Samson & Delilah

Part 4

After robbing the bank of Lehi Township Jayne found himself headed back to the rendezvous point of Serenity. The plan was still pretty much on schedule, well except that he’d taken on a rider that, for no rhyme or reason should have been where she was. He would complain to Mal, again, about the doc and his sister, but that could wait until they were up in the air with their loot and away from Lilac. She had near jeopardized the whole mission.

With these thoughts running through his head Jayne felt the touch of arms encircling him. They reached around and held tight to his masculine frame. He couldn’t tell if it were for stability or if the young female Tam was, in some form or fashion trying to convey her girly charms upon him! The latter was confirmed when he felt her childlike head rest against the expanse of his broad back.

What was it with this sudden increase of female attention? First Delilah now River? Was there something in the waters on this moon? If so then Jayne was sure to make a return trip with a Trans U tanker transport. He could sell the waters as a love potion. But that would be well after the excitement of the bank job had calmed down a bit.

Of course he really didn’t think it was the water but it still made him confused as hell as to why these young maidens were being so affectionate towards him.

At that point there was a buzz on the box-com Jayne was carrying with him. He pulled it from his belt and looked at the message. It read, “ Change of plans…..meet up with Kaylee half mile east of Serenity…out!”

Jayne turned the bars of the mule and headed slightly east of the Firefly transport. River still snuggled up against him as if he were her favorite blanket.

Within ten minutes the little mule with it’s two passengers came riding up alongside what looked to be Inara’s shuttle. The day was getting freakier by the moment. They dismounted and notice Simon standing just within the door of the shuttle. He said nothing as Jayne grabbed the saddlebags and headed towards the little craft.

“ What’s going on?” The big man asked. Simon kept quiet. The doctor slowly moved back, away from the door. At the entrance Jayne stopped and peered inside. He froze straight in his tracks.

“ Well howdy there Jayne! Or should I say howdy again!” Within a few feet of the entrance Jayne was shocked by what he found inside.

“ Stitch Hessian!?”

“ Surprised to see me again old friend? I bet you are.” Stitch smiled, and at gunpoint ushered the big mercenary inside the craft.

“ Remember the daughter I told you about? The one that I said I wanted to send to med school once we finished the job in Canton?” Stitch asked Jayne. “Well meet my sweet little angel Delilah, who you’ve already become acquainted with. She quite the little actress. Think I may send her to acting school instead.”

Delilah stepped forward and her father slipped his arm around her shoulder.

“ Seems we have some squarin up business to do.” Stitch told the big man.

“ Now you and little Miss princess come on inside.”

Jayne came in , followed by River.

“ Ok, hands behind your backs!” Stitch ordered.

They complied, “ Delilah, tie ‘em up!”

Jayne gave the look of a traitor to the young girl as she approached him. With his one good eye Stitch noticed this.

“ Don’t cast such an evil look upon my darlin there Mr. Cobb! If it weren’t for her you’d be dead already. She’s taken a bit of a fancy toward you. Don’t know why. You try to raise ‘em right and they still seem to take a fancy to things you know they shouldn’t like.” He said.

“ The thing is she talked me into not killin you soon as I caught sight of ya. Said you and your crew were up to something. I see by them saddlebags that a life of crime still craws within your stinkin belly.”

He looked at Kaylee.

“ You, over there. Move to this side of the shuttle” Kaylee moved away from the others.

Stitch then moved in very close to Jayne.

“Payback a bitch isn’t it?” He looked over at River.

“ Who’s this?”

“ His sister!” Kaylee spoke before anyone could react. Stitch chuckled.

“ Jayne Cobb, and Dame Cobb.” He laughed.

“ So you’ve decided to make crime a family affair?” His lips cracked a dirty little smile. It was then he noticed something sticking out of Jayne’s top pocket.

“ What’s this?” He pulled out three neatly wrapped cigars from the mercenary’s heavy jacket.

“ Three Fort Mayan cigars!” He looked into Jayne’s face. “ Maybe your taste in partners has changed, but you taste in fine tobacco hasn’t.”

