Disclaimers: All the same. Plans for owning Cowboy Bebop and all the
characters has been derailed by cake. Damn cake.always getting in my way
with its chocolate-goodness. Dagnabbit.
Author's Note: I'm building up to the romance part of it, I really am. Right now I'm kind of working on the action part. I wanted to try and keep with the humorous parts of the show, that's just the way I write. The mush will enter. If you've been reading you probably see it building.
Chapter Five: Everyone Say Hi to Death
Spike walked out of the hangar bay and into the cold hallway. He lit up yet another cigarette as he walked. His goal was to find Faye and talk to her about what had happened earlier. 'You see, Faye, the thing about me putting my hand on your shoulder and then caressing your arm... NO Not caressing.touching.GAHHH! I didn't mean it. It was nothing. You should know that.why am I telling you this.' Yeah, that will work. Tell her she already knew it meant nothing. Back her into a wall. Suddenly Spike's footsteps stopped. He turned quickly to his right and slammed his head into the wall. "Damnit!" He yelled.
Faye had been walking for about five minutes now. She didn't exactly know where she was going, but she knew if she walked around the ship enough times she would eventually run into Spike. She needed to talk to him. Find out what he was thinking. 'I can't do this. I can't have feelings for him. He's tainted goods.his heart is broken, whether he wants to admit it or not. He's a friend. I'm not going to screw this up.' The only problem was how was she going to tell him. 'He probably didn't even mean anything by the damn arm touching thing. It was.a slip. Yeah a slip.' A slip. That's it down play it from the get go. Faye looked up at the ceiling and a little down the hall, she was heading towards the hangar bay. She could just go to her ship and leave, that always killed tension. Every time she came back they were angry. Her thoughts were interrupted by a very familiar sound. "Damnit!" Spike voice filled the small hallway. "Found him." Faye said to no one. She took a deep breath and walked steadily forward, lighting a cigarette on the way.
Spike was banging his head off the wall, not too hard, but hard enough to knock some sense into him. He wasn't falling for Faye, she was just there. That's all. He stopped banging his head off the wall, as he heard clacking of heels approach. He knew those heels. They gave him nightmares. Faye. He turned his head to the left and saw her, nothing but a shadow with a glowing circular flame in front of where her head should be. He looked down to his mouth and the cigarette that hung there. A smirk came to his lips. His forehead was still attached to the wall. She moved closer, stopping about five feet from him, her hands on her hips a small smile playing on her lips. He moved away from the wall and stood facing her. Both of their smiles faded at the same time.
"Faye." Spike began, the cigarette bouncing with the words. "Spike." Faye said, her cigarette doing the same dance. They both opened their mouths at the same time to say the next words, however neither of them would find out what those words were. Another set of footsteps, heavier, and in a bit of a hurry came down the hall behind Spike. "Spike." Jet said, a little out of breath. "Jet." Spike said in return glancing over at the man. "Faye." Jet said, lifting an eyebrow noticing for the first time she was in the hall. Spike's form had completely hidden her. "Jet." Faye said, removing the cigarette from her mouth and blowing some smoke into the air. "Uh.?" Jet started but the look on both of their faces told him not to. He shook his head. "I found a bounty."
Jet was sitting on the couch pulling up the information on the new bounty. Spike was sprawled out next to him, his feet up on the table. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was staring at his feet. Faye was seated in the big chair she had been in earlier that night, only now it was closer to the table, right across from Spike. Her feet were tucked under her, and her arms were draped over her knees. She was staring at Spike's feet as well. They looked up at the same time, met each other's eyes and stayed that way for a while. Ed was on the floor kicking and growling at Ein. Ein was just staring at Ed.
"Here we go." Jet's voice boomed. Spike and Faye broke eye contact, and looked over at Jet. "Maurice Weston." Jet turned the screen so both Spike and Faye could have a look. "Maurice?" Faye said moving closer. "What kind of a bad guy has a name like Maurice?" "This one." Jet said his voice annoyed. "And he usually doesn't go by that name. Most people call him Death." "OOOO. Scaaaaarrrrrry." Ed said popping her head up from behind the screen.
"My thoughts exactly kid." Spike said putting his hands on his knees. "What exactly do you do to get a name like Death." Faye asked as she read down the list of crimes. "Uh, my guess would be.kill people." Spike said pushing her slightly out of the way so he could see the list. Faye huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her face. She resigned herself to looking over Spike's puffy head.
