7. Trapped in the Bathroom


May 18, 2072

It can get real quiet around here sometimes. Well actually, all the time. Ed doesn't sing anymore. Hell, I barely ever see the kid. Faye's pretty quiet too, and without Spike in his normal state of mind, the ship isn't full of their childish bickering. I miss that. I miss it all, I guess. Now ain't that weird? Most of the time I found myself yelling at Ed to stop doing this or stop breaking that. Then I'd have to tell Spike and Faye to take their sexual tension somewhere else cause I didn't want to hear it. Then I'd yell at Ein because he wouldn't eat his bean sprouts, even though they were good for him, and I was sure they'd all put me in an early grave. But now the noise is gone and this ship seems emptier than it's ever been.

I took a peak in my bonsai room yesterday. My babies have gone to shit. I just haven't been in the mood, lately, and they've suffered greatly. They're dying and tangled and the room will soon be uninhabitable if this keeps up. I always used those things to relieve stress. I'm more stressed then ever and yet I can't make myself go in there. Maybe I miss that fact that there's no distractions anymore. Even in my bonsai room, I'd still be interrupted at least once by each of them. But now, there's no more of that. It's quiet on the Bebop, now. I hate the quiet…I wonder if anyone ever knew that about me. Well, I guess they know now.


She wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. As a rage-filled Spike mercilessly rammed the door behind her, she quickly began to rethink her actions.

Faye had seen Spike go take a shower. With a towel wrapped just around his waist, Faye was disgusted with what she saw. His upper body, which she had once greatly appreciated with a secret eye, was nothing but skin tightly pulled over bones. He should have had muscle mass, but that wasn't the case anymore. His arms where unnervingly thin and his left arm was decorated with purplish marks. Injection marks. But not only that, it looked like his arm was infected. His whole inner elbow area was discolored and from the way he nursed that arm, Faye was sure that something was direly wrong with it.

As he closed the door and turned on the shower, something snapped in Faye. She wasn't sure what it was and she had no idea what she was doing, but she was doing something. She sprang up from the couch and ran to the hanger. There she spied a long, heavy silver chain and grabbed it in her trembling hands. Rummaging through a box of discarded tools, she located a padlock with the keys still lodged in it. Sighing at her luck, Faye ran back inside and stood in front of the bathroom door.

Fearing what the repercussion would be, but pushing that aside; Faye looped the chain around the bathroom's doorknob and then strung it through the metal circles on the opposite side of the wall. Pulling the two ends together in the middle, Faye opened the lock and clamped it closed, effectively holding the ends of the chain together. Faye pushed on the chain and found it taut and sturdy.

'If I can't watch him all the time, then I can at least know where he is all the time,' Faye hurriedly thought.

Anyone could figure that this plan would never work. It was ill-conceived on the fly and it was a fruitless plan anyway. Spike couldn't stay locked in a bathroom forever; it just wasn't plausible. But Faye wasn't prone to plausible thinking lately. No one really was.

Hearing the shower turn off, Faye's heart skipped several beats. When he realized he was trapped, he was going to be pissed. Suddenly Faye wondered how she was going to let him out. Or when for that matter. She wanted to leave him in there for at least ten days; that's how long it takes for heroin to fully leave the system, but she wasn't sure that was possible.

"What the hell?" Spike uttered, effectively breaking Faye out of her thoughts.

The door rattled lightly at first then more drastically. He began to bang on the door and shout out to anyone.

"I'm doing this for you own good, Spike!" Faye yelled through the door.

Upon hearing her voice Spike froze. She didn't really think she was going to keep him in that bathroom, did she? If so, then she was more stupid that he gave her credit for.

"I don't know what you think you are doing, Faye, but I suggest you open this door right now!"

Every word he said oozed with bitter rage and Faye knew that she couldn't open the door now. He was likely to kill her where she stood for a stunt like this. She listened to him beat on the door and curse for what seemed like hours. She was unable to fathom where he got the strength from to yell and attack so furiously for so long. Suddenly the banging and the screaming stopped. She strained for a moment to hear and then her ears picked up what she thought was crying. But that didn't make sense, though.

