InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Sickness ❯ One-Shot

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Another little one-shot that came to mind.

Warning: Some gore that might bother squeamish people.
 

The Sickness




"Lord Sesshoumaru, Rin's tummy hurts," said a small, plaintive voice.

Sesshoumaru's low tone replied, "Perhaps you should not have eaten those unripe berries, then."

They continued walking, Ah-Un's claws thudding on the dirt path.

"Where did Master Jaken go?"

"I sent him to attend my affairs at home."

Rin nodded once, laid across Ah-Un's saddle and tried to ignore the cramping pain twining her stomach into knots. Sesshoumaru noticed the little girl's discomfort. Unconsciously, he slowed his pace to keep a closer eye on her. As long as he knew the girl, she had never been this un-energetic.

"Rin."

She looked up into his beautiful golden eyes. "Yes, my Lord?"

"How long have you had this pain?" and, as an afterthought, he tacked on, "I am...curious."

"Rin's tummy started hurting right after Rin took a bath." The little girl winced. "It didn't hurt a lot so Rin didn't say anything. Rin feels sick now."

Sesshoumaru settled a graceful hand across his Rin's forehead. He then touched his own. Her raised body heat clung to his palm, telling him she did indeed have a fever. Leaning over, he sniffed once, seeking out any infected wounds that may have escaped his notice.

Nothing. She smelled of wildflowers and grass.

"I don't know what ails you, Rin. This does not follow the typical illnesses you humans fall under every year." Sesshoumaru turned his head, his long hair swishing like satin. "Perhaps that odd human wench of the future can help."

The demon lord hated lowering himself to ask for human aid. But he couldn't bear the pain in the Rin's eyes. Something was seriously wrong and he needed to find a cure, fast.

"Ah-Un, stay here and guard Rin."

The dragon nodded both heads.

Sesshoumaru shed his heirloom pelt and wrapped it around Rin's shivering body. It was not an easy task with only one useful hand. "This Sesshoumaru will return soon."

With that, he formed his magical cloud and flew away.

o0o

Every time I say I'm going home, he freaks! Kagome thought to herself as she walked towards the wooden Bone Eater's Well. Her black hair was mussed slightly because of a low branch that almost took her head off in the dark. She heard a swish and looked up. Oh!

There stood Sesshoumaru, the tall, proud, insanely beautiful brother of Inuyasha. The full moon rose at his back to outline his silver hair. He looked deceptively angelic.

Kagome immediately took a defensive posture, her heart thudding in her ears. Something about Sesshoumaru seemed off. He appeared oddly small. That's when she realized he lacked his pelt. It was strange to see two spiked shoulder-guards instead of one.

"What do you want?"

"Your assistance."

She blinked. Did her ears deceive her? "My...assistance? Why?"

Gilded eyes framed in long eyelashes fixed on hers. His voice gained a slight pinch of ice. "Don't ask foolish questions. You will come with me."

Backing up a step, Kagome glared up, "And what if I don't?"

Sesshoumaru's hair flew. In the blink of an eye he was standing directly in front of the human female. "I'll kill you where you stand. But if you assist me, I will let you live."

"O-okay..." She felt the prick of his manicured claws against her throat.

His arm wrapped around her waist. The next thing Kagome saw was the ground retreating.

o0o

The cold night air bit into Kagome's skin. Sesshoumaru had just finished explaining Rin's odd ailment when they came in for a landing.

"So she has pain in her stomach?"

"Yes, and Rin rarely complains of pain."

Nodding once, Kagome pulled free of Sesshoumaru's strong arm and walked up to the large two-headed dragon. Four slitted eyes followed her approach. An order from Sesshoumaru calmed the beast.

Rin sat atop Ah-Un with Sesshoumaru's pelt swallowing her tiny body like a furry boa constrictor. Her face was flushed with fever. She blinked sleepily up at Kagome.

"Hello."

"Hi, Rin. My name's Kagome." Kagome said gently, "I hear you have a tummy ache. Can you come down from there and lay down so I can look at you?"

