InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 28 Days ❯ The Season to be Jolly ( Chapter 7 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: RozeFire 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Suspense / Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.08.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 3.4K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Suspense / Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.08.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 3.4K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I ain't sayin' it again
(A/N: Well I just got a dress from America - a souvenir thanks to my mother and I can't believe how different the measurements are. I'm a size six in English... and I got a size zero from America... I feel like I must weigh nothing or something...
Well, new chapter, sorry about the weight... I mean, wait ^_^)
2 8 Days
The Season to be Jolly
"Delivery for Dogtor Inu."
Inuyasha clenched his fist around the pen he was using to fill in some health certificates... accidentally shattering it. Kikyo carefully moved her new pen pot under the desk and out of sight.
Inuyasha turned slowly, opening his mouth to let a stream of colourful and inventive language loose, when he froze up. "What the hell...?"
The delivery man was no longer wearing his usual navy blue jump-suit with a matching baseball cap. He was now wearing a bright red jump-suit, fringed with fluffy white stuff around the sleeves and middle, and he also wore a floppy red hat with a white bobble at the end. He also had a fake white beard and wig.
"Merry Christmas, Doc!" the delivery man grinned.
"Damn..." Inuyasha sighed. "I forgot it was that time of year again..."
"What, Easter?" Kikyo glanced up and started when she saw the delivery man. "Who the hell is that?"
"Who do you think I am?" the delivery man shrugged.
"Dad?" Inuyasha blinked. "The similarity is unnerving..."
"Thirty-two boxes of syringes for Dogtor Inu." The delivery man held out the clipboard with the form to sign.
Inuyasha looked around. "Uh... pen... pen..." he saw the one Kikyo was using and quickly snatched it out of her hand. "Ahah!"
"A-hey!" Kikyo gaped at him. "I was using that!"
"Switch to de-caff , Sister." Inuyasha called over his shoulder as he signed the forms. "You need to relax a little."
Kikyo grumbled and quietly pulled one from her secret drawer.
Once Inuyasha had signed, Father Christmas waved to his little elf pals who then wheeled in the boxes.
"Thirty-two?" Inuyasha scowled. "There's only sixteen... where's the rest?"
"Gimme a break - it's Christmas!" the delivery man shrugged again,
"Not yet it's not!" Inuyasha clenched his fists. "Where are the rest?!"
"Back at the warehouse, Doc. Couldn't be bothered bringing the whole hog today, so the rest'll be here tomorrow." The delivery man waved. "Good evening to all - and to all; a good night! Thank you everyone, I'll be here all week!"
When the waiting room residents all clapped, Kikyo had to grab the back of Inuyasha's shirt to keep him from attacking the delivery man as he bowed his way out. "He isn't worth it, Inuyasha."
"I swear - if I see that clown in here one more time I won't be responsible for my actions." He growled. He was about to go on when someone passed by the front desk humming. Both Kikyo and Inuyasha watched him pass... more because he was wearing very odd clothes. His hair was died red, his suit lime green and his shoes were white... just like the doctor lab coat he was wearing.
"Hey... speaking of clowns..." Inuyasha pointed. "Isn't that-"
"Doctor Lisuko." Kikyo nodded. "Whoa..."
"When did he turn into paediatrics?" Inuyasha glanced at Kikyo. "He's a clown doctor now?"
"No... that's just a midlife crisis walking past." She sighed and went back to her work.
"Midlife crisis?" Inuyasha shuddered. "I hope I never get to that any time soon..."
"Never get to that?" Kikyo echoed and arched an eyebrow at him. "You hit it five years ago."
"You're so horrible to me!" Inuyasha huffed and flounced off with a toss of his hair.
"I try..." Kikyo muttered in his wake.
On his way to his first patient he passed Kagome's room. He paused for a moment to glance in the window and saw that she was still asleep and strapped down. A nurse was stood at the end of the bed noting stuff down on a form, just like he'd told her to do. Hopefully her fist dose of Xycrophobin would start taking affect soon and she would wake up... though that was not always a good thing in some ways.
He carried on to his appointment and quickly checked the name of the patient he was about to see. It was Sango, which raised his hopes a little - because Miroku should be there to.
He found the examination room she was waiting in and opened the door. He stopped and frowned when he found himself confronted with the sight of Miroku looking for more patients down Sango's throat. After staring a moment, unnoticed by the kissing couple, he closed the door and blinked.
