"Tasha?" Kagome whispered softly. She couldn't believe that she was here. How did she even know she was here? She looked past Natasha to see the man that had been looking in her window and Dr. Kimura. She ignored them and turned her attention back on Natasha, without her meaning to her eyes started welling up with tears. She shot up off of her bed and launched herself at one of the people she viewed as a pseudo older sister. Even though she knew that Natasha wasn't the biggest on touching, but she needed to know that she was really there. Standing in front of her. She hugged Natasha as hard as she could and let out a sigh of relief as she felt Tasha's own arms wrap around her.
"Oh, Kagome I'm so sorry." Natasha whispered into her ear.
Kagome stifled a sob into Natasha's shoulder, "Get me out of here, please. I'm not crazy and I didn't kill Mama. I'm not crazy, right?" Kagome said hysterically. Kagome hated how she had absolutely no control over her emotions anymore. When she wasn't around other people her mind seemed to shut down entirely. When she was around people her mind just constantly screamed threats! She got defensive and her mind kept flashing back to Naraku's attacks three weeks ago. She had no idea where he had gone off to, or why he had left her alive instead of just killing her and taking her part of the jewel. With how much her mind has been playing with her she had begun to question her own sanity. Especially with how much everyone around here was telling her that everything she was thinking was wrong.
Natasha pushed her back and looked her straight in the eyes, "No Mladshaya sestra you are not crazy."
Kagome have a sigh of relief before Natasha let her go back into the hug. Kagome knew she was being overly touch-feely but she craved the physical reassurance. "Thank you, thank you." Kagome whispered into her shoulder and then refused to let go. She couldn't, not yet.
Dr. Kimura gave an irritated sigh, "Ma'am I told you. Please do not play into her fantasies."
Natasha gave a determined grunt and turned to look at the doctor. Kagome didn't let go, simply shuffled around with Natasha. Natasha started a very convincing lie, "As we said when we got here, Kagome is a prime witness in a global security issue. There is a crime syndicate that has spread globally. They call themselves the demons. Their people obviously came after Kagome, as she was a witness, and killed her family. Kagome is not crazy; her mind is just traumatized from the death of her family which is why it made it hard for her to think straight." Dr. Kimura stood there with her jaw slack slightly, Tony simply had an eyebrow raised finding the story amusing. "Now as she is a prime witness, and one we wish to keep alive, you are going to transfer her over to us. We will be taking her back to our base to keep her safe, both physically and mentally."
Dr. Kimura's eyes narrowed, "Now just wait one moment. You two obviously know each other. I have absolutely no proof that what you've said is the truth. For all I know you could have been the one she snuck a call out to last night and now you are just here to break her out. As I have said before she is the prime suspect in the murder of her family, there was no indication that anyone other than her and her family was there that night. You are not going to simply take her out of this hospital."
Natasha narrowed her eyes at the doctor. She knew the lady was simply doing her job, but her doing her job interfered with her trying to help Kagome. "All I have to do is make one phone call and she will be released to us within the next half hour."
"Well than make your call Ma'am for without me getting the go ahead by my boss I will not simply be giving one of my patients away to a government agency." Dr. Kimura said briskly.
Natasha looked down into Kagome's big brown doe eyes. Eyes that had started off bright and innocent were now scared and haunted. Something big had obviously happened and Natasha knew it was important to find out as soon as possible. She pulled Kagome away from her once again, she felt bad at the small mewl of disagreement that came from Kagome. "Don't worry Mladshaya sestra I will be right back. I need to step outside and call Fury. He'll be able to get you out of here. Then you'll be able to come back with me and you can explain what happened. We will make things better Gome I promise." When she saw that Kagome still didn't want to let her go, she was probably scared that she would simply disappear, she told her "See that guy over there?" she asked gesturing to Tony, Kagome nodded. "His name is Tony. He has some things he wants to talk to you about. How about you talk to him while I go call Fury. We will have you out of here within thirty minutes."
Kagome hesitated for a bit before nodding. She made her way back over to her bed and sat down on the edge of it, making sure that her back was to the wall and they wouldn't be able to get around behind her. She was tired of sneak attacks and preferred to keep everyone in view in front of her. She let out a small sigh of relief when she got off of her leg, she kept forgetting that her leg wasn't healed yet. Usually she could speed heal her injuries, but since she was stuck in this place that actively monitored her, practically hourly, she had to actively keep her Ki from not healing her wounds. Plus, her precious baby inside her seemed to set her Ki off balance at times and she didn't always have the best control over it all the time. Not since she found out she was pregnant, which had totally not been planned but she was beyond happy that it had happened. All she wanted was to get back to the baby's father, though she didn't think that was going to be possible anymore. Naraku had completely destroyed the well when he had come through. He had made sure there had been nowhere for her to run back to. Also, about ninety percent of her Ki was keeping up a barrier around the Shikon jewel that was currently hanging around her neck. It wasn't a lot of it, only about a third of the entire jewel. Naraku had the rest of it. But she was keeping it hidden visibly from the staff here so they didn't take it away from her and become corrupted. She was also keeping it hidden sensually so that demons that were around wouldn't sense the jewel and come storming the hospital.
