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Disclaimer:  I do not own any of the Rumiko Takahashi characters named here, nor do I own Charlie's Angels or Rurouni Kenshen.

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Chapter 36

Night Shift at the ER

"I hate working the night shift," Nazuna complained bitterly into the phone.  "All the freaky people come into the emergency room after dark."  She twirled her pencil absentmindedly through her hair.

"You wouldn't believe the people we get through here, Master.  I mean, it's really slow right now.  We've only had a couple of burns and a cut requiring some sutures.  But sure as horses make road apples, this place is going to be overrun any minute now with weirdos.  They'll all be yelling at me to register them at once – and they won't give a damn that I'm just one person with one computer.  And half our staff is out with this flu that's been going around.  They had to drag Dr. Suikotsu over from across town and beg him to work one of the shifts tonight."

Her Master laughed and tried to console her, but it wasn't working tonight.  Nazuna was on a roll.  "Master, can't I get a different job?" she begged, "a job that lets me work during the daytime?  Or at the very least, one that doesn't require me to speak six different languages in order to tell the drunken tourist he's not going to die from a scratch on his face?  The drunks are the worst, Master.  They bleed like stuck pigs."

Nazuna listened to her Master's response for a few moments; then began tuning him out as he rehashed the same old arguments.  She was too young to work at the shrine, he was just trying to help her out in this world since she was an orphan, yada yada yada blah blah blah…Nazuna shifted the phone to her other ear and pretended to listen to the old fossil.

From the corner of her eye, she could see something with eight legs crawling along the wall.  She leaned closer to inspect it.  "Master, what do you call these spiders with the really skinny legs again?  The legs look like their attached to a body made out of a bead.  They're called Daddy-Longlegs?  Who came up with a stupid name like that?  They're harmless, right?  Look, I gotta go.  I'll call you when I get off shift, okay?  Bye."

Nazuna hung up the phone and grabbed the copy of yesterday's newspaper.  She carefully scooped the small creature onto a particularly revolting advertisement for fake butter and walked outside the door of the emergency room.  Finding a suitable spot, she released the spider and watched it scurry into the center of the sidewalk.  Once out in the open, Nazuna promptly stomped the arachnid into oblivion.  The only harmless spider was a dead spider.

*******

He's got to be around here somewhere…Jakotsu said he had just left him…what's that by the corner of the building?  Oh no, no,  please no…"Inu-Yasha?" Sesshomaru choked the name out, hoping his brother would magically sit up and laugh at the great practical joke he'd played.  Inu-Yasha remained silent, however, the blood pooling around his chest where he lay crumpled on the ground.  Sesshomaru placed a hand against Inu-Yasha's cold neck and searched for a pulse.

The beat of his brother's heart was so faint he missed it on the first try.  It was only after Sesshomaru felt his stomach churn with horror that he noticed the slight rise and fall of Inu-Yasha's chest.  There was still life within the fallen form, but it was hanging by the slimmest of threads.

Footsteps pounded the surface behind him as the Angels spotted him and approached.  Kagome gave a muffled cry at the sight of Inu-Yasha injuries and dropped to her knees beside Sesshomaru.  Kagura immediately opened her cell phone to call the ambulance.

All his life, Sesshomaru had been able to deal with problems efficiently.  His ability to think quickly on his feet, assess a problem and order those who worked for him into action had taken him far within the ranks of the FBI.  He'd been shot at, threatened, stalked and attacked.  Throughout it all, he'd never once frozen in the face of peril.

And all of this experience didn't mean shit right now.  Right now, his brother's life was pouring out on some damn slab of concrete in Hawaii, and Sesshomaru found he couldn't move.  He could hardly even breathe.  In fact, he couldn't seem to do anything but clasp his brother's chilled hand and wonder why the ambulance was taking such an eternity to arrive.

********

Nazuna's fingers flew across the computer keyboard as she completed the registration paperwork for the next patient.  True to her prediction, the waiting area for the emergency room was now crammed full.  Dr. Suikotsu had his hands full with the results of an automobile accident (driving under the influence, what a surprise, Nazuna noted sarcastically) and they had even paged Dr. Megumi to come in and help out.  Anybody arriving with just a simple fracture or needing to be stitched up was in for a long wait tonight.

One of the drunks was getting out of hand and demanding to be seen.  Nazuna completed the information she was entering and looked around for the security guard.  Missing in action again, she figured.  The rent-a-cops never lasted very long on the night shift.  "Excuse me," she said exasperatedly to the person in front of her.  "I'll be right back."  She stood up and walked over to the inebriated idiot shouting at no one in particular.

