Session Thirteen

Jet and Ed were sitting in Jet's room. He was clipping bonsai while Ed was standing on her head.

"Ed needs passcodes," Ed announced.

"Passcodes, huh?" Jet mused.

"Yup! Ed can sneak in the back door without them, but with them, Ed could stroll in the front with a breeze."

"I think I can get some codes for you," Jet said.

"This'll make nabbing those baddies easy!" Ed cheered. "And it makes Bebop Bebop rich!"

"I think you're forgetting that we're adding these bounties to the list, Ed," Jet said. "We can't pay ourselves."

She sighed and let her feet drop to the floor, so that she balanced on her hands and feet, belly-up. "You're right. Bebop never gets rich."

Jet laughed. "Can't argue with you there. But let's not count our chickens before they hatch."

"Ed doesn't have chickens," Ed tilted her head, looking at Jet upside down. "So she can count Ein and he's one so we win!"

"I wish it was that easy, Ed."

"You think they'll slip through the net?"

Jet shrugged. "It's possible. You know how these things usually go."

Ed nodded seriously. "Kablooie," she said.

"Exactly," Jet nodded. "And with Faye out of sorts, we'll be working one man down on this one."

"Two men down," Ed said, flipping over onto her knees.

"Two?"

"Collarbone, funnybone, shinbone, no bone," she said, drawing a line across her own collarbone with her finger. "Leo's not at his best."

"That we can work around," Jet said, "but it will make things more difficult. We'll probably have to wait until he can at least fly a ship again."

"Ed can fly," Ed looked over at Jet, eyes wide, her statement almost a question.

Jet glared at Ed over the top of the bonsai he was clipping. "No, Ed. You know what happened the last time you tried to fly."

"Awwww," Ed frowned. "Ed's better this time. Promise!" she held one hand over her heart.

Jet shook his head. "No can do, Ed. I can't afford to replace any of our ships."

"Fine, Ed didn't really want to fly anyway," she huffed. Bouncing onto her hands again, she "walked" out of the room, feet swaying in the air. "Let Ed know when you have the coooodes!" she said as she left.

Jet chuckled. Even when Ed was upset, she was never mad. He'd do her a good one and get those codes.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a familiar number.

Bob picked up on the third ring. Jet propped his phone against one of the bonsai so that he could see and talk to Bob and still trim his trees.

"Hey, Jet, how're things on the Bebop?" Bob was sitting in the same old office, the same old blue glare lighting his face from the same old computer. Even after his promotion to Captain a few years ago, he'd refused to move to a bigger, fancier space.

"Oh, you know us, Bob. Nothing new."

"I can't believe you're still doing the bounty hunting gig."

"I can't believe you're still a cop."

"Old habits die hard."

"Same here."

"Speaking of old habits, I've heard a rumor going around lately."

"Yeah?" Jet's curiosity was piqued.

"Yeah, 'bout a certain Cowboy who may or may not be back on the register after a fifteen year hiatus. You know anything about this, Jet?"

Jet nodded. "You're not going to believe it, Bob, but he's on my ship as we speak."

"It's him? No way."

Jet shook his head. "It's not Spike. But you know the old bastard had a son and didn't tell anybody?"

"You have Spiegel's son on your ship?"

Jet grinned. "Bona fide, Bob. Ed tagged the kid for some DNA and he's the real thing."

"No wonder the Syndicates are raising their heads at this one."

"That's actually what I want to talk to you about." Jet carefully trimmed a branch on the bonsai in front of him.

"The Syndicates? Jet, what are you planning?"

"It might be better if you don't know, Bob."

"But you need my help, don't you?"

"As usual."

Bob glanced around like he was looking for unwanted listeners, even though there never were any. Bob was the most thorough cop Jet knew and one of the best at keeping his tracks covered. There'd be little danger of anyone interfering in their conversation. "Ok, what do you need this time?"

"Just a couple of access codes."

Bob ran a hand over his face. "And this is why I didn't want that promotion. Even a Captain can't just go handing this stuff out left and right, Jet." Bob paused. "Access codes for what exactly?"

