Legacy

-=-Part II-=-

 

From the point that the woman was dragged into the alley, he had seen it.  How could he not?  He had been tracking the man for the past week, waiting for an opportunity for the man to slip up and much to his delight, during that period of one week, the bounty on the man's head had increased from 6 million woolongs to 12.2 million.  The bounty was enough to keep him happy for quite a while. Now that he had paid off his medical bills, he could try and catch up with his ship.

 

Long legs and strong arms sent powerful fists and feet flying, making contact with the man's flesh as he pummeled the lowlife who had attacked the long haired woman moments ago.  He dodged the clumsy, last ditch effort the criminal made to get his attacker off of him, but the fighter dodged it easily before effectively knocking the man out.

 

The tall, lean male huffed and wiped his bloody knuckles on the man's shirt before flipping him over and binding his hands and feet before standing.  "Twelve million woolongs in my pocket."  He said with a smirk as he turned to face the woman behind him.

 

"Are you okay, lady?"  He asked, approaching her.  Her face was hidden by dark locks of hair and her body shook like a leaf.  He placed his hand on her shoulder and watched as she jumped, her eyes wide as she grabbed the hand upon her shoulder.

 

Recognition was instant through his mind, but it wasn't because of her face, but the fear in her green eyes.  He had seen it before, eight months ago, to be exact. "Faye?"  Mismatched eyes met the eyes of the woman before him before widening when he took in the sight of her large belly.

 

"Spike?  No…no this can't be real…"  She choked, the trembling of her body increasing as her smaller hands grabbed his forearms desperately.

 

A crooked grin traced his lips.  "Believe it, I'm real.  Same ol' me, but I see that something has changed about you…" He looked down at her belly, questions immediately forming in his mind.

 

Spike blinked and nearly stumbled as she buried her face against his chest, silent tears soaking into his shirt.  His arms immediately wrapped around her as the months apart from the woman who had plagued his thoughts and dreams became real once more.  A kiss was placed on the top of her head as he rocked her, trying to ease her tears, effectively forgetting the questions he had only moments ago.

 

"Where have you been?" He picked up the mumbled voice against his chest as his hand moved to her lower back, rubbing along the taut muscles soothingly.

 

"I'll explain later, but for now, I have a bounty to call in and an expectant mother to get home." He said, kissing her forehead before pulling a phone from his pocket to arrange a pickup for the unconscious interplanetary terrorist, smuggler and murderer.

 

-=-=-

 

After Spike was paid his bounty, he led the violet haired woman to the small, furnished apartment he had been staying in and quickly packed up his belongings before walking out of the building for the last time. He could honestly say that he wasn't sad to leave it. His home was on the Bebop and after all this time, he was finally returning.

 

Spike gathered her bags in his left hand, claiming her hand with his right before giving her a smile.  They walked in a relatively comfortable silence across the short distance to the landing area, giving Spike a chance to think and discreetly observe the woman walking at his side.  She seemed tired, as if she hadn't truly rested in a while, but there was a light in her eyes that seemed to negate that fact.  A slight smile lifted the corner of her lip and even though her hand still shook ever so slightly from the attempted mugging, she still seemed confident if not a bit shell shocked.  For a moment he wondered why she was alone in her condition, but knowing this stubborn woman, she had probably wanted to be alone for a while.

 

"Do you have your ship still?" She asked as they stopped at the side of her ship, the Red Tail.

 

"Yeah, its here, but I'll just come down tomorrow and get it.  Its safe enough for now."  He said and shrugged as the cockpit for her ship was opened.

 

"It's going to be a tight squeeze…" She said, thinking about the time that she had squeezed Whitney in with her.  Luckily, Spike was much leaner…

 

"No problem."  They squeezed into the ship with Spike holding their bags on his lap.  After a few preflight checks, the ship roared to life and lifted into they sky to leave Mars' atmosphere.

 

Rust colored eyes locked onto the Bebop as they approached the ship that he had yet to fully explore.  It was a beautiful sight for sore eyes and seeing it made him truly feel the impact of being separated from the rag-tag group that had become his family.  Static filled the cockpit for a moment before a familiar voice was heard from the radio.

 

"Welcome home, Faye.  The bay is open and ready, we'll be waiting for ya."

 

"Thanks Jet."  Said and looked over her shoulder to smile at the dark haired man.  "Hopefully he doesn't have a heart attack when he sees you."

 

"Aw, he'll be fine."  Spike laughed while she guided the ship in.  There was a heavy 'thump' as they touched down.  Faye powered down the ship as the bay became pressurized and opened the hatch.

 

Spike climbed out first, offering her a hand as she stepped down from the ship.  The both heard a scratching at the door, causing them to look up as the door opened.  Ein raced forward, faster than Faye had seen him move in quite a while.  Jet and Ed stood at the doorway in disbelief for a moment before the teen dashed forward, tackling Spike who had crouched to pet the corgi.

 

"I'll be damned!"  Jet bellowed from the doorway, making his way over to the side of the ship.

 

Eventually their newly returned comrade made his way to his feet and was pulled into a crushing bear hug by the older man.  "What in the hell happened to you?  Where have you been? Everyone thought you were dead except Faye and the rest of us.  I've been trying to see if my contacts had seen you or heard anything, but they all came up empty."

 

Spike shook his head.  "Well, now you know I'm not dead.  I'll tell you all what happened, but lets do this somewhere more comfortable." His eyes moved over to Faye as he picked up all of the bags they had brought with them.

 

Jet nodded and led the way to the common area that Faye and Edward had created.  The female bounty hunter had agreed with him (after a brief argument) that it was best for her to stay on the ship for the safety of her and the baby.  She needed something to do during the excessive time onboard and set about making the ship that had become their home, more comfortable for them all.  It was something instantly recognized by their recently returned comrade.

 

-=-

 

Spike was seated on the couch next to Faye as Ed sat on a pillow with Ein on the floor near the recliner that Jet sat in.  Three pairs of eyes were fixed on the lanky man as he told them of Julia's death, the battle in the Red Dragon's headquarters and the death of Vicious.

 

"…He slashed me across the stomach before I shot him and it was pretty bad.  I remember making it back down to the main floor and walking outside, after that, nothing.  I woke up in the hospital about two weeks later with a laundry list of injuries.  A few hairline fractures, broken fingers, bruises and that damn blade completely severed a portion of my liver and nicked my stomach."  He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands folded.  "They said I had lost like forty-two percent of my blood, so I wasn't in good shape."

 

"When did you get out of the hospital?" Faye asked, looking a bit pale at hearing his injuries.

 

"After a little over a month.  I got some sort of nasty infection after the surgery so it took a while for them to get that cleared up." He snorted and shook his head, looking over to Faye.  "Out of the weeks I was there, three of those were spent in intensive care.  That was not cheap to say the least and when the bill came, I found out they confiscated my ship and were holding it for collateral.  It took awhile getting everything cleared up and then I found out that there were storage fees on my Swordfish."

 

Faye couldn't help but to give a sympathetic smile to the man at her side because she understood his plight with the medical bill better than anyone, having once owed over 300 million woolongs.  Hearing him talk about all his injuries caused her to hold back the winces that wanted to make themselves known.  She listened as he continued to tell them about paying off the storage fees and how he had ran into her in the alley.  She allowed the sound of his voice to remind her that he was really here…that all her beliefs and hopes were not in vain and that made all the anxiety that she felt over the life of Spike disappear.

 

But they still needed to have a talk…in private.