The Bones of You

(Disclaimer: Cowboy Bebop and all related characters are property of its respective owners.)

One: Forget Myself

No I won't forget you, but I'll forget myself

If the city will forgive me

- Elbow

Over ten years. She had never expected that after ten years she would still be doing this. She thought she would have done something new with herself by this point, been some hot young thing for a sugar daddy or winning a lot of money at the horse races or… something. Anything other than this. Anything other than still bounty hunting for chump change and spending her nights rolling on her uncomfortable bed in the Bebop and listening to Jet complain about her spending and her gluttony.

Faye exhaled a large puff of cigarette smoke, eyeing herself in the reflection of the store window. She was beginning to look old even through all the makeup she now wore, she thought, though Jet claimed her faint wrinkles could only be seen by her. Her revealing, yellow outfit had long since been worn out and abandoned, replaced now with a tiny, dark, low-cut shirt barely covered up by her red blouse that was faded and beginning to look a little more pink, a pair of black stretch pants and shining leather stiletto boots, and a gun holster tied to her hip. Her cute bob hair had grown down her back and made into a much less cute but much more manageable ponytail. Her yellow headband still held back the stray hairs from her bangs, but the rest of her hair was tight against her head before spilling out behind her.

She took another long drag on her cigarette, displeased. At this rate, she'd be gray-haired and ancient before her bounty hunting career ended… That is, if she didn't die of starvation on a particularly bad month (which they had had quite a lot of lately)… or boredom.

Her COM buzzed, startling her out of her stupor. She grabbed it harshly, it taking the brunt of her frustration and yelled into the receiver, "WHAT."

"Faye, for God's sakes," Jet grumbled right back, as bitter in his age as she was in hers, "Have you picked up the trail yet?"

They had been tracking down a Louis King Jr. for a good two days now. He'd held up a few liquor stores and evaded taxes, which wasn't much, but he had killed a rich young woman during his last robbery, and his bounty price had been raised to 2 million Woolongs. At the moment, he'd managed to get out of her sights long enough to lose his trail for about the fifth time, and Jet was losing his patience and his temper.

"No, I haven't found him yet. Why don't you get your ass out here and find him yourself? I'm tired of running circles around this godforsaken planet."

They'd been on Mars for a week and a half because the Bebop didn't have enough fuel to go far enough to make a difference.

Jet growled on the other end of the line. "You were the one who wanted to go after him. You were the one who saw him every time. You were the one who bolted off after him without so much as an 'I see him, Jet!' and you're getting sore at me for it?"

Faye stuck out her bottom lip. Jet was an expert at being irritable. It was a battle she just couldn't win, at least not today. "Well, fine, Jet. I'll just keep looking, and when I catch him, I'll keep all of the money for myself. I'll buy fuel for my Red Tail, a bunch of food and clothes, and you'll never see me again! You'll have to capture all of your bounties all by your lonesome self."

It was an empty threat she'd made a million times. She'd never quite broken the habit of running when she had the guts and returning defeated a short time later. It was one of the most painful realizations that plagued her, being in her thirties and unable to fend for herself. Jet tolerated her antics a lot better than most people. He really was an all-around good guy.

Faye sighed, giving up. She was raising her head to apologize to him when suddenly…

There he was. Fate had given her a winning hand for once because THERE HE WAS.

"I've spotted him," she mumbled and shut off the COM before Jet could respond.

King was an average man in every way: average looks, average height, average build, and probably an average intelligence. He was staring at a few sweets in a bakery's front window, scratching the spot on his neck where his dirty-blonde hair met skin. Faye had been chasing him so relentlessly that he had probably had no time to eat (she hadn't had the time either, though she couldn't afford it anyway), and now he'd allowed himself a fatal distraction in the form of cupcakes. Not that looking at them wasn't tempting, but Faye had long since grown used to being hungry.

