Obadiah was, as it turned out, the brother of Jayne’s late father, and now it was undeniably clear to Mal that Jayne got his physical appearance from that side of the family, as he happened to end up in between him and his uncle as they stepped inside the house and for a moment felt terribly small.

The house was nice, simple but neat. The ground floor consisted of a small kitchen and a common room, and as Mal took in the details they immediately stirred to life a memory of a certain prairie home long gone. A bolt of sadness washed through him, but he didn’t allow himself to dwell in it and tried to shake it.

Kaylee was positively bubbling with excitement and happily telling Jayne and his mother how much she loved this and that and nearly everything there. Radiant smiled at her, and Mal also saw how she discreetly studied each and every one of them in turn, as if trying to get a clear picture of what they were all about. He understood her perfectly, you could learn a lot about a person from their reactions when they stepped inside your home.

Zoë, for instance, kept to the background and found herself a place in a corner, her back against the wall. A good advantage point, and Mal wondered exactly how consciously she had picked that particular spot. She was being polite and seemingly relaxed, but she was on the alert, as she always was meeting new people.

Wash shared none of her reservation. He had already settled and made himself comfortable in the old sofa, from where he tried to strike up a conversation with Obadiah Cobb about the older man’s kilt. He didn’t get much response though.

River was circling the room, intently studying every object with that glassy look in her eyes, and Simon hovered around her, prying things from her hands whenever she picked something up and constantly tried to get her to sit down on a chair by the eating table.

And Jayne… Jayne was suddenly hard to read. At first he was just standing there, as if feeling out of place, and Mal wondered again how strange it had