Chapter 4

Safe, some place safe to hide, someplace where she could be warm again. Someplace where the cold that was in her bones would go away. That was all she needed. Caroline narrowly missed Wash and Zoë as she left the bridge trying to find someplace safe. Running pell-mell through the passage ways she paused when she saw Simon; and managed to duck behind a bulkhead before he saw her. He went into the infirmary, and she continued. The ship seemed to go on forever; the “tour” Kaylee and River had given her wasn’t helping her. Everything had seemed to vanish from her mind except for the need to find someplace to hide.

Jayne finished his dinner bugged Simon for a little while as he did dishes. Then he headed down to the cargo bay to lift weights. Lifting helped Jayne think things through – and this short person who looked just like Mal, a Mini-Mal was something that needed some thinking about.

Caroline was close to hysterical when she came into the cargo bay, she saw the hole in Serenity’s bulkhead that she had hidden in right when she had come out of the box. Zeroing in on the hole she sprinted across the open floor not looking left or right and crashed right into Jayne.

Jayne grabbed hold of squirming body and then looked down. He looked down at a child who was trying to get away by squirming, kicking, biting, anything. She finally looked up enough that Jayne caught a look at her eyes, they were terrified; instinct from taking care of his brothers and sisters back home kicked in and he growled out “shh, shh, xin gan. What’s wrong?”

“Let me go, you chsheng xai-jiao de xiang huo, fancy pants.”

“Ain’t a bastard; knew both my ma and pa. And I ain’t no fancy pants.”

“You’re here.”

“Yep, they pay me to be here. I do their dirty work. Will you calm down? I ain’t gonna hurt you.”

“I wan my ma.” And with that Caroline’s brave front dissolved and started sobbing into Jayne’s chest. “Sh – she’s not here. He said she’s not here.”

“Shh, shh, sshh” grumbled Jayne picking Car