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Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy Bebop. It is the creation of Hajime Yadate, and belongs to Sunrise productions. Oh, yeah, and the story title comes from the incredible Lou Armstrong song of the same name.
Warnings: Bit of language
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Chapter 2: Angel Eyes
"Some
mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps."
~Emo
Philips
**************
“Were you trying to kill me?!” Jet yelled.
“I should have just let him shoot you then,” came the sarcastic reply.
“Look what you did to the guy!” Jet fumed pointing to the still figure half buried in rubble.
“If this guy even had a bounty, we might not get anything now! And look at the Redtail. You know what it’s going to cost to get it fixed? And lets not forget to repair the buildings you destroyed!”
Faye simply rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She knew this was just Jet’s way of showing he had been concerned, in his own way.
“Spike had better of got Larson,” Jet finally finished crossing his own arms.
Jet pouted a moment until a thought came to him.
“Where is Spike?” he asked.
“When I first swooped down, I think I saw him a few buildings down with someone else,” Faye answered motioning her head in the direction.
“Good,” Jet said happily, “if he caught up to Larson, then he got him. Maybe this won’t be a total waste after all. It might even pay for the damages.”
The large man pulled out the radio (?) and tried to get a hold of Spike. He received no answer. He then signaled Edward.
“Edward is here Jet-person. Did
Jet-person and Spike-person get the bounty, bounty?”
“Not yet, Ed. So Spike hasn’t called you?” Jet asked.
“Nosy cozy. Only Ein-ein has called
Edward. Is the Spike person dead?”
Jet ignored the question of whether Spike was dead or not.
“Thanks Ed,” he said then cut the line.
“I guess we have to go look for our bounty then?” Faye asked irritably.
“Our bounty? You left remember?”
“Hey, I bailed you out, I’ve earned some of it!”
Faye was fairly proud of that fact, that she had bailed someone else out for once.
Jet gave Faye a half way smile.
“I knew you’d come back,” he commented before walking away from Faye.
Faye huffed before she followed Jet. The two split up and each went down a separate alley.
“Spike? Yo, Spike!” Jet called as he looked down one of the spaces between two buildings.
Spike, when he actually put his mind to it, was a pretty efficient bounty hunter. He could have had Larson, collected the bounty, and been back on the Bebop now if he wanted to. So what was he doing? Jet had a bad feeling about this and he was worried for his partner, although, he would never admit it of course.
**************
“He’s probably half way to the Bebop now,” Faye sighed as she looked down the empty alley.
At least, that’s what she told herself.
The woman repeated that phrase until she made a right. As soon as she turned the corner, Faye’s sucked in her breath. There was a figure lying face down in the alley, a figure with greenish hair that she couldn’t mistake for anyone else.
“Shit!” Faye cursed.
She reacted without thinking and darted down the silent alley, with the sound of her boots ringing out around her.
**************
“Spike, where the hell are you?” Jet mumbled to himself.
Jet was turning around to go back when Faye’s excited voice rang out of the speaker.
“Jet! I found him! We got to do
something.”
“Calm down Faye,” Jet said calmly.
“You calm down!” she shot back.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“On the side street I went down!
Where do you think I am?”
“Alright, alright, I’m coming.”
Jet knew it, he just knew it, his gut had been right.
******************
Faye knelt down next to Spike, ignoring the spreading puddle of blood, and tried to wake him. She reached out and shook him a little.
“Wake up! This isn’t funny Spike, wake up, move, swear, do something,” she commanded exasperated.
Faye forced herself to breath deeply. He was so infuriating! One minute making her life miserable, making her hate him, and now he had to do something like this. The sound of footsteps brought the woman out of her thoughts, and she instinctively reached for her gun. Jet rounded the corner and paused at the site of his friend. For once he wished he were wrong.
Faye relaxed and put away the weapon. Jet regained his composure quickly and knelt down next to Faye.
The big man did a quick check over their fallen companion and Faye looked at him anxiously.
“We need to get him help and fast,” Jet said calmly.
Faye, for once refraining from any smart comments, simply nodded. Mind made up, she pressed a button on her bracelet and from nearby you could here the beaten, but flyable, Redtail’s engines fire up. Moments later the ship came to hover over the trio, blowing papers and trash around in a fierce whirlwind that whipped Faye’s headband off.
***************
“Does Ein-ein think Spike-person is dead?” Ed asked and looked at the data dog through her bright yellow goggles.
Ein lay down on the floor with a whimper. Ed sprawled out on the floor next to the dog, not bothering to remove the goggles, with her feet and arms up in the air. She made little pedaling motions with all four limbs and moved her head back and forth, like a snake.
“Jet-person could let Edward know. Edward does care if the Spike-person is dead!” she complained to the dog.
Ein barked in response and lay his head back down.
*************
The setting sun filtered in through the high-rise window. The red, gold rays settled lazily over the woman standing in the window and illuminated her long dark hair, hair that hung well down to the woman’s thin waist. Her hair had a red sheen to it in the dying sun that matched the rays of light. Her striking, steel gray eyes stared at the setting sun from her delicately shaped face.
The woman reminded one of a beautiful melancholy damsel in distress, watching from her balcony window day after day for prince charming to show up. A lovely and delicate angel, she looked, but this woman was hardly in distress and needed no protection from someone else.
For Bernard Larson, sitting in a big comfy chair across the room, he figured that was what made the woman so appealing to men. Her charm came from the thought of having a delicate flower to put on a pedestal and protect. It must be an instinct for a lot of men, he thought to himself. That image worked well to their advantage and, unlucky for her prey, those men found a set of deadly fangs under the sweet exterior.
“What’s the matter Isabelle?” the man asked.
“You are to careless,” she said without turning around.
