When there is Rain

Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy Bebop as much as I wish I did.

August 7, 2003: I fixed a few mistakes that I meant to fix earlier. Stupid me. -__-

**

She closed her eyes, letting the haunting lullaby coarse through her very being. Gentle words softly echoed through her head, coaxing her, pleading with her.

Faye Faye doesn't want to come back?

But she did want to go back. She yearned to return to the time when everything was so simple. Simplicity, it was something that she was lacking in her new life. Why couldn't she just escape from the nightmare, fly from the chains that bound her to the earth?

Go me! You can do it me!

Dull swirls of grey escaped from her lips as her lifeless emerald orbs met with the bland surroundings of the café. Letting the cigarette fall from her fingers to the ashtray, she sighed. Faye never did it; she never lived the life of her dreams. Fate made sure of it.

Not that she believed in the old broad or anything. Once she had a family, no make that twice. The first was with her mother, a woman with a gentle heart, who believed that even the smallest act of kindness could go a long way. What a strange fairytale that she lived in!

All people have good intentions wedged deep within their soul; some of them just don't know it.

Then why didn't those cruel passers-by lift a finger to help her in her time of need. Why couldn't they see that she was slowly fading away? No, her mother was wrong. By nature, humans are selfish bastards that couldn't give a damn about what was happening in the world.

Some people, like her mother, were able to overcome that flaw, but they never would last very long.  Life functioned through natural selection, only the strongest would survive. Those who didn't care for their own well-being couldn't last in such a world, filled with lies and the filthy lowlifes that lived them.

That brings her to the second family that she came across. A small smile graced her lips as she remembered the strange group that she had come to love.  They accepted her, more or less, because fate had also dealt them some sour cards.

The youngest was Edward, a strange yet spunky teenager; perhaps she was the most innocent of the crew. Always the joker, she had pushed Faye to the limits more than once. But she could never stay mad at the kid because that's what she was, just a kid.

Next was Jet, a retired ISSP officer. She never had an older brother before so she supposed that he might as well act like Jet if he ever were to exist. Jet was the father of the group who was there to worry, mainly about money, a problem Faye helped to create.

Last in line, Spike Spiegel isn't one to be forgotten. The clown nearly caused her to blow a few fuses especially in the final days. It wasn't something that she really liked to remember, but he had always compared her, judged her. And he always seemed to win their arguments, always knowing what she would do next. She never thought that he would be the one to disappear.

And when he started to fade, she couldn't do anything to help him. Spike Spiegel was beyond her reach; he always had been.

Damn him to hell for making her feel guilty.

Shaking her head, Faye stood from the small chair, carefully smoothing out the wrinkles of her black skirt. Gathering her purse and jacket, she quickly said her goodbyes, exiting the warm café only to move into the cold, mostly deserted, streets of Mars. Not many people liked coming out after sundown especially with the recent issues with the various syndicates.

Keeping an eye on her purse, which was now resting beside her feet, she carefully slid her body into her leather jacket, concealing what little heat what she had. Moving the small bag to her shoulder, the young woman made her way back to her small apartment, passing various shady individuals. With the most intimidating look she could muster, she walked back pass them with her head held high, letting her cold emerald eyes do the talking.

If you think that I'm just another easy target, you've got another thing coming.

So they left her alone, and she didn't have to add some more problems to her growing list. She liked her new life, don't get her wrong. After Faye left the Bebop six months before, she managed to pick up the broken shards of her life, slowly piecing them back together as if they a large jigsaw puzzle. If only Jet and the others could see her now… things were definitely looking up.

She quit gambling for one thing. Well she quit gambling after she finally earned enough to start a new life. Well what did you expect? She couldn't very well start from scratch, could she?

And then her wardrobe was replaced with something a little more appropriate. As much as she hated to admit it, a certain mismatched eye lunkhead made her want to make a change. Faye knew that she would never compare to his angel, the woman who could do no wrong.

Julia was the angel yet she was simply known as the shrew.

She has Spike; Faye never had him.

And she accepted those facts while pushing her own feelings aside.

Never alter the truth. The more delusional you are, the more pain you receive.

That is the lesson.

Faye stopped as she heard a distant, and familiar, rumble above her. "Looks like rain."

"Where does rain come from?"

"When angels cry, their tears become rain."

"But why do they cry?"

Pushing the thoughts away, Faye approached her apartment complex. It wasn't much, but at least she didn't have to worry about having a roof over her head. Making her way up a flight of stairs, and then turning a corner, she could make out the faded numbers of her home, apartment number 205.

"You've been out all day again?" Faye turned her head slightly, her emerald orbs meeting with pair of old violet eyes. "You're lucky that you got back before the storm."

"Hey Margo," she greeted. "I guess I got lost in my thoughts again." Rolling her hand into a fist, she gently tapped her forehead for emphasis. Saying her usual quick goodbye, Margo watched as the young girl vanished into her apartment.

"We all get a little lost sometimes, but we always have someone to bring us back home." She whispered. Looking up at the sky, she noticed tiny drops of water falling towards the earth. "I suppose the angels have many things to cry about tonight."

**

"I'm home!" called Faye as she placed her jacket on the worn rack. She smiled as she heard an all too familiar crash from her bedroom. Just as she suspected, a small black kitten sprinted towards her. "And how was your day, Spike?" After picking up her only companion up, she moved into her living room, placing "Spike" on the soft couch beside her.

Closing her eyes, she listened to the song of the storm as the rain continued to viciously attack her fragile windows. She remembered the last time there was a violent storm. It was the night that she found out he wasn't coming back. The clouds, that cold evening, were as black as ever. Every so often sparks of silver lit up the sky, releasing its fury.

He wanted to find out if he was really alive.

Faye wondered if he ever did. Didn't Spike know that he had people who cared about him? Did he ever realize what his death would affect everyone that was left behind?

"When angels cry, their tears become rain."

"But why do they cry?"

"They cry for the people that they left behind."

"Are you crying for me Spike?" she asked. "Am I even worth your tears?" She shouldn't have cared what he thought back then, and she definitely shouldn't have taken his death so seriously.

But the truth was that Faye did care about his opinions, and she did cry for him many nights after his death. She supposed that the truth was rather simple.

"The truth is," she whispered. "The truth is that I fell in love with a man that I could never have."

~Fin~