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Not Quite Worthless	By : Scathach Category: +S to Z > Trigun Views: 6671 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Her eyes.

He would never forget her eyes.

He was used to seeing them an angry violet or leached gray
by sorrow or fatigue. They were staring at him now, blank with pain.

He could do nothing in the seconds that followed but support
her as her weight dragged them both to the ground, her hands clutching at his
shirt. He vaguely heard voices in the
background; the other insurance girl�s cry of anguish and the answering sound
of her stungun as she took down her friend�s assailant.

And his brother�his brother. Their little group had finally gotten into a sort of pattern that
seemed to be doing him some good. This
kind of disaster just might send him over the edge.

A movement from the woman in his arms dragged his attention
back to the situation at hand.

�Why did you do that? Why would you take a bullet for
someone you despise?� He demanded, as her body grew heavier.

His heart lurched as she struggled to answer. Finally, her voice weakly scratched out a
response, �Don�t get any ideas, you�re still worthless.� She coughed, spraying
flecks of blood onto his once pristine shirt. He thought that the bullet may
have hit her lungs. But when she licked her lips, the blood disappeared before
welling up once agaipan pan style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Just a split
lip, then.

His next random thought was that Meryl had just pressed that
shirt yesterday and would be pissed as all hell to see it ruined.

He had to strain to hear the rest of what she said. �I don�t expect you to understand,
jackass. I�ll do whatever I can to keep
him happy. Even if it means,� she drew
in a shuddering breath, �saving a useless, immature, unemployable
sociopath.� That last speech seemed to
drain her remaining strength and she passed out.

Millie ran over, screaming her friend�s name, tossing the
stungun to the side.

She felt for Meryl�s pulse and lifted her head, tears
streaming. �Mr. Knives! You have to go get Mr. Vash. He�s still at work.� She laid Meryl on the ground and began
ripping strips of cloth from her own shirt.
When she saw him still staring at her, her face transformed, displaying
a ferocity that would not have looked out of place on Knives� own face. �Now! We don�t have much time!�

Stunned into obeying, Knives stumbled to his feet and began
to run to his brother. His body was
still recovering from their battle two months earlier, so he knew he wouldn�t
make good time. Instead, he allowed his
need to go out mentally, broadcasting his urgency to the other plant.

He could see others running in the opposite direction,
including the town doctor, who he recognized from the man�s visits to their own
house. As a twinge in his legs turned
into a stab of pain, he wondered irritably why he was running at all. Vash could track him by the mental
summons. He let those idiot humans
infect him with their sense of urgency.
The small woman meant nothing to him; she was a necessary evil in order
to be with his brother again. They had
not stopped arguing since the day he recovered enough to speak.

The other one�hmm.
Her childlike persona concealed razor-sharp intuition and
perception. Also, his careful probes
showed that she really was as nice as she seemed, as pure a person as oouldould
hope to find on this desolate planet. Needless
to say, she disturbed him most of all.

He finally stopped, chest heaving, legs burning, waiting for
his brother to come into sight.

Just as he was ready to start looking for him again, Vash
came running around the corner, arms and legs flailing. His puppy-like rush might have been amusing
at any other time. His look of worry
turned into a look of horror when he caught sight of his brother. Knives was confused for a moment before
looking down at himself.

His once pristine white shirt, that Meryl spent her time
washing, pressing and folding for him was now soaked in her blood.

Vash almost plowed into his brother with the force of his
worry, demanding to know what happened, what went wrong and where are the
girls?

�They�re in front of the store.� Knives finally cut him
off. �The small one was shot.�

If possible, Vash went even paler. �This is�this is her blood?�
He unconsciously dug his hands into his brother�s shoulders, causing him
to wince in pain.

�Go ahead without me.
I don�t want that hellion thinking I didn�t get you.� Knives peeled his
brother�s hand off of him and gave him a shove in the right direction.

Vash looked as though he wanted to argue, but one look at
his brother�s exhausted form and he simply nodded and took off again.

When he got to the town�s main street, he had to push people
out of the way. Once they realized who
it was, they were a bit more sympathetic, and began to let him through. He fell to the ground next to Millie, who
had given way to the town doctor. She
looked up at him, failing miserably to hold back her tears.

