InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 28 Days ❯ Five Stages ( Chapter 6 )
[ 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: 06.03.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 3.7K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Suspense / Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.03.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 3.7K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I still plan to black mail Rumiko Takahashi, or at least bribe her... maybe threaten... maybe kidnap. But then again, I'm probably too nice to be that mean...
(A/N: People kept asking 'why the bees?' And my answer is... why not? I didn't want to turned this into a fic with a sub plot of 'let's go kill Naraku because he killed Kagome' so a bee did it instead. I suppose it could have been a snake... but they're pretty scary...
Plus, I just want you to know that the whole dying part of this fic isn't going to be taken lightly because I do take death seriously since my oldest cousin recently died in a car crash - which he caused. So no jokes will be made about Kagome dying ^_^
Anyway, on with the fic.)
28 Days
Five Stages
"Fei!" Inuyasha burst into her lab with a fairly pleased look.
"If you've come to tell me about the pen shortage down in reception - I know!" she said quickly. "Kikyo complained already."
"No, it's not that." Inuyasha snapped a glass slide down on top of her paperwork. "I found a cure!"
"To what? A cold?" she peered up at him over her spectacles. "Cause I probably need one of those round about-"
"No - don't you pay any attention?" he rolled his eyes impatiently. "You know that girl that came in a few days ago - the one that kept slipping in and out of comas and Dr Hatsuyo didn't know what was wrong with her?"
"Dr Hatsuyo's patient?" the older woman took her glasses off. "Yes, I know about her. How is the old codger doing now?"
"Don't know, don't care." Inuyasha said quickly and pointed to the slide. "Take a look!"
Dr Fei sighed and wearily pulled her microscope towards her and slid the slide into place under the lens. She looked in the top and observed quietly. "What am I looking at?"
"A cure!" Inuyasha tutted. "Duh."
"I think you better take a look." She pushed the microscope towards him
With a frown Inuyasha took a look. To his dismay... the Xycrophobin (not a real drug, so don't take it if you get stung by a bee, ok?) had disintegrated around the virus... and the virus was free to rampage again. He straightened with a thought look. "Ah..."
"Look's like you only found a treatment... not a cure..." Dr Fei patted his arm. "Good job though, it'll stop her falling into comas every five minutes."
"But... she'll still die." Inuyasha said flatly. "What's the point of giving it to her?"
"What's the point?" Dr Fei looked at him in amazement. "She'll at least be awake to experience the last few days of her life... free of pain. Though she'll have to keep taking it every twenty four hours for it to work."
"I guess..." Inuyasha sighed.
"You better go tell her you have a treatment that will make it easier. Better give it to her before she goes into a coma again." Dr Fei noticed his slightly guilty expression. "You have told her haven't you?"
"Um... I'm working on it..." he answered slowly.
"Inuyasha!" she suddenly burst out. "That girl has less than a month to live! She has to know that otherwise she might waste it! You go tell her right this minute!"
"But I have patients!" he growled back.
"Then go tell her when you have some spare time! I swear, Inuyasha, if you waste this girls life just because you're too chicken then I will have you out of this hospital before you can say 'Kikyo has my pen'! Got that?!"
"Fei!" he ground out. "That's not fair!"
"Yes it is - and how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Fei!" she snapped back. "Call me Mom!"
"God, you're so... so... law abiding!" Inuyasha growled and stomped out.
^_^
"What's the matter, Doc?"
Inuyasha momentarily glared at his patient and forced himself to not snap out. "Nothing..."
"It's girl trouble. It is, isn't it?" the man nodded. "Yeah, I know when a lad like you suffers from girl trouble."
Inuyasha eyed the fairly elderly man and couldn't hold back the snort. "And what would you know about girls."
"I WAS young once, you know." The man told him. "I wasn't born seventy years old."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." The man nodded. "I know everything there is to know about women. I was quite the ladies man in my day."
"Right... and my real name is Dolly." The young doctor scoffed. "How many women have you had then?"
"We're not in double digits anymore." The man tapped his nose.
"Right," Yeah, that was believable.
