Scars

by blood-lust6

It was days like these that reminded her of her childhood, lonely and hateful. She sat alone in the lavishly furnished, yet dusty and cobweb-ridden room, waiting.

Ebony remembered never being allowed in her grandfather's office. The one time she had tried to get in her parents had found her and locked her away in her room for two weeks. She frowned at the memory of her mother and father. Thinking of them always put her in a sour mood. They'd be rolling over in their graves right now if they knew where she was, seated haughtily on the plush revolving chair behind the solid wood desk. Oh they'd be shaking the coffin...

A knock on the door ahead of her disrupted her thoughts and she smirked as she glanced at the clock above the twin doorframe. Right on time. Like always.

"Come in." The door opened with a small creak. She'd have to fix that. A creaking door would do no good in *her* office. Anthony wouldn't be pleased she'd already claimed the most coveted room in the house for herself but if he wanted it he should have gotten here earlier.

The moment her guest had walked in the room she knew she could count on no other person to carry out the job. Not even Boss and his idiot brother, her original pick. But Anthony had been quite firm in saying he wanted only one person to do their dirty work.

"Sit."

"I prefer to stand." A voice like poisoned honey, a cold voice. Ebony smirked. Yes Anthony did have a brain after all.

"You're to go to Blue Sky City and get what you came for."

"What about her?" Ebony pondered for a moment before leaning back in her chair and raising her heels onto the desk.

"I trust her to you. But if she gets in the way, kill her."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

Meryl shifted uncomfortably on the kitchen chair. After the uncomfortably breakfast, Molly had asked Millie, Vash, and Wolfwood is they would consider running to the store for her. Making such a large feast had put her behind on some of her supplies and she would need more if they would all be staying. Meryl wanted to go so she wouldn't have to face Molly but the older woman had dutifully kept her behind, insisting that she re-dress the healing wound.

"It's amazing how it missed all your vitals. Tommy was baffled. Really the only thing we had to worry about was you losing blood the way you did." Molly hefted a large basin of warm water onto the table beside Meryl and dipped a washcloth inside it. She wrung it out and started the process all over again before turning to the small Insurance girl and requesting her to take off her shirt.

"Umm..Could we perhaps do this somewhere where people can't just walk in?" Meryl flushed at the idea of taking her shirt off in the middle of the dining area. Sure she had been naked from the waist up, except for her bra, in front of them all before. She'd been bleeding to death and they had no alternative to get ride of her dress. Meryl understood that but she was very shy, especially when it came to the clothes department. She had always been that way.

"No one is gonna walk in. It'll just take a minute and it has to be done." When Meryl didn't respond, Molly gave an exasperated sigh and walked around behind her. She lifted the hem of the shirt up and proceeded to manually take off the girl's garment. Meryl didn't argue, partly because she knew that look on Molly's face was one not to be contested with, and partly because she felt guilty. Molly had been nursing her back to health and giving her and her friends a place to stay when really she didn't have too. The Saloon would have been perfectly fine. And yet here she was, softly swiping the warm, wet cloth over her healing injury. Just like a mother.

"I'm sorry." Meryl blurted out. She couldn't take it anymore, she just couldn't. Too long had she been denying herself the acceptance that Molly was here before her, greeting her with welcome arms. She had been too blind to see it before now and it took the talk with Vash last night to fully help her understand. Molly paused in her cleaning but soon Meryl felt the cloth sweep over the tender flesh a few more times before a hand reached out from her right side and dropped it in the basin.

"I know you are. You were just hurting. I understand." Molly smoothed a towel over the wet surface of Meryl's back, drying it so the bandage wouldn't move. Meryl's eyes welled up with tears at the casuality in Molly's voice. That woman never ceased to amaze her. As the two sat in the silence of the room, Meryl allowed herself to remember what life had been like with Molly.

