D/C: Don't own.
Casino Scrape
"Here." Jet handed Faye a plate of bell peppers and beef. Of course everyone on the Bebop knew it was just bell peppers.
"Thanks." Faye muttered as she placed the plate in her lap to study it briefly, before digging in.
Spike, his own plate in hand, took the seat next to the now sitting up Faye. Jet, not left with much of an option, took the seat across from the two.
"It's alive." Spike grinned as he slurped up a bell pepper.
With her mouth full, Faye thought it easier to send a glare Spike's way then spit out a comeback.
"So you seem you've been busy, Faye. Whatcha being doing that completely wiped you out? You went and got yourself in trouble didn't you?" Jet asked, ignoring Spike's remark earlier. Sometimes he wondered about that boy's age.
"It's no fault of my own." Faye shrugged between bites.
"Yeah right." Spike snorted.
"Anyways, lunkhead, some guy thought he would be clever and put a hefty bounty on my head."
"Some guy? You don't know him? Is it because of your debts?" Jet piled on the questions, habit from his cop days.
"Well, you see I do know the guy and I guess I know why and it's not because of the debts," Faye mumbled, before she perked up slightly, "Speaking of my debts, boys, I paid them off."
Spike and Jet's mouths dropped slightly in disbelief. Spike was the first to recover from the shock.
"Let me guess, you stole the money?" Spike raised an eyebrow, "Hence the bounty." Spike shook his head in disapproval.
"Technically I didn't steal the money. It was rewarded to me." Faye put a finger up to her cheek as if she wore recalling the event.
"Rewarded to ya?" Jet scratched the back of his head lightly. Some how he doubted Faye was capable of doing anything that someone would actually want to reward her for it. Unless she knew she would get the reward and then she did the 'oh-so-noble' act.
"For my woes." Faye raised the back of her hand to her forehead as she titled her head back.
"You're woes." Spike snorted.
Faye quickly regained her composure and shot Spike the second nasty glare of the day.
"For your information, Mr. Know it All, it greatly hurt myself esteem to have been cheated on by my ex-husband!" Faye pointed an accusing finger at Spike, as if he wore the cheater.
"Ex-husband?" Jet questioned.
Spike just looked at Faye as if she were telling the biggest fib in the world.
"That's right. We got married, he cheated on me, and I got half of his fortune." Faye told a long story short.
"You robbed the guy!" Spike yelped. He could image the poor guy crying as he watched Faye walked away, smugly probably, with half of his life's earnings.
"No, I didn't. He said he loved me. He told his lawyer to give me whatever I asked for."
"And you asked for half?" Jet looked questionably at his female comrade.
"No, I asked for all but his lawyer objected so I settled for half."
"How kind of you." Jet laughed.
"Who was the poor sap?" Spike asked as he stuck a cigarette between his lips and quickly lit it.
"That still doesn't explain the bounty on your head." Jet added.
Faye let out a low chuckle.
"Faye?" Jet gave her a stern look; one that warned her, 'you better not be bringing a whole lot of drama with you back on my ship'. Yep, that's what his look said to her.
"Well, it was kind of a scam. From the start I could tell this guy was a sap for me. So about a month after being married, mind you I already had the scheme figured out, I decided it was time to take action!" Faye slammed on fist onto her opened palm. She wrapped the open hand around the other and cracked her knuckles.
"Action?" Spike mused.
"I told a hooker I would pay her five thousand woo longs if she could get my husband to sleep with her. Thus she did and I caught them by 'accident.'."
Jet put a hand to his forehead. This woman could not be serious let alone for real. She was crazy! On the other hand, Spike found it quite amusing.
"It's actually a pretty good plan, for you Faye." Spike chuckled.
"It would have been perfect except he found out somehow. And now he is pissed. He wants his money back but it's already gone so not much I could do for him there. Then he told me if he couldn't have the money he wanted me back. I declined."
