CB: Cat and Mouse, -III-

"Jette, are you awake?"

"Spike… where the hell are you?"

"A little dump I doubt you've ever heard of," comes his non-committal response. He's obviously calling from the Swordfish, I can tell by the reception. "It's going to take a while before I make it back…"

"You've found her then," I reply with a sigh.

"You don't sound so pleased at that."

"The two of you together equals one big ball of trouble, and I don't know if this ship and I can handle it any more. I'm getting old, Spike."

"You're not getting any older than you already are, Jette," comes his gentle, sarcastic reply. "Besides, like you said, I'm only human. If you want me to end up dead in a hurry, you can keep sending me out on bounties with you without anything to return to."

"You act like she's going to sit back and wait for you to come home, Spike," I shake my head. "She's not that kind of girl."

His voice goes distant as he responds, and the look on his face suddenly goes blank. "Neither was Julia." It seems that comment has sobered him sufficiently, and he glances down. "I won't make the same mistakes, Jette."

"Well you're making one of the same ones now, you idiot, if a woman doesn't want you around, she'll let you know, and I think abandoning you while you were recovering was the biggest and most obvious clue she's ever given you that she wants nothing to do with you, Spike."

"But she tells me otherwise with every move she makes, Jette," there's the old grin on his face again, the reminiscent one. "Let me know if something big comes up."

And he cuts the transmission.

I lean back in the chair and put my feet up on the edge of the control panel. He never was much of a talker, and in a lot of ways I don't think I ever really knew Spike very well. We have a lot of different ideas about things, different approaches.

I remember I once told him that he was all about instinct and reflexes. I think that may be exactly what's going on right now. His gut is telling him he needs Faye around, or maybe some other part of his lower anatomy, and so he's gone after her.

I just don't know if his instincts are enough to convince her.