Pins and Needles by belasera A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine. It’s a bit, um, tasteless, but I mean no harm. Obviously takes place before the BDM. I may write it a bit further, if anyone wants me to. …………………………………………………………………………………………… “No way reavers sew” “Well, a ‘course they sew, your skin ain’t gonna just put itself onto their clothes.” “I don’t reckon it’s even half true.” “It’s the gorram truth, girl.” ‘You mean to say you think they got needles and thread? Do they carry around a little kit, you reckon, maybe one of those wee stuffed tomatoes to stick their pins in?” Kaylee starts laughing, but Jayne’s frown seems stuck permanent like. “This ain’t funny, not nearly.” In the dim night of the dining room, they sat side by side at the table, Jayne rocked back on his chair, trying to edge away from Kaylee’s curious fingers. She had the hem of his t-shirt snuck up on his belly as she worried the neat black stitches where a gunshot used to be. “I wish you wouldn’t talk on it whiles it’s my flesh your poking at, it’s damnable creepy.” He let his chair thump hard as he leaned forward to shoo her hand out of his space. She just looked up at him with a cocked little smile. “Just so neat, way you sew right up like that. How many stitches you got anyway?” Jayne can’t help but feel warm, just a bit. No one’s ever counted his wounds before. “Eleven this time. Six after the train job. 23 from River…” He stopped as she snaked her hand out again, started pushing up his t-shirt real slow, so he could stop her anytime. He didn’t. She got to that long pale scar across his chest and just stared. “I’d forgot.” “Yeah, well, reavers ain’t the only thing in the ‘verse likes to do some violence now and again.” He said it without malice, and without his earlier trace of fear. Kaylee knew he didn’t like the mention of reavers, that’s why she’d said it in the first place. Not to be mean, not to tease even, but just because it gave her a strange bit of thrill to see Jayne nervous. It wasn’t like Simon bein’ nervous around her, always lookin like a jackrabbit ‘bout to bolt if she so much as pinched him. No, Jayne got edgy and tight like something ‘bout to spring, fight not flight. She wished she could make him nervous ‘bout something other than cannibals, wished she could make him nervous in that sweet way, just by herself. But she’d take what she could get. She ran her finger along the bit of raised flesh and smiled slowly. “Maybe it’s the girl reavers do the sewin’. D’ya think there’s girls?”