-::: Disclaimer:::- I neither own nor created Trigun so I am not entitled to any copyright on the characters and story that are thus a part of that show but as a fan I make up my own episodes.

-::: A/N:::- Sorry if the first chapter was short and lacked of everything. Hopefully it will get better.

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Dream of the December Orphans

Chapter 2.

An Orphanage. A Sanctuary.

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{{When I was 10 Wolfwood brought me here, to his orphanage, 300 isles from the town of December. I was nearly dead when he got me here. I was in really bad shape; bruises everywhere, cuts, scraps, burns, and those were just the ones that my clothes didn't cover. I was unconscious most of the trip but every so often I'd wake to see this man I didn't know tending to my wounds and then pass out once more. When I finally woke I was in a bed with bandages all over my body, I looked like a mummy who had got its butt kicked.

Back then I didn't trust anyone not even a guy dressed like a priest, especially guys dressed like priest who took little girls out into the middle of the desert.

For three long days and nights I wouldn't say a word I wouldn't eat or drink and I barely slept all I did was watch, patiently, I watched.

There were others here I could hear them running around laughing and talking they seemed happy and Wolfwood wasn't hurting them as far as I could tell. Then on the third day he came to me in this room.

I know that you aren't sleeping,' He said leaning against this very windowsill, the morning light washing over his shoulder as he lit a cigarette. Hope you don't mind. My name is Nicholas D. Wolfwood and you don't have anything to be afraid of here this is a sanctuary and I am a servant of God.'

He was so casual and yet assuring in his speech, but I still didn't trust that. Many a devil is persuasive with words and looks. I sat up then and plainly told him, You are no Priest.'

He was a bit shocked and asked calmly, What makes you say that?'

Because, Wolfwood you are no Priest. If you were, you'd take my confession before you'd persuade me to stay.'

You're a strange one you know?' he said coming closer towards me. I don't mean to offend but you don't act like most children.'

What do you want from me?' I had asked simply. I didn't like the fact that he was beginning to seems kind in my eyes.

Well a name would be nice, I told you mine,' he said looking straight into my eyes.

I had sat there in that bed thinking of what to do then without warning I attacked him. I had hid a knife under myself the night before and then at that moment I held that knife at his heart and screamed in a roaring tone for a ten-year-old girl, What do you want from me?!'

He looked right into my eyes and simply said 'your name and to help you.'

I was floored within by his answer because I knew it to be the truth and I knew that at that very moment he could kill me and not even blink. But still I held the knife to his heart I wasn't scared to kill him, 'You are not a Priest so you can't save my soul and my body is already gone.' I didn't have to try and lace my words with venom because they were real.

He looked at me and told me that he could help me that I could stay here and that it was safe, that I didn't have to fight anymore, that no one would hurt me here, that it was a sanctuary for children like myself, 'for Orphans like us'.

I looked into his eyes and told him that we weren't Orphans we were murders I asked him how could a murderer save another murderer from herself.

He told me that I wasn't a murderer because if I were I would have put the knife through his heart instead of talking of Priest to save my soul.

I became infuriated and wanted so badly to prove him wrong so I pushed the blade into his skin but I couldn't bring myself to finish him, I couldn't stab him. I screamed and stabbed the knife into the wall next to his head. I couldn't kill him. I saw that he was a good man and did want to help me but I felt that no one could save me.

He consoled me and told me that he would here my confession and if I wanted to stay then I could.

I was shocked. This man would let me stay after I had tried to kill him.

He sat with me on the floor and heard my confession. I told him that I was a sinner and impure and not worthy of heavens gates.

He told me that I was still a child of God, that sometimes it is okay to commit a sin and if I truly was sorry for what I had done and wanted forgiveness then I would receive it. He told me that it was not to late for my soul.

I told him my name was Dream and he told me that he had never met a girl named Dream and never a girl with such commanding eyes who was so young. I told him that I never met anyone who wanted to help me and not hurt me.

