Aftermath, Part Three
Series: Finding
Title: Aftermath, Part Three
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Post-BDM
Characters: Jayne/River
Disclaimer: Firefly owns me, I own words
Notes: Follows directly after stand-down order at Mr. Universe's moon. Fills in between the pieces of the Five Times memes... Mal kept bugging Jayne for what happened...
All Jayne/River stories are in the same storyline, even if seen out of order...
Organizational post
Aftermath Part Three
“Yeah, dog’s not half so scary without his master holdin’ his leash now is he?”
Badger casually brushed past Jayne, bigger man barely keeping his hand from reaching out and snapping the little lord’s neck. Only the presence of the four guns he could see, and several he couldn’t, kept him rooted to the spot. “See, I know you don’t want to be makin’ that call without the Sergeant…. fine Captain that he is now…”
Badger continued sauntering around Jayne, wiping his chin genteelly, juice from an orange slice having escaped his lips. “Wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for losing that old deathtrap a’ his now would ya’?”
“Ain’t here lookin’ fer ya ta do nuthin’ ya don’t do every day…” Jayne growled as his eyes swept the room, secure in his knowledge of the lay out.
“Now you know I only do business with the Captains of ships here in my town. Far as I see, the law says I can take my fee in part ownership if it is someone other than the Captain, or if the Captain isn’t in a capacity to deal… And I know my rules.” Badger smirked at the last comment. Jayne knew there had to be a reason the petty crime lord hadn’t been killed along with most of Mal’s other sources. He figured it had to be payoffs between Badger and the Alliance. Jayne curled his lip into a sneer of disdain.
Changing tactics, Badger offered conspiratorially, “Could come work for me, can always use a man good with a gun. And I hear you got a reputation as a tracker?”
“Ya done fallen outta yer tree little man, thinking ta get me on yer side.” Jayne nearly snorted, drawing himself up taller.
“My side? Oh, now it’s my side is it? Isn’t that just a funny thought gents.” Badger swept his arm to include his men who all appropriately smiled and laughed at his joke. “You are a little man in a very big pond here my friend, remember who you are coming beggin’ for help from.” Badger’s tone hardened, threat implicit.
Jayne shook his head, muttering, “Gûnkāi …”
“What did you just say?” Badger turned from appraising some shiny trinket.
“Nuthin’, ain’t got nuthin’ ta say ta you…” Jayne said, looking straight at the bowlered man, eyes sharp and intense.
“Now I am thinking you are getting to be too comfortable with your Captain’s absence in command and you are trying to scare honest business men like myself into selling you the specialty parts you need with your intimidating manner. But see, I know something you don’t… young bird on your ship, still there isn’t she? Yeah, I can see from your face she is… well, I know she could be right useful to me. So why don’t we forego discussin’ payment, that you can’t make anyways, and make a trade. Your bird for that converter?”
“Bu zhong yong chwen joo…” Jayne snarled, face twisted in hate.
Badger snapped his head back towards Jayne at the insult and took the tone of an offended chieftain. “What was that? Think you are a big man do ya? See if you can find that converter anywhere else… then we can see who the big man here is.”
With a negligent wave of his hand, Badger turned his back on Jayne. “Get this wu zou miaozi xiăo tōu out of my sight. He forgets who he is… Aye… thought I might go get a piece of that little girl while I wait for you to come crawling back for that part you so desperately need.”
Jayne lunged with a guttural roar at the little man at that threat, barely stopped in his forward momentum, the sharp report of gunshots, a hit to his back and a through and through to his thigh felling him on the spot. Badger squatted down to look the bigger man in the eye.
“You don’t know who you are dealing with. This is my world, my business… I decide who I deal with, and how I get paid.”
Standing up, Badger gestured to his men to get rid of the fallen merc.
~~~~~
Jayne, half-dragged, half-carried out of Badger’s office, was dumped unceremoniously in an alley not far off. He could feel burning pain across his shoulders, wetness soaking his jacket to his back. His leg was numb, blood pooling beside him. He knew it was a serious hit, could feel the loss of strength. Quickly, he pulled his belt out and snugged it around his leg above the gunshot wound. He knew it is only a temporary fix, but he needed to get the bleeding stopped, needed to get back to the ship to stop Badger and his men from carrying through on their threat.