It had been..well...wonderful. Her and Rosemary were allowed to stay up all night to help run the Saloon and were never yelled at for sleeping in late. Whenever she could, Molly would buy them little trinkets from the store or get one of the traveling musicians to give Rosemary some of their old music for her little piano upstairs. And sometimes, even on her measly wages, Molly would buy Rosemary the finest thomas racing gear in the area. Meryl sometimes found it hard to remember life with her real parents. Most of her childhood was spent right there in the Saloon, right by all the drunks and smokers and the musicians and the bounty hunters. It was no surprise that she was surrounded by them now in her older age.

"All done." Molly quietly said, handing Meryl the white shirt. Meryl looked up and smiled. She stood finding it a little easier and put the shirt back on again. Molly gave a small smile, picked the basin up, and walked back to the sink where she set it off to the side so she could start washing the dishes. There had been something in that smile that made Meryl realize that Molly wasn't asking anything of her. She wasn't prying to find out what she'd been through, how Rosemary had died, how she escaped, or anything else on that topic. Instead she was quietly accepting what Meryl had become even if she was a little dissapointed. And Meryl felt like an idiot for not seeing it earlier.

"Thank you." She said quietly, absentmindedly fiddling with the hem of the shirt. She stared at Molly's back as the woman busied herself with cleaning this morning's mess. Molly was no Rosemary but she was the closest thing to her in terms of fond memories and prior teachings. But when it came right down to it, Meryl knew that Molly could never comfort her or hold that truly special place in her heart. Looking away she knew that the only person who had ever come close to that place was Vash, last night.

"I think I'll go sit out on the porch for awhile." Meryl took her leave. She figured if she sat outside in the fresh mid-morning air maybe she'd be able to clear her head and think for a moment or so.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wolfwood and Millie led the way their unsuccessful trek to the store. It had been closed, probably for repairs seeing how the entire front window and most of the shelves and goods had been riddled with bullet holes. Of course Millie had probably been the most dissapointed as Molly snuck in a few extra cents for her to buy a weeks supply of pudding.

"I would have thought they would have gotten everything fixed up by now. It doesn't seem like we've been here long but it's been more than a week!" Millie said, staring at the front of the store. Wolfwood and Vash stood off somewhere behind her examining the damage for themselves.

"Yeah but the entire town's been shot up so I imagine they're having a hard time getting everything back to normal." Wolfwood mused. He gave a sideways glance at the tall man standing next to him. Vash didn't seem too enthused about his suggestion of leaving but the pits of pieces of the talk he heard weren't exactly comforting.

Wolfwood had been changing into his shirt and decided to open the window for a fresh, morning breeze to help clear the the stagnant smell of cigarettes. He leaned out of the window slightly. The seemingly new air, warm and arid, felt oddly refreshing on his face. That's when he heard it.

"...when that happens, go outside. Don't try to help them out they know what they're doing-"

"But I don't work for you anymore-"

"I don't remember getting your two weeks notice...." A sudden gust of the same arid wind blew away the words and Wolfwood remembered sticking the whole upper half of his thin frame through the window to try and hear the remaining bits of the conversation but it was to no avail. The wind only gusted harder, as if taunting him.

When Vash woke up later in the morning, Wolfwood had been tempted to bring up the subject but something in the way Vash looked stopped him. There was that distant look in his eyes, the look he always got whenever something was bothering him or he was faced with a very big problem. He asked if he was feeling okay and what was bothering him but Vash merely shrugged it off, instead unfairly switching the topic to the nice smelling breakfast downstairs.

"Well I suppose we're just going to have to go back and tell Molly. Now I feel bad for eating so much." Vash suddenly piped up. He slapped a hand to his stomach and rubbed small circles. The action was accompanied by a small rumble from his torso. That was when Wolfowod noticed something.

"Either Tongari's stomach is really upset or something isn't right. Why is everything so quiet? It's not exactly morning anymore." The trio looked around but saw no one and heard nothing.

"It's probably nothing. All the townspeople are most likely off in a different area trying to help clean up the mess." Vash began to walk back in the direction of the house. He got the feeling that something just wasn't right. Wolfwood must have had it too, not just now, but earlier when he tried telling Vash they should leave. And he was an idiot not to have listened.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Molly scrubbed furiously at the grim encrusted dish. Water splashed up and over the edge of the sink, onto the counter, onto the floor. But she didn't care. She wasn't paying attention. All she could think of was him, the plan, and the time.

