Chapter one

i'm Finally going to tell him

It was very cool that night. Meryl sat in her chair out side in the cool night breeze. It was 10:30pm, She couldn't sleep so had come out to look at the stars. She closes her eyes and thinks back to the first day she had met Vash. She hears a noise from in side and goes to see who it is. She walks in to the kitchen and finds Vash eating some donuts she had hidden early that night from Vash. She sighs "Vash don't you ever stop eating". He looks up, He was surprised to hear her voice. He smiles goofy at her "I thought everyone was asleep". He looks at the almost empty donut box and then to her again "sorry if I woke you". She walks over to the cupboard and gets a cup out "it's ok. I wasn't asleep". Meryl warms some water up and makes her self a coffee "what one?". Vash puts the box in the bin "ok". Once the coffees were made, they both go and sit out side and looks at the stars. Meryl looks at Vash and smiles, she had always liked him from the moment they had met but she didn't want to admit it. Vash notices she was staring at him "what?" and turns to face her. Meryl realizes she was staring and blushes "nothing" and looks away. Vash smiles at her "we should get some sleep soon or we will look like the undead by morning". Meryl looks at him "I guess your right". She looks at the fifth moon. The large hole in the moon had been caused by Vash. She slowly closes her eyes and drifts asleep. Vash sits there and thinks back to when Rem was alive. He missed her so much, she had meant so much to him. He sits there and sighs.

Vash looks at the clock through the kitchen window and looks shocked to see its 2:00am. He looks at Meryl to tell her it was really late to see she had fallen asleep. He stands up and walks over to her and picks her up. Meryl opens her eyes sleepy and looks up at Vash. She then realizes he is carrying her to her room. Vash opens to door and lays Meryl on her bed. He picks up a blanket which had been sitting on a chair at the end of her bed. He lays it over her and tries not to wake her.

Milly had woken to go get a glass of water. As she passes Meryl's room she notices Vash is in there. She covers her mouth so he couldn't hear her gasp. From where she stood it looked like Vash was kissing Meryl. Milly slowly walks to her room and shuts the door and gets back in to bed. She smiles to her self and thinks 'they have liked each other so long and now they have finally made the move'. Meryl opens her eyes and looks up in to Vash's eyes "please don't leave me again". Vash didn't know if she was half asleep or not. He smiles at her "I won't".

Meryl moves over and looks at him "please stay with me". Vash lies down next to her and holds her in his arms. She slowly falls asleep. In the morning Meryl opens her eyes and finds her self in Vash's arms. She smiles and then thinks 'I'm going to tell him the truth. I've finally made up my mind'. Meryl slowly gets up with out waking Vash. She opens her door and decides to go and make breakfast. As she walks down the hall to the kitchen, she realizes Milly is up and had already made breakfast. Milly turns and smiles "morning Meryl. Do you what some breakfast and a coffee?". Meryl sits down at the table and smiles "that'd be nice Milly" and Milly turns and warms the water up and hands Meryl some breakfast. Meryl helps Milly clean up and then goes for a shower. Once she comes out she finds Milly sitting down and smiling. Meryl wasn't sure what she was up too. "I saw you and Vash last night" and looks up at Meryl. "We were just out side having coffee. What's wrong with that?". Milly shakes her head "no went you were in bed. I saw you kissing". Meryl didn't know what to say to that. In the end she laughs "we weren't kissing. He had put me to bed as I'd fallen asleep out side and then I asked him to stay with me" and Meryl then sits down and looks at Milly "Milly I've finally made my mind up to tell Vash how I really feel about him". Milly smiles "about time you two got your act together". Meryl sighs "I need to go in to town and pick up some things. I won't belong". She picks up the keys and walks out to the car. As Meryl left Vash walks in to the kitchen looking half asleep "were is Meryl?". Milly looks up as she hadn't heard him come in "she just left for town". Meryl was heading back from town when she saw someone lying on the ground. She stops and gets out and walks over to them "are you ok?" and she knees next to them. He laughs and Meryl turns to run but he grabs her ankle and she see's the ground coming up to met her. She hits the ground with a loud thump. She falls unconscious. Knives stands and picks up Meryl and sits her in the back of the car. He smirks "I'm going to cause you a lot of pain Vash". As the sunsets Milly starts to worry "Meryl should have been back hours again Mr. Vash". Vash looks up at her "I know. I'm going to look for her". Vash was out side and gets the motorbike out. Milly walks on and yells to him "be careful Mr. Vash". Vash looks over his shoulder "I will".

