A.N. - To catch up, start at and follow the links back here.
PART 4 – Need to connect
The air was chilly, but it carried the mouth-watering smell of fresh baked bread, and Kaylee knew why Jayne and Emily had walked so far to get here. Jayne wouldn’t be so quiet if the Captain smacked him upside the head more often, but apparently that wasn’t happening. She’d debated with herself before following Jayne out, trying to decide if this was the time, but she didn’t see any reason to let this isolationism go on. At Genny and Cole’s wedding, she’d let Jayne be, because Simon kept telling her it was enough that he’d shown up. But they weren’t gathered today for a happy occasion, and she didn’t see how speaking her mind could make things any worse.
Jayne and Emily sat at a small table by the window eating their sandwiches. Emily looked a little more relaxed now that they’d left the hospital, but Jayne always looked sickly to Kaylee these days. He’d dropped so much weight since Sky died – it was one of the reasons Mal put him in the hospital.
Kaylee walked in, ordered herself a sandwich, and went over to their table. “Mind if I join you?”
“Sure!” Emily smiled at her, and then jumped up to grab a chair. Jayne smiled as he watched Emily, but didn’t lift his eyes to look at Kaylee. She touched his arm, but he flinched and pulled back. That was as far as Kaylee got before Emily came back to the table. The girl was lively and spirited, and she went on for ten minutes about some laser site that she’d seen in a shop window on the way here. Kaylee got lost in the chatter and ten minutes turned to thirty before she knew it. Emily had grown so much, and she was at that age where she really needed a mother. Little Zoë had had Kaylee, Inara, River, and Sky all coming ‘round her and taking up the mantle, but Emily didn’t have that. She had Inara and Mal looking in on her from time-to-time and her father hanging on by a thread. After all those
"You can't take the sky from me!"
Post Your Comments
You must log in to post comments.