** Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story, I actually wasn't expecting any reviews, so it was a bit of a surprise. I'll be the first to admit this chapter isn't much, I wrote it in a hurry and there's still a lot more to go, but unfortunately my college roommate decided to quit, so she's moving out, thus taking her computer with her. So I tried to get a little something up to tide everyone over until I can update again. Sorry everyone! I'll update as much as possible, but keep the e-mails and reviews coming!**
Faye felt her breath still in her lungs. A single bead of sweat trailed down her spine, feeling like a finger of a ghost, slipping down her skin. She pressed her back against the cold brick wall for security. With sweaty palms she re-gripped her gun and glanced across the doorway to Julia. She stood, gun up, standing as though she had been frozen solid. Green drove into blue, both waiting for the right instant to move.
Over the past few weeks, they had become a team. Both of them looking past their differences, simply to put food on the table. And in the end, they realized that they had become a machine. Perfectly synched and well oiled to always run smoothly and efficiently. They functioned on sheer intuition. The slightest eye twitch or clenched muscle, reading each other to simply stay alive.
Julia's arms tensed, Faye shifted her leg.
They struck at once, Julia kicking open the door, Faye falling to her knee, gun aimed, ready to shoot, Julia right behind her.
From the ceiling hung a single bare light bulb, swinging back and forth, throwing half the room into a flood of white, before plunging it back into black. A figure sat, hunched over in a chair, hands bound behind its back, facing the corner.
Faye stepped forward, slipping a bit on the gleaming, slick floor. Raising her foot, she looked at the bottom of her shoe. "Blood." She looked back at Julia, whose mouth turned down a bit. Her attention went back to the figure in the corner. "Sir?" Cautiously, she approached him; gun aimed for the back of his skull. Carefully, she rounded him, anticipating him to jump up at any second, trying to catch her off guard. But he remained still.
Placing the barrel of her gun to his forehead, she pushed his head up. She gasped loudly, letting his head fall to his chest again. Taking a step back, she took a deep breath. Over the past few years, she had seen a lot, but nothing like this. The man's eyeballs had been gouged out and his throat torn open. Her eyes roamed over the floor of the small room. All that blood couldn't have come from him.
"Faye." Julia said softly.
Faye looked up, just in time to see Julia fade into darkness, as the swinging bulb blinded her with light, before it swung back to Julia. It lit up her back, making her hair sparkle, but casting an eerie black shadow on the wall before her, just below a blood smeared message.
"Tony was bad." Faye read softly, glancing down at what was supposed to be their bounty. "Guess so."
Julia turned, just as the light hit her again. "What kind of a person would do this?"
Faye began tip toeing towards the door, trying not to slip again. "Someone I would never want to meet. C'mon, let's get the hell out of here."
Julia cast another look back at the wall as she followed Faye out. A cold chill raced up her spine, stopping her dead in her tracks. Her eyes darted around the dark hotel hallway. She could *feel* eyes on her.
Faye glanced at her while lighting a cigarette, raising her eyebrow. "You okay?"
She couldn't see anything or anybody for that matter. Maybe she was finally loosing her mind. "Nothing."
Shrugging, Faye started down the hallway, before she ground and wiped her boots on the carpet. "Blood stains are such a bitch to get out of white."
Julia followed her, not being able to shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Once more she glanced of her shoulder. There wasn't a soul there, just a lonely security camera, perched in the corner of the far wall.
***
She awoke with a start, a cold sweat misting over her forehead and causing her nightclothes to stick to her body.
It was the same dream. That same Goddamn dream.
Slowly her pulse began to return to its normal pace. Roughly, she rubbed away the wetness in her eyes with her fingers.
"He's dead Faye." She whispered to herself. "He's dead."
With one final sigh, she cleared the heavy feeling that weighed down her chest.
It was always the same. The dream, the waking up, the crying. But this time, there was no warm, fuzzy form, pushing itself against her back for comfort. She looked to the door to see a space, just big enough for Morris to fit through.
Getting up, she padded, barefoot, into the hallway. When she stepped into the main room of the ship, space stretched out before her, through the huge glass windows. Also before her sat Morris, staring out at the vast sea of stars.
She smiled. That cat. He was so weird sometimes, almost human.
She knelt beside him, brushing a hand over his head. "Hey Kitty." Morris purred and tipped his head back. Faye chuckled softly. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, huh?" Scooping him up, she cuddled him as he lounged in her arms. It was silly, but she could have swore he was smiling. "You want some food?"
