Author notes: Are you guys still waiting for me to get off my ass and start finishing this story? Well, you're in luck. I'm in the right mood. Anyway, I'm changing this chapter because, yes, some of you out there are right, Spike does sound like stupid shmuck here. Shmuck I can handle, but stupid? So, I changed the story…thanks for waiting.

She's the one who saw my words

Broken, torn at the seams

And broken words were all she heard

Now she's walking away from me

Some never meant

And some meant well

The difference between us is so

Hard to tell

Broken Words by Finger Eleven

Spike observed Faye's stance and found it solid, familiar, and strong. He vaguely heard Jet say something but it both of them were focus mostly on each other.

Faye's green eyes were blank of all emotion yet intense. She was in her fighting mode, he'd seen her in a gun fight, or handle a ship and know that he could trust her to watch his back when things comes to shove. But he rarely had the opportunity to watch her in hand to hand combat. They've spar a couple of times but mostly they were just jerking around, filling time till lunch time.

Deep in thought, he almost missed the quick glint of something that passed inches from his ear with a silent hiss. He blinked then looked behind him, watched as Nathaniel and Tony ducked for cover.

Jet grinned at the look on their faces.

Spike turned and looked back at Faye with a look that questioned Faye's sanity. Faye was standing with her left hand on her waist, hips cocked to the right. She was looking at her nails.

"You weren't paying attention."

"So like a woman to cheat with concealed weapons." He snarled at her.

"Weak dogs bark the loudest, Spike."

Faye didn't bother with a stance when Spike glided the distance that separated the both of them and when his hands reached for the front of her shirt, she held on and twisted. His hands slid against hers and twisted back, they passed each other in one graceful move. They turned and faced each other, both of their faces mirrored surprise and annoyance.

"Guess old dogs can learn new tricks." Faye commented.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing."

Faye's feet shot to his head even before he finished the sentence, he caught her feet and pushed forward, she threw her hands backwards and did a back flip. When she landed, she dropped low and swiped his legs, he jumped already guessing her next move but wobbled to sidestep her when she already pulled herself up and got in front of him in one move. When he avoided her sharp right elbow to his chin, she turned and followed his movement to nail her left elbow to his neck. Spike took one step forward, to disrupt her momentum, grasped her wrist, hooked her ankle, totally screwing with her balance. He pulled at her left wrist that made her fall on her back to the floor. He looked down at her and smirked.

"That was a good move. I'm proud of you, Faye."

Faye twisted Spike's hand that was holding onto her wrist that made him winced in pain, he dropped to his knees beside her to reduce the pressure of her hands as she lifted herself up.

"Imagine what that means to me." She pulled at his hands that made him bend low at the waist to minimized the pressure.

Faye jolted when Jet entered her line of sight and Spike used it to kick her shinbone and freed his hands. Faye cursed, rubbed her shin and aimed a fierce look to Jet who shrugged but she felt better when she saw Spike was also rubbing his arm, moving it this way and that, checking for damages.

"Christ, Faye. What were you trying to do? Break my arm?"

"For starters."

They circled each other.

"Look, I was young, gullible, stupid. He was an assignment." Guilt made him glib.

"An assignment, you make it sound like an excuse. Besides, stupid I can believe. Gullible? I don't think so."

"I killed him before I met you. That counts for something, right?"

"You killed him without even knowing his name."

"What difference does it make? Would it be better if I did?"

"Yes. I would've forgiven you if it was personal, but it wasn't. It was an assignment." She said the last word like a curse.

"Come on, Faye. Be reasonable. How would I know he meant something to you? I didn't even knew you existed back then. Surely that omitted any blame on my part." Spike was very close to whining.

Faye finally stopped and raised her eyes slowly, her body still and silent. Her eyes were no longer blank but filled with everything she had felt since his reappearance in her life.

"Blame." She repeated the word like it was said in a foreign tongue. "This is not about deciding who to blame, Spike. This is about you, showing up in my life with all your soldiers and your new found power like you have a right without even the decency to pretend that I have any say in it. Then you proceeded to pick on every semblance of my life, marking everything with your grubby little hands. Judging how I live my life, even caging me on this planet, belittling all of my skills, and my hard earned freedom all in the name of my safety. And then you stand here in your big office, telling me that you've murdered the first person that ever treated me like a real person, the closest thing I ever had to a family then even had the gall to deprive me of a chance to take it all in and grieve? Is there no end to your attempts to fuck up my life?"

"Faye." Jet stopped when her eyes shifted to his. There was no anger this time, only hurt and a glassy sheen of tears.

"I just want you safe." Spike's voice was quiet as he lowered his guard. She tossed her head in one arrogant move and looked even more beautiful doing it.

"Safe? I was safe when I was on Bebop years ago, I was safe even when I was traipsing along the universe, alone. Maybe this hasn't gone through that thick skull of yours. But I can take care of myself. I'm better off alone. Always have and always will."

