Disclaimer: I still don't own InuYasha.

Chapter 32: Mai

The trip back to the village was a shorter one. InuYasha wanted to get as far away from Kouga and Suoh as fast as possible. Kagome had fallen asleep riding on his back. The last attack had really taken a lot out of her. Half way through the day she had nearly fallen off. InuYasha had to stop and pick her up in his arms instead, not that he minded too much, it was really just worrying him. Souh. Was he really still alive? InuYasha was in his full-youkai state at the time, and everything was still a little fuzzy, but he defiantly remembered killing Suoh. There was no mistake in that.

But Kagome had sensed him. She was sure of it, InuYasha could see it in her eyes; she was scared to death when she had waken. He was frustrated now. His mate was hurting inside and he couldn't do anything to help her. InuYasha didn't smell anything near, much less Suoh, but Kagome said he had found her. He was going to have to take this one to Kaede and the monk. If anyone knew more about youkai than InuYasha, it was those two. Especially youkai that were suppose to be dead.

He could just see the edge of the forest, Kaede's hut only a few yards away. "Kagome, wake up. We're almost in the village." He shook her shoulder a bit. She slowly opened her eyes and nodded, wrapping her arms around InuYasha's neck. He sped up, leaping over the last of the trees and broke out in a refreshing run till he reached the hut. "Hey old hag, are you here?" He stepped inside and put Kagome down on her feet. She reluctantly dropped her arms.

"Kagome, InuYasha, tis nice to see ye two made it back safely. Tis also a shame you missed the baby being born." The old miko was cooking stew on the fire.

"Baby? Oh no, Sango! How is she? How is the baby? It wasn't due till another month, is it okay?"

Kaede chuckled. "They're all just fine, child. I was on my way to take them some supper; ye should come along and see them." Kagome nodded and followed Kaede to Sango and Miroku's hut. Right away she could hear a baby crying and Sango trying desperately to sing the baby to sleep. Kagome felt guilty. She wasn't there when her friend needed her the most. As she walked in she saw Miroku pacing back and forth holding a tightly wrapped baby with black hair sticking up in all directions and Sango was laying on a futon singing some lullaby.

"Sango!"

"Kagome!" she sat up reached out to hug her friend. "I'm so glad you made it back! Sorry about the noise, we just can't get her to settle down."

"Kagome, you wouldn't happen to know any 'modern' ways of getting a baby to sleep, would you?" Miroku held the baby, gently rocking it in his arms.

"Sorry, I don't. But let me see the baby, maybe I can do something." Miroku handed the child over to Kagome. She, too had no luck in quieting the child. She tried everything she knew: bouncing, caressing, singing; nothing seemed to be working. Kaede then took the baby and had a try. Even she, after helping numerous villagers with their babies, wasn't able to get it to settle down. Miroku and Sango looked absolutely mortified about their wailing child. Maybe they weren't good parents. How could they be good parents when they couldn't even get the baby to stop crying?

"Why don't you try it, InuYasha. It can't hurt." Kagome took the baby from Kaede and held it out to InuYasha. "It's not going to bite."

"I don't want to hold that lecher's pup." Kagome gave him a evil glare, so he decided if he didn't want to get sit he better do what he was told. He held out his hands and took the child. Big blue eyes looked back at him, and the crying stopped. InuYasha sniffed the baby, who in return hit him with a small fist. Surprisingly to everyone in the room, InuYasha laughed at the gesture. "Oi. She's already like you, Sango, trying to get the better of anything bigger than her."

Kagome had almost forgot, she didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl, or even it's name. "She?"

"Yes. Her name is Mai." Miroku looked from InuYasha to his child, then back again. "Strange. I never thought you to be a fatherly type, but is seems one day you will make an excellent father."

InuYasha and Kagome looked at each other, then blushed. "Not anytime soon, monk." He handed the sleeping baby back to it's father. Miroku put Mai in a make-shift cradle beside Sango's futon, then settled himself in a sitting position next to her.

"I brought ye some stew. I thought ye two might need it." Kaede set the pot over the fire to re-heat it and gathered enough bowls for everyone.

"Oh, Sango! Ayame and Kouga have babies of their own! Twins!"

"Twins? How do they do that!"

Kagome laughed. "The boy is named Kigai. He looks just like Ayame, and the little girl, Akina, she looks just like Kouga. I wish you could have seen them."

While Kagome went on talking about their visit, leaving out the parts with Suoh, InuYasha couldn't keep his eyes off Mai. Sure, he and Kagome were mates. But, would she want a pup with him? He hadn't really ever thought about having pups of his own. It was just something that didn't happen with hanyous. They didn't have mates and they defiantly didn't have pups. Could he even dare to bring another into this world? Let the child grow up as he had; no family, no one there for him, no one to care. No. InuYasha thought. I won't leave my child like that. I'd never let that happen to one of my pups.

