Red Haired Hacker Shuffle

She really hated how he made her feel: complete and satisfied. Faye woke up with her arm around Spike and she groaned. 'Damn you, Spike…' But she couldn't lie to herself anymore: she loved this. She didn't know how much longer she could prevent herself from admitting to him. The last thing she needed was for Spike to know that she, actually, liked waking up next to him. She sure as hell was never going to tell him that he was more than satisfying. She'd never hear the end of it.

As Faye moved about that morning, she was taking a shower when she realized that there was one thing about this new, happy situation that was missing. And even she couldn't believe who she was missing.

Ed. And, to a lesser extent, Ein.

She got out of the shower and, after drying off and putting on a bathrobe, she looked at herself in the mirror.

She blamed herself for Ed leaving and, after hearing from Jet how her father just took off, she felt guilty. What if Ed was all alone now? What if her and Ein were hurt or worse?

She ran her hand over her face at all of the possibilities and found herself surprised about how much this bothered her. She knew why, though: for all her talk about belonging somewhere, her own home was long gone and the only home she had was the Bebop. More or less, the same was true for Ed. And she told her to leave. To go follow a father that, from what she was told, left her behind the second something else happened. She, basically, forced that child to leave home. How could she do that? How could she be that thoughtless? She looked in the mirror again and resolved herself to make it right.

She got dressed and hurried to find Jet. He was in the kitchen, talking with Spike. They both looked up at her.

"Hey," Spike greeted.

"Morning," Jet said, as well.

"We need to go to Earth," Faye said, immediately.

They both looked at her, curiously, then at each other.

"Uh… why?" Spike asked as he and Jet looked at her again.

"Because, we…" Faye stopped. She exhaled. "We need to find Ed."

Jet groaned. "Oh. This again." He went back to cooking, "Let it go, Faye."

"Hold on," Spike looked at them both. "Let what go?"

"She blames herself for Ed and Ein leaving."

He looked at her. "Should you?"

"No," Jet answered.

"Yes," Faye replied.

The former cop grunted and rolled his eyes.

"Why?" Spike asked.

Faye stopped and shook her head. "Because I told her the wrong advice. I screwed up. Bad."

"How?"

"I told her to go after her father while I was still chasing my own past. What the hell did I know about that? About going to find your home, where someone belongs?" She looked at the ceiling then back at her friends. "I cost her the home she had here. And that is just one more thing I regretted ever since. What I told her… it was just stupid. Why go off chasing a past… when your present is right here? When you can have a home and people who care for you where you already are?" She exhaled. "I just want to set this right. Please. Let me set this right."

When their relationship escalated to this level, Spike saw another side of Faye; the side that cared about other people. Despite himself, he actually did like it. He saw this weighing on her pretty heavy. And he wanted to help. Besides, he was actually missing the little runt and Ein, as well. He looked at Jet, "Let's do it."

Jet exhaled. "Yeah… yeah, I figured you were gonna say that." He wiped his hands, "Eh. Whatever. I'll admit it: I miss 'em, too."

"Well, I don't." Spike smiled, smugly. "I'm just doing this because you both do."

Faye put on her classic attitude with a stance to match, "You miss them, too. Stop being a jackass."

Spike just chuckled.

"Breakfast first," Jet ordered. "Then the terrible twosome."

The Bebop landed on what used to be United States area of Earth, landing on the edge of the sea in the Southern area. On the bridge of the ship, Jet was typing away at his computer while Spike and Faye looked at the wasteland of a planet.

"What was this place?" Spike asked.

"According to old records, it used to be Louisiana in the U.S.," Jet explained. "Welcome to New Orleans."

"I remember reading about that place as a kid," Faye said. "It was said that city was always alive with music."

Spike scoffed. "Looks dead now."

"Hard to keep music going if you're dodging space debris every two minutes."

"Good point."

She looked at Jet, "How are we gonna find Ed?"

Jet a few keys on his keyboard. "Last signal that was close to matching hers came from here about 12 hours ago." An apartment building on the edge of the city, closest to the water. "Even if she did leave, she couldn't have gone too far."

"What was she hacking?" Spike asked.

Jet chuckled. "No clue."

Spike scoffed and smirked. "I wonder if she did either."

Jet looked at Faye. "I hope you realize that there's no guarantee that she's in there."

Faye looked at him.

"Signal could've been set remotely or it was a delayed sleeper. Edward's gone this long without ever being caught. She's so good police stopped looking for her because of reasons like this. There's no guarantee that she's in there."

Faye stared back at the building where the signal came from last. "We came all this way. We should look, anyway." She started for the exit of the ship, "I'm going with or without you two."

Spike smiled. He looked at Jet. "I have to go. Comes with this relationship territory."

Jet growled. "And if I don't go, she'll be insufferable."

"You said that she already is."

"More insufferable."

The trio entered the dilapidated building where their younger comrade could've been hiding. They walked around and found a few half eaten food stuffs of the human and canine variety. The trio could only guess, between Ed and Ein, who ate what. They split up and began to search the building for signs of the duo, heading up to the upper levels of the complex. Around the 20th floor, Faye came to a set of perilous looking stairs. She didn't really feel comfortable making the climb but the search necessitated it and, carefully, she began to ascend the step. She walked up a few more steps; so far so good, as long as she was careful and didn't put her full body weight on any of them. The next step immediately gave way, sending nearly plummeting two stories down.

She grunted as she hung there, too nervous to start to pull herself back up. "Spike?! Jet! Somebody!"

Hearing her shouting, Spike ran and saw Faye hanging from the remains of the bannister. He carefully moved down the steps and grabbed hold of her hand just as the bannister gave away. He grunted, knowing that hauling her up will be very painful for, from the sudden jerking and the scratches of the splintered wood.