She approached slowly, quietly, ready to make an ambush of him. All she had to do was conk him on the back of the head with the butt of her gun, and then she could drag him back to the Bebop and from there to the police station. He wasn't an overweight man, so she knew that she wouldn't have much of a problem and…

"A-HA! I found you!" A voice squealed. It caught both bounty and bounty hunter off-guard. Before them was a stick of a boy with a mop of blonde hair on his head, hanging over one of his brown eyes. He was dressed in all black, and his pants were too short, and his toothpick arms were hanging out from the deep loops of his oversized tank top, holding a Jericho 941 out at King.

"Who are you?" King asked, apparently so used to having a gun pointed at him that he was no longer phased by it. He seemed annoyed that some skinny teenager had the balls to face him.

"My name's Maxwell, and you're Louis King Jr." The boy's face broke out into a grin, revealing that he was missing his right canine. "You've got a sweet bounty on your head, and I'm gonna get it."

Faye's face heated up with anger. After days and days of searching, she'd finally found her bounty, only for some stupid kid to come and try and take it right out from under her nose?

"Hey, kid, get lost!" Faye shouted, waving her own Glock 30 at him. Unfortunately, her outcry had allowed King to realize that she was there, and with a shout he was racing out of both of their sights.

"Hey!" Faye hissed. She turned to glare at the boy only to find that he was forcing his way through the crowd in hot pursuit, tumbling over his long legs and big feet the whole way. This only managed to make her angrier, and she took off after the both of them. "That brat, that little brat!" She seethed through her teeth, shoving people this way and that way. "Who does he think he is?" She spotted King, closely followed by the blonde, ducking into an alley.

"Stop or I'll shoot!" the boy cried, cocking the gun.

"Don't shoot him, you idiot!" Faye shouted, whacking him on the back of the head with her gun. She hit him harder than she intended, sending him collapsing to the ground unconscious. She didn't have time to check on him though, since King was clambering up the fire escape at an alarming speed. Faye fired once at the steps, collapsing the one he was just stepping onto. His leg hung from the hole as the broken step clattered to the ground below.

King struggled to get up, but Faye aimed her pistol. "Give up. I've got you now."

"Hey, look out!"

She turned just in time for someone to box her in the ear, sending her crumpling to the ground. She glanced up to see who her attacker could have been just in time to see none other than that blonde stick boy tackling the assailant with his stringy arms around his shoulders. Faye looked back at the fire escape long enough to see that King had disappeared and this man, a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks and sunglasses and the build of a linebacker, must have been his partner.

The man backed up, slamming the boy against the wall, forcing him to let go, but Faye jumped on him and used the rage she was feeling over the fact that King had gotten away once again to slam him on the ground with his hands behind his back. "You bastard! Do you know how long I've been chasing that idiot? IN HEELS?"

The man stammered and sputtered, obviously stunned that he could be taken down by a little woman like her. Apparently he'd never heard of Faye Valentine.

Sirens were wailing in the distance. The blonde was looking around stunned, as if wondering how the police could have known they were there. Honestly, who reported two gun-waving possible lunatics? Faye rolled her eyes and yanked her COM out of the pocket inside her red shirt.

"Jet, it's Faye," she said, digging the heel of her boot into the man's back. "King got away, but I have one of his guys here…." She stomped on the man's back. "What's your name?"

"J… Jordan Holmes," the man groaned, eyeing the blonde boy and his gun.

"Look up this Jordan Holmes guy. How much is he worth?"

It took Jet only a few minutes to find him. "About 800 thousand Woolongs."

"Better than nothing," Faye smirked, satisfied that at least something had gone right. "We'll get King too." She stomped on the man again. "Where's King going?"

"I… I don't know."

"Really?" she asked, turning her foot left to right, digging in deeper. Considering the guy was so large, he was kind of a wuss, she thought.

"Y… Yeah, I don't know! He… He likes to hang out in the bars in the slums! He just hired me to be his bodyguard! It was good money! I didn't know him or anything!"

"Then why is there a bounty on your head?" she asked.

He glanced up at her, eyes wide, and she saw the veins in his sclera. He was a red eye user. She figured that he had been a dealer who got a little too caught up in his own product. No wonder he was in need of money.

