Jet wakes up covered in sunlight. It's far too warm and too bright, and there's intense pain, which Jet is not prepared for. Slowly he becomes used to it, and tries to get his bearings. Faye is next to him, indicating that he possibly is not dead.

"Faye?"

"Jet! God, you're finally awake. I've been reading the same magazine article for two hours. Now maybe we can get out of here."

"Where is here?"

"A hospital. I had to bring you in here, I know we can't afford it but I didn't have much choice. You were in bad shape, you know?" Faye flips her hair back dismissively and stares at her fingernails.

"What happened?" Jet relaxes back into his hospital bed a little, and focuses his gaze towards the windows at his side. He pulls his blanket down and away from his chest, sweating a little in the afternoon sunlight blazing down on him.

"I shot down three of the ships that came after me, then the last two took off. It was really rude of them! So I went after them, and then another ship came out of the Bebop. They all three flew off, so I tried to com you but as usual, you didn't respond. I went and landed in the hangar, walked into the ship and some guy was trying to kill you, so I shot him. He's dead," she tells him quickly, like she's reading racing results.

"Damn," Jet says after a minute. "If you hadn't come along…"

"I wouldn't have to clean up the mess you left! There's blood everywhere, I hope you don't think I'm going to clean it up, because it's not my mess. At least you didn't trash anything in my room, that's a miracle."

"There wasn't anything in there to mess up. You packed it up, remember?"

"Well, that's true… I put it all back though… for storage until you get better, can't have you all messed up on your own like this."

"Oh, I see. So that's how it goes, huh," he replies. "I wonder what the excuse will be next week?"

"Excuse?"

"Excuse for you to stay," he explains.

"Hey, if you don't want me to take care of your messed up ass, I won't, okay," Faye says, standing up. Jet takes her shoulder in his metal hand and sits her back down in her chair. She smiles at his silly gesture.

"Well…" he begins.

"I hate to tell you, but your bonsai trees got smashed up pretty bad." She looks up into his eyes to see his reaction. Jet winces at the news, then wordlessly turns his head to stare at the window. Faye continues to look at him, and he catches her a minute later.

"I – I wanted to avoid the police, but they got involved anyway. They took the last three ships those guys left that were in our - the, the - hangar, they took them as evidence…"

"I was hoping we could sell those."

"I knew you would think that…"

"So we're left with what we started with, I guess." Jet manages a slight smile.

"With less, really. If you think about it."

"I don't really want to."

A man in a police uniform enters the hospital room.

"Officer Duplain, Miss Valentine. I need to ask you some questions."

"Now?"

"If you don't mind. I'll wait outside."

"All right." Faye stands to follow, putting a hand on Jet's bed to steady herself. Jet weakly reaches for it, holding her hand in his wounded one, smiling up at her.

"Thanks, Faye."

Without pause she kisses his hand, the touch of her lips on the skin stretched tight across his knuckles like the brush of feathers of a bird; heralding a welcomed dawn, able to sing whenever she pleased.

ISSP REPORT

No. 482042-42-GB

Officers Duplain and Andronovsky

Complainant, one Jet Black, age 36, Ganymede, reported that five unknown persons entered his ship the "Bebop" and opened fire on him. Complainant used deadly force to preserve his life. DBs discovered DOA at 17:55 ST. Case ruled as self-defense.

Addendum: Complainant entered request for reimbursement of funds for damaged bonsai trees. Request was denied.