Disclaimer: Not mine, no pay.

Thanks: To Jacqui, for friendship, great beta and encouragement, to Josh the Paramedic for medical info and to Rion, my own personal BDH. You guys are the greatest.

Rating: - G - Later chapters, angst, violence.

Remarks: I continue to explore the challenges faced by Jayne and Kaylee as they struggle to define their relationship. Set following my most recent story “The Birthday Gift”, after “Objects in Space”. Inara has departed from Serenity and things on board ship are getting more difficult.

Feedback Oh yes, please and thank you. To read the lead up, click on my name.

Leaps of Faith

Chapter Two

Jayne likes the quiet hours when the others are in their quarters, likes to sit at the big table and do maintenance on his weapons, or even just think. The quiet lets him organize his mind, assess his feelings, try to make sense of stuff he finds confusing.

Sometimes it takes him a little longer than other people to sort out situations, especially where feelings and right and wrong are involved. Along the way, those have gotten pretty mixed up in his mind and he’s just never bothered to get them clear.

But that is changing. Started changing when Mal’d nearly spaced him after Ariel; changing even faster now that he and Kaylee are involved.

He’s nursin’ a cup a hooch, thinkin’ over their last job, thinkin’ how he shoulda been more alert, more careful. Quiet footfalls bring him back to the present and he looks up.

“Shepherd.” He nods in greeting. “Kinda late-like for you to be up an’ about, ain’t it?” Kaylee’s homebrew has filled him with mellow ease.

Book smiles. “Had a craving for a cup of hot tea. Mind if I keep you company awhile?”

Jayne shakes his head. “Make yerself at home. I’m just wool gatherin’, I guess.”

The Shepherd heats water and adds tea, then carries the steaming mug to the table and sits down across from the merc.

“You seem to spend a lot of time here late at night.”

“Yea