"It's actually a bit early for a pregnancy test, you understand. Your body may not be producing a sufficient number of the hormones that the test checks for yet, and you could get a false negative. Or, you may not be pregnant at all."
Kagome considered the doctor's warning, and demanded the test. She knew enough about hanyous to guess that if she was pregnant, she was most certainly producing the proper hormones in a ridiculous quantity. And she wasn't wrong. The doctor came back frowning.
"You're quite sure this is the only date you had sex?"
"I was a virgin, and it wasn't my idea to not be anymore," Kagome snapped. "Now, am I or not?"
"You are Am I to refer you to someone for a D&C?"
She blinked. "What's that?"
"A procedure to remove the fetus."
Her arms crossed protectively over her stomach as she hopped off the bed. She kept the doctor in view the entire time she hurriedly yanked on her clothes. "I've had this discussion already. This is my baby, not some unwanted growth. I want some prenatal vitamins and anything else I might need."
"You're quite sure?" He seemed puzzled.
"Yes." It was a fight not to hiss at him.
The doctor nodded, and left the room. He came back several minutes later with several formula samples and a complementary diaper bag with additional samples. "Do you plan on nursing?" he asked. "I forgot to ask."
"Yes." Oh, I hope it isn't born with teeth!
"Ah. Wait a moment then, and I'll get you some literature for that." He vanished again, and came back with another bag and a sheaf of papers. "This bag has samples of various things you might find useful for nursing." He paused a moment. "You are awfully young to take on the responsibility of a child, Kagome. Are you absolutely sure that is what you wish to do?"
"I know younger girls than I with two or more children, Doctor Higi. I'll have my family, the baby's father, and… a lot of friends helping me."
"The father is helping? I thought you said… ah, perhaps I misheard you. I thought you had been raped and were unwilling to have the baby. That is why I suggested the abortion." He paused a moment. "The midwife, will she be handling your prenatal visits or only the birth?"
Kagome, feeling slightly more charitable with him, paused. She glanced at her mother. Kaede was a good priestess, and an excellent midwife, but she wasn't a modern doctor with the knowledge of medicines Kaede had never heard of. "The birth," she told him at last.
"Then I suggest you schedule another visit for one month from now on your way out. You'll want to make sure you walk for about thirty minutes every day, oh, and that's all you better do in gym class. I'll give you a note for the school." Doctor Higi closed his eyes, thinking. "There's some activities that you should avoid," he listed several, "and you should definitely be sure to eat right."
He examined her again, lips pursing thoughtfully. "You seem to be in excellent health. I don't imagine that you'll have any difficulties with the pregnancy, barring some unforeseen complications. Oh! Keagle exercises! Make sure you do them every single day, they'll help make the birth easier." He explained what those where while Kagome's face grew rather rosy again.
"Now, I'll give your mother a prescription for the prenatal pills. You won't need any supplements with them. Also, get some raspberry tea, and drink at least one cup every day." He tapped his pencil against his lip thoughtfully.
"I'm sorry if I'm a bit scatter-brained," the doctor apologized. "When you told me it wasn't your idea to become pregnant, I was almost positive I was going to have to refer you elsewhere. I don't handle anyone who wants an abortion, you see, and it rather threw me that you were raped and the father would be helping you care for the child."
"Oh… I see." Kagome settled into the chair near the door. "I guess I didn't explain that very well."
"Oh, there's no need." He flapped one hand, the other still tapping the pencil distractedly. "I've no need for details. It just threw me, is all. I'm forgetting something…"
Dr. Higi referred back to the chart he held, muttering under his breath as he apparently went through a checklist. "Got it! I want you to schedule a sonogram for the week before you come to see me. These results seem to indicate that the baby is older than you think, and with some of the drugs around now, it's entirely possible that you were raped earlier and never knew. Now, don't forget to schedule your appointment at the front desk. She can arrange the sonogram, too." He frowned. "Sixteen does seem awfully young… oh well. Off you go! Here's the prescription, and don't forget the tea!"
