The gurney rolled down the hallway, guided by three staff members and attended by another three.
Although most hospitals were run by the government, this one had ties with the pact organization and dealt in reiki and youki users. Thus she would be operated on by the best demon hands in Japan while several monks and mikos would focus on stabilizing her.
Sesshomaru was keeping pace with the gurney, striding alongside it with even paces, yet even as he looked studiously calm, the demon and reiki users winced in pain as his youki fiercely buffeted them, clearly agitated for his pack mate. She was still unconscious and was bleeding heavily from the newest wound to her chest. He couldn't even feel her powers and that had him frantic.
Dear god, if they lost this one…
The hallway went through several doors on the way to the operating theatre and Sesshomaru was slowly losing patience. If they had to go through another set of bloody doors, he would commandeer the hallway and insist they perform the surgery there. There was no time for this promenade. His miko was slipping away and if she wasn't seen to soon enough he would lose her.
Mate is missing, where is mate, please save mate.
He had nothing to say to his beast, so he let the poor devil repeat the same lamentation over and over again. He may very well lose the miko.
Once they made it to the emergency room the best demon doctors were already scrubbed in and ready to operate. Before the last of the doctors entered the theatre after the miko, Sesshomaru grabbed him by the collar and instructed with a growl.
"If at any point it looks like my miko is about to lose her life, you come and get me immediately."
The rabbit youkai, the head of cardiovascular surgery agreed with a brief nod of the head and proceeded into the theatre.
The tenseiga was a tricky weapon. It had refused to save his mother and two of his siblings when commanded during the reiyou wars, but had decided to rescue Inuyasha and Rin's mother the night Inuyasha was born. He had even seen his father cutting through the shikon jewel after it had formed to save his son, but the damned thing would not cut the orb.
Before he sat down on the bench outside the operating room, his father materialized having orbed there after him. The two sat down, side by side in silence and waited. There was simply nothing to say.
After a few minutes, Inutaisho remarked, "Son, if you are this agitated the doctors won't be able to focus," whereupon Sesshomaru immediately retracted his youki to a short finite distance and continued to stew.
Four hours into surgery, Inuyasha arrived, bloody, tired and obviously less than happy.
"There is no fucking sign of the bastard anywhere. Half the fucking dogs in Japan have been out looking and there is no sign. The entire pact portion of the company is at work, hunting down all his assets. They even discovered that secretary of his bailed out the bastard who attacked Kagome outside of the reiyou. They said she used an alias and cash. The bastard was careful."
Sesshomaru was furious. That damned spider had slipped through his grasp. Despite his skilled trackers and all the resources of a wealthy businessman and a demon lord wasn't enough to catch him.
For the first time since her surgery began he spoke. "See to it that the pact council, the demon court and the international demon councils are put on alert. Nara is a fugitive wanted for the attempted murder of a miko." Pausing, he proceeded with his next part of his plan.
"See to it that the miko's things are moved into the manor. She will take up residence in the room she had while she last stayed with us." Notify her family, Sango, Miroku, her grandfather and yourself, Inuyasha, that until Naraku has been caught they will either be guarded by a cadre of our honour guard or they will move into the manor as well."
"Keh, fine. I'll move in to protect Kagome. I won't be letting her out of my sight anytime soon," the hanyou explained. "As for the others, I will ask. They are in the waiting room down the hall. Anything else?"
"You did well tonight." He remarked. "Thank you for bringing honour to the pack."
Inuyasha was flustered, but refused to let it show. With another blushing "Keh" he got up and headed down the hall for the waiting room.
Keeping vigil outside the door turned out to be a rollercoaster. After eight hours of surgery the first exhausted monk-doctor left the operating theatre and Sesshomaru was so upset he was on the verge of storming into the theatre to rescue her before his father pointed out that the exhausted man was debriefing a miko who upon hearing of the procedure's process, darted into the room away from the oppressive youki.
He was fortunate his father was there or he would have killed each and every doctor to quit the room out of rage and confusion.
Several more of these personnel changes took place staggered over a 6 hour period. After 14 hours of surgery involving experts of every discipline, the team emerged.
Inuyasha dashed, exhausted for the waiting room down the hall and shepherded them all into the hallway. Kagome's mother, brother and grandfather were all in attendance, as well as Sango, Miroku and the kitsune family.
"I'm Kagome's physician, Dr. Tomeo. After a very long surgery we have stabilized Miss Higurashi." Pausing while the family rejoiced and the stoic royal demons breathed, youki rippling sighs of relief, he allowed them their moment. Once they were all teary eyed or in the case of the silver haired dog demons, calmed, he continued. "It took 11 hours for our reiki and youki users to remove the kodama, once that happened the poison in her system which was counteracting her natural healing very quickly flushed itself. We suspect it was a form of spider venom mixed with a blood thinner. Fortunately after about 12 hours it began to flush out of her body and her natural reiki healing managed to augment our own procedures.
She will need to heal in hospital for what we believe will amount to a few weeks, barring any complications once that time is up she should be free to go home."
The doctor stayed to answer some questions. Before smiling and bidding everyone a goodnight. Although he was a demon, this surgery had been a long and detailed oriented one for him. He was glad his patient had managed to pull through and that they would not be massacred by the single most intimidating demon he had ever encountered.
In a surprisingly astute move, Inuyasha reopened the conversation regarding safety of Kagome's friends and family once the doctor left. "We need to settle where people will be staying until this is resolved."
