Jayne's Crush

by Michael J. Welch

“You really think it’s a good idea to send those two out together?” Zoë asked. She was standing on the catwalk with Mal.

“Dunno,” Mal answered. “But there’s no one else that could go with Simon right now, and with all the supplies their bringing back, we can’t afford to put anyone else in the mule anyway.”

Jayne was below them going over all the things that they were going to need to take with them, very few of which Simon agreed with. Jayne now constantly insisted on having grenades with him. Kaylee was doing her best to keep things civil between them.

“We’re going to buy supplies,” Simon kept saying. “What could you possibly need all that artillery for?”

“It’s all about options,” Jayne told him, trying to sound like he had some kind of plan concocted. “You never know what’s going to happen out there.”

Simon did have to admit that what Jayne was saying had more than once turned out to be true. But he didn’t have to admit it out loud.

“Besides,” Mal said. “It could be quite hilarious.”

“Just humor him,” Kaylee said to Simon. She was standing so close to him that they might has well have been connected at the hip. “You’ll be back quicker than you can spit.”

Kaylee no longer apologized for not speaking like a lady around Simon. He had even started to tell her that he thought it was cute.

Jayne, on the other hand, did not like how comfortable Kaylee had gotten around Simon. “Don’t you have some engine work to do?” he asked her as he threw half a dozen clips into the mule’s storage compartment.

“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, well…” She moved in close to Simon, with a look on her face that said she was definitely expecting to be kissed before she left.

“You probably don’t want to keep River waiting up there,” Simon warned her. “She may have the whole engine torn -”

Jayne looked away as Kaylee grabbed Simon and pulled him to her, and he purposely made as much noise as he could while putting a belt full of grenades into the mule.