Disclaimer: I don't own Trigun [Maximum], or Vash, Luida, Brad, Jessica, or any of the other characters in the manga / anime series. They all belong to Mr. Yasuhiro Nightow.

My own inventions include: Lumia, Larissa, Shyla Jones, Lisa Reeve, and the other Reeve family members.

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Intermission

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Year 0932, month 2, day 16, early afternoon

Lisa turned to the next page, planning to continue reading, when she heard voices calling her name. The voices came from not far outside of the door of the storage room where she was curled up with the diary. One voice was her mother's, and the other belonged to her Aunt Lumietta.

Lisa startled, nearly dropping the aged volume. She caught it, and kept her place, but a bookmark embroidered with the name "Lumietta" fell out of it.

Not knowing what to expect, Lisa quickly marked her place in the diary with the bookmark. She quickly concealed the old book in its original wrappings. Then she pushed it behind her and under the edge of the quilt that she sat on. She had barely accomplished concealing the diary when the door opened.

The first one through the door was her mother. Golden-brown hair, cut short, framed a square face with a snub nose, prominent cheekbones, and a straight mouth. Her face seemed to have a built-in stern expression, which rarely softened or smiled.

Lisa knew, deep in her heart, that her mother loved her. Unfortunately, the woman was so strict that her affection rarely showed through in ways that Lisa or her siblings could easily recognize.

She braced herself, knowing her mother's moods well enough to anticipate that this conversation might not go smoothly.

"Lisa?" Her mother said, sounding both surprised and relieved… at first. Her tone quickly turned stern. "What are you doing in there? You've been missing all morning, and you didn't even come to eat lunch. Why are you sulking back here in the storage room?"

Thankfully, behind her mother was her aunt. Lumietta's shoulder-length hair was every bit as carrot-red as Lisa's own tresses. Her narrow face and vivid aquamarine eyes held a concerned expression that was both gentle and affectionate. She was about half a head taller than her sister-in-law, though leaner.

Lisa's heart warmed at the sight of her favorite aunt. There was always something reassuring about Lumietta's presence. It made Lisa feel that, somehow, everything would be ok. She rarely felt that way when her mother was near.

"Marilla," Lumietta said soothingly, "we don't know that she's been sulking. She might have been daydreaming. That was a common enough pastime for both you and me, when we were around her age. It could be something that our Lisa likes to do, also."

Lisa's mother snorted, and said, "A fine lot of good such daydreaming does, Lumietta. I'll not have Lisa wasting half her teenage years doing naught but dreaming. Come, girl, you should do something useful, like mending or washing dishes. Something that will instill a good habit, and make your life better when you are grown…"

"Marilla," Lumietta said again, but this time her voice sounded gently scolding. "Dreams can have value, even years later… and even if they don't come true exactly as imagined. Besides, you've not let her get a word in edgewise. Perhaps she might like to say a few words, before she is believed guilty of something that she may not have done."

Her mother opened her mouth, but a gesture from Lumietta forestalled her. Another gesture, from the same source, encouraged Lisa to say something.

"I was praying for William," Lisa said, as calmly as she could, but quickly enough to get the words out before her mother started up again. "I miss him and I wish he was here."

It was true that she had originally come to this room partly for that purpose. She had prayed for him, that he was safe from this storm, before she found the diary. The worn old leather-bound book had quickly become a welcome distraction.

She was annoyed with her mother for being so quick to assume something negative, or to view something harmless as negative. She was also grateful to her Aunt for making efforts to soften her mother's mood.

"Do you mean to tell me that is the only thing you've been doing back here all morning?" her mother said skeptically.

"I also came here because Beth was asleep, and I was restless. I didn't want to wake her," Lisa said, trying not to sound as angry as she felt.

Her mother believed that everyone should only do "practical" things. Her love of that philosophy, and the manner in which she was forever preaching it, could be downright irritating at times. This was definitely one of those times.

Seeing her mother's skeptical expression made it even more difficult for Lisa to keep her temper. She was not a liar.

She did not appreciate the way that her mother folded her arms across her chest, shifted her position, and raised her eyebrow skeptically. Once again, her mother was strongly implying that she disbelieved her.