The sirens were closer now.

The blonde stayed sitting on the ground where he was, arms hanging over his knees, Jericho pointed at the man in such a casual way that an inexperienced person wouldn't have noticed. "So," he said, face a light with his grin. "How much of a cut am I gonna get from this?"

Faye cocked an eyebrow at him. "Are you kidding me? I caught him. You're not getting anything!"

His smile faded. "What? But he would have killed you if I hadn't told you he was there. You wouldn't have caught him if it weren't for me!"

Faye glared at him, and he glared right back at her. She didn't want to admit that he had a point, and he'd gotten nothing but a headache from her for it. However…

"Yeah, well, I would have actually caught King if you hadn't gone and run your big mouth!" she retorted. "He's worth a lot more than this guy, you know!"

"Well, I… uh…" he stammered. "Well, um… you still wouldn't have caught him if it weren't for me."

"Weak argument, brat."

"Well, hey, I'm new to this whole bounty hunting thing! I didn't know! And anyway, how was I supposed to know that you were a bounty hunter?"

It was another good point, but she was determined to hold her ground. "It doesn't matter. You're not supposed to just go blindly running into things. It's a stupid move, even for a beginner."

"Well, I'm not well educated, sorry," the boy spat back, pouting.

Faye opened her mouth to retort but paused. "Wait… what? Why am I even arguing with some stupid sixteen year old nobody?"

"Wha-? I'm not sixteen," the boy replied, voice losing its bite. "I'm only fourteen."

"What?"

Holmes had been dragged off, and Faye had received her payment, only to walk outside and find the blonde boy lounging against the wall, waiting for her. There was a duffel bag at his feet.

She glared at him. "You're not getting any of this, kid. Get lost."

"My name is Maxwell," he replied, pulling his body away from the wall while picking up the bag, "and with the things I've seen in my life, I can guarantee that I'm no kid."

"You're still a kid to me," she responded, rolling her eyes. "Your fourteen. You don't know anything about the real world. That's why you shouldn't be trying to hunt bounty heads."

He picked up his pace to catch up with her. "Well, maybe you could teach me how to be a good bounty hunter."

"Don't waste your breath."

"Oh, come on, I'll be a great student, I promise! I know how to shoot a gun, and I practiced martial arts before I left the orphanage, and-"

"You're an orphan?" she asked, turning to look him in the eyes. After discovering that her family was long gone and realized she'd had no one in the entire world, and on top of that Spike…

"Yeah," he said, "ever since I was born. So?"

"I just… I'm sorry. That must have been awful." Maybe her age was starting to catch up with her. She feared she was becoming more sympathetic than she would have liked.

"Not really," he shrugged. "I had a place to live and food and stuff, but it wasn't very exciting. I want to be a bounty hunter. I want to make a lot of money so I can buy a racer and travel all over the universe."

"And you think you can do that bounty hunting?" She asked flatly, remembering how empty Jet's and her pockets always seemed to be. She'd been in the slump so long that she'd forgotten that some people could actually be successful in the work.

He shrugged again, so carefree that she could hardly believe it. "I don't know. Maybe if I had an excellent teacher?"

"Why should I help you with your dreams? I had to give up on mine a long time ago," She tried to sound annoyed, but there was an old listlessness in her voice. It irked her that her age was constantly revealing itself to her all the time. Way back when, she'd always thought she'd never be old in her thirties.

"Well…" He paused, as if trying to think of some kind of answer. "Never mind then." He turned away, a lopsided grin on his face, and as his profile drifted by her eyes, she felt her heart ache with the realization that his smile reminded her of Spike.

"I'll help you," She said, not even thinking about it. She feared she'd live to regret it, but the spark in his eyes was proof enough that she couldn't go back on it now.

"Really?" Maxwell exclaimed, grin spreading wide on his face. "Thanks! Thanks so much!"

Jet greeted Faye with a grunt when she came in, only looking up when he noticed another head ducking in the doorway.

"Hey, this your boyfriend or something?" Maxwell asked, descending the steps.

