Torchwood/Firefly fic: Dropping By (PG-13)
Title: Dropping By
By: Ana
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jayne’s used to dead bodies, but he ain’t used to them falling out of the sky and then waking up.
Timeline: A little bit before the salvage job in the pilot episode.
Word count: About 3300
Notes: Many thanks to April and Lyr for beta reads and comments on the early draft of this! Thank you also to Lyr for the title suggestion. Disclaimer: not my characters, no profit being made.
Jayne’s used to dead bodies. Mostly he’s made a living outta making them dead in the first place, then stepping over ‘em, or using ‘em for cover if needed, and suchlike. He don’t like it when they’re all mutilated up by some gorram Reaver freak, but otherwise, they’re just part of the job.
In his experience, though, dead bodies don’t just drop outta the sky in the middle of nowhere. He’s seen them fall from the top of a building, sure. Right now though -
“There ain’t no buildings around here,” he mutters, stepping closer and prodding at the dead guy with his boot.
“Jayne! Ain’t no need to be pokin’ at him,” Kaylee says, scandalized-like.
“Gotta make sure it’s dead, though,” he says, prodding again, this time with his gun. Body don’t move. It’s a pretty good sign it’s dead and ain’t coming back. Not that folk do come back after they’re dead. Them’s just stories.
“No one could survive that kind of fall. He's gotta be dead.” She’s frowning down at the body.
“No doubt to it.” Mal says. “Look at the way his neck is twisted.”
Yep. That’s a dead-looking neck, if Jayne’s ever seen one.
Kaylee’s crouching down now, peering closer. “What do you think he’s doin’ out here?”
“Got thrown off a ship’s my bet. Probably died before he hit the ground,” says Mal, already walking away. “Come on. Kaylee, get your head back to thinking how you’re gonna make sure the tech is working fine before we go and spend my good money on it.”
“But cap -“ she starts in, and Jayne’s already laying odds she’s going to push for a burial, and that Mal’s going to get suckered right in by her big old sad eyes, which means Jayne himself is going to be doing most of the digging, which is always the gorram way of th-
The corpse gasps and then coughs, the twisted neck straightens, and a surprisingly calm voice says, “That was unexpected.”
Kaylee screams and jumps back, Mal turns around real quick, and Jayne lifts his gun.
The body - the breathing, open-eyed corpse - looks up at Jayne, suddenly grins in a way Jayne can only call dirty, and says, “Oh, hi. Now that is one nice looking gun.”
+ + +
It goes from there. Jayne figures according to Mal it goes downhill, on account of how he was already keyed up about maybe getting ripped off after a long walk in the middle of nowhere, and also a dead body coming back to life was not on his plan for the day. Kaylee, though, she’s clearly thinking the day is just getting better and better. She ain’t stopped looking at the guy since he stood up, brushed sand off his coat, and started smiling at her.
“Captain Jack Harkness,” he says, holding out his hand to Kaylee.
She grins. “You were dead!”
“Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. But enough about me, gorgeous.” He moves a little closer to Kaylee. “Tell me all about you.”
From the way she looks back at him, Jayne can tell the guy’s got something. Something Jayne’s heard other folk talk about. Something Jayne himself knows he don’t got, and never will.
Kaylee's blushing. “Oh, I’m Kaylee! Also, there’s nothin’ much to say. Just a mechanic. My captain, he’s over -“
“Mechanic? Interesting. You say ‘captain’. I’m guessing this means you’re a ship’s mechanic?”
Yep, this guy - Harkness - he’s definitely got it. What was the word for it again? Right. Charm. Got it in spades.
Kaylee blushes a little more, but this time Jayne can see she’s getting revved up for some talking. “Yep! She’s a Firefly, and we’re just here to pick up parts for her, on account of the fact the captain weren’t takin’ care of her the way he should, and right now we really need a couple of-”
“Kaylee!”
She turns, real quick. “Cap! Oh. Sorry.” She looks back at Harkness and whispers, “Captain don’t like it when the unexpected drops down in the middle of a job. And we really need these parts. Also, he’s been crabby all morning. It’s just one of his moods. He don’t like payin’ for parts, you know? But sometimes you just gotta.”
Mal kinda glares. There ain’t much behind it. “What’d I tell you before about telling our business to bodies that just fall out of the sky and then get up and start talking and asking intrusive questions?”
Kaylee looks confused. “Um. Don’t do it?”
“Exactly.” Mal turns to Harkness. “Nice to see you’re breathing after that fall. Best be on your way now, as we’re busy.”
“I’m guessing, even with all this talk about pay, that you’re busy with clandestine business?”
