The Mercenary takes a wife: Manny This story was inspired by the scene in Serenity where Jayne walked down into Haven and was greeted by a young man.

Pre-Serenity: “So Shepard, you’ve been on Haven a month now, how do you like it?” Mal asked as he and Book watched Jayne and Wash unload supplies. “It’s nice to be needed again.” They headed over to where Manny was setting up for supper. “Nice to have a family again.” He saw the rest of the miners head over to the water trough to clean up. “Can’t thank you enough for bring out our supplies, Manny was about to have to start cooking the crates.” Manny put the pot of stew on the table and got ready to serve the other miners. Jayne walked up and reached for a roll, almost drooling at the smell. “What the hell!.” “Workers eat first!” Manny stood there and threatened to hit Jayne again with the ladle. “Fine.” He grabbed his hand and rubber the red spot, walking away from the table swearing under his breath. “Quite the cook you got there.” He complained to Book. “Yeah, Manny can make anything taste good.” He looked at Jayne’s hand. “Tried to cut in front of the miners?” He laughed as he walked over to the crew. Manny smiled at the man as he stormed off. “Captain, Zoë, I would like to introduce you Adam Cross. He and Manny fought for the Independents.” Book sat down with a lanky young man. “Explosives.” Adam shook Mal’s hand. Jayne stopped listening when they started to tell was stories, all he got was that Adam and Manny were twins. He spent the rest of the night watching Manny.

Post-Serenity: “Shit!” Jayne muttered to h’self as he peered over the makeshift barricade. Only one guy left, but now it was a standoff. “Just send out the fuggie and the rest of you can go.” Jayne looked over to where Simon was patching up Kaylee’s shoulder. Mal was gonna be really pissed at him for letting Kaylee get shot. “Naw, thinking we need him more now then you do, ‘sides, he ain’t a fuggie anymore. How about you just drop your gun and we’ll let you go.” Jayne was stalling for time, trying to figure out how to draw the guy out, with out getting any one else shot. He’d done real good so far. Killed six of them to the one hit on Kaylee. He looked at Kaylee, Simon and Manny and figured he best just draw the man out himself, not like he’d never been shot before. “You three stay down, I’m gonna draw him out.” Jayne whispered harshly and started to get up. “No.” Manny whispered back. “We need you to shoot him, Simon here to patch up Kaylee and Kaylee to patch up the ship. I’m the only one expendable.” With that, Manny got up and ran from their crate to the next. Jayne was able to get off two good shots before Manny hit the ground. “Gorram it, Manny,” Jayne walked over to make sure the fed was dead and took his weapons. “What the hell you think you’re doing?” “Jayne!” Simon was leaning over Manny. “We need to get them both to the ship.” He helped Kaylee up as Jayne picked up Manny, muttering to himself. “Expendable my ass.”

Pre-Serenity: The crew was back in Haven, hiding out after a job on Whitefall. “So, when’s dinner?” Jayne gave the Shepard a slap on the back. “Been thinking about that stew for days now.” He looked over at the kitchen area, saw that no one was there. “Where’s your cook?” He sat down near the crew. “Manny was needed in the mine today.” Shepard smiled, he knew Jayne well enough to know he was interested in Manny. “There they are.” He pointed to where the miners were coming out of the mine. Jayne watched as Manny walked over, turned up the heat on the stew and headed off into the back. Jayne looked at Book and raised his eyebrow. “Ah, one of the benefits of being the cook, you get to shower every day.” Manny came back out and stirred the stew. “Thanks for starting the rolls Shepard.” Giving Jayne a sideways glance, Manny started ladling out stew. “Smells better then last time.” Jayne smiled at Manny as he waited for the last of the miners to go thru. Taking his bowl, he sat down so he could keep the cook in view.

Serenity: Jayne came down the ramp looking for Manny, but all he found was Manny’s brother Adam. “Hey good to see ya.” Jayne gave the man a hug, all the while looking around. “Where’s Manny?” “Manny is gonna be pissed, didn’t think you would be back so soon. Headed off to the new mine and won’t be back for days.” Adam and Jayne walked down the ramp and headed to the kitchen.

Post-Serenity: Jayne hated the infirmary, specially when it wasn’t him that was hurt. Seems the more he cared about someone the further away he wanted to be. When Shepard was shot, he could stay by the bed. When Zoë was hurt, just along the wall. When it was Mal, barely inside and when it was little Kaylee, outside looking in. Now that it was Manny, his lover, Jayne wanted to be in the cargo hold. Instead, he hovered at the foot of the bed.

