Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Smoking Lessons ❯ Poodle Brain ( Chapter 1 )

Smoking Lessons 2/?

By Nix

Disclaimers: I don't own Cowboy Bebop.. I just do this for fun. The one's I own are at www.onepinkrose.com

Warnings: Spoilers.. but if I told you what it spoiled, well, it would be spoiled.

Ed knew she was dreaming. It was the kind of dream one couldn't just wake up out of though. She knew the man in her dream. Faye Faye had told her what Vicious looked like once. He sat on the edge of a bed, a hotel bed, in her dream, silver hair damp from a shower that she could remember hearing. He wore no shirt and the muscles of his back flexed as a he looked over his shoulder. She remembered thinking he was beautiful, a sculpture like something in a great cathedral somewhere.

In the dream she sat right behind him, a sheet shifting over her body, which felt stronger, bigger in the dream. "Where the hell have you been, Vic? You know your arm needs stitches?"

Edward whimpered as she recognized her own voice in her dream as Spike's voice. She rolled over on the floor by her computer and the dream restarted, coming back in more detail the second time. This time it went a little farther, with Vicious' smile causing her to feel funny inside, to feel very distinctly funny under the sheet and she moaned, trying real hard to wake up as Vicious reached out and ran his fingers down her face, into her hair and leaned closer, closer and she woke up right before she got kissed. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed, scrubbing the back of her hand over her mouth. "EWWEEwwwWWWW!"

Jet looked over from the couch, up from the computer where he was working on his writing project and Ed launched herself at him, snuggling down into his arms like a child in her parent's arms. "Jet! There was a bad dream! Edward had a nightmare!!!"

He was totally unsure how to deal with a child snuggling in his arms. If it had been anyone except Ed he would have tossed them off like hot coffee, but Ed kind of was his kid, at least some of the time. So he rubbed her back with his metal hand, as gently as he could. "Dreams can't hurt you, Edward. You know that, yes?"

"But it wasn't just a dream," she said, hiding her face against his chest, trying to curl up into the smallest space she could. It was the middle of the day then, at least the Bebop day and Spike came into the living area then. He'd been wandering around all day, as if he were looking for something and it was getting on Jet's nerves. Something wasn't right with Spike, something worse than just some drugs and the trauma of getting disemboweled. "Spike! Sit down man! You're throwing the energy of the whole place off."

Much to Jet's disgust, Spike's eyes went wide, almost terrified and he sat down on the other couch as fast as he could, holding onto the edge, like the whole damn ship was going to tip over at any moment. Jet sighed and decided to get to the bottom of this. "Okay, Edward, what happened to Spike? You said you failed at something and now you're dreaming about Vicious. What's going on?"

"I got the message from Julia-person," Edward said, looking over her shoulder at Spike, then slipping out of Jet's arms to take her own place on the couch.

Faye came down the stairs then, sat down, mostly watching Spike. She'd spend most of the morning sitting in her room watching the video tape of her younger self, thinking about how loss of memories like Spike had was not something she'd wish on even her worst enemy. It made her feel guiltier than anything that she would still rather have him here and alive, than dead. The whole vulnerable Spike thing was getting on her nerves too and hadn't even been a day yet. She wondered if she'd been like that when she'd just woken up and remembered the time they were chasing those missiles in the gate, and she hadn't know what would happen if she got enclosed in the gate. He was, and it hurt to think it, he was like her big brother, teasing her, teaching her, coming to save her. That kiss she'd had with Jet, and now the way Spike was, it only made her more confused. "Yeah, Ed, what happened?"

"After I got the message, me and Mpu broke into their network and went snooooping." Edward wrapped her arms around her knees, propped her head between them. "I had a bad dream, Faye-Faye. I dreamed one of Spike's memories."

"My memories?" Spike asked. Shivers went across his shoulders, and the room went very very bright, like his eyes would get burned out, even when he closed his eyes. When he opened them, Jet had him by the front of his blue jacket. Spike jerked to get away, but found himself pressed up against Jet's body, held tight one both of his arms behind him. "Let me go! Let go!"

"Wait, Spike," Jet said, trying to be as gentle as he could without letting the struggling man go. "Ed thinks that what they did to you is still working, that you're losing more memories, really getting your head fucked up. We're trying to find the network connection so we can stop it."