She made the appointment and scheduled the sonogram, then trudged out to the car. She spent most of the trip back to the shrine in a foul temper, wondering exactly what had changed between feudal Japan and now so that they were plenty old enough and she was awfully young for having babies. Her mother, wisely, said nothing, and only stopped to get ice-cream and the prescription the doctor had given her for Kagome.
Her mood only got darker when she realized that Inu-Yasha was coming for her the next day. It had taken her mother most of the week to find a doctor that didn't say it was too early for the test and quite simply refused to schedule her, and then went through four who thought she expected to schedule an immediate abortion. Doctor Higi was a good doctor, if a bit scatter-brained. It was her fault they'd had a little communication problem. Which didn't change that Inu-Yasha expected her to go back with him tomorrow.
What was she going to tell him? He's not gonna be happy that the doctor says the baby may not be his!
"What the hell do you mean, not mine!? Like hell it's anyone else's! You were a virgin!" Inu-Yasha roared.
"Well, the doctor says the tests indicate the baby is older, Inu-Yasha, that's all. So I have to have another test, so they can see how big he is."
Inu-Yasha blinked. "See how big?" he repeated wonderingly. "They can do that?"
"Sure," Kagome replied blithely. "It's called a sonogram. I'll get to see the baby before it's even born. I'll be taking that test in three weeks, and I have to see the doctor again the next week."
His ears flattened. "You aren't coming back home, are you?"
She mock-punched him. "Inu-Yasha, you idiot! This is my home. I know we still have shards to look for, and all that, but I have a baby to think about now. I'll get better care in my time than yours, and I won't have nearly as many demons chasing after me!"
Inu-Yasha was forced to concede the point. She and the baby would be safer in her time. His ears flattened, perked, then flattened again. "I want you there… but I… I'll leave you here. If that's really what you want." He wouldn't look at her, choosing to stare out her window at the tree.
"I think it's safer, Inu-Yasha." Kagome reached out, stroking his ears. "I probably won't go back until it's time for the baby to be born. I… don't want to have it here."
His ears twitched, he glanced at her unhappy expression quickly before returning his attention to the tree. "Why?"
"In your time, Kaede understands exactly what I'll be delivering. Hanyou's are actually rather common. Other than yourself, how many demons have you sensed in my time? And the Noh Mask doesn't count."
"Uh…" Demons? Not counting the mask? I don't think I've felt any… oh. "None, that I can think of."
"Exactly. You and your brother are both very pretty, but you both also have very obvious demonic attributes." She tugged lightly on his ear. "I won't risk my baby becoming the center of a media circus."
"Sesshomaru is not pretty!" he yelped.
"Yes he is. Even Sanzo and Kaede say he is. If he had the attitude to match and wasn't always trying to kill me… er… um, would you like to see the baby when I go for the sonogram? They generally let fathers in," Kagome said hastily. "See your baby before it's born… then go back and brag about him. Or her."
He blinked, attention diverted successfully. "You'll know the sex of the child?"
Kagome grabbed up one of the pamphlets the doctor had sent her home with. "Hmm… hmmm… no, not yet. Too early, it looks like. Probably not until the next sonogram."
"What's that?" She handed it to him, and he paged through it carefully, looking at the pictures. "This is what a baby looks like before it's born?"
"Yep." Kagome rummaged through the papers, flyers, pamphlets and samples she'd dumped on her bed. "Here's some more pictures. They all tell about how the baby develops, and this one tells me what I should be noticing as the pregnancy progresses."
"What's all the other stuff?"
"Diapers, formula samples," she picked up a box to see what it was, and blushed, "nursing pads, baby lotions and shampoo samples… baby powder sample - don't!" Too late, he'd sniffed and was busy sneezing. "Mostly, it's stuff that I can use for him after he's born. I'll have to have Doctor Higi make him up a birth certificate…" Her voice trailed off as she considered that. Her life was in this time, but her hanyou child's might be in the past, where he could have a better life if he was obviously different.
"Kagome?" Inu-Yasha's voice was soft and uncertain.
"What?"
"What… did you decide about me?"