Angel Arms

Chapter 1: Fly on Home

Vash the Stampede walked back to the little town where he'd left the Insurance Girls. Over one shoulder he carried the Cross Punisher, wrapped in its cloth, and over the other he carried his brother, Millions Knives. The heat in the desert was extreme, and blood from Knives' wounds had dripped down Vash's black leather suit and dried, leaving a dry, caked trail over his shoulder and down his back which had a salty, pungent odor. Knives moaned in pain, and Vash shifted him on his shoulder to ease the pressure on his artificial joint. "Hold on, brother. Almost there. I can see it over the horizon."

Indeed, there was, wavering in the distance, the outline of the town. As Vash moved steadily closer, he realized that there was something falling from the air. "Wha…? Water!" He picked up his pace, desperately wanting to sprint to see what had happened, to see if the girls had waited for him, if Meryl had waited. But, his brother's pain prevented him from rushing to the dingy little outpost of human civilization.

He reached the border of the town and watched in confusion as people ran back and forth in the town square, dashing in and out of the spray of water that was erupting from a well in the middle of the forum.

"Vash, you're back!"

"Uh!" He turned his head to see Millie rushing towards him at full speed, eyes sparkling and arms thrown wide, positively soaked in well water. She stopped short.

"Oh, is that your brother?" He nodded in silent astonishment at her taking Knives state in stride. "Hello, Mr. Knives." She turned herself sideways so she could be face to face with knives, "My name's Millie, and Meryl and I are good friends of your brother's…say, where is she? She was right behind me…"

Vash stood staring straight ahead. "I'm right here, silly." Millie turned around and waved.

"This is Vash's brother, Meryl. And he's ALIVE, too."

"Oh, Vash, I knew you'd come back!" The short-haired insurance agent approached, soaked with water from the spray, dripping bangs plastered to a sweet face. Vash strode forward to meet her and cringed as the water fell on his wounds.

"Hey, Millie, would ya' take this?" Vash set down the Cross, and the big girl took it and slung it over her shoulder. Without the counter-ballast on his right shoulder he lost his balance and started to fall, dropping to one knee in the wet, sandy mud to keep from dropping his deeply injured brother. "Ungh…"

"C'mon, Millie," Meryl grabbed Knives under one arm, "let's get him out of here, they're both hurt pretty bad." Millie stooped and lifted the bulk of Knives on her shoulder. "Vash, can you walk okay?"

He nodded, and struggled to his feet. "I'm fine. Nothing a few days rest, a little medical attention, and a whole lot of donuts wouldn't help." He followed the insurance girls through the square to the hotel.

People whispered around them as they progressed to the hotel;

"Look, its Vash the Stampede!"

"Which one?"

"There's two!"

"Oh, God, we're doomed!"

"Isn't he handsome?"

"There's TWO walking disasters?"

He was relieved to reach the hotel, and some attendants came running to help get him to Millie and Meryl's hotel room. As soon as he reached the bed, he flopped down, and fell asleep whispering, "Girls, make sure we're okay, Okay?" Without waiting for an answer, darkness came over him and he reveled in the restorative darkness of sleep.

Millie and Meryl both responded with head nods, and laid Knives out on Millie's bed. "He's hurt real bad, Meryl. I think there's still a bullet it this wound," she pointed to his left shoulder. "You go get the doctor, and I'll get him out of these clothes."

Meryl nodded and turned to go, stopping to look down at Vash and push a lank strand of golden hair back from his face. "I'll take care of you, don't worry, Vash."

As Meryl dashed out, Millie tied her hair back in a ponytail and went to work. She'd done this many times before with Vash and Wolfwood after they'd been in one gunfight or another. Opening up her medical kit, she laid out everything she'd need. Nick had always said she'd been better than any doctor at getting stubborn slugs out because she was much gentler.

"Right. Disinfectant, gauze, forceps…,"She looked around, trying to find her matches, for cauterizing the wound. "Ah, here we go!" She struck a match and held it up to the forceps, sterilizing them with the fire. "Sorry, mister Knives, but this is gonna hurt." He responded with a semi-conscious grunt. "Okay, hold still, and this'll be over in a jiffy."

She poured disinfectant into the wound, hoping it could bubble the bullet up a little closer to the skin, the carefully inserted the forceps into the hole made by the bullet's path. She dug in a little deeper, and struck the bullet.

"AHHH!" Knives jumped and tried to push off the bed, but Millie quickly maneuvered to straddle him and keep him down with her body weight.

She forced him down, and smiled wide, looking into his shocked blue eyes. "I know this hurts, but can you try not to move? That way it'll hurt less." She waited for the comprehension of what she was doing to register, and when he nodded his head and relaxed back against the bed she reached for her leather hair thong. Her hair fell around her shoulders in a tawny mane. "Here," she offered it to him, "Bite down on this if it hurts too much."

He took it in his mouth and turned his head to the side, scrunched up his eyes and waited for the pain. Millie waited until he was ready before retrieving the forceps and striking another match to sterilize them again. "Okay, here we go." She reached with the forceps into the wound and this time grasped the bullet quickly and pulled it out with one smooth pull.

"There, that wasn't so bad, now, was it?" She smiled and he looked at her, confusion evident on his face. She recognized the question in his eyes, and responded, "Now, I couldn't let you die from infection. Vash would never forgive me." His expression softened and he nodded again. "Are you ready for the hard part?"

She poured more disinfectant in his wound, and dabbed it with some gauze. His eyes went wide when he saw her heating the flat side of forceps with yet another match, but this time he didn't have time to steel himself when she pressed it firmly against the open wound.

