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it didn’t take them long to find the coin the operative had left in one of serenity’s hidey holes; and then it didn’t take much longer than that for them to spend it. took them flying to find out there were little kinks that still needed ironing out of serenity’s skin, little stresses that still needed soothing. Mal’d been reluctant to use it at first, downright against it in point of fact, but soon it became apparent that it were either that or starve, or fall outta the sky, or just plain freeze & float.
fact of the matter is that they weren’t exactly quiet about what they set out to do at Miranda. fact of the matter is, none of them really expected to be coming back from any of that. It were a bit hard at the time to forsee finding another scavenging job, or transport job, or just plain heist when you were expecting to get et to death in the next few minutes or so. but, as things always do, going back to normal seems the most unnatural thing for them to ever do, and the rest of the ‘verse seems to agree wholeheartedly.
they ain’t had a job in months. the legitimates want to avoid them because they ain’t exactly on the good side of the law. the illegitimates want to avoid them because they ain’t exactly on the good side of the law, and have proven a propensity to draw attention to this fact. so they end up on a murky, oily border moon that seems to have very little going for it in terms of natural light, with enough fuel to push them through atmo but not much further than that.
Kaylee’s spending some time saying her goodbyes to her layer-cake dress, so she ain’t the usual staple presence in the Doc’s bunk that she’s come to be in recent times. In fact, the Doc looks a mite relieved when he sees it’s Jayne walking in through his doorway, belt feeling surprisingly not uncomfortably lighter with the pistols and slew of ammo he’s just left on the dining table. The Doc’s turning something in his hands, like a little grey sliver of slate, but somewhat shinier. Jayne props himself up against the wall, just watches for a bit.
“My encyclopedia,” Simon says at length, offering up a vague smile that’s somewhat apologetic. Jayne grunts. “I thought…” the Doc shrugs a little. “I thought I’d got rid of everything I could afford to before, you know?” he glances past Jayne, to the corner of the room near the door, and Jayne realises the crazy girl’s sitting there, in the corner. He’s proud at the way he don’t startle.
“It’s all there anyway,” she says, half in that way she does when she’s telling him something that ought to be mighty obvious, but there’s edges to her tone that Jayne’s been figuring out more and more, since… well. like she’s commiserating with him some too, not just making fun.
“I know, I just…” he glances up at Jayne again, the curve of his shoulder pushing something like self-conscious awkwardness to the fore of whatever it is he’s trying to say.
Jayne grunts again, shrugs a little. “It’s all there anyway,” he says. “Like she says. Why you need to know where everything is when we can just fly on out and find it?”
and the doc’s still looking at him, still all sad around his eyes but thoughtful-like now, his mouth self-consciously pressing closed and lips moving in something near a smile, but more just… thinky. River snorts.
“‘Sides,” Jayne says, pushing away from the wall and turning to go. “Ain’t like knowin’ all that stuff’s gonna count for something on this damp rock.” He pauses as he finally sees River in the corner there; she don’t look anxious or nothing, just curled up and relaxed, watching. “What’ve you got to lose, little girl?” he asks, knowing her answer; she came onto the ship wearing nothing but that high-tech freezing unit, and they sold that long since.
“Nothing,” she says, wearing a smile somewhat like her brother’s, only this one’s had a chance to find out just what it was about, and grow a little. “Turns out I have nothing left to give.” Jayne smirks a bit at that, but mainly because he don’t want to leave with her - with them thinking he didn’t get the joke.