GIRLFRIEND
I don't own Bebop, I will never own Bebop. So don't sue me, you will get nothing I assure you.
This is my first pitiful attempt at romance so don't beat me like a red headed step child if it stinks. It will be a slow burn for Spike and Faye. Partly because I don't really think that Spike would just wake up one day and say "Hey, I don't love Julia anymore! I think that I want to jump in the sack with Faye!" I'm not downing those fics, because I read and enjoy them just like the rest of you. I just don't really feel that I'm up to writing one. Besides, if you want to get technical Spike only really loved Julia in the series. That said, it leads me to this, if everybody seems OOC it is because 1) this is a alternate ending fic, 2) if they were to stay completely in character then they would never hook up! So please keep that in mind if you decide to flame me. This takes place in the anime universe somewhere after brain scratch. I'm probably going to omit the rest of the series from that point on. Lastly this has nothing to do with any of my other fics. Visitors thank you for your attendance!
Song credits for Gone Daddy Gone go to the Violent Femmes.
Chapter 1: Gone Daddy Gone
Beautiful girl lovely dress
high school smiles oh yes
Beautiful girl lovely dress
Where she is now I can only guess
The faded red mono racer rocketed though space on it's way home. The green haired pilot inside was not in a good mood. He was returning empty handed once again from a wild goose chase. This wouldn't be the first and even though he had been through this several times with the same result. More than likely it wouldn't be his last.
It was his only weakness above nicotine and his addiction to nicotine was immense. He would risk his life for the need of a cigarette, so you can imagine what kind of hold this mystery weakness had on him. Actually to anyone that knew him it really wasn't a mystery. It was Julia. His blonde angel. The one thing that made him feel alive. But it seemed to everyone around him that the one thing that made him live was slowly killing him. Not in his eyes, but in the eyes of those who cared about him. He wouldn't realize that they cared about him, well maybe he knew that his partner did.
Cause it's gone daddy gone
Your love is gone
Gone daddy gone
The love has gone away
Gone away
He had been to Saturn in an attempt to find his lost lover. Well, actually she wasn't exactly lost. She knew where she was, it was Spike that had no clue. Every time a scrap of evidence came up that showed she had been somewhere, he was off like a flash to see if he could catch her. Every time he would come back empty handed.
It was a vicious (no pun intended) cycle. Go out to find Julia in a heated frenzy, come back empty handed and sulk for two weeks. Get a little happy, no scratch that, get very happy bugging the shit out of Faye and then wait for the cycle to restart once again.
So was the life of the cowboy named Spike Spiegel. It was a sad and pathetic life but he had grown used to it and had no real ambition or energy to change it at the moment. Or in the near future as far as he could see.
He was in a rut, a rut that he was bizarrely comfortable with. Spike needed these constants in his life, if they weren't there then he wouldn't know what to do with himself. He needed the guaranty that Faye would pick fights with him, he needed to know that like clockwork he would get an out dated lead on the whereabouts of Julia and he needed to know that there would be the BeBop waiting there to take him back. If one of these things were to change or disappear then he would be lost.
Spike was like an ant following the ant train to the appointed destination. You block off his path and he loses his bearings and stops not knowing what to do.
He was conditioned. Get up smoke a cigarette or two and brood, smoke a few more cigarettes and go bug Faye, smoke a couple more cigarettes and step in dog shit, smoke yet more cigarettes then find out that there is no food, smoke even more and dodge Ed, smoke another cigarette while taking a shit, smoke two more cigarettes and go bug Faye again, smoke several more cigarettes while talking to the ceiling fan, listen to Jet bitch, then finish off the pack and go to sleep on the lumpy yellow couch to recharge for another days worth of activity.
Every once in a while throw a bounty or two into the mix to keep it interesting. It was a tough life but he was always up for the challenge. Besides, he had nothing better to do.
When I see you
Eyes will turn blue
When I see you
Thousand eyes turning blue
But if the cycle were to be broken, then he really hoped that it would be Julia who'd be the one to break it. Finding her would be the only happy way to break the cycle.
Spike believe it or not did like being happy. He never was one for emotions, but love and happy were very pleasing emotions to him. He just never had any luck at finding them and by some rare chance that he did, case in point Julia, then he could never hold onto them.
They would just slip through his fingers in slow motion. It was like watching the action replay , it happened slow enough that you could've done something, but at the same time it happened a little faster than you originally thought. Thus making it impossible to do something. It was one big contradiction. But then again wasn't life really just one hypocritical contradiction?
Wasn't it better to say that you loved and lost than never loved at all? Just who made up that shit line anyway? Probably the same person who made up the old 'if you love someone then let them go' line as well.
Spike didn't feel like letting anyone go, specifically Julia. He really couldn't wait to see her again. Just picturing her face used to keep him going, but now he wanted more. He actually wanted to see her in the flesh. To touch her again would be like heaven.
So he guessed that right now he was pretty much in hell. Only thoughts of his angel had kept him from sinking further down into the bowels of hates.
