CH 4

Faye smiled dreamily as she awoke, soon coming to realize that it had been a redolent fragrance that had beckoned her forth from the depths of sleep.

Upon further investigation, she realized that it was Spike's cologne wafting off of his jacket, the wonderful scent seeming to tease her as she inhaled it with contentment.

"It's wonderful to feel as if he's lying here in my arms," Faye thought blissfully, drawing the jacket closer as her warm smile widened. "It's as if his scent, itself brings me comfort, yet....when I'm with him, I can honestly say that he puts me through Hell, itself."

"Having fun?"

She gasped, looking over towards her doorway to see Spike smirking back at her, casually lighting a cigarette before placing it between his lips and leaning back against the wall.

"You know, it's not very polite to walk in on a woman without knocking!," Faye grumbled, growing red in the face. "I mean, have you NO shame?! I could've been...uh....doing something private!!!"

Spike grinned, letting out a low chuckle as he replied softly, "I just thought that you'd like to know that I'll be going out for a while."

"And why would I care about that?," Faye demanded, sending him a fiery look. "You can go to Hell and back for all I care!"

Spike laughed. "Been there, done that. What's next?"

Faye couldn't help but smile, feeling a slight comradeship developing between them. Sure, she wanted more, but, at this point in their lives, it was a vast improvement from their past relationship.

"Well, I know that deep-down you're interested, so I'll tell you, anyway," Spike decided after a moment, smirking as he took in a long draw from his cigarette. "I'm gonna go head on into town to squander some hard-earned woolongs on food and whatnot. Do you want anything? Alcohol? Smokes? Er, um......feminine hygienic necessities?"

Faye gave him a small smile, replying softly, "I'm fine in all of those departments, thanks. Just take the girls with you.......go have some fun for once."

Spike smiled, appearing to be deep in thought. "Ha....fun. I haven't had that since childhood."

"Childhood," Faye repeated sadly, tears swimming along her lashes as she bit her lip in order to prevent an outburst of embittered emotion.

"Uh, you ok?," Spike asked, sending her an uneasy look.

Faye kept her tearful gaze locked firmly on her toes as she acknowledged softly, "Yeah.....I'm alright."

"Are you sure?," Spike asked, his eyes reflecting something amongst his warm, chocolate-brown irises that Faye couldn't quite comprehend. "I mean, all you have to say is-"

"Spike, I'm fine," Faye cut in, giving him a sly smirk. "You don't have to worry about me."

Spike let out an indignant snort, grumbling something about hating women, children, and dogs as he stormed out of the sick bay before another word could be exchanged between the two.

Faye gazed after him, sighing miserably due to hearing him mention children as she felt the pain in her life continue to eat away at the weakened strands of her delicate heart, her body trembling as she realized that Aurora was still out there somewhere, completely vulnerable to the world.

"My poor, sweet child," she thought, tears streaming down her cheeks as she buried her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly. "My poor, precious Aurora...how could I have forsaken you like I have?! If I hadn't been there in the Grandbury Castle cemetary, perhaps Spike would have been able to rescue you and Vicious wouldn't still have you in his merciless clutches! Oh, Aurora....can you EVER forgive me?!!!"

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"So what are we looking for, exactly?," Ayame demanded, wiping her sweaty brow due to the scorching hot Mercury weather as she, Veronica, Tracey and Spike continued to stand amidst the vast stretch of land where Kellsburg's largest marketplace existed.

Spike shrugged, not even bothering to light a cigarette due to the extreme heat as he grumbled, "Whatever's suitable to eat, I suppose. As long as you ladies don't want any bell peppers and beef, I'm happy."

Ayame, Veronica and Tracey exchanged glances, clearly not comprehending his awkward inside joke.

Inwardly realizing this, Spike shrugged once more, then muttered, "Whatever, let's just buy somethin', already."

"APPLES!"

"Wha?," Spike demanded, sending Veronica a strange look due to her sudden outburst.

"APPLES!," she repeated just as enthusiastically, pointing a beautifully-manicured finger towards a stand whom a rather shady-looking man operated.

Tracey shrugged, agreeing, "Alright, sure......you and Spike go buy some, ok, Veronica? Ayame and I will go and check out the dessert stands."

"Alrighty!," Veronica agreed, beaming as she latched herself onto Spike's arm like a possessive clam and began to lead him on over towards the apple stand with a carefree stride.

Once there, the shady-looking owner asked in a thick, Russian accent, "Vould you like some apples?"

Spike nodded. "Uh, yeah, I guess.....give us a couple."

