~*Sorry about the long wait. But here it is, chapter five. Thank you so much for your title suggestions. But I've decided to title it once I have an idea of where the story is going, because at the moment I don't. Onto situation Edward. I've decided to reach a compromise with all you people that are right. Edward Wong Pepelu Tivirusky IV is indeed 13, but I am as well so I would like to make her a little younger than me because it is a disturbing thought that someone my age would be like her. (Don't get me wrong, all you crazed Ed fans out there. I love our dear little hacker, but she can be quite juvanille.) So, I am making her 10. 10 is a compromise. Right? Also, I've realized that this is becoming a story about Faye. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. I just have problems getting into the mind of the male. So in this chapter I will try to shift the focus back to Spike, but don't hold your breath. And, oh shit, what else was I gonna say...oh yeah. Thanks again for all your reviews and suggestions and stuff like that, and stop being so goddamned polite people who've got a problem with my fic. I love flames.*~

"FAYE! Are you alright?" Jet and Ed had run to the bathroom when they heard her screams. Jet averted his eyes as he caught a glimpse of a nude woman on the bathroom floor clutching her scalded foot. The bathtub was steaming with ridiculously hot water.

"OW! OW! MY FOOT! OW!" She pressed the blistered flesh against the cold of the tile, crying from the unbearable pain. Ed draped a towel over her nakedness while Jet had already returned from the sleeping quarters and tossed her usual clothing at her. Ed stayed with the despairing Faye while Jet called an ambulance.

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"She has third degree burns all over her left foot. She'll be in for at least a week."
Jet scratched the back of his head. "Jesus, Faye. How much hot water did you think you'd need?"
"Your hospital bills of the two payments of both patients combined will be seven hundred thousand wulong."
Jet's eyes grew wide for a moment until they met with Faye's. He smiled.
"OW! MY FOOT!" That last sentence somehow had a physical reaction on her. Faye was on her back in a very uncomfortable stretcher with a very painful burn and very unsettling news. It would come out of her share. All of it.
"Oh, hush, Faye. You'll be fine after the amputation."
"WHAT? IT'S FINE! IT'S FINE!" She thrashed around, not caring when the nerves in her foot screamed at her to stop all movement.
"Ma'am, he was joking. There will be no amputation." Silence in the white sheets. The red haired nurse shot Jet a milk curdling look. "You'll be located on the second floor quarters. Now do you have any sort of medical history that we should know about?"
"No." Short, simple, and completely untrue. She crossed her arms and looked to the side.
"Faye Faye was in a state of cryogenical freeze for fifty years." Ed proceeded to then bounce in circles around Jet once certain that ferocious wolf was in good hands.
"Okay then." She scribbled some quick notes that Jet was unable to read. Faye blew away a stray piece of hair from her face and looked incredibly annoyed. Ed was positively beaming.
"Faye person will be okay! Faye Faye will be okay! Faye Faye will be okay! Faye Faye will be okay! Faye Faye..." Ed was amazed by the rhyme she had created. She continued her circles, shouting her new song. She was ignored by all except for an old man in a walker nearby.
The nurse looked up from the curious little girl the rather intimidating man. "Is that all? Can I take her now?"
"By all means." He smiled at Faye who snarled back. Ed abruptly stopped.
"Hold on, Edward needs clearing of the info!" She stood up straight, almost mimicking a drill Sargent. "You miss nurse lady taking Faye Faye to second floor?"
The young woman took a second to translate Ed's dialect into normal human talk. "Yes, I am."
"PUT HER ON THE FIFTH FLOOR!!!!!" She screamed in her face, causing anyone and everyone present in the lobby to cup surprised hands over their ears.
"Ed, what's gotten into you?" Jet looked from the fuming little girl to the confused nurse to startled woman on the stretcher and put two and two together or three and three together or whatever it was. "Oh. I get it. Is it possible for you accommodate her on the fifth floor?"
Still shaken from the shock of being yelled at by a ten year old, she picked up a little walkie talkie that was clipped to the white sash around her uniform. "Let me just check with my boss.

"Hello?" Blip.
Crackling noises coming from the brownish-gray device. "This is Dr. Baquis."
"About the new patient, Faye Valentine, she has requested accommodations on the fifth floor." Blip.
Sound coming through again. "Faye Valentine? Well, I suppose that's fine. Is there a vacancy?"
"Yes, sir." Blip.
"Very good, very good. I'll be seeing you in a while." Click.

Faye's eyes had grown wide during the conversation. How had that doctor survived the explosion? His incredibly superior voice always came back to haunt her. It refused to go away. How many times would she hear "Three hundred million wulong" in her head? Overwhelmed by the pain and misery, she sank back into the cot and put a frustrated hand over her face.
"Be seeing you, Faye. Bye bye!" Jet sadistically waved at her, enjoying her pain. Ed sincerely smiled her off.