"A lot of people." Jet said leaning back in the couch. "There's no picture." Faye said pointing at the screen over Spike's head. "Yeah, so?" Jet said. "He's killed all the people on Lester Station. So we go there, and ask if anyone's heard of a guy named Death." "Can't be too many people there named Death." Spike said moving away from the screen. "Not a very common name," Faye said sitting back as well. The three of them sat there and smiled for a couple seconds. The bounty was for 6 million woolongs. Not bad for one guy. And there were three of them, four if you counted Ed. Which no one did.
It was going to take them ten hours to get to Lester. Jet had set the coordinates and went back to bed. Ed was off somewhere chasing Ein. Spike was sitting on the couch hunched over, forearms on his knees. Faye was in the exact same position directly across from him. They hadn't moved or said anything in almost an hour. "It was a slip. A mistake." Faye said her eyes still on his. "Right. We chalk it up to.lack of food." Spike said. "Lack of sleep." Faye put up a hand. "Good. That sounds about right." Spike said. They again sat in silence. "So." Faye began, leaning back a little. Spike did the same. "We forget about it." Spike said, reaching in his pocket for a cigarette, he put the cigarette in his mouth and went on a search for his lighter. A flame appeared before his face. Faye with his lighter. He moved closer and lit his cigarette. "I'm glad we had this little talk." Faye said lighting her own cigarette. She was standing now, putting the lighter back on the table. It was his after all. Spike watched her put it down and smirked. "Yep." He stretched out on the couch and kicked off his boots. His hands behind his head and closed his eyes. He heard Faye leave the room, the clacking of her heels on the grating his only clue as to where she was. He opened one eye just in time to see her completely disappear into the dark hallway. He let out a deep breath.
This conversation was becoming a ritual. It was freakishly familiar. It was exactly like the conversation they had when he came back from the fight with Vicious. Of course the reason he had been on the couch was he couldn't get up. And Faye had been there, watching over him. again. She had been humming. again, and woke him up. They stared at one another that time too. Spike really didn't know why he stared at the woman, it was like he could say everything to her by just looking in her eyes. They could read one another. Freaky. The only difference between this conversation and the one that they had six months ago was that Faye had decided they should forget about what happened. Spike hadn't argued. And Faye left the room humming and smoking a cigarette, after putting on in his mouth for him. Yep. They really knew how to handle problems. They had a great relationship. "Friendship. No. Partnership." Spike said in a hoarse whisper. "Not relationship." He closed his eyes and went to sleep, the clacking of Faye's boots again filling his mind and his dreams.
Eleven hours after the meeting in the common room, all the Beboppers were docked in a the large hangar of Lester Station. Lester had been one of the more successful attempts at building a realistic space colony. Once you entered the large metallic sphere it was just like being on a real planet. It even had its own gravitational pull, and a small satellite serving as a make shift moon. The four of them stepped out of the transport and shielded their eyes from the makeshift sunlight. "Its like being on Earth." Faye said putting on pair of red sunglasses. She was wearing the yellow hot pants instead of her jeans. She had slipped on something of Ein's and fell in it. She had cursed and laughed at herself. Damn happy that Spike hadn't been there to see it. Her jeans were now sitting down in the laundry room with a hell of a lot of soap soaking into them. Spike looked over at her from under his arm and silently wished he'd brought sunglasses. He looked down at her bare pale legs and had thoughts of the good old days. The days when they didn't have to have those ritual talks about forgetting things. The days when they would torture one another and fight into the wee hours of the morning. This trip was going to be good for them. Get them back to the good old days. After all Faye was wearing the shorts again. "Lets go." Jet said. And they all took off. Jet and Spike kind of in the lead, Faye pulling up the rear keeping an eye on Ed. They had only been walking for twenty minutes, but Ed was getting antsy. Ed was running around behind them, but she was being pulled everyone and a while by a short cord that was attached to Faye's wrist. Faye had been the one to say "Why not. She's part of the crew too." After Jet and Spike had said no to Ed's pleading to come along. So now Faye was stuck babysitting Ed. The cord had been an ingenious way of making sure Ed didn't get into any trouble. She had broken a pair of her hand cuffs and had Jet solder a metal cord to the ends. Ed was wearing one bracelet and Faye had the other. Faye smiled at herself, and then Ed. Suddenly she was running after her left hand as it led her in Ed's direction. She shrieked as she passed the laughing Jet and Spike. She looked back over her shoulder and shot them a look and flipped them off.
