Chapter 2 - A Free Vacation

Disclaimer: I don't own "Cowboy Bebop"

"So, whats the plan again?" Faye put down her bags.

Spike let out a big sigh, "You forgot already? We just got here..."

"Yeah I know, but I wasn't really listening. The only thing I heard was about the part about me having to pretend to be married to you… Ewww." Faye shivered in fright just from thinking about it.

Spike rolled his eyes "Okay, our targets are Richard & Victoria Palagonia, or at least that's the names they're going by now…"

Faye looked at the picture bounties "One-hundred million?! Why so much?"

Spike gritted his teeth "I was getting to that... They go on these kinds of ships looking for young "trust-fund" couples to kill and assume their identities."

"How do people know about them then?" Faye laid on the bed looking at her nails 'Aw, I chipped this one...'

"All the kid's parents must've noticed something was weird because their "children" were cutting off all contact with them, then they just disappear when all the money dried up."

"Hmm, I guess that does sound kind of strange, so what are we doing here?" she rolled over on to her stomach.

Spike took a deep breath before he ended up yelling at her "To catch them, Faye. What else?"

"No, what I mean is, they look for rich couples. Aside from the fact we're not a couple, thank god, we don't have a penny to our names."

"We were hired by the parents of the most recent victims to do this one. They're paying for all of this IF we catch them."

"What?! You mean this whole trip is paid for?! I'm gonna grab a drink!" She cheerfully jumped off the bed 'or maybe a few!'

Spike leaned against the door. "We have to be seen together at all times."

"Why is that?" She asked tilting her head, arms crossed.

"We need to look like a newly-wed couple. Think about it, a new bride won't want to stray from her wealthy husband. And if you want to look like we have money, you might want to put something nice on." he pointed at a dress on the bathroom door.

"Go down to the bar or something while I get dressed. Just because we're pretending to be married doesn't mean you can stay in here and watch me get dressed." she ordered, feeling the material of the dress.

Spike spun around towards the door "What makes you think I want to watch you get dressed anyway?" He paused and moved his hand around in his pocket. "Oh, hey wait,"

Faye turned around, dress pressed against her chest "What now?"

He walked back up to her "Gimme your hand." he roughly grabbed her hand and slipped a ring with a huge diamond on it.

Her face flushed when she saw it sparkle and shine on her hand.

"That's from the people who's paying us to do this. We get nothing if that ring goes missing."

Faye tilted her head "Is it worth one-hundred mil?"

Before she irritated him further, he quickly walked away, shaking his head.

Spike sat at the bar chain-smoking like their was no tomorrow. Someone placed their hand on his shoulder "What's wrong, pal?"

Spike turned around. 'It's our bounty, making them come to us was easier than I thought.' "Um, nothing. I'm just waiting on my fian- I mean wife."

The man laughed "It's tough getting used to. Saying wife instead of girlfriend or fiancé. It gets me all the time!"

He smacked Spike's back in a chummy way. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Richard, it's nice to meet you."

Spike shook his hand "Same, I'm Spike."

A smaller, softer hand touched his shoulder this time.

'Well finally, for a cold-hearted swindler she sure does take-' he stopped mid-sentence once he turned his head.

"Have I kept you waiting too long, dear?" she was wearing a black strapless dress with two slits on the sides starting from her hips all the way down. With long gloves to match, and she left her headband off.

"No, not at all." both men dropped their jaws. She gave Spike a kiss on the cheek.

"Faye, you look.. gorgeous." he stood from his bar stool, nearly missing his step.

The sight of him being goofy made her giggle.

"Hi, I'm Richard. Such an honor to meet such a beautiful young lady." he looked her up and down & kissed her hand.

Spike put his arm around Faye. "And this is my wife, Faye."

She shook Richard's hand "It's nice to meet you, too, Richard."

Richard smiled "You're a really lucky guy to have such a stunning wife, man."

"Sorry it took me so long, Richard." the woman obviously looked ticked, they figured she heard him hit on Faye.

