(Untitled)

[ff_ambassador]

Since she's found out that Jayne has been looking for Lilly, Inara needs to know what he's found out. She starts looking for him around the ship, finally finding him in the kitchen.

"Hey Jayne. What are you up too?" She's trying to stay casual, but isn't sure it's really working.

Comments

[swinging_cod]

Jayne shoves a protein sandwich in his mouth and chomps down.

"Lunch," he says indistinctly, spraying bread crumbs all over the place as he talks. "What's up?"

[ff_ambassador]

Inara rolls her eyes as the crumbs fly over the table, but sits down next to him.

With Jayne, blunt seems to be best. She jumps right in. "I know you've been looking for Lilly and I'm really worried about her. Belar told me about your search and some details on others that have gone missing from the bar too. I was wondering if you had found out anything."

[swinging_cod]

Jayne stiffens, hunkering down a little, his face going stonelike.

"I ain't found out nothin'. Weren't even sure she was gone 'til you told me just now."

He glances at Inara, eyes suspicious. "And I don't know no Beller, either."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara sighs impatiently. "It's Belar, and he's on Security in the Bar. Suzi apparently told him you were looking for her, and he told me."

Her voice gets a bit softer. "It's been almost two weeks, from what I can tell."

[swinging_cod]

"I told you," Jayne says, short, "I don't know nothin' about it."

He's not looking at Inara, now, directing instead a fierce glare at the innocent half-sandwich. "All I know is she run out on me when we got back from the weddin' and ain't been seen since."

[ff_ambassador]

"I just wanted to know if you'd found anything, any clue as to where she might have gone," Inara says, switching tactics, keeping her voice calm. She lays a hand on his arm. "I worried about her and I know you are too."

[swinging_cod]

"How the hell should I know where she went?"

Jayne's voice rises. He is not feeling in a mood to be soothed. "Standin' there one minute, gone the next, faster'n Stabby goes into a fit of crazy hijinks."

[ff_ambassador]

"I don't know, Jayne!" Inara's voice matches his. "But if you don't stop yelling and start using that brain that I know you must have in there somewhere, we are never going to find her!"

She stops to catch her breath and glares at him.

[swinging_cod]

"You find her, you mean," Jayne says, bitterly. "'cause she sure as hell don't want to be found by me."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara gives a growl of frustration. "Jayne. Did you ever think that maybe she is beyond normal means of being found? That maybe you needed to get some other help?" She gives him a firm look. "I know that you would not just give up looking for her."

[swinging_cod]

"Where the hell you think she is, anyways? Tied t'the traintracks somewhere? She's a gorram ghost. Might be as she don't want t'be found, might be as she ain't gonna let herself be."

Inara gets a look right back. "You got a pair a special ghost-trackin' glasses I don't know about?"

[ff_ambassador]

Inara throws her hands up, digustedly.

"Fine. Sit here and do nothing. I'll make sure to tell her all about how much of a help you were when she's found."

She pushes back her chair with considerable force and heads towards the door.

[swinging_cod]

"Where you want me to even start lookin'?" Jayne bellows at her back. "Graveyard? Mebbe under all the beds in th'whorehouse?"

[ff_ambassador]

"I don't KNOW!" Inara yells back, turning back to Jayne. "Just anywhere, as long as you aren't sitting on your gorram ass, you fèifèi de pìyăn! Augh!"

She had been holding a sheet of paper where she had been making notes of possible places Lilly could be and people to talk to. It is now balled up in her hand and she flings it at Jayne's head as hard as she can, breathing hard.

[swinging_cod]

Jayne's trained to deflect weapons; as soon as he sees something flying towards him, he puts up his arm in a defensive position. The ball of paper bounces harmlessly off, leaving Jayne glaring over the top of it.

He shifts his hands to the table and pushes himself up to his feet as he offers a painfully explicit suggestion of where, exactly, Inara might want to start looking.

[ff_ambassador]

Don't let Inara's elegant clothing and demeanor fool you - she can cuss like a sailor on shore leave.

She uses this ability to retort back to Jayne about his parentage from various farm animals and the uselessness of his brain and other body parts. At the top of her voice, her Mandarin very clear.