A/N: Thanks Sassybratt for pointing the errors...apparently there was something wrong with my word processor. I sorted out the stuff and thus edited the first two chappies accordingly.

The next chappie coming up in a couple of weeks. :)

Waiting for your reviews!


ONE SMALL STEP—AN INUYASHA FANFIC

CHAPTER 02: THE DOCTOR

Kagome leant back, trying to calm her raging tidal waves of emotions. Yesterday had been such a fulfilling one—her series of paintings entitled "The Lost Man" had generated quite an interest in the world of art. Just on the first day of the exhibition, three buyers had approached her—all interested to bid for the paintings at the auction two weeks later.

She was beside herself with joy. Finally, after six years, after all that crying, cajoling and convincing her mother to let her study art, she was finally able to hold her own. Pity her mother and Souta had to leave for Kyoto for some work. But she remembered her mother's excited voice on the phone.

"I am so happy for you, darling! Wish I could stand by you on your big day...but some of your papa's legal documents need some clarification...this sucks but I promise I will come tomorrow. I will cook your favourite tomorrow!"

She smiled at the memory. Her mother could be angry at times, especially when Kagome was rebellious but deep down the girl knew it was her mother's love which made the older woman a bit snappish at times. After her father died due to leukemia seven years ago, it was hard for her to care for three children. Kikyo's law school was expensive and though the girl attempted to work part-time, her salary was too paltry to suffice. With Kagome leaping into the supposed "sea of no return", her mother had lost it.

But now, with her two daughters settled in fields of their liking, Aiko Higurashi felt at peace.

Kagome couldn't help but feel sad of the moment when her mother comes to know of her condition. She was a kind soul, and Kagome knew it would break her heart if she saw her like this. Kikyo certainly cried torrents on seeing her—but the older sibling had to rein it in in front of their mother.

Kagome hoped Kikyo would be able to console her mother.

Half-an-hour before Inuyasha had entered, Kikyo had left. She tried to make light of the situation, trying to narrate anecdotes in order to make the patient laugh. But Kagome knew better.

Kikyo might be older than her by three years, but the bond between the two of them was closer than the ones that exist between twins.

So she played along.

Now, at long last, she was left to her own devices.

Hell, she wanted to cry, scream...do everything that the doctor mentioned most patients doing. She wanted to feel her hands break something, she wanted to hear the crashing sound of breaking glass, she wanted to hear her own throat holler out curses.

She wanted to see...

She trailed the fingers of her left hand over the bandage on her eyes.

Curses, she couldn't even cry...

She felt trapped in a dark void...she could hear, understand, think...but couldn't do anything.

SHIT! She yelled mentally.


In the evening, as Inuyasha was preparing to pop in home and get a change of clothes, he spotted Miroku and Sango entering the refreshment room.

"How's the girl?" Miroku inquired, hanging his biker jacket on the peg.

"Conscious, speaking," Inuyasha answered in staccato tone as he piled up his soiled clothing in a duffel bag.

"That's progress...though she needs to be mentally strong for at least a year or so. Getting up from such an ordeal isn't easy," Sango observed, sitting down on a chair as looking at the silver-haired man.

"Hmm...and by the way, she liked your chicken soup," he grunted. The woman gave out a squeal of delight.

"I thought so! Chicken soup is the best comfort food in my book, second only to a piping hot Mac 'n Cheese. Maybe I will take care of her diet personally," she said, clapping her hands.

"Now now Sango, don't get sooo excited..." Miroku crooned, his hands which were previously on his sides now inching towards Sango's derriere.

Inuyasha had no need to look up to know the source of the slap and an angry yell of "HENTAI!"

After a muttered goodbye, he went out of the room, rushing downsteps, out of the lobby and into the garage. His trusty VW Bug was sitting contently, glaring at the gigantic Bentley parked opposite.

Inuyasha frowned.

No doctor at Seven Hills was rich enough to buy a Bentley. And certainly no patient capable of buying that mammoth hole in the pocket would prefer treatment here—there were fancier hospitals in the city.

Filing away the mystery for later, he gunned up his car and made way for his house.

Inuyasha hated coming home. The two-storied white-washed house with red-trim set in the midst of a manicured garden filled flowers looked like a picture postcard, yet he had to always fight with himself before forcing his feet to step into the cobbled path. The light on the upstairs bedroom was still on.

