InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 28 Days ❯ Cruel to be Kind ( Chapter 16 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AN: It's about bloody time!! I've been so taken up with Soul Exchange that I've completely ignored this fic. Anyway, here's the latest chapter, I hope you enjoy it ^_^ though some may want to strangle me at the end ~_~;;

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, nagging me to continue - and as soon as I finished the last chapter of Soul Exchange I went straight onto this one ^_^ Hope this makes up for the long wait - an longer chapter than normal.

(and one of the reviewers pointed out that it's been exactly 28 Days since my last update... weird)











28 Days

Cruel to be Kind













< br>


It was Monday again... which meant that, as usual, the hospital would be flooded with patients and work. It didn't help matters that it was also Christmas eve. Christmas eve was the most popular day of the year to attempt suicide - and six times out of ten, most people failed to even get as far as dying (mostly because suicide hurts and they give up halfway). The public hospitals got overcrowded and sent more patients the private hospitals. And what was even worse, they always sent the worst patients over, the ones who'd attempted suicide and were miserable buggers.

The only other day that was just as busy as Christmas, would be New Year's eve, when people thinking ahead to another traumatic year would try to pop their clogs (these were generally the failed suicide attempts left over from Christmas).

Inuyasha yawned as he pushed his way through the double doors at six in the morning, wearing his usual clothes and carrying his usual bag. For once he would have liked a day off for Christmas... but it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. All his friends worked at the hospital too, and even if they didn't, then he'd probably come in to visit Kagome every half hour.

He yawned again as he pushed his way through the busy waiting room and stopped beside the water administer. He would have preferred coffee, but he didn't have the time to go all the way to the cafeteria for the drink, since he was already running late as it was. He should have been in at five o'clock.

He cast a glance towards the reception desk as he took a sip of his water, just as Miroku looked up and spotted him. He crooked his finger, beckoning Inuyasha over to help with the work and the amount of patients and family that were at the desk. Inuyasha just smirked and crooked his middle finger back. No way did he have to start work until he put on his white doctor coat.

Until then he could just be the kid in the corner with the khaki kit. The minute he put on that coat he was Doctor Inu, everyone's supposed psychiatrist and the magnet for every bit of trouble within a ten metre radius. Well he was fed up that morning... or just fed up in general, so he decided to put work on hold for a little extra while.

Inuyasha downed the last of his water and crunched the cup, throwing it into the bin close by and headed past the reception desk down one of the halls. Kikyo looked up as he passed by and scowled. "Where's he off to?"

"To get ready?" Miroku hazarded a guess as another nurse shoved past him on the way to file some more.

"Good. As long as he doesn't do his usual Monday routine today then we'll be fine." Kikyo was beginning to get a headache from all the work she was having to juggle.

"He won't go home early today... It's Christmas eve for god's sakes." Miroku was all but teetering on his tiptoes as yet another nurse pushed past him. "What, am I invisible here?"

"Since when was Christmas Eve ever going to stop him leaving." Kikyo grabbed his collar and shoved him away from the desk. "Too many cooks spoil the broth, Miroku - go back to surgery."

"Oh, but then I'll have to actually work."

Kikyo gave him a sharp look.

"Ok... going..."





^_^





It didn't make sense. Her vitals were fairly normal, her heart beat was steady, as was her breathing. She didn't need to use the oxygen mask, she didn't need life support of any kind, and she didn't need the drip anymore.

So why was she still comatose.

Inuyasha scratched his head as he dumped his bag in the visitor chair beside her bed. He waved his hand before her face before checking the chart at the end of her bed again. After a moment he went back to her side and looked down at her.

For a moment he played with a strand of her hair that lay beside her ear... before moving his hand up to pinch her nose.

It only took a few seconds, before Kagome was coughing and spluttered as she woke up. He grinned down at her as she slapped his hand away. "Rise and shine sleeping beauty."

"Urgh..." Kagome held her hands over her face, shielding her eyes from the lights. "What time is it..."

"Ten past six in the morning..." he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It's Christmas Eve."

Kagome stopped rubbing her face and glanced at him through squinted eyes. "Are you sure?"

Inuyasha looked at his watch again. "Yep, I'm sure it's Christmas now. The memo was hard to miss."

"But..." Kagome looked at her hands as though they were going to turn transparent. "I should be dead by now."

"Not right now..." Inuyasha said quietly. "But don't hold your breath."

