I neither own nor hold any claim to any characters or associated articles of Firefly. Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy do that. I am just a humble fan who is very scared of lawyers and can only dream of, one day, being as brilliant as Lord God Whedon.

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p.s. Feedback is shiny in the n th degree and received with open arms and a big mug of hot chocolate.

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After collecting her duffel of belongings from the passenger dorm and transferring it to the empty berth in the crew quarters (“Best we keep you an’ the doc far apart as rightly possible,” Mal explained), Jaine was given the guided tour of Serenity by Kaylee.

She memorised every detail of the ship’s layout as they walked, Kaylee chattering away happily about Serenity and the adventures of her crew. Jaine found her pleasant enough, more so than the rest of the motley bunch anyway. She found herself grinning and joking with the enthusiastic young mechanic.

“So, how’dya know Zoë an’ the cap’n anyhow?” she asked.

“Joined the Independents few years afore Serenity Valley.”

The girl stopped and looked at her, eyes wide. “You was a Browncoat?” she asked in awe.

“Not 'fficially, no. Just kinda joined ‘em one day an’ nobody said nothin’ ‘bout it.”

Kaylee looked like she was going to say something else, so she decided to change the subject.

“How’d you know Reynolds an’ Zoë?”

Kaylee’s cheeks flushed and she began fiddling with a patch on the leg of her jumpsuit.

“Um, well, me’n th’old mechanic, Bester, we was, um, well we...an’ the cap’n, he...” She looked up at her with a sheepish expression. “Cap’n walked in on me’n Bester, y’know...” she gestured with her hands and widened her eyes meaningfully.

“Ah,” Jaine replied understandingly. “You were y’knowin’, huh? Yeah, Mal did that t’me once, walked in on me’n Tracey y’knowin’...gotta habit’a that, ain’t he?”

“You knew Tracey?” she asked with a frown.

“Yep, take it ya met ‘im, then?”

“Kinda, he...” she trailed off, looking unsure.

Jaine looked across at the other woman. “He did somethin’ stupid