"That was all an illusion... and when I open the door again... they'll be arguing." Inuyasha shook his head to clear it, realising he must have been eating too much Ramen recently.
He opened the door again.
Nope... he was definitely not dreaming that. And since Sango seemed to be in capable... hands... Inuyasha decided that he might as well take a rain check on this appointment and go take a coffee break.
As he wondered off towards the elevator to go up to the canteen he had to wonder what it was about Christmas that made people face suck. It had to be something to do with mistletoe... or some kind of government conspiracy. Not that that would make much sense...
"Doctor!"
Inuyasha put his hand out to stop the elevator doors from closing and pushed them back to see one of the younger nurses running towards him. "What's the matter?"
"It's Kagome Higurashi - she's awake." The girl gasped, pressing a hand to her chest.
"That's good - I'll go see her now then-"
"No - she woke while there was no one there to watch her - she must have come around in a matter of seconds - we only left her for five minutes!" the nurse gushed.
"What?"
"She's gone - we went to check up on her and she was gone from the bed." She shook her head. "I have no idea where she went!"
"It's ok, Aki." He rushed past her. "I'll take it from here."
The first place he checked was, of course, her room. He looked around, checking the corners and bathroom for some sign, but she definitely wasn't in there. The blankets on her bed were disturbed and half kicked off the mattress, and the buckles that had been holding her were all open - and one of the wrist buckles had been torn off completely.
"Shit..." he muttered as he slammed out of the door again and ran for reception. "Kikyo!"
"Ah!" she jumped so badly she dropped a box of syringes on the floor. "What?!"
"Tell everyone to look for a patient - one that looks a little like you?"
"Miss Higurashi escaped again?" Kikyo frowned at him.
"Just do it!" he snapped and turned to check out the most likeliest places she could be.
He first checked the canteen since that was the one place most patients ended up on their travels, but she wasn't there either. That was when he found he was fresh out of ideas. She was definitely inside the building because the security guards around the front entrance had strict orders not to let any patients go without doctor say-so. Either that... or she'd jumped out a window or something.
He really hoped she had more sense than that, so he carried on looking around the top floor where most of the pleasure activities were located for long-term patients, including the game room.
She wasn't anywhere around there and he went back to the stairs to start searching the floor beneath. He stopped just before he was about to descend the flight of stairs since a cold draft whirled around him, making him shiver. It wasn't usually so cold... so it meant that the door to the roof was open.
Chances of it being Kagome who'd opened it...? Pretty high.
He went up the next flight of stairs to find that the roof door was indeed open. The wind blew through it strongly, and the cold blast made his hair whip around his shoulders. He pushed it out of his eyes and looked around quickly. He didn't particularly like it when patients found their way to the roof... and he had to wonder if she was up here at all... and hadn't taken the quickest way down to the ground.
"Kagome?" he called as he moved away from the door, careful not to close it behind him in case he was locked out. He spotted her quickly - sitting at the very edge of the roof with her legs dangling over the edge, facing Mount Fuji in the distance. Behind her, one of the wrist buckles lay strewn on the ground, the one that she'd ripped off in order to free herself... not an easy feat.
"Nice day." He commented as she slowly approached her.
"No it isn't." Kagome answered evenly, flicking a glance momentarily up at the grey overcast sky. Before she knew it, or could move, Inuyasha sat down beside her, dangling his own legs over the side. She glanced at him for a moment, wondering why he wasn't grabbing her and pulling her back, or at least giving her the speech to entice her away from the edge. Deciding he was pretty much as crazy as her Grandpa she turned her gaze back over the city.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Inuyasha asked idly.
Kagome held her hand out. "Penny first, then I'll talk."
"Um..." Inuyasha patted his pockets. "I've been a little strapped for cash recently..." Thanks to a certain money-making-mooching-Miroku.
"Figures..." Kagome shrugged. "I was just thinking about Zebras..."
"And why not?" Inuyasha shrugged. "They're a good... animal..."
"Don't you think they've pulled he short straw in life?" She sighed. "I mean... talk about unlucky. They live in big grassy plains where there are lions and hyenas... and do that get camouflage? No. They get kited out in black and white stripes so they stick out like a sore thumb. Not very hard for a lion to find a Zebra then. AND they come last in the alphabet."
