A year later Rin laid a blanket on the ground before a grave. Sesshomaru came up the hill carrying a bouquet of flowers, which he handed to Rin. Rin gently placed them on the tombstone that bore the name of her late father-in-law. They sat down together, Rin sitting in his lap. He held her close and started talking to his father about work. This didn't interest Rin greatly, so she thought back about the past year.

It took everything she could to get Izayoi to eat and go to bed. Rin could understand how difficult it was for Izayoi to do anything after losing Toga since she was finding it difficult to motivate herself to do much. Once Izayoi was resting in her room, Rin went downstairs to the study to find Sesshomaru sitting on the couch staring at a picture of his parents holding him shortly after he was born.

While his face showed no emotions, it was easy for her to tell that he was grieving silently. He didn't look at her until she placed her hand gently on his shoulder before sitting down and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He lifted a hand to stroke one of hers. "It's going to be different without him around." He did not say a word as he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. "Do you want company now?"

"Sure." He opened his eyes and looked her. "Izayoi must be sleeping?"

"Yeah. She's going to need all of our support to get her through this."

"I'm sure she would appreciate it if you would stay another week, if that's possible." He seemed to be holding something back, but she could not figure out what it was.

"It would be nice to stay here and visit again." It was true that she had missed everyone while she was away. "I'm sure they would prefer me to stay forever." They sat in silence while Sesshomaru resumed staring at the picture. After ten minutes Rin broke the silence by asking, "What are you thinking about?"

He was hesitant to talk. "I'm alone now."

"You're not alone. You have a half brother, a half niece, a half sister-in-law, and a stepmother. I know you think that you aren't close to them, but you are still family. At least you have a family." He turned quickly and hugged her tightly. Rin guessed that his explanation for this action would be his attempt to comfort her, but she really knew that he was the one who needed the comforting.

After a minute like that he let go and apologized. "If you need to go to bed I will not stop you." He would not look at her while he said that.

"No, I'm not tired," she said as she yawned and then grinned at her statement. She knew that now was not the time for her to get tired since they still had much to say to each other. She would have to trap him in here somehow to get him to talk. Finally an idea came to her.

"Can you do me a favor?" He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Can you lie down on your back?" At first she thought he would not comply, but then he stretched out. She lied down atop of him on her stomach, rested her head on his chest, and wrapped her right arm around him as best as she could while her left hand traced the lines in his pinstripe dress shirt. It took a minute before she felt his arms reach around and hold her close to him. "Are you comfortable?"

"Yes."

"Good." She took a deep breath as she felt sleep creeping up on her. "Sesshomaru, do you want me to go back to Sacremento?"

"Are you happy there?"

She thought about it for a minute before responding, "I will be if you are happier having me living there. I'd actually prefer to live here, but I don't want to be here if there is no reason for me to be here." She started tracing circles on his chest.

"I'm sure Eri, Sota, Karen, and Joe missed you. I know that Izayoi, Inuyasha, and Kagome weren't the same after you left."

Her hand ceased its endless movements before flattening against her pillow. "Kagome, Inuyasha, and I had a long talk earlier tonight. They are both afraid of me because they think I'm still mad at them for not telling me about Sally."

He hugged her tighter as he slowly said, "They are sorry for what they did. That's one of the reasons why they missed you."

"What about you?" Immediately she felt stupid asking. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." She closed her eyes and gathered her courage to say, "No, I'm not sorry for saying that." Drawing up her strength, she gently propped herself up so she could look at Sesshomaru's face. "Did you miss me? If I stayed here, would you want to stay married to me?"

"I want you to understand something before I answer your question." She felt his hold on her tighten so much so that she had to lie down again. "I was in love with you from the first date. When you rejected me that morning I had to find love from someone, except I found myself wanting you instead of her. You have no right to forgive me."

"I do forgive you, Sesshomaru, because I love you, but what you did hurt me. I won't come back to you if you ever do that to me again. Even your private investigators won't be able to track me down."

"Are you saying that you will stay with me?"

"I love you. I want to stay with you for the rest of our lives."

He kissed the top of her head before saying, "I love you too." They stayed like that for the rest of the night sleeping better than they had in six months.

Shortly after the funeral Sesshomaru gave Rin a job at his company in the PR department. She quit her free lance jobs in Sacremento and moved back to San Diego to Eri's apartment. Sesshomaru had started going back to church right after the funeral, and after Rin explained a few things to him, they agreed to get married at the church and pretend to be engaged until then.

