InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ JOURNEY ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Disclaimer: All characters pertaining to the show InuYasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I am not making any money from this...the only thing that I am getting out of this story is the satisfaction of knowing that other people enjoy my writing. All original characters are my creation and belong to me...as does the plot and storyline.

 

 

Chapter 24

 

When Sesshomaru woke the just before dawn following morning, Kagome was gone. Kirei still asleep in her bed, but Kagome was nowhere to be found. Lakota was missing as well. He picked Kirei up out of her bed and changed her diaper. Then he carried her with him to the main house. Souta and Nathan were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Sesshomaru sat Kirei in a chair and grabbed a cup of coffee.

 

“Where's Kagome?” Sesshomaru asked.

 

“She's probably out gathering herbs in the garden,” Nathan said.

 

“I'll go find her,” Sesshomaru said as he exited through the back door.

 

Sesshomaru spotted her in the garden, although how he spotted her was a mystery because she sat sitting on her knees in a patch of rosemary that was way past the top of her head. He silently crept up beside her, prepared to surprise her. Or, at least, he thought he was going to surprise her.

 

“Ohayo, Sesshomaru,” she said before he ever got near her.

 

“`Morning,” he said. “How did you know I was here?”

 

“I heard you coming before you ever got to the garden. When you live out here long enough, you get to where you notice every little noise. Hand me that hoe, there is a rattlesnake three rows over.” Sesshomaru handed her the hoe and listened. He didn't hear the telltale rattle, but he did hear the scraping of its scales as it slithered across the muskmelon vines. He shook his head, amazed that she was so alert.

 

Sesshomaru leaned over and tried to kiss her, but she got up and headed back to the house. He caught up to her.

 

“What's wrong, Kagome?” he asked.

 

“Nothing.”

 

“You never were a good liar, now talk to me.”

 

“There's nothing to say.”

 

“Why are you acting like this?”

 

“Because, when I woke up in your arms this morning, I realized that that is exactly what I wanted. It's also what I can't have. You show back up after nearly two fucking years, acting like everything's ok. Well, it's not. You abandoned me, and I'm not going to set myself up to get hurt again, Sesshomaru. What's going to happen when you go back to Arizona? I'm not leaving. I hated it down there, and I'm not taking her down there. I want her to grow up here, connected to the land - where she wound be ridiculed for having mixed blood. I have worked too hard to get where I am now to let it just fly out the window like it was nothing. I've spent the last twenty-one months turning my head every time I heard a motorcycle, praying that it was you. It has been so hard to keep going. You said that you would do anything for me, but when I needed you the most, you weren't there. I love you with all my heart, Sesshomaru, but I'm not leaving. That's why I am not going to let myself get too close to you again. I want to, with all my soul, Sesshomaru…but I can't.” Kagome went into the kitchen and grabbed Kirei from her chair. She took the biscuits from the oven, set them on the table, and walked back out the door. “I'm going riding, Souta. I'll be back later,” she said as she slammed the door and disappeared.

 

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Sesshomaru watched as Kagome quickly saddled her big roan horse and rode out toward the lake with Kirei in front of her. Souta looked at Sesshomaru as if asking what had happened. Sesshomaru poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. Nathan handed him a plate of biscuits and gravy. Sesshomaru silently accepted.

 

“What happened?” Souta asked.

 

“I don't know what to do,” Sesshomaru said as he began to eat. “She won't let me get close to her. Every time I try to talk to her, she runs away.”

 

“She's just afraid you're going to leave again. She's been through a lot in the past two years. She was devastated when she didn't hear from you. It has taken her a long time to learn to deal with that. She's never gotten over it, but she's learned to deal with it.”

 

“I'm kind of at a loss here. I have to go back to Arizona to take care of some legal business. I have to sell my house and close out my bank accounts. But I don't want her to think I'm leaving her again. I can't bring myself to tell her where I was all that time. I know her well enough to know that she'll blame herself.”

 

“You're right. She probably would. That's why I haven't said anything to her, but the ranch is going under. I took out a loan against the ranch to build her that house and buy some new equipment. But things have been a whole lot slower than normal this year, and I haven't been able to make a payment in several months. It's going to hurt her if we lose it.”

 

“How much was the loan for?”

 

“Twenty-two thousand dollars. If I don't make up the late payments soon, the bank is going to take the ranch. I don't have the heart to tell her.”

 

“I think I see a way to get us both out of trouble,” Sesshomaru said as he leaned over the table, “But you have to promise not to tell Kagome.”

 

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Sesshomaru was gone when Kagome came back that afternoon. Souta, Nathan and the others were working in the horse corral, trying to break a new horse. Kagome put away her horse and went into the house. She sat Kirei in a chair and began to prepare supper. She was certain that she had been right in not trusting Sesshomaru this time around. After all, he had not come to Montana to find them; he had come to visit his parents. Running into them had just been a freak accident. Kagome had known that this would happen. She had known that eventually he would have to go back to Arizona. She would not go back there. She had known not to get her hopes up. Kagome knew she would get hurt again if she got involved with Sesshomaru. She guessed that it was a relationship that was not meant to be. She thought that it must be her destiny to be alone.

