Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Call Me! Call Me! ❯ Call Me! Call Me! ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]


Session 10

CALL ME! CALL ME!

By jak981125

Author's note: This story is part of a series. It will make more sense
if you read the earlier sessions.

Laughing Bull sat under the Martian sky gazing at the stars. As
the sand ran through his fingers, he saw a star disappear nearby the
part of the sky where Spike's star had been leaving a small, solitary
star all alone. It made him sad to see it, even though he did not
completely understand what he had just witnessed.



A few days later a taxi pulled up to a police station in lower
Manhattan. Out of the cab stepped Jet. He handed the driver his fee.
"Don't bother waiting for me," he said. He walked up to the doors and
went inside. A female desk sergeant greeted him right away. "I got a
message telling me to come here but they wouldn't give me any details.
Is this about a bounty head I brought in?" asked Jet.

"No, Mr. Black, this has nothing to do with that," replied the
sergeant. "Are you familiar with a young girl named Edina Healy?"

"No, the name doesn't ring a bell."

The sergeant looked through some sheets on a clipboard. "Well
that's the child's legal name," she said. "Apparently she also uses the
alias of Edward Wong."

Jet's eyes went wide. "What happened? What's wrong? Is Ed in
some sort of trouble?"

"Oh, so you do know her."

"Yes I know her very well. Is she OK?"

"She's fine," replied the sergeant. "In fact she's in back. Mr.
Black, the unfortunate news is that the girl's father passed away last
week on Venus, leaving no indication in his will as to who would take
the child."

Jet's heart sank when he heard these words. Poor kid! And after
all that loser had put her through.

"We couldn't find any relatives, so the authorities were about
to place her in a foster home," the sergeant continued. "The girl
objected stating that she had friends of the family living in New York.
But they were unable to contact you there, so a social worker brought
the girl to Manhattan and asked her to show where she had last seen you.
They were unable to locate you, so the child was brought here and we
managed to find you. Mr. Black, are you by any chance willing and able
to take legal guardianship of this child?"

"Yes, of course," replied Jet. "But what happened to her father?"

"Apparently he suffered an allergic reaction to an antibiotic
that a doctor on Venus prescribed for him."

"Cowboy Jet!"

It was Edward. She had heard Jet's voice and came out to see if
it was really him. She ran up and hugged him so hard that she nearly
suffocated him. He didn't mind. Never before had Jet felt such mixed
emotions. He was thrilled at the prospect of getting Ed back, but he
felt terrible for what she must have suffered. Ed certainly looked
different from the last time he saw her eight months ago. Her hair was
now longer, the same style Faye had in her beta tape. Her outfit was
different too. She had on a green hooded sweatshirt, khaki shorts, and
sandals (apparently she still hated shoes).

"Jet, they put Ein in doggie jail," wailed Ed.

"You put her dog in the pound?" asked Jet.

The desk sergeant rolled her eyes and sighed. "Young lady, for
the third time, we did not take your dog to a pound. We took him to a
kennel. It's more like a hotel for dogs, not a prison. A police station
is no place to keep a dog even for a short amount of time."

Just then, a K-9 officer walked by with a German Shepherd on a
leash. Ed saw that and gave the sergeant a dirty look. "This is doggie
discrimination! Edward demands justice!"

Ignoring her, the sergeant handed Jet a couple of forms. "You
give that to the kennel and they'll release the dog. The address is on
the form. And this form must be taken to the local courthouse and signed
by a judge for you to take temporary legal custody of the girl. That
must be done right away. Now young lady, please go in back and get your
things."

Ed ran back and within moments, came back with a small traveling
bag in her arm, and her customized computer on top of her head, as
always. It made Jet feel so nostalgic to see that again. The two of them
left the police station and hailed a cab. The cabby opened the trunk and
put Ed's bag inside. But when he tried to reach for her computer, she
snarled at him like an angry dog and he backed off in a hurry.

