A/N: If you haven't read theOtau.com's article about Wolfwood and Milly, please do. You can find it at . Also this has spoilers GALORE!!!! Just warning you! ;P Read and Review!
"Wolfwood," I said as I woke up. I had another dream about him. I always had dreams about him.
I go out of bed and went to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. How long would I have these dreams? Each night it was different. Last night I dreamt about us being in a bar. We were sitting across from each other, playing chess.
"Its your move," he said, leaning back and taking a sip of his drink.
I had looked at the bored for a moment. Then I smiled and moved my piece. "Check mate!"
"Wah!" He exclaimed and looked at the board, and then he too smiled. "Milly, you never cease to amaze me."
After that we went outside and walked down the middle of the street. It was dark and slightly chilly. The wind blew and tossed his dark hair in front of his eyes. He held my hand. If felt warm and was comforting.
"I'm sorry about everything. I didn't mean to leave you. If I could I would change everything." He confessed. He didn't have to say those things to me. Both him and I knew it.
Meryl and Vash came walking by, arm and arm, laughing. "Glad to see you among the living," Vash joked. Meryl playfully hit him and waved good-bye.
We stopped, and he turned and kissed me, then walked into a church. "Give the boy my love," he said as he entered it. That's when I woke up.
I went to a room next to mine. Meryl wasn't in it. Ever since Vash had gone off to find his brother, Knives, she's been taking up leads on him. It was still her job to make sure he didn't get into any trouble. Though she had to go without me now. Meryl said it just wasn't the same.
We saw him, years ago, with his brother on over his shoulder. "Don't follow me," he told us. "I need time to get through to Knives." I haven't seen him since. Meryl says she has, and I believe her.
I go to the other room next to mine. I slowly open the door. In the bed, snuggled in his covers is a little boy. "Andrew," I call to him. "Its time to get up." The boy, who is five years old, open's his eyes. Just like his father's, dark blue. His hair is black too.
"Mama, is it time already?"
"Yes, silly, now get dressed and I'll make us some breakfast."
Andrew jumps out of bed. "Yea!"
So I go down stairs, humming a song. Despite how I felt before, seeing Andrew has already brightened my day. "I think we'll have eggs, toast, and some bacon," I tell myself. Yes, that sounds delicious indeed.
"Mama," Andrew says as he comes into the kitchen. "What are these?" He fingered two cross cufflinks on the table.
I'm startled to see them. I myself have never seen them in all these years. But I'm not going to lie to my son. "Those were you father's. Nicholas D. Wolfwood's. He was priest remember, and an excellent gunman."
Andrew looks at them in awe. "Can I wear them next time we go to church?"
I smile, "Of course! Now, eat your breakfast or you'll be late for school and I'll be late for work." I put his plate in front of him, and he gobbled it down.
After walking Andrew to school I head off to work. I think I'm going to be on time today. And I am!
My boss eyes me as I go behind my desk. He's my new boss at the insurance agency, but he seems like an ok guy.
"Thompson," he says as he comes over to me. I smile at him.
"I'm not late, Mr. Jones."
"I know that," he says. "There some one to see you in my office. He says he wants to speak to you alone.
I stand up. This was interesting. Mr. Jones didn't say it was a client or anything. Hmm. I wonder who it is?
I open Mr. Jones office door. There is somebody sitting in his high back chair. Their face away from me, so I can't tell whom it is. I close the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Jones said you wanted to see me."
The chair spun around to revile a very familiar face. "Mr. Vash!" I cried as he stood up. I ran over to him a hugged him.
"Hey, one of my favorite insurance girls!" He said and hugged me back. "Ack!" he said. "I can't breathe!"
"Heh! Sorry Mr. Vash, it's just that I haven't seen you in so long. Is Meryl with you?"
"Meryl? I haven't seen her in a long time. Nope, can't say that's see with me. Is she around, I'd like to say hi to her."
"No, she looking for you. She's still had the same job we had, making sure you don't get into trouble. Its just that I can't go with her anymore."
Vash raised an eyebrow. "Oh, she's still following me? Haven't seen her if she has. And why can't you go with her? I thought you two came as a pair."
I laughed. "You're funny. I can't go because I have a son. He's five years old."
His face lit up. "Well, congratulations! What's his name?"
I smiled widely. "Andrew Nicholas Wolfwood."
He gave him a shocked look. "Wolfwood was his father? I didn't even know you were pregnant with his kid."
I nodded. "Yes, I was. He knew it too." The sad memory of his death came back to me.
