Yay! For my readers who has read the first version of the story... This is a brand new never-before-seen chapter!


The Inescapable Hubble's Law


Hubble's Law: "Galaxies recede from an observer at a rate proportional to their distance to that observer."


"Good morning, Sango-chan," Kagome greeted her fellow doctor and friend as she stepped into the door bright and early on a Saturday morning.

"Kagome!" Sango was excited to see Kagome; she wanted all the details of her hot date with her gorgeous husband.

"You seem refreshed and excited today," Kagome gave her a soft smile and nodded at Shiori who was filing patient files at the reception with Hitomiko.

"You look tired, Kagome."

"I am, Sango. I'm exhausted," Kagome pouted while taking off of her navy down winter jacket and hanging it on the coatrack. She ran her hands through her hair.

"Oh? Exhausted?" Sango nudged Kagome with her elbows and her eyebrow perked suggestively.

Oh. Kagome had a flush of red on her face. She got Sango's not so subtle hint. She couldn't remember the last time Hojo and her were really together. Hojo was never a physical man and she never really derived carnal pleasures from her husband. Their married life was satisfactory before but now they were like a pair of awkward junior high couple. Last night after they got back from the sushi restaurant she slept earlier to wake up at 7 to get to work this morning.

Kagome didn't want to admit to Sango or herself, rather, how pathetic her marriage really was so she returned a sultry look to avoid any more of Sango's questions.

"'Atta girl," Sango laughed and went about with her previous task after receiving a satisfactory reply.

Kagome smiled at the thought of how free Sango was, oh the joy of the single unmarried life. She was deep in ponder when suddenly she heard a raucous coming from the outside approaching the clinic.

"Someone! Help this man!"

Kagome's head shot to the door where two younger men were carrying a middle-aged man into the clinic. The man was gasping for air and his eyes were flipping with disorientation. His muscles were dysfunctional and he couldn't stand up straight. He was foaming at the mouth and trembling uncontrollably.

"Ai! Shiori! I need a little help here!" Kagome advanced towards the man and called out to her nurses for help. "He's suffering from oxygen deprivation and ataxia!"

"I have the pump!" Ai rushed out from the back with a breathing assistant instrument. She placed the mask over the man's mouth and began squeezing the valve to feed oxygen into the man's lungs.

"Where did you find him?" Kagome turned to the younger man beside her who was supporting the patient by the shoulders. "Do you know who he is?"

The clueless younger man in the yellow jacket and safety shoes only shook his head at Kagome.

"Let's get him to exam room number 2!" Kagome instructed Shiroi who led the men into the back of the clinic.

"Doctor Higurashi, he's not responding to the pump!" Ai cried as she squeezed the valve more rapidly.

Kagome cringed and made an acute decision, "Alright, code blue, lets get him a defibrillator to help him breathe!"

"We don't have a defibrillator at the clinic!" Midoriko informed Kagome while she rushed out from the equipment room from the back of the clinic. She handed Kagome an orotracheal tube. "But this would work just fine."

Kagome took the orotracheal tube from Midoriko's hands and gave her a gentle nod. She requested for Ai's assistant while the men placed the patient on the examine table.

"Ai! We'll have to make do with this instead; replace the valve with this. Hold him still for a moment," Kagome instructed the young nurse while she inserted the catheter down the man's throat. "Now replace the mouth cover with the tracheal button and force the air with the pump down directly."

Ai followed Kagome's directions while Kagome hooked the man up on a monitor and intravenous fluids. She took out a needle valve to take a blood sample from the man to analyze him cause of the ataxia. From him dysfunctional muscle contractions, he looked like he was poisoned. But from what?

"Doctor?" a woman in her late twenties was at the door of the examination room holding to a brown leather bag. "I think this belongs to the man over there. I was walking behind him when he fainted."

Kagome gave the woman a smile and asked Midoriko to check for identifications, "He might have a wallet or something so we could find out who she is."

"Um... Kagome-chan?" Midoriko pulled an engraved tag on a necklace chain out of the bag and held it out for Kagome to see. Kuruko Tsuki. DNR.

Kagome's eyes widened and dropped the roll of medical tape in her hands, "What have I done? We've just saved a man who doesn't want to be saved. DNR... 'do not resuscitate...'"


The morning was slow; it was a weekend morning but he decided to come into the office with Miroku to get him familiarized with the environment before he officially began work on Monday. InuYasha had spent his morning sipping a cup of hazelnut latte. No wonder Kikyo and Kagome always got this stuff - it was delicious and fluffy. It was becoming his new secret guilty pleasure. Maybe he should try it with cinnamon buns next time.

