Fic: Jaylee 100 drabbles #097, #098 + #099.
99 down, one more to go.
Title: WORRY.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #097: Water.
Word Count: 479.
*~*~*~*
WORRY.
*~*~*~*
"You gonna eat that?"
Kaylee nudged her food around the plate a little, pushing it from one side to the other, then passed it over to Jayne. She felt his eyes on her and it prickled.
"You alright?" He asked.
"Yeah." His eyes weren't the only ones as she screwed her nose up. "It taste funny to anyone else?"
"Tastes fine to me." Mal added from the head of the table. "Same as always."
"Maybe."
"Well." Jayne glowered. "You can't not eat. You gotta have something."
"I will. Soon, maybe." She sighed. "I guess I'm not that hungry."
"You didn't get too wet in the rain before?"
Mal's question made them all look up, made Simon's eyes narrow as he scanned her up and down. She could tell they all remembered the last time she got sick and normally she'd be glad that they all cared so much, but for some reason, right then, it just felt like there were too many eyes and too many people watching over her.
She frowned as she shifted out of Inara's hand coming to rest on her forehead.
"I'm fine."
It hadn't been that bad for a while, she thought they'd gotten past that. If they were gonna start harping on it again, watching every move she made, she was going to lose her mind. She knew it.
"You sure?" Jayne's eyes were the worst, sharp and worried, looking straight through her. "You been kinda weird all day."
"I said I was fine." She insisted, feeling the words grate through her teeth. "Don't start this again."
"Okay." He was quick to back off and she felt almost grateful for it. "Just, you know, at least drink something. Here, have some water."
As she raised the glass to her mouth, Kaylee felt her nostrils twitch in protest. The metallic scent of it reached in and made her wince. She sniffed it again, then looked up at Zoe.
"When you cooked tonight, you use this water?"
"No, Kaylee." Mal rolled his eyes. "She used the freshwater fountain spring that sprung up in the kitchen. It's right over there by the frolicking nyphms."
He stopped when she glared at him.
"What's wrong?" Zoe reached out and sniffed at her own glass. "I can't smell anything."
"Me neither." Simon added as they all tested their glasses.
"Sensory overload." River shrugged. "Smell is subjective to each person..."
"Somethin's wrong." Kaylee said, not waiting for them all to finish. "Maybe one of the pipes needs replacing, or the tank's rusted up or something."
"There's no rust on my ship." Mal told her, half seriously.
"Something ain't right." Kaylee stood up. "I'm gonna find out what. I'll be lookin' in tanks if you need me."
"I didn't smell anything." She heard Inara say as she walked out the door.
"Nobody smelled anything." Mal answered. "You sure she's alright, Jayne?"
***
***
Prompt Table
***
Title: DRILLING.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #98: Nurture.
Word Count: 687.
*~*~*~*
DRILLING.
*~*~*~*
"Kaylee?"
She looked up from the table and blinked, her eyes were sore. She'd been sitting there for a good hour scribbling away at the pages in front of her. Sometimes it helped to sketch out engine parts, adding this or that, tryin' to figure out a way to make 'em better or stretch out what life they had left. It wasn't working much right then.
"What's up, sweetie?"
River smiled and held out her hand.
"Can I borrow your pen?"
"Soon." She smiled back. "I just gotta finish here, won't be long."
"You won't need it." River said with a shrug.
"Just a little bit longer." Kaylee frowned slightly and then yawned. "Unless you can tell me how to repipe the water tanks in mid space without floodin' the entire ship."
"You won't need it." River repeated. "Jayne just went into your bunk with a power drill."
"What?" Kaylee stood up, suddenly finding the energy she hadn't had five minutes before. She absently handed the pen to River. "He what...?"
She heard River whisper a pleased thank you on her way out the door, but she didn't have the time to be annoyed at that. Not right then, anyways, 'cause the closer she got to her bunk, the louder the sound of drilling was.
"Jayne!" She yelled it as she opened the door. "Jayne! What the hell are you doin'?"
"Drillin'." Came the answer.
"I know that." Kaylee jumped the last few steps down to the bunk and glared. "Why and what for are you drilling?"
