Stories

They all gathered in the living room.

Ed sat on the floor. Spike and Julia sat on the yellow couch. Faye sat on the stairs looking down on everyone. Jet sat in the matching yellow chair.

Spike looked around, saw that everyone was looking at him, and cleared his throat. "Well, um, I thought" with that Julia coughed and Spike corrected himself. "Sorry, Julia thought before we start figuring out our schedule, we should get to know each other a bit, especially you Faye. So for starters, I'll go first." He cleared his throat.

"Okay, my name is Spike Spiegel. I'm 27 years old and I was born on Mars. My hobbies, besides singing and playing the guitar, are martial arts, particulary jeet kune do, and firearms. I actually have comepeted in several tournaments and have gotten high scoreson them. I mean, give me a gun and a target and I'll hit it.

Jet rolled his eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Spike.

Spike smirked and said to Faye, "He's just mad 'cause I beat him three times in a row.

Faye gave a slight smile; Jet turned slightly pink.

Spike gave Julia a nudge, which started her talking. "I'm Julia. I'm 23 and I also was born on Mars. My hobbies are singing, I'm a background singer for the band; and…sewing. Don't laugh," she instructed everyone with mock sterness.

Faye smiled. Spike was grinning along with Jet.

Ed, who had been lying down, looking at the ceiling, suddenly sat up. "Ed's turn, Ed's turn!" she cried.

Spike nodded at her. "Okay Ed," he said.

Ed flipped herself onto her hands and started to speak. "Ed's name is Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivursky the Fourth. Ed made it for herself."

Faye gave Spike a puzzled look. He just shrugged back.

Ed continued to talk. "Ed is thirteen years old and was born on Earth. Ed plays the drums, but Ed is also a netdiver."

Faye gave a recognizing look. "Oh you're a hacker."

"Sí, sí, Faye-Faye."

Faye frowned. "My name is Faye, Ed."

Ed just giggled.

Jet, in order to avoid a fight, cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm Jet Black. I'm 36 years old. I was born on Ganymede. My hobbies are are cooking Stop laughing, Spike!" he said to Spike, who was laughing his head off. Jet rolled his eyes and continued to speak. "As I was saying, I cook, I maintain bonsais, and I'm a mechanic. I play the piano, the saxaphone, and bass guitar."

Everyone now looked at Faye expectedly, who turned a little pale. "M-my name is F-faye. I'm 23." She stopped there.

Spike spoke up. "Could you tell us more? Like where you were born?"

Faye turned whiter. "I don't know," she whispered, tearing, jumping off the steps and striding from the room.

Everyone looked at each other, puzzlement across each face. Finally, Julia spoke up. "What was that?"

Spike ran a hand through his hair.

"Do you think she's faking it?" Julia persisted.

"I honestly don't know, but I feel she's isn't faking. The only problem is why can't she tell us? Can she not tell us, like an amnesiac?" Spike asked.

Julia stood up. "Someone has to talk with her."

Spike also stood. "You're right. I'll go."

The rest looked at him surprised, as he strode from the room. He walked to her room and knocked on the door. "Faye?" he called through the door. There was no answer, though he thought he heard crying. He opened the door and found her sitting on her bed, her knees pulled to her chin, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She looked at him and anger crossed her face. She stood and even though she was several inches shorter than him, the anger that was around her made up that difference. "What are you doing in here?" she hissed.

He looked her straight in the eye. "Jesus woman, I'm just checking to see if you're okay. Most women don't go running from a room, pale as a ghost and crying, for fun."

Faye drew back. "You're right," she said sighing. "I've got a lot to explain for, but I can't."

"Why can't you, Faye?" Spike asked, stepping closer to her.

Faye gave a sad smile. "Sorry Spike," she said. "But until you tell me one of your deep dark secrets, I can't tell you mine."

Spike nodded. "Duley noted. Now will you come out? We still have other stories to tell you." He winked at her. "Some are even about your favorite male singer."

Faye lifted an eyebrow. "Robert Plant?" she asked.

Spike pretended to look hurt. "No, me."

Faye rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Spike."

Spike grinned at her. "Come on," he said. "What's there not to love? I can sing, play the guitar, shoot a gun, and disarm almost anyone who comes my way."

She gave a smirk. "Oh and you're modest, too."

He kept grinning. "All part of the 'Spike' package."

Faye shrugged. "Alright Mr. Incredible, you can tell me more stories about yourself and I figure the others only have more fasinating stories to tell me about you. Am I right?"

Spike turned pale, she smirked.

"You look a little worried there, Spike," she joked. "Come on. I want to hear all about your career in this business. The others are waiting." She took his hand and led him to the living room, Spike neither helping nor hindering her.

Faye realized that her holding his hand would seem very strange to all who were in the room. After all, they were not able to hear what the two had said, so they would assume something had happened. Faye did not want that, for it certainly had not. Spike seemed to notice that, also and blushed a little at what it could look like.

Faye gazed at everyone and said, "I'm sorry for that. It's just, well, I wish I could tell you my life. If I could, believe me, I would; promise." With that she sat down where she was before. "So, Spike told me that there was more stories to tell." She winked at him.

Julia looked from Faye to Spike, who was very slightly blushing, with a raised eyebrow.

Faye leaned back on the palms of her hands and crossed her legs. "So," she said. "How did you guys all meet each other?"

Jet spoke up. "If I remember right, I first saw this guy," he gestured at Spike, "singing in a bar, with Vicious playing the guitar. They were performing a dirty little number that was rocking the place. What was the song again Spike?"