Faye, who seemed to be right behind him, started lifting his hair, looking at his scalp and his face scalded. "So what you're saying, Edward, is that this bitch linked into his brain like it was on a network, just like another computer and she's just erasing? She's still linked in? Wouldn't that kill him?"

The glow of Edward's computer put her somewhere near his feet and Spike kicked in that direction, only to have the glow move a little farther away. "Let me go or I'm gonna fucking shot you! I will do it!"

"What the hell are we looking for, Edward," Faye demanded, a bit of fear in her voice that satisfied Spike very much.

"Not like a computer," Edward said, distracted, "Like Alzheimer-Vernon disease. Connected to his brain and triggered the synapses to tangle, to make also little space mines around the antennae and then to fire to fast, to flood neurotransmitter, modified like in Vernon's disease. So fast, it wipes out the memories, but Mpu and I made our own virus and we copied the patterns of memory." Edward looked up, goggles on her face, a huge frown on her face. Both Jet and Faye looked at her as if she were speaking ancient Greek.

"So he's got amnesia," Jet said, still holding Spike on his feet, absolutely hating that the taller man wasn't able to stand on his own. So okay, given his injuries, he should have been on his back for a month, but Jet wanted it now, wanted his partner whole now. Holding Spike so close was absolutely worse now for the things he'd been thinking earlier. Hearts are stupid things to keep around sometimes.

"What the hell does that mean? Does that mean he's going to get worse?" Faye demanded, not keeping herself aware enough and caught a back kick in the shoulder that sent her over the back of the couch and crashing to the floor. He might not be able to hold his own weight, but he could still put enough energy behind a kick, a lucky kick, "Asshole! Prick!"

Jet shifted his grasp on Spike, taking hold of both arms and thrust him back so he could look in his eyes. "We are trying to help you! We are your friends!"

The blush was gone from Spike's face though, leaving him paler than Jet liked, lines of stress around his eyes and forehead. Now that his arms weren't pinned, both of them went around his middle. "You're hurting me!"

"Sorry!" Jet said, setting Spike down on the couch that Faye was just climbing over the back of. "Ed, can we get his memories back?"

"Not amnesia," Ed said, looking stressed to try to explain to them this important thing, "All kinds of information got exploded, but I don't think it's as bad as they were trying to make it. Ed tried to trick the computer, to think that it was doing what it was supposed to," Ed sort of wilted a little, thinking about how she hadn't managed to save Spike. "We made a copy of Spike's mind and tried to get the computer to work on that one, but we saved a back up too. We were trying hard."

Spike wasn't really listening to the kid. He was checking out the line of pain across his belly. He really wanted to kill someone for that! His finger came out from under his shirt bloody and he thought that might be pretty important for his 'friends' to know, but they were both focused on the kid.

Jet frowned. It as all above his head, really, so he focused on what he could understand. "Where did you store the copy?"

Ein barked and then lay his head back down on Spike's leg. Faye rolled her eyes, remembering how much Spike didn't really like dogs, or kids and went to shoo the dog away, but Spike reached out and stopped her, blocking her arm and then Ein jumped into his lap.

"In Ein," Ed whispered. It had been a very last minute decision, and well, Ein was special. The lab he'd been stolen from had created him to carry a lot of data, but maybe not that kind of data.

"In the dog? Spike's life's stuck in the dog?" Faye, for some reason that Spike didn't really understand found this incredibly funny, down right hysterical. Even Jet seemed amused.

Spike on the other hand understood enough to know that his mind, his memories, his life were now tucked somewhere under some brown fur. Holding Ein in his arms, he shot up and glared at them all, the death glare lasted for nearly fifteen seconds before he flopped back down on the couch. "And how is this funny?"

"Take it easy, Spike," Jet said, as he'd noticed the blood on Spike's fingers now. "It's funny, because, well, you'll find it funny too, when we get your memories back where they belong. We can do that?"

"Poodle brain!" Faye teased, from where she lay on the floor behind the couch.

"I'm gonna kick your ass," Spike threatened, even knowing himself that he didn't really mean it. He felt smaller though, ashamed to be him a bit. What the hell had he gotten himself into for someone to want to do this to him?

"Let me look at your stomach, Spike, uh?" Jet said, sitting down on the table and reaching for Spike's shirt. "I ain't gonna hurt you."