Meryl slowly opens her eyes. She sits up and notices she is locked up in a jail like cell. She gets up and goes to the door "let me out of here now". Knives comes down the steps "you're awake". He smirks at her "sorry but I can't do that". Meryl gets annoyed with him and her cheeks turn pink a little "Knives let me out".

She knew he wouldn't so she goes over and sits on the bed and wishes Vash was there to help her.

Vash was coming down the road when he saw Meryl's car. He stops the motorbike and walks over to it. It was empty and saw a bit of blood in the back. Worry swept through his body at the thought of anyone hurting Meryl. He looks inside to see if there was any clues to who had taken Meryl or to see what had happened to her.

Meryl sat on the bed when Knives had returned. He opens the door and steps inside and shuts it. He sits a tray of food with a glass of water down on the table near the bed "eat up or it will go cold and that would be a waste wouldn't it".

Meryl waited till he was gone before she stood up and picked it up. She ate it slowly and sat the empty tray on the desk again. As she sat down to look out the small window he returned to get the tray.

The only thing Vash had found was the cloak Knives had been wearing. He knew from the moment he touched it who had taken Meryl. He closes his eyes and yells "KNIVES, WHERE ARE YOU". He opens his eyes and walks back to the Motorbike. He knew someone who would know where to find Knives.

Meryl opened her eyes slowly. She felt groggy as she sat up. She must have fallen asleep. She turns and see's Knives standing there watching her. "You must want a shower".

Knives opens the door and walks over to her and puts handcuffs on her "that's so you can't get away". He pulls her to her feet and pushes her towards the open door.

Meryl just stays on her feet. She turns to look at him "why are you doing this. Why won't you let me go". He walks up to her and hits her across the face.

Meryl lets out a cry of pain. Tears stream down her cheeks and blood drips from her lip. "Don't ask me why or next time I'll kill you instead".

Meryl follows him to the bathroom.

Vash enters the town. It felt so alone in the small town. Vash heads for the saloon looking for Legato. He steps in to the saloon and finds a bunch of innocent bodies lying on the ground. Legato sat at the bar and looked up as he heard the door open. He smirks "Vash the stamped".

Vash looks at him "where is Knives Legato". Legato looks at him "why do you need to find him". Vash looks at him "he has Meryl. He will kill her to hurt me. I know he will".

Legato smirks "I wouldn't care if he did". Vash walks up to him and scruffs him "but I would so tell me where he is". By now Vash had lost his temper. "His in the middle of the dessert somewhere and that's all I know". Legato grabs Vash's arm and pulls it off him "leave before I decide to kill you too".

Meryl sat on the bed in her little cell. Her lip had swollen from where Knives had hit her. She closes her eyes and tears roll down her cheeks. "Vash where are you?" and she opens her eyes and lies on the bed. She sobs softly and falls asleep.

In her dream, Meryl dreams Vash had saved her and had taken her away from all of this. She also dreamt that Vash had loved her.

Vash had been looking all over the place and still hadn't found it. "I'll never find it but I can't stop. I have to find Meryl". He starts looking again.

Meryl sits up and looks at the table at the end of the bed. Her breakfast was there and a glass of water. She sat up and walked over to it. It had been at least two days since her last meal as Knives had stopped giving her three meals a day. Meryl picks it up and ate it but it was cold and tasted disgusting. She didn't eat it all but drank her glass of water.

Knives soon returned to get the tray. He looks at her once he noticed she had barely eaten any of it "why didn't you eat it?".

"It tasted disgusting and it was cold". She turns to look at him and felt his hand hit her across the face. She grabbed her face in her hands. Meryl could taste blood again.

"How about I let you starve from now on". He looked at her and then picked up the tray and left the cell. Once he had gone she took her hands away and looked in the mirror. Her lip was cut and her eye was starting to get a black eye. She sobs to her self in the night as she dreamt of Knives hurting her more. Around 3:00am she woke screaming.

Meryl sat up. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and stood up and went to the window to look at the stars "where are you Vash?".

Vash stood at the entrance of knives hideout. He went it and walked around for ages. Every security camera he found he un-plugged. He found the main computer that showed him where everything was. Vash looked at all the screens then saw something that almost made his heart stop. Knives was in Meryl's cell and had her tired to the bed with a knife to her throat. Vash heard her screams. He turned and ran out of the room. He turned this way and that. He soon found the right way to Meryl's cell. He looked in through the open door and saw Meryl lying with her back to him and there was blood on the bed. "MERYL" he screams and runs to her side.