The girl looked over Kagome's head at Sesshoumaru. He nodded once. She slid out of the pelt and obediently settled in the grass at the miko's feet.

"So, why does your tummy hurt?"

"Rin doesn't know." She shivered. "It hurt a little right after Rin's bath at sunset and hurts more now."

Kagome patted Rin's head, hyper conscious of Sesshoumaru's eyes boring into her back. "Show me where?"

"Here." Rin placed her hand just below her belly button.

She's way too young for it to be those kinds of cramps, thought Kagome to herself. She reached down and lightly pressed on the girl's lower left quadrant, which was near her hip-bone. "Does this hurt?"

"Uh-uh."

Kagome's hand prodded Rin's belly button. Rin didn't bat an eyelash. She finally applied slight pressure to Rin's lower right quadrant. Rin screamed in pain.

Sesshoumaru's claws were at Kagome's throat. "You are hurting her."

"I'm sorry! I had to prod to find out!" Kagome pushed Sesshoumaru's claws away and stood up, glancing down at Rin. "I think she has appendicitis."

"Ap-pen-di-ci-tis?" Sesshoumaru sounded the word out. A foreign term he never heard before. His eyes bore into Kagome's. "Explain."

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome forgot the honorifics. "Do you know what intestines are?"

"Of course, I have seen disembowelment."

"Right, okay." She drew loops of small intestine in the dirt and traced a curving line around them to symbolize a colon. On the lower right side she added an extra line. "This is the appendix. It really doesn't have a use anymore. But when it gets infected, it blows up like a balloon. And if it ruptures, Rin will get very sick and die. It has to be surgically removed right away."

Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered to Rin and back. His demeanor frosted over. "Surgery..."

"I can't do it." Kagome admitted slowly. Shivers ran down her spine, "But I can take her to healers, called doctors, in my time. They can help her. But you have to trust me."

"It seems I have no choice." This admission burned the demon lord's blood like acid. He silently cursed and praised the day he let Rin follow him.

"Take me back to the well." Kagome knelt to lift Rin into her arms, surprised to find her of a healthy weight. Rin whimpered slightly, but didn't complain.

She heard a swish, blinked once and found herself staring at the Bone Eater's well. Wow, I guess he's worried if he's doing it lightspeed.

"Before we go in," Kagome leveled her eyes with Sesshoumaru's, "You need to take off your armor, your outer kimono and your swords. My world is full of humans who wouldn't understand who or what you are. If they find out you're a demon, they won't help Rin."

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. The corners of his mouth inched downwards in a sneer. She wanted him to leave his weapons here?

"You can take them off on the other side. I'll seal the well so Inuyasha won't come chasing after us. But come on, we can't fool around!"

Any other day, he would've killed the girl for giving orders. For Rin's sake he let it slide and nodded once. "Let us go."

Together, they climbed into the well. Sesshoumaru gasped as the magic surrounded him. Immediately upon emerging he untied his obi and let his armor and swords plunk on the ground at his feet. Foreign smells mixed with human stench nearly knocked him unconscious. His outer kimono shirt joined the armor and obi at his feet, leaving him just in his white undershirt and baggy hakama.

Sesshoumaru didn't take time to look around. He just followed the human into her odd castle.

Kagome reached into the closet and thrust a black trench coat at him. "Here, put this on over your clothes."

He did so without question. The foreign material felt odd and heavy.

The next thing Sesshoumaru knew, he was perched in the back of a motorized vehicle called a "taxi". It gave off disgusting fumes and the driver smelled as if he spent his life under garbage. All around him were flashing signs, lights and moving pictures that seemed controlled by magic.

They soon arrived at the hospital. Kagome paid the driver, patted Sesshoumaru's arm to get his attention and climbed out. Sesshoumaru uncurled gracefully from his seat and followed the human through doors that opened by themselves.

He immediately covered his nose. The entire place smelled of disease!

"It's okay..." Kagome gently soothed Rin. She ran up to the front desk. "Please help me. This girl has appendicitis and needs attention!"

The older lady behind the counter blinked. "All right. Your name?"

"Kagome Higurashi."

