Jayne stared at the rear of the warehouse, the spitting image of the one he was leaning against in the deep shadows as he pulled his coat a little tighter. Concepcion, the second biggest town on Bernadette, and main spaceport, was heading into winter, and the air was chilly.

Mal had told him to keep watch around the back, see if he could figure out how many men were inside, but there was no sign of anyone at all. He grunted, his breath crystallising in front of him. He just wanted to get inside, get the goods, and get back to Serenity. He didn’t like leaving River like this, not so close to her time.

He was more than a bit worried about her too. He’d woken up during the small hours of the morning to find her sitting on the floor sorting through his ammo, putting it into order of size and weight, and apparently stopping power as well.

He hadn’t said anything, just watched her for a while until she’d finished and put it all away again, then he’d got up, lifted her into his arms and put her back to bed. She’d slipped into dreams quickly enough, as if that action of making sure things were right had soothed her, but it hadn’t him. He’d waited until something more like a civilised hour then got up and fetched breakfast. River hadn’t said a word about the ammo, and he wondered if she’d even really been awake.

Still, did that make it better or worse? Playing with the ammo was just a short step from playing with the guns, his or hers, and a not much longer one to going shooting someone in their sleep. Maybe he should consider locking the shuttle door ‘til the baby was born. Least at night. Not that locks ever kept River in or out, and it wouldn’t stop her if she took it into her head to shoot him.

He glared out into the weak sunlight, his hand flexing over his gun. He really needed to be killing something right about now.

---

“River, mei-mei , what are you doing?” Simon stepped into the infirmary, surprised to see his sister up and about.

“Checking.” She had the entire con