Sesshomaru was awake.

Inuyasha sighed...it was just seven in the evening. No one turned in for the night at seven...not even new born babies.

He entered the lobby, removing his shoes and placing them neatly on the shoe-rack next to the door. Taking in a deep breath, he walked in.

"Uncle Inu!" came a squeal followed by a tightness around his mid-riff. A mass of jet-black hair confirmed it was Rin.

"Hello Rin, how was your day today?" he asked, smiling gently. He loved his niece.

"It was fun! We learnt about the respiratory system in biology and even had a demo dissection in the lab..." Rin said at top speed, clutching his arm as he walked in towards the kitchen.

A woman with the same jet-black hair as Rin, tied up in a high ponytail and clad in a magenta yukata with an apron thrown over was busy. She smiled at him.

"Hello Inuyasha, you are staying for dinner, I presume?" she asked.

Inuyasha nodded, taking a seat on the armchair in the living room and shifting Rin on to his lap.

"...and then this Masaki had the nerve to pinch my pencil..." she continued, snuggling against him.

He patted her head, listening to her narration.

After five minutes or so, Kagura called from the kitchen.

"Rin! It's time you went and completed your homework!" said Kagura, not unkindly.

Rin pouted.

Inuyasha laughed at her expression.

"Your mother's right, Rin. Do your homework so that you can leave this Masaki in dust!" he said, lifting her off his lap and making her stand before him.

"Okay!" she replied brightly before scurrying back upstairs into her room.

"Rin! No running on the stairs!" Kagura called to her again as she walked into the living room, carrying a tray with two mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of muffins.

"Miroku called me up in the morning, telling me you had a case," she said, leaning back.

Inuyasha cringed—he had totally forgotten to inform her.

Kagura must have noticed his discomfort as she said, "Don't sweat it, you have too much on your plate as it is."

She sighed, looking up at the ceiling.

"Hard to think of that man as one of the best eye-surgeons in the world," she said softly, taking a swig from her mug.

Inuyasha looked at her eyes, sad with pain and loneliness.

"I can understand that, Kagura," he said softly, squeezing on of her hands with his. She looked at him gratefully.

"You don't know what sort of a support you have been...you have been our anchor...if you weren't there..." Kagura sniffed.

Inuyasha placed his mug on the coffee table as he knelt before her, taking her crying frame in his arms, patting her back to soothe her.

"It is disgraceful, breaking into tears every time...even Rin is stronger than me...she ploughs on forward...but I know...her classmates...they tease her...call her names...insult her father...she might be in eighth grade but she isn't a kid..." Kagura stuttered, her face buried in her brother-in-law's shoulder.

"It's okay Kagura...I know it sounds cliché but you have to be strong...for Rin...for Sesshomaru..." Inuyasha said softly.

Kagura withdrew from the embrace, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"I must seem so weak, crying all the time," she sniffled.

Inuyasha looked shocked.

"Of course not! Even though what has happened is unprecedented, you have moved forward! You run a successful magazine on your own, apart from taking care of your husband and daughter! You are the epitome of courage, but you are also a human. It is but natural when emotions overflow. And it always okay to cry," he said, looking astounded.

Kagura smiled.

"Inuyasha...it is hard to think of you as the same man who hated Sesshomaru's guts during our marriage fifteen years back," she said softly.

"The feeling was mutual," he added, but the gravity was lost by a little twinkle in his eyes.

"And it disappeared when Rin was born," he added, resuming his seat on the armchair.

"I can never thank you enough, Inuyasha," Kagura said gratefully, looking into his bright amber eyes.


Inuyasha left as soon as he bolted down his dinner—and he kicked himself for doing so.

But he couldn't help it.

Seeing Sesshomaru reduced to a bumbling baby bumpkin was certainly not in his not-to-miss list. Even though he felt sad leaving Kagura and Rin behind, he pressed down the accelerator as he rushed towards he lone piece of oasis—the hospital. As he drove into the parking to camp his car at his usual spot, a corner of his mind noticed that the Bentley was absent.

"Wonder whose car that was," he muttered to himself as he locked the doors and went in.

