Well friends, here's the penultimate chapter of this whole adventure - a little late, I know, but the holidays jumped right in the middle of my writing. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (And just for an added bonus, the last chapter is up today too) Enjoy!

Session Thirty Eight

"He's not a kid anymore, Jet." Faye stuck her hands in her pockets as they walked back to the Bebop. Malcolm's contact wasn't of much use and the leads he gave them weren't solid enough to follow without Ed so the two decided to call it a day and head back.

Jet gave Faye a sideways look.

"Ok, so he's still kind of a kid," she conceded, "but he's nineteen. He's old enough to make his own decisions. Hell, I was playing the casinos at that age. And Spike was a freakin' dragon. I bet you weren't exactly sitting around at nineteen either."

Jet nodded, yielding to Faye's point. "I was working my way through ISSP."

"Exactly. So you can't try to hold Leon down. The only reason he's listening to you right now is that he's injured and he knows it. If it were Spike, you know he'd jump up and do whatever the hell he wanted, regardless of what you said or how bad he hurt."

"Yeah, but Spike wasn't a kid when I met him."

"And Leon's not either. Not anymore. If you keep treating him like he is, you're going to hurt him."

Jet looked over at Faye for a long moment.

"Since when did you start caring so much, Faye?" he asked, half-serious, half-joking.

"Since I almost lost him," she said. "He kind of grows on you, you know?"

Jet chuckled. "So, you like the boy?"

"Well...yeah. It's kind of hard not to like him. Even if he can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes."

"Maybe you should tell him that."

"That he's a royal pain in the ass?"

"No." Jet punched her lightly in the arm. "That you care about him."

"I kind of already did."

Jet raised his eyebrows.

"At like three o'clock in the morning the night after he woke up," Faye admitted.

"You think he remembers that?" Jet asked.

"He was awake," Faye muttered defensively.

Jet gave her a glare. "Maybe you should try saying it again, when Leon's priorities aren't taking his next breath and staying alive."

Faye sighed. "Maybe you're right, Jet. And maybe you should let him go on missions again now that he can do more than focus on breathing and living." Faye said, looking up as the Bebop loomed above them in the harbor. She made her way on board without waiting on Jet's answer. Jet caught up to her in the hangar as she was about to walk upstairs. Faye stopped right before she put her foot on the stairs, staring at something out in the hangar.

"Jet, what's that?" She pointed at a dark shape on the floor near the Swordfish.

"Looks like a backpack." Jet walked over and picked it up. "It's Leon's." He frowned down at it as the backpack fell open in his hand. "Looks like he was packing - there's some clothes and ammunition in here."

"Why would he be packing clothes and ammunition?" Faye murmured, thinking back to when they'd first met the boy and that was all he'd admitted to owning. "Unless he - damn it!" she broke off and ran upstairs. Jet followed, Leon's backpack dangling from his hand.

The two burst into the living room to find it empty. Leon's Jericho lay half-assembled on the coffee table, but there was no sign of Leon, Ed, or Tomato. Ein was nowhere to be seen either.

"Do you think something happened to them?" Faye whispered.

Jet shook his head. "Leon wouldn't leave without his gun. And if someone broke in, he wouldn't have left the parts sitting around on the table. Besides, there's no sign of a fight. They're probably just in another part of the ship."

Jet and Faye walked up to the bridge, but no one was there either. The slow blink of the sleeping dash lights was the only interruption in the still silence. Faye gave Jet a worried look, but Jet shook his head and went back downstairs. He headed into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. A few steps down the hall and they heard Ed's voice coming from Leon's room. The door was cracked and warm light spilled into the hall.

"See? What did I tell you," Jet said, relief evident in his voice.

Jet and Faye opened the door to find Ed sitting on Leon's bed, Tomato in her lap, typing madly as usual. The unusual part was the spreading bruise on her lower jaw. Leon sat in the floor, his back to the bed and his legs stretched in front of him, wearing Ed's goggles. He had his right arm pressed to his side like he had a habit of doing when his ribs hurt. Ein was curled up at his side, his head resting on Leon's leg.

"Ok, blink," Ed said.

Leon jumped slightly, as if surprised. "It worked."

"Oh, hi Jet. Hi Faye Faye!" Ed said brightly, looking up from her computer.

Leon slid the goggles up on his forehead.

"Hi, Ed," Jet said slowly. "What happened to your face?"

"Oh this?" Ed pointed at the bruise. "Leo hit me," she said matter-of-factly.

"You hit Ed?" Faye looked down at Leon, incredulous.

Leon flushed. "She pushed me."

"Before or after you hit her?" Faye demanded.

"Did you two get in a fight?" Jet asked.

"You could call it that," Leon said.

"Did it have anything to do with this?" Jet held the backpack up.

Ed nodded emphatically. "Leo was trying to leave!"

Leon facepalmed. Faye gave Jet a knowing look as if to say I told you so. Jet shrugged and set the backpack down at his feet.

"Where were you trying to go, Leon?" Jet asked.

Leon shrugged. "I don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"Why were you trying to go?" Faye asked.