"So..." Kagome dropped her hands to her sides. "What happened?"

"I thought you could tell me?" Inuyasha frowned. "Don't you remember who gave you the sedatives?"

"What sedatives...?" Kagome frowned back. "I haven't had any sedatives. I think I've missed something here... How long was I unconscious?"

"A few days."

"Wow..." Kagome yawned. "And amazingly, I'm still knackered."

"Are you sure you don't remember?" Inuyasha pressed.

"Remember what?"

"Oh never mind..." Inuyasha slumped in the visiting chair, letting his feet rest on the side of the bed. Kagome turned so she could face him on her side.

"Why aren't you in Doctor's clothes today?"

"My day off." He lied blatantly. "It's Christmas Eve after all."

"Is it?" Kagome looked surprised.

He frowned at her. "Yeah... I just told you a couple of seconds ago."

"Did you...?" Kagome shrugged. "Mustn't have heard you."

"Right..." Inuyasha's heart was slowly sinking. Her mind was going at last. How long did she have now? Really not that long... He let his feet drop from the bed as he moved to stand. "Look, I gotta go take care of some stuff. You'll be alright on your own for a while?"

"Yeah." She nodded as she stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. As he moved over to the door she called out again. "What time is it, by the way?"

Inuyasha pretended to look at his watch and smiled back at her. "It's late, you should get some more sleep. I'm sorry I woke you."

"You didn't wake me did you?"

"Just get some sleep Kagome." He turned off the light and watched her settle down before walking out and shutting the door quietly behind him. Outside he leaned against the wall and frowned as he pressed a hand against his heart, as if that would make the pang of fear and pain he felt go away. It didn't work.

A movement up the corridor made him straighten at once and he looked up to see his mother approaching with a clipboard under her arm. She smiled as she saw him. "Hey there. I heard you managed to get Kouga off Kagome's case."

"Yeah..." he didn't bother trying to match her cheerful tone. For some reason he just didn't feel very happy today.

"Oh cheer up." Doctor Fei patted his shoulder compassionately, sensing her son's miserable tone. "Don't let working on Christmas get you down. The patients will all filter out by the end of the day."

"Thanks." Inuyasha replied tightly, though that hadn't been quite what he'd been worrying about.

"Anyway - you're late! Hurry and get your stuff, it's still busy around here." She ordered him and watched as he rolled his eyes and pushed off the wall to walk away. "Oh - and by the way! The medical board want me to share Kagome with you."

Inuyasha spun at once. "What?! Why?!"

"Because they still remember the whole 'relationship' thing." Doctor Fei sighed. "Please tell me you put an end to that?"

"Mm." Inuyasha shrugged and turned to walk away.

"Mm? What does 'Mm' mean?!" she called after him. "Inuyasha, come back here right now!"

He ignored her and carried on to find the staff changing rooms.





^_^





"Pleas e sir, if you'd just like to sit down we'll get round to serving you too." Kikyo said as she guided an elderly man in a trenchcoat to a free waiting room seat.

"No - I've been waiting two hours to get treated and I've gotten no where!" he argued.

"Because we're treating people in order of importance." Kikyo told him calmly.

"I am important!"

"Sir, you have a papercut on your wrist." Kikyo pointed out. "We're treating people with missing heads and eyes and things like that first."

He stood up stubborn the moment she released his arm. "Treat me or I'll blow this place sky high with the bomb under my coat!"

Never utter the word 'bomb' in a crowded place. That and 'anthrax'. The effect was instantaneous as people around them caught the B word and started to panic and back away - some women even screamed. Kikyo was less than impressed. "Really?"

"Yes - if you don't serve me now I'll blow this place up!" he said again with an eager nod.

Miroku and several other nurses at the desk were now looking on in worry. Kikyo was pushing the old geezer... not good unless she knew what she was doing.

"Well let's see it then." Kikyo encouraged. "I've never seen a bomb before. Did you make it yourself?"

"No, I bought it down quick save." He prepared top throw his coast open. "Now - quiver in fear!"

He threw open the coat and a hushed silence spread around the room for a few moments before Miroku shouted over from the front desk. "You seem to have forgotten to bring your bomb today!"

"What?" the old man looked down.

"You seem to have forgotten your clothes too." Kikyo told him, neutrally keeping her gaze on his face.

