Disclaimer: I do not own Devil Does Exist or Devil Beside You - the manga and drama that this story is based on.

Forewords: Okay guys, I know I said I'd update every weekend. But I think that's not gonna happen anymore. I'll try to update as soon as I can. I've also come up with another idea for a story and I hope you guys will be there to read and support me like you have for this story. I like where it's going so far, and I'm aiming for about FIFTEEN chapters in total for this story. This is chapter eleven, so four more chapters to go and The Joke's On You will be complete! I'm very excited. I'm sorry if you don't like my ending. However, I think it'd be the best way.

I'm sorry if I disappoint any of you.

On with the story...

The Joke's On You

Chapter Eleven: I'm Here

Sw33t-Sorrows

Her palms were sweating.

She was practically biting her lip off.

Her heart was racing.

Basically, Kagome was nervous. Nervous as hell.

"Are you ready?" She felt a squeeze on her hand. "Kagome?" Looking up, her eyes met golden ones and she slowly nodded. Suddenly, she realized she was holding her breath when Inuyasha reached for the doorknob. Just before his fingers could graze the side of the knob, the door swung open and Kagome could have passed out.

There stood her mother, with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Where have you two been? I was worried." Hitomi turned her back to the two young adults and made her way into the living room and onto the couch. Inuyasha and Kagome slowly followed, not sure of what to say. "Well?" Mom knows something. Kagome thought as she heard the suspicious tone in her mother's voice. The young woman let out a sigh and began to speak.

"We - we went to go visit Dad for a bit."

"And that took a whole night?" Kagome almost flinched.

"Then the storm hit, and all the train stations were closed down." Hitomi's eyes darkened.

"So where did you two go?"

Remember Kagome - no secrets, no lies. Just the truth. Although Kagome didn't exactly want to tell the truth, but she couldn't find it in her heart to lie.

"We went to a hotel." Hitomi's head snapped towards the two. "But we headed back here as soon as the storm was over." Nothing happened. She mentally added, but didn't have the guts to say it out loud.

"A hotel? Is that how I raised you, Kagome?"

"What are you talking about, Mom?! Nothing happened!" Kagome shrieked as she voiced her thoughts.

"So you're raising your voice at me now, are you?!" What's happening? Mom and I never fight. We've always gotten along. Why are we yelling at each other now? Kagome fought the tears that begged to come out and swallowed the lump in her throat. "Do you have any idea what you're doing, Kagome?!"

"I-"

Snap!

Kagome never got to finish. The unfamiliar stinging on her cheek finally brought the tears out. She didn't have the courage to look at her mother. Hitomi's eyes widened, had she really just hit her daughter? "You two are about to become siblings, but you go ahead and-" Hitomi stopped, why wasn't she stopping? Her daughter was crying, why wasn't her body responding the way she wanted it to? Kagome, please don't cry!

"Auntie," Inuyasha's arm was now around Kagome's shoulders and he pulled her against his chest as she cried into his shirt. "Kagome didn't tell you because she worries about you." Inuyasha didn't bother with being polite at this moment. "She's been suffering through this for so long so that you can be happy. And you-" He stopped when Kagome tugged on his sleeve.

Hitomi's eyes welded up with tears.

No more words were spoken as the woman turned around and made her way up the stairs. She didn't turn even as she heard her daughter collapse to her knees. Hitomi Higurashi wasn't sure what to do. I was being selfish, wasn't I? As she hid inside her bedroom, Hitomi gave into tears for the third time that night. The scene from where she hit Kagome replayed over and over again in her mind. How could I have done that to her?

Kagome nervously made her way downstairs the next morning.

As she passed the wall, she saw her mother in her usual apron and setting the table for breakfast. Hitomi stopped, and turned around to meet her daughter's gaze. "Good morning, sweetheart. Go call Inuyasha down for breakfast, will you?" Kagome proceeded down the stairs, ignoring her mother's request.

"Mom," She took hold of Hitomi's hand. "Last night..."

"Last night I was being inconsiderate." Hitomi turned and took hold of both her daughter's hands as they sat down at the breakfast table. "I was thinking about how your relationship with Inuyasha would affect my own with Taisho. I wasn't even thinking about how much pain you had to go through to keep this a secret. I don't know how I could have hit you, Kagome." Hitomi brought up a hand to gently massage her daughter's cheek.

