Disclaimer: All characters pertaining to the show InuYasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I am not making any money from this...the only thing that I am getting out of this story is the satisfaction of knowing that other people enjoy my writing. All original characters are my creation and belong to me...as does the plot and storyline.

Chapter 30

Kagome woke up in the hospital. Sesshomaru was a sleep in the chair next to her bed, his hand grasping hers. She turned her head slightly and looked around. She could see Inu and Souta standing in the hallway outside the door.

She thought about it for a moment, but she couldn't remember how she had gotten to the hospital. The last thing she remembered was Naraku bearing down on her with a knife. It had hit her belly.

She jolted upright, grabbing her belly. Sesshomaru jumped up and embraced her. She began to sob uncontrollably, so hard that her entire body shook from the force. She began to hyperventilate.

"It's ok," Sesshomaru coaxed as he stroked her hair. "Everything is going to be fine."

"But our son..." she cried.

"Is fine."

She looked up at him, her face streaked with tears. "How?" she cried.

"He hit you too high. The knife punctured your stomach and intestines. It missed your womb completely." He felt her relax a little as he continued to smooth his hands over her hair. "Relax Koi. I'm not going anywhere."

"How long have I been here?"

"Almost two weeks," he said as he gently pushed her back into a reclining position.

"Where is Kirei?"

"She's with my parents in the lobby."

"I want to hold her."

"She'll be up in a little while. She was hungry, so they took her to get something to eat."

"You look like shit," she joked.

"I haven't left the room since you got here. I wanted to be here when you woke up."

She squeezed his hand weakly.

A nurse came in briefly and checked her vital signs and then left again. A doctor came in and pulled Sesshomaru out into the hall, leaving Kagome to ponder what they were discussing.

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"The doctor told me that you should be back to normal in a couple of months, but until then you won't be able to do a whole lot." He squeezed her hand. "Promise me that you will not fight me on this."

"I promise." She smiled softly at him. "I guess I am at your mercy until then."

"You don't know how worried I have been. I thought I'd lost you."

"I'm so sorry," she cried softly.

"I love you so much, Kagome," he said as he leaned over and kissed her softly, brushing the hair away from her tear-streaked face.

Her heart lurched suddenly. "Naraku?"

"Dead."

"Sesshomaru, there's something I need to tell you...about Kikyo."

"She didn't make it."

"I know. Sesshomaru, while we were alone, Kikyo opened up to me. She felt really bad about the way she had acted. She was really sorry for everything. She stood up to Naraku because of that. She died defending me. She was trying to protect me...to get me back to you." She began to shake as the memories came flooding back.

"Shh," he said as he kissed the top of her head. "Just rest now. You're safe; Kirei's safe; I'm right here and no one's going to hurt you, ever again."

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Chapter 31 – Epilogue

Kagome left the hospital the following week. She returned to her home in the mountains with Sesshomaru and Kirei, Souta and Nathan. True to her word, she didn't fight Sesshomaru on his pampering of her.

When spring rolled in and her belly was thoroughly swollen with child, InuYasha and his new wife came to live at the ranch. He had spent several months in Los Angeles and had met the love of his life waiting tables at a Japanese restaurant near Hollywood. Surprisingly, it did not take much to straighten him out. He was most loyal and stopped smoking and drinking; and several months after they had started dating, he asked her to marry him. By the end of their honeymoon, she was pregnant as well. After a near death experience in Los Angeles by a random shooting, Inu decided that he was sick and tired of city life and called up Kagome and Sesshomaru, who welcomed him and his new bride, who he introduced as Kanna, with open arms. As a wedding gift, Sesshomaru and Souta gave Inu and Kanna a small parcel of ranch land and the money to build themselves a new house, agreeing to let them stay in the main house until it was finished.

Miroku moved up to Heart Butte and opened up his own motorcycle repair shop. He decided that since everyone else had moved up there, he would as well. It was not long after he opened his doors that a woman on a fairly new Honda 'crotch-rocket' pushed her bike into his garage. Her back tire was going flat. When she took off her helmet, her ebony hair tumbled out. It was love at first sight when her chestnut eyes met Miroku's violet ones. He and Kagura hit it off well, and not too long afterwards, she moved in with him and began helping him with the mechanic work at his shop. Since he was the only motorcycle repair facility within two hundred miles, he stayed quite busy.

Kouga showed up at the ranch near the end of beginning. No one had seen or heard from him since the death of his mother several years prior. When he arrived unannounced, everyone was thoroughly shocked. Kagome, still swollen with child, sat on the porch while he unloaded his family from their SUV. After chatting with him for a few minutes while waiting for the guys to come in for lunch, she discovered that he had remained with his father after the death of his mother. His father had died several months later, after withering away from grief. Kouga, while settling the family's estates, had met Ayame – a red haired, green-eyed spitfire. After several months of dating, mostly at each other's throats, they separated only to find that they couldn't live without each other. By the end of their second year of marriage, they were blessed with a pair of twins – Shippo, who had red hair and green eyes like his mother, and Souten, who had black hair and icy blue eyes like her father.

Kagome never got to meet Kossori. He left the country shortly after he discovered that his so called 'loving wife' was pregnant with another man's child. He packed up all of his things, and hopped on a plane to Amsterdam, and resigned himself to never come back once he found out that drugs were legal over there. Several months after his arrival, he died from an overdose. No one was ever notified.

Near the middle of June, Kagome gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, whom they named Toshii. He was spitting image of his father with a full head of silver hair and beautiful golden eyes, and a really strong set of lungs, which he seemed to use quite frequently.

A year and a half later, they were blessed with another boy, Nishii. This time, the boy had his mother's eyes, and his dark silver hair was streaked through with sprinkles of black.

Kanna had given birth to a lovely little girl named Amaya. They decided not to have anymore after that.

Sitting alone on the front porch one evening watching the sun set as she waited for Sesshomaru to come in from the pastures, Kagome became lost in thought; so much so that she did not even notice as Sesshomaru slipped up beside her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. She smiled up at him. "I think we need to change the name of the ranch."

"To what?" he asked as he kissed her tenderly.

"I was thinking...it seems that several journeys have ended up here. I think that 'JOURNEY'S END' would be appropriate."

"Not bad. I will discuss it with Souta."

Several minutes of comfortable silence passed before Sesshomaru spoke again.

"What are you thinking, koi?"

"I was just thinking of my own journey and how it ended."

He hugged her tightly and kissed the back of her neck, "I am glad that my journey ended here...with you."

THE END

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