A/N: I was watching Serenity for the three billionith time and this occured to me- just had to write it down. It takes place just after the crew has survived the Reaver attack on Mr. Universe's station.

Good To Be Alive-

The lights in the infirmary kept going on and off. They would flicker, blink off for a moment, relight, and then die again. Flicker, flicker, die, light, flicker, die to blackness, light again. There was no particular pattern to it and every time the lights would fail entirely Kaylee would jump a little. The drug Simon had recommended was beating through her system, making her hands shake, making her foot drum against the floor as it burned away whatever the reaver’s darts had put in her.

Jayne listened to the constant rustling she made from where he sat on the counter, leaning back with his eyes closed. Normally, the noise would irritate him but just now he found it more than a little comforting. She was alive. He was alive. Even the throbbing pain from the bullet wound in his shoulder was welcome- more proof that his heart was still doing its work. The noises Kaylee made also interrupted the images playing against the inside of his eyelids: cities full of the dried up dead, the walls of Serenity spinning around him as they fell from the sky, reavers- snarling and screaming like mad dogs . . . Kaylee falling back against the floor. He clenched his fist almost tight enough for his nails to draw blood and then relaxed his fingers.

Jayne heard the girl stand abruptly and he lifted one eyelid to see what she was up to. When the lights came back on he saw her pace quick across the room to look out the window and then back again. A lock of hair was clinging to her check and she pushed it away with an impatient gesture. The move seemed like a miracle suddenly. She was alive. The lights went down, then came back up flickering wildly. Jayne rubbed his face, felt the stubble against his palm, felt the calluses on his hand against his lips and then his cheekbone. He was alive, he reminded hims