"Maybe when they were handing out camouflage, they were last in line because they were going alphabetically." Inuyasha guessed.
"That would make sense..." Kagome nodded absently. "Must have been tough for them when Noah was taking on the animals in alphabetical order too..."
"Yeah..."
"And ants... no - Aardvarks..." Kagome wrinkled her nose. "How much do you want to bet they just made up that name so they could be first on the Ark?"
"I'm not a betting man..." Inuyasha said dully.
Kagome lapsed into silence and brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"Was that really what you were thinking about?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yes..." Kagome replied with a soft sigh as she leant her chin against her knees. "And... the fact that I probably won't be able to climb Mount Fuji without a walking stick..."
"You weren't thinking of jumping?"
"I'm not stupid." Kagome snorted. "This is the only place where I can get any privacy... stupid nurses keep checking up on me every thirty seconds."
"With good reason." Inuyasha retorted.
"Yeah, well what's the point?" Kagome glared briefly at him. "If I'm going to just die, why not send me home so I could live out the rest of my life in peace and comfortable surroundings?"
"Because this is a virus no one has ever seen before." Inuyasha told her sternly. "There might be complications and the medical board want you to stay here for observation and treatment. If you go home we can't treat you, and then you'll just lapse into another coma, and that's a fine way to spend the last month of your life."
"How can you just be so casual about this?" Kagome scowled as she suddenly stood up and backed away from the edge a little. "I'm DYING! You can't change that! Why not let me just fall back into a coma - I don't care! At least it'll save me a month of torture - knowing I have only a matter of days to live!"
"It's a fact - I'm not going to walk on eggshells around this. I'm a doctor, I can't pretend you aren't dying!" Inuyasha snapped, not moving from his seat near the edge.
"I'm seventeen! My birthday is in five weeks!" Kagome clenched her fists. "But I'm not going to live till then, am I?!"
"No."
"I want my life back!" Kagome picked up the buckle she'd ripped off and hurled it off the roof with a yell. "It's not FAIR!"
"Whoever said it was?" Inuyasha followed the buckle as it streaked across the sky and started fall to earth, aiming right for the delivery man who was just about getting into his truck. Inuyasha prayed silently... before snorting with laughter when the heavy buckle clapped the guy on the head.
"You find this funny?!" Kagome growled. "I'm dying and you're just laughing!"
"It isn't good to dwell on these things." Inuyasha changed his attention back to the matter at hand. "Sometimes it's good to make a list of the things you aimed to do in life."
"Why? So I can look at it and rejoice that I'll never get to do them?"
"No... it's so you can do them while you still have time." Inuyasha told her. "Things like... plant a tree... go paragliding... visit Spain..."
"I could do those things?" Kagome asked reproachfully.
"Sure... and we'd even pay for it." Inuyasha shrugged with a small smile. "But you'd only get to visit Spain for a little while... and you'd be swamped by doctors the entire time... so I wouldn't try that if I were you."
"I'm not outgoing." Kagome sighed and she moved to sit down on the edge again. "Jumping off cliffs with a sail tied to my back was never on my 'do before I die' list."
"Then what was?" he glanced over at her.
Kagome buried her face in her hands with a sigh. "All my friends... when they were little... they wanted to become doctors, dentists, astronauts... models... singers..."
"Dancers, actors and stars?" Inuyasha nodded. He knew most kids wanted that.
"Nowadays they want a career... to be independent women. They want to get out there and make money so they can start thinking about taking early retirement with a small fortune."
"And you do as well?"
"No..." Kagome shook her head. "I just wanted a job maybe... but what I really wanted most was to find the perfect guy to fall in love with... get married... have kids..."
Inuyasha winced, knowing she'd never have time to do those things now.
"I was waiting to have the perfect life..." Kagome stood up again, but this time made no move to step away from the edge. "Am I supposed to give myself over to a perfect death instead?"
"You gonna jump?" Inuyasha asked.
"Maybe..." Kagome swayed slightly in the breeze, closing her eyes to keep from seeing the dizzying height. "Why not? I'll be saving everyone a lot of trouble... one less patient for you... less enduring pain for me... and my family won't have to look at me in pity anymore..."
"Oh... but you have so much to live for."
"That's not even funny." Kagome scowled faintly.