�Mr. Vash.� She sobbed.
�I�m so glad you�re here.�

He craned his neck, trying to get a better view of his
friend around the doctor working feverishly to save her. �Millie�Millie, what happened?�

�Some men tried to shoot Mr. Knives, but Meryl jumped in
front of him and took the bullet. She
was so brave, but, but�� and here she couldn�t continue anymore. He absently put an arm around her shoulder
as she continued to sob. The noise
faded into the background as his brain tried to process the new bits of
information.

�Why did they try to shoot Knives?� Vash felt a moment of
panic. They couldn�t possibly have
known who he was, could they?

�They were trying to get Meryl to go somewhere with them.�
Millie looked momentarily confused.
�They said something about a love tunnel.� She shrugged, while Vash
looked pained. He was surprised she
hadn�t shot them herself.

�Well, Meryl had taken out one of her derringers, and I was
trying to calm her down, when Mr. Knives called them ignorant monkeys for
chasing after a p-poison harpy like Meryl.
Then they got mad and started shooting, and Meryl knew he wasn�t strong
enough to dodge any bullets yet, so she ran over to him, a-and�� Millie broke
off before wailing, �She was so brave, Mr. Vash!�

Meryl? Had risked
her life for Knives? He firmly wrapped
his other arm around Millie to keep it from grabbing Meryl as it seemed to want
to. The last thing he wanted was to
disturb the doctor while he was working.

�Young man? Young
man, young lady, we have her stabilized, but we�ll need to get her to my office
right now. It was a clean exit, but
she�s lost a lot of blood.� The older
man sat back before pushing himself to his feet.

Gently releasing Millie, Vash moved forward to pick up
Meryl. He allowed himself the liberty
of gently pushing some hair off her forehead.
God, she was so pale. Working
his arms underneath her, he tried to pick her up as gently as possible.

She whimpered in pain as he jolted her getting to his
feet. Whispering a heartfelt apology,
he began to follow the doctor, speaking to his friend the whole while. A nagging in the back of his head made his
look over to where Knives was struggling his way towards them.

�Millie,� Vash said urgently. �I�m going on ahead with the doctor. Can you help my brother? I think he�s overdone it today.�

Brushing away her tears, Millie immediately jumped at the
chance to be of use. �Sure thing, Mr.
Vash. I�ll take care of your brother,
and you take care of Meryl.� With a faint smile, she walked off, long legs
eating the ground, reaching Knives in seconds.

An hour later, the doctor came out of Meryl�s room with a
tired smile. Vash and Millie
immediately jumped up from their seats.
Knives tried to look disinterested, but he listened as intently as the
other two.

�She�s going to be alright.
That lady in there is quite a fighter.
As I said earlier, the bullet went right through her chest, missing all
bones and vitals. She will, however,
need to stay in bed for a number of weeks, until her body replenishes all that
lost blood.� He took a step forward and
placed a hand on Vash�s shoulder, who looked as though he was afraid to believe
what he was hearing.

�She�ll be alright, son.� The older man smiled
reassuringly. Vash let out his relief
in a shuddering sigh, and sat back down, resting his head in his hands.

�Can we see her?� Millie asked.

�Yes, but one at a time, and no more than five minutes. She needs rest.�

Vash turned to Millie.
�Why don�t you go on first? I�m
not sure my legs can hold me yet.� He smiled at her.

ndifndif]>

�Ok.�

Lifting his head from his hands, he saw his brother watching
him with an odd look on his face.

�What, Knives?�

�So you care for her that much?� He asked.

�She�s my friend.
We�ve been through a lot together.�

Knives was silent again.
When he spoke, it was hesitant.
�They were trying to kill me. She�she jumped in front of me when they
fired.�

Vash nodded. He felt
sick fury at not having been there when it happened. His brother and his best friends; the three people most important
to him in the world�

He looked up as Millie exited Meryl�s room and motioned to
him. His gaze landed on Millie�s slightly thickening middle and silently
corrected himself. Make that four most
important people. He wasn�t able to
save Wolfwood, but he would be damned if he let anything happen to the woman
and child he left behind.

�You can go on in, Mr. Vash,� she whispered.

He thanked her with a smile, and walked across the small
hall into Meryl�s recovery room. She
looked so small lying there among the pile of sheets and blankets. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her
bed, just gazing into her face. Her
cheeks seemed to have a bit more color now, and her breathing was steadier than
during his dash to the doctor�s office earlier that day. He took her hand in his; it was deceptively
small and delicate. One wouldn�t think she would be able to get as much with it
as she did.