Jet and Spike finally caught up to them by a big window display of wedding dresses. Faye was bent over trying to get her breath, her ribs still a little were protesting her breathing. "Hey, Ed. Don't run off like that." Jet said between laughs. "Faye's still recuperating." He laughed. Faye shot him a glance as he went to pry Ed away from the window. "You okay?" Spike said taking a hit from his cigarette as he stopped beside her. Faye took a deep breath and shot him death glare. "You really shouldn't run like that." He said a giggle in his voice. She didn't even look up, she just put up a stiff middle finger at him. He laughed and held out the cigarette. "Here." She moved her hair from her face and grabbed the cigarette. "Lunkhead." She took a hit and instantly felt better. Ah sweet relief. She suddenly winced as she was jerked a little by Ed running in a new direction. The only flaw in her plan had been attaching Ed to her left arm. That was the one that had been dislocated and beaten on just last week. But she needed to keep her gun hand open incase they ran into Death. Decisions, decisions.
She tried to pull Ed back, but didn't have enough power in the still sore arm. Spike laughed again, and put a stiff hand on top of the cuff on Faye's wrist. He pulled as hard as he could and yanked Ed all the way to Faye's feet. "Ha." Faye yelled at Ed, who was now rubbing her sore bottom. "Thanks." She said to Spike, his hand still on her wrist. "No problem. Its always fun throwing the pip-squeak around." Spike removed his hand. "You should have put her on the other hand." "How would you like to try and shoot something, or for that matter even pull your gun with that attached to you?" Faye said lifting the cord a little. "Good point." Spike lit a new cigarette. "We need to split up." Jet said moving into the circle. "Spike and me will take this side of the city. Faye you and Ed go that way." He said pointing in the opposite direction. "We'll meet up at that bar over at eight." He checked his watch. "Right." Faye said giving a salute. She looked over at the bar. "The Blue Rhino. Interesting." A large neon blue Rhino was in the window. "At least it won't be too hard to find again." "You have your comm.?" Jet asked pulling his out making sure it was on. "Yep, never leave home without it." She looked up to three skeptical faces. "Well, almost never." No change in the faces. "Shit, I have it don't I?" she said pulling it out and shoving it back into the inside pocket of her red sweater. Jet gave a snort of a laugh and walked off. Spike shoved his hands in his pockets and walked in front of Faye. He smiled at her and ruffled Ed's hair. "See ya at eight. Don't get into too much trouble." Faye flipped him off again and threw her diminished cigarette at his slowly retreating form. She looked down at Ed, and frantically searched for a pack of cigarettes. She came up empty. She looked down at Ed again, who was now pretending to be a dog, her tongue hanging out as she panted and walked around her. The cord was wrapping around her legs. "Jesus, at least give me a pack of Cigarettes!!!!" she yelled after Spike. She heard him laugh from the distance. "GAHH!!!!" She was spun around as Ed started walking back the way they had came. "What's first Faye-Faye?" Ed said jumping around. "First we find cigarettes." Faye said rubbing her butt as she got up from the ground. "And then we find Death."
It was ten minutes after eight, Spike and Jet were sitting at the bar, nursing their drinks. Nothing. They hadn't found a thing. How hard is it too find a guy known as Death. Especially when he lived there, and did all his work there. The bar was filled with smoke and people. Blues and Jazz filled the air. It was actually a really nice place to sit and think. Only the two men weren't in the mood for a good place to think. They were too damn upset. "Where is she?" Spike said throwing a pretzel in his mouth. "I hope she didn't do something stupid." Jet said giving the bartender a signal to refill his drink. Spike eyes went up to look at the side of Jet's face. He dreaded the thought of Faye all beaten and bleeding again. He did a mental shake. Just then the door burst open and in ran a barking Ed. Spike and Jet were the only ones not to turn and look. Ed, ran into the bar jumped up and over it and then back on top it again. Faye came running in right behind her, sailing into the bar stool right beside Spike. Ed, jumped off the bar and started to make a run for the jukebox. Spike again grabbed Faye's wrist and yanked. Ed came sailing back and landed at the foot of Jet's barstool. "Thirsty kid?" Jet asked Ed as he looked down at the panting young girl with a smile. Ed nodded her head violently. "Thanks." Faye said clutching her shoulder and panting for breath. "I owe you one." She said between breaths. Spike looked over at her and smiled, happy she wasn't all beat up and elated that Ed made her look like an idiot. "Two. But who's counting." He put up a hand to the bartender and he came over and looked at Faye. "What'll it be miss?" the bartender asked looking over the bar at the child on the floor. "Vodka. And lots of it." She said looking up. "Bring the whole damn bottle." The bartender smiled and looked down at the kid. "And for your kid?" "Water." Spike said laughing at Faye. The bartender strolled away and came back with the water and the bottle of Vodka, putting a small glass on the top of it. He smiled as he went to another customer.
