I do not own bebop, Spike or any of the main characters. Now the supporting players...mine all mine...

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Chapter 2 – Leads in Limbo

Spike had often worked out his frustrations here with some rigorous martial arts. It seemed so quiet on the ship now. There was no one sleeping on the couch, no one in the shower. Food was right the hell where he left it!

He gazed at the stars around him and wondered if Spikes had dimmed...or worse...fallen...

"Damn that Bull for putting this in my head; crazy medicine man!"

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Faye downed the last of her drink and hit the bar with her glass. It was not just another dive this time. It was the Lobby Bar at The City hotel, very posh digs, all money and no talk. A person could get truly lost here.

"And truly drunk." She mused.

Plenty of rich thugs were trying to catch her eye. She wasn't in the mood...for more romance or even a fight. This was not the best place to pick one if you wanted to stay alive. And more romance meant more heartbreak, and she just couldn't stomach it.

"Another! Hey, I'm paying here! You'd think I could get a little service."

The service in this place was lousy. But at least she had the woolongs to ply her aching heart with alcohol. Thanks to Katsu that was. Spike's comrade from an old syndicate family had fortified both her credit account and the hospitals. If Spike survived I bet his credit account was looking ok too. Katsu said he owed him a great debt from long ago. Something to do with his secret identity I'm sure.

"I wonder where he is now." With his dark hair and blue eyes Katsu was easy to look at and even easier to ache for. Faye worried about Katsu. He was, by virtue of who he was alone, a target. Anything could happen. She worried about Spike more though...She was getting soft. She even thought of Jet and Ed.

Why she worried about them was beyond her. Ed was gone to who knows where. Jet was insane. Shit she was insane. Spike was...big tears welled up in her eyes and dropped into her drink...

"Probably dead," she muttered aloud.

His chances were bad. It was not a trauma center, they could not take Spike anywhere that public, (at least he couldn't), and Faye didn't have the woolongs to pay for it without him. Katsu had been hiding for a very long time and no one on Mars knew he was the son of Mao Yenrai. No one could. Ever, or he would be dead for sure. The peace his father had been working on in the Syndicate had clearly not been working, hence all the dead bodies.

I know who he is only because I flipped out and held him at gunpoint when I saw him with Spike's limp body. I must have looked like some sort of mad woman so Katsu came clean with who he was, and that he was trying to help. Katsu knew a place to take him and he was right. The Doc there would help us. But her muttered, "Oh shit," when she lifted Spike's shirt was not good.

"Oh Spike...you fat lunkhead." "Why did you think you can walk through a small war unscathed?"

Faye made her way back upstairs to her room. She sprawled out face first in the sumptuous room and attempted sleep. She missed Katsu; they had shared this room together. He was quiet, and pampered her, but decisive in a crisis and very commanding. He had made it easier to forget that she had left the only thing she could call family behind. He had been the one to bring Spike to relative safety. He had been the one to comfort her the two weeks she cried about it.

"Why did I go cry all over him, I probably drove him out."

"Fucking Spike." It's all his fault. If he were here she'd beat him with this pillow instead of crying into it.

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Jet worked his way back down to the terminal in the Bebop's living room; it and his cigarette flickered to life simultaneously. There was mail, lots of mail. Reports from private hospitals on Mars, Jet had no idea where to start.

"What the heck is this? How could I be?... Ed!!???" But there was no sender information on any of the files. Typical. "Has to be Ed."

Jet hoped that it was Ed, who else would send it. Perhaps there was something here that could connect him with Spike or at least his resting place. He ground out the cigarette he had been sucking on and began to read page after page of boring medical files hoping to see some trace of Spike in them. Hours past and all he had produced was a large headache. Jet got up to water his trees and find something for his headache. Spike had always been so handy with the remedies he hardly knew where to look and shortly gave up.

"Why do I care?" "They'll just cost me money in the long run...I should go back to tending my bonsai and give up this fool quest." Jet grumbled to no one in particular as he began to water.

"What do I expect to find some green haired miracle patient who's stowed away in some mad chemist's lab?" "You're loosing it old man."

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Kitty woke to the sound of her pager and dressed hurriedly. She threw her hair up and started out her front doorway. Some one must have had a breakthrough at the lab she mused. Good, we've been waiting so long. Many hard years work had not yet paid off for her and her co-workers. They were working on creating a drug based diagnostic tool for brain wave recovery. In short...memory restoration. She was excited at the prospect of new developments.

Most people thought it was impossible. A few thought it was, plus some very dangerous ones felt it was a direct threat to their livelihood if not discovered by them first. An exciting field in the big picture, but nothing ever happened in her lab. They were fraught with computer problems, data loss and staffing issues. The funding was there but the staff was not. Not too many promising scientists thought it was profitable...or safe.

When she got to the lab her hopes died. It was just Winston and his secretary Ms. Patterson

"Good Morning Dr. Lancing, I hope we did not disturb your sleep."

"Not at all Winston, how can I help you" she replied with practiced sincerity.

More like Good Night Winston the Great. Kitty wanted to say.

"We have new data from our analysts." Winston piped. "I think you should know about it right away." "Pharmicutica Galaxico has published a statement indicating that they're in the beginning stages of successful memory recovery"

"Not possible," stammered Kitty, "We've got the only current research facility and materials access for it."

"Right again Dr. Lancing," agreed Winston, "I think they are trying to get us to play our hand and publish what we have prematurely." "Keep a close watch on the project Kitty." "Things are getting sticky, materials and research data will be tempting to the opposition Dr."

"Please be aware that we have assigned extra security."

"Have a good day," Simpered Ms. Patterson as they walked out of her office.

Oh great, the goons are staying she thought. Just then one of the three walked into her office.

"I am Conrad, I lead our force here and am assigned to your personal security. I will be with you until the project is completed," Said a tall, dark haired, square faced, designer suited, slicko type she would be cursed with for who knows how long. Just peachy she thought a goon of her very own.

"I have to check on a patient." Kitty said as she made her way down the hallway. You will have to wait outside the doorway.

"OK, but I will be right at the door; it'll be open of course."

"NO, it will not be, my patient is in a coma, what harm is he going to be."

"Who is this patient?"

"No one you should care about, just some benefactor's kin." "Wait here, I'll scream if he tries anything." Kitty spat sarcastically.

Conrad took his place outside the door and grumbled something about doing his job under his breath. Kitty did not care. She was where she had wanted to be all night. Right here at the green haired man's bedside. She began her normal routine of lifting and moving his legs and arms one by one. She did not want all of her efforts saving him to go to waste when all of his muscles rotted away so she did this daily. There was no nursing staff here. She was the only MD in the place. Most of the employees here were chemists or biotechnical engineers and the like. There was something unique about the man. He had been through a lot. His body was a road map of traumatic injury. The scars and healed wounds were amazing. Even one eye had been replaced. Whoever he was he was a survivor that's for sure. Kitty couldn't help but admire him for it. She often thought about what kind of man he might be, and if he would remember it when he woke up.

Kitty let her unruly hair free. It kept trying to escape while she was exercising her patient. It was constantly in her way. One of these days she would cut the offending mane off she thought as she tossed it back out of her way. She sat in the chair by the bed and contemplated a cigarette. The patient wouldn't mind. She found a whole pack of cigarettes in his breast pocket. Later she thought, when she was back home. She still had a full day of research ahead of her right now and had to get her head out of the cloud it was on.

She was getting far too attached to this patient and she knew it.

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Sooooo, whaddya think? Reviews please! They help me make time to write. Thank you Kendra for your encouragement...check back soon, next time Spike speaks again.