A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back from my hiatus and with a new pen name! I'm afraid I'm a little rusty so please bear with me and I hope you enjoy this! Please let me know what you think because this idea has kept wiggling it's way into my brain until I just couldn't ignore it anymore.

Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Inuyasha, just my silly little story ideas. All credit goes to Rumiko Takahashi

Kagome took a breath of the cool evening air as she made her way to the well. A soft smile graced her lips as the sound of chirping birds and the scent of sakura blossoms surrounded her. This time of year was her favorite, as it reminded her of her family from the past. Standing in front of the well house, she opened the doors and stepped inside and breathed in the leftover scent of the insence that she had lit this morning.

It had been ten years since the first time she travelled through the well, setting her on a course that she would have never dreamed of before that point. It had been eight years ago when they finally took down Naraku and completed the Shikon No Tama. Kagome had made her wish for all the innocent beings that had been struck down by Naraku to be resurrected and brought back to full health.

Kneeling in front of the small shrine she had built in memory of her friends, she couldn't help but smile at the memory of Sango's and Shippo's faces as their loved ones held them with tears in their eyes. Lighting some more insence, she thought back to the bittersweet moment when Inuyasha and Kikyo were truly united once again. She had felt the pain of heartbreak and she remembered how it hadn't hurt as much as she thought it would, as she had accepted long before that moment that Kikyo would always hold Inuyasha's heart, despite her best efforts to woo him.

Her thoughts drifted to a certain wolf prince that had begun to take up space in her mind and heart around that time. She had cried the night when he released his claim on her shortly before the battle, remembering his parting words, "If you ever get tired of the mutt, come find me." . A pang of regret reverberated through her at the memory, she had been planning on accepting his offer to court her and she wanted to tell him after Naraku's defeat, but she had been pulled back through the well before she had ever gotten the chance.

She took a steadying breath as she lit her candle and poured herself a small cup of sake and toasted the picture that they had all taken together in celebration of their victory. She smiled at the photo, they were all battered, bruised and exhausted, but everyone was filled joy and hope, hell even Sesshomaru had given the tiniest hint of a smile. This ritual had been going on since the first year of her return to the future had passed, it had been a way to cope and to heal her broken heart.

She felt the familiar prickling of tears in her eyes as she recalled that first year, it had been painful and hard to cope with the sudden change. She had nearly broken bones quite a few times trying to get back and hadn't stopped until she finally managed to break her wrist while trying to catch herself. Her mother and brother had hoisted her out of the well before she broke down in her mother's arms on the way to the hospital. During her recovery, her mother had banned her from even going near the well and with little to no urge to do anything, she found herself confided to the house.

She remembered channel surfing one day and coming across a documentary about geneology research and she found herself curious and hopeful for the first time in what felt like forever. She had coerced her mother to drive her to the library and before she knew it she was surrounded in census records. The librarian had given her the oddest look when she asked for them until she had explained that she was doing a project for class.

She quickly realized however, that this was not going to be an easy task. It had taken her nearly a week and a half just to find Sango and Miroku's records and even longer to find Inuyasha's. She carefully and painstakingly recorded all of her findings, following Sango and Miroku's lineage first until the present day where she found herself pleasantly surprised when she discovered that one of her best friends Eri was one of their descendents.

With Inuyasha's lineage though, it had been a bit more shocking. To no one's surprise, he and Kikyo had married and she followed their descendents until she found a familiar name that had married into his family about 200 years ago. "Higurashi". She nearly spat out her drink at the discovery, which earned her a dissaproving look from the librarian. Needless to say she didn't dare bring anymore drinks in with her for a while. She followed the rest of his family to the present and found that Inuyasha really was her great grandfather many times over.

For the first time she was glad that she had given up on him. It was at that moment that she had truly felt at peace since returning to the present. From that day she allowed herself to begin healing and that first anniversary she set up her shrine, applied to medical school and now she was about to finish her first year as a resident. With that thought she looked at her watch, moving quickly to snuff out the candle and the insence.

She would have to be at work soon, the thought of having to working on her birthday bumming her out a bit but the sick and wounded don't wait for anyone and she was no exception. She hoped that since it was the middle of the week, the ER wouldn't be too busy, little did she know she would be getting the surprise of a lifetime.