"It wasn't a joke." Inuyasha responded evenly. "You have a month... in that time you can do anything you want. You can blow your life savings... never have to work again... anything. And you still have time to be with your family and friends."
"No." Kagome swayed again. "I don't want to see my family... they pity me... I could see it even when I didn't know I was dying..."
"But they're visiting today." Inuyasha told her, looking at his nails critically. "They do every day."
"Then I refuse to see them."
"Or you could jump and spare us all the time."
"Or I could jump, yeah, thanks for the reminder.".
"But..." Inuyasha started slowly as he reclined on his hands. "That would mean that you'd die a very messy death... blood guts and brains all over the pavement down there." He whistled as he peered down. "And right over there is the infant Playskool... and unless you want to traumatise a bunch of three year olds for life then I wouldn't jump if I were you."
"What would I care? I'd be dead." Kagome scowled, looking down as well.
"I suppose you're right... and I'm sure the caretaker could sweep you up before the bell goes and the kids all run home." Inuyasha smirked up at her. "But what would you care...? You'd be dead."
Kagome's brow furrowed slightly and she stepped back. "I'm cold... I'll do this another day."
"Take your time." Inuyasha called as she headed back inside. "Don't rush yourself to an early grave, you know."
The answering sound was the door to the roof slamming close behind her as she went back inside. Inuyasha gazed out over the city below... before suddenly remembering why he'd propped that door open in the first place...
^_^
"Did you just get dragged through a hedge backwards?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha arrived at reception.
Inuyasha stiffly raised his hand and tried to push down his hair to make it lie flat. It was no use. With a sigh he lowered his arm again and shuffled towards the radiator against the wall behind the desk, before giving a belated response. "Shut up."
"Or you've finally been taken over by the festive spirit and sat in the snow all afternoon."
"Shut up."
"Like that would happen anyway..."
"Where's Kikyo?" Inuyasha suddenly asked. "And what are you doing here?"
"Kikyo's gone walkies so I'm replacing her until she turns up again." Miroku said as he began to re-file the entire contents of the filing cabinet that Kikyo had been maintaining.
"Ooh... she's gonna kill you when she gets back." Inuyasha snickered quietly. "Rule one: never touch Kikyo's stuff."
"This isn't her 'stuff' - this is hospital property." Miroku snapped back... but he was starting to look worried.
Just then Aki, the nurse, bustled past with a slight hum in her throat and a box of decorations. She stopped beside the front desk, smiled at the two doctors, and then tacked up a sprig of mistletoe on the board above the desk. Miroku was about to move forward and take the obvious initiative, if it hadn't been for Inuyasha's foot which suddenly clamped down on Miroku's. Miroku glared sourly at Inuyasha as Aki bustled off again. "What was that for?"
"Random body spasms." Inuyasha shrugged. "It's in the family..."
He trailed off with a thoughtful expression and moved forward to pluck the mistletoe down from the board above his head. he held it curiously before crunching it in his hand and picking up the phone.
"Who're you calling?" Miroku asked.
"My dad... funnily enough Christmas always makes me think of him." His hand hovered of the key pad and he winced. "Do you remember the number for St Alexander's?"
Miroku's head snapped around. "St Alexander's the nuthouse?"
Inuyasha's tongue clicked impatiently. "No... St Alexander's hospital for the mentally unstable... thank you very much."
"You're dad's a doctor, right?" Miroku asked carefully.
Inuyasha sighed. "At least he thinks he is..."
"Right... speed-dial six." Miroku pointed.
"Uh... why have we got the nuthouse on speed-dial six?" Inuyasha asked. And Miroku shrugged for a moment before they both nodded and said at the same time, "Kikyo."
Inuyasha pressed speed-dial six and listened for the tone. "Great... and she broke it as well."
"Try the operator."
Inuyasha slumped over the desk as it rang. "Yeah, I'd like to place a collect call to St Alexander's hospital."
"Cheap bastard." Miroku muttered.
Inuyasha ignored him and waited for the charges to be accepted. Fortunately, the hospital was more generous than he was. "Hi, this is Doctor Inu - can I speak to my dad, please?"
Miroku paused his filing to listen in. This should be good.
"Hi dad..." Inuyasha greeted with a sigh. "No... they didn't trace the call... I swear... No... mom hasn't grown that third head yet - and no - I'm not married!... Since when?!... I don't have any kids - how can they have visited you?!"