"So what did you two find out?" Spike asked as he again yanked the cord getting Ed to sit down and drink her water. She started to lap it out of the cup like a dog. "Ed is a hell of a lot stranger than I thought." Faye said looking down at Ed still on the floor, lapping up her water. "She's been acting like a dog all damn day." Faye poured a glass of vodka for herself and filled Spike's empty glass as well. She downed it and looked up at the two men, both with wide grins. "Other than that, nothing much." "Ed was a blood hound. But Ed did not smell Death." She frowned. "She lead you around all day?" Spike asked gulping down his glass of vodka refilling both cups. Faye groaned and Spike and Jet smiled. "We got nothing. No one seems to want to finger Death. Go figure." Jet said shrugging. "I heard from the cigarette guy that everyone on Lester comes in here at least once a day. My guess is he was trying to tell me Death frequented The Blue Rhino." Faye said gasping as Ed started to move around again. Spike again grabbed the cord and yanked, he smiled over at Faye and put up three fingers. She flipped him off again and drank the vodka. "So you think we should stay for a while?" Jet said looking around the room, trying to spot anyone who might look like death. "Couldn't hurt." Faye said rubbing her temples. Jet remained turned in his seat now searching the crowd in the dark. "We were getting worried." Spike said as he downed his vodka, he refilled their glasses, and looked at the bottle. Going fast. "But I had Ed the wonder mut guarding me." Faye said bringing up the slack cord in her hand. She winced as she lowered her arm and started rubbing her sore shoulder. Spike laughed. "Maybe you should disconnect from the wonder mut before you do more damage to that shoulder." Spike said moving her hand away from her shoulder. The flesh seemed to be red and a little swollen. Faye tensed as he ran his finger over the flesh. He looked up into her eyes, his fingers still on her shoulder. They both took swallowed. Faye managed to shove a grin on her face. "Yeah, good idea." She got off the barstool and pushed Ed's head. "Come on Ed. Let's go to the bathroom and remove the leash." She made her way to the bathroom, looking back only once, to find Spike's eyes still on her. She turned around and walked into the ladies room.
Jet was looking at Spike from the corner of his eye, watching him watch Faye. Spike caught his glance and raised an eyebrow. He turned back to the bar and took another drink. Jet watched him, and then returned to his crowd searching. The door opened and three men walked in. Two of them were tall and skinny like Spike, and the other was big and beefy. Jet watched them as they sat at a table by the door. He elbowed Spike. "What?!" Spike practically yelled. Jet elbowed him again and nodded in the direction of the three men. "Oh." Spike said turning around completely in his stool. Just then one of the skinny men pulled out a gun and blasted a hole right in the big guys head. Everyone sat still for a couple seconds, the only sounds that of the ladies room door opening. Spike looked over at Faye who was standing in the lit doorway holding on to Ed's shirt, staring at the guy with the gun. Faye and Spike made eye contact, and in that split second everyone started to move.
Faye threw Ed over the bar near her, and dove over it herself. Spike and Jet threw themselves over the bar and landed in a heap on the floor. Women were screaming and running for the door. Some of the men were running with them, and some were pulling out guns. Faye grabbed on to Ed's shirt collar and scrambled on all fours over to Jet and Spike. They all had their guns drawn in an instant. Faye cuffed the cord to the metal rod that was on the bottom of the bar and snapped it back on to Ed's wrist. Faye's hand stifled Ed's yell of 'Hey.' "Everyone say hi to Death." Spike said, as the three of them stood from behind the bar, guns pointed. And then the bullets began to fly.
Okie-dokie. That's chapter five. Sorry to disappoint on the romance, but I'm getting there. Don't worry. I think you might even be able to look forward to it in the next chapter. That is if I get good reviews.
