A/n First of all, I want to say thank you for all the well wishes and condolences y'all sent me. It really made me feel much better.

With that said, I really must confess something…I'm having a hard time writing this story. Gah! I didn't think it would be a problem because I had been able to write about Sano and Megumi in my other stories with no problem. But for some reason it's very hard to keep them in character in this story. I know it's AU and their character must shift a bit, bit still. I'm pretty sure many of you could care less if there were in perfect character or not, so I'm not going to stress about it :)

Oh! I gotta say this. I saw Transformers yesterday (I'm old enough to remember the cartoon) and Bumblebee is MINE! Mwhahahaha all mine. .:runs off and hides adorable yellow car:.

Ahem, okay enough, I know y'all want to read the story. Sano has flashbacks, so don't get confused.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin or the work of Feehan

I give this chapter a PG rating.

Chapter 2

"I think she looks like Tomoe." Sanosuke stated. Both he and Kenshin watched eleven-month-old Itsuko toddle around on unsteady, chubby legs.

Kenshin shook his head, large purple eyes glued to his niece. "No, she looks like Hiko." He sat back in his chair and turned his gaze to his best friend. "I raised Tomoe remember, I know what she looked like as an infant. And Itsuko looks little like her. No, the child looks like the Prince, that she does."

"Well I hope she takes on your sister's demeanor, not Hiko's" Sanosuke flashed a toothy grin as the child clutched at his knees.

What was this? A dream? Sanosuke remembered that day as if it were yesterday, and yet it was years ago. Why was he having flashbacks? The Carpathian tried to scan the area around him. But found it very hard to concentrate. Where was he? He could feel himself laying on a hard surface. But that was as far as his scanning got before he felt that strange heaviness again and slipped back into darkness and dreams.
Sanosuke sat at his favorite restaurant. Outside the Akabeko, snow drifted down in big, fluffy flakes. His brown eyes scanned the nearly empty building. The waitresses chatted in merry, but hushed tones. As if they didn't want to disturb the beautiful silence the snow brought.

He felt rather than saw Kenshin as the red-head ducked inside the building and shook off the snow like any other human would. Sanosuke greeted Kenshin with a smile, but it faded instantly at the dark, almost deadly look in Kenshin's cold lavender eyes.

'What's the matter, my friend?' Sano asked, using the Carpathian form of speech. He felt turmoil and self loathing boiling inside Kenshin.

'It's Kaoru.' Kenshin grunted out, as if her name brought him pain. Kenshin looked up at his friend and instantly the anger gave way to such sadness. Sanosuke felt a jolt of fear.

'What has happened?'

'She had a miscarriage.' Kenshin let his head fall into his hands.

'My God' Sanosuke shouldn't have been so shocked. Majority of female Carpathians had miscarriages. In fact, more often than not, a pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, rather than a birth. But Sanosuke and most likely the other males held on to the hope that because Kaoru was born a human, she would most likely get pregnant easer and stay pregnant to give birth to a healthy baby. All had seemed alright, Kaoru became pregnant only a year after being a Carpathian. It was such a positive sign. But now this.

Kaoru was to have the Carpathian cursed after all. Just like the other females. It just didn't seem fair. Not to her, nor the race.

'Is she allright?' Sanosuke finally asked once the shock faded.

Kenshin nodded quickly removing a tear from his face before lifting his head. 'I never thought I would ever hear my lifemate scream in such a way. To wake up and feel the life within you has died.' Kenshin looked as if he would be sick

'Hey man, you don't have to talk about it.' Sanosuke poured some hot tea in his cup and slid it over to his friend. Even though they didn't eat or drink, he thought the warmth of it would somehow comfort his stricken friend.

Kenshin took the small cup, wrapping his delicate hands around the heat. "Thanks Sano." He gazed into the tea. 'Kaoru will be all right eventually. Aoshi helped me to heal Kaoru, and remove our child from her.' Kenshin closed his eyes. 'I put her to ground; I plan on leaving her there for a week maybe. I want her to be healed, mind and body.'