The cab pulled away. Jet still couldn't believe that he had
Edward back again. She was now fourteen years old and an inch taller.
What Jet didn't realize is that being a little older, Ed's hormones had
kicked in a lot more. As soon as the cab stopped at a red light, she saw
a couple of boys about her age that she found attractive. She leaned out
the window. "Hey cute pretty boys! Want to come away with Edward?" Jet
grabbed her and pulled her back in while the boys nearly died laughing.
"Why are the cute pretty boys laughing? Edward wasn't making a joke."

Jet noticed that the cabby was snickering as well. "Laugh and
you don't get a tip," whispered Jet angrily. He looked over at Ed who
was humming to herself and looking out the window. "Ed, I'm really sorry
to hear about your father. What happened to him?"

"A ducktor doctor happened to him," replied Ed in her
melodramatic voice.

"A what?"

"A ducktor. A doctor who is a quack-quack," replied Ed. Jet
managed to ascertain from Edward that the doctor the Applederry had gone
to was a fraud. He had flunked out of medical school at the beginning of
his third year and had no license. He would run around practicing
medicine illegally until someone would get wise to him. Then he would
move to a new location and use a new name. The authorities hadn't
figured this out until Applederry died. Thank goodness Ed hadn't been
home to see it happen. He had died while she was taking Ein for a long
walk. A neighbor found him. Jet was furious and wondered aloud if the
doctor had a bounty on him. He wanted to catch this guy personally. He
was no fan of Applederry but he wanted to nail the guy who had caused
pain for Ed.

After a quick stop at the doggie jail...er, kennel, and a very
long stop at the courthouse, Jet, Ed, and Ein finally arrived at JFK
Airport. Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow Jet managed to cram
himself, Ed, Ein, and Ed's things into the Hammerhead. They took off for
Ganymede, which was where the Bebop was docked. Jet figured he would
have a pleasant surprise for Faye and Lau when he showed up.
Unfortunately, most people don't consider it a pleasant surprise when
some jumps on them with no warning yelling "Hi Faye-Faye" right while
they're on a couch, making out with their fiancé. Of course, Faye
couldn't stay mad for more than a moment, and was all too happy to give
Ed a hug. Lau, not knowing Ed quite as well, extended a hand for her to
shake. She ignored the hand and practically knocked the wind out of him
with a hug.

Ein got himself re-familiarized with the Bebop by going around
smelling everything. Edward followed him on all fours. Jet took this
opportunity to explain the situation to Faye and Lau. He was just about
to explain that he wanted to go after the doctor when Faye, who had
already been looking pretty upset when she found out about Applederry's
death, got up suddenly. She immediately tracked down Edward, and as soon
as she found her, she wrapped her arms around her and wouldn't let go.
"It's OK sweetie, I know what you're going through," she said. Ed looked
puzzled. At her age, she hadn't put two and two together yet and
realized how much family meant to Faye after losing her own.

That night Jet was woken up by a tug on his arm. In a groggy
state, he reached down and touched something warm and furry. "Hi there,
Ein. It's great to have you back, but right now I'm trying to sleep
and..." Jet stopped dead. He heard what sounded like crying coming from
the living room. Was Faye getting all emotional over that tape again?
Plenty of times, Jet had seen her get all weepy after watching it. He
advised her not to watch it anymore so as not to make herself suffer,
but she couldn't help it.

He walked out to the living room and found Ed sobbing on the
couch. He had never seen her cry before and it was a terrible shock to
him. The fact was that Faye had gotten Ed thinking about her father a
lot more. Then Ed had a nightmare in which she could see Applederry and
tried to call out to him, but she found she couldn't speak or move.
Applederry was walking away from her getting farther away each moment
and she couldn't reach him. She had woken up emotionally overwhelmed.
Jet walked over and actually picked her up in his arms. He just rocked
her gently back and forth in his arms like you would with an infant
until she finally calmed down a little. He put her back down on the
couch, wrapped her up in blanket and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He
was just about to walk away when he heard a soft voice behind him say:
"Please stay with Edward." So Jet ended up spending the night in the
living room. He never once left, not even after Ed had fallen back
asleep. He just slept on the floor below her. Unfortunately, the next
morning Ed forgot he was down there and stepped on his face.