He found Ayame waving at him, prompting him to raise a hand in greeting in return. He liked the bubbly girl, just that he couldn't understand what she saw in the surly, pompous therapist. He traipsed upstairs, to that room which saw him more than his bedroom back home.

He entered just to witness Sango deliver Miroku another slap on his face. He couldn't help but shake his; didn't the man ever learn?

"Evening, Inuyasha," Sango said, trying to sound pleasant while staring daggers at the slapped man. Miroku hastily took refuge behind a discarded newspaper.

"Evening Sango. You leaving?" Inuyasha asked, hanging his jacket and wearing his coat.

"Just arrived. Night duty," she sighed, collapsing on a chair. "Though it beats me why Seven Hills needs a nutritionist at night."

"Employee shortage, girl," Miroku quipped, only to quail under Sango's murderous glare.

Inuyasha nodded as he poured himself some coffee from the vending machine.

"As such, there's as many full-time here as your fingers. And I am not counting your toes. By the way, thanks for calling up Kagura, Miroku" he said as the smell of instant coffee filled the room.

Miroku quirked up his brow in response as Sango shrugged, not fully convinced.

"There's Kouga as therapist, old Kaede from pathology, me as surgeon," said Miroku, counting off his fingers.

"Sango as nutrionist, Kanna as the gynecologist, Hibiko as GP and me as orthopaedic," Inuyasha finished before pouring the coffee down his throat. Sango cringed at this action of his.

"Does your throat not burn?" she asked, pointing at the cup.

"Not exactly...it's lukewarm. Remind me to put down a complaint to change our vending machine," Inuyasha replied, crunching up the cup and aiming at the litter bin. Luckily, he scored.

"That's seven doctors, with Ayame and Michiko as receptionists the full-time count goes up to nine. The cleaners, nurses, kitchen staff and the ward boys are all on contract here. Though Nurse Kaoru's stay period is longer than I assumed," Miroku concluded, placing the paper back on the table and staring at it as if trying to figure why was he reading a three-week old newspaper upside down.

"Nurse Kaoru's another full-time," Inuyasha interjected, slowly shifting his chair away from Sango. He had a feeling that a dormant volcano was getting ready to erupt.

"She's been here as long as myself," he added, satisfied at the little distance he had put between himself and a seething Sango and proceeded to lean back.

"That explains why she is so immune to my distinctively alpha male charms," Miroku mused, unconsciously dodging a thrown shoe.

"Ten members," Inuyasha said with an air of finality though he sighed inwardly. Why the hell doesn't that pathetic excuse of a monk slash moronic and clinically insane surgeon propose to that "slightly" violent nutritionist already?

He rubbed his temples, trying to rein in the headache that was on its way.

"But that doesn't explain the need of me staying overnight," Sango pressed on, Miroku momentarily forgotten.

"Apart from being a nutritionist, you are also a trained paramedic who specializes in handling trauma cases. So if either Miroku or I or anyone needs a hand, you are there. Simply, we are short of hands here."

Sango drunk in Inuyasha's explanation, sighing softly.

"That should be it, since it is coming out of the horse's mouth," she commented dryly, checking her watch.

"I don't own the hospital, Father does," Inuyasha pointed out.


I don't own it, dad does. And perhaps one fine day, Sesshomaru will inherit it.

Inuyasha rubbed his temples again, trying to block that impending headache. He gave up—best if he expected it and kept couple of aspirins handy.

Miroku and Sango had left, leaving him with his thoughts. They were his best friends, rather the only people who knew him and his closet full of rotting skeletons. It sometimes surprised him the way they stuck through thick and thin...one mention of that fact and Sango would toss her hair flippantly and remark about the good pay and Miroku would simply shrug it off.

Seven Hills might be one of the best hospitals in the city due to the level of personal care it bestowed on its patients but Inuyasha knew it was running on fumes. After Sesshomaru went...out of commission...and his father got himself kicked out of the better part of the continent for being more candid than necessary with the hospital sponsors, it was more or less on his shoulders to run the thing.

There were daily proposals waiting for him, both on paper and in his e-mail account, about how this building could be brought down and the area be developed into a more commercially viable venture. But he put his foot down.

Seven Hills was his mother's dream...the last thing that made her smile before she died. No way he was bringing it down.