Spike sat on the corner of his desk, every muscle on his body relaxed. Poised and comfortable, he lit up a cigarette as though there wasn't a pissed off woman glaring at him like she wanted to burn him till all that was left of him was ashes, with his own lighter no less. "I know you can take care of yourself, Faye. It's one of the things that I like about you." He blew a puff smoke and watched the surprise came and went in her eyes. "You've never been the damsel in distress type, though trouble always seemed to follow you around."

Faye shrugged, nothing takes the wind from your sails like being ignored. Facing his disinterest and calm demeanor, her anger felt superfluous. "It's a talent."

Spike's lips quirked upwards. "Now since I've fought you, I'm assured that you can take on as many people as you want."

Confusion changed into speculation then into suspicion. It glinted in the depths of her eyes. "I sense a 'but' in this conversation."

"Sit down, Faye."

Even as he walked around his desk to sit on his chair, he saw her shifted her magnificent eyes to Jet who, in return lifted his shoulders. "Just tell me the problem."

"If it was only the matter of you taking care of yourself, I would've let you out of here even before you asked. But it's not."

Faye's smooth brow, wrinkled. "What do you mean?"

"You're right."

This time, her brows lifted. "Not that I want to argue, but what am I right about?"

"That it was better if you were left alone."

Faye blinked. "Well."

Perversely, she was suddenly peeved that Spike agreed with her and that made her ran out of ammo. When their eyes met, Faye knew that Spike was thinking something along the same line of her thoughts, and to have him read her so well grated on her nerves. "Why?"

A finger tapped lightly on his cigarette, getting rid of the ashes, "I'm surprised that you haven't connected the dots, Faye. At the very least it would give you another excuse to kick my ass. And I won't even blame you for it."

Since that appealed to her, she tried to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Faye lifted his eyebrows to Jet who intentionally shifted his eyes away from her, so she folded her arms and tapped her foot loudly, indicating that she was waiting.

"The tape was from the Alligierri's, they sent it to you. Maybe to tell you that they know that you knew him, maybe to tell you that they also knew him, that the both of you have something in common. Maybe they wanted to know what you were going to do with the chip."

When Faye started to tap her foot again, Spike continued. "They wanted to know whether I would keep it to myself or take it to you. Well, that's moot now, isn't it?"

Spike lifted his eyes, his rugged face filmed by smoke. Hard, rough and serious. "The chip was a test."

"I told you. I don't like being used. If I wanted to kill you, I'll do it because I want to, not because some chick wants me, too."

Spike nodded. "I'm still alive and they would ask why."

"Will you stop talking in riddles and just tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Even as the question hung in the air, Spike saw the realization dawned in her face.

"They will probably think that you were in on it. That we already knew each other back then and you were in on the plan. That's why you were there, that's why we worked with each other in Bebop, that's why I searched for you. That's why you are here now."

Faye slipped down onto her chair then closed her eyes, it all seemed so clear to her now.

"They're going to go after you now."

Faye took a deep breath and covered her eyes with a tapered hand. "Great. Just great. Just another way for you to fuck up my life. Huh, Spike?"

Spike's smile was wry and self mocking, yet congratulatory. "Told you it would give you an excuse to be pissed at me."

At The Hotel

Faye hummed along to the mournful voice that slipped out of the radio, somehow the words wound through her heart and stayed.

The clink of ice against crystal disturbed Faye's reverie. She couldn't sleep and there was nothing that interested her on the screen. Even food didn't manage to tempt any enthusiasm from her.

So as a last result, she turned to alcohol. The whiskey burned through her throat and snuggled warmly in her stomach like it always does and somehow, the fact that some aspect of her life is still predictable, gave her comfort.

Her life had seldom been predictable or comfortable but lately it has veered out of control even more than usual. It only happened twice before and both times it was because of…

Faye smacked her lips and reached for the almost empty decanter, the rapidly cooling water sloshed towards the edge of the bathtub as she groped for the bottle with half blind eyes.

Goosebumps trailed over her skin and she turned the old fashion tap with her right foot, releasing more hot water into the tub to replace the tepid water. When the water turned hot, scalding even, she turned it off and sighed as the heat stung her reddening skin.

She touched the cool whiskey glass to her damp forehead, admiring the way candle light shifted in and out of the crystal and the amber liquid inside it.

For the hundredth time that night, Faye lifted a silent toast for a man that she once loved with all her heart and still did, with all of what's left of it.

When her private detail turned on the surveillance, all they can hear was silence in its rarest of forms.

Loud, deafening silence, filled with unsaid words and endless tears.

Next on At The Point:

"What do you mean she's gone? How the fuck did she got out of the hotel without you knowing?" Spike lashed out.

Shin stepped forward. "She was seen in the corner of the hotel grounds getting in an Aligierri marked limo."

Jet ran his fingers on his balding head. "What the fuck is she trying to do? Suicide?"

Spike wrinkling brow cleared and chuckled. The sound was bitter and sharp. "I should've known. It's just like her to do this. I should've known."

"What do you mean?"

Spike gritted his teeth. "She's making a deal."