Who me? Sleep? It happens every now and then; sad, I know.

*******************************************************************************

She took a moment to collect herself, then shook her head and continued. "Besides, running away now, it would be like I was ashamed of being a plant. Or that being a plant is such a big, awful deal that I need to be scared that I've been found out."

"You… ran away from me because you are a plant, but you're staying now because you are one? I'm not quite sure I follow."

She shrugged uneasily. "It's just, I don't feel that I should have to run. I didn't do anything wrong, didn't hurt anyone by being a plant. If I run away now, it's like saying that they are right to think that being a plant is such a great big deal, that it's a difference between them and me that's insurmountable."

He looked at her incredulously. "They tried to kill you. I don't think that keeping yourself from being put in that situation again is admitting anything wrong. Besides, they're just humans. That's more than just a little difference. We may seem similar, but only a fool thinks we're entirely alike."

"We are alike, Knives. That's what I'm saying, that's why I'm staying. I don't feel that they have the right to do whatever they please, to mistreat people just because they are a bit different. And it's not me I'm worried about, not really. What about the next kid in Ace's position? Taken from the bulb and experimented on like a thing instead of a person?"

"Exactly the reason to not go. They don't see you as a person. They nearly killed you. Staying is entirely illogical; what can you do now to change their opinion of you that you haven't done in the past few years?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know. But I know that running away isn't the answer. Not for me, not for anybody. It's not the right response."

He snarled wordlessly, staring off into an unoccupied corner of the room as he tried to stop reacting to what she said and start thinking. To stay was wrong, horribly wrong. They all needed to go back to the ship, where it was safe, where he could keep her… where they could all have the time and space that they needed to come to terms with her being a plant. To accept that she was not going to die on him as soon as Meryl was going to grow old and die.

He pushed away that thought and the relief that it brought. "They tried to kill you," he pointed out again. "Putting yourself back into that situation seems to be… idiotic."

"Actually, they didn't. The only person who touched me was Mark. And he has a good reason to not like me much. Besides, I have decided that the super-passive resistance may not be the correct path to follow. I think… I'll go with just not letting them touch me." She shrugged once more. "I should be safe enough."

"Mark? You know your torturer by name? That will make him easy for me to find, at least." He looked thoughtful, and Anne shot him a dirty look.

"You don't even think of touching him," she growled. "He's the one whose cousin I killed. And managed to cripple. No thanks to you."

Knives blinked, then leaned back a little as he tried to follow the turn in the conversation. "Oh. Yes, the gun thing," he said after a managed to puzzle out her reference. "So, he was one of the ones sent after Ace, right?"

She glared at him. "Yes, that gun thing, you prick."

He looked at her, puzzled. "What?"

"I've been beating myself up ever since I met what was left of his family because I had a hand in his demise, and you dismiss it as that gun thing. You have no idea how frustrating that is."

He mimicked her shrug. "One less human. It's not a big deal."

"I'd like to introduce you to his orphaned daughters, then. Or his mother, one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met, and I want you to see that look that comes on her face, that sad one she gets when she remembers that she no longer has a son. And then you tell me that it's so great that another human is dead," she said, sarcasm twisting her last words.

Vash walked into the kitchen then, rubbing at his eyes. "You guys are getting a little loud," he cautioned, his voice sleepy. Then his gaze was caught by Anne's legs. All of Anne's legs. He blushed and did his best to look elsewhere in the kitchen. "Aww," he commented as he saw the plant. "I love geraniums. They were Rem's favorite flower, you know."

"I know. I bought them because they made me think of you," she said simply. She carefully didn't say that in the language of flowers they meant folly. Just because that was another reason she thought of him when she saw the plant didn't mean it was polite to say so. "There are donuts in a box by the refrigerator," she continued.

Vash's eyes lit up and he dove for the box as if someone was trying to beat him to it. Tearing the cover off, he reverently lifted a glazed confection, his eyes glittering as he examined it before shoving it gleefully in his mouth. Chewing happily, he turned to the two and asked, "So, when do we leave?"

"We don't," they replied in unison, Anne simply, and Knives with a large degree of asperity.

"She's staying," Knives expounded after seeing his brother's slightly puzzled expression.

"I have a job," she explained simply. "And it's not one I can really run away from."

"Oh." He swallowed. "So…" He looked puzzled.

"So we're moving in," Knives told him, his scowl deepening on his face. "To keep little Miss Optimistic here alive long enough for me to say I-told-you-so."