Standard Disclaimer: Trigun or its of its characters are not mine. Not making any money from this little piece of work, just having fun.

Nickie opened her eyes slowly as the brilliant morning light bored its way into her aching head. Sighing softly, she rolled to her side and pulled the covers over her head in an attempt to shield her eyes from the light. She lay quietly for a few moments, flexing her arms and legs, feeling for any damage done by the howling winds of the typhoon.

Satisfied that she felt nothing other than a few dull aches and pains here and there, Nickie slowly lowered the covers from her eyes to see where she had managed to land. Her vision sharpened in the morning light as she began to take in her surroundings. Her memory was fuzzy for the last thing she remembered was being pulled away from Nick and the jeep by the raging winds. How in the world did she wind up in what appeared to be a hotel room?

The walls and the ceiling overhead were pale yellow, the latter with fans hanging from its surface. She glanced quickly around the room and noticed a small bedside table and lamp, a rather comfortable looking chair, an open door to a bathing chamber, what appeared to be a closet, and the exit. Nickie closed her eyes and rubbed her hand across her brow. "Just how did I survive the storm to wind up here?" She mused to herself before another thought crossed her mind. "Divine Providence…" she whispered in the stillness of the room.

"Hardly… I rather think that I would call it blind luck…"

Nickie gave a startled shriek and clutched the covers to her chest. A previously unnoticed occupant of the room was gazing out a small window. "Wh… Who are you?" She squeaked in the stillness of the room. "Where are my guns?" she thought frantically.

She scowled at the man's back as he just stood there, looking out the window as if he belonged in her room. Who was this strange man and why didn’t he answer her immediately? She noticed his blue hair fell loosely around his broad shoulders and he was dressed entirely in black right down to his boots. Nickie demanded in an aggravated tone, "Well, who are you and why are you in my room?" But the man offered no further comment.

A horrible thought crossed Nickie's mind as she waited for him to answer. "What if this was his room? What was she doing in a room with a strange man?" Nickie's thoughts turned darker as another thought crossed her senses. "What if this stranger had done something to her before she had awakened?"

"Stop thinking such morbid thoughts. I have not caused you any harm." He turned slowly to face her, his brilliant platinum gaze boring into her wide sky blue one. "Besides," he added sarcastically, "I want you awake when I get into bed with you, not lying there like an old rag."

Nickie blushed furiously and gasped at his words. "Just… just who do you think you are talking to me like that? Why if I had my guns, I'd shoot you for that insult." She huffed her growing displeasure at him. "You still haven't told me who you are!"

Lazarus smiled widely at her. She was magnificently beautiful in her outrage. Her eyes snapped sparks of blue fire as she faced him with more courage than he'd thought possible for a female. He nodded at a nearby chair. "Go ahead and shoot. Your little derringers are right beside you."

Nickie sighed loudly and focused everything she had in sitting up in bed. She was suddenly mortified to find that she was wearing a sleeping gown and little else. Who had changed her clothes? Had this man in her room been responsible for this change? She blushed furiously again at the thought of the stranger seeing her naked body.

The man crossed the room in a few swift strides and stopped at the edge of the bed. "Nicole M. Wolfwood, it truly breaks my heart that you do not remember me, for I remember you very well indeed."

Nickie studied the man in front of her closely. He was exceedingly attractive, but she was still not sure that she could place him. She shook her head slowly at him. "I'm… I'm sorry, you seem familiar, but…" she trailed off hopelessly.

"Think harder, concentrate, reach back into the past to December…"

Nickie shook her head again, her blue eyes clouded with doubt. "I'm not sure…" she began.

The name whispered its way through her mind, seeking the door to the past. It flowed over her synapses as it searched out the door to a night that had past many years ago. "Lazarus…" Platinum eyes bored into hers as if willing her to remember.

Nickie smiled brightly as the door inside her mind swung open. "I remember you," she cried brightly. "You were in the saloon and offered to help me." Her eyes crinkled at the corners. "You even asked if you could call on me when your business was complete." Lazarus looked at her with a pleased expression. "May I?" he nodded at the edge of the bed.

"Oh, gracious yes." Nickie scooted over a bit on the narrow bed. She smiled nervously as he lowered his large frame to the mattress. Extending her hand, Nickie added, "You already know my name and I think your name is Lazarus, but I'm not sure if you told me or I imagined it."

Realizing that she might be familiar with his surname, he felt it best if he kept that a secret to himself for the time being. Lazarus took the proffered hand in his own and held it lightly. "You are indeed correct, Miss Wolfwood. I am Lazarus. Lazarus Diaggrio at your service." His head bowed slightly as he lifted her hand to his lips and place a soft on its back.

She blushed a fiery shade of crimson once again as an unfamiliar feeling formed in her core. Nickie gently tugged her hand from his warm grasp. His manner while very polite was still unnerving to her. The only man that had ever entered her bedroom at home was Nick and Uncle Vash and even they didn't enter until being assured that she was dressed appropriately. "Umm Mr. Diaggrio? Where are my clothes? I … I would like to get dressed now."

