A/N: I know I don't usually write my notes at the beginning of the chapter but I need to get something off my chest. Here goes: Don't bash on my review page, punch a pillow instead! With that said, I feel much better now! ^^



Chapter 6:

"When Hell Freezes Over"



The next three days were a complete hell for Megumi. She and Suzuki remained inside the clinic for half of the week, not being able to see their friends at the dojo at all from Megumi's paranoia that something might happen if she so much as set foot outside. The bruises on her arms and face raised questions from her son, but she was always able to brush them off and make up some story that seemed plausible enough for him to let it slide. Her left eye was still black and swollen, no matter how much ice she put on it or however long she applied medication. She couldn't leave the house, not with knowing that Tetsu was out there somewhere, willing and ready to endanger her son and her at any moment he felt like it and Megumi had no way of stopping it. She absolutely hated being helpless.

"Mommy! Can't I go outside and play today?" Suzuki whined, tugging at the sleeve of Megumi's green kimono. He had been able to stay secluded for three whole days now from any other human being besides his own mother and a patient or two that needed medical attention and he was sick and tired of it. Suzuki wanted to go outside, at least out in the front yard, just as long as he could leave the awful presence of terror in his home. "Please, Mommy..." he pleaded again when Megumi didn't answer, "Can't you just walk me to the dojo? I want to see Kenji and everyone else! I miss them!"

Megumi turned to her son and gently caressed the side of his face. She hated to have him cooped up in the house like this just as much as he did. Children were made for the outdoors, to be seen playing with other children outside, and here she was locking him away in their stuffy clinic without so much as a friend to come over. Her heart absolutely melted when she saw the puppy-dog eyes he gave her, his secret weapon against her that he had inherited from his father, the mastermind of wicked, who displayed it proudly on his back.

She missed seeing everyone too. Even missed Kaoru and her horrible cooking. She sighed loudly, letting Suzuki know that he had won the eternal battle and he threw his arms in the air in celebration.

"Yay!" he cried, punching both fists into the air, "I'll go get my stuff! Come on, Mom, we have to go get ready!" Suzuki anxiously pulled at his mother's hand, not noticing how she winced from the sore spot of where Tetsu had practically broken her wrist, but she was a good actress and she was able to smile despite the pain. Obediently, she got up before he could realize she was in pain from her old injuries and she followed him further into the hall to get ready to go.

"Just give me a few minutes to get ready, okay, Suzuki?" Megumi said quietly and she slid the door to her room closed behind her after hearing his response.

Megumi entered her room and grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was flat and lifeless, sticking to the sides of her face like velcro, making her pale features look even whiter and her eyes no longer held the friendly sparkle and shimmer of gold that indicated that she was happy. She sighed as she picked up her powder puff and patted it over her face in hopes of making all the bluish-black spots become less visible, but it didn't work too well at all. In fact, the color of the powder was now a completely different shade from her battered face and it only made her wounds stand out more.

Frustrated at her appearance and the person that had caused her to look like she did, Megumi angrily brushed the powder off her face with violent strokes and she wiped away the tears on her cheeks at the same time, the endless water streams that she bid only to come when her son was nowhere in sight.

"Mommy! Hurry up!" Suzuki called from the door, his patience growing into a taut line, thinning out with every second that passed by, "Come on, Mom! Let's go!"

"I'll be right there!" she hollered back from her room and she gave the mirror one last look at her horrible reflection before she headed out the door. She stopped in the kitchen on her way out, grabbing a basket of Ohagi on the counter that she had baked that morning as she made her way to the front door. If she couldn't look good, she could at least compensate for her appearance with their favorite snack. Finding her son waiting impatiently against the porch bench, she smiled at him and put out her hand for him to hold. "Okay, I'm ready now. Let's go."



Sanosuke paused for a moment to wipe the beads of sweat that rolled down his forehead with the back of his hand as he set the ax down on a nearby tree stump. He had been ordered by Kaoru to go outside and chop some wood for the stove to earn his keep at her dojo again since he had simply refused to do the laundry. After a lot of arguing and a couple swings from Kaoru's bokken, he had finally let up when she insisted that he make himself useful for once. The words 'for once' was what really got him up.

His hair was back to normal, up in the usual tall spikes atop his head and pulled back with his red bandana that he received when he was a part of the Sekihoutai when he was still about seven years old. He had left his green cloak at the clinic the first time he went to visit Megumi and he had forgotten to get it back to this day.

