Preview: "DON'T YOU DARE...come near me" she backed away trying to find her balance. She quickly looked away from Spike to look at Jet. "Get him away from me" Jet was hesitant to do what she commanded, but he got the message.
Spike stayed at his place and watched the broken down Faye. "Faye...I'm sor-" he couldn't finish because Faye was already past him and went strait into her room.
Jet had nothing to say to neither Faye or Spike but only giving Spike a smile and a nod, knowing that it meant, 'Welcome back' and he headed towards Spike to pick up the things Faye had dropped before and headed to the kitchen putting the groceries away.
Spike still stayed at the same place he was left, staring at the same place Faye occupied just moments ago. "Hey Spike, are ya just going to stand there or are ya gonna help me out putting the food away." Jet yelled from the kitchen catching Spike's attention. Spike then started to head to the kitchen with the bag of food in both hands.
Chapter 5 "Forgive me"
Spike felt dumbstruck while heading to the kitchen with the last of the grocery bags. Putting the groceries on the small Island counter in the middle of the kitchen he was in deep thought to think of not only how different Faye looked but also it surprised him by the way she acted.
"Hey, for a guy who said he was alive and well, he seems like a dead guy to me." Jet jokily commented trying to wake Spike up from his train of thoughts. "You alright?" Jet was concerned for Spike's reactions. Yeah sure, he missed his old partner, but to tell the truth, Jet was a bit afraid of him ever coming back. He was afraid for Faye's sake, he knew if Spike came back, Faye was going to break down, and that's exactly what she did. He knew Faye was just getting her life together and just when she felt happy and completed, Spike had to come back and take it all away from her. He was also surprised from Spike as well, he thought...'IF' Spike did survive the fight against Vicious, he would want to move on and start a brand new life as a brand new person, and not think twice of going back to the life of the syndicate nor the life as a bounty hunter, yet here he is, acting as if he never stepped off this ship to begin with.
"She's different now" Spike finally spoke up but still looked down to the food in front of him. He didn't bother to look at Jet to see if he had gotten his attention or not. He wasn't even trying to strike up a conversation, Spike was more talking to himself but Jet still tried to answer anyways.
"She remembers everything, her past just came in her head out of nowhere. It was like a bullet of memories just seeping through her head. In one instant she's Faye the shrew and the next, she's..." Jet explained but was interrupted by Spike, finishing his sentence, "a Faye that she's supposed to be a long time ago. A Faye that I don't even know"
Jet knew where this was going, he knew that Spike missed allot since he left. Jet was the one to stay by Faye's side when she broke down, by remembering her past and got nothing out of it. Jet was the one to see her suffer to know that Spike was not coming back to save her again. Jet was the one to listen to the stories Faye would tell him about her past and she would tell him to every detail of what she remembered. Jet was the one who watched her grow into the Faye from the past and slowly removing the Faye she was that they knew. He knew the Faye that she has become, he barely recognized the changes because he was always there by her side. Spike saw the big change from Faye because he wasn't the one there for her. Actually he envied Jet for being the one to comfort her and not him. He envied the fact that Faye changed in front of Jet's eyes and not of his own.
"She's trying to be her old self again, she didn't want to be a Faye that would lie to people just so she can get what she wants. She actually works for it, she wants to be the Faye where that everyone would want her." Jet tried to reason to Spike.
Spike looked up at Jet and gave him a glare of hate and a glare of apologies at the same time. Jet didn't know how to react to this, so Jet looked away proceeding to the food he was putting away earlier.
"Do you think...you know...?" Spike said in a calm and steady whisper hoping that Jet knows what he's trying to say.
"She didn't say your name. I noticed that." Jet said looking strait ahead of him to a large window showing the outside of Mars streets.
"What?" Spike was confused to what Jet had said.
"You shouldn't speak of the dead...and...She didn't say your name." Jet finished off just making Spike a bit more confused.
