Bebop Blues

Chapter 14: No Reply

She had tried the com channel for over an hour from the control console of the Mezzo.

Faye was ready to call intervention.

This wasn't the Mai she knew.

Spike was silent on the matter.

He was still absorbing memories.

Jet and Rose took to distracting Edward and Flora from the commotion.

Faye exhaled a ring of smoke. "So that's your brother..."

"I guess so." Spike took a long drag. He was on pack two, and it was pack two of the night.

"You and Mai..." she trailed off.

"I could say the same thing."

They wanted to fight, argue, scream, and yell; they wanted to insult each other, pull hair, throw punches, and even bite.

They wanted their normalcy back.

They needed it. It would soothe their nerves.

But they knew at the present moment, their attempts would be in vain from shock of the stories unraveling around them.

"A real class act, huh?"

"Or a jerk." Faye shoved the butt of her cigarette into the ashtray.

She opened pack three.

They were both glad Mai kept them in such high stock.

"Yeah."

"Must run in the family."

He glared. "You don't know me, Faye."

"Until four hours ago, you didn't know you."

Normalcy.

"Yeah? Well, I'm doing better than you."

"Ass."

"Shrew."

"Jerk."

"Enough." Mai's voice was strong.

She was standing in the doorway of the Bebop's living room, her eyes determined and her hands on her hips.

They stared at her: Faye with guilt, Spike with annoyance.

"We're headed to Callisto," Mai said matter-of-factly.

Spike sobered immediately, and Faye's eyes glazed as she recalled her last visit to the barren moon.

"Jet and Ed just caught wind of a huge bounty-head out there, Elizabeth Stanfield."

"That woman serial killer?" Faye asked, thankful to have Spike silent for the time being.

"Yeah. Likes killing couples and taking off with their money."

Now Spike was interested. This bounty sounded like a perfect chance to blow off some steam.

And get the dynamic back to a comfortable level.

"You and Faye are the muscle on this one; I'm running back-up, and Ed is keeping surveillance. Jet's gotta patch up the ships, so we'll have to make due this way "

"WHAT?" they yelled in unison.

That was starting to get old.

"Jet said it would be a good idea to get the team back up to speed." Mai half-grinned.

"What about-"

Mai interrupted Faye. "He knows where to find me; I just have to trust that he'll make sense of everything later."

Star-crossed lovers.

Spike gave a resolved "humph" and arose from the couch. He left wordlessly, tossing a hand in the air as a gesture of farewell.

"Lunkhead," Faye seethed under her breath.

"Something like that," Mai agreed as she sunk into the couch next to Faye. She seemed tired, more so than a 28-year old woman should be.

"So that was Roy."

"Yeah..." Mai paused a moment and then leaned over to drop her head to Faye's shoulder. She curled her knees to her chest, and hugged them.

Faye pulled an arm around her, gripping her waist lightly.

She was glad for this comfort.

Both of them were.

As Mai nodded off, Faye finished her last cigarette and did the same. They fell asleep comfortably on the old, yellow couch.

Mai deadened.

Faye dreamed.

Remembered, really.

She had been dealt a long evening, and her mind was still processing and calculating the day's events to make sense of the chaos.

"He was only fifteen when he wound up at my father's office."

"Spike?"

"Yeah. Dad used to talk about "his favorite son" when he would refer to him. He had so much tenacity, anger really, but dad learned how to help him channel it productively. The first two years he was in the Syndicate, he trained relentlessly, and dad even let him run side-by-side with the older members."

"I see."

"Vicious was quite a bit older than us. He would have been 34 this year, I believe. Father had him mentor Spike for a while." Mai inhaled deeply and let the smoke fill her lungs for longer than usual. "He's the reason Spike lost that eye... And his memories."

Faye took a long hit this time, floating higher each second.

