Chapter 2

“You gotta stay here with lil-pint,” Jayne insisted as he, Inara and Madeline made their way toward the burning wreckage that was their former home. They’d left the shuttle in the first clearing large enough to hold it and disembarked quickly.

“I’m going,” Inara replied firmly.

“`Nara,” Jayne looked up at the clear blue sky. There was no Alliance ship to be seen. “They come lookin’ for survivors, you got a better chance of –“

Jayne stopped and met her eyes, taken aback by the determination mirrored there. A lesser man would have wilted beneath the Companion’s glare.

“Yeah. All right. But stay behind me.”

They both knew the importance of reaching the ship quickly, and so they continued to march toward where the burning trees and charred earth indicated Serenity had crashed.

Madeline sobbed as they made their way through the forest. “They didn’t make it,” she said. ”I know it.”

“Won’t hear no talk a that,” Jayne said. “They ain’t dead ‘til we see the bodies.”

Branches swayed and twigs snapped as they drew closer to the ship. It didn’t take that much time to wind their way through the, at times, dense foliage, but each second that ticked by was too long. Metal littered the ground; Jayne scanned it as he walked a few meters ahead of Inara and Madeline. His steps slowed, then he raised his hand to indicate that they stop.

“What is it?” Inara asked, clearly concerned and curious as to what he’d seen.

“Stay here.”

“Jayne –“

The mercenary spun around, eyes hard. “Ain’t askin’.”

Inara nodded slowly, understanding, and dropped to her knees, looking to Madeline as Jayne trudged forward. She fussed with the girl’s appearance, brushed away smudges of dirt on her cheeks, all the while looking over her shoulder to watch Jayne.

But Madeline would have none of her fussing and strained to look toward what could be seen of the ship – until Inara finally noticed what Jayne had already seen.

Inara put her hands on the girl’s shoulders and turned her back around. “I need you to look at me, al