Jayne sat by himself in the kitchen. Kaylee had let him escort her only so far as the top of the stairs near the infirmary before shooing him off. He’d almost forgotten how much she liked the doc after all the fun they’d been having.

He rummaged through Wash’s food locker and, finding nothing satisfactory, slammed it shut with a sigh. He didn’t know what the hell had gotten into him. Usually, a good job and a cut in spite of no work put him in a fine mood. But the thought of Kaylee and Simon all couple-y and together made him more then a little angry.

He sat down all in a huff, wondering why the hell he couldn’t have just given Kaylee the stitches himself. He was fair handy with a needle and that was all it really was, wasn’t it? Sewing people’s skin? He drummed his fingers on a table trying to suss out a difference. Well shirts didn’t bleed when you stitched them, did they? Jayne tried to recall an instance of any of his clothes bleeding when his ma mended them. Then he realized he was thinking complete rubbish.

While Jayne sat angrily thinking, Kaylee returned upstairs from the infirmary. She hadn’t flirted at all with Simon and he hadn’t seemed to notice. But it didn’t bother her over much. They hadn’t been getting on too well anyway.

It made her sad. Jayne was making it a little less bad by being there for her, always showing her a good time. Twas right nice of him, come to think of it. She headed over to her bunk, wanting something to cheer herself up.

She was puckish, and she’d been hiding some strawberries from their last stop in port. Now that she had more coin and Serenity was on her way to a new job (they had been right fruitful the last few weeks) she didn’t have to worry about saving them for so long.

Kaylee pulled her little cooler out from underneath her bed. She wiggled her fanny with pleasure, finding all her strawberries looking right fine.

She glided up to the kitchen, remembering that Jayne was there, and intent on sharing the wealth.

Jayne was trying to figure how he’d come to imagining that the Doc was carrying a torch for either the Captain or Zoe. He was highly concentrated on trekking back through his thoughts, which seemed to be getting messier with every passing second.

He didn’t notice Kaylee at all until she had sat down next to him and slid the box of berries his way.

He looked at her, surprised.

She smiled. “Want some?”

He took one and threw it in his mouth.

“Shouldn’t you be sharing these with Simon or something? After all, he was the one that sewed up your head, ‘stead of bangin it open.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Why would I share these with Simon? He hates strawberry anything.”

Jayne smiled at her. “Can’t conjure a reason myself.”