Hello. I am back. I don't own Cowboy Bebop or the song Devorzhum. Thank you.

Jack hummed to himself as he worked underneath his car. After Spike had decided to take a little ride in it last week, Jack was worried that it would never be the same again.

"What the hell did he do? Run over a couple buildings? Christ!" Jack thinks to himself as he inspects the bottom of the car. "The brakes are totally shot. Looks like I'll have to replace them." He groans as he pushes himself out from underneath the car, wiping perspiration from his forehead. As he stands up his stomach growls. "Guess I could do with some food," he says outloud.

He walks into the kitchen and opens a cupboard. He pulls out a box of cereal, a bowl and a spoon. He goes to the refridgerator and looks for some milk. He doesn't see any. "Hmmm...I guess we're out."

He goes back to the table and pours the cereal into the bowl. Or at least he tries to. He shakes the box over the bowl but nothing seems to be coming out. "Are we out of cereal too?" He goes back to the refrigerator and notices that most of the containers and cartons inside are empty or nearly so. "What's going on? I just went to the grocery store a couple of days ago! We can't be out of everything already!" He groans as his stomach growls again. "Well, I guess we'll just have to go get some more." He looks up as Spike walks into the room and goes to the fridge. Jack stops him saying, "Spike, did you eat all the food?" Spike opens the fridge, then closes it, shrugging. Jack snorts in annoyance. "You know Spike, you're more trouble than you're worth."

Session 2: Devorzhum

Jack grumbled as he crossed the street, Spike in tow. The kid seemed to have an attention span of approximately 2.6 seconds. Everytime Jack stopped to look at something or wait for a light, when he looked up Spike would be nowhere in sight and he would have to spend five minutes hunting him down. He'd usually find the kid in some store or another, or pissing in an alleyway, or hissing at some cat. It was getting fucking ridiculous. Jack was seriously considering bringing along handcuffs the next time they went out and cuffing Spike's hand to Jack's own hand.

After a half hour walk, one that usually only took about five minutes, they finally reached market street. Jack grabbed Spike's hand, and made a resolve not to let go until they got back home. For the fifteenth time since that morning, Jack asked himself why he didn't just let Spike get lost. The kid obviously knew how to take care of himself, Jack guessed that he had been living on the streets for at least a year. But...that was one of the reasons why Jack wanted to keep the kid with him. No kid should have to live alone on the streets at Spike's age. It was a shame there were so many of them. But, if Jack could save just one, just one soul from a lifetime of eternal theft and vagrancy, then he should do that.

However, in the back of his mind, Jack knew the real reason he kept Spike around was because he was lonely and because he had no family of his own. And quite frankly, he was getting attached to the little booger.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Jack looked down as Spike pulled on his shirt. "What?" Jack asked. Spike grinned and showed Jack an injured bird that he had picked up somewhere along the way.

"Where'd you get that?" Jack inquired as he inspected the bird's wing. Spike shrugged and pointed at the sidewalk. Jack surmised that the bird had probably been stepped on by someone, and couldn't move off the busy sidewalk until Spike picked it up. He had probably saved the bird's life. "Well, I guess we can take it home. But you're taking care of it." Jack said. Spike shrugged and gently put the bird in his pocket.

___________________________________________________________

Jack was paying for some apples when he heard the woman screaming. "Get back here you little runt!"

"Hmm...I pity the poor kid who gets on Annie's bad side." Jack thought to himself as he watched Anastasia Tachsimova round the corner, waving her spatula. He smiled as he took his bag of apples from the checkout lady and put his wallet back in his pocket. "Hey, Spike! It's time to go home!" he called. When he didn't immediately see the youngster, he checked the aisles of the store, where he had last seen Spike playing with his bird. When he didn't see him, Jack started cursing again under his breath, earning some disapproving glares from an old lady who was doing her shopping. Then it clicked.

"Oh shit."

Jack started running off in the direction he had seen Annie go. He rounded the corner and ran right smack into Spike. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" Jack yelled at him. He picked Spike up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started walking in the direction of Annie's store. "I can't believe you!" He yelled. "We are going back to Annie's store to apologize! I can't believe this!"

When they reached the store Annie hadn't returned yet. "We are going to wait right here until she gets back so you can apologize." Jack told Spike. Spike just shrugged and took his bird out of his pocket. When Annie returned, he didn't even look up.

Annie walked into her store and saw Jack standing there. "I'm sorry, we're closed... Oh! It's you, Jack! I didn't recognize you." She said when she saw Jack. Then she looked down and saw Spike. "You!" She screamed in fury and surprise. "How dare you come back here after stealing from me!"

"He's here to return it."

Annie looked up at Jack. "Oh. Is he yours?" She asked, placated knowing that they boy was with Jack.

"Well, no. He just appeared in my backyard one day. Stein had chased him up a tree."

"Oh. So he's a runaway?"

"I guess. He doesn't talk."

"Oh."

Jack holds out his hand to Spike. Spike reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lighter, a pack of cigarettes, a glass ornament, and 12 packs of gum. Jack looks at it all in astonishment. "What do you need this stuff for?" Spike shrugs and begins wandering around. Jack shrugs and hands the junk back over to Annie.

"Well, I guess we'll be going. I'll see ya later, Annie. Say hi to Mao for me." She nods and they leave.

Back at the house. Jack was sitting backwards in a chair watching Spike. Spike was watching him back with an intense look on his face. "Spike. Do you do this kinda thing often? Stealing, I mean." Spike shrugs again and reaches into his shirt. He starts pulling out all sorts of things ranging from hairbrushes to bandaids, sandwiches, keys, a wallet here and there, someone's passport, cocaine, bubblegum balls, a walkie talkie, celery, carrots, candy, etc. Jack couldn't believe his eyes. How could the kid have gotten ahold of all this stuff? How could he be such a good pickpocket? What the hell was he going to do with a cleptomaniac living in the house! Jack looked back over at Spike who was looking at Jack expectantly. Something about how Spike was looking at him reminded Jack of a cat somehow.

"You know Spike, when I named you I was thinking of a dog I once had. But now you're starting to remind me of my old cat." Jack looks over at Spike and notices that he looks a little peeved.

"I'm not a cat." Spike says.

Jack looks at him in disbelief. "I thought you couldn't talk kid."

Spike shrugs. "I just didn't want to before."