Jayne, the babysitter they call Jayne...
Title: Adventures in Babysitting...
Summary: Jayne, the Big Damn Babysitter, a
Series: Sushi!Verse started by Terimaru
Timeline: Before Ceslas' "The Echoes that Surround You" and after my fic, "Fatherhood". Spans Alley's life from age 2+months up until she's 14 or so.
Pairing: Jayne; Alley; Mal/Inara; a mention of Simon/Kaylee.
Rating: Happy-Go-Lucky Fluff (G)for Goldfish of all ages...
Word Count: 1,936
Disclaimer: Joss is boss. I'm just playing with his action figures for a few.
Author's Note: Written in response to a post between a few people including Terimaru, Browncoat 2x2, Ceslas, and myself involving Jayne being a Big Damn Babysitter. Beta'd by the awesomely brilliant Terimaru. Thanks for feeding my addiction, all!
When she was not quite three months old, Alleyne Reynolds got her first serious babysitter. Everyone on the crew had watched her for brief periods, but times were tough and jobs were hard. Inara was exhausted and needed a well-deserved break, as much as she loved being around her daughter. Mal had been busy with whiskey jobs, and any other work they could scour up. That brought him home late, and he would be up even later with Alley. Though she was a very happy baby, nighttime did not seem to be a particularly good time for her.
Inara was reaching a point where she just needed to gather her thoughts. She was, for lack of a better word, frazzled. It was time for her to get out and feel like a living person again, and that meant it was time to leave Alley with someone. Kaylee and Simon were away, and Zoë was with Mal, working. This left Jayne, since River needed to keep Serenity afloat. Jayne, though he was always good to have on the job, was tired and had deliberately asked for the night off, which Mal had granted.
Inara went to Jayne and asked him if he’d mind watching Alley. It remained a secret well into Alley’s adult life that Jayne’s eyes lit up the moment Inara asked him.
Jayne had, in fact, softened since Alley made her entrance. He’d held her the first day she was born and actually smiled genuinely. And strangely enough, Alley stuck to Jayne like glue. Often, Mal would have to wait until Alley was asleep before trying to pry her away from Jayne. Granted, Alley was close with everyone, but Mal and Inara noticed she had something a little bit different when it came to Jayne.
Jayne entered the cottage after being summoned by Mal, who was holding Alley at that moment, asleep in his arms and wrapped in what became known as “the Wash quilt” that Zoë had made for Alley.
Inara immediately ushered Jayne around the cottage, showing him where all of Alley’s things were. “Now you know she gets nursed, so you need to heat up some milk, it’s already bottled and is in the refrigerator… this is her favorite thing when she gets fussy, just wind it up and let the music play,” Inara said as she handed Jayne the stuffed pink lamb Kaylee had gotten for Alley. All the time, Jayne just nodded, glancing every now and then at Mal, who looked slightly uneasy.
“What’re you looking at me like that for?” Jayne asked. He hadn’t yelled, but the way Inara and Mal snapped up to look at him, it felt like he had. Instead, Jayne had spoken more softly than Mal and Inara had ever heard him speak in all the time they’d known him.
Mal opened his mouth, but no sound came out as Jayne slowly walked toward him.“I ain’t ever gonna let anythin’ bad happen ta’ her, Mal, you know that. You gotta trust me,” Jayne said. He looked genuinely hurt and Inara raised her eyebrows at Mal, who looked at Jayne perplexedly.
Alley was stirring and woke up at that moment, letting out a cry to alert her parents that all this tension was ticking her off.
“Here, let me prove it to ya,” Jayne said quietly, holding out his arms to Mal for Alley.
Mal looked reluctant until Inara gave him that look, the one that told him if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as her, he’d do it. He handed his screaming daughter to Jayne and watched closely as Jayne sat down in the rocker he’d made for Mal and Inara and gently hummed a song, holding Alley close to his chest. And then the strangest thing happened.
Alley started cooing.
Just then, Zoë knocked on the door, and Inara ushered her inside.
“Sir? ‘Nara? You ready?” She asked, looking at Jayne and grinning. “Well, I’ll be,” she said, taking in the sight of Jayne with a very peaceful Alley in his arms.
Inara smiled, standing next to Zoë.
“He’s a natural,” Inara said. Zoë nodded in agreement.
Mal grumbled.
Zoë looked at Mal and had to smile.