Mal frowns.
“I’m just asking because I’m good at clandestine. Also, I seem to have landed in the middle of nowhere and might need a ride.” He walks up to Mal. “By the way, I’m Captain Jack Harkness, and that’s a great coat you have there.”
Mal frowns even harder.
+ + +
Jayne watches from the sidelines as Mal and Kaylee fight. They don’t do it real often, but it’s better to stay out of the way when it happens. Same goes for Mal and Zoe fighting. And Mal and Inara.
So Jayne just watches, and listens. Truth is, it’s kind of entertaining.
“No. No! We don’t know him, and just because -“
“It ain’t right leavin’ him out here. You know it ain’t. There’s nothin’ out here. No one.”
“Just because,” Mal says louder, “he’s giving you the charm and the significant looks, it don’t mean I gotta give him a ride -“
Next to him, Harkness smirks and mutters, “Though it might be fun if you did…” but Jayne ignores it. He moves further away.
Harkness follows. “So.” He clears his throat. “That really is a nice gun. Customized, right?”
Jayne ignores him. Most folk usually get the message when Jayne’s holding a big gun and ignoring their chatter. Kaylee once said it’s on account of the way his face looks naturally intimidating. It were one of the nicest things a person’s ever said to him.
It doesn’t work with Harkness though. “I’m guessing the scope isn’t standard issue, and the gun in general looks like it’s been fitted to your body specifications,” he’s looking Jayne up and down now, real slow, “specifically.”
Jayne grunts.
“You pay for someone to do it?”
It’s pretty clear the guy isn’t going to shut up. And Jayne can’t hear the argument so well from where he’s standing now anyhow. So he turns a little, frowns and says, “Did it myself.”
Harkness grins, wide and happy, and claps his hand down on Jayne’s shoulder. “I knew it. A guy like you wouldn’t pay for someone to mess with his guns.”
Jayne ain’t sure if them last few words are supposed to mean something else. “Right.”
“Because a mercenary isn’t worth his pay grade if he can’t customize his own guns.”
Yep. “Right.”
Harkness leans in closer and asks, kinda low, “Want to trade tips?” He squeezes his hand.
“Nope,” Jayne says after a minute, because now he really ain’t sure if they’re talking about guns or something else. He ain’t being paid for confusion today.
Harkness steps back, maybe almost looking disappointed. “OK then. So how about this - can you tell me where I am?”
Jayne tells him. Ain’t much to tell. Just one more armpit of a moon. He doesn’t even think about it too much when Harkness asks, “So - when am I? Based on the whole,” he waves his hand towards Mal, “cowboy motif and spaceships thing you people have going on here, I think I have an idea. But confirmation never hurts.”
+ + +
In the end, Kaylee wins. Jayne ain’t surprised. Mal’s a pushover sometimes. Still, he plays the hard captain when he gives Harkness the rules.
“One: Do what I say. Two: You help us get the parts we need, and you help carry them back to the shuttle. Three: Jayne will shoot you if you trying anything. “
Jayne nods, though no one but Kaylee is looking at him. Her eyes narrow.
“Four: I drop you at the next place that’s got a decent-sized town. Five: No complaining. We still got a ways to walk.”
Harkness is just kind of smirking as he listens to the rules. He nods to each one, and as soon as Mal turns around to keep walking, he murmurs to Kaylee, “Authoritarian. I like that. You get a lot of that on your ship? If so, I can see the appeal of staying on.”
Kaylee laughs a little, elbowing Harkness in the side. “Too bad he’s wearin’ his coat. Authoritarian works even better when he stomps off and all you can see is his tight Captain pants.”
“Six,” Mal yells, not turning around, “No talking that ain’t necessary!”
Kaylee laughs again, Harkness makes a sound kinda like he’s hungry, and Jayne figures Mal ain’t the only one who could do with taking his coat off and showing things off to the world a little.
Then he wonders where the gorram hell that thought came from.
+ + +
It’s a long walk. Mal leads the way, way ahead, and Jayne gets back to following up the rear. There ain’t much to do but keep scanning the area, keep his eye on Harkness, and listen to Kaylee’s chatter.
“Nope, it’s a small crew. We got Zoe, Mal’s second, they fought in the war together. And Wash, the pilot, he’s real funny. He’n Zoe are married. And we got a Companion on board, she’s real nice. You’d like her. Then me and Jayne. And the captain.”
“A Companion? Doesn’t seem standard for the kind of ship that seems to specialize in, ah, clandestine.”
