I do not own anything Inuyasha (Though I wouldn't mind owning Sesshoumaru for a while! LOL)

Chapter Twenty Six

Flow of Time

When Kagome wakes the next day Sesshoumaru and Keiko are gone, and judging by the sounds in the room Rin is near the garden doors, talking quietly with someone. She listens for a time before rising slowly, feeling strangely drained. She removes her outer kimono that she had slept in last night and replaces it with a thick robe that had been laid out on the edge of the bed.

As she comes around the barrier she sees Rin talking quietly with Inuyasha, the former standing out in the gardens, Rin leaning out the doors.

"Rin, is everything all right?" Kagome asks as she approaches. Rin, having not heard her approach, suddenly straightens and turns.

"Yes, I am sorry for waking you." Kagome smiles, patting Rin on the shoulder.

"You didn't. Where's Keiko?"

"She's right here." Rin says, gesturing toward a cradle near the door. Sesshoumaru had made it shortly before the birth of the twins, having seen one in her own time. Keiko lay in it, staring at everything wide eyed. Inuyasha remain silent, watching as Kagome picks up the infant, talking quietly to her a moment before looking up.

"Inuyasha, you don't have to stay out there. Come in and sit." He hangs back a second before stepping in, keeping his eyes on the floor as he takes a seat. Rin sits as well, still chatting away as Kagome walks past them, out toward the gardens.

Outside she is surprised to see that it is already near noon. Further down she can hear the boys playing, accompanied by the occasional laugh from their father.

"Easy boys." Kagome says as she approaches them. They are tumbling in the grass, both standing atop their father. Sesshoumaru chuckles slightly, the weight of the two boys hardly phasing him as he lays on his back on the grass.

"Mother. We heard you slain a demon yesterday!!" She shrugs.

"I guess you could say that but your father did all the work." She rocks Keiko slightly as the child fusses, waking from the sun on her face.

Sesshoumaru watches her, noticing how pale she looks.

"Are you feeling all right?" He asks as she sits on the grass near his head. She nods.

"Yes." He studies her a moment longer, giving her a rather pointed look. She sighs. "I haven't felt right since yesterday." She admits. Sesshoumaru frowns.

"Could it be because of the jewel?"

"It could be." She admits quietly. "I just can't think of any reason why." Sesshoumaru continues to watch her, noticing how she seems to tremble. He pushes the boys off, the two tumbling onto the grass with laughs, both of them watching as he rises. He takes Keiko from her, earning a confused look from Kagome.

"Rin!" Sesshoumaru bellows. Rin suddenly appears on the path, nearly running.

"Yes?" He hands her Keiko as Inuyasha appears behind her.

"Watch the children for us, would you?" She nods, sitting on the grass where he had been as he extends his hand to Kagome. "Come on." Kagome frowns as she takes his hand, letting him guide her toward the office doors. Sesshoumaru glances back at Inuyasha and smiles slightly.

"Akemi, Kiyo, go tackle your uncle." Inuyasha's eyes widen in surprise as the two boys suddenly jump up, tackling Inuyasha and knocking him to the ground. As they leave they can hear Inuyasha start laughing and tussling with the boys.

Inside the office he stops, making sure they are out of sight of the group in the gardens before he pulls Kagome against him. She leans flush against his body, her head on his chest. With her so close he can hear her heart, the slow and steady beat sounding slightly off to him, different. Kagome's body against his feels slightly chilled.

"Are you sure you are all right?" Kagome is quiet a time before she answers.

"I feared this would happen one day." He frowns and pushes her back a bit from him. Kagome backs away, seating herself on the edge of his desk, her legs dangling down. She looks out the garden doors a moment, watching her children playing before turning to Sesshoumaru.

"It wasn't until shortly after the Shikon Jewel was completed that I fully understood my connection with the jewel." She says quietly. "My sole purpose here in the past was to complete the Shikon Jewel and keep it pure and untainted until a day came when the Jewel could be destroyed." She looks up at him, making sure he understands. She looks him in the eye as she talks.

"Now that the Shikon Jewel has been destroyed, my purpose here has been fulfilled."

"So what does that mean?" He asks quietly.

"The jewel was my barrier against time. That was how I was able to cross back and forth between times. Without the jewel I have no protection." He simply stares at her, realizing what this means but his rational mind refuses to believe it even as she says it aloud. "My place is not here, but in my own time. Now that the jewel is gone, my being here is against the flow of time, and time is trying to correct that."