"You know it's wonderful when a man grows older, you know?" the patient said as Inuyasha wrapped a blood pressure band around his arm. "When your twenty five... you're attracted to the twenty to thirty year old women... when you're forty... thirty to fifty start to look even better..."
"Are you saying a wrinkled old prune is more attractive than Pamela Anderson to you?" Inuyasha said as he started the machine.
"Well... actually... when you hit seventy - they all start to look pretty good." The man chortled. "How's Saturday night sound for you, Dolly?"
Inuyasha whipped the band off none too gently. "Don't tease. You know I'm fully booked."
"You're loss." The old man shrugged.
Inuyasha carried on running the physical while other things ran through his mind. How was he supposed to tell someone that they were dying. He knew the easy part was going to be just saying the words 'you're dying'. But the part after that was her reaction... how was he going to handle that. This was why he didn't like handling dying patients... it just wasn't easy.
When he was finally done with the 'ladies man' he plodded down to reception, hoping to stall for time. He had nothing to do right then other than go to lunch... and he wasn't really very hungry.
"Kikyo..." he asked when he arrived. "Do I have any emergencies to attend to?"
"Other than an emergency appointment with the bank?" Kikyo didn't bother looking up. "Because how much have you lost to Miroku by now... three thousand yen I think..."
"Shut up. I don't want to talk about that." Inuyasha sighed a shifted. "No people with hands stuck in toasters?"
"Not today."
"No people with fingers missing... legs hanging off...?" Inuyasha sighed. "Nothing...? No Sango?"
"Like I said, not today." Kikyo repeated calmly.
"No people with pens jammed in their eyes?" Inuyasha sighed loudly.
Kikyo clenched her fist around the pen she was holding. "Maybe there will be in a minute if you don't beat it."
Inuyasha debated on whether to beat it or to suffer a serious eye injury... the eye injury could stall for time... but he didn't REALLY fancy having a pen jammed into his eye by Kikyo... hm... better get moving.
There really wasn't any point beating around the bush with this, he just had to get it over with and handle it like he'd been taught in theory. Be comforting... be there... don't run away... try not to twitch... BE NICE!
"I can do this..." he chided himself as he started towards Kagome's ward room. When he caught himself slowing down unconsciously, he mentally kicked himself to get him moving and sped-up again. He had to do this, he couldn't put it off much longer...
^_^
"Mo m! Will you stop fussing? I'm fine!" Kagome said as she tried to get out of her bed for the umpteenth time, but was only pushed back down by her mother.
"The doctor said strict bed rest for you." Her mother said sternly, tucking to blankets her the way a mother learns how to restrict and imprison their child in their beds.
"That was the old doctor!" Kagome squirmed. "The new guy said I can go shopping tomorrow."
"Uh-huh." Her mother folded her arms. "Tell me another one."
"Ok... that was a lie... but he let me go to the canteen!" Kagome tried, but after receiving several deadpan looks she folded. "Fine... I kinda went AWOL on that one."
"Kagome... you shouldn't disobey the doctors. They're here to help you." Her grandpa said slowly. "Respect your elders..."
"Have you even met him?" Kagome rolled her eyes. "He's like fifteen."
"He's older than you." Her mother frowned. "He's still your elder. He could still cure you."
"I don't need curing!" Kagome smiled. "I'm fine! I could climb Mount Fuji without a walking stick - I don't need any doctors! I'm all better."
Grandpa and mother sighed together and Kagome looked between them. "What's with you two... you looked like someone just died..."
Kagome's mother made a small sound in the back of her throat and her grandpa inhaled deeply.
There was a knock at the door and Inuyasha barged in before anyone could say 'come in'. He glanced between Kagome and her family before beckoning to her mother and grandfather. "Can I speak to you two?"
They nodded and followed him out into the corridor.
Kagome took the wonderful opportunity of some alone time to go get dressed properly, seeing as the backless gown was making her nervous.
Inuyasha led Kagome's family a short distance away from the door so they wouldn't be over heard. "Have you told her yet?" he asked straight out.
"We thought you'd already broken the news to her. We almost ruined the surprise when we arrived." Grandpa remarked dryly.
"You still want me to break it to her?" Inuyasha asked, secretly praying they'd change their minds.