Kaylee laughs. “Yeah, well, Inara ain’t real standard. Also, we get legit jobs! Sometimes. You know how it is out here.” She looks up at him. “Hey, you got some Companion trainin’?”
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
“Huh. I was just wonderin’ on account of how you’re all…” she waves her hand up and down, wiggling her eyebrows, like she can’t find the words. Jayne can think of a few words for it, but no one’s asking him.
Harkness laughs. “Nope. This is all 100% me. Tell me it isn’t your lucky day!”
Kaylee’s looking a little starry eyed. Maybe a lot. Same kind of look she gives Serenity and real food. It’s the kinda look Jayne figures he gets in a decent whorehouse.
“So, Kaylee. We’re walking, and I can’t help but wonder why we’re walking.”
“Oh, the guy we gotta see about parts, he don’t like visitors much. Kinda weird, bit funny in the head, don’t like shuttles comin’ in close, but he’s got the parts we need. That everyone needs. And all kinds of fancy tech, some folk say. Stuff like you ain’t see nowhere else. Anyway, he says we don’t get to fly in, so we don’t get to fly in.”
Harkness nods. “Lucky for me you were walking.” He touches Kaylee’s arm a minute. Kaylee don’t seem to mind, but it’s suspicious-looking. “Thanks. For arguing my case.” Just as Jayne’s about to move in to break them up, Harkness backs off.
“Oh, I figure you can pay me back somehow.”
“I have some ideas. So, all kinds of tech? Enough to get you hot and bothered?”
Kaylee grins. “Yeah, but parts and engines ain’t the only things that do.”
A look passes between the two of them, and Jayne’s pretty sure that if there was some kind of cover around these parts, they would have been in it in about 20 seconds. Too bad for them there’s nothing but sand.
Instead, Harkness winks, says something about ‘later’, and starts asking questions about what kind of fancy tech they’re taking about. Pointed questions. Jayne moves closer and listens harder, ‘cause they ain’t so much casual as trying to be casual. Never hurts to stock up on info about what a person - ‘specially them who fall dead out of the sky - has a weakness for. Or wants. Or maybe might even steal, and in the process get Jayne shot at.
+ + +
In the end, other than a body dropping from the sky and coming back to life, the trip is boring as gorram hell for Jayne. There ain’t no ambushes, the parts depot ain’t rigged with any explosives Jayne gets called on to defuse, they don’t get lost, and there ain’t so much as a bitty sand lizard that crosses their paths.
Just another gorram day trudging in the sand, and this time, they’re even paying for it, instead of getting paid.
At the depot, Jayne watches as Kaylee goes through parts with some kind of freakish glee; he listens while Mal bitches about prices and bargains; he tracks Harkness as he wanders through the depot, looking at little itty bits of tech that Jayne can’t see no use for, and he don’t say anything when Harkness slips some of those pieces into his coat pocket.
“Clandestine,” he mutters, as Harkness walks by him at one point.
“You got it,” Harkness replies, flashing that same grin again.
Kaylee’s fair to bursting the entire walk back to their shuttle, and Jayne ain’t sure if it’s on account of her plans for Serenity, her plans for Harkness, or the bits of tech Harkness flashed at her back at the depot. Jayne himself is itching something fierce, a kind of itch that ain’t quite sand fleas, and ain’t quite on top of the skin. He don’t know what to make of it, but he knows it weren’t there before bodies started falling out of the sky.
+ + +
It takes three days and nights for Serenity to get Harkness to the nearest decent-sized town. Jayne figured Mal might not keep the deal, but he does. It ain’t like they go out of their way for it, though. Mal’s got a meeting about a job on Persephone anyway.
Day one, no one sees much of Harkness. Or Kaylee. Or the new parts for Serenity. Jayne hears lots of sounds coming from the engine room - muted voices, bangs and clangs, laughs, more banging. Not that he was hanging around outside the engine room or nothing. When he sees Kaylee in the kitchen late that night, she’s got a streak of oil dark across her forehead, she’s looking real satisfied, and her shirt ain’t done up right.
“Hey, Jayne,” she says, mixing up two cups of tea.
He grunts.
Day two, Harkness and Kaylee surface, making some time at the breakfast table. This time, Kaylee's shirt is done up right. Mostly.
“Engines?” Mal asks, ignoring Harkness. Zoe's eyeing Harkness up real good, though Jayne figures it mostly seems like she's trying not to laugh at the way Mal ain't looking at him.
“Oh, shiny, captain,” she answers. “Jack here has all kinds of…ideas. For making things work real good.”
“It isn’t my first time on a ship like this,” Harkness adds.
