Hey Bebop Bebop Fans Fans!

lara-chan decided to write this one-shot while she's waiting for a good idea to come to her for the third chappie of her fic, 'The Edwardian Principle'!

reviews are much, much, much, appreciated!
MUAH!

ED

P.S. The one shot refers to the last episode! Spolier! And it alludes to the dialogue in that piece, just so ya know (:

And since lara-chan has only seen bebop in Japanese, the dialogue is her English translation. If it's not exactly what you heard, please forgive her.

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     "I'm not going there to die. I'm going there to see if I really am alive."

     Or so he told her. And then he walked away. So she had lived a million lives, Now she would cry a million times, and finally she would live no more. Faye, the tiger-striped cat.

**********

     She smiled. "This is… a dream."

     "Yeah… Just a bad dream." Somewhere, a raven cried for its dead master and the ground turned red with rivers of regret.

     He wheeled around and made his way down the stairs of the syndicate building, clutching his bleeding gut, smelling the aroma of himself pouring out onto the cold earth.

     One finger held out in defiance at the baffled pedestrians. One finger poised and pointed.

     BANG.

     He fell downwards, plummeting through lifetimes, until finally, his body hit the snow and eternal coldness. Two eyes gazed upwards with an uncharacteristic austerity, one turned towards the future and one turned towards the past.

     Two eyes stood out like bulletholes in the snow.

**********

     The covers rustled as he flew upwards, kicking the comforter to the floor in a defensive motion. He rubbed his eyes and finally opened them fully.

     "I…I thought I was dead…"

     Garish yellow bedroom walls stared back at him, giving him the only answer.  The butterfly border in light colors touched the crème ceiling and made him feel sick. "Wh… where am I?" Spike rubbed his back with his free hand and grimaced, the pain was there. Yes, he had fallen on the snow… at least, he was sure he did… He felt for gashes in his stomach, however, and found none.

     Sunlight streamed through an opened window and the curtains billowed back and forth. He could just see a very green lawn, grass shooting up at a controlled, predestined height, the picture of Suburbia from an old episode of a 1960's TV show.

     There was a feeling growing deep down inside of him, a dread that multiplied as he swung his feet onto the hardwood floor and drifted aimlessly out of the bedroom.

     Spike's voice came shakily at first. "Hello? Is anybody home?" The house was decorated in pastel shades and cozy fabrics. It was the kind of place that would have had a minivan in the driveway because anything else would have looked awkward.

     "Oh! You finally woke up!"

     Another voice called from somewhere in the house. And for all the world, he could have sworn the voice belonged to…

     Spike rounded the next corner and found himself in the kitchen. There in the center, sitting at the bit oak table, was a woman of extreme beauty wearing a white terry cloth bathrobe and sucking on a cigarette.

     Faye?

     Was it Faye?

     Well, it looked like her, but…

     The Sunday morning paper was strewn about the table and she held scissors in creamy hands. Was she… yes, she was cutting coupons.

     Spike decided to take his chances anyway.

     "Faye! Faye what are you doing here? Where's the Bebop?"

     She looked up from her clippings and smiled sardonically. "Don't patronize me."

     "Faye, wha-"

     "Breakfast's in the microwave." She pointed to the countertop behind her. Spike rounded the table with ferocity and grabbed her shoulders, turning her towards him. "Spike, what are you doing?!"

     His eyes had a hungry, desperate quality about them and he shook her violently. "Faye! Where is everyone?! Jet? Ed? Ein? Where's the Bebop and the Swordfish and… where's our lives?"

     Faye's brows furrowed in confusion. She laid her clippings down on the table and brought one hand up to Spike's cheek, caressing it with a mixture of pity and slight fear. "What are you talking about, Spike? Addie is in the den, Ein's in the garage, and I guess… I guess Jet's probably in his yard working on his garden or something…" Then, her expression softened. "You okay? You didn't sleep too well last night."

    "Julia. Where's Julia?" Spike gasped, his mouth drawn open in a silent, fretful scream.

     "I…I don't know who you're talking about…"

     For a moment, he just sat there, lost in a murky pool of his own thoughts.