That morning it was Lau's turn to cook. Even though the food
budget was remarkably improved, it mattered very little since no one on
Bebop could cook very well. Lau stepped out of the kitchen. "OK folks,
here's breakfast." Ed took one look and stuck out her tongue. "What, is
everyone a critic on this ship?" asked Lau.

"You made eggs," replied Jet. "Her father was an obsessive
egg-eater. I can only imagine how many eggs Ed's had lately."

"Enough to fill a chicken coup," replied Ed.

"Ed, I hate to ask this now, but what was the name of your
father's doctor?" asked Lau.

"Um, Edward thinks it was Dr. Martinez," she replied.

"Do you have a first name for us?" asked Lau.

"Of course, it's Edward," she replied.

"No, what I mean is...never mind. Do you know the doctor's first
name?"

"No but never fear, Edward is on the case. She will find the
imposter!" replied Ed in that same melodramatic voice of hers. While she
and Lau looked over the computer, Jet noticed Faye stepping outside for
a smoke. He followed her.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Faye. "I thought you kicked
the habit."

"I did," replied Jet. "I just came out here to tell you not to
go getting Ed all upset anymore like you did last night."

"Upset?" asked Faye angrily. "What did I do to upset her?"

"She was doing fine until you started getting all emotional over
that jerk Applederry," replied Jet. "She had nightmares and woke up
crying. It took me nearly fifteen minutes to get her to calm down."

"And you think that's my fault?" asked Faye. "Jet, the girl's
just plain grieving for the man. You're sitting here calling the man a
jerk and can't understand what Ed saw in him, can you?"

Jet had to think about that for a moment. "Come to think of it,
I can't. I mean, why did she abandon us and run off with some guy who
didn't care enough about her to stay put for five seconds? The girl's
mom died when she was a baby and her dad ditched her at a daycare center
when she was just a little tyke. And then after seeing her for the first
time in years, he runs off again. And after all that she missed him
enough to go after him and leave us when we like family to her."

Faye came over and put her hand on Jet's shoulder. "Like family
and family are two very different things. He was her dad. Good guy or
not, there will always be a very intense place in Ed's heart for him.
She wanted to give him a second chance. She wanted to see if the two of
them had a chance to be together again. That doesn't mean she didn't
care about us. If I were you, I wouldn't ever go bad-mouthing Applederry
in front of Ed."

"He couldn't even remember her real name." growled Jet. "I
didn't even know she was really named Edina until yesterday. That's why
she called herself Edward. She had very vague memories of her mother
calling her Ed. Applederry just called her by some French boy's name
because he couldn't even remember that he had a daughter instead of a son."

"And yet you want to avenge the guy," said Faye. "Deep down, you
know that he meant the world to Ed and she wouldn't be in this kind of
pain if he didn't. It's better that she loves him rather than spending
her life resenting him."

Jet nodded. He knew she was right, but he was still so angry.
Just then Lau called them back down to the ship. Edward had located
their guy.

"Martinez was just one of five aliases," explained Lau. "His
real name is Miguel Ramos and he has practiced exclusively on Venus for
more than ten years. Every time he gets close to being caught, he just
changes his facial hair a little bit and moves on."

The picture on the screen showed a Latino man in his late
thirties with a mustache. He had a full beard when Ed had seen him last
but she recognized the picture right away. The bounty was low, only
twenty-five thousand wulongs.

"Who cares?" replied Jet. "This isn't about money. This is
personal. We're gonna nail this guy, right Ed?"

Ed nodded enthusiastically. Faye smiled and gave an approving
nod to Jet. The Bebop headed towards Venus right away. Ed was less than
happy when they told her she would have to be vaccinated for Venus
sickness. Applederry, not knowing any better, had never gotten himself
or Ed vaccinated when they were on Venus. Neither one of them wound up
getting that particular disease, but Applederry eventually wound up
getting bronchitis. The pills he was given killed him. Had Ramos even
bothered checking his medical chart, he would have known that.

