Ch. 7: ~When the Drive is Long and the Silence is Longer~

Kagome looked angrily outside the car window as the streets of Tokyo flew by. The afternoon sun gleamed off the skyscrapers as the doctor she had just met that morning skillfully weaved through traffic. She could not believe she had to leave her home and her family just like that. For the briefest amount of time she had dreamed of freedom. Free from the psychiatrists, free from the questions and freedom to leave the shrine without a chaperone. That, however had all been thrown out the window the second the walls had started moving and she went into one of her… episodes.

Kagome shot a glare at the doctor out of the corner of her eye. She knew it wasn't really his fault but she needed someone to blame. If she hadn't mistook him for a demon this wouldn't have happened. With a frown she looked away from the older man. What had happened had been odd, different from her usual… hallucinations. God did she hate admitting that's what they were. Yet, she was now more easily able to accept that what she was seeing might not have been real because now she had proof. Proof that her adventures and that part of her life had been real. Those pictures on the wall were real and in a way having seen those, she now felt more grounded.

Looking back, when she had thought her friends had been possessed and saw the shadows of monsters behind them, pulling their limbs along like strings to puppets, she had attempted to ward the spirits off. Her friends had looked mostly normal asides from the leeching of their energy or so she thought, but never had she experienced someone transform in front of her into something so… terrifying. Once more she stole a glance at the man beside her, he still looked human but in that moment on the couch, he looked like some sort of demon created from the sea.

After the epsiode, the doctor had left while Kagome was still thunderstruck that she had never noticed the photos of her love on the wall. So distracted she was by that revelation, that when he had come back inside with some of the worst news of her life, she could only mutely follow basic commands. Get ready to leave, shower, pack, say good bye, get in the car.

It wasn't until she was in said admittedly nice car that reality finally caught up to her, snapping the priestess out of her sudden elation and realization. She nearly threw a fit then.

It wasn't fair.

Kagome let out deep, unhappy sigh. She already missed her family, her rocks in the time of chaos. Her mother had hugged her fiercely and cried as if she would never see her baby again. Souta was confused but optimistic at her possible recovery and her grandfather grumbled, but bid her a fond farewell in hopes of her getting better. Out of all the goodbyes it was her mothers that seemed off. Even when she traveled beyond the well with the possibility of death, her mother never cried during their parting moments. There was something going on, now that the teenager thought about it. Something suspicious was happening right under her nose, as the pieces started staring at her like an intricate puzzle that she didn't yet have the ability to solve.

"Theres no use in sighing like that, what's done is done." Her thoughts were broken by the sound of her travel companion. His mannerisms and cool voice ginally clicked and reminded her of a dangerous male with long silver hair, an image of the imposing killing perfection dancing across her vision before she shut it down, refusing to even think his name lest painful memories return.

"Yeah, well, I'm not happy about it." She muttered in response.

He glanced at her, his head turning so he could get a better look at her and for the first time Kagome realized that his other eye was possibly covered for a reason beyond style. Her brow furrowed as another piece of the puzzle was added to her mental board.

Hatori was quiet for a long moment and suddenly she felt small, young and niave. It wasn't a good feeling. Mercifully he soon drew his attention back to the road and she released a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding.

"There are worse places you could end up." He replied, though something in his tone told Kagome that he didn't quiet believe that.

"I didn't want to go anywhere, I was happy where I was, thank you very much." She puffed up, trying to be confident in her lie because if he believed it maybe she could to.

"Were you?" The doctor asked quietly. The priestess was going to respond that of course she was, but he continued before she could. His voice was still quiet but held that same clinical monotone as before. "You barely got sleep, you attempted unconsciously to end your life, you were forced into the hands of inadequate doctors and tip toed around by everyone including your own family. You have regular hallucinations that put the people you care about at risk and are reminded daily of all you lost."

Kagome gaped at him for his blunt and admittedly painful observations. She shuttered and turned away from him, cheeks flushed from embarrassment and anger. He had only met her this morning and already knew that much. Her eyes burned but she refused to cry.

"After all that, you think this move will honestly help me?" She finally asked, expecting that same bullshit answer that it would, but the doctor didn't reply right away. She looked back at him suspiciously to find his expression looking vaguely unsure.

"I dont know." He finally relented. Kagome's anger came back hot and heavy at the answer, her chest tight with emotion.

"Then why are we doing this? Just take me back home!" She all but yelled.

"I can't." The doctor said so softly she almost missed it. Kagome didn't let him off with that answer and glared at him. Hatori chanced a glance at her and he sighed himself. "It's not my decision to make."

"You're the doctor! If it's not your decision then whose is it? I need to give them a piece of my mind." She growled in a way that would have impressed any demon from the fudel era.

"The head of the family." The doctor replied causing Kagome's scowl to turn into a frown.

"What family? I thought grandpa was the head of the family." Kagome asked, mostly to herself.

"The Higurashi family yes, but the clan on your mothers side is a different matter." Hatori replied as he turned away from the teen.

Kagome blinked in confusion. Her mother never talked about her family. She had never even met her grandmother or grandfather from that side. The young woman had assumed they were dead and it was too painful to talk about but…

Another piece fell into her lap and Kagome had to restsit tugging on her hair in frustration.

"Why the heck does someone I never even met get to decide my life for me?!" At her outburst the doctor gave a small flinch and his mask temporarily broke to reveal resignation and regret. That look was one she had seen on the faces of others, people she cared about, and for a moment she was thrown off kilter, her anger diminishing at the humanizing look on the man's face.