"Faye, please? Let me out. I need to get out of here," Spike almost pleaded with her.

Hearing his desperate tone, Faye's heart once again broke. By now she was surprised that the organ was still working to begin with. She slid down the door, slightly nauseated by the turn of events, and felt tears streaming down her cheeks as Spike continued to cry.

"Why should I let you out, Spike?"

"I need it, Faye; I really do. You don't know how this feels. I feel like shit."

"You mean you need the drug?"

"…yes," he whispered.

"Then I'm not letting you out," Faye firmly stated. She knew that's what he wanted anyway but to have him just come out and say it, hardened her heart to his pleas.

"Fine then! Fuck you, you selfish bitch!" Spike yelled, once again bagging on the door. "I hate you! I hate all of you! I hate this ship and this feeling and all of this. I can't believe you, you bitch! Just let me out now or I swear I'll really fuck you up when I get out of here!"

Faye covered her ears and tried her best to tune out his screams. His words where terrifying but she knew that his words were just from withdrawal. He was out again, Faye now knew how to tell. He would always get annoyingly antsy when he was out. And this just confirmed it. It had been at least five hours when he got in the shower; she was surprised he lasted that long. Now it was nearing seven hours. Yes, she had kept him in the bathroom for almost two hours and yet he kept on yelling.

She soon heard the hatch opening and remembered that Jet and Ed had gone out a while ago. Jet made a habit of getting Ed off the ship and away from Spike for a while. It was the only time the girl ever seemed truly happy anymore. Obviously startled by the screams, Faye looked up to see Jet hurrying towards her. Ed was no where in sight – Jet must have told her to go hide somewhere. Jet took one look at the scene in front of him and rationalized that Faye had lost her mind.


"What are you doing?" He asked bewildered, nearly shouting over Spike's hoarse screams.

"Honestly Jet? I have no idea."

"How long has he been in there?"

"Almost two hours."

"Faye!" Jet exclaimed, not able to understand her course of thinking.

"What!"

"Get up, we need to let him out."

"Why?"

Jet didn't respond, he just stared at her. Faye pulled herself up and stretched her cramping legs. Bowing her head in mock shame, she handed Jet the key and he undid the lock. Untangling the chain, Jet wrapped it all up and then pushed open the door of the bathroom.

As the two looked in, they gasped in shock at the Spike on the other side. He was a mess. His skin was flushed and his hair was all awry. He was jittering so badly he looked as if he were having a seizure. His hands and knuckles were raw from banging and scratching at the door and his body also had bloody scratch marks as well. Still seeing red, Spike purposefully marched out of the bathroom. He walked right up to Faye, grabbed her roughly by the neck and slammed her body back into the cold, steel wall. He delivered a sharp blow to her abdomen, followed by a quick jab upwards to catch her under her eye.

He moved so fast that Jet hadn't been able to stop his initial attack. Before Spike could hit her again, though; Jet had snapped into reality and pulled the enraged man off of her. Faye fell to the ground with a soft thud and Jet had to use everything had just to keep Spike from attacking her again.

"That stupid bitch!" He shouted, still furious.

"What the fuck are you doing, Spike?" Jet yelled back. "You can't just go around treating a woman like that!"

Jet forcibly carried a struggling Spike back to his room and tossed him in.

"I've put up with a lot of shit from you Spike, a whole lot, and to tell you the truth: I'm sick of it! If you want to fuck up your life then fine, but don't pull the rest of us down with you! And don't you dare treat anyone on my ship like that! As a matter of fact, pack your shit, Spike; I want you off of my ship within the hour! I've had enough and I want you out!"

Spike stared at Jet for a moment. Was he serious? Was he really going to kick him off the ship? He had threatened so many times, but this time Spike was sure that he meant it. And why? Just because he hit Faye? Well, maybe he shouldn't have been so rough, but still, that just didn't seem like a good enough reason to him. With anger still seeping through his veins, Spike suddenly didn't care anymore.

