Sara Jane spoke calmly, but couldn't keep from stomping her foot. "Maybell, you've been back for just a day, and already I want to shove you out an airlock. I got a great urge to punch you in the mouth."

Maybell kept her eyes cast down. "Well, I'm not gonna tell you how to run your ship…"

Sara Jane snorted on the irony of that.

"…but I'm pretty sure I did good for us while I was dirt-side."

"How so? Did you catch the gunner?"

Maybell tried lying right to her best friend's face. "Nah. He was already long gone."

"That is a bunch of horseshit. I just saw him space from here." Sara Jane then stepped into Maybell, so that Maybell found herself staring at Sara Jane's enormous boots. "I've got a feeling that you had something to do with that."

Maybell said nothing for a while as she stared eye-level at Sara Jane's chest. "Could ya back up a bit?" she asked, with manners. "All I see is horse."

"No. Start talking."

Maybell reached up with both hands, to scratch Sara Jane where her neck met her shoulders. She then used Sara Jane's shoulders to hoist herself up on her toes and kiss Sara Jane on the muzzle.

"Get off me, Bitch. Start talking."

Maybell gave Sara Jane a love slap on the chest. "Come on. I'll show you instead."

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Sara Jane's Dinghy [https://i.imgur.com/dyXUvFc.jpg]

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They walked to the cargo bay of the dinghy, and Maybell worked the access panel that opened the doors. Inside were the cigarettes, stacked up on two pallets; hundreds and hundreds of cartons.

Sara Jane snorted on her surprise. "You… you stole the grits from this guy?"

"Aw, Girl, you know better than to say bad things like that about me." Maybell slapped Sara Jane in the chest again before loving her up by scratching her breastbone with both hands. "Heinemann gave them to me."

"All of them?"

"Yup."

"And he's 'Heinemann' now? Like you're mates?"

"Mmm." Maybell purred, loving up her friend's hairy shoulders while pressing her face to her chest. "Something like that, I suppose."

Sara Jane let out a snort and a whinny, and shoved Maybell backwards, hard enough to make her sit down on the dock plate. Sara Jane then lowered herself to one knee, resting an arm on the other. Looking Maybell straight in the eye, she poked her with a enormous finger, making her teeter back.

"Now I remember why I don't go spacing with you anymore," Sara Jane said, barely masking her anger. "I gotta hold full of stolen grits, and the guy that's supposed to be paying the price for stealing them is gone."

"He didn't steal them, Sara."

Sara Jane shook her mane, making nothing but angry horse sounds.

"He didn't," Maybell said. "Not really. The first guy did, yeah, but not Heinemann."

Maybell rose as she spoke, being sure not to irritate her friend any further. She produced a bill of lading for the cigarettes, all the while continuing with her explanation.

"The guy who stole'em first? He stole them from Heinemann's partner. His business partner. The man he loved."

While Sara Jane examined the bill of lading, Maybell pulled a holographic business card from her pocket. It had an image of Heinemann and his partner on it, along with their license for trading.

She watched her friend look over the evidence. "Yeah, he's the gunner who killed that mule. And then he stole back the grits the mule first stole from him. But the mule? The guy he gunned down?"

Maybell put her hand on Sara Jane's bent knee until she stopped looking at the paperwork, and looked at her instead.

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"That mule killed Heinemann's best friend. His partner. Oh my God. You have no idea how much they meant to one another."

Sara Jane blinked several times as what Maybell had said sunk in. "Then why do you have the cigarettes?"

"Like I said!" Maybell exclaimed, beamng with girlish pride. "He gave them to me!"

"Come on, Maybell. Why?"

Maybell pursed her lips and took a deep breath through her nose. "I fixed his Scrambler for one thing. And I let him get away. Okay?"

Sara Jane smiled for the first time since Maybell had returned. "And ya fucked him," she said as a matter of fact.

"Well… I also told him that we were there to arrest him and collect the bounty."

Sara Jane's smile grew wide. "And then… ya fucked him."

"Well…" Maybell rolled her eyes. "Yes! Okay! Tou're right! I fucked him. But it's not what you think!"

"Well then. Why don't you tell me what I should think?"

"Look. Ahm… well, he might have still been lying, you know? I mean, I'm not stupid, but he's junked up real good, and… I have a hard time reading people who are like that sometimes."

Sara Jane rose from her haunches, towering over Maybell. "Yeah? And how so?"

Maybell began to stammer. "Aw, come on. I… I scarcely know what I'm doin' half the time, anyway. And so, it's hard for me to know sometimes what a… a…"

"Genetic?" Sara Jane offered, letting Maybell avoid having to say the slur.

"It's hard for me sometimes, Sara Babe. So I didn't trust my instincts with him very much, even after banging him for half the day."

That brought back Sara Jane's smile. "You banged him for half the day?" she teased. "Damn, Girl! You still got stamina!"

