A/N: Hey guys. It does continue! Sorry for the long delay, I've been having a very hectic summer. Anyhow, here is the long-promised chapter 9. I just put the page breaks again, but haven't really done my re-edit for this section. Hope it makes more sense this way!

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

9. Jailbreak

Saturday, like all good weekends should, dawned bright and sunny. Kagome, up early for perhaps the only time in her life, was seated on the edge of her bed watching a bluebird on her window. She felt a sudden urge to burst into song.

"Today, today, today, today, today!" she trilled. All right, so apparently she wasn't the world's greatest lyrical songwriter. And, judging by the bird's hasty flight from her windowsill, apparently she wasn't the world's greatest vocal talent either. But she didn't care. Finally they were going to get Inuyasha's jailbreak underway.

Actually, she was kind of angry that she was up so early, because that meant that she had the entire day in front of her. An entire day in which to obsess and worry about the plan despite the fact that it was far too late to change anything.

She went over to her bureau to check and make sure the tickets were still there. They were. They had not grown little paper legs and scuttled off the dresser top during the night, racing for parts unknown. Then she pulled open her closet and took down her duffel bags. Still all packed. Then she counted her money. That done, she decided to have one last look at her tickets.

It was going to be a long day.

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At eleven thirty, Inuyasha was in the gym getting his prescribed hour of morning exercise and having more than a little trouble concentrating. Each footstep that echoed on the treadmill seemed to be saying, "Tonight, tonight, tonight." After two and a half miles, he moved off to go tussle with the punching bag.

"You sure seem to have a lot of energy today," a young woman, one of the aides monitoring him, said. She had only been working with Inuyasha for two or three weeks and was still constantly surprised by his physical stamina.

"Thanks," he replied shortly, not at all sure that that was the proper response.

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At four that afternoon, Sango and Miroku had taken up their assigned places in the monitoring room. Miroku told a few slightly off-color jokes to the agents who had the day shift, and they all laughed awkwardly before heading on their way.

Sango looked over at him and rolled her eyes. "No stopping you, is there?" she asked.

"Nope," Miroku smiled, "You've gotta live, you know."

"If that's life..." Sango let her voice trail off. This exchange had become a ritual between the two of them. Tradition practically.

"So, are we ready for this evening?" Miroku asked, settling himself into one of the large swivel chairs.

"Mostly, I think," Sango answered. "I saw Kagome earlier this week and gave her the address and some money. She says she's got the tickets and everything is all planned out on her end. But she did mention one thing that I hadn't thought about."

"What's that?"

"She asked what we were going to do about the surveillance tapes. Obviously, those are going to be requested as soon as he turns up missing. And she pointed out that it might be better if she didn't appear to have any sort of connection with him at all."

"Hmm," Miroku stroked his beardless chin. There were occasions when he thought that growing some nice facial hair would really suit him. Make his jaw line look a little more masculine for one, and also provide something to do when he was thinking. "She's right. Luckily..." he paused and reached into his jacket, "I've already thought of it!"

"What are those?" Sango asked, staring at the two video cassettes that he was holding out to her.

"Look. They're the two nights that Kagome visited Inuyasha's room. You remember my friend, um 'Bob' right? Well, he owed me a little favour, so I got him to take a peek at these."

"You mean Bob, the guy whose porn collection you officially raided and then let off the hook? That Bob?"

"That's the one. Anyhow, he's good with a computer, and he had some recording equipment, so he just copied over another night when Inu was sleeping and no one interrupted, and spliced it onto these films. Check it out."

Sango placed one of the videos into the VCR in the room and fast-forwarded to the evening. "Okay," she said. "He did a really good job. As long as no one looks too carefully, we should be fine. Also as long as no one realizes that the sheets change colour in the middle of the night."

"Well," Miroku sighed, "you can't ask for everything. This way, even if they know they've been tampered with, they can't know what used to be on them."

"Point," Sango conceded. Then, with a glance at his face, she added, "It's good. I'm glad you thought of it."

