*grumbles* Vash, Vash, Vash…. All you guys want is Vash.

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Kiley pulled herself to her feet. She was a little less shaky than she had been a few minutes ago, but she still felt like crap. She slowly sauntered after Meryl, slowly because she couldn't move faster, and sauntering because she had learned long ago that she could keep her feet easiest when tired if she adopted a rolling gait. Meryl turned and shot her a dirty look as she didn't move briskly, but she decided to keep how tired she was a secret as long as she could.

She knew that passing out at the end of this endeavor was going to prove how weak she really was, and she hoped that it wouldn't be held against her. Mentally she shrugged. They would probably just keep on ignoring her, so there would be no problem. As long as she remembered how to breathe she would make out ok.

Meryl reached the tableau almost a minute before Kiley ambled up, hands thrust deep in pockets. She looked down at Ace, saw what trouble she had just breathing, and sighed.

"I told her she was too young for this," she said, shaking her head and waiting for her knees to quit shaking enough for her to sit down without collapsing in the middle of the process.

Knives looked up and his eyes were full of pain and irritation. "It's about time you showed up. What took you so long?" he demanded.

"I got shot, Knives."

Realization dawned in his eyes, and she smiled wryly as she realized that he had forgotten. He assessed her condition, and finding nothing visibly wrong huffed, "Must have just grazed you."

She didn't correct him, but let her legs fold underneath her. She picked up Ace's other hand and looked at the girl's eyes. The pupils were dilated, the lids themselves open wide enough that she could see a thin rim of white around the iris. Sweat beaded her brow as her body labored just to keep alive. Kiley shook her head slowly. The girl needed energy, and she had none to give her. She knew just how close her reserves were to tapping out. If she tried to help the girl as she was, it would kill her.

She looked to Knives. "I'm going to need your help for this," she started.

"Anything," he interrupted.

"You sure? I can do anything?"

"Yes. If you overstep yourself, I'll let you know later, but right now you have to help her." His eyes were full of pain; he feared losing the girl.

She nodded. "Then give me your hand."

"Me too." Vash's quiet voice surprised her, made her jump. She looked into his eyes, started, and read concern there. They were eyes that she could have easily gotten lost in, eyes whose depths drew her attention, her curiosity. He blinked and flushed, and she realized that she had been staring. "I mean, if I can help. Use me, too."

She shook her head slightly to clear it. Nothing like being tired to cloud your thoughts. "Fine. Hold your brother's hand, and relax. Whatever you do, whatever you feel, don't tense up. This will feel a bit… odd, but it's the only thing I can think of that will help."

"What are you going to do?" asked Meryl. Kiley responded without looking up.

"She's used up too much energy; her body can't adjust to it's loss. I'm going to take some from these two and share it with her."

"Why can't you just do it? Is it a plant thing?"

Kiley shook her head, then met Meryl's eyes. "No. Normally I'd be able to do something like this on my own, but I'm just too tired. I don't have any energy to spare. Knives could do something like this on his own, if he hadn't decided that killing was much more important to learn than healing," she added, unable to resist the little dig.

He didn't say anything, but his fingers tightened painfully on hers. She realized that she was stalling, that she was afraid to start. Acknowledging the fear, she forced herself past it, opened up a conduit from her to Knives, and through him to his brother, then started to leech energy off of them.

Dimly she heard Vash's tight indrawn breath, felt Knives' hand tighten of hers even more, but theses things were of no concern. She carefully harvested energy from the two brothers, taking what they could spare. She took and took and took until she felt Knives begin to shiver, and then she released it into Ace's body.

First she bolstered the child's heart, easing it's labors. As her pulse steadied, many of her other problems grew easier. Her body quit fighting against itself for the few remaining bits of energy and accepted the flood that she carefully nursed in. Ace's breathing eased as she stopped having to struggle to get her ribcage to move, and color began to rise back in her cheeks. She moved from an extremely unhealthy pallor to looking only slightly wan before Kiley ran out of energy to help her with.

Grimly, she broke the link, first from Vash to Knives, then from Knives to her, and finally from her to Ace. The spilt second that she alone was linked to Ace nearly did her in. She dropped her hand and buried hers in her lap, trying to hide the reaction, swallowing quickly to stop the bile from coming up and disgusting everyone.

She looked at everyone's face, the person with the most color being Meryl and her flushed cheeks. Vash looked like someone had punched him in the stomach. Knives looked much like he normally did, only a little paler then she had even seen him. Ace seemed much better, and a small smile teased its way around Kiley's eyes as she saw how improved the girl was. Then she closed her eyes and nearly fell over as she leaned back in the sand. Nothing had ever felt as good as not doing anything did right then.