Hey all, welcome to chapter three. While I would really like to thank everyone who reviewed chapter two, (I love you all! Marry me!) (. I was kidding about the marriage thing.) I'm also really hurting for reviews. I've been having a writers block lately, and they realllly encourage me, I swear it.

In other news, I have the outline for this story all planned out, and am currently in shock over my own genius. You're going to LOVE this one, folks. I can just smell it.

I don't own Cowboy Bebop, and please enjoy the show.

O, My Troubles With God. (Has anyone gotten the fact that the title is a song?)

By Rio Grande

Chapter Three: The Good People of Mars.



"Mornin'" Spike said, rustling his newspaper, and addressing Faye jovially that fine Saturday morning.

Faye made a guttural grunting sound as she stumbled into the room, that could have been a response, but just as well might not have been, automatically letting her feet take her over to the coffee machine of her hotel room. Damn, staying in this place was getting expensive, and she was running out of money from the last big haul she'd had, on a particularly good bounty named 'Fast Hands Harry'. (We're not going to discuss how she had caught him. We're just. not.) She had been thoroughly proud of herself when she hadn't instantly spent all of the reward money on gambling, but her elation was quickly converting over to horror as she realized she was down to her last few woolongs, and it wouldn't be long until she couldn't afford to keep up the rich lifestyle she was maintaining. Three more days, it looked like. Shit.

Mulling over these thoughts as she poured herself some coffee, Spike, who was used to Faye's wretched morning attitude, commented lightly from his chair:

"Hey, did you know that Lincoln and Co is filing for bankruptcy?"

"No! You don't mean that oil company owned by George Lincoln?" Faye croaked over her steaming mug of coffee.

"That's the one. Hmm, how the mighty have fallen," the lanky man commented, diving back into his paper, not bothering to check up on the double meaning of his statement, and leaving Faye to scheme up a new way to get fast cash. She had a sinking feeling that she couldn't depend on Yoloko's bounty to get her through the next three days. That woman was too sly! She had already struck fear into the hearts of obviously a lot of good connections in the area, possibly started her very own gang of civilians to keep a look out on things for her, and had something bigger going on in the background that Faye just couldn't figure out. If so many people were protecting her, instead of trying to turn her in. it must be important. Faye was stumped. Hmph. She wished Jet were here, he was always the thinking man.

But, Faye's eyes got kind of all misty like when she thought about Jet, and Ed and Ein and the Bebop, so she quickly just stopped thinking about them, throwing her empty cup in the sink for the maids, and swiftly heading back to her room to get dressed. It was no use dwelling over THEM. That chapter of her life had ended, a bit regretfully, even she'd admit it, a long time ago. To try and reopen that part of the book would just be foolish, since she'd already read it, and had to work towards the ending of the story, instead of retracing her steps.

Spike briefly glanced up from his newspaper. He was pretty interested in what the living were up to, for being dead and all.

"You going somewhere?" he asked, watching her pull out a fresh pair of clothes in her room. She peeked at him, before getting up to close her door. Ghost or not, Spike would not get the privilege of watching her change. In fact, no man had, it quite a while. And Faye really wasn't bothered by it. which actually did sort of bother her. SHOULDN'T she be bothered by it?

"Yeah, I'm going to do some more surveillance on Yoloko's case," she said, slamming the door shut. Spike sighed, it's not as though he really would have looked. Besides, if he wanted to see her, he could just stick his head through the door, anyway, and she'd never know...

"What surveillance? You don't know where she is," he pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"No, but I can take a peek in those jerk's houses who tried to kill us yesterday," she said from her in room.

After nearly having her head blasted off yesterday, Faye had sent Spike down to the police station to see what the fate of the men who had been caught by the police was. They had been all unconscious on the floor of Tom's Pharmacy, so the police took them in easily. detaining them for a total of four hours before their rich ass families got them off on bail, was what Spike reported.

Apparently these men were some of the wealthiest in the already really wealthy Mars' neighborhood.

Which made Faye and Spike very curious. Just what were they doing getting tangled up with twisted people like Yoloko? These men were well known, respected, and probably some had good families. Why stake their reputation to keep one very incessant bounty hunter off the homicidal maniac's back? What was in it for them? Faye had a feeling it had to do with that secret operation Yoloko was obviously pulling the strings on behind the scenes. and if only she could figure out what it was! She shook her head with frustration, pulling on her black tube top, and grabbing her jacket on the way out.

