InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Persistence ❯ Chapter 25 (extra) ( Chapter 25 )

As you can see, this was previously ending #1. However, I was struck one day that I didn’t want to have a happy ending. I wanted some turmoil because that’s how life sometimes leaves us. It beats the hell out of us and leaves us on the ground, in a heap of bruises and tears. But we pick ourselves up and move on and make the best of the direction we were turned.

Previously…
Her eyes flicked to look behind him and her face melted into an expression of horror. He turned his head to look as the front end of a white Ford F150 plowed into the driver’s side of their small Volkswagen. The truck had run the red light and careened into their vehicle while making a left turn. The car jerked violently as the force of the speeding truck crashed against the metal frame. Kagome’s mind reeled and she screamed, drowning out the sound of glass breaking and tires screeching.
Smoke and steam poured from the radiator of the truck, wafting into the broken window of the driver’s side. The heat of the vehicle surged over Sesshomaru, the smell of hot oil and gasoline assaulting him. Traffic stopped around them and pedestrians ran up to the wreck from the sidewalk. A teenage boy with a bag slung across his body peered into the car to check for injured and spotted Taikyuu bundled in his car seat as he began to fuss.
“Someone call 911, there’s a baby in this car!”

ENDING A

The first thing she realized was that her right hand ached. She felt like she had hung from a bridge by a bike handle bar for two hours. Her back ached something fierce as well. Kagome opened her eyes and shut them again quickly as the fluorescent lights above her bed glared down at her. She pushed herself to sit up in the bed and noticed that it didn’t feel nearly as comfortable as her bed at home used to feel.
Kagome opened her eyes again and realized she was back in the hospital. There was a brace on her right wrist and her forehead throbbed. Reaching up she could feel a butterfly bandage over three rough stitches over her right eye. She winced when her fingers came in contact with the injury. She sighed tiredly as she evaluated herself. Nope, no broken bones. She put her hands down to rest on her abdomen but they fell closer to her than they had in the past 8 months. Her large, pregnant belly was gone. Was it all a dream? Did I have a horrible fall in the feudal era, became injured, and have been at the hospital since? Her mind whirled with explanation until she felt the slight discomfort and pain that she had come to associate with post childbirth. No, not a dream, she decided. She looked around for the basinet that Taikyuu had slept in before she was discharged from the hospital. Her breasts ached to be emptied and surely he was hungry. Glancing around the room she didn’t see a basinet anywhere. Oh well. Maybe the nurse is bringing him over right now. She sighed and leaned back against her pillow.
Kagome shut her eyes and took a deep breath. While exhaling, her mind conjured the memory of Sesshomaru smiling lovingly at her in the car. She had been so excited to go home and start living as a family. The background came into focus in the window behind Sesshomaru. Fear erupted as she saw the white truck barrel over the crosswalk toward them. She tried to scream and tell him to get out of the way; honestly, she did but it was too late.
Her body was jerked violently as the crunch of metal reverberated in her ears. The windshield shattered, showering shards of glass over them. Hot steam and smoke rolled into the cabin of the car from the radiator of the truck that had violently lodged itself into the driver’s side of their small sedan. She could feel the tires grating against the road surface as the truck pushed their car across the intersection. Vaguely she could hear Sesshomaru’s voice calling her name. He sounded panicked and scared.
Kagome looked around the room again, searching for a sign of Sesshomaru or Taikyuu. The chair next to the bed was empty. There were no magazines lying on the bedside signifying Sesshomaru had been standing vigil next to her. What if… what if they didn’t make it? Her mind whirled with devastating thoughts. Her husband; a demon who waited centuries just to see her again. Her son. He had hardly lived a blink of an eye before his life was taken. Tears streamed down her face as thoughts plagued her mind. There was no other explanation for this; they were gone.
“Why couldn’t it be me?” she hiccupped before burying her face in her hands, crying heavily for her lost loved ones. Gone. They were gone and she had hardly had any time with them. Her heart ached, brimming with sorrow and regret. She hadn’t told him she loved him. Oh gods, why hadn’t she told him!
“Kagome.” She was hearing his voice now. His smooth baritone voice that seemed to coat her heart with love and warmth like an apple wrapped in caramel. She cried harder but the voice persisted.
“Kagome, what’s wrong?” he asked. Her bed dipped slightly on the side and she looked up. Sesshomaru was sitting with his right leg propped against the bed where he sat. Taikyuu was in his arms, his eyes closed in sleep.
“Sessho…” she started, tears still streaming down her face.
“I went to get Taikyuu because it’s time for him to be fed. You’ve been so out of it over the last few hours that I thought you should rest,” he explained as he rubbed her knee through the blanket. She blinked at him, her wet lashes blurring her vision slightly.
“You’re… okay?” she questioned.
“Yes. Just a few deep cuts that will heal within a few days. You, however, took a nasty beating in the accident. You have a mild concussion so you’ll have to take it extra easy once we get home.”
Unable to hold back any longer Kagome burst out crying again. Sesshomaru looked at her with a frightened expression. He knew his wife was emotional but this was a little unordinary. She saw his look and waved her hands, tears streaming down her face.
“No, it’s okay. I’m just happy, that’s all,” she blubbered.

EPILOGUE A – Five Years Later

The garden at the castle was decorated joyfully in beautiful blue, silver, and white. Balloons were tethered to tables that were covered in linen table clothes.
“Alright, alright! C’mon guys, it’s time to open presents!” Kagome called from the table that was stacked with colorfully wrapped presents. A young boy that came up to Kagome’s elbow raced up to the table, nearly knocking her over. His hair was thick silvery white and braided down his back and tied with a clear hair tie (“because only girls wear colored hair ties, mom” he had explained). His somewhat pointed ears poked out slightly from the sides of his head. Sesshomaru’s Prussian blue crescent adorned his prominent forehead and two stripes streaked across each cheek. The stripe closest to his eyes was the same magenta as his father but the one below it had more of a blue tint to it. Kagome’s grandfather proudly proclaimed it to be the inheritance of her pure abilities. Kagome always rolled her eyes at grandpa and accounted it to evolution. Suteki, now 8 years old, barreled up to the table with Sachi and Simon in tow.
Sesshomaru stood next to Kagome, holding a little girl around age 3 against his hip. Her black hair was held up in ponytails, one on each side of her head. A smile pulled at the corners of Kagome’s mouth as she watched Taikyuu animatedly begin to rip open his presents (not before reading who they were from, of course). Inuyasha’s family was there along with Shippo’s and her own family. She sighed at the beautiful day they were blessed with in which to have Taikyuu’s birthday party. Her right hand absently rubbed her slight tummy, feeling the motion of the child within at all of the excitement. They stood slightly away from the picnic table where a storm of ripped wrapping paper was tossed here and there amid shouts and cries of glee.
Taikyuu thanked his cousin Suteki for the water guns and begrudgingly moved on to the next gift. “Hey mom! Look!” he cried as he turned toward her and lifted the light material from the box. Fisted gently in his hands was a kimono set that matched Sesshomaru’s down to the patterns on the left shoulder and the shade of blue of the obi. “Just like daddy!”
Kagome smiled, glanced at Sesshomaru from the corner of her eye, and said, “Yes, just like daddy.”

---END---
There, was that a little better?