1The Family Man

Failure

Kagome sped down the country road, one foot on the gas and the other dangling out the driver's side window. Sesshmaru, who had been as conversational as a brick wall, finally spoke. "You should keep both your feet in the car. You look like an utter idiot to have one hanging out the window." He spoke slowly and cooly, as if correcting a child.

She merely snorted at him as she checked her rearview mirror. There was the trailer, still attached to her truck, and horses heads hanging out the side taking in the breeze. Good, the horses were still alive, which meant Jaken hadn't killed them yet.

Jaken was short, ugly, and his skin seemed to be tinged a slight green. It didn't help that he annoyed the heck out of Kagome. But he was uncharacteristically dedicated to his job.

Sesshomaru had won again, but it wasn't anything new to her. He was simply the best at showing horses and getting the blue ribbons, and it did help with the female judges that her husband was dead up sexy.

Kagome let her eyes wander to take him in. His silver hair flowed gracefully around him and golden eyes never left the road. He had let his demon markings show in her truck. Demons were a thing of the past that not many humans would accept. She had been stunned when they married to learn what he truly was. Not only was he a demon, but a dog demon, and it didn't stop there.

Her husband was lord of all the demons in Japan. She reached her small hand up and ran her finger along his magenta stripes on the side of his face. To her surprise he leaned in and let him caress his face.

We have our moment. We don't love each other, but we have our moments, Kagome thought. She had married without love, so she would make the most of every special time they had together. That was what she lived on, odd tidbits and sparks of passion from Sesshomaru.

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When they had first met they had taken an immediate dislike to each other. A couple years of marriage and miscarriages had taken the fight out of both of them and dulled it down to an understanding of each persons personal space.

He had been and still was the wealthy business man that ruled his company with his imposing glare.

She had been the young secretary coming from an abusive family and trying to support herself, mother, and brother. Her father would routinely hit and abuse her every night, and her bruises would tell the rest the next morning.

Sesshomaru immediately recognized what was happening to his young secretary. He tried to ignore it, but found himself asking her if she was in need of help. She had blushed and said no, the next day she came in with a black eye.

When the issue of who he would marry so he could hold the title as the demon lord of Japan, he had asked his petite black and blue bruised secretary to be his wife. He had an ache in his heart that told him to save Kagome and be her hero, and so he was.

And she wanted nothing more than to escape.

So they married and tried to put their differences aside, but they had made a mistake. They had married without love. And it had pulled and tugged at their heart string till they were left almost bitter.

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Kagome sighed, his love or whatever emotions he had for her seemed to dwindle in her eyes every time they tried to conceive a child. And failed.

Finally they were faced with the facts that Kagome couldn't have children. She had felt Sesshomaru loose interest in her when he learned that he couldn't have a child from his own mate, his own son or daughter to hold and love and teach. Adoption was out of the question for him.

Their marriage had failed. The only thing that helped Kagome and Sesshomaru interact with each other was training their horses together, and even then they interacted with a cold comradery.

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Kagome pulled herself out of memory lane. Stop thinking about what you cannot have, make the most of what you've been given.

Guardrails came into view and she noticed that a bridge was ahead. Kagome stared at the pristine lake around them on either side of the bridge. She slowed down to take a better view of the glory around her.

She could feel Sesshomaru's glare on her. Kagome knew he wanted to get home, back to his company and paperwork. I wonder if his company will always stay number one to him in his eyes. I don't even know if I'm number two in his eyes.

She stepped on the accelerator, pushing her old pickup to go faster. Kagome watched him out of the corner of her eye as he meticulously watched the speedometer rise and reached 70 m.p.h. His golden eyes swept the side of the old country road for the speed limit.

Sesshomaru let himself smirk when he saw that the speed limit for this road was only 35 m.p.h. His wife's behavior could be unpredictable at times.

Through her open window Kagome could hear Jaken's indignant squacks coming from the trailer. Sesshomaru had shoved him into the horse trailer before they had started on their journey home much to the relief of Kagome.

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"You should slow down," Sesshomaru said cooly, fully aware of the many car accidents she had caused because of her little speeding problem.

He grimaced as he remembered how he had almost lost his wife last January.

They had just left the bar. He was in his own BMW and she was following in her pickup. They had both had too much to drink and were driving way too fast on their way home. He took a curve too sharply and by happenstance looked in his rearview mirror to make sure she was still tailing him.

What he saw next made him suck in his breath.

He heard the screech of tires and saw her headlights swerve across the road.

Sesshomaru realized later that he had called out her name, Kagome's name. He watched, helpless, as she lost control of the steering wheel and head straight for a cluster of trees.

With another squeal of tires he stopped his BMW, unbuckled, and opened the car door with ungodly speed.

All of it seemed to happen in slow motion.

As the truck came closer and she swerved again. Golden eyes met deep chocolate brown eyes that were wide with terror and he screamed her name for a second time. In a last effort she jerked the steering wheel.

Sesshomaru thanked kami as the truck swerved away from the cluster of gnarled trees, but suddenly sucked in his breath as the truck started to flip.

His stomach did flips with the car as it rolled across the road. The truck stopped with a crash as it had collided with a fence on the side of the road. He started running. The damage looked bad; the truck was upside down, the cab of the truck was crushed from the weight, and the fence had shattered the windshield.

The truck balanced on top of a slope, but slowly started to slide down it. This is a nightmare, an absolute nightmare, he thought. But he was running and screaming and cursing kami as he tried to catch up with the truck as it slid down the hill.

He didn't love her. So why did he feel like his world was ending?