A/N: It has been made know to me that I haven't been denying credit to Bebop. Okay, sorry! I do not own Cowboy Bebop© nor do I own Spike Spiegel©, Faye Valentine©, Jet Black©, Ed© or Ein the dog©. Cowboy Bebop© is a cartoon that I enjoy very much and I am glad Adult Swim© usually shows. Thankfully we live in a free world© where we can publish FanFics© that are original works of the fans of the shows.

Also, thanks goes to Jan Lee, whom seems to be my only avid fan. I am glad you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it. Sorry for not updating it sooner. I've been really busy with stuff at school but I'll try putting more time into it. Also I'm in the process of writing two other fics at the same time, both Bebop of course. Now, on with the show!

Spike woke up disoriented on a rough mattress in a small room. When he tried to sit up all he could feel was a deep, throbbing pain in the back of his head. He reached his hand back to feel how big of a lump there was. When his hand was about to touch the protrusion on his skull, a door to the right of him opened quite loudly. The hinges squeaked and it made Spike jump as he quickly lowered his hand onto his thigh.

A woman walked through the door that opened. She was small, maybe 5'4", maybe taller. His head felt heavy and the pulsing shots in the back of his head got worse. He groaned a little bit from the pain, but tried not to let anything show. After all, he was a tough guy. The woman seemed unconcerned and distant from Spike's turmoil. She simply came in, placed some clean clothes on a dresser by the window and left.

Once the pain had settled, Spike cleared his mind and started to focus on his surroundings. The door was locked. He remembered hearing the click when the woman had left a few minutes ago. The only window in the room was by the dresser and had several steel bars going vertically into the frame. A small wooden chair sat by a bare desk in a corner and next to the bed was a door into a bathroom. Was he in some kind of hotel room or something?

The door clicked again, and a different woman walked in. His mind flashed back to the bar. His eyes had been darting around as usual when he walked in. There were a few drunks in the corner...and another guy at the bar two stools down...and a woman at a table behind him...That's it! That was the woman that must have knocked him out when the bartender had turned his back. He was caught off-guard because he didn't expect a woman to attack him unprovoked.

She was taller than the first woman. Maybe 5'7" or so, long black hair that went down to her hips. He couldn't see her eyes very well, and he didn't like that. She spoke first.

"You are Spike Spiegel, correct?" Spike nodded. "Then I am glad I did not attack the wrong person."
"And who are you?" Spike still couldn't see her eyes. She was moving around the room, not towards him, just pacing back and forth in front of the door.

"I do not think that is important right now, Mr. Spiegel. You see..."

"First I think its damn well important and second don't called me mister!" Spike was not used to being the one questioned. He didn't like it, especially when it was a woman he was dealing with. That always was bad news waiting to happen, because most of the time a woman is working alone its for money or revenge, usually the latter.

"No need to be hostile...Spike. You see, I am not here for personal business. This is a business proposition." Spike sighed in his mind. Not revenge.

"And you couldn't have just asked me in the bar. Instead you whop me over the head with a brick..."

She cut in: "It was a pipe, not a brick."

"Shut up! You whop me over the head, kidnap me and lock me up in some hotel room. This is not what I call a sensible business meeting!" Spike didn't usually lose his cool, but to get kidnapped by a woman simply to be offered a job was humiliating.

"Spike, it is not my choice that you are here. I did as I was told and that is why you are here as well as I. If you wish to leave and not hear me out, you are welcome to. But I would not expect and easy time dealing with my guards outside. You either leave with me or in an ambulance. It is your choice."

Spike was out of luck this time. He was bluffing a pair of twos against a full house. She wouldn't brag about guards if she didn't think they could win. "Alright, let's hear it."

* * * * * *

"Let's see...what do I want to do..." Faye was playing the situation in her mind. She had a pair of queens in her hand, and a king, an ace and a ten on the table. There was no way of telling if Thomas Whorton held a better hand. She wished there was a TV around watching all of this. She remembered watching tournaments on the TV when she was in the hospital recovering from being cryogenically frozen. There were little percentage marks by a person's name as to how likely they would win the hand.

"Get back into the game, Faye. This isn't a time for daydreaming." Whorton had just called her bet and the pot was at sixty eight thousand Woolongs. This was just over her goal by about ten thousand.

Faye raised another ten thousand, and Whorton called. The flipped card revealed was another ace. Not anything that held any merit other than it was a spade, just like the king and ten that was already down. Faye looked down at her cards and looked at Whorton, who was already watching her reactions. The woman was calm as a pristine lake, undisturbed by the useless card dealt. She looked back at her cards and grabbed a mound of chips. Counting it carefully, she looked to Whorton and placed the chips out from her piles. "Twenty thousand."

Whorton, playing for chump change was eager to not only call Faye's bet, but raise her another ninety thousand. Faye's eyes widened in disbelief. Either this guy was holding the mother of all hands, or was stupid enough to try to bluff his way against Faye Valentine, the queen of cards. She wasn't backing down, tape or no tape.

"I'll call." Faye pushed a few large piles of chips outward. The final card was dealt: a jack of spades. Another worthless card for Faye. She was in boiling water now, because she only had a pair and Whorton had bet ninety thousand last round even before knowing the last card. He had something to beat Faye's little pair, and Faye was going to be hurting soon.

The dealer chimed out while Faye was still going through her thought process on how to handle this. "Mr. Whorton, you are first to bid."

Whorton was now beaming. He had a nice little full house ready to kill off anything that the woman had. He pushed one hundred and fifty thousand into the pot. Faye knew she had nothing but was riding on the bet that he had nothing when she blindly called his bet. If she lost she would be almost back to square one.

"Mr. Whorton, Ms. Valentine, please reveal your hands." As soon as the dealer said this Whorton laid out his jack-ace and reveled in his jacks- over-aces full house. Faye's eyes began to water up, which was rare for someone like her to loose every bit of composure and bust out like how she was. She tossed her cards in front of her for all to see. She knew it was over. She would never see that tape.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the winner: Ms. Faye Valentine with a Royal Flush!" The dealer was so excited that someone had finally gotten a royal flush at his table. He complimented her on her outstanding skills at playing and her emotional attachment to the game, and pushed the chips over to her and called for an escort to take her over to get the chips cashed.

All of this was happening as Faye watched without a clue as to what happened. When she looked at her cards, she noticed that one of the queens was a spade. She looked to the other cards on the table. Ace, king, jack, ten, all of spades. She had actually pulled a royal flush and won five hundred and eighty thousand Woolongs. Faye nearly dragged her escorts to the counter to claim her money.

A/N: Yeah this is a short chapter. Actually its longer than the other ones individually I think. Well, I got so caught up in the planning of Faye's surprise victory I didn't try chopping it into blocks. I'll probably be posting more soon. We need to check in on Jet and Ed, right? Tune in next time, folks...

See you space cowboy...©