“I wasn’t aware I had a bounty on my head yet,” he explained.
“I would be more careful. The next time I might not be there to bail you out,” she said coolly.
Larson was mildly offended by that comment, but held his tongue. He valued his tongue.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” the blonde man asked after a pause.
Isabelle finally turned from the window and her steel gray eyes had turned into deep icy pools. The man was glad he was used to getting that stare, but the cold glare sent a shiver down his spine nonetheless.
“I wanted the cowboy to live,” she finished without further explanation.
“So, you’ve found another one?” he asked teasingly.
The dark-haired woman let the ghost of a smile cross her face.
“Perhaps,” was all she said, before turning back to the window.
The man had enough sense to let it drop at that.
***************
Blue eyes…
Angel eyes…
The color of an over cast sky, just as pale and cold, swirled around aimlessly in the murky water of his mind.
Eyes that were vaguely familiar, and yet, not.
As his mind started to push its way back to consciousness, he was left in a semi wakeful state. He could feel a slight heaviness in his chest and an uncomfortable ache throughout his whole upper body.
A face went with those eyes, a haunting one that matched the intensity of the stormy eyes. The pale blue eyes were clear in his mind, but the face was still hazy and dream like.
She was looking down at him with something like pity.
Who was she and why did she pity him?
The intensity of the heaviness and ache grew steadily over time. The pressure built until it was hard to breath and the ache grew into actual pain. A searing pain that threatened to burn a hole from his back strait through and out the front. He tried to bring a hand up to relieve some of the discomfort, but that only succeeded in causing a sharper flash of pain.
That flash shot Spike’s mind up through the velvety depths and sounds and other feelings were now apparent. One feeling was a deep weariness. So much so, that he didn’t know if he had the strength to open his eyes, so he just kept them shut.
Spike tried once again to bring his hand up to his chest, but a gentle hand blocking the way, intercepted it.
“Shh,” a female voice cooed, “you shouldn’t move. You’ll just hurt yourself.”
He felt a cool touch on his cheek and was comforted somewhat by the tenderness.
Was that Faye? He wondered.
It couldn’t be, the actions were too gentle for her.
“You’d make a good a nursemaid, if you just kept acting like that,” Spike heard from further away.
“Jet!” he heard Faye shriek from beside him, “you shouldn’t creep around like that!”
“I wasn’t intentionally doing it,” Jet defended; “you were just caught up in the moment.”
Mind still groggy or not, Spike heard the amusement in Jet’s voice. Uh oh, here we go, he thought wearily. Without him to drive crazy, he assumed Faye needed someone to torture. They could still drive him crazy, though, if they started to go at each other’s throats right above him. It was already beginning and Faye was yelling at Jet. With a sigh, that cause another sharp pain, Spike wearily forced his eyes open.
Only to have them widen as he unexpectedly saw a pair of large golden ones right above him.
“Spike-person is awake, wake! He did not die!” Ed said happily and laughed.
With Ed hovering precariously over him and Faye and Jet yelling at each other, he some how wished he was.
“What do you mean?” Jet yelled particularly loud, “You were the one that whacked Lester!”
“Shh,” Faye shushed harshly, “you’re going to wake him up!”
“But Spike-person is already awake,” Ed said, although neither one paid her any attention.
It did send her into another happy fit, though. Ed started dancing around Spike singing, “Awaky, waky, banana shaky!” and flinging Ein along with her.
With Jet and Faye shouting nearby and Edward singing at the top of her lungs around him, Spike desperately wished he hadn’t woke up.
Water, he kept telling himself. Be calm and flow like water.
It was a motto he had lived by and usually always worked. But with all the noise, the difficulty breathing, and the building headache it was all giving him, he was rapidly becoming anything but calm. Without thinking of the consequences afterward and wanting nothing more than silence, Spike took a deep breath.
“Would you all shut up!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
The pain the action caused almost made him swoon and he struggled for breath. It had served its purpose, however, and peace and quiet reigned through the room.
Edward stopped in mid step, with Ein hanging from her arms, and stared. Jet and Faye also stopped and stared open mouthed at Spike.
After a second, the moment shattered and everyone started talking again, albeit at a much lower volume this time.
“Hey, buddy, your awake!” Jet called.
“It’s about time, do you know what we had to go through?” Faye began.
Edward started swinging Ein in circles this time, going back to her song.
Spike fought the erg to groan weakly or simply strangle everyone. At least they were much quieter now, he thought.
“I’m surprised your up…” Jet began, but Faye cut him off.
“It’s been days, do you know that? What were you doing? The guy was only an extortionist!” Faye ranted, her moment of protectiveness over.
“Calm down Faye,” Jet began switching roles, “Spike might not even remember what happened yet.”
Jet and Faye both turned to look at Spike. Even Edward stopped and stared. He did remember, though. Might as well get it over with, he thought. They wouldn’t leave him in peace until they knew what happened.
“It wasn’t Larson, Faye,” Spike said his voice rough from being unused.
“I was getting ready to take him down when, in perfect timing as usual, you shot at us with the Redtail. After I got back up and before I could get him again, I was shot from behind.”
“You get a look at who it was?” Jet asked.
“Yeah, she stooped down so I could see her before she left,” Spike answered.
“It was a woman?” Jet asked surprised.
The question made Faye cross her arms and glare at Jet.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” she asked defensively.
“And I remember her voice,” Spike continued dreamily not paying attention to them.
Spike closed his eyes and focused on remembering her face.
“She spoke to you too?” Jet asked ignoring Faye.
Spike mumbled a yeah without opening his eyes. Within moments his breathing evened out as he drifted off to sleep.
Jet rubbed his chin with one hand, and then looked over at Faye.
************
To be continued...