Placing him on the counter, she turned to the refrigerator. "Hmm... you don't want that... Ed wouldn't even eat that stuff." She leaned down farther, spotting some left over chicken from a few nights before. "Ah, here we go." Leaving the door open, she turned and dropped the plate, shattering it on the ground.
Morris sat on the counter, staring at her, bathed in the warm soft glow of the refrigerator's light. He just continued to stare at her, not phased by the broken plate and for the first time, she noticed his eyes were two different colors. One a deep rust, the other a shade lighter.
"Spike?" She croaked.
Morris twitched his tail, before leaping off the counter and into the dark.
Faye laughed at herself and looked to her feet. "You're loosing your fucking mind." She bent down and began picking up the mess she made.
"Faye?"
She looked up the see Julia, dressed in her light blue silk robe; her hair tied back in a braid. Julia knelt down and helped her pick up a few pieces of glass. "Are you alright?" Her eyes shifted over Faye's chalk white skin.
Smiling uneasily Faye stood, broken shards all piled ontop of the largest piece of plate left. She dumped if into the trash. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little clumsy." She smiled again for effect.
Just by the way Julia peered at her, Faye could tell she didn't believe her. But she didn't say anything. Julia's eye's drifted down and paused at Faye's legs. Faye glanced down and for the first time she realized she was wearing Spike's boxers. They were so hideously ugly and tacky; there was no way they could have been mistaken for anyone else's. Her head snapped back up.
Julia continued to stare, no real emotion shining through on her face. Just the same melancholy mask she always wore when she didn't want Faye to know what she as thinking. To Faye, she looked like some storybook Princess, dressed in her long, flowing robe, golden locks pulled back, glowing like some beautiful creature in the warm light cast from the refrigerator, a solemn expression on her face. She looked like she had just found out Prince Charming was screwing the kitchen wench. Faye glanced down at herself in disgust. Old baggy t-shit, stolen underwear of a dead guy, and hair that was sure to be much like a rat's nest by now. That's all she was in this fairy tale. The kitchen wench.
Julia blinked repeatedly, pulling herself out of her ravine. Fear was gripping her heart. She was being selfish. Of course Spike would have found someone else, she had.
"Did he love you?" Once the question exited her lips, she wished she could have reached foreword and grabbed hold of it before it reached Faye's ears.
Faye tried to answer, but honestly, she was so shocked, words escaped her. Julia looked flustered at her question, yet at the same time, full of pain. Could she tell her? Should she tell her? Faye's heart sank. Was there even anything to tell?
"I--" Julia whispered. Her eyes drifted to the floor, unable to look at Faye anymore. For maybe the first time ever, she felt jealous. Not insanely jealous, she wasn't going to leap forward and attack Faye in a fit of rage. It was more of a morose jealous. Faye had accepted something she had longed for, but was too afraid to risk taking. "It's just..." Tears, no matter how hard she fought them, began to build in her eyes. "He once promised me that..." She looked up to Faye, whose eyes were too, glimmering with tears, but for another reason. "That he'd only love me." The last sentence came out as a sigh.
Julia watched as Faye began to walk away. She paused just beside her, the light sparkling the water that rimmed her eyes.
"You want to remain friends, don't you, Julia?" She asked quietly.
"Of course."
"Then never mention his name to me again." She brushed the hem of Julia's nightgown as she walked by, entering the dark hallway.
"Faye."
She stopped, closing her eyes, forcing back the tears and the thoughts that were madly streaming through her mind. She didn't answer.
"I have to know." Julia's voice was frail, barely gracing above a whisper.
Faye swallowed, choking down all the bitterness in her heart. "Don't worry Julia, Spike wasn't one for breaking promises." Before Julia could ask more, she escaped into her room. There her tears fell freely and silently. She curled up into a ball on her bed, feeling painfully crippled by dread. She was a fool. Who would love a girl like her after they've had a Princess?
Warm fur pressed itself against her back. Morris leaped over her and peered at her face. Cracking open one eye, she gazed at the cat, who's tail waved behind him curiously.
"Wouldn't you rather stay in Julia's room?"
Morris meowed and pressed his forehead to hers, flopping down beside her. Faye smiled, stroking his soft black coat, instantly finding comfort, before she drifted back asleep.
* * *
"Hey." His voice was low and gravelly, like always, but with a hint of softness she had never detected before. She smiled and heard him chuckle, feeling the vibration in his chest. "You have to get up sometime, you know."
