Title: Taking Up Arms – Part 1 of 3

Author: hisgoodgirl

Rating: PG-15 for adult language, violence

Characters/Pairings: Crew, ofc, omc. Jayne/Kaylee, minor references to Mal/Simon.

Timeline: One year post BDM; seven years later.

Disclaimer: All belong to Joss. I got nada.

Word Count, Part One: 3,450

A/N; During the American Civil War, a group of soldiers-turned-outlaws called Quantrell’s Raiders terrorized the Kansas-Missouri area. This story was inspired in part by their impact on the settlers of that region. Originally written for the Summer_of_Jaylee community at LiveJournal with the prompts ‘sun’ and ‘water’. If you read and enjoy this story, please take just a minute to let me know. Hover for translation.

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Taking Up Arms

Part One

Mal stood at the end of the old wooden dining table, his hands clasped around his suspenders in that no-nonsense way of his. His face was grave and shadowed by the difficult events of the past year. There’d been times in the weeks after Miranda when he thought things couldn’t get any harder for him and his folk, but as it had turned out, that wasn’t so.

He studied the faces of his crew. All had been irrevocably changed by what they had been through together. At the far end of the table sat Zoe, grave and solemn, quieter that ever before but filled with fierce determination. Next to Mal, Kaylee leaned against Jayne. Her once heart-shaped face was now more angular and her coveralls hung loosely. The big man behind her was quieter, too, and somehow gentler since they had paired up after she and Simon parted. Mal would never have expected it, but they made a good couple and it looked like their relationship might stick.

Across the table from Jayne sat the elder Tam, his slender surgeon’s hands resting quietly in his lap. Now that his sister’s mind was increasingly integrated, the young doctor seemed filled with a new sense of strength. Beside him an