Chapter Five- Firelight

Nope…they aren't mine.

The cave they found was extremely small, and it smelled as if something had died in there. They sat there for an hour, and then another problem landed in Faye's brain.

"Spike, what are we going to do for food?" Spike thought for a moment.

"I didn't think of that" he finally said. Faye sighed. "Are we just going to starve here?" she demanded.

"Probably not…but for now we can't eat. It's going to get dark outside soon, and it gets cold as hell out here. At least we can try to build a fire or something to keep us warm".

"A fire? Out of what?" Faye asked sarcastically. This took some consideration. There wasn't any wood; there weren't even any trees nearby.

"Dead grass?" Faye asked suddenly.

"Where are we gonna get dead grass, Faye?" Spike asked. He was a bit annoyed, there probably hadn't been live here for years.

"The huge clump I'm sitting on?" she asked, pushing herself over. There was quite an amount of dead grass there.

"Like that's going to burn all night?" Spike asked.

"It's a start" Faye shrugged. Spike pulled up the grass. "This won't work" he said, after really seeing the amount they had.

"Listen, it won't be dark for another hour, I'm going to try to find something, you stay here" Spike said. He got up and walked out of the cave. Faye sighed. She couldn't believe she was in this situation. She had been in bad situations before, but this had to be the worst. She leaned against the cave wall. Just how cold did it get here, wherever here was. All she knew was that they were on Earth, but it was so big. She rubbed her foot. The swelling wasn't as bad, but it still hurt her like crazy. She thought about Spike. Was he telling her the truth? He didn't really look like a murderer. She wondered why he was even in the Red Dragons if he wanted out. She hadn't even known him 24 hours and already he put so many questions in her mind.

"Damn" she muttered, sitting up a bit more. He was going to drive her crazy, she knew it. She wondered how long she'd be stuck on this cave with him. She thought longingly of her nice warm bed back on Jupiter. Narcissa would probably be freaking out that she hadn't called. Maybe Narcissa would try to find her.

"Back" Spike said, snapping her out of her daze. He had a large bundle of wood, which made Faye a small bit happier. At least they wouldn't freeze.

"We'll start it right before nightfall. And I got some extra to pile up in front of the cave opening. That should keep the wind from blowing out our fire". He started to pile the wood and large rocks he gathered in front of the door. It kept all of the brightness from the sun out, at the very least.

"I can't see anything" Faye complained.

"What's there to see? All that's in here is sand and rock" Spike said. Faye sighed. That was true. She hugged her knees close to her. She couldn't tell if it was dark or not. She figured Spike would look out in a few minutes. She had never felt so bad in her life. She didn't like being here. She was so tired. And she had left all her stuff on Mars. Not a chance of getting it, what's gone is gone. She told herself. She huddled up in the corner of the cave. She was so tired…

She must have dozed off, because when she woke up, Spike was lighting the fire. She curled up deeper into the corner. Spike finally sat down opposite her.

"Spike?" she asked, all of a sudden. He looked over at her. "Why'd you want to leave the Red Dragons?" she asked. She doubted he would answer, it was sorta personal.

"Things got…too deep. I've never bailed out on anything before, but this was just something I was really worried about. You probably wouldn't understand it…" he said.

"Understand what?" Faye asked. Spike sighed and continued his story.

"My best friend…he introduced me to his girlfriend last night. She was the most amazing woman I had ever met. I walked her home, and we talked. Her voice was like music strands, the ones that never leave the room although the record stopped playing. I act on impulses too much, and I was afraid of asking her out. I didn't want to stay around, with her and Vicious together. Maybe I should have…maybe things would've worked out. I probably should have thought about that before I took off. Now there's probably no chance of me seeing her again" he finished.

"The blonde woman?" Faye asked. She remembered seeing him meet a blonde woman in the bar last night.

"Yeah…wait how'd you know!" Spike demanded.

"An experienced bounty hunter follows her prey when she first lays eyes upon him. I was in the bar that night, an hour before you came in. I had an instinct I'd find you there" Faye replied. "Was that guy…the one with silver hair, Vicious?"

"Yeah, that was him. He's been my best friend since before the Red Dragons. He's the one who got me into it. He's been my partner ever since. We were best friends when we were kids even. Julia's his girlfriend. I had three choices: ignore my heart, betray my best friend, or run away. Running away was just easier" he shrugged. "Maybe I'm just weak, running away from my problems".

"You're not weak. It took a lot of guts to leave a Syndicate. People are only in them because they can't get out. You took a chance on being killed just to be free" Faye said. "You're actually lucky we crashed, I was going to turn you in" she admitted.

"I had a feeling you would, but being in prison is better than the Syndicate" Spike replied. Faye looked at him for a moment or two. It was the first time she had really looked at him and not see money signs all around him. He was actually a decent looking person; he was just wrapped up in something he couldn't get away from. She actually saw him as a person…

I may not own them, but I can change the story around like crazy ;p