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Ballad of the Downtrodden
He was alive.
Despite injuries that would’ve killed anyone else, Spike was still alive.
That surprised Faye, Jet, and Elektra the most. Even though Jet and Faye had seen Spike in bad ways before, this was the absolute worst.
After meeting at the Jazz Escape bar, Jet and Elektra called Faye, Jet asked Bob for the location of the Red Dragon headquarters, and they headed straight there to start searching for Spike. When Faye, Jet, and Elektra found the headquarters in ruins, the worst possible scenario occurred in their minds, though no one spoke it aloud. To their surprise, they found a few Red Dragon foot soldiers left in the area, cleaning up or looting what they could. More foot soldiers than the crew expected were even willing to talk. Jet figured the remaining members of the syndicate knew their organization was in tatters, hence the lack of resistance. The Red Dragons explained Spike was the cause behind all the damage and killed Vicious. The Red Dragons didn’t fight back or stall when the ISSP and rescue workers arrived, even letting the paramedics take Spike. Due to the lack of I.D. on Spike, it took them another couple of days to find what hospital he was in.
They finally did.
Spike had been in the intensive care unit, ICU, for five days. During his stay, he had, in fact, flatlined once for five minutes, though the doctors and nurses were able to revive him. However, his condition was still considered critical, showing only the slightest improvement.
Standing outside of Spike’s ICU room, Faye, Jet, and Elektra gazed, concernedly and silently, at Spike through the observation window as he laid in bed, connected to various machines that were keeping him alive.
“This is bad,” Elektra noted, finally verbalizing what everyone was thinking.
“He’s been bad before,” Jet said, trying to be optimistic.
“This is way worse and you know it!” Faye countered.
Jet sighed, resignedly. “Yeah.”
“How the hell is he even still alive?” Elektra asked.
“I ask that question about Spike way more often than I should.”
Faye started to shake. “That total idiot! He can’t even get himself killed right!”
“He did die for five minutes,” Jet reminded.
“That wasn’t long enough!”
Jet and Elektra turned to her. “Faye?” Elektra asked. “Are… you okay?”
Faye held her glare on Spike. Then stomped over to the door, forced it open, and marched into Spike’s room.
“Does she know she’s not supposed to do that?” Elektra asked.
“Yep,” Jet answered.
“Should we stop her?”
“Nope.”
Faye walked over to Spike, pulled his oxygen mask off and slapped him, instantly reddening Spike’s cheek.
“You idiot!” Faye screamed. “You complete, freakin’ moron! You absolute, total dumbass! How could you do this to us?! You get yourself nearly killed, again, and we have to be the ones who worry about you! Wait, I’m wrong! You did get yourself killed! And what did you do?! You had the nerve to keep living! FIVE minutes?! All that you put us through and five minutes?! That was the best you could do?! You go off to ‘see if you’re really alive’, then die, then come back to life! For what?! What’d you even bother to keep living for?! It wasn’t for us, that’s for damn sure! Do you even care about what that does to the people who care about your stupid ass?! NO! Of course, you don’t! You care about everyone else but us, you ass! You know what?! Screw you! Damn you to hell! I hope you die! For real, finally! So I can finally get over you, you louse!”
Elektra blinked. She didn’t turn toward Jet but asked, “Did she just say ‘get over’ him?”
“Mmhmm,” Jet confirmed.
“Did you know?”
“Mmhmm.”
“So, just die!” Faye yelled. “Ya hear me?! Die, already! Get it over with! Do it! Die, you piece of crap! Just get over yourself and die, so all of us can move on from you! So I can move on from you!” She tried to hold on to her anger.
She did her best.
But a quick, gasped cry escaped her lips.
“Just…” Faye slowly sank to her knees. “Just… don’t… die.” She stared at Spike. “I take it back. All of it. Spike… please… don’t go.”
Faye grabbed hold of Spike’s hand.
“Live,” Faye begged. “Please, Spike!” Tears began to stream down. “Just… just live.” She pressed her forehead against Spike’s hand. “Please.”
Jet and Elektra stood frozen, their eyes wide and mouths agape.
“You seriously saw all this coming?” Elektra asked.
Jet blinked. “Well… not… all of it.”
Faye kept crying.
Then Spike’s finger twitched. “You…” he whispered.
Faye gasped. She looked up at Spike.
“No way…” Jet whispered.
Elektra’s eyes grew even wider.
Stilling holding Spike’s hand, Faye stood up, “Spike?”