Sanosuke lifted his hand over his head to shield his eyes from the sun's bright rays that scorched down on his bare back and he looked up to see the giant fire sphere burning through the clouds.

A sunset, just like the one he had seen the last day he had been in Tokyo, leaving behind everything dear to him; his home, his friends, his fiance... Sanosuke felt his chest tighten at the thought of Megumi. He had left her and now she was engaged to someone else that she didn't love. He knew she didn't love Tetsu. It was more than obvious the night before from the response she gave toward his kiss. His eyes steadily closed, thinking back to the soft feel of her mouth and the sweet taste of her tongue, but suddenly, his concentration was interrupted.

"Mr. Sagara!" Suzuki called from the door, making Sanosuke turn at the familiar sound of his son's voice that he hadn't heard for almost a week. He turned to see the little boy running over to him from the dojo's entrance and Sanosuke leaned down to the ground with his arms outstretched and his son launched himself into them, barely noticing the trickles of sweat from Sanosuke's chest that dampened his shirt.

"Hey, you little monkey!" Sanosuke laughed as he lifted the boy up into his arms and threw him up in the air. Suzuki laughed with delight at the gravity-defying toss before Sanosuke finally set him down on his hip. "I haven't seen you in a while! How's your mom?" At the mention of his mother, Suzuki's festive smile drooped at the corners as if an anvil were weighing them down as he remembered how awful his mother's condition was. Sanosuke noticed the falter in his grin and he bounced him a bit on his hip. "Hey, what's the matter? Your Mom's okay, right?" Sanosuke asked, looking the boy in the face, but Suzuki kept his head down low, twiddling his thumbs as he slowly shook his head.

"I don't know, Mr. Sagara," Suzuki said, his voice hardly audible as he practically whispered under his breath and Sano strained to hear him, "I don't know what's wrong with her. She's not acting right..."

"What do you mean?" Sanosuke asked, worry crossing over his face as he thought of all the worst diseases in the world she could have caught due to her job as a doctor, "Is she sick?"

"No, I'm not sick," Megumi suddenly replied from behind them, her hands still clasping the tiny basket of food as she looked up at him with melancholy eyes, "I never get sick, you know that."

Sanosuke turned to stare at her, setting his son down on the ground after his request to go see the other people at the dojo and he focused his gaze on Megumi's belabored face. Her left eye was black and amplified. The swelling couldn't have been hidden even with all the make-up in the world. They had lost their welcoming twinkle and the sparks of fire that he had always been enchanted by. Her cheeks were pale, like she had just spent the night in an igloo. Her bottom lip was cut in the middle, chapped from lack of moisture, and she was no longer wearing her insatiable red lipstick that she almost never left the house without.

"Shit... Megumi, what happened to you?!" Sanosuke exclaimed, moving closer to her as if nearing her would wash away all the wounds and assorted colors on her face, but they never faded, "What happened? Are you okay? Here, let me see..."

Sanosuke took a step forward, his hand reaching up to touch her thrashed cheek with utter concern in his warm gaze. But before Megumi could utter some kind of excuse for her battered appearance, Kaoru, Kenshin and Yahiko emerged from the dojo and walked out to greet her with giant smiles playing across their lips, but at the sight of her beaten face, their Soujiro-like smiles dropped.

"Oh my god... Miss Megumi, are you alright?" Kaoru asked, running over to her friend with her arms open wide and she took hold of the lady doctor's shoulders. Megumi winced from the shocking vibrations that ran up her shoulders and Kaoru jumped back in surprise, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know... Are... are you okay?"

Megumi gave her friend a weak smile even though the slightest touch of Kaoru's hand on her shoulder gave her more pain than she showed on the outside. Sanosuke still watched her as she delicately nodded her head, but he saw the flash of pain in her eyes even with that tiny motion of her neck. He looked her over again with sad eyes and he longed to kiss away all her wounds. The Megumi he knew and had fallen in love with was now hidden somewhere far beneath the ragged woman in front of him that seemed to be trying to hold back from crying out in agony.

"You should come inside now, Miss Megumi, that you should," Kenshin suggested as he ushered her inside, his arm placed gently around her and he led her inside the dojo.