She was a frighteningly capable woman; no matter what
situation she found herself in, she seemed to be able to handle it. Not calmly, and not happily, but when it
counted she found a way through.

He leaned forward and laid his head on the bed next to her
hip, their joined hands at eye level.
Although the doctor said she would be fine, he preferred to see for
himself. Closing his eyes, he slowed
his breathing and heart rate, putting himself into a type of trance.

His awareness traveled up Meryl�s arm to her shoulder and
over to her chest where the bullet had entered. To his mind�s eye, the wound glowed an angry purple, but thankfully
the putrid green of infection was absent.
He sent a little bit of his energy into Meryl�s body, prodding her
marrow to produce blood cells at an accelerated rate, and allowing her torn
flesh to knit together a little more easily.

He frowned to himself; there was a frailness to her that had
nothing to do with the injury, as if she hadn�t been in the best of health to
begin with. He vowed that he would make
certain she took better care of herself from now on. Millie was about due to start cutting back working on the well,
so he knew he could count on her to help see to that.

When he opened his eyes, the room was dark, and a blanket
had been placed over him, thanks to a kind nurse who didn�t have the heart to
wake him from his apparent slumber. It
would be all over town the next day that the handsome blond never let go of her
hand, even in his sleep.

Physical contact was necessary for his gift to help the
healing process, but her story was more romantic, he supposed. He heaved a rueful sigh; Meryl would
probably give him a black eye for the rumor, but it was a small price to pay
for her health. He just hoped Millie
and Knives were all right.

***

At that moment, his brother was lying awake in his own bed,
unable to sleep. He couldn�t remember
anyone risking their life for his. How strange that it would be that screaming
harpy disguised as an elf. From what he
knew of humans, he wouldn�t put it past her to take advantage of a situation to
get into his brother�s good graces.

But there was no way she could have known that the shot
wouldn�t be fatal. She threw herself in
front of a person she despised, knowing full well that she could die.

All to preserve the happiness of another person. His idiot brother.

It was the opposite of his approach. He killed humans because he considered them
to be a bad influence on his brother. They hurt him, time and again, both
physically and emotionally. He thought
that without them around, Vash would give up his asinine views.

However, when faced with the same situation, Meryl chose to
save the person hurting Vash, because she knew how much the blond cared for his
brother regardless of the pain he caused.
She was willing to save Knives to spare Vash any further pain.

He rolled over, fixing his eyes on the sliver of moonlight
coming through the window. He did not
like the new ideas coursing through his mind.
After more than one hundred years, he was understandably resistant to
new ideas, especially when they threatened his fundamental beliefs.

Meryl could not stand Knives. At all. But she never
gave less than a full effort when carecared for him. He never found crumpled sheets on his bed, or dirty bandages on
his wounds, or half-raw food on his plate, or any of the hundreds of other
passive-aggressive ways he envisioned she would make his life hell.

He originally dismissed her efforts as transparent attempts
to curry Vash�s favor�but then was unable to fit her nagging and abuse of the
goofy blond into his theory. Even as
she berated Vash for his accident-prone, donut devouring ways, Knives also
noticed the way she cared for him. She
always made sure the house had donuts for him, or that his clothes remained
neat and clean, no matter what he managed to do to them.

On more than one occasion, Vash had fallen asleep sitting up
late in the living room, or the kitchen�one time even on the porch. He often sat up late worrying over his
choices and whether he would be able to take care of everything. Meryl always
made sure he woke with a blanket over him and a pillow underneath his
head. Knives had caught her doing it
once, as he hobbled to the restroom in the middle of the night.

Knives also noticed, when no one else seemed to, that
whenever money was tight, she was always the first to go without food. She would make excuses, claiming that she
had eaten earlier, or would eat later.
But Knives knew. When he
confronted her one day, she simply responded that she had the least need in the
house.

Vash did physical labor all day. Millie also worked, and was pregnant besides. Knives was recovering. She could make the sacrifice.

She said it all calmly, with no posturing or self-pity. It affected him enough to keep his normal
cutting comments to a minimum, and they managed not to argue for the rest of
the day.

Knives rolled back over, grumbling. He would never be able
to sleep with that light in his eyes.
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Not Quite Worthless