The doctor said goodbye to the sheriff and walked down the hallway with Meryl who had her and her partner's suitcases in her hands The letter was in the doctor's hand. Meryl could just see the government address on the envelope and she quickly memorized it. The doctor spoke with a concerned voice.
"Now, Meryl, I didn't mean to mislead you before about the severity of Vash's injuries. It'll be at least a week before he should walk and at least another week after that before he can leave."
"We want what's best for Vash and his brother, doctor."
"Knives is much worse off. It'll be at least a month before he can leave and six weeks before he'll be able to walk."
As they walked down the hall, the doctor continued to describe to Meryl the various defective areas of Vash and Knives and the long period of time it would take them to heal. After seven turns and a trip down an elevator they arrived at the basement and room seven A.
Milly greeted them with an ebullient smile as the doctor opened the door to the room.
"Meryl! Nurse Mirado's a friend of my big, big, big brother! They knew each other when he worked in Scruffy's restaurant!"
"That's wonderful, Milly!" said Meryl.
Milly's family was located in so many cities it wasn't a surprise that someone, even in this little city at one time had met a Thompson. Nurse Mirado and Milly continued to chatter while the doctor examined Vash and Knives. The two men had been hooked up to simpler machines in this smaller spare room. Besides the beds, side bathroom, small machines, and an end table, there was nothing in the room, not even a window. Vash was on a bed against the far right side of the wall and Knives was sleeping on a bed in the center of the room.
"Nurse," the doctor said "I just looked at the x-rays. The condition of these two is worse than I originally thought. I need you to get this letter to a courier. Dr. Jacobs from the health institute needs to get here as soon as possible."
"I'll go right away, doctor!"
"I'll go with you!" Milly said.
Meryl's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea Milly! You need a break! " she said.
The doctor hurried out of the room with the excuse of seeing more patients. Truthfully he wanted to get as far away as possible from the two freaks until he was sure that there wasn't anybody in the town who was going to kill them by any means necessary.
"Can you wait just a minute, Milly?" said Meryl. "I'd like you to take a short letter to the courier, too, telling the chief that Vash came to this town."
Meryl, dove into her suitcase, scattering various personal items, searching for the bag containing the paper and envelopes used for their reports.
"Is that okay, Sara?" said Milly, using the nurse's first name.
"Here's my paper! It'll just take a second!" said a frantic Meryl as she sat on the floor, starting to scribble out a letter.
"Sure. I guess I can wait a few minutes. I'll go change out of my uniform and meet you back here."
"Bless you, Milly," Meryl said to herself as the nurse left the room.
"Milly!" Meryl said sharply, "Milly, I need you to get that letter." Meryl explained to Milly about the doctor's cabal with the sheriff as the little agent continued scribbling her letter. Milly was horrified.
"Anyone who'd want to cut up Vash is a no good evil pile of spoiled pudding!" Those we're the harshest words Meryl had ever heard come out of Milly's mouth. Meryl continued.
"Calm down, Milly. Now, I've written a letter to the chief about Vash and Knives. You switch it with hers, okay Milly?"
"Got it, Meryl. I don't like to lie, but I'll do it for Mr. Vash."
Meryl sealed the envelope.
"Milly, this is the envelope you send. It's addressed to our chief, all right?"
"Got it!" Nurse Mirado came back a few moments latter and the two ladies set off to the courier.
Meryl sighed and unfastened her bedroll from the top of her suitcase. The sheriff and doctor were really only doing what they thought was best for their town, she thought.
"I really can't be angry at them. If I didn't know Vash, I'd probably have brought that letter to the government myself."
Knives was a different story. Meryl would've loved to have sent Knives far away, preferably some place cold, that lacked air, where Knives could float around until some big meteoroid...
"No! I mustn't think that way." Meryl said to herself.
"Vash would never let that happen. He's too good to let that happen. Maybe that's why ... I know he wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, to anyone? Not if he could prevent it."
She set her bed roll on the floor a good vomit's distance from Vash's bed, and returned her scattered dainty items to her suitcase. Milly wasn't renown for her slight of hand skills and if she didn't get that letter, they were going to have to leave with the two injured men pretty quickly. She packed up her bed roll.
"Milly's taking a long time. It isn't that far to the courier is it? Wait! Milly's going to have to find her way back down here alone. This could take a while. How were the patients really doing?" she wondered.
Meryl got up and walked over to Knives. He seemed to sleep arrogantly. His nose was upturned in the same slight way as Vash's but it exuded an aristocratic snobbery and something about the tilt made Meryl feel like she really should be bowing right now. His lips were pouted slightly in a 'Get away, you insignificant blood-sucking tick' kind of way. She looked at Vash. His hair was normally awful, but this was really hideous. She unpacked a brush from her suitcase and started to brush out the snarls and matted chunks of his inhuman hair. She carefully held each section of hair as she brushed it so as to not pull or jerk his head.
