"Hey, Faye, come and see this!" Jet called from atop the Bebop, and adjusted a few knobs on his old telescope. He hadn't stargazed in awhile, but he thought he might give it a try, to take his mind off of worrying about Spike.

"What?" Faye asked as she ascended the stairs. Her arms were crossed against the cold. She moved to stand behind him. She was tapping her foot. Jet straightened and turned around, annoyed.

"Could you stop—" He broke off, seeing her expression. Her face was drawn and tired. "What's wrong?" But he thought he knew. He grabbed her upper arms. "Faye, don't worry about Spike. He's a big boy. He can take care of himself." Faye lowered her gaze.

"I... I know, but... Jet, it's Vicious. He's... He'll kill him. They'll kill each other."

Jet looked down at her apprehensively. This girl — this sad, worn out girl — this wasn't Faye. "Faye, look at me."

She looked up.

"Faye, I'm worried about him too. But you know Spike. He'll be all right. Everything will be fine." He shook her gently for emphasis. She looked down again. Jet let go. "Faye..."

"I know, Jet," she said, and looked back up at him. She gave him a small smile. "Thanks. Now, what did you want to show me?"

Jet was not satisfied, but he let it go for now. Spike would be fine, and so would Faye. He turned back to his telescope and adjusted a few more knobs, then moved aside. "Come here, have a look."

Faye moved forward and bent over, squinting through the lens. "Hey, Jet, do you have a chair? This is killing my back." She straightened and looked at him. He sighed.

"All right, I'll go get two."

When Jet returned, Faye was standing with her back to the stairwell, head tilted back, looking at the stars. Jet hoped she was feeling a little better. He walked over and set the chairs down. "Well, here we are."

Faye started and turned away. Her hand moved up to wipe her eyes. Jet put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and sat in the chair in front of the telescope. Jet sat down beside her. Faye looked back up at the sky.

"They're beautiful tonight."

"Yeah."

"What was it, specifically? I only see a bunch of stars. They are great, though," she said appreciatively.

"Well," Jet said, and bent to check the lens, "there was this one particularly large star that caught my eye." He frowned and adjusted a knob. "Hm. Hey, Faye, look at this." He moved away to let Faye look.

"Jet, that big star's winking out."

"Yeah. I think it's about to die."

"What's so special about it?"

"Seeing a dying star is pretty rare. You might never see another."

"Wow."

"Yep," Jet said, and looked up at the sky. He located the star and watched it flicker in and out of focus. It wasn't as clear as seeing it through the telescope and the star was dwarfed by some of its neighbors, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. And he hoped it took Faye's mind off of Spike. And Jet knew what he'd said was true, he would probably never see another star die. As he watched, it got dimmer and dimmer. Finally, it disappeared.

"Hey," Faye said beside him. "It's gone." She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the sky, trying to find where it had been.

"Yeah."

She turned to him. "Thanks, Jet."

He looked at her. She wasn't smiling, no, but she didn't look as sad as she had before. Jet was glad. "Sure, Faye."

They both looked back up at the stars.