"At noon, A few of my rats are going to start a riot in the northern part of town. You and the three idiots are going to go and try to help out the Sheriff while our..contact of sorts..will take the girl. They will be three gunshots and when that happens, go outside. Don't try and help them, they know what they're doing."

She looked up at the clock above the sink. It read 11:50. Molly stopped and looked over to the rifle set against the opposite wall. She wanted to believe she had no choice. But no matter how she told herself that it just wasn't convincing enough. She had an idea of who they would send out to do the job and she had accepted the fact that she'd have to face them. She'd need Meryl's friend's help of course. Being older she wasn't as spry as she used to be and she had a feeling her old friend was still feeling as energetic as ever.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meryl smiled a little as she saw three familiar figures sauntering down the road. The porch had been an excellent place to go to put her mind at ease. The air was humid, like it always was, but for some reason it seemed less bothersome today. Maybe it was her good mood.

"Meryl! What are you doing outside?" Once Millie had spotted her the big girl had sprinted the short distance to Molly's house and raced up the stairs. She stood over her seated form, hands on hips, and the air of a scolding mother.

"I needed some air. I've been cooped up in a bedroom for almost a week, Millie." Meryl replied. She couldn't resist a wider smile at Millie's antics. Maybe her taller counterpart knew that she was amusing her friend and began to overexaggerate.

"But Meryl! Think of all the bad things that could happen to you out here!"

"Think of all the bads things to could happen out here because of her." Wolfwood chuckled and towered a bit behind the now smiling Millie. "How ya feeling, kid?"

"Not bad, considering." She moved to stand and found a pair of hands helping her from the chair. Vash sheepishly smiled at her, a slight tinge of pink coloring his cheeks.

"Don't want you to hurt yourself again.." He mumbled. Meryl colored as well as her eyes met his. It was almost an automatic lock-on and both found they couldn't look away if they wanted to. Which neither did.

//You must teach her how to dance.// The words echoed in his head. Vash still didn't have a clue what she meant by it. Meryl had said it last night. She said Rosemary told her dance but she was afraid she had somehow forgotten.

Before he could ponder the situation anymore, Molly swung the door open.

"Get in here, now! Quickly! Quickly!" Her voice was harsh and commanding. All four of them obeyed, Wolfwood behind Millie and Vash helped Meryl, who was complaning that she could by herself, through the doorway into the house. They all stood inside the little foyer, watching curiously as Molly went around pulling the blinds and curtains on her windows.

"Molly what's the-" Finally the red-head shuttered her last window. She hushed Millie sharply and pulled them all into the small living room.

"What's going on Mol?" Wolfwood asked. His eyes were vaguely accusing. Molly could see that, despite her best attempts to look away.

"I should have told you this earlier, but you need to leave immediately."

"Why?" Meryl gently shoved Vash's arms away and walked up, finding herself looking almost directly into Molly's green eyes. Molly looked away, clenching her fists. Before Meryl could saw anything, the woman launched her small frame at Meryl's and caught her in a fierce hug.

"I tried protecting you. But I couldn't. They're coming for you Meryl. They want you back." She whispered it so no one else could hear it. Only Meryl. Because only Meryl could understand what that meant. She pulled away from Molly, her slate eyes wide with fear.

"No..." That's all she could utter. She closed her eyes and began to shake her head. She could almost feel their slimy hands on her, touching her, feeling her. Their voices rang in her ears, echoing all around her. Those cold hands began to envelope her again. Terrified, She slammed her palms over her ears and turned, intending on running, instead becoming engulfed in a warm embrace.

"What's going on?" Millie asked, her usually easily controlled temper rising. The four of them stood watching Molly for an answer when suddenly three, loud gunshots rang out in the silence of the morning. Molly sadly looked up. She first fixated her gaze on Meryl, then Millie, then Wolfwood, and then Vash who was currently holding the shaking girl she was determined to save.

"It's the corporation. They found out she's here and they want her back."