Ok, so if you're still reading, I'd like to tell ya that I changed the setting so that everyone can post a reply. Sorry it took me so long. I really hope that I haven't killed the story for anyone. It just worked out this way in my wacky head, that's all.

The only thing to do now is sleep. I can't think of anything better to do.

So I walked over to the couch and took off my shoes. I sat and looked around. It's not the biggest place, but at least it's a place. I'm somewhat proud of Faye for it. I haven't found out who she swindled to get it, but there's time for that later.

Now it's time to do what I do best.

My feet hang off of the tiny couch by about a foot. I layed there for what seemed like a year before I actually fell to sleep.

I had a really weird dream. Me and Faye. We were getting married or something.

Where am I?

What?! You don't know? This is your–our wedding! How could you forget?!

Oh...I'm sorry. Um...who are you again?

Don't tell me you're having another bout of amnesia! How typical!

::slap::

OW! Why the hell did you slap me?!

Maybe it'll knock some sense into you!

Well, it didn't! And it hurt like hell! Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hurt a woman?

My mother never told me anything.

Well, that's too bad.

::punch::

HEY! Why'd you punch me?!

Because you slapped me!

Damnit woman!

I woke up in a cold sweat so suddenly that I almost fell off of the couch.

Good, I didn't wake anybody up. I glanced over to her door. It was cracked open now. She must've gotten up while I was sleeping.

Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say.

I walked to her door and slid my thin fingers through the opening. Slowly and quietly I opened the door wide enough to allow me entrance to her room. I scanned the room until my eyes adjusted to the varying shades of darkness.

I found her sleeping like a baby at the other end of the room in her oversized bed.

I crept over to her bed and sat down softly on the edge. She stirred a little, but quickly regained her unconcious state. The moonlight poured in through her single window, although huge, and cast streaks of silver light all over her slumbering face and body.

So, she's got a new life now. Would it be right for me to barge in now? I can take care of myself, but I feel somewhat obligated to her.

She had to start over again, but this time, because of me.

I crawled into her bed and layed next to her, staring at the back of her head.

Still can't see her eyes. Maybe that's a good thing.

I took a deep breath and her back against my stomach. I wrapped my arm around her stomach and breathed in the smell of her hair. Smelled thick with cigarettes and the smallest hint of perfume. I always thought that's what she smelled like.

She stirred again, but this time awoke.

"Mmmrgh...what the..." she grumbled in a tired whisper.

"Please don't beat me up or anything violent." I said quietly.

"What are you doing? What's wrong with the couch? C'mon, it's..." she leaned away from me and looked at her clock. "It's 5:38. I've got to get up soon. Let me sleep." she whined and put the clock back where it was.

"I'm sorry." I offered.

"Yeah, yeah, you say that, but I know you don't mean it."

"You say that, but you know you're just being careful. You can't possibly believe me because then you'd be betraying some 'Woman Law' or something." I said with a chuckle.

"Whatever." she whispered and rolled over, her back facing me.

"Please don't go back to sleep. I wanna talk to ya. You know, long time no see." I pleaded, a first for me. Well, a first with her at least.

"Seems like I'm not the only one who's changed...well, if you wanna talk that bad..." she said and rolled out of bed. She headed over to her closet and grabbed her little white robe.

She flipped on a small lamp and opened the huge window. The moonlight spilled in, but wasn't as strong as it was before. The sun had started to rise now. The huge window led outside to a small patio which she walked out onto and lit up a cigarette. I rolled off her bed and joined her. She handed me yet another cigarette(geez, now I owe her cigarettes, too) and lit it up for me.

"Thanks." I said between drags.

"Right. So what do you want to talk about so desperately at 6 in the morning?" she asked as she blew a cloud of smoke toward the sky.

"Well...I guess we could start with what happened after I left. Or is that too much to ask right now?" I said.

"I wrote it all down. I don't feel like talking about it all right now, so you can just read that." she said and walked back inside to retrieve it.

She came back out a few minutes later and handed me a small blue book. She opened it to a page almost halfway through the book and said, "There. Start with that." she said.

So I read until I couldn't read anymore.

"You happy?" she said, putting out her cigarette as I finished reading.

I don't know what to say at all.

"Where is he?" I asked quietly as I handed her little blue book back to her.

"On Ganymede. I thought he'd probably want to be buried there." She answered.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I have to get Ed up soon. She goes to school now. Wanna help me with breakfast?" Faye asked and headed toward her room again.

"Ed...school?" I sputtered.

"Yeah, it was her idea. She's made a lot of friends. I'm really happy for her."

"Yeah...that's good." I said and put my hands in my pockets as I followed Faye to her kitchen.

"So, here. You start making the eggs and toast so I can wake her up. It takes some effort that I must discover before I get to her room." She said with a smile that made me smile.

Problem: I suck at cooking. I know I complained about Jet's food, but I can't even boil water right.

So I have to make it look like I know what I'm doing before she gets back and sees that I'm a complete waste of space.

How the hell am I ever going to repay her for all the trouble I put her through...?

