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Lights	By : antilogicgirl Category: 1 through F > Firefly Views: 4339 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly or any of the characters therein. No monetary gain is had from the writing of this fiction.

Chapter List
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Title:“Lights”
Begun: December 1, 2007
Completed: December 4, 2007
Summary: Relationships fall apart sometimes. Kaylee knew that. What she never counted on was who would be there to pick up the pieces.
A/N: Hi, all. This is my first story in this fandom, though I've loved the show for some time. It was an early Christmas present a year ago for a friend, who is a nearly shameless Jayne/Kaylee fan. So yes, the eventual pair will be those two. Just keep your shirts on for that. It takes a while, since Jayne's a bit thick in the head and Kaylee's stuck on our resident doctor.
Legal Stuff: I do not own Firefly or any of the characters therein. Joss Whedon, creator. OC mentioned (Dara) is mine for future use.
Chapter 1: Dim Lights
Kaylee rubbed at her forehead as she leaned against the wall, hovering halfway between wanting to collapse into the hammock and slipping down the side of the port side hull. This whole thing was giving her a headache. She looked at the pile of parts on the floor for what had to be the fifteenth time in the last twenty minutes. Instead of caving in and giving up, she stubbornly shoved up the sleeves of her grease-stained coveralls and got down to work. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath, as she yanked the broken gasket off of the compression coil and plopped her butt right down on the floor.
The intercom static made a fuzzy-like noise, and Malcolm Reynolds’s highly irritated voice said, “Kaylee, are you done patching up that gorram compression coil yet?!”
Eyes crossing and trying to roll at the same time, Kaylee pushed herself up from where she sat. Stomping over to the squawk box, she smashed the button down and said, “Keep your pants on, Captain. This ain’t changin’ a lightbulb, you know. Gimme about another twenty minutes.” Glancing over her shoulder at the mess on the floor, she reconsidered before correcting herself. “Make it thirty, actually.”
The instant she let go of that button, Mal growled through the crackling speaker, “Kaylee Fry, you get the engine on line in ten minutes or so help me—“ Her jaw clenched hard, and Kaylee flipped the toggle for the volume all the way down.
“As if,” she grumped, taking the three steps back to her pile of compression coil. “You wouldn’t do me a damned thing.” She picked up the titanium housing tube, and a brush, starting to scrape out the burnt grease that had got caked up inside. Mal wouldn’t. Hell, Kaylee figured he couldn’t do anything to her. There weren’t many people nowadays what knew how to fix up a Firefly engine. And on Persephone, she was pretty sure that no one else did. So, she just went on with her work, not even trying to hurry.
It wasn’t like they had to leave in a hurry because somebody was chasing them right now. Well, at least as far as Kaylee knew, they didn’t…but this was a matter of principle. The compression coil had busted three times in the past six months, and to be honest, they’d had some decent jobs lately, so Kaylee saw no reason that they couldn’t just get a new one. When Serenity almost ate dirt coming into the Eastdown Docks yesterday, she had given the Captain her patented I-told-you-so look once she got up off of the floor, but all she got was a handful of new gaskets and some more sealant to repair the old compression coil.
The grate outside started rumbling, and she just knew that Mal was coming to yell at her. Kaylee simply ignored it. Deep breaths, girl. Just breathe. One of these days, though. One day, she was just going to up and tell him exactly what was on her mind, and be done with it. But right now, she had a heap of work to do. “Heap of crap is what it is…” The rumbling turned into distinct footsteps, but it didn’t sound like the Captain. Mal walked sort of slow when he was mad, almost like he had a limp. Those footsteps were heavy, lumbering, but fast. Jayne?
Kaylee sighed and started scrubbing again. That grease was really stuck on there. She had no idea what could bring Jayne into the engine room, unless he got a wild hair to come and bother the hell out of her. Which he did on a regular basis. It did seem at times that Jayne Cobb’s mission in life was to torture everyone on Serenity with his stupidity. But since about a year ago, it looked more and more like he preferred annoying Kaylee more than he did even the Captain. Of course, it didn’t help that he’d been a lot more perceptive than usual when he’d noticed how much she liked Simon.
The footsteps stopped, and she heard a heavy boot kick the bottom of the hatch. Silence followed for a moment while she ignored him, finally getting through the last layer of black scum at the bottom of the cylinder so that she could get at the inner gasket. Then she heard Jayne sniffle. Dropping the wire brush, Kaylee picked up a can of pressurized air to blow the debris from the tube. “What do you want, Jayne?”
She reached for a screwdriver to pry the melted rubber from the ceramic end cap, but a large, and somewhat sweaty hand got there first. “Captain seems a might bit antsy,” he said, straightening up and flipping the screwdriver over in his hands. Kaylee snorted. Antsy wasn’t the word for what Mal was at the moment. “I heard him yellin’ at ya, Kaylee.” Craning her neck until it hurt, she looked up at Jayne’s face. He was smirking like usual when he asked, “What the hell got his panties in a wad?” It didn’t really look like he was interested, and since she was pretty sure he had heard everything anyway, Kaylee took back her screwdriver and jammed it underneath the rubber, starting to chip it away.
