Disclaimer: again, do not own characters. Hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter 2
Kagome walked into the kitchen with the basket and grabbed the play pen her pa had built and put both Megan and Angelina in it. She went to the wood stove and put a pot of water on and put two bottles of milk in the water. Kagome then went upstairs and into the closet to get sleep necessities for her brother and his friend. She got the extra bedding out, made the beds and swept and tidied up the room. All the while silently thanking her father had made many bunk beds for all of his children.
She headed back downstairs to feed the babies and put them down for their nap. Kagome picked up one of the bottles out of the pan and handed it to Megan while picking up Angelina out of the play pen. They sat in the rocking chair in the corner after getting the other bottle. After suckling on the bottle for a few minutes and listening to Kagome hum, Angelina slowly started drifting off as they rocked back and forth. Megan was laying quietly sucking her thumb. As Angelina closed her eyes and went to sleep, InuYasha walked into the kitchen. He started to say something but she quickly put a finger up to her lips in a 'sh'ing manner. She slowly stood up with Angelina cradled in her arms, eased the bottle away from her, and put it on the counter. Kagome walked silently to her room and InuYasha followed. She set Angelina in her crib and made sure that she was okay and didn't have anything she could hurt herself with, Kagome turned around and almost ran directly into InuYasha. Her eyes got wide as his stared down at her.
"I'm so sorry sir," she said "I didn't see you there."
"It's fine Kagome, and please, call me InuYasha."
"Alright InuYasha. Is there anything that you need?" she said as she slipped past him to the kitchen.
"Miroku told me to come ask you to make us something to eat." he watched her move around the kitchen with acquired ease.
"Of course I can make something for you. Would you like some left over breakfast, or would you like me to make something else?" she asked as she pulled out a knife and a bucket from under the sink. She then set the potatoes up to be skinned.
"Whatever you would like beautiful." just as she picked up a spoon and two plates, Angelina started crying and Miroku walked in cursing and holding a bloody hand.
"Oh my gosh Miro! What the heck did you do?" She quickly put down the plates and got a large bowl out from the cupboard.
"Dad's old saw... I was trying to put up the horses tack and slipped, and grabbed something. Didn't realize what it was until I did and it was cutting in.."
"Fine.. Here, use this to stop the blood so I can go get the baby and the first aid kit." she said as she took off her apron and handed it to him in a wad. "Put pressure on it. InuYasha help him!" she said as she jogged up to her room to grab the baby and then pulled her sewing box out in the first aid kit. She went back to the kitchen and put Angelina in the playpen and quickly went and filled a half bottle with milk and put it in the pots and turned the stove on to heat.
"Play with this dolly Angelina while your bottle heats up." Kagome said as she placed her in the playpen and handed her a doll. She then grabbed the bowl and filled it with water and put it on the floor and also grabbed some clean room rags. She went and sat in front of Miroku, who was sitting in a chair. Kagome took his hand and put her apron aside, soaked a rag for a moment and then started to wipe away the blood.
"Okay... While the cut isn't that bad. You just went over some vary bloody cells I suppose.. I'll just stitch you up and then I'll wrap it and we can clean it again tonight and keep it disinfected. InuYasha will you hand me my sewing basket please?"
"Of course... Miroku, I'm sorry but how did you do something so stupid?"
"Well... I didn't know –"
"My father is been leaving his tools around quite often lately. I'm surprised that this is the only accident that is happened so far."
"Ahh I see..."
"Well I'm glad I have a sweet little nurse like you little sister." Miroku said as she finished stitching up his hand and wrapped it in gauze.
"Why thank you big brother, I'm glad I could help take care of you. Now would you boys care for some leftover breakfast? We had eggs, bacon, and hash browns. Maybe some coffee as well?"
"That sounds great little sister! Give us some big hearty helpings. We haven't had a home-cooked meal in a verylong time." Miroku said as he watched her stand up and go to get to plates from the table she set them on two forks from the drawer. She then went to the oven with the plates and started spooning out the food onto the dishes. "Dig in boys." she said as she walked back towards the stove to grab the baby's bottle and went to pick up Angelina.
Kagome than cradled the baby in her arms and put the bottle to her mouth and sat in a rocking chair.
"So, Kagome, you haven't told me where mom is. Is she helping at the inn, or at the mill with dad?"
"Miroku.. I.. She... I think you... Well.. She's gone..."
"What do you mean she's gone?"
"Well... Do you see Angelina here..? Well.. Mom was giving birth to her about a year ago and... Well something went wrong... After that she got a bad infection... We tried our best to get rid of it... But it just kept getting worse..."
"So is she in the hospital now? She's okay... Right?" Kagome just hung her head as tears started.. "Kagome! Which hospital is she in! Where's our mother?" Kagome hugged her little sister towards her and cried harder. InuYasha then decided to take action and went over to Kagome and picked her up and sat her on his lap in the rocking chair and stroked her hair comfortingly while rocking back and forth slightly.
"God Dammit Kagome! Where Is She?" Miroku said heatedly as his voice continued to raise.
"She's dead okay?! She's dead! She's been dead for a while. She's never coming home and you'll never see her face ever again! There. Are you happy now? We tried telling you. We sent dozens of letters. But every single one came back to us and we finally gave up! I dropped out of school and started taking care of the house and the kids. That's why Megan calls me mommy. Dad is always at work so we don't have the best family structure anymore. So if you don't like anything, don't you dare complain. I've been the one at home for this past year doing all the housework and taking care of everybody. You haven't. So if you don't like it, either deal with it, or just get over it." Her tears and anger had escalated during this rant of hers. InuYasha just pulled her closer and pulled her closer. He stroked her hair and put his other hand next to the baby to make sure she didn't fall. He kissed her for head while whispering things like "it's okay, everything will be all right, I'm here, and I'll be here for you."