He was kneeling up on her bed, eye mask on, hands holding the drill up to the wall. She pretended not to see the little curling bits of metal spiking out of her blankets, the silver shavings scattered over her pillow. Instead, she eyed the scattered remains of her room.
All the little dried flowers she'd collected, a Chinese fan, pictures she'd taped to the wall, the string of lights, everything with color that she'd slowly and diligently stored up to brighten the dingy blankness of the room. They sat discarded all over her floor.
"'Cause." He shrugged. "Gotta put Vera somewhere when I move in, don't I?"
She blinked.
"What?" And blinked again. The bastard winked at her. "You're what?"
"And I ain't gonna sleep in here without a proper place for my ladies, you know that."
"But what?"
"Careful." He grinned again as he lifted the eye mask with one hand. "You're startin' to sound a mite unintelligent there. An' that's my job."
"But wha...?" Then she caught herself, blushing as she did it. "You said you were movin' in?"
"Yup." Then he snapped the mask back in place. "So's you better think about packin' away some of your girly things. Not all, mind, but enough to give me some room."
"You really wanna?"
He shrugged as he lifted the drill back up to the wall.
"Just said so didn't I?" And maybe he was acting like he didn't care one little bit, but Kaylee could see the tight way he kept hold of his mouth so it didn't grin, the way his neck flushed dark. "Figured there weren't no use both of us playin' musical bunks night after night."
She couldn't help herself, she rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and kissing the back of her neck.
"You're the sweetest man alive, Jayne Cobb."
"Hey now." He twisted his head to look at her, eyes looking huge in the mask. "You start that an' this won't be finished in time for us to sleep tonight."
"I gotta go tell everyone!" She bounced on her toes.
"You keep shoutin' an' they'll figure it out soon enough."
"Grump." She kissed him again. "I'm gonna go tell 'em, anyway."
By the time Kaylee reached the top of her... their... she grinned at the thought, ladder, she blushed deeply. Jayne was right, they were all gonna figure it out sooner rather than later. It was inevitable.
On her nameplate, in quickly drying ink, someone had scribbled "Jayne and" above her name.
"I want my pen back, River!"
***
***
Prompt Table
***
Title: THE OFFER.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #099: Absolution.
Word Count: 931.
*~*~*~*
THE OFFER.
*~*~*~*
"I was looking for you."
Kaylee's reaction to the voice was automatic, she looked up so fast that she didn't even have time to think about the ramifications of it. Her head hit the metal above her with a dull thud and she groaned as she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts.
"I have to say, I never thought to look in the second shuttle."
"Simon." She quickly inched her way out of the small crawl space so she could stand up, she felt the distinct need to be upright when she talked to him. "River's on the bridge, waitin' for everyone else to get back."
"I know." He looked shy and she was reminded of the first few months after he'd first come aboard. "I wanted to talk to you in private."
"That ain't..." She paused, feeling uncomfortable and awkward and hating every second of it. "Why?"
"There needs to be a reason now?"
"Don't?" She couldn't stand it, couldn't stand the egg shells and the mine fields and the small hidden cracks that were going to split everyone apart. "Okay? I don't wanna start this again, I don't wanna fight, I don't wanna rehash any of it."
"Neither do I." There was so much space between them, her standing just above the open hatch and him standing just inside the door, looking like he was ready to run. "That's why I'm here. I've been thinking, trying to come up with a way to make it up to you, to both of you."
"There's nothin' to make up." She looked down at the wrench in her hand then back up at him. "I keep tellin' you that."
"Have you told Jayne?" It wasn't angry or snide or demeaning, she could still read his voice and he was honestly interested in her answer. "I'm not sure he sees it the same way you do."
"Then why don't you talk to him?" She had to put the wrench down, or she was gonna twist the shape right off it and make it useless. "Why couldn't you wait to talk to both of us?"
"To be honest?" He tried to smile and she gave him points for it. "I'm not sure if he'd take kindly to that, not yet anyway."
"He's trying." She frowned. "He's been real decent to you."
"I know. And I'm grateful for that." The way he nodded then told her that he knew just why Jayne was trying so hard. "I just don't want to push that too hard, yet."
They looked at each other, standing still, neither of them willing to make the first step forward or even away. No movement that could be misconstrued or taken as something it wasn't. Kaylee could feel the air close in around her chest.
