DISCLAIMER: You know what goes here. Just make sure it's witty.
A/N: I would like to go on record as saying that this chapeter unnecessarily took a long time to post because the website wouldn't let me upload the document. So, blame for the delay.
"I'll kill her," Spike grunted for the tenth time in an hour. "I'll wring her neck when she gets back."
Jet and Faye glanced up at Spike and then at each other, amused. Ed lay stretched out on the couch with Ein on her stomach. Since Tilly had been discovered missing, and the Swordfish (much to Spike's dismay), everyone had been waiting to hear from her. Only Ed had seemed unconcerned at Tilly's disappearance. Although, Ed had been the one to inform everyone that Tilly had borrowed the Swordfish and left.
That had been nearly two weeks ago and the little minx had removed the tracking device Spike had planted on his ship. Since then there had been no word. No email, no letters, no trail, no sign of her. Spike was getting worried. What if she had gone back to Vicious? With his ship? What if she was hurt? What if she had crashed? What if she had damaged his ship?
"I'll kill her."
The phone rang.
Ed sprang from her supine position, sending Ein flying across the room into Jet's lap. Spike dove for the vid-screen right behind Ed in an attempt to be there first. Ed's finger hit the button.
"Tilly-whirl!"
Tilly's face came into focus on the screen as she laughed.
"Hello Ed," she responded. Spike was ready to explode.
"'Hello Ed'?You've been missing for two weeks – with my ship! And all we get is 'Hello Ed'!"
Tilly bit her lip to keep from laughing and a vein bulged on Spike's forehead. How dare she find this funny!
"Umm," she looked slightly ashamed. "How are you?" Tilly shrugged.
"Where's my ship!" Spike grasped the sides of the screen and brought the tip of his nose right to the screen.
"Outside the hangar bay," she shrugged again. "Hey Jet! Can you let me in?"
Spike sat back on the floor, jaw slack. The girl was going to give him a heart attack.
"Sure thing, Tilly. Hang on just a sec."
Ed bounced away from the screen after Jet and Faye moved away toward the hangar. Spike stared at Tilly's image still on the screen. She winked at him and terminated the link.
"Shit."
Spike strode into the hangar as Tilly climbed down from the Swordfish looking fit to kill. Tilly winced and jumped the last few feet to the ground.
"Hey Faye," she called. "Hello Spike." Tilly walked straight to the waiting bounty hunter, unbuttoning his coat as she moved. His eyes followed her hand down the row and down again as she pulled down the zipper. His eyes went wide and the vein on his forehead bulged again.
"That's my jacket," Spike seethed. Tilly grinned sheepishly as she pulled the overlarge coat from her shoulders.
"Sorry, but it was the warmest thing I found to wear."
"To wear where?"
Tilly stepped around Spike and crossed the hangar to Faye. She held out a bag with a red bow to Faye and smiled.
"I brought you a present."
Faye's eyebrow shot up and she fell on the bag like a child with a new toy.
"Gimme!"
"To wear where!" Spike shouted. Tilly and Faye both turned back to face him.
"Leave her alone, Spike," Faye snapped. "Give her time to pee at least."
Tilly smirked and ducked out of the conversation.
"Thanks Faye!"
"She's up to something, Jet." Spike stared at his beef and peppers but for once didn't wonder why there was no beef. "Where was she? Why won't she talk to anyone?"
"Has she ever talked to us?" Jet asked, earning a sly grin from Spike.
"No," he replied slowly. "But she likes you. You could talk to her."
Leaning back in his seat, Jet shook his head and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"You want to know what's going on so badly, you ask her."
Spike regarded Jet for a moment, and then looked down to his bowl. He took a deep breath and stood. Jet watched Spike walk away with his hands tucked into his pants pockets. Jet smiled at his partner's attempt at nonchalance.
Tilly was sitting on her floor when Spike finally found her. She had close to two dozen guns spread out in front of her, and almost as many knives. Farthest from her, laid across the top of her now almost empty black chest, was a sword. A Katana from the looks of it. Spike suddenly had a better idea of what had attracted Vicious to the girl.
What happened while she was gone? Where did she go?
"You can come in, Spiegel. They aren't loaded yet."
Spike smirked at Tilly's back. She sat there cleaning a large automatic revolver. The weapon looked comical in her small hands, but Spike knew better than to assume she was anything less than an expert in its use.
"Wouldn't matter if they were," he drawled in response. "You going to war?"
"Something like that," Tilly answered. Spike carefully stepped over the weapons on the floor and was about to sit on the bed when he noticed a few high-powered rifles in pieces there. He raised an eyebrow at the firepower and made his way back across the room to the chair in the corner, moving a box of shells and magazines to the floor beside him. He surveyed the room in front of him more closely. Something seemed familiar, a scene at the edge of his mind. Rather than grasping for the answer Spike ignored the tickling in his brain, hoping the answer would come on its own.
"So, where were you?" Tilly's hands slowed in their methodical cleaning before resuming their original pace. Spike felt hypnotized by the movement of her small hands and followed them as they reassembled the revolver, slammed a magazine home, set the gun on the floor and moved on to a smaller Derringer, dismantling the small weapon in seconds. Spike continued to stare as she began to clean the gun.
"Callisto."
Spike snapped out of his trance.
"Callisto?" The scene finally clicked into place for Spike.
"Where you headed, Dowe?"
Gavin Dowe was sitting at his kitchen table and cleaning a large revolver. Spike loved the gun and planned to buy one just like it when he could afford to. Across the table from the Syndicate assassin sat his young daughter sharpening her father's blades in careful, methodical strokes.
"Just got back from Callisto. Heading out on a freelance job." Dowe quickly reassembled the revolver, slammed a magazine home and set the gun down. As he picked up a derringer, he continued speaking. "I'm leaving you with the keys to the house, Spike. I'll be taking my daughter with me, so you won't have to worry about her." The girl looked up at her father in surprise.
"Baby-girl, go get my harness from upstairs, please."
The girl silently left the room. When she was up the stairs, Dowe turned to Spike.
"Julia will be staying here, too, while I'm gone. Vicious is off with Lin and Mao. Be careful while I'm gone."
P.S. I know this looks like a loss of continuity, since they aren't supposed to know each other before chapter one, but I'm asking y'all to trust me here.