Megumi flinched at the touch of a man, her mind and body still fragile from the night Tetsu had used her body as his play thing and she internally scolded herself for reacting that way towards Kenshin. He wasn't Tetsu; not at all. Kenshin was one of her best friends, one of the nicest people she knew, and here she was, scared that he just might strike her across the face just like Tetsu had. Megumi brushed the thought away and cautiously walked inside, her left leg dragging a bit behind her. Yahiko, Kaoru, and Sanosuke followed only a few feet behind them, watching with concern for their friend.

"Look..." Yahiko whispered, pointing at Megumi's left leg as she slowly walked alongside Kenshin and the red headed rurouni helped her sit down at the table, "She was limping..."



"Miss Megumi, would you like to tell us what happened?" Kenshin asked as he handed her a cup of ginseng tea. Megumi nodded in gratitude, bringing the small cup to her lips to drink it down and soothe the giant ball that had gathered up in her throat. But when she lifted her arm up to hoist the cup to her mouth, the sleeves of her kimono fell down to her elbows, revealing the darkened damages all over her arms.

Everyone focused solely on the long bandage on her left arm from her wrist to her elbow that was spotted with blood; the place where she had scrubbed her flesh bare of skin.

"Megumi! What on earth happened to you?!" Yahiko cried as he gaped at the injuries on her arms, "How many more of these cuts and bruises do you have?"

"Oh... These? Well, I...." Megumi murmured nervously as she racked her brain for a fake story to tell them, but all she could think of was the disturbing thoughts of Tetsu's horrid way of perverting her body. The vexing images of her son's dead figure floating down the river made her brush away the voice in her head that told her to tell them what really happened. "I... I was just clumsy, that's all. I... slipped in the tub a few days ago."

"And you got all those injuries from that?" Kenshin asked her suspiciously, his head tilting to the side as he tried to make eye contact with her, "But then, how did you get your black eye, Miss Megumi?"

"It was a pretty bad fall..." Megumi replied, looking down at the ground to avoid their steady gazes on her and she bit her lip from shouting out the truth, "I slipped in the tub and hit the surface pretty hard. That's what happened... The bruises, they'll heal in just a little while, don't worry about it. They... they don't hurt anymore. Really, I'm.... I'm alright."

Not one single person in the room believed her story and they continued looking at her with concern, wondering why she wouldn't tell them the reality behind her lies. She wasn't alright, not even close to it, that much was obvious. She wasn't alright when she limped when she walked and recoiled whenever someone touched her body and Megumi knew that as well as they did. Her voice had cracked a little bit in the end and they heard the edgy sound in her speech when she said that her wounds didn't hurt anymore, indicating otherwise.

Megumi looked up at them, but immediately looked back down at the ground when she realized how troubled they were for her behalf and she balled up her fists in her lap to keep herself from crying.

"Megumi, we're your friends," Yahiko comforted, leaning forward across the table to look at her, "you can tell us anything. Anything at all... What really made you get all those bruises on your body?"

Megumi's grip on her skirt tightened and her body shook as she fought against herself to keep her tears hidden behind the darkened oasis of her pupils. She kept her head lowered and her hair covered half of her face as she battled with her vow to protect her son and the truth from what was left from the authority of her mind.

"I know you're all my friends. And you're all really really good friends, but I already... I told you what happened..." Megumi choked, her voice breaking off as the protective wall of her willpower not to cry began to crumble and she got up from where she sat, forcing a smile on her face for the people around her, "I thank you all for being worried about me, but I'm fine... I'm alright. I just need to watch out where I step next time in the tub, that's all... That's what happened. Really, that's the truth..."

"Megumi, you don't have to lie to us. You don't have to make up some cover up story," Sanosuke said to her, solicitude written all over his face as he watched her get up, "If you're in some kind of trouble, you can tell us and we'll help you."

"Yeah, we're all here for you if you ever need us," Kaoru agreed, followed by several nods from Yahiko and Kenshin to back her up. Their utmost consideration for her safety could have sent her bawling on the floor if she didn't have Suzuki to protect and she fought against the tantalizing break down again. Her eyes watered and a tiny tear planted itself onto one of her bottom lashes, but Megumi pretended it wasn't even there as she nodded her head at them.

"Again, thank you... but I'm really not in trouble or anything like that..." Megumi lied again, her knuckles turning white from the hard grasp she had around herself, "Really, I'm not..."

