Kaylee's Day Off.....by bigbadjayne

Once again: don't own 'em, not making any money, and so on.

She stood there excited, in the dining area, eyes shining, clutching the poster. It was small and garish, a capture of a obviously handsome man looking out over an adoring throng. Exclamations in three languages were plastered over it. Kaylee had three passions in her life. The first was Serenity's engines, the second the young Doctor from Osiris who had recently joined the crew, Simon Tam, and the last was strawberries. That is, these were the ones known to the crew. There was a final one: Dexter Chan. Star of stage and screen, known throughout the 'Verse as the heart-throb's heart-throb.

"The movie actor?" Mal asked, both amused and concerned. "Kaylee, we don't have time for you to go runnin' off to see some ho-tze duh pigu film star. Got work needs to be done."

"Yes we do, Cap'n," the mechanic replied, not put off by her Captain's gruffness. She knew exactly how cuddly he really was. "He's gonna be on Paquin, an' that's our next stop. Can I go, Cap'n, pleeaase?" She stood there, drawing out the please, giving Mal the puppy eyes. The rest of the crew just watched as this went on, various expressions of amusement on their faces. Most of them were sitting at the table, the weekly meeting having just finished up.

"You'd better let her go, Sir," Zoe gave her weigh-in on the subject. "Grumpy mechanics' are not hard-workin' ones."

"And lazy ones don't have jobs." Mal shot back, he was not about to be badgered into this. "You best get everything done 'fore you go gallivantin' off to this beau of yours."

Simon's head shot up at the word 'beau', his look a trifle hurt.

"He's not my beau, Cap'n.” Kaylee replied, smiling. "But he's just so swai.."

Mal looked pointedly at her, completely disinterested. "Uh-huh, sure. Best get on the job, Lil' Kaylee, time's wastin'. And no more jerry-riggin' in the engine room, place looked like a spider made t'home in there last time."

"Kuh-ooh d