Celebrations! It's an early update! Have fun friends :)

Session Eleven

Something dragged him back to reality. Something cold and wet lapping at his left hand. Leon opened his eyes to find the Bebop's now familiar ceiling fan making its regular rotations over his head. He was lying on the couch in the living room, a blanket draped over him. His shoulder throbbed off-key with his pulse. Someone had removed his shirt and wrapped his chest and shoulder in bandages. His right arm was held close to his body in a sling. His left arm dangled off the edge of the couch.

He felt another cold lick on his hand and looked over. "Hey, Ein," he said softly, reaching out and scratching the corgi between the ears. Ein barked and licked his fingers, tongue lolling. Leon petted him for a few seconds. Ein barked again and ducked out of Leon's fingers. With a doggie grin, he ran off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Leon protested weakly, but the little dog was already gone.

Leon looked back up at the ceiling and moved his right arm experimentally. He winced as the pain intensified. "Ok...moving...hurts," he mumbled to himself.

The Bebop was oddly quiet. Where was everybody?

He wished he had a cigarette, but it would take too much effort to light one.

Just then Ein came running back into the living room barking happily. He ran over to Leon's hand and licked it again. "You're back are you?" he asked.

"You're awake!" he heard Ed exclaim softly. He looked up to find her perched cross-legged on the back of the couch.

"Yeah. How long was I asleep?"

Ed scratched her head. "Nine, ten hours?" she shrugged. "It's almost night time again."

Ein whined and jumped up on the couch, landing on Leon's stomach. "Aaahhh," he sucked in a breath as Ein jostled him.

"Careful, Ein!" Ed yelped. She reached out as if to take the dog.

"Nah... it's ok," Leon said. "Long as he's still."

Ein immediately lay down, as if he understood Leon. He lay his nose on his paws and stared at Leon thoughtfully. Something about the warm little furball was comforting.

"Are Faye and Jet ok?" Leon looked back up at Ed.

"They're fine," Ed smiled. "Faye Faye is pouting and Jet is playing with screwdrivers. How about Leo?" she asked.

"I'm alive," he said.

"Jet pulled lots of blood and metal out of your shoulder," Ed shuddered like she was remembering something unpleasant. She was unusually subdued.

"Glad I wasn't awake for that," Leon grimaced.

"Ed too," she said. She didn't meet his eye.

"So, Jet's an amatuer surgeon, huh?" Leon asked.

"With Spike person around, he learned fast," Ed said. "Spike always came back full of holes. No doctors in the Astral Gates," she shrugged.

"Lucky for me, then," Leon said.

"Yeah," she agreed quietly.

"Are we still on Venus?"

She nodded. "Jet says we're in a secret place." She didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Is everything ok, Ed?" Leon asked. "You're pretty quiet."

"A-OK!" she grinned, but Leon thought it looked forced.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yup!" she nodded and slid off the couch. "Ed's gotta go. Tomato and Ed are doing research. And Leo needs sleep."

With a wave, she disappeared.

Leon looked down at Ein and rested his left hand on the corgi's back. "I bet you know what's wrong, don't you?" he murmured.

Ein whined softly, as if to say I wish.

"Yeah, me too, boy," Leon sighed. "Me too."

When he woke up again, Jet was sitting in the chair across the coffee table, smoking and reading a book. Leon was surprised to find Ein curled up on the couch at his feet.

"Hey, glad to see you awake," Jet closed his book and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Glad to see you still have your arm," Leon said.

"This old thing?" Jet shifted his mechanical arm. "She's fine. He didn't hit anything major, just snipped a few wires."

Leon winced. "Sorry about that."

"Eh, that's no big deal. I can mend this a lot faster than flesh and bone. You got the worse end of the deal. How do you feel?"

"I'm alright. Long as I don't move this arm too much." Leon pushed himself up on his left arm and swung his feet over the edge of the couch so he could sit up. His felt a little light-headed, but it went away soon enough. Jet gave him a concerned look. Ein shifted so he was sitting right next to Leon.

"You know, he hasn't left you since we brought you back to the ship." Jet pointed at Ein.

Ein looked up with his melted chocolate eyes.

"That's weird. He's usually with Ed."

"I think he was worried about you."

Leon looked down at Ein, then back at Jet. "I know I took a hit, Jet, but I'm not dying or anything. Why is everybody acting like I might fall apart?"

"You almost did fall apart on us, kid," Jet said somberly. "I pulled a knife and a bullet out of your shoulder and you lost quite a bit of blood. Ed had to sew you back up. Sorry, but it's not going to heal pretty."

"Wait a minute, did you just say Ed sewed me up?"

Jet nodded. "I had only one hand and you don't want Faye sewing anything, trust me. Ed was the only one left for the job. I've never seen her concentrate on anything harder in her life."

"That must've been why she was so quiet earlier."

"Probably. She was scared to death she was going to kill you. I told her she couldn't make anything much worse than it was, so she might as well give it a go."

Leon grimaced. "How bad was it?"

"Well, beyond the obvious muscle damage, I think the knife may have fractured your collarbone, so you're gonna be out of commission for a few weeks."

"A few weeks!" Leon groaned.

