cry me a {river}

[Jayne Cobb]

Jayne hated baby sitting. He had done it only for a time when he was younger, and only for his mother because she had so many things to take care of, and there were a lot of younger kids to deal with. This, of course, had all been before he had even left home or gotten mixed up in the things he had gotten into, but even still, he had done it pretty grudgingly. Not that he would have refused, that would have been rude, but his siblings were annoying little brats that needed a good spanking more than anything. He'd never once hit his sisters or brothers, but boy, had he felt like it! Other people, hell yes he had, that was completely different. But you didn't hit your family; it was a cardinal rule at the Cobb house. The only hitting allowed was from parent to child, and usually with a belt or switch over a bared bottom. It was painful but did its job, and Jayne was glad that he was reared as he was.

But why he was tasked to watch River was beyond him.

Mal had given him a stern order, and Jayne had to follow it, though he loathed it. River and he didn't exactly get along, and while she was all right, and definitely getting better, she was still kind of crazy and he couldn't get over that. Nor could he ignore their long and rocky relationship, and how he had betrayed her, and she had gone after him with a kitchen knife, and how he had nearly gotten et by Reavers but she had saved him, and how he had protected her from getting shot by shooting first.... It was a tricky relationship, and definitely complicated. But perhaps there was a part of him that cared about her more than he let on to others, because he didn't hate her, he was just uncomfortable around her. She could read minds, after all, and part of what made him so strong was that no one knew he was really weak.

Simon had gone off to get supplies or whatever, Jayne didn't care, but he was upset that he didn't take River with him. Before the battle at Mr. Universe's satellite, he would have dragged her everywhere, but now he was cutting loose and spending time with Kaylee, which on some levels hurt Jayne a little. That was a part of him that was bitter, that Kaylee hadn't seen him or taken kind to him as she did to so many others. But he could get over that, they worked together, that was all. But that she fawned over Simon like some puppy was annoying, and that Simon just skipped off with her was even more so. Perhaps this was why Jayne wasn't so pleased to be watching River. Maybe he had wanted to get things done while he was on Persephone. His brother was close, and he could have waved him and gotten to see him, and that was someone he hadn't seen in ages. But no, he had to watch River.

Then again, he wasn't as sore about it as he really felt, because he decided to take her out to see some sights. When he had lived on Persephone, there were things he wanted to see but couldn't because of his work. Now he would pretend he was showing them to River but enjoy taking in the scenery at the same time. It was early in the afternoon, and they were in a quiet aquarium, looking at the giant creatures peering back at them from behind thick glass and thousands of pounds of water. The fish were colorful, and the atmosphere peaceful. The more refined places on Persephone really could be nice and quiet, and he was glad for the lack of bodies. Then again, there weren't many people who visited Persephone for the zoos, but nevertheless there they were.

River was standing at the glass and Jayne was looking at the plaque next to the tall glass. He looked over at her, serene in the blue light of the room, and half-smiled. They had left the ship in good company, and things were still going well.

"Hey, River, this says that thing in there is a tuna. Hard to believe something that size ends up in a tiny little can, huh?"

[River Tam]

<sub>Simon had told her to stay with Jayne. This wouldn’t have been a problem if River had known what Simon was going to do. The problem was, River couldn’t tell if Simon had meant what he said. “I’m going to get supplies for the ship,” was what River hears, but what Simon’s mind told her was different. In fact, River hadn’t read anything from Simon’s mind, and that made her angry. Her brother had carefully guarded his thoughts. River didn’t know what that meant, but she had a feeling it meant Simon would finish work early just to be with Kaylee. Simon loved Kaylee, and Kaylee loved Simon back, but sometimes River thought that Simon and Kaylee got together too much. It had been nice for a while, but then the two began to obsess over each other. River thought it revolting how much the two stayed together. River couldn’t help but feel ignored now.

Except Jayne wasn’t ignoring her, not that he ever could have ignored her in the first place. Jayne disliked River about as much as River disliked Jayne. But the two got along, is only as crewmates. And why Mal had chosen Jayne to watch her made no sense whatsoever. Why couldn’t it have been Mal or Zoe who would have watched over her? Even Inara could have been fine. But why in di yu would Mal choose Jayne? Because Mal and Zoe were doing some sort of heist and Inara, being a Companion, did the things Companions did.

Jayne’s thoughts interrupted her own. River cocked her head slightly to one side as she studied the first. Jayne was thinking of baby sitting her, but, as River didn’t want to delve deeper into his mind, she didn’t. She thought it funny that Jayne was thinking of anything other than killing or money at all. Jayne had a weird and entirely simple mind. What he thought next was getting hit on the behind, something called spanking. But River had never gotten spanked because her parents had never needed to spank her. Of course she had been punished, but her parents had never laid a hand on her. They had always just taken her books away, and that was on the rare occasion that she was punished. River had never had it so hard as Jayne had, but if she would have she probably would have been different. She probably wouldn’t have gone to the Academy. Don’t matter none.

Or maybe it does.

Jayne’s voice cut into her thoughts, the second time in two minutes that Jayne had somehow interrupted. Could Jayne ever keep to himself? She forced herself to listen to him. “Hey, River, this says that thing in there is a tuna. Hard to believe something that size ends up in a tiny little can, huh?”