Just when Spike was ready to speak up again, the roaring of engines went off through out the entire ship. "What the hell?" Spike yelled out to Jet who just ignored Spike's statement, and just as on cue, Faye came into the kitchen to grab herself a beer out of the fridge. "I've set the coornates already to head for Venus." she announced in a low monotone. She looked up at Jet and gave him a half smile, telling him that 'she will be alright if none of them talked to her' kind of look. She then went back to where she had entered and to the looks of it she was more likely headed to go into her room. Jet got the message, but Spike didn't catch the sign. He headed to the direction to where Faye was going but was quickly stopped by Jet's mechanical arm on Spike's shoulder.
"Spike don't. She needs to be alone." Spike stared at his friend in disbelief and shrugged his arm off, "I need you to butt out of this one Jet, it's between Faye and I." and with that, Spike continued to follow Faye into her room.
000
He finally reached his destination to Faye's bedroom, the only thing that was stopping him now from talking to her was her closed door.
"Faye?" he tried to talk to her between her door but was greeted by no response. He slowly opened the door to her room to see that the room was completely dark as if she never entered the room to begin with.
He reached over to the side of her wall, switching on her light, he saw that the room has changed, just like her, the room had the unknown thought of a different beauty. She had her bed to one side of the wall and her dresser drawer to the opposite one. There wasn't much furnishing in the small room but the thing to make it look beautiful was the variety of vases and in each vase was a bouquet of either bright yellow sunflowers, or pure white roses, and the two flowers blended together in one room, made the room look...peaceful and it actually looked like a teenage girl owned the room.
Then something caught Spike's eye, it was a picture on top of her dresser drawer. A picture of two people staring at the camera it seemed like. He tried to go up to it to get a better look of who it was, but heard the sharp and cold voice behind him, "Just because you came back, doesn't give you the right to go through other peoples things." her voice was cold and distant and it gave chills down to his spine.
Spike didn't bother to respond to Faye but asked a question that has been bothering him for several minutes "Jet told me that you never said my name. Why didn't you say it?"
Faye really didn't feel like dealing with Spike so she didn't bother like answering his question. "Get out." was all she had to say to him and nothing more.
"I just wanted you to know that I'm truly sorry." and with that he headed back to the doorway and into the hall but stopped when he heard Faye whisper "Then why'd you do it? What were you trying to accomplish?" she didn't want to look back at him, she was afraid to look at him because if she did, then he would go away and all of this would be just like her dreams she had eight months ago after he left to go to his fight. Her dreams or shall she say her nightmares were starting to come into reality.
Spike tried to find the right words to her question "because...I was probably trying to find my way of waking up, to see what I really did have. You know what they say, 'you don't know what you have until you actually loose it'." he smiled at her then walked out the door, leaving Faye this time dumbstruck.
Faye quickly shook off the thought of what he just said moments ago, and glanced at the picture on her dresser, realizing what Spike was trying to look at before she walked in on him. She picked up the picture, and all thoughts left her by a warm smile creeping up her lips because of the small picture. The picture in her hand was the picture she took with Steve the last time she saw him. It's been a week since she seen him, and only phone conversations was the only thing she can do to keep them in their relationship. She still had another three days to actually see his face in person, and tell him everything she's been through, and the possible good news of her idea to stay with him permanently.
00000
It's been three days of traveling through space, tree days since Spike came back only to be greeted by the hard permanent grip of a teen, the yaps of a wining dog, and the ignorance and slap of a shrew women. Yup everything seemed back to normal, but it didn't give Spike the comfort of having everything he wanted the Bebop to be. It was the same but yet different. Ed wasn't as active as she use to be, the dog wasn't by her side as much, and usually its hard to detect Faye, who go's out, to who knows where, but Spike knew exactly where she was, she's been in her room for three full days, only coming out for a nice twenty minute showers or to get something out of the fridge. She was like a hermit in her own room. Well at least Jet hasn't changed besides the oldness showing on his features.
Finally arriving to Venus, 'that's' when things really started to go back to normal. Ed was as bouncy as ever, Ein by her side. Jet is in the Kitchen cooking his useual's and Faye was on the docks smoking her stolen cigarette. Spike took notice of her and decided to be at her side smoking one of his own.
