Good Morning Sunshine

Jessica wakes up, not wanting to open her eyes and lose the wonderful dream she had last night; she sighs sinking slowly back under as she snuggles closer to… her eyes snap open… the warm human body? She looks up and comes face-to-face with Spike, asleep with his arms around her. He looks so peaceful that she doesn’t want to wake him, so instead of doing her usual morning routine she just snuggles closer to him and just enjoys it.

She wondered how he had gotten into bed with her. Did they do it? No, they couldn’t have, they were both still dressed, and she hadn’t been drunk; even though her hand was inside his shirt for some reason. Did he sleepwalk into her room? No one had mentioned him doing that, and that was usually something that was talked about, either jokingly or seriously. Then Jessica remembered. She had fallen asleep reading and he must have carried her in here. She smiled at how sweet that was of him, considering she had yelled at him and then ignored him. But then how did he end up in her bed? Had he thought he could wake her up and then get some? That seemed an unusual thing for him to do, and plus she slept like a rock. Oh God, she knew what had happened; she had grabbed him in her sleep, and then wouldn’t let go… how embarrassing! But, Spike didn’t seem to mind too much, so she shouldn’t feel too guilty about it. She smiled and scooted up a little so her head was level with his. She studied his face for a while
noticing how all the tension and tightness relaxed away. He didn’t look perpetually annoyed like he was around Faye, and Ed, and Ein. Jessica loved how boyish men looked when they were asleep; it was a rare glimpse into the innocence that used to be there and was now gone forever. Spike asleep was kind of like the smiles that he gave her sometimes when he thought she wasn’t looking, that same boyishness was there.

Jessica wondered why Spike had backed off after that kiss, those kisses she corrected herself
mentally, blushing a little, when they had sparred with each other. It was as if he was checking himself, reminding himself that he had to stay away (but still managing to stare every chance he got); there was a void, it seemed, inside him that he didn’t feel as though anyone could fill. This was her chance to bridge the gap he had forced between them; she pressed her body against his and leaned her head against his, putting her arms around his neck. His lips were parted slightly and he was breathing through his mouth a little so she just leaned in and kissed him. The kiss made him wake up slightly and he returned her kiss, parting his lips and reaching up his hand to push his fingers into her hair, which was still short. His tongue slid in to explore her mouth briefly and the kiss deepened, becoming more passionate, as Jessica slid
her leg up his and they rolled over, Spike’s hand stealing up her shirt and under her bra, sliding around to unfasten it. Spike shook his arm out of his jacket and let it slide to the floor as Jessica moved her hands down to unfasten the buttons on his shirt, laying bare his chest and running her fingers lightly down the raised scar tissue that raked across his skin. Their breathing came in ragged gasps as they pulled each other’s clothing off, Spike kissing every inch of her skin as he bared it while Jessica helps him out of his pants. He kisses her hard, stopping her cries when they come together; she sighs, digging her fingers into the skin of his back as they move together towards the climax. When they are finished, they both lay panting and sprawled on her bed, tangled in the sheets. She rests her head on his sweaty chest, his arm circling her waist and breathes in his smell, sighing contentedly.
“I could stay like this forever,” she murmurs quietly, half to herself. “I love the way you make me feel, and I love you.”

“I love you too,” Spike whispers into her ear, “but it’s time to get up. You probably ought to take a shower too.” He pulls her up into a sitting position and she grabs her robe.

“What about you?” she gestures to his sweat drenched naked body, and his crumpled clothes strewn on the floor. “You are kind of obvious looking.”

"What’s that supposed to mean? I’ll be fine. I’ll just tell Jet I’ve been training.” His mouth quirks up into one of his rare smiles and Jessica blushes.

"I guess you could call it that,” she jokes, smiling back at him. “Well, I’m going to hit the shower.”

“Want me to join you?” Spike asks, arcing his eyebrows suggestively.

“No, that would be much too obvious.” Jessica leaves the room, glancing back at him as she passes through the doorway and smiles.

Spike lays back on the bed, too exhilarated and exhausted to do much more than think of how such a girl could have just landed on their ship.

I Can't Explain

She tried to put her strange conversation out of her mind for the rest of the day, worried that she had imagined the whole thing or was hallucinating or something. She was also unconsciously avoiding Spike, not talking to him or looking at him throughout dinner, and then the rest of the time going into one of the rooms that didn’t have gravity for some low-resistance training to prepare herself for a fight in space; and then she read a book to kill time before bed. She was about halfway through one of her favorite books that she had read nearly a hundred times when she nodded off, the headphones from her mp3 player still pumping music into her ears, the book nearly slipping from her fingers as her arm slumped across her lap, the other dangling off the side of the couch she was laying on; Ein was asleep on the floor beside her and Ed took the opportunity to paint her toenails blue, green, purple, pink, and yellow. After about an hour Spike walks in and notices her, her legs slowly slipping to the floor while Ed carefully paints her little toenail on her left foot yellow as she sits on the floor. Ein is in danger of being squashed and Jessica’s book has fallen off her lap and lays on its back, open to the page she stopped at.

