“Jayne, just…”

“No”

“Look you won’t have to…”

“No”

“We need her there to watch our back.”

“Dang it, Mal I ain’t babysittin moonbrain on a job!” Jayne declared and the Captain folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“If you wanna get paid you will. ‘Sides, I’m not asking you to babysit her. Hell, she could probably kill a gunman fore you could blink twice, so it ain’t like she needs protectin,” Mal said, and Jayne grunted.

“Don’t make me feel no better.”

“Look, all i’m sayin is look out for those things she ain’t good at dealing with.” Jayne grunted.

“Yeah, like knives in her hand connectin with my chest!” he said, and sighed. “Mal, I just sayin it ain’t a good idea. Moonbrain don’t like me, and I’m not comfortable going on a mission with her watchin my back.”

“Well, maybe she’d like you better if you didn’t call her moonbrain. Just make sure she don’t make a ruckus with the locals and you two keep a lookout for trouble.” Jayne grunted.

“Like we need to go look for trouble.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jayne, unable to sleep, rolled out of his bunk still grumbling.

“Don’t know why I have to be stuck with crazy-moonbrain-girl-weapon soon as shoot me as look at me.” Stuffing one leg into his pants and then the other, he tried to contemplate a way out of the potentially deadly situation and could arrive at no solution. He’d been in the best favor of the captain since he first arrived on the ship since Miranda. For once, Jayne proved he would take care of the crew if Mal weren’t there. Actually made him sort of happy that the captain thought he could be trusted with takin care of people, even if those people were crazy alliance-made-17-year-old-girl-weapons.

He climbed the ladder out of his bunk and into the hall. Serenity hummed, filling the air with a peaceful sound that made Jayne relax and re-think going back to bed. But then he heard the sound of feet in the mess. Who was makin noises in the mess in the middle of the gorram night? Immediately his thoughts went to Juba