Miroku abruptly stood up after hearing the end of her rant while InuYasha was holding her and walked up to his room without a word. Kagome soon stopped crying and just sat in his lap with Angelina. Enjoying the comfort and the feeling of not being alone for once she soon looked up and said "thank you.." InuYasha just looked at her with soft eyes and nodded. Kagome looked down and realized that Angelina had fallen asleep. "I guess I'll go put her down... Your breakfast should still be warm. I'm sorry for my behavior.. Well, I'm more sorry that you had to witness it... But.. Thank you."
InuYasha said "only for you." And helped her up off his lap. He then went the table and ate his breakfast. As he chewed his crunchy bacon and wonderful Hash Browns, he thought about what was said between the siblings and last argument.
'So Mirokus' mom is dead and Kagome's taken over that role.. She's a wonderful mother though... The way she took care of Miroku's hands and then the way she took Angelina from crying to sleep again... Roku doesn't like it.. You can tell. But shouldn't she be married by now? I mean she's 19! But I suppose her father's tryin' keep her until her siblings are older... I mean she's beautiful and kind.. And smart.. She probably has suitors... Probably ones from around here.." InuYasha started growling threateningly at that. 'Just thinking of her with another man makes me furious!' Through InuYasha's thought process Megan was staring at him curiously, and when he started to growl she got frightened and started crying. It wasn't until she started wailing that InuYasha snapped out of his internal thoughts and went to her. He gently picked her up and held her similar to how Kagome was holding Angelina when he first arrived.
"Hey, heyyy, you're all right. You're fine. Nobody's going to hurt you. Do you want to play with your dolly? Here let's go to your dolly." InuYasha grabbed the dolly out of the playpen and handed it to her and they sat down on the chair.
As the tears flowed, InuYasha began to bounce her, up-and-down, on his knee saying a small rhyme he learned from his father. He soon had Megan spurting out small bursts of giggles and saying "again! Again!" That was the site Kagome went back in to see. She smiled slightly at the site then continued to head to the abandoned potatoes and sat on the floor and start peeling. She listened as the giggles slowed to a stop and looked up when Megan called "mommy! Watch!" So Kagome lifted her head to watch Megan bounce up and down on InuYasha's leg. She then looked up at InuYasha's face and saw the joy and love shining in his eyes.. But also a hint of sadness.' I wonder what that could be about' she thought. "Again, again!" Kagome was startled as she realized looking straight back were those intense molten amber eyes of InuYasha's.
"Megan, how about you go play with the blocks Papa made you? Give our guest the chance to relax."
"But –"
"No ' butts' missy now shoo! Go play with your blocks." Megan thought for a minute and slumped her shoulders and jumped InuYasha's lap and ran to her toy box in the play room.
"I'm so sorry about that. She'll get excited about something and then make you do it for hours..." Kagome said while ducking her head back down to finish peeling the potatoes for the stew. She stood up and pulled out a cutting board and dice the potatoes for the stew. She then went to get the meat. She went into the cellar and pulled the meat out of the box that it is kept in deep in the ground. She turned around and started out of the cellar when she realized that he was watching her.
He chuckled at her and said "It's alright, she reminds me of my niece. She's always bubbly, and VERY hyper all of the time, wanting to do things again and again.. I guess you could say I've built up an immunity to it."
Kagome looked at him when she walked over to the table and giggled. "Well you might just be her new best friend then. She gets so bored here when I have to do things in the house and in the field.. She wants to go to school like her older siblings so she can play with the children."
"Well how about I help you with the things in the house and the field and then we can play with her together?"
Kagome blushed prettily at that and smiled a small smile while looking down at her work. "I'd like that.. and I'm sure she would love that."
"Would you like any help with dinner?"
"Well.. If you really want to help, could you shuck the corn that's in the basket for me? Or even better, you could take Miroku's food to him.. I know he's upset, but I'm sure that he'll be hungry from the long trip you two must have made.."
"I'll take him his food and talk to him for a minute and then come help you, okay?"
Kagome nodded her head a little bit. InuYasha picked up Miroku's plate and fork and started the way that Miroku left. He suddenly turned around quickly and kissed Kagome on the cheek saying he'll be back in a few minutes, then walked away. He could sniff Miroku out, so he didn't need directions as to what room he was in.
Kagome was startled that he would just kiss her like that. She put her hand to her cheek, and feeling her blush she looked down at her task at hand. 'Come on girl, get ahold of yourself.. Just because he's attractive and kind, and funny, and helpful and…. Oh foo-ey, I'll never get anything done thinking like this. Better get the meat butchered and start cooking it in the pan so I can make the gravy to go in the stew..' She grabbed the large chunk of beef and started carving the fat off of it on the table. She took the fat and put it on the table to be put in a bucket later on for cooking. She took her knife and cut the beef off of the bone, and into small bite sized chunks. She took the water in the pot on the stove and put it in a large pitcher for later, and then took the bone and put it at the bottom. She then poured some water over the bone so it was about 4 inches over the bone, and put it on the stove to boil. She then went in search of the frying pan to cook the meat in before putting it in the stew.