"And the girl's?"

"Rin - "

"Toga. Rin Toga," Sesshoumaru's low voice cut in.

"And yours?"

"Sesshoumaru Toga."

"You're the father?"

He glanced at Kagome. "Yes."

"Go through that door," the woman pointed to the right, "and someone will get her a bed."

Kagome didn't have a chance to act surprised at Sesshoumaru's quick thinking. She hurried through the white door and a nurse in a pink apron led them behind a curtain.

Rin, who was quiet the entire time, started to cry out when the nurse undressed her and took a blood sample. Sounds from the bright healing place, the weird metal thing taking out her blood and the smells frightened her. She twisted her head around to look up at Sesshoumaru, who stood at her bedside like a vigilant white shadow.

Kagome's eyes stayed fixed on the demon lord's claws. Every time the nurse made Rin whimper, they twitched and sparkled.

Suddenly the curtain was thrust aside. There stood a heavy-set man wearing green scrubs and papery slippers.

"Fujisawa. Hot appy?" he said to the nurse.

"Looks like it, Doctor Ogata. Major ceiling sign."

The doctor checked Rin over, nodding when she wailed again. "Very hot appy. Okey-dokey. OR number three should be open in ten. We'll take her there."

"Gotcha." And the nurse hurried off.

Sesshoumaru's ears twitched at the sounds in the curtain next to him. Beeps, tones, alarms and clicks wafted through the cloth. He kept hearing phrases like "she's bradying down!" and "V-fib! C'mon, gimme an amp of epi, stat!" and once he heard "clear!" right before a strange thump. Then he overheard "she's in asystole! Charge to two-fifty. Clear!" just before another thump. Right after that, someone asked for a 'thoracotomy tray', followed by the wet squish of metal slicing skin. Something clinked and whirred. Voices blended together.

Curiously, he peeked around the curtain. He could see right over a doctor's shoulder. They had a woman's chest cut wide open, her ribs spread with a strange metal device that made her look like slaughtered game. Her blackish-pink lungs just kind of popped out. The doctor shaped his hands like a dragon's mouth, thrust them into the open chest cavity and squeezed the glistening wet redness of the woman's heart.

The intoxicating smell of blood curled in his nose. He watched the blackened lungs quiver uselessly like two slimy bags full of water.

"She's bleeding out!"

Another nurse thrust an odd instrument into the exposed gore. The blood stopped pooling.

Someone caught Sesshoumaru watching and yanked the curtain further around, hiding the gruesome sight from view. He curled his lip and turned his attention forward.

Right across the way was a little boy about Rin's age. Severe burns marred his entire body, turning his skin shades of yellow and brown. He had strange tubes taped into his mouth, the two ribbed coils leading to a machine filled with dials and numbers. It hissed to make the boy's chest rise and fall. There were also machines displaying wavy green lines and bags of liquid hanging on a metal rack above the bed. Tubes ran from the bags to needles in the boy's wrist.

"Shh, Rin, it's okay sweetie." Kagome's soft voice cooed. "Here, the nurse got you a friend."

Rin blinked over at the object in Kagome's hand. A fluffy, white stuffed dog with floppy ears. She gasped in delight, "Lord Sesshoumaru! Can Rin keep it?"

His eyes smiled, though his lips remained a firm line. "Yes."

She squealed and hugged the toy. He noticed she had one of those suspended bags attached to her arm. Whatever it was, it seemed to be easing Rin's pain.

Sesshoumaru's ears twitched. Nurses walked by the curtain behind him, talking to each other. One of them muttered something about having to "glove up and dig in". The other replied with strange words like "enema" and "code brown".

Kagome raised her eyes to meet Sesshoumaru's impassive face. "It won't be long before they take her in."

He looked back at her. "Will this not cause her more pain?"

"Nah," she smiled at his concern for the girl, "they have something called anesthesia. They put you into a deep sleep so you don't feel the operation. I had to have my appendix out when I was little...it wasn't so bad. She'll need rest for a long time afterward, but she'll be okay."

His eyes burned into hers. "For your sake, you had better speak the truth."

