His pop was a hardworking, honest man with a slight drink problem. Rarely was there a moment when he wasn't either working, asleep or ranting. Often, when Jayne was a boy, he wouldn't see his father for days because he would leave for work before Jayne got up and not come back until past bedtime. Sometimes, when he had landed a better job, he would be home in time for the family meal in the evening and would regale his kids with tales of his day. But at other times he would be gone for weeks at a time because he had a job too far away to let him come home at night. On those occasions he would return with a big bag of some cheap candy or another for his kids to share. Of course, to the Cobb children sharing was an alien concept and many fights ensued over the candy, which were usually won by the eldest, Bruce. But when he wasn't looking one of the others would steal it back and make sure everyone got at least one piece of sugary goodness before hogging the rest for themselves. Pop would always laugh at these "little scraps", as he called them, and say it was good practice for the real world.
Mrs. Cobb was a big, red-haired woman who loved her husband and children dearly. She hand-made everything from clothing to toys for her children and sold the excess to keep a bit of extra cash coming in. She didn't think much of schooling as it had never helped her much in life, so she sent all her children off to work as soon as they had learned the basic reading, writing and math. It was she who got her three eldest sons their tickets off their home moon in the form of work on the ship of one of her husband's former employers.
Both parents were deliriously proud and happy that their boys would be escaping from this little backwater they called home. It was every man's dream to go out into space and make his fortune, even with the dangers everyone knew were entailed. Bruce had been the victim of one such danger; he was shot and died barely a year after leaving. Still, even after that neither Jayne nor his older brother Casey could stomach the thought of returning home.
So they both sent back money and the occasional Christmas card, read their letters from their mother eagerly, and neither went back until they received the news of their father's death.
Mal was very accommodating when Jayne, in an uncharacteristically hesitant manner, asked if he could attend the funeral. Kaylee offered to go with him, but Jayne declined in a rather brusque manner.
The funeral was a large, family affair, and Jayne greeted and hugged more than a few relatives whose names and faces he didn't remember at all. Then of course there were his siblings, with whom he fell right back into mutual ribbing as though he had never been away. And finally there was his mother, who had tears in her eyes when she saw him and told him that he had grown. Well, of course he had, he had been fifteen when he left home. At the party afterwards at least five different people told him how much his mother missed him and Casey. Many more told him what a great man his father was.
Well, of course he was; he was Pop. Pop who always apologized for shouting when he'd had too much to drink; Pop who never hit them; Pop who would go without food so his kids would have enough. Pop who made snowmen with them in the winter and played ball with them in the summer. Pop who made them feel special.
Pop was Jayne's hero, he always had been.
He was going to miss him.