“Yep.” Kaylee coughs a little and she don’t hide her grin. “Pretty sure we got Serenity running real smooth. Couple more days, and I’ll have the rest of the parts all squared away.”
“Squared away, very tidily.” Harkness says.
Then Inara walks into the room, and Jayne, having seen the two of them eying each other up the day Harkness walked into Serenity, gets up and heads down to his bunk. He’s got some ideas of his own.
No one sees Kaylee and Harkness for the rest of the day.
Morning of day three, he wakes up to Harkness climbing down the ladder. Normally, he don’t take too kindly to unannounced guests, but for some reason, it ain’t his guns he feels like reaching for.
“Morning, soldier,” Harkness says when he reaches the floor.
He ain’t no soldier. Never was.
“Kaylee and I had an idea. Up in the engine room. We could use your help. If you’re interested.”
Jayne ain’t never been considered good with engines, and Kaylee don’t usually ask him to help with anything that don’t involve heavy lifting.
“You ask Mal?” he asks, stalling for time while he decides if early morning grunt work is worth it.
Harkness grins, eyes a little narrow, and says, “Oh, Kaylee didn’t think your captain would want to know these kinds of details.”
Jayne can’t help but grin back. He ain’t never been one to pass up pulling one over on Mal. “Sounds like fun,” he says, sitting up.
“We knew we could count on you, handsome,” Harkness says.
Turns out Harkness and Kaylee were thinking about a lot more than heavy lifting. And Mal definitely wouldn’t want to know about it.
Ever.
+ + +
Day four, Jayne’s feeling worn out and real satisfied, Kaylee’s looking smug and exhausted, and Harkness looks pretty much like nothing could ruffle his feathers. Jayne knows different, but some folk, they just got this tidy way about them. Normally he don't trust them kind of folk, but he's willing to make an exception this time.
“We’re landing in about an hour,” Wash says, poking his head into the engine room. “Persephone awaits.” He looks at Harkness, waggles his eyebrows. “I think you’ll like its delights. By the way,” he says looking at Kaylee, “seems to me that Serenity’s sounding pretty good. Engine’s running quieter.”
Kaylee grins back. “Wait ‘till you try the landing.”
“An hour, mmm?” Harkness asks, after Wash walks away. “I can think of ways to spend a decent hour…”
Kaylee laughs and pushes him out of the engine room. “Out! I got stuff to do if we’re going to land as smooth as I want it.” She turns to Jayne. “You too. Go.” Jayne can tell she’s serious because she closes the door behind them.
They go, and Jayne’s about to suggest a visit down to his bunk, when Harkness sighs. “Persephone. I’m not really that thrilled by its delights.” He’s fingering his wristband, something Jayne’s seen him do a few times before. “I should probably go.”
“Yep. In an hour.”
“No need to wait!” Harkness points at his wrist. “I managed to fix this on my second night here. Great parts depot we visited, I have to admit. I just stuck around yesterday for the fun of it.” He smirks. “Definitely worth it.”
Yeah, it was worth it, but Jayne don’t get what Harkness is getting at. And he don’t much care. No one’s getting off this ship until it lands. Unless - “You ain’t thinkin’ of stealin’ the spare shuttle, are you?” Jayne ain’t tolerating that, not even after a night like last night. They need that shuttle.
Harkness just laughs, that same laugh Jayne’s heard a lot now, in all different kinds of situations, and claps Jayne on the shoulder like he did when they first met. “Suspicious to the last. I like that in a mercenary. No, I’ve got my own transportation now. Should get me back to where and when I’m supposed to be.”
Sexy and crazy. In Jayne’s estimation, it ain’t an uncommon combination. Maybe falling out of the sky went and cracked Harkness in the head a little. Or maybe this is another game, kinda like the one he'd suggested last night -
“It’s been fun. And I mean that. Really fun. Just what I needed. Tell Kaylee she’s gorgeous, and so is her ship.” Harkness flips back part of the wristband. “See you around, Jayne. Well, probably not, but maybe if we’re all lucky.” He fiddles with a couple of buttons, gives Jayne one last blinding grin, and taps his finger.
Then he disappears.
Jayne can’t think of much to do except stare at the space Harkness has left empty. Sexy, maybe a little cracked, waking up from being dead, and disappearing right in front of him.
Mal ain’t going to like this. Not one bit. Jayne thinks about it a minute, thinks about Mal yelling and the fact that they’ll probably do a search of the whole gorram ship, hidey-holes and all. Mal's likely irritation is enough to make Jayne grin a little bit, even though it's gonna be one pain in the ass to deal with the yelling.
Then he shrugs. That’s about an hour away, and he is rightly exhausted. He heads back down to his bunk.
