Chapter Four
A Father's Trust

A/N: Hey guys! Here's some notes that I probably should have put at the beginning of the first chapter of this monster, but in all honesty I didn't think about them until now.

For instance, I've been asked what the timeline for this fic is, and which world does it take place in, the anime or the manga. Well, to be honest, this story takes place in both worlds, and yet, at the same time, it takes place in neither world. I guess you could say this is a completly Alternate Universe fic, even though I'm doing all I can to remain true to the Trigun world and rules; not to mention characterization. The reason I say it takes place in both worlds, though, is because I'll be making references occasionally to things that have happened in both the manga and anime. For example, when Vash is musing about Meryl having shot a person for him (I actually think I put down bounty hunter) in one of the earlier chapters, that's a vague reference to tankoubun five of Trigun Maximum where Meryl shoots Legato and manages to wing his face (why couldn't that bullet have been an inch more to the left? Drat).

There will also be references in future chapters way on down the road to the manga situations therein. I'll try to have a small note at the end of those chapters explaining where the reference comes from. If you still want a definant estimation of when this story takes place, I'd say roughly after tankoubun five of Trigun Maximum, and before episode 20 of the anime.

Let's see, oh yeah, I'm going to address this issue before I get yelled at for it (I'm surprised I haven't been yelled at yet, wow!). I'm well aware of the fact that Trigun is supposed to be an English speaking world (according to Nightow, and I'm NOT going to argue). The reason I continue to use a smattering of Japanese terms like the honorific "-san" and Milly's "senpai" and "Bokoushi-san" is because while I write these characters, they are speaking in their Japanese voices, and it messes up the cadence of their voices when I try to write Mr., Ma'am, or Mr. Priest when that's not what I hear them saying in my head. I am, however, trying to keep the Japense terms and phrases to a bare minimum. I will try to cover the words that I use in a glossary at the end of each chapter. It drives me nuts when people put in whole sentances in Japanese in their fics and then don't translate them for us at the end. Like I'm supposed to know what they're saying.

As always, I do not own Trigun and any of it's characters. I do own all the characters that aren't members of Nightow's world such as Meryl's family, ect. Oh, but I do own a Kuroneko-sama lapel pin and a Vash character lapel pin. >^_^

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Meryl listened to the steady tick-tick-tick of the grandfather clock that stood in the main hallway off the living room as everyone waited silently for Lucy to speak. Lucy took several swallows of water from her glass before setting it carefully back on the tray, and looking up to meet Meryl's eyes.

"Thank you for coming as fast as you could, Meryl-oneechan," Lucy said her eyes suddenly very bright.

"Of course I would come!" Meryl said quickly, knowing by that look that Lucy was fighting off a sudden surge of tears. "I'm just glad the letter found me. Tell me, what's happened?"

Lucy took a deep breath, and then let the air shudder out of her. She glanced at Meryl, then around the room, her eyes lighting on each one of the rest of the four in turn, before returning to Meryl. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It was as if she were struggling for the right words.

"Lucy," Meryl said softly, "Just tell me what happened. Please."

Lucy nodded. "Nobody knows what happened," she began, and Meryl gripped her hands tightly together on her lap. "A few months ago Dad began to feel tired all the time. He began to let Randy-niisan and Ron-niichan take on more and more of the Geo Plant responsibility, and contented himself with taking care of the Thomas herd and overseeing the breeding program. Gradually, though, even that became too much for him, and he began to keep to the house. It's only been the past week or so that he's taken to staying in his bed. It's almost like he's suddenly become a very old man all at once. The doctors are baffled, and nothing anyone does helps."

Lucy paused, noticing that Meryl's hands had tightened until her knuckles had turned white. Vash had also noticed the small movement out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't take his attention from Lucy's face. He could tell that she was holding something back, something she didn't want to tell Meryl.

"Go on," Vash said softly, causing everyone to glance at him. Lucy fidgeted for a second, then said, "That's not the worst of it."

"What?" Meryl asked, startled.

"Mack has the town believing that Dad's sudden illness is Val's fault," Lucy said in a rush.

"WHAT?!" Meryl roared, leaping to her feet and startling Vash and Wolfwood so badly that they spilled half of their water in their laps.

"Just what I needed," Wolfwood muttered, "A cold shower."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT SNOT-FACED SON OF A . . .."

"MERYL!" Lucy cut her off, glancing at the rest of the group, who were all staring at Meryl, their jaws hanging level with their knees. Meryl growled something unintelligable, and sat down, her jaw clenching and unclenching in a show of anger that no one in the room, aside from, perhaps, Lucy, had ever seen before.