Now he remembered why he didn't call his father for the next twelve months.
(A/N: Need to clean the hamster now ^_^)
(A/N: Well I just got a dress from America - a souvenir thanks to my mother and I can't believe how different the measurements are. I'm a size six in English... and I got a size zero from America... I feel like I must weigh nothing or something...
Well, new chapter, sorry about the weight... I mean, wait ^_^)
2 8 Days
The Season to be Jolly
"Delivery for Dogtor Inu."
Inuyasha clenched his fist around the pen he was using to fill in some health certificates... accidentally shattering it. Kikyo carefully moved her new pen pot under the desk and out of sight.
Inuyasha turned slowly, opening his mouth to let a stream of colourful and inventive language loose, when he froze up. "What the hell...?"
The delivery man was no longer wearing his usual navy blue jump-suit with a matching baseball cap. He was now wearing a bright red jump-suit, fringed with fluffy white stuff around the sleeves and middle, and he also wore a floppy red hat with a white bobble at the end. He also had a fake white beard and wig.
"Merry Christmas, Doc!" the delivery man grinned.
"Damn..." Inuyasha sighed. "I forgot it was that time of year again..."
"What, Easter?" Kikyo glanced up and started when she saw the delivery man. "Who the hell is that?"
"Who do you think I am?" the delivery man shrugged.
"Dad?" Inuyasha blinked. "The similarity is unnerving..."
"Thirty-two boxes of syringes for Dogtor Inu." The delivery man held out the clipboard with the form to sign.
Inuyasha looked around. "Uh... pen... pen..." he saw the one Kikyo was using and quickly snatched it out of her hand. "Ahah!"
"A-hey!" Kikyo gaped at him. "I was using that!"
"Switch to de-caff , Sister." Inuyasha called over his shoulder as he signed the forms. "You need to relax a little."
Kikyo grumbled and quietly pulled one from her secret drawer.
Once Inuyasha had signed, Father Christmas waved to his little elf pals who then wheeled in the boxes.
"Thirty-two?" Inuyasha scowled. "There's only sixteen... where's the rest?"
"Gimme a break - it's Christmas!" the delivery man shrugged again,
"Not yet it's not!" Inuyasha clenched his fists. "Where are the rest?!"
"Back at the warehouse, Doc. Couldn't be bothered bringing the whole hog today, so the rest'll be here tomorrow." The delivery man waved. "Good evening to all - and to all; a good night! Thank you everyone, I'll be here all week!"
When the waiting room residents all clapped, Kikyo had to grab the back of Inuyasha's shirt to keep him from attacking the delivery man as he bowed his way out. "He isn't worth it, Inuyasha."
"I swear - if I see that clown in here one more time I won't be responsible for my actions." He growled. He was about to go on when someone passed by the front desk humming. Both Kikyo and Inuyasha watched him pass... more because he was wearing very odd clothes. His hair was died red, his suit lime green and his shoes were white... just like the doctor lab coat he was wearing.
"Hey... speaking of clowns..." Inuyasha pointed. "Isn't that-"
"Doctor Lisuko." Kikyo nodded. "Whoa..."
"When did he turn into paediatrics?" Inuyasha glanced at Kikyo. "He's a clown doctor now?"
"No... that's just a midlife crisis walking past." She sighed and went back to her work.
"Midlife crisis?" Inuyasha shuddered. "I hope I never get to that any time soon..."
"Never get to that?" Kikyo echoed and arched an eyebrow at him. "You hit it five years ago."
"You're so horrible to me!" Inuyasha huffed and flounced off with a toss of his hair.
"I try..." Kikyo muttered in his wake.
On his way to his first patient he passed Kagome's room. He paused for a moment to glance in the window and saw that she was still asleep and strapped down. A nurse was stood at the end of the bed noting stuff down on a form, just like he'd told her to do. Hopefully her fist dose of Xycrophobin would start taking affect soon and she would wake up... though that was not always a good thing in some ways.
He carried on to his appointment and quickly checked the name of the patient he was about to see. It was Sango, which raised his hopes a little - because Miroku should be there to.
He found the examination room she was waiting in and opened the door. He stopped and frowned when he found himself confronted with the sight of Miroku looking for more patients down Sango's throat. After staring a moment, unnoticed by the kissing couple, he closed the door and blinked.
