The prospect of a job had seemed, to Mal at least, the best way to pull the crew back together and bring back the old and familiar dynamic he himself had grown to depend on. Yet as he sat around the table with Zoe and Jayne he couldn’t help but feel that something was souring the air. Jayne wasn’t his old self, the way his eyes were darting about the table as if he were expecting an attack seemed unnatural, especially as in times past he had done little but ask who he was shooting, when and how much he was being paid for it. His brain was working overtime, and that worried Mal more than how stupid he must have seen earlier in front of Wash and Zoe. He had never taken a job to be good news and nothing but, and never had he thanked Badger so heartily either. He was slipping, and that, coupled with how shifty Jayne looked, made him wonder what the gorram was going on around here. Yes, something had changed, and it weren’t the earlier arrival of Mr. Jubal Early, that was certain.

“It’s terrible risky sir for what it is. More people ‘board Serenity ain’t a good thing, we all know it.”

“Seems to me Badger don’t need to contract all of us for transportin’ people and their cattle” Jayne said, his eyes narrowing. Mal frowned and lent heavily on the table.

“Tyen shiao-duh Jayne! What the good gorram is wrong with you today?” Mal let out an exasperated sigh before returning to the matter at hand, looking again at the manifest in front of him.

“Some fancy footwork is all that’s needed Zoe, I don’t propose introducin’ these traders to the crew, in fact, I’m thinkin’ that we cut our crew compliment for a while.”

Jayne’s eyes boggled out of his head, slamming a heavy fist down.

“You ain’t cuttin’ me out Mal! You get that out of your head for damn sure!”

“Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la doo-tze!” Mal threw his hands up in the air before yanking Jayne’s seat out from under him, toppling the heavy man onto the floor with a loud thump. Footsteps were promptly heard thundering down from the cockpit, Wash and the Sheph