On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve drummers drumming

Kaylee glanced over at Jayne as he stood up; he was lookin’ so pale, so sick, she needed to get some help for him. Her eyes widened as she saw someone come out of the shadows lungin’ at Jayne, slashin’ him.

“Jayne” she screamed his name in fear as he fell.

Whirling, without thought she lifted the gun she was still carryin’, and for the second time in her life she shot someone. She’d shot a man and this time it hadn’t been an accident. But she didn’t care, didn’t care ‘bout nothin’ as she rushed forward.

Dimly Kaylee was aware of shoutin’ and gunfire. But it was all back ground noise as she frantically clutched at Jayne’s shoulder calling out his name when she saw the blue eyes closin’.

She heard footsteps and saw other hands reachin’ for Jayne and swung around ready to defend him. “Easy Kaylee” the captain cautiously took the gun from his mechanic “we gotta get Jayne to Serenity.”

******************************

Mal was concerned for Jayne and worried about Kaylee.

His mechanic had shot a man dead. No accident this time, it had shook him to see the swiftness of her response to danger. It wasn’t like sweet, shiny Kaylee at all. She was in shock after seeing what happened to Jayne that was for sure.

Jayne had been bleedin’ all over the shuttle floor, the look on Zoë’s face telling him all he needed to know of the big man’s chances. It didn’t seem fair that Jayne had made it through the kidnapping and the hunt only to die when he and Kaylee were just about to be rescued.

Kaylee had not taken her eyes off Jayne since his had closed back on the gorram moon. She had sat in the shuttle watching every move that Zoë made to help him and was now hovering over him as he lay on the bed in the infirmary. Maybe she’d be better off someplace else.

“Kaylee let Inara take you to get cleaned up. Then the doc can examine you when he’s through fixing Jayne.”

“No. No, I ain’t leavin.” Her response was almost frantic