"Listen," Nazuna grabbed the man and pushed him against the wall.  "You'll be seen when we can fit you in.  Right now, all you need is some patching from that fight.  If you keep this up, however, I'm going to see that you need a full body cast.  Is that understood?" she glared, daring the man to continue.  Apparently, this was one of the smarter drunks.  He sat down and shut up, allowing Nazuna to go back to her place behind the registration desk.  She finished obtaining the information from the young woman related to the automobile accident victims.

The doors pushed open quickly as the paramedics wheeled in a stretcher bearing a young man.  Nazuna noticed a tall, silver haired woman wearing a ballet costume stumble into the emergency room right behind the ambulance crew, supported by an attractive brunette with no shoes on her feet.  "What have we got?" Nazuna heard Sakura, the triage nurse, ask the paramedic as she rushed forward to meet them.

"We've got a corpse if we don't get him to surgery," yelled Hachiemon as he and the other paramedic moved the stretcher through the doors leading to the operating rooms.  Nurse Sakura was close on his heels.  "He started crashing on the way over here," Nazuna heard Hachiemon add as the door swung closed behind them.

Nazuna winced at Hachiemon's words.  She'd known the paramedic for years and although he was one of the best in his field, his blunt manner of speaking had a way of upsetting the families of the victims.  True to form, the silver haired woman was doubling over.  Nazuna jumped up from her chair to help the woman's companion.  Together, they grabbed the woman by the arms and pushed her into the chair across from Nazuna's desk.

"I need to get some information while they're stabilizing him," Nazuna said gently as she began to create the new record.  "First and foremost, did the paramedics ask you if he has any allergies or prior medical conditions that we need to know in order to treat him?"

"Yes," the silver-haired figure rasped.  Nazuna looked up in surprise as she realized she was talking to a man and not a woman.  She stared in wonder for a moment, taking in the long, flowing hair intertwined with flowers, the beautifully manicured nails, the light layer of cosmetics, the faint hint of perfume and finally, the blood spattered tutu that gracefully flowed down to the ankles.  You meet all kinds of people working here, she thought to herself as recovered her composure.

"No allergies, no medical conditions," the man continued as he began to shiver.  Wearing a ballet costume into the frigid temperature of the emergency room was enough to make anyone shake, but Nazuna suspected the man across from her was starting to suffer from shock.  She grabbed her sweater from its resting place on the back of her chair and draped it around the man's shoulders.  No sense in having an extra patient added to her workload.

The man looked at her gratefully.  "Thanks," he whispered.  His female companion was standing behind him, squeezing his shoulder in comfort.

"No problem," she replied kindly.  "Can you answer some questions for me now?  First I'll need the patient's name…" Nazuna continued to type as she asked the questions, pausing every now and then to allow the man to compose himself.  She felt a great deal of sympathy for the people sitting in front of her.  After all, she'd once been the one sitting there trying to force her brain to work when all she had really wanted to do was scream in pain and frustration.  Maybe her Master did know what was best by having her work here.

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Dr. Megumi slumped tiredly into her office chair, staring at the reports she needed to complete.  The emergency room was once again quiet, and the early morning shift was starting to arrive.  It had been a terrible night.  This last round of flu had decimated the hospital staffing, or she would never have agreed to come in on her only day off.

The young man, Inu-Yasha, had been the worst case.  Dr. Megumi had recognized him, or rather, had recognized the silver hair, from a previous surfing accident.  He'd come in that day a few years ago with his foot sliced to ribbons by a sharp piece of coral, needing several stitches.  And he'd complained loudly throughout the entire procedure.  Not a fan of medical care, that one.

It had been eerie to see the vibrant, shouting, arguing individual she'd met previously now reduced to a still, pale and quiet form.  We came so close to losing him, Dr. Megumi thought as she ran a weary hand through her tangled hair.  In all her years of practice, she couldn't remember ever seeing such vicious knife wounds; whoever had carved into Inu-Yasha had done a thorough job of it.

Well, no point in dwelling on it further.  The guy would make it, in spite of having to be dragged back from death several times.  He was a tough one, this kid.  Dr. Megumi smiled as she recalled the utter relief and joy on the faces of the young man's family and friends.  Inu-Yasha was obviously well loved.

Of course, that one woman had been extremely upset when Dr. Megumi had asked which one of them was Kikyo.  She shrugged her shoulders as she thought of her honest mistake.  Was it her fault that Inu-Yasha had been saying that name repeatedly as he was being taken in to surgery?  And Dr. Suikotsu - what was up with him?  Dr. Megumi's fellow physician had turned white as a sheet when he heard Inu-Yasha whispering, calling for Kikyo.