End
By: Ana
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jayne’s used to dead bodies, but he ain’t used to them falling out of the sky and then waking up.
Timeline: A little bit before the salvage job in the pilot episode.
Word count: About 3300
Notes: Many thanks to April and Lyr for beta reads and comments on the early draft of this! Thank you also to Lyr for the title suggestion. Disclaimer: not my characters, no profit being made.
Jayne’s used to dead bodies. Mostly he’s made a living outta making them dead in the first place, then stepping over ‘em, or using ‘em for cover if needed, and suchlike. He don’t like it when they’re all mutilated up by some gorram Reaver freak, but otherwise, they’re just part of the job.
In his experience, though, dead bodies don’t just drop outta the sky in the middle of nowhere. He’s seen them fall from the top of a building, sure. Right now though -
“There ain’t no buildings around here,” he mutters, stepping closer and prodding at the dead guy with his boot.
“Jayne! Ain’t no need to be pokin’ at him,” Kaylee says, scandalized-like.
“Gotta make sure it’s dead, though,” he says, prodding again, this time with his gun. Body don’t move. It’s a pretty good sign it’s dead and ain’t coming back. Not that folk do come back after they’re dead. Them’s just stories.
“No one could survive that kind of fall. He's gotta be dead.” She’s frowning down at the body.
“No doubt to it.” Mal says. “Look at the way his neck is twisted.”
Yep. That’s a dead-looking neck, if Jayne’s ever seen one.
Kaylee’s crouching down now, peering closer. “What do you think he’s doin’ out here?”
“Got thrown off a ship’s my bet. Probably died before he hit the ground,” says Mal, already walking away. “Come on. Kaylee, get your head back to thinking how you’re gonna make sure the tech is working fine before we go and spend my good money on it.”
“But cap -“ she starts in, and Jayne’s already laying odds she’s going to push for a burial, and that Mal’s going to get suckered right in by her big old sad eyes, which means Jayne himself is going to be doing most of the digging, which is always the gorram way of th-
The corpse gasps and then coughs, the twisted neck straightens, and a surprisingly calm voice says, “That was unexpected.”
Kaylee screams and jumps back, Mal turns around real quick, and Jayne lifts his gun.
The body - the breathing, open-eyed corpse - looks up at Jayne, suddenly grins in a way Jayne can only call dirty, and says, “Oh, hi. Now that is one nice looking gun.”
+ + +
It goes from there. Jayne figures according to Mal it goes downhill, on account of how he was already keyed up about maybe getting ripped off after a long walk in the middle of nowhere, and also a dead body coming back to life was not on his plan for the day. Kaylee, though, she’s clearly thinking the day is just getting better and better. She ain’t stopped looking at the guy since he stood up, brushed sand off his coat, and started smiling at her.
“Captain Jack Harkness,” he says, holding out his hand to Kaylee.
She grins. “You were dead!”
“Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. But enough about me, gorgeous.” He moves a little closer to Kaylee. “Tell me all about you.”
From the way she looks back at him, Jayne can tell the guy’s got something. Something Jayne’s heard other folk talk about. Something Jayne himself knows he don’t got, and never will.
Kaylee's blushing. “Oh, I’m Kaylee! Also, there’s nothin’ much to say. Just a mechanic. My captain, he’s over -“
“Mechanic? Interesting. You say ‘captain’. I’m guessing this means you’re a ship’s mechanic?”
Yep, this guy - Harkness - he’s definitely got it. What was the word for it again? Right. Charm. Got it in spades.
Kaylee blushes a little more, but this time Jayne can see she’s getting revved up for some talking. “Yep! She’s a Firefly, and we’re just here to pick up parts for her, on account of the fact the captain weren’t takin’ care of her the way he should, and right now we really need a couple of-”
“Kaylee!”
She turns, real quick. “Cap! Oh. Sorry.” She looks back at Harkness and whispers, “Captain don’t like it when the unexpected drops down in the middle of a job. And we really need these parts. Also, he’s been crabby all morning. It’s just one of his moods. He don’t like payin’ for parts, you know? But sometimes you just gotta.”
Mal kinda glares. There ain’t much behind it. “What’d I tell you before about telling our business to bodies that just fall out of the sky and then get up and start talking and asking intrusive questions?”
Kaylee looks confused. “Um. Don’t do it?”
“Exactly.” Mal turns to Harkness. “Nice to see you’re breathing after that fall. Best be on your way now, as we’re busy.”
“I’m guessing, even with all this talk about pay, that you’re busy with clandestine business?”
Mal frowns.
