Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or "Short of Daybreak" by Underoath

A/N: A HUGE thank you to Kyra, SirusPolaris and Minty Fresh Socks, my first three reviewers. You guys gave me a big boost of confidence. This is a new style of writing for me, and a new category to be writing it in.

So, everyone thank Kyra, Sirus and Minty - they've made me want to jump on this thing and write another chapter tonight. I might even get it done before I head to bed (though I doubt it). Here's another short little section, and I'm still not sure where this is going, so bear with me.

Session 3:

Short of Daybreak

Another year has gone by

Time just took it away

Friends have changed

Clear skies watched over us

But we've had our share of rain

Faye left about a three months ago. Times were hard at first - I have no clue how to take care of some kid and her dog - but life goes on. I found out the secret Faye and Spike had to taking care of Ed - don't. The kid's pretty resourceful. Only thing you need to do for her is cook - and even Faye and Spike couldn't do that for themselves.

All in all, it's been about one year since they started leaving the Bebop - Spike first. Am I sad? Hell no! Am I pissed off? A little. I guess I got too used to having two other people helping me with the bounties. It's hard going solo again. Not emotionally, but physically. It's hard being your own back up. I can't take Ed with me. The kid's too wild to even take out in public. Plus she's the only one on the Bebop feeding me info.

It's days like these that I wish we didn't need the money so damn bad. Lately Ed's been pulling up some stranger bounties than I'm used to. Now that we don't have Big Shot to rely on, we're finding a lot of bounties out there that aren't so publicized - ones not set up by the ISSP. Private groups with cash set up these illegal bounties for people that have wronged them in some way. It's not as clean - rarely do they have any info or photos to give you - but rich pricks will pay a hefty sum to catch someone who's pissed them off.

It's days like these that I wish we didn't need the money so damn bad. Do you think I'd be hunting for a Syndicate if we weren't desperate? That's right, I said a Syndicate. The Red Dragon, no less! Oh well. He had the beef with them, not me. And the money's pretty good.

45 million Woolongs for one guy? That poor bastard must've done something pretty bad to get the Red Dragons to cough up that kind of dough. What he did doesn't matter to me. This isn't the first time we've taken a job from a Syndicate - it's the second. The first time was easy enough, but I learned quickly that you shouldn't ask questions. I was about one question away from having a bounty on my head. So I just listen and hunt.

Yeah, I feel like complete scum for doing this. I mean, I was a cop. I used to get paid for busting people that helped out those Syndicate bastards. But money is money. And as strange as this sounds - I've got a kid to worry about. She may not be my kid, but she's under my care. And she's a hungry kid, too - with an even hungrier dog.

A smile remains on my face -

Knowing...

Jet walked out of his fourth bar so far that night. With all the bars on Mars, you think he'd be able to get some kind of information on his bounty. Nothing. If he didn't already know how secretive the Syndicates were, he would've guessed that the reason they didn't give him any information on the guy was because they didn't have any.

Thus far, Jet was only running on a nickname the guy goes by - Wrath. Letting frustration take over him, he took off to yet another bar. This one was a personal stop. The easiest way to take your mind off of the stress of bounty hunting was to drink.

Loser Bar - an appropriate place for Jet to head [1]. That's exactly how he was feeling. He had nearly forgotten the memories a place like this would hold.

"Gimme a shot of tequila."

Her long, slender finger was running its way along the brim of Jet's hat before she spoke. He was waiting for his drink when her voice, like the audible equivalent to silk, touched his ears. "I hear you're looking for someone."

There was something in that voice that sent a chill down Jet's spine. There was a certain seductiveness that not even his beloved Alisa's voice could hold. He turned to see a stunning blonde taking a seat next to him.

Whatever words were on the time of his tongue were lost in the depths of her blues eyes. There was a certain sad sparkle in them. It was the kind of spark that people like he himself possessed. People like him, Spike and Faye - people with pain-filled pasts and an uncertain future. Strong people, unwilling to let the past destroy them, but too stubborn to let go of it.

"Here ya go, buddy."

Jet thanked his lucky stars that the bartender had returned at that moment with his drink. The timely gentleman managed to shake Jet from his trance - avoiding a potentially embarrassing moment. "I hear you shouldn't trust women." No, I know you shouldn't trust women...

The beauty simply cracked a smile and ordered her drink. She would be having the same as Jet. The two sat in silence until her drink arrived. When it came, she noticed Jet hadn't touched his yet. She motioned for them to drink together.

The woman downed her drink as easily as Jet had his. The same smile came to her lips again before she spoke. "Women are the only ones who ever know anything about people like Wrath."

Jet's hand, which had previously been en route to bring his mouth another shot of tequila, stopped in its tracks. Wrath!? Though his face wouldn't betray his emotions, he was rather shocked to hear someone speaking so freely about this mystery man. Anyone else he had asked had tensed up upon hearing the name. Some even ran off.