"Kagome! InuYasha!" Shippou ran into the hut, leaping over InuYasha and landing in Kagome's arms. He instantly jumped back down, sniffing at Kagome intently. InuYasha stiffened. Don't you say it runt… "Kagome, why do you smell like InuYasha?" his nose twitched at the scent. Sango and Miroku looked at each other, then looked at InuYasha and Kagome. They both blushed. Kaede faked a cough. "What? Have you two been staying close to each other or something?"

Miroku smiled. "Yes, InuYasha, do tell. Have you and Kagome been 'staying close to each other' on your little ventures?"

Kagome was blushing furiously now. InuYasha wasn't any better off. He gave the kitsune a look that could melt a hole in the wall. Shippou yelped and ran behind Sango and the baby crib. "What about it, monk?" InuYasha finally spoke up. "You got a problem with that?"

"No. No, of course not. I was just wondering if maybe you'll be a father sooner than I thought." Miroku was grinning like crazy. Which was a little frightening with the dark circles under his eyes and messy disposition. Kagome covered her now completely red face with her hands.

"Kagome? Does that mean that InuYasha's gonna live with you now Kagome?" the child looked so innocent with his question.

"Well, Shippou, yes. He is going to live with me now."

"And your gonna have a pup like Sango and Miroku?"

InuYasha stopped the questioning right there. "Enough, nosey runt. Now get out of here. Go play with your little girlfriend or something!" he leaded against the wall and crossed his arms. "What?" InuYasha noticed the others looking at him strangely. "What did I do now?" he questioned.

"Nothing." They all said at the same time.

"The stew is finished." Kaede turned and started pouring stew into separate bowls. Miroku and Sango downed theirs within minutes before going back for more. It was obvious that they were having a lot of trouble trying to get a hot meal now that the baby had finally arrived.

Kagome smiled at the thought. A baby. In her time it would be an embarrassment to her family to be having a baby now. It would be an embarrassment to the family if she was married at her age. But wasn't she married? InuYasha had told her that mates stay together for life. Wasn't that just like marriage, if not more? The commitment she and InuYasha had made was deeper than any vows made at a wedding. InuYasha would make a good father, whether he believed it or not. But a baby now? She couldn't even think of being a mother right now.

"Kagome, I think we should leave." Kaede brought her out of her daze.

"Hm? Oh. Of course." Kagome saw that Miroku and Sango had passed out on their futon next to the crib. All three were sleeping soundly.

"Come on, Kagome. Let's go home." InuYasha smiled and pulled her out the door. Kaede and Shippou followed them out.

"I'm gonna stay here with Miroku and Sango. They need a strong youkai around now that they have a pup." Shippou silently hopped back in the hut with a wave goodbye to his friends. Kaede walked back to her hut as InuYasha and Kagome started down the path to their own hut. The walk was quiet, and the sky was starting to get darker.

"She was cute, wasn't she InuYasha?" he turned his eyes toward her.

"Keh. A pup's a pup. Look's too much like the monk if you ask me." He continued walking, then suddenly stopped. "Kagome? Do you,- are you gonna want one of your own?" He asked.

Kagome sighed. "Maybe, one day. Not anytime soon, though. I don't think that we're ready for a baby. What about you, InuYasha? Do you want a baby?"

"I donno. Let's just drop it for right now." He grabbed her around the waist. "We have a long time to think about things like that. Right now, you need to get some sleep. And don't try to deny it. You still don't look too good." InuYasha let his had slip into hers and continued down the path. When they arrived at the hut he set her down on her bed and watched as she drifted to sleep. When he was sure she was well into her dreams, he slipped back outside. This was going to be tough. He really needed to find out if Suoh was still alive, but he couldn't just leave Kagome. And leaving her with the monk and the exterminator wasn't going to work either. If Suoh was to attack, they would have no way of protecting themselves. InuYasha sat down under a willow tree by the pond.

He knew what he could do, but he growled just thinking about it. Sesshomaru. As much as InuYasha hated to admit it, his older half-brother had been the one to lead them into Naraku's castle. Sesshomaru was already weak from fighting Naraku, but he made it to InuYasha's camp and pointed him in the right direction. Where his brother went from there, he didn't know. He figured he went back to his own castle to recuperate. The two were on better terms now, but were they on good enough terms that Sesshomaru would take care of his mate while he was gone? By the inu-youkai laws the pack brothers would take care of each others families. But InuYasha was a hanyou. Would Sesshomaru still take care of Kagome? He did take care of a human child himself. Rin. Surely he wouldn't let anything happen to Kagome around Rin. InuYasha just couldn't let Kagome go with him this time. The fear she had in her eyes last time she had that nightmare almost drove him off the edge. He never wanted to see her like that again.