Could Kenshin stand living a week without being near Kaoru? Sanosuke didn't think so, and yet, he was sure any male would do whatever it took to make sure their female was happy and healthy. And if that meant separation for such a time. It would be well worth the discomfort.

Sanosuke felt himself on something hard and cold again. But now there was pain, such pain. He flinched mentally, turning in on himself and away from the pain. What was causing this? It felt like his whole body stung, burned as if he were on fire. Why couldn't he get away from it? But then the now familiar heaviness pulled him down, deeper into the darkness of his black mind where he gladly retreated from the cold and the pain, and back into memories of his friends.

"How come she calls me Uncle Sano?" Sanosuke asked, turning his eyes to Kenshin. The shorter male wore a deep blue gi and had his blood-red hair tied almost at the top of his head. The look brought Sanosuke back when Samurai wandered the country. Back when Kenshin was considered by humans to be one of the best Samurai around. For Sanosuke, colors had started to fade, much later than most males, but like them all, he saw only in black, white and every shade of grey in-between. Only when a lifemate was found would he see color again. But he had long memorized the certain shades of gray that Kenshin wore and knew what colors they really were.

Yards away, Yahiko, a strapping young man of fourteen practice his swordsmanship. Kaoru kept a diligent eye on her charge, likewise Kenshin kept his eyes on her.

"I beg your pardon?" Kenshin glanced over at him for a brief moment.

"Itsuko." Sanosuke nodded in the direction of a small sandbox bathed in the soft glow of artificial light. A two and a half year old giggled in the sand, her mother, Tomoe, silently sat beside her. Hiko, her lifemate, and Prince of their people stood midway between his family and the flat bit of ground that Yahiko and Kaoru spared in. He called out suggestions to the boy now and then.

"Well," Kenshin started, "She calls me Uncle."

"Yes, but you are her uncle." Sanosuke pointed out. "She calls Aoshi, plan ol' Aoshi…and Saitou, Saitou….but she calls me Uncle Sano."

"I thought you would be honored that she wishes to include you into her family, even though you are not related to us. I would be happy to be called uncle, that I would." Kenshin let his confusion show in his eyes.

"It's like she knows." Sanosuke whispered. "At nearly three years old, she already knows." The tall man shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Knows what? Sano what in the world are you talking about?"

"She already knows that I'm not her lifemate." Sanosuke grumbled.

Kenshin jerked his head around. "Sano! She's a toddler!"

"Yes but you raised both Tomoe and I when we were but babes. You should know just how different we are to human babies. We're born with so much knowledge, just the inability to express it. Don't tell me you never looked at Itsuko and not seen the awareness in her eyes." Both males turned their gaze to the toddler, who continued playing for a moment before looking up at them and waving.

"Sano, we can never really know just how much a Carpathian child knows, instinctively. But I don't want you to lose hope. She may not be your lifemate, but there is one out there, that there is."

Sanosuke knew it was a bad idea to put all his eggs in one basket, the terrible let down and feeling of hopelessness is often what causes a Carpathian to turn vampire in the first place. Yet Sanosuke had faith in himself; besides, he had already come to terms that Itsuko wasn't going to become his lifemate.

… . .

Megumi knew that today was going to be a bad day. She couldn't pinpoint the exact problem, but she had a feeling, she just knew that something was going to happen that she wasn't going to like at all. It was so strong; she almost didn't get out of bed that morning. And yet she dragged herself out of bed, showered and threw on her favorite pair of aqua scrubs. Her hair was braided and wrapped in a tight bun secured with two black hair sticks.