"It could be worse. Spike used to bounce back from this stuff pretty fast, so if you've got any of his resilience in your blood, you'll heal quick."

"I guess I got that going for me. What about the bounty?"

Jet shrugged. "We'll discuss that later."

Leon felt like Jet might be leaving something out, but he decided to let it go for now. He hadn't seen Faye since they got back from the island and, from the way Ed and Jet were acting, she was brooding on something. Leon got the distinct feeling it was him.

A sudden thought struck him and he sat up straighter. "The Swordfish!" he exclaimed. "How'd we get her back here? We did get her back, didn't we?"

Jet grinned. "Oh, she's fine. The Hammerhead's got a tow cable so we put you in the Hammerhead's cargo space and I towed the Swordfish back."

"You shoved me in the cargo space?"

"Well, there wasn't much shoving involved, not with Faye screaming at me not to kill you so she could do you in herself when we got back."

"She's that mad, huh?"

"Faye only screams at the people she really cares about."

"I only scream at who now?"

Leon tilted his head back to find Faye standing directly over him, arms crossed. She was wearing her bathrobe and carrying a paperback. Her wet hair was up in a towel. Something about the serious slant of her mouth made Leon nervous. Faye put her hands on her hips.

"I thought you were taking a bath, Faye," Jet said.

"Well, I was, until Ed told me our resident invalid was awake."

Leon swallowed. "Hey, Faye."

"Hey? That's all you have to say for yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you almost go and get yourself killed and all you have to say for yourself is 'hey'?" She whacked Leon upside the head with her book.

"Faye!" Jet yelled.

"Ow!" Leon yelped and put his left arm up to cover his head. His vision swam. He blinked a few times and it cleared. "Wait just a...damn minute! You were the one playing backup! Why didn't you save us faster?"

"Save you faster!" Faye looked indignant. "Save you faster? If Jet called me on his radio like he said he would, maybe I could have!"

Jet held out his hands. "Like I told you before, Faye, someone hit me on the head and took my radio and my gun."

"So that's why you didn't answer me," Leon said.

Jet nodded.

"Oh, yeah? How come you came back with the gun and not the radio then?" Faye demanded.

Jet sighed. "I found the gun on the way out of the temple. I guess someone just tossed it out of the way. But I don't know what happened to the radio."

"So, you mean, you didn't time that rescue?" Leon shifted so that he could look up at Faye without tilting his head so far back.

"Not anymore than you planned that busted collarbone."

Leon paled. "Th-thanks, Faye." If Faye hadn't come in when she did...Jet wouldn't be sitting here across from him. And he wouldn't be here either. "You really saved our lives back there." Leon looked at Faye with new respect.

Faye sighed. Leon could almost see her defenses go down with the drop of her shoulders. She folded the paperback and walked around the couch to sit in the chair beside Jet. "You're just glad I decided to check in on your radio silence. That was too close of a call."

They were all silent for a long moment.

Faye broke the silence. "So. Jet told me an abbreviated version of what happened in the temple. What actually went down in there?"

Leon looked over at Jet and Jet gave him a nod, like he was giving him the go ahead to tell the story. Leon sighed. "Well, you remember that grey-haired guy who chased me down on the pier the day you met me?"

"Yeah." Faye nodded.

"Turns out his name's Draugh. He followed us here. Andross was a minion of his and Villanova's apparently an associate."

"I thought you said this would get us away from the Syndicate, Jet!" Faye accused.

"I thought it would," he said.

"So you guys just met in the temple and shot each other?" Faye asked.

"At first we didn't even know he was there," Jet said. "We split up to look around and someone came up behind me and knocked me out. When I came to, Leon was talking to Draugh in the middle of the room."

"You were talking to him?!"

"I was stalling him."

"What did he say?"

"He told me he mentored Spike in the Syndicate."

Jet and Faye traded glances. Jet shrugged. "It's possible, I suppose. He's old enough to have been around when Spike was. But Spike never talked much about his time in the Syndicate, so there's no way to know for sure."

"Did he say anything else?" Faye asked, an almost feverish gleam in her eye.

"He told me the pier was a mistake, and the Dragon doesn't want to kill me," Leon continued. "Instead, they want me to join the Syndicate. He told me if I joined, I could pick up where Spike left off and become the head of the new Dragon."

"Spike was never the head of the Dragon!" Faye said.

Leon shrugged and instantly regretted the motion. He felt something slide in his shoulder and his head spun. "Unnnhhh."

"Hey, you ok, kid?" Jet asked.

Leon shut his eyes and nodded, the motion small and contained. "Yeah," he breathed. After a moment the pain faded to a bearable ache again. He opened his eyes to see Jet and Faye both watching him closely. Ein whined softly. He tried to give them a smile, but it failed.

Jet stood up. "You look rough, Leon. I'll make you some tea that will help with that shoulder. We can finish this discussion later."

Faye didn't look happy with that decision, but she didn't argue this time. With a last look at Leon, she gathered her book and headed back into the lower deck of the ship.

A few minutes later, Jet returned with a steaming mug. He handed it to Leon and Leon drank it without complaining. Shortly after, he felt his eyelids drift shut of their own accord and he lay down and slipped into merciful sleep.