But lying on the bench, looking up at the ceiling, the void of Book's face looking back down on him felt all kinds of wrong. It helped to remind himself that Book is still looking down on him... just from a bit higher up than before.

Reaching up he put his hands on the bar. Adjusting his grip he breathed in slowly, pushing his arms away from his body. Once the bar was up and oriented over his chest he exhaled and closed his eyes. Inhaling slowl