Chapter 4:

Eliana Stryfe sat in silence staring at the vast desert of Gunsmoke was made of as the car she rode in sped across it. Her right arm rested upon the top of the door and chin on top of that. While her left hung numbly at her side a small strip of bandage across the wound on her forearm. She found it painful, too painful to lean on. Vash sat in silence to her left every so often he would cast a glance her way. He was unsure if he was doing the right thing but it was what she had asked and he wasn't really in position to refuse since he could possibly the closest thing to family she had left.

"I'm not looking forward to Knives meeting her and finding out that she's gonna live with us. Oh he's gonna be thrilled when he finds out about this." Vash mused to himself smiling as he imagined his brothers reaction it probably would be very loud and most likely involve a very long lecture. He turned his eyes back to the desert in front of him and away from his young charge. As the car skimmed the top of a sand dune he spotted a small town nearby, just below the horizon. Maple if he remembered correctly.

"We're about halfway if your interested" Vash said cheerily trying to raise the somber mood in the car. "We can stop and get some food if you like."

"Nah, I'm not hungry you can if you want to though." Eliana answered not looking back at him, in fact she hadn't looked at him since they had left. Vash was becoming increasingly worried about her.

"Would you mind, I'd love a bag of doughnuts about now." He began salivating at the thought of the round pastries. Eliana shook her had to say that she didn't mind. The rest of the ride she stayed quiet. It was nearing noon when the car entered the town. It was smaller than Vash had thought being made up of roughly sixty buildings. He slowed the car to a stop in a back street just off the main route through the town.

"Wait here okay, I'll be back soon." He said hopping down from the car. Just before he walked off Vash looked back at Eliana.

"You sure you don't want anything." She just shook her head slowly. Vash nodded in reply and walked into the town. Eliana opened the car door and standing up, stepped onto the footplate that ran along the side of the car. She then turned opened the door to the backseat and climbed into it. Shutting the door behind her she laid down on the back seat. She decided she needed to lay down she hadn't slept the previous night, and her whole body ached. She turned onto her side and pulled her legs up a little to get more comfortable. She closed her eyes and cast her mind back over the last twenty four hours.

She sat alone in the hospital corridor, she sat staring down at her blood covered palms. The some of blood had dried into the small lines in her skin. Her eyes welled with tears and she began to cry. The tears ran down her cheeks and splashed onto her palms wetting the blood and forming tiny pools of vaguely red liquid. At that point time seemed irrelevant, it seemed to drift away vision narrowed to her hands. People walked back and forth in front of her but not one spoke to her, they barley even looked at her. A pathetic looking wretch of teenage girl, Clothes, skin and long hair partially reddened with blood. Yellow and dark blue bruises had begun to show on her arms and she could feel them on her back.

She was unaware of when Vash had found her. He just seemed to appear from out of the mist of her own world. He sat down beside her and said something which at first she didn't hear. To her it sounded like he was talking to her though a thick pane of glass. She slowly turned to look at him. He looked tired and so much older to her. His eyes hidden behind his glasses. He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed a little. Not painfully but enough to know he was there. She reached up and with her fore arm dried her eyes.

"She'll live." She didn't reply but looked somberly at him. Her body loosened as a portion of the worry she was feeling slipped away.

"Its bad though. She lost so much blood." The fact that both their clothes were stained with Meryl's blood proved that. "The doctors don't know if she'll wake up." He said his voice quivering.

"Oh god." Eliana's eyes once again began to fill with tears as sunk into Vash, her head resting on his chest. He put his arms around her as small tears began to roll down his face. The two sat like that for several minutes before Eliana pulled away.

"Can I see her." She asked, once again wiping her eyes on her sleeve. Vash nodded and got up. She stood wordlessly and followed him. He led her down the now near empty corridor. Eliana looked out of the one of the windows and saw that it the child sun was about to sink below the horizon and darkness was setting in. From the window on the forth floor Eliana could see that those who could afford it were now turning on their electric lights. She also saw the dying embers from the fires that had been started earlier today and in the distance the faint, but ever present glow of the plant. She paused for moment and stared at it. Vash who was a few paces ahead of her stopped and looked back.