"I'm sorry," Vash said and put a hand on my shoulder. "If I had known I wouldn't have let him fight at all."
"Its ok Mr. Vash," I said fighting back the tears. "Andrew knows his father through me. There are times when I wish he were around. It would have been nice."
"I'm sorry," he said again. Then he smiled. "Well, did you get my present?"
"Present?"
"Yes, I left Wolfwood's cuff links on you kitchen table. I thought you should have them, since you gave me his gun."
"Oh, yes, I got them. Actually Andrew found them. He wants to wear them next time we go to church. Thank you."
Vash smiled. "Good. Now lets get something to eat and we can talk some more."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Vash, I can't go. I just got to work. If I leave early it will be almost as bad as me being late."
"Don't worry about. All I had to do was tell your boss that I was Vash the Stampede and you had the whole day off. With no treat of being fired."
So Mr. Vash I went to the local bar. He ordered donuts and a drink. I was still full from breakfast and just ordered a glass of water.
"Still carry around your stungun?" He asked in between bites of his donuts.
I nodded and smiled. "Sure do!"
He laughed. "Glad to hear it. No scene in you carrying anything smaller when just a girl like you holding a stungun will scare men off."
"You're silly, Mr. Vash."
After his donut meal we went back to my house. It a small little place. Three bedrooms upstairs with a bathroom, downstairs was den, living/family room and the kitchen. It met our needs just fine.
"Is this Andrew?" Vash asked, looking at a picture of the three of us.
"Yes, that was when he was four. He was rather hyper before we took the picture. You can't see it, but Meryl was holding his legs down and I my hand on his shoulder was also to help keep him still."
Vash laughed. "Spirited kid then?"
"Yes, and smart too. He's also very kind. Brings home sometimes his friends that don't always have food."
"Not only does he look just like Wolfwood, he acts like him too." Vash shook his head. "When is the little tyke coming home?"
"He'll be home around noon for lunch, then off back to school till two. I usually get lunch around the same time he does so I can fix him a sandwich or whatever he wants." I had to ask. Just to make sure things were safe. "So where is your brother Mr. Vash?"
"He's safe. Won't hurt no one for a while."
"You didn't . . . he's not dead is he?" I asked. I knew Vash wouldn't kill anyone if he could help it. He just wasn't that kind of man.
Vash shook his head. "No. He's somewhere safe." I could tell he really didn't want to talk about it. So I let the subject drop. "Where did you say Meryl went?"
I lead him over to the kitchen table to sit down. To the kitchen seemed more of a friendly place than the family room. It was brighter too. "Meryl went looking for you. She heard you were in a town called Little Oklahoma. If she doesn't find you there she'll be back here. She says she has seen you a couple of times, though she hasn't approached you. I think she's scared you one remember her. Like always she's just making sure you don't get into trouble. Though I haven't heard anything lately about Vash the Stampede getting into trouble."
"Yeah, been lying low for a while. I think I might have seen her a couple of times. Wish I knew she was following me. Though I though I told her not to follow me."
"Well, you told us not to follow you. You never said anything about us going by ourselves to follow you. You left a loophole, Mr. Vash, and any good insurance agent knows how to spot one."
Vash laughed, "You two are the best, so you would spot it."
We talked like that for a while. I talk all about Andrew. And what mother wouldn't talk about their only son? Told him how at certain times when saw a homeless child he'd get the same expression as his father. I would usually give Andrew a little box full of goodies to give the kid. I also said I wasn't going to let him smoke like Nicholas. I told Vash about how in the past six years Meryl had been keeping tabs on him. Though she only observed him from afar and asked very few questions about him. He heard all about my desk job at the insurance agency.
In return Vash told me how he'd been doing. Staying for a year or two in a town, then moving again. He didn't say anything about his brother, and I didn't push him to. The last town he was in was called Reno and he'd masqueraded as a repairman there. "It was fun trying to fix cars. I think most of it was because of dumb luck," he joked. And in deed, on his bus ride here, he stopped in Little Oklahoma.
The front door slammed open. "Milly! Jones said you probably here!" Meryl said.
"In the kitchen Meryl!" I called out to her.
"Ugh! Can you believe the bus broke down on my way to Little Oklahoma? I was sure Vash was there too." We listen as she opened in the coat closet. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll find that buffoon again. He's always doing something, though not on the grand scale that he used to." She came towards the kitchen. "So were late again or-" She stopped mid sentence as she saw who was in the kitchen with me. Vash had stood up to greet here. I couldn't help but smiled.
"My other favorite insurance girl, glad to see you again."
"Vash?" she asked.