He told me he had started this place to save children from having a childhood like his and from ending up with blood on their hands like he had. He would take children from all around who had no one to look after them and whose families had no way of caring for them. He brought kids so far out because this was the only place he had and it was the safest place for kids, away from violence and death and unhappiness. And that I was welcome to stay.

One day, after I had gotten better, he showed me a secret. It was a beautiful garden hidden behind the chapel's walls and completely secret. It was so peaceful and in a way sad. He told me his secrets and I finally told him mine and we sat there in the small wonder of the garden and stared at one another knowing that we were the same and yet different and then Nicholas did something I hadn't seen a man do since I had killed one, he cried. He looked at me and cried because he knew what I didn't understand. I knew I had committed a haness sin and still held the power and will to do it again and again but he knew something else something more heart breaking and yet he didn't tell me what.

He only told that I was different but like him.

He was right when he said that i was different and he even treated me as such. He knew there was no point in hiding things from me because somehow I always knew. He told me the complete truth even tough I had never told him everything about me. He trusted me because I was more like him than anyone else, but because of that he feared for me more than the others. I wasn't normal but he loved me despite that, he cared for me even though he knew that he could never save me.

I stayed at the Orphanage caring for things while he was gone and waiting for him to return. He would never miss a birthday. He would always tell me of the world and that I must never let myself fall prey to its evils and to the darkness I felt. He told me that love is always there and that God loved all Orphans.

He loved the Orphans and they loved him unconditionally, except for me. I loved him with respect and honor and all of my heart because I could see who he really was and that everything he told me was true.

That was all nearly six years ago and a lot has changed since then and will never be the same.

A birthday is coming and Nicholas won't be home for this one or any other that will follow.

I must leave the haven I love to find redemption for what I am about to do.}}

Dream looked at the kids sleeping in her bed one last time as she left the room. She walked silently down the dark hall and into Nick's room, the 17 year old boy lay spread across his bed tangled in his white sheets his dark hair a mess as usual and his face it's normal odd fierce friendly mix she knew the only reason she felt anything towards the young man was because he resembled the only man she loved and could never have. She felt pity for him that he cared for her because she could never really care for him. She placed her bag outside the door in the hall and went inside.

"Nick," she called gently, her voice a soft warm graceful sound that all at the home were used to hearing.

The young man only smiled in his slumber as she called to him.

"Nick," she called once more putting her hand on his bare shoulder. He rolled over revealing his elaborate tattoo spread across his back. It was a scene of a man in a blossoming field of flowers and the goddess of night standing over him under the night sky and a waning crescent moon.

Dream didn't like the image because it tied so closely to her, from the sleeping man to the blooming Lilies he lay on, It seemed like a scene that spook volumes on her life. She leaned down and shook the sleeping young man until he woke with a stir.

"What?!" he asked looking around until he fixed onto Dream's face and sat up. "Dream what is it?" he asked slipping on his shirt as he did so.

"Something's happened, I have to go away for a while," she told him standing up again. "Tell Laura I've gone to Rivet for confession and council."

"What happened?" He asked staring at the girls calm near serene face.

"I have to go," Dream said turning away from the now wide-awake young man.

"There isn't anything in Rivet, Dream,"Nick said earnestly stareing at the girl's back as she walked out of the room.

"Yes, but there is a Chapel,"she said snatching up her bag and countinuing down the hall and stairs.

Dream walked onto the long porch and looked out to the surrounding lands. She stepped out from the annying and into the red morning sun she knew what had to be done and she knew what the cost would be. Walked to Nicholas's chapel, opened the heavy door and went inside. She went up to the alter and dropped her rosary into the holly water and prayed a hollow prayer to God.

Taking her Rosary she left the small church and bid a silent farewell to her home and the family she had somehow become a part of, then she saddled her Thomas and left the Orphanage behind her and rode into the red dawn.