“Mal?” Inara asked.
Mal looked downright jealous and Inara had to hold back a laugh. She could hear Zoë trying not to laugh as well.
“Mal, it’s okay, Alley knows you’re her daddy,” Inara said quietly, linking her hand in Mal’s.
Mal gave her a look of indignation. “I know!” he said, unconvincingly.
“Bye Jayne,” Zoë said as Inara pulled Mal toward the doorway.
“We’ll be at Abel’s if you need to reach us. Oh, and don't worry about Sushi and Sashimi, River already fed them,” Inara added.
Jayne smiled and waved, not looking at them. He was too busy watching Alley.
“Jayne, uh, remember, when she smells bad she needs a changin’, and when she sucks on her fist, she’s hungry, and she needs to be burped half an hour after that, and,” Mal was practically yelling out instructions as Inara pulled him away.
“Honestly Mal, he knows what he’s doing,” Inara said as the three of them left the cottage.
Mal looked at Inara, his eyes wide, and dashed back in through the door.
Inara rolled her eyes and looked at Zoë. “Is it bad that he’s having a harder time leaving her than I am?” she asked.
Zoë just laughed.
Jayne looked up when he heard Mal’s panicked steps as he re-entered the cottage.
“Couldn’t leave her without sayin’ goodbye,” Mal said, leaning down and giving his daughter a kiss on her forehead.
“Mal, we’ll be fine,” Jayne replied, looking Mal in the eye.
“Yeah, well, maybe I won’t,” Mal said, walking out of the cottage slowly.
Jayne just smiled down at Alley. “Yer daddy’s crazy, but he’s a good man,” he said softly before he started humming to her again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four years later, Alley remained attached to Jayne’s side (when she wasn’t with her daddy, of course), waiting for her baby brother to make his grand entrance. At four years old, she still didn’t understand where her brother came from or how exactly he got inside her mother in the first place, but she was old enough to know something wasn’t going right. She had sensed it the minute she heard her mother scream and watched her father run with her very pregnant mother in his arms towards Simon’s clinic in the dead of night. With the baby so close, Mal had moved his family back to Serenity to be closer to Simon. Alley had loved the chance both to be back on Serenity and to be close to Jayne.
Mal’s yells for Simon had woken nearly the entire town, and Jayne had jumped up, gun in hand, and seen Mal with Inara. He had holstered his gun, frantically looking for Alley.
She stood, in one of her daddy’s shirts, in the shuttle, looking at Jayne groggily. She had her Wash quilt, slightly disheveled from years of being dragged around, wrapped around her equally disheveled lamb, which was now beginning to fade and had stopped playing music long ago, tightly in her arms.
“Somethin’s wrong!” she yelled, starting to cry.
Jayne just picked Alley up and held her, dropping into the same rocking chair he’d made for Mal and Inara four years ago. He was glad now that Inara had insisted Mal bring the chair with them. He rocked Alley and whispered soothing words to her, telling her it was all going to be okay, her brother was on his way.
But Alley was terrified.
“Jayne, somethin’s wrong, Momma was screamin’ and Daddy looked scared , somethin’ ain’t right!” she kept crying and crying.
Jayne held her closer.
“Baby girl, I promise you, no matter what, it’s gonna be okay. Yer momma’s strong; one ‘f the strongest women I ever met, and yer daddy’s stronger. ‘S gonna be alright,” Jayne said.
“B-but what if you're wrong? Jayne!” Alley yelled again, her brown eyes filling with more tears.
“Hey now, shh. You’re in hysterics and ya need not be. Ya just gotter trust your Uncle Jayne on this one,” Jayne said, trying desperately to keep his girl from falling apart.
He started humming to her, rocking in the chair slowly. Alley fell asleep in moments, and Jayne followed her shortly after.
When morning came, River announced that Alley had a little brother named Matthew.
The look River gave to Jayne told him it had been a difficult birth and that things had almost turned bad, but she winked and Alley looked up at Jayne then.
“You were right, Uncle Jayne, you were right!” Alley said happily. Jayne smiled and kissed Alley’s forehead, pulling her into a hug.
He let out a sigh of relief, though inside he knew that someday, he was going to break Alley’s spirit when she learned the way things really could be sometimes.
For now, he just wanted time to slow down and to stay Alley’s big damn babysitter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alley was not your typical girl. Everyone had known that by the time she was only a few months old.