The trip to work was uneventful, which only made the woman more anxious. That must mean that something bad was going to happen at work. What in the world could it be? Her visions and feelings were never this foggy. Megumi frowned slightly as she climbed out of her car. Perhaps she was overworking herself. Staying at work all day and sometimes most of the night couldn't be good for her. But she was too close to stop her research now. Now that she knew such evil creatures existed and knew of all the horrible things they could and will do. It was her duty as a doctor to find a way to help protect people. Plus Takeda was working her hard, pushing her to finish perfecting her tranquilizer.

Megumi paused just outside the doors and looked up at the building. It was drab, inconspicuous; a cookie cutter business building that looked like a dozen others in the area. It was large; three stories jutted up uninvitingly. Three more levels dove deep under the building and into the ground. It was far larger than any simple office building needed to be. But it was no office building. It was HQ…headquarters.

The Organization had been around for hundreds of years, fighting the evil that stalked humanity. They called is simply the Organization, the less attention it brought to itself the better. The last thing any of them wanted was to have some vampire pet overhear one of them talking about their secret vampire hunting group. Even though word about them was around, the word organization could mean anything. Megumi never believed such a people or group existed, but now…now she was working with them, helping to protect the world. The poison she was developing could mean winning this war, or having it carry on for another five hundred years.

Megumi approached the front double doors and watched as two security cameras turned and focused in on her. A small intercom box by the door crackled before a soft female voice came through.

"Good morning Dr. Takani. You're a little late today."

Megumi pressed her red lips together. She never saw whoever it was that spoke over the intercom every morning, but she sure hated the woman sometimes. "Yes, I worked late last night." The doctor tried not to snap at the little box.

"Yes." Said the box again, her voice irritatingly calm. "And we do have to cut back on overtime hours."

Megumi pressed her lips even tighter and glared at the ground. When the voice realized Megumi wasn't going to answer back, the door buzzed and a there was a loud sound of a lock disengaging. Megumi pulled the door open and was greeted with a blast of sterilized cold air. The woman had to struggle to pull the heavy door shut behind her. With a sigh, Megumi turned and stalked past the ugly rug and generic waiting chairs to a door set on the right. Inside were rows upon rows of high school style lockers. All painted white.

There was no need for locks on these lockers, everywhere you went, you always heard the high-pitched whirling of a camera focusing on you. There was hardly a place within the building that you were not being watched. Megumi found her locker and popped it open. She kicked off her simple sandals and exchanged them for pure white sneakers. Her small purse went into the locker and she pulled out her white lab coat and slammed the locker shut. Megumi then headed for the back of the room where a large steel door stood. She pulled a blue lanyard from her lab coat pocket and swiped the ID card that dangled from it. The little card reader by the door blinked two red lights before turning green, allowing her to step through the door.

Behind the door was a completely different world.

People scurried about. Some were in a hurry, some chatted with their co-workers as they slowly meandered to where they needed to be. Most wore white lab coats and like Megumi, working diligently to help find a weakness in the evil that they were fighting.

The ground floor was pretty much the common floor. It was where the lockers were kept, and where workers took their lunch breaks. The floors above were mostly for records. The Third floor was the battle room where a small army often gathered to discuss tactics. The first ground floor was where most of the labs where. Here scientific experiments and research went on almost day and night. Any being caught that was suspected of being a vampire was held in this first floor.

Megumi bypasses the crowds at the only two elevators and headed to the stairs. It was faster than waiting in line and being crammed into a box. Never in her life had they brought someone that turned out to be a vampire. Only a troubled teen or equally troubled adult. Megumi didn't know the Organizations' methods of interrogation, and she had a disturbing feeling that she didn't want to know. The second underground floor was where she worked, it was mostly made of individual rooms for experiments and observation on her subject. Megumi had her own lab on the second floor. Her work was so important and so delicate that it would have been a disaster to try and cram into a tiny lab with the rest.