"That was all an illusion... and when I open the door again... they'll be arguing." Inuyasha shook his head to clear it, realising he must have been eating too much Ramen recently.
He opened the door again.
Nope... he was definitely not dreaming that. And since Sango seemed to be in capable... hands... Inuyasha decided that he might as well take a rain check on this appointment and go take a coffee break.
As he wondered off towards the elevator to go up to the canteen he had to wonder what it was about Christmas that made people face suck. It had to be something to do with mistletoe... or some kind of government conspiracy. Not that that would make much sense...
"Doctor!"
Inuyasha put his hand out to stop the elevator doors from closing and pushed them back to see one of the younger nurses running towards him. "What's the matter?"
"It's Kagome Higurashi - she's awake." The girl gasped, pressing a hand to her chest.
"That's good - I'll go see her now then-"
"No - she woke while there was no one there to watch her - she must have come around in a matter of seconds - we only left her for five minutes!" the nurse gushed.
"What?"
"She's gone - we went to check up on her and she was gone from the bed." She shook her head. "I have no idea where she went!"
"It's ok, Aki." He rushed past her. "I'll take it from here."
The first place he checked was, of course, her room. He looked around, checking the corners and bathroom for some sign, but she definitely wasn't in there. The blankets on her bed were disturbed and half kicked off the mattress, and the buckles that had been holding her were all open - and one of the wrist buckles had been torn off completely.
"Shit..." he muttered as he slammed out of the door again and ran for reception. "Kikyo!"
"Ah!" she jumped so badly she dropped a box of syringes on the floor. "What?!"
"Tell everyone to look for a patient - one that looks a little like you?"
"Miss Higurashi escaped again?" Kikyo frowned at him.
"Just do it!" he snapped and turned to check out the most likeliest places she could be.
He first checked the canteen since that was the one place most patients ended up on their travels, but she wasn't there either. That was when he found he was fresh out of ideas. She was definitely inside the building because the security guards around the front entrance had strict orders not to let any patients go without doctor say-so. Either that... or she'd jumped out a window or something.
He really hoped she had more sense than that, so he carried on looking around the top floor where most of the pleasure activities were located for long-term patients, including the game room.
She wasn't anywhere around there and he went back to the stairs to start searching the floor beneath. He stopped just before he was about to descend the flight of stairs since a cold draft whirled around him, making him shiver. It wasn't usually so cold... so it meant that the door to the roof was open.
Chances of it being Kagome who'd opened it...? Pretty high.
He went up the next flight of stairs to find that the roof door was indeed open. The wind blew through it strongly, and the cold blast made his hair whip around his shoulders. He pushed it out of his eyes and looked around quickly. He didn't particularly like it when patients found their way to the roof... and he had to wonder if she was up here at all... and hadn't taken the quickest way down to the ground.
"Kagome?" he called as he moved away from the door, careful not to close it behind him in case he was locked out. He spotted her quickly - sitting at the very edge of the roof with her legs dangling over the edge, facing Mount Fuji in the distance. Behind her, one of the wrist buckles lay strewn on the ground, the one that she'd ripped off in order to free herself... not an easy feat.
"Nice day." He commented as she slowly approached her.
"No it isn't." Kagome answered evenly, flicking a glance momentarily up at the grey overcast sky. Before she knew it, or could move, Inuyasha sat down beside her, dangling his own legs over the side. She glanced at him for a moment, wondering why he wasn't grabbing her and pulling her back, or at least giving her the speech to entice her away from the edge. Deciding he was pretty much as crazy as her Grandpa she turned her gaze back over the city.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Inuyasha asked idly.
Kagome held her hand out. "Penny first, then I'll talk."
"Um..." Inuyasha patted his pockets. "I've been a little strapped for cash recently..." Thanks to a certain money-making-mooching-Miroku.
"Figures..." Kagome shrugged. "I was just thinking about Zebras..."
"And why not?" Inuyasha shrugged. "They're a good... animal..."
"Don't you think they've pulled he short straw in life?" She sighed. "I mean... talk about unlucky. They live in big grassy plains where there are lions and hyenas... and do that get camouflage? No. They get kited out in black and white stripes so they stick out like a sore thumb. Not very hard for a lion to find a Zebra then. AND they come last in the alphabet."
"Maybe when they were handing out camouflage, they were last in line because they were going alphabetically." Inuyasha guessed.