“Them ain’t mine” Jayne said. Then he realized that this is what River had done when she had put her arms around him while they were riding on the mule together. She’d stowed the cigars in his pocket. He was still confused about it.

“ Yeah, these ain’t yours. Just as this fella here wasn’t part of your crew the last time we saw each other in Canton!” Stitch went and stood in front of Simon. “ You’re such a liar Jayne.” He lit one of the cigars and took a deep puff on the end, “ Or maybe you’ve just got selective memory”

He pulled his shirt collar down and to the side.

“ Remember this!!?” There was a nasty scar reveled to Jayne’s eyesight.

“Seems a knife blade to the chest is a hard thing to forget.” He looked at River. “ You! Over there with the other girl!” The younger Tam joined Kaylee.

“Delilah honey, take the pilot there and get her to the cockpit. Lets get this thing airborne.”

The young Hessian untied Kaylee and escorted her to the front of the craft.

With his daughter out of earshot. Stitch again approached Jayne.

“ I made her a promise that I wouldn’t kill you,” He paused, “ Take her up!” He shouted to the two women at the controls in front. He then looked again at Jayne.

“ I plan to honor that promise, but there are ways around it.”

As the small craft began to lift into the air. Stitch again eyeballed Jayne.

“ How high were we when you pushed me out on Higgins moon dear friend? Thirty feet? How about we double that.”

At sixty feet the one eyed Stitch called to his daughter, “ Hold her steady there Delilah!” He took a another deep puff of the expensive cigar. The smoke swirled around, and the tip glowed a deep amber.

Jayne realized that this was what River had spoken about the day before at morning breakfast.

“ Where there’s smoke there’s embers. Beware of the eye, it seeks revenge and is dastardly in it’s deeds.”

Gorram that girl had powers that the big mercenary certainly could not understand.

“Jayne! Over by the door.” Stitch motioned with his head an his weapon. The big man walked over to the shuttle entrance, the door still open and the craft hovering high above the trees. What did Stitch have in mind?

“ You!” The one eyed man looked to Simon. He cut the doctor’s bonds and motioned him toward the door.

“ It’s about time Jayne experiences what it’s like to feel a partner’s betrayal. A little push, out the exit please.” Stitch motioned for the doctor to push Jayne out the door.

“ Jayne! You’ll have double the time I had to think about what just happened before you hit the ground.”

“ I won’t do it!” The doc said.

‘ Oh yeah,” Stitch said. “ You’ll do it or I’ll blow your ruttin head off……” Stitchs’ eyes in a brief second became dazed and strange looking. He suddenly pitched forward and fell to the floor.

Simon rushed to him. Kneeling, he felt for a pulse. He found none.

“ He’s dead!” The doc exclaimed. He rushed over to River and began to free his sister. The young Tam’s eyes never lost track of Jayne.

What was going on? Jayne was in utter bewilderment of what had taken place over the last few moments. He looked at River. With her hands freed she pointed a finger to her temple. Jayne remembered another spoken testament by the young Tam. “ I can kill you with my brain.”

He swallowed hard and made an oath to himself to never get on the young girls bad side again.

With all three Serenity crew members free, the group went to the shuttle’s cockpit and ordered the craft to a landing.

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20 minutes later

Doc Simon stood outside the door to shuttle 1.

River’s request some time earlier had been for her brother to lace the cigars carried by Jayne with the same arsenic used by her brother to disguise their fake deaths on Ariel. Simon recalled how smart his sister was, and her ability to see things ahead of time. He spoke to the young bewildered Delilah.

“ Your father isn’t dead Miss.”

She looked at him.

“In fifteen minutes he’ll be as good as new…….well, at least as he was before. Please understand that I am not really a part of Jayne’s crew. The history between he and your father is no concern of mine. But I do share a life connection with him, and am duty bound to see to his protection.”

With this Simon gave her a smile then turned and entered the shuttle again. The door closed and the small ship took to the air heading west.

Delilah watched it as it drifted from her vision. Not a bad group of folk, she thought. Maybe at a time in the future they would cross paths again.

She loved her father but Jayne wasn’t such a bad person after all. She pushed the hair from her father’s face and looked at his one good eye.

THE END