The third floor was a floor that Megumi avoided at all cost. It was where the monster was kept. Megumi shuddered as she briskly made her was down the stairs. If ever there was proof of evil in the world, it was in the third floor. How could something so vile be made other than by the hands of the undead. Megumi was always willing to expand her knowledge, but she wouldn't study that thing. She didn't even like to look at it. She felt sick every time she had to go down there. Her stomach cramped, her heart pounded, and she broke into a cold sweat. She could almost feel the evil pouring off that being like heat waves.

No, she was glad to be working on the vampire rather than that thing.

Megumi felt a hand wrap around her elbow and she spun around to find the blue-green eyes of her co-worker. Dai Hisao, a fellow doctor turned scientist.

"Hey Megumi Baby!" He flashed a goofy smile as he fell in step next to her.

"Hisao, please stop calling me baby, it's not professional." Megumi said flatly as they continued down the steps. She would have been more forceful with him, but it was the hundredth time she told him. Hisao didn't listen then, and she was sure he wasn't going to listen now. Whatever, it didn't matter that much to her. He was harmless. A mop of sandy hair and soft eyes made him hard to be upset with. Plus he gave Megumi something she'd always lacked…attention. Having lost her family at a young age and being shoved from one foster home to another, Megumi had learned to appreciate the time someone was willing to give her.

"It's about time you showed up. I didn't think you were going to come to work today." Hisao continued, shaking his head. "Being late for work, that's not very professional of you, Megumi Baby." He grinned.

Megumi would have snapped his head off, but she couldn't fight his smile. Instead, she pressed her lips together, sighed, and with a flick of her head, ignored his comment. "For your information, I was late because I was here until two in the morning."

"You work too hard Baby. Hey why don't you and I head over to that little restaurant down the road when we get off work?" He grabbed for her elbow again.

Megumi side stepped his hand. "I don't think so Hisao." She kept her eyes on the door a few steps away.

"Aww," Hisao's voice held a slight whine. "I always ask you, when are you gonna cave?"

Megumi turned the door knob, opening it partly. Hisao worked on the third floor, here, they would part. "I always ask you not to call me baby, when are you going to cave?" With that, she slipped passed the door and let it close behind her.

… . .

He had spiky brown hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. He was tall, lean, but with muscle definition. Though he was pale as death, strapped to a table and unconscious 100 of the time, Megumi always caught her breath when she stepped into the room.

She called him Wicked.

Officially, he was called "Subject Number 548" but Megumi found it hard to call this person by a number. She never called any of her patients by numbers. And while this…thing…was said to be a vampire, and in that case, dead…he wasn't really a person. But alive, or not, human or not…she had to have a name for him. She was told that when Wicked was brought in, he was wearing a black jacket with a white "wicked" symbol on the back. He looked dignified, even strapped to the table, naked, with all but a paper sheet over him. His face held a look of old worldliness. It was impossible to tell his real age, even though he looked to be around nineteen or twenty years old. Her colleges figured he must have been changed at a young age.

Megumi slowly walked over to the side of the table in the center of the blindingly white room and looked down at him. "How are we doing today, Wicked?" One arm was strapped down on the table, slightly away from his body. She checked it to see how the several tubes and IVs were holding up. Turning, she looked at the machine he was hooked up to. Every fifteen minutes Wicked received a dose of her powerful mix of tranquilizers. A shot of the mixture would send a human to sleep for at least two and half days. Wicked's metabolism was so fast it takes only twenty minutes for his body to break down the tranquilizers. From the moment he was brought here, he had been on a constant drip of the stuff.

Plus half of his blood was removed every few weeks to further weaken him and shrink the amount of the tranquilizers needed to keep him out. He took only one or two breaths a minute, and his heart beat hovered around eight to ten beats a minute.

By all means he should be dead.

Megumi looked down at his disturbingly handsome face before giving her attention to the charts on her clip board.