"Did he hit you?" Sanosuke interrupted suddenly, rising from his seat to face her, "Tetsu. Did he hit you?"

"No!" Megumi answered, a little too quickly for her reply to be believable and she shook her head violently from left to right, "No. No, he didn't." But everyone at the table was less than convinced. Even Megumi didn't believe herself as she heard her own voice speaking out the false words she was forced to say. "I already told you that I slipped in the bathtub... that's how I got all these injuries..." she said again, the sad look she directed toward Sanosuke making his heart wretch and it went out to her as she continued talking and rubbing her bandaged left arm, "I'm not in trouble... there's nothing wrong... I just... I just..."

"Miss Megumi, I really don't think you're alright, that I don't," Kenshin replied softly and he got up from his seat, "No matter what you say, I can tell that something is definitely wrong, that I can. You seem to be very upset about this 'fall' you took or upset about something that you're not telling us about. Please, sit back down and we'll talk this over, that we will. We're here to help you."

Kenshin gestured over to her seat at the end of the table with a reassuring nod, but Megumi looked at the pillow on the floor as if it were the electric chair. She wouldn't be able to hold this up for much longer. She knew that if she continued to sit here and talk with her friends, she was going to break down and tell them every little excruciating detail of that night and she couldn't have that. Megumi was determined to protect her son at all costs, even if it meant taking the abuse she did.

Slowly, Megumi shook her head at his polite offer to discuss what was bothering her and she hugged herself tighter. She was the only person in the world that could do anything about her problems and she was the only person that she could rely on to solve them. 'Getting everyone else involved with my silly issues would only make matters worse,' Megumi thought to herself as she began backing away from the table, 'they can't help me and I can't help myself... I'm stuck with this whether I like it or not. All I can do is keep my promise to Suzuki and protect him with my every ounce of strength. I can't tell them the truth... I can't tell them anything... I can't kill my son... Telling them would be just like drowning him with my own two hands. They can't know...'

"I really should be heading back to the clinic now," Megumi finally announced as she stood with her back to the closed shoji door, "I've just been troubling you with all this and I really should... just go..."

"Megumi, wait!" Sanosuke called out as he stood up from his seat and he strode over to where she stood in front of the door, "Whether you're going to tell us what's wrong or not, there's obviously something bothering you and I don't want you walking over there by yourself. Come on, I'll go with you."

Megumi opened her mouth to protest, but Sanosuke was already out the door and picking up Suzuki. With a small bow of gratitude to everyone else at the table, she turned and followed her son and his father out of the dojo and into the streets.

By the time they reached the clinic, Megumi felt so sick with herself from lying, she felt like kicking herself, but instead she settled on cradling her arms around her chest and looking down at the ground. Suzuki turned away from Sano, still unaware that he gave him his life, and stared at his mother with curious eyes. She hadn't said a word throughout the entire walk home and he was beginning to think she was sad again. Megumi didn't know it, but he heard her every night, sobbing in her room.

"Are you cold, Mommy?" Suzuki asked her while he remained in Sanosuke's arms and his father turned to look at Megumi as well, who stared at her son with blank eyes. Suzuki repeated himself. "Do you wish Daddy was here to warm your heart like he did before? Is your heart cold again, Mommy?"

Sanosuke gazed at Megumi, watching her as she bit her bottom lip that he saw quiver at her son's innocent question and she swallowed hard.

"Suzuki, why don't you run along inside," Sanosuke suggested as he set his son down on his feet, changing the subject to calm Megumi's uneasiness, "I need to talk to your mom really quick, okay?"

"Okay," Suzuki agreed and Sanosuke proudly ruffled the hair on top of his son's head before the little boy ran inside the clinic and closed the door, leaving his parents outside alone without any knowledge whatsoever that what he just said had made his mother even more uncomfortable.

Turning to Megumi, Sanosuke cleared his throat and scratched his head at the awkward situation, still thinking about what Suzuki had meant about him warming her heart and he tried to find the right thing to say to her. But before he could say a word, Megumi's head came up from it's droop and she gave him the tiniest little smile she could muster up.

