Disclaimer: If I was Joss Whedon, it all were mine, but I ain't, so its not. I own the typos.

This is AU, so there are Dead Men Walking. And remember that the plotbunny made me do it. Oh, yeah, and don't listen if it tells you this is chapter one. It isn't, coz it's not. One Shot. Yeah. 'Swat I said...

And Huge thanks to BYTEMITE for taking a look at it and helping to get this into a readable shape and for making me realize, while people can read my stories, they can't read my mind. She also supplied Rivers line and fixed up Simon.

oh, and maybe a quarter-spoiler for "Ariel" that I found.

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Serenity was no place for children.

Everyone and the captain agreed on that.

Well, maybe not Zoe, but she never said anything. She and Wash had been more or less trying to have one off and on for years, and still were split on that subject. But something said she would eventually get her way and have her child and both the Captain and Wash had to live with it, whether they liked it or not.

The first one to bring a child on Serenity was one of the most unlikely candidates, though…..

Many things could and had been said about Malcolm Reynolds and his crew and about his hired muscle Jayne Cobb in particular, not only by aforementioned crew.

Jayne told stories of his “Adventures” from before he joined Malcolm Reynolds, he told stories from when he was small and Ma Cobb did her best to raise him and his siblings’ right. But Jayne never spoke of the time when he left the gorram backwater planet he was born on for a life of crime.

Never.

Until the day Serenity stopped on the misnamed Outer-Rim-Planet Eden to re-fuel and re-supply and everyone got off the ship for a spell to remember what dirt under one’s shoes felt like and run all kinds of errands. Captain sorted out assignments, set a rendezvous time and everyone scattered. All were back when they were supposed to, give or take a few minutes, with what or whom they were supposed to; ready to report, load cargo and what have