"I know." She whispered. She nuzzled the crook of his neck, inhaling his heady, intoxicating scent. Jet and Ed would be back soon, she had to leave. His arm curled around her waist, drawing her closer, pressing their bodies against each other. She basked in the absolutely amazing sensation of her skin, touching every inch of his. It was so soft and tender, and not covered in scales, like she had believed at one point.
His fingers combed through her hair. "Faye." He told her softly. "Open your eyes."
He was above her, hair all dishelved, scruff on his chin, yet she'd never seen him look so good. He gazed into her eyes and quietly brushed some hair from her forehead.
"They say the eyes are the windows to the soul." He told her.
"They do, do they?"
He chuckled. "Yeah... you know what yours are showing me?"
She could feel her heart skip a beat. She had betrayed herself. "What?"
"Something I never thought I'd see again. Something I thought I'd never want again." His fingers brushed below her eyes, like he was wiping invisible tears.
"You know what yours show me?" She asked him. "That you're not as tough and cold as you think you are."
A slow grin came over his lips and he pressed them to hers. Her fingers found themselves tangled in the back of his hair, as her other arm rested itself on his back. A tingling feeling filled her stomach and her head felt light as his kisses trailed down her neck.
From the other side of the ship, they could hear Ed's voice.
"You better get going." Spike leaned back again. He smiled at her one last time. "I'll see you later, okay?"
***
"Faye-Faye!"
She awoke to see Edward, not Spike, sitting on her chest, staring at her intently.
"What is it Ed?" Normally she would have screamed and thrown a fit, but disappointment weighed so heavily in her heart, she couldn't muster the strength to yell.
It was only a memory. A ghost of the past, not the present itself.
"Will you take Edward shopping? Jet person said ask Faye-Faye."
Faye groaned. She'd rather stay in bed and mope, but getting out would be good for her. She wouldn't risk falling asleep and dreaming again. And besides, shopping is shopping, even is it's for Ed.
"Alright, get off of me. I'll take a shower and get dressed."
** I know, short, weird, and a little random, but it's all I could do for now. I'm just giving you guys a little insight into to the Spike and Faye stuff that went on before Julia came back, you know, the stuff that really SHOULD have happened and also I'm starting the "villain" that will be the main focus of my fic. Anyway, don't jump to conclusions about Morris just yet, and don't worry, Spike's not completely gone, just be patient, it'll all happen in time. Better stuff is to come, I promise.**
Faye felt her breath still in her lungs. A single bead of sweat trailed down her spine, feeling like a finger of a ghost, slipping down her skin. She pressed her back against the cold brick wall for security. With sweaty palms she re-gripped her gun and glanced across the doorway to Julia. She stood, gun up, standing as though she had been frozen solid. Green drove into blue, both waiting for the right instant to move.
Over the past few weeks, they had become a team. Both of them looking past their differences, simply to put food on the table. And in the end, they realized that they had become a machine. Perfectly synched and well oiled to always run smoothly and efficiently. They functioned on sheer intuition. The slightest eye twitch or clenched muscle, reading each other to simply stay alive.
Julia's arms tensed, Faye shifted her leg.
They struck at once, Julia kicking open the door, Faye falling to her knee, gun aimed, ready to shoot, Julia right behind her.
From the ceiling hung a single bare light bulb, swinging back and forth, throwing half the room into a flood of white, before plunging it back into black. A figure sat, hunched over in a chair, hands bound behind its back, facing the corner.
Faye stepped forward, slipping a bit on the gleaming, slick floor. Raising her foot, she looked at the bottom of her shoe. "Blood." She looked back at Julia, whose mouth turned down a bit. Her attention went back to the figure in the corner. "Sir?" Cautiously, she approached him; gun aimed for the back of his skull. Carefully, she rounded him, anticipating him to jump up at any second, trying to catch her off guard. But he remained still.
Placing the barrel of her gun to his forehead, she pushed his head up. She gasped loudly, letting his head fall to his chest again. Taking a step back, she took a deep breath. Over the past few years, she had seen a lot, but nothing like this. The man's eyeballs had been gouged out and his throat torn open. Her eyes roamed over the floor of the small room. All that blood couldn't have come from him.
"Faye." Julia said softly.
Faye looked up, just in time to see Julia fade into darkness, as the swinging bulb blinded her with light, before it swung back to Julia. It lit up her back, making her hair sparkle, but casting an eerie black shadow on the wall before her, just below a blood smeared message.