Cause it's gone daddy gone
The love has gone
Gone daddy gone
The love has gone away
Gone away
Although as time went by, it got harder to ignore the fact that this whole Julia thing was really starting to piss him off. He knew that she was alive, well as of last month she was alive anyway. He also knew that she knew that he was looking for her.
Well he was pretty sure that she knew that he was looking for her. It couldn't be anymore obvious could it?
'I'm faking my own death so that we can live together happily ever after, what do say about that?'.
Yep, that was pretty obvious alright. If she was afraid that they would get caught by Vicious then why did she book it on her own?
Spike wasn't incredibly smart, but he wasn't a moron either. Regardless of what anyone with purple hair might think. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Julia would have had a better chance with him than on her own. You just needed to add up the factors in your head or on your hand if you were a little slow.
Spike was second in command to Mao in the dragons. Now last time that he knew you didn't put a bumbling idiot in that position of power. Score one for Spiegel. He also was pretty proficient at saving his and assorted others asses' on a regular basis, another point in his favor. The rest of the syndicate had written him off for dead and even if they didn't he had a trump card with Mao.
That was three for Spike. On the other hand Julia's other lover, his former best friend, whom they were running from was a sadistic mad man wielding a katana. Ok, point for Vicious. But that still added up to Spike having the highest score. So in the end Spike would have been more than able to keep her safe. Yet she fled.
I can tell by the way that you switch and walk
I can tell by the way that you baby talk
I know by the way you treat your man
I can love you baby til it's a crime
In light of this information the lanky cowboy had come to two conclusions;
One, she didn't think that even Spike could protect them from that white haired freak. Or two, she didn't really love him as much as he was led to believe.
He really hoped that it was the first one. But a sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach told him otherwise.
"Fuck off!" he exclaimed before angrily punching the cockpit pod with his right hand. "Why me?" he asked no one in particular. "I don't ask for much do I?".
The green haired man let out an exasperated sigh and then dug around in his coat pocket for a few seconds before retrieving a crumpled pack of cigarettes. After pulling one out and placing it in between his thin lips, he shoved the pack back into his breast pocket and groped around for his lighter.
A thorough search of all of his pockets and the entire cockpit of the swordfish turned up nothing.
"Oh, what the fuck!" exited his mouth with the cigarette still dangling from his lips while he threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
That was his favorite lighter too. Julia had given it to him for his twenty second birthday. It was the last tangible thing he had to remember her by other than his memories.
He spit out the unlit stick in a fit of frustration and proceeded to repeatedly bang his head on the control panel in front of him. A silent mantra of 'my life sucks, kill me now please' chanting through his brain as he did so.
A beep from said control panel snapped him out of his tantrum. He lifted his head so that he could see the small screen in front of him. The screen flashed 'communication level four' indicating that someone wanted to talk to him. Spike hit the answer button on the key pad and waited for the video window to open.
A small black box popped up on the screen showing that the call was from the BeBop. He let out a groan and awaited Jet's lecture. On cue the chrome domed head of his partner appeared on the screen.
"Where the fuck have you been?" were the first words out of his mouth.
'Nice to see you too Jet' .
"I've been out", Spike decided that it was safer to play it neutral.
"Out huh?".
Jet knew where he went he just wanted to bust his balls. This is what happened every time.
The young cowboy slumped back into his seat and retorted, "yeah, out".
"Well, if you want to come back in" the older man made sure to emphasize the word 'in', "then you'd better hurry your ass up!".
The screen went blank, Jet had cut the connection.
That meant that he was in a bitchy mood. As soon as Spike set foot into the ship he would probably get his ass reamed. That would last for about two days and then things would go back to normal.
If you could really call it normal. The cycle would begin once more until Ed found a new lead on her tomato to set it all back in motion once again.
The lanky man in the star ship wasn't sure whether or not it was a good thing that they had picked up Ed.
Cause it's gone daddy gone
The love has gone
Gone daddy gone
The love has gone away
Gone away
Spike rubbed his temples with his left hand while he punched in the coordinates of the BeBop with his right. The ship was about an hour away. He was pretty confident that his partner wouldn't leave him behind. But how did the saying go, 'there's a first time for everything'? He wasn't in the mood to push his luck at the moment.
What he was in the mood for was a cigarette. Then maybe a hot shower, a cigarette and something to eat. After that probably another cigarette. If bounty hunting and Vicious didn't kill him, then smoking would. Smoking was the only thing that kept him from going crazy. If he was smoking a cigarette then the world was peaceful.
About fifty six minutes and thirty four seconds after Jet's call, the radar in the swordfish started to beep. Alerting Spike that a ship was right up ahead. Sure enough, about three minutes later he could make out the worn shape of the BeBop. He closed the gap between his ship and the BeBop and hit the proper key on the pad in front of him to remotely open the hanger.
Once inside Spike noted that the hammerhead and the redtail were missing from the hanger. A relieved smile formed on his face as he silently thanked the gods that he wouldn't have to have a cold shower or listen to Jet's bitching right away.