"And who is this guy exactly to be putting a fifteen million woo longs on your head?" Jet pondered.
"Remus Cercy."
"You're joking right? Not the son of Kreios Cercy?" Spike looked as if he wore about to choke Faye.
"Kreios Cercy? That's the leader of the Black Serpent Syndicate."
"Bingo, Jet. Remus is his eldest son." Spike informed.
Faye remained silent. Suddenly she felt like fleeing the room. The looks she was getting from Jet and Spike where confusing. They where somewhere in the range of 'We're going to lock you in the closet to keep you safe' and 'We're going to kick your ass of the ship so fast so your problems doesn't become ours'.
"Hey look on the bright side guys, my debts are gone. No more debt collectors bothering the Bebop."
"Jeeze, your right Faye. Now we will have bounty hunters and syndicate members knocking on our door." Spike spoke, his voice full of irritation.
"More like firing missiles at us." Jet corrected.
"Hey, I wanted alive, remember?" Faye reminded.
"Faye-Faye, whose Lillard Thelm person?" Edward appeared out of thin air practically.
"Ah, Ed! When did you get in here," Faye's eyes were wide with surprise but she quickly recovered, "Thelm is just a reject lackey for Remus."
"I have a feeling there's a storm brewing." Jet muttered as he and Spike lit another cigarette.
"Don't sweat it boys. Remus won't harm me. I wasn't lying when I said he was a sap for me." Although Faye wasn't so sure about Kreios, he had disliked her from the start. And with those thought pushed aside, Faye swaggered towards the bathroom to take a nice, probably cold, shower.
---
"Hey that's a pretty fancy casino!" Faye purred out as she peered over Spike's shoulder and to the screen.
"What a treat. While I'm catching the bounty, Faye will be gambling away the last of her woo longs." Spike smirked over his shoulder at Faye, whose face was still hovering over his shoulder.
"Please Spike, I know when its play time and business time. I was just saying it's a pretty high class place. In fact I don't even know if they will let you through the front doors." Faye put a finger up to her lip as if she where seriously pondering the idea.
"If they let you in, I'm sure I'll manage." Spike retorted.
"Can it you two. Ed tell those two screw ups the bounty's info." Jet ordered as he entered the room.
"Okay-dokey Jet-person. Mademoiselle Grace is her name, bring lots of pain is her cruel game." Edward spoke, the last of her words sounding almost cynical.
"Translation?" Faye raised an eyebrow.
"She likes to steal people's money and then blow them up. Bang, bang!" Ed smiled.
"Sounds like a boring bounty." Faye complained.
"Compared to your issues, I could see your point." Spike stood up, heading towards his spacecraft.
Faye was about to mention that Spike had plenty of his own issues, past and present, and he shouldn't threat over her little old problems. But she thought better of it. Well that and Jet got onto Spike.
"Spike, we agreed to leave Faye's issues on the back burner for awhile. So stop running your mouth off!"
With a proud smile, Faye headed down the hallway and to the hangar.
--
"I spotted her." Faye whispered to Spike over the ear piece.
"I see her too." Spike replied.
"Alright cowboy, go use your charm!" Faye gave Spike a pep talk, although her voice was hardly uplifting. It was more of a mocking tone.
Spike approached the black jack table Mademoiselle Grace was occupying. Upon taking the seat next to her and seeing her face up close, Spike had to bit on his lower lip to keep an unnecessary chuckle from escaping. This woman, who was in her early forties, had one to many botox injected into her pale face; her drawn on eyebrows where fiercely high on her forehead. Along with the defected botox, her makeup (not that Spike was an expert) was extremely scary.
"Hello." Spike found his charming voice and threw her on of his breath taking grins. Grace was not having it.
"Goodbye." She huffed into Spike's face. Spike turned his attention to the table, his ears still homing in on Grace's voice though. She was telling her friend how much she hated men. The wheels in Spike's head turned slowly and then a light went off. He excused himself from the table and with a small chuckle called out Faye's name into the microchip.
