Title: How A Gun is Like a Woman

Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: Firefly, Serenity and all related characters are copyright 2002-2005 Mutant Enemy, Inc., Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. This is a work of fan fiction and no copyright infringement is intended.

Paring: Canon, possible pre-Jaylee

Setting: During the series

Word Count: 1300 +

Auhor’s Note: First fic in a LONG time. Just trying to shake the rust off, folks. Feedback is real shiny!

HOW A GUN IS LIKE A WOMAN

Deep in the belly of a midbulk transport, somewhere in the vast dark nothingness between the worlds of Beaumonde and Three Hills, a young woman turned in the confines of her bunk, eyelids twitching.

Kaylee startled awake from a dream, hazel eyes flicking open to the soft illumination provided by the miniature lanterns dangling over her bunk. The deep reassuring vibration of Serenity’s drive and ventilation system enfolded her and she smiled, stretching and yawning sleepily. She listened carefully to the spaceship’s familiar hum. No random hiccups or shudders to suggest ‘her girl’ needed fussing with – always a good thing to her mind.

0200 hours… Middle of the night and likely everyone asleep but Zoe, up on the bridge.

Kaylee raked her fingers through the tangles in her hair. Whatever her dream had been about, all memory of the specifics had fled, leaving her sufficiently unsettled there was no way she’d return to sleep. Normally, her slumber was filled with nostalgia for the rolling prairie back home on Harvest and fragmented memories of a dozen different Rim worlds vied with glittering dreams of fancy dress balls and the occasional erotic fantasy.

Most of her romantic dreams centered on one Simon Tam, physician and fugitive, but lately - much to her bewilderment - her dreams occasionally placed her in the arms of a darker partner: the ship’s rough gunhand, Jayne Cobb. While the latter unquestionably knew exactly what to do with women and had proven