Title: All in a word
Author: Azure orbis
Summary: Faye overhears a bunch of gossiping women on a plane and wonders people would say about her life.
A/N – First tentative toe-dip into the Cowboy Bebop fandom. All rights to the show belong to Sunrise, the creators; read: not me. And thanks to Tuppence for criticism- my grammar's been a bit wonky after two teachers who wouldn't agree with the proper use of semi-colons and commas.
"Hey, did you hear about Yvette?"
"No, what?"
"Remember her family went to Venus to start over a few years ago? It seems they just came back and no one knows what happened there."
"Oh my, how mysterious!"
Faye listened to the nosy women two rows ahead of her talk about one of their acquaintances. It was always a mystery why some people had to constantly discuss someone else's life as a integral part of their own. She nestled deeper into her seat, wishing that plane seats could be more comfortable so that she could sleep and drown out the women and their gleeful tones. Oh well, there was only 30 more minutes until landing; she could survive that.
Watching the clouds obscure the view of the planet as they descended, Faye wondered how a few lines of careless gossip meant years in someone's life.
As for her, she knew that if someone was gossiping about her like these two women, their talk about her past would be short, concise, and completely wrong. The last few months were the hardest and the most wonderful ones she could remember. That was contradictory, for her at least. Faye, by default, hated work and hated tough living, which was life on the Bebop. There were always food shortages, money was often scarce, and shouting was the usual method of communication. But, it wasn't why she cherished those months now. It was the people on the ship and the adventures they had. All the revelations about her life and about herself seemed to occur with these strange shipmates. Nothing could eclipse those moments on the Bebop, not even the return of her memories. She found she wasn't as tough as she thought she was, nor was she as isolated as she believed she was capable of. Maybe she was a softie at heart after all. Each one of the crew was someone she cared about; something she didn't think she was capable of doing, not of such depth. That was why she kept coming back. Even though her flight instinct told her to hightail it as soon as she could, with or without any money, she stayed.
It hurt to think about how it ended, how everything ended. They say a first meeting is also the beginning of the final separation, that even when people meet for the first time, they are already starting on the path when they must ultimately separate. She didn't expect their last meeting to be so final.
Spike's death was a catalyst. The uncaring way he threw away his life broke the fragile bond between the people on board. Edward and Ein drifted away, sometimes hailing the Bebop after months of silence for some conversation and information trading. Jet actually found new boarders for the ship, people who were even more desperate than Faye to find quick money in bounty hunting. They didn't stay long of course, and last time she counted, Jet had just chased off the 9th person. That or they couldn't stomach the life of a true bounty hunter; someone who was constantly hungry.
She blamed the lunkhead. It was his fault that the strange family-How could she call the bunch of misfits "family"? How could she not?- finally splintered and went their separate ways. In her mind, if he stayed, they all would have stayed and…lived happily ever after? What a funny fairy tale. One of them was bound to take a bullet some day and it just so happened that Spike had both a death wish and a past that would not stay where it belonged. No, the group of mismatched strangers broke up because it had to break up eventually, one day or another. It just broke up a little earlier than she expected. Saying anything to the contrary would crush her sense of peace, something she'd only recently manage to piece together again.
"Faye, darling? Where'd you wander off to?"
"Oh, Mac, you know me- just thinking of the past."
"You mean the bounty hunting one?"
"That's it." He bursts out laughing at the idea of Faye being a bounty hunter.
"Sweet pea, you tell some of the greatest stories."
"That's why I'm a writer, Mac."
"And a damn fine one too."
As they exit the airport to Mac's waiting car, Faye wondered what gossipers would say about her life, if there was anyone living, who cared to talk about her.
"Remember that girl Faye?"
"Yeah, I heard she woke up with amnesia."
"Not only that, after she stiffed the doctor who revived her, she went around the system hustling people out of their money."
"No kiddin'! Sweet little Faye?"
"That's the one. Only, I hear she's not so sweet anymore, or so innocent."
"How scandalous."
"Rumor is that she's fallen in with a bunch of bounty hunters, a motley crew of riffraff from all around the galaxy."
"Pity, I always thought she'd do something with her life."
"I didn't. I always thought she'd never amount to anything."
"Guess you're right."
Faye would have to agree; she had wasted her life, even her second chance at life, so far.