"I'm loving my new office," the automatic blinds that came up and down with the click of a button amused Miroku. "Up... down... up... down... down... up..."

InuYasha rolled his eyes at Miroku's amusement.

"How old are you?" InuYasha interrogated Miroku.

"Gee InuYasha, you're such a killjoy."

"Get back to work, I'll be in my office."

Miroku ignored InuYasha and went back clicking interesting buttons that controlled the electronic system in his new office, InuYasha was just grumpy and being himself. Well, maybe not as himself but whatever. Lovesick moron. But then again, InuYasha was unusually nicer today than he had been before.


"What do we do now?" Ai looked at Kagome worriedly. "Can we just... take the tube out?"

"Well, the moment we stop pumping air into him, we're technically committing second degree murder," Midoriko beat Kagome to a reply. "We'll just have to keep pumping air into him until he wakes up."

Kagome cringed. She was in turmoil. She had no idea that the patient didn't want to be resuscitated. She needed to respect the patient's wishes but she was at a crossroad. What was she going to do? He didn't want to be saved.

"Or until he wakes up and decides to legally hold us liable for saving his life," Sango walked into the room while taking off of her latex gloves. She couldn't help but to point out the irony of the current situation. "How's Tsuki-san doing here?"

"His HB and BP are normal," Ai looked up to brief Sango.

"Can we find his next of kin?" Kagome asked out of the blue.

"I guess... I'll get Hitomiko on that," Sango disposed of the gloves into the trashcan and disappeared from the door.

"There's nothing more we can do to help him now but to wait until he wakes up..." Kagome said almost in a whisper. She stared at the man in silence without a word; the rims of her eyes were damp.

She didn't know why she was so emotional when she watched this man's life supported by an oxygen pump. It triggered a childhood memory that she had long buried deeply in her head. Perhaps it was the man's dark hair or his pained expression on his face. Or perhaps it was just because he looked he was the same age as her father was. Something made her feel especially sympathetic towards this man lying on the patient bed. She had an instantaneous attachment to him.


The teary eyed five-year-old girl sat in silence by her father's patient bed. A thin nasotracheal tube attached to his nose sustained his life.

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

She watched him silence; he wasn't moving. He was hooked on so many different wires to sustain his life. He was suffering from organophosphate poisoning. He was an agro-sciences researcher developing a new type of herbicide but unfortunately an accident had occurred at the lab and the organophosphate had leaked. Now he was in a deep coma on critical life support.

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

"Daddy?" the young Kagome looked at her lifeless father with tears in her eyes but she refused to cry. Her mother had told Kagome that she needed to keep smiling and hold her tears back or her father would be sad. Kagome was trying very hard to hold her tears back. She wanted her daddy to see her big smile when he wakes up. She bit down on her lips, hard.

'Daddy is going to be okay, Kagome...' she heard her mother's voice ringing in her head. 'He's going to be okay..."

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

"Daddy, Mommy said that you'll wake up eventually but you've been asleep all this time," Kagome leaned closer to her father's face to kiss him on the cheek. "I miss you."

Kagome could faintly hear the doctor's low voice in the hall, "I'm sorry, I've done everything to help Higurashi-san but I'm afraid he's brain dead from the organophosphate poisoning. He's been exposed too much to the chemical..."

She suddenly heard her mother's heartbreaking cry from outside of the hospital room by her mother. Kagome knew something was wrong and that her daddy wasn't coming back anymore.


Yes, this man reminded her so much of her father. She was only five when her father had passed away but Kagome had some of her fondest childhood memories with him. He would take her to the park everyday he came back home from work. He taught her how to ride the bike, identify medicinal herbs and wild berries, and pick out the sweet watermelons from the watery ones at the grocery market.

She watched the man in silence and squeezed the valve every five seconds to pump air into his lungs. This man's life was in her hands right now. She felt almost... obligated to save his life. Obligation wasn't exactly the right word. It was more of... a compulsive need.


"No! Daddy! I want Daddy back! Daddy!" the young Kagome shrieked on top of her lungs. "I want Daddy!"

Her mother held on to her tightly while the medical staff pulled the white cloth over her father's face. Her father was gone. He had a living will to forgo extensive life support if ever he should require it. She watched the doctors unhook her father's lifeline and the squiggly line on the monitor turn flat.

Beeeeepppp...

Silence.

