The Cross-Eyed Bear

It was funny, Mal thought, walking away from the airlock. Not sell-out-your-friends funny, or get-us-all-killed funny, but funny, just the same. Funny ‘cause weren’t Jayne Cobb one of the honestest men he’d ever met? Never pulled punches, never said he was something he weren’t, never even pretended he liked Serenity or any of them on it.

Funny; weren’t Jayne’s mistake, really: can’t put a steak down in front of a good dog and think he won’t bite. The mistake’d been Mal’s and, now he had the teeth marks to show for it, one he'd try to make not ever again.