"I always knew you found me irresistible," Miroku smiled. Sango rolled her eyes. It was time for ritual two, the tradition in which she found her elbow accidentally bumping into his ribs.

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At six, Kagome was playing with her dinner. With her knife, she shaped her mashed potatoes into a ramp, and then began rolling her peas down them. "Ten points," she muttered as one pea rolled all the way across her plate and hit a pork chop.

"Kagome," said her mother, "you seem a little on edge today. Are you sure you have everything ready for your trip?"

"Yep," Kagome replied, "Don't forget that I'm going to be staying with a friend tonight near the train station, then I'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

"I didn't forget," her mother gave her a dry look, "This is a friend from work, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Kagome answered, stuffing the rest of her pork chop into her mouth and standing up from the table. "Time to go! Don't worry, I'll call you from Eri's at some point tomorrow okay?" She started to head for the door.

"Okay," Mrs. Higurashi replied. "Oh, and Kagome?"

"Yes," Kagome stopped at the door and turned back, her stomach sinking. Somehow, her mother had found out that she wasn't going to Eri's at all. That it was all just one big lie. She tried to smile at her mother.

"Don't forget your bags." Kagome glanced down at her empty hands. Smooth, she thought to herself. "Oh, and I need to drive you since I want the car back." Double smooth, she told herself.

"Right mom, I'll just go and get them then." Kagome ran up the stairs to find money, tickets, and bags all waiting for her. Breathing heavily, she emerged from the house five minutes later, popped her bags into the trunk of the car, and jumped into the passenger seat. With absolutely no vroom whatsoever (a start which Kagome found inappropriate to the beginning of her life as a wanted felon) her mother backed the car out of the driveway. "To Smollet!" Kagome exclaimed, trying to salvage the situation.

Her mother glanced at her and rolled her eyes. "Right."

Sango was parked a few blocks away from Smollet. She was waiting by her car when they got there and helped Kagome transfer her bags.

"Don't forget to call me tomorrow," Mrs. Higurashi said, "and have fun!" The Sango and Kagome watched as Kagome's mother drove off.

"Everything ready?" asked Sango.

"Ready," replied Kagome.

"Good. We have to wait 'til most people are gone, but come back at around 11, okay?"

"No problem," Kagome smiled, "the shops love a loitering teenager, right?" She walked off to go and kill a couple of hours.

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At eleven, Kagome was back in front of Sango's car. This time it was Miroku who was waiting for her, officially taking his fifteen minute break.

"How're things?" she asked.

"Good," he answered. "We've arranged for a bit of a power failure to go off in about 50 minutes. At that point, Inuyasha is going to smash through his door."

"Smash through?" Kagome repeated with some trepidation. She'd known he was strong, but the door was made of three-inch-thick steel.

"Well, only in a sense," Miroku grinned at her. "Actually, he is going to wait there for Sango to unlock it. But it's electronically locked, and we'll just say that there was a bit of a problem and the back-up power didn't go on. Once he gets out here drive immediately to the train station. We'll have to sound the alarm that he's missing as soon as the power comes back on, but we should be able to give you a good 15-minute head start. What time are those tickets for?"

"12:05 tonight," said Kagome.

"Okay, once you get into the city, give us a call. You have Sango's cell number, right? Hopefully everything will go off all right." Miroku smiled. "Now, how about a hug for luck?" He held out his arms.

"Umm, right," said Kagome, patting him on the shoulder. "Isn't your break over yet?"

"Nobody appreciates me," Miroku sighed as he headed back into the building.

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At exactly 11:57, Inuyasha shot out of the lab and headed a few blocks to the right. A small dark shadow detached itself from the bumper of a car.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice sounded uncertain and a little nervous; after all, most teenage girls don't appreciate footsteps running towards them down a dark street in the middle of the night.

"Yeah," he huffed, "Let's go." They jumped into the car, and Kagome fumbled with the ignition key.

"Buckle up," she said, as the engine finally caught and they pulled out into the road.