"All right then, I'll go too. But I don't think we're going to find much. Except you might get arrested for sneaking onto their property," Spike commented lightly, coming to the end of the paper. He had been awake long before Faye, on account of he really didn't feel the need to sleep anymore, since his death.

Spike glanced up again as the woman exited her room. She was wearing light jeans mini shorts with suspenders, a black tube top, a red jeans jacket, red sneakers, and a healthy amount of eyeliner, with matching red lipstick to go with her jacket and shoes. Stylin'. Or not. Yep, Faye definitely hadn't changed overly much in the past three years.

Faye gave Spike the once over as well, as he stood and put his newspaper aside. He still wore that dumb old blue suit and yellow shirt, and his hair looked as though he STILL hadn't brushed it in years. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and flicked a tendril of short purple hair back behind her ear. Yep, Spike definitely had changed overly much since he'd died.

And about that whole death thing. Faye had recently decided that she was okay with it. Well, she could deal with it, at least. This was Spike Spiegel they were talking about here. Him coming back from the dead was a daily occurrence it seemed, even if, this time around, he really WAS dead, and just visiting. Nothing to worry herself over. nothing to stress out about. At least she had him back. Wait, what was she saying? It wasn't as though she really ENJOYED his company, or felt SAFER with him around, or anything! God, who cared about him, really? He was just going to help her get her money, and then she was going to repay him for 'saving her life', that was it. Nothing more, nothing less. The days when she reminisced about Spike were long gone, she assured herself.

Faye sighed and grabbed her key card, a list of names of the men who had jumped her in the pharmacy, and stuck a semi automatic in the back of her shorts, where her jacket safely hid it, as she left. Spike drifted lazily though the door after her. That man was going to be the death of her. But she'd be damned if she let HIM in on that little bit of knowledge. He'd probably get a good laugh out of it.

*

Yoloko looked up at the bright morning sky, the same sky Spike had found himself contemplatively looking out into, earlier. She sighed, feeling the sun bask her body in light. The guards were all outside her room now, and she finally allowed herself a bit of privacy. She wasn't a particularly strong, or athletic person, and she knew what sort of money she had on her head. Keeping herself flocked with robotic like bodyguards was the only way she felt safe anymore, but sometimes. sometimes she just wanted to be alone.

Opening her arms up, she embraced the day, closing her eyes, and letting memories flood in. Memories. They were a dangerous thing. Especially good ones. Bad memories she could handle, bad memories fueled her desire to continue with her slightly scrupulous job, and be the person she was. But good memories. good memories were painful and upsetting. Raw, unhealed, maddening. Who needed them, anyway?

If she dwelled too much on the good things she used to have, the good times she used to have, that little nagging voice in the back of her head would guilt trip her to the point of insanity, and she'd probably send herSELF to a mental institution. She'd done too many horrid things in this lifetime already, to turn back, and try to make things better, to start over. It was too late for her, and she'd be damned if she'd let herself cave in to the guilt, and throw everything away, at this point.

Pondering her future, and her past, she fingered the silver, heart shaped locket that lay over her chest. She didn't know why she kept it there. All it did was remind her of the past that ate her out from the inside, and tore at her very essence every night. She supposed it was to keep a balance. To remind herself that this was who she was, this was what she did, and she enjoyed doing it, most of the time. However, it also kept her from going over the edge, from taking it to the next level and letting her sadistic state of mind become full blown madness, at which point she was sure she would foul up all of her carefully, laboriously laid plans.

No. she couldn't let things go to waste. not now. Not this late in the game. She was doing so well, and if she followed the rules, it would just get better. She would be richer than a king. And nothing, not memories, not consciences, not lockets filled with recollections of her old life, and certainly not stupid, hair brained female bounty hunters, were going to stop her now.

She was doing too well, and Faye Valentine was going to have to be removed from the picture. It was just too risky.

*

"Hey, hand over the popcorn. Spike, hand over the popcorn! Spike!" Faye said, putting her binoculars down on the tree trunk, and making a move to snatch the small bag of popcorn from Spike's hand. Deftly, he shot his hand up and out of her reach, while his other hand continued to type away at Faye's small, slightly less than efficient, laptop. The woman was definitely not a computer person, and Spike was no expert hacker himself, but he figured he could get more info on the guys they were spying on than she ever could.

