A low hum buzzes through the halls, only broken by the chugging of the metal fan above Spike. The room itself is littered with old tech and random garbage left over from bounties over the last few months, with a screen in the middle of the room on a metal table. On the other side of the screen, Spike's feet lay placed on the end of the table with his body sprawled haphazardly around the end of the couch. The screen is silently playing some older, less-significant bounties through the cowboy-themed show, Big Shot. "Spike? Hey, Spike?" a voice says at the top of the stairs.
Faye appears in the doorway with her hands in her pockets. "Hey, Spike, do we have any- " Spike's arm lazily slides off of the couch's arm, and Spike soon begins to snore almost perfectly in tune with the humming in the background. Faye looks around at all of the trash and grimaces in disgust. "Ugh, men. Can you believe this, Edward?"
Edward lays sleeping on the keyboard of her laptop with Ein sprawled on top of her. A small line of drool dribbles down Ed's cheek, dripping onto one of the keys. Faye grumbles to herself and walks into the next room. She makes her way to Jet's office, where he is trimming his bonsai tree and smoking a cigarette. Jet's room is noticeably more well-kept and in order. The walls are completely barren, and the only clutter is on his desk where what appears to be an old ISSP pistol is deconstructed in an isolated corner next to the far wall. Jet appears to be completely focused on what he is doing.
"Hey, Jet, I was just wondering- "
"I'm busy." Jet snaps back at her.
"With what? That stupid little plant? That doesn't seem too important to me!"
Jet continues to trim the tree, trying not to seem too fazed by the fact that Faye is invading his space. "It's important to me, now can you please leave me alone?"
Faye grits her teeth and huffs, leaning against the frame of the door. "What's got you so wound up, huh? I could have a lead or something, have you thought about that?"
Jet sets his trimmers down and puts out his cigarette, turning his chair around. He stands up with his arms crossed. "Well, what is it?"
"Huh?"
"You said you had a lead. What is it? Does it have something to do with that old gun runner that you told us about last week?"
Faye remembers the gun runner that she saw on Big Shot last week while everybody else was working on the Bebop's air conditioning. The award was two million woolongs, and Faye insisted that she had a lead that was worthwhile through a plug that she got from working at Gordon's casino. It turns out that the plug just wanted a chance to go out on a date with her, and there wasn't a lead at all. Since then, the whole crew seems to be frustrated with her, especially considering the fact that Faye's plug decided to break the Bebop's plumbing after she rejected him.
Faye blushes "Look, that lead really could have been something!"
"Yeah, but it wasn't. Now we don't have air conditioning, a toilet, or any woolongs! All because of your stupid 'lead'."
"Well, fine! I guess I'll just follow the lead myself, then!"
"Go ahead! And close the door on your way out!"
As soon as Faye leaves Jet slams the door in her face. "You know you're really insufferable, you know that?" Faye shouts back.
When she realizes that she isn't going to get a shout back, Faye starts to walk back towards the center of the ship. "I just don't understand it." She mutters to herself. "Spike gets to make all of these mistakes on our bounties, and so what? I don't see Jet slamming a door in his face." Faye finally makes it to the couch and sits down with a slump. Ein hops next to her and curls up, nuzzling his head into the outside of her thigh. She smiles a little bit. "Hey, Ein. How are you doing?" As she starts to get comfortable on the couch, her eyes begin to get heavy until the voices of two familiar cowboys shatters the silence of the room "Howdy, y'all!" Faye jolts awake as Big Shot goes through its standard intro at an alarmingly high volume.
"Welcome to Big Shot, the most popular bounty hunter spot in the country!"
"Bringing the newest updates to the 300,000 bounty hunters of our solar system!"