Lazarus smiled gently at her. It was still hard to believe that she was actually here with him. If not for his mother's desire for vengeance, then he'd be very content to whisk her away and live quietly. "Do not fret Miss Wolfwood, your clothes should be returned to you shortly. I had the laundress take them away last night." He looked at the door for a moment. "I believe they are here now."

Lazarus rose from his seat and crossing the room, reached the door just as someone rapped sharply on it. He spoke quietly to someone and nodding at the unseen person, returned to Nickie's side with her clothes. "They were filled with sand and useless to you as they were. I thought you'd appreciate clean garments."

Nickie nodded at him with a serious look on her face. "Mr. Diaggrio," she began hesitantly. "Who… did you take my clothes off when you brought me here?" Nickie's eyes fell to her chest as she clenched her lower lip with her teeth, almost afraid to hear his response.

Lazarus studied the girl in front of him for several seconds before answering. He noted that she blushed almost continuously when she spoke to him and she was distressed by thoughts of what had possibly transpired between them while she was unconscious. Sighing lightly, he reached out, placed a hand beneath her chin and tilted her face upward until her eyes met his.

"Miss Wolfwood, when I arrived in LR Town with you, you were covered with sand and grime. I only thought to make you as comfortable as possible so you might rest better and feel well when you awakened." He removed his hand from her chin as he added, "I assure you that taking advantage of you as you lay senseless did not enter my mind."

"I'm… I'm sorry. It's just that… I was frightened when I first saw you in my room, and I've never been alone with a strange man before, and I know some men are… are not very… nice to women, and I was… I'm chattering away, aren't I?"

"You are merely nervous because you have never been alone with someone you consider a stranger. I hope that during the next few days, you and I can become better acquainted and you will soon view me as a friend." Lazarus spoke quietly, his rich voice flowing gently over her. "You may find this hard to believe, but I have thought of you often since the night we met."

Nickie's eyes widened slightly at his comments. "You have been thinking about me? Why?" She was secretly pleased by his words. Men at home in December did not press their attentions too closely because of Uncle Vash and Nick.

Even, white teeth broke into a wide smile. "Because I find you extremely beautiful and desirable."

Nickie returned his smile easily. "Well, if you thought I was beautiful, then why didn’t you ever come back to December? I think I invited you to visit me."

"I have not completed my business yet. Until my task is complete, I am merely a servant to a past that I had no hand in creating. He paused a moment as if gathering his thoughts, his hands tightening at his sides. "But I can bring that past to a close with one death."

Nickie stared at Lazarus momentarily speechless. Had a mad man rescued her? Was he likely to turn violent at any second? She studied him closely for a few moments. She was usually very good at sensing a person's character and she could not feel anything untoward about this Lazarus. Still it wouldn't hurt to be a bit cautious around him until she knew him better.

Lazarus broke the silence between them. "I will return shortly. Perhaps you'd care to freshen up while I am out. When I return, I would be delighted to escort you to lunch."

Nickie suddenly felt famished. "Oh that would be wonderful. I am sort of hungry." Lazarus nodded at her again and turned to go. As he reached to door to the room, Nickie called out to him again, "Mr. Diaggrio?"

Lazarus turned to answer Nickie's questioning tone. "Mr. Diaggrio, I know it's really none of my business, but who do you want to kill and why?"

Turning back to the door, Lazarus paused before answering with a note of repressed rage, "The man who killed my father… Knives Millions." He disappeared out the door before hearing Nickie's sharply in drawn breath of surprise.

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A few hours later, Nickie sat across from Lazarus enjoying the final bites of her meal before requesting a dish of pudding. Lazarus for his part was thoroughly enchanted with the young woman in black across from him. He was amazed that she had shown no ill effects from being tossed about by the wind before he'd managed to rescue her. There had been a few awkward moments when she had asked him if he happened to know the whereabouts of her brother.

Lazarus had bitten back a reply that Nick Wolfwood could drown in a sea of sand as far as he was concerned. But, he'd said he had no idea of the location of her brother. Lazarus was secretly planning to deal with Nick's carelessness the instant they crossed paths. This was twice he's managed to place Nicole in harms way that Lazarus knew about. There was no telling how many other times Nick Wolfwood had let the headstrong Nicole have her way that had lead to trouble.

Nickie was worried about Nick, but he would probably find her shortly. As it was, there was no way to contact Nick and let him know where she was and that she was all right. Nickie decided to relax for a few days and enjoy the company of Lazarus. It was something of an oddity to be able to go out to lunch with a man and not have Nick or Uncle Vash hovering in the corner.

Sighing over the last bite of her pudding. Nickie licked the spoon and placed it in the dish. Gathering her courage, she looked Lazarus in the eye and asked, "Mr. Diaggrio, I know that this is really not my business, but did you say earlier that you were hunting someone by the name of Knives Millions and that you intended to kill him?" She waited expectedly for his reply as he raised his coffee cup to his lips.

