Into the Unknown

Prologue

By Belasera

Rated NC-17 for the series

A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine.

Archiving: Sure, just tell me where it is so I can send my baby care packages with funny hats.

For my Big Damn Hero

Life with Jayne isn’t all roses. In fact, there’s never any roses at all…

There is a scar on his face. Running from his forehead to his cheek, just narrowly missing his left eye. When it wasn’t yet a scar, when it was still a gaping wound, it had been filled with reaver poison. Never did heal quite right. It’s darker than it should be.

Jayne hates that scar, and not only because he’s vain in his way and particular about his appearance. He’s covered in scars, bullet holes and stab wounds on top of ordinary everyday life scars, the kind that come naturally when you work for your living.

I’m learning his scars, night after night as I trace my fingers along his body. I know some of their stories, like the bullet hole where Zoe shot him in the leg and the scar on his palm that he gave himself in a fit of near madness. Some of them have stories that he’ll tell me. Funny stories like drunken bar fights and scary stories that he tells me in whispers in the dark, making my skin tingle with words and touches. There are scars on his body that have a history he won’t share with me, and I don’t mind none if I don’t get all his stories at once. But those are the ones that keep me up at night.

Anytime he’s asleep and I ain’t, I touch the scar on his face, ‘cause he don’t let me when he’s awake, says it’s too ugly. I don’t find it ugly, couldn’t find anything ugly ‘bout him. No, I love that scar.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Kaylee walked into the galley to the sort of sight that made her heart feel like it was full of bubbles. Her crewmates sat around the breakfast table, talking and laughing and eating real food, pancake