Disclaimer: In case you, the reader, didn't know already (which i find hard to believe) i do not, i repeat not, own the show cowboy bebop or it's characters, ideas, whatever. I am but a poor pathetic writer...well technically i'm not really a writer...oh well, you get the point. I do own the cab driver! ^_^ buut i don't think thats a notable accomplishment so i'm just gonna shut up now...yeah, good idea....

alrighty then, all y'alls can read...if there is anyone who is reading my story...i wouldn't know cuz i don't have that many reviews, hint hint (i do appreciate those that i have gotten tho!!! Thanx to those few people!!!) ok........you can read the story now....

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Jet stared at me, his mouth slightly open.

"Gone?" He repeated for the umpteenth time.

"Yeah," I replied shortly

"Gone."

"Mmhmm."

"Without a trace."

"Yup."

"No clues."

"Uh huh."

"Just gone."

"Um yeah, Jet, how many times do you need to hear it?" I snapped in frustration. For a moment he leaned back with a groan, eyes shut. His voice startled me as he yelled, "Of all the damn stupid frickin' things that could've damn well happened!"

His face was mixed between sullen and angry, which in my opinion looked quite funny. I laughed, "Jet you look like you're constipated or something."

"It's not funny, Faye."

"Well, what else is it, then?" I asked him lightly, "Of all the possible situations that could've happened, and I only thought of two, he winds up gone, again. Rather ironic, I think." I said, trying to get him to see it from my point of view. He just sighed.

"Why don't we just let it lie and go back to regular life?"

"Because Jet. What if it was a rival syndicate group who took Spike? Or a group that really liked Vicious? Can you live with knowing that you possibly condemned Spike to death because you just wanted to let it lie?" I demanded passionately. He looked at me, his face contorting back into the sullen/angry look.

"No." He replied grudgingly, as if I'd dragged it out of him.

"Okay, then. We need to find Ed." I started excitedly, in my head already making plans for the recovery of Spike.

"Good luck," he snorted, "she left after you did, back on Earth. It was after we found her father, but he left to go off on some comet hunt. What a crazy man. You know he fought Spike, but without hardly moving he whooped Spike's ass. It was almost funny, and it would've been, if he hadn't been a supposed bounty at the time." Jet had the look of someone remembering good times.

I stared, shocked to the core. Ed had really found her father?

*flashback*

"You belong?" Ed asked in a wondering voice.

"Yes Ed. You have someone waiting for you too. There's somewhere that you belong Edward, you should find out where,"

"Hmm."

*endflashback*

"I…told her something after I left. She's either back with her father now or at the sister's home," I said wistfully, wishing deep down past my jaded heart that I too had a family to escape to.

"What?" Jet looked at me in confusion. If only he knew what it had been like, back on Earth.

"Just get us to Earth!" I retorted, folding my arms and wishing that this whole situation had not happened and I had never met Jet or Spike. Then I'd still have amnesia, I supposed. There were a few minutes of silence.

"Well?" I asked, staring at him impatiently.

"Well what?" He sounded really confused.

"Aren't you going to set coordinates for Earth or something? Get this hunk of metal off the ground?" I was near to glaring at him in my need to go. I started to tap my foot in irritation at his thick-headedness.

Then Jet started to laugh, roaring his amusement in hearty guffaws. I was entering the pissed off stage as I couldn't really see why Jet chose to be happily entertained now.

"That's great, Faye," he chuckled.

"What? What is so funny? Do you think I'm joking or something?" I hissed, narrowing my eyes, feeling my impatience starting to boil. He ignored the danger signs and stared back at me.

"You mean you really think we can leave? Just leave? …Now?" Jet stared at me, incredulous, a tiny smirk on his weathered face.

"Well…yeah. That's technically how we get to earth. You set the coordinates and start up the engine. We leave." I snapped, crisply enunciating each word for the thickhead.

He snorted contemptuously, "I know very well that you're not a mechanic, Faye, but this is ridiculous. Do you recollect the dogfights at all a couple of nights ago? Do you remember us crashing down here?" He was talking down to me, explaining as if to a not-so-bright child.