"Daddy!" she cried once more while reaching to her father.

"No, Kagome," her pregnant mother whispered between her sobs. "Daddy isn't coming back. Stop calling out to him. He can't hear you anymore."

Kagome didn't believe her mother, "Daddy! Wake up! Mommy's lying!"


Kagome sat in the dark examination room in silence while watching Tsuki-san. She took the initiative to care for him. The clinic wasn't particularly busy today.

"Doctor Higurashi?" Ai knocked on the door while she stood by the entrance of the examination room. "I have the blood sample analysis right here."

Kagome leaned over to accept the folder from Ai and opened it to glance at the patient's blood solute concentration index.

Positive for the accumulation of acetylcholine and inhibition of acetylcholinesterase.

Kagome held her breath and she felt a rush of adrenaline from the shock. She was sure of it. He had organophosphate poisoning, just like her father did. Organophosphate was found in cheap weed killers; he could have been poisoned from eating unwashed fruits or vegetables. She could save his life. She wanted to save his life. In a way, she felt almost as if she had a responsibility to save him in order to amend for her inability to help her father at the time. She knew what she was doing was wrong. This man clearly had a DNR medical will.

'But not allowing for resuscitation is another thing. He didn't say he didn't want to be rescued when he had chemical poisoning. I'm just alleviating his symptoms of chemical poisoning.'

Kagome looked up to Ai and opened her mouth, "Ai, I need 5 mg of atropine."

"Doctor Higurashi... we can't administer anything to him after we resuscitate him," Ai cringed and reminded Kagome of her actions and liabilities. "We're already breaking the law right now by doing all of this."

"Ai, I know what I'm doing, just let me help him. I really don't believe that he wants to die like this. I'll take on the full responsibility."

Ai hesitated for a moment and walked out of the room to get the atropine dose.


Ai rummaged through the lower shelf of the medicine room, "Atrophine... at... tro...phine..."

No atropine. She cringed; there was no atrophine. They didn't have atrophine? But atrophine was the core medicine in the World Health Organization's "Essential Drugs List" for medical practices. How could they not have atrophine?

Ai frowned and wandered back into the room to Kagome.

"Doctor Higurashi?" Ai came into the room with a furrowed brow. "We don't have atrophine."

Kagome gave Ai a shocked look. How did they not have atrophine? She needed to administer it, now.

"Ai, pump air. I'm calling InuYasha."


Ring... Ring... Ring...

InuYasha opened one eye; he was just enjoying a nice and quiet nap and now he was just woken up unexpectedly by the darn phone. Darn Kaede; why did she transfer the call to his office?

'This better be an emergency.'

InuYasha leaned forward from the comfort of his leather office chair and picked up the phone. His heart almost skipped a beat when he heard the woman's voice on the other side.

"Ka..gome? Do you need something?"

...

"Atrophine? Don't you have that at the clinic?"

...

...

"Oh."

...

He knew Shikon no Tama lacked resources but... lacking atrophine? Unacceptable.

...

"Defibrillator?"

...

...

He didn't want to bring the clunky machine over but since they lacked atrophine of all things, he should bring the defibrillator Kagome had just requested.

...

...

"I'll be right there, Kagome."


He didn't even know what had gotten into him. A few weeks before he didn't even want to set foot into the clinic but now he was bringing in a state-of-the-arts defibrillator and oxygen tanks into Shikon no Tama.

He parked at the back of the clinic as Kagome requested.

"InuYasha! Thank you so much!" Kagome ran out of the back doors and greeted him with such unexpected jocularity.

He gulped down hard.

"Here, let me help you get this inside," InuYasha smiled at Kagome as he rolled the machine into the clinic.

"Exam room 2," Kagome direct InuYasha into the small room where Tsuki-san was lying on the narrow examination table with Ai supporting his life using the oxygen pump.

"Ai, we'll take out the tracheal tube and replace it with the defibrillator mask," Kagome slowly pulled out the tube from the man's esophagus and turned on the defibrillator.

Sango had thought she heard InuYasha's voice and stepped into the room to greet him. She suddenly cringed at the sight of the defibrillator and let out a loud remark.

"Kagome! What are you doing? He has a DNR!"

Kagome gasped at Sango's remark. She slowly turned her gaze to InuYasha who was staring at her with disbelief. His face was ashen upon hearing Sango's words.

"Kagome, I need to talk to you."


"Why the hell did you save this man in the first place?" InuYasha growled at the defenseless Kagome who had a look of terror on her face in response to InuYasha's outburst. "He clearly has a 'do not resuscitate' order!"