Next Chapter: Cheating Death and Killing the Mood
Author's Note: I'm building up to the romance part of it, I really am. Right now I'm kind of working on the action part. I wanted to try and keep with the humorous parts of the show, that's just the way I write. The mush will enter. If you've been reading you probably see it building.
Chapter Five: Everyone Say Hi to Death
Spike walked out of the hangar bay and into the cold hallway. He lit up yet another cigarette as he walked. His goal was to find Faye and talk to her about what had happened earlier. 'You see, Faye, the thing about me putting my hand on your shoulder and then caressing your arm... NO Not caressing.touching.GAHHH! I didn't mean it. It was nothing. You should know that.why am I telling you this.' Yeah, that will work. Tell her she already knew it meant nothing. Back her into a wall. Suddenly Spike's footsteps stopped. He turned quickly to his right and slammed his head into the wall. "Damnit!" He yelled.
Faye had been walking for about five minutes now. She didn't exactly know where she was going, but she knew if she walked around the ship enough times she would eventually run into Spike. She needed to talk to him. Find out what he was thinking. 'I can't do this. I can't have feelings for him. He's tainted goods.his heart is broken, whether he wants to admit it or not. He's a friend. I'm not going to screw this up.' The only problem was how was she going to tell him. 'He probably didn't even mean anything by the damn arm touching thing. It was.a slip. Yeah a slip.' A slip. That's it down play it from the get go. Faye looked up at the ceiling and a little down the hall, she was heading towards the hangar bay. She could just go to her ship and leave, that always killed tension. Every time she came back they were angry. Her thoughts were interrupted by a very familiar sound. "Damnit!" Spike voice filled the small hallway. "Found him." Faye said to no one. She took a deep breath and walked steadily forward, lighting a cigarette on the way.
Spike was banging his head off the wall, not too hard, but hard enough to knock some sense into him. He wasn't falling for Faye, she was just there. That's all. He stopped banging his head off the wall, as he heard clacking of heels approach. He knew those heels. They gave him nightmares. Faye. He turned his head to the left and saw her, nothing but a shadow with a glowing circular flame in front of where her head should be. He looked down to his mouth and the cigarette that hung there. A smirk came to his lips. His forehead was still attached to the wall. She moved closer, stopping about five feet from him, her hands on her hips a small smile playing on her lips. He moved away from the wall and stood facing her. Both of their smiles faded at the same time.
"Faye." Spike began, the cigarette bouncing with the words. "Spike." Faye said, her cigarette doing the same dance. They both opened their mouths at the same time to say the next words, however neither of them would find out what those words were. Another set of footsteps, heavier, and in a bit of a hurry came down the hall behind Spike. "Spike." Jet said, a little out of breath. "Jet." Spike said in return glancing over at the man. "Faye." Jet said, lifting an eyebrow noticing for the first time she was in the hall. Spike's form had completely hidden her. "Jet." Faye said, removing the cigarette from her mouth and blowing some smoke into the air. "Uh.?" Jet started but the look on both of their faces told him not to. He shook his head. "I found a bounty."
Jet was sitting on the couch pulling up the information on the new bounty. Spike was sprawled out next to him, his feet up on the table. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was staring at his feet. Faye was seated in the big chair she had been in earlier that night, only now it was closer to the table, right across from Spike. Her feet were tucked under her, and her arms were draped over her knees. She was staring at Spike's feet as well. They looked up at the same time, met each other's eyes and stayed that way for a while. Ed was on the floor kicking and growling at Ein. Ein was just staring at Ed.
"Here we go." Jet's voice boomed. Spike and Faye broke eye contact, and looked over at Jet. "Maurice Weston." Jet turned the screen so both Spike and Faye could have a look. "Maurice?" Faye said moving closer. "What kind of a bad guy has a name like Maurice?" "This one." Jet said his voice annoyed. "And he usually doesn't go by that name. Most people call him Death." "OOOO. Scaaaaarrrrrry." Ed said popping her head up from behind the screen.
"My thoughts exactly kid." Spike said putting his hands on his knees. "What exactly do you do to get a name like Death." Faye asked as she read down the list of crimes. "Uh, my guess would be.kill people." Spike said pushing her slightly out of the way so he could see the list. Faye huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her face. She resigned herself to looking over Spike's puffy head.