That only made it worse, made him feel smaller, less familiar with everything around him. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

"So, Ed, is this thing she did, is it still happening? Is he still losing memory? How do we stop it?" Jet's fingers were gentle as they pushed Spike's shirt up, held it there. Spike closed his eyes, tightened his belly, making the lines of muscles stand out clearly. The whole scar across his belly was more like a wound now, open and weeping. Maybe one technology was conflicting with the other, Jet didn't know, really, but he wanted to kill someone too. "Ed what did they use to heal his gut?"

"What happened to me," Spike asked, not sure he really wanted to know, but ready to just punch someone if they had the nerve to say it didn't matter.

"You fought Vicious." Jet said.

"EWWWWWW! You kissed Vicious!" Edward shuddered and Faye's eyes went wide like a deer in the head lights.

"You kissed Vicious!?" Then she smacked Spike on the back of the head and he grabbed for her, opening his belly more and prompting Jet to grab him and hold him on the couch.

"Faye, get me the med kit."

She frowned, but went to get it, after tugging her arm out of Spike's grip.

When she was a few steps away, Spike leaned close and whispered, "Who the hell is Vicious?"

"A guy you knew when you were younger," Jet said, honestly. He wanted to know why Ed was also getting Spike's memories, but he didn't want to ask in front of Spike. "Ed, what do we do?"

"Do, do, what are we going to do?"

"Am I gay?" Spike asked, not really able to feel what was true and what wasn't anymore, "Jet, am I supposed to be dead?"

"Hell no!" Jet took the med kit from Faye and set about taking out some supplies. It was completely disconcerting that Spike remembered one thing and not another, random and hit or miss, like someone had just played fifty-two card pick up with his head. "Don't you ever wonder about if you should be dead or alive. I sold my ass to the Red Dragons to keep you alive."

"Me too," Faye said, reaching out to take his hand, real gentle, kind of asking before she wrapped her fingers around his hand. "I'm sorry about the poodle brain comment. I know you don't like remember, but I was real upset when I thought you were dead. Please trust us to try to help, try to trust us."

Spike's nose twitched and he started to pull his hand back, but she didn't try to stop him, so he let her hold it. At the rate they were going, it might not happen real often.

"Eyes," Edward said, blinking. She bounced onto the couch and took hold of Ein's face, peering into the dog's eyes. Both had gone pale blue, the color all faded away. Then into Spike's eyes, nose to nose, eyes going wider as he leaned back a bit, eyebrows arching up.

"Edward! Get out of the way! I'm trying to put a bandage on him!"

"Eyes," She squawked and went back to her computer. "Yes!"

Faye caught Spike's cheeks, one hand on either one and turned his face so she could see his eyes. One was a brown, a light brown, like she remembered his lighter colored eye, the other was nearly golden. How could she not notice that before! "Your eyes are different colors."

"And my hair is green," he said, rather disgusted. "Do you know why my hair is green?"

"Maybe you color it?" Faye said, still happily studying his eyes.

He scratched the back of his head, and leaned forward for Jet, to let him wrap the gauze around him. "So, Ed," Spike asked, sounding for all the world just like the Spike they knew, "What's the deal with the eyes?"

"Edward is an idiot," She said, moving quickly through the data visible only to herself, "Spike person is going to pass out now!"

"I am not!" he protested, then fell forward, limp against Jet, dark green hair fanned out over Jet's face, one long arm hanging down to the floor.

"Well, he's a better patient this way," Faye said, standing up now.

"Ed, this better be good," Jet grumbled, lifting Spike gently and continuing to take care of his wound. "What's the deal with the eyes."

"Want Edward to explain completely, right now?" Edward's fingers moved faster, a glow around the edge of her goggles.

"A little would be nice, Ed," Jet said, tucking the end of the gauze in, his hand holding the back of Spike's head as he very tenderly laid him back on the couch and swung those long legs up even though they hung over the end on this couch.

"Edward is working on breaking the network link to Spike person. It's his eye, the cybernetic eye."

"Ewwww," Faye said, leaning over so she could look, even though both eyes were closed. "He lost an eye? Which one?"

"No rubber necking," Jet snarled, irritated that he didn't know Spike had lost an eye in the past either. He tugged Spike's shirt down, covering the flesh that he didn't have the right to look at either. Spike. He'd thought that he was wrong about being interested in Spike, but now, he knew he was more than interested. He knew he was in pretty terrible trouble over it.