"Not a chance," Faye smirked, getting another grunt from Jet. She wasn't sure if he was offended with the idea of being her boyfriend or that she rendered the idea impossible.

"Who're you?" Jet asked as the boy plopped down on the mustard colored couch, stretching out like a cat.

"The name's Max. I'm a bounty hunter-in-training."

Jet looked at Faye, back at Max, and back at Faye. "Care to explain, Faye?" He asked, annoyed.

"He helped me get Holmes, so I told him I'd train him to be a competent bounty hunter."

Jet gave her an extremely skeptical stare before deciding he was mad about the entire situation. "The last thing I need is more freeloaders on this ship."

"Says the man who didn't even pursue King," Faye retorted.

"We wouldn't have had to go after King if you hadn't blown the last of our money at the horse races!" Jet shouted back, a vein starting to throb in his neck.

"I was trying to help!"

"Gambling doesn't help anyone, Faye!"

Maxwell watched them through half-lidded eyes, semi-interested. They obviously had lived together for a long time; they squabbled like an old married couple. Either way, the argument was taking them both nowhere fast, so he decided to interrupt.

"Man," He sighed, sitting up, "it sure is nice to see real human connection."

They both stared at him blankly, as if they didn't know what to say in response to him.

"If you don't want me to stay," Max continued with his eyes on Jet, fishing a pack of cigarettes from his duffel bag, "that's fine. I sure would like to have a place to sleep at least for the night though." He dug a lighter out of his pocket and lit the end of the cigarette.

It was as if the boy had known Jet the moment he laid eyes on him. Faye couldn't believe it, but right away he'd been able to see Jet's bleeding puppy dog heart underneath the gruff exterior. Either that, or maybe Jet saw what she'd seen in Max… nothing special, really, but definitely something… Spike-ish. Sitting there with his long legs folded across the table and a cig dangling from his smile, eyes closed, he looked more like him than ever.

"Well…" Jet grumbled. "You can stay here tonight, that's fine… and if you can prove that you're not a slacker like Faye, then maybe I'll let you stay longer. Maybe."

The boy opened one eye. "Thanks, Jet."

He even kind of sounded like him… if Spike had been a squeaky-voiced teenager. She was beginning to feel that she was just getting a little too nostalgic.

Jet took a seat opposite the boy. "So, Max, right? How old are you? How long have you been bounty hunting for?… Any criminal record I should know about?"

"What are you, a cop?" Max chuckled. "Yeah, it's Max, and I'm 14, and I don't have any criminal record, at least not one that's been written down."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jet complained, paused, registered the entire sentence, and snatched the cigarette out of the boy's mouth. "You shouldn't be smoking these if you're only fourteen!"

The kid's face lit up with a large smirk. "Or what? It'll stunt my growth?" He gestured to his long, lanky limbs.

Faye snickered.

"Children… both of you," Jet said flatly. "At least he has an excuse, Faye."

"So, do you guys have a shower or something? I could really use a bath," Max questioned, getting a point from both Bebop members.

"Down the hall, to the left," they said.

"Thanks," He responded and disappeared from their view within a minute.

As soon as he was gone, Jet turned his eyes on Faye who had taken the boy's cigarette from him and started smoking it herself. "Who is he?"

"Hell if I know. All I know is that he's an orphan who wants to be a bounty hunter so he can buy a mono-racer. Kids just don't want to work in gas stations or restaurants anymore. Not exciting enough I guess."

"He's way taller than any fourteen year old I've met."

"Last I checked, the last kid you've come into contact with was a thirteen year old named Ed," Faye responded, replacing the boy's spot on the couch.

"Why help him?"

"I told you, he's an orphan. Maybe I felt a little sympathy for him. I do have a soul, after all, Jet."

"Could've fooled me."

"Yeah, whatever, Jet. Seriously though."

"Yeah, seriously. You didn't feel sympathy for him. It was something else, wasn't it?"

Faye blew smoke into the air, tracing pictures in it with her eyes. "So, you saw him too, huh?"

"What?"

She turned her eyes on him.

"Spike."