"Yes... I think it will sound more credible coming from a doctor." Her mother dropped her gaze. "I don't want to hate me..."
"She wouldn't even if you did." Inuyasha shrugged as though it didn't bother him, but his insides suddenly felt all wobbly. Not a feeling he was used to. "Listen... you go get some ice cream or whatever... I'll go tell her... stick around, she might want to talk to you afterwards."
The chances of her wanting to talk to someone after being told such awful news was pretty high... she'd need comfort or something, and Inuyasha wasn't the one to give that kind of thing. Best to have her family nearby.
Inuyasha watched them walk away before barging back into the hospital room... only to catch Kagome just about to pull her jumper on. She yelped and shielded her chest with the piece of clothing. "Ever heard of knocking?!"
"Relax - I'm a doctor. It's nothing I ain't seen before." He waved his hand and went to go sit in the chair beside her bed.
"Excuse me..." she stared at him. "Do you mind turning around... just for a sec?"
He was about to refuse... before realising she was the stubborn sort and he could be sitting here all day waiting for her to change. He didn't fancy telling a girl she was dying when she was topless either... So with a sigh and a grumble he turned his back on her and waited.
There was some sliding and shuffling behind him and a few moments later Kagome piped up, "All done."
Inuyasha turned back around and froze up. Now what was he supposed to say? Kagome sat back down on her bed and crossed her legs as he seemed to go on meditating. She waited a few seconds before leaning to the side and waving. "Hello...? Did you want something?"
"Uh... yeah..." he raised a hand to his mouth, about to nibble on his claw, when he caught himself and forced the hand down. That was a very old habit... and it just proved how bloody nervous he was right then.
"Do you think you can discharge me soon?" Kagome asked suddenly. "I mean... I feel great and dandy and whatever... and my first lecture starts next Monday, and I don't want to miss it."
"Ah..." Inuyasha nodded with a slight wince.
"And I've really been looking forward to this chance!" Kagome said quickly. "And I swear, if I become a lawyer I will never work in prosecution against you!"
"Um... Kagome..."
"Unless you've been a bastard to one of your patients. Molested someone... killed someone deliberately... or performed malpractice-"
"Kagome! You're not going to University." He snapped suddenly.
"What?" she frowned.
"-Yet." He added quickly, not wanting to shoot her down in flames so soon. "There's a problem... with your virus..."
Kagome's mouth hung open for a moment like she wanted to say something, before she closed it and waited for him to continue.
"The Virus is attacking your body... aggressively..."
"That's not good..." she guessed.
Inuyasha leaned forward to rest his forearms against his knees. "No, it's not. Because at the rate it's working you will be dead in less than a month."
Kagome flinched back slightly like she'd been slapped and she stared at him in complete silence. The room was practically sound proof so no outside sounds could be heard... and the total silence in the room was becoming almost unbearable. Slowly her gaze dropped to the floor, but she made no effort to speak.
"Fortunately there's a drug that I can treat you with... it's experimental, but if you take a daily dose then you won't fall back into any comas." Inuyasha went on. "There's also a process of dealing with death that you will need to make yourself familiar with... I know it's a shock, but you don't have a lot of time left, so you'll have to make the most of what time you have."
"Stop..." Kagome held her hands up. "Stop talking."
Inuyasha fell silent.
Kagome sat in silence before looking up at him with shock and fear. "I'm dying?"
"Yes..." Inuyasha said slowly. "If you want I can send your family back in to-"
"No." Kagome said quickly. "I... I think I need... time... to think about this..."
"You want to be left alone-"
"Yes." Kagome said shortly, not looking up at him.
"Ok..." Inuyasha said softly and left the room without another word. He shut the door quietly and turned to come face to face with Kagome's mother.
"Did you tell her?" she asked quickly.
"Yes..."
"How is she - can I see her now-"
"No - give her a minute." Inuyasha ushered her a short distance away. "I need to speak with you about something."
Mrs Higurashi fidgeted anxiously, more like she wanted to go speak to her daughter rather than her doctor. "Yes?"
"There are five stages to accepting death - which applies to both the person dying and the family of that person." Inuyasha said firmly. "It usually goes in the same order... Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression... and then finally Acceptance. It is possible that Kagome will reach the final stage by the end of the month..."
