Jayne was slow-brained and he knew it. He weren’t stupid, but slow. To compensate he watched. Watched everythin’ and everyone so he’d know what was goin’ on. Give hisself an edge. Watching kept him from gettin’ involved, carin’ for people. Till he came on Serenity and watchin’ them all, Mal, Inara, Wash, Zoë, Kaylee and later Book and River, started to care for some of them.

Person he watched and cared ‘bout most was Kaylee. She kept the engine goin’ in spite of inferior parts, the beatings the ship got. She fixed everythin’ mechanical on board and then moved on to the people. ‘Cause Kaylee didn’t just look to the mechanical heart of the ship, but to the human ones too. If you were hurtin’ there she’d be with her sunshiny smile, carin’ all about you. If you needed someone to talk to, Kaylee would let you talk, much as you want. It was Kaylee who organized birthday and holiday celebrations, Kaylee who painted the common area to brighten it up, Kaylee who believed that everythin’ was shiny and everyone was worth knowin’. She argued sure but never got real angry not like him. Hell she didn’t even like loud voices, flinched every time people yelled when they were arguing.

That’s how he knew Kaylee had to be feelin’ bad still even a couple months later. He knew she weren’t sleepin’ well. He could see the dark circles under her eyes, ‘course she had nightmares, knew that even before she told him.

To see Book and their friends on Haven die, specially the kid she was so fond of had to be hard on her. Then what they did to ‘em, tying the bodies onto Serenity, gave him the willies, knew she’d hated it. Miranda and the battle made things worse she’d had to see what the Reavers had did, fight ‘em. She shouldn’t have t’ fight anyone, not his Kaylee. Havin’ Wash die the way he did affected her too, Kaylee and Wash had been good friends.

She talked ‘bout her problems sometimes when they were fixin’ the engine, told him of the nightmares. He gave her some advice ‘bout how to handle them, stuff that sometimes worked