Faye saw his indecision and grunted, "Just do it!"

Spike yanked her hard, on to the stairs and they rushed to the stable rising. They collapsed floor, breathing hard.

"When saving my life," Faye looked at him, "I don't care if it'll hurt. Do it!"

He scoffed and smirked. "Noted."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "And thanks."

Jet walked down a hallway, checking each of the rooms. He opened one door and just barely dodged the ceiling caving in on him, jumping out of fright. He calmed down and let out an exhale. "This place is nothing but a death trap. What the hell is Ed even doing here? Even if anyone came looking for her, they'd break their necks trying to find her."

"You ain't kiddin'," Spike said as he and Faye approached.

Jet looked at them and sighed. "Look, Faye, your heart's in the right place…" He stopped. "…and I can't believe I just said that. But, we've been here for a half hour with no sign of them. They could be long gone from here."

They heard a dog barking. They all looked up at the ceiling.

"Or they could be right above us."

"Unless there's another dog that somehow made its way up here," Spike noted.

"Chances of that?" Faye asked.

They quickly, yet carefully, made their way up about three more floors until they came to a large open corner portion of the floor. They walked around, avoiding all of the holes in the floor, looking for the girl and the dog. Jet took another step when, out of nowhere, Ein's barking could be heard and he came charging at the old detective at full speed.

"Ein!" Jet crouched down and the Pembroke Welsh Corgi jumped into his arms then licked his face. The former detective just laughed, "It's good to see you, too."

Faye smiled, relieved. She looked up and to her right to see a red haired girl wearing green-colored goggles hanging upside down and staring at her. Faye screamed and fell on her back side.

Ed let go of the wire she was hanging from and crawled over to Faye, examining her like she was a stranger.

"Huh?" Ed moved her face all around Faye's face. "You look like Edward's friend, Faye-Faye!"

"Uh, Ed?" Faye said. "It is me."

Ein barked.

Ed looked at the dog, "Huh?"

Ein barked again.

"Really?" Ed looked back at Faye. She smiled and screamed, "It is!" She threw her arms in the air, excitedly, "Faye-Faye!" She looked at the other Bebop crew members. "Spike-person, Jet-person!"

Spike gave her a wave, "Hey, Ed."

"What's up, kid?" Jet nodded at her. "How ya been?"

"Edward is just fine!" Ed looked back at the purple haired woman that she scared. "Hi, Faye-Faye!"

"Hey, Ed." Faye sighed, shaking her head. She was so relieved to see Ed was alright. "Come here, you lil' brat." She pulled the young hacker close and hugged her.

This was new territory for the girl. She'd never known Faye to hug her or like touching her, in general. "Uh… Faye-Faye?"

"Shut up, Ed." Faye just squeezed her tighter. She exhaled, "I'm glad you're okay."

"Of course, I'm okay, Faye-Faye!"

"Yeah, of course, you are. I'm… glad to see you."

Ed smiled her huge grin, "Me, too, me, too! Glad to see you!"

She let her go and looked her over, running her hand through the girl's red hair. "Come on. Let's go."

"Where we goin', Faye-Faye?"

"Back to the Bebop, Ed. Back home. Where we both belong." She paused. "If you want to."

Ed cocked her head to the side. "But, you told Edward…"

"I was wrong, Ed. Home isn't some place you have to go searching for. It isn't some place that you used to be. It's where you like to be. It's where you want to be. With people you care about and love…" She stopped and looked over at Spike, remembering how they even ended up here. "And love." That one fact did make all the difference in the world to her. She looked back at Ed. "We care about you, Ed. We love having you around."

"Strong choice of words," Spike grumbled.

"Shut it!" Faye chastised. She looked back at Ed. "We want you to come back, Ed. Back to the ship. Do you want to? I'm not gonna make you do anything. But… ah, hell, we miss you."

Ed looked at everyone. Though she missed her father, she really did miss the ship and the crew. And, seeing as how she hadn't seen much of her father lately, she really wouldn't mind staying with the crew. "Can Edward come visit Father-Person again?"

Faye and Spike looked at Jet.

The former detective looked at them, "What?"

"It's your ship," Spike replied. "You answer."

He chuckled. He looked at the young hacker. "Yeah. Sure thing, Ed."

"YAY!" Ed jumped up and landed in a handstand. "Edward misses the Bebop! Edward misses friends! Besides, Edward has a lot more fun on Bebop!"

Ein barked in agreement.

Faye just smiled. She was glad that this was one mistake she could correct.

It was two mornings later that made Faye wonder how wise this choice was. She woke up to hear shouting and barking coming from the living room. She groaned and got up while Spike just slammed both his and Faye's pillows of his face. She didn't blame him. She walked into the living room, stopping at the top of the stairs and saw Ed and Ein arguing over dog food. The dog and child were wrestling with each other on the floor while Jet watched from the corridor that led to the kitchen.

"Ein!" Ed shouted. "That's not good for you! It's food for Ed!"

Ein barked and jumped on her stomach.

"Behave! BEHAVE!"

"Ed!" Jet shouted. "I have a plate for you! Give Ein back his food!"

"Finders-keepers! Losers-weepers! Ed-not-dead! Ein-will-whine!"

"That didn't make any sense!"

Ein barked again then dove for the can, sending both of them wrestling to the floor again.

Faye just leaned over the bar and grabbed her forehead. "Oh, God…"

Spike walked behind Faye and stared at the scene. He rubbed the side of his head and let out an exasperated groan. He looked over at his girlfriend, "Are you happy now?"

She looked at him, with an irritated gaze at first. But, she, slowly, started to smile. "Yeah."

He sighed then smiled himself. "Me, too."

A/N: So, what did you guys think? This finishes out the trilogy I, unintentionally, started with the first story "I Am." I hope you guys liked them!