She didn't always tell her mother everything. There were some things that her mother simply didn't understand. She tended to yell at Lisa about things like that. However, anything that she did tell her mother was always the truth!

"I thought that maybe away from Beth's snoring I could pray for William more peacefully," she continued, struggling to keep her voice from showing her frustration, "and maybe it would be quiet enough in a room without a window that I could sleep even if the storm wasn't over yet."

Something about her mother's still-skeptical expression pushed Lisa's temper past its limits. She shouted, "And maybe I just wanted to be left alone for awhile!"

She dodged both mother and aunt to run out of the storage room, past the stairs up to the bedrooms, and toward the front door. Unfortunately, the wind was still howling outside. Frustrated beyond measure, she turned back and ran up the stairs to the room she shared with her twin sister. She threw herself on her bed and buried her face in her pillow.

For a few heartbeats, Lisa didn't know if she wanted to scream or cry. She suspected that screaming would not be a wise choice right then. So she swallowed the scream building in her throat, and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt the warmth around her eyes that meant she would begin crying soon, whether she wanted to or not.

She could hear her mother's footsteps coming up the stairway, and her aunt's efforts to calm the storm that was building inside the house.

Why did conversations with her mother always have to go like this? Why couldn't they ever talk to each other calmly anymore?

Lisa felt the warm tears on her cheeks, and made no effort to resist them. If she tried to keep the tears in, a scream might build in her throat again.

"Young lady," her mother said, walking into the room like she owned it (and Lisa knew better than to protest, because her mother would say that she did own it), "what else were you doing in there?"

"She's a good girl, Marilla," Aunt Lumietta said softly. "I'm sure she wasn't doing anything bad enough to earn..."

"Let me speak with my daughter," Lisa's mother interrupted, in a dangerous tone.

Lumietta fell silent.

"Well, Lisa?" her mother prompted. "I'm waiting."

"I was reading," Lisa said, leaving her face buried in the pillow to hide her tears. She was trying to remember and act on Aunt Lumietta's advice: "Least said, soonest mended." It was hard to bite back an angry response, and just be honest without sounding as upset as she felt.

"And what guilty drivel were you reading that you had to hide it in there?" Marilla said skeptically. "Some fairy tale, to make you unhappy with life as it really is?"

Lisa knew better than to protest against the accusation of hiding. "History," she said, trying very hard to stay calm.

When her mother used that tone of voice, it was difficult not to respond defensively. However, if her mother detected defensiveness, she was immediately convinced that Lisa had some guilty secret that she was trying to hide. It wasn't easy to sound calm, though, when she wanted to yell or run away… or both.

Lisa heard her mother inhale, and cringed.

Suddenly someone was sitting on the bed beside her, and gently touching her face. "Marilla, please," Aunt Lumietta said. "The child has a fever. She may have been dozing part of that time, since she hadn't slept before I did. Let her rest, please, so she doesn't grow worse. She has already answered your questions, and she was not doing anything wrong."

Thankfully, Aunt Lumietta was a medical authority. This was not only true within the family, but also at the infirmary where she was one of the supervisors.

Lisa felt her mother check her forehead, too, and then she heard her step back. "I'm sorry, child," she said softly. "I didn't realize that you were ill. I'll get you some aspirin."

Lisa hadn't realized it herself, but that might explain why she was having so much difficulty controlling her feelings today. "Thank you, Mama," she said softly.

She heard her mother leave the room, and felt Aunt Lumietta stroking her hair. "You found the diary, didn't you?" she said softly.

"Yes," Lisa said. "Is it yours, Aunt Lumi?"

"I'm taking care of it now, yes," she said. "Where did you put it?"

"Under the quilt I was sitting on. I didn't know what else to do," Lisa said. "Mama thinks the only books worth reading are the Bible and school books. Sometimes when she gets really angry, she will throw books she considers a 'waste of time' down the disposal chute. I didn't want the diary to be destroyed like that."

"Thank you for protecting it," Aunt Lumietta said. "I'll get it, and make it clear to Marilla that it's mine. That should preserve it from any temper tantrums she may have."

"Why did you bring it here?" Lisa asked.