"Oh right - now I remember!" the old man dropped his coat to the ground completely while several patients around them cringed and looked away. "Blow up the mall AFTER I flash the hospitals!"

He ran off down one of the corridors laughing like a maniac. Several sniggers burst out from the front desk around the nurses, while Miroku was having a hard time continuing work he was laughing so hard.

Kikyo flipped her hair back over her shoulder in annoyance and walked back to the reception desk to pick up the phone. "Security please... yes, we have an elderly gentleman streaker running around the hospital... A description?...Well... he's old, shrivelled and naked. What more do you want?"

She put that phone down and looked around at the quiet room. "It's over people, get back to work."

The nurses complied at once while Miroku slowly got back to filing with a grin on his face. "Dear god let us all grow old as gracefully as him."

Kikyo shook her head and went back to sorting through the mail. "Letter bomb... letter bomb... letter bomb... bills... letter bomb..." she threw all these in the waste paper basket at her feet. "Bills... bills... final warning but book return Miroku." She handed him his library letter.

"Thanks." He took it and looked inside. "Damn... I forgot to return 'Gone with the Wind'..."

"Bills... bills..." Kikyo sifted through them until she came to an interesting one. "To Doctor Inuyasha?"

She opened it regardless of the fact it had 'private' stamped on the front in bold letters. She pulled out the letter and read it.

"What's that?" Miroku asked absently.

"Kagome's lab results..." Kikyo mused. "Taken after that shot of sedative..."

"Yeah... I wonder who gave her that anyway. Crazy fool... I bet it was Kouga." Miroku griped.

Kikyo darted a glance at him before looking down at the results. Ok... the shot had failed to do its job last time...

She set the letter aside in Inuyasha's inbox for him to pick up later. She silently vowed to herself to make the sedatives work next time.





^_^





Inuyash a flashed a little pen light in Shippo's eyes before stepping back . "How'd ya feel?"

"Better." Shippo kept swinging his legs over the edge of the table.

"Yeah, well you heal fast." Inuyasha said dully. "I guess it's cause you're just a brat still."

"What's the matter with your face?" Shippo suddenly asked.

"Nothing!" He barked back defensively.

"You're all droopy and miserable today!" Shippo shouted. "Stay like that any longer and you'll make everyone in the hospital sad! It's rubbing off on me already!"

"You wouldn't understand. You're just a kid." Inuyasha turned away and started putting away some of the tools that had been left lying around the examination room by the previous doctors and nurses. He didn't have to do it... he just wanted to occupy his hands.

"Try me." Shippo said cheerily. "I may be young but I understand a heck of a lot more than you."

Inuyasha glared at him. "There's no way I'm telling you anything with that attitude."

"Oh, please!" Shippo pleaded. "I won't tell anyone! It'll be a secret kept! I swear!"

"Do you promise?"

"I sweat on my foster father's grave.

"But... he's not dead." Inuyasha frowned.

Shippo grinned somewhat evilly. "Not yet. Anyway - I swear hand on my heart and needle in my eye."

Inuyasha looked at him suspiciously before leaning over and beckoning him closer. "You really want to know what's upsetting me?"

"Yes!" Shippo felt he'd put his wishes across in a straight forward way by now.

"Well... it's because..." Inuyasha sighed dramatically. "Miroku stole my purple pen... and now he'd lost it... and I have no way of retrieving it."

Shippo stared at him a moment before hopping off the table and heading out of the room. "If you want me I'll be in the children's ward."

Inuyasha smirked triumphantly before heading out as well to go check on some other patients. He wasn't particularly looking where he was going and accidentally bumped into an old nude man. "Oh - sorry!" he quickly apologised.

"You're quite forgiven." The old man chortled before hobbling off again.

Inuyasha carried on his way before suddenly freezing and spinning around to stare after the old man. Suddenly and cringed and desperately tried to wipe his clothes down. "Ew! I touched him!"

Aki arrived behind him, panting as she seemed to have been chasing the man for quite some time. "He sure... has a fast run... for that of an old man..." she gasped.

"He sure has the ass of an old man..." Inuyasha shuddered before quickly turning away. "I gotta go."





^_^





She was asleep again, just like last time.

Kikyo flicked the lights onto a dim light so they wouldn't wake the girl. It wouldn't do for her to be wake up in the middle of all this. She moved over to the bed quietly and set down the bottle and sterilised syringe at the foot of the blankets and cautiously checked over her shoulder.