"Right..." Mrs Higurashi stared dully at the opposite wall.
"You have to be there for her - but you have to also understand that she's going to be angry, and she may take her anger out on you. It may seem like she hates you, but you mustn't let it cause rifts at this point. She hasn't got a lot of time so it's vital that she feels safe and comforted by her family." Inuyasha explained. He'd read it all before, and studied it all before... but this was the first time he'd had to put it into practise.
Kagome's mother started again. "How soon will she accept this-"
A loud crash inside Kagome's hospital room cut her sentence short and Inuyasha was at once gone from her side and throwing open the door. "Kagome!"
"Screw you! And all your stupid equipment!" Kagome yelled as she pushed over the heart monitor. "For all its worth I might as well already be dead!"
Millions of Yen had gone into that equipment and he winced as the monitor smashed on the floor, but he endured. It was no personal loss. "Kagome, I think you should just sit down for a moment and-"
"And talk?!" Kagome whirled and him, kicking the bed angrily. "That's all you do isn't it! YOU TALK! You do nothing to help me! You should be out there finding a cure! But you're just telling me to chill! I will NOT chill!"
Inuyasha quickly grabbed her as she made to attack some other equipment above the bed. "Stop it! You have to calm down!"
"No!" Kagome threw her weight around to dislodge him. "I'm the one who's dying here! Not you! Let me be!"
"Not until you calm down!" he snapped.
"Let me go! Let me go! LET ME GO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and struggled violently.
She wasn't going to calm down, that much was obvious. He glanced back to the open doorway. "KIKYO!"
He gave it a few seconds before yelling again. Soon she appeared in the doorway, knowing the drill by now and had morphine syringe ready. She came forward while a few other nurses and Miroku gathered in the doorway.
"Hold her still!" Kikyo told Inuyasha shortly.
"Let me go! Bastards! This is all your fault!" Kagome kicked and flailed, almost breaking away.
Inuyasha grabbed her again, firmly and held her with un-measurable strength that prevented her from moving her arms whatsoever. Kikyo quickly took Kagome's hand that still had the IV needle in it and fixed the syringe to it. She gave the dosage quickly before Kagome could jerk away with her own strength born of anger.
When it was done she stepped back and pointed to the bed. "Get her down - four point restraints."
"Stop treating me like a nutcase!" Kagome screamed as Inuyasha and Miroku both joined together to carry her to the bed and hold her down while four nurses arrived by her side to buckle soft restraints around her wrists and ankles. Mrs Higurashi stood in the doorway with a hand pressed to her mouth and tears stood out in her eyes.
Fairly quickly Kagome was beginning to fall into a stupor, only muttering soft insults and groans as the sedatives started to take affect on her. When he eyes closed and her head lolled to the side, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"I guess it's safe to say she'd passed onto stage two by now..." Inuyasha said quietly to Kikyo who nodded. "Keep an eye on her and tell me the minute she wakes up."
Once again Kikyo nodded and Inuyasha began to shoo the nurses away. "This isn't a soap opera - get lost!"
Suddenly the bed started to shake and everyone glanced back at Kagome to see her body was convulsing strongly. Inuyasha cursed at once. "Shit!"
"She's having a reaction to the sedative." Kikyo stated calmly, keeping a cool head as she hurried to the bed side. "Where's the defibrillator?"
"She smashed it." Inuyasha glanced back at the other nurses. "Get one in here now! Get moving!"
While the nurses went to fetch a new machine Inuyasha went to the bedside and tried to stop Kagome from causing herself any damage. He issued orders to Kikyo as he went. "Check her mouth - don't let her swallow her tongue! What's her BP?"
"I don't know - she trashed that as well!" Kikyo said loudly as she checked Kagome's mouth.
The defibrillator arrived the same moment Kagome stopped convulsing. Inuyasha quickly checked her pulse and sighed. "She's back in a coma..."
There was an all around sigh at this announcement and Miroku folded his arms. "All that racing around for nothing..."
"Ok..." Inuyasha looked around at the state of the room and winced. "Get replacement equipment and keep those restraints on her. I want her checked on every five minutes and the moment she wakes someone has to come and find me. Don't free her from those restraints until I say so."
