Author’s note: Alright I know I said this chapter would kick ass, but I lied. I did some major rearranging with the plot and decided that since this chapter is so long (so very long) that the kick ass chapter has to wait until next chapter. But I promise it’s still as ass-kickerfic as ever. So for now, bear with me, and this somewhat fluffy chapter. Also I tried to include all the characters in this chapter, because I haven't been using some of them (Poor Zoe). So hopefully I did them all justice And finally, thank you to everyone who commented. I appreciate it very much.

Disclaimer: Don’t own anything, because let’s face it, if I did, I’d be making slightly more then I am right now. And I wouldn’t feel bad for run on sentences.

Learning to be Patient Chapter 5 Healthy Recovery

“She’s awake,” River gasped as she moved her head off his chest. A quiet smile broke over her face as the remaining sleep became extinguished from her eyes. She looked at him, half expecting him to be feeling the same amount of joy she was, yet he was still in a deep slumber.

An irritated huff escaped her body as she crawled on top of him. Her knees were spread over his body balancing her as her hands gripped his biceps hard. Her face came down close to his and she repeated sternly, “She’s awake!”

He opened his sleep-worn eyes, and grumbled something inaudible at her, which she took as a sign to get off his chest. She kept a sly smile as she rolled to the side of the bed, crossing her legs over each other and waiting for Jayne to completely wake up. He griped as he turned over on his side and grasped a nearby pillow, clutching it to his chest, “Ya gonna go back ta your own bunk now?”

River rolled her eyes childishly, “Not me, Kaylee,” she clarified leaning her head back against the wall with a smile on her face, “Kaylee’s awake again.”

“Oh,” he mumbled. He sat up somewhat hesitantly; his feet hitting the cool floor jolting his eyes open as fast as they would. He stretched his neck, then pressed his fingers into the sore muscles of his shoulder. He liked falling asleep with the girl, but he always had to be self-conscious. He had a moon-brained fear that he was gonna crush her while they slept.

“Simon’s delight is almost radiating through the floors,” she expanded, telling Jayne how she knew that the girl had awoken. “The darkness that was present is gone. There is going to be laughter again,” her eyes glistened with joy.

“So she’s okay then?” Jayne questioned as he lazily reached for his shirt that was quickly discarded on a nearby chair the prior night.

“She’s confused,” River stated blandly, the smile on her face fading as her nose crinkled with thought. “She doesn’t recognize many things. Doesn’t remember what happened. But she knows Simon,” she concluded with a stern nod of her head, “Simon feels safe to her.”

“Uh-huh,” Jayne replied blankly as he shoved his feet into the heavy army boots that sat toppled beside the chair.

“Soon,” she smiled once again. “Soon the dust will be settled. Everything will be perfect.”

“What about us?” Jayne asked absentmindedly. He regretted it the moment it’d left his mouth, because he knew next to nothing about how River felt, even after she expressed herself with her cryptic words.

She slowly moved off of the bed, her pale feet hitting the floor before she spoke again, “We’re in there somewhere,” she informed with a hidden smile before she left his bunk. *~*~*~*~*~*~* “Do you need anything?” Simon asked as he placed a hand to her cheek, “Are you in any pain?” he asked for the third time in the last ten minutes.

She smiled at him and closed her eyes slightly at the touch of his mollifying hand, “I’m a mite thirsty,” she divulged gently and before her eyes could open fully, Simon was beside her once again with a glass of water, helping her sit up.

His hand slid to her back as she took a small sip of the water, holding her steady. “I guess I gave you a scare,” she stated as her fingers slid around the rim of the glass nervously. Her face was paler than usual, but the bruises were healing at an exceeded rate.

He leaned in and kissed her forehead gently, “You gave me quite a scare,” he whispered as he gently took the glass from her and set it on the nearby metal table that held the aligned medical instruments.

She forced a smile, but he could see the bottom of her lip tremble, “Bao bei?” he questioned, his hand resting lightly on her cheek, “What’s the matter.”

She shook her head ashamedly, the smile falling from her lips. “I don’t remember a thing, Simon,” she stuttered, looking away from him and to the thick blanket that covered her legs.

“What do you mean?” he queried taking her cool hand in his.

“I don’t remember a thing after going into that shop. I just remember going in, and then waking up here,” she told him, her voice shaken. “I know there was Reavers, I know that they attacked me, but I don’t remember it.”