"Spike & Faye, I'd like you to meet my beautiful wife, Victoria." she had long blond hair and was wearing a long red dress with diamonds connecting the straps in the front.

"It's nice to meet the both of you." Victoria smiled and shook Spike's hand.

"It's a pleasure, Victoria. Wow, Richard, your wife is beautiful." Spike flashed an almost slick smile.

"Spike, darling," Faye said, the tone of her voice made it obvious that she was irritated that he was talking about how pretty the young woman was. "Don't you think it's about time we find our table?"

"Yeah," he paused, squinting his eyes, looking into the dimly lit dinning room. "It's over there." he pointed to the four-top table in the far corner of the back.

"What a coincidence, that's our table too. We must be neighbors since they would seat us together." Richard said while running his fingers through Victoria's long hair.

"How wonderful, now we can get to know each other!" exclaimed Victoria giddily.

Faye rolled her eyes, mocking Victoria inside her head with a high-pitched ditsy voice ('And after we'll have a great big orgy, it'll be a lot of fun!')

"Oh my goodness, Faye, that is an exquisite ring you have." Victoria said leaning over the table to get a better look.

"Thank you," Spike immediately chimed in "it was my mother's." he turned and smiled at Faye, she assumed it was a 'You're not the only one around here who's good at lying, shrew.'

Faye exhaled deeply to keep herself from becoming irritated and blowing their cover. She took a cloth napkin from the table and placed it neatly in her lap.

"I'm sure your parents are very proud of you for finding a good woman, Spike. They're so rare these days."

"Well actually, they died when I was about fifteen, I inherited their money, estate, and business."

"Interesting, no wonder you seem so intelligent." Victoria softly patted her mouth with her napkin "And what about your family, Faye?"

Faye paused for a moment "My family is originally from Singapore. And-"

"Oh, so you came from old money. What's your family name?" She leaned onto the table.

Faye nodded and simply replied "Valentine."

"Oh, wow, I once heard that the family's first attempt to move to Mars ended up in tragedy, it's windows in the cockpit somehow shattered almost as soon as the space craft took off. Taking the life of their youngest daughter... Oh, what was her name?" Victoria paused for a moment and pondered "Why I think her name was the same as yours, Faye."

Faye nodded again this time with a small grin "She was my great-aunt. My great-uncle, her older brother, had only sons. He asked my father to name me after her."

"It must be such an honor to be named after her."

Faye shrugged a little "It's a little creepy actually."

They laughed awkwardly.

Faye yawned "Mmm, it's getting late. I'm going on ahead up stairs. Don't be too long, dear." she planted a soft, passionate kiss on his lips, leaving him nearly speechless.

"Hey, Spike," he turned his head to see her at the base of the semi-spiral staircase "I love you." She turned around with a smile on her face and began walking up the stairs.

Richard leaned close to Spike "How'd you get so lucky?"

Spike just say there with his chin on his hand, smiled and replied "I guess I just played my cards right."

Spike unlocked the door to his room and walked in "Faye?"

The only sign of her was a note left on the bed.

he sat down to read it;

Sh, they made peep hole in the wall between our rooms. They can be spying on us at any time. So don't take anything I do next the wrong way. Just remember, I'm just acting! To be honest, a little alcohol would really help me out a lot right now.

"Hmmm," he bit his bottom lip 'what's that supposed to mean?'

Faye opened the bathroom door, wearing nothing but a sheer purple lingerie. She walked up to him and pushed him back against the bed. Crawling on top of him, she brushed herself against his lap, he quickly became erect. She grinned and kissed him heatedly, whispering in his ear "Do you find me.. exciting, Spike?"

He softly nibbled at her neck and mumbled under his breath "You wish."

"Really? Let's see who, wants who more?"

"Fine by me." he kissed nibbled at the tender spot behind her ear.

She only closed her eyes for a second before she grinned seductively and asked "Is that the best you got?"

"What d'ya think about this?" he slowly moved his hand up her inner thigh. She let out a small gasped as her face turned a light shade of pink.

She sat up so quickly she ended up falling on the floor. And almost instinctively curled her legs up underneath herself.