"That would make sense..." Kagome nodded absently. "Must have been tough for them when Noah was taking on the animals in alphabetical order too..."
"Yeah..."
"And ants... no - Aardvarks..." Kagome wrinkled her nose. "How much do you want to bet they just made up that name so they could be first on the Ark?"
"I'm not a betting man..." Inuyasha said dully.
Kagome lapsed into silence and brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"Was that really what you were thinking about?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yes..." Kagome replied with a soft sigh as she leant her chin against her knees. "And... the fact that I probably won't be able to climb Mount Fuji without a walking stick..."
"You weren't thinking of jumping?"
"I'm not stupid." Kagome snorted. "This is the only place where I can get any privacy... stupid nurses keep checking up on me every thirty seconds."
"With good reason." Inuyasha retorted.
"Yeah, well what's the point?" Kagome glared briefly at him. "If I'm going to just die, why not send me home so I could live out the rest of my life in peace and comfortable surroundings?"
"Because this is a virus no one has ever seen before." Inuyasha told her sternly. "There might be complications and the medical board want you to stay here for observation and treatment. If you go home we can't treat you, and then you'll just lapse into another coma, and that's a fine way to spend the last month of your life."
"How can you just be so casual about this?" Kagome scowled as she suddenly stood up and backed away from the edge a little. "I'm DYING! You can't change that! Why not let me just fall back into a coma - I don't care! At least it'll save me a month of torture - knowing I have only a matter of days to live!"
"It's a fact - I'm not going to walk on eggshells around this. I'm a doctor, I can't pretend you aren't dying!" Inuyasha snapped, not moving from his seat near the edge.
"I'm seventeen! My birthday is in five weeks!" Kagome clenched her fists. "But I'm not going to live till then, am I?!"
"No."
"I want my life back!" Kagome picked up the buckle she'd ripped off and hurled it off the roof with a yell. "It's not FAIR!"
"Whoever said it was?" Inuyasha followed the buckle as it streaked across the sky and started fall to earth, aiming right for the delivery man who was just about getting into his truck. Inuyasha prayed silently... before snorting with laughter when the heavy buckle clapped the guy on the head.
"You find this funny?!" Kagome growled. "I'm dying and you're just laughing!"
"It isn't good to dwell on these things." Inuyasha changed his attention back to the matter at hand. "Sometimes it's good to make a list of the things you aimed to do in life."
"Why? So I can look at it and rejoice that I'll never get to do them?"
"No... it's so you can do them while you still have time." Inuyasha told her. "Things like... plant a tree... go paragliding... visit Spain..."
"I could do those things?" Kagome asked reproachfully.
"Sure... and we'd even pay for it." Inuyasha shrugged with a small smile. "But you'd only get to visit Spain for a little while... and you'd be swamped by doctors the entire time... so I wouldn't try that if I were you."
"I'm not outgoing." Kagome sighed and she moved to sit down on the edge again. "Jumping off cliffs with a sail tied to my back was never on my 'do before I die' list."
"Then what was?" he glanced over at her.
Kagome buried her face in her hands with a sigh. "All my friends... when they were little... they wanted to become doctors, dentists, astronauts... models... singers..."
"Dancers, actors and stars?" Inuyasha nodded. He knew most kids wanted that.
"Nowadays they want a career... to be independent women. They want to get out there and make money so they can start thinking about taking early retirement with a small fortune."
"And you do as well?"
"No..." Kagome shook her head. "I just wanted a job maybe... but what I really wanted most was to find the perfect guy to fall in love with... get married... have kids..."
Inuyasha winced, knowing she'd never have time to do those things now.
"I was waiting to have the perfect life..." Kagome stood up again, but this time made no move to step away from the edge. "Am I supposed to give myself over to a perfect death instead?"
"You gonna jump?" Inuyasha asked.
"Maybe..." Kagome swayed slightly in the breeze, closing her eyes to keep from seeing the dizzying height. "Why not? I'll be saving everyone a lot of trouble... one less patient for you... less enduring pain for me... and my family won't have to look at me in pity anymore..."
"Oh... but you have so much to live for."
"That's not even funny." Kagome scowled faintly.
"It wasn't a joke." Inuyasha responded evenly. "You have a month... in that time you can do anything you want. You can blow your life savings... never have to work again... anything. And you still have time to be with your family and friends."
