On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling birds

Jayne was worried and tryin’ not to show it. The ship would be landin’ at Trinity soon and then their problems were really goin’ to start. He wished Kaylee hadn’t taken it into her head to go shoppin’ the other day, and then she wouldn’t be stuck here with him.

How could anyone mistake her for a fighter? The wang bad an’s who’d snatched ‘em had to be dumber than rocks. Just cause she’d been with him, they’d assumed she was his partner or somethin’. If anyone looked less like a girl mercenary he had yet to see them. Keepin’ her safe and them both alive till the Captain found them weren’t goin’ to be easy.

If the captain found them. How would Mal even figure out what had happened to him and Kaylee? Cause the man would be lookin’. Not so much for him, Jayne knew, but for Kaylee. The mechanic was important to the ship; her genius touch with engines made her the most valuable crew member on board. Then there was the way that everyone, includin’ him, felt about her. No-one was likely to rest easy till she was found.

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The captain had been getting more and more anxious ‘bout his missing crew members.

Especially Kaylee, how had anyone mistaken her for a mercenary? Even if she was with Jayne, the girl looked nothing like a fighter. She looked like a little girl dressed up in her brothers’ clothes not the genius mechanic she was. He hoped nothing would go wrong with the engine while she was gone. He wished that he had never let her talk him into letting her go shopping.

He’d been occupying himself doing some of Jayne’s jobs. Finally the shepherd had come and told him he had an idea. Rather than having to repeat it over ‘n over to the rest of the crew they headed toward the common room. He pushed his way through the tinsel decorating the door, River had taken his instructions seriously and there were decorations hanging all over the boat.

“What in rutting hell is that smell” he demanded

“Beli