Grandpa Higurashi started, "We will be staying at the shrine. I will be personally seeing to the protection of the sunset shrine, and our kitsune friends have agreed to stay with us to better defend the shrine." He said, gesturing to the genuflecting trio in the corner.
Though he had faith in the kitsune, as their line had been carefully selected to protect Midoriko's family Sesshomaru asserted, "You will also be protected by a contingent of my personal honour guard."
At Mrs. Higurashi's objection of, "that won't be necessary," Sesshomaru immediately shot her down.
"The safety of your family is paramount. I will not allow you to live outside my manor without proper protection. While I am confident Hideo-san is capable and the kitsune family are also formidable, I have taken your family into the pack and this is not debatable."
At Hideo's sage look, Mrs. Higurashi, relented, "Thank you, Seshomaru-sama. We appreciate the protection."
"In the meanwhile I expect you to all to stay at the shrine until the honour guard is augmented." Sesshomaru further ordered.
Hideo jumped in before his daughter in law could say anything more. "Thank you Sesshomaru-sama, we will be judicious when ordering additional forces. I will personally see to Souta's education. It's about time he learned some of the more important things."
Souta pulled a face, but stayed silent, sensing this was not the time to complain about his Gramps and his old fashioned ideas when his sister had just pulled through a life-threatening attack and surgery.
Inuyasha redirected and asked Sango her decision. To which she responded with a rather shy, "Thank you Lord Sesshomaru, As of this evening I will be staying with Miroku." Inuyasha couldn't help but notice that Miroku, already happy at the recovery and good health of his cousin was positively beaming now. Lucky bastard.
"Very well, I will send a contingent with the two of you. Sango will work out of Taisho offices until Nara is captured and brought to justice.
With that settled, Sesshomaru nodded and headed out, followed by his father and Hideo. He had already been away from her too long.
Upon his departure, Inuyasha explained again to Kagome's family, "He needs to stay next to her. Don't worry, he will keep her safe. Now, we've arranged for rooms in the hotel across the street. I suggest we all go see her, then head for some much needed shut eye. The honour guard are on their way."
After giving the family the news, the head doctor on Kagome's case, Dr. Tomeo, headed for the CT room where he had sent the miko. Although he had been in surgery for fourteen hours and was exhausted, but confident they had healed all urgent wounds he insisted on checking in on her personally, to ensure they hadn't missed anything.
The technician had just completed the scan and was assessing the results when he pointed an obvious round mass out to the doctor, "Tomeo-sensei, is that something left behind?"
Tomeo's eyes were already on the foreign object trying to puzzle out what the round shadow by her heart might be as the technician expressed fear of a lawsuit if it turned out they had neglected to close properly without checking the field for medical paraphernalia, when Tomeo realized that they hadn't operated on that spot…
Before he knew it the room was stormed by Lord Sesshomaru, the Inutaisho and Kagome's elderly grandfather.
Sesshomaru restrained Tomeo against the wall with a hand to his neck and instructed, "Tomeo-sensei, you will give me all copies of her scans and erase all traces of them from the computer once you are satisfied that she is out of danger," he growled.
"Sesshomaru-sama, what is this? Where are you taking my technician?" He asked as the figured of the scared technician was taken to the anteroom of the CT ward by Inutaisho and Hideo, both assuring the little man that nothing bad would happen to him.
"He is having his memory of the scan erased, while we would plan the same for you, we are in need of someone of your skills to be privy to this information for a little longer, to ensure her recovery goes smoothly."
"My Lord," the rabbit pleaded, "please,"
Sesshomaru let go of the rabbit's neck and allowed his feet to touch the floor again. The rabbit immediately knelt.
"I am originally from the lands of Himeji, and as such are your subject. I will do whatever you wish of me."
Pleased he had a follower that owed him fealty with the skills needed in a place like this pleased him, "Very well, you will tend the miko henceforth. Any illness she had will be seen to by you. Understand the shadow near her heart is to stay in place and stay secret. If at any point I hear that there exists a miko with a shadow in her chest, I will kill you, if I hear there is a human with an anomaly, I will kill you. In short, if you tell a soul, I will personally see the end to your line and the obliteration of your clan."
The rabbit was surprisingly unfazed by his declaration. "Yes, my lord. I will see to the protection of the miko and ensure none know of this, if any revelation of this matter comes about, I forfeit my life, my clan, and our legacy."
Sesshomaru nodded, and backed up enough to allow the rabbit to see to his task.
He watched as the rabbit finished checking the scan, deleted the file, and erased the scan log from all systems.
Once confident Dr. Tomeo was finished, Sesshomaru in a uncharacteristic moment acknowledged, "Well done today Doctor," before exiting the room, leaving behind a bemused rabbit youkai, piecing the puzzle together for his own benefit and his own alone.
True to his word, he would never breathe what he had witnessed to another soul and would keep his observation regarding the possessive inu youkai lord over his miko.
He ordered the nurses standing in the hall to remove the miko to her room as the scan was clean, and watched her rolled off before his technician returned, with a fresh tea in hand and a donut from the hospital café.
"Tomeo-sensei, is there anything I can do for you?" The startled technician asked, puzzled at why the renowned doctor was just standing there.
For hours he waited, breath baited.
The moment her breathing picked up tempo, he was there. In that moment he had a decision to make, one he had been dreading since he realized she would live and been putting off, hoping for a moment of obvious clarity.
That moment never came and now the deadline was upon him; would he stay by her side and explain his affections, or would he run, appoint Inuyasha as his proxy and let him take up rulership for the next 70 years and seal himself in a mountain until his miko died.
There really was only one option.
"S-Sesshomaru?"