No one was due to check up on her for another five minutes, so she had just enough time to get the job done.

With quiet, practised ease she removed the syringe from sterile wrap and plunged the needle into the cork of the sedative bottle. She glanced up at Kagome uncertainly, just to make sure the girl was still asleep as she filled the syringe with the clear liquid.

This time she was going to apply the maximum dose... maybe even a little over... she had to make sure she didn't slip up like last time.

Before she administered the dose she bent over Kagome's arm to check the IV needle was still inserted correctly and that the drip was unplugged before she went on. she was just about to draw back when a weak hand grasped her wrist, making her jump.

"Kikyo... what are you doing?" Kagome blinked sleepily at the older nurse.

Kikyo smiled gently and pulled her fingers forcefully off her wrist. "Just go back to sleep, Kagome. It'll all be over soon, I swear."

"That's what they all said." Kagome yawned but quickly lapsed back into sleep without much protest. Kikyo waited a few moments before checking her eyes to make sure she really was asleep this time.

She moved the syringe and inserted it into the IV receiver and prepared to press the plunger down... she had to wait a few moments to gather her courage before doing so though.

The door suddenly opened and Kikyo shot straight up as Doctor Fei entered with Inuyasha. They both stared at the nurse in surprise, until Fei's gaze fell on the needle in Kikyo's hand. "What are you doing?" she asked sharply.

Inuyasha moved straight towards the bed and checked Kagome's pulse first before spotting the bottle beside her thigh. He picked it up and read the label.

An intense beat of silence passed before Inuyasha snapped a glare on Kikyo. "It was you! You were the one administering the sedatives!"

"What?" Doctor Fei moved over to take the bottle from her son. She read the contents for a confused moment before looking up at Kikyo. "Is that true?"

"Um... you don't understand - she asked me to do this!" Kikyo stammered. "It's not what it looks like!"

"This is heinous, Kikyo." Doctor Fei looked thunderously at her. "We do NOT commit euthanasia in this place. This is a DECENT hospital!"

"Wait - you don't understand-"

"Come with me." Fei grabbed her arm roughly, making her drop the needle on the ground as the older doctor dragged Kikyo out of the room. Kikyo gave up protest as she was tugged along.

Just before she was pulled out the door she looked back at Inuyasha. "You'll see - I was trying to do the right thing!"

Inuyasha couldn't believe Kikyo would have stooped this low... he was at a bit of a loss of words right then... shock had frozen his tongue from any cutting remarks as she left.

Eventually he recovered slightly and crouched to pick up the syringe on the floor. He glanced at the dosage and cursed... it was an overdose of course...

He straightened and carefully placed the syringe in a locked draw to the side of the bed. He took the key with him and put it in his pocket, not wanting anyone to get into the draw - especially not a kid like Souta when he visited.

"Kagome?" he gently stirred her shoulder.

The girl frowned in her sleep before recognising his voice and slowly opening her eyes. She smiled when she saw him. "Hi..."

He smiled back weakly. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I can jump tall buildings." She told him, her voice slightly hoarse.

"I'm being serious. How do you feel?" he asked without humour.

She sighed and rolled her head to the side. "Not good... I keep... getting pains... shooting up my back. My hands won't stop shaking... I'm kinda cold."

"Want me to turn up the heating?"

"Like that'll make much difference..." Kagome said gloomily. "Inuyasha... it really hurts..."

"I know..." he sighed, not really knowing what else to do. He just gripped her quietly trembling hand and crouched so he could rest his arm on the bed and his chin on his forearm as she started off at the door.

Kagome was quietly mulling over things in her head. "I'm... not going to last much longer... am I?"

Inuyasha paused a long time before answering. "No." he said flatly, and honestly.

"How much time?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know... but in the past, patients with your symptoms don't last much longer than a few more hours... a day at least..."

Kagome quelled her urge to sob aloud... she was too stubborn to let herself cry herself into a state the last few hours of her life. She was going to be strong...

"I can call your family if you want." He told her suddenly. "They're planning on visiting today anyway."

"No... I don't want them to see me like this..." Kagome gripped his hand tightly as her tremors increased. Inuyasha glanced back at her in response and frowned. She really didn't look well... her face was pale and gaunt and her eyes were bleak and darker than normal. Her hair was flat and lank around her head and her skin looked pasty.

"You look beautiful." He offered.

"Shut up, I know I don't." she dug her nails into his hand with a small laugh.