She looked at the man, Tony, that was standing next to the single chair in her room. He looked over to Dr. Kimura before speaking, "Is it possible that I could speak to her privately? You can wait right outside the door, even watch through the window. I just need a semblance of privacy here." Both Kagome and Tony caught the glare Natasha threw him. Tony rolled his eyes, "I already told you Romanov, not that. I know that now is not the right time. Probably not even in the near future is that conversation a good idea. I just want to talk about the call, but I don't need my private business spread all over the place by nosy hospital workers."
Natasha nodded with a smirk, gave Kagome a comforting smile, then walked down the hall to make her call to Fury. Dr. Kimura was glaring slightly at Tony's last comment before agreeing to stay in the hall. She left with a warning that she would be watching and if he did anything suspicious she would call security. With a quiet click Tony and Kagome were left alone in the room.
"Who are you?" Kagome asked quietly, Natasha obviously knew him so maybe he was part of Shield?
"You really don't know who I am kid?" Tony asked as he sat down, making himself as comfortable in the chair as he could. It really wasn't the most comfortable chair to begin with though. Kagome shook her head indicating that she had no idea who he was. "Well, that really is a change from the everyday occurrence. My name is Tony Stark otherwise known as Iron Man."
Kagome's eyes widened in realization, no this man was not part of Shield. At least not directly involved with it. She may not recognize him by face but she had heard of him. She had heard of Stark Industries; her dad had worked in the offices of the Japan branch before he had died. Natasha also had talked about the extremely annoying Tony Stark who thought he knew everything. She had described him as cocky and childish, but underneath everything had a good heart. She had also heard about Iron Man being a part of the Avengers from her brother. She had been in the feudal era when the attack had gone down, but her brother had told her all about it when she had gotten back. During that meeting with Shield she had found out that both Natasha and Clint had become part of the team, and that Phil had died. She had been really sad to hear that, she had honestly really liked Phil. She had known him for two years and had looked forward to the meetings to talk with him. Natasha had taken over as her Shield liaison after that, though Clint was with her almost every time. But even with all that, she was pretty sure she had never really seen a picture of the man. Or even if she did it hadn't connected in her mind that the man was so important.
Kagome gave a small shrug, "I haven't really been around technology all that much the past few years and even before that I wasn't really all that into it. I have heard of you though. Tasha said your team helped save Clint from the bad guy. Thanks for that, he tends to get into trouble about as much as I do." Kagome gave a small grin as she looked at the ground, "Tasha refused to leave the two of us alone saying we would probably accidently cause global destruction."
Tony snorted in amusement, "No need to really thank me kid. I honestly didn't do all that much in the involvement of freeing Clint from Loki. All I did was stop the helicarrier from crashing into the ocean."
"That seems pretty important to me." Kagome said sincerely. People tended to underestimate how important the little things they did were. Never the less Kagome moved on, "You said you wanted to talk to me about something Sir?" she asked quietly but politely. She didn't talk loudly lately, he throat tended to hurt. She had been having night terrors every single night since the night Naraku attacked. She would wake up screaming until her throat physically hurt.
Tony flinched slightly, "Ah, don't call me Sir. It makes me feel old, just call me Tony alright?" when Kagome nodded her continued "I did want to talk to you about something. You know that phone call you made last night? Do you know who you meant to call?"
Kagome looked at him with wide eyes, her phone call? Was that how Natasha knew to come here? She really shouldn't have even checked up on her shrine for another two weeks, she hadn't even thought of that before now. How did Tasha know that she was here? Did her phone call actually save her? She had thought the entire thing ultimately pointless. All she had gotten was a trading of names before the phone was taken from her. She hadn't found out why Mama had left her the number, and she hadn't been able to tell the other person where she was and why she needed help. Kagome finally shook her head at him, "No. Mama had left it in her will, that if anything happened to her and I need help for anything I should call that number. It took me a week to find a good time frame to sneak out of my room and make the call. Why, do you know this Jarvis person?" she asked curiously.
