She woke up feeling a thousand shots of pain in her torso. Was she dead? But she was warm. Dead people weren't warm; they were cold and white; not at all like she was, covered in blood and silver… blood and silver. It couldn't be. She opened her eyes, using her hand to wipe off the crusted blood coating her eyelids. Her other arm was trapped under something heavy. She felt like she was dreaming. Suddenly, a bright light blinded her and forced her eyes shut. A gentle voice, a female voice that was familiar but distant, and lost to her memory, told her to relax. Her mouth was opened and a bittersweet liquid was poured down her throat. She went back to sleep with ancient thoughts swirling around her head; the pain was gone before she hit unconsciousness…
He looked at the girl under the thatch of the hut. He'd thought never to see her again... But then, with her, things were never really normal. Was he dreaming? No. He shook his head and paced the hut, to and fro, back and forth, until his old friend came back in to take care of the girl. By now, her stomach was stretched with seven months of pregnancy and a young child clung to her skirts. She came in with a basket of herbs and a small bottle of spring water, as well as some healing sutras her husband had giver her. The young child clinging to her skirts ran to him and offered him some water. He accepted.
"Here you go, InuYasha-sama," said the child, whose name was Shinju. He nodded to her before gulping down nearly half the water in the bucket. He turned to the woman, who was near the small fire at the edge of the hut making a poultice for the unconscious girl.
"Sango-san, will she be able to recover?" asked InuYasha, worried, though he tried not to show it. The woman smiled, and the kindly expression almost brought the hanyou to tears.
"She will be fine. But," she told him smilingly, "you need to leave for a bit." The hanyou jumped nearly ten feet in the air and came down with a thunderous expression on his face.
"I am not leaving her here. I have to be with her! I'm staying right here," he said defiantly, sitting down. The woman shook her head kindly.
"InuYasha-chan, you have to leave so that I may wash her. Unless, that is, you want to help," she said, sure that he would refuse. But he brightened at her words, and set his features in an expression of absolute determination.
"Then I'll help. What do I have to do?" Sango shook her head, and told the hanyou to hold the girl up under her shoulders while Sango undressed and washed her. The hanyou blushed scarlet, but did as he was told. While Sango disrobed her old friend, she wondered what had happened between InuYasha and the girl. They had been all right; apart from the girl suffering an occasional heartbreak because of the hanyou's own indecisive nature, nothing was wrong. But then, she thought, heartbreak can add up. Maybe she just… snapped.
She took a bit of cloth and dipped it in the hot water she had over the fire in a pot. She gently rubbed the dried blood off her friend's body. When she reached the center of her chest, she saw the large hole where the weapon had struck, as well as the lacerations it had caused with its blades. She wondered what kind of weapon it could have been, but said nothing.
What was there to say?
She silently finished her task, and then motioned the hanyou to lay the girl on the tatami mat that her assistant had brought in. When he was done, she brought the poultice she had made and began to spread it over her friend's body where the weapon had done the most damage. After the poultice came a few drops of spring water from the Fuji base hot springs, and all of that was bandaged tightly with linen. After the girl was covered in a loose yukata, she and the hanyou stepped out of the hut together. She pinned the sutras on the beams of the doorway and turned to him.
"Do you mind me asking what happened," asked Sango. The hanyou had turned around, and Sango walked around to face him. What she saw shocked her.
The hanyou was crying.
His shoulders quaked and quiet sobs racked his body. She awkwardly patted his shoulder and said nothing. He said nothing, until he couldn't take it anymore. He took a deep, shuddering breath, and spoke the only word he'd say until the girl woke up.
"Kagome…"
Her thoughts were foggy. She knew she was clean now; she felt purified inside, as well. But who, and how? Maybe she was dead. If this was what death felt like, maybe it wasn't as bad as people thought it was. She struggled to regain consciousness, but whatever had been poured down her throat earlier kept her from waking up. As she struggled more and more, she began to cry with frustration. She wanted to let go, wanted to be with him and not worry about anything or anybody else, she just wanted him. With a guttural wail that, for all she knew, could have been heard outside, she mentally screamed the only name she'd think of until she regained consciousness…
"InuYasha!"