"What," she snarled out, her teeth clenched, "Does Mr. Rich Boy Mack Johnson think he's going to accomplish by blaming Val for whatever is wrong with Dad?"

"Um," Wolfwood began, only to be shot a dirty look by Meryl.

"You know that Mack's father is dead, right?" Lucy asked.

"Didn't he die last year?" Meryl asked.

"Yes. Well, since becoming the head of the family, Mack's gotten much much worse than what he used to be. He thinks that spreading the rumor about Val being the cause of Dad's illness will cause the people of Key Town to leave. He'll snap up the land rights, and knowing the way he thinks, he'll probably figure that'll be enough to make us want to sell the Geo Plant. He knows how much we hated to have to drive into Septembre for all of our supplies. That's what I figure, at least."

"No," Meryl murmured, almost to herself. "That just doesn't feel right. I have a feeling there's something else going on, and knowing Mack I'm sure it isn't good."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because the guy came onto you in high school?" Lucy asked, earning another dirty look from Meryl.

Vash blinked when he heard that, and glanced sideways at Meryl. Before he could say, or really think anything, Wolfwood spoke up. "Who's Mack?"

"He's the local rich boy," Meryl replied, her voice little more than a snarl. "His father owned and ran the bank in Key Town, which means Mack now owns a lot of the mortgages on the property around here. He has a nasty disposition, thinks everything is his for the taking . . . "

"And has the hots for Meryl-oneechan!" Lucy finished with a teasing grin tossed at her sister.

Meryl twitched. "He does not 'have the hots' for me, Lucy."

"Oh yeah?" Lucy challenged, a teasing glint appearing in her eye.

"Drop it, Lucy," Meryl said sternly.

"Who's Val?" Vash asked, wanting to change the subject before a fight could begin between the two siblings. He also wanted to turn the topic away from Mack, as well. All this talk about a man having the hots for Meryl vaguely unsettled him, though he wasn't sure why. Nor did he know where the sense of relief had come from when Meryl had made it quite plain that she didn't care for Mack in any way, shape or form.

"Val's an old friend," Meryl said, then turned once again to Lucy as something in Lucy's letter once again grabbed her attention. "Lucy, what did you mean you didn't have enough money to tell me anything more in your letter?"

Lucy's face instantly switched from teasing to serious, and she glanced down at her hands. "Well, Dad has suddenly put a restriction on the house budget, and I don't know why. There's only enough money now to get enough food for the immediate family. I saved up what little was left over for a month to send that registered letter to you."

Meryl slowly sank back down into her chair, staring at Lucy. "Dad restricted the house budget? He's never done that before! And he won't tell you why?"

"No, I've asked and asked, but he says that I'm not to worry about the 'whys' just the 'how's', whatever that means."

I bet he's going to tell me the why's so that I'll be the one to worry about them, Meryl thought, gazing down at her joined hands. Her father had always done similar things when Meryl and her siblings had been growing up. Being the only two girls in the family after their mother died, Meryl and Lucy had, once Lucy had been older than seven, divided up the various house responsibilities. Randy and Ron, their younger twin brothers, had been under Lucy's care until they were old enough to start training at the Plant, and Meryl had taken over the household financial tasks, along with the household chores. Lucy helped whenever she could, but her entire day was usually taken up with keeping the twins out of trouble, leaving Meryl to do the cooking, cleaning, and book balancing once she had proved to her father that she could take over that aspect, as well.

She was pulled from her musings to hear Lucy calling her name. "What?"

"I said," Lucy grinned at her, "That I would be happy to take everyone on a tour of the ranch while you go and talk with Dad. He told that he wanted to see you when you got here."

"That sounds good," Meryl said, then added, "Make sure Vash-san stays on the other side of the Thomas fencing."

"Why do you say that?" Vash asked, looking affronted.

"Because I know you and Thomases don't mix," Meryl said flatly. "Remember what happened when you tried to ride that one that Milly and I lent you?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Vash replied, scratching the back of his head and looking sheepish.

"What's this? Something you haven't told me, Tongari?" Wolfwood asked, earning a glare from Vash.

"I can tell you about it on the tour, Boukushi-san!" Milly volunteered, standing up.

"Um, I'd rather you didn't," Vash said, sounding VERY sheepish and a little worried.

"But Vash-san, I'm sure Bokushi-san would love to hear about when we first met you!" Milly said with a smile.

"Bokushi-san certainly would!" Wolfwood said, smirking at Vash and standing up as well.

