Night on the Bebop.
Spike jerked awake. Another nightmare… he'd been having them a lot lately. A lot more than normal… and definitely a lot more than he would have liked. He paused and listened.
Strange noises…
Shrugging (he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep now, and he could always make it up later) he stepped out into the hallway. Following the sounds brought him to Faye's room.
Spike knocked quietly.
No answer.
Bracing himself to have a gun shoved in his face, he opened the door and heaved a sigh when his apprehensions weren't realized.
The sounds were coming from Faye. She was tossing and turning in her sleep, moaning… and were those tears shining on her face?
"Faye. Hey, Faye." Spike shook her shoulder, feeling incredibly foolish.
"No. No!" she protested, and Spike frowned. "Dead… all dead…" More tears traced silvery trails down her face, eerily highlighted by the light of that VCR and the Beta that had caused Jet and him so much trouble. (A/N: He and Jet? Him and Jet? Jet and he? ARGH! CURSE HAVING AN EX- TEACHER FOR A GRANDMOTHER!)
"Faye. Wake up." he said, more urgently.
Her hand grasped his arm in a deathgrip. "Don't go." she pled.
Spike started and checked to make sure that she was still asleep. Upon finding her so, he upped his effort to wake her. "Faye. Faye. It's a dream, just a dream… wake up, dammit!"
Faye's eyes popped open and she jerked halfway upright before flinging herself back against the bed, panting. "S- Spike. What are you doing in here?"
He sat down on the edge of the bed. "You were being really loud."
"Oh." she said quietly, looking off. It was a long moment before she spoke again. "I had a nightmare."
"So I gathered." Spike replied dryly.
She shot him a resentful look. "Well, it's not like I'm the only one having nightmares." she snapped.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Spike demanded, a knot coiling in his stomach.
"Don't pretend you haven't been having them too, Spike." Faye scoffed. "I've seen you, thrashing around. Muttering stuff."
"That's none of your business." he told her coldly.
"And my nightmares are none of yours!" she retorted.
"It is my business when you're yelling loud enough to wake me up!"
"Well, you've gotten me back! Just go back to bed!" Faye shouted, throwing the covers over herself as she turned her back on Spike.
He stood to go, and was actually three- quarters of the way to the door when a stifled sob halted him. With the utmost reluctance, Spike turned to Faye again and crossed over to her. Faye tossed off the hand he had returned to her shoulder. Spike merely resumed his seat on her bedside and, after a brief hesitation, placed a comforting hand to her back.
She sobbed for what seemed like hours. What could make Faye cry like that? he wondered.
A memory immediately came to mind; the last time he'd seen Faye weep had been when he had left the Bebop.
I'm sure that isn't it. he told himself.
Faye's crying finally slowed, then stopped. They sat for a few minutes in what would have been silence, had it not been for Faye's hiccups.
"I was… dreaming. About the accident." she told him in a low voice.
Spike was intrigued despite himself. "Accident?"
"It's why I was put in the cryo clinic." And she told him the whole story.
He was quiet for a moment after she finished. Then, to her amazement, he chuckled a little. "I don't know why… but I actually believe you this time."
"You should." There was barely a hint of accusation in her voice. "It's true."
"Hmm." he said noncommittally. Then-
"I'm going to go have a cigarette." He stood.
Faye hastily joined him. "I'll come with you." She snatched her cigarettes and lighter.
Spike glanced sidelong at her but didn't say anything.
*
"So," Faye started, exhaling a plume of smoke, "what're your nightmares about?"
He didn't say anything for so long that she thought he wasn't going to answer, but finally… "They aren't nightmares so much as- memories."
"Memories?"
Again, there was an extensive pause before he replied. "Three years ago… I was in a Syndicate. The same Syndicate as Vicious and… Julia." He told her his story, with many pauses and struggles for words.
For her part, Faye listened quietly; if Spike hadn't been talking to himself more than her, he would have been surprised.
"That's quite a story." she commented when he was done.
Spike didn't say anything; he merely gazed out over the deck of the Bebop, and into space. (A/N: Remember that part in- I think it was the Real Folk Blues- where Spike and Jet are looking out the window onto Mars? Where Spike says, "She's back" talking about Faye? (But he'd been telling Jet about Julia before that?) That's what they're doing, where they're looking out from.)
"I'm sorry I woke you up." Faye apologized, so softly that Spike barely heard her.
His eyes widened in astonishment. Wait a minute- he was getting a sense of déjà vu.
Now he remembered. Right before she'd left, Faye had burst out of the shower, bumped into him, and apologized. She wasn't going to leave again, was she? Spike found an uncomfortable tightening in his chest at the thought.
Hang on. What the hell's wrong with me? I don't give a damn; I don't care if she leaves.
You're lying. a sneaky little voice argued from inside his head.
Dammit! Spike mercilessly beat the 'sneaky little voice' into oblivion. "It's all right." he gruffly brushed off the apology. "I'm a narcoleptic, remember? I'll just take a nap later."
He felt Faye looking at him, but kept his own mismatched eyes steadily forward.
The rest of their smoke passed in silence, but, as they walked back toward their respective rooms, Spike couldn't help but feel that something had changed.
A/N: That wasn't TOO horribly out of character, was it? I know it's going to be at least a little OOC, since I honestly don't think Faye and Spike would have ever gotten together outside of the wonderful world of fanfiction, but I tried not to overdo it. Anyway. Cookies to: PimpinSatan and Jim Hawking Jr.