"Thank you for walking us back here, you didn't have to do that," Megumi stated, her hands clasped in front of her as if in prayer, "I'll just go inside now..." She began to brush past him when he gently caught her arm. Megumi's eyes widened despite the fact that she knew that he was probably going to do this and he pulled her back around as gingerly as possible so he wouldn't further her injuries.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you wanna tell me, Megumi?" he asked her, his eyes possessing hers with the lock of his powerful gaze, "It's not the Kenshin-gumi. It's me. You don't have to hide anything anymore. Because if there is something troubling you, you should let me know and I'll help you in any way I can." Megumi stayed completely silent, biting down on her lip again to stop herself from bursting into tears. Sanosuke still held onto her hand, but he slowly released it to run his hands over her arms to calm her down as she began to shiver uncontrollably. He didn't know what it was that was happening to her, but it was definitely something big and she was scared to death by it. "Hey..." he whispered to her as she sniffled, "Come here..."

On instinct, tired of holding up her prophylactic invisible walls, she walked into his loving embrace and his arms wrapped themselves around her like a blanket. Megumi felt that warmth again, breathing life back into her heart. It coursed through her veins and pumped it right back to enlighten her soul. Sanosuke's eyes softened as he felt her rest her head against his chest, the way she always used to when she was in his arms and he let out a content sigh, placing his head to rest on hers. Megumi instantly relaxed against him, not bothering to wipe back the single tear that had escaped from it's prison in her eyes and slipped out of it's corner, sliding down her cheek until it splashed down onto his bare chest.

"Megumi," he whispered softly into her ear as he held her to him as close as he dared without crushing her, as if she might disappear if he did otherwise, "I love you..."

"Sano...." Megumi murmured, her hands tightly gripping the opening of his jacket as she saw the small tear trickle down the muscles on his chest, "... I ..."

This was Sanosuke. The one man that had picked her up when she was at her lowest, showed her the right of way to compensate for all she did wrong, brought heat when her hell had almost frozen over, the father of her child... Suzuki.

Megumi's eyes shot open at the thought of her son, the picture Tetsu embedded into her brain of his dead body pushing itself back into her memory and she saw her son's face. His eyes were closed, but his mouth gaped wide open in a never-ending soundless scream and she imagined herself cradling his dead form in her arms, the tears never failing to fall from her eyes. The horrible image brought her back to her senses, snapped her back into reality as she remembered the vow Tetsu told her the night he had ravaged her body.

'You will pretend like none of this ever happened and if you don't... It would be a shame to see that little boy's body floating down the river nearby. I'm sure he will be missed. Now, if you don't want that little 'accident' to happen, you will not tell a single soul of what happened here tonight. Do you understand me?'

Megumi immediately jerked away from Sanosuke's hold around her waist, but not before he felt the damp spot on his chest from where the tear had fallen upon and he looked at her in surprise at the sudden jolt.

"I can't do this..." Megumi whispered as she backed away from him towards the clinic, "I'm sorry, but I can't do this..."

"Megumi, tell me what's going on," Sanosuke said gently as he took a step closer to her, but she took another step back to keep the distance between them. One more minute with him and she would surely tell him everything; she needed to stay away. "Megumi, tell me what's wrong. What are you scared of? Did Tetsu do something to you? Did he threaten you?"

"I... I have to go inside now, Sanosuke," Megumi said, ignoring his previous questions as if he hadn't even said them as her feet automatically stepped away from him as if he were some kind of form of the plague, brushing off his intimacy and worry like it was nothing, "Suzuki's probably wondering what's taking me so long... I really have to go inside now..."

"Wait, Megumi!" Sanosuke half-shouted, but she was already inside before he could stop her, the closed door blocking out any sounds from the outdoors. Silently, he shook his head, a hurt look smeared on his face as he looked at the locked door of the clinic in front of him. Yet another thing that separated her from his arms.

"Why, Megumi? Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" he whispered into the air, his words so light that the wind carried it off into the air and they drifted into Megumi's ears as she sobbed on the other side of the clinic's door.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered, tiny droplets trickling down the side of the oak door like the endless stream the city fished in, "Sanosuke..." Megumi's injured hands moved to cover her face as she curled up into a tight ball around herself to try and bring the warmth back into her heart. She had to say it, now, even with knowing that he wouldn't hear her.

"I love you..."



A/N: See? Tetsu wasn't even in this chapter! ^^ I know, another sad one... It's angst, what can I say? Anyway, I don't want to give away the ending but I think in this case, I should let you know one thing. It ends HAPPY! Please review without saying "Kill Tetsu" it gets me depressed when you do... Encouraging reviews would be helpful.