“Kaylee,” he began as his fingers absentmindedly began trailing over the depressions in her hand, “it’s okay if you can’t remember. Sometimes when people go through a traumatic experience, they protect themselves by forgetting.”

“Yeah?” she questioned, looking up to him with a faint hope in her eyes. But he could see she was still fighting something.

“Is there something else?” he asked more reservedly. He didn’t want to pry, but if she needed to talk about something, he wanted her to know that he was there for her.

“Well it confounds me a bit is all,” her eyebrows scrunched together, “I can’t remember a gorram thing about the Reavers. But I have the most terrifying dreams.”

“If you want, I can give you a like sedative before you go to sleep to calm your nerves a bit,” he offered.

“I don’t wanna trouble you none,” she answered. He held her hand tightly as a reply, a nonverbal way of telling her she could never be any trouble to him. She squeezed his hand back and smiled her first genuine smile since she’d awaken. “Just something light,” she declared, “Don’t want too much of that stuff in my system.”

He leaned in and placed a kiss on the tip of her nose, “It’s just something to help you relax and take away the bad dreams.”

She nodded, but her body language told him she was still nervous about something, “Where’s Serenity headed now?” she questioned.

“I really don’t think we have a destination planned out for us,” Simon explained honestly, “From what Inara’s been telling me, the Captain is just going in a circle around space until you wake up.”

“Maybe we should go tell him that I’m awake then” Kaylee suggested as she wiggled around. She made a face, but slowly pushed her feet over the side of the chair.

Simon placed his hand on her arm, “Are you going to be alright?”

“I think so,” she said as she stood up, wobbling on her feet, “But if I get a mite weak I have a nice strong doctor to help me.” She slipped a hand around his back and allowed him to help her stand up.

Her arm moved from his back, to his neck as he placed his hand around her waist to steady her, “I feel kinda funny,” she told him.

“That’s the small sedative I gave you earlier,” he told her calmly as they began to walk at a slow pace down the hallway, “It has a few side effects. Just becoming light-headed, fatigued, or bloated.”

She looked down to her stomach and poked it gently with one of her fingers, “I am a mite bigger then I was before,” she divulged, a blush creeping to her cheeks.

“It should go away in a day or two,” he informed with a smile. *~*~*~*~*~*~* “Mal?” Inara asked uneasily as she tapped at his door again. No one had seen him since he’d left so abruptly at supper. She sighed nervously as she pushed open his door and climbed down into his bunk.

He sat somewhat haphazardly on his bed, one leg hanging off, with a cup of whisky in his hand staring at something. It wasn’t until she made it to the bottom of the stairs that she realized it was the dress Kaylee had worn when she and Mal had attended the ball on Persephone.

“Mal?” she questioned again as she walked closer to him, “Are you okay? I’ve spent the last fifteen minutes knocking on your door to see if you were alright.”

Mal took a quick sip of his whisky and answered, “And I’ve spent the last fifteen minutes waiting for you to go away.”

She shook her head, as she sat down in a chair adjacent to his bed, “What in the world are you doing?”

“Remembering the time Kaylee wanted this piece of go se,” he informed as he reached over and refilled his cup with the bottle of whisky that was placed on the floor within arms length.

“I asked her what she was gonna do with it if she got it. I said she was gonna be walking around the rig like a sheep on its hide legs,” he divulged and took a sip of the alcohol.

“Oh Mal,” Inara shook her head disappointedly.

“I think it was the only time I meant to say something to actually hurt her,” he added moving his back around against the wall. “The face she gave me after it. Like I’d just thrown her puppy in a meat grinder, I never said anything like that to her again. That and o’course I had Zoe breathing down my collar.”

Inara smiled as she smoothed out the edges of her dress, “It served you right. Poor Kaylee probably just wanted to wear something other then coveralls.”

Mal sighed with a slight undertone of irritation. He pointed to the pink frilly dress that he’d taken out of Kaylee’s bunk and informed, “I bought it for her. I told her that I made Badger gave us the extra credits for it, but I bought it for her myself with my own money because I felt bad. I probably shoulda told her, I got the right size ‘n everything.”

“She’ll be okay, Mal,” she assured, not knowing whether he was looking for comfort, or something to make him forget.

