Chapter Four: Stubborn Romani
Third Person pov
Jet climbed into his ship, staring at the door of the hanger. Spike had been asleep when he had opened up his door. He hadn't wanted to wake the cowboy, but now it was time to start looking for Faye and it didn't seem that the lanky man would be joining him on his search for the Romani. Shaking his head, he started up the machine. Flicking several switches, he prepared to take off. Just as he was flying out of the hanger, the Swordfish zoomed past him, and from the seat, Spike waved over his shoulder with a funny grin on his face.
"What the hell do you think you are doing flying like that? You're going to ding up my ride!" Jet hollered into the intercom system.
"I thought you wanted help looking for Faye?" Spike ignored Jet's question and insult.
"Is that what you are doing?" the older man asked back.
"Do I have any other choice?" Spike grumbled, taking off ahead of him.
If he hadn't known any better, Jet would have sworn that Spike was worried about the girl. "Have you seen Ed?" he questioned.
"Nope, I think she took the mutt and went with Faye."
"So we have lost half the crew. Great." Jet mumbled, staring down at the screen of his computer, trying to locate the bug on Faye's Redtail. A beeping sounded as he realized he had gotten a hit. "Got her," he announced. "She's staying at the Caesar Hotel." Punching a couple of buttons, he turned his ship onto AutoPilot.
About an hour later, the Swordfish II landed alongside of him in the hotel's parking lot. Both bounty hunters got out of their ships, looking around to see if anyone had noticed their entrance. Not seeing anything of suspicious nature, they headed into the hotel to find the rest of their crew.
They hadn't needed to ask the staff at the front desk, they could hear Edward screaming and Ein barking from the lobby area. Together they walked down the hall to a large open room where an enormous pool was laid out. Ed was doing a somersault off the diving board, Ein leaping in after her. Jet laughed as he saw Faye yell at them.
"She may deny liking the kid, but she'd be a good mother to her," he commented.
"Or at least a better parent figure than that no good father of hers," Spike agreed.
"Hmm," Jet closed his eyes, trying to decide how to go about this. Women were hard to control, and Faye was even harder. He was sure that Ed and Ein wouldn't be too hard to convince, but when Faye had left, she had been mad and hurt. There was no telling how to approach her. So he left that up to his partner.
"I'll go get the kid and the dog," he told Spike, "since I know how much you hate kids and animals."
"Did I mention I despise women with attitude, Jet?" Was Spike's catty reply.
"Just say you're sorry," the older man snapped, waving him on.
Sighing, Spike buried his hands in his pockets and walked over to the end of the pool, where Faye had settled. This was going to be harder than he had thought. He wasn't sure why he had tagged along with Jet to come after the shrew. Maybe some part of his conscious was coming back to life. Either way, he was here.
Just treat this like a job, he told himself. That way, you can't become too attached.
He continued walking in the direction of her and began to notice some things. First, Faye usually wore things that made you want to…well, she wore some interesting outfits. However, right now, she was in a very simple black one-piece suit that covered more of her body than he had ever seen clothed.
Next, her hair framed her face in a completely different way. With the water, it clung to certain points of her face and her head, making it look shorter, yet the style seemed perfect for her. Despite her serious facial expression, he thought she looked free and pleased. He almost felt bad for having to ruin her mood.
Faye's Pov
The water felt so right against my skin. It was cool, but not cold enough to make me want to leave. It was just temperature that it became refreshing. I couldn't see why I had never wanted to lounge around in a pool before. Ed seemed to like it enough. She and Ein were swimming around and leaping off the diving board at the deep end.
Wait…Ein!
"Ed! Get that mangy mutt out of the pool!" I ordered her.
"But Ein-doggy loves the water as much as Edward does!" she complained.
I groaned, closing my eyes. Why did this kid have to be so in love with her dog? Why couldn't she have grown attached to a doll like a normal girl? Why did she have to be clinging with an animal? I rolled my eyes, and stroked over to the other side of the pool, hoping she would leave me alone if I ignored her.