There was no use in trying to get to sleep now. InuYasha had too much to think over by himself. If he told Kagome she would most likely insist going with him even though he would tell her to stay behind. She was always wanting to follow him, and usually he wouldn't mind at all, but her following him when he told her to stay behind had gotten her into serious trouble before. He sighed. He had told Kagome to stay when he went after Kikyou. Kagome had found her first, and though she had never told him, InuYasha knew that at that time Kikyou had tried to kill Kagome.

Even before that, when InuYasha was fighting his brother, Sesshomaru for the first time, he had told her to make a run for it, but she insisted on staying and trying to help. She had almost gotten herself killed. He remembered being so scared seeing her like that. And again more recently with her dream of Suoh. He wasn't going to let that happen to her again, never again.

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"Come on, you still didn't talk with Kaede, and don't try to weasel out of it either!"

"Like I would try to weasel out of it. I want to know what's going on just as much as you InuYasha, it's just I wanted to check on Sango, Miroku and Mia and see how they were doing first." They were just leaving the new parents' hut for Kaede's. InuYasha had been on her case all morning, and she was starting to get aggravated.

"Just hurry up, wench. We ain't got all day for you to poke around."

She stopped. Then slowly turned to face the hanyou. He, in return, took a step back. "And what else do you have planned, baka? I'm sooo sorry that this stupid, pathetic human wench can't keep up at your pace, dog-boy, but maybe she'll out run you if you're buried in six feet of dirt!"

She stormed off. InuYasha took a deep breath followed by a sigh of relief. At least she didn't 'sit' me. He thought to himself. He decided to lay low for awhile, and let her cool down while she talked to Kaede. InuYasha sat himself down on a branch in Goshinboku and waited for Kagome.

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"I've been thinking child, there is a test I want to perform. Maybe this Suoh's spirit did not leave the plane of the living like he should have. It is possible that he transferred himself inside of another youkai before he could be pulled into the spirit realm. With his ability to drain energy I'm positive he would also be able to transfer his own powers."

"So, maybe that wasn't just a dream? I really was sensing him?" Kagome swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

"Ai. And it also may be that he is still attacking ye and absorbing ye powers. It would explain the aches and sleepiness. If Suoh's spirit really didn't move on and he is absorbing your powers, he wouldn't be able to absorb them as quickly or as easily as he did before. It seems the only time he can absorb them now is when he is in rage to seek ye aura's presence." Kaede mixed a bowl of chopped up herbs and held her hand above it, chanting a silent prayer.

"What's that for, Kaede?" Kagome questioned.

"It will help me to make certain that I am correct. I will apply a bit to ye forehead and if ye are wrong about Suoh, nothing should happen. But, if ye happen to be correct, ye should be able to get a glimpse of where he is."

"So, we'll be able to hunt him down when I see where he is?"

"Ai, but there is a catch. Ye will see where he is, but there is a chance he will also be able to see ye. It is ye child that has to make this decision."

Kagome thought. "Well, I heard him in my dream. He said he had finally found me, so maybe it wouldn't hurt if he could see me."

"Chances are he wasn't speaking of ye in the physical realm. More likely, he was speaking of connecting to ye in spirit. He would have let his aura roam till he found ye. That is probably when ye started with the headaches. His aura had reached ye and ye miko powers were fighting against him."

"So he may be able to find my physical body here in the village. Then he'll try to attack as he did before. But, wouldn't his powers be weakened?"

"Ai. But he has been feeding off of your powers little by little. Not enough for ye to notice, but enough that over the time it has been he would have reached his original strength by now. I should have thought of this earlier. His spirit was not exercised after his death as it should have been."

Kagome took a deep breath. If she did this, she could find Suoh and get rid of him for good. But, he could also find her and InuYasha in the village. Her hands started shaking involuntarily. She never wanted to see Suoh again. All the memories of InuYasha that first time, seeing him laid out on the floor of the shrine, not knowing if he would live through the night. Then again, when she found him in the forest, bleeding out, clinging to the last breath he had. No, she never wanted to see Suoh again, but she couldn't just let him roam as free as he wanted, either. "I'll do it."

A/N: Ok. Bit of a cliffy there, but my next chapter will be up soon enough.

More Awards! Yay!

Award for saying 'fluff' more than 3 times in the last review: Fu Fu's the nameCrystalfire92Cara the Mord Sith

Award for being the first to review last chapter: Angel452

Award for best 'fluff' dance: The girl who flamed

Award for wanting Suoh dead: Tamakia'gssI AM EOWYNultimateromantic

Award for bowing down to me : NighkeyWhiteNightwolf (how…nice…of you)