Title: Difficulty
Author: caitn
Fandom: Firefly
Rating: G
Characters: mainly Mal & Jayne
Spoilers: Takes place toward the end of the pilot episode. What if
Jayne had decided the money was enough?
Challenge: contrelamontre's decision challenge on livejournal. 
Author's Note: In the days of the "wild West," the term difficulty
was a euphamism for trouble, often the shootin' or otherwise violent
kind.


- - - - - - - - - - - -
"Difficulty"
by Cait N.
copyright September 2005


The Fed was dead, his body fodder for the buzzards on Whitefall. Mal
had the money from Patience. Wash -- with help from Kaylee, Jayne and
Shepherd Book -- had outmaneuvered the Reavers. It seemed the crew
and passengers of Serenity would live to see another day.

Simon tucked in River, Anara was doctoring the Shepherd, Kaylee was
still recuperating from her gut shot, and Zoe was busying tearing
Wash's clothes off. 

In the cockpit it was a stare-down between Mal and Jayne. The
captain finally broke the silence.

"You shot me!"

"I wasn't tryin' to kill ya," Jayne explained. "If I'd wanted to
kill ya," he shrugged his shoulders, "you'd be dead."

"So you decided the money was worth it?" The blood on Mal's lawman-
white shirt had dried a dark crimson: there hadn't been time to
change. Shoot, there'd barely been time for Simon to declare his
wound a "nick" and determine that stitches weren't needed.

"Well, it was a lot of money," Jayne confessed. He thought again of
the figure the Fed had offered him. When he realized Mal remained
silent, he hurriedly continued, "I was just tryin' to put ya out of
commission for a spell."

"Your aim is off."

"It wasn't 'Vera'."

"So while I was out of. . . commission, you said, the Fed would
escape with the girl and her brother."

"Something like that." Jayne smiled friendly-like, knowing by the
captain's stance he wasn't out of the woods yet. "'Sides, I was gonna
split the money with ya."

"50-50?"

"More like 70-30."

Mal pointed to himself. "70?"

Jayne shook his head. "Nah, 30."

Male stood there for a moment, thinking. "Hunh."
