Turning Blues to Black
by Now With More Fiber

Chapter 6: Washing of the Water

*****

Faye woke to the sound of creaking metal, thrumming engines, and clattering glass. The empty whiskey bottle hopped across the low table, accompanied by two dirty glasses.
Her first thought was: Shit! An asteroid field? Pirates?
Her second was: No, landing on Earth.
Which was worse, she couldn't say.
Steadying herself against the arm of the couch, she rose to stand. The vibration of the ship did nothing to help her aching skull. Edging gradually through the ship, she made her way step by step to the bridge, where Jet sat at the controls.
Through the bank of large windows in front of him, all she could see was a throbbing orange glow, steadily growing dimmer. He hadn't heard her approach.
"Jet," she said , her voice faint against the roar of the engines and her own hangover.
He spared a brief glance over his shoulder. "I didn't know you'd gotten up," he mumbled, turning back to the panel before him. "You might want to brace yourself; this is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride."
"I hadn't noticed," Faye retorted, her fingers clenched around the back of a chair. The ship roared and rumbled, and she had to shout, "Just where are you taking us, anyway?!"
Before Jet could answer, the hull of the Bebop pierced a layer of clouds, parting them in a rush.

And there, spread out wide in the setting sun, like a banquet table beneath the descending ship, was the Mississippi Delta.

*****

River, show me how to float, I feel like I'm sinking down
Thought that I could get along, but here in this water my feet won't touch the ground
I need something to turn myself around

*****

The sun had already slipped past the horizon by the time the Bebop made its slightly awkward water landing. Engines hummed softly now as the ship pressed upriver at a glacial pace.
"I never thought it would be this big," Jet marveled, standing hesitantly up from the control panel after keying in a final command. "I always kind of pictured... I don't know, a shaded, narrow little thing. Shows what I know, huh."
Faye didn't answer.

Soft purple dusk-light poured in through the windows like smoke, giving the bridge an eerie, haunted look with its glowing control displays. The light reflected dimly off Jet's metallic left arm, the plate covering his cheekbone, and the liquid blue of his eyes.
He seems so ... Faye couldn't place any words in her mind. Is it possible for someone grown that tough to still feel wonder? The question stirred uneasily in her mind.

"Are you going to come out?" he asked as he passed, his shoulders stooping in time with his crutch step.
"I... In a minute," Faye answered.
Jet noticed that she refused to meet his eyes. Is she angry with me or something for bringing us to Earth? He sighed. Come on, old man, you know that's not it.

*****

River deep, can you lift up and carry me
Oh, roll on though the heartland 'til the sun has left the sky
River, river, carry me high 'til the washing of the water makes it all alright
Let your waters reach me like she reached me tonight

*****THE PREVIOUS NIGHT*****

After what seemed an eternity, Faye became very quiet, her head heavy on his chest. The dampness from her tears penetrated his shirt, prickling against his skin.
He knew she wasn't asleep - he could feel the rhythm of her breath; he could feel her eyelashes brush against his wet shirt as she blinked away the remnants of her tears.
"Faye..." he began, "I'm only going to ask this once. But I want an answer."
She spoke no words in response, but pulled away from his arms and sat up again on the couch.

"Did you love him?"

There was a long and uncomfortable silence.
She sniffled and dabbed at her eyes, her face still hidden by the screen of deep indigo hair.

"Faye."
She cringed. "Hang on. .... I... I'm trying to think of a way to describe it... that doesn't sound incestuous."
Confusion, grief, relief, sadness, and envy washed over Jet, melding together in a bittersweet pang that left him with no option but to laugh softly.
Faye's eyes flashed fire. "It's NOT FUNNY!" She wiped at her face with the back of her hand, and coughed. "I... he... I was lonely, and he was handsome, and something happened once, but it didn't happen after that, and that was the end. Okay?"
The sound of her ragged breath stilled. Her hair hung straight and motionless.
Flatly, emotionlessly, she whispered: "You knew about it. All this time, you knew."
Jet swallowed. "I--"
"I don't suppose it makes any difference now. No point in being mad..."
"He didn't tell me about it, if that's what you're thinking."