Spike grinned. "It was 'Darling Nikki' covered by the Foo Fighters."

Jet nodded. "Ah, yes, I remember. Everyone, especially the men, was cheering. Then they needed someone for bass and I volunteered. The rest is history."

Faye nodded. "What about Ed?"

Spike smirked. "Ed was one of a kind; she found us. She tracked us on her computer, then hacked into the ship's computer and programmed it to come pick her up. Believe me, we were quite confused when we landed on Earth instead of Mars. Then she shows up and starts hopping all over the place. We were about to throw her off the ship when she showed us her other talent. She's a maniac on the drums. When she really gets going, you can't even see her arms moving. We agreed on the spot that she could stay."

Faye smiled.

Julia spoke up then. "I suppose you're wondering how I met this guy?" she asked, squeezing Spike's shoulder gently.

Faye nodded. "I was wondering."

Julia smirked. "I was in a bar shooting some pool, when who happens to come in the door, but this guy, Vicious, Jet and Ed. They were there to see if they could play there in a few days. The bartender said the owner'd be in, in an hour or two. They saw me in the corner and Spike decided to challenge me to a game of pool. Being the thickheaded guy he is, Spike bet me if he won, we go out on a date, if I won, I got one wish of him." She smirked harder. "Big mistake. Not only did I win, I cleared the table in five shots. His face was priceless. Even Vicious was laughing. My wish was that I could sing in his band. They all said yes with the exception that I be back up only. I agreed."

Faye nodded. "But what about the name of the band? 'Cowboy Bebop', where did that come from?"

Jet spoke up. "I'll answer that one. The 'Bebop' comes from the name of this ship, which is in turn named for my favorite kind of music. The 'cowboy' part is from the beginning of our career together. In order to earn money, we had to catch bounties for a while."

Faye raised her eyebrows. "You guys were all bounty hunters?"

Spike chuckled. "Yep, can't imagine us doing it can you?"

She just shook her head in incredibility.

Jet nodded. "Bounty hunting isn't glamorous, but it gets the job done."

Spike agreed sarcastically. "Yeah, and it put a lot of extra holes in me and my baby that we didn't need. Also it strained all our nerves, and
I daresay Jet, you were balder than ever because of it."

Jet scowled. "The only reasons you got shot are because you are too thickheaded and too gung-ho; always running ahead of the game."

Spike smiled lazily. "Life isn't any fun without risk."

"Life isn't any fun if you're dead or badly injured, either," Jet retorted.

Spike just shrugged and Faye smiled then said to him, "What about Vicious? How did you meet him?"

Spike sighed. "Me and Vicious, we go back a long time. Maybe 12 years. We were partners in our job. After about nine years, we decided we'd had enough. So we quit and since we both have musical talent, we decided to form a band together. We just bar-hopped for a while until we met Jet and Ed and got an agent. People really started liking us and we started having full-size concerts, then started selling them out. We kept climbing till we're at what we are today." He shrugged. "Actually I'm surprised he hasn't gone back to that job. The bosses would welcome him back with, well maybe not exactly open arms, but close."

Faye looked at him closely and thought there was something he wasn't telling. And by looking around, she saw noone else knew what it was except for Julia, whose eyes were narrow with recognition.

Faye didn't know what to do. She felt she owed them at least the part of her life that she knew. She made sure she had everyone's attention, then began her story. "Surprising or not, I also was a bounty hunter these past years." She noticed eyebrows rise, especially Julia's. "I roamed the solar system catching bounties and just free-playing in bars. I even played some jazz with an awesome sax player on Callisto for a month or two. His name was Gren and his playing could make you tear in a minute. Just a month after we went our own ways, I heard about the auditions for this band and the tv, so I decided to audition, and here I am." She snapped her fingers. "Now I recognize the name 'Bebop'. You guys were great, getting the bounties except the damage caused almost cancelled out the bounty every time."

Jet snorted. "All the damage you heard about was caused by him." He nodded at Spike.

Julia shook her head in disbelief. "If you were a bounty hunter, how come we never heard of you?"

Faye smiled. "Ever heard of Lady Luck? Poker Alice?"

Everyone sat up straight. "Whoa, hold on a minute," Spike said. "You're The Poker Alice?"

Faye nodded. "The one and only."

Julia stood up. "I don't believe you. If you really are Alice, you'd be able to disarm us in a minute. Let's go right now, you and me." She took out her switchblade and held it in front of her. She then charged at Faye who was standing on the floor facing her.

Just before impact, Faye whirled out of the way, kicked Julia's knife out of her hand, handcuffed Julia's hands behind her and had a gun to Julia's head. All that was done in less than five seconds.

Spike whislted in appreciation. Jet clapped. Ed flipped herself onto her hands again and yelled "Yay! Faye-Faye!"

Julia just mumbled something about 'getting the damn cuffs off her'.

Spike looked at Faye in a new light. "You do martial arts?"

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, a little of everything from tae kwon do to jujitsu."

"What about jeet kune do?"

"Oh you mean like Bruce Lee? It's my favorite."

He nodded. "Mine, too. Maybe we can spar sometime?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, just don't sulk if I beat your ass."

Spike smirked. "I doubt that will happen."

They had finished telling stories, then it was trime to sleep, for in the morning they had to meet the band's manager and agent.

A/N: sorry this took sooooo long. hopefully i can get the chapters up faster.