"Meryl-oneechan, now is probably the best time to go and see Dad," Lucy said as she gathered up the drink glasses. "He'll be waking up from his nap and wanting some coffee. You can take it in to him. Be a nice surprise for him."

"Wait a minute, you mean he doesn't know I'm here?" Meryl asked, surprised.

"Probably not. You arrived during his nap time, and nothing ever wakes him up once he gets to sleep."

Meryl nodded, then glanced at VAsh out of the corner of her eye. "Make sure you keep an eye on him," she said with a jerk of her thumb. "He has a habit of attracting trouble."

"HEY!" Vash protested loudly, while Wolfwood gave a snort of laughter.

"That's twice you've been cut down in one day. It's a new record, I think," Wolfwood quipped.

"Oh no, I've seen him get cut down at least ten times before," Milly said, then turned to Meryl. "Do you need me to stay, Senpai? I've already seen most of the ranch."

"No, you go ahead, Milly," Meryl replied, taking the tray from Lucy's hands and heading towards the kitchen. "I have a feeling Vash-san and Wolfwood-san will want to be touring the Geo Plant and the Forest, and you always did like those places best." Besides, Meryl thought, I can tell that you want to be with your Bokushi-san right now, and I must see my father alone.

"Hai!" Milly chirped, and followed Wolfwood out the door. Vash hung back a second, worriedly glancing at Meryl's retreating back before following after Milly.

Meryl turned to look out one of the kitchen window's and watched as the group followed Lucy across the yard and out the front gate. Knowning Lucy, Meryl figured that she'd head for the Forest first, then show them the Thomas corrals before heading to the Geo Plant itself. She always did like to save the most impressive part for last. And it gave the engineers at the Plant a chance to adjust themselves to the knowledge that Vash the Stampede was heading in their direction.

Sighing slightly, and wishing she were on the tour because it had been a long time since she had last seen home, she turned away from the window and walked over to the counters, browsing through the contents of the cabnets until she came across the coffee tin. While the coffee perked, she washed and put away the glasses Lucy had brought into the living room, then placed two coffee mugs, a spoon, a sugar holder, and a small cream jug on the tray. By this time the coffee had finished, and she placed the pot on the tray, then picked it up and moved out of the kitchen, past the living room, to the end of the hallway where a large oak door was shut. An oval table with some silk flowers arranged in a light blue vase was standing against the wall, and Meryl carefully placed the tray on it, before knocking gently at the closed door.

"Come in," a low, gruff voice called, and Meryl smiled a bit, a feeling of truly coming home washing through her.

She turned the door handle before picking up the tray again, then turned and walked slowly into a room that was suffused with light. Her father had opened every blind in his room in order to illuminate every corner. A large, clean-shaven man with a full head of white hair was sitting up with his back braced against the headboard of his bed, his large, slate-gray eyes staring at Meryl with a mixture of pleased surprise and love.

"Meryl!" he exclaimed, and held his arms out in welcome. Meryl carefully sat the tray down on one of the bedside tables, then walked over and was engulfed by her father's welcoming arms.

"It's so good to see you, my girl!" Joseph Stryfe said, pushing Meryl back a little so he could look at her. "You're looking wonderful!"

"Thanks Dad," Meryl replied with a warm smile as she moved the tray from the table onto his bed and began to pour the coffee.

"Did you bring that Stampede guy?" her father asked, his eyes twinkling a bit.

"I didn't bring him, Dad, that would have been unfair of me. He, Milly, and Wolfwood-san all volunteered to come with me," Meryl answered, handing her father his mug.

"Ahhh, I know that had to have eased your mind," Joseph said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"What?"

"Don't give me that innocent face," he teased. "I know you too well, remember? You probably couldn't find a substatute to take on the Vash the Stampede case and didn't know what to do about him. And if what Lucy has been telling me is true, then you probably wanted him to come along with you, correct?"

Meryl shifted uncomfortably underneath her father's gaze, squashing down the little voice in her mind, whispering that he was right. She instead turned her attention to her father, taking in all the changes in his appearance since the last time she had seen him. His eyes were still as piercing and frank as always, but the rest of his appearance had undergone a drastic change. The last time she had seen him, his jet black hair had been lightly sprinkled with gray, now the whiteness of it stood out in stark contrast with the dark brown of the headboard. Wrinkles mapped a face that was brown and leathery from years of working out in the desert conditions of the planet, but it seemed to Meryl that even more had appeared in the short time since she had last been home.

"What's happened, Dad?" she asked softly, her eyes intent upon his face.

