Jayne was a lot better driver than he led Simon to believe. He was purposely taking corners a little too quickly, just to see if he could make Simon sick. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Simon to make Jayne dislike him. He just had a real tendency to make things much more complicated than they needed to be.

Simon was apparently trying to speak, but the wind was much louder than he was, so Jayne found it convenient to pretend that he couldn’t hear him.

“I said,” Simon was yelling now, “how much longer?”

If it’ll shut him up, Jayne thought. “It’s just past this next hill.”

Simon was relieved that he would soon be out of the cold wind. He didn’t expect that this facility would be up to core world standards, but it would at least be better than being outside in this weather.

The town they were visiting was actually a bit more developed than either Jayne or Simon was used to seeing in recent times. It was a bit of a surprise that there was no where to land Serenity that was closer to town.

Jayne brought the mule to a halt in front of one of the shinier buildings and locked it down.

“We have one hour,” he told Simon.

Simon didn’t answer. He was already headed inside. Jayne checked that his pistol was still holstered securely and followed him in.

“I brought a list of supplies we’ll need,” Simon was telling the man at the counter. “Mostly basics, but one woman is expecting a baby.”

“This looks like it shouldn’t be too difficult,” the man said. “Some of these maternity supplies are a bit expensive, though.”

“Just do the best you can,” Simon said. His negotiating skills had improved a bit. He wasn’t going to tell the man he wouldn’t pay full price for these things, but he wasn’t about to tell him that he would either. The price negotiation would wait until the man had already taken the time to pull everything out.

“What’s this?” Jayne asked as he picked something up. He didn’t actually seem to be asking any one in particular, but Simon felt it best to respo