He could feel his shoulders stiffening, the red he had seen when Badger threatened now clearly coming through his clothes. With a groan, he wrenched himself to his feet. Hanging on the wall for support, he made his way towards Serenity.
He was most of the way there, staying out of sight along the way when he saw Zoë coming across the square, body set with tension. His eyes narrowed as he took in her expression. Murderous, hatefulness poured off her every movement. He hung back against a wall, seeing Badger approach the tall woman. Little man tipping his bowler back on his head as he looked up at Zoë. Jayne could just make out their conversation from where he stood in shadow.
“Yeah, I seen your merc. Tried ta intimate that I should be sellin’ him a converter instead of coming with his Captain. You know the rules little girl.” Badger’s eyes glinted mischievously. He knew that the warrior woman would rise to the challenge.
“Funny you should still be dealing after Miranda.” Zoë calmly answered, no further offering of apology for Jayne going over Mal’s head.
“Yeah, sometime business gets wonky after folks like your own self disrupt the order of things. Some of us just know how to ride the beast of commerce is all.” Badger smiled.
“We need that converter, know you have a stock, willing to pay you.” Zoë got to the point, not following Badger’s opening.
“And I don’t think I will be selling it to you little girl. What I want you won’t pay. Little girls and all being worth what they are around here..” Badger grinned evilly at that .
“Come again?” Zoë was confused.
“I told your merc, and I will tell you, them converters are for sale only if I get that little dark-haired girl, she has a certain value to me…” Badger winked and licked his lips. Zoë went for her mare’s leg but stayed her had at the sight of two guns pointed at her head. “Might be wanting to rethink that response or you may end up joining your big friend somewhere real peaceable and lonely.” Badger grinned broadly at that.
“Jayne came to you?” Zoë asked, barely containing her surprise.
“Crawled in on his belly lookin’ for a handout more like. Seems he’s developed a sense a’ honor to your Captain. Sad really, won’t be able to see the Sergeant’s face when he finds out he got another gorramn fool to follow him through that valley…” Badger shook his head in mock sadness. “Never thought I’d see the day that the offer of money wouldn’t turn Jayne Cobb’s hand to new work.”
“Where is he?” Zoë was getting tense, new information about Jayne slotting in with Badger’s comment about him being somewhere peaceable.
“No longer a concern of mine little girl. Was a little too defensive about my costs. So, eliminated a middle man is all.” His grin and the cross cut of his hand across his throat was signal enough to Zoë that she ought to start worrying about where she might find the merc.
Ignoring her obvious realization of his method of cutting out the middle man, Badger continued, “Beside, doing business with you and your crew is tough on my other clients. Brings unwanted attention to them. Dong ma?” He turned to walk away from her, tossing back over his shoulder, “Mr. Cairo may be able to help you, I hear his standards are, hmm, more, flexible.” The two guns stayed, malicious grins on their faces. When Zoë went to go around them, one grabbed her arm and the other reached out to take her by the front of her coat.
Two small pops, crimson dots flowered in the middle of each man’s forehead. Surprised looking, they crumbled to the ground.
Zoë whipped around, saw Badger still making his way through the crowd, two more hired guns trailing after him. Shaking her head, she turned back towards Serenity. Her eyes swept over the surrounding area and caught a familiar shape in the shadows of a nearby building.
Slipping through the milling tradesmen and travelers, Zoë made her way to the shadows.
“Jayne?” She saw the big man leaning on a wall, eyes a little glassy, but still alert. His left arm hung at his side, limp, still grasping a gun dwarfed by his hand.
“Hey Zoë.” He replied, voice cracking a little. He didn’t think he wanted to try and walk any further. The pain in his back was extending down to his legs, numbness creeping into his limbs.
Zoë moved around to look at the darkness she could see seeping across his shoulder and the dark pool forming around his right boot, pant leg clinging to his thigh and calf.
“Wo de ma…” She saw that the back of his heavy army jacket was soaked in blood, torn across his shoulders. And she could see the heaviness of his lean against the wall.
“What happened?”
Jayne snorted, winced, “Little hun dahn didn’t like ta be asked ta sell his precious parts.”
Zoë pulled Jayne’s arm over her shoulder and they started to make their way back to Serenity, she half-dragging, half-supporting the big man as he stumbled. Zoë could feel the wetness soaking through her clothes as well. She knew he was losing blood too quickly, needed to get to Simon quickly.