“I’m just feelin’ a mite guilty,” he stated, his words beginning to slur into each other.

Inara smiled weakly, wondering in the back of her mind if he worried this much about her. “Simon’s in with her now. He still hasn’t left her side and-”

“Something about him confounds me,” Mal interrupted her quickly, the cadence of his voice rising and falling as he placed his cup on the ground and began to drink straight from the bottle.

Inara glanced at him suspiciously waiting for him to continue. “I jus’ got this feelin’ ‘bout him, is all. I don’t think he’ll do lil’ Kaylee right.”

“He’s a doctor,” she blatantly stated. “Were he back on Osiris, he’d be making more money then I ever could and you could ever dream up,” she defended Simon. She knew how much Kaylee cared for him and now how much he cared for her.

“But he ain’t back on Osiris,” Mal declared, “He’s a fugitive, which means he’s lower on the scale then Jayne, and that’s pretty damn low. He ain’t got nothing ta offer her, yet she still goes ta him, which is somethin’ that confounds me.” He took a long swig from the whisky bottle and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Are you just going to wallow all night?” Inara questioned, her anger starting to get the better of her.

Mal looked over to her, and watched the way she folded her arms over her chest in irritation. “Yeah,” he answered as a burp escaped his mouth, “Why you wanna wallow with me?”

She cocked an eyebrow at him and he shot her a cheeky smile. He held out the bottle of whisky to her, “Sorry I ain’t got any cups. Seemed to have misplaced the one I had.”

Inara reached out and grasped the bottle by the neck. She brought it to her mouth and tried to forget that Mal was staring the whole time she was drinking. The whisky was almost tart tasting, burning her mouth and made her throat tight as she swallowed.

“Didn’t think companions drank straight from the bottle,” Mal proclaimed as he settled back against the wall, now watching Inara instead of Kaylee’s dress.

She swallowed harshly, “I’m off the clock right now, I can do as I wish,” she informed with a sly grin twisting onto her face.

“Then tell me Companion,” Mal began, shifting so his full attention was placed on Inara, “how long has it been since you’ve had a client?”

“Captain?” Kaylee questioned as she slowly descended down the ladder.

Mal didn’t even acknowledge her as he kept an intense stare with Inara, who still held the whisky bottle around the neck, with her dainty hand.

“Captain?” Kaylee questioned as she reached the floor, slowly followed by Simon. She stood idle at the bottom of the ladder, watching the two of them in utter confusion. After a short while she spoke again, “Captain?”

“Wuo de ma Kaylee,” Mal began, sending a stern glare her way, “I’m tryin’ to have a conversation with Inara here. An’ what did I tell ya about knockin’? Did ya go and forget your manners again? I could be doing captainy stuff in here for all you know!” He got up from his bed and huffed something under his breath as he grabbed the bottle of whiskey from Inara and took a large gulp.

He stopped suddenly, his back to them and turned around slowly, “Kaylee?”

She smiled brightly and giggled, “I just wanted you to know I was awake. Since you’re the captain an’ all. ‘Sides Simon tells me you’ve been flying Serenity in circles since I’ve been out, an’ I figure we could use some credits.” She looked to the ground, then looked back up to the Captain again, “And your door was open.”

He chuckled at her normality, and quickly embraced her, “S’good to have you back,” he told her, the bottle of whisky still in his hand.

“Is that my dress?” she questioned pointing to the pink garment hanging from the Captain’s wall.

“Inara took it from your bunk,” he disclosed as he walked to the ladder and began climbing it, “If anyone needs me I’ll be upstairs doin’ captainy stuff.” With that he disappeared up the ladder and his uneven, heavy steps could be heard for the next several minutes.

“I wasn’t aware that captainy stuff included throwing up and passing out,” Simon muttered, still staring at the open door.

“Are you kidding?” Inara asked standing up to embrace Kaylee, “That’s mostly what it consists of.” She smiled and hugged the young girl whole-heartedly, “I’m glad you’re okay mei mei.” ~*~*~*~*~*~ “Why do you enjoy cleaning those guns so much?” River questioned as she glanced up from her drawing. She sat some ways away from Jayne, their intimate relationship was low radar as of now and they had no intention of tipping anyone off.