Pre-Serenity: Jayne could hardly wait to get down to the settlement. Manny had been on his mind all week. Mal watched him run down the ramp and sighed to himself. Manny didn’t seem like Jayne’s type, Jayne liked big-breasted blonde women. Manny didn’t fit this criteria at all. Still the man had been almost civil this last week. Jayne watched Manny, waiting until everyone else had gone thru. “Food smells better each time we come.” He smiled. “You wanta eat with us?” He was nervous, more nervous then he had been in that ship the reavers hit. Jayne lead the way to a table, sitting with Kaylee and Book, he started eating. “Damn, this is good.” He said thru a mouthful of stew. Manny just quietly ate and waited to see what Jayne wanted. Deciding that he couldn’t wait any longer. “So Manny, I ain’t sly, but you’re so damn pretty. I thought the doc was the prettiest man I ever met, but you got him beat.” His head was hanging down, so he couldn’t see the look on Book’s face. “So, I was hoping you…” “Ah, Jayne, if I could talk…” “Not now Book. So Manny, you got any interest…..” “Jayne! Now, please.” “Later, Shepard.” He turned so he could look Manny in the face. “Like I said, I ain’t sly, but I can’t get you outta my head.” “Sly?” “You know, I don’t usually have sex with…. boys.” “Boys? I ain't a boy.” “Well, I’d be hard pressed to call you a man.” He ran his hand over Manny’s face. “You ain’t even started shaving yet.” Manny stood up and with all the muscles she had earned in the mine, gave Jayne a push off the bench onto the ground. “I ain’t a boy, I’m a girl.” Manny gave him one last kick and stormed off. “I tried to tell you son, Manny is short for Amanda.” Manny’s brother Adam came over. “What the hell’s the matter with Manny?” He helped Jayne off the ground. Kaylee was laughing so hard she could hardly get the words out. “Jayne thought she was a boy!” Adam watched as Jayne brushed the stew off his pants. “Not the first to make that mistake. Manny has tried to look like a boy from the day we got here. Cut her hair real short and started to wear nothing but overalls. Not enough women to go around and she didn’t want anyone to get any ideas.” Jayne sat back down. “Girl should wear a dress, act more like a lady. How’s a guy to know what he’s hitting on. Hell, even Kaylee here wears a dress once in while.” Kaylee hit him. “Manny doesn’t own a dress.” Adam said looking Jayne over. “So, you sly?” “Hell, no!” “But, you thought Manny was a man…. And you was looking to …. What?” “I don’t know, just couldn’t get him…her out of my head.”

Serenity: The whole crew was looking out the bridge windows, watching the horror of Haven pass by. Jayne didn’t even wait for the ship to land; he had the ramp down and ran off looking for Manny. It was a while before he remembered she was at the other shaft. Took a while for him to convince Mal to send Inara over to pick the miners up. When the shuttle came back, Jayne was waiting, Manny was the first one out and her feet barely touched the ground before Jayne had picked her up and walked off with her. “Jayne!” Mal yelled as Jayne walked off. “Ten minutes and then we leave.” Mal greeted the other five miners and tried to help them with the tragedy. “No way Mal, she ain’t coming with us.” Jayne looked over to where the miners were starting to lay the dead out. “You want us to just leave them here?” Mal didn’t want to take the miners with them, but couldn’t just abandon them. Manny walked over. “Captain, we would like to stay and bury our dead.” She leaned into Jayne, they had just found her brothers body. “OK, we’ll check on you after we find out what’s on Miranda.” He gave Manny a hug. “Jayne, we’re leaving.” He turned around and headed up the ramp. Jayne took her in his arms. “We’ll be back.” He kissed the top of her head, turned around and walked up the ramp.

Pre-Serenity: Jayne saw Manny as he came down the ramp and a smile spread across his face. He’s not sure who she borrowed the dress from, but it was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. “Damn, you look hot.” He hadn’t been sure what kind of reception he was gonna get, Manny had been really pissed at him last time. He picked her up and swung her around. “Brought you something.” He put her down and handed her a small package. “Kaylee helped me pick it out.” Manny ripped open the package and held up the dress Jayne had bought her. She jumped up, threw her arms around his neck and leaned in to kiss him. Jayne avoided her kiss and whispered in her ear. “Baby, I don’t kiss on the mouth.” He held her as she tried to move away, slightly embarrassed. “But I will kiss you everywhere else.” He growled into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. She whispered back. “You damn well better.” He turned and headed back up into the ship. Post-Serenity: Jayne had been in the infirmary since he had brought Manny in. Kaylee had brought him food and a blanket. Simon had said she would be alright; she just needed to wake up and that he would let Jayne know when she came to. Jayne ignored him and settled back down into the chair he had dragged in. As he hovered between awake and asleep he thought back to last month, they had gone back to Haven after they had fixed the ship. Kaylee had taken the miners up to the passenger dorm; Jayne had taken Manny down to his bunk and kept her there until the other miners were dropped off on Spartus. Mal hadn’t said a word to him, just gave her a list of chores. It took nearly a week for Manny to wake up, Jayne was still there, asleep in his chair. “Jayne?” She whispered. Jayne jumped up, completely awake now and walked over to the bed. “Hey, ‘bout time you woke up, Kaylee’s been doing your cooking.” He leaned down next to her ear. “Missed ya.” He pulled back, realized just how much he had missed her, leaned back down and kissed her…………….