Joseph took a sip of his coffee before he sat it carefully back down on the tray. He raised his eyes and met those of his eldest daughters. He closed his eyes briefly, gathering his thoughts, before opening them and regarding Meryl calmly.

"You're father is getting old, Meryl," he said.

Meryl snorted. "Don't give me that line. You told me you were getting old every time you had a birthday. Lucy told me that this change has been sudden, and I have a feeling that you're holding back something. I know you too well."

"That you do," Joseph sighed. "Well, I probably shouldn't try to keep it from you, you'll just drag it out of me. You always were a determined child."

"Don't try to distract me with stories from my childhood," Meryl gently admonished, giving her father a crooked grin.

"Ah, yes, and you were always hard to distract, too. What makes you such a good insurance agent, Meryl, and it's what will keep you going when things seem to be hopeless."

"Dad?" Meryl was starting to get concerned, this didn't sound like her father at all.

Joseph shook his head, and said simply, "I'm dying."

Meryl stared at her father, her eyes wide. It was like her brain was randomly shutting down in some places, and speeding up in others. A buzzing filled her ears and began to take up her entire focus. She didn't realize that she had risen to her feet and was staring down at her bed ridden father, terror and dispair warring in her expression. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"No," she whispered.

"Meryl, sit down."

"No."

"Meryl . . . "

"NO! You CAN'T be dying! You're not even sixty! It's just . . . . just. . . . ."

"MERYL!"

Meryl jerked and fell silent, her father's sharp tone penetrating the fog that had been over taking her brain and allowing her a chance to take control of her chaotic thoughts once again. Joseph sighed and shook his head.

"Meryl, I AM dying, but it's not something that's going to happen tomorrow."

"How can you be so sure?" Meryl demanded, still on her feet as she struggled to bring this situation back under control, her logical brain demanding answers that her father had.

"Because I've seen it happen many times in our family," Joseph answered, then gestured to Meryl's vacated chair. "You should sit down again."

"I don't understand," she whispered. "I don't remember any other family members having a sudden . . . age spurt."

"That's because we've taken pains to hide it from the younger members of the family. No reason for you to panic over something you can't change."

Meryl was silent for a bit, digesting what she'd been told, then said, "You're telling me now."

Joseph recognized her comment for the statement it was, and not the accusation that it could have potentially sounded like. Meryl had always been the logical, straight forward one of his four children, and he knew that stating facts like the previous one was her way of keeping control of the situation.

"Yes, I am. I knew that once I started to fall ill Lucy would write to you, and that you wouldn't take any of the standard answers we always gave you when you were children."

Meryl furrowed her brow as a few foggy childhood memories began to trickle in. She could vaguely hear her father telling her that her grandfather was going to be living in a retirement home off the Geo Plant, and much later telling her that he had died of a heart attack. She looked back at her father, and he saw the dawning comprehension on her face.

"What is it?" Meryl asked.

"To be honest, I don't know. It's something that has happened to all members of our family ever since our ancestors first made Planet Fall. My grandfather once said that he felt like something happened to our molecular make-up in cryo-sleep, something that damaged our genes and our natural aging process. We remain hale and hearty for most of our lives, and then suddenly we age ten years in under ten weeks. Our bodies eventually shut down entirely," Joseph explained.

"Is there another theory as to why this happens?" Meryl asked, feeling her control slip a little at her father's words.

Joseph was silent for a second, weighing his words, before he finally said, "I'm sure Lucy has told you the rumors that are floating around about Val."

In an instant, Meryl was once again on her feet, "If you're going to tell me that Val's behind this sudden aging, I won't believe it. It's not in their nature to so something like this!"

"Calm down, Meryl, I was only making sure that you knew of the rumors so that you wouldn't be surprised by them. No, I don't think Val is behind this, as you said, it's just not their nature to be this way. My grandfather once thought the Geo Plant had something to do with the sudden change, but the local doctor convinced him that theory was wrong," Joseph said calmly.

Meryl flushed a bit and sat back down, mentally berating herself for losing control. She was silent for several minutes as she resumed sipping at her coffee, trying to come to terms with what Joseph had told her. As her thoughts whirled around, something Lucy said earlier came back and caught her attention.

"Dad," she said softly, "Why did you put a restirction on the house budget?"

"So," Joseph said, sounding suddenly tired and for the first time, old, "Lucy told you about that, did she?"

"Yes, she did. You've never restricted the house budget before."