"Did you come up with something?" She just had to say something to fill in the gaps.
"Sorry?" He blinked.
"You said you were lookin' for something to make it up?"
"Oh! Oh, yes." He paused and she waited, urging him with a look. "That is to say, no. I didn't come up with anything."
"Huh?" Okay, all this tension was going to kill her. "Simon, sit down and just tell me what you wanted to say, before I beat it out of you."
She went to heft the wrench at him and realized too late that she'd already put it down. It ended up looking like she was threatening him with a rather limp hand batting and it made him smile.
"I thought I could get you a present." He sighed as he inched his way towards the seat. "But then River reminded me how inappropriate that might be."
She scrunched her nose up in agreement.
"A little."
One step, she moved a little closer towards him.
"Then I thought, perhaps, I could offer Jayne something. He was looking for something special to give you and I don't have much, but I did manage to salvage one or two valuable items that I was saving for... I don't know, River maybe, or something special."
"He wouldn't want it from you." Kaylee couldn't be anything but brutally honest. "He wouldn't want to give me anything knowin' it came from you."
"Hence the trashing of that plan." He acknowledged the truth of it. "There's not much I have here, on board this ship or anywhere really, that would help. So, after much deliberation, I finally came to a decision."
"And?"
"And the best thing I can do for the two of you is nothing." He looked at her, straight at her, and she saw the offer in his eyes. "Nothing I do or say will help, nothing I can give will make it better. The only thing I can possibly offer is space and time and hope that one day things will get better between us."
Kaylee looked at him, looked hard, and remembered all the times in that first year when she was chasing after him. She'd tried so hard she'd lost sight of a person who had been slowly and softly trying to win her over.
Jayne had seen she wanted Simon and he'd stepped back, had stood back and, apart from a few jokes and teasing, had given her the space to do what she wanted without putting any pressure on her. He'd hurt hard in that year, she knew it now, but he hadn't once said anything to let her know it, had kept it hidden well.
He'd been the bigger man over all.
And it looked like Simon was finally realizing that.
***
***
Prompt Table
Progress: 099/100.
Title: WORRY.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #097: Water.
Word Count: 479.
*~*~*~*
WORRY.
*~*~*~*
"You gonna eat that?"
Kaylee nudged her food around the plate a little, pushing it from one side to the other, then passed it over to Jayne. She felt his eyes on her and it prickled.
"You alright?" He asked.
"Yeah." His eyes weren't the only ones as she screwed her nose up. "It taste funny to anyone else?"
"Tastes fine to me." Mal added from the head of the table. "Same as always."
"Maybe."
"Well." Jayne glowered. "You can't not eat. You gotta have something."
"I will. Soon, maybe." She sighed. "I guess I'm not that hungry."
"You didn't get too wet in the rain before?"
Mal's question made them all look up, made Simon's eyes narrow as he scanned her up and down. She could tell they all remembered the last time she got sick and normally she'd be glad that they all cared so much, but for some reason, right then, it just felt like there were too many eyes and too many people watching over her.
She frowned as she shifted out of Inara's hand coming to rest on her forehead.
"I'm fine."
It hadn't been that bad for a while, she thought they'd gotten past that. If they were gonna start harping on it again, watching every move she made, she was going to lose her mind. She knew it.
"You sure?" Jayne's eyes were the worst, sharp and worried, looking straight through her. "You been kinda weird all day."
"I said I was fine." She insisted, feeling the words grate through her teeth. "Don't start this again."
"Okay." He was quick to back off and she felt almost grateful for it. "Just, you know, at least drink something. Here, have some water."
As she raised the glass to her mouth, Kaylee felt her nostrils twitch in protest. The metallic scent of it reached in and made her wince. She sniffed it again, then looked up at Zoe.
"When you cooked tonight, you use this water?"
"No, Kaylee." Mal rolled his eyes. "She used the freshwater fountain spring that sprung up in the kitchen. It's right over there by the frolicking nyphms."
He stopped when she glared at him.
"What's wrong?" Zoe reached out and sniffed at her own glass. "I can't smell anything."
"Me neither." Simon added as they all tested their glasses.
"Sensory overload." River shrugged. "Smell is subjective to each person..."