"So what is going to happen to you?" He asks quietly. Kagome again looks out the doors, and this time she sees that Inuyasha is watching them. His eyes meet hers and they stare at each other a long moment before he suddenly rises. Kagome looks away as she turns to Sesshoumaru.

"If I remain here, no matter how much I want to or no matter what I do, time will correct the flow of time and I will die."

"There has got to be something we can do." Both look up as Inuyasha strides forward quickly. "There has to be something." Kagome nods.

"There is, but I don't even know if it will work." Both men look at her. "I will have to go back to my own time." Both stare at her, then Inuyasha turns back toward the gardens. The twins are watching them, slightly worried. Inuyasha smiles and winks at them and the boys laugh and go back to play fighting. As Inuyasha turns back his smile vanishes.

"If you do, you wont' be able to come back." Kagome nods.

"That's why I am not going to go." Sesshoumaru shakes his head, beginning to pace.

"No. You have to go back to your own time." He insists. Kagome rises and stops his pacing with a hand on his arm. He looks down at her and she smiles slightly.

"I would rather spend what time I have left here with my family than in my own time alone." She says quietly. Sesshoumaru sighs and turns to Inuyasha but he has already turned away, disappearing out the door without a word.

Sesshoumaru turns back to Kagome and she stares up at him. Already he can see the toll it is taking on her. Her skin is deathly pale and her entire body trembles.

"We will come with you." He says quietly. Kagome shakes her head.

"You can't. It would be the same as if I remained here." She bites her lower lip gently. "You and our children do not belong in my time just as much as I don't belong in yours. And besides, you are demon, our children share that demon blood. The well would not allow you through now. Only the jewel allowed you and Inuyasha through."

"Isn't there any way?" Sesshoumaru says quietly, sounding helpless. Kagome slides off the edge of the desk and her legs falter. Sesshoumaru catches her, steadying her.

"I wish there was." She says quietly against his chest.

"You have to go through the well Kagome." He says quietly to her, threading his fingers through her hair slowly. "I can't lose you." He whispers to her.

"If I go through the well or remain here you will lose me." She says quietly. "I want to stay here with you." She says, her voice sounding slightly choked.

"Mother?" They separate, seeing Akemi and Kiyo standing near the doors, both looking very worried. "Is something wrong?"

Kagome drops to her knees and extends her arms out to them. The two boys come forward, hugging Kagome. She squeezes them to her, rocking gently as she talks quietly to them.

"No, everything is just fine." She reassures them. Sesshoumaru stands over them, not bearing to look at them so he looks away, toward the gardens. Rin is still sitting in the grass, a now back to sleep Keiko in her arms.

His attention is drawn back as the boys scamper off toward the gardens again. Kagome rises, her back to him, head down. He reaches out to her, laying his hand on her shoulder. She turns to him slowly.

"I'll go through the well." She says quietly. He frowns slightly and she looks back over her shoulder at the boys. "I don't want their last memories of me to be of my death." She says quietly. "I don't want to put them or you through that."

"When?"

"I want to wait until I can't stay any longer." He nods and steps away.

"I have to go speak with Inuyasha." She nods, watching him go before joining her family out in the gardens again.

Sesshoumaru finds Inuyasha up in a tree near the back of the garden. He has to smile as he sees a bare foot hanging down from the branches.

"Inuyasha." There is no answer so he leaps up into the tree, settling himself on a branch just above and to the side of Inuyasha's. The once-hanyou reclines on the tree, fingers threaded and behind his head, his eyes closed.

He doesn't respond for a time and Sesshoumaru is slightly startled when Inuyasha speaks.

"She should have just killed me instead of purifying me." He says quietly, not moving on his perch. "I should be the one dead, not her."

"She has decided to go back through the well." Inuyasha moves this time, nearly falling off his tree branch.

"She has?" Sesshoumaru nods. "When is she leaving?"

"She wants to stay here as long as she can before she goes back." Sesshoumaru shifts on the tree branch to face his brother. "I have a favor to ask of you." Inuyasha turns on the branch to face him. "I want you to go with Kagome." Inuyasha frowns.

"What?"

"I want you to go through the well with Kagome. Watch over her in the modern era until I can get there." Inuyasha frowns.

"What do you mean by that? Until you get there." Sesshoumaru smiles slightly.

"I have lived over a thousand years already Inuyasha, and I don't plan on dying any time soon." Understanding dawns and Inuyasha nods.

"I'll go."

Review please!!!! I'm a bit nervous about the ending so let me know how you think it is going so far please!!!