"Your Mama was just as beautiful as anythin' you can imagine," Jayne said, beginning the familiar story that Rosie knew by heart. "She weren't wearin' no fancy gown like some brides do, but then, I reckon she used up all her patience with fancy things when she married your Daddy. Your Mama's always been the simple an' straightforward type, an' that's what I love most about her."

"What about me, Papa?" Rosie piped, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"You didn't quit squallin' the whole time, no matter how much your Baba an' your aunties fussed over ya," Jayne said fondly. "Don't know what the preacher musta thought, you there hollerin' your little head off an' lookin' like the spit of yer Daddy. Reckon he either thought I was a fool or a hero, but I weren't neither."

"You were just my Papa," Rosie beamed. "What about Baba, why didn't Baba marry Mama, instead of you?"

"Well," Jayne smiled, "when a man marries a woman, he has to give her all of his heart, an' your Baba already gave his away."

"To 'Nara, who I see in captures when Baba's sad," Rosie stated. "But you gave Mama your heart, just like Daddy did."

"That's right," Jayne said. "I surely did."

~*~

"This ain't no pretty piece of glass," Zoe said, her brow furrowed. "Jayne, why'd you gimme this?"

"It's a ring. Needed a ring to get married with," he said simply, shrugging and refusing to meet her eyes. "It was my Ma's."

"It was your -" Zoe couldn't help feeling she'd never met this man, her... her husband? before. "Jayne, this is a real diamond. Hell, size o' this coulda bought you three whores for three days."

"Gorramit, Zoe, if I'd'a wanted whores, I'd'a had whores," Jayne growled, and the fire in his eyes startled her. "Don't you know by now it's you? There ain't no one else. I can't be Wash for ya, but I can be a good husband to ya, and a good father to little Rosie."

"You already are," Zoe said softly. "Jayne, I can't ask ya to give up more than you already have done."

"I ain't askin' ya to love me," Jayne a