Title : Opaline Pt 3 of 3

Rating : T

Disclaimer : See disclaimer in Chapter 1

Summary : Continues the Rayne story arc set to more Dishwalla songs

AN: Final installment of this three-part semi-musical fic. My take of the songs "Today, Tonight," "When Morning Comes," "Drawn Out," "Home" and finally, "Opaline" as they apply to Rayne. Written just because I didn't want an unhappy ending =) Do let me know what you think. Xie xie.

He eventually walks back into the room and makes his way slowly to the bed. He stares down at her as she too stares up at him. Neither one knows what to say.

"Waiting for the plane to crash?" she finally asks facetiously.

He almost smiles as he answers, "Waiting." And asks back, "How long can you stand?"

And then there is silence once more before he breaks it and wonders aloud, "And you hope it never ends?" not really expecting an answer.

She surprises him though when she whispers, "Every day and every night, as every hour goes…"

"Today?" he asks again as he sits down next to her on the bed.

"Tonight…" she answers, "tomorrow, the next night…" she adds as she sits up.

"Too long…" he mutters more to himself than to her.

"Too late…" she says the words so quietly he almost doesn't hear. But before he can say anything more, she turns and touches his mouth with her fingertips, "Till then…I'll wait."

And then there's nothing more to say as they both move to lie together on the bed. He wraps his arms around her and she does the same.

And then finally, they sleep.

He wakes first, instinctively knowing that dawn is just breaking and it is time to head back to the ship. He gently shakes her and has to fight the urge to kiss her again when she opens her eyes and he sees that they're clear. He tries not to hope even as he realizes that he has seen them getting clearer and clearer since they'd been to Miranda. So he moves to get up and off the bed to look for their clothes.

It is after they are both dressed that she speaks, "There's so much life here and so much pain - we forget."

He looks at her in confusion.

"There's so much life as morning comes and it's real - the silence…" she adds looking at him as though expecting him to say something.

He suddenly feels angry as he feels his hopes shatter once again thinking that she's back to her feng le self once again, and before he can stop himself, he is shouting at her in frustration, "You say you wanted love and you want it to feel so real forever – well, remember why you have come and all the shit that's caving in is gone forever!"

He is gone before she can even react.

She is running to catch up to him, muttering inelegantly under her breath as she alternately curses both her inability to make herself understood properly and a certain stupid mercenary who jumps quickly to conclusions without knowing all the facts. When she is finally a couple of meters behind him, she shouts, "Jayne!"

He stops momentarily at hearing her call out his name, but continues walking again.

She tries to control her anger at being deliberately ignored and before she can rethink her actions, she is running even faster and then tackling him from behind.

"Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng!" he grunts in surprise at the weight that latched onto his back as they both go down in a tangle of limbs on the dirt. "What in the gorram hell do you think you're doing you feng le girl?" he growls at her as he flips and quickly maneuvers to pin her under him.

Her anger fades at his obvious annoyance and she tries to explain. "And the promise we break it and the reasons we fake it bring us farther apart from the love that we make…" But the look he gives her tells her that despite her efforts to speak clearly for him, the words that come out just makes him more confused. So she cries.

And just like that his anger drains away and he struggles to he sit up so he can pull her into his arms.

She thinks maybe he did understand, but then he whispers to her in despair, "And its all drawn out. There's nothing inside and nothing to hold, nothing to find and its wearing me out…"

She moves to put her hand on his mouth, willing him not to continue, but he gently takes it in his own and looks into her eyes, willing her to understand, "This feeling inside and it's all drawn out…it's all drawn out…" he struggles to explain, until finally he mumbles, "I'm all drawn out…"

"No…" she wails at him as she realizes he wants to give up. "No, you don't understand…" she too struggles to explain.

"River…"

"Listen…" she wills him to do so. "Without you I am nothing. Without you I can't believe."

He freezes at her words. He moves his hands to her cheeks and raises her face so he can look into her eyes as she explains.

"This gilded place has everything but this comfort is not what it seems." She is still crying but she knows that her eyes are clear. She is lucid and in control of her thoughts and feelings. "It is not what it seems…" she pauses to make sure that he is not confused. "In between is everything I need."

She then fumbles to find something in her pocket.

"Riv…" he is unable to continue as he finally sees the object she holds in her hands.

He stared at her sleeping form on his bed as he absent-mindedly played with the ring he held in his hand. He looked down at the ring, noting its opaline quality. His Pa had made it out of a gemstone he'd mined just before he'd asked his Ma to marry him. It was by no means perfectly round, in fact it was actually a little lopsided – his Pa wasn't exactly very good with his hands, the mines being all he'd known – but it was made with love and because of that, his Ma had treasured it. It was the only thing that she had asked him to take when he left their planet, with the unspoken promise that it would be given to his future wife.

He hadn't wanted to take it – fearing the responsibility – but his Ma had insisted. So he'd kept it safe all these years, knowing that in his line of work, the likelihood of it ever being passed on to some woman's hand was practically non-existent.

He ran a finger across her cheek, whispering softly, "Take me where you are, lead me to your door and let me in. Just let me in" wishing with all his might he knew for sure that she would understand him if he gave her this ring and asked, "Come and take me home."

But because he'd never been if what she felt for him was just gratitude or something more or if she even really knew that she's with him, he just sighed heavily and stood up to put the ring back into the pouch he kept in the drawer by his bed.

"How did you…" he asks her in wonder.

"I heard you…that night, I heard you..." she explained. "When you left the room I looked and held it and I knew…you wanted to give it to me. But you didn't because I was broken…" she continues.

"I…" he wants to explain.

"It's okay…I was broken…I'm still broken…a little." she smiles to let him know she understands. "But Jayne, I am here now. All of me. All the little bits that I didn't know what to do with before has been left in Miranda."

He looks at her intently as his heart starts to beat heavily, hope once again unfurling inside him.

"Do you see me now Jayne?" she asks him seriously. "Because I see you. All of you. And I know. I know how I feel."

He is too choked up to answer.

So she continues, "…your opaline is everything I see, " wrapping her left hand over his right as it caresses her cheek and then moves the hand holding on to the ring right over his heart as she moves to kneel in front of him properly.

"This opaline brings me to my knees." She whispers. "Your opaline brings me to my knees." She adds as she gets ready to kiss him.

But before she can bridge the distance between their lips, he is the one that makes a move.

And then they are kissing and wrapping their arms around each other and then they finally, finally both know.

What they have is every (little) thing they (ever) wanted.

Fin