Disclaimer: QQQQ! (think about it)

A/N: Part two of my assignment. This time the story is in Jet's voice. I may or may not make another chapter. Who knows?

Lucidity of Movement

by ShiroKitsune

I hate hospitals. Ever since I woke up in one with my left arm gone and a metal one in its place, I've hated hospitals. Even now, after all these visits to Spike in the past year, I can't help but shiver a little every time I enter those glass front doors. This trip, this passage through those doors was no different to begin. I knew Faye was inside with Spike. Anymore, there were only three places she ever was at; the Bebop, the Hospital, or out catching bounties to support the former two places. She wasn't back on the ship, she wasn't out on a hunt, therefore, she must be here.

"...had nothing to go back to. The Bebop was all I had," I heard Faye's voice as I approached Spike's room. Even while fighting him, she sounded tired. I harbored for a moment the heart-clenching thought that Spike had awoken. I looked in the door and nearly sighed. Faye was beside him, kneeling on her chair, with her elbows on his bed and her head bowed. Her hair covered her face and shoulders like some kind of cloak. She hasn't cut it since Spike entered the hospital and it now fell below her shoulder blades. Her voice was something weak as she spoke to Spike and I had another confusing moment wondering if this woman even was Faye.

"Why do you have to be such a selfish bastard?" she said.

I almost smiled at that. I may have smiled a little at that. After all, that was definitely our Faye.

"Because, he is a selfish bastard," I said. Faye jumped a bit where she knelt and looked up at me in surprise. She looked back down quickly and wrung her hands in her lap.

"Ah, Jet. I was just-" she began but trailed off. Faye hadn't spoken much since this whole mess began. It was almost as though, at times, her confusion and emotions prevented her from stringing together a sentence. I tried look at her face but it was once again hidden below dull dark hair. My eyes sought another focus and the ridges of her ribs and her hips were beginning to press against the skin.

"Faye," I said. "This has to stop. It isn't healthy."

"I do a lot of things that aren't healthy," she said trying to be flippant. "That's what makes life fun."

No, Faye. You aren't getting out of this one so easily.

"Don't try and turn this around Faye. You have a decision you have to make. You can't keep on like this," I said. Faye pushed back the chair quickly and almost with her old spark. She came to stand right in front of me with those sad cold eyes looking into mine.

It sounds impossible, but somehow Faye has become nearly the sole support for the Bebop and she covers all of Spike's substantial hospital bills. Now, standing so close and seeing the bruises under her eyes, the translucence of her skin, I could see her fading away beneath the strain. Perhaps even becoming a ghost before me.

"Faye," I warned her. This was not a fight nor argument for us.

"I can't do it," she almost whispered. I knew then that she'd die before she ever gave up on him. "He's a selfish bastard, Jet. And I'm a selfish bitch." Then she stomped away before I could speak to her more.

Before I could tell her that he didn't love her.

I looked at Spike. The goddamn cause of this all. He looked so content in his bed. There were no bruises below his eyes, no ribs sticking out of him. He looked so comfortable. He wasn't struggling to survive.

I suppose, that made me a little bit angry.

"She's right you know. You are a selfish bastard," I snapped at Spike. "And she is a selfish bitch. But I guess I'm selfish too. I want back what we had. I knew better though. I knew not to come after you. You made your damn decision, no matter how selfish it was."

I sighed. What could I say? The bastard might not even be listening anyway. What could I say to make him understand?

"They say you can still hear us. It's probably killing you to not talk back. I'd think she would be here all the time. After all, this is the only time she could talk to you without being interrupted."

I paused. "She's the one who went after you."

"I told her not too. But you know, she never listens." I was silent for a while, trying to get my thoughts together. It didn't come out as I had planned.

"You're killing her." I said. Those words broke the floodgate I had in place.

"Faye does everything now. Everything for you and everything for the ship. She went out an found you after you left. She saved you. She lifted you up from the puddle of blood you were in and carried you to her Redtail. She didn't even leave your side for the first week or two. She didn't even leave you until she had to go out and get money for your bills. She came back, she payed your bills, and then, do you know what she did? She fucking goes out and puts a dozen roses on your damn Julia's grave. Julia, the woman who caused this whole mess,the one she knows she can't compete with for you. She sends a damn bouquet every month. Every month roses appear on Julia's grave in your name. She's killing herself bringing in these damn bounties to pay your hospital bills. And it's killing her. You're killing her. And I'm a selfish bastard too." I almost lost my voice yelling at him. But the gates were down. My words were clear.

"So do you understand? Can you hear me Spike? We're all selfish. You have to decide. You have to decide what's important. You can't just lie there any longer like some kind of vampire, sucking the life out of Faye. If you want to die and find your Julia, then die. If you want to come back where you belong, then wake up." I started toward the door. It almost disgusted me, him lying there, peaceful.

"But you're killing Faye the way you are now." I paused at the door and shook my head before I spoke to Spike.

"I'm a selfish bastard too."