Spike shakes his head, amazed at how she can still sleep like that, and then shoos Ed away and carefully picks her up, grunting a little at how solid she is, she doesn’t look as though she weighs much, but her stature and build may cause some sort of illusion; she sighs a little, shifts her weight around, and Spike freezes, thinking she’s about to wake up. He’d been feeling pretty chagrined ever since she’d blown up in his face earlier, and had been looking for a way to make it up to her. He’d figured that the least he could do was take her to her room so she could get some decent sleep. He remembered how Faye had complained when they had cleaned out one of the storage rooms full of useless junk so Jessica could have a room; but she’d shut up when Jet had told her that if she was willing to help, like Jessica had, she would have a room too. Jessica even offered to share the room with her, but Faye would have none of that, said she’d rather sleep in the toilet than share a room with her. Jessica heard, but she took it in stride, said she’d heard worse when she’d had to share a room with her sister for ten years.

Spike wondered what her life had been like before it had changed so dramatically and a scientific glitch had landed her on the deck of the Bebop. She rarely talked about her family, except in passing, and he knew that she missed them, he heard her moving around sometimes at night, long after she had said she was going to bed, and in the morning she had dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept all night. He looked at her face as he carried he to her room; it looked so peaceful, but then a frown creased her forehead and she twitched, her arm reaching out as if to grab someone, her breath coming in little gasps as though she were running hard. He quickly put her onto her bed and went to get up, but her flailing hand caught his arm and refused to let go. Spike sighed and then shifted Jessica slightly, making room, and layed down beside her. She scooted closer and nestled her head under his chin and he smiled, relaxing and bringing his arms around behind her, holding her closer. He kicked off his shoes and tried, unsuccessfully to shrug out of his jacket, managed to get it stuck, then gave up after getting one arm out and just let it dangle off the edge of the bed. Jessica shifted some more and somehow managed to run her hand up his shirt and Spike felt his face grow warm and his heartbeat stutter. He felt that it’s going to be a pretty long night.

Ein

Time passed strangely on the Bebop, when there were things going on, the time passed quickly. Jessica helped in every way that she could. Managing money, doing the grocery shopping (because Jet knew next to nothing about it and Faye and Spike didn’t care), taking care of some of the cleaning, although she refused to do Jet and Faye’s laundry, and even keeping Ed and Ein (whom Spike referred to as the pests) busy; but she balked when she was offered the opportunity to come along on a bounty, they may have gotten plenty of money from her selling her useless possessions, but that wasn’t enough for them all to retire on (plus Faye was slowly squandering her share gambling, convinced that she could win if she just played long enough). She tried making excuses: the housework needed done, who would keep Ed and Ein from tearing the place apart while they were gone, she had no experience, she couldn’t shoot a gun; and they provided answers: the work could wait, Ed and Ein had been alone before and had been just fine, experience was gotten by doing, and she could be taught to shoot a gun. The last was offered by Spike, but she just didn’t feel comfortable with the cold, hard barrel of a gun in her hands and her finger resting on a small little sliver of metal that could decide whether a man lived or died with just one little squeeze.

“I can’t, I can’t do it!” she yelled, frustrated, during her first lesson, throwing the gun onto the table. “I can’t sit here and listen to you say those things, ‘this is how you hold it, this is how you aim, always be sure to aim for an arm or a leg unless you’re shooting to kill and then you aim for the heart or the head!’ I just can’t, ok. It’s not that I don’t want to go with you; I just could not use a gun. Give me my fists and feet, or hell even a sword and some throwing knives or shuriken and I could be deadly. I feel kind of silly going out there with a gun when I was trained to use everything but that. I could kill a guy with a freakin’ paperclip for Christ’s sake!” she stopped, breathing heavily when she realized that Spike was looking at her with a mixture of shock and admiration and that Jet and Faye were peeking in through the doorway.

“Sorry,” she muttered; her face red and her ears burning as she walked out the door and
into the rotating hallway. She stepped into an empty room and sat there, hugging herself as she slowly realized how stupid she had been for yelling when she could have just as easily have explained it calmly and quietly. She remembered what her therapist had told her about bottling up her feelings, and realized that she had been doing that ever since she had gotten over the shock of being teleported into the future. She took a deep breath that turned into a sob and hen she broke down and cried for the life that she had lost.

Jessica lifted her head from where it was sitting in her lap, her head aching and her nose stopped from where she had been crying for so long. Her eyes were puffy and red. She looked down to see the sweet brown eyes of Ein looking up at her. He wagged his little stump of a tail when he saw her looking and barked quietly.

“My nieces used to have a corgi that looked exactly like you.” She told him, fluffing up the short, thick hairs around his neck as she scratched it. “You are much calmer, and much smarter. He went out and got hit by a car, but you would never do something like that would you?”

No, of course not.

Jessica froze, she had been talking to the dog absently, something that she did with most animals. Not really in an annoying baby-talk sort of voice that most people use when talking to dogs, just a Normal conversational tone, but she hadn’t expected an answer.

“W-what?”she whispered, “I must be dreaming, did you just talk?”

Not in the sense that you or the others can, but yes, I am able to communicate through telepathy. Ein was right, his mouth definitely wasn’t moving, so no sound was coming out of his mouth, but Jessica could hear him clear as day in her mind.

“Does everyone else know? Are Jet and Spike and Faye and Ed in on it too? Or is it just me?”

Just you, I haven’t really tried it on the others yet, I don’t even know if they are susceptible yet, you must be very sensitive.

“Oh, how nice for me; I did always want a talking dog.” She wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or hysterical, but Jessica sensed that it was time to end the conversation. “Um, I uh, need to go get dinner started ok? So I’m gonna go now.” She smiled weakly and tentatively patted him on the head.

Alright, can you make the noodles again? Ein begged, dancing on his back legs in a way that had seemed cute before but now was strangely unnerving.

“Um, sure.”