"What, don't recognize me? Didn't know I changed that much."
Tears weld up in her as she hugged him. "Its you, really you."
He hugged her back. "In the flesh! The one and only Vash. Humanoid Typhoon at you service." He grinned down at her.
Meryl pulled back and smacked his arm. "The least you could to was write!"
"Hey! You were following me. You could have come up and chatted." He retorted back.
I stood up in between the two. "Now, now. No fighting. This should be a happy occasion."
"She's right," he said. "No fighting. I came to visit. She was just telling me that the boy in the picture is her and Wolfwood's child, Andrew."
"Speaking of which," I said. "He should be coming home for lunch and moment now."
*~*~*~*
Andrew said good-bye to his friends, as they headed in the opposite for home. He walked under the shades of the buildings.
He was kicking a rock when he saw a many sitting in between two buildings. He fingered the cookie in his pocket. His teacher had given it to him after he had gotten everything correct on his spelling test. "Hey, mister, are you ok?" He looked a little hungry to Andrew.
The guys blew smoke from his cigarette. "Yeah, kid, I'm fine." Came out of the shadows a little bit. He was clad mainly in black; save for the white shirt he wore under neither. Sunglasses were over his eyes. "Aren't you Milly Thompson's boy?"
Andrew smiled and nodded. "Yup! Andrew Wolfwood. That was my dad's last name," the five year old said proudly.
The guy raised an eyebrow and stood up. "Didn't you mother ever teach you never to talk to strangers?"
Andrew tilted his head to the side and looked up at the man. "Yes, but you're not strange." The man laughed. "Beside, Mama also taught me to help those in need. You looked in need, mister. Guess you are though."
The man let smoke out of his mouth again. "You mother taught that?"
"Yes. She also said smoking was bad for you," Andrew replied knowingly.
He took the cigarette out from his mouth and snuffed it out with his shoe. "You know cigarettes are bad for the baby, darling," he said.
"What?" Andrew asked.
He shook his head. "Nothing. Here, Andrew, I want you to have these. Maybe when you're older I'll give you something else." He took off his sunglasses to relieve eyes the same color as the boys. The man handed the sunglasses to him.
The boy took them and put them on. "There to big," he said catch them before they fell off his face.
He ruffled Andrew's hair. "Don't worry, you'll grow into them." He turned and started to walk down the small alley.
"Thanks mister," Andrew said. "I don't know you name though!"
He stopped and turned around. "Its Nick. Oh, tell your mom and Vash I said hi, ok?"
Andrew nodded. He didn't know a Vash, but his mom might. His stomach growled. He was late for lunch and decided to run home.
*~*~*~*
"Mama! I'm home!" I heard Andrew say as he came into the house. He headed straight for the kitchen. He came over to where I was making his sandwich and gave me a hug.
"Hi Andrew," Meryl said, sitting next to Vash.
"Auntie Meryl," he said and gave her hug.
"What about me?" Vash asked.
Andrew looked at him for moment then turned to me. "Mama, who's he?"
"Andrew, I'd like you to meet Mr. Vash. He's a friend of you Auntie and mine."
He walked to Vash and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Mr. Vash." What a little gentleman.
"You can call me Uncle Vash, or just Vash will do!" He said as he gave him hug, startling him for a little bit.
"Over here Andrew," I said and put his sandwich down in front of the empty seat next to Vash.
He sat down and was about to take a bite when he pulled out a cookie from pocket. "Mama, I'm going to save this for later. I was going to give it to a homeless man, but he said he wasn't hungry."
"Oh, ok." I took the cookie and put it in the cookie jar.
"Yeah, he was real nice. He gave me these sunglasses. Said I can grow into them." He put the sunglasses on the table.
I looked at them in shock. This was the second time today something of Wolfwood's had appeared on this table. Vash and Meryl had also recognized them.
"What did this man look like, Andrew?" Vash asked.
Andrew swallowed his bite. "He was tall, wore mainly black, had black hair. He was smoking but put it out after I told him Mama said it was bad."
Meryl looked at me. "You don't think," she began then stopped. I didn't know what to think.
"He also said that he said hi to you, Mama, and Vash." He looked at Vash. "He must have known you were in town, 'cause I sure didn't!"
I turned away from the table. For a fleet moment I though I caught a glimpse of Wolfwood outside, riding his motorcycle in the distance. I shook my head. It had to be my imagination. He was dead.
Andrew continued on. "He also said that he might be back when I'm older. He was really nice. Oh, and his name was Nick. Kind of sound like Nicholas, like my middle name, like my dad's name."
