Sesshomaru lifted her upper body to his chest, hearing her take in air after a long pause. After a few weak inhales, she came around and looked straight into her savior's golden eyes.
"Welcome back, Rin," his voice was sincere and warm. He quickly stood and helped her to her feet. She took this as an opportunity to hug him, and made Sesshomaru feel that much better. Sango hopped over to her best friend and demanded a hug as well after they had detached from one another.
Inutaisho was the only one cognizant of their short time and started to formulate a plan. When he heard the lower door being forced open, he quickly told them what they must do to preserve their innocence and the secret of demons.
Rin and Sango were to remain in that room, feigning injury and shock as well as having no clue as to what went on next door.
The father and son duo swept back up to the roof and jumped gracefully across the street to watch and listen.
They watched as the police made their way up the stairs, swiftly breaking down all of the building's doors. They found Rin and Sango first, and quickly evacuated them from the building. Sesshomaru had to restrain himself from jumping down to meet her, instead letting her get into a cop car. They saw all of Sesshomaru's victims, save for those who jumped out of the window, found by the party of policemen. They saw Rin and Sango driven away, then turned their attention back to the traumatized men.
With the demon's super hearing, they heard Sesshomaru's 'fall guy' had come around and quickly admit that, "Everything is my fault, arrest me, arrest me!"
With blood on his hands, face, and clothing, the officers believed him. Two of the officers took the man into custody and the rest began to see if there were any survivors in the room. There weren't.
"Let's go find Rin and Sango, shall we?" without waiting for an answer, Inutaisho started to impressively jump from roof to roof in the direction of the headquarters from a few days ago.
Sesshomaru followed with ease, letting his mind wander to Rin as he jumped alongside his father.
Why had Rin not spoken? Was she so distraught from her brutal slaying?
With these thoughts, Sesshomaru was sure that he should have slaughtered all those men again.
"Now, girls, are you comfortable?" a detective asked in a comfortable sitting room, handing both a bottle of water as he asked.
They were brought back to the same headquarters from a few days back, provided hot showers to wash away the dried blood, and given clothes to replace their shredded ones.
"Yes, officer, thank you," Sango answered, wishing Rin would talk or cry or do something other than stare blankly.
The man sat on a chair facing the two on the couch and sighed, "While you two were washing up, the officers at the scene discovered all but one man dead. Seems like they were slaughtered brutally by one of their own and some even jumped out the window to escape."
"They sound pretty desperate to get away from the killer," Sango commented.
"Yes. However, it seems like that was the smart thing to do. Three died on impact with the street, but one survived," he told them. "He is pretty broken up, but he'll survive. We need you two to identify him for us, and his part in the prostitution ring. Could you do that for us?"
Rin and Sango both nodded, and Sango said, "No promises, though. If he was some lowly flunky then we probably never really encountered him."
They were led out to the front of the building and were waiting for a car to come around when Sesshomaru and Inutaisho appeared before them.
Rin was quickly taken into Sesshomaru's arms and Inutaisho put his arm across Sango's slim shoulders to comfort her as best he could.
Sango looked up to Inutaisho and asked, "How the hell are we alive?"
"All will be explained, my dear, when no one else is around. I promise you," Inutaisho assured her. He turned to watch his son stroke Rin's hair and tell her all sorts of comforting, pretty words. All Inutaisho wanted now was to go home and see the rest of his family.
"Ah, the Takahashi men," came the familiar voice of Agent Ross from a rolled-down window of a police SUV. "I was just about to take the girls over to the hospital to identify a survivor of the ordeal. Would you like to accompany them?"
Sesshomaru, after getting over the fact that someone survived his rage, affirmed their company.
At the hospital, Sango and Rin were taken to an anonymous room guarded by armed policemen. Mr. Ross assured them that the man in the room couldn't even walk, let alone hurt them. With Sesshomaru's guidance, Rin walked in and looked at the broken man before her.
Of course, he would be the one to survive, Rin mused. He was such a coward, he probably jumped out of the window the moment he sensed danger. He preyed on little girls, innocent, helpless girls.
And there he was, broken on a hospital bed. His legs were awkwardly thrust into slings, wraps covered the limbs from toe to hip. The wrap around his head showed splotches of blood and clumps of greasy black hair. If it were not for Sesshomaru's hand on her shoulder, Rin would have run away when she saw his unforgiving eyes trying to focus on her.
