Hehehe. I am back...finally.

What happened to my loyal reviewers? Oh well.

Evl fizzi- don't pass out!! I am sorry that your throat hurts. Or hurt. It's probably healed by now. Hehehehehe... Bad spellers unite!!

SimplyTurquoise- Yeah. Finally the story is starting to move. Well, this whole chapter is dedicated to Hope's reaction AND more questions pop up. (I know I am evil so don't tell me!) Thanks for telling me that the Kouga thing was unclear. I'll explain it later. And yeah, he made a deal for Kagome.

Yumi-no-baka- Yeah I know that it's ciao but chow is sorta my trademark. (It's an inside joke at school.) But thanks for telling me anyway. I am glad that somebody is keeping tabs on my errors. I don't have an editor you know.

Thesmartazngirl- I'm am glad that you approve!

Red eyed inuyasha- yep, the one cliff hanger that I planed. To bad this one has a worse one. Hehe...hehe...hehe. Don't kill

Pugluv- at least you're faithful. *Sniffles* you still have a cool name if you don't know. It is called my imagination. Believe it or not I've been planning out these stories for years, even before I even knew about fanfiction.net. and perfecting them as well. Believe me when I say I've got a lot of kick-ass stories coming. A lot better then this one too. Ohhhh the tension!

Lady youkai- I am glad that you liked it when Hope got pregnant. Believe me when I say that I was unsure to put it in. it could make it or break it. I absolutely love your idea, but unfortunately (OMG! That's the first time that I've spelled unfortunately right on the first try! Celebrate with me here) I have already made an outline of what's going to happen but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea and would certainly use it if I could!

Tmguinee- wow. That's for reviewing! No problem about the lateness. I am late myself. You know how possessiveness Kouga is of Kagome! And good guess about the double-crossing. And yeah he's stupid. Amazingly so.

Death would be a Blessing but at least HE cares~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She grasped her throat with both hands until the pain seemed to swallow her. Hope genteelly released her neck and then began to rock back and forth on the floor. The facts swirled in her head. Kagome wrath, pregnant, her life in general sucked. But what hurt most of all was that she would never be able to marry now, well, at least not the one she loved. Not that he would anyway, he never LOVED her. No. Now he would kill her. That is, IF he ever found out.

The china dug deeper into her flesh but she didn't notice it. Hope's legs were bleeding freely now but she didn't care. Let them bleed, it took worse pains away.

What the hell was she to do? The dial tone now sounded from the phone and she shakily reached over to it. Hope held it loosely in her hands and she starred blankly at it. She started to tremble in her misery. She had nowhere to go. No friends to help-

Now that wasn't completely true. Hope knew she still had her brother and then there was her-

She clenched her hands into fists and almost broke the telephone. She could call her. She had always been there for her and she could cover for her because as things as they were she wouldn't be able to do anything for a while. Hope could still play apart in this cursed game they called life.

She dialed the number blindly after taking a few moments to remember. It had been forever since she last called her friend up. Another friend. At least this one wouldn't judge, discriminate, or sell her out. In fact, she wasn't even able to. Her fellow assassin was also cursed by life and as they grew up together in the cells in one of the La Kella's safe houses they had grown quite close. Close enough to swear a blood oath to always be there for one another.

Hope laughed a light-hearted crazed laugh. This was so insane. What was she doing? Calling up an ex-peer that would probably ask what the hell happened to her after her many year's of silence. No not ask. She couldn't talk. But Hope had to count on that oath. Alice could get her out of anything.

Alice.

Hope could hear the phone ring in her hands and she brought it up to her ear, a schooled expression chiseled into her face. It stopped ringing. "Alice," she whispered, "I need you-" Her voice broke. "I need you to help me get away." The phone went dead in her hands. A single tear made its way done her face and she wiped it quickly away. So, not even Alice would help her now.

Ry. Her only hope. God, it used to be the other way around. Well, he was probably sick from worry now. Hope slowly typed in the number as her training kicked in. she could leave in a couple weeks. Go someplace else. Say that Sota had put her up to a mission. Break it up with Sesshoumaru.

Briefly she thought of killing him, but the thought flew from her mind and she stopped dialing the number. Even though she hated to admit it, especially now, she had fallen hard and there was nothing she could do about it. Even if he didn't love her back, which she was sure of, she cared for him. 'What about Kagome?' she thought to herself. 'How would she coup knowing she was dating the relative of her arch enemy?' Hope decided to let Kagome find out on her own. She was a smart girl that had a future. Anyway, if she told it would give out her secret. Hope wouldn't be able to bare it if Kagome turned her back on her.

A beeping sound came from the phone and Hope was snapped back to reality. She turned it off and started again, vowing to never betray her emotions again. Isn't that what Kasha had always drilled into her? Endless hours of how feelings were a bothersome.

As soon as it started to ring, it picked up. "Jesus! Hope, sis, are you ok? When the phone crashed I didn't know if you were ok or anything-"

"I am. . . fine, Ry, thanks you for caring."

Ry silently digested her strange choice of words.