"Nope," Spike said, simply.

"Hey!!" she growled, swinging her leg off the branch, so she could more efficiently lunge at the popcorn hording bastard, in hopes of stealing back her tasty snack. Spike grinned lightly as Faye crashed through his body, banging her head on the tree's bark behind him. Yet another one of the few perks of being deceased. "Ouch. Ouch, that definitely hurt. Spiiiikke!" she whined, backing up, and straddling the tree branch so she wouldn't topple off the oak and do more than bruise her head.

"Smooth," Spike chuckled.

"Shut up." Faye said, rubbing her forehead. "You shouldn't be teasing injured people like me! I'm still at a very critical point in my healing process, and you are not helping!" she huffed. At this Spike really did look up.

"How IS your arm, anyway?" He had almost forgotten about her bullet wound, and had no idea how it was doing. She just hadn't TALKED about it much, which was surprising in itself. But, there it was, her slightly swollen upper arm, still wrapped in a white bandage of which Faye changed occasionally. When she felt like it, or had some time on her hands.

"Oh, well, actually, if you're going to be serious about it, it's doing fine," the woman admitted, flexing her left arm briefly. "It hardly bothers me if I leave it alone, and I don't use this arm much in any case. I'm lucky it missed any important muscles, I suppose."

"Good," he said, re-engrossing himself with the laptop. Faye sighed, so much for that fleeting moment of concern. She picked up her binoculars and continued to stare down at the large, white house beneath her, thankful for the tree's shade from the strong sun that day. It was simply sweltering out, but neither Faye nor Spike noticed it much. Bounty hunters were not made to feel little annoying things like overheating, bullet wounds, malnutrition, or head trauma. They were the master race, specially built for all kinds of hellish situations. Living on the Bebop had been enough proof of that.

The first house of the four Faye and Spike had decided to hit, was Ricky Walker's. He was the VP of a very important computer software business, was extremely loaded, and lived in a house that resembled a library. The back lawn seemed to continue for miles, and surrounding it was a strategically placed clump of trees, the larger of one Faye and Spike were perched upon, spying into the windows of the house. It would be no good to ring the doorbell and check on good old Ricky at this point, since he already knew who Faye was, and probably wouldn't take kindly to finding her at his doorstep.

"You find anything?" Faye asked after a minute of peering into darkened windows, and seeing nothing of interest, except for what looked like a tired cleaning lady, diligently vacuuming away at an expensive oriental rug. Hm. Guess Ricky had better things to do today then hang around the house. Maybe he had to buy a new gun after the police had confiscated his. Maybe after he bought said gun, he was going to go back out and look for Faye with his totally out of their minds buddies. The woman shuddered. Staying in this town was getting weirder and weirder.

"Yeah, I've got a profile on him, but nothing all too helpful," Spike admitted, motioning for her to come over and take a look. Faye, carefully, did so, leaning over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. "He's had no criminal charges pressed against him before that that time with you, the gun he used was fully licensed, and he hasn't even been kicked off the job for the incident at the pharmacy," Spike dictated. Faye groaned and smacked her head. Ungh. And people wondered why the crime rates were so bad in small towns.

"Well, what about family. Anyone in the family have connections?"

"Not likely," Spike snorted, clicking on a link. A picture of a pretty woman with black hair and a frilly magenta ball gown popped up, and next to her a picture of cute little baby. "This is his family. Denise Walker, most notably known for her win in the Miss Mars contest when she was eighteen, and her community service work at local preschools. That's the daughter of Denise and Rick, three year old Annabelle." Faye sighed. And weirder and weirder.

"Okay, I definitely wasn't expecting this. This doesn't look like a family who would get caught up in stuff like what Yoloko is doing! What is this place trying to do, purposely throw me off? If I didn't need this money so bad I would toss the whole case out the window." she said firmly.

"And if you weren't as stubborn as a mule, and determined to figure this case out even if it means acquiring a new bullet hole in your head."

"That too-Hey! Shudap!"

"Why don't we get out of here? There obviously isn't anything to find by peering through windows. If they really were doing something like hoarding Yoloko, she probably wouldn't be standing around windows, anyway." Spike said, rubbing his head. He too, wanted to be off this case. He had far more important things to be doing. Like, oh, he didn't know, getting out of eternal limbo.

"Yeah, you're right." Faye admitted with a sigh, tossing her head back. "This place just looks like a bitch to break into, though, and I don't feel like getting caught."