"It's not your fault, Mom. I know how much you love Uncle." The two females were too busy talking they didn't notice that Inuyasha was coming down the stairs, but he stopped, hearing their conversation. "What are we going to do?"

"It's simple, really. I'm not marrying Taisho, Kagome."

Inuyasha's eyes widened as he heard it.

Kagome really wasn't sure if this was what she wanted. Although she and Inuyasha could be together now, her mother was all alone and heartbroken. Also, if she ever married Inuyasha, instead of becoming lovers like they wanted to, Hitomi and InuTaisho would become in-laws. Wasn't this supposed to make her happy? Instead, this made her more frustrated than she was before they told her mother.

Thump.

Kagome jumped slightly as she heard the noise. Soon, she could hear loud footsteps coming up the stairs. Her bedroom door burst open and Inuyasha stood there, out of breath and trying to tell her something. "Inuyasha! What happened? Where's Mom?"

"Where's the phone?"

"What?"

"Where's the phone?!"

"Oh! Uh, right here. Why?" She asked as she handed him the cordless phone which was previously resting on her night stand.

"We need to call an ambulance." Inuyasha said quickly as he fumbled with the phone and nervously pressed down numbers.

"What?! Why?!"

"Go downstairs, Auntie fainted." Without another word, Kagome practically flew down the flight of stairs and almost screamed when she found her mother lying on the hard floor.

"Mom!" She ran to her mother's side and turned her onto her back. "Mom!" Tears gathered in her eyes as she desperately called out. "Inuyasha, hurry!" She called out to him as she cradled her unconscious mother in her arms. She panicked even more when she saw blood coming from her mother's lower region. Mom, what's happened to you?

Later, at the hospital, Kagome and Inuyasha sat in the waiting room. Seeing how nervous she was, Inuyasha offered to go buy her something to eat. However, Kagome didn't have much of an appetite at the moment. "It's going to be okay."

"How did this happen?"

"We were talking about, you know, us. And then she said she'd go and call my dad, but when she went to go get the phone, she tripped and fell onto the floor. When I approached her, she was unconscious and bleeding." After hearing this, Kagome's heart sped up and her breath caught in her throat when the doctor came out of the room.

"Are you two here for Higurashi Hitomi?"

"Yes, how is she?"

"She, herself, is fine. However, the child..."

"Child?!" Kagome almost shrieked.

"Yes, she was into her sixth week. She herself might not have noticed, because normally in their sixth week, the mother's stomach still doesn't show any changes. However, she might have found that she gained a few pounds. Also, she might have been experiencing symptoms like morning sickness and her clothes getting a bit tighter around the waist." The doctor was too busy explaining that he completely missed the shocked expression of the young woman before him.

"Mom was pregnant? Why didn't she..." She herself might not have noticed... Leaving Inuyasha behind, she pushed passed the doctor and stormed into her mother's room. "Mom!" Her mother was awake, and looking back at her expectantly. The doctor rushed in, immediately telling Kagome that Hitomi needed her rest.

"It's alright, we need to talk." The doctor nodded and reluctantly exited the room.

"Are you okay?" Kagome asked, not sure of what exactly to say.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Did you know...that you were...?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured that..."

"Mom, may I ask you something?" Kagome hoped to God that her mother wouldn't do something like this. "Did you trip on purpose, so you would lose the baby?" There were a few minutes of silence before Kagome brought her head up to stare at her mother. Hitomi's shoulders were shaking and tears filled her eyes.

"How dare you, Kagome, accuse me of doing something horrible like that? And to my own child, no less!" Kagome flinched as her mother continued. "I already lost your father, I didn't want to lose this child as well. All I wanted was to be happy, Kagome. But I want you to be happy as well. What am I supposed to do? I was trying so hard to figure it out that I-"

"So you figured not marrying Uncle was the right thing to do?"

"I didn't know!" Kagome watched as her mother broke down before her. "Kagome, I love him. I love him, I love you, I love Inuyasha, and I love this family. I don't want to lose it."

"You're not going to lose us, Mom. You'll always have us." The younger woman sat down beside her mother on the bed and embraced her. Hitomi rested her head on her daughter's shoulder and returned the warm embrace. The two women sat there in the room...

And they cried. Together.

Soon, InuTaisho and his son came through the door. It was obvious that Inuyasha had already informed the older man about the miscarriage. "Hitomi?" Nobody said anything for a while as the two women didn't budge from their places.