"Look, don't ask me any questions right now. Ask them in person-"

"Hope, you know that that's to dangerous. What the hell happened to you? I need answers now!"

"Tell me, brother, am I correct in that Sesshoumaru Tai is the alias of the Leader of the Tashitas?"

"Yes. . . What has that got to do anything?"

Hope nodded her head in acceptance. She just had to be sure. "It has everything to do with everything. Ry-" her voice broke and a small sob escaped her throat. "Ry I need you. I need someone who cares. Please, please come. I do-don't know what I am going to do. . ."

"Yeah, of course. Little sister I don't know what the hell if happening but by god, if someone has hurt you they better watch out!"

"Just come." Hope clicked it off and placed it on the floor. She noticed that the kettle was still screeching. She got up from her kneeling position and stumbled over to the stove and turned it off. She didn't bother to make any tea. She wasn't thirsty anymore.

She winced slightly as the glass continued to burrow into her feet as she walked out of the kitchen. She made bloody foot prints on her white carpet and she caught the sofa as she fell. Hope stumbled over it and fell into a fetal position on the soft, white leather.

She knew she shouldn't right now but she began to wonder about her baby. What would I be like? A boy or girl. Would it look like her or Sesshoumaru? She desperately hoped it would resemble her. How was she going to raise it?

'Are you going to raise it is more likely,' whispered an evil voice in her head. 'Take away he problem and everything will be as it was before.'

Hope immediately brushed that thought aside. There was no use in thinking of that. She was going to live for this child even in the end it killed her. Strangely she didn't think it was the cause of all her problems. Instead she thanked god that it happened. Sure, it meant that she would be forever cursed to live outside away from her life, friends. But it had helped her see who Sesshoumaru really was, and how hopeless it was to hope that they could end up together. And then there was the new question of exactly how loyal the La Kellas were to her. If what Kenya said was true, they would have a lot to answer. At gun point if necessary. Who was her mother?

Hope jerked her head up as a realization hit her. "Would Sesshoumaru know by now?" she spoke aloud. "He is a demon after all. He should be able to smell it by now." An answer came unbidden into her mind. "Perfume," she muttered. It must mask her scent.

And why wasn't her symptoms normal. She should have gotten sick ages ago instead of just recently. All that she gotten in the beginning was dizziness and headaches. Another answer came. All she had eaten of drunk was water. She hadn't eaten at all actually. She guessed she never noticed because she had never actually much. Ever.

A strong knock on the door jerked her from her thinking. 'Brother,' she mused. "It should be open," she said monotonously. The door opened violently as her brother ran inside and entered the living room. He took one look at her state of health and paled considerably.

"What have you done to yourself?" he whispered. "Better question. What made you do it?"

Hope looked down at her legs, only to be as shocked as he was. She smiled bitterly. "I didn't even notice."

Their eyes locked and a brotherly protectiveness entered Ry's eyes. He wordlessly followed the red footsteps to the kitchen and filled a glass with the pure water from the sink. As he made his was back to his hurt sister he carefully scattered the water onto the prints. As if magic they disappeared. Giving no time for Hope to question his abilities he hurried over to her and pored the remaining water onto her wounds. Slowly, as if they were protesting loudly, the china extracted itself from her skin and fell onto the sofa, the blood disappeared and the wounds closed themselves.

"Tell me," instructed Ry as he picked up the china from the sofa. There was silence and Hope did not speak. Ry snapped his head up to star into her closed eyes. "God damnit Hope! If you don't tell me right now I will strangle it form you!"

Hope looked up bleakly from beneath her lids. "You'd be doing me a favor," she commented dead like.

Ry's look softened as he took her up into his arms and slowly started to rock her. Hope burst into tears and her brother carefully wiped them clear.

Hope, with red-rimmed eyes, started to replay the doings of the past few weeks. She watched as the face changed ever so often on her siblings face. Ranging from pity to disgust. One thing she knew though was that the disgust was not for her, and for that she was grateful. She wouldn't have been able to take that from him.

Then it was time for the big news. "Ry, brother, I-I'm I'm pregnant. Don't! Don't look away from me. I swear. . . I didn't know. I would never. . . never have done anything if I had known what-who he was-is. But I wanna keep it. It's the only thing I have left besides you." She curled up further into his arms afraid of his rejection.

"Never," Ry stated coldly and Hope jerked her head up in shock that he would abandon her. "Never would I ask you to do that. We have to carry out our own line, don't we?" He gave her a weak smile. "You'll stay with me," he sounded confident. "I'll say you're a cousin of mine. Everything will be fine. But I swear, if I EVER see this guy again I'll. . . I'll kill him."

Hope gave a short laugh that sounded more like a cross between a meow and a bark. She stopped and genteelly caressed her throat in wonder of the sound that had erupted from it. Ry eyed her warily. 'It's not time yet,' he thought to himself. 'She doesn't need to know yet-'

"It seems like I'll be having more then one side affect from this pregnancy," Hope said warily. Ry gave a silent sigh of relief.

"There's good news I need to tell you," smiled Ry as he adjusted himself on the couch.