(A/N: it's well past my beddy byes now and I have an exam tomorrow... so I better go.)
(A/N: People kept asking 'why the bees?' And my answer is... why not? I didn't want to turned this into a fic with a sub plot of 'let's go kill Naraku because he killed Kagome' so a bee did it instead. I suppose it could have been a snake... but they're pretty scary...
Plus, I just want you to know that the whole dying part of this fic isn't going to be taken lightly because I do take death seriously since my oldest cousin recently died in a car crash - which he caused. So no jokes will be made about Kagome dying ^_^
Anyway, on with the fic.)
28 Days
Five Stages
"Fei!" Inuyasha burst into her lab with a fairly pleased look.
"If you've come to tell me about the pen shortage down in reception - I know!" she said quickly. "Kikyo complained already."
"No, it's not that." Inuyasha snapped a glass slide down on top of her paperwork. "I found a cure!"
"To what? A cold?" she peered up at him over her spectacles. "Cause I probably need one of those round about-"
"No - don't you pay any attention?" he rolled his eyes impatiently. "You know that girl that came in a few days ago - the one that kept slipping in and out of comas and Dr Hatsuyo didn't know what was wrong with her?"
"Dr Hatsuyo's patient?" the older woman took her glasses off. "Yes, I know about her. How is the old codger doing now?"
"Don't know, don't care." Inuyasha said quickly and pointed to the slide. "Take a look!"
Dr Fei sighed and wearily pulled her microscope towards her and slid the slide into place under the lens. She looked in the top and observed quietly. "What am I looking at?"
"A cure!" Inuyasha tutted. "Duh."
"I think you better take a look." She pushed the microscope towards him
With a frown Inuyasha took a look. To his dismay... the Xycrophobin (not a real drug, so don't take it if you get stung by a bee, ok?) had disintegrated around the virus... and the virus was free to rampage again. He straightened with a thought look. "Ah..."
"Look's like you only found a treatment... not a cure..." Dr Fei patted his arm. "Good job though, it'll stop her falling into comas every five minutes."
"But... she'll still die." Inuyasha said flatly. "What's the point of giving it to her?"
"What's the point?" Dr Fei looked at him in amazement. "She'll at least be awake to experience the last few days of her life... free of pain. Though she'll have to keep taking it every twenty four hours for it to work."
"I guess..." Inuyasha sighed.
"You better go tell her you have a treatment that will make it easier. Better give it to her before she goes into a coma again." Dr Fei noticed his slightly guilty expression. "You have told her haven't you?"
"Um... I'm working on it..." he answered slowly.
"Inuyasha!" she suddenly burst out. "That girl has less than a month to live! She has to know that otherwise she might waste it! You go tell her right this minute!"
"But I have patients!" he growled back.
"Then go tell her when you have some spare time! I swear, Inuyasha, if you waste this girls life just because you're too chicken then I will have you out of this hospital before you can say 'Kikyo has my pen'! Got that?!"
"Fei!" he ground out. "That's not fair!"
"Yes it is - and how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Fei!" she snapped back. "Call me Mom!"
"God, you're so... so... law abiding!" Inuyasha growled and stomped out.
^_^
"What's the matter, Doc?"
Inuyasha momentarily glared at his patient and forced himself to not snap out. "Nothing..."
"It's girl trouble. It is, isn't it?" the man nodded. "Yeah, I know when a lad like you suffers from girl trouble."
Inuyasha eyed the fairly elderly man and couldn't hold back the snort. "And what would you know about girls."
"I WAS young once, you know." The man told him. "I wasn't born seventy years old."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." The man nodded. "I know everything there is to know about women. I was quite the ladies man in my day."
"Right... and my real name is Dolly." The young doctor scoffed. "How many women have you had then?"
"We're not in double digits anymore." The man tapped his nose.
"Right," Yeah, that was believable.
"You know it's wonderful when a man grows older, you know?" the patient said as Inuyasha wrapped a blood pressure band around his arm. "When your twenty five... you're attracted to the twenty to thirty year old women... when you're forty... thirty to fifty start to look even better..."
