Open your eyes
we're here are you OK
I’d give all I have
just to get you to stay
for so many years in my dreams things were changing
but always your face was the same
I love you to death
love you to death
When you opened up
what you said it was so sad
that no one would notice
if you ran away
then your mascara it ran
don’t you vanish tonight I'm alive just to say
love you to death
love you to death
As the army of centipedes marched along his left side, inching its way up his back, he struggled to move. His eye twitched as the throng marched higher up towards his neck. Those bugs had been extinct since the Gate incident, so what were they doing on his ship, crawling on his body? He squirmed as one of the creatures veered off from the main battalion to appear on the right side of his neck, traveling up towards his mouth. In panic, his eyes shot open and he hazily grasped that it had been a dream.
The air in the room was oppressive, and as he wiped his hand across his brow, he was surprised by the amount of moisture that came away. It suddenly hit him that the ship’s ventilation system had malfunctioned. He’d just had the thing overhauled on Earth a few weeks back, waiting for Doohan to complete repairs (again) to the Swordfish. Nope, couldn’t be time for repairs already; the old man was pretty thorough. That left only one possibility.
“Faye...” Jet mumbled to himself as he slid his legs to the floor. He shuffled over to the door and banged the button to exit the room. He stormed down the corridor towards Faye’s room to chastise her about messing around with the ship’s controls, but stopped when he noticed her door was ajar. Faye guarded her privacy like a hawk and would never leave her door open, whether or not she was in the room. And he didn’t need to look in the hangar to know that her ship was gone. Frowning, he headed back the way he came to check the climate control panel. Yep, just like he thought, no coolant in the system.
That wench, he groused, slamming the panel shut. He heard the hiss of a door opening and looked down the hall to see Spike emerging from his room.
“Where the hell is the air on this dump?” Spike asked in irritation, one large hand pushing damp green curls from his face as he dragged himself over to Jet.
“One word,” Jet told him, choosing to ignore Spike’s insult to his ship. “Faye. And she took off.”
Spike's eyes narrowed. “Shit, where’d she go this time?” he demanded. “Damn woman waits until we're on the hottest goddamn planet in the solar system to suck out the coolant?”
“Go find her then,” Jet teased. “She's your woman.”
“Yeah right,” he scoffed, glaring at Jet. “As if.”
Jet disregarded the snide remark. “Anyway, somebody needs to go after her. You know that’s what she wants anyway.” He walked down the hallway and into the common room, dropping into a chair near the computer table.
Spike glanced disbelievingly after Jet. He followed him into the room, taking his own seat on the couch.
“So, what, we’re just gonna chase after her?”
“The girl has issues, you know that, Spike,” Jet chided him. “Every once in a while, she needs to be sure that we really want her here.”
Spike grinned. “Do we?”
Jet gazed at Spike, his eyes boring into the younger man’s. “Do you?”
Spike grin faded and he felt his face grow warm. “What are you saying, Jet?” he demanded.
“Well,” Jet began, rubbing his head and staring into space. “Let’s see, girl saves food for you when you come home late, soothes you out of those nightmares of yours almost every night-”
“Fuck you, Jet.”
Spike wasn’t surprised at how much Jet noticed, him being ex-ISSP and all. But he didn’t have to be so damned annoying about it.
“I’m just saying, seems like you’re the one who’ll suffer the most if we don’t go get her. If you don’t go bring her back.”
“C’mon Jet, you’re kidding right?”
Jet frowned. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”
Spike was silent, his thoughts flashing momentarily to one of his really bad nights. Faye had been right there to calm him, as she had been on so many other nights. As much as he hated to admit it, he owed her.
And yeah, Jet was right. He needed her.
