Critical wounds, angels and Meryl

Vash awoke an unknown amount of time later to three female silhouettes looking down at him. 'Angels...' he thought. 'I finally died.' He couldn't decide whether to be sad or smile. Before he could do anything, one of them cried out.

"Vash!! Are you ok!? Can you hear me?!" The voice echoed and re-echoed in his still-ringing ears. The loudness made his head throb and he flinched in pain.

"A-angels....," Vash muttered weakly. "You're angels, aren't you?"

"Mr. Vash?" The echoing was starting to clear and he thought he recognized this voice.

"No, we're not angels...Vash, is it?" This voice was still completely new to him.

"Then...i'm still alive." One of the 'angels' threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. She was obviously crying.

"Oh, Vash! I thought you had been killed. Please, don't scare me like that again."

"...Meryl. And you must be Millie. But...who are you?"

The third 'angel' chuckled a pretty chuckle. "Forgot me already? I'm the woman who loaned you her gun before you almost committed assisted suicide."

"Oh. Where am I?" Meryl felt a little proud that the other woman had only gotten an 'oh'.

"You're still in the bank. The surgeons said we should not move you. They said...oh, Vash!" She buried her face in his chest and sobbed loudly. The stranger finished what Meryl started to say.

"They said you were going to die. But your friends told me who you are, so i'm not worried. After all, Vash the Stampede can't die, right?"

"You're wrong. I can die. I couldn't before because I wasn't done with what I had set out to do. But now that I am..."

"Don't say that, mr. Vash!" Meryl suddenly stopped sobbing and sat up.

"May we have a moment alone, please?"

"Sure." Millie and the stranger left the building. Millie leaned on the woman's shoulder and sniffled.

Meryl and Vash were silent for a few moments, except for Vash's labored breathing.

"Vash....you've been through worse than this and lived, right?"

Vash couldn't answer. A close-range blast of over-sized shot to the chest? No, this was probably the worst.

"But you are not going to die, are you?"

".....I don't know."

"I....I will stay with you, if you want me to."

"...thanks." Meryl lay down next to Vash. The surgeons had stopped the bleeding and had put as much blood back into Vash as they could, so the floor was fairly dry. She stared at him through tears, wondering what if anything she could say.

"Meryl. What will you do if I do die here?"

"I...I will probably go back to Bernardelli main office and resume my life where it was before I decided to follow you." She tried hard to sound calm, but anyone with ears could see it was a lie. "Millie, too, most likely."

"I see." Vash's voice was a sigh. Meryl tried to think of something to let him know she'd miss him without sounding like she'd miss him too much. "You'll miss me, won't you?" Meryl gasped a little. It was like he read her mind!

"....Yes. I will miss you."

"Is there anything you need to tell me, that you'll always wish you had if you don't?" He knew there was. He heard her and Millie talking as he left to face Knives. He mostly just wondered if she had the courage to say it.