"I'm leaving town tomorrow, with Shyla and several of our other doctors," Lumietta said. "We will be in another town for a few weeks. We're going to teach their doctors how to run some better equipment that's entirely new to them, even though we have been using it for centuries. I was going to ask you to look after this first volume of the family diary while I'm away."

"I hope it's okay with you if I read it?" Lisa said, a little nervously.

Aunt Lumietta continued stroking her hair. "Yes, that's fine," she said. "Luida would want her descendants to read it. However, what is written there is a family secret. It is something for us to know, but not something to talk about."

"I won't talk about it," Lisa promised, "except, maybe, sometimes, with you."

"I'll bring it up to you in a few minutes, then," Aunt Lumietta said, "after I make sure that your mother won't misunderstand when she sees you reading it."

"Thank you, Aunt Lumi," Lisa said. "Are they the same people we know now, the Nate and Shyla in the diary?"

"Yes," Lumietta said. "They're a little older now. Shyla's no longer so painfully bashful, but she's still uncomfortable around people she doesn't know. Nate, well, he's a puzzler. I don't know that he's changed much – if at all – since Luida's time."

Suddenly Lisa began to feel sleepy. "Thank you, Aunt Lumi," she said again, her words slower and slurring slightly with her sleepiness.

Lisa heard her mother return. She had aspirin, a glass of water, and a slice of buttered bread sitting on a plate. She put them down on the night-table beside Lisa's bed.

Lisa sat up, wiped at her eyes, and used some of the water to swallow the aspirin.

"Good girl," Aunt Lumietta said. "Rest, now, and get better."

"Thank you, Mama and Aunt Lumi," Lisa said softly. She began nibbling at the buttered bread.

"I can bring you some hand sewing, if you need something to do," her mother offered.

"I think I just want to try to sleep, after I eat this," Lisa said. She knew her mother meant to be helpful, but she had no interest in doing any mending.

"All right," her mother said. "Get better, dear. Life is too short to waste it being sick."

Lisa tried not to frown as her mother left the room. She wasn't entirely successful.

Lumietta sighed. "Marilla wasn't always so harsh, you know," she said softly. "She and I used to be very good friends. Until your father died. That's when she began to change. You weren't quite two years old yet, when he died. Do you remember him at all?"

"I remember that he had red hair, like you and I and William do," Lisa said, "and that he was tall and narrow, like William grew up to be. That's about all."

"Yes, that is how he looked," Lumietta said. Lisa could hear a smile in her aunt's voice as she spoke. "My brother was a kind, gentle man with a knack for making people laugh. William takes after him the most strongly of all of you, though you also distinctly favor your father's side of the family. Your other brothers are a blend, and Beth, well…"

"Beth favors Mama's side," Lisa said. "I think everybody knows that."

"It's probably one reason why Marilla is so hard on you two, more than the others," Lumietta said. "Seeing either you or William reminds her very strongly of your father. You two remind her, more than any of your siblings do, of what she's lost. But instead of crying when she hurts, she scolds."

"She does love you," Lumietta added. "She just isn't very good at showing it."

"I know," Lisa said. "And she rubs me the wrong way so often that I have trouble showing her that I love her, too."

Aunt Lumietta hugged her. "These things have a way of getting better, over time, dear heart," she said. "You can start working this summer, and begin saving up for your own place, or perhaps you could stay with William for a few years until one of you marries. Or you could come and live with me. When you live in different houses, I expect that you and your mother will get along much better."

"I hope so," Lisa said. She was feeling more drowsy, and yawned.

Aunt Lumietta squeezed Lisa again, and leaned her cheek against the top of her head. "Lie down and rest, now, dear heart," she said. "I'll get the diary, and I'll do what I can to encourage Marilla to let you read it while you recover… without scolding you about it."

"Thank you, Aunt Lumi," Lisa said, smiling.

She got up enough to be off her blankets, and Aunt Lumietta quickly took hold of them with a gentle smile. "Climb in, and I'll tuck you in."

Lisa giggled, in spite of herself. "I'm not a little girl anymore," she protested.

"I know, but you're sick," Aunt Lumietta said. "So let me spoil you just a little, okay?"

"Okay," Lisa said, smiling. She lay down on her bed, and let her aunt tuck her in.

She was asleep before her aunt left the room.