"Damn it Ed!"
The thirteen year old cringed at the sound of Spike's voice resonating down the halls of the ship. Uh-oh, she thought, Spike found out I hid his cigarettes again. Can't the guy take a hint?
He charged into the living area and squared off in front of Ed, who was standing on the hard yellow couch.
"Where are my cigarettes?" he demanded, and bent down so his face was level to hers.
She stuck her tongue out at him and answered "Ed won't tell!"
Spike's eye twitched out of frustration and the increasing craving for nicotine.
"Ed, you have until the count of three to place my cigarettes into my hand."
"Edward will not give Spike-person his icky cigarettes! They're bad for him!"
"One..."
Ed began repeating the phrase "Ed won't tell!" over and over again at varying pitch and volume.
"Two..."
Her litany continued unabated.
"Three!" Spike lunged to grab Ed, but she slipper away and jumped onto a pipe on the ceiling, scuttling away into an air duct, still shouting her mantra. In the attempt to grab her Spike lunged too far forward, and crashed face-first into the floor. There he spotted his pack of cigarettes under the couch, and quickly retrieved them.
"Stupid kid," he muttered as he lit a bent cigarette. "I hate kids."
When she was thoroughly convinced that she was out of Spike's range, Ed dropped down out of the air duct and proceeded into the kitchen, where Faye sat with her head on the counter. She opened a bloodshot eye and followed Ed across the room with it before groaning and turning away.
Faye looks sick, thought Ed. What was the old Earth remedy...oh yeah! Chicken soup! I'll make some chicken soup for Faye so she'll feel better.
The clanging of pots and cabinet doors grated against Faye's raw nerves, and drew the attention of Jet. He entered to witness his kitchen being torn apart.
"Ed! What the hell are you doing?!"
"Making Faye-Faye some soup!" called Ed from deep inside a cabinet. "She's sicky-wicky!"
Jet glanced over at Faye. She had her hands clamped over her head and was moaning "Make her stop Jet..."
Ed popped out of the cabinet, soup pot in hand and walked past Jet. He stopped her mid-stride and took the pot from her.
"Why don't' you let me do that, Ed. How about you go look for new bounties?"
"Roger-dodger Jet,-person!" She set off to her laptop with her hands out to her sides like an airplane, with sound effects to match.
Jet turned to face his destroyed kitchen and ran his hand over his bald scalp. Faye slumped off of the stool and onto her feet, mumbling "...should've left that kid on Earth..." before retiring to her room.
A few hours later a shrill cry of "Got one!" rang down the corridors of the ship.
"Jet-person! I found a bounty!"
That's nice, Ed, thought Jet. Damn kid's just a bother.
"It's worth 25 million woooooooooolongs!"
This caught the attention of the crew, and in seconds all three clustered around her computer screen.
"Derek Krow, wanted for embezzling 200 million woolongs from the highest earning software company in the solar system. Last seen on Mars." A picture of a man with neatly combed blonde hair in a tailored suit flashed on the screen.
"How convenient," smirked Spike, "he's leaving for Venus in 6 hours from Tharsis Spaceport. Let's go."
The three filed out of Ed's room, heatedly discussing the best way to go about bringing down the bounty head. Ed watched them leave, holding her amber gaze at the door as their voices faded down the halls. With a sigh, she snapped on her green goggles and set back to work on her Tomato.