TITLE: Safe

AUTHOR: Talutha

RATING: Rated M. Contains violence.

SUMMARY: “You gotta be sane this trip, girl,” he said roughly. “No kickin’ down walls, or killin’ folk that don’t need killin’.” He sighed, frustrated. She didn’t move, but she nodded.

DISCLAIMER: Seriously, did we think they were mine? They belong to Joss, of course. If fanfic writers made any money we’d all be eating steak.

A/N: This fic follows immediately after my previous Jayne/Inara piece “Alive”. I’d strongly suggest reading that one first to get a handle on the situation, otherwise this may not make a bunch of sense.

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SAFE

Neither of them were sentimental creatures. He’d asked her if she wanted to go back to Ayers, back to her brother’s grave, and she’d looked at him like he asked if she wanted a second helping of dinner.

“No, I have Simon with me here. Not there.”

At first he thought she’d been talking in a figurative sense, like her brother lived on in her heart, or some such crud, but he saw her patting the steel of the gun she’d ripped from the hands of the man who’d shot Simon in the stomach and raised an eyebrow.

“You named your piece after your dead brother?” he asked, vaguely impressed. She nodded. He shrugged. If she wanted to name her gun after the Doc, who was he to complain? Besides, she might shoot him with it if he did.

“Are you going to leave me again?” she asked him. He looked at her speculatively.

“D’you think I could?” he asked. She shook her head.

“I’d find you. Can’t leave me on a rock somewhere now. I have your scent. Track you down. Maybe kill you.” She looked at him seriously, and then her face split into a crazy grin.

“Yeah, sure. You’d kill me with your brain.” He was glad she grinned. He was still half-convinced that he would wake up one day with Simon shoved in his gullet and a crazy killer on the other end.

She looped her skinny arm through his and looked up at him in teasing adoration.

“No, I’d kill you with my brother. C’mon new brother, gotta g