Needing some time to think on my situation, I started doing laps up and down the relatively empty pool. There were a couple attendants around, but other than that, it was just me and Edward. Oh, and Ein of course. Other than that, well, no one else was up yet.
I had woken up to the sound of Edward crying over her tomato, which she had left behind. Her cries had turned into screaming when she realized how far away from her beloved computer she was. Even with a pillow pressed against both of my ears, I could hear her, so finally I had given up on the notion of sleeping for more than three hours and taken her down to the hotel pool, Ein in tow.
I had had to buy us both bathing suits and rent out towels for ourselves, but since I wasn't going to be paying my bill when I left, I didn't really mind. I'd just add it to my tremendous debt. One day I was going to get rid of that and after that, I'd give up gambling for good. Until that time, I would still allow myself to have fun. After all, what was the point of living if you weren't enjoying yourself?
I wondered what Jet and Spike were doing? Jet might be worried that he had lost his hacker and data dog, but as for me, I was sure he was glad to be rid of me. Though I had decided to give up my yellow outfit and sport something more to my line of work, he still thought of me like Spike did: a slut with attitude.
I dunked my head under the water for the next stroke of my lap, allowing my tears to mix with the chlorine. Did it have to hurt this much to finally be gone from Bebop? Without noticing it, I hit the wall. My fingers curled around the edge of the pool and I held myself there until my tears had dispersed.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Ed was trying to teach Ein had to swim properly. I was about to yell over to her when someone tapped my shoulder blade.
"Excuse me, miss, but dogs are not allowed in the pool. Hotel regulations."
Had I not been just thinking about him, I might have not recognized him in the outfit he was wearing. Dressed like an attendant for the hotel, Spike was kneeling by me, smirking his all-knowing smirk. I slapped my hand across the water's surface, causing it to spray up into his face. He blinked away the droplets that were clinging to his eyelashes and glared at me.
"Not smart, Faye."
"You can't do a thing about it. I'm not going back with you," I told him. "Not this time."
"Where else are you going to go?" he asked me.
"I have a friend that will take me in," I told him, flatly lying. Of course, I could always e-mail that guy I had met on-line. It was a long shot, but he might allow me to crash for a few nights, just until I could get on my own two feet again.
"Right. Some person is just going to let you waltz into their house and live with them for a couple months that will turn into a couple years. I don't think so," he replied, standing up, and lighting a cigarette.
"Hey Goajo, no smoking. Can't you read the sign?" I pointed to the warning posted on the wall behind him, before pushing off on the wall to begin another round of laps.
"You are going to come back!" he yelled, cupping his hand around his mouth so the sound of his voice carried to my ears.
I shook my head and kept on swimming. If he wanted me to come back, he was going to need to apologize. That was the only way I'd drag my ass back to the ship I had named my home for the past several years. The only way I'd do it of my own free will, anyway.
I was sure that if Spike really wanted to be a bastard, he'd find a way to force me back to Bebop. However, I would still put up a fight. The time when I had taken care of him after his fight with Vicious had led him to flying out a church window popped up in my mind. Even with nearly all the bones in his body either broken or bruised, I had still swatted him with his own pillow for making fun of the way I hummed. After all, he had deserved it.
The memory brought a smile to my lips, but I shoved it away. I was not going to start falling in love with Spike again. It was a dangerous habit to fall in love with troublesome men. They always found a way to break your heart if you stayed around long enough. One would think that I had already learned my lesson with Spike after he had been "dead" for two years, but no. I had always been hoping for him to come back. Now he was here and things had just gone from bad to worse.
Before he had left, I had thought things between us were finally going to work. Even after all the fights, bickering over mistakes on a bounty hunt, and the quarrels over our pasts, I knew he had cared. When I had received the tape from my past, before I knew of the reality of my life, he had been caring, even down right kind. Of course, he had shown me he cared in his own way. Spike only ever did things his own way, in his own good time.