"The ISSP bounty database."

"You want to add a bounty?" Bob asked. "How about you just do it the legal way and submit the paperwork?"

"Because, I don't want anyone from the Bebop on these bounties. We need to make this look like an outside source has upped the ante."

"Let me guess, your hacker is your 'outside source.'"

"Right again, Bob." Jet smiled at his friend and gave him a sly glance. "Don't tell me you don't enjoy a little excitement every now and then."

"I got enough excitement on my plate what with these Syndicates running amok. You know the Red Dragon's back? And they're peddling a new drug in the streets, too. Here on Ganymede no less."

"Yup," Jet agreed. "That's what we're working on right now. So don't be surprised when a couple of the Dragon's leaders show up on the bounty list."

"What? Are you crazy? You do that and the Dragon will target bounty hunters the galaxy over. You want to start a war?"

"Of course not!" Jet protested. "But we'd prefer to operate while sanctioned by the ISSP, if you catch my drift."

Bob rolled his eyes. "Are you planning something illegal?"

"Nothing illegal in the pursuit of a legal bounty," Jet promised. "Besides, having every bounty hunter in the galaxy on the Dragon's tail will force them to retreat to their nest, which is what Ed and I are hoping for."

"You're taking the advice of your hacker?" Bob asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well, that, and the intuition of Spiegel's boy."

"My god, Jet, you're going to fight the Syndicate with a couple of kids?"

"Bob, if I had a choice, I'd fight the Syndicate with Spike. But I've got the next best thing and that's crew members I trust. If everything goes according to plan, we bag these guys, cripple the Syndicate for you, and hand it all over to ISSP with a nice bow on it."

"And if it goes wrong?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time we had to resort to Plan B."

"More like Plan Z." Bob was trying to hide a smile and failing. "Fine. I'll give you the codes. But if I find myself as a bounty, I'm turning you in."

Jet laughed. "You'd have to catch me first. Thanks, Bob, I owe ya."

"Don't you always?" Bob grinned.

"How do you stand her, Jet?"

Two nights later Jet and Leon sat in the bridge, plans, maps, and Jet's computer spread out on the shogi board. (Jet had finally agreed to give up the current game.) They had cooling plates of a dubious dish Jet dubbed bell peppers and beef sitting between them. Despite his thorough investigation, Leon had yet to find any beef in it. Ed was sprawled in the navigator's chair, playing with the newly obtained ISSP passcodes Bob sent. She had her goggles on and was talking to herself in between heaping bites of food.

Jet swallowed a forkful of bell peppers and beef. "Faye barks worse than she bites."

"I think she hates me," Leon said, swirling his food around his plate.

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

Leon gave him a baleful look and gestured with his fork to indicate Faye's obvious lack of presence.

"I see," Jet rubbed his chin. "She told you as much, didn't she?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Ed, how many times has Faye told you she hates you?"

"Um...twelve," Ed said, holding up ten fingers and two toes around Tomato. "Or maybe thirteen. Ed forgets."

"I've lost count of how many times she's said that to me," Jet said. "And she probably tells Ein daily. Right boy?"

Ein barked in agreement.

"See, kid? It's not just you."

Leon chuckled. "Ok, but at least she doesn't think you should be someone else every time she looks at you."

"Is that why she stormed off the bridge the other night?"

"More or less," Leon tilted his left shoulder in his best approximation of a shrug.

Jet took a deep breath and steepled his fingers in front of him, dangling his fork between them. "Faye took it real hard when Spike left the Bebop. I take it you've gathered that by now."

"How can I not?" he said around a mouthful of bell peppers.

"When Faye and I searched the Dragon's hideout after Spike blew the place up, we never found his body. We both wanted that to mean he was still alive. Problem is, we never heard from him again. A couple years went by and, at that point, I was convinced Spike was gone. He wouldn't leave us hanging like that if he was still alive. But Faye didn't want to accept that. Then you come along and it's like staring the past in the face. For all of us."

Jet paused. "I think she just took it harder because, even after all this time, she still expects the old lunkhead to come back and just pick up where he left off."