He shrugged and continued to gently polish the outside of one of his many guns, “Dunno, why do ya women like ta clean your hair so much?” he questioned as he finished the gun he held in his hand and placed it to the side.

“Clean hair makes sense,” she informed as she pulled a long strand of her hair out, “It smells nice, and there is no grease,” she paused for a moment and brought up her pencil, “It is also more appealing.”

“Well the same with guns,” he huffed as he began cleaning another one of his guns, “If ya don’t clean ‘em often, the grease can back up ‘n it won’t work right. ‘Sides if I’m gonna kill a man, it’s gonna be with a clean gun.”

“What about the smell?” River questioned, her knees folding underneath her as she settled back again.

“I don’t go smellin’ guns girl. Somethin’ about havin’ a gun near my face ain’t appealin’,” he told her as he polished the metal until there was a gleam against the barrel of the pistol. “’Sides, ain’t there somethin’ else we should be talkin’ ‘bout?” he questioned as he glanced up to her.

“Kaylee,” River exclaimed, looking to Jayne momentarily to give him a glance that told him they would finish this conversation later.

“Hey River,” Kaylee greeted as she hugged the girl who ran at her.

“You’re feeling better,” River announced as she gave Kaylee the once over, “And you haven’t lost your patience.”

“Gorram girl still ain’t speaking a lick of English,” Jayne complained from the table where he still sat, uninterested in Kaylee’s recovery.

“Maybe none that you know,” River replied, her hair falling over her face once again.

“I just stopped by to say goodnight and let you know I was okay,” she informed, her fingers laced with Simon.

“Simon,” River’s head snapped up suddenly, she looked at him with seriousness, “Blue is bad.”

Simon glanced to Kaylee, and sent a quick look to Jayne who merely snorted and shook his head. “Okay?” Simon replied awkwardly.

“Say it,” River told him taking his hand that wasn’t intertwined with Kaylee’s in her own, “The blue is bad.”

“The blue is bad,” Simon simply stated while looking at his sister with puzzlement.

“Okay,” she smiled and let go of his hand, “The blue is bad,” she repeated and nodded in agreement as she walked away. “Remember it Simon.”

“Alright,” Simon answered rather cautiously slowly pulling Kaylee out of the room.

“Goodnight River. Goodnight Jayne,” she smiled as Simon began leading her down the hallway. River watched as the turned the corner and Jayne snorted.

“You’re jealous,” River declared, a devious smile creeping on her lips as she walked over to the table and took a seat beside him.

“I ain’t nothin’ of the sort,” Jayne mumbled as he cocked a gun and pushed it to the side.

She kept her eyes on him; her hands found their way to under her chin as her elbows propped her up. “You are,” she pressured, “You’re jealous because they can be so open with their relationship, while you and I must keep ours incognito.”

He glanced up at her again and she was staring at him, with that same stupid smile plastered on her face. “I told ya once, I ain’t nothin’ of the sort,” he repeated as he stood and began cleaning up all his guns, “An’ what’s it with you an’ this blue fei oo?”

“I just saved a life,” she grinned victoriously, as she folded her arms over her chest. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ She sat in the pilot’s chair. The room had grown dark, only the small lights from the controls kept the mirth alive. The dinosaurs lay across the station, placed in different fighting positions along the top, the way he would’ve left them.

This was his seat, and something about her sitting in it, or letting other people sit in it just seemed sinful. Like he would barge through the doors any second and ask her why the indent of his bottom was erased and worn back into the seat.

A coy grin reached her lips as she remembered finding him so many times playing with the dinosaurs, like a child almost. Becoming jealous when anyone else touched them, becoming anxious whenever he misplaced one.

She sighed and reached out, picking up the tyrannosaurus rex. It was always his favorite. The man would’ve brought it to bed if she’d have let him. Sometimes he’d even try to sneak it in when he thought she wasn’t looking, but you don’t fool a solider.

The plastic reptile felt almost warm underneath her fingers, like he’d recently been holding it, making it march tyrannically over the controls, punishing and fighting all of the dinosaurs and the likes.

She’d asked him once, when it was a slow night and she was nestled in his lap as he barely drove the ship through the thick emptiness of space, why he liked the T-rex so much.

He’d chuckled and held her closer to his chest as he reached out and grasp the dinosaur carefully by the waist. Never by the neck or head in case it came alive and went on a rampage, that way he could barter with it that he’d never mistreated it.