"A lot of people." Jet said leaning back in the couch. "There's no picture." Faye said pointing at the screen over Spike's head. "Yeah, so?" Jet said. "He's killed all the people on Lester Station. So we go there, and ask if anyone's heard of a guy named Death." "Can't be too many people there named Death." Spike said moving away from the screen. "Not a very common name," Faye said sitting back as well. The three of them sat there and smiled for a couple seconds. The bounty was for 6 million woolongs. Not bad for one guy. And there were three of them, four if you counted Ed. Which no one did.
It was going to take them ten hours to get to Lester. Jet had set the coordinates and went back to bed. Ed was off somewhere chasing Ein. Spike was sitting on the couch hunched over, forearms on his knees. Faye was in the exact same position directly across from him. They hadn't moved or said anything in almost an hour. "It was a slip. A mistake." Faye said her eyes still on his. "Right. We chalk it up to.lack of food." Spike said. "Lack of sleep." Faye put up a hand. "Good. That sounds about right." Spike said. They again sat in silence. "So." Faye began, leaning back a little. Spike did the same. "We forget about it." Spike said, reaching in his pocket for a cigarette, he put the cigarette in his mouth and went on a search for his lighter. A flame appeared before his face. Faye with his lighter. He moved closer and lit his cigarette. "I'm glad we had this little talk." Faye said lighting her own cigarette. She was standing now, putting the lighter back on the table. It was his after all. Spike watched her put it down and smirked. "Yep." He stretched out on the couch and kicked off his boots. His hands behind his head and closed his eyes. He heard Faye leave the room, the clacking of her heels on the grating his only clue as to where she was. He opened one eye just in time to see her completely disappear into the dark hallway. He let out a deep breath.
This conversation was becoming a ritual. It was freakishly familiar. It was exactly like the conversation they had when he came back from the fight with Vicious. Of course the reason he had been on the couch was he couldn't get up. And Faye had been there, watching over him. again. She had been humming. again, and woke him up. They stared at one another that time too. Spike really didn't know why he stared at the woman, it was like he could say everything to her by just looking in her eyes. They could read one another. Freaky. The only difference between this conversation and the one that they had six months ago was that Faye had decided they should forget about what happened. Spike hadn't argued. And Faye left the room humming and smoking a cigarette, after putting on in his mouth for him. Yep. They really knew how to handle problems. They had a great relationship. "Friendship. No. Partnership." Spike said in a hoarse whisper. "Not relationship." He closed his eyes and went to sleep, the clacking of Faye's boots again filling his mind and his dreams.
Eleven hours after the meeting in the common room, all the Beboppers were docked in a the large hangar of Lester Station. Lester had been one of the more successful attempts at building a realistic space colony. Once you entered the large metallic sphere it was just like being on a real planet. It even had its own gravitational pull, and a small satellite serving as a make shift moon. The four of them stepped out of the transport and shielded their eyes from the makeshift sunlight. "Its like being on Earth." Faye said putting on pair of red sunglasses. She was wearing the yellow hot pants instead of her jeans. She had slipped on something of Ein's and fell in it. She had cursed and laughed at herself. Damn happy that Spike hadn't been there to see it. Her jeans were now sitting down in the laundry room with a hell of a lot of soap soaking into them. Spike looked over at her from under his arm and silently wished he'd brought sunglasses. He looked down at her bare pale legs and had thoughts of the good old days. The days when they didn't have to have those ritual talks about forgetting things. The days when they would torture one another and fight into the wee hours of the morning. This trip was going to be good for them. Get them back to the good old days. After all Faye was wearing the shorts again. "Lets go." Jet said. And they all took off. Jet and Spike kind of in the lead, Faye pulling up the rear keeping an eye on Ed. They had only been walking for twenty minutes, but Ed was getting antsy. Ed was running around behind them, but she was being pulled everyone and a while by a short cord that was attached to Faye's wrist. Faye had been the one to say "Why not. She's part of the crew too." After Jet and Spike had said no to Ed's pleading to come along. So now Faye was stuck babysitting Ed. The cord had been an ingenious way of making sure Ed didn't get into any trouble. She had broken a pair of her hand cuffs and had Jet solder a metal cord to the ends. Ed was wearing one bracelet and Faye had the other. Faye smiled at herself, and then Ed. Suddenly she was running after her left hand as it led her in Ed's direction. She shrieked as she passed the laughing Jet and Spike. She looked back over her shoulder and shot them a look and flipped them off.