Shivers ran down Kagome's spine. His eyes always made her feel like she didn't exist. She turned her gaze back to Rin.

Rin was a little drowsy from the IV. She smiled sleepily up at Sesshoumaru, her arms wrapped firmly around her new toy. "Lord Sesshoumaru looks sad. Maybe Fluffy will make you feel better?"

"Fluffy....?"

She smiled again. "Because he's fluffy like your fluffy!"

"My pelt, you mean?" Amusement added a new overtone to Sesshoumaru's deep voice.

"Mmhmm!" Rin handed the stuffed dog up.

Sesshoumaru's hand reluctantly accepted it. It is rather soft, he thought to himself. "Very well, I will hold 'Fluffy' for you."

The curtain moved before Kagome could comment. Doctor Ogata appeared and gently lifted Rin onto a gurney.

"Excuse me," Sesshoumaru said coldly, "Will I be allowed inside with her?"

"Sorry, you can't. The waiting room's right down the hall though. I'll come out and update you when I'm done." Ogata turned Rin's gurney so her head faced where her feet were a second ago. He smiled down at Rin's sleepy form. "You'll have to say bye to your daddy for awhile, sweetie."

Rin, having no understanding of what she was about to undergo, grinned at Kagome and Sesshoumaru. "Bye, bye..." she giggled, "...daddy! Rin will be back soon!"

Something odd happened to Sesshoumaru's heart. He nodded slowly to Rin, but didn't notice if Kagome said anything or not. He watched as the moving bed disappeared down the hall.

"C'mon," Kagome said, "We can't do any more for her now. Let's go to the waiting room."

The tall demon lord glanced around the curtain at the "slaughtered" woman. She was covered by a bloodstained white sheet. He heard the slap of gloves as they were discarded in a black bag.

People in healer uniforms continued their rounds. Words like "cephalosporin", "atropine", "lasix", "succinylcholine" and "compazine" were tossed about like a coded language. He continued to listen, hearing other terms like "tension pneumothorax", "subdural hematoma", "cardiac tamponade", "coag panel", "tox screen", "hypovolemia" and "central line". Someone ordered "a CBC, chem-seven and a blood gas" and then a "type and crossmatch" followed by "two units of O-neg".

Amidst the voices were moans and cries. Scents of various diseases and blood. His mouth tightened in disgust when he smelled waste and noticed a bedpan full of bloody feces sitting unattended on a gurney.

Shaking his head, he followed Kagome down the clean white corridor.

o0o

Two hours passed.

Sesshoumaru never moved from his post by the door. He stood like a white sentinel, his intact arm gently cradling Rin's new toy. His silver hair, his markings and his amber eyes looked utterly out of place next to the black trench coat wrapped around his body and the crisp white wall behind him. By Kagome's advice he'd recently let his hair fall over his ears, hiding their pointed tips

The black coat turned his skin a translucent shade of ivory. He appeared made entirely of porcelain, his small lips and markings painted on by a talented hand.

"Can I get you anything to eat or drink?" Kagome heard herself ask.

"No."

"Oh...well...magazine?"

"No."

"Is 'no' the only word in your vocabulary?"

A pause.

"No."

The doors swung open. Not Doctor Ogata. Sesshoumaru sighed to himself. He heard the doors move again and looked up. It was Doctor Ogata, smiling as he pulled his surgical mask down.

"She did beautifully. It hadn't ruptured so there's no sign of infection anywhere else in her abdomen." the doctor wrote something on a notepad and tore off a sheet. "Here's a prescription for pain medicine. Give her six weeks and then the sutures can come out. I'm keeping her overnight for observation."

All the medical babble went right over Sesshoumaru's head. Thankfully Kagome took over, "Thanks a lot! Can we see her?"

"Sure, just take the elevator to the second floor and turn right. She's in room eight of the pediatric wing. Don't be surprised if she's a bit sleepy."

Sesshoumaru was already heading where the doctor pointed. Kagome watched in amusement as he stared at the elevator like it might eat him alive. She guided him inside and pressed the button. He startled when the elevator jolted into motion.

