Thanks to all who read the first chapter, thanks and delicious cookies to those who reviewed. See? Read + review happy stuff. Any questions?

The next chapter will be the soap-opera junkie's delight:

Drama

"There is nothing I can do for him."
Kaede's words rang around the small clearing, echoing in the stunned ears of Kagome, Sango, Shippo and Miroku. They turned their shocked eyes to Inuyasha, lying unconscious on the ground. He was just visible in the dim firelight. It was all the light they had on this night, the night of the New Moon. What was happening was terrible, but they hadn't realized how terrible until now.
"What are you saying? That Inuyasha is…he will…" Kagome couldn't finish her sentence.
"As I've told you before, this virus only affects half-demons and has an extremely high death rate," Kaede stated bluntly. "Inuyasha would have been able to withstand it in his demon form, but in his weakened human state, he will most likely not survive."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Sango asked in a very quiet voice.
Kaede was silent for a few minutes. Then she spoke, turning her gaze to the east. "The only thing that may save him is if you can keep him alive until dawn, when he will revert to demon form. Then he should be able to fight off the virus. I can supply you with some poultices and such, but I'm afraid I can't stay with you tonight." She pulled a few items out of a bag she carried and handed them to Miroku.
"I shall pray for you all. Good luck."

Sango 9:00 P.M. – 11:35 P.M.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I'd one day be staying up this late trying to save a demon, I'd have said they'd been hitting the spiked green tea a mite too long.
But now that it's actually happening, it seems to make perfect sense.
Inuyasha…he can be a royal pain sometimes (okay, often), but behind all the smoke and mirrors he throws at everyone, he does have a heart. His eyes when I speak of my brother tell me that somehow, he understands. But his expression now is tortured with pain, quite different from his usual scowl. I arrange a damp cloth on his head, trying to keep his fever down. There's not much else to be done. Miroku has gone to look for more medicinal herbs; Kagome and Shippo are trying to rest. I know they're not asleep.
Suddenly Inuyasha's eyes fly open and he sits bolt upright. I can't help but jump back in surprise. My shock is doubled when he starts hollering to the night.
"Challenge me, will ya, Sesshoumaru? C'mon, I'll take you! I'll knock your stupid head off!" I hear Kagome and Shippo scramble up as I try to calm Inuyasha. He has a crazed, feverish look in his dark brown eyes as he swings his imaginary sword. I yell, "Inuyasha, lay down! Sesshoumaru's not here! You need to rest!"
"No, I gotta slice Sesshie, is what I gotta do!" He lunges forward, and I drag him back down to his makeshift bed. My mind seems to be in pieces. I can't think of what to do. I can hear Kagome trying to calm Inuyasha without success. I can't hold him much longer.
"Lay down little demon, baby of mine. The stars are all smiling, for you do they shine," I don't know why I'm singing this old baby song. I used to sing it for Kohaku when he wouldn't sleep. I told him he was such a little demon sometimes. Kagome knows about the song's origin, but no one else. Amazingly, Inuyasha stops struggling to listen.
"Save your mischief for the morrow's daylight. Sweetest of demons, slumber this night." Inuyasha lets me push him back down onto the bed. I keep humming the tune and his breathing slows down to normal. I smile. I haven't thought about that song in ages. It reminds me so much of Kohaku…
Now that the panic has left me I feel so tired. I slump to the ground and hear Kagome's voice, "You rest now, Sango." Then Shippo: "I'll watch Inuyasha now."
I only have the strength to mutter, "I'll let you."

Shippo 11:45 P.M. - 2:00 A.M.

Every now and then Shippo would wonder why he kept traveling with Inuyasha and the others. He knew his original reason had been revenge on the Thunder Brothers, but that idea had been further and further from his mind lately.
A couple of hours had passed since Sango had sung Inuyasha to sleep. Shippo woke the sick half-demon every half hour or so to make him drink some water. The fox kit felt a certain pride in being trusted with Inuyasha's care when he was so ill. But the feeling of pride took a backseat to worry.
Inuyasha was sleeping now. Shippo looked at the sky, wishing it would lighten and save his friend's life.
Friend? Shippo thought of how Inuyasha sniped at him, beat on him and made fun of him. But still, Inuyasha was there when he was needed. Inuyasha was more than a friend. He was like a brother. A stab of pain shot to Shippo's heart every time he thought of his lost family, but since he'd been with the group, the pain had lessened and Shippo had found the warmth of being with people who cared about him again. Mostly it was Kagome, but the others looked out for him, too.
Inuyasha tossed a bit, moaning with fever. Shippo grabbed the water bottle, raised Inuyasha's head and trickled a few drops into his mouth. Inuyasha swallowed, and his eyes opened just a little.
"Thanks…Shippo…" His eyes closed again, and his shallow breathing resumed.
Shippo set Inuyasha's head down.
"You're welcome, Brother."

Miroku 2:06 A.M. – 4:30 A.M.

