DISCLAIMER: Yeah. There's a cat in my lap. Oh! And I don't own Cowboy Bebop.

A/N: Do you like the format I have? You know, how it just keps going and I don't break apart the stories? Or would you rather I break them up into individual stories? They'd be about five chapters or so each in that case... Whatcha think?


"I'll be back in couple of weeks." Tilly's voice was soft. Spike suddenly realized what Tilly was doing and felt his temper shoot to boiling.

"A couple of weeks?" His voice was deadly calm, but Tilly was no fool.

"It's personal. I'll be back."

Tilly's hands never stopped moving as she continued to clean her miniature gun. Spike watched her for a few moments longer. She was leaving the Bebop for a job. He had no way of knowing when she'd come back and no way to help her.

"Your dad used to go to Callisto." Spikes eyes followed the movements of her hands as she continued to clean and prep her derringer. "He'd always disappear for a while."

"His last job was right after Callisto," Tilly completed his thoughts. "I remember." Tilly reassembled the handgun and moved on to another revolver. "I was there with him, Spike. We were outmatched. This won't be like that. I'll be back."

Spike had nothing to say. There was nothing he could say without sounding as though he cared. Like he cared more than he should.

"This is my job, Spiegel. It always was." Tilly stopped her cleaning and turned to face Spike. "I'll be back." Her voice was a whisper, but the silence in the room carried her words.

Their eyes locked in a battle of wills, but where Spike's gaze was angry and defiant, Tilly was calm and serene. She would come back to him.

Spike growled in frustration at the thought and stalked from the room. Tilly sighed as she watched him leave and allowed her expression to change at last. Her eyes now showed her fear and sorrow.

"I'll do my best to come back, Spike."


Jet stayed silent when Spike stormed past him. Silently, he followed his partner to the hangar bay where Spike immediately peeled off his jacket and tie, grabbing his tools for the Swordfish. Jet lit a cigarette and turned away to seek Tilly on his own.

At the doorway to her room, Jet's jaw dropped. The butt of his cigarette bounced and rolled across the floor to rest by Tilly. She stopped sharpening the knife in her hand and looked down at the glowing weed. She reached down, blade in hand, and brought the filter to her lips, relishing a slow, long drag. Smoke swirled around her as she exhaled.

"Thanks, Jet." Tilly took another long drag before crushing the cherry into the floor. "I've wanted one of those for almost a month now."

Jet swallowed and stepped forward into the room.

"I didn't know you smoked."

"I quit for the twins. Dad hated it, but sometimes you stand out if you're too different from those around you. Another kid smoking in a bar is nothing. A kid just sitting in a bar you notice."

Tilly had returned to sharpening her blade, the shrill sound of steel on steel ringing through the air. Her hands moved quickly and surely, with a confidence Jet had never seen in Tilly. Even when hunting a bounty, Tilly was in general willing to hang back for the assist. This was a new woman in front of Jet. The change in her was as physical as it was mental. Jet had no idea how to talk to this Tilly.

"Every time I get a job, I suddenly crave a cigarette. Never until then." Tilly paused and turned a radiant smile on Jet. "Strange, huh?"

This was definitely not Tilly. Jet searched her eyes for a long moment before speaking.

"Is the pay really so bad here you have to go?" Jet's lame excuse for a joke fell to the ground. Tilly tilted her head and her smile fell away.

"I have to go." She shook her head and turned back to her blade, testing the edge before moving on to another. "This is something I have to do. I'd be going even without the money." Jet scoffed and sat in the chair.

"Just out of curiosity, what's a man's life worth these days?"

"This man's, nothing. But I'll get 12 million for him." Jet's eyebrows shot up.

"That's not a lot." He was surprised. Tilly seemed to be the high-end sort.

"I told you, it's personal. I'd have gone anyway once I heard. Vicious is simply saving me time."

Jet went still at the mention of Vicious. Tilly felt his tension and turned to face her friend.

"It's a setup. He wants me to take care of Shae." Tilly's words were cold and distant, made foreign by the sound of scraping steel. "Then he probably plans to have Swift bring me in. What Vicious doesn't realize is that I recognized his pretty boy."

"Then don't go," Jet said gruffly. "Why walk in to a trap if you don't have to?"

Tilly's hands stopped and she took in a deep breath.

"Because I want Shae. And I want Swift."

Jet tilted his head, a thought rolling in the back of his mind, pushing forward through the turmoil.

"You have enough problems already, Tilly. Do you really need another one?"

Tilly's brow furrowed in confusion. She looked over her shoulder to Jet and watched him.

"Don't play stupid." Tilly's face lost all expression and she turned away. Jet sighed and tried a new line of attack. "Who's Shae?"

"A fool. He wanted to train with my father. He showed up around the same time as Vicious and Lin. Spike too, I guess. You know, I saw Spike once. I remembered this morning." Jet stayed silent, allowing her thoughts to flow. "I didn't know who he was then, just that my dad trusted him. It was my dad's last job, and I was going with him. He called this guy into the kitchen and then sent me upstairs to fetch something for him." A tender smile played on Tilly's lips. "I just remembered that today. I've tried to block out that job, I guess. That was when I lost my dad. Shae jumped us with an ambush."

"He Syndicate?" Jet asked gently. Tilly laughed- a harsh, cruel sound.

"Shae couldn't spell Syndicate, let alone get recruited. No, he's purely freelance. Dad wanted nothing to do with him, didn't trust his eyes. The bastard had to hire out a team of men to take us on." Tilly stopped speaking, the memory of that night still to painful to describe. "You know," her voice cracked. "Thinking about it, I used to think Spike was pretty cute. I vaguely recall wishing Vicious could be more like the goofy guy with green hair, or like Shin, smiling and gentle. I didn't know who Spike was- that the guy with the dorky grin was the same man Julia talked about."