"Hey." she finally spoke up to Spike. He was so surprise to hear her finally start talking to him that he wanted to hear her say it again and again to make sure his ears were working. Just when he was ready to respond back to her, she interrupted again pulling out his Zippo out of her pant pocket and threw it at him, he reacted fast to the throw but still fumbled it by his clumsy fingers. "I figured that you might want this back, but you will need to refill it again." and with that she stubbed out her cigarette on the platform and headed back inside.
'So much of striking up a conversation.' Spike thought to himself, and looked back to the old Zippo he use to have. Then he remembered, 'I never recalled filling this thing up in the first place.'
Just when he started to flicker at the Zippo to light his cigarette, Jet called out in the background. "HEY FAYE, YOU READY TO GO?"
Spike thought of the idea of her going out on a new bounty and he thought of the idea of joining her on the hunt and see if there would be a better chance to get to know this so called 'New Faye'.
Spike entered the corridor to see Faye starting to leave with her gun ready and loaded by her side, Spike was ready to ask her something but Faye once again interrupted him before he had the chance of saying anything at all. "If you're planning to come along, then I suggest you to be out and ready in thirty seconds, because I'm not planning to wait for you, so hurry up." She said it as if she was reading Spike's previous thoughts. He looked back at her to see if she was completely serious, but he also looked back because of the totally different glare she gave him, almost like a...friendly glare.
00000
On the streets of Venus, they were the exact opposite from the streets of Mars. Venus seemed to be cleaner, not a piece of trash on the sidewalks and even the cars that went by seemed to just gotten washed and waxed. There was also seemed to be friendlier people, everyone was always smiling and waving a 'hello', it was actually a little too perfect. Spike never had the favor of Venus, he always seeing Venus to be completely fake, but it couldn't be true because Venus was the place where the big bounties always were, the bounties that were worth catching.
The small coffee diner Spike and Faye occupied had the perfect place to get the bounty they were after. "Bernadette Serasco, one of the top assassinator's in the galaxy." Faye stated, drinking her cup of coffee, sitting opposite of Spike and facing their bounty.
Bernadette was a very beautiful bounty to be exact, her chestnut hair was long, below her waist and her eyes were just like Faye's, big beautiful green eyes, but there was something about the bounty that made her not all too attractive and that was the big gap between her teeth.
"Yeah, so?" Spike knew the obvious that she was an assassinator, but Faye just stated the facts he already knew.
"She works for no one but herself, many syndicates just hires her, and she doesn't give a damn who's side she's on, as long as she gets the paycheck and who is willing to give her more." she stated more of the facts Spike already knew.
"I know" was all Spike could say. "I'm just telling you, I know you already know all this, but it was you who wants to try to get catching up with me, right?" she gave him more of the facts but being a bit sarcastic nonetheless, but Spike wasn't ready to hear that one fact.
'God what is this? She also seem to catch on a little mind reading too while I was gone.' Spike thought to himself, he gave her a dumb look, and Faye couldn't help but notice that Spike was looking strait into her eyes.
"What?"
Faye woke Spike up from his little day dream and he was about to speak, but then he realized that Faye was getting up from her seat and started heading towards their bounty who just walked out.
"Hey, hey where you going?" Spike tried to stop her by grabbing her wrist, from ruining their identities. Faye snapped her head around to see Spike's serious face, and his russet eye's staring at emerald ones. The stare was almost a stare of concern, apologetic, and lust. Faye quickly shook off the thought of ever lusting over Spike and had other important things to worry about, like how she was planning to catch the bounty without getting a scratch.
"Let go of me. I've been doing this kind of job for a long time, and I've gotten even better when you left." She yanked her wrist free from Spike's grasp and headed strait to Bernadette Serasco, Spike couldn't believe of what she just said, actually Spike felt a little hurt to know she was doing just fine without him.
Spike quickly got up from off his seat and followed in Faye's direction, for back-up. They started to walk the streets and they were not too far behind Bernadette. They started to get their guns loaded and ready, and were ready to catch their big bounty of the day. Both Spike and Faye walked side by side, and were thirty feet away from their bounty.
Bernadette knew she was being followed, she took a small glance at who exactly was following her, and she panicked and headed off to a sprint.