Spike opened one of his eyes and looked at Faye. “You… could… be…”
“‘Be’? What? Be what?”
He smirked a bit. “…a… little… nicer… to me.” He managed the best chuckled he could. “I… died.”
Faye stood aghast then slowly started to laugh. And cry a bit. “You deserved it, you lunkhead!”
“Maybe… a little.”
She scoffed and sniffed. “Did you… did you find out if you were alive?”
“Yeah. It’s why I died… and came back.”
Faye sighed. “So what now?”
Spike shrugged as best he could. “I guess… since I’m sure… I see… what living’s like.”
“That works.”
He smiled at her.
It was a smile Faye could swear was different than any other Spike had given her before. She smiled in turn.
“Alright,” Jet said, “I admit it: I only saw some of this coming. The rest… surprised the hell outta me!”
Elektra held her shocked expression for a while longer than laughed. “You people are certainly interesting.”
The next two weeks saw the Bebop crew wait on Spike’s recovery progress. By some several miracles, Spike was getting close to being healthy enough to leave the hospital. Not healthy enough to jump back into bounty hunting, that was months away at best, a year or more at the most, but Spike was getting strong enough to move around on his own. Though Faye was constantly at his side. Something neither she nor Spike minded.
As Jet sat in a waiting room, studying a tablet as he looked over the surprisingly low hospital bill, Elektra walked up to him. “Hey,” she greeted.
Jet looked up, “Hey.” He noticed she was holding two cups of coffee. “One of those for me?”
“Well, I was gonna give it to a random janitor but you’ll do.”
Jet rolled his eyes, “Didn’t know you were a smartass.”
“Hanging around you guys brought out that side of me,” Elektra sat down, placing Jet’s cup on the table.
“Thanks.” Jet looked back at the tablet, looking at the costs again. “I don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“This bill. It should be insane. This is just… mildly annoying.”
“Hm.” Elektra sat back, trying to hide a smile while taking a sip of coffee.
Jet stopped, slowly looked up, and gradually turned toward Elektra. “You did this?”
Elektra let her smile show. “I may have called in a favor or two.”
“Really?”
Elektra shrugged. She looked at Jet, “I like you guys. Wasn’t a big deal.”
Jet set the tablet down. “Thank you, Elektra.”
Elektra blinked in surprise, hearing the genuine sincerity in his voice. She smiled again. “You’re welcome.”
A few minutes later, Jet and Elektra were walking down the street from the hospital, getting some fresh air.
“So, things might go back to normal for you guys?” Elektra asked.
“As close as it can get,” Jet answered.
“You can’t tell me some part of you isn’t looking forward to it.”
Jet kept his face neutral. “I’ll neither confirm nor deny.”
“I thought I was the only one who could give a military answer like that in casual conversation.”
Jet chuckled. He looked around, “Things are a lot different now. At least… they feel different.”
“How so?” Elektra asked.
“Well, Spike and Faye are definitely gonna be different, that’s for sure.”
“No question.”
“And…” Jet sighed. “…I guess… it’ll just be back to the three of us.”
Elektra kept her face neutral. “Hm. Really?”
“Yeah. I mean… we found Spike. He’ll be okay. After a while. I figured… you might want to takeoff since… you know… it’s… done.”
Elektra looked up, thoughtfully. “There’s one key scenario you haven’t considered.”
“What’s that?” Jet asked.
“What if I don’t want to leave?” Elektra asked.
Jet didn’t look at her right away. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I could get used to bounty hunting…” Elektra took a quick breath. “…is the safest way to explain it. But… I’ll be a bit braver and admit… that’s… not the only reason I decided to stay.”
Jet turned toward her.
Elektra looked back at him, both coming to a stop. “You’re a good man, Jet Black. I like good men. I’ve been surrounded by bad ones most of my life. You’re better. By leagues and miles.”
Jet had a small smile appear on his face. He looked off, “You realize I come complete with two adult morons, right?”
“They’re kinda like your foster kids.” Elektra smiled, suggestively. “Makes you the hot single dad all the women want. That works for me.”
Chuckling, Jet looked back at her.
Elektra lifted up and planted a kiss on Jet’s cheek. “C’mon. Let’s see about getting Spike outta here and planning our next move.”
“‘Our’, huh?”
“Well, yeah. Sorry, not sorry… but you’re stuck with me.”
Jet smiled. “First good thing that’s happened to me in years.”
Elektra’s smile grew. “Same for me.”