"What are you doing now Ed?" asked Lau.

"Edward is hacking into the quack-quack's e-mail server," she
replied. "Come out, come out wherever you are, Dr. Quack. Edward knows
you're out there. Edward will find you! Ah...bingo! He's been logging
into his e-mail account at this address." Edward typed out the address
on the screen.

"Gosh, it's scary that she can do that," remarked Lau. "I would
hate the thought of someone being able to find me that easily."

The Bebop slowly descended towards Venus. Due to a high volume
of air and space travel, it's hard to land there. Not only that, but as
soon as you get outside, you end up sounding like a chipmunk due to the
high volume of helium. Fortunately, they sell throat drops at the
airport that will help with that.

About five miles from the airport, a doctor was opening his
clinic for the day. A woman approached who appeared to be pregnant and
in labor, supported by two guys. Faye had bought a white maternity dress
and stuffed a beach ball down the front of it. "Hey, you gotta help us,
man," said Jet. "My sister here is about to drop this kid any second now."

"Oh my," replied the doctor. "How far along are you, madam?"

"Thirty six weeks!" replied Faye who was doing the acting job of
a lifetime. She huffed and puffed like a woman who was really in labor.
Her performance was a little too good. All that huffing and puffing
jiggled the ball loose and it fell out the bottom of her dress.

"What the hell is this?" replied the doctor.

Lau picked up the beach ball and pretended to study it for a
moment. "Hm, I think it's a boy. And look honey, he has your eyes."

"OK, enough jokes. You won't be killing anymore patients,
Ramos," growled Jet angrily. He yanked out a net launcher and easily
caught the guy.

"What are you doing?" yelled the doctor. "Is this some kind of
sick joke? Who's Ramos?"

"Don't play dumb with us," replied Faye. "Save the act for
court. We know that an unlicensed doctor named Ramos has been working here."

Just then, another man came walking towards the clinic. He
stopped short when he saw the doctor in a net surrounded by three people
who were obviously bounty hunters. The doctor in the net saw the man and
called out to him. "Dr. Ramirez, tell these insane people who I am. They
think I'm some guy named Ramos." Lau turned to see who the doctor had
been talking to. It was the real Ramos, looking exactly like he had in
his picture. Ramos turned and ran for it. Jet, Lau, and Faye took off
after him. "Wait!" yelled the doctor. "Get me out of this net!"

About that time, Ed was downtown, taking Ein for a walk. Ein
picked up a scent he didn't like and started to snarl. "What is it,
Ein?" she asked. Just then Ramos ran by, followed by the Bebop crew.
"Hey, that was the quack-quack!" yelled Ed. She and Ein ran after them.

Dogs are faster than humans and it didn't take Ein long to get
pretty close to Ramos. He ran up and grabbed Ramos's pant leg in his
jaws. Ramos, without losing much speed, grabbed Ein and threw him back
towards Lau. Ein's flying body hit Lau square in the face which knocked
him down. Up ahead was a cross street. Ramos ran blindly across the
street without even looking to see if any cars were coming. He nearly
caused three accidents. He hurdled over one car that stopped short just
in front of him. He looked back and saw he had a pretty good lead over
Jet and Lau. Faye made the mistake of wearing high heels and broke the
heel off of one of them so she couldn't keep up.

Just then, a foot came out of nowhere and tripped Ramos. It was
Ed. He tried to jump to his feet. "Hey quack man, Father taught Ed how
to fight. Wanna see?" Without waiting for a reply, she swept Ramos's
legs out from underneath him. Just then Lau and Jet caught up and
grabbed him.

"Ed, how did you get up here so fast?" asked Lau.

"That was because of me," called out a cab driver who was parked
at the curb. "This crazy kid just jumped in the back of my cab and told
me 'After that Quack'. By the way, someone owes me ten wulongs."

"Hey, way to go Ed," said Lau. "You just caught your first bounty."