"DAMN." Faye yelled, she knew that they were caught following her. Faye went on a sprint as well for the bounty and left Spike for the moment because she mentally forgot he was there to help her, but it didn't matter after a few seconds because she heard the fast pace foot steps behind her and knew it had to be Spike.
Bernadette was running for her life until she ran a corner alley-way and stopped dead on her tracks. She turned around and readied her gun aiming to the on coming people that were chasing her.
Faye was fast on her high heals, but she still didn't have the chance to out run Spike, because in a flash, he past her running speed. But there was no time to make smart ass comments to Faye for her lack of exercise, but he was more interested in catching the big bounty for the reward.
He then saw that Bernadette had ran to a corner of probably a dead-end, so he followed and ran the corner after her. Faye was quickly running out of breath so she decided to call out to him, to wait up "HEY SPI-"
BANG!
Faye stopped dead on her tracks when she heard the gun go off and a limp figure fall to the floor with a thump. "No...he can't" Faye whispered, expecting the worse of what might of happened behind the wall she was standing by at the moment, she readied her gun, and took position behind the wall. In one fast easy jump she aimed her gun to...
...nothing.
She sensed that no one was in the alleyway, but then she glanced down to the limp figure before her. She saw Spike's body on the floor, whimpering holding his lower left side. She realized Spike was shot in the abdomen and apparently going unconscious by the great loss of blood.
Faye's once worried face turned into a cold stare "Stupid, I told you I had everything under control. Who the hell do you think you are?" she started lifting him up very carefully when she heard him stirring awake again for a small moment.
"Well, I guess your not dead yet." she then hovered him on top of her, trying to get a good grip, and started heading back to their space crafts.
00000
Once arriving to their ships, Faye thought about calling Jet to go get Spike to the hospital while she tow the Swordfish back to the Bebop, but thought it would be best if she just put Spike back on his own ship while she tows it back. It would be less of a hassle, and she would want better things to do instead of waiting for Jet to get his ass over to where they were.
She struggled putting Spike into the Swordfish but she managed to do it. After putting him in, she chained his ship to her's.
Spike was watching Faye's movements the whole time she was adjusting the chains to their ships "Hey... you almost... said it." he said out of no where.
Faye looked back at him and gave him a stare of confusion, "What?"
Spike grunted trying to reposition himself on the seat "You...shouted...my name, well at least half of it."
Faye was trying to recall to what he was saying, then realizing that she did almost say it, she was so close to saying, actually yelling his name.
On the outside, she showed that she was upset at him and at herself, but inside, she was smiling for the stupid ness that she almost forgot about the rule of 'never saying his name'. She tried her best to keep the smile to herself but she couldn't help it and gave Spike a genuine smile and a soft chuckle to go with it.
Spike was amazed to see a smile on her face, for he hasn't seen one from her in a long time, but he was even more surprised to see how beautiful she looked when she does smile, and it shocked him that he actually got to witness a smile like that coming from her.
"You really are a lunkhead." she stated still half laughing. He couldn't help but smile back at her "Hey, having a stupid name is better than having a no name."
Spike stared at Faye for a long time and he couldn't look away, Faye stared back at Spike wondering what he was thinking about, it gave her a chill up her spine and it scared her, but at the same time, knowing that Spike was staring at her, made her feel …comforting.
Then in a flash moment she started thinking of something else, and it only sadden her because she felt what she was doing, what she was feeling, felt wrong and she had to stop this "Um, we better go if you want to get those wounds treated." She lowered her voice turning away from him and glanced away from his eyes.
Spike felt the uneasiness from Faye, he was concerned why she would just be angry for one minute, laughing and smiling the next and all that going away into a sad frown. 'How many emotions can one person go through in less than three minutes?' he thought.He wanted to know what was troubling her but he knew he couldn't do anything about it... at least for now.
Note: Wow, that was all in one Chapter, I know it was pretty fast and kinda breif, but then again...this is only the intro of this story. This is the warm ups before the real game/plot of this story begins. I want to thank the few people that had reviewed but I would really really reaaallllyy appreciate it if I got lots more of reviews, and if it's bad comment's then... bring it on (I dare ya). I'm sure I can handle them, that will only tell me that you guy's are reading my story, and tell's me that I gotta do better. Right?