A/N: Hi guys! I'm glad you love the story! I hope your holiday season is going well! This chapter is short again, but it has a lot in it. Please enjoy!

Please continue reviewing! It really helps me as an author know that you are enjoying the story.

Anyhow, I don't own any of the characters. And I hope that you enjoy the story!

10

Slowly, he drew his tongue across his lips as he looked at his reflection. 'God, I'm handsome.' He thought. Pulling his tie up around his neck, he smiled at himself once more and walked away from the mirror.

Gazing out the wrap around windows of his penthouse office, he could see the whole city of Tokyo, and at the dead center of it all sat the palace. A sinister smile pulled his lips back as he went through a mental checklist.

The reporter from the beginning of the week had done well by putting the Higurashi girl in the hospital, even if it hadn't been the exact plan. If the Prince hadn't insisted on taking her out after only two days against doctor's orders, Kagura would have had a chance to get into the room and snatch her. It had only slightly put a flaw in his plan when that had happened, but he hadn't really liked that one anyways.

He knew that Prince Sesshomaru had been following their movements with the JBI; he'd even gone so far as to establish a taskforce against him and all of his activities. While they had foiled some of the greener members assignments, he had yet to put his finger on the overall scheme.

Kagome Higurashi was a major pawn in this scheme; over the last four years she had evaded him at every turn. Anger boiled up inside of him as he remembered her maneuvering out of his grasp every time he had gotten close to her.

She was a smart girl he had to admit. She had become very good at observing the people around her and spotting his men amongst them. The first time he had gone in for a snatch, he had been surprised when she had noticed his men approach her at the playground in everyday clothing. Within a minute, she had had her daughter in hand and was in the car. It was the first and last time she had taken her out to play.

Her ability to move at a moments notice had also made her hard to track, but he had always found each and every time. Except for the last one, the Prince had been the one who had led him to her last house. From there he had let his reporter do his job, but even he botched up his simple task. He had been assigned to stop her car so that his men could grab her, but he managed to put her in the hospital! If the girl had worn her seatbelt it might have turned out differently, but that didn't matter now. He had her in his grasp this time.

Kagura was ready at the hospital to take her away as soon as she could safely do so. She was no good to him incapacitated or dead. The two Princes were still close at her side, though, but he knew he could pull Prince Sesshomaru away. Everything would have to play out precisely for this plan to work out, but he knew her being hospitalized again had been a blessing for him, even more so the fact that it had been on Kagura's shift.

Settling into his desk chair, he tented his fingers and turned his chair toward the windows. A knock echoed through the room from his door, "Yes?"

A man poked his head in to deliver a message. "Don Onigumo, Kagura on line 4." A wicked smirk pulled his lips upwards as he turned his chair and answered the phone.

Souta and his Jii-Chan sat at the kitchen table, a dark coloured meal sitting in front of them. Since Mum had been gone, the boys had been left to fend for themselves and the biggest challenge they were presented with was food. Neither one of them knew how to cook like Mum did, or even edibility.

Both of their stomachs growled simultaneously as they looked at the dismally burnt meal in front of them. "Pizza?" Souta asked for the third time that week. Jii-Chan looked up at him and nodded soberly.

"Well we can't eat this." He said pushing his plate forward. "I'll make the call." Standing, he went to the hallway and placed the call on the home phone.

Souta dropped his head onto the table and groaned. He missed Mum, Kagome, and Ileana. Although he hadn't seen much of his sister or her child, eighteen-year-old Souta still felt an obligation to them. At his age, his sister had gone through more than most people went through in a lifetime, and he wanted to make it easier on her.

When she was pregnant with Ileana, he had watched her take online classes almost everyday so that she could get her teaching license. Everyone had always known how much she had wanted to teach kids, it had been her life's ambition. He had always admired her for continuing to reach for her dream when life had gotten hard.

It had been hard on Souta to watch his sister leave the Shrine when Ileana was six months old. He knew she had to when she received the letter from the mob, but that still didn't mean he wanted her to go.

Kagome had been very careful to keep Ileana away from the Shrine because she had a suspicion the mob had it under surveillance, and from what Souta had seen of men in suits walking in front of it he knew she was right.

Since she had left the Shrine, he had only seen his niece a handful of times when he had gone with Mum to watch her. Jii-Chan was the same, but only because he refused to leave the Shrine for more than a couple of hours.

Souta hated the Prince; because of him his sister had lost almost everything. She would never say anything, but he sure as hell would. Kagome had lost every one of her friends when she fell pregnant. She had had to stop taking their calls and turning down invites because she knew if they found out she was pregnant, they would want to see the baby when she was born. And that just wasn't possible. She had also known it was safer the less people who knew about her tiny baby.

Friends weren't the only thing she had lost, her schooling had taken an extra year longer because she had to do it all online in between being a mother and working horrible part time jobs just to pay for Ileana's formula. Mum had always made sure that Kagome was fed, and once Ileana was old enough to chew, her as well. He knew that their mother felt awful about her inability to help more, but the Shrine didn't make enough money as it was and Kagome knew that.

He felt guilty all the time for enjoying life and going out with friends. Kagome would scold him for feeling like that, but he couldn't help it. He just envisioned her stuck inside the house or at work. She would never complain, but he knew it took its toll on her.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to change his train of thought. At least Mum said everything in the palace was going all right and that she had made a friend in the Empress. That was something to count his blessings for; Mum needed someone she could talk to. She had also said Ileana was safe and having a ball playing with her two grandmothers. The only one she hadn't spoken of was his sister, and that concerned him. Since her car accident at the beginning of the week, he hadn't heard anything other than she was safe and resting.

He wasn't thrilled about the living situation the women in his family were in, but he also knew he couldn't do anything about it. Frustration built up inside of him at his inability to do anything. "Souta! Pizza is here." Jii-Chan walked in with the two boxes of pizza and set them in front of his grandson. He moved the plates with the burnt food to the sink before putting a hand on Souta's shoulder. "I miss them too." He said softly as Souta lifted his eyes to his.

Kagome's eyes fluttered open. 'Where am I?' she thought as she tried to wrap her head around what had happened. Her bed was sitting upright and she could feel bandages wrapped around her torso, and another set of stitches under them, but she didn't remember getting them. The last thing she remembered was getting upset and then…nothing. 'I must have blacked out…' She realized. Her whole body hurt and her head was fuzzy from pain medication, she didn't dare move for fear of the pain that would come. The steady beeping to her right assured her that she was in the hospital again, a sigh escaped her lips.

Looking down, her eyes locked onto the silver hair that spilled across her arm and a warm face pressed into her hand. Gently, she moved her finger awkwardly across the cheek touching it. Warmth filled her heart as she looked at her other side and saw Sesshomaru awkwardly sleeping in a plastic chair, his head lulling backwards and his hand tightly gripping hers. For once, she felt immensely loved by the Takahashi brothers. 'Inuyasha and Sesshomaru must have really been worried…' She thought guiltily.

A slight woman with short hair pulled back in a messy ponytail entered the room. Her eyes were slanted in a way that made them appear harsh and uncaring, but she wore nurse's scrubs, so she had to be wrong about that. Quietly, she checked Kagome's vitals and then approached her on the side Inuyasha slept on. "Don't wake the Princes, love." Slowly, she injected another heavy dose of painkillers into her IV as she pressed her lips against Kagome's ear. Fuzziness swarmed her brain, begging her to go under with it, back to the world of sleep. "We've found you." She whispered as the blackness engulfed her.

Stay tuned for another chapter!