"I've seen worse..." he shrugged.

A long silence stretched out before Kagome turned to look at him. "Does... dying hurt...?"

He looked up at her, seeing how serious she was about this. He sighed before he spoke. "Depends... if you die of heart attack it hurts... if you die in your sleep it doesn't hurt at all."

"How about me? How will I die?" she watched him reproachfully.

"Painfully." He said quietly, after a moment or two.

"Oh..." Kagome whispered. "Well... isn't there any way to make it less painful?"

"No..." he shook his head. "I guess... the least painful method would be to give you sedatives... they'd knock you out and then kill you... but we can't give you those."

"Why not?" Kagome asked.

"Because then we'd be killing you. We can't do that. It's against the law." He told her.

"But... if I'm going to die anyway, what's the difference?" she pointed out.

"A major one!" he released her hand suddenly. "It's called euthanasia - I'm not going to kill you just to ease your pain!"

"So I'll die a few hours early - so what?!" Kagome argued. "I don't want my friends and family to see me writhing in pain and whatever just because you were too chicken to make it quick and painless!"

"I'm not chicken!" he snapped. "They'd do tests! They'd know you were killed deliberately! And anyway - do you think it would be easy for me to kill you! I love you!"

Kagome quieted at once. "I'm sorry... I wouldn't want to force something like that on you..."

"Course you wouldn't..." Inuyasha sighed.

"I'll bear the pain for you..." she told him wryly.

"Gee thanks." He straightened as he stood. "Just get some more sleep, you look wiped out."

"I always look like this." She retorted.

"I know, but sleep anyway." He told her, touching her cheek gently.

"Will I wake up again?" she asked softly.

"Yeah..."

She closed her eyes with a small smile. "I'll say my goodbyes when I wake then..."

He watched her settle down for a few seconds before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek to whisper something in her ear. "I love you..."

"Ditto..." she whispered back with a tiny smile before easily falling asleep. She was so exhausted it didn't take much to keep her from sleeping that quickly.

He stayed by her side a little longer before heading outside, intending to go down to reception and pick up his patient schedule for the rest of the day. But as before, he only managed to walk a couple of metres before he sagged against the wall, this time unable to stop himself from slipping down the support until he was crouched on the floor.

This was pathetic... a doctor who got all broken up when a patient died on him? It was unprofessional and unheard of... well... actually it wasn't that rare. But usually the doctors who broke down soon quit their jobs.

If he wasn't careful, soon tourists would be coming around to have their picture taken with the wimpy doctor.

He drew in a shaky breath and ran his hands over his face to press the heel of his hands against his eyes. "I can't do this..."

He couldn't be a doctor... if this was how he coped then there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of him succeeding. He had the brain, the knowledge and the physical skill to be both doctor and surgeon if he wanted to... but he didn't have the will to be either.

He didn't have the bedside manner and he didn't even have the enthusiasm all doctors needed to possess. Being a doctor had never been his idea anyway... it had been his mothers... and with the families large income she'd managed to pay for private tuition sessions, specially for Inuyasha to become a doctor like herself. That's why he'd graduated early, that's why he'd found such a gold mine job in such a fancy hospital so quickly...

But he just couldn't take it anymore.

The old streaker toddled past and saluted the hunched over doctor. "Cheer up, Doc, it ain't the end of the world."

Inuyasha didn't even bother to lift his face out of his hands. "Now there's an optimistic view..."

"Hey!" Security guards rounded the corner and spotted the old man and quickly gave chase.

The motley crew soon passed Inuyasha, completely ignoring the broken doctor on the floor. Inuyasha couldn't care less anyway...

It took him a while to find his feet again, and even then the pain was still fresh inside. He took it out of the wall beside him... punching a nice big whole in the plaster, narrowly missing an electricity cable. The pain of cracking his knuckles smack against the bricks behind the plaster was enough to distract him from the pain inside for a while... and he pulled his fist back with a hiss of pain and grimaced at the blood that now mottled his hand.

"Well that was smart." A voice said from close behind him. He turned sharply to see Sango standing there gazing at him with her arms folded. She'd obviously just seen his little emotional outburst... and at once he got hostile.

"What?!" he snapped.

Sango's expression softened a little. "I'm sorry... it hurts doesn't it..."

"What would you know?" he snapped, turning to try and walk away.