"She loved him, didn't she?" Leon asked.

"In her own way," Jet agreed. "But Spike never could see past Julia, and Faye couldn't see past that. Facing you now is like staring down her failures in human form."

"Seems like that's all I'm good for," Leon muttered.

"Don't say that!" Ed interrupted.

Leon looked up in surprise. He didn't think Ed was even listening.

"You're good for a lot more than making Faye Faye mad," Ed continued. "Besides, Faye Faye is always ruffled under the feathers. Ed thinks that why she plays ponies."

"Horse races," Jet explained to Leon's confused look.

"Oh," Leon nodded but it didn't make much sense to him. "Well thanks, Ed."

"Anytime!" Ed saluted him. She hit some keys on Tomato and cheered. "Passcodes worked!" She declared. "Ed is in." She wiggled her fingers over the keyboard. "You want Ed to post the bounties now?"

"You can post them anytime, right?" Jet asked.

"Yup!"

"Good. Let's wait until we're good and ready for this before we do it."

"What is Ed posting?" Leon asked.

"Well, Ed and I thought we might add Draugh and Andross to Villanova's bounty."

Leon grinned. "You guys are good," he said.

"I'd like to think we have a little experience in the field," Jet said, lacing his fingers behind his head. "This way if we break anything while catching these guys, the worst the ISSP can do is take it out of our bounty and not our hides."

"Does that happen often?" Leon asked.

"The destruction or the ISSP taking our bounty?" Jet asked drily.

Ed laughed. "Bang, bang, crash!" she shouted, pretending to point a gun and pull the trigger. "Bebop Bebop's money goes bye-bye."

"I see," Leon said. "Well, if it makes you both feel any better, I don't have anything that...destructive in mind."

"You got a plan, kid?"

"The beginnings of one."

"What does it involve?"

"A touch of larceny, perhaps some blackmail, and a hefty dose of subterfuge."

"Sounds fun!" Ed said.

"Lay it on us, Leon," Jet clapped a hand on Leon's good shoulder.

Faye sat cross-legged on her bed, a cigarette dangling between her painted fingernails. Jet had brought her dinner and an invitation to join their planning session, but she declined. The plate of bell peppers and beef sat untouched on her night stand.

Faye hunched over the old TV and Beta player she kept in her room. She'd watched this tape so many times now that the images blurred and the words sometimes repeated, but she didn't have to see it clearly to know what happened. She watched her younger self shake pom-poms in the air and cheer for her future self. Her now self.

She flicked the TV off. She closed her eyes and flopped back on the bed, her younger self's cheer repeating in her head, like a song on loop. If only her younger self knew what she'd be facing about 50 years in the future. She certainly never imagined the crazy and dramatic soap opera her life had become. Frozen for almost twenty years in order to survive an accident that should have killed her. In debt for medical bills she hadn't even consented to. And in love with a man who hadn't lived long enough to return the feelings.

She opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling, blowing smoke. And now she was confronted with the painful reality of Spike's love for Julia, walking around the Bebop like he owned the place.

"Stupid, kid," she muttered to herself. "No one fights the Dragon and lives. You're just going in to die."

She felt tears well up in her eyes and blinked furiously to stop them. She could almost feel the cold, hard grip of the gun in her hand all those nights ago. She'd thought about pulling the trigger. For a heartbeat. Perhaps if she'd shot him, he would have stayed. Perhaps he wouldn't have gone to fight the Dragon. Perhaps she would be watching a son of her own grow up on the Bebop, instead of taking in Spike's orphan.

Who was she kidding? The Dragon would have taken Spike whether she detained him that night or not. It was a calling stronger than his own life. Vicious would have raised the Syndicate into a killing machine with one target - Spike. A tear escaped and slipped across her cheek. No matter what she'd done to try and make him stay, he would've eventually had to go. She sat up and snuffed her cigarette in an ashtray on her bedside table.

And now his son was about to take the entire crew of the Bebop on a second suicide mission just to wipe out a Syndicate that would grow back in a few years.

"Why can't anyone I care about ever stay?" She grabbed her pillow and buried her face in it.