He had just helped Kagome to help a patient with a DNR. Kagome knew about the DNR too. InuYasha had never felt so betrayed before in his professional life. He was disappointed at Kagome. It was Kagome of all people.

"I..." Kagome tried to explain herself but her voice was weak and lacked conviction. She didn't have a strong case. Heck, she didn't have any reasons at all. "I didn't see it at first..."

Tsuki-san reminded her of her father; she just couldn't stand by and watch him suffer and die. She knew she let her personal emotions impair her professional judgment. She wanted to tell InuYasha but she couldn't; she didn't know why.

"How could you not have noticed? You check the patient first for any indications of DNR before you help them with the defibrillator or any type of breathing aid! You knew that he had a DNR and you asked me to help him? You asked me to bring a defibrillator of all things! God, Kagome! Why? Why are you so stupid? Why am I so stupid? You lied to me!" InuYasha stepped closer to Kagome; his eyes were turning a shade redder than before from his rage. "What are you going to do now? If you pull the tube now, it's illegal euthanasia! How could you not have known? Why are you such an idiot? It's the first thing they teach you back in med school! Gosh, Kagome! I can't believe this!"

InuYasha had lost it. He was fuming. Kagome had just betrayed his trust.

Kagome drooped her head and uncontrollable tears began falling from the corners of her eyes. She really didn't know at the time when she rescued the man; the necklace wasn't on him but in a bag that a pedestrian delivered after she had resuscitated the man. What was she supposed to do? She was a doctor; her first instinct was to help patients in distress. Even after she found out about his DNR, she had a compulsive desire to help him.

"My father died of organophosphate poisoning when I was 5. I couldn't help him at all. I watched him die. I watched as the doctors took out his tubes. Tsuki-san reminds me so much of him. I don't believe that he wants to die even if he has a DNR," Kagome finally composed herself and told InuYasha the truth but her voice was still shaky and muffled by tears.

InuYasha's heart sank when he heard Kagome's sniffling. The patient was just like her father... Her father... InuYasha didn't know anything about Kagome's past but as soon as she said the words "my father," he understood. InuYasha would have given anything in the world to save his mother.

He felt his head clearing up. Was he being too harsh on her? Why was he acting this way to her? He was scaring her by lashing out on her. What Kagome had done was to open Pandora's box for lawsuits; he just wanted to protect her. He didn't mean to sound so harsh. Even though she betrayed his trust she didn't really mean it. The real reason why he was so mad was that he was worried about her. He took a few steps closer to Kagome; he could smell her salty tears and it made him feel guiltier than he had before.

But an internal feeling was irking him; although he could understand where Kagome was coming from - she was a professional physician. She needed to respect her patient's wishes.

'But the patient reminds her of her father...'

"I just..." InuYasha bit down on his lips, unsure of how to approach Kagome. He wanted to reason with her but he couldn't bring himself to open his mouths and say those words. He was afraid of what she may say back to him. He cared so much about her feelings.

Kagome ignored InuYasha's advances and turned to face her back towards him. She was thoroughly hurt by his harsh words. She had been criticized in her career about her professional judgment before but she didn't understand why she was taking InuYasha's so hard on herself.

"Doctor Takahashi! Doctor Higurashi! Come quick! Tsuki-san is..." Ai ran into Kagome's office panic stricken with an ashen face. "He's... not well."

Kagome brushed away her tears and raced out of her office doors to the examination room. Tsuki was now conscious but he was choking and gasping for air while trembling on the examination table.

"Tsuki-san! Let me help you!" Kagome cried while stepping closer to the man. "I can save you! Why did you take out your defibrillator? Do you really want to die? Why?"

The man mustered all of his energy left over and extended his arms to push Kagome away. He was making loud and angry moaning and groaning noises, "D...o... not... save... m..e... s...top..."

Kagome couldn't comprehend at all. At all. Why didn't this man want to be saved? She wanted to know or it would give her nightmares and haunt her.

"Why?" Kagome yelled and picked up the defibrillator tube and mask while trying to place it back onto Tsuki-san's nose.

InuYasha caught Kagome's wrist and barked at her, "Kagome. Stop. He doesn't want you to save him."

"No!" Kagome tried to get out of InuYasha's strong grip; her mind was cloudy from the overwhelming plethora of emotions washing over her.

"He's not your father!" InuYasha's voice resounded in the small room. He knew Kagome wanted to save this man because he resembled the late elder Higurashi but the man wasn't like her father. He didn't want to live even given the chance to.

