Red is a color for luck, Kaylee thinks, looking down at the pretty package that had moments ago been wrapped in silver paper. It's also an excellent color for wedding dresses, and this one is lovely by anyone's standards. She thought at first that it had come from Inara, but the handwriting on the simple card tucked into the folds of the fabric gives him away.

"Jayne," she says softly, not having to look up to know he's there watching her, praying she'll like his dearly bought gift. "This is too rich," she says, attempting to refuse it. "I can't accept it."

"Don't got a choice," he smirks. "Bought it three stops ago, ain't no merchant gonna take it back now."

There's a ring inside the package, too, tied with a vibrant blue silk ribbon so she won't miss it. "Jayne..."

"The ring's your somethin' old," he says. "It was my mama's. I reckon you can tie the ribbon to your underthings, an' 'Nara can lend you some fancy shoes. She says you wear the same size an' she's got a strappy pair that'll look nice with it. She helped me pick it out."

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. "Jayne, is this your subtle way of askin' my hand?"

Jayne grins. "Only if you're sayin' yes."

There's the baby to consider, she reminds herself. Ain't right a baby should grow up with out a pa, but she's not rightly sure she loves Jayne.

Didn't mean nothin', they'd said, just two friends with an itch to scratch, an' they must have scratched it near raw before she noticed her courses had were late. Not just late, but they'd stopped altogether, and suddenly it wasn't a game anymore.

"What'd the cap'n say?" she asks, a small smile gracing her features. She can imagine what the captain said, and none of it was pretty. She'd blamed the growing bump on a random farm boy from a rock they'd spend a week on a few months back, making up a name since there wasn't a real one to be had.

"Said he was surprised I'd stand up an' take on a baby weren't mine," he said. "I told him the truth. I think maybe he respects me a li'l more for it." There was pride in his voice she'd have to be stupid to miss.

"When?" she asks gently.

"Be at Beaumonde in a week," Jayne says. "Reckon we can find a local preacher, do it up right." He moved softly into the room - and Jayne rarely did anything softly - and sat beside her on what passed for a couch. He held out a tentative hand, searching her eyes for permission, and when she nodded, he placed it on her slightly rounding belly. "Never thought I'd be a daddy," he says, "never in a million years."