She had been a little skeptical about Wicked being an honest-to-god vampire. But no human could survive the experiments they had subjected him to. Megumi felt the familiar twinge in her stomach. For some strange reason, she felt sick every time she had to remove hunks of skin for tests. She had performed, or watched horrible experiments to study the vampire. Wicked had been burned, skinned, cut and exposed to a small amount of sunlight. They wanted to remove his fangs. Megumi for some reason balked at that idea, saying there were only slightly larger than the average human canines. There was nothing different about them other than the slight length. They didn't argue with her.

Megumi pulled over a stool on wheels and she perched lightly on the thick cushion; her large eyes moving back to the being on the table. She was a doctor. It seemed backwards to be inflicting injuries. And yet, not a mark was left on him. No scar, discolored skin, not a single bit of evidence was left to show the horrible things they had done.

… . .

The monitor beeped slowly, keeping track of Wickeds' agonizingly slow heart rate. Megumi sat ram-rode straight on the stool in front of a computer screen. Her delicate fingers danced over the keys. It was the only other sound in the otherwise, silent room. Megumi paused, her head coming up from her work. 'Wonderful.' She thought with exasperation. A moment later there came a knock on the lab door. 'yep' Megumi said to herself. 'I knew today was going to be a bad day.' The doctor had just enough time to spin around when the door opened and a small sliver of a man with thick glasses and a suit stepped in.

"Mr. Jouta" Megumi plastered on what she hoped was a convincing smile. "What can I do for you?"

The little man poked at his glasses, which were beginning to slip down his nose. "I have news from Mr. Takeda." His voice was slightly nasal.

Megumi blinked and tried to act a bit indifferent. Takeda rarely sent Jouta to give news… unless… "What is it?" Megumi felt her face flush with dread. She knew today was going to be a bad day.

"Mr. Takeda thinks that you've made leaps and bounds with your work developing a vampire neurotoxin. He believes that it will make a considerable difference in the war against these monsters." He nodded his balding head in Wicked's direction. "However, Mr. Takeda feels that you've gone as far as you can go with the neurotoxin. He wants to dispose of the vampire."

Megumi gasped softly. "Dispose of him! No, no there is still so much more we can learn from him." She glanced over at his prone body. "He is capable to fighting off even the most harmful diseases and his healing powers are off the charts!"

"Doctor." Jouta crossed his arms.

Megumi ignored him. "If we could somehow harness this power, find out what chromosome, what part of him that is responsible for such feats. Why it could change the medical world!"

"Dr. Takani! If you are finished?!" the red splotches on his face ran together in his anger. "Mr. Takeda isn't funding you to drive out every secret of life from this thing. He wanted you to just come up with a simple way to kill them, which you have done so. There is no further use of it and it is costing Mr. Takeda to keep him here under constant surveillance and constantly tranquilized. The vampire is to be put in the incinerator within the hour."

For an instant Megumi felt heart wrenching fear and it confused her. She had done her job, why was she feeling the need to protest? She knew it was impractical to keep a living vampire around, but she couldn't help but cringe at the idea of setting him on fire.

"It's just seems like such a waste. We can learn so much from Wick-I mean Subject 548."

"This is not what this organization is about Dr. Takani. Our purpose is to destroy these evil beings." Jouta said though clenched teeth. "Mr. Takeda also feels that you've done your job well." He continued in a calmer voice, his shoulders relaxing. "He feels that expertise such as yours should not be wasted locked up in a lab, when you so obviously connect with living subjects so much better."

Megumi froze, her hands were clenched so tightly her nails starting to dig into her palms. "What are you saying Mr Jouta?"

"You're work is no longer needed here Doctor." He poked at his glasses again, giving her a soft yet cruel smile.

"You're fired."

… . .

"What the Hell do you mean, I'm fired?!" Megumi's outburst surprised not only Mr Jouta, but herself as well. Had she really becomes so passionate about this work? But Megumi felt such rage, it was new to her. She was never one to be angry; she was always quiet and accepting. But she worked all her life for a chance like this. There was no way Megumi was going to take it quietly and clean off her desk.

