Summary: Mistaken for another girl, Ed is kidnapped and held for a ransom that will never come. The kidnappers soon realize that Ed isn't the daughter of a major corporate CEO, but now they won't let her leave having seen their faces. The Bebop crew, meanwhile, are searching every nook and cranny for their little hacker with no luck. Will Ed be rescued?

Rating: T for violence, language, and Faye's choice of dress.

Disclaimer: Despite the fact that both Cowboy Bebop and I are both awesome to the extreme, I do not own the show or characters. Sadly. The title is derived from the song "Waltz for Debby" by Bill Evans. Beautiful song.

Waltz for Edward

Session 1: Ed is Thirsty

They stopped on Ganymede to refuel.

A very routine, very boring stop. If it was one thing Spike Spiegel absolutely hated, it was stopping for fuel. It took forever, and Jet always turned off the engine, and when Jet turned off the engine it either got really cold or really hot, and Spike hated both. And come to think of it, so did Faye. She didn't waste any time complaining.

"It's hot," she whined, languishing on the sofa with her bare feet resting on the coffee table.

Spike stared blankly at the wall behind her, sweat trickling down his face. His arms were stretched out to either side of the chair in which he was sitting. He had foregone his blue jacket and loosened his tie so that he could unbutton his white shirt, sleeves rolled up. When Faye continued whimpering, his brown eyes slowly focused on her scantily-clad figure. "Come on, Faye," he said cheekily. "You're not even wearing clothes...Not really, anyway."

Faye glared at him. "You-"

"Ed is thirsty!" cried a voice from the other side of the room.

Faye scoffed and turned to the red-headed girl. "Then go get something to drink."

Ed looked over her shoulder with a cheerful smile. Despite the heat, she wasn't sweating-she never seemed to sweat. Ein panted lethargically beside her. The poor Corgi must have been melting. "Ed is thirsty, Faye Faye. But oooh-there is nothing for Ed to drink!"

The adults frowned at her, evidently not understanding.

"No water, no fizzies, no nasties," Ed elaborated, flailing her arms. "Only air, but Ed can't drink air."

"What do you mean, 'no water'?" Spike asked.

Ed grinned broadly. "Ed means no water, Spike-person!"

"Why is there no water?" Faye asked, looking towards the stairs. If there was no water, she wouldn't be able to shower. And no shower meant sweaty, stinky skin.

"Ed is thirsty!" She turned back to Tomato, her ratty computer, and began typing furiously, hunching over so that her goggles were mere centimeters from the bright screen.

Jet entered the room. "I've filled the tank," he announced.

"Turn the AC on, it's hot!" Faye nearly growled.

Jet raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing, Faye. Right after you go and buy the groceries you were supposed to get yesterday."

"What!" She bolted upright and glared at him. "It was Spike's turn to shop!"

"Yours, actually," the men replied in unison.

"Ed is thirsty, Faye Faye!"

Faye gasped and cringed as Ed appeared in front of her. Then she sighed. "Fine, I'm going."

"Ed will come, too!"

"No."

"Faye Faye doesn't like Ed?" The girl slumped down to the floor and covered her face. All three adults looked at her uneasily. Ed had never cried before, not even after being shrugged off repeatedly. If she were to cry now, none of them would know how to handle it.

Suddenly Ed's body shook with chest-wracking coughs, startling all of them. When the bout ended, Ed lifted her face, which was now red from the forceful hacking. "Ed is thirsty," she said hoarsely.

Faye's shoulders slumped as she relented to take Ed with her.

"Stay near me, Ed," Faye sighed as they climbed out of the Red Tail and made their way toward the store.

Ed squealed in some form of acknowledgement and sprinted away, arms spread as though she were imitating an airplane. Faye groaned under her breath and trudged after her. For a thirsty girl, she sure had a lot of energy.

Ed pressed her nose against the window and looked in at the groceries. "Wowwwww, so much yummies!" she said, drool slipping down her chin.

"Come on, Ed," Faye grumbled, pulling open the door and entering.

Ed flipped onto her hands and pinwheeled in after her, gibbering excitedly. The store clerk's eyes followed the girls with disinterest, then returned to the pornographic magazine in his lap.

"Don't touch anything," Faye hissed. "We can't spend a fortune here, okay?"

"Ed is thirsty!"

"I know!"

Ed pinwheeled away down the aisle, accompanying her antics with a drawn-out squeal. Faye rolled her eyes and started items carelessly into her basket. She had nicked Jet's card on her way out, so it didn't really matter how much she spent.

"Thirsty, thirsty," Ed sang. She arrived on her bare feet at the end of the store, where refrigeration units contained dozens of drink choices. "Ooooh," she pressed her nose against the glass.

