Omission
---------------------------------------------------
It had been four months, give or take, since Faye had left for Venus. In Spike's estimation, that was roughly how long Jet had been behaving like a pain in the ass. He frequently lost his temper, his cooking ability had gone straight into the toilet, his bonsai were growing wild, and he was generally surly and awful to be around.
As a result, Ed and Spike spent more and more time together. Whether this irked Jet even more than Faye being gone, neither one could say. However, all the attention from Spike filled Ed with joy.
One night, shortly after Ed's nineteenth birthday, she and Spike were sitting on the sofa, watching a brand-spanking new digital television (Ed's gift to herself), when coverage from the poker tourney on Venus began. Faye was sitting behind a desk, wearing a gown which was the turquoise color of a tropical ocean. The style of the gown reminded Spike of the red one she wore one night when they all went dancing, with a tight bodice, and a skirt of a flowy lightweight material. But this dress was high-waisted with exquisite beading on the raised waistline. Faye was chatting about the prospects of the evening's players with another commentator, when one of the players pulled Faye out from behind the desk and began dancing with her. He kept spinning her around as she laughed with delight, and then finally gave the player a squeeze and escaped back to behind the desk.
Spike frowned at Faye's image. Something was different about her, the way she looked, the way she moved. He tucked the thought into the back of his mind as Faye and her co-host went back to chatting about the game tonight. Shortly, though, the show cut to a commercial, and the send-off showed a replay clip of Faye and the guy dancing. And as the guy spun her in the replay, Spike realized what was different. "Holy . . .", he said, sitting up. "Did you see that?"
Ed looked at him. "What?"
"Faye."
"What about her?"
Spike went silent for a moment, and then shook his head. "Well, I don't know. It just looked . . ."
Ed's eyes went wide. "Looked like what?"
"Well, frankly, like . . ." The program looked like it was coming back on, and Spike grabbed the remote. The network went back to the show with the clip they left on, the replay of Faye dancing. Spike paused the digital feed. He leaned in closer to the screen, scrutinizing the image of Faye. He sat back and scrubbed his face with a hand. "Christ on a crutch." He looked at Ed. Ed looked back at him. Spike's eyes narrowed. "You knew, didn't you?"
Ed was silent.
"How long have you known about this?"
Ed's lip began to tremble. Finally, she whispered, "Since Faye's fall."
"When you hacked into her chart in the waiting room." Ed nodded. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Faye didn't want me to. And it wasn't my place to say."
Spike chuckled, and put his head in his hands. "Wasn't your place to say . . ." Suddenly, he flashed on a memory of an odd conversation he had with Ed recently.
"I'm sorry."
Spike furrowed his brow and looked at her. "You're sorry for what?"
"For not trusting you. For not believing what kind of man you are."
"What did I do this time?"
Ed gave him a playful punch in the chest. "You didn't do anything. That's why I'm apologizing."
"Well, then, are you going to at least tell me what I didn't do?"
"It's not my place to say."
Spike turned to Ed, and moved his face close to hers, staring into her large amber eyes. "You thought. . ." Ed stared silently back at Spike, and her eyes grew shiny with tears. "You thought that I . . ." Spike pulled away and narrowed his eyes. Ed sat, fearful, waiting. Waiting for an explosion. But Spike sat silently, looking at her as if he'd never seen her before.
And finally, Spike stood up and left the ship without a word. Ed curled into a ball on the sofa, wishing, even though she had never known Spike to lay a finger on a woman in anger, that he'd simply struck her, instead.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a work of fiction, and the CB characters are copywrited by someone other than me. Please leave a review!