"Do you know a lot of people like Wrath?"

Her formerly genuine smile turned into more of a knowing smirk. She knew exactly where he was going with this. She even pondered helping him. "I only know one. Maybe the same one you're looking for."

Jet knew where this was going. Bounty hunters relied heavily on informants. When you've been a cowboy as long as he had, you got to know all the different kinds of rats there were. This was the kind who were acquaintances with the bounty - not exactly friends and not exactly enemies. They didn't really care whether the bounty got hauled in or not. But they would test you to make sure you were 'worthy' of reeling in someone they knew.

He motioned for the bartender to bring around two more drinks as he put down the required woolongs. He was quickly switching to 'detective' mode. "This one's on me."

The two sat in a content silence once again, waiting for the barkeep to return. Occasionally one would steal a glance at the other to size up their opponent. She could tell this one was dead serious on getting what she knew out of her. Assuming he didn't play a wrong card, she'd tell him, too. It would just be fun to toy with him.

There drinks soon came and went in the same fashion as their predecessors. Jet managed to get his question out before she even placed her glass down. "So, what's the name of the one you know?"

She paused, looking at out of the corner of her eye. "I don't know his real name: no one knows that. But there is a moniker that he goes by."

She was playing with him. She knew every damn thing about the guy - she was just testing Jet to see how much he knew. He did pick up one thing - people only call him Wrath because that seems to be his best trait. He's never called himself Wrath. He probably doesn't even know that's what people refer to him as. "One that he goes by, or one that people call him? There's a difference, ya know."

A soft chuckle escaped her lips. He was good. Even if he didn't know much about Wrath, he already knew more than most who've tried to bring him in. "That's very true. I guess it's just what ignorant people like you and I call him. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would pick Wrath as a name."

Yes, this woman would be the key to Jet and Ed eating well for the next week or so. If she would just cooperate a little longer, he might not even have any repair bills to pay this time around. "He must be a pretty interesting guy with a nickname like that. I'd sure like to meet him someday."

"Why? You some kind of bounty hunter or something?" That all knowing smile never left her lips when she spoke. Jet couldn't help but respect that.

"No. Just an old man who's too curious for his own good." He didn't respect it enough to tell her the truth. When you're looking to squeeze someone's brain a little bit, honesty wasn't a tool widely used.

She looked straight ahead as she smiled. She began blowing on her newest drink - a cup of coffee. She wouldn't fall for the simplest trick in the book - alcohol. "Make sure your curiosity doesn't bring you to any shady looking hotels in this part of town. I hear the kind of people that hang around there don't like old men with no names."

For the first time in a long time, a quiet laugh came out of Jet. That was by far the most interesting way of asking someone's name he had ever heard. "In that case, my name's Jet. I wouldn't want to get jumped by some young vandals just because they didn't know my name."

He sat silently for another few moments, waiting for her to speak. It seemed as if she thought it was time to bring this game to a close. She simply sipped her drink, making no sign that she had any more to say. "You know, just to be safe, you might want to let someone know your name, too. Just in case you wander through that part of town."

The genuine smile she wore when she first spoke came back to her face. "Maybe if you ever manage to find me again, I'll tell you."

Jet threw his hands in front of his face in defeat. After she had been so nice to him, he wouldn't press a simple matter of names if she didn't want to offer the information. He put back on his jacket and headed for the door.

"By the way, Jet." He stopped in his tracks. No matter how smoothly things went, there was always a catch. "What's my cut of the bounty?"

He didn't turn to face her. He knew she would hear him anyway. She was the kind of lady who heard what you said before you said it. "Maybe if you ever manage to find me again, I'll tell you."

So I'll hold my head high

For love may be today, I can't say,

But tomorrow awaits

Bringing me closer to you

[1] - for those that don't remember, Loser Bar was in the place in Session 25 where Jet and Spike got ambushed by the Red Dragons.

To My Reviewers:

Kyra: Wow. Thanks. Those were two of the nicest reviews I've gotten since I've been here at FF.Net. And since FF.Net is the only place I've ever submitted anything, that means those were two of the nicest reviews EVER. And, in the words of CCR: "I put a spell on you... because you're mine..."

SirusPolaris: Thanks. I do indeed plan on continuing this, and I hope this is soon enough for ya.

Minty Fresh Socks: Thanks. The Gren/Spike thing was kind of an accident, but I'm glad you liked it. About the songs - I figure it's because the show itself was so heavily influenced by musicm. That why I'm doing it. But I think I might stop it - the longest part of writing this chapter was finding a good song to go with it. (in fact, if you knew the whole song, you'd see that the song doesn't fit at all, but I just pulled out the quotes that do).