"Psst," whispered a voice behind her.

Ed turned and saw a man with a beanie and sunglasses squatting behind a rack. He waved her over with a friendly smile. She returned his smile and waddled over to him.

"You said you were thirsty, ne?" he whispered.

Ed nodded. "Ed is thirsty!"

"Shh!" the man put a hand over her mouth and a finger to his own lips. When Ed nodded, he released her. "I can give you a whole bunch of drinks for free! My friend and I don't need them anymore."

"Wowww," Ed whispered, looking pleasantly surprised. "All for Ed, really?"

The man grinned and nodded. "Of course! Just come with me out to my ship."

"Okies!" She stood up and grinned down at him. "Ed will get Faye Faye!"

"No, no, no," the man said, waving his hand in a negative motion. "We can get it ourselves. No need to bother her, right?"

"Ahhhhhh, yeeesss," Ed drawled, rolling her head on her neck.

The man smiled with a short nod, then led Ed out of the store, careful to avoid Faye, who was contemplating whether to buy three bottles of wine or four. Across the parking lot was a dingy old ship with a paint job that might have once been a copper gleam, but was now the color of cracked dirt. The vehicle was particularly lopsided, as one wheel was missing.

"Creepy, creeping, creeper," Ed sang in a husky voice as they approached.

"But lots of drinks, yeah?" the man replied almost nervously. He put his hands in the pockets of his faded pants. "All for you. And then you can share them with your nanny in there."

"Nanny?" Ed repeated, cocking her head. "Nanny, nonny, nunny, ninny, nenny."

They reached the ship, and the man reached up and knocked on the side four times. The door dropped open with a clang-the suspensions were broken.

"Drinks are in there!" exclaimed the man, raising his hands up to demonstrate his excitement.

"Yay!" Ed squealed and hand-walked up the ramp. Upon reaching the peak, she flipped back onto her feet and looked around. "Eh?" The cargo hold was devoid of drinks-or anything, for that matter. Only dust and a few empty crates could be made out in the shadows.

She turned to question the man who had brought her here-but was suddenly grabbed from behind. Ed flailed her arms and legs with a shriek of surprise, which was cut off when a damp cloth was pressed over her nose and mouth. The first man ran up the ramp and wrapped his arms around her squirming body to keep her still until the chloroform took effect. Ed slowly slipped into unconsciousness, and she went limp in the two men's arms.

"Ed?" Faye called. She had already paid for the groceries and stuffed them into the Red Tail. Ed hadn't been in the store, so she assumed that the girl had run off to be outside, as she rarely was able to be in the sunlight. But she was nowhere to be seen. Faye groaned and put the heel of her palm to her forehead. "I knew I shouldn't have brought her."

She climbed into her ship and sat in the seat, then leaned over the wheel to type a number into her communicator. After a moment of ringing, Jet's scraggy face appeared.

"What," he said. "Card maxed out?"

"No, I used yours," she replied in a deadbeat tone. As his smug look turned to disbelief and then to annoyance when he couldn't find the card in his pocket, Faye continued, "Look, you know how I brought Ed? Well, she didn't make it back there by any chance, did she?"

Spike appeared over Jet's shoulder with an unreadable expression.

Jet, however, was clearly agitated. "You lost her?" he demanded, slamming his fist onto the table.

Faye leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head. "Hey, she ran off while I was shopping. What was I supposed to do, handcuff her to me?"

Jet rubbed his face with a large hand. "Did you look for her?"

"Of course. I'm not an idiot. She's not in the store, or in the parking lot," Faye said. "I also looked across the street. And in the street. At least she's not roadkill."

"I'll be there in a few minutes, then," Jet sighed. Spike grimaced and moved out of the screen. "Don't go anywhere. Keep an eye out for her, Faye."

"Yeah, yeah." Faye shrugged him off. Her eyes drifted across the lot and watched as a dingy old ship wobbled into flight, then sped off.

A/N: First Cowboy Bebop fic! Whoop whoop!

I've always really liked this show, ever since I first saw it at like 2:00 am three years ago. Ed is of course my favorite character, with Spike a close second. Although I don't support Ed / Spike or Spike / Ed or whatever. He's way too old / cool for her. Jet is one of my favorite "father" characters, so you can guess what role he'll be playing.

It's been a while since I've updated (I've finished my previous two stories already) but since college is starting the day after tomorrow, I'm starting to get really nervous and like have no motivation to write...But I will try my hardest to keep updating this. I hate waiting for updates, so I'll do my best not to keep you waiting. Gosh gosh gosh I'm so nervous just thinking about it T^T.

Anywho, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy the story, and if you catch any mistakes or major OOC-ness, please let me know. :)