“I’m just asking because I’m good at clandestine. Also, I seem to have landed in the middle of nowhere and might need a ride.” He walks up to Mal. “By the way, I’m Captain Jack Harkness, and that’s a great coat you have there.”
Mal frowns even harder.
+ + +
Jayne watches from the sidelines as Mal and Kaylee fight. They don’t do it real often, but it’s better to stay out of the way when it happens. Same goes for Mal and Zoe fighting. And Mal and Inara.
So Jayne just watches, and listens. Truth is, it’s kind of entertaining.
“No. No! We don’t know him, and just because -“
“It ain’t right leavin’ him out here. You know it ain’t. There’s nothin’ out here. No one.”
“Just because,” Mal says louder, “he’s giving you the charm and the significant looks, it don’t mean I gotta give him a ride -“
Next to him, Harkness smirks and mutters, “Though it might be fun if you did…” but Jayne ignores it. He moves further away.
Harkness follows. “So.” He clears his throat. “That really is a nice gun. Customized, right?”
Jayne ignores him. Most folk usually get the message when Jayne’s holding a big gun and ignoring their chatter. Kaylee once said it’s on account of the way his face looks naturally intimidating. It were one of the nicest things a person’s ever said to him.
It doesn’t work with Harkness though. “I’m guessing the scope isn’t standard issue, and the gun in general looks like it’s been fitted to your body specifications,” he’s looking Jayne up and down now, real slow, “specifically.”
Jayne grunts.
“You pay for someone to do it?”
It’s pretty clear the guy isn’t going to shut up. And Jayne can’t hear the argument so well from where he’s standing now anyhow. So he turns a little, frowns and says, “Did it myself.”
Harkness grins, wide and happy, and claps his hand down on Jayne’s shoulder. “I knew it. A guy like you wouldn’t pay for someone to mess with his guns.”
Jayne ain’t sure if them last few words are supposed to mean something else. “Right.”
“Because a mercenary isn’t worth his pay grade if he can’t customize his own guns.”
Yep. “Right.”
Harkness leans in closer and asks, kinda low, “Want to trade tips?” He squeezes his hand.
“Nope,” Jayne says after a minute, because now he really ain’t sure if they’re talking about guns or something else. He ain’t being paid for confusion today.
Harkness steps back, maybe almost looking disappointed. “OK then. So how about this - can you tell me where I am?”
Jayne tells him. Ain’t much to tell. Just one more armpit of a moon. He doesn’t even think about it too much when Harkness asks, “So - when am I? Based on the whole,” he waves his hand towards Mal, “cowboy motif and spaceships thing you people have going on here, I think I have an idea. But confirmation never hurts.”
+ + +
In the end, Kaylee wins. Jayne ain’t surprised. Mal’s a pushover sometimes. Still, he plays the hard captain when he gives Harkness the rules.
“One: Do what I say. Two: You help us get the parts we need, and you help carry them back to the shuttle. Three: Jayne will shoot you if you trying anything. “
Jayne nods, though no one but Kaylee is looking at him. Her eyes narrow.
“Four: I drop you at the next place that’s got a decent-sized town. Five: No complaining. We still got a ways to walk.”
Harkness is just kind of smirking as he listens to the rules. He nods to each one, and as soon as Mal turns around to keep walking, he murmurs to Kaylee, “Authoritarian. I like that. You get a lot of that on your ship? If so, I can see the appeal of staying on.”
Kaylee laughs a little, elbowing Harkness in the side. “Too bad he’s wearin’ his coat. Authoritarian works even better when he stomps off and all you can see is his tight Captain pants.”
“Six,” Mal yells, not turning around, “No talking that ain’t necessary!”
Kaylee laughs again, Harkness makes a sound kinda like he’s hungry, and Jayne figures Mal ain’t the only one who could do with taking his coat off and showing things off to the world a little.
Then he wonders where the gorram hell that thought came from.
+ + +
It’s a long walk. Mal leads the way, way ahead, and Jayne gets back to following up the rear. There ain’t much to do but keep scanning the area, keep his eye on Harkness, and listen to Kaylee’s chatter.
“Nope, it’s a small crew. We got Zoe, Mal’s second, they fought in the war together. And Wash, the pilot, he’s real funny. He’n Zoe are married. And we got a Companion on board, she’s real nice. You’d like her. Then me and Jayne. And the captain.”
“A Companion? Doesn’t seem standard for the kind of ship that seems to specialize in, ah, clandestine.”
Kaylee laughs. “Yeah, well, Inara ain’t real standard. Also, we get legit jobs! Sometimes. You know how it is out here.” She looks up at him. “Hey, you got some Companion trainin’?”
