Word Count: 340

Characters/Pairings: Faye, Jet, mentions of others; Spike x Faye

Timeline/Spoilers: post-series; vague spoilers for Session 26

Summary: Just two lonely souls remained, with too much shared pain for anyone else to understand, but not much else left to tie them together. — Jet and Faye, in the aftermath.

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"I'm not going there to die."

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"You know how I knew, Jet?" she drawled. "He told me about himself, about his past. For the first and last time. And that's when I knew when it was over. How fucking pathetic is that?"

The bearded man released a heavy sigh. He sounded much too weary for his years. Only thirty-six, and his full head of hair was long-since gone. "You know how I knew? He told me a story about some cats. Said he hated it. Nothing funny about it, but we sat there laughing til dawn. Like a couple of lunatics."

She offered her lighter.

"I loved him. Do you think he knew? Do you think he cared? Or was in too deep over his head in Julia to even glance my way? Was he ever really present here with us, or was he just a ghost of his own past?"

He passed the bottle.

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The ship was too quiet. No small dog yapping to be fed. No lanky redheaded sitting in some contorted fashion and typing away at the speed of light. No stupid lunkhead, more broken than bruised, snoring up a storm on that beaten yellow couch. Just two lonely souls remained, with too much shared pain for anyone else to understand, but not much else left to tie them together.

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"Where are you going?"

"I don't know."

"Will you be back?"

"…I don't know."

"…Just don't end up like he did, Faye."

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Spike had been right all along, he thought. Kids…animals…and women with attitudes… Who needed them? He guzzled down the rest of the bottle, throat burning.

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She left the Bebop the same way she arrived on it - not a woolong to her name but more baggage than she could shoulder. Taking a long drag from her cigarette, she slowly exhaled, letting the smoke puff out around her features. "What did you find out, Spike?"

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"I'm going there to find out if I really am alive."

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BANG

A/N: Honestly, one of my favourite series of all time. I hope I did it justice. Please let me know what you thought.