"Fine then! I'll be more than glad to get off of this heap of shit!" Was Spike's heated response. And with that he slammed the door.


Jet sighed and ran a hand over his balding scalp. What was his life coming to? Remembering Faye's limp form, Jet turned around and hurried back to her. He found her crumpled on the ground, body slightly shaking. He bent down and picked her up and headed for the common room. He laid her down on the couch and ran back to the bathroom; the scene of the crime. Grabbing the first aid kit, Jet once again hurried back to Faye.

When he got a good look at her under the light, he could already see the damage Spike inflicted. Her abdomen was burning red and her left cheek was already beginning to turn purple. Wetting a washcloth, Jet began to carefully clean off Spike blood and nurse her wounds.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Faye commented as she saw Jet's frown.

"I kicked him out, Faye," Jet said matter of factly in a gruff voice.

"You did what?" Faye asked, eyes wide.

Stopping abruptly, Jet looked up at her.

"What do you mean? Look at what he did to you! He was bad enough as it is and now he's hitting you? I will not allow that on my ship!"

"Jet, you can't! He needs us! He needs.."

"To get the hell off my ship," Jet finished. "If he needed us then he would have asked for us. Or at least not been such an ass about everything. I want him gone and the sooner the better."

Faye pushed him away and stood up, anger in her eyes.

"You can't do that, Jet, you just can't!"

"Why?"

"He needs us and we need him!"

"I don't need that lousy, good for nothing drug addict!"

"Yes you do! We all do!"

"Well, if you need him so damn much, then you can go with him too! I never wanted any of you on my ship in the first place! I always knew you'd all be trouble and you're proving me right! "I've never had anything good happen to me when I trust other." Isn't that one of your lessons, Faye?" Maybe I should have listened to it and gotten rid of you a long time ago!"

"You don't mean that, Jet," Faye said in a surprisingly calm and reassuring voice.

"The hell I don't. We can all just go our separate ways right now and never look back again for all I care! All these months and years with you hell raisers is more than I can take!"

"We can't do that, Jet, and you know it," Faye once again rationalized.

"And why the hell not?"

Faye sighed as she sat down again. It hurt to stand, now that she had been hit in the gut. Taking her cue, Jet sat down as well.

"You need us, Jet. Just like we need you. I don't think we've all been tossed on this ship for shits and giggles. We've been through so much already. Let's face it, old man; we belong together. I mean, who else is gonna take us in? We've already established the fact that we're all pretty fucked up so it suffices to say that we're only good for each other now. A sad fact, but I believe it's the truth."

Jet sighed. She was right. Faye had a habit of doing that sometimes. They really did need each other. They were too in tuned and too involved with each other to just break apart now. Spike still needed help and they still needed him. This unlikely family was just that; a family, and no matter how far a member sunk, it was their duty to help put them back on the right track. Humbled by the revelation, Jet stood up once more. He rubbed his balding spot and momentarily enjoyed his cool hand on his warm head. He then began to walk down the hall.

"Where are you going?" Faye innocently asked.

"I'm going to tell him he can stay. Besides, if I let him leave now, I'm sure I'll never get back all the money he owes me."

Faye reclined on the couch and let a rare smile grace her features. Things where far from better and 'normal' was never part of the Bebop vocabulary; but at least one positive thing had been established. They where a family. A hideous, mixed up, unlikely assortment of stragglers, but a family nonetheless. And if one went down, they would all go down. Kind of like a marriage, in sickness and in health, this little Bebop family was conjoined at the hip.


things kinda got intense this time around. i really didn't like the thought of spike hitting faye, but i think he's just desperate enough to do such a thing. and one of the main themes of my fic really came into focus in this chapter. did you get it? it's big in the last part. well, since this is another long chapter, just one postagain. so until next time, thanks for stoppin' by!

-phoenix