 

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Kagome received a letter from Sesshomaru, the following week. He said that he would be back to visit them in a few weeks. He sent his love to them, he also sent some money to Kagome to help pay for diapers and stuff. Kagome was surprised to hear anything from him. She was certainly not going to get her hopes up about him returning to them. She wrote him a letter back that read:

 

 

Sesshomaru -

 

I appreciate the letter, but I understand if you don't want to come around again. I have not been exactly nice or civil to you, after all. Please don't feel obligated to send any more money to take care of Kirei. She is my responsibility. I understand that it must have come as a bit of a shock when you ran into us at that pow-wow. I understand completely if you don't want to be tied down with a kid. It was not my intention either, but that was the way things turned out. Nonetheless, I don't regret it. I really wish that things could have turned out differently between us.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kagome Gray-Eagle

 

P.S. - For whatever it's worth, you were the best thing that ever happened to me. I won't forget you.

 

Kagome's heart felt as if it were being ripped from her chest as she signed the letter. Her tears splattered across the page, smearing her words and betraying her true feelings. She sealed the envelope and set it on the table to be mailed with the rest of the bills.

 

But as Kagome placed her letter with the rest of the outgoing mail, an envelope from the bank in Billings caught her attention. It had bright red letters on it that read `final notice'. Kagome picked it up and opened it. She discovered that Souta had taken out a loan against the ranch and had not made a payment in six months. The letter also read that if he didn't catch up his past due balance by the end of June, they were going to take the ranch from him.

 

Kagome marched out to the stable where Souta and Nathan were working with one of the horses. She walked up to him and shoved the letter into his chest. “What is this?”

 

“It's nothing, don't worry about it,” Souta replied casually, never taking his eyes from the horse.

 

“Bullshit. How could you keep something like this from me?”

 

“Because I didn't want to worry you over nothing.”

 

“I don't call losing the ranch nothing.”

 

“We aren't going to lose the ranch. It's being taken care of. My business partner is handling it.”

 

“You didn't tell me that you had a business partner.”

 

“Don't worry about it. We aren't going to lose anything, now get out of here. You're scaring the horse.”

 

Kagome did as she was told, although she could tell by the look on Nathan's face that they were hiding something. Kagome kept it to herself and went to her chores.

 

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The end of June came and went, with no word from Sesshomaru. Kagome was not surprised. She was disappointed, but not surprised. There were no more nasty letters from the bank. Apparently, Souta had been telling the truth about it, so Kagome was glad to see that they weren't going to lose the ranch after all. Souta had purchased several new horses in the past month. He had also made many improvements. The ranch had also grown in size. Souta's business partner had purchased an additional 20,000 acres from the state of Montana, expanding the property lines so that they owned everything between the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the Lewis and Clark National Forest, including most of the lake, and all of the property on the other side of it, up to the boundaries of the National Forest.

 

Kagome soon found out that to get to the property on other side of the lake, it was necessary to go all the way around the lake and into the National Forest and then cut back northwest along the lakeshore, unless you went by boat. Once she finally managed to reach it, she decided that it was definitely worth the trip. She found a section of the shore that was as close to paradise as she thought she could get. The fishing there was great, and there was an abundance of big game, including moose and deer. Kagome also saw bear tracks, cat tracks, and wolf prints, so she never went there unarmed, or without Lakota.

 

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August came around and so did the beginning of harvest time. Kagome worked vigorously in her garden. There had been an abundance of rain that year, thus increasing the crop yield. In the end, Souta had to purchase another freezer to put everything in. Kagome gave quite a bit to the reservation, and still had plenty for her own freezer. The elders told her that it was going to be an extremely rough winter and that they appreciated her gifts. She also had an overabundance of eggs. Her flock of chickens had more than doubled in the past year and a half to more than a hundred hens. That was more than the guys could possibly eat. Of course, they killed the extra roosters and put them in the freezer, but she was picking up more than six-dozen eggs a day at times, so she gave the extras to the people on the reservation as well.

 

After the first harvest was done, Kagome began to go riding on the other side of the lake. It bothered Souta that she would be gone until well after dark. She never told him where she was going and she always took Kirei with her. She would leave as soon as her chores were finished, and she would not return until late in the night. Souta was worried that whoever was setting those traps would find her. He was also worried that she might walk her horse right into one of them without even knowing it, and because he didn't know where she was going, he wouldn't be able to find them. Kagome dismissed him with a wave of her hand. She finally told him about her spot on the other side of the lake and that she went there to think because it was so peaceful. She promised that she would be careful, but Souta still worried.

 

Kagome spent quite a lot of time over at the lake. Kirei like to play in the water with her. Kagome liked to swim naked in the lake, letting the cool, fresh water caress her like a lover's hands. The water was clear enough in the area where she swam for her to see the limestone bottom. She could see many different kinds of fish, but her favorite was the blue channel catfish.

 

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September rolled around, and there still had been no word from Sesshomaru. Souta went into Billings more often, leaving the work to be done by Craig and the others. Souta told Kagome that he was meeting with their partner to discuss business. Kagome suspected that Souta had found himself a girlfriend, but she knew better than to ask. Nathan kept his mouth shut about the whole situation, saying that whatever he was doing was his own business. Kagome went about her business as usual. Nathan knew what was going on, but he had been asked not to say anything to Kagome.

 

 

TBC...

 

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