Chapter 11: "Rush"

"Well, as far as I can tell, the baby appears to be perfectly healthy." the doctor said while turning off the ultrasound screen and removing the latex gloves from his hands.

Kagome quickly wiped off the remains of the conductive gel and pulled down her shirt. The cold winter air that seemed to penetrate the room despite the working heating had sent an unpleasant shiver over her exposed skin. While the elderly doctor had already taken his seat behind the white desk, she quietly went over to Inuyasha and sat down next to him. Instantly, he took a hold of her hand, ever so gently, and shot her a reassuring smile. Even though they had been told that the child's growth and development were progressing just as expected, the young woman was not able to shake a certain feeling of insecurity. One that was surely understandable given the unfamiliar situation she was now confronted with. Inuyasha had to be experience the same emotions, she was fairly certain of that, yet he coped with them admirably. Even more than usually, he was composed, a pillar standing firmly in it's place, allowing her to receive the comfort and support she needed so desperately.

She gratefully returned the smile and shortly pressed his hand as she placed the other on top of her now largely swollen stomach..

"As you know, Miss Higurashi, this is the last scheduled examination before you are due to give birth. So if there are any pressing questions you would like me to answer, now would be the perfect time." the doctor offered, amiably.

Kagome hesitated. Only hours before, her mind had been filled with questions, doubts she would have loved to be resolved. But as it always happened, at that very moment, all of her conscious thoughts were replaced with a soft, cottony blanket, making impossible all directed thought.

It was then that the young man at her side spoke up.

"When the time for birth comes.. how will we know?" he inquired. After all, her health - and thus naturally that of their child - was his foremost concern.

The doctor smiled gently.

"Oh, don't worry. All first-time parents ask me that question; but when the time comes, you will know. While it is quite likely the best indication when the water breaks, the mother often knows in advance." Upon finishing the explanation, he noticed the doubtful - if not slightly frightened - expressions on their faces. So he quickly added, calmly: "Do not be afraid to contact me or any of my colleagues if you should feel that the time has come. False alarms are quite common and certainly nothing to be ashamed of."

Kagome smiled and nodded her head while the old man was already picking up the folder containing her medical information and reached for a pen.

"I believe that we haven't yet set down which method of birth you haven chosen?" he began.

Again Kagome nodded.

"We have been discussing this for a while now; and agree that we would like to have a traditional birth, as long as that's possible."

"Very well", the man answered, apparently quite pleased. "That is also what I usually like to advise. I believe it is important for the bonding between a mother and her child that as little outside influence as possible should take place. The most natural processes are usually the most advisable as well." he added.

He then handed the young couple some papers as well as a number of informational sheets.

"This is some additional information on hospital admission and also includes other useful tips for the final weeks of the pregnancy", he again smiled gently and continued as he was standing up: "and as I said, please, do not hesitate to contact me or any of my colleagues for any further questions you might have."

Inuyasha quickly stood up and aided Kagome in the same - yet for her much more straining - process. They then thanked the doctor, shaking hands, and said their short goodbyes. Now that all had been set and prepared, there was absolutely no need of spending additional time in the hospital; both Inuyasha and Kagome easily agreed.

***

Outside, snow was coming down in large flakes like a thick, white curtain blocking out almost all natural light but its own reflections. Again, Inuyasha had put his arm around his mate - for one to protect her from all those evils only he could see and also to allow her to share his own body warmth. And she gratefully accepted. The couple walked slowly; any movement now greatly tired the young woman so she tried to avoid unnecessary affairs. On that day, however, she had decided that it was time to buy the last Christmas presents - with the holy day drawing ever closer. The streets and shops were crowded, people pushing inside through the small openings to grasp that which they still needed for the holidays.

Inuyasha felt uncomfortable. Being in present-day Tokyo, he had always disliked large groups of people. Perhaps he felt that his secret could be exposed so much more easily; a strange sense of paranoia creating enemies where there most certainly were none. And the current situation only added to this undefined feeling of dread. Tightening his grip around Kagome ever so slightly, he alerted all his sense to avoid any physical contact between her and any stranger. Yes, it was paranoia that had taken over.

Kagome had noticed the tension building up in his body, the hardening of his muscles and gently ran her hand over his arm.

"Relax, Inuyasha", she quietly told him with a smile, "Everything is okay."

The hanyou glanced at her face and nodded. Still she could feel the tension inside of him. Nothing she could say would be able to change that. She smiled to herself. She had always known that this would happen; Inuyasha was a very protective person, it was in nature. That circumstance like those would only heighten this sense was to be expected. She continued to gently caress his arm as they walked on through the streets, stopping at several stores to pick up the last presents, small tokens of friendship and love to those who had become so close and dear to them.