*******

The room was silent except for the sounds of the monitors hooked to his brother's body.  Sesshomaru closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall, tilting his chair backwards.  He was exhausted, but he was afraid to fall asleep.  Dr. Tofu said he'd be all right, so trust him!  He flinched as he felt Kagura's soft hand brush his hair back from his forehead.

"Sesshomaru?" Kagura whispered.  "Can I get you anything?"  Sesshomaru just pulled her into his lap in response, and she stroked his hair and kissed his forehead.  She amazed him, this woman.  So tough one minute, so tender the next.  Never in his life had he felt so damn lucky to be with someone.

"Have the others gone back to the resort?" Sesshomaru eventually asked her.  They'd been at the hospital for hours, and the morning light was creeping through the window shades.  He could see dark circles forming underneath Kagura's eyes, and he was sure he looked the same.

"Everyone except Kagome," Kagura tilted her head towards the girl sleeping in the chair next to the bed.  Kagome's folded arms were resting on the bed, serving as a pillow of sorts for the tired woman.  Sesshomaru noticed Inu-Yasha's hand clutching a lock of Kagome's hair, as if his younger brother needed some kind of anchor to keep him in the world of the living.

"You should go back to the resort as well," Sesshomaru said, raising a finger to Kagura's lips to cut off her protest.  "I'm sure Rin is wondering what's happened to us, not to mention the others need your assistance.  And we can't forget, Vicious Dragon is still out there."

"Rin needs her father," Kagura reminded him with a smile, "but I guess she'll take me as a distant second.  I just hope she isn't giving Yura a hard time.  Of course," she added thoughtfully, "in order to give Yura a hard time, she'd have to be speaking, so maybe I should be hoping she is raising hell."

"I don't think you're a 'distant second' as far as our daughter is concerned," Sesshomaru told her.  He lightly kissed the tip of Kagura's nose.  She raised her eyebrow at his use of the plural pronoun.

"Did you just say 'our' daughter?" Kagura asked him.  "Excuse me, but I believe she's 'my' daughter, at least while she's behaving herself she is.  She becomes 'your' daughter when she gets into mischief.  And if by saying 'our' daughter, you mean to ask me to marry you, then that's the lousiest proposal I've ever heard."

Sesshomaru felt his face break into the first genuine smile since, well, forever.  "I'm sure it is," he agreed.  "I don't have a lot of experience at asking a counterfeit Nanny for her hand in marriage.  Would you like me to do it differently, perhaps like Kuno?"

"Oh heavens, no," giggled Kagura as she tried to stifle her laughter in an attempt to not awaken Kagome and Inu-Yasha.  "But seriously, Sesshomaru, do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?  You'll never have a moment's peace around me!"

"I sincerely hope that's true," Sesshomaru responded with a gleam in his eye.  "Although I doubt things could get any crazier than they have this week.  At least, I hope they don't," he added fervently.

Kagura reluctantly stood up to leave.  "Let's get one thing straight, though," she told Sesshomaru as she gave him a hungry kiss goodbye.  "At the wedding, I get to wear the dress and the lipstick, got it?"

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A/N:  Okay, you fangirls can stop howling for my blood now; I let Inu-Yasha and Jakotsu live!  I even threw in some Sesshy fluff – okay, I threw in a LOT of Sesshy fluff this chapter.

Sophie-chan: He he! Thanxs for the fluff! I'm a die-hard Kagura/Sesshy fan! And I didn't even have to point a gun at your head! *fingers gun* They WILL get married, won't they? *coolly* It would be very TRAGIC if they didn't…

Lav: Um, maybe…*sweatdrop*

A few responses:

CassidyJewell:  No.  I'm sorry, but no.  I cannot continue writing this fic forever.  Sophie-chan and I are already considering new ways to torture, er, amuse ourselves, in other fics.  She wants to do a Rurouni Kenshin crossover fic, but I don't know enough about that anime yet to do it justice.  We'll have to see…Oro?

BrokenRoses: *Lav clutches painful head from getting whacked with CD player* happy now?  See?  I didn't let him die!

Asteria:  I went and looked up "Girl Days" by Kenko, and I totally disagree.  His writing is much funnier than mine! *Still laughing* geez, my sides hurt…

Inu-babe666:  Happy birthday!  *passes cake and candles*

elementsofmine():  How do I update so fast?  It's easy – outside of work and family, I have NO LIFE.

Chiisana-Tori-chan:  Kick has been performed as requested.  Man, you guys are mean…