Most children, they grow out of needing their babysitter around, but not Alley. While Jayne watched her until she was around fourteen years old, Alley remained by his side throughout the remainder of his life.
She went through some tough moments, and Jayne was there for all of them. When Jayne got engaged, you would’ve thought Alley’s whole world collapsed. She was still young, and was still working on figuring out boys, but Jayne told her alone, just the two of them.
One would think Alley just up and ran away then, but she didn’t. She yelled and she hit him, and he just pulled her into a hug, waited for the tears to die down.
“I’m yer Uncle Jayne, Alley and I always will be,” Jayne said, stroking Alley’s long chestnut hair.
“I know, but it don’t make it any easier, Alley said awkwardly, holding Jayne tighter.
“This new lady, she’s gonna take you away from me forever. You’re gonna have your own little girl and I ain’t gonna be yours anymore. You’ll forget ‘bout me,” Alley said, her tears taking over.
Jayne pushed Alley gently from him and looked at her. “That ain’t true, and you know it, Alleyne Reynolds! You know you said the same thing when Gus came,” he said sternly. Alley immediately stopped crying. Any time Jayne called her Alleyne, she knew he was upset with her.
“But Gus was your nephew, that’s different,” Alley weakly rebuked.
“Yer my baby girl. Yer always gonna be my baby girl. Even if I have my own li’l girl, yer always gonna be my first, my special li’l girl, the one that made me who I am today,” Jayne said, pulling Alley back in his arms.
“An’ someday yer gonna meet somebody and fall in love with ‘em an’ then I won’t be so special no more,” Jayne replied, his eyes tearing up.
Alley hit Jayne lightly on the shoulder. “Oh shut up, now you’re the one tellin’ tales!” She said, letting out a laugh.
“I’m always here fer ya, mei mei,” Jayne said softly, his face turning serious.
“I know, Jayne, me too,” Alley replied, pulling Jayne into a big hug.
They were silent for a moment, before Alley grinned and said “just lemme meet her first, ‘cause I need to make sure she’s good enough for ya,” and she giggled then.
Jayne broke into laughter then and knew in his heart, that while things couldn’t always stay the same, some things never changed.
~ ALL DONE. BYE BYE.
Summary: Jayne, the Big Damn Babysitter, a
Series: Sushi!Verse started by Terimaru
Timeline: Before Ceslas' "The Echoes that Surround You" and after my fic, "Fatherhood". Spans Alley's life from age 2+months up until she's 14 or so.
Pairing: Jayne; Alley; Mal/Inara; a mention of Simon/Kaylee.
Rating: Happy-Go-Lucky Fluff (G)for Goldfish of all ages...
Word Count: 1,936
Disclaimer: Joss is boss. I'm just playing with his action figures for a few.
Author's Note: Written in response to a post between a few people including Terimaru, Browncoat 2x2, Ceslas, and myself involving Jayne being a Big Damn Babysitter. Beta'd by the awesomely brilliant Terimaru. Thanks for feeding my addiction, all!
When she was not quite three months old, Alleyne Reynolds got her first serious babysitter. Everyone on the crew had watched her for brief periods, but times were tough and jobs were hard. Inara was exhausted and needed a well-deserved break, as much as she loved being around her daughter. Mal had been busy with whiskey jobs, and any other work they could scour up. That brought him home late, and he would be up even later with Alley. Though she was a very happy baby, nighttime did not seem to be a particularly good time for her.
Inara was reaching a point where she just needed to gather her thoughts. She was, for lack of a better word, frazzled. It was time for her to get out and feel like a living person again, and that meant it was time to leave Alley with someone. Kaylee and Simon were away, and Zoë was with Mal, working. This left Jayne, since River needed to keep Serenity afloat. Jayne, though he was always good to have on the job, was tired and had deliberately asked for the night off, which Mal had granted.
Inara went to Jayne and asked him if he’d mind watching Alley. It remained a secret well into Alley’s adult life that Jayne’s eyes lit up the moment Inara asked him.
Jayne had, in fact, softened since Alley made her entrance. He’d held her the first day she was born and actually smiled genuinely. And strangely enough, Alley stuck to Jayne like glue. Often, Mal would have to wait until Alley was asleep before trying to pry her away from Jayne. Granted, Alley was close with everyone, but Mal and Inara noticed she had something a little bit different when it came to Jayne.