"Great Spirit Kami, we pray that you would have mercy on the soul of…" Miroku stopped praying with a sigh. He didn't think the prayers were working any more than he thought Sesshoumaru would adopt Shippo. Inuyasha's breathing had become even more labored in the past hour, and it was still a couple more hours until daybreak. Kagome had been up to check on Inuyasha a few times, and the monk had told her to go back to sleep. But he still caught stifled sobs from her direction. Miroku's worry was split between Inuyasha and Kagome. He was sure that if Inuyasha died, a part of Kagome would die with him.
Miroku shook his head to clear negative thoughts from it. There was still a chance to save Inuyasha, and he had to do everything possible to help. Miroku administered some more medicine to Inuyasha, then sat back. The only sounds were the woods' night song and Inuyasha's shallow breathing.
"You have to live, Inuyasha," Miroku said. His voice seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet of the forest. "If you die, Kagome will be lost." Then he added sternly, "And the rest of us won't be too happy, either." Inuyasha mumbled something in his sleep. Taking that as a good sign, Miroku kept talking.
"After all, where would we find another stubborn, willful, one-track-minded, emotionally constipated, half-dog demon?" Miroku chuckled a bit, thinking of the list of traits Inuyasha had that the rest of them had learned to live with. "Who's going to argue with me over who gets to kill Naraku, and who's going to get us into bad situations with his hot-headedness and get us out again with the Tetsusaiga? Who's going to annoy Kagome?" Miroku thought, then: "Well, I suppose I could annoy her, but I've got my hands pretty full with Sango."
Miroku fell silent. He'd seen plenty of death in his life. He'd been present at family crises, waiting in the wings to bless the lost soul should the unthinkable happen. But death had never seemed quite so cruel as it did now.
"Miroku."
The monk jumped and turned around to see Kagome standing behind him. He hadn't even heard her approach. "Yes, Kagome?"
"I'll watch him now."
Miroku hesitated, but decided that it was right that Kagome should be the final watcher.
She should know first whether this night would end in tragedy or triumph.

Kagome 4:30 A.M. – 6:25 A.M.

I'm not going to cry. Crying won't help anyone now. I'm not going to holler and rail at Inuyasha for getting sick, tell him I'll kill him if he dies. I'm just going to wait. Either he'll make it or he won't.
Wow. I really have lost it.
I should be weeping and wailing now, begging Inuyasha not to leave me and all that. But I'm not. I just tell him every now and then, "Don't die, Inuyasha." I'm pretty sure he can still hear us. He's had a couple more delirious fits, hollering away about something nonsensical, but in between, he's usually peaceful. If you could call a state of burning sickness peaceful.
Sango brings some more medicine over occasionally, but we don't talk. None of us do. Because losing Inuyasha would be terrible beyond words. No one ever says so, but he means a lot to all of us. Maybe even Naraku and Sesshoumaru would miss pounding on him.
I've seen a million situations just like this one on T.V. at home. Ones where someone falls deathly ill and all his friends and family can do is wait…wait and worry. And even though we're in this little forest clearing with electricity hundreds of years from being invented, I can hear the heart monitor. That little machine that's always the first to know, the first to scream to the world that your loved one is dead. I hear it beeping steadily...and as hard as I try not to, I imagine the moment when the beeping will turn into the single, high-pitched, screechy wail.
Suddenly Inuyasha's breath catches in his throat. Is this the end?
No. Don't do this to us.
His breath comes again, but it's so shallow it might stop any second. My eyes are so dry they burn. I lean over to listen to Inuyasha's heart. The beat is very faint, but the sky is lightening! Don't give up, Inuyasha. Not now. You're so close…
Shippo buries his face in my sleeve and sniffles. I don't turn around, but I know that Miroku and Sango are standing behind me. We're all willing Inuyasha to keep breathing, to hold on, to live. I sense the sun is just a millimeter away from coming over the horizon. Inuyasha exhales raggedly.
The next breath doesn't come. We wait ten seconds, twenty, a minute. Nothing.
And the sun breaks over the hills.
I check for a heart beat…there is none.
"Kagome?" It's Sango's voice.
"He's dead."
Sango gasps, Shippo sobs. Miroku slumps to the ground. Inuyasha almost made it. But it's over. And we failed.
But…something's odd. Inuyasha's hair…it's almost imperceptible, but silver is slowly sweeping through it. Collective gasps sound from the others as they notice. The color change is speeding up! Inuyasha's finger nails are growing, too! I exhale in a rush with a shuddering sob. And as if my breath has entered Inuyasha, his chest rises and draws in life-giving air. His silky dog ears poke up out of his hair…and his eyes open. I never thought I'd be so glad to see that strange shade of gold. I smile at him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Inuyasha."

A/N: This is probably the longest ficand was one of the most troublesome genres to me. Only one other took longer to come up with. Which one? If you keep reading, you'll find out. I was trying to do put a variety of the characters in these and I though Kikyo would be a good subject for drama, but no real story ever came to me for her. She didn't make it into any of these genre-fics except for one brief, sneaky mention. For this one, Shippo's part was the easiest to write. Tie for hardest comes between Miroku, because I don't get any particular sense for his relationship with Inuyasha, and Kagome, because I was continually interrupted while writing it!

Thanks for taking the time to read, and please take a few more minutes to 1. Review, constructive criticism and opinions on myvision of each genre being the preferred kind,and 2. Bring me a flyswatter for the giant fly that seems to be in a holding pattern around my computer now.