Leon floundered for a minute, looking up at Ed. She nodded encouragingly. "I thought that it might be,you know, best, for everybody, if I left. I thought maybe you all didn't need the reminder. Of Spike. Of all the trouble I caused. That maybe it'd just be better if I was gone and you guys could go back to life the way you wanted. To normal."

The room was silent for a long minute.

"Well, kid, if you wanted us to go back to normal, I don't think we could get there," Jet said. "We've never been anywhere close to what you'd call normal."

"Besides, normal is boring." Faye walked over and sat on the bed beside Ed. "And you know how much I hate boring."

"I think what Faye's trying to say is that she wants you to stick around," Jet said.

"And I think what Jet's trying to say," Faye shot back "is that he misses having you on missions and he thinks you're clear to come with us again."

Leon looked between Jet and Faye, at the unspoken conversation between them. He got the feeling they'd been talking about him behind his back. That they must have admitted to each other that they wanted Leon on the Bebop, but they were hesitant to say it out loud. Like glass, Ed had said. Because they didn't want to break Leon. They'd watched Spike shatter right in front of them, bursting brilliantly, like a dying star, but dying all the same. And they were afraid that they'd spark that same process in him. Because they could see it. And suddenly, Leon could too. He could see the way he'd walked around like a fragile shell, a quiet shadow of his former self. Something that Faye and Jet were wary of, because the last time they saw this, it was Spike and they lost him. Something not even Ed understood perfectly, but Ed was willing to be gentle with him in a way the others weren't because Ed wasn't scared. Ed dared to walk out on a limb, because she wasn't afraid of falling - and she wasn't afraid of breaking the limb. Because Ed understood, somehow, that sometimes you had to break to grow. And yet, there was something rough about Ed too and Leon realized that this cobbled crew of the Bebop was something unique in and of itself. Misfits, outcasts, and rebels, they drew together because they weren't normal. Because they weren't boring. Because they didn't expect everything or anything at all to go the way they planned. But that made them stronger. Because they had someone to watch their back when everything went to hell in a handbasket.

"You know...I think...maybe I get it now," Leon said quietly. "And I think I know where to start." Leon stood up stiffly, wincing as he turned to face Faye. Ein blinked sleepily up at him, whining when he lost his resting place. Leon took a deep breath. "Faye, I forgive you for calling the Dragon. I get it. You hurt. Pain like that is slow to heal. So I hope, maybe, you'll let me help. And Jet." Leon turned to face him. "I forgive you for maybe trying to keep me a little too safe. I'm not Spike. But I am his son. So I hope you'll forgive me his reckless streak."

"Eh, don't worry about it, kid." Jet shrugged. "I think it's safe to say that we've officially buried the past on this one. You might have made a mess, but it's nothing any of us haven't done before."

"Besides, even if you are a mess, you're our mess and that's what counts," Faye said.

"Don't get sentimental on me, Faye," Leon said, crossing his arms.

"Oh, isn't that what we're doing? Getting all mushy and gushy and telling each other how much we love each other?" Faye blinked mock innocent eyes up at Leon.

"Ed loves you, Faye Faye!" Ed suddenly declared, leaping up and wrapping her arms around Faye's neck.

"Get off, Ed!" Faye shoved her off. Ed pretended to sprawl against the wall, her feet in the air, staring up at Faye from the bed.

"Aw, does Faye Faye not love Ed?" Ed blinked at Faye, mimicking Ein's begging expression. "Is Ed Faye Faye's mess?"

Faye just rolled her eyes.

Ed pouted. "Nobody likes Ed!" she declared. "Ed doesn't get to be messy for anybody, she doesn't get forgiven for anything - "

"You haven't done anything wrong, Ed," Leon interrupted. "There's nothing to forgive you for."

"Well, Ed forgives you for punching her," Ed said brightly, rolling over and sitting up.

"Thanks, Ed," Leon chuckled.

"You know what I think we all need right now?" Jet asked.

"A group hug?" Ed said, flinging her arms out.

"No!" Faye and Leon immediately responded.

Jet shook his head. "A mission. And I think I've got the perfect one."

"It's not another contact from Malcolm is it?" Faye groaned.

"No, this one's from me." Jet pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pulled up a picture and turned the phone around so everyone could see the screen. "Remember this guy?" he asked.

"Andross!" Leon exclaimed.

"Yup. I think that if we really want to tie this up as a team, then we've got one last guy we need to take down. The bastard that started all this mess."

"What a minute…how'd he get away anyway?" Leon asked. In all the chaos, confusion, and recovery of the last several weeks, Leon didn't remember what happened to the Syndicate's drug dealer.

"As it turns out, he actually gave us some of the information we needed to save your skin," Jet said. "So I gave him a headstart in return. It was only fair. But I never promised we wouldn't cash in on his bounty later. So, what do you say cowboys?"

"I'm in," Faye said.

"You can count on Ed!" Ed declared, holding one hand over her heart and the other up in the air.

"Jet...there might be something to that whole 'if-you're-not-careful-you'll-hurt-yourself' thing you kept telling me," Leon said sheepishly. "So I don't think you can count on me for a fight just yet, but I'm in."

Jet gave him a long look and Leon got the feeling he was holding back an 'I told you so.' Finally, Jet nodded. "Then let's catch ourselves a bounty, Bebop."