"Somethin's wrong." Kaylee said, not waiting for them all to finish. "Maybe one of the pipes needs replacing, or the tank's rusted up or something."
"There's no rust on my ship." Mal told her, half seriously.
"Something ain't right." Kaylee stood up. "I'm gonna find out what. I'll be lookin' in tanks if you need me."
"I didn't smell anything." She heard Inara say as she walked out the door.
"Nobody smelled anything." Mal answered. "You sure she's alright, Jayne?"
***
***
Prompt Table
***
Title: DRILLING.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #98: Nurture.
Word Count: 687.
*~*~*~*
DRILLING.
*~*~*~*
"Kaylee?"
She looked up from the table and blinked, her eyes were sore. She'd been sitting there for a good hour scribbling away at the pages in front of her. Sometimes it helped to sketch out engine parts, adding this or that, tryin' to figure out a way to make 'em better or stretch out what life they had left. It wasn't working much right then.
"What's up, sweetie?"
River smiled and held out her hand.
"Can I borrow your pen?"
"Soon." She smiled back. "I just gotta finish here, won't be long."
"You won't need it." River said with a shrug.
"Just a little bit longer." Kaylee frowned slightly and then yawned. "Unless you can tell me how to repipe the water tanks in mid space without floodin' the entire ship."
"You won't need it." River repeated. "Jayne just went into your bunk with a power drill."
"What?" Kaylee stood up, suddenly finding the energy she hadn't had five minutes before. She absently handed the pen to River. "He what...?"
She heard River whisper a pleased thank you on her way out the door, but she didn't have the time to be annoyed at that. Not right then, anyways, 'cause the closer she got to her bunk, the louder the sound of drilling was.
"Jayne!" She yelled it as she opened the door. "Jayne! What the hell are you doin'?"
"Drillin'." Came the answer.
"I know that." Kaylee jumped the last few steps down to the bunk and glared. "Why and what for are you drilling?"
He was kneeling up on her bed, eye mask on, hands holding the drill up to the wall. She pretended not to see the little curling bits of metal spiking out of her blankets, the silver shavings scattered over her pillow. Instead, she eyed the scattered remains of her room.
All the little dried flowers she'd collected, a Chinese fan, pictures she'd taped to the wall, the string of lights, everything with color that she'd slowly and diligently stored up to brighten the dingy blankness of the room. They sat discarded all over her floor.
"'Cause." He shrugged. "Gotta put Vera somewhere when I move in, don't I?"
She blinked.
"What?" And blinked again. The bastard winked at her. "You're what?"
"And I ain't gonna sleep in here without a proper place for my ladies, you know that."
"But what?"
"Careful." He grinned again as he lifted the eye mask with one hand. "You're startin' to sound a mite unintelligent there. An' that's my job."
"But wha...?" Then she caught herself, blushing as she did it. "You said you were movin' in?"
"Yup." Then he snapped the mask back in place. "So's you better think about packin' away some of your girly things. Not all, mind, but enough to give me some room."
"You really wanna?"
He shrugged as he lifted the drill back up to the wall.
"Just said so didn't I?" And maybe he was acting like he didn't care one little bit, but Kaylee could see the tight way he kept hold of his mouth so it didn't grin, the way his neck flushed dark. "Figured there weren't no use both of us playin' musical bunks night after night."
She couldn't help herself, she rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and kissing the back of her neck.
"You're the sweetest man alive, Jayne Cobb."
"Hey now." He twisted his head to look at her, eyes looking huge in the mask. "You start that an' this won't be finished in time for us to sleep tonight."
"I gotta go tell everyone!" She bounced on her toes.
"You keep shoutin' an' they'll figure it out soon enough."
"Grump." She kissed him again. "I'm gonna go tell 'em, anyway."
By the time Kaylee reached the top of her... their... she grinned at the thought, ladder, she blushed deeply. Jayne was right, they were all gonna figure it out sooner rather than later. It was inevitable.
On her nameplate, in quickly drying ink, someone had scribbled "Jayne and" above her name.
"I want my pen back, River!"
***
***
Prompt Table
***
Title: THE OFFER.
Author: Jacqui
Rating: G.
Character(s): Jayne/Kaylee.