Faye rushes to turn the volume down on the television before sitting back down. Edward starts to grumble and appears to be waking up before simply turning to a different side. Faye turns to look at Spike, who hasn't moved since she came into the room. "Unbelievable." She mutters under her breath. The episode goes through its regular motions, listing off dossiers of criminals in the area, most of whom being either "small fries" as Spike puts it, or "too much trouble" as Jet would say. Faye's eyes start to glaze over again until she sees a familiar face on the screen: that lead that asked her out a week ago.
"Hey Judy, can you give us the lowdown on the lowlife of this week?"
"I sure can, Punch! This week we have Totari Yen at a whopping 2 million woolongs!"
"Wow! That is one hefty chunk on his head! What exactly did he do?"
"Yen is wanted for stealing from a number of Casinos just outside of Mars, masquerading as a roulette dealer. Yen is known to be a bit of a loose cannon, fist fighting his way out of anything he can't talk himself out of."
"So just remember to keep yourself safe on this one, cowboys!"
"Uh-huh! He was last seen on Ganymede, in the port city of Marvis."
The two tv cowboys start to move on to the next mark, but Faye turns the screen off.
"I got you now, you son of a bitch." Before Faye can get up to race to her ship, Edward jumps in front of the screen with her goggles on and a pan in each hand. "Wakey-wakey eggs and bakey!"
Faye screams.
Edward screams.
Ein barks.
...Spike snores louder.
Faye takes a deep breath and starts to stand up from the couch. "You're full of surprises, aren't you, kid?"
Ed has already moved on to playing around with Ein by throwing him up in the air and catching him. Faye watches for a second, smiles, then starts to walk quietly out of the room.
"Faye?" Edward says softly. Faye turns around and sees Edward's head cocked slightly to the left, with Ein sitting calmly in her lap. "Where are you going?" Faye opens her mouth to say something then stops for a moment.
She realizes that she hasn't really kept up with Edward the same way that she has with the guys, and she almost feels a twinge of guilt. Whenever she makes a mistake, Spike makes fun of her and Jet scolds her like a disappointed father, making her feel worse about the situation. However, despite being the newest addition and having some moments that make Faye question whether or not Ed is human, Ed has always treated her with kindness. It was because of this, not to mention the fact that Ed is the only other girl on the entire ship, that made her feel bad about lying to Ed. In many ways, Faye is just now realizing that she's always had a soft spot for the kid. Faye closes her eyes and sighs.
"Faye…?"
"Hold on, I'm-I'm thinking."
Faye collects herself then opens her mouth again.
"Look, kid, can you keep a secret?" Edward nods vigorously as Ein sleepily curls up in her lap.
"I just got a top-secret lead to a very important bounty, and I don't want Spike or Jet to know about it, alright?"
"But why would you-"
"Shhhhh! Just make sure that nobody finds out about this. Just have it be our own little secret, huh?"
"Ooooooh, a secret for Edward?"
"Can you keep this a secret, Ed?"
"Hmmmm…" Ed sits on the ground and scratches her head with the big toe of her foot before smiling and nodding.
Faye smiles and winks before heading towards the staircase. Edward runs in front of Faye and cuts her off, now with Ein perched on her shoulder like a parrot. "Can Edward help?"
"Huh?"
"With the bounty."
"No, Ed, you can't just-"
"Come on, Faye-Faye! Edward loves to investigate!"
Faye thinks for a second. She knows that if she leaves, then Jet and Spike won't bat an eye, because she leaves all the time. That being said, Edward's skills with tech are impressive enough that she might be able to find Yen before any other bounty hunter.
"Are you sure that you can take this on, Ed? This guy is no joke here, and things can get dangerous."
Ed puts on her goggles and puts her hands on her sides in a Superman pose.
"I'm ready for danger!"
Faye laughs, and shakes her head.
"Fine, Ed, you can come."
Ed grabs Ein and lifts him over her head, twirling around in circles in the middle of the room.
"Yay-yay! Adventures with Faye-Faye!"
Faye starts to walk off to the hangar, shaking her head. "Oh, Faye… Please don't get this kid killed."