“Go away, Jayne.”
“Nope.” From the corner of her eye, she could see Jayne move over to where the hammock was. “Engine room’s the only place I can’t hear Mal’s belly-achin’.” The ropes holding the striped blanket fabric up gave a creak when he sank into it, and Kaylee settled in to ignore him again. She’d just slapped a freshly coated gasket onto the end cap, and was tapping it into place when she heard Jayne start drumming his fingers on the starboard side of the hull.
“Are you gonna stop that any time soon?” The drumming didn’t stop, but started getting faster. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Kaylee asked as she turned her head to look at the moronic sack of—
“I dunno. Maybe I should ask you the same thing.” He was fiddling with the little alarm clock she’d taped to the hull for the times when she ended up so tired Kaylee couldn’t even haul herself back to her bunk. About to ask what the hell he meant, she was cut off by yet another idiotic comment. “You been all pissy like this since that fight you and the good doctor had in the galley. Missin’ your pelvic exams, Kaylee?” She could feel herself turning red. And not from embarrassment. Ignoring him wasn’t working, and it was pointless talking to him about the problems she and Simon had been having. He had said once that he never even kissed a woman on the mouth. That, Kaylee figured, would make it too personal. Jayne didn’t know a damned thing about relationships if he couldn’t make himself kiss a girl, so she wasn’t going to make her life any worse by trying to explain things. It wasn’t like he would have any usable advice.
“What do you care, Jayne? I saw you laughing when Simon left the galley, so I know you think it’s funny!” As a matter of fact, Jayne had fallen out of his chair and Kaylee had to slap him full across the face to get him to start breathing again. “And it ain’t funny.” She looked away, taking the coil and fixing it to the groove at the base of the end cap. The second gasket slipped from her fingers when she tried to stretch it across the sealer, and she watched it sail across the room, landing under the hammock. “Damn it Jayne, just leave me alone…” Kaylee dropped the entire compression coil assembly, and scrabbled forward to retrieve the gasket, trying not to let him see how frustrated she was. The truth was that she was damn close to crying.
Again, Jayne got to the part first. He picked it up, leaning forward and getting right in Kaylee’s face. His eyes showed a look of seriousness, which was highly unusual. “You know, that sissy-boy’s trouble.”
Kaylee froze where she was, partway to reaching for the gasket. “What are you talking—“
Jayne grabbed her hand, shoving the rubber disk into it. “He made you cry, didn’t he?” Her mouth fell open, but no noise came out. She wanted to ask him how he knew. How? But she couldn’t. No words came. None. Jayne grunted, “Real man don’t make a woman cry.” He stood up, side-stepping Kaylee and leaving the engine room.
Simon Tam was a very, very tired man. It had been a week since he’d slept well. Seven days earlier, he had fled the galley, leaving Kaylee standing there staring after him while River just watched and Jayne roared in laughter. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. Simon never meant to hurt anybody. With the possible exception of Jayne. But that was merely in self-defense. There were few things that made him angrier than the way he was treated by that overgrown shaven ape.
But his dislike for Jayne Cobb was secondary at the moment. Right now, he was more concerned with the fact that he couldn’t seem to do anything to make Kaylee forgive him.
“Mal, all I’m saying is that you should give her a break.” Inara said quietly. She leaned against the footlocker behind the pilot’s chair while the Captain checked a few connections under the helm the helm. “She’s about to have a nervous breakdown.” He made a noncommittal sound, and then cursed, sparks falling from beneath the console. Inara ignored his coarse language, trying to think of a solution to Kaylee’s problem. This wasn’t the first time she had worried for her younger friend. The relationship Kaylee had with Simon was fraught with problems.
When the doctor wasn’t offending Kaylee with some unintentionally callous comment, he was very sweet, but Inara was beginning to wonder if they really cared enough about one another. Surely, there was a great deal of physical attraction between them, and always had been. But that, she knew, was not everything. They were two very different people. There was only so far that they could get just from great sex.
“I’ll give her a break,” Mal replied, sticking his head out from where it was, “when she’s done fixing that compression coil.”
Inara sighed, wanting to throw her hands up in exasperation. There was little hope for Malcolm Reynolds. Instead of showing her frustration, she took a deep breath. “Please do. She works harder than anyone else on the ship, Mal. And what with all of the problems she’s been having with Simon…” Mal slapped his hand on the floor several times; a sign that he did not want to talk about the current subject. It did not surprise her at all. He never wanted to talk about anything that did not involve the operation of the ship, and his supreme authority over it. Everything seemed like a power struggle with him, whether it be dealing with Jayne or barging into the shuttle at any hour of day or night he pleased.
Now, she thought, would be the perfect time to display her irritation, but the effects would be somewhat lessened, since he would not be able to see her. That being the case, she just left the room.