"At least you can acknowledge the fact that you would,"

"Are you suggesting I'm not sneaky? Not sly enough to sneak in there without getting caught?" Poker Alice asked, insidiously.

"Come on, you're like, the klutz Queen when you put your mind to it. This would be more a job for."

"For you!" Faye said, smiling. "No one will see you! Why didn't I think of it before! YOU can sneak in there and take a peak around! It'll be great!" she laughed, snapping her fingers triumphantly.

"Oh come on." Spike groaned.

"Hey, the faster we get this case done with, the faster we can investigate your little problem!" Faye reminded him, striking a low blow.

"Ugh. Great. This'll be fun," Spike said, obediently gliding off the tree, and floating towards the house. Faye watched him saunter off with a frown. That was just a little disturbing.

Glancing back at her pathetic little excuse for a laptop, Faye took another peak at the picture of Denise Walker. Hmm. she knew she had seen that woman somewhere before. but where?

"Ohhh, I didn't know I had solitaire on this thing!"

*

"Hmmm. this place seems very suspicious, doesn't it?" Spike asked the maid, as be glanced at a dangerous looking collection of encyclopedias. The maid continued to vacuum diligently, neither seeing, nor hearing Spike as he quietly snooped around. "Maybe they'll be something more interesting in the bedroom. See ya later," Spike said, waving to the maid as he moseyed off.

The master bedroom was, like everything else in the house, large, white, pristine, and needlessly fancy. How could anyone actually live in a place as expensive and perfect looking as this one? It just wasn't human. And how did everything stay so white?

"Once again, a dead end," Spike sighed, as he skimmed through Ms. Walker's magazine collection, scavenged through Mr. Walker's closet, and checked the jewelry boxes for. what? He didn't really know what he was looking for. Anything out of the ordinary, he guessed. But, not one thing seemed out of place.

Finally he reached the connecting bathroom, immediately heading over for the medicine cabinet.

"What's this?" he asked quietly, reaching into the cabinet and taking out a large number of serious drugs. Prozac, organic sleeping pills, a plastic container of what looked like valium, and was that. riddilin? Er. "Riiight." Spike sighed, shaking his head. Well, these people were rich, which obviously meant they had a lot of serious mental problems, and most likely all of these things were prescription. So nothing TOO out of the ordinary there. Though the valium seemed to be stretching it, Spike let it slide, and carefully put everything back where he had found it. At least now he had something to tell Faye about, though he had a feeling she was going to be less than pleased.

'If Ed were here, she would have been able to hack into some serious information on Yoloko, and we'd have had this case cracked yesterday.' Spike thought as he drifted out of the house. But thinking about Ed, and Jet and Ein and the Bebop kind of got him all misty eyed, so he quickly just stopped thinking about them. He had seen all of the Bebop crew before, around a year ago now, and they hadn't been able to see him. Which most likely meant they were all at peace with his death, and he didn't' want to disturb them. If they could let go of them, well then he could damn well let go of THEM.

Though that still didn't explain Faye.

"Hey! Faye!" he called up to the tall tree. A distinct 'Shhhh!'ing sound was what he could in reply, so he scratched his head and floated up to be at eye level with the buxom bounty huntress.

"What's up?" he asked.

"The family just got back, their Mercedes is parked in the front, and they're all heading towards the house.I'm watching them through that window." She explained quickly in hushed tones, staring furiously through a lower window that gave a good view of the front door. Spike narrowed his eyes and looked at what he could without the help of the binoculars. He couldn't see much, but he definitely could tell that Rick and Denise were talking at the door, and Denise seemed to be holding Annabelle.

"They're fighting," Faye explained. "I think they're fighting.Well, at least, they're talking HEATEDLY, but I can't really tell what they're discussing. Maybe-" Before Faye could say anymore, she felt Spike lift her up from around the waist, and soon she was soaring a few yards above the ground, heading towards the front door. Faye squeaked.

"Ahhh! Put me down you sonuvabitch!" she cried, scared out of her mind, and throwing her arms around Spike's neck so tight that, even though he had no blood, he could feel it begin to get cut off.

"Shhh. if anyone sees you like this, questions might be asked," he replied sarcastically, putting her down behind a bush that, coincidentally, had a great view of Denise and Ricky. One could even make out tidbits of what they were actually saying. Faye was slightly impressed, but, then again, this was Spike.

