This is quite a brief chapter but I was twitching for another update... or I just didn't want to go over direct material and overhead variances... sigh.

Rin's Recounting: August 29th, 2005.

It's been five days since I've seen him. I couldn't stop thinking of him. I was yearning to see his face again; it was becoming a sort of obsession. Oh silly me, I was being ridiculous and I knew it too. I was fuzzing over nothing. He probably thought that I was strange too. Did I weird him out with my behavior? I'm not that extraordinary am I? Oh Rin... Silly me. A third year liking a first year? He probably thinks of me as his little sister or something. Aye.

I walked down the isle of the campus bookstore. I adjusted the basket around my arm and tiptoed to reach for the book on the other shelf. I glanced down at the scribbles on my paper once again.

"Chemistry... organic chemistry... redox..." I looked up at the labels along the selves once again. "Nope... wrong section. Let's go to the next row."

I fixed my eyes onto the small checklist and kept trekking between the narrow rows of the bookstore. I wasn't looking at where I was going then suddenly, bam. I bumped into something, or rather someone, hard. He felt rock solid.

"I'm sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" I looked up to meet his gaze. "Sesshomaru?"

Present day.

I simpered at the old memory of my second encounter with him. I felt myself smiling ear to ear. That was the day he asked me out to lunch and then took me to the night fair. I didn't know why I was slipping back and forth between the present and the past almost in a trance. It seemed that I've been recounting the past a lot lately. I really didn't know why. I really shouldn't be dwelling.

The man I saw the other night; it was Sesshomaru. I was sure of it. Golden eyes, silver hair, and a perfect jawline. I could have forgotten every single face in the world but I couldn't forget his, ever. I saw his loveless golden eyes. I could feel a shiver down my spine. They were always filled with so much love when he looked at me. He was supposed to be dead. Why was he back? I've spent the last two years of my life trying to investigate the circumstances of his death and to finish what he started. I never questioned father, Inu no Taisho.

October 29th, 2010.

I was trembling uncontrollable in tears wearing a loose black silk kimono while kneeling in the dark atrium of the shrine. The sash was gingerly tied above my stomach. I've been like this for days now. I placed a hand on my swollen abdomen. Our son was going to be a fatherless child coming into this world. I heard a sound of the heavy door opening and slowly turned toward the opening door to see my in-laws walking in with the priest.

"Rin, honey... you can't be like this; it wouldn't be good for your unborn child," Izayoi dashed over to me to help me up by tugging on my arms. "You can't bring a dead person back to life."

"You are carrying the heir to our Takahashi clan, Rin," Inu no Taisho began with his deep and mellifluous voice. "You need to be strong."

"Takahashi-sama, it's time to close the coffin," the priest bowed politely to my father-in-law.

Father acknowledged the priest's proposal with a gentle nod and began making his way following the priest's steps. Mum led me into the other room attached to the shrine's atrium where Sesshomaru's body lied in the casket.

Silent tears rolled down my cheeks. I've cried for too long. So long that my eyes were puffy and swollen from the salty tears. I had reached my breaking point and I was dying inside by the second. He was gone. I twisted my wedding band around my ring finger of my left hand. That day I was at a doctor's meeting and he didn't show up when I told him my appointment was in the afternoon. Sesshomaru had always come with me for our baby's sonograms. No matter how busy he was, he would always show up. I wasn't terribly alerted until that night... at my in-laws for dinner.

I stared at the dark cherry wood casket before me. It was closed. The priest handed a large rock to father. I heard a footstep behind me and turned to see InuYasha walking into the shrine. God, the two brothers resembled each other. I quivered in my sorrows once more. InuYasha gave me a nod and accepted the rock from the priest.

Izayoi gripped my ice-cold hands and brought them closer to her.

"Stay strong for him, Rin," she whispered to me so low only I could hear.

"It's time to nail the coffin closed, Takahashi-sama," the priest stated as he gestured for my father and brother-in-law to affix the nails into the coffin with the rocks.

"Stop!" I found the courage to yell out before either of them began the hammering. "Open the casket. I need to see him once more!"

"Rin..." father hesitated. "You know that..."

"His body is in pretty bad shape after the accident," InuYasha finished the sentence.

"I don't care! Open it!" I was desperate. I wanted to see him one last time. I never got to say my final goodbye to him yet. I didn't care how disfigured Sesshomaru was from the impact. "Open it!"

"We really shouldn't..." Izayoi stroked my head and brought me closer to her. "We should respect Sesshomaru..."

"I want the casket to be opened!" I demanded angrily. They were too cruel to do this too me. "Now! Please?"

InuYasha dropped the rock. Inu no Taisho and Izayoi gave him a stern look of disapproval but he shrugged, "She deserves to know. Rin has to know sooner or later."

He stepped closer to the casket and pushed the coffin cover open. I held my breath. His body must have started to decompose inside already. I prepared myself for the worst that could have happened and took a few steps closer. I didn't know what to expect. I panted in between my uncontrollable tears.

'Be strong, Rin. Be strong.'

I shut my eyes and placed my fingers onto the rim of the casket.

...

...

I stood over the coffin and slowly opened my eyes.

...

...

"What?" I whispered. The coffin was empty. "Where is he?"

"He..." Inu no Taisho started to speak but stopped midway.

"Where is Sesshomaru?" I commanded an answer.

"We couldn't find his body," InuYasha broke the silence in the room and took a few steps toward me. "I'm almost positive he's dead."

"Almost positive?" I repeated his words almost in a hushed whisper. "The car hit him head on, right?"

Izayoi gravitated towards me and pulled my shoulders in.

"We need to tell you something, Rin..." Inu no Taisho took a few steps toward me and gave me a reassuring look before he began again. "There's something you didn't know about the family before... About Sesshomaru... and the Takahashi clan..."

Present Day.

I stroked his soft hair while he sat quietly in my lap. I hugged him closer to me. Having him by was just the same as having Sesshomaru by my side. Samuru twitched in his sleep.

'I think I saw Daddy!'

His little voice rang in my head. He had never seen his father before in person but Sesshomaru's pictures were all around the house. He would have recognized his father if he had seen him. When he was younger, he used to dream about his father all the time. I knew that Samuru missed him just as I did. Poor fatherless child...

I placed another kiss on his forehead and made my way to his room. I placed him back into his little bed and pulled the soft blanket over him. I sat there in silence and listened to the clicking of the clock. It was still early; the sun has still not risen. I shivered. It wasn't cold in the house but my poor circulation from my wounds wasn't doing much good for my body temperature. I needed a warm shower.

I felt the warm water pouring down from the showerhead. It felt so good against my cold skin. It seemed to help my body adjust to my regular body temperature. I ran the shampoo through my long hair and lathered with my eyes closed. I reached down to the necklace around my neck expecting to feel the two rings strung on the silver chain. There was only one.

My eyes shot open.

No. I ran my hands along the entire necklace from the back. Our wedding bands. There was only one around my neck: his. My smaller platinum ring was missing. I've always strung it around my neck instead of wearing it when I'm on an assignment. Last time was no exception.

Where was my wedding band? Who took it? Was it the same person who dressed my wounds?

Here's another piece of the puzzle! Yay! Aw... back to studying... *pout* Can't wait to write an extra long chapter for the next update!