Tony scratched his arm nervously, he really had to be careful on how he explained this to her. He didn't want her to know that he was her father, not yet at least. Maybe not ever even. Quite honestly, he wasn't father material, never had and probably never would be. But right now, for sure he couldn't let her know, her mind was not stable enough. He didn't want her to break down when she found out that the man she thought was her dad hadn't actually been. To be 100 percent honest he was just content to sit on the sidelines and help from afar. He would be happier with him being able to silently help her out and to be around her than for her to hate him and push him away. He hadn't fully realized that he had wanted to before, but now that he had met her in person he really wanted to find out more about her. He really wanted to learn about her, and possibly even become friends. He knew he would not be a good active dad, but he could be a decent one that helped behind the scenes. So, for once in his life Tony Stark actually had to filter the words that came out of his mouth.
"Actually, it was me that you were calling." He told her, it was a decent place to start at least.
"But the man on the phone said his name was Jarvis." Kagome said, confusion in her tone.
"Yeah Jarvis answered, he answers practically all of my phone calls. Jarvis may have answered, but the phone number was mine. Understand?" he asked.
Kagome nodded slowly, "So Jarvis is like your receptionist?"
"Ah kinda, but not entirely. Jarvis isn't technically human."
Kagome bristled, not human? Did… did he have a demon assistant? "What do you mean?" she asked carefully. She didn't sense any Youkai coming off of him that would indicate prolonged exposure to a demon, but that didn't mean anything. She knew demons that were able to mask their Youkai before.
Tony didn't seem to notice Kagome's sudden wariness, "Jarvis is an AI." He explained casually.
Kagome's mind immediately relaxed, not a demon, but… "What is an AI?" she asked.
Tony looked at her in shock, how did she not know what an AI was? "AI stands for artificial intelligence." He explained.
Kagome looked at him blankly, was that supposed to mean something? She really didn't know much about technology other than how to surf the web and work her smart phone, not that she had much time to do either the past four years. Even before her first tumble down the well she hadn't been into technology, at all. Sure, she watched TV and did some stuff online, but that had been about it. She was a shrine girl. Most of her time was spent helping her gramps clean up the Shrine and going around to other Shrines to run errands for him. She preferred to read and spend time with her friends that to mess about with computers. "Uh…" she said smartly.
Tony realized that she still didn't understand what he meant and his eyes went wide, just how tech illiterate was she? He decided to dumb it down for her to the level he does for Steve at times. "An AI is pretty much a person in a computer. His name stands for Just Another Very Intelligent System. He's a bunch of complicated code that I've created to make him seem like a person. In the end however he's basically an extremely complicated computer program. Does that make sense?"
Kagome thought over what he said, "Yeah that makes sense now. So, he's like your computer butler. Right?"
Tony winced internally, "He's a lot more than that, but if that helps you wrap your mind around the concept of him. Sure."
Kagome nodded, then frowned slightly. "Okay then. If Jarvis was just answering for you… then how did my mom know Tony Stark?" she looked at him in confusion.
Tony simply looked at her for a moment, how exactly could he explain this that would make sense without giving anything away? "Uh Kun-Loon was a really good friend from college. I came to the University of Tokyo for a year when I was in college and I met you mom there. She was a really nice lady and we got along rather well. She didn't seem to mind that I was an American or that I was the kid of a rich man. She was one of the few friends I had at the time that just treated me like Tony, not the son of Howard Stark. So, when the time came for me to leave I gave her my number to keep in touch and told her if she ever needed help with anything she could call me and I would do my damnedest to help her out. Your mom was a great lady who didn't take people for face value, I really didn't have many people like that in my life at the time." He really still didn't, though he did have a lot more now than he did back then. That story was close enough to the truth that he hoped she would roll with it.
