Title: Thankful

Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: All belong to Joss. I got nada.

Rating/Warning: G for holiday feel-good fluff

Characters: Jayne/Kaylee, ofc, omc

Timeline: Long post BDM

Sequel To: Four years after “Takin’ Up Arms” (Click on my name to see this and other stories by me.)

Words: 860

Author's Note: If you read and enjoy this, please take a minute to let me know. Cross-posted from my LiveJournal.

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Thankful

He looked out, across the dry, dusty hardpan of the yard, looked beyond to where the meadow began, knee-high grass undulating in the prairie wind. There was a bent old tree, its form twisted by that wind, and from one of the stout lower branches hung a swing. He’d shaped that board himself, planing the hard oak until it was flat and even, sanding carefully to be sure there would be no splinters to injure tender hands. He’d salvaged the rope that suspended the swing, slung it up, over and over, until it fell across the rough limb in just the right places, and then he’d knotted it fast.

The wind carried sounds to him. There was the shrill cry of a hawk hunting mice in the tall, waving grass; his children’s laughter as they ran and played beneath the old tree; and behind him, in the little kitchen of the rustic farmhouse he’d built with the help of a few good friends, the sounds of preparations for the evening meal.

Jayne Cobb, once a notorious outlaw and now a simple farrier and blacksmith, leaned a wide shoulder into the porch post and crossed his arms over his big chest in a gesture of satisfaction. Ezra had proved a good home. Hard as it had been to leave Serenity all those years ago, he and Kaylee’d made the right choice.

He inhaled the aromas wafting through the screen door behind him and sighed with pleasure. It smelled like Kaylee was cooking one helluva feast. His stomach growled loudly in anticipation and he licked his lips. Who’d have ever figured a little s