The lid of the pod on the swordfish popped open releasing a rush of artificially processed air with it. The lanky pilot hopped down to the floor and immediately made his way hurriedly to the galley.
A few minutes later, Spike appeared in the kitchen with an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth and quickly made his way over to the range.
Rapid clicking could be heard as he lit his much needed cancer stick with the flame from the burner. After an exceptionally long drag, he slowly let the smoke exit his mouth. The smoke curled up into the air and slowly disappeared up inside the exhaust hood over the stove.
The green haired man leaned back against the counter and took another satisfying drag off of his cigarette. He could slowly feel the tension lifting from his shoulders with each additional inhalation of nicotine. All he needed now was a long, uninterrupted hot shower. It was anyone's guess how long it would be before anyone came back, so he thought it best to jump in there now.
Spike tossed his spent butt into the sink and lit another for the road.
Upon entering his room he stripped off his clothes and threw them into a heap on the floor next to the door. Placing the smoldering cigarette into the already over full ash tray on his nightstand, he bent down and started digging through a small pile of boxer shorts on the chest at the foot of his bed.
After carefully selecting a pair , he lifted them up to his nose and sniffed them. That was the easiest way for a man to tell if his laundry was clean or not. The sniff test.
Deciding that they were clean enough for use, Spike put them on, retrieved his forgotten cigarette and exited his room.
Walking down the deserted hall to the bathroom and hearing no singing or barking clued Spike into the fact that even Ed and Ein were gone. Not wanting to question his good fortune he passed it off and entered the bathroom.
Grabbing a towel from the cabinet under the sink the boxer clad man proceeded to turn on the hot water full blast. The bathroom quickly filled with a comforting hot steam.
He pulled off his boxers and tossed them on the vanity top and pitched what was left of his smoke into the toilet before stepping into the rare aquatic nirvana that was called the hot shower.
Spike stayed fixed under the hot jets of water until they started to become luke warm. Only taking his body out of the searing H2O happiness long enough to piss off Faye by using her toiletries.
He didn't care if he shaved his face with raspberry shaving cream or not. It was free and it was good enough for him. Spike hadn't bought a razor in two years thanks to Faye's arrival on the ship. Although her shampoo tended to give his hair a tad bit too much foof to it. It was bushy enough already.
Shutting the water off and stepping out of the shower, he then started to dry himself off. After throwing the damp towel into the overflowing hamper in the corner of the room, Spike replaced his boxers on his body and tried to run a brush through his unruly mop of hair.
He often had thoughts of cutting it, but always decided against it. It would be too weird to look into the mirror and not see his hair this way.
Once again, it would be one of those things that disrupted the cycle. Besides, if you didn't like it then you didn't have to look at it. Julia like it and that was all that mattered to him.
Giving up the coif battle, he decided that now would be an opportune time to sneak into Faye's room and steal one of her lighters. More than likely she had snatched them off of Jet and was just storing them in her room until he forgot about them.
Hitting the button and opening the bathroom door, he walked out and turned to face down the hall way in the direction of the shrew's room. But before he could take another step forward, he was distracted by an unusual but familiar smell.
If it was enough to attract his attention , then it deserved to be investigated.
Changing his direction and heading to the common room, Spike started to try and place the smell. As he got closer to the couch area of the ship the smell got stronger. It was starting to tickle the hairs in his nose. That's when it clicked in his head, 'that smells like weed'.
Making sure to be silent, the lanky man snuck up to the hatchway leading into the common room. Scanning the room he quickly found the source of the smell.
There on the worn out couch was Faye, feet up on the coffee table and a large cloud of smoke around her.
' She must have come back while I was in the shower'.
She was holding what looked to be a medium sized ceramic blue devil head.
'Is that a bong?'
On cue she put a flame to a small brass bowl on top of the satan head and inhaled from a blue and black plastic tube located in the back of the pipe. After a few moments she exhaled a plume of sweet smoke and watched the ceiling fan carry it away. It spiraled around the room, dispersing off into other parts of the ship.
Spike stood in awe as he wondered how long she had had that thing stored in her room. Even though there was an unofficial 'room rule' in affect, he frequently snooped. Jet and Ed did too, he was sure that his room wasn't immune to pillaging by his crew mates.
He was distracted from his thoughts when the purple haired woman spoke.
"Are you going to stand there in the shadows all night or are you going to come into the room" Faye flatly stated, not even bothering to look in Spike's direction.
Beautiful girl love your dress
Fifteen smiles oh yes
Where she is now I can only guess
Cause it's gone daddy gone
The love has gone away
Gone away
Gone away………
Yeah, I know it really sucked. But I'm going for the slow paced romance. Let me know what you think. It would be greatly appreciated. It might not seem it now, but there is going to be a plot. I'm laying all of the ground works for it. I also assure you that they will get together, just not all mushy. I don't do mushy. Flame if you must, but I much rather get constructive criticism. I could also use some pointers on my paragraph skills.