"On his first major mission, he was to kill a rival Syndicate Red-Eye dealer. It went smoothly, but Vicious has always had a certain desire for staying top dog. He didn't like the favoritism Spike held. He paid a thug to overdose him with Red-Eye, get his nerves jacked to the point that he couldn't use them. Vicious disguised himself as a rival Syndicate member to corner Spike." Mai finished off her cigarette and looked to the ground. "It turns out that the batch was a wash, and the guy had shaky hands. The needle went through Spike's pupil, and the bad batch went right into the organ." She chuckled melancholically. "Spike killed him, bare-handed. Vicious dropped the incognito bit, helped Spike out of the place, and got him back to Mao, hoping that it was enough to either lose Mao's favoritism or lose his ability to work for the Syndicate." She looked up, her fingers intertwined under her chin. "It did neither. Father funded a new eye for his favorite son, impressed by his abilities, prowess, and work. With all that nerve damage, though, dad decided to take it a step further." She leaned back and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "Spike had a past he had been handling his entire time. He suffered from night terrors and bouts of insomnia. Father didn't want him to suffer from the loss of his parents and sister, and he felt that, if he locked those memories away, Spike could remember them later if the need ever arose. The phrase he "programmed" signified a bird flying home when it could no longer fly."

"A dead bird?"

"A ghost. A memory. A flicker of hope in a broken soul."

"The homeward dove flies on broken wings."

"So you heard that."

"Yea, but why force him to remember all that now?"

"Spike has no clue who I am. Since the day I found him on those church steps and nursed him back to health, I knew exactly who he was. Even though I had never met him face to face, he looked so much like Roy... And father talked about that mess of green hair endearingly. He really saw Spike as his son."

Faye went quiet, her eyes shut and her mouth taut. "That's how you knew he was alive. You saved him."

"Yeah."

Faye remained stoic.

Mai half sighed and half groaned. "I'm sorry, Faye. I shouldn't have kept it from you, but my situation was... complicated at the time."

And that's when Spike woke up.

Faye woke from her dream.

Someone was in the room with them.

She and Mai had shifted to a lying position, Mai cradled around Faye and Faye's arm around Mai's waist.

"You two should really get back to the Mezzo."

It was Jet. He was giving her a mixed look of embarrassment and curiosity.

"Why?" She whispered. She didn't want to wake Mai. She was happy that she was peacefully asleep.

"I'm sure a bed is more comfortable than this ragged thing."

"And it's also his ship, and he doesn't quite feel he can trust me completely yet," Mai concluded, her eyes still closed and her face still buried in the crook of Faye's neck.

"To be honest, I trust you. I don't trust your judgment."

Mai opened her eyes, smiled, kissed Faye's neck, and sat up. "Fair enough, old man. We should get to our bed anyway. You're right. This thing feels like a rock with fabric."

She stood from the couch and extended a hand to help Faye up. Jet shook his head as the two bid him good night (morning) and left hand-in-hand for bed.

"Our bed?"

"Huh?" Mai was dozing as they walked.

"It's not your bed?"

Mai smiled contentedly. "The bed I shared with Roy is in a different room. He and I had a different room entirely, actually."

Faye stopped. "What is this?" she finally asked.

Mai turned to face her. "I thought we decided on that answer already."

"But now, I don't know, it feels... Different. I mean, you know Roy's alive, and Spike's back, and-"

Mai kissed her. "I knew Roy was alive. I knew in my gut he was out there somewhere. If you're strong enough now that you don't need this, though, that I can understand." They had stopped at their door.

Faye was silent as Mai opened the door.

"It's not... Wrong?"

Mai faced her again. "What? Leaning on each other for support?"

"It's more than that."

Mai shrugged. "It is what it is."

Faye kissed her this time. "Let's just go to bed."

"Sure thing, doll."

Spike couldn't sleep. He'd been tossing and turning since he left the Bebop, and he heard the two women sidling into bed in the room beside him a long time after that.

It made his head spin.

He would have liked to ask Faye about it.

He thought he'd get an answer out of Mai, but he was too irritated with her to bother.

At least he knew how to push Faye's buttons.

All of them, especially the right ones.

He groaned.

He couldn't possibly be thinking that.

Then again, he'd been alive for months and the lack of sexual release was starting to wear on him.

His com rang.

Unknown.

Before he could decide on his next course of action, a voice sounded from the device.

"No reply. Hm. But tell me, what is it about blue?"

He picked up the com immediately. "There's something about blue."

"Well then, I suppose I have some answers for you."

"I'm listening."

"One stipulation of this."

"I don't make deals."

"Then no dice."

"Well, at least let me make you feel like I've considered the notion."

"You don't tell Mai."

Spike smirked. "Oh? Cold feet, brother?"

"Not at all, but I'll explain if you make that promise."

"And you can trust me why?"

"Because the homeward dove..."

"Flies with broken wings," Spike finished. "Deal. Speak."