Maybell gave Sara Jane half a smile. "Thanks. But so, I also collared him, just so we could be sure."

"He let you put a collar on him? A tracker?"

Maybell smiled more fully. "Yeah, sure. He's got hyena in him, so he found it to be endearing. I mean, his partner and he were like, everything together. He felt lost without him. And you know how hyenas love a lady."

"Oh. And so now I'm also supposed to believe you're a lady?"

Maybell put her hand on Sara Jane's shoulder with love. "Just like you are to me, Sara Jane. Even more for him. He likes the feeling of having someone he can belong to. You know?"

Sara Jane responded to Maybell's affection by placing her hand on top of Maybell's.

"So when I collared him, he really, really liked it. Here. Let me show you how much." Maybell called up her telecomm link and spoke to it sweet as pie. "Heinie? Baby? Are you there?"

A series of whoops and giggles came over the link before words. "You know it, Honeycakes!"

Maybell whispered to Sara Jane, who was curling her lips in disgust. "He likes calling me that."

"You know, Maybell, my ears are as good as my nose. I hear you talking to someone. Is that your bounty hunting partner?"

"Hello, Heinemann," Sara Jane said.

"Hello to you, too, Bounty Hunting Partner! Maybell won't tell me your name." Sara Jane snorted and shook her mane. "You're the one that's got horse in you, ain't ya? Well, it's nice to make your acquaintance. I'm a hyena myself."

He let out a series of vocalizations. "You've still got a bounty on you, Gunner," Sara Jane said as he hooted.

"Yeah, so your partner tells me. How damn funny is that?" He spoke while giggling. "Being hunted for stealing what rightfully belongs to me."

"You gunned down a mule, Mister."

Heinemann whooped with disdain. "I got three bullet holes in my Scrambler that say he shot first."

Maybell nodded in agreement "Look, Heinie Baby… we gotta go," she said. "Okay? I just called to let my partner know that you and me, we're on the up and up. So you be safe and stay low. Okay?"

"You got it, Honeycakes! And Miss Bounty Hunter? Those grits belong to Maybell. They're hers now, fair and square. They were mine to give away, and besides, we traded for them."

"A repair job on a Scrambler ain't worth a hold of cigarettes."

"No, Ma'am, it is not. But I got much more out of Maybell than that."

"You got a roll in the hay?"

Heinemann now laughed greatly. "I sure did! Big time! That girl's a firecracker!"

"Yeah, no shit about that," Sara Jane muttered into Maybell's cheesy grin.

"Now, don't you treat her disrespectfully, Miss Bounty Hunter. You likely would have had to give the bounty back on me anyway, after it was found that I rightfully owned those cigarettes."

"Yeah. Not likely, Gunner. You still killed a man."

"Hmm. Well, I also have a right to self-defense, you know. I suppose we could let the magistrate sort it out, if you'd rather give me back my cigarettes."

Maybell shook her head.

"Either way, though, I'm keeping the bourbon!" Heinemann said with a giggle.

Sara Jane looked at Maybell as if she were going to throttle her. "It wasn't even a liter!" Maybell blurted out. "I had to use something as bait!"

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" Heinemann spoke in Maybell's defense, between hoots and giggles. "That little spit o' whiskey still isn't worth a quarter of those grits."

"It's bourbon, you dumb cur! Kentucky's finest!"

"Be that as it may, I'm still keeping it. Oh, and Honeycakes?"

"Yes, Heinie?"

"I'm keeping these, too!"

Heinemann stopped speaking altogether, filling the airway with whoops and giggles and hoots, until Maybell cut the link.

"Let's get away from this mudball, Baby," Sara Jane said in resignation, patting Maybell roughly on the shoulder. "I'm takin' you back dirt-side."

Maybell slouched, tucking her hands into her chaps. "Um, okay, Sara Jane. But after some time on Mu-Beta-Prime, could I ride out the summer cycle here with you?"

"You steal my hooch, you hijack my dinghy, you let loose my bounty and fill my hold with stolen goods, and I'm supposed to come back for you?"

Maybell kicked at the dust her dirty boots were leaving on Sara Jane's sparkly new deck plate.

"You could, um… maybe, stay with me, instead." Maybell looked up at her friend. "And Kelles, maybe, too?"

Sara Jane whinnied and clomped a boot. "And what? Watch you while you fuck Gavin?"

Maybell gave a tight smile. "Perhaps you'd best let me take care of that first. He's not much into queers, you know?"

With both hands on Maybell's shoulders, Sara Jane backed her into a bulkhead. "You tell me what else you traded for those cigarettes, and then I'll give you an answer."

Maybell looked up at Sara Jane, impish and embarrassed. Getting on her tiptoes, she pulled Sara Jane down by an ear so as to whisper into it.

"I let him keep my panties."

Sara Jane neighed and laughed so loud that Maybell had to cover her ears.