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
“Huh. I was just wonderin’ on account of how you’re all…” she waves her hand up and down, wiggling her eyebrows, like she can’t find the words. Jayne can think of a few words for it, but no one’s asking him.
Harkness laughs. “Nope. This is all 100% me. Tell me it isn’t your lucky day!”
Kaylee’s looking a little starry eyed. Maybe a lot. Same kind of look she gives Serenity and real food. It’s the kinda look Jayne figures he gets in a decent whorehouse.
“So, Kaylee. We’re walking, and I can’t help but wonder why we’re walking.”
“Oh, the guy we gotta see about parts, he don’t like visitors much. Kinda weird, bit funny in the head, don’t like shuttles comin’ in close, but he’s got the parts we need. That everyone needs. And all kinds of fancy tech, some folk say. Stuff like you ain’t see nowhere else. Anyway, he says we don’t get to fly in, so we don’t get to fly in.”
Harkness nods. “Lucky for me you were walking.” He touches Kaylee’s arm a minute. Kaylee don’t seem to mind, but it’s suspicious-looking. “Thanks. For arguing my case.” Just as Jayne’s about to move in to break them up, Harkness backs off.
“Oh, I figure you can pay me back somehow.”
“I have some ideas. So, all kinds of tech? Enough to get you hot and bothered?”
Kaylee grins. “Yeah, but parts and engines ain’t the only things that do.”
A look passes between the two of them, and Jayne’s pretty sure that if there was some kind of cover around these parts, they would have been in it in about 20 seconds. Too bad for them there’s nothing but sand.
Instead, Harkness winks, says something about ‘later’, and starts asking questions about what kind of fancy tech they’re taking about. Pointed questions. Jayne moves closer and listens harder, ‘cause they ain’t so much casual as trying to be casual. Never hurts to stock up on info about what a person - ‘specially them who fall dead out of the sky - has a weakness for. Or wants. Or maybe might even steal, and in the process get Jayne shot at.
+ + +
In the end, other than a body dropping from the sky and coming back to life, the trip is boring as gorram hell for Jayne. There ain’t no ambushes, the parts depot ain’t rigged with any explosives Jayne gets called on to defuse, they don’t get lost, and there ain’t so much as a bitty sand lizard that crosses their paths.
Just another gorram day trudging in the sand, and this time, they’re even paying for it, instead of getting paid.
At the depot, Jayne watches as Kaylee goes through parts with some kind of freakish glee; he listens while Mal bitches about prices and bargains; he tracks Harkness as he wanders through the depot, looking at little itty bits of tech that Jayne can’t see no use for, and he don’t say anything when Harkness slips some of those pieces into his coat pocket.
“Clandestine,” he mutters, as Harkness walks by him at one point.
“You got it,” Harkness replies, flashing that same grin again.
Kaylee’s fair to bursting the entire walk back to their shuttle, and Jayne ain’t sure if it’s on account of her plans for Serenity, her plans for Harkness, or the bits of tech Harkness flashed at her back at the depot. Jayne himself is itching something fierce, a kind of itch that ain’t quite sand fleas, and ain’t quite on top of the skin. He don’t know what to make of it, but he knows it weren’t there before bodies started falling out of the sky.
+ + +
It takes three days and nights for Serenity to get Harkness to the nearest decent-sized town. Jayne figured Mal might not keep the deal, but he does. It ain’t like they go out of their way for it, though. Mal’s got a meeting about a job on Persephone anyway.
Day one, no one sees much of Harkness. Or Kaylee. Or the new parts for Serenity. Jayne hears lots of sounds coming from the engine room - muted voices, bangs and clangs, laughs, more banging. Not that he was hanging around outside the engine room or nothing. When he sees Kaylee in the kitchen late that night, she’s got a streak of oil dark across her forehead, she’s looking real satisfied, and her shirt ain’t done up right.
“Hey, Jayne,” she says, mixing up two cups of tea.
He grunts.
Day two, Harkness and Kaylee surface, making some time at the breakfast table. This time, Kaylee's shirt is done up right. Mostly.
“Engines?” Mal asks, ignoring Harkness. Zoe's eyeing Harkness up real good, though Jayne figures it mostly seems like she's trying not to laugh at the way Mal ain't looking at him.
“Oh, shiny, captain,” she answers. “Jack here has all kinds of…ideas. For making things work real good.”
“It isn’t my first time on a ship like this,” Harkness adds.
“Yep.” Kaylee coughs a little and she don’t hide her grin. “Pretty sure we got Serenity running real smooth. Couple more days, and I’ll have the rest of the parts all squared away.”