Tony honestly hadn't been in love with Kun-Loon when he slept with her. They had become really good friends however. What he had said was true, Kun-Loon honestly hadn't given one shit about who he was. In fact, the first time he had flirted with her she had laughed in his face and told him she wasn't interested. She then went on to say how he looked lonely and while she had no intentions of sleeping with him if he wanted to become friends she was up for that. Tony had brushed it off at the time and had simply moved onto the next pretty girl. When he saw he again after a few weeks studying in the library he had felt compelled to sit and study with her. That had begun an almost year long friendship between the two of them. Then when Tony had decided to leave for a different college she had decided to throw a goodbye party for him. They had both gotten completely trashed that night and one thing led to another and they had ended up sleeping together. They had both agreed that it had been a mistake and said they'd keep being friends. After that Tony had gone home and threw himself into a whole different college. About a month later he had gotten the call from Kun-Loon saying that she was pregnant. She had told him that she was going to keep the baby, but that she had started dating someone who she truly cared about. The man knew that she was pregnant and that it wasn't his but had said he would care for the baby as if it was. She explained that while she thought of him as a good friend, she did not want her baby exposed to the type of life that he lead. Tony had almost immediately agreed with her, but he told her that he would not completely abandon her. This was partly his fault and he wasn't one to ignore his problems, he wasn't his dad. It was then that they had come up with the agreement that Tony would pay child support every month if he could get pictures and some stories about the child. They both ended up doing more than the other thought they would. Tony sent about five times the amount of the child support he was due, Kun-Loon kept the normal amount but put the extra into a bank account for Kagome when she was older. Kun-Loon also knew that Tony would want to know as much as possible to she sent him lots of pictures, stories, cards, videos, and small drawings and crafts done by Kagome every month. It really had been a good system, Tony had secretly pulled some strings to get Kagome's father figure a job at the Stark branch in Japan. The man had been going to college for business and he had been an extremely good worker. Because of course Tony would keep an eye on the people in Kagome's life. He had been in line for a promotion when he had gotten into the fatal car crash. Tony had drunk himself silly when he learned that his daughter had lost her father the same way he himself had lost his parents. When he had heard about the death he had started sending a bit extra every month to help them along. He knew their situation wasn't going to be good right off the bat. They had been living with the man's father at the shrine. Kun-Loon herself had to quit her job almost a year prior to look after the six-year-old Kagome and their one-year old son Sota. So, they had lost the only income for the family besides the shrine. The grandfather was too old to look after two tiny children and keep up with the shrine. So, Tony had decided to send them as much as they needed to keep living comfortably day by day. Kun-Loon had responded by sending even more memorabilia about his daughter.
Kagome looked at him, she could tell it wasn't the entire story. She didn't know what he was leaving out but what she did know was that what he had told her wasn't a lie so she let it go for now. "Sounds like you and mama were good friends then, why didn't you keep in contact? She never spoke about you."
"Ah we did send each other emails from time to time. I just never seemed to have an opportunity to come back to Japan for a simply friendly visit. Usually when I came over it was for business and it kept me busy the entire time. You mom was truly a good person Kagome." Tony told her in complete honesty.
Kagome smiled sadly at him, "Thanks, I do know. Mama was person who did not judge at appearances; she had an open heart, and a kind soul. I miss her so much." She said as a tear fell down her cheek, though she was quick to wipe it away.
Tony was about to say something else when the door opened. Dr. Kimura had a slightly sour look on her face. Natasha had a look of victory, "Alright Gome, let's get you out of here. Everything is in order."
Kagome looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes, "Really?"
Natasha nodded, "Truly. Come on Gome let's get you out of this place."
Tony grinned, "Look at that kid, Romanov did make a quick job of that promise. That was only twenty minutes. Let's go, I've never liked hospitals."
Natasha walked over and helped Kagome up and helped her walk out of the room and down the hall. Kagome could walk by herself but if felt nice to lean on somebody with her twisted ankle. It wasn't like she had to collect anything, she didn't have anything of her own here besides the hidden Shikon necklace. She had been brought straight here from the police station when her mental state was deemed unstable. It wasn't like they were going to let her keep her ripped and bloody clothes she had gone there with. They had been taken as evidence. No, she was free to simply leave. A smile took over her face, she was getting to leave!
"Where are we going Tasha?" she asked once they got into the car that was waiting for them outside. Most likely sent there by Tony.
Natasha sent her a look, "That is up to you Gome. Clint and the rest of the team that came with us are currently at your shrine. They went there to look for answers. We can either go there and meet up with them, or we can go straight to the airport and wait there for them to get done with what they need to do there. It's entirely up to you, do you think you can handle going home?"
Kagome thought long and hard, it wasn't a light question. Normally she was a strong girl, could roll with the punches and just keep going. But a lot had happened the night Naraku attacked, and her increased hormones from being pregnant did not make that any easier to take. She hated to admit it but she did have to, her mind was not stable at the moment. Her nightly terrors and daytime episodes were proof of that. The question she had to ask herself was, was she strong enough to go back to the place where her mom and grandpa had been murdered right in front of her and her little brother had been kidnapped? The answer, "Take my home Tasha." It was a barely heard whisper but Natasha told the driver where to go. She had to be strong enough, for her brother. She needed to see the extent of the damage Naraku had inflicted up on her shrine. Plus, this would give her a chance to take anything and everything she could with her when she left to where ever Natasha was taking her as their end goal. She might not be strong enough, but she was a fighter. And there was no chance in hell that she was letting Naraku beat her. She had her own revenge to take upon him.
A tiny smile appeared though her dark thoughts, at least she would be able to see Clint when she got there. That was one small ray of light in her stormy world. She had missed her older brother figure.
Mladshaya sestra = Little sister