"You also just caught your last bounty," said Jet. "Don't do
something like this again. You're not a bounty hunter. This guy could
have grabbed you and taken you hostage or something." He was trying to
act all stern, but deep down he was secretly so pleased that he couldn't
keep up the angry appearance and burst out laughing.

Since Ed had caught Ramos, Jet gave her the entire bounty. That
evening the entire Bebop crew celebrated by having dinner at a
restaurant. No one would have to worry about Jet or Lau botching up
diner tonight. Everyone stuffed themselves pretty good. Faye looked
ticked off though.

"What's the matter, Faye Faye?" asked Ed.

"Those creeps at the store wouldn't let me return the maternity
dress," she replied angrily.

"Then you should have a baby so you can use it," replied Ed.

As night came, Jet noticed Ed wasn't on the ship. He went
outside and saw her sitting by herself on the ground, looking at the
stars. She couldn't really get up because Ein was sitting on her lap.
For one terrible moment, Jet wondered if she was going to run away
again. He came and sat down next to her. He reached over and gently
stroked her hair. Ed made sort of a gentle sigh and snuggled up next to him.

"Jet, did father-person not like Edward?" she asked.

Jet stopped stroking her hair and put his arm around her. "Ed, a
person would have to be crazy not to like you. I'm sure he loved you
very much."

"Then why was he always leaving me behind?"

Jet knew Ed always referred to herself in the third person
unless she was serious about something. "Ed, I'm telling you, the man
loved you. It's just...well...some people are a little scatter-brained.
I'm not excusing the things he did, but he didn't leave you because of
anything you did. It wasn't your fault."

Neither one of them said anything for a moment. "So, did you two
get along while you were living together?" asked Jet.

"All we ever did was work," said Ed. "We never really talked
about anything important. Edward wanted to say so much but she couldn't."

"Well you can talk about anything with me," replied Jet.

"OK, where do babies come from?" asked Ed.

Jet looked like he was about to swallow his tongue.

"Oh, Edward's just pulling Jet's leg!" she said.

"Oh you are, are you? Well we'll just see about that." Jet
picked up Ein and put him on the ground. Then he grabbed Ed by the
ankles and started playfully twirling her around in midair just like
Applederry used to. Lau and Faye watched the two of them from the deck.
Neither one of them ever remembered seeing Jet this happy before.

"I can't watch something like this, and not believe there's a
God," said Faye. "When we get married, I hope our first child is a girl."

Over on Mars, Laughing Bull was sitting under the stars again.
He had seen several stars die and several stars born that night. But he
noticed something that night that he'd never seen before. Two stars that
had been fairly isolated in the night sky suddenly moved towards each
other. They came to rest right next to one another. Laughing Bull wasn't
quite sure what to make of it, but he couldn't help but think that it
signified something positive.

I close my eyes and I keep seeing things

Rainbow waterfalls

Sunny liquid dreams

Confusion creeps inside me raining doubt

Gotta get to you

But I don't know how

Call me call me

Let me know it's alright

Call me call me

Don't you think it's 'bout time

Please won't you call and

Ease my mind

Reasons for me to find you

Peace of mind

What can I do

To get me to you

I had your number quite some time ago

Back when we were young

But I had to grow

Ten thousand years I've searched it seems and now

Gotta get to you

Won't you tell me how

Call me call me

Let me know you are there

Call me call me

I wanna know you still care

Come on now won't you

Ease my mind

Reasons for me to find you

Peace of mind

What can I do

To get me to you

Come on now won't you

Ease my mind

Reasons for me to find you

Peace of mind

Reasons for livin my life

Ease my mind

Reasons for me to know you

Peace of mind

What can I do

To get me to you

This story is dedicated in loving memory to Patricia Hughes.

WELCOME BACK, SPACE COWGIRL

Author's note: I don't wish to express any belief in astrology through
this or any work. I don't personally believe in it. Second of all, I
know I'm not the first author to use this title. I assure you, I came up
with the title before I knew that and was not trying to copy anyone.

(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner

jak981125@catholic.org

Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't.
This is just fanfiction