Chapter 27: Life or Death Situation

Hige pulls up the house's driveway. Kagome opens up the door with a smile but it vanished with only the van and not her mother's car with them. "Hey, where's mom?" Kagome asks her father as he and Kaede come out of the van. "She's taking Miyuki to the hospital." Hige answers nonchalantly as he opens up the trunk to get the boxes out first and gives it to Kagome. Kagome doesn't say a word and helps out with the boxes with Sota doing the same thing behind. Kaede is about to take a box out from the trunk. "No way, Kaede." Hige stops her as he takes the box. "I know that you're worried about Miyuki, but you need to have faith in my wife. She knows the best doctors in the area." He tells her as he takes a hold of her shoulder to calm down. Kaede really wants to get hers and Miyuki's things taken care of as fast as possible.

Kaede follows Kagome down into the basement. "Nice basement." Kaede smiles as best as she could, not to get the anxiety get the better of her. "Thanks, we worked very hard to make it as homey as possible." Kagome smiles as she takes Kaede to the two rooms. "Which one do you want? They're the same size." She gestures to the two doors. Kaede picks the one on the left. She goes into see it empty, with the windows on the top of the wall since they're below the main floor of the house. "Thank you, Kagome." Kaede spoke after a few seconds after looking around the room. "Sure thing. There's also a bathroom for you two." Kagome smiles as she offers Kaede the third room in the basement. "This really means a lot, Kagome. Miyuki will thank you as well." Kaede keeps her smile as she goes back upstairs to get her boxes into her chosen room.

Kagome goes back outside to see Hige about to get the mattress out of the back. "Need help, dad?" Kagome asks him, seeing that it's difficult to get the thing out. "No, Inuyasha and Miroku are coming over to give me a hand." Hige replies. Kagome didn't see that coming. "Hey, we're here." Miroku spoke as he grabs the other end of the mattress and helps carries it into the house, then into the basement, and into Kaede's bedroom. Inuyasha gets the box spring and brings it in after them. Kaede tries her best to keep her smile even though she's still worried. "It's nice to see you, Kaede." Miroku greets nicely. "Same here." Kaede waves back. Hige gestures him and Inuyasha to do the same one for Miyuki's room.

It doesn't take the group long to bring down Miyuki's room as they bring in her mattress and box spring. "Ok, that's it for now you guys." Hige tells the boys and heads back upstairs. With both Kaede's and Miyuki's boxes to their bedrooms, Kaede has decided to pull down her smile. "Kaede, you ok?" Miroku asks her first. "It's Miyuki…" Before Kaede could continue on, Kagome pushes him and Inuyasha upstairs. "What's going on?" Inuyasha asks her as she keeps pushing them out. "Family business only. Go home." She only tells them and closes the door behind them. "Ok, that was uncalled for." Inuyasha shouts through the closed door. Miroku shakes his head. "When she says family business, that means that we stay out of it. If Kagome wants to tell us, she will. Just not right now." He wisely tells Inuyasha before turning around and head back to his place. Knowing that Miroku is absolutely right about what's going on, he decides to head back home.

Hige sees Kaede coming up from the basement. "Kaede, we can go to the hospital later this afternoon. But for now, make yourself comfortable." He tells her before going outside. Kaede goes into the kitchen to find something to drink. So far neither Kagome or Sota want to say anything about Miyuki because they know it'll just get her very anxious about her condition. Throughout the day, Kaede does anything she could like she would back home. One example is doing her homework for school. And that's pretty much eat. 'Miyuki, please be okay.' She prays while trying to focus on her homework.

At the hospital, Miyuki is in a patient's room recovering from whatever happened to her. Ai is in the waiting room, trying her best to pray for Miyuki to get well soon. "Mrs. Higurashi." A doctor comes into the room. "Right here." Ai stood up and goes up to him. "Your sister Miyuki had food poisoning and it ruptured her stomach which explained why she was vomiting blood." The doctor explains her sister's conditions. Ai had no idea that such a thing would happen to her sister. "Do you know anything that might of cause the food poisoning?" The doctor asks her after a few seconds of silence between them. "No. I wasn't with her for the last few years. I think her stepdaughter Kaede would have the answer." She shakes her head.

"Do you have her number? Maybe you could have her here and she could calibrate on the situation." The doctor suggests the best option. "I don't have her number. However she's staying at my house and my family is taking care of her as we speak. Let me call my husband." Ai answers honestly as she turns around to get a more comfortable spot in the waiting room and calls her husband.

Back at the Higurashi house, Kaede is getting used to the hospitality that her aunt's family is providing her. Hige is in his office working on a few documents. Soon enough his cell phone rings. He sees that it's his wife calling. "Ai? Is Miyuki okay?" He asks her right away after answering the call. "I don't know at the moment. For what the doctor found out was that she had food poisoning in her stomach which explains the blood vomit." Ai tells him so far. "As such, you need to bring Kaede to the hospital since she's the only who's been with Miyuki at the time." She adds the last in a more desperate plea. "Ok. I'll bring her over. Should I leave the kids home?" Hige agrees with her. "No, not yet. It's best that Kaede comes alone." Ai tells him to make sure that their kids won't get into more personal topics. "Ok, I'll head out." He hangs up and goes into the living room where Kaede is reading a book. "Hey Kaede." He speaks to her.

"What is it Uncle Hige?" Kaede asks as she puts the book down onto the coffee table. "I need to take you to the hospital." Hige tells her immediately. Kaede nods and goes get her jacket from her bedroom in the basement. Kagome spots Hige grabbing his keys. "What's going on, Dad?" She asks him curiously. Hige turns to her. "I'm taking Kaede to the hospital. You are to stay here until further notice." He tells her serious. Kagome nods to in an understanding way. "I don't know how long we're going to be there. I just hope it's not long. Your aunt and cousin just arrived and now Miyuki is in the hospital due to something that I cannot tell you or your brother." Hige said as Kaede comes up from the basement ready to leave. "Ok, just make sure it's not something bad." Kagome hopes to them. Kaede nods to her. "I'll let you know as soon as I can." She smiles and leaves the house with Hige.