"Yes. Get to your point."

"Our ship is too damaged to lift off. We have engine troubles, hull troubles, navigation, shielding, not to mention all the shorted out systems, and the landing equipment," He ticked off all the damaged parts on his fingers. I glowered at him, feeling about ready to go and hit something.

"What exactly have you been doing the past few days?" I yelled, starting to loose control. Time was soooo against us.

He gave me a you've-got-to-be-kidding look. "I've been repairing. Mostly assessing. Most of the stuff needs new parts; I can't just repair from scratch, Faye. We need more money: our funds are next to nothing. Plus we need a whole new tank of fuel. We got a leak, which I fixed by the way, and most of our fuel leaked out when we landed. We were lucky it didn't catch fire or explode. And I do have a busted leg in case you forgot. It isn't exactly the easiest thing to walk around the ship."

I groaned: my answer to all his little complaints.

"Yeah, Faye. Groan all you want today. Tomorrow, you're gonna get your ass moving and find a bounty job. Today you can find a new bounty show you like. So groan all you want. I don't want to hear it tomorrow. I'm gonna go back to the gravity generators, I think I can fix those." He gave me a reproachful look before he left.

"Ohhhh," I said in the most frustrated voice I could muster. "I'm not meant for hard work." I complained to the air. Of all the stupid ass times to have to go after bounty heads.

Resolutely I leaned back and flipped on the TV.

*

"Damn. It. All." I sighed. After thirty minutes of watching bounty shows I had found absolutely none. They either had ditzy women or guys who couldn't act. It was horrible, the stupidity I had to deal with. I ran a hand through my hair.

"Eww!" I exclaimed at the dirty, tangled mess. The last time I'd had a good shower was back on...well damn, that would be back on the Bebop, after Spike had left.

"That is so nasty." I muttered, getting up to trudge over to the bathroom. I grabbed my robe and some fresh clothes on the way over, determined to take a nice long shower and pamper myself afterwards.

I sighed as I wistfully thought of my bed, waiting so readily for me. I supposed I could climb in for awhile, but the chances of Jet waking me up for something or other were way too high for me to even try.

I stepped into the shower, letting the water soak through my hair before reaching for the shampoo. It was sad how much shampoo Spike had to use for his huge cloud of fuzzy hair. I remembered that the bottle had been nearly full the last time I'd used it.

Spike. You crazy ass where are you? I wondered in fond remembrance. Oh, if only I could argue with him one more time, see his eyebrows lower and his eyes get that no-nonsense look. If only.

My ruminations were cut short when the barely warm water suddenly turned into a frigid torrent of ice. So I did the only thing I could.

"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! JET YOU BASTARD HOW COME YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THE HOT WATER WAS NEARLY OUT?!!!" I screamed as possibly loud as I could, ripping back the curtain to trip over the side of the shower, landing on my face on the hard floor.

"DAMNIT!" I screeched at the floor, before getting up to wrap myself in my robe.

Jet knocked on the door. "Uh, Faye? Sorry but the hot water is probably not working since one of the laser bursts hit though to the–"

"Ya think?" I snarled, ripping open the door to fling my ice-cold washcloth at him.

"I dunno, I kinda figured it out when the damn water turned ICE COLD!!!"

Jet put his hands up in appeasement as I threw other things that were readily accessible at his head.

"Whoa, hold on now Faye! I could probably get the–" I slammed the door with much satisfaction in his face and heard a muffled, "Or not."

"Serves him right." I grumbled.

"Oh by the way there might be someone comi–"

"I don't give a damn, alright?" I cut him off with more satisfaction. I heard him leave and after a few minutes of glaring heatedly at the door I looked warily at the shower. I needed to wash my hair; there was no question to that. But of all the things I hated, taking an ice-cold shower was pretty near the top.

Looking good, however, took more of a priority then my comfort so I took a deep breath and ducked into the deluge of ice, grabbing the shampoo with a stab of reminiscence before the ice cold water slammed me back to the present.

