Chapter 9:
She was three quarters of the way up the incline leading to the plant when knives caught up to her. As he reached her she turned to him.
"Take me back, Now!." She cried. She was shaking violently, her pupils wide, tears beginning to run to her face. This was fear, a fear he hadn't seen a long time, the last time was in the eyes of a man staring down the barrel of a gun, begging for his life.
"Don't just stand there, I wanna go back! Now!" Her voice was shaky, she was bordering on hysterical. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not ready to leave yet." Her eyes widened.
"Fine then, I'll walk home." She started up the slope again. He sighed and followed
"Alright, let's go." He replied dryly. Walking fast he overtook her in a few quick strides and walked up the hill towards the where the car was parked. Reaching it a few moments ahead of her he climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine ticking over. Just as she climbed into the back of the car, he started to drive. She wormed down into the seat and wrapped her arms around her body tightly she was shivering, her eyes wide and wild. Shock most likely, he thought. He'd seen several similar cases before. Most of them had been shock. He cast his eyes back to track, although he knew it was unlikely to actually see another vehicle out this far but if he were to veer of the track then they could end up lost. He inwardly cursed Vash for making him take the girl, he'd planned on doing some follow up tests that were rather important. Actually while he was thinking about it he cursed Vash for bringing the girl in the first place. He could have left her behind, rather than kid both himself and her, then having the result being both of them ending up hurting when the truth came out.
There was a sudden bump as the car hit a small sand dune, and rose over it and dropped down the other side. As they landed the car jolted and there was a soft thud for the backseat. He looked behind and saw Eliana had fallen to side and was laying there. Still hugging herself, still shaking.
"Did she talk to you?" No answer came.
"Did she talk to you, the plant?" He asked again, and again no answer came.
"At least sit up." he barked. She acknowledged by pushing herself up gingerly, her arms, shaking as they were, seemed to lose all strength. When was she was up again he asked.
"Why are you so afraid of the plant?"
"It...It...It..."
"It what?"
"I want to go home!" She cried out. He rolled his eyes and returned to watching the road.
Several minutes they arrived at the house. Knives brought the car to stop with a squeal of breaks, a small cloud of dust rising from behind the car. As he brought it to stop the two people standing in the doorway looked over at him. He looked quizzically at Vash and the tall brown haired woman who stood, just outside the front door for a brief moment for opening the door of the car and walking around to the back. He stepped up onto the foot board opened the door and looked at Eliana.
"Come on, you'd be better off inside." She looked at him, she was a wreck, her eyes wide, pupils small, mouth hanging open a fraction. Still shaking a little. However it wasn't as bad as before.
"Come on." He urged. He shook her mildly. He had the feeling that she wouldn't have been able to get out the car if she'd wanted to. Stepping up into the dip in the back seat, he pulled her closer and scooped her up in his arms. His left around her back, holding her under her arms, his right under her legs. He stepped off the footboard and turned around to face the tall woman. She appeared to be taller than he first thought, at least as tall as himself and Vash.
"What did you do to her?" She demanded. Her fists clenching in anger.
"Nothing." He walked around her and to the door of the house, where Vash stood.
"Knives, what..."
"She's in shock." He pronounced. Knowing Vash, just well as he, would know how to treat shock. Vash nodded, he stepped into the house leading the way to the kitchen. When the entered Knives went to the table, slid a chair out from under the table using his foot and gently placed her down onto the chair. Meanwhile Vash had taken a glass from the cupboard filling it mostly with water, reached up and took a bottle containing a brown liquid from the same cupboard, poured a little a of it into the glass and took it to Eliana.
"Here drink this." He pushed it into her hands. A second later Millie stormed into the room. Vash grimaced, he'd not seen her this angry for a long time.
"What the heck did you do her!" She demanded.
"As I said, nothing."
"Then why is she like that!"
"When we are at the plant, she just screamed and ran out, when I caught up to her she demanded I bring her back."
"You expect me to believe that."
"Yes." He turned his back and walked to the sink, taking a glass from the cupboard he began to fill it with water his, his eyes blazed with anger. Vash leaned close to Millie and whispered.
"Millie stop."
"You expect me to trust this murderer!" This was quickly followed by the sound of breaking glass. Both of the looked up to see the remains of a glass on next to the sink and knives striding out of the room. There was a loud thud as he slammed the front door behind him. Millie immediately rushed to Eliana who had downed the contents of glass Vash given her. She squatted down beside the girl and looked concerned.
"What did he do to you sweetie." She asked stroking Eliana's hair. This got a reaction almost instantly. She recoiled from Millie's hand and pushed the chair back rising to her feet.
"I'm not a kid Y'know! I'm old enough to look after myself." She stormed past Millie and up the stairs. A few seconds later there was another heavy thud. Millie looked at Vash. He sighed.
"I suppose I should go talk to her."
"No I'll go, I upset her, I should've known better." Vash nodded and slumped into the kitchen chair. This day was not going well, he wondered what else could go wrong.
Millie, who had followed Eliana upstairs looked around curiously, she realized she had no idea which room was Eliana's, she picked the door closest and knocked on it.
"What!" came from inside.
"Ellie, honey it's me. Can I come in?"
"Yeah." Millie opened the door and entered the room, she looked around the room, seeing it was empty, she noticed the open balcony doors and stepped out onto the balcony. Eliana stood her arms folded, resting on the edge of the rail.
"You okay." Millie asked. She nodded her head.
"Did he hurt you?"
"No! It was just the heat okay, it got to me on the drive okay."
"Whatever you say, we'll talk about it when we get home." Millie gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder and began to walk out of the room. She stayed where she was, looking out over the desert.
"This is home" Came the cold answer "I'm staying here."
"What!"
"You can't stay here! Your mother wouldn't allow it."
"My mother is in a coma three hundred iles from here, she can hardly object."
"You shouldn't speak like that, and besides who will take care you?"
"Vash and Knives look after me."
"But he's a killer, a cold blooded murderer, a..." Eliana interrupted her mid sentence.
"He's nice to me."
"What do you mean?"
"He treats me nicely, helps me."
"He's lying to you, open your eyes!"
"No he's not, give me a tiny bit of credit, please."
"Ellie."
"Aunt Millie I have to do this."
"NO! you don't. You can come back with me and go back to normal."
"I have too, I promised her." A look of realization dawned on Millie she spoke
"Oh."
"And don't worry, I'll be okay. I promised her that too."
"That's okay honey, but just in case you'll always have a home with me and Sophie okay."
"I know."
Vash smiled as he saw Knives walk over the dune just at the edge of the horizon. Silhouetted in the early twilight. It took him around twenty minutes to get to the house. When he arrived he walked to Vash and sat down beside him. Vash handed him a glass of water which he downed in one.
"Is she still here?"
"No, Millie left."
"I meant the girl."
"Oh."
"I take she's still here then?"
"Yeah she's upstairs, sleeping."
"Ah."
"Y'know you should give her a chance. She's probably gonna be around a while. So maybe you should open up to her a little."
"Why?"
"She's a good kid, her hearts in the right place."
"That depends on your point of view."
"Yeah, but it might be a little easier for the both of you if you got along."
"I suppose." There was brief pause before he spoke again.
"You know she can't be what you want her to be you know."
"What do you mean?"
"She isn't your daughter Vash. I think you know that too."
"But me and Meryl."
"Believe me Vash if you'd had a child, I think you would know about it, feel it."
"Yeah I guess, but there' still a chance she could right?"
"If you want there to be one." Knives answered, getting up he walked into the house closing the door behind him.