Title: Tenuous : Chapter eight
Pairing: Zoe/Jayne
Setting: about 5 years past the BDM
Rating: PG13
Comments: Thanks to
cheshire_monkey for the reassurance. Sorry I'm a bit late....hope you like it.
Tenuous Organizational Post Chapter eight
The job had gone well; she, River and Jayne had delivered the goods on time and intact, the other crew had carried out all their jobs. They’d got paid good coin, had no injuries, hadn’t had to kill anyone and even had an offer of another job with the same employer.
River had gone back to the boat, they never liked leaving Serenity without a guard for long, and she and Jayne were meeting their new employer. He was a cut above Badger and seemed a halfway decent fella.
“Then its settled Captain?” Tom Brennan smiled; rose and shook her hand.
Zoë nodded at him coolly, dismissing his interest in her automatically. “We’ll load up in the morning and be off,’ she confirmed.
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you Captain Washburn.” He smiled again, more distantly and left the bar. Zoë sighed; pleased he’d taken her dismissal so well. Their job was still secure. Being in sole charge of organising the jobs was one of the things about being Captain that made her uneasy.
She was still uncomfortable with the title of Captain, kept looking around for the Captainevery time she heard it. Zoë never thought she earned being in charge. But the others had accepted her as a matter of course and even Jayne hadn’t argued. It surprised her mightily that the mercenary hadn’t tried to take over, as he had once before.
Instead, so far he’d backed her up on every occasion. Used as she was to his support when they were fighting, Zoë hadn’t expected that.
“It’s kosher then?” Jayne queried, handing her a drink. Backing her up again, he’d spent the whole meeting sitting there silently, intimidating their contact without even trying.
“River looked him up on The Cortex; no warrants, no scandal, nothing.”
“Don’t ya think that’s kinda suspicious?”
“Yes,” Zoe acknowledged. “We’ll keep both eyes open and River will be there too”
River was, over her brother’s objections, their third gun now. Although she wasn’t as much of a Reader as she was before, the girl could still sense people’s emotions.
At first - after - she’d reluctantly thought about hiring another body, an extra gun and muscle. None of them had really cottoned to the idea though and she and they had moved to fill the void left by the Captain.
With River doing more jobs on the outside Inara had taken over the back-up piloting; Zoë believed that the job was keeping her here with Serenity. Kaylee and River helped more in the infirmary and did most of the cooking. Simon had begun helping Jayne with the heavier jobs, moving cargo and such and Jayne had pretty much become her second in command.
He’d been doing it well too. He was following her orders mostly and hardly argued at all. It sorta made her suspicious, the man’s good behaviour.
“Now the borin’ parts over, ya gonna play pool with me?” Jayne gestured toward the pool table.
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “I want to think on the job some.”
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She should be thinking about the job instead of sitting here staring into her glass.
“Wouldn’t mind a piece of that!” the woman at the table nearby her was obviously checking out Jayne as he leaned over the pool table. “I’d even take him on for free.”
Quietly she took another drink as she watched the big man move round the table and listened to the women behind her admiring him.
She was feeling lonely, truth be told. Simon and Kaylee were more wrapped up in each other than ever and River seemed to be riding herd on Inara. Jayne - well she wasn’t sure how Jayne was doing. Judging from the overheard conversation he wouldn’t be going to bed lonely tonight and she was feeling pretty envious of that right now.
Zoë mostly took care of her needs herself with a very occasional tumble planetside. The tumbles even though they filled the need at the time, left her feeling dissatisfied. She was much more comfortable in the privacy of their bunk, memories of happier time fuelling her fantasies. She wondered what it might be like to be as free and easy as Jayne.
Zoë rose a bit unsteadily from the table and approached the pool table, “time to go Jayne.”
He looked up at the harsh tone in Zoë’s voice, surprised. He’d been covertly keepin’ track of how much his Captain was drinkin’.
In the whole time he’d been on Serenity, the woman never took more than two drinks. Tonight she’d knocked back lots more than that. Probably the loneliness was finally hittin’ her. She’d been doin’ a good job of hidin’ it, but he figured Zoe had to be missing Mal real bad.
Turnin’ he followed her out of the bar; carefully doggin’ her steps to make sure she got back to the ship safely. ‘Cause she noticed, Zoe noticed everything. “You trying to look after me Jayne?”
“Don’t want anythin’ happenin’ to another Captain.” Jayne winced at his stupid answer, glad that she didn’t call him on it.
Zoe wasn’t listening, concentrating on the slight alcohol buzz, her thoughts from the bar and her suddenly overwhelming need.
“Jayne.” Before she thought too hard about it, Zoë ran her hand over his bicep. “Feel like a tumble?”