Milly woke to hear the phone ringing. She gets up and walks to the kitchen "hello"

"Milly, it's me Vash. I'm at the hospital"

"Mr. Vash are you ok"

"I'm fine but….. But...But its Meryl. You'd better get her fast"

Milly hung the phone up. She didn't want to believe what Vash had just told her. Milly goes to Meryl's room and grabs a bag and packs some clothes.

Vash sat outside Meryl's room reading a book.

Milly walks towards him carrying the bag she had packed before she had left "how is she Mr. Vash?"

Vash jumps at the sound of Milly's voice "she's in a stable condition"

Milly sits next to him "what happened Mr. Vash"

He closes his eyes and tears run down his cheeks "Knives took her to hurt me. He tired her to the cell bed and cut her with a knife but I got her here as fast as I could and the doctor told me if I hadn't got here when I had she could of died"

Milly looks at him then to the floor "I'm going to go home. Here is a bag full of something's I thought she might need. I have to work tomorrow but ring me if anything happens Mr. Vash"

"I will Milly" and watches her go. He picks the bag up and walks in to Meryl's room. She was lying on her side. She was awake.

Meryl sat up and turned over to see who it was "Vash"
He looked up to find Meryl looking at him. He smiles "your ok. That's great"

He pulls a chair up to the side of the bed and sits down. He looks at her and smiles.

Meryl smiles at him and thinks back to the night she told Milly she was going to tell Vash how she felt. "Vash I need to tell you something…… I ….. I". She didn't know how to tell him.

Vash looks at her "what were you going to tell me?"

Meryl looks down and blushes "Vash I really care about you". She looks up and stares in to his eyes "I've loved you for so long I didn't know how to tell you and I've also been scared that you didn't feel the same but after all that we have been though and after all that's happen I see now that it doesn't matter if you don't feel the same. we can just be friends". She looks away blushing.

Vash opens his mouth, lost for words. He had thought a few times that Meryl might of liked him but would never have guess her feelings were that strong for him. Vash closes his mouth and smiles at her "I care about you a lot too Meryl. I have for so long but thought you just thought I was a big idiot but now I know how you really feel and I'm glade to know you feel the same way as I do".

He smiles at her and moves forward to kiss her.

A week and two days later

Meryl sat outside in the sun. She had been home for a few days but felt much better. She had hated being in a small white room.

Meryl turns around when she hears the back door open to see Vash coming towards her "what are you looking at Meryl?". He stands beside her.

"The sky and also thinking back to the first day I met you. I never thought back then that I would end up falling in love with you" and she smiles at him.

Vash smiles at her and kisses her. Once they had both pulled back he says "I never thought I'd fall in love with you either".

Milly comes out "I'm going to town to grab something's". She and one of the kids went with her.

Meryl and Milly had taken over the church about three days ago. Milly had wanted to take over since Wolfwood had died about a month ago. Meryl looks at Milly and the to Vash "is it just me or does Milly seem to be putting weight on?"
Vash nods that laughs to him self "maybe she's pregnant with Wolfwood's kid"

Meryl looks at him "She could be but I doubt it. She would be smarter then that for that to happen" and she turns to watch the care go "I hope".

While Milly had gone Vash and Meryl had gone in side. It had started to get dark so Vash and Meryl had gone to bed early.

Meryl closed her eyes and fell asleep against Vash's warm chest and in his arms. She sat up when she heard the front door open. She slowly got out of bed without waking Vash and pulled some close on. She went out to the kitchen to find Milly crying "Milly what's wrong?"

Milly looks up to her with her eyes full of tears.

"Oh Meryl. I've done some silly things before but not as silly as this"

Meryl sits down next to her "what have you done?"

"Meryl. I'm pregnant with Wolfwood's baby"

Meryl sat there thinks back to what Vash had said early that day before Milly had left "Milly you should get some rest"

Meryl puts Milly to bed and then goes back to bed. As she gets back in to bed Vash rolls over "what was the matter with Milly. I heard her crying and you talking to her"

Meryl looks at him "you were right. You know what you said early today well you were right. Milly is pregnant with Wolfwood's Child"

Vash looks at her and cuddles her "don't think about it just sleep"

She nods and falls asleep.