However, Kagome and Inuyasha soon found themselves standing awkwardly outside of the room as Hitomi and InuTaisho talked things out. "Taisho," Hitomi was too used to calling him by the little nickname she had created for him. "I think we should call off the wedding." She didn't fail to notice the frown that made its way onto his face. "I love you very much, I want you to know that. However, this is our children we're talking about. Being parents, the only thing we truly want is for them to be happy, no?"

"Hitomi, I agree with you. But is this really..."

"We have to. Besides, we're getting old Taisho. Knowing that we were able to experience love just once more is enough for me. Being a family with you isn't going to be awkward at all. We can still love each other even if we don't get married." InuTaisho didn't respond, only felt a tiny bit of disappointment as his fiancée told him to break off their relationship. "Let Kagome and Inuyasha love each other like we have."

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and Kagome stood there in silence as they waited for their parents. However, the silence was too much to bear. "Inuyasha." Kagome was the first to speak. She reached over and took hold of his hand, squeezing it gently. "We're going to be okay, right?" She looked away, staring at her feet. Why isn't he saying anything? She felt the tears gathering in her eyes, and she found that she had this heavy feeling in her chest. Please don't tell me it's going to end here. I don't want it to end.

"Of course we'll be okay." He finally spoke. His voice providing more comfort than anything else in the world. Inuyasha returned the squeezing of the hands, and suddenly pulled her towards him. Kagome melted in his arms as he held her and returned his embrace, snuggling closer into his chest. "Kagome,"

"Hm?" She asked sleepily as she heard her name.

"I love you."

Kagome felt her knees go weak.

"I-" She stopped in mid-sentence. She had to think about this for a minute. Did she love Inuyasha? Let's see - every time he smiled at her, she felt her insides turn to goo. Pro. Every time he said her name, it sounded so good. Pro. Sometimes, she felt like he had an anger management problem. Con. However, he always found a way to cheer her up. Pro. And the most important point of all, when he said 'I love you' just now, her heart skipped a few beats. A definite pro. Kagome was no longer hesitant. She knew her answer. "Inuyasha, I love you too."

From the other side of the door, Hitomi and InuTaisho watched as the scene unfolded before them. And they never thought they would do this, but hearing those simple words made them so much happier. They love each other, and for some reason, their sorrows completely disappeared as they watched their children embrace each other.

At first, I thought it would be awkward if Mom and Uncle found out about my relationship with Inuyasha. I was afraid that we would lose the precious family atmosphere that we had created here. However, I think this turned out for the best. I believe Dad's looking down on us, and desperately keeping us together. Uncle and Mom have accepted us, and decided to cancel the wedding. I was hesitant to accept this, but I saw the way they looked at each other. They still love each other, and to a whole new level. Although Mom wasn't able to give birth to Uncle's child, I think they're kind of glad.

I saw Dad in a dream last night.

He told me that Mom loves me very much. He smiled at me and said that she wants nothing but my happiness. "Even though she cannot marry him, they can still love each other. And you will still be a family." But is that good enough? Is it fair? I've always been the one being protected, and I alone cannot give Mom her happiness. "It is her job to protect you. And you're wrong, Kagome. Your mother's happiness is your happiness. It's all she wants." She loves Uncle so much, Dad. She really does. I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. And I love Inuyasha. Although they face me with smiles every day, I don't know if they're actually happy.

I've taken away Mom's happiness again.

"Kagome," She turned at the sound of her name and was faced with her mother. "How are you this morning?" That bright smile made its way onto her mother's face once again, the one that never seemed to convince Kagome. Hitomi set down the cup of coffee onto the table and turned towards her daughter.

"Mom, I-"

"You're still worried." Kagome frowned at the fact that she could be read like an open book. "Kagome, this whole thing has made me realize how lucky I really am." Kagome didn't understand. "I am so lucky to have a daughter like you. One who is willing to hide her feelings so that I can be happy." Hitomi took hold of Kagome's hands. "This whole thing has made me realize how in love I still am with your father. I found that if Taisho and I got married, I would be constantly comparing him with your father, and it wouldn't be fair. I was talking to Taisho the other night, and I found something out."

"What's that?"

"He hasn't divorced his second wife yet."

Okay, well... Kagome definitely wasn't expecting that.

Author's Notes: Oh my goodness. I haven't updated in ages! I can't believe it's taking me so long to finish this story. Hopefully I'll write chapters faster. Anyway, please review!

Sw33t-Sorrows.