Reckless

I don't own Inuyasha

Ch 14

Rin sat at the table being careful not make eye contact with Sara or Sesshoumaru as Kohaku fidgeted next to her. Kohaku may have grown up in the children's home with his sister but he wasn't accustomed to being in trouble and it showed. She wasn't sure what Sesshoumaru or Sara were going to say but for the moment both of them were eerily quiet. Maybe they were beginning to realize the truth, that she wasn't meant to be a part of their family, that they'd made a mistake in taking her in and now they were ready to change their minds.

Sesshoumaru looked between Rin and Kohaku wondering if his instincts were deceiving him. He wanted to put the blame on Kohaku. The boy was the one to return to their home but putting the blame on him would mean that he was underestimating Rin and that he could never do.

"It was my fault!" Kohaku blurted out.

Sesshoumaru looked at him square and Kohaku shrank back into his chair but still willed himself to stick to his story.

"It was my fault. I brought the pills here. Rin told me to leave but I just wanted her to try them. I thought they might make her feel better."

Rin tensed at the words but kept her gaze steady along the table. She couldn't let Kohaku take the fall for this but she was afraid of what she risked by telling the truth.

Sesshoumaru tried to push any sign of frustration away. Rin couldn't look him or Sara in the eyes and guilt was written all over her. It brought him back to the girl that he'd encountered stealing, the same one that stood in the courtroom awaiting her sentence, the same one that'd made an attempt at an apology right after her stay in YDC. When he and Sara agreed to foster her they weren't making a commitment to her failure. They'd made a promise to help her succeed. Yet, he couldn't help but feel that they were already failing. How had they missed something so big?

"Kohaku, if you're taking the fall for Rin, know that that's not what's going to help her right now. The only thing that's going to help her is telling the truth. So…Rin, what's going on?"

Rin glanced Kohaku. He was her safe place right now. Sara stood stagnant, her arms crossing her chest unable to accept such recklessness and Sesshoumaru's usual calm was at best unsteady.

"…Kohaku brought the pills."

"I'm assuming there's more to the story? How did he know about the pills and where did he get them from?"

"…I don't know…"

Sara stepped forward interrupting her, "Rin, you need to tell us the truth!"

"I am!" Those two words that she'd forced from herself now seemed so much more painful watching their effect. Sara pursed her lips and bit back words as Sesshoumaru moved toward she and Kohaku.

Kohaku looked up nervously, "She's…telling the truth."

Sesshoumaru wasn't sure what to make of it but it was becoming more obvious that Kohaku and Rin were both lying.

"Alright. Kohaku where are you getting the pills from?"

"There's this girl that hangs out on the streets and she gives them to me."

Sara kept Rin in her periphery as Kohaku spoke. The more he said, the less Rin seemed to move and she had an idea of who the girl Kohaku was referring to might be. The one she'd told Rin to be careful about.

"What's the girl's name?"

"Um, Yura."

It wasn't hard for Sesshoumaru to read Sara's reaction. He knew now that the only way to get the truth from Rin was to threaten to take away something or someone she valued.

"Kohaku, I'm sure you can understand why I don't want you around Rin anymore. You're banned from this house. When your sister comes to get you say your final good-bye."

Kohaku swallowed, nodding to Sesshoumaru's demand. He certainly didn't have a choice and Sesshoumaru was intimidating enough to keep him from thinking twice about it.

"Please don't make him go!"

"Why?"

"He's my friend…"

"Is he? He's not much of a friend if he's trying to get you hooked on drugs."

Sesshoumaru hoped that this would finally bring her around. He knew now that Kohaku wasn't really behind this but maybe this threat would bring Rin to her breaking point. It wasn't the way he wanted to get her to tell the truth; he wanted her to listen to her conscience but the matter was too serious and whatever she feared from the outcome had to be greater than telling the truth.

Rin was sure now that she could no longer go along with Kohaku's story. She shouldn't have ever allowed him to take the fall much less let it go on for this long. Her throat tightened with tears at the brink of falling.

"I can't…"

"Rin, no!"

Sesshoumaru waited as Kohaku tried to convince Rin not to confess.

"It was my own fault. I did it…I asked Kohaku to get the pills. He didn't even know at first what I was asking him to get. I told him that it was just something that Yura had given me before and she would know what he was asking for. That's why he came back here. He asked me what they were. I told him it was just to make me feel better but he told me that I shouldn't take them and that I had to promise to never take them again. When he was handing them to me, that's when the light came on and I dropped them. Kohaku isn't responsible for this…it's not his fault. Please don't ban him."

Sara took a seat at the table trying to understand why Rin thought that she needed the drugs, needed to lie. She shook her head coming up with no words, simply disappointment. She thought that Sesshoumaru may have a better take on it but he seemed to be in no better state than she herself.

"What were you thinking?"

Rin swallowed the tears back as she shook her head. She didn't know how to answer what Sesshoumaru was asking her. Yes, she'd thought about it. She was sure she could stop if she wanted, that this wouldn't hurt her, that all she wanted was to be happy and not mess things up.

"How long have you been on them?!"

"..."

"Rin, how long?!"

Rin startled as Kohaku shrank further in his chair trying to make himself invisible not wanting to see his friend in trouble. He wished he'd made the decision not to give her the pills and maybe they could have both avoided this.

"…Yura gave them to me the week before I broke in."

This wasn't what she planned but it was the inevitable truth that had been drilled into her by Yura, Eiko and her friends, her roommate and even the director at the children's home. Whenever she fought to move one step forward she would sabotage herself and move two steps backward.

… …

Rin looked over to her bed in disarray, the covers thrown about as if she'd been in a fight with them. Unable to sleep as she sat against her bedroom door. After Sango arrived to pick up Kohaku, Sesshoumaru and Sara had sent her to bed agreeing that they would talk in the morning but she could hear their voices though muffled as they remained downstairs talking among each other. The occasional word was clear but not their full conversation.

"What do we do?"

"..."

Sesshoumaru wished he had an answer. The lying and the stealing he understood. Those were things that he and Sara were equipped to handle. Sure Sara had probably been around patients with drug issues but the matter changes entirely when it enters your own home. Rin's age was another factor. Neither of them would have guessed a thirteen year old would manage to get access to drugs so easily.

Sara reached for the phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Vivi."

"Wait…"

"She needs to know. She could probably help."

"…"

Sara could see Sesshoumaru fighting against worry.

"They're not going to take her away from us."

"We don't know that. If they don't think we can handle this then…"

"Don't" Sara cut him off as she embraced him. Sesshoumaru was always too hard on himself and it wasn't fair. "Rin admitted she was on the pills before she even met us. We didn't do anything wrong. This is not our fault. I think we make pretty good parents and we'll do everything we can not to let Rin down. Ok?"

"Ok."

A/N: Thanks again to everyone for continuing to follow and review this fic.