“Coulda slipped. Ship out with someone else.”
Now where’d Mal go come up with a thing like that? Jayne thought. Sure, a year or two ago, that mighta been exactly what he woulda done. When he’d joined Serenity, he always figured if things got bad, he’d slip out and join another ship. But things had changed. “Coulda,” he acknowledged. “Sure would be a helluva lot less dangerous.” Same points he’d made, in case Mal didn’t recollect, when the Cap had brought Moonbrain and her brother back aboard after she went ape-shit in the Maidenhead Bar. “But,” Jayne went on, things have changed. “This boat’s my home.”
Mal was almost touched. Jayne showing such fond feelings for Serenity and her crew?
Then Jayne continued, “And I woulda lost Vera. And Lux. And Binky, too. And—”
“You came back ’cause you didn’t want to lose your guns?!”
“Binky’s a knife, Mal, not a gun. My favorite knife.”
-- WHAT BEGINS WITH AN APPLE (11) Part (02) by ebfiddler