He hated it. Even after he stepped off, he still felt like he was rising!

This new corridor was cleaner, quieter and painted in garish colors that made his head ache. He fixed his stare straight ahead and followed Kagome to the proper room.

Rin lay sound asleep on a bed with silver rails. A few machines beeped around her and she had white gauze taped to the right side of her belly. Her hair was mussed slightly. She stirred when a shadow fell over her face. Her eyes opened to Sesshoumaru's calm expression.

"Hello," Rin whispered.

Sesshoumaru nodded in reply. He lowered Fluffy onto the bed beside her. "Are you in pain?"

"Rin is sleepy." the girl sighed.

Kagome just kind of hung back, watching them. She'd never seen Sesshoumaru so....gentle. He didn't know it, but an inch of the ice surrounding his demeanor melted every time he looked at Rin. The melting reached its climax when he let her take his hand, even closing his fingers around hers.

Turning away to give them their moment, she said, "I think I'll get something to eat. Will you be okay?"

"We will be fine."

She smiled and headed for the cafeteria.

When Kagome returned thirty minutes later, she found Rin and Sesshoumaru asleep. Rin still on her back and Sesshoumaru with his head on the mattress, his silver hair falling around him like an elegant veil. A few rogue strands lay across his alabaster cheek.

Kagome paused a moment to stare at the black crescents of his eyelashes and blue moon adorning his brow. He didn't look dangerous at all while asleep.

I guess all the worry wore him out. she mused, wow, he's so strange. He claims to hate humans and yet he risked himself to help this little girl...and she's such a sweet kid, too. Little Rin, maybe you're the key to melting his cold heart.

One gold eye cracked open. She only saw the light hitting it, not his iris itself.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No," he whispered, sitting up straight. His eyelids drooped.

"If you want, we can go to my place and - "

He pinned her with a sleepy glare, "I will not leave her side until she is well again."

No point in forcing him. He's not moving. she thought, amused by his struggles to stay awake.

Eventually, Sesshoumaru put his head down again and went back to sleep. Rin woke up at the movement, smiled and lightly touched his hair. It wasn't often that she saw her dear Lord Sesshoumaru sleep. Little did she know that he felt and enjoyed every pass of her tiny hand.

o0o

Kagome carried Rin down the wooden steps leading into the well house. Behind her, Sesshoumaru shed the trench coat and began the task of donning his kimono and armor. She watched in amazement as Rin climbed down to tie his obi for him. Even more surprising - he let her.

"Tie it tightly, like I showed you."

"Rin remembers," said Rin happily. Her tiny fingers formed the obi into a perfect bow.

Sesshoumaru knelt to pick up his swords, placing them at his side. Then he eyed the little orange bottle the doctor gave him. He was surprised that the ingredients for the pills were the same ones he found in many herbal painkillers. Someone compacted them all together in a chewable pellet. How amazing!

Kagome checked the label one more time, blushing when her fingers brushed his. "She needs to take one when she wakes up, one at noon and another when she goes to sleep. It'll probably make her sleepy. And don't forget, she's only supposed to eat soup for the first week."

"Yes, I know." He popped a tablet into Rin's mouth and watched her chew it. Turning back to Kagome, he offered a faint nod. "You saved Rin's life."

A smile curled Kagome's lips. "It was worth it."

"Thank you very much, Lady Kagome! Rin's tummy feels much better!"

"You're very welcome, Rin!" she winked, "You take good care of Sesshoumaru, okay?"

He shot them both a haughty glare. "This Sesshoumaru can take care of himself."

"Rin always takes good care of Lord Sesshoumaru," Rin whispered a little too loudly, picking her toy dog up. Sesshoumaru pretended not to hear as he curled his one arm gently under her butt and lowered his head so she'd grab ahold of his neck. She was very careful to reach up under his hair when she grasped him. He glanced once more at Kagome, smirked in silent gratitude and hopped gracefully down the well.

Kagome waited five minutes and hopped in herself, knowing she'd have to deal with a cranky Inuyasha's grousing.

The trip was worth it.