"No." Kagome swayed again. "I don't want to see my family... they pity me... I could see it even when I didn't know I was dying..."
"But they're visiting today." Inuyasha told her, looking at his nails critically. "They do every day."
"Then I refuse to see them."
"Or you could jump and spare us all the time."
"Or I could jump, yeah, thanks for the reminder.".
"But..." Inuyasha started slowly as he reclined on his hands. "That would mean that you'd die a very messy death... blood guts and brains all over the pavement down there." He whistled as he peered down. "And right over there is the infant Playskool... and unless you want to traumatise a bunch of three year olds for life then I wouldn't jump if I were you."
"What would I care? I'd be dead." Kagome scowled, looking down as well.
"I suppose you're right... and I'm sure the caretaker could sweep you up before the bell goes and the kids all run home." Inuyasha smirked up at her. "But what would you care...? You'd be dead."
Kagome's brow furrowed slightly and she stepped back. "I'm cold... I'll do this another day."
"Take your time." Inuyasha called as she headed back inside. "Don't rush yourself to an early grave, you know."
The answering sound was the door to the roof slamming close behind her as she went back inside. Inuyasha gazed out over the city below... before suddenly remembering why he'd propped that door open in the first place...
^_^
"Did you just get dragged through a hedge backwards?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha arrived at reception.
Inuyasha stiffly raised his hand and tried to push down his hair to make it lie flat. It was no use. With a sigh he lowered his arm again and shuffled towards the radiator against the wall behind the desk, before giving a belated response. "Shut up."
"Or you've finally been taken over by the festive spirit and sat in the snow all afternoon."
"Shut up."
"Like that would happen anyway..."
"Where's Kikyo?" Inuyasha suddenly asked. "And what are you doing here?"
"Kikyo's gone walkies so I'm replacing her until she turns up again." Miroku said as he began to re-file the entire contents of the filing cabinet that Kikyo had been maintaining.
"Ooh... she's gonna kill you when she gets back." Inuyasha snickered quietly. "Rule one: never touch Kikyo's stuff."
"This isn't her 'stuff' - this is hospital property." Miroku snapped back... but he was starting to look worried.
Just then Aki, the nurse, bustled past with a slight hum in her throat and a box of decorations. She stopped beside the front desk, smiled at the two doctors, and then tacked up a sprig of mistletoe on the board above the desk. Miroku was about to move forward and take the obvious initiative, if it hadn't been for Inuyasha's foot which suddenly clamped down on Miroku's. Miroku glared sourly at Inuyasha as Aki bustled off again. "What was that for?"
"Random body spasms." Inuyasha shrugged. "It's in the family..."
He trailed off with a thoughtful expression and moved forward to pluck the mistletoe down from the board above his head. he held it curiously before crunching it in his hand and picking up the phone.
"Who're you calling?" Miroku asked.
"My dad... funnily enough Christmas always makes me think of him." His hand hovered of the key pad and he winced. "Do you remember the number for St Alexander's?"
Miroku's head snapped around. "St Alexander's the nuthouse?"
Inuyasha's tongue clicked impatiently. "No... St Alexander's hospital for the mentally unstable... thank you very much."
"You're dad's a doctor, right?" Miroku asked carefully.
Inuyasha sighed. "At least he thinks he is..."
"Right... speed-dial six." Miroku pointed.
"Uh... why have we got the nuthouse on speed-dial six?" Inuyasha asked. And Miroku shrugged for a moment before they both nodded and said at the same time, "Kikyo."
Inuyasha pressed speed-dial six and listened for the tone. "Great... and she broke it as well."
"Try the operator."
Inuyasha slumped over the desk as it rang. "Yeah, I'd like to place a collect call to St Alexander's hospital."
"Cheap bastard." Miroku muttered.
Inuyasha ignored him and waited for the charges to be accepted. Fortunately, the hospital was more generous than he was. "Hi, this is Doctor Inu - can I speak to my dad, please?"
Miroku paused his filing to listen in. This should be good.
"Hi dad..." Inuyasha greeted with a sigh. "No... they didn't trace the call... I swear... No... mom hasn't grown that third head yet - and no - I'm not married!... Since when?!... I don't have any kids - how can they have visited you?!"
Now he remembered why he didn't call his father for the next twelve months.
(A/N: Need to clean the hamster now ^_^)