"Can you identify this man?" Mr. Ross asked with an undisguised tone of disgust.
"He is the leader of the ring... or what's left of it," Sango told him as she glared at her former tormentor.
"Do you know his name?"
"Not sure. He was always called 'boss' or 'sir,'" Sango said as she turned to walk out of the room.
"Do you know, Rin?" Mr. Ross asked, hoping that she would finally speak.
She merely shook her head as a 'no' and began to follow her friend out of the door. Mr Ross followed suit, and did not see Sesshomaru whip over to the broken man's bedside.
Sesshomaru looked him straight in the eye and whispered in the lowest voice he could muster, "I'll kill you if you ever walk or talk again." And the silver-haired demon swept out of the room as he smelled the man's bedpan fill up.
After a brief interview with the detectives, the party of four headed to their hotel. Sango plead, for herself and Rin, that they had been knocked out and had no idea what exactly happened.
They headed to their rooms for a well-deserved rest.
The group was waiting to go to breakfast the next morning, Christmas day, in the lobby when Sesshomaru heard a familiar, high-pitched voice.
Estelle.
"Hi, mister!" the little girl ran from her group of small children and tugged on Sesshomaru's pant leg to get his attention, which she certainly had. She had the entire lobby's attention. "Is this your wife?" she tried to whisper. When he did not answer her, she loudly exclaimed to Rin, who was holding the man in question's hand, "Your babies would be sooooo pretty!"
And Rin, who had not spoken since being revived, laughed. When she had recovered and took in sufficient air, she said to the little blondie, "They would be pretty, wouldn't they?"
Estelle smiled back and nodded, not letting go of her grip on Sesshomaru's pant leg.
"Estelle! You mustn't bother these people!" the woman from the elevator stomped over from the front desk, trying to gesture for Estelle to let go.
Sesshomaru, who sensed Rin's like of the little girl, said, "No problem, miss. Would you and your family like to eat a Christmas breakfast with us? It would be my treat."
The woman looked quite taken aback by the comment, but said after recovering, "All six of us? That would be quite generous of you."
"Please. Only six? You do not wish to bring your husband?" Sesshomaru assumed.
The woman raised her eyebrow and caught on to what he thought. "Sir, I am one of the New York City group home managers, not their actual mother," the woman picked up one of the smaller children in her small herd. "We are staying in this hotel because of a very generous donation, on a mission to get these children adopted by prospective families in the area."
Rin's smile faded. She knew what it was like to be in a group home, trying to be adopted, even though she didn't stay in hers for very long.
Sesshomaru, knowing Rin's background after their questions game, encouraged the group to follow them into the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
It was in this moment that Inutaisho knew that Sesshomaru had a compassionate heart.
The enlarged group spoke of pleasant things during their hardy breakfast, avoiding the dire happenings of the day before.
During the entire dinner, Sesshomaru was burdened by his future. He wanted children, as did Rin. But according to her past, children would not be possible, biologically.
Adoption was a possible solution, was it not?
Sesshomaru happily paid for the entire meal, he even generously tipped the waiter. Then, he excited the children by telling them all to come with him to the Disney store a few blocks away. On the drive, Sesshomaru made a few calls and pulled a few strings. He wanted these helpless kids to have a Christmas today. When the limo arrived at the store, Sesshomaru was flanked by five kids, their home mother, Rin, Sango, and his very proud father.
A bribed manager opened the store for them, and Sesshomaru told them all to pick out anything they wanted.
"You've become quite the tender soul, Sesshomaru," Rin said, watching the children scurry away excitedly.
"Beauty has tamed the Beast," he replied, looking at the Beast's rose in a display case as he spoke.
Rin smiled and entwined her fingers with his impeccably long digits. "You're a very good man, Sesshomaru."
"You're a very wonderful woman," he said, then bent gracefully to kiss her cheek.
Rin smiled at him and pecked him on the lips.
Their first kiss.
A/n: I hope this wasn't terribly disjointed. I was listening to some weird internet radio stations while writing...
My last post was on 1-11-11. It was hard to change that super-cool date by updating, but I felt that some of you, my dearest readers, would hunt me down and murder me for making you wait any longer.