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The pain was starting to return after only two hours. This "milder pain killer" was not very effective. His knee, where Vicious' sword had practically sliced through was throbbing, while the rest of him felt numb. He looked at the dots in the ceiling, making patterns of cutesy little animals until he heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway approaching his room and the turning door knob. Kimari entered with his tray.

"The other nurse was busy so I'm bringing your tray today." She made her way over to the bed.
Spike looked down at her, visions of ponies and bunny rabbits still dancing in his head. "I'm not hooked on the morphine."
She shot him a doubtful look and placed the tray across his lap. "Good. We'd like to keep it that way, if you don't mind." She then proceeded to take his blood pressure.
"But I do mind. This shit sucks."
She ceased her squeezing for a moment. "I'm only supposed to administer the new drug once every six hours, Mr. Spiegel. Once you become accustomed to it will bring it down to four." She picked up where she had left off and wrote down some numbers.
"One. My name is Spike. Two. I'M NOT GONNA SIT HER FOR FOUR FUCKING HOURS LIKE THIS!"
She peeled the velcro apart and draped the device over her arm, completely ignoring him. "Eat your lunch, Mr. Spiegel."
"Spike, God Dammit."
"And get some rest." She left the room.
Spike scooped the entire plate into his mouth and nicely placed the tray on the little table by his bed. He focused on his little toe and how it didn't hurt as the pain began returning to random parts of his body. The animals on the ceiling began to fade as sleep over took him into hazy faces...

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"How is he?" A blurry man with silver-blue bent over him. The sound of his voice intruded on his silence and almost annoyed him.
Another figure, drying her hands on a dishtowel, walked over and joined him. "Better. The stomach wound's finally closing up." She peered on the other side. "He should be coming to soon."
The man got up and started on an angry tirade. "God Damn those Scorpions." He threw a pile of books clear across the room. "Who the fuck do they think they are?"
"Vicious, stop. That never helps anything."
Spike blinked and caught the corner of her eye. She gasped; it had been the first sign of movement in three days.
"Spike!" she softly exclaimed, tears of joy swelling in her eyes.
He grunted as he attempted to move. Vicious ran over.
"Sit down, Spike. You need to heal."
Their lines became less blurred and he could make out the faces of his best friends. Julia's ecstatic smile and Vicious' concerned countenance loomed over him, seeming larger than he remembered. He was about to take a stab at speech when his stomach rumbled and Julia frantically scrambled to the kitchen of their small but cozy apartment. Vicious smiled after her.

"Hey."
Spike found that one could get a whole day's work out from trying to speak. "Hey." The two men heard the click of the gas stove being ignited.
"How you holding up?"
He coughed, his stomach sore from the hole in it. "Not so good, I'm afraid."
Vicious looked up for a second and called to the woman in the kitchen. "Julia! Can we get some Advil?"
The voice was faintly heard through the walls and opened doors. "In a second." The clattering of pots and pans and the running of the tap signified her haste.
Spike summoned up all his strength to make a stupid joke. "Hey Vicious, I think you better go help her." The two men shared a laugh.
"Oh, shut up, Spike. I'm a perfectly competent cook." More banging seemd to contradict herself.
Feeling enough power to yell he called "It's not you, baby. I was just looking forward to seeing Vicious in an apron." All three shared in their laughter. A few seconds later, Julia walked in with an oval pill and a glass of water. Spike struggled to accept the pill in his hand, possibly the only part in his body not wrapped in white bandage. Julia supported his head as he popped the tablet into his mouth and took a gulp of water. She gently placed it back on the pillow. Smiling at his recovery, she made her way back to the kitchen and put the dry pasta into a pot of boiling water. Spike turned his attention back to Vicious.

"Lin caught the guy who did this to you."
"He's a Scorpion captain," Julia added from across the apartment. The banging of metal on metal told them she was finished with her sentence.
Vicious continued. "He's keeping him alive until you give him permission to send him off to the underworld. Do you wanna wait to do the honors?"
Spike caughed. "Let him do what he wants with him. Tell him to be quick about it; no cruel and unusual punishment."
"Alright then." They sat in silence for a while. Julia walked in with three steaming plates. Spike hungrily dug in. Vicious and Julia looked on with a mixture of curiosity, amazement and disgust. He felt himself being stared at and looked up.
"Swallow," Julia reminded him. He gulped down the stringy goodness and took another sip of water. Vicious curled his spaghetti around fork several times before raising it to his mouth. Julia's plate lay forgotton on the bed. Spike put his down and let out a rather unbecoming belch. He turned to Julia.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi, Spike."
He took another swallow of water and motioned to her plate. "You gonna eat that?"
She looked in the general direction of his nod before she understood his question. "Go right ahead."
She watched affectionately as he scarfed down his second dinner.

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Spike's bittersweet memory temporarily lifted the pain as he woke up from his hazy dream. Sighing, wishing it was polluted tap water from a glass, he took a sip from the cranberry juice box beside his bed.