Okay. Here's the low down. This is my first attempt at a song fic. This is my first attempt at a Cowboy Bebop fan fic. This is my first attempt at a story in which I do not include a character that I made up. So basically, I'm not planning on this turning out well. However, if people review and tell me what I need to work on I'll probably get better. No guarantees. Okay, please enjoy and if I screw up something, tell me. Oh, and a heads up. Really, really short parts between the stanzas of the song (but it's a long song…) so I'm not counting on length, either.

Gotta Knock a Little Harder

Happiness is just a word to me, and it might have meant a thing or two if I'd known the difference.

            Spike lay face down on the stairs. The word he had just uttered rang in his ear. Bang.

            'Why can't I die?' he asked himself, silently pleading for death to come swiftly. Julia was dead, what'd he have to live for?

Emptiness, a lonely parody, and my life another smokin' gun, a sign of my indifference.

            Jet watched as a branch of his last beloved Bonsai fell onto the table.

            "Damn…" he sighed as he stood to leave the room. He turned to find Faye standing in the door way. "What do you want?" She raised her gun.

            "We're going to go find Spike. Right now."

Always keepin' safe inside where no one ever had a chance to penetrate or break in.

             The Bebop landed on Mars with little difficulty. Faye took off in her Redtail leaving Jet to think things through in the Bebop. He sat in the control room, staring out at the vast landscape.

            'I remember how it was before this whole thing started. Before Faye, Ed, or Ein. It was just you and me, Spike. Why couldn't you just sever your ties with the syndicate and be done with it? Why did you have to go back?'

Let me tell you some have tried, but I would slam the door so tight that they couldn't get in.

            For a moment he didn't want to move. But hadn't he heard that voice before? Maybe not the way it was now, worried, frightened, and a little angry. No, he heard it before. Spike opened his eyes slowly, not wanting to believe that he was still alive.

            "Faye?" He managed to say before everything went dark. But he still wasn't dead. He was back to living in a dream.

I kept my cool under lock and key and I never shed a tear, another sign of my condition.

            Faye sat there, looking out of the hospital's window. She sighed as she glanced over at the heavily bandaged Spike who, though alive, still hadn't woken up. Jet walked in shortly after. No one said a word until…

            "Come on, it isn't that bad is it?" Spike was finally awake, and about as much of a jack-ass as ever.

Fear of love or bitter vanity that kept me on the run, the main events at my confession.

            Faye and Jet had left hours ago. Spike was still awake, staring into the ceiling in an attempt to leave the present for the past. Julia. She was dead. Why was he alive? And Vicious. He was dead. Why was Spike the only one left alive? He didn't have any reason to survive. Or did he?

I kept a chain upon my door that would shake the shame of Cain into a blind submission.

            He closed his eyes, remembering all those times he'd longed for Julia and, in the end when he finally had her, he had to watch her die. It was too much. He wished, hoped, and even prayed for death's release to come. He wanted it to all end. Why couldn't he die?!

The burning ghost without a name was still calling all the same but I just wouldn't listen.

            The heart monitor bleeped and then went into an eerie, monotone ring that left Faye startled. She had just come into the room.

            "Spike! Don't you dare die on me you bastard! Come on, wake up!" Finally, death had come. Finally, he was free from the pains of life. But then he realized he'd had something to live for. Faye, Jet, Ed, Ein, chasing after bounty heads. There was still plenty to keep him clinging to life.

            The heart monitor bleeped rapidly a few times and then settled into the same, life-representing beat it had before Faye had walked in. She sighed in relief and Jet came over and stood beside her. They were both looking at him when Spike opened his eyes.

            "I guess I've finally woken up from my dream…"

Okay, yeah. End song fic. I didn't include the entire song (too long) so please review what I did include. Maybe if I get enough good reviews I'll do the other half… Anyway: Send any comments/criticism/compliments/suggestions/etc. in your review! Thanks!