Jayne entered the cottage after being summoned by Mal, who was holding Alley at that moment, asleep in his arms and wrapped in what became known as “the Wash quilt” that Zoë had made for Alley.
Inara immediately ushered Jayne around the cottage, showing him where all of Alley’s things were. “Now you know she gets nursed, so you need to heat up some milk, it’s already bottled and is in the refrigerator… this is her favorite thing when she gets fussy, just wind it up and let the music play,” Inara said as she handed Jayne the stuffed pink lamb Kaylee had gotten for Alley. All the time, Jayne just nodded, glancing every now and then at Mal, who looked slightly uneasy.
“What’re you looking at me like that for?” Jayne asked. He hadn’t yelled, but the way Inara and Mal snapped up to look at him, it felt like he had. Instead, Jayne had spoken more softly than Mal and Inara had ever heard him speak in all the time they’d known him.
Mal opened his mouth, but no sound came out as Jayne slowly walked toward him.“I ain’t ever gonna let anythin’ bad happen ta’ her, Mal, you know that. You gotta trust me,” Jayne said. He looked genuinely hurt and Inara raised her eyebrows at Mal, who looked at Jayne perplexedly.
Alley was stirring and woke up at that moment, letting out a cry to alert her parents that all this tension was ticking her off.
“Here, let me prove it to ya,” Jayne said quietly, holding out his arms to Mal for Alley.
Mal looked reluctant until Inara gave him that look, the one that told him if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as her, he’d do it. He handed his screaming daughter to Jayne and watched closely as Jayne sat down in the rocker he’d made for Mal and Inara and gently hummed a song, holding Alley close to his chest. And then the strangest thing happened.
Alley started cooing.
Just then, Zoë knocked on the door, and Inara ushered her inside.
“Sir? ‘Nara? You ready?” She asked, looking at Jayne and grinning. “Well, I’ll be,” she said, taking in the sight of Jayne with a very peaceful Alley in his arms.
Inara smiled, standing next to Zoë.
“He’s a natural,” Inara said. Zoë nodded in agreement.
Mal grumbled.
Zoë looked at Mal and had to smile.
“Mal?” Inara asked.
Mal looked downright jealous and Inara had to hold back a laugh. She could hear Zoë trying not to laugh as well.
“Mal, it’s okay, Alley knows you’re her daddy,” Inara said quietly, linking her hand in Mal’s.
Mal gave her a look of indignation. “I know!” he said, unconvincingly.
“Bye Jayne,” Zoë said as Inara pulled Mal toward the doorway.
“We’ll be at Abel’s if you need to reach us. Oh, and don't worry about Sushi and Sashimi, River already fed them,” Inara added.
Jayne smiled and waved, not looking at them. He was too busy watching Alley.
“Jayne, uh, remember, when she smells bad she needs a changin’, and when she sucks on her fist, she’s hungry, and she needs to be burped half an hour after that, and,” Mal was practically yelling out instructions as Inara pulled him away.
“Honestly Mal, he knows what he’s doing,” Inara said as the three of them left the cottage.
Mal looked at Inara, his eyes wide, and dashed back in through the door.
Inara rolled her eyes and looked at Zoë. “Is it bad that he’s having a harder time leaving her than I am?” she asked.
Zoë just laughed.
Jayne looked up when he heard Mal’s panicked steps as he re-entered the cottage.
“Couldn’t leave her without sayin’ goodbye,” Mal said, leaning down and giving his daughter a kiss on her forehead.
“Mal, we’ll be fine,” Jayne replied, looking Mal in the eye.
“Yeah, well, maybe I won’t,” Mal said, walking out of the cottage slowly.
Jayne just smiled down at Alley. “Yer daddy’s crazy, but he’s a good man,” he said softly before he started humming to her again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four years later, Alley remained attached to Jayne’s side (when she wasn’t with her daddy, of course), waiting for her baby brother to make his grand entrance. At four years old, she still didn’t understand where her brother came from or how exactly he got inside her mother in the first place, but she was old enough to know something wasn’t going right. She had sensed it the minute she heard her mother scream and watched her father run with her very pregnant mother in his arms towards Simon’s clinic in the dead of night. With the baby so close, Mal had moved his family back to Serenity to be closer to Simon. Alley had loved the chance both to be back on Serenity and to be close to Jayne.