Jet and Spike finally caught up to them by a big window display of wedding dresses. Faye was bent over trying to get her breath, her ribs still a little were protesting her breathing. "Hey, Ed. Don't run off like that." Jet said between laughs. "Faye's still recuperating." He laughed. Faye shot him a glance as he went to pry Ed away from the window. "You okay?" Spike said taking a hit from his cigarette as he stopped beside her. Faye took a deep breath and shot him death glare. "You really shouldn't run like that." He said a giggle in his voice. She didn't even look up, she just put up a stiff middle finger at him. He laughed and held out the cigarette. "Here." She moved her hair from her face and grabbed the cigarette. "Lunkhead." She took a hit and instantly felt better. Ah sweet relief. She suddenly winced as she was jerked a little by Ed running in a new direction. The only flaw in her plan had been attaching Ed to her left arm. That was the one that had been dislocated and beaten on just last week. But she needed to keep her gun hand open incase they ran into Death. Decisions, decisions.
She tried to pull Ed back, but didn't have enough power in the still sore arm. Spike laughed again, and put a stiff hand on top of the cuff on Faye's wrist. He pulled as hard as he could and yanked Ed all the way to Faye's feet. "Ha." Faye yelled at Ed, who was now rubbing her sore bottom. "Thanks." She said to Spike, his hand still on her wrist. "No problem. Its always fun throwing the pip-squeak around." Spike removed his hand. "You should have put her on the other hand." "How would you like to try and shoot something, or for that matter even pull your gun with that attached to you?" Faye said lifting the cord a little. "Good point." Spike lit a new cigarette. "We need to split up." Jet said moving into the circle. "Spike and me will take this side of the city. Faye you and Ed go that way." He said pointing in the opposite direction. "We'll meet up at that bar over at eight." He checked his watch. "Right." Faye said giving a salute. She looked over at the bar. "The Blue Rhino. Interesting." A large neon blue Rhino was in the window. "At least it won't be too hard to find again." "You have your comm.?" Jet asked pulling his out making sure it was on. "Yep, never leave home without it." She looked up to three skeptical faces. "Well, almost never." No change in the faces. "Shit, I have it don't I?" she said pulling it out and shoving it back into the inside pocket of her red sweater. Jet gave a snort of a laugh and walked off. Spike shoved his hands in his pockets and walked in front of Faye. He smiled at her and ruffled Ed's hair. "See ya at eight. Don't get into too much trouble." Faye flipped him off again and threw her diminished cigarette at his slowly retreating form. She looked down at Ed, and frantically searched for a pack of cigarettes. She came up empty. She looked down at Ed again, who was now pretending to be a dog, her tongue hanging out as she panted and walked around her. The cord was wrapping around her legs. "Jesus, at least give me a pack of Cigarettes!!!!" she yelled after Spike. She heard him laugh from the distance. "GAHH!!!!" She was spun around as Ed started walking back the way they had came. "What's first Faye-Faye?" Ed said jumping around. "First we find cigarettes." Faye said rubbing her butt as she got up from the ground. "And then we find Death."
It was ten minutes after eight, Spike and Jet were sitting at the bar, nursing their drinks. Nothing. They hadn't found a thing. How hard is it too find a guy known as Death. Especially when he lived there, and did all his work there. The bar was filled with smoke and people. Blues and Jazz filled the air. It was actually a really nice place to sit and think. Only the two men weren't in the mood for a good place to think. They were too damn upset. "Where is she?" Spike said throwing a pretzel in his mouth. "I hope she didn't do something stupid." Jet said giving the bartender a signal to refill his drink. Spike eyes went up to look at the side of Jet's face. He dreaded the thought of Faye all beaten and bleeding again. He did a mental shake. Just then the door burst open and in ran a barking Ed. Spike and Jet were the only ones not to turn and look. Ed, ran into the bar jumped up and over it and then back on top it again. Faye came running in right behind her, sailing into the bar stool right beside Spike. Ed, jumped off the bar and started to make a run for the jukebox. Spike again grabbed Faye's wrist and yanked. Ed came sailing back and landed at the foot of Jet's barstool. "Thirsty kid?" Jet asked Ed as he looked down at the panting young girl with a smile. Ed nodded her head violently. "Thanks." Faye said clutching her shoulder and panting for breath. "I owe you one." She said between breaths. Spike looked over at her and smiled, happy she wasn't all beat up and elated that Ed made her look like an idiot. "Two. But who's counting." He put up a hand to the bartender and he came over and looked at Faye. "What'll it be miss?" the bartender asked looking over the bar at the child on the floor. "Vodka. And lots of it." She said looking up. "Bring the whole damn bottle." The bartender smiled and looked down at the kid. "And for your kid?" "Water." Spike said laughing at Faye. The bartender strolled away and came back with the water and the bottle of Vodka, putting a small glass on the top of it. He smiled as he went to another customer.
