Time Enough (Chapter 1)
by Iron Raven

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company aren't mine. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi-sama.

---

Resting her hand on her mentor's forehead, Kagome shook her head. "You are running a fever. Shippou, get my first aid kit from my pack." Sitting back on her heels, the young miko rubbed her temples gently.

"Kagome, is this what yea had?"

"I can't tell, I'm not a doctor. But you are burning up. Have you been dizzy, nauseous?" Turning to take the kit from the kit (AN: sorry, I've been wanting to say that), Kagome pulled out the thermometer she had been carrying now for over year. She unwrapped it, absorbing Kaede's nod in silence. The older woman's cough had kept her from speaking. "Don't bite this. It will tell me how hot you really are, it just needs to sit under your tongue for a bit."

Kaede took the slender glass rod, holding it her mouth, although she was unsure of how it could tell anything. But like so many of the things Kagome's time produced, it spoke to the girl, who was slowly counting. Such a strange girl. But she has so many untapped talents.

Reaching for the thermometer, Kagome looked at, shaking her head. "Just under thirty-eight."

"Kagome? Is that bad?" Shippou was watching, not knowing for sure, but from Kagome's expression, he was afraid he knew the answer.

"Not terribly bad, but not normal, either."

"Yea say that this is a common illness in your time, child. Do the healers have a cure for it?"

"Not really. Just keep you warm, rested, and get fluids, and your body will fight it. The willow bark tea will help, and so will the things I brought." Standing and moving to her pack, Kagome dug out several bottle and packages. "That's really all we know how to do."

So much for yea and your magic- even I know that for winter sickness.

---

The night passed quietly with Kagome staying in the past to sleep. With Miroku and Sango's injuries, there was no shard hunting to be done, so she had been jumping between her times each night, but that night she stayed. Kaede had slept fitfully, her dreams stirred by her fever, but her cough silenced by something from the future that the old woman described as tasting worse than "broiled toad demon".

The morning also brought another temperature check. "Keade-sama, are you feeling any better?" Miroku gently wiped the old woman's brow with a damp cloth, hoping it would sooth the headache that forced her to close her eyes to the light. Kaede's grunt at shaking her head spoke more than any words.

"Thirty-nine even. Kaede, if this doesn't start to drop, I'm going to be scared..."

"Feh! I've already buried her once, wench, and she didn't stay down. Old hag is too stubborn tooOMPH!" As was frequently the case, Inuyasha did not hear Kagome's 'Sit boy', over his own voice, but the cursed beads at his neck did. Instead, he heard the distinctive thunk of own forehead finding something solid, in this case the floor as his thoughts finished his sentence, "too stubborn to die."

"Don't you dare talk about burying anyone, Inuyasha!"

"Kagome, if it my time, then it is, and there is nothing yea can do to stop it. I'm an old woman, with 58 summers in my past." Cut off by another spasm of coughing, the old woman's strength left her. She silently slid back into slumber.

---

Through the day, the six friend's sat with their mentor. Miroku and Kagome failed to shake their fears as they tried to fill in for Kaede in the village, checking on several cases of frostbite and one new born baby. Even Inuyasha was nearly silent, and no one commented when he carried armloads of wood into the miko's hut.

Through all of it, Kaede slept fitfully, her face bathed in sweat as the sickness demons burned at her from within. Her tossing was calmed when her brow was bathed with a cool cloth. She seemed most at peace when Shippou sat at her side, holding her work hardened, age worn hand in both of his, the boy silent, fighting his own thoughts. But as the sun lowered in the sky, only a hands breath from the snow covered land, she could not be roused.

---

Author's notes:
For the Celsius challenged, normally body temperature (98.6F) is about 37 degrees C. 39C is about 102 degrees F. Warm enough to be worrisome in the very old or very young.

You have to admit, roast Jaken would probably be pretty bad.