After Sesshomaru's breakdown two years ago and the subsequent "exile" of his father, the hospital suddenly lost the people who ran it. And by the time Inuyasha got it reined in, the damage was done.

But he had survived. Veiled threats, direct threats, legal complications, financial problems...he rode it all. Though it was no longer the busy hospital as it was in its prime, it was still a respected one.

And people still came to get treated.

The clock struck eleven.

Inuyasha sighed. He had promised Kagome to visit after the rounds...but he ended up going home.

Maybe I will make it up to her tomorrow, he thought.

After dawdling for ten more minutes, he decided to go for his nocturnal round before drowsing away in his refreshment room.

The night in a hospital always seemed a bit eerie. The lights in the corridors were dimmed, so he could see the guide lights on the floors gleam brighter than usual. Inside the wards, lights were off, save for the tiny blinking LEDs on the various beeping machines. The soft regular breathing of the patients put his mind at ease.

He saw the nurse in charge of the particular ward stand at the slightly ajar door, staring at him. After walking past all the beds, he exited the ward. He was curious as to what she wanted.

"Yes," he read the name tag on her white-and-pink uniform, "Koharu...what is it?"

She seemed nervous.

"The patient next to the window...he refused to take his daily injection," she muttered in a low voice.

He couldn't help but feel amused at her statement.

"You are new, I presume?" he inquired, cocking up an eyebrow.

She nodded, examining her feet.

"It's difficult, I agree...but don't get intimidated."

He winked at her.

"Don't worry, you are paid to intimidate so that the people take their medicines."

She looked a bit happier as she went over to her station.


Of course she would be sleeping!

Inuyasha still teetered between his mind and his conscience in front of the door of Kagome's room when a peal of laughter was heard inside.

What the...

To his surprise he found Sango with the said girl, clutching a stitch at her side as she laughed at some joke. Kagome too was smiling brightly.

"What the...?" Inuyasha stuttered, his amber eyes huge and round in wonder.

"It's eleven thirty for Heaven's sake, Sango," he said, sounding appalled.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, bossman," Sango said, failing to keep a straight face.

"Kagome here is bored out of her freaking mind so I thought I would help her count sheep to sleep," she chortled while Kagome vigorously nodded in agreement.

"Whatever," he drawled, dragging another chair and plonking himself next to the nutritionist.

"So how's it?" he asked Kagome, glaring at Sango to shut her up. Sango tried but failed. Spectacularly.

"Apart from breaking three out of four limbs, glass in my eyes and some really minor internal bleeding, I am peachy," she snorted, making Sango positively howl in mirth.

He frowned, giving up to quieten the two women.

"You are going in for an X-Ray first thing tomorrow morning...and apparently your mother and brother are planning to visit you after that. You have a full schedule as such so I suggest you rest," he growled.

The mention of her family members shut her up.

"Mama and Souta?" she whispered.

"Yep," he answered, stretching his arms and folding them behind his head.

Kagome sighed as Sango gave her a sympathetic pat on her left arm.

"Sango, I presume you too have a schedule to follow?" Inuyasha said smoothly, dragging the said girl on her feet and pushing her towards the door.

"Or," he whispered threateningly, "I swear I will tell Miroku the code of your locker...and you don't want that pervert to know that, do you?"

"Inuyasha!" she hissed back, allowing herself to be pushed towards the door. "I swear I will get a one up on you some day!"

"Kagome...now sleep!" said Inuyasha, closing the door softly behind him, leaving her alone in the dark.


A/N: Please review!

The story has been slow till now as preparing the stage takes time. I can assure you that the next chappie will take the story to the next gear.

Question for you guys: Whose Bentley it is? Names unnecessary but you can guess the part the owner plays in the story.

I first thought I will make this story a little angsty but that's not really me...so I guess I will keep up the morale with some humour thrown in. Inuyasha seems more mature than ever but there's a reason for it...keep up to find out!

For all those who are following my CCS fanfic CRAZY STUPID LOVE:

Ta Da! I have begun to edit the fanfic and most probably will post the updated version of the first couple of chappies next month. If you can find any loopholes in the old version you want me to address, don't hesitate to PM/post in the review box.

TILL NEXT TIME, PEEPS!