"So what did you two find out?" Spike asked as he again yanked the cord getting Ed to sit down and drink her water. She started to lap it out of the cup like a dog. "Ed is a hell of a lot stranger than I thought." Faye said looking down at Ed still on the floor, lapping up her water. "She's been acting like a dog all damn day." Faye poured a glass of vodka for herself and filled Spike's empty glass as well. She downed it and looked up at the two men, both with wide grins. "Other than that, nothing much." "Ed was a blood hound. But Ed did not smell Death." She frowned. "She lead you around all day?" Spike asked gulping down his glass of vodka refilling both cups. Faye groaned and Spike and Jet smiled. "We got nothing. No one seems to want to finger Death. Go figure." Jet said shrugging. "I heard from the cigarette guy that everyone on Lester comes in here at least once a day. My guess is he was trying to tell me Death frequented The Blue Rhino." Faye said gasping as Ed started to move around again. Spike again grabbed the cord and yanked, he smiled over at Faye and put up three fingers. She flipped him off again and drank the vodka. "So you think we should stay for a while?" Jet said looking around the room, trying to spot anyone who might look like death. "Couldn't hurt." Faye said rubbing her temples. Jet remained turned in his seat now searching the crowd in the dark. "We were getting worried." Spike said as he downed his vodka, he refilled their glasses, and looked at the bottle. Going fast. "But I had Ed the wonder mut guarding me." Faye said bringing up the slack cord in her hand. She winced as she lowered her arm and started rubbing her sore shoulder. Spike laughed. "Maybe you should disconnect from the wonder mut before you do more damage to that shoulder." Spike said moving her hand away from her shoulder. The flesh seemed to be red and a little swollen. Faye tensed as he ran his finger over the flesh. He looked up into her eyes, his fingers still on her shoulder. They both took swallowed. Faye managed to shove a grin on her face. "Yeah, good idea." She got off the barstool and pushed Ed's head. "Come on Ed. Let's go to the bathroom and remove the leash." She made her way to the bathroom, looking back only once, to find Spike's eyes still on her. She turned around and walked into the ladies room.
Jet was looking at Spike from the corner of his eye, watching him watch Faye. Spike caught his glance and raised an eyebrow. He turned back to the bar and took another drink. Jet watched him, and then returned to his crowd searching. The door opened and three men walked in. Two of them were tall and skinny like Spike, and the other was big and beefy. Jet watched them as they sat at a table by the door. He elbowed Spike. "What?!" Spike practically yelled. Jet elbowed him again and nodded in the direction of the three men. "Oh." Spike said turning around completely in his stool. Just then one of the skinny men pulled out a gun and blasted a hole right in the big guys head. Everyone sat still for a couple seconds, the only sounds that of the ladies room door opening. Spike looked over at Faye who was standing in the lit doorway holding on to Ed's shirt, staring at the guy with the gun. Faye and Spike made eye contact, and in that split second everyone started to move.
Faye threw Ed over the bar near her, and dove over it herself. Spike and Jet threw themselves over the bar and landed in a heap on the floor. Women were screaming and running for the door. Some of the men were running with them, and some were pulling out guns. Faye grabbed on to Ed's shirt collar and scrambled on all fours over to Jet and Spike. They all had their guns drawn in an instant. Faye cuffed the cord to the metal rod that was on the bottom of the bar and snapped it back on to Ed's wrist. Faye's hand stifled Ed's yell of 'Hey.' "Everyone say hi to Death." Spike said, as the three of them stood from behind the bar, guns pointed. And then the bullets began to fly.
Okie-dokie. That's chapter five. Sorry to disappoint on the romance, but I'm getting there. Don't worry. I think you might even be able to look forward to it in the next chapter. That is if I get good reviews.
Next Chapter: Cheating Death and Killing the Mood