"Today will be your last day." Mr. Jouta mumbled, suddenly uncomfortable with the way the situation had turned. He had expected the woman to burst into tears and walk out of the place, weeping softly. That or take it with quiet dignity. He didn't expect the woman doctor to turn into a hellcat.

"This is bullshit!" She screeched at Jouta as he turned to leave the lab room. Megumi followed him. "Do you have any idea how hard and how much time I've put into this work?"

"Yes, and Takeda is grateful for your loyalty." Jouta said over his shoulder as he tried to scurry around the crowd of stunned workers that froze on the spot, caught between the quarrel.

Megumi felt anger burn in her veins. She was so mad she felt like spitting and hitting something. "You tell Takeda that if he wants loyalty from us, he should show more loyalty to us!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before storming back into the lab, ignoring the calls of agreement from her coworkers. She slammed heavy lab door so hard that the security camera mounted in the corner rattled and popped free from its mount and hung at an awkward angle.

The woman stomped around the lab, pacing back and forth between her lab table and Wicked's bed. First they take her tranquilizer formula and turned it into some kind of deadly vampire poison. And now that they have it…they fire her?! "Ooh that is not right!" Megumi stomped her foot in frustration. No one had any idea how dangerous a poison like that could be. If a human got shot with a dart, they would be dead before they realized they got hit with something. It was something that had to be handled with the greatest of care. Now they were going to hand it out to those goons they called solders. 'those trigger happy idiots will shot anything that looks like a vampire.' Megumi thought to herself as she bit at her lower lip.

Shooting first and asking questions later was a sure way to end up with a lot of dead humans and no explanation

Realization hit Megumi like a blow to the stomach. She plopped down on her stool, eyes gazing off at nothing, anger draining out of her. A weapon like this in the wrong hands would be devastating. And as much as she trusted the people at the organization, she didn't think many of them were responsible enough for this sort of power.

People were going to die. And it was all her fault.

Megumi fought the tears that welled up in her eyes. No, she was stronger than this. Wasn't she? She quit the job she loved at the hospital to join forces in fighting a supernatural evil. She had created a neurotoxin in a fraction of the time it took the dozens of scientists to even come up with a vampire sedative. She had single handily turned the war around; gave the vampires a run for their money.

And they fired her.

Worst of all, they were going to kill Wicked. Megumi turned to the vampire in the bed, tears spilling from her large eyes. She didn't want to admit it…but she had grown attached to the evil being. And all he ever did was lay there. Megumi shook her head. 'My life has really turned if I've become so attached to a comatose living-dead man.' Looking at Wicked gave Megumi a feeling of despair. She didn't want him to be burned to ashes. There was a connection between them. Megumi had spent quite a bit of time going over every inch of him. She knew him better than anyone else and it was almost as if Wicked became family.

Megumi clenched her hands into fists and beat at her knees. She didn't care what Wicked was, she wasn't going to just hand him over to be destroyed. Rushing over to his bedside, she took a quick glance at the various monitors he was hooked up to. She had five minutes until Wicked was to receive his next dose. If she acted now, he would be awake within five or ten minutes. The doctor looked down at the man. More than likely he would wake up and kill her for her blood.

Death was something she deserved.

Megumi blinked and looked away from Wicked's enchanting appearance. If she didn't act now she was going to change her mind. She couldn't turn off his dosing machine; if she did, an alarm would go off. She only had one other choice.

With one quick jerk, Megumi yanked out several of the IVs from his arm, needles and all.

A/N

I hope the flashbacks didn't confuse anyone. Hmm. Well Heck I think Megumi got a little pissed there eh? Shocked herself by how mad she got. And now she's gone and done a bad thing..(Well good for us… bad for the other guys .:evil cackle:. )

Review!! I need precious reviews! How was Megumi? This was the first time I really wrote about Megumi, she's always played supporting parts, never the main. So let me know what's up. kay? Kay.

And as always, thanks for reading.