He bit down on the leather, and moaned in pain. His body shook, and the smell of burning flesh pervaded the room. When she pulled back, his jaw went slack and he reached up with a shaking hand to pull the thong from his mouth. He took a brief look at the tall woman, and in a shaking, raspy timbre, voiced his appreciation. "Thanks"

Millie smiled as Knives passed out from the pain. Just then, Meryl burst through the door with a doctor in tow.

"Millie! Did you do it already?" Meryl stood knock-ankled and slack-jawed, gaping at her friend, "Wow, you really are getting good at this."

The doctor took off his hat and coat, and held his hand out to the young woman. "I'm Doctor Bernard Riesa." She shook his hand and he smiled before bending to inspect Millie's job of closing up Knives' wound. His mustache twitched a little under his nose, and Millie had to subdue a giggle.

"Young lady, this is quite remarkable. Have you done this before?"

Meryl interjected, "For that man there." She pointed to Vash, "When you travel with someone who's always getting shot, you get used to it."

The doctor shook his head and adjusted his glasses. "Well, we'd best see to the rest of their wounds." He nodded to Vash, "Could one of you ladies wake him up, please? I'd hate to invade his privacy while he's sleeping."

Meryl shook Vash's shoulder, and his eyes fluttered open. She couldn't help but smile down at him. "Vash, wake up. Dr. Riesa's here and he wants to check you out."

Vash nodded and sat up, swinging his legs to the side of the bed. "Okay, Doc." He stood up and stripped his leather suit to the waist, displaying two gunshots in his upper torso, and one shot in his right arm. His muscular body was marred by an array of scar tissue and damage, including a grate and a synthetic arm. He smiled a little. "Do your worst."

A few hours later, and the Doctor, Meryl, and Millie rolled down their sleeves and called it a night. The two men lay bandaged and sleeping peacefully in the girl's beds. Meryl walked down to the lobby of the hotel with the Doctor.

"Thank you so much, sir. I know Knives wouldn't have made it without your help." She shook his hand, and handed him a check for his fees.

The old doctor shook his head and crooned, "Nonsense my dear. It is, after all, my job, and you two ladies made it much easier. I've never had such fine helpers. I do hope you will stay here for a while; I could use a helping hand or two around the town."

Millie smiled and nodded her head. "I'd like that, very much."

"Why don't you and your friend drop by my office tomorrow, and we can work something out." He gave her another kindly smile.

"Alright. Thanks again." She darted back up the hotel stairs to her room, and came in on Millie dabbing at Knives brow with a wet cloth.

"So, where do you think we'll sleep tonight?" Meryl asked Millie.

The big girl shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm okay on the floor. There're some extra blankets in the closet over there. You can have the chair." She jerked her head to a dilapidated recliner. "That is, if you want it, 'cause I sure don't."

After a few more minutes of talking, the girls bedded down for the night between the two beds, lying on a thin sheet, keeping watch over the two brothers.

The next morning, Millie didn't feel too well. In fact, she spent the better part of her morning nauseated, and turned down breakfast when Meryl offered it to her.

"C'mon, Millie, it's banana oatmeal, I know you love it! And besides, we have to be feeling good for helping out the Doctor today, remember?"

Millie shook her head and declined again. "Sorry, Sempai, but I just don't feel like eating. If I get tired later, I'll take an apple with me." She stood from the table and stretched. "Let's go and get back before they wake up."

The girls left the room, and Vash rolled over, worried about Millie. It had been a while since she'd been feeling well. Ever since Wolfwood's death, actually. At first, Vash thought she was depressed, but her mood was just so light all the time, and she kept going, not losing any of her sparkle. If anything, there was more life there.

He tossed and turned for an hour or more until, obviously awake, he rolled out of bed, and headed to the shower. He took off his pajama bottoms, turned on the water, and stepped into the steaming shower. As the water coursed down his back, it washed away all the dirt and grime from the fight and melted away the tension of his body.

He was rather lucky. As he soaped up his hair and his body he ran his fingers over his scars, the seam where synthetic joined flesh, the new, raw angry red boils that had just been closed yesterday. His body was hardened from years on the move, and he, in turns, both hated and loved it. Hated it for its weakness, hated it for the garish scars. Loved it because he was alive, and that was more than he was certain of before today.

He heard the door to the hotel room open, and heard Millie crying, and Meryl authoritatively declaring, "We can handle this, Millie." Concerned, Vash stepped out of the shower, toweled off, and tugged on his pants before opening the bathroom door.

"Hey, insurance girls!" He smiled rakishly, "Are you okay Millie?" She sat down on the bed where Vash had spent the night, and Meryl sat next to her. Vash was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of images that involved Meryl and tousled bedclothes that had nothing to do with helping Millie.

Millie looked up at Vash with big, watery blue eyes, filled with so much joy and sadness that she looked ready to explode. "I'm p..p...pregnant." She smiled the biggest smile he'd ever seen her give.

His jaw dropped and he started bouncing around the room. "Oh, my god, that means we have to find somewhere to stay, and you need someone to take care of you, and throw you a baby shower with rubber duckies an' balloons an'…" He stopped as he realized he was spinning her around in circles.

She laughed through her tears and then she started crying in earnest again. Vash set her down on the bed and stood up, rubbing her back in small circles. When he spoke again, his voice came out in a somber whisper, "Wolfwood would have been so happy, Mille."

She sobbed harder and clung to Vash's waist while Meryl hugged her and Vash's own tears began to trickle down his face.

Knives lay there, ignored by the others, listening to her tears, and something inside him bristled. "This is why they shouldn't exist. They're so fragile. Nicholas D. Wolfwood's death has brought more pain on this woman, and taken so much away from the kid. It's not worth it. They're in pain because they're weak. I wish you could see that you're only prolonging their suffering, brother. I wish you could see."