River rolled her eyes, though she noticed afterward, that she had been tracking the movement of a fish. If Jayne had been looking at her he wouldn’t have noticed that she had rolled her eyes. ”Something so big gets something so small.” She was talking about Jayne and his brain, but it could have meant a dozen different things. Jayne wouldn’t know what it meant, or he wouldn’t until he thought about it for a couple of minutes. River didn’t give him enough time to think about her previous phrase. Instead, she turned to face Jayne, though she didn’t really look at him. A frown crossed her face and her eyebrows momentarily crossed. “They cut and dice. They make you all small and nice.” And then the frown was gone.

River had never really liked Jayne, true, but it was always fun watching Jayne wonder over what she had said. But what River had said she had never told anyone else. The Academy had done things to her, but never had she felt as safe as she was now surrounded by this soft blue light. It was like someone was watching over her. A faint smile crossed her lips as she thought about Wash watching over her. She had momentarily forgotten Jayne and instead focused her mind on Wash. His dinosaurs entered her brain, the Triceratops being overpowered by the Tyrannosaur. Wash being overpowered by Reavers. A phrase popped into her brain, a phrase Wash had said frequently when the flying was fierce. ‘I’m a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.’

Wash wore Hawaiian clothes, and the colors of these clothes were shown in the colors of the fish. River wondered if Wash chose those shirts because he liked the flurry of colors or because he had liked the different colors of the fish. The smile that had graced her face earlier now came back. Her brown eyes slid off the aquarium, where they had refocused before thinking about Wash, to focus on Jayne. ”I like the colors.” Her smile widened.

Di yu // Hell</sub>


((EDIT: I've gotten rid of Xie xie, it doesn't sound like something River would say))

[Jayne Cobb]

The crazy kid was watching the fish pass back and forth, and Jayne watched her out of the corner of his eye as he too watched them swimming. It was quiet in the aquarium, surprisingly, though Jayne wasn't one to complain about something like that. Not that he was afraid of crowds, he just hated what might be lurking in a crowd, like a man with a gun waiting to blow you away, or someone who was just looking to lash out irrationally. Frustrating, to be sure, when all you have are your senses. Your eyes and ears could only give you so much information about a person; that guy is wearing a heavy coat and looks menacing but is talking about his daughter, but that thin guy over there is shaking and just staring at you. Jayne would never know what they were thinking.

Perhaps he admired River, even if just a little. She had that still advantage over everyone, to know what they were thinking.

Her words broke the silence and Jayne gritted his teeth. He hated her riddles, he hated that she couldn't just speak plain like everyone else, but mostly he hated it because he didn't know what in tarnation she was talking about. Anything she said when she spoke like that could mean a myriad of things, from 'I like fish' to 'I think that the sum of the rate of swimming times the number of fish is equal to how many fingers I'm holding up.' It was crazy talk and Jayne hated that he couldn't figure what she was talking about. He cast her a frustrated look but she had finished her little-can speech and was staring at the fish again. Dratted girl.

So it came as a slight shock to Jayne when she spoke plain-like, saying that she liked the colors. Jayne could have sighed with relief, glad that something she said made sense. If this was how the day was going to go, Jayne might very well kill Mal when they got back to the ship. It just weren't fair, and they knew how she tried what little patience he had!

"Yeah, the colors are purdy," he said agreeing with her, putting a hand up to lean against the glass. One of the tuna came toward him and got close to the glass and Jayne leaned back a little, the perspective of it all too much. "Woah!" he breathed, his heart beating a little faster at the sudden rush. "I knewed they was big, but... that's big!"

[River Tam]

<sub>River liked watching the fish almost as much as she liked playing mind games with Jayne. She considered thanking him for bringing her here, but she knew that if he had had his way she would still be on Serenity doing nothing. Mal was the reason why Jayne had brought her out here in the first place. It had something to do with him not wanting Jayne alone or something. So what was River going to do about it? She was going to enjoy this rare moment of pleasure with one of the people she disliked the most. Okay, maybe not the most, but Jayne didn’t like her as much as she didn’t like him. There would always be a sort of… well, gorge where neither one could cross into the other’s realm of friendship. River and Jayne were almost polar opposites. Jayne wasn’t well learned, and River… well she had been correcting Simon’s homework at the age of three. Jayne couldn’t speak straight half the time, and the other half of the time River couldn’t believe that he had even learned to talk at all. But River had gotten used to it; she had to, as many people spoke like Jayne in the outer reaches of space. They weren’t learned and didn’t have the facilities that the core did.

Not like the core had much nowadays after River had disrupted their calm. About time, too. But River didn’t think it was all of the Alliance’s fault. She knew there were some key members that had kept the secret from the rest of the worlds, but not every single Alliance member was to blame. River frowned again as the thoughts unsettled her. She couldn’t bear to think about the Alliance now, it would disrupt her calm. So, instead, she focused solely on the fish. She placed a hand on the glass of the aquarium and marveled on how it felt. How just an inch or two of glass could keep these fish safe in their habitat. Just like how Serenity could keep River and the rest of the crew safe in the black. But the fish would never see any new places; they would be confined to this little section of a much larger world for their whole life. They would stare at the same walls for eternity, every generation looking at the same things. The only thing different would be the faces, the adoring faces that watched as the fish went on their daily routines. River didn’t like staying in one place too long. In fact, she feared that if she stayed in one place too long, the People would show up. The Blue Sun organization had been trying to find her for too long. She shied away at the thought of them catching her.

