The dish slipped from her mother's hand and shattered on the floor. "Mama?"
"You're what to who with what?" her mother said faintly.
Kagome carefully repeated herself. "According to Inu-Yasha, I'm married to him and pregnant with his child."
"How did that happen?" Kagome's mother (a/n: does she have a name?) dropped into a chair.
"I don't know."
"What? How do you not know how…"
"I don't remember any of it," Kagome explained hastily. "We got caught in a snowstorm. The last thing I remember is being sure I was going to freeze to death, and the next thing I remember was… um…" She blinked. "WakingupandrealizingthatInu-Yashawasontopofmeandthatwewerebothnakedandhewasinme," she finished.
Her mother blinked. "Oh."
"That… pretty much describes how I felt when he told me I was pregnant. Actually, it was more like, I'm-having-a-nightmare-and-when-I-wake-up-everything-will-be-just-fine, but it wasn't, because he was still there and still saying that I was pregnant and his mate."
"And he didn't fight you coming home?"
"Of course he did!" Kagome exclaimed. "He's an idiot. Worse, he's a male! Like I would actually stay in feudal Japan if what he says is true!"
"If?"
"Well, I don't remember anything happening, and I haven't seen any proof that I'm really married or pregnant!" Kagome complained, indignation rising again. "For all I know, he made it up when I wanted to know why he was hurting himself!"
"Hurting…. No, no. Start from the beginning. With the snowstorm."
Kagome did. Her mother sat quietly for a time when she had finished, then got up to prepare some tea. Not until after she'd poured them each a cup and gotten Kagome nervous did she speak. "It certainly appears that something happened during that storm. Kaede knew nothing of it?"
"Well… I don't know." Kagome frowned. "She seemed surprised that we said it was a blizzard, and there really wasn't all that much snow on the ground when we left the cave. It all melted away really fast. I just guessed it hadn't snowed as hard at the village."
Her mother sipped at her tea. "Why did you come back?"
"Um… well…" Kagome blushed, her face becoming a vivid shade of scarlet. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. She took a deep breath. "Part of it was that I wanted you, Mom. And the rest… well… I figured if he was telling the truth, it would show up on an EPT. And, there's better natal care now than in feudal Japan."
"So if you are pregnant, you're not planning to get rid of it?"
"You mean an adoption?" Kagome asked, temporarily clueless. "Who'd adopt a hanyou?"
"I meant an abortion, Kagome," her mother answered quietly. "If you don't want the child, why have it?"
Kagome blinked at her mother. Not the advice she had expected. Not words she had ever, ever expected to hear out of her mother's mouth. Slowly, mouth still gaping in shock, she marshaled her wits and shut her mouth. Counted to ten. Gave the question the consideration it was due.
"You've got to be out of your mind!" she exploded, leaping to her feet.
"Give me three good reasons to keep a child you don't want, a half-demon child at that," her mother said quietly.
"First off, Inu-Yasha would kill me. Second off, I'm a miko. I protect innocents, I don't kill them. And third - how the hell can you suggest I kill my own baby?! I don't even know if I'm really pregnant anyway… but Inu-Yasha's hardly ever wrong about stuff like that," she added, remembering.
Her mother smiled, and sighed. "I'm so relieved to hear you say that, Kagome!"
Kagome's jaw dropped again. "Then why say it?!"
Another little sigh. "You wouldn't be the first girl your age to take what seemed to be the easy way out. I was pretty sure you would say no, but I had to be sure. I don't think I would have handled it very well if you told me that killing my first grandchild was a high priority! I'd have probably shoved you down the well and pushed the sofa in after you just to be sure you couldn't get back and do it!"
"Oh, Mom!" Kagome threw herself into her mother's arms. "What should I do?"
"See a doctor," her mother answered promptly. "I'll phone and see if I can't get you an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning. For now, I think you might eat some fruit and lie down for awhile."
"Okay." Kagome grabbed some fruit from the table and walked up to her room, mind churning. What am I going to do? I don't know anything much about babies!
Inu-Yasha slunk back to the well and perched on the edge. He guessed Kagome was so wrapped up in what to do that she hadn't noticed him Probably a good thing, he'd nearly ripped the door off the hinges when he realized what an abortion was. He dropped into the well, and made his way back to Kaede to report.