CB: Cat and Mouse, -X-

Back on the Bebop, the two of them can't even look at one another, and it starts to drive me nuts. Faye hasn't even asked to have the plastic ties cut off of her wrists. And I saw that they were bleeding when I rescued her.

"You two could've been killed!" I finally burst out. "Spike, I told you that running off like that would get you in trouble."

"It was worth it."

She lifts her head from her silent contemplation of her dirty, scraped up knees, and slowly looks at him. The expression on her face is unreadable to me. And he is staring at my bonsai, so he's not turned to regard her. No luck there.

"You mean you didn't call Jette?" her words are soft, almost disbelieving.

"Call me? Hell he didn't call me, he didn't even tell me where he was. I had to follow the tracker in his communicator once I got word that the Blue Phoenix had moved onto Venus to work out some left over business they had with the Red Dragons. The entire thing is even more disturbing because that part of Venus is White Tiger territory."

Her gaze sobers, and she glances at me. "Cut my hands loose, would you?"

"Me?"

"Yes, Jette. You should've done it earlier. My wrists are bleeding."

"Don't look at me like that. He's supposed to be the knight in shining armor, I just-" She stops me with a look.

"You were the one to save me from that guy," she points out, absently.

With a grumble, I pull my knife and step over to her, cutting her arms free. She rolls her shoulders and rubs the scabbing cuts on her wrists before standing. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I stink. I smell like garbage and I'm bloody. I'm going to take a shower." The bloody zip ties from her wrists hit the floor as she stands, brushed easily from her lap.

I start to protest, but Spike turns his head to give me a look over his shoulder, and I fall silent. "You can use my robe," he offers, but she disappears up the stairs without commenting.

"You don't really think she's going to stick around, do you?"

"I don't know," he replies, turning to look up the staircase after her.

"But you want her to."

He gives me a look and then rubs his jaw with one hand. "The Blue Phoenix were there, you say? That would explain the gunshots."

I nod. "I got a tip from an old ISSP buddy of mine. He said that there was some sort of a ruckus… that some of the remnants of the Red Dragons had invaded the White Tiger territory. Thought I should know." I glance intently at Spike, and he brushes the hair back from his forehead, almost nostalgically. "Something about the Dragons wanting an answer. Something about Vicious."

"I'm not who I used to be," Spike replies, turning to head up the stairs, in the same finalized manner that she did.

"Huh. Sure you aren't. I don't see much difference."