“Squared away, very tidily.” Harkness says.
Then Inara walks into the room, and Jayne, having seen the two of them eying each other up the day Harkness walked into Serenity, gets up and heads down to his bunk. He’s got some ideas of his own.
No one sees Kaylee and Harkness for the rest of the day.
Morning of day three, he wakes up to Harkness climbing down the ladder. Normally, he don’t take too kindly to unannounced guests, but for some reason, it ain’t his guns he feels like reaching for.
“Morning, soldier,” Harkness says when he reaches the floor.
He ain’t no soldier. Never was.
“Kaylee and I had an idea. Up in the engine room. We could use your help. If you’re interested.”
Jayne ain’t never been considered good with engines, and Kaylee don’t usually ask him to help with anything that don’t involve heavy lifting.
“You ask Mal?” he asks, stalling for time while he decides if early morning grunt work is worth it.
Harkness grins, eyes a little narrow, and says, “Oh, Kaylee didn’t think your captain would want to know these kinds of details.”
Jayne can’t help but grin back. He ain’t never been one to pass up pulling one over on Mal. “Sounds like fun,” he says, sitting up.
“We knew we could count on you, handsome,” Harkness says.
Turns out Harkness and Kaylee were thinking about a lot more than heavy lifting. And Mal definitely wouldn’t want to know about it.
Ever.
+ + +
Day four, Jayne’s feeling worn out and real satisfied, Kaylee’s looking smug and exhausted, and Harkness looks pretty much like nothing could ruffle his feathers. Jayne knows different, but some folk, they just got this tidy way about them. Normally he don't trust them kind of folk, but he's willing to make an exception this time.
“We’re landing in about an hour,” Wash says, poking his head into the engine room. “Persephone awaits.” He looks at Harkness, waggles his eyebrows. “I think you’ll like its delights. By the way,” he says looking at Kaylee, “seems to me that Serenity’s sounding pretty good. Engine’s running quieter.”
Kaylee grins back. “Wait ‘till you try the landing.”
“An hour, mmm?” Harkness asks, after Wash walks away. “I can think of ways to spend a decent hour…”
Kaylee laughs and pushes him out of the engine room. “Out! I got stuff to do if we’re going to land as smooth as I want it.” She turns to Jayne. “You too. Go.” Jayne can tell she’s serious because she closes the door behind them.
They go, and Jayne’s about to suggest a visit down to his bunk, when Harkness sighs. “Persephone. I’m not really that thrilled by its delights.” He’s fingering his wristband, something Jayne’s seen him do a few times before. “I should probably go.”
“Yep. In an hour.”
“No need to wait!” Harkness points at his wrist. “I managed to fix this on my second night here. Great parts depot we visited, I have to admit. I just stuck around yesterday for the fun of it.” He smirks. “Definitely worth it.”
Yeah, it was worth it, but Jayne don’t get what Harkness is getting at. And he don’t much care. No one’s getting off this ship until it lands. Unless - “You ain’t thinkin’ of stealin’ the spare shuttle, are you?” Jayne ain’t tolerating that, not even after a night like last night. They need that shuttle.
Harkness just laughs, that same laugh Jayne’s heard a lot now, in all different kinds of situations, and claps Jayne on the shoulder like he did when they first met. “Suspicious to the last. I like that in a mercenary. No, I’ve got my own transportation now. Should get me back to where and when I’m supposed to be.”
Sexy and crazy. In Jayne’s estimation, it ain’t an uncommon combination. Maybe falling out of the sky went and cracked Harkness in the head a little. Or maybe this is another game, kinda like the one he'd suggested last night -
“It’s been fun. And I mean that. Really fun. Just what I needed. Tell Kaylee she’s gorgeous, and so is her ship.” Harkness flips back part of the wristband. “See you around, Jayne. Well, probably not, but maybe if we’re all lucky.” He fiddles with a couple of buttons, gives Jayne one last blinding grin, and taps his finger.
Then he disappears.
Jayne can’t think of much to do except stare at the space Harkness has left empty. Sexy, maybe a little cracked, waking up from being dead, and disappearing right in front of him.
Mal ain’t going to like this. Not one bit. Jayne thinks about it a minute, thinks about Mal yelling and the fact that they’ll probably do a search of the whole gorram ship, hidey-holes and all. Mal's likely irritation is enough to make Jayne grin a little bit, even though it's gonna be one pain in the ass to deal with the yelling.
Then he shrugs. That’s about an hour away, and he is rightly exhausted. He heads back down to his bunk.
End