AN: Well, I have ended the Hiatus. Grr. I'm really angry that it took me so long to get this out! I wanted to finish this before I started school, but that's in about 2 weeks, and while that would be really nice, I doubt it will happen. sigh
Disclaimer: I hold no claim over the characters or plot of Cowboy Bebop.
Title: Fallen Petals of the Rose
Chapter 10: The Clearly Insane Plan
Last time..."What's the matter, darling?" the man asked, "I don't bite!"
Spike suddenly realized that James had said they would meet at the diner in an hour and a half, it had barley been 40 minutes since he got off the phone with him.
"James," he said, subconsciously moving in front of Faye, "I thought we were going to meet at the diner."
"I changed my mind and decided to meet you here instead! The door man gave me your room number!" he declared. "So let's get going!"
It was then Spike knew for sure that man was not James. He cast Faye a knowing glance; he had an excellent idea of who he was... He had never hoped he was more wrong in his life.
Now...
'I'm clearly insane,' Spike thought as he settled on a plan; he was going to con the con artist. Again. "Alright, well, we should head to the diner anyway," he grabbed Faye's hand and gave it a squeeze while shooting her glance, telling her to go along with everything he said," poor Faye here hasn't eaten anything since yesterday morning and I could use something to eat myself, I think we've got time, what about you, James."
The man looked a little flustered but said," Well, personally I think that we should just get going right now."
"Well, sure, we should," Spike said, "But we won't be of any use to you if we have no energy."
"Fine, alright," the man said, now adorning a smile, "Let's go to the diner!"
They got to the lobby when something suddenly hit Spike, he had something very pressing to tell the manager.
"But we've got to go!" the man said, "We can't waste the whole day taking care of petty things when that mad man's on the loose!"
"This is why you should go get a table at the diner, we'll catch up to you soon," Spike coaxed. "You're the one who wants to leave so soon, and I can't leave without taking care of this crap first! It's not my fault my cot tried to kill me last night!"
"Fine, but do hurry up." he sighed. "I'll go save the table, do you want me to order for you?"
"I'll take a coffee," Faye said, "And pancakes."
"Yeah, I'll have a coffee too, with eggs and toast," Spike said. "Thanks James, don't worry, we won't be long."
"Yes, well, I'll just have to find some way to entertain my lonesome self while you two are gone then," the man said turning to leave.
As soon as he was out of hearing range, Faye, who had basically stayed quiet the whole time, save for her breakfast order, turned to Spike, "Ok, what the Hell is this all about?"
"That's not James," Spike said solemnly, "I don't know what happened to the real one, if anything at all, I'm hoping nothing did at all and he will show up at the diner like planned."
"I got a really weird vibe from him earlier, that's why I didn't shake his hand," Faye admitted, "I also have a feeling that the only other person that could possibly be is Sekart."
"Same here," Spike agreed, "So we have to be very careful about this. I'm going to call James really quick."
"Alright," Faye said as Spike went to use a pay phone.
He came back a minute later, "He's ok, he should be here soon, but I think that you should keep as far away from him as possible, when we get into the diner, you go to the bathroom and stay there."
"Hey, I'm not a child, you can't order me around!" Faye argued.
"Faye, please I don't want you to get in the hurt in the middle of this and we have no time for argument!" Spike pleaded.
"Alright fine," Faye grunted in defeat, "I'll-"
"Excuse me," the man at the counter said, "Did I hear you mention something about a broken cot? Cuz that's gonna cost ya extra."
Spike grunted and pulling out a few wuulongs, dropping them on the counter before he pulled Faye in the direction of the diner. A part of him would rather face Sekart than get ripped off anymore by the crap-ass motel.
When the reached the diner, Spike let go of Faye's hand and whispered, "Bathroom," forcefully. Reluctantly, she complied and went through the door marked "Women".
Spike, on the other hand, made his way to the table; it was hard pretending to be cool and calm around this guy. It was even getting to be a little hard to believe he hadn't realized they knew who he was. If only the bounty didn't require this guy alive, then he could shoot him now and be done with it. No, they had to get him somewhere deserted, but that might prove difficult seeing as, once again, they were trying to con an experienced con man, the only reason they succeeded before was the fact that Sekart's men were uneducated idiots who could quite possibly be convinced of anything. Sekart should be another story, though, it made one wonder, and just how did he find out about James? How did he find out where they were?
Spike pushed these thoughts aside as he sat down in the booth opposite were the imposter James was sitting.
"Where's your lady friend?" he asked while trying to mask agitation. He was obviously good at creating people from scratch, but trying to be an already developed person must have proved difficult for him, he wasn't doing a great job.
"You know women; they always have to go to the bathroom," he shrugged, "She shouldn't be too long. Ah, thanks for ordering."
With that, Spike ate and drank the slowest he had ever in his entire life. He was pissing off a time bomb and he knew it was only a matter of time before he would blow.
"Well, Ms. Valentine is sure taking her sweet time in the bathroom," the man said, tapping his foot on the peeling linoleum floor.
"What can I say, she's obsessed with her appearance," Spike shrugged, with a forced chuckle.
"I don't know why you are staying so calm about this!" the man spat, "We don't have a lot of time on our hands and you are just laughing it off like we are only delaying our time to... to... I don't know!"
"Listen, I know what we have riding on this!" Spike whispered harshly, "And I'm not going to rush her into this, one would think you'd be more understanding."
"Humph," he crossed his arms, "Fine, we'll wait for her, but she better not eat as slow as you!"