Faye sighed. "You must have a strange idea of what love is, Jet."
His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
"If you think Spike and I... what I mean is..." She dabbed at her eyes again. "I've always kind of thought that love was something like puzzle pieces coming together - like people are different pieces in a huge puzzle... No two pieces fit perfectly, but you get a workable match sometimes.
"Me and Spike... I think we were pieces with the same shape. We could recognize each other, but there was no way to really fit together. We were too ... similar, I guess. Or too alike in some ways, and too different in others."
Jet leaned back against the arm of the couch, and mused: "...or maybe he was just a stray piece from another puzzle entirely."

*****

Letting go, it's so hard
The way it's hurting now to get this love untied
So tough to stay with this thing
'Cause if I follow through I face what I denied
I get those hooks out of me, and I take out the hooks that I sunk deep in your side
Kill that fear of emptiness, the loneliness I hide

*****BACK ON EARTH*****

A yellow swath of light fell across the outer landing deck of the Bebop as the outer door opened behind Jet. His mind followed the soft, slow tap of Faye's footsteps as she crossed the deck to stand at the side, watching moss-laden oaks drift past in the light evening fog.
Unprompted, he spoke.
"You know... I've never seen a real river before. I grew up among the seas and islands on Ganymede... there were so-called 'rivers' on Mars, but those were just thawed ice floes or man-made irrigation canals."
Faye didn't answer.
"When I was a boy, I read some of Mark Twain's books... Ever since then, I had dreams about floating down a wide river, like Huck and Jim did." He stood, brushing nonexistent dust from the pants legs of his jumpsuit. "Well, this is no raft, and Earth is nothing like in the old books, but... it's about the same, isn't it. Two misfits, drifting down the Mississippi River..."
He looked to his left, and saw Faye gazing at him curiously in the dim blue light.
"You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?" he asked, a smile playing at the edge of his mouth.
"Not a clue."

He walked over to the edge of the deck to share her view.

*****

River, oh river, river running deep
Bring me something that will let me get to sleep
In the washing of the water will you take it all away?
Bring me something to take this pain away...

*****

The two misfit cowboys stood on the left edge of the Bebop's landing deck, watching the land go by lazily in the humid night. Here and there along the shore, the river's muddy water swirled in pools recently left by meteors. Some felled trees lay across the riverbank like ash-colored bones, but more stretched their gnarled arms towards the water, draped in Spanish moss as thick and curly as an old man's beard.
When Jet had first stepped outside, the world had seemed completely silent. But now, the night was a soft cacophony of ambient sounds - frogs and insects croaking and creaking along the riverbanks, the groans of ancient trees in the soft wind, the water lapping against the ship's prow, here and there an unidentified splash.

"He would have liked this," Jet said softly, his rich, warm voice hanging in the thick night air like honey.
Faye smiled, gazing down into the water along the side of the ship.

"You know, it's funny..." she began, "I lived on Earth for so long, and there's so much about it I never knew. So many things I never saw. It feels like... like someone I've known for ages is just now showing me this entirely different side of themselves... all this beauty that I never knew was there before. You know what I mean?"

One arm. His right arm, his flesh-and-blood-and-bone arm. He slid it in between Faye's own right arm and her waist. "I think so."

The back of her head, now resting against his collarbone. The soft tickle of her hair against his neck and chest. "Or maybe I'm just crazy to talk like that."

Smooth, cool metal against her left side. His mechanical hand met his human hand, and they linked together as if reaching a compromise between hardness and vulnerability, resting against Faye's skin. "No, I understand perfectly." She rested her hand atop the cool bronze surface of his left forearm.

He began by placing the first kiss just behind her jaw, at the top of her neck. Faye closed her eyes and listened closely to the mingling of Jet's soft breath against her skin, and the whispers of the wide and mighty river.

THE END


* This is my last CB fanfic. I hope you've enjoyed my stories. ::bow::