But everything I thought had been shattered when he had announced he was going off to fight Vicious. What he really was saying at that point was that he was going off to die and not to expect him to return. I remember how I had cried that night, how hard I cried days after. When the news came, that was the hardest. I couldn't eat for a week. I wouldn't smoke, wouldn't talk, I didn't even shower. All I did was sleep, and stare off into the void of space, wondering how he had gone.
Of all the people I have ever come across, Spike was the toughest, the one I was most drawn to because of his strength, both physical and inner. He had gone through so many brushes of death that it seemed to me that he wouldn't die until he was old and wrinkly. When Jet had come to my room that day, that day that had seemed so gray and lifeless, that day that became etched into my memory for two straight years, that day that I had heard Spike was never going to be walking through the hanger door again, I had been shocked.
At first, I had denied it all. I hadn't said anything to Jet. I simply shut my door, and stared at it. I knew that Jet had done the same thing for several minutes, probably wondering whether or not to confront me about the emotions I was experiencing at the time, but then he had walked off, deciding it was better to leave me alone.
I had never wanted to move on. I had known an awful lot of men in my lifetime, none of whom I had experienced anything special with. There was only one person I had ever seriously considered important in my life. And he was gone, dead forever. I would never have another chance to tell him how I felt. I wondered for so long if he had even known by the way that I was weeping when he left.
I found myself crying again. Had I not pulled myself out of my thoughts, I would have never noticed the ripples in the pool water. Wiping them away, I pulled myself out, grabbing my towel from the bench, and strolled to the elevator to go to my room. I forgot about Ed and Ein, not caring. I wasn't too worried about her. She knew where to find me if she wanted to tag along with me still. Although, I'm sure she'd be better off with Jet, someone who could look after her properly.
As the elevator took me to my correct floor, I dried off, alone with nothing but that horrible music they play on your short ride. When I had cleaned away all the droplets that had spotted my skin, I wrapped the towel around me in a toga fashion, tucking the end in front of my chest. Then a bell rang and the two sliding doors parted to reveal my hallway. I went to my room, opening the door and going inside.
It was dark, just like I had left it earlier that morning. I switched on the light, as I waltzed over to the shower. I was going to wash all the chlorine off my pale skinned body. Just as I dropped the towel from around me, I saw a figure sitting on my bed.
"Ed let me in," he said softly, lighting another cigarette.
Silently, I walked over, pulling the box of cigs from his pocket. I took on out, and leaned down. He lit it for me, and I took a seat on the opposite bed, facing him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came with Jet to bring you back. As much as the old man wouldn't care to admit, he's fond of you and the kid," he replied, taking a draw of his cigarette so that the tip let out a reddish hue.
"And Ein?"
"The dog especially, since he's worth so much."
I grinned, glancing at the bedside table where I had left my golden bracelet. I reached over, picking it up, and sliding it over my hand to wear on my wrist. It had saved me on numerous occasions and I wasn't going to leave it here at some hotel where who knows what kind of moron would pick it up.
I didn't know what else to say to Spike. I had already made it clear to him that I wasn't going back. He had to know that I was upset. He was a lunkhead, but that didn't mean he was completely dense. Not knowing that the girl he was with was actually screwing someone else was bad, but I doubted he was so dumb that he didn't know I wanted an apology before I'd fly my Redtail back to the Bebop.
Feeling awkward, I got up, and went into the shower. Despite being an asshole at times, I trusted Spike. I didn't think he would try to peep at me. He had more pride than that. He wouldn't do something of that nature. Then again, maybe he would, but he would never do that to me. He knew better. When I got out of the shower, I dried off, and wrapped myself in a towel again. I came out into the room to find my clothes and noticed a change in the atmosphere.
Spike was gone.
A/N: Happy day! I'm back with a nice update for the story! I have the next few chapters planned out but it will take some time before I can type them up, so please bare with me. I'm working on making a Spike/Faye site as well as one dedicated to the entire Cowboy Bebop group. I'll tell you when they are up. Wish me luck! Read and REVIEW!!! Nev