And more importantly, why the hell do I feel the need to so something nice for Faye now? We were barely civil with each other before...but that was because I had my Julia on the brain like a bad fever.

She's gone too, though.

I know that Julia's gone. I know that was pretty much my fault. I can't do anything for her, like I told Jet before I left to take out Vicious once and for all(which was—his reason for wanting to kill me—pretty much my fault as well).

So, here I am. A year later, and standing in Faye Valentine's kitchen at six in the morning, attempting to cook breakfast for her, Ed, and myself.

You always think of the most important things when you shouldn't be thinking at all. In fact, when you should be sleeping.

I chuckled softly at that thought and picked up an egg from the carton sitting on the counter. I've done this plenty of times when I was hungover, so why is it different now?

I cracked the egg on the side of the small brown bowl. It has a little flower in the bottom of it. Weird how domestic it seems. Weird how it belongs to Faye, the most undomestic of all women I have met.

But, wait...she isn't the same Faye anymore. I keep forgetting that she got her memory back. It must have changed her, because she doesn't want something from me for staying here yet.

Maybe she's just waiting to hit me with a bill.

All of a sudden, I felt a warm mass attach itself to my legs. Not just one, but both, so I couldn't really move. Wobbling was about the best I could manage at this point.

"You're back!" the mass squeaked and squeezed tigher yet.

Yeah, I'm back...and there goes the egg...onto her head.

"Ohh! Ed's hair! Not nice, Spike-person! Not nice at all." she yelped as she rolled away. Ein came up to me next, and looked at me like he knew I'd be back.

"Oh Ed, go wash that out quick! I gotta get you to school!" Faye said as she walked back into the kitchen.

"So yeah...it was a no-go on the eggs." I said with a "Please Forgive Me" shrug of my shoulders with an especially thick puppy dog smile and eyes.

"Spike?"

"Yeah?" I said expecting the old Faye to resurface any time now.

"Can you go help Ed get ready? I don't want her to be late." She said as she began to salvage breakfast.

"Um, yeah, sure." I said and headed after Ed.

I turned a corner and found Ed, with her head under a sink and her hands running through her hair feverishly.

"Sorry 'bout that, Ed." I said.

"Oh, it's ok. I'm just glad to see ya Spike-person." She said and removed her head from under the faucet and wrapped her hair up in a towel. "Faye-Faye showed me how to put the towel on my head. It's neat." She said and smiled at me.

Ed hasn't changed too much. She's just growing up now, that's all.

A few minutes later, Faye had breakfast ready and waiting for all of us. She can cook? Hope it's edible...

When we finished eating, which was edible by the way, Faye took Ed to school. I sat on her patio and smoked.

Thinking again, of course.

What am I going to do about all of this? I know that when she comes back, she'll want to know if I'm going to be staying again tonight or not. So it's coming down to the decision on my part.

I have to make up my mind. I can't just let things go. People are dead because of me. If we were talking about regular people who I really didn't know, then I'd have no problems. But the people who are dead are people that I lived with and cared for.

Even though I was a bastard and never showed it when we were all together still.

Ok, so the last year and a half has given me the time to think about myself. I lived after I went after Vicious, but barely. I think I was actually dead for a couple of minutes...but they brought me back of course. Seems slightly unfair that I'm alive and so many others died because of me. Jet, Vicious...Julia.

Julia.

A dream within a dream that I couldn't wake up from. She would want me to move on...at least I think she would have wanted it that way.

But what the hell am I going to do?? Faye's put up her bounty huntin' boots for a more "normal" life. What, am I going to work at a "normal" job? I just can't see myself becoming so...domesticated.

Sorry Faye, but I can't stay here. Not now.

Wait a sec...I was so ready to run away and live somewhere with Julia to get away from everyone. But Julia was...and I loved her...

Loved?

And at that precise moment, she walked in and joined me on the patio.

"Whatcha thinking about, Mr. Serious?" she asked playfully noting my face.

"Um, stuff." I said and shook my head to try and shake these thoughts from my cluttered head.

"Stuff, huh? Sounds exhilirating." She said and tossed me a pack of cigarettes. "Here, I picked some up for you since I noticed you don't have any of your own." She said and plucked one out for herself.

"Thanks and all, but why are you being so nice to me?" I asked bluntly.

"Because it's easier than being mean?" she questioned herself as well as me.

"Well, yeah, but before I 'died,' we weren't exactly on the greatest terms." I said.

"Yeah, that's true. But like you say 'The past is the past' and all that." She said lighting her cigarette.

"Gotcha." I said and lit one for myself.

We sat there in silence until Faye said, "I really missed you."

I looked over at her and smiled, "I don't think I can say the same."

Her cautious smile dropped like a ton of bricks and she now looked like the old Faye.

"You've changed so much that I don't know who you are to have missed you, Faye." I said in redemption with a grin.

"Oh." She said and returned to Happy Faye.

She laughed a little and said, "You haven't changed that much, after all Spike."

"Guess not."

We both laughed as we watched the sun rise over her patio.