"Are you saying a wrinkled old prune is more attractive than Pamela Anderson to you?" Inuyasha said as he started the machine.
"Well... actually... when you hit seventy - they all start to look pretty good." The man chortled. "How's Saturday night sound for you, Dolly?"
Inuyasha whipped the band off none too gently. "Don't tease. You know I'm fully booked."
"You're loss." The old man shrugged.
Inuyasha carried on running the physical while other things ran through his mind. How was he supposed to tell someone that they were dying. He knew the easy part was going to be just saying the words 'you're dying'. But the part after that was her reaction... how was he going to handle that. This was why he didn't like handling dying patients... it just wasn't easy.
When he was finally done with the 'ladies man' he plodded down to reception, hoping to stall for time. He had nothing to do right then other than go to lunch... and he wasn't really very hungry.
"Kikyo..." he asked when he arrived. "Do I have any emergencies to attend to?"
"Other than an emergency appointment with the bank?" Kikyo didn't bother looking up. "Because how much have you lost to Miroku by now... three thousand yen I think..."
"Shut up. I don't want to talk about that." Inuyasha sighed a shifted. "No people with hands stuck in toasters?"
"Not today."
"No people with fingers missing... legs hanging off...?" Inuyasha sighed. "Nothing...? No Sango?"
"Like I said, not today." Kikyo repeated calmly.
"No people with pens jammed in their eyes?" Inuyasha sighed loudly.
Kikyo clenched her fist around the pen she was holding. "Maybe there will be in a minute if you don't beat it."
Inuyasha debated on whether to beat it or to suffer a serious eye injury... the eye injury could stall for time... but he didn't REALLY fancy having a pen jammed into his eye by Kikyo... hm... better get moving.
There really wasn't any point beating around the bush with this, he just had to get it over with and handle it like he'd been taught in theory. Be comforting... be there... don't run away... try not to twitch... BE NICE!
"I can do this..." he chided himself as he started towards Kagome's ward room. When he caught himself slowing down unconsciously, he mentally kicked himself to get him moving and sped-up again. He had to do this, he couldn't put it off much longer...
^_^
"Mo m! Will you stop fussing? I'm fine!" Kagome said as she tried to get out of her bed for the umpteenth time, but was only pushed back down by her mother.
"The doctor said strict bed rest for you." Her mother said sternly, tucking to blankets her the way a mother learns how to restrict and imprison their child in their beds.
"That was the old doctor!" Kagome squirmed. "The new guy said I can go shopping tomorrow."
"Uh-huh." Her mother folded her arms. "Tell me another one."
"Ok... that was a lie... but he let me go to the canteen!" Kagome tried, but after receiving several deadpan looks she folded. "Fine... I kinda went AWOL on that one."
"Kagome... you shouldn't disobey the doctors. They're here to help you." Her grandpa said slowly. "Respect your elders..."
"Have you even met him?" Kagome rolled her eyes. "He's like fifteen."
"He's older than you." Her mother frowned. "He's still your elder. He could still cure you."
"I don't need curing!" Kagome smiled. "I'm fine! I could climb Mount Fuji without a walking stick - I don't need any doctors! I'm all better."
Grandpa and mother sighed together and Kagome looked between them. "What's with you two... you looked like someone just died..."
Kagome's mother made a small sound in the back of her throat and her grandpa inhaled deeply.
There was a knock at the door and Inuyasha barged in before anyone could say 'come in'. He glanced between Kagome and her family before beckoning to her mother and grandfather. "Can I speak to you two?"
They nodded and followed him out into the corridor.
Kagome took the wonderful opportunity of some alone time to go get dressed properly, seeing as the backless gown was making her nervous.
Inuyasha led Kagome's family a short distance away from the door so they wouldn't be over heard. "Have you told her yet?" he asked straight out.
"We thought you'd already broken the news to her. We almost ruined the surprise when we arrived." Grandpa remarked dryly.
"You still want me to break it to her?" Inuyasha asked, secretly praying they'd change their minds.
"Yes... I think it will sound more credible coming from a doctor." Her mother dropped her gaze. "I don't want to hate me..."