After a couple of hours the hanyou was laden with several bags filled with all they had needed to purchase and the couple contently agreed to proceed to the last stop they had planned for that visit.

***

"Mom, I'm home!" Kagome shouted as she stepped through the front door, closely followed by Inuyasha. The hanyou quickly set down the bags, glad to be freed from them for a while.

When there was no answer to Kagome's announcement, she tried again and stepped toward the living room.

"Anybody home?" she inquired, "Mom? Souta? Grandpa?"

For a while, all was quiet again, until a soft rustling sounded from the outside and the front door opened. Through the opening stepped Kagome's mother, taking off a pair of thick, dirty gloves she had apparently used while working around the garden.

"Kagome, Inuyasha!" she said joyfully, coming toward the pair with a smile. "I didn't know you were coming by today."

Mother and daughter shared a warm embrace while the young man stood watching them contently.

"My, it's about time, isn't it?" the older woman remarked playfully, leaning back to have a good view of her offspring's new form.

"Yes", Kagome replied and placed a hand on her swollen stomach, "just a couple more weeks now."

Chatting on, the group went into the living room where Mrs. Higurashi quickly supplied snacks and drinks for the tired young couple. For hours, the two women exchanged small stories and anecdotes while InuYasha just sat at his mate's side, gently holding her in a protective grasp with his arm around her waist and the fingers of his other hand entwined in hers.

"So have you two thought of any names yet?" Kagome's mother asked curiously. She knew well that they had been having trouble coming to a consent, but with just a few weeks left until the child was to be born, a choice would have to be made quite soon.

Kagome sighed.

"Well...", she started as she quickly looked to InuYasha, "we've been talking about it for a while now, but we just can't decide."

Mrs. Higurashi chuckled softly and placed a hand over her daughter's.

"Don't worry. It was the same for your father and I when we were expecting you. It's always the most difficult with the first born - you feel like so much weight rests on your shoulders; that you could make and break the child with the choice you're about to make."

The younger one nodded in agreement; she was grateful that somebody understood her feelings, her problems. For as much as InuYasha was trying to comfort her, the worlds they had grown up in were too different from each other to allow him to understand the finer - and sometimes uglier - goings-on of the modern world.

"Don't worry, honey", her mother began, "just think about what you are to each other, what you DO for each other; and also what you want to do for the child, what it can do for you. Just don't worry and the answer will come to you."

Kagome smiled, whispering a soft "Thank you" while embracing her mother thankfully. She had been right. For in that moment, an idea - still vague and obscure - began to form in her mind and would soon provide her with the answer she had been longing for.

***

A severe shiver went through the small of Sango's body. It had been snowing for days on end, and the darkened, muddled skies showed no promise of an improvement of those circumstances. Consequently, the little hut they had come to inhabit offered only limited shelter: icy drafts were coming in through small cracks in the wooden structure and every time it seemed like the problem had been solved by patching up the spot that had caused the trouble, another one appeared.

Once Inuyasha returned from his visit to modern Tokyo, she would have him and Miroku work on a more permanent solution. Those were, after all, hardly the conditions one would subject a young mother and her newborn child to. And not a demon slayer, either, she added with another shudder.

In front of her, a small fire was flickering persistently, seemingly not all that impressed by the rough conditions. Albeit being a small one, it would surely suffice for preparing their dinner once the monk returned with it. In consideration of the harsh weather, he had offered to take that responsibility and make the trip into the village himself. Fresh goods were hard to come by during the winter, but certainly he would manage, she smirked, remembering all those times he had made small fortunes on the backs of non-existent demons and curses.

She coaxed herself a little closer to the flames, yet even the welcome warmth radiating onto her hands and face could do little against the prickling drafts that made her body shudder involuntarily every once in a while.

Tiredly, her gaze wandered around the small space until something caught her eye. Something of a dark blue hue. Something soft.

Something extremely warm-looking…

Sango's stiff fingers reached for the fabric and pulled it towards her, eventually placing it around her shoulders with a little effort. Instantly, the stinging sensations in her back stopped and the world started to feel so much warmer and more welcoming.

Sitting there, draped in Miroku's blanket, she closed her eyes contently. It was the same blanket he had so casually thrown around her shoulders only days ago, subjecting himself to the abysmal temperatures just to keep her comfortable. A gesture that said so much more than met the eye.

