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Disclaimer: Firefly and all related elements, characters and indicia © Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, 2003. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations—save those created by the authors for use solely on this website—are copyright Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television.

Author's Note: First improv. Whee! First time actually attempting to write Jayne. Whee! Have no actual medical knowledge, so I took a guess. Whee?

Limits
by Perpetual Motion

"Doc."

Simon looked up from taking inventory and focused on Jayne leaning on the doorjamb to the infirmary, his left hand pressed to the inside of his right forearm, blood leaking through his fingers. Simon reached for supplies. "Have a seat, Jayne." He managed not to sound exasperated in giving his orer. It was a bar brawl injury. He just knew it.

Jayne sat. "Got cut."

"I see that. Hold your arm out, please." Simon cleared blood from the wound and applied disinfectant. "Its' a deep cut. I'm going to numb your arm while I stich it."

"I can handle it."

"I'm not taking the chance you can't." Simon loaded a numbing agent and injected it into Jayne's arm. "Do I want to know how you did this?"

"Saw a coupla guys doin' somethin' they shouldn't, tried to git 'em to knock it off. One of 'em stabbed me."

"You stopped people from doing something wrong?"

"Ya make it sould like I wouldn't."

"I mean no disrepsect, Jayne, but if I started listing the number of fights, brawls, bashes, incidents, unlawful acts, encounters, or illicit acts you were responsible for, we'd be here quite a long time." Simon reached for dermal weave and a needle.

"That's real rude, Doc."

"It doesn't make it any less true."

Jayne watchd him start to sew. "I know ya think I'm barely civil, but I did help someone. I got limits like everyone else."

Simon's head was still bent over his work. "In my experience, your limits are out much further than other people."

"I saw a coupla guys tryin' to hurt a girl. I tried to stop 'em." Jayne waited for Simon to look up. "I did. She was itty-bitty. There was no reason for them to be messin' with her. I got limits the same place as everyone else, Doc."

Simon finished stitching before he spoke. "You'll have some throbbing pain varying in intensity over the next few days. "I'll give you a painkiller, and I'm going to wrap the wound to make sure it stays clean. I don't want you to get any unneccesary grime, grease, or dirt on the wrap or the wound, understood?"

"I got it." Jayne waited for Simon to wrap his arm and hand him some pills before leaving. He was halfway out the door when Simon spoke again.

"And I apologize for thinking you wouldn't help someone who very obviously needed it."

"Yeah. Forget about it. Anyone asks, this was a bar brawl." Jayne left.

Simon couldn't help smiling a little. "Understood."