The galley was dim, as it usually was when most of the crew was on down-time and they tried to save energy. Bluish light from the corridor came in through the door, and it cast long, creepy shadows across the floor. Jayne didn’t really care. He could deal with shadows. The light also gleamed off of the three pistols he’d broken down to clean. Something he’d always done when he couldn’t sleep—or when he needed help being able to think—stripping his guns, cleaning and oiling them, as well as reassembling each one, was something he could do in absolute darkness.
He remembered earlier, when he’d gone and said that to Kaylee. Maybe he really shouldn’t have. The kid was having some pretty big issues with that pansy-ass doctor, and even if he hated him, Jayne didn’t want to go and make Kaylee more miserable than she already was. At least, he didn’t do it intentionally. Sure, he liked to yank her chain pretty often, but she knew he was joking, right?
What he’d said to her before, about the doctor being trouble was something serious, though. It was no joke. He found it funny that Simon wasn’t man enough to keep Kaylee happy, yeah. Far as he was concerned, the little prick had a few things coming to him, and he would love to be the one to deliver. What he didn’t like was walking past the mechanic’s bunk and hearing her sobbing after the galley fight. One of the reasons he usually couldn’t stand Kaylee was because she was so gorram cheerful. But since a few weeks ago, she wasn’t so happy anymore.
He could remember a time when she didn’t bite his head off for making a joke, or just coming to hang out in the engine room. After all, it was better the devil you knew than the one you didn’t, and Kaylee was pretty good at throwing tools. He’d had to get the doctor to sew him a few stitches the first time a spanner came flying at his head. Of course, she apologized a bunch for that one, but it didn’t mean she got any nicer overall.
So here he was, polishing his guns and trying to figure out a way to get Kaylee to stop being pissy, and nothing was coming to him. It was strictly for the general well-being of the crew, so to speak, since it wasn’t just Jayne that the girl got nasty with. Mal had been the target of her aggravation more than a few times, and that always ended up with Inara yelling at the Captain after he’d said something to make Kaylee so mad she needed to break something. Nothing was making it easy for him, though.
Simon kept making Kaylee cry, and Jayne’s daddy had always told him, son, you ever make a woman cry, you ain’t no kind of man. And as that went with the current situation, Jayne figured that it was true. Because really, Simon wasn’t no kind of man to start with, and the fact that he’d made Kaylee cry just made it worse. No solutions presented themselves, as he couldn’t think of any way to get things back to the way they used to be. Well, short of getting rid of the doctor…But he was pretty sure if he let Vera get acquainted with Simon like he really wanted to, Kaylee would be more than pissy. And she’d probably cry. “I hate it when she cries.”
“When Kaylee does?” asked the last voice he wanted to hear at the moment. River Tam’s slender form detached from the shadows of the kitchen, tilting her head to one side in that creepy way she had. She plopped down into a chair opposite him, leaning her chin on her hand and looking at his guns for a second before turning her eyes toward him again. “Simon made Kaylee cry.”
“Yeah, I know.” He picked up the barrel assembly, rubbing at it with a rag and trying to keep the rest of his thoughts to himself.
“You don’t like Simon.” River said, her voice not really showing whether she cared or not. Jayne just shook his head. No, he did not. “But he likes Kaylee.”
Jayne let out a long breath, setting down the barrel of his Desert Eagle. River looked like she always did; her eyes unreadable, and nothing else giving away a damned thing about what was going on in that schizo-freaky head of hers. “Look girlie. I couldn’t care if your pencil-dick of a brother likes her or not. He made her cry. Kaylee ain’t supposed to cry.” For a long couple of seconds, they just kind of stared each other down, but after that, Jayne looked away. Damn her creepy-ass eyes, but he looked away first.
“You like her too.”
“Do not.” He shot back, but didn’t look at her.
“Do too.” She was starting to sound like she thought this was funny, like it was one big joke. Well, maybe to someone who could kill him with her brain, it was a bit ticklish, but he didn’t find it one smidge amusing.
So, he glared right back at River, who was smiling like that cat who got the canary, and growled, “I sure as shit don’t like her.” She just grinned back at him in that sort of dreamy way she had, and shook her head as if to tell him that there was no denying it to someone that could read his mind. He wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t start developing a twitch under his eye at any moment. Finally, he gave it up. “Ah, hell, what does it matter if I like that damned woman or not?” She was too stuck on that goody-two-shoes panty-waist doctor to pay attention to anything else.
“Thirsty?” River asked suddenly, standing up and going back to the kitchen, where she flipped on a light. Jayne grunted something about going back to his bunk after he got finished with his guns. A few minutes later, when he was struggling with the firing pin of his Colt—out of pure frustration with being in the same room with River, mind you—he found a mug of tea plunked down in front of him.
“I don’t need no gorram tea, psycho.”
She just dumped a spoon full of sugar into the cup, leaving the spoon in and nodding at the tea. “She might need it.” Jayne made a noise that sounded like a frog giving its last croak, and River laughed. “Take it.” The firing pin fell out of his hand, fingers drifting toward the mug before he could think.
A/N: Stay tuned for the next installment, "Tea Lights", in which Zoe is motherly, Jayne is sweet, and Kaylee is confused.
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Lights