Part III:  Sifting Through Ashes

    Over the next several weeks, the visitor began to regain her strength as predicted.  She slept a little less, ate a little more, and spoke of daily life, small matters, and occasionally would mention differences between this Tokyo and the one she knew, though she never mentioned anything significant or related to herself.  Genzaisensei was beginning to talk to the others about having a psychiatrist friend of his coming over to talk with the convalescent.
    Subtlety wouldn't work, and note only was it rude to ask directly, but the others had promised Kenshin that they wouldn't.  However, even the strong-willed rurouni had to struggle with himself to avoid asking this other Megumi about her past.
    Dr. Genzai had already decided he would not introduce the two Megumis to meet one another until they learned more about the visitor.  Kaoru had thought that perhaps their patient might prefer to talk to her almost twin but the older doctor had been adamant -- no contact.  He had told each  Megumi about the other, but never every much about either.
    It had been more than a month since her arrival when Amaya-Megumi was able to walk to the porch without assistance.  She claimed she felt stronger than that, but none of her new friends would allow her to take any risks or push herself too far.  None of them seriously believed she would try to run away, but there were other things that might happen.
    Sano had been true to his word, and avoided being seen by the woman for most of the month.  It hadn't been easy, especially the part where he avoided getting caught, but there had been more than one occasion where he had sneaked in to watch her sleeping.  She was no more or less beautiful than the Megumi he knew, though some might say the scars detracted from her looks.  He thought they added something, said something about her character and endurance.
    He liked a strong woman.
    It wasn't his fault that she wasn't always fully asleep when he watched her.
   What troubled him was when he found out she'd known.
    It was a warm spring day, and Kenshin had taken Kaoru and Yahiko into town to go shopping.  Sano hadn't known and had gone to the dojo, planning to con, coerce, or cajole Kaoru into  feeding him as usual, and maybe spotting him some cash.  However, only one person was there.  Genzaisensei had been called away on an emergency, and Amaya-Megumi sat on the porch, mending some clothing.
    She'd been given one of Megumi's kimonos and her left side was to the door.  Sano's first reaction was bewilderment; he'd thought the two Megumi's hadn't met yet.  Yet it seemed this was the foxy lady doctor he'd known for a long time.
    "Oiy, Kitsune, I thought the old man wasn't gonna introduce you two yet."
    With a wry smile, she turned to him and he saw his mistake.
    "He hasn't.  Have you been avoiding me?"
    The ex gangster, the unflappable Sagara Sanosuke, went white and fell back a step.  Caught between guilt, fascination, and the rare but potent desire to be straightforward and honest, he found himself completely at a loss.
    If only the others had seen his discomfiture, they'd never have let him live it down.
    Megumi watched him for a long moment.   When he didn't answer she sighed.  "You are, aren't you."
    "I promised Kenshin.  He said you looked upset when you saw me," he finally mumbled.
    "I -- yes.  I suppose I would, at that."  Sano looked at her shrewdly, but she was already on another subject.  "Kaoru's been learning to cook."
    The tall man gave a double take.  "Ah, yeah, I guess she is."
    "Where I'm from, she refused."  The woman smiled.  "She thinks she's a fighter and it's beneath her to cook.  Kennii's tried telling her otherwise but she won't listen."
    Sano regarded the sitting woman suspiciously.
    "Is...  Is the Kaoru you know like that?
    Still looking wary, Sanosuke replied, "I shouldn't even say it, but she's not all that stubborn.  Not about that, anyway.  Her big hang-up is what she calls 'supporting two lazy men and a bum.'"  He shrugged.
    Megumi nodded.  "There's that also."  She smiled tiredly at him, and he smiled tentatively back.  "I guess some things never really change, no matter how different other things may be."  She looked down at her folded hands.
    Sano looked at this strong woman, so frail and vulnerable in the cocoon of blankets.  "I know what you mean," he said softly, though his own thoughts were of a time long ago, when he'd asked a strong man he admired and loved if one day he might use his leader's name, and to a time ten years later, when he had realized not only just how much that man had meant to him, but also how he might at last let him rest.
    The woman on the bed sighed softly after a moment.  "Sanosuke, may I ask you a question?"
    "Eh?"  He looked up, no longer as tense as he'd been at the start of the discussion.
    "Why were you watching me so much?"
    "Nani?  What makes you say that?"  Sanosuke tried valiantly to look shocked and innocent.
    Unsurprisingly, she wasn't fooled.  "When you thought I was asleep, you'd watch me.  What I want to know is, why?"
    Before he opened his mouth again, Sanosuke remembered he didn't have to answer to this woman.  Being so beautiful, intelligent, and strong willed -- not to mention such a survivor -- gave her no hold on him, no right to interrogate him.  He was his own man, a former Sekihou Tai member, later a gangster, and now an independent person (with the tiny exception of those occasional loans and meals from Kaoru and Tae.)  He glared at the woman on the porch.  "What difference does it make?  Someone had to keep an eye on you in case you needed something."
    The scarred woman looked at the defiant young man and smiled to herself.  "You are exactly like my former husband.  The Sano I knew was just as shy as you are."
    "Your...  You were married?  To me?  I mean to another me?  I mean...  Dammit!"  Sanosuke turned away, glaring at the floor, wanting to kick himself.  Here she'd just made a major breakthrough and all he did was act like an idiot.  Embarrassed, he wanted to run away, but he knew that was the worst thing he could do.
    "Relax.  You're not on trial here.  If anyone is, it's me."  Megumi smiled wistfully at him.  "Seems like everyone's been walking on eggshells around me, but you're the one I've wanted to talk to.  I don't know why, you're just as chickenheaded as the Sanosuke I knew," she said teasingly, "But I hope you're not as weak as he was."  Her voice had gone soft, and the humor faded from her expression.
    "Weak!?"  At first, Sanosuke thought he should be offended, but then his curiosity got the best of him.  "How do you mean?"
    "When Kanryu broke out of prison and came back for me, Sano tried to fight him single-handedly without getting help.  He lost, was beaten badly, and I was... abducted."  The woman lowered her head.  Her voice was barely a whisper now, and though her skin was pale, the scar on her face stood out deep and livid, as stark as it was when she'd first come to them, sick and weak from loss of blood.  Usually, when she was at rest, or happy, the color was not as intense.  She continued haltingly, and Sano was surprised somehow when a tear spotted her kimono.  "He left me, then.  Left all of us behind, with nothing but a note.  Said he was going somewhere far away, and left his bandanna and jacket.  Kennii knew immediately, but I couldn't accept it.  That was the first time that Kanryu'd come back after me, and Kennii succeeded where Sano had failed, so he left.  Kanryu evaded capture, and came back a second time.  He didn't take any chances.  As soon as he realized I was pregnant, he --"
    "I know what that asshole did," the ex-gangster growled savagely.  Megumi looked up in surprise at him to see him glaring off into the distance as if an image of her abductor hovered there.  He looked as determined as her husband had, only Megumi felt, somehow, that if he had been the one in her world, she would not be a widow.