"Good," mumbled Hope as she buried her head into his chest. "I need good news."

"How would you like being my Maid of Honor?"

Hope's head shot up and her hands tightened their grasp on his shirt. "What does that mean?"

"I am getting married," Ry laughed as her smoothed back his sister's unusual hair.

Hope gave her first real smile in the last few weeks. "Of course! Let me guess, she has red hair, right?"

Ry looked at her in surprise. "How'd you know that?"

"It's no secret that you only go for the red-heads. God only knows why though."

Ry smiled at her. "She already knows about you," he stopped her voice of protest. "Only she. Kayla has already seen your pictur-"

Hoe stopped him with a finger. She could have sworn that she had jus heard something. She shook her head. "Continue."

". . . picture and she very anxious to see you-" Ry was interrupted again but this time by the door slamming open. His eyes widened in fear as his sister took a defensive stance in front of him. A dark figure emerged from the darkness. . .

(A/N I shouldn't leave you. Should I?)



"Oh my god!" whispered Hope as she clearly identified the person standing in the doorway. "It can't be." Ry, his curiosity getting the better of him peered around her body. His face broke out in sudden joy. (A/N of what we don't know. Will it be because he can finally beat Sesshou into a pulp? JK)

"Alice," gasped Hope as her defensive stature broke and she fell to the floor. "You came for me."

Standing there in front of her was her best friend; the one that she foolishly thought had abandoned her but a few minutes before. Alice had short, black hair that fell to her chin. With a dark face, it was clear that she had some Native American blood in her. Deep brown eyes and a dark pink color for her lips she was the very picture of a model. She dwarfed Hope by about two inches. She gave a small twist of her hands in greeting.

Hope and Alice rapidly started their conversation in a flurry of hand gestures and body movements. "Hey!" started Ry, "You know that I can't read sign language, much less your own twisted take on it." Hope gave a little sad chuckle and Alice proceeded with her own silent one. Alice continued with more movements, obviously directed to the elder boy. Ry starred blankly at Hope. She smiled and translated:

"You're an idiot, Ry. How the fuck else am I supposed to communicate? I can't speak, asshole." Ry turned his offended and embarrassed face back to the silent one who was clutching her stomach in a fit of silent laughter. Ry stuck his tongue out at her.

"Maybe everything isn't so bad. At least I have two faithful friends." Hope murmured to herself. Alice gave a quizzical look.

"She's pregnant with the leader of the Tashita's baby," remarked Ry with a sly grin. Alice's jaw dropped open in surprise.

"Stop it! You're making it sound like a joke," insisted Hope as Alice picked her mouth up from the ground. Hope turned to Alice, "I'll explain everything later I promise." Alice nodded her head dumbly.

"As I was sating before we were do rudely but joyfully interrupted," Ry gave a pointed look to Alice who just shrugged, "There's something else I need to tell you-"

Again a quick movement cut him off from Alice, ushering him to by silent. She gave a wary look to Hope. 'Sometimes I think they can read each other's mind' thought Ry.

Hope took a deep breath and nodded. "Ry, you have to go. It seems like Kagome and Company have reached our level. You have to go and hid!"

Ry lowered his head as he moved towards the window and stepped on the ledge. Both Alice and Hope gave him wide stares. He laughed. "Don't worry, there are things about me that even you people don't know." And with that he jumped off onto the empty street below. "Kayla's pregnant too," he whispered to the wind as he plummeted to the fast approaching ground.

As Alice hurried over to the window to she if her mentor was ok, Hope collected herself and turned towards the door as it opened.

Loud chatter evaded her hearing and both Alice and Hope winced fro the loudness. It stopped though as Kagome entered, flanked by Miroku and Yuka. Kagome's eyes caught Alice's in her own and narrowed them. "Hello," she said coldly, caution back in place. "Hope," she said steely, "I got some of the greatest buys today."

"Everyone," smiled Hope, "I'd like you to meet a friend of mine."

Early next morning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope drew the wet washcloth over her forehead again as she threw up again. This just wasn't her day, or rather week. No, better make that year. How 'bout lifetime?

'At least Kagome had no objection to Alice staying with me. Of course that was after she was assured that she was no threat and would help terminate the Tashitas. Oh and also that she would be staying in my room. Well, if works for me!'

She grasped her stomach again as it gave another lurch. Hope moaned pitifully as she leaned her fevered skin against the cold mirror. She gasped for air. Hope vowed to never have another child. One was enough.

She suddenly tensed as the door opened with a creak and she met Yuka's stern brown eyes. "You not sick are you?"

Silence.

"You're with a child, are you not?"

End for now~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hazel-Dundundun!!! OMG! What will hope do?

Ally-Chan- ::flipping through script:: I have black hair? And I am Native American? -.-.......... Ok.

Hazel- ::laughing nervously::

OK. So, who really is Alice and what is her part in this story? And what secrets does Ry keep from his sister? Like, who they really are.

Will Hope really leave???????????????

Email me at mgalaxyangel@aol.com!

Chow!

hazel