A sly glimmer reflected off of the man's pale blue irises as he nodded, then bent over to retrieve something from beneath the stand's platform counter.

"I just need to find my money bag for zee voolongs," he assured them, continuing to search about the stand madly for the alleged money sack. After long last, he exclaimed, "Ah! Here vee are!"

Spike and Veronica let out a cry of surprise as the man thrusted a heavy duty firearm into their faces, bellowing, "Hands above your heads......don't move a muscle!!!"

Spike and Veronica froze in place as the venders about them also retrieved their firearms and pointed their weapons towards them with menace, causing the couple to reluctantly comply and raise their hands above their heads, knowing that it would do them no good to defy the apple merchant's orders at the moment.

"I am zee man that kidnap-ped your daughter, Mr. Spiegel," the man suddenly announced, causing Spike's blood to run cold. "My name ees Kostian Van Chlokavich....remember that, fore it shall be zee last thing on your mind when you die under zee wrath of zee great Vicious!"

Spike snorted. "I'm not afraid of you OR that cum-eating bastard! I am completely willing to cheat death in order to save my daughter from harm!!!"

"Well speak for yourself, hun!," Veronica retorted, trembling with fear as she continued to look down all the barrels of the heavy duty firearms around them. "I'm very afraid of guns in my face and big, scary, oogie-boogie men!!!"

Spike rolled his eyes in frustration. "Veronica-"

"Shut up and get your asses into zee truck!!!," Kostian interrupted gruffly, giving Spike a rough push with the butt of his gun for a boost.

He grunted, moving onward in disgust as Veronica miserably tagged along by his side, every once in a while letting out a soft whimper of fear.

"Ha! Some spirit huntress!," Spike thought scornfully, shaking his head with slight amusement despite the perilous situation at hand. "How can she call herself a brave defender of all that is pure and good when she's a goddamn coward?!"

"Give me your hand," a gruff voice ordered impatiently, taking him out of his turbulent mass of thoughts.

Spike did as he was told, only he took the man by surprise as he seized his hand and flipped him over his back, leaving his victim stunned and paralyzed with astonishment on the ground.

"Quick! Tase them!," Kostian barked, frantically motioning towards one of his men.

Before either Spike or Veronica could make a move to escape, the henchman whom had been ordered to tase them stepped out from behind his stand and shot them both with a taser gun, electric pulses shooting forth from its nozzle and into their flesh as fairly small electrical jolts coursed throughout their bodies like thousands of sharp, numbing needles.

Spike moaned in pain as he felt his body respond to the electric shocks in a very negative way. His vision began to gradually coalesce like a wintery fog, his mind clouding over due to the numbing electricity as he entered a serene, peaceful world of a deep, unconscious sleep.

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"Where the hell are they?!," Faye demanded aloud, taking her intense anger out on poor Edward. "Shouldn't they have come back by now?!"

The young adolescent blinked, then offered optimistically, "Weeell, Ed thinks that Spike-person and his weird girly-girl-persons like to shop a whooole lot, so they're still shopping!"

Faye frowned, her eyebrows knitting together with frustration as she sank down to her knees beside Edward and her tomato in despair.

"Something's wrong......I can feel it," she mumbled, shaking her head as a single tear trickled down her cheek like a liquid form of lost hope. "And if there truly IS something wrong.....I feel completely responsible. I was the one who suggested to bring the girls along and go have some fun, after all. Oh, I'm a TERRIBLE person! I will NEVER forgive myself if something happens to them!!!"

As if in answer to Faye's woes, the Bebop communicating device flashed on, causing her to rush over to it in expectance.

A very worried Ayame and Tracey appeared on the screen, so she asked uneasily , "What's wrong, you guys? Where are Spike and Veronica?!"

"Well....that's the problem," Tracey replied softly, shifting her blue-gray eyes down to her heels in shame. "We-we can't find them."

"WHAT?!," Faye shrieked, suddenly overwhelmed by an abrupt wave of nausea. "How could you let this happen?!"

Ayame shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "Accidents happen, Miss Valentine. Tracey and I are returning to the Bebop momentarily, but I can assure you that we will go out and look for them tomorrow."

"Very well," Faye agreed numbly, switching off the communicating device without even bothering to wait for a reply.

"Will the strange girly-girl-persons find them?," Edward asked hopefully from nearby as she looked up from her laptop with interest.

"I hope so, Ed," Faye returned softly, a single tear shimmering in the left corner of her eye as if it were representing a drop of her despondent, diminished spirit. "I truly do."