     Spike burst to his feet again and jumped out of the kitchen. "Ed!" he called loudly. "Ed, where are you?!" His voice came gruffly to him, his hands clenched at his sides, feeling for the first time fear. He stormed down the hall, his feet carrying him to a destination unknown.

     Surely enough, he found himself in a den-like room, as if his body had known where to go all along. The couches were covered in a silly flowery motif and a big screen TV stood out in an imposing manner at one end. It was here that Spike saw a figure sitting on the floor with her back to him, her red hair sticking up crazily in tufts all over her head.

     "VrrrrrrrrrrOOOOOOM!" She shouted, her voice filled with happiness.

     "Ed!"

     The little figure sprang up off the floor and turned to face him, smiling brightly. It was her, it was nutty old Ed Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky 4th. And he had never been happier to see her.

     She threw out her arms and ran towards him, suddenly catapulting through the air and hanging loosely about his neck. "Daddy!" she shouted.

     "Now, Addie, don't hurt your father.  You've got to learn to be more gentle!" A voice floated through from the kitchen.

     The blood pounded furiously in Spike's head, his limbs felt weak and he was sure he was going to pass out any minute now. He pressed his forehead up against Ed's and stared deeply at her. She giggled and snorted.

     "Ed, I want you to get on your computer and find out where a friend of mine is, okay? I want you to find where Julia is. Can you do that?"

     "HAHAHAHA!" Addie jumped down off of Spike's person and held her stomach in a great big belly laugh. "Daddy's funny! Funny daddy, funny daddy!" She grabbed Spike's hand and pulled him to where she had been sitting. "Come, play with Addie! We'll play….. DEEEEEP SPPPPPPACE CCCCOOOOMMMMMANNNNNDOES!"

     With one hand she held up an oddly shaped plastic object to Spike. He took it gingerly and examined it closely.

     "Here! You can be BEBOP!"

     And sure enough, there in Spike's hands lay a perfect replica of the Bebop, right down to the red painted name across the side.

     His breath caught in his throat, and while he tried to regain composure, 'Addie' continued to stare up at him with a curious eye. Finally, he dropped the ship and wheeled around, only to be met with a peculiar wall ornament.

     It was set on a wooden board and hung on the walls, the furniture contrasting terribly with it. A plaque at the bottom of the wood read 'May 8, 1998 Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Spike Spiegel"

     It was a swordfish.

     Suddenly, the hum of a mower caught Spike's attention, and he directed his gaze to a sliding glass door off to his left.

     And there he was greeted with the sight of a man atop a riding mower in the lawn next to his. A large sunhat shaded his fair-skinned head and he sat proud atop the piece of mechanical finery. He revved the mower each time he made a turn, which was often considering the size of his lawn was no bigger than the den Spike was standing in. But none of this caught Spike's eye as much as the man's metal arm gleaming in the harsh rays of the late morning sun.

     He saw Spike standing shell-shocked in the glass door and gave an over exuberant wave. Spike didn't wave back.

     Jet Black. A simple man in love with his garden.

     Addie. A little girl obsessed with the idea of space travel.

     Faye. A woman whose passions lay dormant amidst a mountain of debt.

     And Julia. Never existed. Too good to be true.

     Spike shuffled his feet out of the den, Addie called out to him as he left.    

     "C'mon daddy, play with me!"

     "Addie, don't bother your father!"

     It felt as if his body had traveled this path a million times before. It led itself to the bathroom, to the third drawer on the left, behind the curling iron and opened lipstick tubes, to the only thing that felt familiar and sane.

     The gun was black, simple, and to be used only to defend the home of a small middle-class family from uninvited robbers and some such things. But it was all Spike knew, the feeling and power of a loaded gun, all contained in one small bullet. He smiled in the bathroom mirror, smiled at the horror in his eyes, and smiled at the fact that he would resist this reality.

     "It was… a dream. Just a bad dream…"

     BANG.

     SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY

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Well, how did we like it? Did we hate it or find it annoying? TELL ME AND ED! Reviews are much appreciated!

Thankies for reading!
lara-chan