Sleep

Disclaimer: Me no own.

Summary: AU. She wasn't dreaming. He was real. The sound of his voice, the feel of his skin, the warmth of his embrace…There could be no way he was gone now.

----------

Inuyasha collapsed beside his injured companion. "Kagome!" he called for her.

Blood poured from her stomach and scrapped legs, her face cringing in pain as she clutched her abdomen.

"Inuyasha, you need to take her to her time! That's the only way she'll get proper treatment!" Sango shouted as she and Miroku continued to battle the snake demon that had put Kagome in that position with his poisonous fangs.

"Can you hold off?" he asked, lifting Kagome into his arms. With an approving nod, he raced off toward the well that had always connected the present day and 500 years in the past.

Shooting down the blue hued well and landed feet first onto the dirt in the present, he ran to the place he knew as the "hos-pit-ul".

He was quickly given help as they saw blood dripping to the floor, and he now sat by her hospital bed, waiting her mother's arrival. He held his hand, his mind running through thoughts and memories of what they had done together.

It had been three years since he first met Kagome when she came through the well. They had been through so much together, and they both knew now they could never forget the other. Nor could they love anyone else.

Kagome imagined the picture of her lover beside her bed, holding her hand and gazing at her, just as he was. She could even hear the sound of her mother's voice when she came in, talking loudly to Kagome, even though she was asleep.

Her eyes fluttered open and she was met with her mother's concerned face.

"K-Kagome…?" she heard her mother stuttered. It was just like her to be worried, even though there was no need to be, especially when Inuyasha was with her.

Flicking her eyes over, expecting to see the silver haired man, instead, she saw only a doctor. Had he gone to the bathroom? Or gotten something to eat?

"…Where's Inuyasha?" she gasped out, and she suddenly felt as though she hadn't talked in years. Her whole body was sore and when she tried to move her arm, it wouldn't.

"Who? Honey, what are you talking about?" her mother asked.

"…Inuyasha, Mom. He was here, he brought me here, but…"

"Dear, were you dreaming?"

"N…No, Mom, Inuyasha's here, where is he? If this is some kind of joke, it's not funny!" she cried, her anger peaking.

"Kagome, you must have been dreaming…this is the first time you've been awake in years."

"I just got here today, Mom. It might have seemed long, but…" she scoffed, attempting to sit up, but her mother pushed her back down.

"…I…I wasn't exaggerating." The older woman glanced to the doctor, as though helpless with her child, looking like she was on the verge of tears, and then stared back at her daughter. "Kagome…you've been in a coma for the past three years."

Her eyes whitened. Suddenly, she cracked a smile, laughter spilling from her mouth. "Wow, Mom!! That's a good one! I love how you think you can trick me, but I just came here with Inuyasha because the demon got me with his poison and I could barely breathe…"

"Kagome! Enough of this talk! I don't know what you're talking about, but I've had enough! Listen to me! You're a coma patient and this is the first time you've woken in three years!!"

Her smile faded as she listened to her mother's angered, raised voice. She wasn't lying. "Mom…"

"I don't want you talking about some dream you've been having all this time you've been unconscious!!"

"How…?"

"You fell into the well trying to get Buyo and hit your head! You've been out ever since…"

She couldn't believe it. It was all too real for it not to have been: Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara, Kaede, Kikyo, everyone and everything she knew in the feudal era…gone. And Inuyasha…

Her arms dropped limply to her sides as she stared in the spot the doctor was standing with vacant eyes, begging them to show her the man she loved.

She silently breathed all of their names to herself and then spoke aloud. "Inuyasha…"

"Kagome…" she didn't look at her mother when she called. "…there is no Inuyasha. You were just dreaming."

Another smile. "Ha. You must all think I'm going insane. But I'm not. Inuyasha is real, and I love him. We love each other, Mom."

"No, you don't, please, listen to me Kagome…you can't love someone that isn't real…None of it was."

"I think I am going crazy," she thought, dazing off. She imagined the picture of her lover beside her hospital bed, holding her hand, and gazing at her, just as he wasn't.

----------