Jayne kept a hold of the gun, tried to stay focused on the crowd that was parting around them as they made their way back to the ship. Too many people looking at them curiously, too many eyes taking in the condition of the big man and the woman with him.
A cry, a yell, the crowd parted for a child running frantically from the grasp of a gang of young men, armed with knives and intent on catching the urchin. Zoë and Jayne were right in the child’s path, blocking his way. Last desperate dodge, the little boy slipped past them, under a table and away. The young men shoved their way through, careening people out of their path. Jayne took in the sight of the knives, calculated their likelihood of using them and didn’t like the odds. Groaning with the effort, he twisted around, throwing his bulk sideways into the younger men, preventing them from continuing their pursuit.
Zoë drew her mare’s leg as soon as Jayne made the opening. Bead on the obvious leaders head. “Might want to be taking yourselves back where you came from.” She said softly, dangerous.
Jayne had laid out one of the others, himself barely upright, head hanging, spent from the mere effort. Zoë allowed herself one quick flick of her eyes to check on him, was concerned at his condition. It was rare to see the big man spent. She knew that she had better get him back to the ship, fast, or she would be carrying him.
Fortunately the young street toughs, with only her mare’s leg and the big man’s bulk to intimidate them, ran.
Jayne swayed on his feet as the crowd resumed its normal afternoon pattern of active ignorance. Zoë quickly draped his arm back over her shoulder and they continued their slow stumble to Serenity.
~~~~~
“Will he be ok?” Inara sounded concerned, more than Zoë expected in truth.
“He needed a transfusion more than anything. The injuries themselves were clean, nothing major was damaged that will take long for him to heal from.” Simon answered absently as he fiddled with an IV that he had dripping blood into the unconscious merc’s arm; blood he had drawn from his sister. She was the only match on the ship to Jayne. Simon spared a wry grin at the morbid humor in that. One killer to another he thought before stopping himself from continuing down that road. His sister wasn’t a killer, wasn’t like Jayne at all.
“How long til he is awake?” Zoë asked softly.
“Soon, he never seems to stay under as long as I think he should. The drugs flush through his system unusually fast.” Simon replied after checking a level on a test he was reading.
“Blood burns the skin, makes the vapors dissipate through membranes. Metabolic processes resorb chemicals and dissolve the constituent components into harmless molecules.” River explained helpfully. At least that is what she was trying to do. She contemplated the unconscious man on the medical bed. His face was peaceful, eyes closed, the clear blue of his eyes fogging in her vision. She saw clouds settle over them, reducing their crystalline purity.
“Simon…Simon… the darkness edges in… blurs the lines between light and dusk…” She pulled at Simon’s arm, pulling him over to Jayne’s side. “Look, look at the red slip in to make the blue dark.” She pointed to the IV line, eyes pleading, hands rubbing anxiously.
“Mei mei, it is just blood, he needs it. Lost too much.” Simon tried to explain, tone mild and soothing.
“No, no.. the blood, it burns, adds to the fire, makes it burn too hot. Will come out where it should not.” River was talking fast, worry tingeing every word.
“No honey, Jayne just needs to rest, the blood won’t come out again. Simon fixed him.” Zoë laid a placating hand on the young woman’s shoulder. Just two weeks after Miranda everyone was beginning to see River as more than a confused girl. This was the worst she had been since then. No one else had seen her weeping, nightmares threatening to overcome her, no one but Jayne.
River looked at Zoë, eyes haunted. “There are secrets no one told, so many secrets no one told, even she doesn’t see them all.”
Inara joined Zoë in trying to comfort River, “Sweetie, some secrets stay that way for a reason. Sometimes it is better not to know.” She spoke with the sadness of loss, loss of all she held right and true. Her own path after Miranda was still unclear. She knew she couldn’t forget what she saw, but who did that make her now? Did she really want to unknown what she knew?
“Everything changed, everything shifted… Loss and gains. New chances for hardened souls." River looked over her shoulder at Jayne, looked back at Zoë and Inara. “New feelings… found family, won’t let it go for old wants. .. No power in the ‘verse can take that away.” River said the last with confidence, unusual to hear. She had seen what the others had not, a new chance. Jayne who would rather die himself than let her be harmed by Badger.
bu zhong yong chwen joo unfit for anything/no good/useless/retarded pig
wu zou miaozi filthy barbaric
xiăo tōu thief
gûnkāi fuck off
wo de ma Oh God