A few hours later, Kaylee pulled herself out from under Serenity’s engine and stood up, wiping grease on her coveralls. She never seemed to manage to get all of it off that way though, as evidenced by the black streaks that always seemed to adorn her face.

As she replaced her tools, she thought about the captain and their earlier encounter. Moving around the ship she hadn’t caught sight or sound of him all day, which was highly unusual. Kaylee frowned at the realization. Normally he was all over the place, checking on work being done (and complaining about work that needed to be done) and doing the “captain-y things” he insisted were important and needed doing. It made her wonder if he was deliberately avoiding her so they didn’t have to work out whatever it was that had come between them.

“Ni tama de tianxia suoyou de ren duo gaisi!” she muttered out loud in language more colorful than she usually chose.

“Whoa there, girl. Quite the mouth you got on you today.” Jayne observed with more than a hint of approval. He poked his head through the doorway and continued, “Come down to tell ya there’s eats on the table.”

“Xièxie, Jayne.” Kaylee returned evenly. “Captain there already?”

He looked at her funny. “Ain’t seen the cap around all day. You know, you two’re doing a damn fine job of avoidin’ each other. What, he tetchy at you, having to stay behind and hunt for yah in the middle of the Reaver alarm back on Paquin?”

Kaylee looked stricken. “What’re you talking about?”

“Hell, little Kaylee, how drunk were yah that night? Came back from the job and townsfolk were scatterin’ on account someone said there was Reavers comin’. Mal sent us back to the ship and stayed back to look for ya. Found you all by your lonesome in that bar and nearly wore himself out carrying you back to the boat. Anyway,” Jayne continued after pausing to take a huge bite out of the protein in his hand, “food's there if you want it.”

Listening to Jayne relate what really happened in Paquin City, Kaylee didn’t know quite wha