"After what he did the last time he woke up, I don't want him to wake up for a long time," she told herself.
It was painful to know that even more scars were forming under his bandages, but maybe now that Knives was here the scars would stop accruing.
Meryl spoke out loud, "Vash, if you'd let me cut your hair and die it a nice brown color, you'd be a lot less recognizable, especially to those dumb bounty hunters you attract."
She paused, " You .... really are a ... h ... han ... handsome guy. I don't want to see you hurt like this."
Tears started to form in her eyes. She set the brush down on the side of the bed and turned her face into the pillow, muffling her crying. She put one hand against his arm and let his body heat warm her cold fingers.
"Now I have to deal with two idiots. You like making more work for me, don't you?" Her tears dried and she continued combing his hair.
Milly came back about an hour later. Meryl had finished with Vash's hair and was busy typing the full version of the report on the floor of the room.
"Did you get the letter?" Meryl asked as Milly came into the room.
"Yup! It's in my pocket!"
Milly was burdened by several containers of take-out Chinese as well as the letter.
"Sara met another nurse friend of hers on the street and she let me take the letter the rest of the way to the courier."
Milly put the containers on the floor and took the letter out of her black coat pocket.
"Here it is!"
Milly handed the letter to Meryl. She grabbed it from Milly's hand and looked at the address. It was the right letter.
"Thank you, Milly! You're wonderful. I'm going to suggest that the chief give you a commendation for this."
Milly beamed. "If everything else failed, I would've used my stun gun on the courier and gotten it back."
Meryl smiled, "That's right Milly! The more desperate the situation, the more desperate the measures that must be taken!"
Meryl tucked the letter in her suitcase and went back to typing her report with newfound determination. The usually reserved agent actually started humming. Milly spooned out several varieties of food onto paper plates.
"Foods up!" Milly yelped.
Vash stirred on his bed "Hunrgh? Food? I don't think I really want to eat right now."
"Mr. Vash, you're talking in real sentences!"
The agents scampered over to his bed.
"The doctor said you were going to be fine and then he said you really weren't going to be fine, but he was being a big jerk so we know that you are going to be just fine," explained Milly.
Vash looked up at Milly with marginally opened eyes.
"Thank you for letting me sleep. Is Knives ..." Vash sat up and looked around the room with opened eyes.
"He's more hurt than you are, much more hurt. " said Meryl with genuine sympathy. "The doctor doesn't expect him to regain consciousness for several days."
The sympathy wasn't for Knives but for Vash, and all the trouble he would have in the future with his brother.
"He shot my gun out of my hand. I had to hit him with Cross Punisher, or else he would've killed me with both his angel arms. I really didn't think he wanted to kill me."
"You hit him with Cross Punisher? Wolfwood would be very proud of you Mr. Vash!" said Milly.
"Yes, I think he would be." Vash looked away from his brother and stared at his intact right arm.
"I can help him now; stop him from killing people. I know how to do it. I didn't realize it until I was carrying him back. When I was back home plant number two, Suzume, that's what I called her, she was so frightened. I hope she didn't die. I've known her for 80 years and she was never so scared before. I had to help her by ... " He looked at the women and despite his vast amount of respect for them, he knew it was a loss to discuss the intricate workings of plant engineering with them. He continued.
"But the gauntlet .... and then Brad ..." Vash looked at Meryl with tears in his eyes. She had no clue what he was talking about, but she gave him her most comforting look. Vash wiped the tears from his eyes.
"I need to get out of here. I need to get to a plant before Knives wakes up. It won't take much time. I only need a few parts." He tried to get up but Milly pushed him back down. Meryl's comforting look turned into outright hostility.
"The whole town knows you're here by now and after they kill you they'll kill Knives, and Milly and I won't be able to stop them. You've just had surgery and you were puking your food up less than two hours ago. We're not letting you go anywhere. I'm not going to let a sickly, puking, sixty billion double dollar target walk out of this hospital when a whole bunch of fresh wounds you just got have barely started to heal."
Meryl did understand the urgency of the situation though, and she did know Vash did heal quickly.
"We're not going to let you out until you've had at least one good night's rest."
Vash's guardians scowled at him and Milly's hand twitched in a certain way that was just warning him that she'd take out her stun gun if he even thought about making a dash for it.
"Well, maybe I should stay here until I can at least dodge a bullet or two." He cowered back in his pillow and covered his head with his blanket.
"Good night," he said.
"Good night, Vash. Lets have some food, Milly."
Vash groaned.
Meryl continued, "And I'll take the first shift watching Vash. I need to finish the full report."