He held it in front of him, and examined it for a few silent minutes in awe and sternly replied, “Because nothing beats a T-rex.”

She’d chuckled at his words and responded, “The ice age did.”

He gave her a look like she had no imagination, because rightly so, she had next to none. And that was the only time they’d talked about the dinosaurs.

She placed the toy back where the dust had formed around it’s footprints like she was replacing a priceless antique back in its casing. He’d never touch the dinosaurs again. Never send them on a quest while he waited for her and Mal to come back with the money. Never make up another impromptu dance routine and musical for Kaylee after something had busted with the engine and she needed a bit of cheering up.

“River, what have I told you about hanging ‘round the doorway like that, Honey?” Zoë questioned, hiding her pain when she realized that someone was watching. “People who don’t know you might take it the wrong way.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaylee apologized as she entered the room, “I didn’t mean to upset you at all.”

Zoë grinned at the sight of the young girl, “You been taking lessons from River? ‘Cause you’re gettin’ mighty good at sneaking around the ship from what I hear Mal complaining about.”

Kaylee took a seat in one of the nearby chairs and sighed as her body relaxed, “I dunno but I managed to squeeze away from Simon when he went to the bathroom,” she informed and smiled at Zoë’s chuckling.

“That boy has taken a mighty big shining to you hasn’t he?” she questioned turning towards the young girl.

“More then the Captain would like to admit,” Kaylee giggled, but winced and placed a hand to her shoulder, “Maybe I should go find him so he can give me something to dull the pain a bit,” she reconsidered aloud.

Zoë’s lips pursed, “You gotta be one of the only people to come face to face with them Reavers and survive,” she looked into Kaylee’s eyes and honestly spoke, “That takes some kinda strength.”

“I conjure you don’t like ‘em very much,” Kaylee whispered as she looked at Wash’s dinosaurs standing lifeless and silent.

“I conjure you don’t either,” Zoë replied stoically.

“I conjure no one does,” Kaylee enlightened as she stood up and made her way to the door, “I just wanted to see you ‘fore I went to bed Zoë.”

The woman smiled, “I’m glad you did, and I’m glad you’re okay Kaylee.” ~*~*~*~*~*~ “I think it’d be better if you just spent tonight in the infirmary,” Simon suggested as she lay down on the chair once again. She was beginning to see what River hated the thing so much. After awhile the thing began to put aches in you spine. “Just in case anything goes wrong, then you’ll be close to medical supplies.”

“Alright,” Kaylee agreed, but he could tell she was hesitant. She reached down and pulled the blanket that lay at her feet up and around her body.

“I can stay in the infirmary as well tonight if you’d like?” Simon offered as he moved to the drug cabinet and began to look for something to put Kaylee at ease.

“I don’t wanna put you out none,” she spoke, her words shaky as her fingers play with the fringe on the blanket.

“It’s not out of the way,” he stated his fingers still fumbling through the many drugs, “there’s another bed in here, and it would put me at ease if I knew I was close to you.”

“That’d be nice,” Kaylee answered, her heartbeat starting to slow as her body began to once again relax.

He found the pain relievers and came upon the one he intended to give to Kaylee when he noticed it had a royal blue label. River’s words repeated in his mind, that ‘blue was bad’. He stared at the drug in his hand for a moment in pure disbelief until he finally placed the drug back in its proper place and chose a weaker one

“Bao bei, I’m going to give you a lighter dose,” he told her as he readied the injection. “This drug isn’t as strong as the one I was going to give you. This amount should be just enough to get you to sleep peacefully,” he explained to her as he tucked her hair back.

“Okay,” she agreed. Her face paler then before and her teeth were biting down on her bottom lip.

“I’ll just be a little pin prick,” he whispered to her. She nodded and he watched as she painfully closed her eyes. He pulled the clutch on the injector and watched as peacefulness seemed to immediately wash over her.

He ran his hand over her forehead and tucked a piece of hair that was sticking there behind her ear. Her eyes slowly closed and the moment before she fell into sleep, he laid a small kiss on her lips.

“I’ll be here all night,” he told her as he flipped off the lights in the infirmary, finding his way in the dark to the cot at the side of the room.

He laid still in the darkness, looking over at Kaylee and he knew that sleep wouldn’t come easy for him.

TBC