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It was just the two of them now; everyone else was still being treated in the Alliance medical bay set up on the ship while Serenity was being transported to Persephone for repairs, courtesy of the Operative. 

Doctors had treated Simon’s bullet wound and Kaylee’s mobility was steadily increasing as the toxin was slowly flushed from her system. Inara tended Mal who needed to lie still as she was the only one who could convince him to do so – and only if she was next to him. 

They fixed Zoe’s back and told her of the new life – barely a week old – nesting in her belly; the last gift her husband could give her. Wash was in the morgue, waiting to be buried along with the rest of the settlers on Haven just as soon as they were able.

Both River and Jayne had been treated as outpatients; her cuts and scrapes were cleaned and dressed, they stitched up Jayne’s side, sewn up his shoulder, and gave him a sling to wear. 

After they’d finished, the Operative had shown them to their separate quarters where showers and fresh changes of clothing awaited. 

A curious thing happened, however, the first time River tried leaving her room, intent on visiting her family in the medical bay.

Jayne was there, sitting in a chair asleep, just on the outside of her door. Without looking, she couldn’t tell if he was guarding her or blocking her potential escape.

Her hand a light touch on his shoulder, “Jayne,” she called softly.

Startled, his eyes shot open and he sat upright in his chair. When he noticed that it was only her, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and ran his free hand through his hair. “’S just you. Where ya headed?”

She frowned, confused at his response, “she…just wanted to go visit Simon. Why do you block her path?”

A little self-conscious, Jayne muttered, “wasn’t tryin’ ta keep ya from goin’ places. Just don’t want ya goin’ no wheres by yourself.”

Looking into his mind, she understood. We are too few, can’t lose another.

“No Blue Hands here. The Operative has promised and she detects no hint of dishonesty or manipulation. We are safe here, Jayne.”

“Yeah, till his bosses d’cide ta take matters into their own hands. ‘Sides already talked ta the Cap’n. Ya ain’t goin’ no where by yourself. Don’t trust these hundans not one lick.”

-

Surprisingly enough, Jayne had kept his word while onboard the Alliance vessel; she’d never gone anywhere alone outside of her quarters. After a couple days she’d even invited him in to watch a movie on the cortex; he’d been so bored sitting outside that he’d accepted.

Even after they’d landed at the shipyard in Persephone, any time she’d needed to leave and everyone was better and able-bodied; he made sure to accompany her. 

She never said, but she appreciated that with him at her back, she never had to keep an eye out for danger in the crowds; she could just be a normal girl shopping.  She was safe with him.

He continued his protection detail after they retook the black and coin was lined their pockets once again; he had no time for whoring and only drank a little in the black. In his head, he would remind himself that he needed to be ready in case she needed him.

He had to protect her. She was his charge and he took it seriously. 

They were too few now and he wasn’t going to lose her.

-

He knocked on her door one night, about a year after they took off from Persephone. It was late and she’d been asleep, but she shuffled to her door anyway. Pushing her hair sleepily out of her face she looked up at him, waiting for him to speak.

He didn’t look at her; he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it out if he did. Instead, he looked down at his hands, scowling as he tried to find the words.

“I’m sorry. F’r tryin’ ta give to them Blue Hands on Ariel an’ ‘m sorry for doin’ it again after ya kicked my pi gu on Beaumonde. An’ for bein’ mean to ya all those times ya couldn’t help it ‘cause you were crazy an’ all.”

River just stood there, so shocked by his apology that she couldn’t speak. She’d long known that he regretted the way he used to treat her – and some of it had been well deserved even if she hadn’t been in her right mind – but for him to actually come out and say it meant more than she could tell him.

That she mattered enough to him that he’d come to tell her in words; words made it real, made it a truth. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t take it back now.

Taking her silence for rejection, Jayne nodded once, still not looking at her and mumbled, “so, yeah. I’ll just let ya go back ta bed. Night.” 

She was still standing there when he rounded the corner and headed up the stairs toward his bunk.  

“Thank you, Jayne,” she whispered as she finally went back inside her room, unable to sleep the rest of the night, her thoughts swirling around him.

-

When he got the letter that both his mother and Mattie had died – she’d poisoned them both to allow for a faster, more peaceful death than the alternative – when Reavers visited his planet, Jayne had gone and locked himself in his bunk despite Kaylee’s best efforts to make him come out.

River sat in her bunk with tears rolling down her face as she listened to his memories, his grief projecting throughout the ship. Finally, she couldn’t resist the urge to help him any longer.

Gleaning his hatch code from his mind, she slipped down into his bunk tiptoeing to where he sat on the floor, leaning against the bulkhead, his pictures of home spread all around him.

Kneeling next to him, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tilted him unresisting into her embrace, stroking his hair gently.

Her voice quiet a whisper, “You are not alone, Jayne Cobb. We are your family; you have all of us.” 

You have me as I have you, she added silently.

As if hearing her unspoken words, she felt his arms wrap around her middle, pulling her closer as he cried.

-

After that day, it became commonplace to find them together, neither speaking, and each doing their own thing; but together, taking comfort in the simple presence of the other.

The crew didn’t understand the new dynamic and always tried to shove it into a conventional category, but it didn’t fit. What the two of them felt was more than friends, but less than lovers, not romantic but not platonic either; it stymied those who did not feel it.

River knew that if Jayne ever left Serenity, she would go with him; she did not wish to be without him and knew that he wanted the same.

Whatever they were and whatever they would be, they would be together and that was just fine with them.