Her head resting lazily on her shoulder, she inhaled deeply. It even still smelt like him, she realized with a tiny smile. That sweet amalgam of pleasant musk and traces of burnt incense she had come to recognize as his. It was something that was able to calm her instantly, to make her feel at ease no matter what the situation. Of course the scent was so much more potent when coming from him directly, accompanied by his gentle smile. A tint of rose rising to her cheeks, she had to admit that - at that very moment - she could not imagine anything more wonderful than to sit there with him, and bask in his own warmth. The demon slayer was so caught up in her thoughts that she did not hear the pairs of footsteps approaching and quietly entering the hut.

"I'm sorry; are we interrupting anything?" Kagome asked lowly with a slight mirk, watching the other woman snuggle with the monk's blanket.

If such a thing were possible, Sango would have jumped straight out of her skin in surprise, shock and, yes, embarrassment. What had been just a rosy tint moments before instantly turned into a vigorous crimson that drove all remnants of coldness out of her body.

"This… It… It was cold…" she finally managed to stammer, earning herself a snicker from the hanyou who was just now entering the hut behind his mate.

However, something seemed off about the young man, and her confusion immediately pushed the memory of the embarrassment to the back of her mind.

"What's with all those colored boxes?" she asked, looking back and forth between Kagome and the mountains of gift-wrapped boxes Inuyasha somehow managed to hold in his arms.

"Don't you remember? It's Christmas!"

***

And they had indeed celebrated. Gifts had been exchanged and they had enjoyed a small feasts made up of the goods Miroku had purchased in the village and a few unusual delicacies Kagome had brought from her time, insisting they were part of the holiday tradition. Now all of the presents were unwrapped, the crumpled paper - more or less - neatly stacked in a corner and the residents of the hut drifting off into a content sleep, owing to the warmth of the fire and each other's company - even though Sango stole a few glances at the monk's blanket, while it remained unclear whether she longed to use it again or was afraid that her own scent had become caught in the fabric for him to notice.

While those two, however, were seemingly fast asleep after only a few minutes, the hanyou remained largely awake, as usual, with Kagome resting at his side. She could have passed for being asleep easily, had it not been for the steady motion of her hand running around her swollen belly in firm circles. Every once in a while, Inuyasha, who was registering her every move, thought to notice the pressure of her massage to be increasing, but he managed to push his worries aside.

'Paranoia', as Kagome had told him, 'you're seeing things where there isn't anything.'

And for a quite a while, the self deception worked rather well. His eyes were closed to the flicker of the flames and his ears graced with the lullabies of the winds.

It did work rather well -- until a small whimper rang up from his life side and his gaze immediately shot to the woman resting against him. She had opened her eyes, her forehead wrinkled in a frown and now had both of her hands running across her stomach rhythmically.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha whispered concernedly.

Kagome looked up at him with an apologetic smile and shook her head.

"No, I'm fine, don't worry", she answered, in a tone of voice that so easily managed to calm him down, "I'm sure it's nothing."

Inuyasha nodded, though not quite convinced. Carefully, he shifted his body ever so slightly to allow her to rest more of her own weight against his sturdy frame and finally placed one hand over hers.

She continued her motions, a little lazier now than before, and again closed her eyes.

"I think Miroku and Sango really liked their gifts," she murmured after a moment of silence.

"Mhh," sounded the low grumble from the hanyou's throat, "they seemed pretty excited."

A chuckle. "Yeah."

And silence, albeit a comfortable one. Yet only minutes later broken by another whimper from Kagome.

"I'm fine, really," she anticipated his question and gave him a soft, even if slightly pained. smile.

"If you're really sure…" his voice trailed off.

And again, silence, one not quite as comfortable as before. And again, a few minutes later, Kagome's pained whimper rang to his ears.

He would not take her defensive answer again, he thought and determinedly bent over her.

"Kagome, I really-"

His sentences was cut short when the young woman raised her voice.

"Inuyasha, I think you should get Kaede. Now."

a/n: Umm… Yes, I am quite aware of how long it has taken me to post this. Actually, I've had half of this chapter on my hard drive for months now, but never really found a quiet moment to get around to finishing it - and I simply did not want to leave you with another 1.000 word chapter again! I am terribly, terribly sorry for the ridiculously long wait - but I now have a full time position as an English teacher at a secondary school for the advanced learners (grades 11-13 as well as adult education) and it is eating up my time and energy in ways I never thought possible.

Anyway, I hope you can forgive me and find at least a little bit of enjoyment in this - as you can see, it is getting very close to the finish line. And also, you might find a couple of syntactic and orthographic errors, but please don't hold me to accuracy. I have not yet proofread, and wrote the second half of this chapter in one session.

Tying in with that, thanks to the individual reviewers will go out with the next chapter, but of course I really appreciate all your input and feedback. It brightens my darker days, so please keep them coming!

Enjoy!