Unneeded

Author owns no rights to Firefly, and no copyright infringement is intended. Fanfic only.

--------------------

Jayne sighed in exasperation as Mal turned down the job. It would have paid a goodly amount of coin, and there was no good reason to say no that Jayne could see.

He followed Mal back to the ship in silence, knowing it was useless to argue. Since Zoe’s announcement that she was expecting, this had been the way of it. They took only the easiest jobs, those that practically guaranteed no violence, and, as a result, no real payday. They were flying, and eating, and that was about it.

“What’s wrong with you?” Mal grumbled, eyeing the silent Jayne.

“Nothin’,” Jayne replied. “Why?”

“You’re sulkin’,” Mal informed him. “Wanna know why.”

“I ain’t,” Jayne protested, seeing the ship in the distance. “I know what you’re doin’, and why. I don’t gotta like it, and I don’t. But I ain’t said nothin’.”

“You don’t like it, you ain’t gotta stay,” Mal shot back. Jayne thought about that.

After Miranda, Jayne had seriously thought about leaving. He hadn’t because somewhere along the way he’d started thinking of the crew as family, and the ship as home. And they’d needed him.

He couldn’t say that, of course. Not that they’d believe him anyway. And, if he was honest, he didn’t care. He’d never done things with what others thought in mind, anyway.

But Mal had been down, hard, and so had Simon and Kaylee. Zoe wasn’t much better. Inara and River hadn’t been physically injured, but emotionally they were both wrecks. Jayne had been shot, and had several broken bones, but no one had really cared about that. He was Jayne, after all. Why bother worrying about him?

Jayne hadn’t minded that, either. It had been a while since he was around others that cared for him more than they could get out of him, and he didn’t mind. He knew what he was about, and that was all that mattered.

Light years away, on a dusty moon that no one visited very often, was a large family. They would have done all right for thems