InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Torrent ❯ KEH! ( Chapter 9 )

~~Chapter 9~~

~KEH!~

 

“I told you that you didn't have to come with me,” Kagome remarked somewhat dryly as InuYasha stalked around the small room. Glowering at the slightest sound, hand reaching instinctively for the sword that Mrs. Higurashi had insisted that he leave at the shrine, he snorted in response and kept pacing. This place---this doctor's office---made him uneasy. Something about the odd smells of the room set him on edge, made him flex his claws. Kagome heard the tell-tale popping of his knuckles and scowled. “No matter what, you cannot hurt the doctor; do you understand?”

 

“Keh!” He stopped suddenly, eyeing Kagome. He'd been so preoccupied in examining the room they were in to pay any attention at all to the fact that Kagome had changed into what looked to be nothing but paper shaped to resemble a garment. He came closer and sniffed the garment then drew back, away from the acrid stench clinging on the paper. “What's that?”

 

“It's a patient gown. It's fine.”

 

His eyes bulged out as he gawped at her. “It's fucking paper!”

 

“It's fine,” Kagome stated again. “Behave yourself.”

 

“Paper tears,” he pointed out, unwilling to give up the battle.

 

Rolling her eyes, Kagome sighed and grasped at the remnants of her patience. “InuYasha---”

 

He pointed at her clothes, folded neatly and laying on the stand next to the examination table. “Now,” he ordered.

 

“I can't! And put your hat back on, please?”

 

“Now!” he insisted again though he complied with her hat request, jerking the baseball cap down over his ears. Sound was muffled, and his ears hurt from being squashed, but it gave Kagome a semblance of peace, so he wore it for her.

 

“No!”

 

“Fucking---”

 

He was interrupted as a small man bustled through the door. Middle aged with wire rimmed glasses and salt-and-pepper hair, the doctor straightened his lab coat with one hand as he read through Kagome's file in the other. “Higurashi, Kagome,” he read off the little white label on the tab of the manila file in his hands. “I'm Dr. Uematso.” he glanced up from the folder with a smile. “Prenatal? I see . . . .” he trailed off with a frown and lifted his gaze to Kagome's face once more. “It says you're two weeks pregnant, is that right? Are you sure you're pregnant?” The last question was asked in a very cautious tone. Behind the doctor, InuYasha growled.

 

“That's right,” Kagome said calmly, smiling at the doctor. InuYasha's growl grew a little louder.

 

“Well, I think we'll go ahead and have a blood test done. Better to be safe than sorry, right?”

 

Kagome flashed InuYasha a quick glance over the doctor's head. Her expression was drawn, tight, her eyes pleading with him to calm down. He ignored the warning look as his growl escalated in volume. “Sure,” she agreed, her voice a high falsetto.

 

“You think she's lying?” InuYasha asked, his voice deadly quiet.

 

“Oh, of course not! I believe she does think she's pregnant or she wouldn't be here!” Dr. Uematso turned and eyed InuYasha curiously. “And you are . . .?”

 

“I'm the pup's father,” InuYasha snarled, staring daggers at the small man. “Kagome's mate.”

 

“InuYasha . . .” Kagome began in a tone that InuYasha knew was normally followed by `the word'.

 

“Don't even think it, bitch,” he bit out, rounding to glare at Kagome.

 

Dr. Uematso cleared his throat nervously. “You mean her husband?” he asked, his expression perplexed.

 

“No, I mean her mate,” he explained again. “We're not---”

 

“About that test?” Kagome interrupted, raising her voice to be heard over InuYasha's increasingly loud tone.

 

The doctor seemed surprised as he turned to face Kagome again but finally nodded. “Let me get a nurse to draw your blood, then,” he agreed, hurrying for the door.

 

She watched him go with a sigh before pinning InuYasha with an exasperated glower. “InuYasha!” she complained, hopping down from the exam table. She had to hold the paper gown closed. InuYasha's formidable frown darkened. “He's the doctor, not an enemy! Would you please not antagonize him? He's never seen a youkai or a hanyou before, and this is going to be difficult enough without your hostility!”