"Something up?" He asked. She shook her head and the two started again. After a few minutes they reached a flight of stairs. Vash led the way up to the fifth floor of the hospital. When they got to the top Vash stopped.

"You should go by yourself. She's in the fourth room along." He said leaning against the wall. She nodded and started walking towards to the room Vash had told her was her mothers. When Eliana reached the room she found the door open. She took a breath and stepped over the threshold. She gasped horrified at the sight she beheld.

"This...This...is all my fault...My fault." She gasped.

Her mother, the ever tough Meryl Stryfe, lay on a hospital bed. Her chest was covered mostly by blankets but, Eliana could see the tops of the bandages that covered Meryl's chest wrapped over her shoulders. Her left hand had an IV drip placed in it. A bag of blood hanging from the stand the IV was connected to. A small plastic mask covered her mouth and nose. A tube in attached to this was connected to a respirator that was placed to right of the bed. A thin layer of bandage surrounded her forehead, the way her hair had been pushed over the top reminded her of one of Sophie's bandanna's. Except that the bandage had a small spot of blood just above Meryl's left ear where a bullet had nicked her. Eliana walked to her side and looked at her mother.

"Thank You." She whispered. Gently gripping her mothers hand. Eliana took in a deep breath and then let it out in a long sigh.

"Okay here's goes, Mom I'm sorry for being a wild child and not being the good little girl you wanted me to be. Sorry I cant change, its just me. Anyway thanks again for saving my life." She paused for a second" Gee I seem to be saying that an awful lot today huh." She the last part with a little chuckle wiping eyes of the tears that were beginning to form there.

"Anyway Mom, I've made a decision, I wanna go with Vash when he leaves. I couldn't protect myself today and that got you hurt. So I'm going to ask him to take me with him when he goes. I'm gonna ask him to teach me how fight like he does." Eliana whispered. She bent over and kissed her mom's cheek.

"I'm gonna go now mom, I don't want to go home tonight, so I'll stay with Vash if he'll have me. I cant face aunt Millie, Sophie and the kids. Knowing what I did. Anyway I'll come back and visit 'kay." She turned and walked out of the door. She reached Vash and looked at him, straight into his eyes over his glasses

"I have a favor to ask." Her voice quivering a little despite the fact she had tried to steel herself for this moment.

She opened her eyes when she heard someone approaching the car. Eliana lay still hoping that whoever it was they would ignore her. The crunch of the well worn sand under boots told her the person was close. She heard the person stop at the side of the car. She really hoped it wasn't a someone out to steal it or their things. The voice that came a few seconds later told her who it was.

"Liana." Vash asked. Wondering where she was. Instead of answering she raised her arm above the back seat so her could see where she was. He set something down in the front seat that she couldn't see. He then walked around to the back of the car and unlatched the trunk, he took something she couldn't see but heard it rustle. A few seconds later she saw him poke his head over the him of the car. Holding in his left hand a rough looking Hessian blanket.

"You want this, it'll keep the sand off you while you sleep. Even if you don't lay under it it'll make a nice pillow." He said brightly.

"Thanks." She smiled taking the blanket and draping it over her body. She felt a dull pain as it rested on the bruise on her right thigh. Vash disappeared a moment later she felt the car move a little and lower itself as it adjusted to his weight being added. After a few second she heard a paper bag rustle and Vash taking a bite out of something followed by noisy chewing.

"'Ou sur' you d'nt wan' 'un." She heard him mumble say with his mouth full. "These really good" he added swallowing the last of the doughnut After he had consumed half the bag Vash started the car. Eliana felt the lurch as the motion first kicked in and car started forward. Vash drove the car out of the town quickly, wanting to leave as soon as possible, in his opinion the quicker he got her home the better., then she could rest up. He knew for his own experience it wasn't comfortable to walk around covered in bruises. As they drove he heard her shifting around, trying to get comfortable. He rested his left arm on the back of the front seat and leaned back a little to look at her properly.

"Sorry is it too rough for you to get comfortable." Vash asked her.

"Yeah." She answered. After a moment she sat up, wrapping the blanket about her shoulders she leaned back against the padded rear seat.. They continued in silence for another hour or so, by this time the car a long left behind the small town and once again only saw desert. Eliana had been in thought for a while when she asked Vash.