"Because…" he spoke, his voice heavy with a weight she didn't understand. "That's what it is to be a Sohma."

0o0

The rest of the car ride to the estate had been quiet after the initial conversation. The girl had withdrawn into her own thoughts leaving the dragon to his. Hatori only left enough presence of mind to not get them into an accident on the roads while his mind wandered to what the future would hold.

It would be a lie to say he wasnt worried, so much was changing so fast and this newest development hardly helped matters. The teenager beside him was going to cause problems, perhaps not intentionally but it would happen.

Casually he glanced over to the passenger side and observed the girl clinically. Her brown eyes were glazed over, lost in thought but the bags under her eyes were pronounced, clear signs she hadn't slept well in some time. Her outfit was modest with jeans and a blouse that showed that Kagome was slightly too pale and possibly malnourished. She didn't look like she could cause big waves within the family but then again niether did Tohru.

It was the fact that the Kagome was so… opinionated, so strong in personality and righteous fury. Where it had come from he didnt know, after all the details of her past were still a mystery to him but one didn't come out like she did without hardship and conflict.

He couldn't blame her for her anger or unhappiness. To be uprooted from one life style and forced into another where you have your life dictated by someone else would be extremely unpleasant to say the least. Especially for someone as independent as Kagome was, he could only imagine the turmoil in her fragmented mind.

He would not sugar coat it though and he would not lie to her about the possibilities of her future if asked, but the truth was he did not know what Akito had going on in his twisted mind. Ever since Tohru came, the god had been unbalanced and reclusive. This was just another curve ball the head of the Sohmas decided to add to the mix.

As the dragon pondered, the traffic thinned until they were moving along the country roads outside the city, leading into the hills that stretched past the horizon. Tall trees gaining their fresh green leaves lined the sides of the path and stretched to the heavens.

"Why did Momma never tell me who she was?" The girl asked with a calm that startled the doctor out if his musings. Upon disecting her question, he found her demeanor a little suspicious for the subject.

"Its not my place to tell." Hatori replied. While he knew that the girls mother had run away, he didnt know the circumstances nor did he personally know the woman. He could speculate, after all she was not the first to try and escape the clutches of the Sohma family after the death of Akira and she wouldn't be the last, at least while Akito was in charge.

"What can you tell me then?" The girl replied, her temper clearly flaring up. Thanks to handling the moody head of house, Hatori had no problem navigating the teenage girls mood swings. It did help him that he understood her reasoning and could read her far more easily than he could Akito. "I know nothing about Momma's side of the family but their name and I only know it because of you."

"The Sohma's are a wealthy clan that sprawls throughout Japan, you may have heard of a few of our enterprises or the name from distant relations that live apart from the main estate." The doctor relented, vague questions about the family in general he could field.

"Our?" Kagome asked looking at him more critically. "You mean, you're one of them? Or… us?"

"Hatori Sohma." The man nodded. "Your probably a distant cousin of mine. As I said, the family is rather large."

The girl was staring at him now, her face screwed up in disbelief and confusion. "We're related?"

The doctor nodded again and he found himself relaxing a bit now that they were out of the city and the girl wasn't snarling or trying to attack him. His blackened finger pads twinged as a reminder that things were not as it seemed, but he put it to the back of his mind for now.

While being on the road meant he would soon be back at the estate, the winding path home in the afternoon light was a comfort. Driving was one of the few things that relaxed him from the stresses of work. At least it was healthier than his other coping mechanism.

"Wait, how is the family so big? Not everyone born can be boys to carry the name. What about the girls who marry out of it?" Kagome asked, unaware that she was perhaps getting close to the reason that her mother had initially left.

"You marry into the family, you don't marry out of it. It's a rule made by the head of the clan." Hatori replied, his monotone back in place, revealing nothing and yet so much.

"Whose that?" Kagome finally asked the big question. The dragon looked at her as if to ask if she really wanted to know. He would answer but he wasn't sure she'd like it. " I deserve to know whose calling the shots about my life."

"Akito Sohma." Hatori have a light sigh of his own as the girl watched him, her attention focused. "He's a few years older than you. Normally he doesn't get involved with distant family but for you he's made an… exception."

"Why?" Kagome asked putting a finger to her chin in thought.

"Because of your mother." Hatori replied simply. "Because she broke the rules, and because he's fiercely possessive."

The young woman looked at him wide eyed at his change of tone. Perhaps some of his frustration leaked into his voice he wasnt sure, but he continued on.

"I won't lie to you, the man who is in change of your fate, of all our fates, in not kind or caring. He jealous, scheming and used to getting his way. He will attempt to manipulate and break you. He is most likely only interested in you because you are of some use to him."

Hatori stopped himself, he said more than he intended and he hadn't meant to scare her. He glanced over and expected to see fear but instead saw defiance which was perhaps worse. He wondered if she would get angry but to his surprise she faced foreward, shoulders squared. He turned his eyes back to the road, conversation seemingly over by his admission when he hear her speak softly.

"He doesn't scare me. I won't be broken, I will find a way to be free from all of this."

Hatori had an idea she was speaking about more than just Akito, but he had no response for her and they lapsed into silence.

A/N: Well, well, well, I finally updated this after… years. Oops. The truth is I had the story fully outlined and several more chapters written but then I lost them all when my phone drowned and it took me a long time to regain my muse for this story. I actually had a completely different chapter in mind but I couldn't remember exactly what I had written and I really liked it the first time so I'm doing things a bit different. I'm still going to stick to what I remember for the outline because it was good so hopefully you will see some more chapters in the future and it won't take me another… three years.