"Tony was bad." Faye read softly, glancing down at what was supposed to be their bounty. "Guess so."
Julia turned, just as the light hit her again. "What kind of a person would do this?"
Faye began tip toeing towards the door, trying not to slip again. "Someone I would never want to meet. C'mon, let's get the hell out of here."
Julia cast another look back at the wall as she followed Faye out. A cold chill raced up her spine, stopping her dead in her tracks. Her eyes darted around the dark hotel hallway. She could *feel* eyes on her.
Faye glanced at her while lighting a cigarette, raising her eyebrow. "You okay?"
She couldn't see anything or anybody for that matter. Maybe she was finally loosing her mind. "Nothing."
Shrugging, Faye started down the hallway, before she ground and wiped her boots on the carpet. "Blood stains are such a bitch to get out of white."
Julia followed her, not being able to shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Once more she glanced of her shoulder. There wasn't a soul there, just a lonely security camera, perched in the corner of the far wall.
***
She awoke with a start, a cold sweat misting over her forehead and causing her nightclothes to stick to her body.
It was the same dream. That same Goddamn dream.
Slowly her pulse began to return to its normal pace. Roughly, she rubbed away the wetness in her eyes with her fingers.
"He's dead Faye." She whispered to herself. "He's dead."
With one final sigh, she cleared the heavy feeling that weighed down her chest.
It was always the same. The dream, the waking up, the crying. But this time, there was no warm, fuzzy form, pushing itself against her back for comfort. She looked to the door to see a space, just big enough for Morris to fit through.
Getting up, she padded, barefoot, into the hallway. When she stepped into the main room of the ship, space stretched out before her, through the huge glass windows. Also before her sat Morris, staring out at the vast sea of stars.
She smiled. That cat. He was so weird sometimes, almost human.
She knelt beside him, brushing a hand over his head. "Hey Kitty." Morris purred and tipped his head back. Faye chuckled softly. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, huh?" Scooping him up, she cuddled him as he lounged in her arms. It was silly, but she could have swore he was smiling. "You want some food?"
Placing him on the counter, she turned to the refrigerator. "Hmm... you don't want that... Ed wouldn't even eat that stuff." She leaned down farther, spotting some left over chicken from a few nights before. "Ah, here we go." Leaving the door open, she turned and dropped the plate, shattering it on the ground.
Morris sat on the counter, staring at her, bathed in the warm soft glow of the refrigerator's light. He just continued to stare at her, not phased by the broken plate and for the first time, she noticed his eyes were two different colors. One a deep rust, the other a shade lighter.
"Spike?" She croaked.
Morris twitched his tail, before leaping off the counter and into the dark.
Faye laughed at herself and looked to her feet. "You're loosing your fucking mind." She bent down and began picking up the mess she made.
"Faye?"
She looked up the see Julia, dressed in her light blue silk robe; her hair tied back in a braid. Julia knelt down and helped her pick up a few pieces of glass. "Are you alright?" Her eyes shifted over Faye's chalk white skin.
Smiling uneasily Faye stood, broken shards all piled ontop of the largest piece of plate left. She dumped if into the trash. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little clumsy." She smiled again for effect.
Just by the way Julia peered at her, Faye could tell she didn't believe her. But she didn't say anything. Julia's eye's drifted down and paused at Faye's legs. Faye glanced down and for the first time she realized she was wearing Spike's boxers. They were so hideously ugly and tacky; there was no way they could have been mistaken for anyone else's. Her head snapped back up.
Julia continued to stare, no real emotion shining through on her face. Just the same melancholy mask she always wore when she didn't want Faye to know what she as thinking. To Faye, she looked like some storybook Princess, dressed in her long, flowing robe, golden locks pulled back, glowing like some beautiful creature in the warm light cast from the refrigerator, a solemn expression on her face. She looked like she had just found out Prince Charming was screwing the kitchen wench. Faye glanced down at herself in disgust. Old baggy t-shit, stolen underwear of a dead guy, and hair that was sure to be much like a rat's nest by now. That's all she was in this fairy tale. The kitchen wench.
Julia blinked repeatedly, pulling herself out of her ravine. Fear was gripping her heart. She was being selfish. Of course Spike would have found someone else, she had.
"Did he love you?" Once the question exited her lips, she wished she could have reached foreword and grabbed hold of it before it reached Faye's ears.