 

He had the grace to flush though his expression remained impassive. “I can't help it! That bastard fucking insulted you---”

 

“He didn't insult me.”

 

“Keh! He called you a liar! That sounds insulting to me!”

 

She sighed and turned back to the table. He watched as she struggled to climb up while also trying to hold the makeshift gown closed. With a snort, he grasped her firmly but gently and set her on the table. “Thanks,” she said, her cheeks pinking when he didn't let his hands fall away. “Humans don't normally know that they're pregnant right away; that's all.”

 

A young lab assistant stepped into the room with her blood-drawing equipment. Kagome's eyes widened as she stared anxiously at the apparatus. InuYasha smelled the anxiety in her. Unconsciously, he took another step closer to her.

 

Kagome looked away as the assistant tied a long rubber strap around her upper arm and tapped against the inside of her elbow to find a vein. Her fear spiked as the needle moved closer to her unblemished skin. InuYasha growled at the technician but pulled Kagome against him, her cheek resting against his heart. Almost immediately she calmed, soothed by his touch. She soothed him, too, as he gritted his teeth and concentrated on not shoving the strange woman away.

 

The girl taped a bandage to Kagome's arm and slipped quietly out of the room. InuYasha couldn't help the small snarl that escaped as the smell of Kagome's blood hit him. “Why the fuck did they need so much blood?” he demanded as the door closed behind the girl.

 

Kagome smiled, but it was weak and thin. “Probably do to a blood workup to make sure I'm healthy and everything.”

 

He sighed. “I don't like this place,” he remarked. “It scares you.”

 

She stared at her hands folded in her lap and shrugged. “That can't be helped. I have to do this.”

 

He didn't answer. He'd spent far too much time with Kagome. He knew the smell of her fear. This was off the scale. `Stubborn wench. She never admits to being afraid.' Her anxiety made him wince inwardly. That sort of emotion had never sat well with him. He caught her chin with his index finger, lifting her face to stare at him. The worry in the depths of her gaze bothered him more than he could credit. Ears flattening, he shook his head, wishing that he could fight away her concerns as easily as he could fight the youkai who had come after the Shikon no Tama so many times before.

 

She tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. InuYasha uttered a soft little whine, bending down, slipping his arm around her as slowly, gently, he kissed her. It was the only thing he could think of to get her mind off of the doctor's office, off of everything that made her sad. Time skittered away, his lips dancing over hers, calming her, gentling her, tempering her fear as it shifted into something else.

 

Blatant throat clearing drew their attention. InuYasha stepped back just a little as the doctor stared at the chart in his hands. “Well, Miss Higurashi, it seems you were right. You're quite pregnant, according to the blood tests. Fourteen days, to be exact.”

 

Dr. Uematso came closer only to stop when he realized that InuYasha stood between him and the patient. Thinking twice about angering him again, the doctor altered his course and sank down at the small desk that protruded from the wall. “Why don't we take care of your baby's medical history, then? Father's race?”

 

InuYasha shot Kagome a questioning glance. She flinched and made a face. “Hany---”

 

“Japanese,” Kagome cut in, shooting InuYasha a meaningful look. He didn't argue though his expression darkened considerably. Since he didn't understand half of the terms the doctor threw at him, InuYasha remained silent, allowing Kagome to answer for him, instead. The little man finally put his pen away and closed the folder, he gestured nervously toward Kagome. “I need to examine her now, if that's okay?”

 

InuYasha glowered at the man a little longer before hesitantly stepping aside. Pulling up a stool and continuing to shoot InuYasha nervous glances, Dr. Uematso asked Kagome to lie back as he pulled some weird metal bars out of each of the sides of the table. A sense of foreboding washed over InuYasha as he saw the doctor carefully prop Kagome's feet into that metal slings just before snapping on some foul-smelling gloves. He was behaving himself remarkably well, all things considered, but when the little man started to put his hand someplace that, in InuYasha's opinion, it had no business being, the hanyou snarled and grabbed the doctor, shoving him back against the wall.