"I meant Kagome - she's hurting - she's suffering." Sango said quickly. "I wasn't talking about you."

"Oh..." Inuyasha stopped walking, annoyed that he'd just jumped to the wrong conclusion. He'd just given himself away.

"You're upset about it aren't you?" Sango sighed. "I'm sorry for that too."

"Don't be. You're not the one who's killing her..." he grumbled, leaning against the wall for support in case his legs failed the task.

Sango looked up and down the corridor, seeing no one coming for a while. Everyone was down in reception or the EU, no one but Inuyasha and herself would be skulking around these back halls. She looked back at Inuyasha. "Isn't there anything you can do... to save her I mean?"

Inuyasha shook his head vehemently. "No. In a few hours she's going to die. Two hours before she dies she'll seize up as her internal organs begin to shut down one by one until her lungs collapse. Do you know how painful that will be?!" he raged again, slamming his unhurt fist against the wall in anger. "They'll put her on a life support machine to keep her breathing and try and feed her fluids - just to prolong her pain! And then her heart will eventually give out - and then they'll try and revive her. Perhaps they'll succeed one or two times, but it won't last. She'll die and there's nothing I can do to help her... I can't even give her pain killers..."

Sango hugged herself a little tighter. "Can't they just... let her go in peace?"

"No... it's against the regulations. We have to do everything we can to keep her alive - even if she's in agony." He growled. "And once she starts to seize up there's no going back... no way to save her by some fluke... some miracle cure..."

Sango was silent, unable to find comforting words to say to him. If anything... she needed some comfort herself. Kagome was her friend too...

"I can't do this Sango." Inuyasha suddenly said, repeating an earlier statement.

"Can't do what?" she asked automatically.

"I can't be a doctor." He clenched his fists. "I'm gonna quit. The minute Kagome's gone and I have no one to take care of I'll quit..."

"But..." Sango stared at him in bewilderment. "You can't do that! What about all your other patients! Your mother! You're a GOOD doctor Inuyasha you can't just quit because of this! This kind of thing happens all the time!"

"I can't take this kind of thing though! That's what makes me a bad doctor! I suck at medicine!"

"I suppose you could see it that way..." Sango sighed. "But are you sure? It's a bit of a risk to drop your career like this..."

"I've never been so sure of anything in my entire life." Inuyasha straightened with a determined expression. "I need to see my other patients - and YOU need to go home! You've been here for the best part of a month! What's wrong with you?"

Sango shrugged. "I want to stay here for Miroku... I'm acting as temporary, non-official hospital councillor right now."

"No kidding..."

"But there's a tiny problem..." Sango winced. "Security keep trying to kick me out."

Inuyasha thought for a moment before shrugging out of his coat and tossing it to her. "There, if you look like a doctor they won't kick you out now will they?"

"But... don't you need it?" she held it out to him.

"Not after today." He shrugged and walked off, looking no more like a doctor than the delivery man.

"Hey, Inuyasha - can I see Kagome?" she called after him.

"No. She's sleeping. Leave her be." He tossed over his shoulder as he disappeared around another corner.

Surprisingly, arriving at reception was a lot easier when he didn't wear his coat. Patients didn't jump on him, begging him or demanding he see them first. He slid right through the noisy crowds to the reception desk and behind it, looking for his inbox tray.

"What happened to your coat?" Miroku shouted over the din.

"Sango's got it!" Inuyasha shouted back.

"What, she mugged you for it?!" Miroku grinned, obviously a bit out of the loop on Kagome's condition otherwise he wouldn't be so chirpy.

"Somethin' like that..." Inuyasha muttered, too quiet in the noisy reception to be heard. But he was distracted by the letter he'd fished from his tray.

He glanced over the content, before realising he was looking at a couple of blood test results taken from the last time she'd been given sedatives... sedatives administered by Kikyo.

He slowly read the information, cursing himself for not being able to do anything for her.

But then... maybe he could...? At least end her pain...?

He stared harder at the results for a moment before screwing up the sheet of paper and tossing it into the bin along with all the letter bombs and bills...

Maybe Kikyo had been doing the right thing after all... Well, that didn't matter. At least now he knew what he had to do.

Miroku looked up as Inuyasha headed off again without even having glanced at his schedule. "Where are you going?"

"To find Sango... she has a key to a drawer in the pocket of my coat that I need..."












AN: Bye now! I'll be back some time soon I hope with the last chapter