Once again Jayne’s voice cut into her thoughts, thought this time it was a welcome relief. He talked about how those fish were big. Of course they were big, the only thing they had to live for was to grow larger and, ultimately, die. She didn’t say anything else, but she knew she needed to. Jayne had said his fill, and, whether he knew so or not, he was waiting for River’s inevitable reply. That was how conversations were, even if the two disliked each other equally. One person made a comment; the next answered the comment and said something different. River grasped for the right words but could find none.

Instead, she let her hand fall to her side. The blue of the water in the aquarium played over her body, and the reflections made her seem like she was moving when she really wasn’t. She suddenly didn’t feel safe, even with Jayne as her watcher, and even with no one in the aquarium. She knew what Jayne had done to her and Simon for money. He had given them up because the Alliance’s pay had been higher than Mal’s pay. It was at that moment that a group of children followed by what could have been their mother or teacher entered the aquarium. River noted that all the children had one thing on their mind: they were happy to see the fish. She wondered how many times they saw these things. The aquarium slowly filled, and River quite disliked that.

Out of seemingly nowhere three men came, and one was accompanying a woman. Then came two men, they were distanced apart, like they hadn't come together and weren't searching for people. Searching for River. River searched their minds, but could discern nothing. All that was on their minds were the fish, and River fretted. More and more people came in, as if they had filed off a bus or transport. Was it the middle of the day, or were the aquariums just that liked? River didn't know, and she didn't want to find out. She felt uneasy, and knew Jayne would be feeling that way, also.

“Jayne,” the ‘crazy’ girl whispered, “Can we go to another aquarium?”</sub>

((OMG! This part:

'I like fish' to 'I think that the sum of the rate of swimming times the number of fish is equal to how many fingers I'm holding up.'

Made me laugh so hard. My mom looked at me like I was going insane.))

[Jayne Cobb]

It did not escape Jayne's attention that the aquarium was starting to fill with people. He didn't really expect it to at this time of the morning, but then again, Persephone was a pretty big planet and there were lots of folk around. Perhaps such things were to be expected, and really, he wasn't one to complain. However, he knew how sometimes crowds would set River off so he looked over at her; so far so good. The group was a bunch of kids, each one looking at the fish with wonder and their faces full of the bright blue light that was coming from the water. There were some adults with them, and shortly after that group came in more adults flooded into the domed room. River's eyes started to dart back and forth, and Jayne could sense that she was starting to panic. He definitely didn't want that to happen, so he glanced around casually to devise an exit strategy, so he could let her have a fit outside rather than draw all sorts of attention to themselves.

River seemed to be reading his mind again when she spoke next, that or, they were just thinking the same thing. Jayne moved away from the glass and stood close to River, almost protectively, as even more people poured into the room. Gawd damn, was it half off at the aquarium or something today? His jaw clenched slightly and he could feel his gun tucked safely in his side holster, and then relaxed a little. His guns always made him feel more safe, even if he wasn't shooting them or nothing. Then Jayne's mind panned out the logic of firing bullets in a room holding back millions of gallons of water and he grunted low, not wishing to drown himself or anyone who didn't need it. So, he grabbed River's hand and started walking through the crowd at a slow, touristy like pace.

"Come on sweetheart," Jayne said in a syrupy voice. "Let's go look at the clown fish." Then, he decided to try something different. If River was all perceptive to what he was thinking then he might be able to say something to her without alerting other people... and while that in itself was giving him a headache, he knew he had to at least try.

'River, I'm nota sure if this will even work, but here goes. We're going to head back to Serenity and raise Mal. I dunnot trust those folk there in the back of the room. If we need to run you need to be ready.'

Ha, like he needed to tell her to run. She was like lightening, that girl, and he knew that in a split second she could bust out and kill everyone if she wanted. Why he was protecting her and why things weren't the other way around was beyond him. Confound it all! Jayne didn't want to think about it, but they were already steps within the door out of the tuna room, and ahead of them Jayne could see a fairly empty hallway, and beyond that, an exit door. He gently squeezed River's hand in his to assure her (again, why he needed to do it, beyond him, but it felt right, so...) and turned his head slightly to look at her. Would she even have heard what he tried to silently tell her?

[River Tam]

[This is a work in progress. I don't have enough time to type everything fully, so I must type it in bits. It will be done, soon.]

River's mind posed a question that she could not readily answer. 'Why in all the land on all of the worlds was this aquarium suddenly filling up?' She began to panic. There should not be this many people here! She did not care about the gaggle of kids: they posed no problem to her. Even their caretakers, the woman she had seen with them before and a man who had just arrived, were no problem. The man looked kind-hearted, and he picked up a kid that had tripped over its shoelaces.