"I can't believe!- So irresponsible . Can't you think for yourself!?- Common sense!- Damn lucky I bailed you out- Should have let you rot in jail!-" Was some of what the two bounty hunters could make out from Denise's never ending rant. Ricky appeared to be listening to her with on ear, hands stuffed guiltily in his pockets, like a scorned child.

"Hey! You were the one who saw her!- Know what she said!- Have to! Don't look at me like-! The others are fine, THEIR wives aren't-! It's no big deal. Hey! Don't cry Annabelle!" Ricky seemed to be furiously defending himself, when the little girl in Denise's arms burst into tears, awoken by all of the fighting. As she began to powerfully wail, Denise seemed to get even angrier, face red with emotion.

"Now look what you-!- can't go on, I don't know why I told you I saw- This is getting bad- Clean up your act or!- Annabelle to bed," Spike and Faye made out, as Denise spun on her heal and headed for the stairs, completely unaware of the two suspicious sets of eyes, following her every move. Ricky stared after her for a second, before making an aggravated growling sound, and heading over to his blue Mercedes, hopping in and speeding off, burning rubber. He obviously hadn't liked the way that conversation turned out.

"Hmmm." Faye said, standing up and dusting off her pants. "That was a little curious. And now I definitely know where I've seen Denise before, which makes everything a little weirder." she admitted. Spike stood up with her, mentally trying to put some pieces of this puzzle together, and drawing an uncomfortable amount of dead ends.

"Oh yeah? Where?" he asked, heading back down the street, eager to get out of the uncomfortably ritzy neighborhood. They had some more houses to hit, in any case.

"She was the woman who was staring at me funny when we first entered Tom's Pharmacy. She gave me a weird look. and then she left," Faye explained.

"And right after that, her husband and his friends show up to try and scare you off," Spike added, narrowing his eyes. "Meaning that it looks as though Denise might very well be getting a bit of this action. Or at least she has a good idea of what's going on,"

"It definitely looks that way from the conversation we just saw, as well. Although she doesn't seemed to thrilled about the whole idea. Especially not the part where her husband got arrested. I'm sure her neighbors are having a heyday with that one," Faye said, cracking her neck as she walked, laptop tucked under her arm.

"This is getting pretty messy, and I have a feeling that a lot more people than we first assumed know what's going on with Yoloko in this neighborhood. It's like they all KNOW she's here, but don't want us to do anything about it," Spike said, sighing.

"Maybe she had some family in the neighborhood? Maybe they're trying to protect her." Faye pointed out.

"I don't know, it doesn't really feel like it," Spike mumbled. "On the other hand, I tried to tap into her personal files last night with this hunk of scrap metal you've dubbed a laptop, and couldn't get anything, so maybe it is. I really don't know who her relatives are, just her dead ex's family, since they're the ones offering the reward."

"You know, all this mystery is really encouraging me to crack this case!" Faye sighed, aggravated. "If I left the whole thing as is now, I'd just die! I need to know what the answer is, what's been going on here!" she cried. Spike, surprisingly, nodded in solemn agreement.

"I know what you mean. I really want to figure this one out too, believe it or not. That's generally not a good sign with me, too," the man said, sighing with a grim smile on his face. "Because it usually means that someone's going to get hurt, or the whole things will blow up in our faces in the worst possible way,"

"Can't wait," Faye mumbled, as they walked off.

*

Much later that day, Faye found herself staring up at a rather posh seafood restaurant, appropriately titled, 'Fish.' Apparently the restaurant had found itself to expensive and ritzy to make up a nice, witty name. And just when she had thought she was done investigating random seafood places! What a hassle. On the other hand, she really didn't know where else to go, and the note had simply said: 'Watch the fish.' Nothing more, nothing less. Sighing, she puffed out her chest, dusted off her modest, long red skirt, and started forward. (She had actually changed into something a little more appropriate and fancy, for once, not feeling up to dealing with the odd stares. She was just too tired.)

She had Spike had actually gotten around to peaking into the other three suspect's houses that day, all of which were as equally as big and innocent as the first, noting that, also, all of the men in question were out for the day. Curious. What was really frustrating though, was that none of these men seemed guilty of any crimes whatsoever! Like with Ricky, besides the eerily clean houses and perfect families, the only odd part about their lifestyles, was the impressive collection of prescription drugs, (some non per scripted) they had stashed away in their medicine cabinets. Large, plastic containers of valium seemed to be a theme. All of the men also worked for large, important companies, some for the same one, and none of them had been penalized for their actions at the pharmacy. It was just too perfect, and the two bounty hunters were ready to get out the air freshener, because something smelled like a really big, dead, decaying rat. Or fish. Something definitely smelled fishy.