Spike sat at "Look who won. Not to any surprise to me but-" he cut his sentence off when he looked down at her. She had tears in her eyes, looking as if she had just been forced into it.

"Faye, what's wrong?" he helped her off the floor and back onto the bed.

"I thought I could go through with it!" she managed to choke out, pausing for a moment to gather her words. "But I can't, I'm scared-"

Spike placed his hands on her arms in a comforting manner. "What? Why are you scared?"

She balled her hands up under her chin childishly "I'm a virgin."

Spike's eyes widened in utter disbelief "You can't be serious." was the only thing that came out of his mouth.

Faye shook her head "Why would I joke about something like that?" her voice became small.

"Okay, so you really are a gypsy, aren't you?" the tone of his voice was sarcastic.

"I'm serious about this, you jerk!"

Out of frustration, Spike stood up and kicked the bedside table as hard as he could. "What the fuck?! Thanks for ruining my night, Faye!"

"What, you think I was planning on freaking out?!"

He grabbed his hair as he became more angered. "Argh! If you need me I'll be in the bathroom!" he slammed the door behind him.

"Spike, Spike wait-please!" she pleaded running to the door. She knocked, begging him to come out all she could hear was "Go away!"

Approximately an hour later Spike opened the door "Listen, Faye, I'm sorry I-"

She was nowhere in sight. "Damn it, man. Now I'm an asshole. An asshole talking to himself." he said aloud.

'I'm so stupid, I shouldn't have agreed to help them...' Faye thought to herself as she continued to sob. 'And here I am bawling my eyes out and it's freezing out here.' she wrapped the white silk robe tighter around her body.

"Hey there, why you cryin', beautiful?" A tall, heavily built man emerged from the dark.

"None of your fucking business." Faye rudely scolded.

"I won't make you cry, unless you want me to." he snaked his fingers down her arm.

"Don't touch me, you creep!" she flinched away defensively.

"Calm down, babe, I just wanna play." he grabbed her left wrist.

"I told you not to touch me!" She swung her arm as hard as she possibly could, punching him in the gut.

The man leaned over in agony for less than a moment before seizing her other arm "I love a girl with a little fight in her. Let's see how long you can keep it up."

Faye screamed and struggled as much as she was able while the man tore up her robe. "Please stop, stop it!"

"Hey buddy, get your hands off my wife." a mellow voice said from behind him, as soon as the man turned his head towards the voice, he got kicked square in the face.

The man was stunned for about a minute before passing out.

"Spike!" she cried out and leaped into his arms.

"Sh, it's okay. Did he hurt you?" he rubbed her back, he suddenly realized that was a sort of dumb question.

Her only form of response was grabbing hold of him tighter. She was shivering, appearing as if she were on the verge of hyperventilating.

Faye frantically searched through his pockets and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Her hands were shaking as she brought one to her lips.

He removed his shirt and draped it around her shoulders "Let's go before tall, mean, & ugly wakes up. Okay?"

She nodded.

There was an awkward silence between them while walking along the ship's sidewalk.

"Nice acting back in our room, by the way." he scratched his head, he was unable to think of anything else to say.

Faye sniffled a little "Who's acting?"

Spike stopped walking "Then the whole virgin thing...?"

She also stopped, "I didn't make that up."

Spike crossed his arms "Nah-ah."

"Uh-huh." she put her hands on her hips.

"Liar, looking at you, anyone can tell that you're not a virgin."

"Look, Spike, just because I flirt to get my way and dress like this doesn't mean-" she paused and took a deep breath "Fine." she turned around and starting walking away from him.

"Come on now- I didn't mean it! " he quickly caught up with her.

"Leave me alone, Spike." she said with a melancholic expression.

He pulled her into his chest, holding her close "I told you to wait." he said in a gentle tone of voice, holding onto her tightly.

Faye wrapped her arms around him. His skin was so warm and inviting. She felt like she could just melt into him.

"I'm sorry, Faye. It was just a little hard to believe."

She buried her face into his chest "Shut. Up."

Spike just smiled, "Okay, let's go to bed."