--Thinkingpleasereviewthinking--: Means peoples' thoughts.
(Talkingpleasereviewtalking): Means the twins are talking in their minds.
Disclaimer: see last chapter(s)
Chapter 13.
One of the men aiming his gun at Knives whispered to the unarmed bearded man beside him. He turned back to Knives when he was done talking. "You're under arrest for causing a raucous outside the hospital. You've disturbed the peace and—"
"Don't make me laugh!" Knives scoffed. "If you want me out of here peacefully, if there is such a word, then send a doctor inside. I'm not leaving otherwise." He further threatened to harm them if they didn't.
Ignoring their protests, Knives sauntered back into the hospital and waited in a chair. A man in his mid-thirties made his way to the front of the building.
"Cotcher, what the heck do you think you are doing? If you go in there and help them, I'll arrest you too." The chief threatened.
Thaddeus Cotcher swore at him under his breath. "What do I have to lose anyway? You already fired me, so I'm of no help to you whatsoever. Perhaps I can benefit someone who'll appreciate my work." They said nothing further and he yanked open the door, wondering if he was making a mistake.
Milly stood beside the front desk and looked on at the man who stepped through the door. His clothes were mostly black and he had a toothpick in his mouth. She knew it wasn't Wolfwood, but she could dream.
"Hi, I'm Milly, what's your name?" She smiled brightly at him.
He jumped in the air. "Aie! Don't DO that, girl, you scared the crap outta' me!"
That set her off giggling. Knives tapped his foot and decided they could do without intros. "You, come on. Are you a doctor?"
"Yep, I'm here because nobody else wanted to come."
"Good, follow me."
"So what's your name?" Milly asked again.
"My name is Thaddeus Otegonudonolahryn Cotcher. Just call me Cotcher though." He grinned at her. She sure was tall. He wondered if she and the man were related somehow because of their height. She was much nicer, however.
"Okay, Mr. Cotcher, nice to meet you."
Knives groaned loudly. "Not another one." He turned into the room and pulled the doctor along with him.
"I can't believe you got someone to come! Who in their right mind would do it?" Meryl wondered.
"Let him sit down." Knives commanded and turned to Cotcher. "Find out what's wrong with him and fix him up. It's taking him too long on his own."
"Uh, ok. I have to take blood samples and run a few tests..." he talked on.
"Maybe this was a bad idea." Knives thought out loud. "Forget the tests; we know what's wrong with him. Just do what you're supposed to do."
"That is what he's supposed to do." Meryl pointed out. "Haven't you ever been in a hospital before, Knives?"
Before he could answer, Cotcher snickered and had to stifle his laughter. Knives shot him a deadly warning look and raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"
Cotcher stopped immediately. "Nothing really," he averted his gaze and went back to the subject at hand. "Right, so I have to know what's wrong with him before I can do anything. I suppose he won't need any testing..."
"Mr. Knives sh—" Milly tried to explain, but Meryl clamped a hand over her mouth.
"He was only shot a few times." Knives said it as if it weren't a big deal.
Cotcher scratched an invisible itch on the back of his head. This would take a while. –I'm in a room full of weirdoes! A couple of cute ones, so maybe it's not all that bad. –
The sound of ripping tape and the feeling of someone messing with his leg woke Vash up. He screamed in his head from the pain. Knives head shot up. "STOP!" He yelled.
Cotcher looked up and literally dropped what he was doing. "What? What's wrong?"
"You're hurting him. Find another way."
"There is no other way! I've already got the bullet in sight and I can't quit. How do you know it's hurting him? He's fast asleep."
Knives walked over and picked him up by his shirt collar. He stared menacingly into his eyes. "Do something about it before I snap your neck in half." Cotcher quickly put some medicine over the open wound.
Vash's breathing sped up as he tried not to yell or move. A moan escaped his lips. Meryl looked to see if his eyes were open again, but they weren't.
(Calm down, he's just removing another bullet.) Knives said.
('Another' bullet?)
Cotcher finished and began on the one in his side. He took out the one in his foot before he woke up. "This might be the hardest one. Whoever shot him sure knew what they were doing."
"Why not just leave them in?" Knives asked.
Cotcher shook his head. "It has a high chance of getting infected and he could die from that. How long has he gone without professional treatment?" He had an eerie thought. If the man didn't make it, would they blame the doctor?
"Over two weeks," Milly answered.
"TWO WEEKS?? How can he still be alive? That's almost impossible."
"Unlike you humans—"Knives was interrupted by Meryl
"He's just lucky that way, I guess." She said. Cotcher just dropped the subject.
Milly poked Meryl in the arm and whispered, "Knives got shot too. Does that mean...?"
Meryl stared at Knives. How was it that he was up walking while Vash lay in bed unable to move? She'd find out when the doctor was out of earshot. "Don't worry, Milly, he's pretty tough, wouldn't you agree?" The big girl nodded her head confidently.
Vash was trying hard to relax, but it was difficult because of all the silence. He needed to get someone talking to distract him. Or a donut: that always helped. When was the last time he had one of those precious wonders?
"What happened to Milly's letter? I was supposed to give it to her...keep talking please." He said.
"He wants us to distract him." Meryl guessed.
Cotcher didn't get it though. "Just what I need. Go ahead: distract the doctor!" –AHH! Look at all these scars! What in the world happened to him?? –
Meryl whapped him over the head. "Not you, him." She pointed to Vash.
"You never got to read the letter, did you? Well, Big Sis said she met you and Knives in January..." she began talking so much that everyone opted to have a pair of earplugs! It didn't bother Vash though. He felt like he hadn't been around his friends in a long time.
--I haven't seen them since I went to fight Knives. At least, that's what I remember. – Vash told Knives he was going back to sleep.
"...But then I heard this joke from a shopping center..." Milly was still going.
--How does she get from her family to a retarded joke at a grocery? – Knives mused to himself. He soon grew sick of it even with the earplugs. "Enough talking, he's asleep now! Leave and find something else to do."
Meryl saw Milly stand up. She pulled her earplugs out and said, "Just where do you think you're going?"
Milly smiled. "Knives is sending me to make dinner. I'm sure everyone's pretty hungry by now. Knives, you're so thoughtful!" She enthused.
Knives' eye twitched. –THOUGHTFUL!!??!!?? – He lunged for her, but she saw it coming and scrambled through the door closing it behind her.
Meryl fumed. "Knock it off! That's how she is: she doesn't know how wretched you really are. By-the-way, you got shot too, am I right?"
He had closed his eyes, but now stole a glance at her through the corner of his right eye. He would never admit to it. He closed his eye again.
"I see. We sure didn't touch the bullets, so is he going to have to operate on you as well?" Meryl arched her eyebrow in question.
It struck a nerve or something, because he got up and left the room slamming the door behind him. –He acts like a human to me. I just don't get it. – Meryl shook her head and decided to rest now that everything seemed so peaceful.
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Lunis: LOL. Sorry, I should have mentioned that I looked at your bio. OMG, the website looks so coooooool!! I gotta' ask permission to go on: that would be so awesome!!! Glad you like my story. :)
Um, this looks like it's a long chapter, and even so, I had to edit a few things out of it. They weren't necessary anyway. Next one will probably be up sometime next week.