"Don't worry about it," Spike said, leaning back and taking a sip of his coffee, silently hoping that the real James would show up soon.
Faye was at a loss of what to do in the bathroom, frankly, it was a little humiliating. The bathrooms in these places where anything but clean, they had the smell to prove it. Every once in a while someone would come in, and Faye would pretend to straighten up her make up, but before the person finished their... business, she'd lock herself in a stall until that person left. She was getting sick of this. Spike never mentioned when she could come out again. Why was she even listening to Spike? She shook her head, this was stupid! Why couldn't she just go out and see what was going on? How long could Spike possibly stall? When would the real James show up?
Were the walls not covered in some indescribable filth, she might have taken to banging her head on it in frustration. She really just longed for this whole ordeal to be over.
Spike was starting to lose hope, the man they decided was Sekart was quickly losing his patients, something had to be done and it had to be done fast. A few minutes later, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an extravagantly dressed woman standing in the door way, out of Sekart's view. The woman, who was rather manly in physique, could be no one but James. Spike took the fact that the man couldn't see James to his advantage."I have to go to the bathroom," he said standing up. The man was anything but thrilled. "While you're over there, maybe you could get that damned girl! You had better not take so long!"
"Don't worry about it!" Spike said as he left the table. He walked past James and quickly whispered, "He's over there, sitting at the table, Faye's in the bathroom, keeping away from him, go get her, and we'll lead him away from the diner, when we get to a more secluded place, we'll make the capture."
"Right," James said as he made his way to the woman's restroom.
Spike went into the bathroom, but decided not to stick around long... Someone had fallen asleep in one of the stalls and was now snoring. It was a little unnerving that someone could sleep in a place like this. After a quick call to the Bebop for some back up, he quickly made his exit, just in time to see Faye timidly make her way back to the table. It looked like James had filled her in.
"Gee, I guess my breakfast is cold now," she chuckled, "That's ok, I'm not so hungry anymore. If you guys are ready, should we go?"
"I think we should, if you don't want to eat anymore," Spike said as he came up behind her. "What do you think, James?"
"Yes, yes, let's go already!" he said, quickly climbing out of the booth. They followed him out of the diner to the ship port, suddenly, the imposter turned around.
"You thought you could out smart me!" he cackled. "You thought you could one-up me! Well I have some news for you, I'm Sekart! I'm invincible!"
"It's funny," Spike said, jamming his hands into his pockets, "There's no actual record of a Drake Sekart ever existing before about 8 years ago, why don't you explain that?"
"I don't have to explain anything to you!" he declared, "You're all going to die soon anyway!"
James made his way from the shadows, "Sekart, we meet again," he said.
"James," he replied with venom," Spreading more of your lies to these people, I assume."
"The only liar here, Drake, is you," he said.
"Ha!" he laughed, "Well, what do you have to say about all this, Miss Faye? Are you happy to see me again?"
"Go to hell," she said. "You're fucking insane!"
"Ooh, brave now, are we? Now that you've got your little friends around to save your sorry ass," Sekart laughed.
"Shut up!" she yelled.
"What are you going to do about it, Valentine?" he asked with a sadistic grin.
She walked right up to face him before anybody could object, he laughed at her bravery, only succeeding in angering Faye more. Unable to take it anymore, she punched him in the face.
"Bitch!" he yelled as Spike pulled Faye back away from the psycho. "You'll pay for that!"
"I would tell you to get a life, but you don't seem to have a shortage on those," Faye yelled back, struggling in Spike's grasp.
"I'll fucking kill you!" he yelled, pulling out his concealed gun, "I'll kill you now, like I was going to do last night! Nobody takes my things! I'll kill you all!"
With a gun now aimed on them, Spike pulled Faye behind him and pulled out his own gun, they were at a stalemate, or would be, if James hadn't managed to sneak up on him. "Forget about me, darling?" he asked, putting his own gun to Sekart's back. "Drop it."
"Fuck this," he said, but dropping the gun never the less.
Faye started in his direction, Spike tried to stop her, "Spike, I know what I'm doing, so just lay off, alright? I have to do this."
"Touch her and it's all over, Sekart baby," James whispered.
Faye, now standing right in front of him, punched him in the stomach. "Never, never, mock me again. It has a way of creeping up on people and biting them in the ass."
She walked behind him and out of nowhere produced handy-dandy hand cuffs. Slapping them on him, it was now only a matter of time before the capture was 100% complete. "You probably are wishing that you had shot me when you had the chance." she scowled, "Well, I wish I'd shot you too, but now, lucky for you, you're too expensive to kill."
"Keep the gun on him, James, the Bebop should be here soon," Spike smirked. 'This was easier than I expected.'
"You can't win!" Sekart said, his eyes glowing with growing insanity. "My men! My men will get me out! They are lost without me and my guidance!"
"Oh shut it, you windbag," James said, "Your men are too stupid to do anything for themselves, which is why they were with you in the first place."
"You'll see!" Sekart shouted "You'll all see!"
He broke into insane laughter, only to be stopped by the hilt of James's gun. The unconscious, hand cuffed man could no longer hurt, threat, or annoy them now.
The Bebop pulled into the port.
"Hope we're not too late for the show," Jet said as he exited the craft.
AN: Oh, I'm so happy I got this out! It's like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders! I really hope it was worth the wait I put you all through, honestly, I'm really trying to get better! It's almost done!
-DRC-