 

“What---the---fuck---do you think you're doing to my mate?” he ground out in a deadly quiet voice.

 

Dr. Uematso looked like he was ready to faint. Kagome struggled to sit up, her face bright red in her sheer embarrassment. “No, InuYasha! It's okay!”

 

“I was just trying to check her cervix,” the doctor gasped.

 

InuYasha didn't know exactly what that meant but he didn't like the sound of it, either. He shoved the doctor again. “Keep your hands off of . . . her.”

 

“InuYasha! Osuw---”

 

InuYasha let go of the doctor and stomped over to Kagome's side. “Don't even fucking say it!”

 

She glared back at him. “Then don't threaten the doctor and let him do his job!”

 

They glowered at each other for several long seconds. The wheezing doctor kept glancing back and forth between the two of them. Finally InuYasha gave in with a loud, “Keh!” before gesturing at the little man to continue the examination. The doctor stepped back to the table but only after Kagome forced a smile to assure him that she'd keep InuYasha from attacking again.

 

“This may be uncomfortable,” Dr. Uematso apologized as his hand disappeared under the paper gown again. InuYasha's fists clenched as he restrained himself but he couldn't help the small growl that escaped. Kagome flinched as the doctor checked her and still managed to reach over and slap InuYasha's gut. He glared at her for a moment before his eyes sought out the doctor of the wandering hands again.

 

`Damn it! Maybe this `doctor' person is Miroku's reincarnation . . . fucking lecher,' InuYasha fumed, balling his hands into tight fists as he struggled to keep himself from tearing the man limb from limb.

 

After a way-too-thorough examination---at least in InuYasha's opinion----Dr. Uematso snapped off his rubber gloves and deposited them into the trash can marked biohazard and took his time pulling on a fresh pair. He let Kagome's legs out of the slings and stepped around the opposite side of the table. “Everything seems fine down there,” the doctor said in a falsely bright tone. He gently pushed on Kagome's stomach. She didn't make a sound but InuYasha didn't miss her slight flinch, either.

 

“Watch out,” InuYasha grumbled. The doctor shot him a nervous glance as he tore the gown open over her stomach. InuYasha's eyes flared, casting Kagome what could only be described as an `I Told You So' look. “What the---?”

 

“I just need to take a few measurements . . . see if I can feel where the baby is,” Uematso declared, pressing gently on both sides of her belly.

 

She winced.

 

“Sorry about that.”

 

InuYasha snorted, jamming his arms together inside the billowing sleeves of the fire rat haori.

 

“Okay, everything seems fine,” he proclaimed, casting a nervous glance at InuYasha, as though he believed that whatever came next was likely to set the hanyou off all over again. He addressed his commentary to Kagome but continued to stare at InuYasha warily. “I must do a breast exam now, if that's all right?”

 

Kagome only nodded. The doctor ripped the paper gown covering her breasts and started feeling around as InuYasha flinched inwardly at her sharp gasp.

 

As though she knew what sort of mayhem InuYasha had in mind, Kagome's small hand slipped over his and squeezed. That was enough to keep him from ripping the doctor apart despite the slight growl that he couldn't quite contain.

 

Luckily, though, that was the last of the examination. InuYasha growled when the doctor offered his assistance to help Kagome sit up. The man bowed slightly, letting InuYasha help her, instead.

 

The rest of the visit was discussion, much to InuYasha's relilef. Dr. Uematso gave Kagome lists of good things to eat, things to watch out for, and things to avoid. InuYasha stood in front of her, blocking her ripped gown from the doctor's view. When the little man finally left, Kagome heaved a sigh of relief.

 

Careful to keep his back turned, InuYasha waited for Kagome to get dressed. When she finished, she touched his arm and stepped around to face him, her cheeks still pink, but her eyes sparkling, happy. “Thank you.”

 

He frowned. “What for?”

 

Leaning on his shoulder, she kissed his cheek and hugged him. “For coming with me.”

 

He blushed, slowly slipping his arms around her to hold her close. She didn't see it or the relieved little smile that broke over his features. “Keh.”

 

 

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A/N:

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Torrent): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~