Then, later, leading to the reason as to why Faye was hauling ass over to yet another seafood restaurant, and Spike was back at HQ, still working away at the laptop. was because after Faye had returned to the hotel, she had gotten an anonymous e-mail. An e-mail that said simply: 'Watch the fish.' She had been baffled at first, but then she put two and two together, remembering Yoloko's seafood fetish, and decided that maybe it was another time to do her rounds with the local seafood places. The 'Fish', seemed like a capital place to start. Spike hadn't offered to go with her, so she had quickly sashayed over to 'Fish' alone.

Sighing heavily, and resting her face in her hand, Faye stared out at the crowds of people, mumbling loudly around her. She told the stuffy looking waiter that, yes, she'd need a bit more time deciding on what she wanted to eat, (Especially since she was realizing she didn't have enough money to even purchase the most meager of appetizers on the menu.) and that no, she didn't want any wine. The ice water was just fine.

'What am I looking for?' Faye wondered, tapping a fingers on the table in a bored fashion. 'I was in a situation like this only a few days ago, with no leads, and even now, after everything that's happened, I still feel as though I'm stuck on square one. What does the fact that there are some weird as all Hell rich people in this town tell me? Maybe they just got bored and thought it would be fun to spook the out of towner. And honestly, what does 'Watch the fish', supposed to mean? Why am I here? Do I really expect to find something?' she wondered, a small, but deep frown forming on her attractive features. 'This entire case is just going to the dogs. I thought Spike was supposed to be helping!' At this her expression softened. 'Oh, who am I kidding. He IS helping! At least, he's trying, and not being half as obnoxious about it as he would have been if he was still alive,' she stared down at her hands, having a small epiphany of sorts in her head, that very moment.

'Am I being truly selfish? Keeping Spike here with me when he's a ghost, stuck in limbo, wanting nothing more to be sent to heaven to be with the woman he loves? Am I going to go to Hell for this? For keeping his tormented soul by my side just to solve this, insignificant in the scheme of things, case? Oh, God. I really am a bitch,' she summed up, closing her eyes. '.Whatever. I already knew that,'

'Click.'

Faye's head whipped to the side, as she heard the, always ominous, and terribly familiar, sound of the safety being taken off something, but far in the distance. Her luminous turquoise eyes searched the dimly lit premises for any guns being pointed her way. and stopped, sucking in a mortified breath, as she DEFINITLY spotted something being pointed at her.

It was a freaking beam cannon!

Okay, well, it was a bazooka, but that wasn't much better! Screeching in fright, and alerting other paying customers to the fact that there was a man standing just outside the window of the restaurant, sporting a large bazooka pointed at the room, or more specifically, the pretty bounty hunter who was shaking and crawling along the ground. People immediately panicked, screaming and jumping out of their seats, throwing themselves behind things, and rushing like chickens without their heads to the back exit. Faye was about to get to her feet to happily join them, when the deranged man at the window let a shot fire, and there was the sound of glass shattering, followed by a large explosion. that would have hit Faye and immediately reduced her to ashes, had she not been whisked off her feet and flung to the side with the assistance of a familiar looking, vaguely handsome man with green fuzzy hair.

"Spike!" Faye croaked thankfully, her body shaking, sweat pouring down her face, chest heaving heavy, labored breaths.

"Hey," he replied. "I was about to join you for dinner, when I spotted someone aiming a bazooka at the window." he explained.

"Thank you." she whispered, completely meaning every word. Behind Spike, who was leaning over Faye, still sprawled on the ground, the entire wall was in flames, the tables soon engulfed as well, and sparks and pieces of burnt wood were collection on the ground, threatening to whack anyone who approached over the head with falling debris. The scene was slightly chaotic, and people were still rushing to the doors, customers and staff alike. Someone in the distance calling the cops, an act which was virtually futile, since the man with the bazooka was long gone, disappearing into the shadows, a total enigma to not only the police, but now Spike and Faye. Damn it all.

