Hey! I know I promised this early in the week but I got lazy. xx; soo..here it is now. If I really wanted to, I could have researched alcoholism a bit BEFORE writing this chapter...being that I have no personal experience and that the only vision I have about "drying out" comes from Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai". XDDDDDDDD forgive me for my impotence. eE; So..yeah...READ! lol

Chapter 10:

Going Under

Now, normally, alcoholics go through a "drying-out" phase when they don't have alcohol for awhile. Depending on whether or not you are an extremely heavy alcoholic, this phase can occur within several days. However, if in the special case you are Emp Nemio, this phase can occur within a few hours of having your alcohol taken away from you, especially when something traumatizing occurs during those few hours.

It had only been an hour and a half from when Spike left for the BeBop until he walked into the bar for his drink. Meanwhile, Emp, pining for her beloved Spike, turned on her small, outdated computer and looked for news about, what else? Herself. She was all over the news, but nobody mentioned an address, which suggested that nobody knew her address. On day-time talk shows, people came on claiming to have known Emp during her high school years.

"I knew Emp was the odd-one, but I never thought that she would kill somebody, let alone some CEO guy." Claimed some self-proclaimed peer of hers.

"Yeah, we had a great, hot and steamy relationship back in 11th grade, but I wouldn't want her now." Said another. Of course, none of this was true; she didn't know any of these people, but she could hardly care what they said. If telling tall tales about her led the bounty hunters down the wrong path, she hoped they kept bringing in her supposed former lovers and best friends. Plus, it did give her something to laugh about and she couldn't remember the last time she had a good healthy laugh. Well, besides meeting Ed this morning. Ed had stayed for long time, but after awhile, she decided to leave. Emp hoped that she would see that funny tomboy again.

It was before Spike and Jet had finished their talk about Emp and her predicament when she got the e-mail. She was just browsing all kinds of previous news articles about Sabatino when an alert box popped up on her computer screen telling her that a new e-mail had arrived. The e-mail read:

"Dear Emp Carley Nemio, It has come to our attention that you have acquired the help of a bounty hunter. If you are thinking to use your knowledge to destroy or blackmail the Bacala syndicate, then we suggest that you cease these thoughts at once. If you value not only your own life, but your friend's as well, you should turn yourself in to the Bacala syndicate. We await your arrival at 203489 Red Avenue a week from the date of this message. Come alone. –Mark Sabatino"

If the definition of fear had not been known to Emp before, she now knew it just as well as she knew her alcohol. How had they found out about Spike? How had they found about everything? As a gut reaction, she could only think of one thing to do: drink. However, as hard as she tried to open the cabinets where her sanctuary awaited her, she couldn't budge them. Therefore, she decided that the best course of action besides drinking was to pace around the apartment frantically. She became very proficient at doing it too, but after only fifteen minutes, the stress began to take effect. The agony of having absolutely no alcohol at her disposal and the fear of perhaps they could have already shot Spike dead in some dark alley someplace set her phase of "drying-out" in motion. She began to feel cold and feverish at the same time so, by the time Spike came back, she was in bed, curled up, and shivering quite violently.

Spike decided that since there was a lack of alcohol in Emp's apartment, he might as well have enough drinks to hold him off for awhile. Now, walking into her apartment, he wished that he hadn't. As soon as he saw her shivering he was at her side in a split of a second. He touched her shoulder, but he found that it was draped with a heavy knit sweater on top of two t-shirts. She jumped when he touched her and he saw that her face was red and her eyes bloodshot.

"Emp! Emp, what's wrong?" he yelled, feeling her forehead and noticing that she had a very high fever. He wiped a few sweaty strands of hair away from her face then jumped up to get a wet washcloth. When he returned with the cold washcloth, she was shivering so violently that it almost looked like she had gone into convulsions. She jumped and began to hyperventilate when Spike laid the cold cloth on her forehead and as hard as she tried, she couldn't stop her hyperventilation.

