“What do you mean, mei-mei?” Simon looked confused as he tried to process what his sister had just said.

River tilted her head and gave him that “You’re such an idiot!” look. “I meant exactly what I said. Jayne is feeling orphaned. We are his family and we need to treat him as such. All you ever do is sew him up, make fun of him, and frown at him.”

Mal and Inara looked at each other, their conversation taking place with an eyebrow quirk, a widening of the eyes, and the barest tilt of a smile.

“I think what the girls sayin’, Doc,” Mal said, turning to look at Simon, “Is that our gun hand is starting to feel left out. She’s sayin’ that we need to include him in some of our less businesslike endeavors.”

Simon looked from Kaylee to Mal, then to River. “Do I have to?”

River rolled her eyes and asked Mal, “Are you sure he’s the oldest?

Zoë, maintaining her usual outward calm, just looked over River with slightly narrowed eyes before saying, “It’s doable, just don’t go getting him a puppy.”

***

Since that gorramn bounty hunter had invaded their ship and they’d all gone through the “Oh my god, River’s psychic?” thing, Jayne had been pretty careful to keep his thoughts to himself. After the reavers, he’d had to make a concentrated effort to actually block what he was thinking. One day when he’d been thinkin’ on what a good guy Wash had been and how he actually missed the smart ass comments, he recalled how Zoë’s man had gotten them up close and personal with Niska’s sky-plex.

That was the point he started practicing on the whole “Piping out com static” thing, only with his mind, and it seemed to be working. There had been a few times he’d felt the itch of her eyes on him and something else, sort of a little vibration in his neck that told him something might be goin’ on. He’d looked up and found her looking at him like he was a textbook or something she had to study on, and he’d concentrated hard on static and frowning. Never seemed to take her long to look away after that.

Ja