Joseph sighed slightly, and leaned over so that he could reach the drawer in his bedside table. He opened it up, and took a large ledger out and handed it to Meryl. Without a word she took the book from him, recognizing the old book and opened it up to the page that she wanted. What she saw caused her eyes to jerk up and she stared at her father.

"But, where has this debt come from? Last I heard the business and Plant were doing well."

"Your father is an old fool," Joseph said.

"And why do you say that?"

Joseph turned his head and gazed out the window. "About a year or so ago, a lot of the mortgages on the shops and homes in Key Town were suddenly called in for no apparant reason, and everyone came here asking my advice. Unfortunantly, there wasn't much advice that I could give them, but I didn't want to see the Johnson's succeed in driving the families of Key Town out, so I . . .," he trailed off, and Meryl got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Dad," she said softly, and Joseph jerked slightly, then fidgeted with his coverlet, sending Meryl's nervous butterflies into overdrive. Instead of answering, Joseph reached back into the drawer, and handed Meryl a folded piece of paper. With trepidation, Meryl opened it and slowly ran her widening eyes over it's contents.

"You're telling me that you took out a loan and offered up the Plant as collateral." It was more a statement than a question, but Joseph answered her.

"No, not the Plant proper. The government wouldn't allow that. It's the land the Plant is on that's the collateral," Joseph corrected.

Meryl stared at her father, and asked, "What did you do with the money?"

Joseph didn't answer. Instead, he turned his gaze back to the window, which, Meryl suddenly remembered, faced the directioin that key Town was in.

"You used it to pay off Key Town's mortgage debt," she said flatly. "When is the loan due?"

"In ten months," Joseph answered, and felt Meryl's horrified gaze. "Times have been tough and the people I helped pay the mortgage for have been unable to repay what I loaned them. That's why we're in such deep debt. I didn't plan to fall ill."

Meryl suddenly buried her face in her hands, and her shoulders began to shake. Her father glanced at her worriedly, and he grew a little alarmed when a spat of hysterical laughter escaped Meryl's lips.

"Oh Lord, this is too much!" Meryl giggled. "This is exactly like those awful old Western novels that mom used to read." Her voice began to waver between a higher and lower octave as she began to say, "You must pay the rent! But I can't pay the rent! You must pay the rent! But I can't pay the rent!"

"Meryl!" Joseph said sharply, and Meryl hiccuped slightly before lifting her head and gazing at her father. "I want you to know that I trust you."

Meryl stared at her father, feeling her world start to slip even more off-kilter with his next words. "I know you'll think of something to help pay off at least some of the debt, or at least buy us some more time to give the residents a chance to pay us what they owe. This slump in the economy is bound to end. Then we'll be able to get back on our feet financially and go from there."

Meryl couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was torn between pride that her father had so much confidence in her, and a chaotic swirl of other, more negative, emotions that were threatening to overwhelm and suffocate her. Her thoughts were in an uproar. Six months . . . . debt . . . . father's dying . . . . genetic disorder . . . . collateral . . . Val . . . Val . . .

Meryl got to her feet, her face tight with her barely contained emotions. She wanted to lash out at her father for putting her in this position, but at the same time she knew it wasn't his fault that he fell ill from this strange genetic disorder that had struck her family for generations. She carefully began to collect the coffee mugs and replaced them on the tray, and gave her father a tight smile.

"I'm going to put these in the kitchen. You look worn out from our conversation," she said softly.

Something that looked like both bitterness and regret flashed across Joseph's face, and then was gone in an instant. "You're going to see Val, aren't you?" he asked, and Meryl paused to look into her father's eyes. Seconds ticked by, the silence seeming to stretch the moment out paper-thin, only releasing when the dark-haired girl gave a small nod of her head as she slowly turned and walked out the door, pausing only to shut it behind her.

When she reached the kitchen, she sat the tray down and then ran to her room to grab the keys to the car they had rented in Septembre, and strode out the door. There was only one thought circulating in her brain. She had to get to Val.

To be continued . . . .

Terms:

Tongari - Needle-noggin'

Oneechan - Big sister

Hai - Yes. ^_^

Bokushi-san - Mr. Priest

-san - An honorific title like Mr. and Miss I just think it sounds better sometimes. ^_^

Niichan/Niisan - Big brother. The reason for the difference is because Randy is slightly older than Ron (which he likes to remind Ron at times) and this is to differentiate between the two.

Senpai - Most people are familar with this term in it's usual school use, where it translates into Upper Classman. In Milly and Meryl's case, her use of "senpai" shows us that Meryl is actually the senior partner of the M & M duo. ^_^ If I left anything out in the terms, gomen (sorry).