Mal’s yells for Simon had woken nearly the entire town, and Jayne had jumped up, gun in hand, and seen Mal with Inara. He had holstered his gun, frantically looking for Alley.
She stood, in one of her daddy’s shirts, in the shuttle, looking at Jayne groggily. She had her Wash quilt, slightly disheveled from years of being dragged around, wrapped around her equally disheveled lamb, which was now beginning to fade and had stopped playing music long ago, tightly in her arms.
“Somethin’s wrong!” she yelled, starting to cry.
Jayne just picked Alley up and held her, dropping into the same rocking chair he’d made for Mal and Inara four years ago. He was glad now that Inara had insisted Mal bring the chair with them. He rocked Alley and whispered soothing words to her, telling her it was all going to be okay, her brother was on his way.
But Alley was terrified.
“Jayne, somethin’s wrong, Momma was screamin’ and Daddy looked scared , somethin’ ain’t right!” she kept crying and crying.
Jayne held her closer.
“Baby girl, I promise you, no matter what, it’s gonna be okay. Yer momma’s strong; one ‘f the strongest women I ever met, and yer daddy’s stronger. ‘S gonna be alright,” Jayne said.
“B-but what if you're wrong? Jayne!” Alley yelled again, her brown eyes filling with more tears.
“Hey now, shh. You’re in hysterics and ya need not be. Ya just gotter trust your Uncle Jayne on this one,” Jayne said, trying desperately to keep his girl from falling apart.
He started humming to her, rocking in the chair slowly. Alley fell asleep in moments, and Jayne followed her shortly after.
When morning came, River announced that Alley had a little brother named Matthew.
The look River gave to Jayne told him it had been a difficult birth and that things had almost turned bad, but she winked and Alley looked up at Jayne then.
“You were right, Uncle Jayne, you were right!” Alley said happily. Jayne smiled and kissed Alley’s forehead, pulling her into a hug.
He let out a sigh of relief, though inside he knew that someday, he was going to break Alley’s spirit when she learned the way things really could be sometimes.
For now, he just wanted time to slow down and to stay Alley’s big damn babysitter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alley was not your typical girl. Everyone had known that by the time she was only a few months old.
Most children, they grow out of needing their babysitter around, but not Alley. While Jayne watched her until she was around fourteen years old, Alley remained by his side throughout the remainder of his life.
She went through some tough moments, and Jayne was there for all of them. When Jayne got engaged, you would’ve thought Alley’s whole world collapsed. She was still young, and was still working on figuring out boys, but Jayne told her alone, just the two of them.
One would think Alley just up and ran away then, but she didn’t. She yelled and she hit him, and he just pulled her into a hug, waited for the tears to die down.
“I’m yer Uncle Jayne, Alley and I always will be,” Jayne said, stroking Alley’s long chestnut hair.
“I know, but it don’t make it any easier, Alley said awkwardly, holding Jayne tighter.
“This new lady, she’s gonna take you away from me forever. You’re gonna have your own little girl and I ain’t gonna be yours anymore. You’ll forget ‘bout me,” Alley said, her tears taking over.
Jayne pushed Alley gently from him and looked at her. “That ain’t true, and you know it, Alleyne Reynolds! You know you said the same thing when Gus came,” he said sternly. Alley immediately stopped crying. Any time Jayne called her Alleyne, she knew he was upset with her.
“But Gus was your nephew, that’s different,” Alley weakly rebuked.
“Yer my baby girl. Yer always gonna be my baby girl. Even if I have my own li’l girl, yer always gonna be my first, my special li’l girl, the one that made me who I am today,” Jayne said, pulling Alley back in his arms.
“An’ someday yer gonna meet somebody and fall in love with ‘em an’ then I won’t be so special no more,” Jayne replied, his eyes tearing up.
Alley hit Jayne lightly on the shoulder. “Oh shut up, now you’re the one tellin’ tales!” She said, letting out a laugh.
“I’m always here fer ya, mei mei,” Jayne said softly, his face turning serious.
“I know, Jayne, me too,” Alley replied, pulling Jayne into a big hug.
They were silent for a moment, before Alley grinned and said “just lemme meet her first, ‘cause I need to make sure she’s good enough for ya,” and she giggled then.
Jayne broke into laughter then and knew in his heart, that while things couldn’t always stay the same, some things never changed.
~ ALL DONE. BYE BYE.