"She wouldn't even if you did." Inuyasha shrugged as though it didn't bother him, but his insides suddenly felt all wobbly. Not a feeling he was used to. "Listen... you go get some ice cream or whatever... I'll go tell her... stick around, she might want to talk to you afterwards."
The chances of her wanting to talk to someone after being told such awful news was pretty high... she'd need comfort or something, and Inuyasha wasn't the one to give that kind of thing. Best to have her family nearby.
Inuyasha watched them walk away before barging back into the hospital room... only to catch Kagome just about to pull her jumper on. She yelped and shielded her chest with the piece of clothing. "Ever heard of knocking?!"
"Relax - I'm a doctor. It's nothing I ain't seen before." He waved his hand and went to go sit in the chair beside her bed.
"Excuse me..." she stared at him. "Do you mind turning around... just for a sec?"
He was about to refuse... before realising she was the stubborn sort and he could be sitting here all day waiting for her to change. He didn't fancy telling a girl she was dying when she was topless either... So with a sigh and a grumble he turned his back on her and waited.
There was some sliding and shuffling behind him and a few moments later Kagome piped up, "All done."
Inuyasha turned back around and froze up. Now what was he supposed to say? Kagome sat back down on her bed and crossed her legs as he seemed to go on meditating. She waited a few seconds before leaning to the side and waving. "Hello...? Did you want something?"
"Uh... yeah..." he raised a hand to his mouth, about to nibble on his claw, when he caught himself and forced the hand down. That was a very old habit... and it just proved how bloody nervous he was right then.
"Do you think you can discharge me soon?" Kagome asked suddenly. "I mean... I feel great and dandy and whatever... and my first lecture starts next Monday, and I don't want to miss it."
"Ah..." Inuyasha nodded with a slight wince.
"And I've really been looking forward to this chance!" Kagome said quickly. "And I swear, if I become a lawyer I will never work in prosecution against you!"
"Um... Kagome..."
"Unless you've been a bastard to one of your patients. Molested someone... killed someone deliberately... or performed malpractice-"
"Kagome! You're not going to University." He snapped suddenly.
"What?" she frowned.
"-Yet." He added quickly, not wanting to shoot her down in flames so soon. "There's a problem... with your virus..."
Kagome's mouth hung open for a moment like she wanted to say something, before she closed it and waited for him to continue.
"The Virus is attacking your body... aggressively..."
"That's not good..." she guessed.
Inuyasha leaned forward to rest his forearms against his knees. "No, it's not. Because at the rate it's working you will be dead in less than a month."
Kagome flinched back slightly like she'd been slapped and she stared at him in complete silence. The room was practically sound proof so no outside sounds could be heard... and the total silence in the room was becoming almost unbearable. Slowly her gaze dropped to the floor, but she made no effort to speak.
"Fortunately there's a drug that I can treat you with... it's experimental, but if you take a daily dose then you won't fall back into any comas." Inuyasha went on. "There's also a process of dealing with death that you will need to make yourself familiar with... I know it's a shock, but you don't have a lot of time left, so you'll have to make the most of what time you have."
"Stop..." Kagome held her hands up. "Stop talking."
Inuyasha fell silent.
Kagome sat in silence before looking up at him with shock and fear. "I'm dying?"
"Yes..." Inuyasha said slowly. "If you want I can send your family back in to-"
"No." Kagome said quickly. "I... I think I need... time... to think about this..."
"You want to be left alone-"
"Yes." Kagome said shortly, not looking up at him.
"Ok..." Inuyasha said softly and left the room without another word. He shut the door quietly and turned to come face to face with Kagome's mother.
"Did you tell her?" she asked quickly.
"Yes..."
"How is she - can I see her now-"
"No - give her a minute." Inuyasha ushered her a short distance away. "I need to speak with you about something."
Mrs Higurashi fidgeted anxiously, more like she wanted to go speak to her daughter rather than her doctor. "Yes?"
"There are five stages to accepting death - which applies to both the person dying and the family of that person." Inuyasha said firmly. "It usually goes in the same order... Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression... and then finally Acceptance. It is possible that Kagome will reach the final stage by the end of the month..."
"Right..." Mrs Higurashi stared dully at the opposite wall.