...

...

...

InuYasha was right; he was nothing like her father.

Beeeeep...

"Doctor Higurashi, Doctor Takahashi, Tsuki-san is... gone."

Kagome didnt know why she was so sad. She had realized that Tsuki wasn't really her father. But he did remind her of him. Old memories started flowing back to her mind.

Beeeeepppp...

Silence.

"Daddy!" she cried once more while reaching to her father.

"No, Kagome," her mother whispered between her sobs. "Daddy isn't coming back. Stop calling out to him. He can't hear you anymore."

The old memory triggered from all of this was too painful for her to handle at once. Kagome had to run out of there. She needed to leave.


He found her in her small office with the lights off. She was crying. With each of her tear, his heart grew heavier and heavier. He needed to do something. He just wanted to tell her that he was sorry and that he'll take care of any complications for her. InuYasha boldly opened his arm and embraced Kagome from the behind to cradle her in his arms.

"Don't cry, Kagome..." he cooed her with his soothing voice. "It's going to be all right. I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

He didn't know what he was sorry for though. For blaming her and yelling at her before? For his inability to help anyone in this predicament? For the situation that had just triggered the dark memories from Kagome's childhood?

"I miss my Daddy..." Kagome's voice was muffled. "He reminded me so much of him..."

He could feel Kagome trembling in his arms; she was shaking violently and gasping for air in between her tears. Feeling InuYasha's arms around her didn't do her much good in calming herself. She was having a panic attack with all the adrenaline running through her veins. She could smell his pine-tinted scent; he was intoxicating. But for some unknown reason, she felt so safe in his arms. She almost couldn't remember why she was so upset. She had forgotten even about what they were quarreling about earlier. Kagome turned around to face InuYasha and buried her face in his chest.

InuYasha looked down at the Kagome who was still sobbing and drenching his white coat with her urgent tears. He didn't know what to do; dealing with sobbing women wasn't exactly his specialty. In fact, the only woman he had remotely tried to comfort in his entire life was his mother. He held out a free hand and placed it on Kagome's head and gently stroked her while cooing. She was so fragile, so vulnerable, and so helpless.

To his surprise, Kagome's trembling subsided.

"Ka... Kagome..." InuYasha whispered while pulling her closer to his chest. He felt pulses of shocks in his body and his heartbeat became more and more irregular. He just wanted to comfort her and nothing else but he was stirring while feeling the proximity of her body to his. He pulled his chin to lean against her forehead and they just stood there in silence.

What was he doing to her? Kagome felt her body helplessly moving with his. She shifted her stance and gazed up to InuYasha's golden eyes to say something. Unsuspectingly, she felt a magnetic attraction from him pulling her in closer...

Closer...

Closer...

He didn't know what he was doing but he was lost in her eyes. InuYasha leaned closer down to Kagome. He didn't know why but it felt so natural... so... right.

Slowly, his lips grazed over hers delicately.

'This is wrong,' the logical part of Kagome's brain was screaming for her to pull away from him. 'Stop yourself, Kagome!'

'She's married, InuYasha! What the hell are you doing? Stop!' he knew what he was going to do would complicate matters between them but... did he care? If he pulled away now, he knew that he would regret it even more.

He leaned closer to her and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

Kagome's eyes widened when she felt the assertive contact and clenched the fabric of his white coat more strenuously than she did before. She hesitated for a moment and tried to fight it. But eventually, her grip and features softened and she closed her eyes while returning his unexpected osculation.

The expression that she took his breath away was an understatement. She was drawing his life and soul away from his body but he was more than willing to give them to her.

She had waited her entire life for that one kiss. This was that one kiss. The kiss.

Her heart pounded like a bass drum; her fingertips hurt from the blood rushing through them.

He took the moment to relish the moment until he hesitantly pulled away and looked at her apologetically.

"I'm... sorry," he whispered to her while still holding onto the small of her back. But the truth was he wasn't sorry.

She didn't know why he was apologizing, she wasn't sorry. But out of conformity and tact she whispered, "I'm sorry too."


O_O Early InuYasha and Kagome romance? Woah? Kagome's cheating on her husband Hojo? Meh. Relax people, it's just a small kiss. Pffttt. Gee. Don't need to get all morally ... defensive... I don't know... Everyone, calm down.

Yes! Less than 48 hours until I'm free! Exams still stuck but I've found a way to cope with it... coughwritingfanfictioncough. What? What's that?