"Emp, calm down. It's okay, just breathe normally." Spike tried to plead with her, but her breathing wouldn't slow. "Relax. Everything's alright. I'm here now." When she still couldn't stop her fast breaths, he lifted her enough for him to sit underneath her. He held her against his chest and spoke sternly in her ear. "Listen, Emp. Follow my breaths." He inhaled slowly and then exhaled. He repeated this many times, each time beckoning her to concentrate on the even pace of his breathing. Finally, those fearful chokes and gasps ever so slowly reduced to the speed of his respiration. Shivering and crying, Emp laid her head back on Spike's shoulder as he cradled her and began breathing a sigh of relief. He didn't know what came over her, but it seemed the worst was over.

When Emp woke up, she had a huge headache and the sniffles. She was snuggled up next to Spike, who, sitting up against her brass headboard, had his arms around her along with some blankets. She looked up to ask him what happened, but his head was tilted back in sleep. She reached up and gently stroked his face, but all it succeeded in doing was stir him and make him tighten his embrace around her. She managed to pull away from him and sit up. She looked around and found her clock. It was 6:30 am. She had been asleep since she got the e-mail around 2:00 pm the previous day. The e-mail; it was urgent that she tell Spike about it, but not urgent enough to wake him. He probably watched over her for pretty much the entire night. She smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips. This was enough to wake him, but only to the point of half-consciousness. He was still half asleep when she told him to lie down on the bed and he was apparently still half asleep when he hugged her tightly because he fell asleep with his head on her chest, just below the crook of her neck. Emp giggled and ran her fingers through his soft hair before she fell asleep again.

Her slumber lasted no more than fifteen minutes when she woke up. Spike was lying next to her, watching her sleep. He had taken his coat off and loosened his tie, which meant he must have been awake for at least a few minutes. However, he looked extremely concerned.

"How're you feeling?" asked Spike gravely. Just a few minutes ago, he could barely stay awake and now he sounded as if he had been up for hours. Emp rubbed her eyes and propped herself up on one elbow.

"Okay, I guess. I have a headache though." She replied, her voice as solemn as his.

"You gave me quite a scare yesterday, you know."

"No way! You're Spike Spiegel; you don't get scared." Emp laughed and flopped back on her pillow. She stopped laughing when Spike's hand gently pulled her face closer to his.

"Well I was scared yesterday. After your little bout was over I was afraid to move you, so I just let you sleep." They stared at each other in solemn silence until Emp gave him a warm smile and said, "Good. I needed it. And so did you! You couldn't stay awake for a moment!" Spike gave into her smile and grinned back, but deep in his mind he was still worried about her. If he hadn't figured out a way to calm her breathing, she probably could have suffocated.

"What was that all about, anyway? Why did you get so feverish?" he finally asked her. She propped herself on one elbow again and scratched her head with her other hand.

"Well, all I know is that I started to get really scared with the e-mail and all, so I tried to get a drink, but that was impossible because nothing would budge out of that cabinet. Eventually, I was freezing cold and no matter what I put on, I was still freezing. I think I went through the 'drying-out' phase. I can't be sure." She shrugged and yawned. Spike looked at her with a puzzled look and it was then she remembered the e-mail. "Oh, right! I forgot, I didn't tell you. I got an e-mail from Sabatino yesterday. And I got a little…" she told him, but he had jumped up and was already standing by her computer reading the e-mail.

"I can see how this can scare you a little bit, but were you really that terrified?" he asked her, a mocking smile trying to conceal itself on his face. Emp looked down at the sheets and shrugged her shoulders.

"I was just…just…afraid that they had already gotten you. I couldn't bare the thought that you could be dead somewhere while I was waiting for you to come back. God, I don't even like repeating it." Emp sniffled and was gripping the top sheet of her bed in order to keep her tears back. Spike came over and sat on the edge of her side of the bed, slowly wrapped his arms around her, moved her sweater down her arm a bit, and kissed her shoulder.

"Then don't repeat it." Spike said. She smiled, put her hand on his cheek and sighed in relief.

YEAH! Horray for mushy loviness. >D lol...it's a bit cheese-ful, but whatever..ee; Anyway, like I said before, forgive me for any/all wrongs things I did with Emp's "drying out" phase...yeah...sniffle It's kinda embarassing to not know anything about it! waa! ...ok..anyway...I'm not going to be home starting from later today to next sunday, so I wanted to leave you tomorrow's chapter before I left. I'm gonna post it up now, but I'd appreciate it if you still commented on each chapter as if they were regulars. :P Thanks! See you in about 5 seconds...