"You have to be there for her - but you have to also understand that she's going to be angry, and she may take her anger out on you. It may seem like she hates you, but you mustn't let it cause rifts at this point. She hasn't got a lot of time so it's vital that she feels safe and comforted by her family." Inuyasha explained. He'd read it all before, and studied it all before... but this was the first time he'd had to put it into practise.
Kagome's mother started again. "How soon will she accept this-"
A loud crash inside Kagome's hospital room cut her sentence short and Inuyasha was at once gone from her side and throwing open the door. "Kagome!"
"Screw you! And all your stupid equipment!" Kagome yelled as she pushed over the heart monitor. "For all its worth I might as well already be dead!"
Millions of Yen had gone into that equipment and he winced as the monitor smashed on the floor, but he endured. It was no personal loss. "Kagome, I think you should just sit down for a moment and-"
"And talk?!" Kagome whirled and him, kicking the bed angrily. "That's all you do isn't it! YOU TALK! You do nothing to help me! You should be out there finding a cure! But you're just telling me to chill! I will NOT chill!"
Inuyasha quickly grabbed her as she made to attack some other equipment above the bed. "Stop it! You have to calm down!"
"No!" Kagome threw her weight around to dislodge him. "I'm the one who's dying here! Not you! Let me be!"
"Not until you calm down!" he snapped.
"Let me go! Let me go! LET ME GO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and struggled violently.
She wasn't going to calm down, that much was obvious. He glanced back to the open doorway. "KIKYO!"
He gave it a few seconds before yelling again. Soon she appeared in the doorway, knowing the drill by now and had morphine syringe ready. She came forward while a few other nurses and Miroku gathered in the doorway.
"Hold her still!" Kikyo told Inuyasha shortly.
"Let me go! Bastards! This is all your fault!" Kagome kicked and flailed, almost breaking away.
Inuyasha grabbed her again, firmly and held her with un-measurable strength that prevented her from moving her arms whatsoever. Kikyo quickly took Kagome's hand that still had the IV needle in it and fixed the syringe to it. She gave the dosage quickly before Kagome could jerk away with her own strength born of anger.
When it was done she stepped back and pointed to the bed. "Get her down - four point restraints."
"Stop treating me like a nutcase!" Kagome screamed as Inuyasha and Miroku both joined together to carry her to the bed and hold her down while four nurses arrived by her side to buckle soft restraints around her wrists and ankles. Mrs Higurashi stood in the doorway with a hand pressed to her mouth and tears stood out in her eyes.
Fairly quickly Kagome was beginning to fall into a stupor, only muttering soft insults and groans as the sedatives started to take affect on her. When he eyes closed and her head lolled to the side, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"I guess it's safe to say she'd passed onto stage two by now..." Inuyasha said quietly to Kikyo who nodded. "Keep an eye on her and tell me the minute she wakes up."
Once again Kikyo nodded and Inuyasha began to shoo the nurses away. "This isn't a soap opera - get lost!"
Suddenly the bed started to shake and everyone glanced back at Kagome to see her body was convulsing strongly. Inuyasha cursed at once. "Shit!"
"She's having a reaction to the sedative." Kikyo stated calmly, keeping a cool head as she hurried to the bed side. "Where's the defibrillator?"
"She smashed it." Inuyasha glanced back at the other nurses. "Get one in here now! Get moving!"
While the nurses went to fetch a new machine Inuyasha went to the bedside and tried to stop Kagome from causing herself any damage. He issued orders to Kikyo as he went. "Check her mouth - don't let her swallow her tongue! What's her BP?"
"I don't know - she trashed that as well!" Kikyo said loudly as she checked Kagome's mouth.
The defibrillator arrived the same moment Kagome stopped convulsing. Inuyasha quickly checked her pulse and sighed. "She's back in a coma..."
There was an all around sigh at this announcement and Miroku folded his arms. "All that racing around for nothing..."
"Ok..." Inuyasha looked around at the state of the room and winced. "Get replacement equipment and keep those restraints on her. I want her checked on every five minutes and the moment she wakes someone has to come and find me. Don't free her from those restraints until I say so."
(A/N: it's well past my beddy byes now and I have an exam tomorrow... so I better go.)