As I tried to shampoo and condition my hair to any effectiveness I yelled out curses and such, damning whoever had done in the hot water supply. I growled and sputtered as the cold water hit my back relentlessly. I had thrown my washcloth into the hallway during my little fit of rage so I didn't have anything to soap. Or maybe I did...

I quickly jumped out, shivering, and wrapped myself in a towel, opening the door. I heard Jet's voice prattling on somewhere as I looked for my washcloth among the many items on the floor.

"Gotcha." I smiled, brandishing my treasure as Jet rounded the corner with a man, talking and gesturing. The last thing I wanted was to let a stranger see me looking for a washcloth outside of the bathroom in a towel. A small towel.

Shitshitshitshitshiiiiiit.... I backed up quickly into the bathroom, ready to disappear without a trace when I slipped on some water and landed on my butt, losing my grip on the towel and washcloth. I stared up at the ceiling.

"This is sooo not happening." I growled. The men caught sight of me and stopped, gawking. I grabbed up my robe and washcloth, daring them with my fierce stare to say anything. I hastily pushed myself back into the bathroom with my feet until I could close the door, wishing to be anywhere but there. I was never in an embarrassing situation like that. I'm always cool, collected, smooth...

"Perverts!" I shrieked, safely behind the door.

...and bitchy.

"That would be Faye." I heard Jet explain to the man. That was a wonderful first impression, I was sure.

"She doesn't seem so bad." I wondered with a clenched fist exactly what that meant.

Jet chuckled. "Just wait until you live with her for a few weeks."

Oh if only I was out there.

They moved off. All that for a little washcloth. I held it up ruefully and stepped back into the shower, yelping again at the extreme coldness.

"This is such a bad day." I whimpered, wishing Ein was here just so I could torture him. I quickly finished my shower and got dressed, returning to my room to fling my dirty stuff in the hamper and put on the good old war paint, i.e. makeup.

I suddenly stopped what I was doing to stare into space. I put a hand up to my forehead in abrupt tiredness. That term had been from earth... I remembered it had been my dad who hadn't liked me wearing too much makeup. He'd call it war paint and would tell me it wasn't needed, because I was already beautiful. It wasn't fair. I'd lost good parents for a stupid whim of going into space. I slammed the memory to the back of my mind.

I quickly finished, trying to not remember anything else. Either way, with amnesia or memory it was torture.

I returned to the couch, ready to lounge around and feel some well-deserved pity. Now Jet was apparently showing someone around to live with us. Perfect. Another person to care needlessly for and argue endlessly with. It was unthinkable; I sure as hell didn't want anyone else taking up space here.

"Whatever." I murmured, turning on the TV.

"Today on Bounty Catch we got some sly fellas tracked to the Red Planet. First off we got Feray Polrache, take a look, cowboys an' cowgirls." There was a dataspread much like Big Shot with a full body shot and all the good info. A slow smile started on my face that blossomed into a grin. I had found the bounty show and as it appeared, some easy cash.

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GO FOR IT, COWGIRL

*Stretches* Mmmm, that was a pretty good chapter, yeah? Took me about an hour and a half to type up...yeah, yeah I know, I'm a slow typist. Well, I'm way ahead of myself...I already have another chapter written up. Aren't you so proud of me? ^.^ I hope you all R&R, I've been *gasp* thinking (imagine that *shudder*) and while I still don't know which way this will end up before they go to Earth I have some inklings. Next week (or two ~_^) they go after a bounty, and you'll learn about who this new guy is...hmmmm, I wonder. BTW, incase I didn't tell you guys before, since my plotline isn't quite all the way developed (I know where it will be going, I just don't know how I'm getting there) any and all creative suggestions are welcome. If you guys give me any and I like them and want to use them I'll let you know and will give you credit. Alright you guys, REVIEW PLEASE!!! It really does inspire me to write more, plus it makes me feel appreciated and a happy author is a good author, right? OK, so if you are for some unknown reason still reading this I'm amazed. I'll talk at y'all in a week or two...'till then!

~|Treekat|~*