Tilly shook her head, disgusted by her own naivety then and the clenching in her gut now. Julia. The true catalyst in the triangle Tilly found herself. The woman for whom she was merely a substitute. An excuse for the two men to continue fighting for control, for love that she would never get from either.

"I don't want another problem. Swift works for Vicious. He'll be there to take me. He won't." Tilly's strokes became violent as she began on yet another blade, her sword.

Jet sensed the change in her and stood, moving to the door. "Come back soon," he sighed. "Spike's got a bad temper when you're gone."

Slowly Tilly turned to face him and Jet's heart dropped at the pain in her eyes. Then, for a moment, the old Tilly shone through with a grin.

"I'll bring him back a present. You too."

"Just you come back. That'll be enough. For both of us."

Tilly turned away and continued her work, the assassin once again taking over. A second later a pack of cigarettes landed on the ground by her hip. A cold smile crossed her lips.


Swift Campbell lit a cigarette and inhaled, holding the burning smoke in his lungs a long moment before slowly exhaling, once again stifling the urge to kill Shae. He understood why Vicious had asked him to track the man down, but he still couldn't figure out why he had to wait for the girl with this idiot.

The girl.

Thinking about her made the wait worth it, and Swift could feel his tension melt away. He had watched her for almost two weeks, disguised and unnoticed, before the night he had made his move. He had grown to look forward to her appearance at the bar, and would have waited longer to meet her had Vicious let him. One night he had chanced sitting at the table by the door, and she had fallen into his arms. Like any other night though, she had laughed it off with an apology and moved to her table near the bar, but not before Swift had made the mistake of noticing her mouth. Full and red, ready for kissing her cupid's bow had shot him and Swift cursed himself as several kinds of stupid.

He would do his job, though. He was sent to make sure Shae was dead and Dowe's girl was returned to Vicious. Swift doubted she would be any competition for Syndicate work. If Vicious was smart he'd keep the girl chained to his bed and not let her out of his sight. Based on the word spreading through the ranks, that was the plan.

"It was great, man! You should have been there!"

Shae's high-pitched accent cut through Swift's reverie. Swift naturally was inclined to dislike the man, never having cared much for the New Aussie natives. They were almost as bad as the fools who stayed on Earth.

"My men kept Dowe busy while I took the girl. I would have killed her, but all I had was my tranq pistol." Swift's head shot over to Shae. "Caught your attention with that, eh? Yeah, it was a pity. I'd have rather killed her, but it took her down all the same, and that was all I was hired to do. She took two darts, though. I mean, she just kept coming! Dowe was another matter entirely. It took five darts and all but one of my men to get that bastard down. My men emptied two clips into him, but the old bull kept coming."

Shae threw back his fifth shot of whiskey and smacked loudly, laughing at his exploit. Swift felt his stomach turn. This idiot had killed Dowe with an ambush, and nearly killed the girl. In a fair fight, she alone, even as a child, would have ended his life.

"You know you have to face her alone." Swift fought to keep his voice neutral.

"No worries mate. I've grown up a bit in the last eight years. I don't need all that backup anymore. Your boss did right in coming to me. I've earned the name Dowe." Shae's voice pitched low with anger. "She won't be a problem," he said darkly as he poured himself another shot.

Swift sneered at the "assassin" before him. It would be a joy to watch the girl kill this fool. It would be a shame to have to turn her over to Vicious.


Faye watched Tilly snap the second suitcase closed, spinning the dials on the combination. She hadn't packed any clothes, just the weapons. Most of what she had cleaned and sharpened had gone back into the trunk, and Faye wondered that she hadn't simply prepped what she needed.

Tilly stood, already loaded with at least twenty ponds of steel and firepower on her small frame, and pulled a long coat on over her small frame. Faye was amazed that nothing bulged or betrayed itself. Tilly slung her katana over one shoulder and grabbed both suitcases. She stopped short when she saw Faye.

"Are you going to try and keep me from going, too?"

Faye smiled.

"No."

"Is Tilly leaving?" Ed stuck her head into the doorway from behind Faye.

"She's got something to do," Faye answered. Tilly tilted her head and then nodded her thanks.

"Will you tell Jet to open the bay?"

Faye smirked.

"Sure."

Tilly nodded again and moved past the pair in her door. She took a few steps away and then turned back.

"Ed, love," she smiled to the girl. "When I get back, we have to do something about those clothes."

Ed tilted her head, confused, and Faye laughed dryly.

"Good luck," she drawled, and both woman knew it had nothing to do with Ed.


Spike sat with Jet in the cockpit, rubbing the oil from his hands.

"Damn it," he muttered. "This was a new shirt!"

"How can you tell?" Jet answered. "It looks just like the last one."

"Funny, Jet," Spike returned. "You're a regular comedian."

"I try," Jet smiled.

"You son of a-"

"Hey Jet," Faye called as she entered the room. "Tilly wants you to open the bay doors."

Spike went still. She was really leaving. Jet felt somber as well and sighed gently. He keyed in the sequence and waited. A second later the Redtail sped past the windows.

"Hey!" Faye shouted. "That's my ship!"

Spike and Jet stared, wide eyed. Slowly, Jet began to chuckle. A second later Spike joined in.

"Shut up," Faye seethed. "This isn't funny!"

Jet and Spike cracked up, Spike holding his sides as Jet threw his head back.

"Shut up!" Faye fumed and sputtered like a cat. Ed watched from the doorway with a grin.

"Go," Jet managed through his laughter. "Get changed."

Spike's laughter eased and he left to shower. Behind him, Faye continued to argue with Jet. Spike ruffled Ed's hair as he passed the kid. Tilly had issued the invitation. How could he not follow?