Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I just borrow them for fun.

Acknowledgements: A very, very, very special thanks to TZEGHA. She has been my muse throughout the story and her feedback has been priceless all along. Thank you for pushing me to do my best. You are a great beta.

“Stay” – PART III

The moment the ship started rocking Jayne broke into a cold sweat, Kaylee had noticed.

The ocean was hit by a powerful storm that evening, making most of the people on board retreat into their cabins early feeling seasick and Jayne was no exception. Not even the aquatic anti-gravity fields had been able to stop the boat from swaying with the storm. The mercenary had brought a bottle of water from his cabin, and as far as she knew, that had been his only intake since the small sandwich he ate at lunchtime. Not that he had been able to keep it down for long—not even a full box of Dramamine had done the trick this time.

The three of them were now at the honeymoon suite going over the details of the job. Mal had been very quiet and withdrawn—much more than usual, she observed. He had told them about his visit to the showroom earlier, but he had been brief and to the point. Almost cryptic, even by Mal’s standards. When she had asked him about the stone itself he had just shrugged and dismissed it as ‘just an old jade rock’.

The Captain was leaning over a ship’s map that had been projected over the coffee table, and seemed to be focusing his attention on the different scenarios of the heist. Even though he kept tracing his fingers over the route, his mind appeared to be elsewhere, his eyes sometimes unfocused for a while over a random spot on the map. Kaylee noticed how he blinked and frowned every time this happened, trying to bring his mind back on track. She wanted to wrap her arms around one of his and make him tell her what was wrong, just as he had done to her the day they boarded the ship, but she knew better. Mal didn’t work that way and the last thing she wanted to do right now was a