The wedding took place two months after Toga's death. It was a small ceremony before a minister, with his family and her friends attending. Rin wore a simple white dress, and as she walked down the aisle she could see the approval in Sesshomaru's shimmering eyes and a slight smile on his face. He would not show any telling emotions before everyone, but she could always decipher his body language and the emotions reflected in his eyes.

She shed a few tears during the ceremony as she looked into the eyes of the man she had never thought she would fall in love with much less be loved back. In response to her tears, Sesshomaru squeezed her hands. She would smile at him and see a grin cross his face. He would have shown her more emotion if there were not other people around, especially his half brother.

They took a two week honeymoon on a private island in the Pacific Ocean that was owned by a friend of his. Sesshomaru had specifically asked that there only be a cleaning man or woman and a cook, so they pretty much had the island to themselves. This gave them much more time together alone.

When Sesshomaru had informed her of their honeymoon, Rin was afraid of her coworkers' attitudes to their new supervisor taking two weeks off shortly after she started. However, they did not voice their opposition to it since she was the owner's wife. To soothe her conscience and keep her coworkers' confidence in her, she assured them that she would not take vacation time off if she didn't needed the time to get her marriage back on track, to which they all understood since most of San Diego knew they were having marital problems. She did not reveal to them the ceremony since she did not want to arise any suspicions about their rather "fake" marriage.

When they got home from their honeymoon Sesshomaru waited until no one was around before he picked her up and carried her into their condo and their bedroom. He put her down on the bed and flopped down next to her. She looked around the room as it looked totally different. Instead of reflecting only Sesshomaru's tastes and personality, it was a perfect blend of both of them, even with some potted flowers hanging from hooks on the ceiling. "I love the room!" she squealed in delight.

"Eri insisted that she decorate our room as our wedding present."

"It's perfect for us." She threw her arms around his upper body. "It reflects...us." She placed a kiss on his lips.

She smiled thinking about that day. It was their first day home as a "real" married couple. Sesshomaru was now talking about their wedding. Once again her mind wandered to what happened after their honeymoon.

After the wedding she decided to schedule time for them every night to have a devotional. Sesshomaru's curiosity about the subjects would lead to hours of discussion some nights. A month before this day Sesshomaru ended their devotional by telling her, "Rin, I want to get baptized." She smiled at him speechless. "It would mean a lot if you were there."

"When do you plan on being baptized?"

"I'm going to call the church tomorrow."

"Ok. I'll take an extended lunch break to see it."

He nuzzled her check as he said, "Please." She hugged him.

This was one of the most important moments in his life, and she refused miss it. He had not mentioned this to his other family members, but that did not stop Rin. Two days later the rest of the family was waiting for Sesshomaru and Rin to arrive. He did not convey it, but Rin could tell that he was shocked to see them. She could not see his eyes after he was baptized, but she was sure they conveyed shock when they all cheered for him including Inuyasha.

Since then Sesshomaru had been more enthusiastic about his faith than the rest of them.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard voices coming up the hill to where they were. Rin immediately got out of Sesshomaru's lap and sat down on the blanket with some space between her and her husband. Ayumi was the first one to run over the hill, and she ran straight to Rin. "Aunt Rin," the little girl shouted.

Rin allowed the little girl to sit in her lap as her parents came into view with Izayoi following behind. "Geez," Inuyasha started. "Can't even show any affection in front of Dad's tomb?"

Kagome lightly hit Inuyasha on the shoulder as Rin scolded him, "That's not a Christ-like attitude you have towards your half brother."

He stood there frozen for a few seconds before finally muttering an apology. "How long have the both of you been here?" Izayoi asked.

"About an hour," Sesshomaru answered. Rin was shocked by that discovery since she had been so lost in thought that entire time.

The three standing sat down on the blanket and together they started recalling their favorite memories of the past year that they knew Toga would have enjoyed being at. Their talk ended three hours later. Izayoi offered Rin and Sesshomaru to join them for dinner the next evening, to which Sesshomaru accepted.

Rin and Sesshomaru were left behind to finish their conversation with Toga. As they prepared to leave, Rin turned around and said, "Thank you, Toga, for everything." She turned around and started walking away hand-in-hand with her love.

When Sesshomaru put the blanket in the trunk he looked up to find Rin walking away from him with a goofy smirk on her face as she turned around several times to make sure he was watching. As he started to come towards her, she took off running into the woods. In the middle of the woods was a deeply etched path with tree roots sticking out that tripped her after a several minute run. She braced herself for contact with the forest floor but instead felt her husband's arms wrap around her. "You need to be more careful," he teased as he put her back onto her feet.

"My hero, how can I ever repay you?" Rin asked him sarcastically.

"With a kiss," he replied as he put her arms around him and kissed her.