"Don't worry, I'll just add it to your tab after this is over, and I drag you around the galaxy trying to figure out how to save my soul," he said, honestly. Faye snorted, but still looked thankful none-the-less. There might have even been a few tears seeping out of her big pretty eyes, even. That had been quite a shock. and he was.

"Why do you always save me?" she whispered, the world drifting away, so that she was no longer in a loud, burning restaurant, but only with Spike, focusing all her attention towards the man leaning over her.

"Why not?" Spike whispered back, offering no other answers. Not that night, at least. Faye found her face suddenly uncomfortably close to the dead man's, his eyes half lidded, hers rather glossy and dreamy looking. And as she felt his breath touch her lips, it occurred to her that this was probably not an ideal spot to make out in. but hell! She wasn't about to complain!

However Spike seemed to be thinking along the same lines, or something vaguely akin to them, because, suddenly, he was off her, standing up and cleaning off his blue suit pants that were covered in a light layer of ash. He looked thoroughly unfazed, where as Faye was slightly floundering around, still back down, on the floor.

"Erk!" she gasped, slapping one hand to her mouth as she sat up. Had she seriously just been considering kissing Spike?! Had he been about to- However, glancing at him as he looked off at the burning embers, observing the damage the bazooka had done, she highly doubted it. He didn't even look fazed! Spike only had one woman in his life. She had to remember that. She couldn't let her control slip.

"Ma'am! Ma'am, are you hurt!?" a worried waiter asked, rushing towards Faye, and helping her to her feet.

"No. I'm fine," she lied, rubbing her head, trying to clear the cobwebs from it. That had been very odd, and Spike was still not looking at her.

"Well then we should get out of here! If the fire continues to travel, the roof could collapse on us!" the small waiter squeaked, dragging Faye towards the exit. She followed him, forcing herself not to turn around and check to see if Spike was following. She convinced herself she didn't care, either way.

But she did.

*

Yoloko stared down at the crate in front of her, arms folded as two of her bodyguards leaned down, to try and pry the box open. The large, wooden crate was stinking the room up, and Madame Yoloko backed up further into her fancy looking living room, edging away from the stench.

"Madame Yoloko!" a man, another body guard, dressed all in black and with an added ski mask, cried, rushing through the door, before stopping respectfully in front of the woman, and doing a little bow of sorts. Yoloko nodded silently, urging him to continue. She had sent this man out around two hours ago, it was high time he came back. "I found the woman, the bounty huntress, just as you asked! But."

"But?" Yoloko asked, her voice quiet and as dangerously smooth as silk.

"But she was at a restaurant," he started.

"That shouldn't have stopped you." She said flatly.

"That wasn't it," he assured her. "I aimed for her, but she just literally flew out of the way! The shot went clear through the wall behind her, and she was safe, off to the side. I don't understand how she did it! She was just standing there, and the next thing you knew, wham! She was a good six feet away!" he explained, nervously trying to explain his situation. Yoloko's eyes stayed expressionless, hauntingly empty as always, but her deep red lipped curled back menacingly.

"That sounds a bit odd to me, are you sure that's how it happened?" she asked.

"There were witnesses! They saw it!" he assured her.

"Witnesses?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, no one who saw ME personally!" he added, sweating profusely now. Jeez, talking to this woman was like getting a root canal! Long and painful, and usually the dentist didn't even give you a lollipop at the end! "Just the shot, they saw the bazooka. I was gone before anyone saw me, and the cops couldn't find anything, I swear!" he explained. "No one was killed, either,"

"Well that's too bad," Yoloko sighed, closing her eyes. "This bounty huntress is better at her job then we thought. At first I assumed she was just a ditz looking for cash, but now. John!" she ordered, a bulky looking guard looking up from the crate, to address her. "I want a full profile on Faye Valentine in my hands by tomorrow. I want to know everything about her. There's something suspicious about that one. it's like she's getting outside help."

"Yes ma'am." The guard said, nodding, just as the crate behind him was finally pried open. In it, was revealed to be a large, wet, still fresh pile of dead, shiny blue fish. Yoloko smiled in satisfaction. Yes!

*

Author's Notes:

Did you like it? Are you confused? Am I going too fast? Please tell me, I want reviews REALLLY bad!! And I'm so stressed, if I don't get any, I just don't know WHEN I'll be able to find the time to add new chapters to this fiction!. Okay, not a very scary threat, but I don't really have anything else to use against you people!

-Rio Grande