In the black, there were no full moons. Or, rather, they were all full… and Jayne Cobb wanted to howl at every one.

Serenity had changed, and Jayne was restless. This boat was his home—more than any other place he had ever been—more than two years, and no on e had chased him off yet. Not successfully. He knew this boat like he knew his own hands. It was part of him. And it had changed.

Jayne didn’t like change.

Zoe was quiet. She had always been quiet. Dry. But used to be that she had a light in her eyes that would shine whenever Wash was around.

That light had died.

Jayne wondered if Zoe had even cried. He doubted it. The idea had something wrong about it. He couldn’t imagine anything close to tears coming out of those sharp, calculating eyes.

He almost wished she would, though. It was downright spooky, the way she stalked around the boat like a scarecrow. Even Kaylee couldn’t get her to smile these days.

‘Course… Kaylee hardly ever left the engine room these days. If she did, it was to go to her bunk, or the doc’s bunk, or to sit at the kitchen table giving googly eyes to each other and feeling each other up under the table. There were banging noises constantly coming from the engine room lately, and Jayne doubted many of them had to do with the engine.

The doc. Gorram doc. Jayne had never really tried anythin’ with Kaylee. But he’d wanted to sometimes. After all, she was still a woman. She still had…

And to have to doc chosen over him. Gorram doc. He wasn’t much, with his soft hands and combed hair. Fussy. Jayne was all set to stop hatin’ him after what he’d done an Ariel. Even more set after what he’d done with the Reavers. Almost proved he was worth his manly bits.

And then he had gone and made that torch Kaylee was carrying for him into a gorram bonfire. Had her swooning around like a gorram June bride.

To have ruttin’ reavers… reavers… bring two people together. That was a story for the pups.

Reavers.

Jayne lifted the barbell more forcefull