Conversation with Death

By Cassandra E

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Firefly is property of Fox, Joss Whedon, 20th Century, etc. etc.

Spoilers: After The Message. Has a bit of Rayne elements. Really, it’s that small. If you blink, you’ll miss it. So don’t blink, just add a little eye drops to ease the burning.

Author Notes: Written for Serenity Santa at livejournal as a gift for Neroli. This story, better yet the incident that happens to Jayne in the cemetery was inspired by real life events. Seven year olds should listen when their nana tells them to stay put in a graveyard.I was not one of them. Oh, and I have not forgotten about Eye of the Beholder. Lots of RL issuses....they suck. A lot. It didn't help that I lost basically half a chapter of it, and now have to rewrite. It's a killjoy, let me tell you.

Archived: At

Summary: Jayne ponders death and Death ponders him.

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They stayed the night on St. Albans after they arrived. The funeral wouldn't be till tomorrow and it was late anyhow. It would’ve been seen as rude to not accept Tracey’s folk’s offer of hospitality. Captain didn’t want to add salt to the scar of a son lost and there was honoring to be done for his fallen comrade. People had pride and they were grateful to those who had brought their son home, even if it was in a metal casket. Jayne just wondered how come it was him that got stuck with guard duty for the gorram casket outside in the cold. Just watching as the snow softly fell on the dull metal surface made his hair stand on end.

Jayne was no stranger to death; he killed plenty of folks in his time. In fact, it was his job. He was the muscle and as such his purpose was to encourage chun fools to spit out any information worth knowing by placing the fear of God or, as happened in most cases, death in them. Jayne knew people were afraid of death because he feared the same gorram thing. Death was a part of his job, his lifestyle. Like he told t