"Who was that woman who saved me yesterday." Vash paused for a moment then answered.

"Oh her that was a friend of mine, Amelia. She's a bounty hunter. She owed me a favor so I hitched a ride on her bus."

"oh, so why were you heading out that way."

"To visit Millie and the kid's at the orphanage, I thought I'd give them my usual donation early this year. But on the way were ran into those bandits that attacked. We tired to outrun them to prevent anyone getting hurt...But... ." He stopped there. In the backseat Eliana nodded sympathetically

Just as sunset had started Vash pulled the car to a stop. He looked back at Eliana who had fallen asleep. reaching over he shook her awake gently. Eliana awoke and quickly sat up straight, a little too quickly for her body's liking as ache spread throughout most of it.

"Hey sleepy were here." Vash addressed her grinning a little. Putting the blanket aside she climbed out of the car and looked at the house in front of her. It was a large house easily big enough for four people to share comfortably. The house was a tall two story building, built from yellow sandstone bricks. There were there windows in the front of the house these were covered by a slopping wooden porch that was supported by four thick and strong looking beams that rose up from the long row of wooden decking, that ran almost the whole of the front of the house. There was a door a screen door a little of centre at the front, the door was a jar and it was blown to and fro in the soft wind.

On the second floor there were only two windows, these windows, Eliana could see, doubled as doors which led out onto two balconies that rose up from the sloping porch. These were surrounded by elbow high rails held up by many thin beams of wood.

Eliana blinked in disbelief, she had never seen anything like this house.

"Wow, this is amazing how did you find this place." She asked Vash.

"Me and my brother built it." He said proudly thumping his chest with his left fist, and looking slightly pained a few seconds later. Eliana let out a small giggle in spite of herself.

"I'll take you to your room then get your stuff from the car okay." Vash asked. She nodded and he led the way into the house He hopped up the top steps . He pushed open the door and walked across the hall to a set of stairs. She followed silently feeling a little uncomfortable in someone else's house. This was a feeling she had never gotten used in the all years of traveling with her mother. Vash led the way up the spiral staircase looking over his shoulder to see if she was still there. Once they were at the top of the stairs he took a left turn down a short corridor past a bathroom and then took another left. He stopped at the doorway to a room. When she joined him he said.

"Hope you like it." She peered past him and into the largest bedroom she had ever seen. It was at least twice the size of her old room at the orphanage. To her immediate right was a long bed, its frame carved from wood The mattress looked soft and comfy and the white cotton sheets called out to her. next to the bed was a small table that had a candle on it. on the far wall there were was a dresser with a swing mirror on top. To the right of the table was a large wardrobe, which stood at least six feet high dwarfing all of the other furniture in the room. In front of the wardrobe room was a round table about waist height. on either side of it were two comfy looking arm chairs. In the centre of the table was a small black chest. To her left was a large set of sliding windows which led out onto one of the balconies that she had seen from outside. Next to these windows was a small writing desk.

"Wow. Vash are you sure I can have this room." Eliana spoke in mild awe. He smiled in reply.

"Sure it'll be nice to have someone else around for an change. I'll just go and bring you stuff up. make yourself at home okay." Vash said. Turning around she heard him walk down the stairs. Eliana took a few steps into the room and looked around. The chest on the table peaked her instead. Walking towards it she picked the chest on the table. She was surprised to find it was rather heavy and made from black metal. Carefully she unclipped the latch and was just about the open it when she heard footsteps in the doorway. She looked up in time to see a tall blonde man stride into the room. At first glance she thought it was Vash, the man looked eerily similar to him. Upon reaching her he stanched the box from her hand without a saying a word. He then looked down at her his eyes a shocking blue, very like Vash's but different in a way she couldn't place.

"Why are you stealing from my brother." He asked coldly. Eliana could do nothing but stare at him. He was almost terrifying.

"I said, why were you stealing from my brother." His tone raised a hint of anger creeping in. At that point the door opened again and Vash walked in carrying two kit bags in one hand. He looked between Eliana and the blonde man.

"Hi Knives, I see you've met our new house guest." He said rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.