Lazarus regarded her over the rim of his cup, debating over exactly to tell her. He supposed in hindsight that he should not have said anything to her earlier, but he had and that couldn’t be undone. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided maybe it would be better if she knew more about him and why he hadn't returned to December in a timely fashion.

"Miss Wolfwood, I am not sure if a young lady such as yourself should even be aware in some of the things I currently find myself involved in," he paused a moment, taking another drink before setting the cup down on the table top. "But as I failed to think before I spoke, the least I can do is offer you a more complete explanation." He smiled at her benignly before continuing, "Besides, I would not want you to think that I didn’t return to December because I had forgotten about you."

Nickie smiled at his words. She felt very attracted to this man called Lazarus. He made her feel a warm cozy feeling in the center of her being and she wondered if this was anything like desire or passion. Nick had tried to explain it to her years ago, be he'd gotten flustered and his stammered replies had made no sense. Uncle Vash had looked at her as if she had grown a second head, turned an impossible shade of red and had run for the nearest door while telling her to ask Meryl. Meryl had looked startled at first, but then she had reached up and patted her on the shoulder and asked her to sit. Nickie remembered sitting on the edge of the bed and waited for and listened intently to her mother's explanation.

"You are correct when you asked if I were going to kill Knives Millions. He is directly responsible for the death of my father."

"You mean he shot your father, too? How awful!" Nickie's eyes filled with tears of concern. "I knew that Mr. Knives was a mean person, but I never really thought that he might have killed other people's mamma and pappa."

Lazarus knew well how the priest known as Wolfwood had died. His mother had known something of what had happened between Knives and his minions all those years ago. He looked at her with what he hoped was a shocked expression. "Miss Wolfwood, do you mean to say that Knives Millions has also murdered your father?"

"It wasn't him directly. He sent a bad person to kill my father's best friend, only he was the one to die in the end." Nickie drew a shuddering breath before continuing, "He also killed my mamma, just gunned her down in the streets of a little village a few hundred isles from here." Her voice strengthened as she continued her explanation. "This was after my mamma was forced to be his… his… well, to do things for him to satisfy his… needs."

Lazarus gaped at her, clearly shocked by the things she was telling him. This was a part of the story that his mother had never told him. Perhaps she had been unaware of what had happened to the woman who had born the children of the priest. "Miss Wolfwood, do you mean to say that Knives Millions personally shot your mother?"

"He had just told her that he intended to use my brother and I to kill everyone on the planet once we were old enough. Mamma was in labor when she confronted him on the streets. She used my pappa's gun to blow a hole right through him, but it wasn't enough. Somehow, Knives managed to shoot her and crawl away to safety while mamma died giving Nick and I life."

Lazarus stared at her, clearly taken aback by her story. "Do you mean to say that is why you are out here on the frontier? You have come to search for Knives Millions?" He could hardly believe what he was hearing. This seemingly gentle young woman was running about in the desert, with the desire to commit murder? He was suddenly impressed with her loyalty and commitment. She was the one who would be able to understand his motives and would eventually be the perfect mate for him.

"Mr. Diaggrio, I have a proposal for you. Why don’t we work together to find Knives and put an end to his evil ways?"

Lazarus smiled at Nickie. "I will agree to a partnership between us on two conditions."

Nickie waited expectedly as he paused. "Well, what are your conditions?"

"First, we cease treating each other like polite strangers. You will stop calling me 'Mr. Diaggrio' and call me 'Lazarus' and I will call you by your proper name."

"Well that's not a problem, Lazarus, although no one has ever called me 'Nicole' unless they were angry or annoyed with me." She smiled at him before continuing, "Are you sure you wouldn't like to call me Nickie?"

Lazarus smiled evilly at her as she readily agreed with no hesitation. "I am quite sure. Nickie sounds like a name for a skinny girl with no figure. And you Nicole, are definitely a woman."

Nickie flushed with pleasure at his compliment. Boldly she asked for his second condition.

"You might want to think about the next one before you answer, Nicole." He paused, extending his hand across the table and added. "Number two, you agree to become my lover sometime in the near future."

Nickie gaped at him in open-mouthed astonishment. Had she heard him right? He wanted her to be his lover? "I… I've never had a lover before… I… I…'m not sure that I'd know what to do." She cringed inwardly as she listened to the naivete in her voice. Lazarus was bound to think she was just a stupid girl who had no clue about what went on in real life.

"I am sure that you will be to my liking. After all, I have wanted you since we met long ago. Well, what is your answer, Nicole? I do not have an eternity to waste. I would like to kill Knives so I can pursue my own desires for a change."

Nickie stared at him for several seconds before extending her hand across the table toward him. She should have been disgusted by his offer, but a part of her realized that this Lazarus was the reason she had never shown much interest in other men in her recent past. Come what may, she wanted what he had to offer. With firmness in her voice, she took his extended hand in hers and spoke one word, "Done."

Lazarus smiled to himself, knowing that all he had ever wanted had suddenly been placed in his lap.

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To Be Continued…

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Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Busy at school you know! A teacher's work is seldom done!

Love and Peace,

Blackhat (^_~)