Prompt #099: Absolution.
Word Count: 931.
*~*~*~*
THE OFFER.
*~*~*~*
"I was looking for you."
Kaylee's reaction to the voice was automatic, she looked up so fast that she didn't even have time to think about the ramifications of it. Her head hit the metal above her with a dull thud and she groaned as she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts.
"I have to say, I never thought to look in the second shuttle."
"Simon." She quickly inched her way out of the small crawl space so she could stand up, she felt the distinct need to be upright when she talked to him. "River's on the bridge, waitin' for everyone else to get back."
"I know." He looked shy and she was reminded of the first few months after he'd first come aboard. "I wanted to talk to you in private."
"That ain't..." She paused, feeling uncomfortable and awkward and hating every second of it. "Why?"
"There needs to be a reason now?"
"Don't?" She couldn't stand it, couldn't stand the egg shells and the mine fields and the small hidden cracks that were going to split everyone apart. "Okay? I don't wanna start this again, I don't wanna fight, I don't wanna rehash any of it."
"Neither do I." There was so much space between them, her standing just above the open hatch and him standing just inside the door, looking like he was ready to run. "That's why I'm here. I've been thinking, trying to come up with a way to make it up to you, to both of you."
"There's nothin' to make up." She looked down at the wrench in her hand then back up at him. "I keep tellin' you that."
"Have you told Jayne?" It wasn't angry or snide or demeaning, she could still read his voice and he was honestly interested in her answer. "I'm not sure he sees it the same way you do."
"Then why don't you talk to him?" She had to put the wrench down, or she was gonna twist the shape right off it and make it useless. "Why couldn't you wait to talk to both of us?"
"To be honest?" He tried to smile and she gave him points for it. "I'm not sure if he'd take kindly to that, not yet anyway."
"He's trying." She frowned. "He's been real decent to you."
"I know. And I'm grateful for that." The way he nodded then told her that he knew just why Jayne was trying so hard. "I just don't want to push that too hard, yet."
They looked at each other, standing still, neither of them willing to make the first step forward or even away. No movement that could be misconstrued or taken as something it wasn't. Kaylee could feel the air close in around her chest.
"Did you come up with something?" She just had to say something to fill in the gaps.
"Sorry?" He blinked.
"You said you were lookin' for something to make it up?"
"Oh! Oh, yes." He paused and she waited, urging him with a look. "That is to say, no. I didn't come up with anything."
"Huh?" Okay, all this tension was going to kill her. "Simon, sit down and just tell me what you wanted to say, before I beat it out of you."
She went to heft the wrench at him and realized too late that she'd already put it down. It ended up looking like she was threatening him with a rather limp hand batting and it made him smile.
"I thought I could get you a present." He sighed as he inched his way towards the seat. "But then River reminded me how inappropriate that might be."
She scrunched her nose up in agreement.
"A little."
One step, she moved a little closer towards him.
"Then I thought, perhaps, I could offer Jayne something. He was looking for something special to give you and I don't have much, but I did manage to salvage one or two valuable items that I was saving for... I don't know, River maybe, or something special."
"He wouldn't want it from you." Kaylee couldn't be anything but brutally honest. "He wouldn't want to give me anything knowin' it came from you."
"Hence the trashing of that plan." He acknowledged the truth of it. "There's not much I have here, on board this ship or anywhere really, that would help. So, after much deliberation, I finally came to a decision."
"And?"
"And the best thing I can do for the two of you is nothing." He looked at her, straight at her, and she saw the offer in his eyes. "Nothing I do or say will help, nothing I can give will make it better. The only thing I can possibly offer is space and time and hope that one day things will get better between us."
Kaylee looked at him, looked hard, and remembered all the times in that first year when she was chasing after him. She'd tried so hard she'd lost sight of a person who had been slowly and softly trying to win her over.
Jayne had seen she wanted Simon and he'd stepped back, had stood back and, apart from a few jokes and teasing, had given her the space to do what she wanted without putting any pressure on her. He'd hurt hard in that year, she knew it now, but he hadn't once said anything to let her know it, had kept it hidden well.
He'd been the bigger man over all.
And it looked like Simon was finally realizing that.
***
***
Prompt Table
Progress: 099/100.