Faye tried to answer, but honestly, she was so shocked, words escaped her. Julia looked flustered at her question, yet at the same time, full of pain. Could she tell her? Should she tell her? Faye's heart sank. Was there even anything to tell?
"I--" Julia whispered. Her eyes drifted to the floor, unable to look at Faye anymore. For maybe the first time ever, she felt jealous. Not insanely jealous, she wasn't going to leap forward and attack Faye in a fit of rage. It was more of a morose jealous. Faye had accepted something she had longed for, but was too afraid to risk taking. "It's just..." Tears, no matter how hard she fought them, began to build in her eyes. "He once promised me that..." She looked up to Faye, whose eyes were too, glimmering with tears, but for another reason. "That he'd only love me." The last sentence came out as a sigh.
Julia watched as Faye began to walk away. She paused just beside her, the light sparkling the water that rimmed her eyes.
"You want to remain friends, don't you, Julia?" She asked quietly.
"Of course."
"Then never mention his name to me again." She brushed the hem of Julia's nightgown as she walked by, entering the dark hallway.
"Faye."
She stopped, closing her eyes, forcing back the tears and the thoughts that were madly streaming through her mind. She didn't answer.
"I have to know." Julia's voice was frail, barely gracing above a whisper.
Faye swallowed, choking down all the bitterness in her heart. "Don't worry Julia, Spike wasn't one for breaking promises." Before Julia could ask more, she escaped into her room. There her tears fell freely and silently. She curled up into a ball on her bed, feeling painfully crippled by dread. She was a fool. Who would love a girl like her after they've had a Princess?
Warm fur pressed itself against her back. Morris leaped over her and peered at her face. Cracking open one eye, she gazed at the cat, who's tail waved behind him curiously.
"Wouldn't you rather stay in Julia's room?"
Morris meowed and pressed his forehead to hers, flopping down beside her. Faye smiled, stroking his soft black coat, instantly finding comfort, before she drifted back asleep.
* * *
"Hey." His voice was low and gravelly, like always, but with a hint of softness she had never detected before. She smiled and heard him chuckle, feeling the vibration in his chest. "You have to get up sometime, you know."
"I know." She whispered. She nuzzled the crook of his neck, inhaling his heady, intoxicating scent. Jet and Ed would be back soon, she had to leave. His arm curled around her waist, drawing her closer, pressing their bodies against each other. She basked in the absolutely amazing sensation of her skin, touching every inch of his. It was so soft and tender, and not covered in scales, like she had believed at one point.
His fingers combed through her hair. "Faye." He told her softly. "Open your eyes."
He was above her, hair all dishelved, scruff on his chin, yet she'd never seen him look so good. He gazed into her eyes and quietly brushed some hair from her forehead.
"They say the eyes are the windows to the soul." He told her.
"They do, do they?"
He chuckled. "Yeah... you know what yours are showing me?"
She could feel her heart skip a beat. She had betrayed herself. "What?"
"Something I never thought I'd see again. Something I thought I'd never want again." His fingers brushed below her eyes, like he was wiping invisible tears.
"You know what yours show me?" She asked him. "That you're not as tough and cold as you think you are."
A slow grin came over his lips and he pressed them to hers. Her fingers found themselves tangled in the back of his hair, as her other arm rested itself on his back. A tingling feeling filled her stomach and her head felt light as his kisses trailed down her neck.
From the other side of the ship, they could hear Ed's voice.
"You better get going." Spike leaned back again. He smiled at her one last time. "I'll see you later, okay?"
***
"Faye-Faye!"
She awoke to see Edward, not Spike, sitting on her chest, staring at her intently.
"What is it Ed?" Normally she would have screamed and thrown a fit, but disappointment weighed so heavily in her heart, she couldn't muster the strength to yell.
It was only a memory. A ghost of the past, not the present itself.
"Will you take Edward shopping? Jet person said ask Faye-Faye."
Faye groaned. She'd rather stay in bed and mope, but getting out would be good for her. She wouldn't risk falling asleep and dreaming again. And besides, shopping is shopping, even is it's for Ed.
"Alright, get off of me. I'll take a shower and get dressed."
** I know, short, weird, and a little random, but it's all I could do for now. I'm just giving you guys a little insight into to the Spike and Faye stuff that went on before Julia came back, you know, the stuff that really SHOULD have happened and also I'm starting the "villain" that will be the main focus of my fic. Anyway, don't jump to conclusions about Morris just yet, and don't worry, Spike's not completely gone, just be patient, it'll all happen in time. Better stuff is to come, I promise.**