"Spike, what was that? I know you had no charm but that was just pathetic." Faye's voice laughed into Spike's ear. Spike's smirk remained.
"Oh I don't think this had anything to do with me. I think Mademoiselle Grace prefers someone with you features more. If ya catch my drift Faye." Spike's smirk grew as silence remained.
"Come again?" Faye asked dryly.
"Mademoiselle Grace likes to kiss girls." Spike put it lightly.
"Gross. Spike if you think I'm going to charm that old bat, you are dead wrong!" Faye all but screeched into the earpiece.
"Damn it, Faye! Shut up for a second. It's not like you have to kiss her, just get her to get awhile from the tables and to the bathroom or something."
"Hell no. I'm just going to go up there and shoot her ass!" Faye announced.
Just then Spike spotted Faye marching over to Grace. Spike went sprinting after her. Faye yanked Grace by her shoulder to face her. But before Faye could usher a word, Spike had one hand over Faye's mouth. He shot Faye a look before turning his attention to Grace.
"My wealthy friend, Faye, just wanted to get to know you better. If you know what I mean." Spike raised both eyebrows at the end of his question.
Grace looked Faye over and a slightly terrifying smile filled her overly puffed up lips.
"I do." Grace smiled.
Spike removed his hand from Faye's mouth, "See, Faye, I told you all you had to do was talk to her." And with that Spike took a few paces back.
"Hiya." Faye mumbled with a small wave at the platinum blonde in front of her. She was most defiantly going to kill Spike. Defiantly.
----
"Damn it Faye! All you had to do was get her semi alone." Spike cursed at Faye through the ear piece as he ran down the escalator, pumping into people without a care.
"Christ, Spike! She tried to stick her hand down my shorts! Of course I am going to pull out my gun." Faye fired back at Spike, also making a mad dash through the now panicked people.
Spike didn't reply. He had a visual of both Grace and Faye.
"She's not far ahead of you. Pick up the pace, Faye."
"I'm going!" And with that Faye tackled the blonde in front of her. Much to her dismay, it wasn't Grace on the ground, it was some hippy guy.
Spike nearly shot himself as he watched Faye tackle the wrong person. She had been so close. Damn woman. Spike jetted off the escalator and towards the entrance. Faye, who had collect herself, was now at Spike's heels. Both shot through the entrance.
"Where the hell did she go?" Spike hissed.
"How should I know? You're the one who saw her." Faye raised an eyebrow.
And as if she where right on queue, a new car (which had been on display in the lobby as a prize in the casino) came crashing through the giant class doors behind Faye and Spike, a crazed Grace behind the wheel. Glass shards flew through the air, violently stabbing whatever they landed on.
"Shit!" Spike was up and running towards the moving car.
Faye had another idea in mind the chasing after that car. With the touch of her bracelet, her Redtail zoomed in and came to an abrupt halt next to her.
With Faye in her Redtail, catching Grace suddenly became a lot simpler, although probably a lot more expensive for Jet. Poor guy.
---
"You nearly blew me up." Spike yelled at Faye.
"I had to catch Grace. It was a chance I was willing to take." Faye waved at a very pissed off, smoke covered Spike
"Well here is what's left of the bounty." Each received a thousand a thousand woo longs.
"You're joking right. That wasn't even worth it." Faye stood up from the couch.
"Maybe next time you'll remember that before you blow up the whole city." Jet roared.
Spike snickered.
"Quiet, Spike. If she hadn't done it, you would have." And with that Jet stomped off to attend to his Bonsai trees.
Both Spike and Faye blinked a few times.
"What's up his butt?" Faye raised an eyebrow.
Spike just shrugged. A few moments of silence passed by before each broke out into laughter.
"Maybe we should lay off the old guy." Spike choked out between laughter.
---
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