"I'm going in." Spike told Jet, pocketing his communicator. He strolled through the restaurant doors and peered around for his mark.
There. The fool had decided to take the prostitute he'd engaged for the night out to dinner before attending to business. Spike came up behind the man and tapped him on his shoulder.
"Huh?" asked the bounty.
Spike replied with a fist to the man's jaw. "It doesn't pay to be a gentleman." he told the unconscious fugitive, as the prostitute squealed and ran away. Or, rather, stumbled away as fast as she could in her high heels. Boy, does it not pay to be a gentleman… He pushed memories of Julia down before they could really surface and dragged the bounty away.
*
Faye was lounging against the hangar wall when he got back. "Still alive, I see." she remarked.
"For the moment." he agreed. "And don't think you're getting any of the money, Faye."
"Not even a little?" she pled.
"Not even a little." he repeated, smirking.
"How'd it go, Spike?" asked Jet, coming up to them.
"Here's your cut." Spike slapped a card into Jet's palm and started toward his room, no doubt to hide his own securely enough to discourage Faye from searching for it. If he was going to deposit it in a casino, he'd do it himself, thank you very much. Especially since he won more often than she did.
Faye looked extremely put out. "I don't even get a little?"
The men walked away in answer.
"Come on, guys! Charity starts at home!" she heaved a sigh and slumped against the wall. They never gave her anything but trouble…
*
Spike was practicing again, in the darkened room that served as his gym. But no matter how hard he worked, or how much he sweated, the memories refused to fade.
Julia's golden hair had fanned out behind her and her eyes had widened in startled recognition as she fell.
He had seen his own reflection in those eyes as he'd assured her it was all just a dream. And he'd watched the soul of the woman he'd loved abandon them, leaving her beautiful body that seemed, to him, to be the very stuff life was made of- leaving that beautiful body just a shell. Its true beauty was gone.
Faye's eyes had overflowed with tears when he left. Her hands had clenched and she had fired blindly into the ship.
When Julia had sent him off to die, she hadn't let her tears fall. Her hands had ripped apart the card he'd given her, and she had refused to use the gun. (A/N: I'm taking it for granted that Spike knew about her little conversation with Vicious. It's certainly no more odd than how Julia managed to survive without killing Spike as Vicious had wanted her to.)
Spike's shadow- sparring increased in speed as his thoughts did. They were so similar and so different, Faye and Julia… both beautiful, but in different ways. Ways that reflected their personalities. Their faces hovered in his mind's eye.
Try as he might, he couldn't banish them.
*
As fate (or Murphy's Law) would have it, Faye was the one who came to tell him dinner was ready. She'd even volunteered. I'm getting soft. she grumbled to herself.
She stood in the doorway and watched him for a while. Spike's invisible opponent was receiving quite a beating. He was practicing shirtless, as per his usual habit, and Faye found herself uncomfortably aware of the muscles evident because of it. She had always liked watching him move. He just seemed to- flow, like water.
She gathered her breath and prepared to speak, then found herself unable to, as had happened when she'd come to give him Julia's message. Remembering that time, Faye somehow knew that Julia was the reason for this fervor, and was suddenly unaccountably jealous of the dead woman. She turned to go, as she had then.
"Food?" Spike guessed, coming up beside her.
"Yeah." Faye confirmed.
Something in her voice made him glance down at her. Whatever it was, he saw it in her face as well.
They walked to the kitchen in uncharacteristic silence. (A/N: I didn't mean for that to be a pun, honest!) Jet gave them an inquiring look, but when they didn't offer anything, merely sighed and hushed Edward before she had a chance to get started.
*
"Here." Spike said gruffly, pushing something into her hand and striding off down the hall without another word.
Faye directed a puzzled look after him and opened her palm.
It was a money card.
What the hell…?
She took it to her room and was turning it over in her hand when she suddenly realized what it was about it that was bothering her.
When Spike had given Jet his share of the bounty money, he hadn't given her anything. He would have gotten this card when he cashed in the bounty; he'd been planning on giving her some money right from the start.
Faye's speculative stare took on an edge. Why hadn't he given it to her earlier? Why was he giving it to her now? And why wasn't he holding it over her head? It was almost like he'd been embarrassed or something, the way he'd just taken off after pressing it into her hand…
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