Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Note: This is the end. It didn't end up quite the way I had envisioned it and a scene that I had really wanted to use was lost because it destroyed the flow, but I will try to use it in another story if it fits.

To See the Dawn – Part 3

I can't believe that I'm doing this…

That thought just kept sounding through Inuyasha's head. This was a huge change…and Inuyasha did not handle change well.

When he had first heard Kagome talk about it, he thought that he finally had a way that he could help Kagome. He might not be able to fight her cancer, but he could do something to ease some of Kagome's added stress and pain.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome's mother prompted softly, gazing on him with her eternally kind eyes, "They're waiting for you."

Inuyasha gulped and slowly stood and followed the unknown women to a black leather chair set up in front of a mirror.

"We don't usually keep the shop open this late," said a woman in about her mid-thirties with a little extra pudge around the middle whose black hair was in a style about 10 years too young for her, "but when Mrs. Higurashi told us about what you wanted to do for Kagome we made an exception."

She smiled kindly at Inuyasha and he gulped again and tried to speak but couldn't force any words through so all he could do was nod as he took his seat, facing the mirror.

His human self stared back at him. You see, Kagome had told him about these programs who made wigs for people like her, who do to some medical condition had lost their hair, and the wigs were made from actual hair that people would donate so it was almost impossible to tell that the hair was not their own. That's when he decided on his next human night, he was going to cut his hair and have a wig made for Kagome from it.

However, it hadn't occurred to him until he stepped into the shop that he had never had his hair cut before in his entire life. I can face down hundreds of demons at once….how is a stupid hair cut scaring me this much!?

He took a deep breathe as the stylist began to run a comb through his thick black hair. He watched in the mirror as his long tresses fanned out from his head being pulled by the stylists red comb. Kagome…this is for you, I may not be able to fight but I will help you feel normal again.

He jumped a bit as the cold water from a squirt bottle hit his neck. He realized that somewhere in the back of his mind the stylist was talking to him but all he could think about was Kagome, in her hospital bed. She was in a sterile room right now, visits were limited and his sensitive nose couldn't handle all the disinfectants he would physically have to put on to visit her so they had been trading notes via her mother.

She had received a bone marrow donation from her brother and the doctors thought that it would take really well. In fact they were bringing her out of the sterile environment in two days, baring any infections.

A tugging on the sides of his head brought him back to reality. The woman placed all his hair in a hair tie at the base of his neck and brought the scissors up to just about the band, "I can't wait until Kagome finds out what you've done for her." The stylist commented before beginning to cut through the thick hair.

Once it was gone Inuyasha was amazed at how light his head felt. He turned his head from side to side, noticing that his hair wasn't even and was not at an angle with the longest in front and at the back almost sheer to the neck. The stylist placed his pony tail of hair into a plastic bag and then began to work on fixing the rest of his hair until finally he ended up with a head of hair looking rather like Souta's.

Kagome's mother and the stylist talked for a moment while Inuyasha tried to wrap his head around his new appearance.

"…the wig will be ready in two days." Inuyasha overheard and smiled; good, it'll be ready for Kagome when she comes out of the clean room.

She couldn't wait to get out of this room. At least her other room had decorations from all the presents that she had been sent and the drawings she had done in her therapy sessions. And most importantly, leaving here meant that she would be able to see Inuyasha again!

She understood that he couldn't come in the clean room due to his hyper-sensitive nose and the disinfectant but she had missed him at her side, his silent strength and his will for her to get better. She hadn't realized how much she had been leaning on him until now.

She was rolling down the corridors now in a wheelchair, being pushed by a lovely nurse named Seira who has quickly become a great friend. However Kagome was distracted today, so Seira's attempts at conversation were dying shortly after they were begun. Kagome just wanted to see Inuyasha.

The hallway that she has been living in for the past several months now comes into view and Kagome can feel her heart start to race as she nears her room. Maybe he will be there already waiting for me…

But being wheeled in, she doesn't see his bright splash of hair. Yes she is very happy to see her mother, brother and grandfather without their needing to wear protective suits but she couldn't help but feel disappointed that the only other person in the room was a short-haired man in a baseball cap.

She gave each of her family a fierce hug, clinging to her brother a little longer, not being able to explain in words how grateful she was for his gift to her. She then tried to move to her bed but was interrupted.

"What, no hug for me?"

Kagome stopped and looked up slowly. It was Inuyasha's voice, she knew that without a doubt, but it had come from the short haired man. And as he lifted his head and revealed his face and she saw his amber eyes, she was stunned. "Inu…Inuyasha?"

She threw herself across the bed at him as he lunged forward to catch her in her awkward jump. She clung to him, breathing him in and letting his strength seep into her. This was all she needed.

"Kagome! What the hell are you doing?" He stammered clumsily, adjusting her body easily so that she was placed on the bed and not hovering strangely above it.

"Well you wanted a hug didn't you?" She said, pulling away now and looking up at his face.

Inuyasha blushed furiously and looked at the ground and resorted to his standard, "Feh," for a response.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome prompted, causing him to look up once more, "What did you do to your hair…oh wait…did Souta accidentally get gum in it, he did that to me once and I wanted to kill him…" she trailed off at the mention of her with hair.

He smiled an odd sort of smile that Kagome didn't understand. "No, he didn't."

He glanced across Kagome's bed at her mother and they shared a knowing look. Her mother darted to the chair in the corner where a white box was placed and brought it over to Kagome's bed.

"Open it Kagome…" Inuyasha softly voiced; a nervous expression on his face.

Hesitatingly Kagome opened the top of the box and saw a swath of black. Confused she reached her hand in and felt…hair?

Then it hit her, the gift, Inuyasha's appearance…he didn't!

Slowly she lifted the gift out of the box. And her hunch was confirmed. On a faceless mannequin head was a wig of black hair, shorter than her hair had been before but would easily pass as her own.

"Oh Inuyasha…" She looked up at him and smiled, tears rolling down her face. She gently ran her hand down the wig.

"Mom, you want to help me put it on?" She asked, smiling her amazingly bright smile, a sight that had been unseen for this long stay in the hospital.

"Sure baby," her mother said picking the wig off the mannequin. Crying herself, she placed Inuyasha's gift onto her daughter's head.

"Inuyasha…" she said looking at him, drawing him closer to her side with her eyes, "I can't tell you how much this means to me. For the first time in a long while now I can look at myself and not be reminded that I'm sick every time I do." She reached out and grabbed his hand and tugged him down so that she could give him another hug.

Placing her mouth by his here she added, "You gave me me back. Thank you."

It wasn't as though she got better immediately. Kagome's recovery took a lot of time. Slowly she began to regain her appetite and look a bit healthier. A month after the transplant she was allowed to return home to the shrine. And with Inuyasha's gift she looked like someone who had just had a bad flu, not an advanced case of cancer.

At home she still had to take many medications but according to the doctors she was progressing almost unnaturally fast. Her graft had taken flawlessly and now was producing cells and building her immune system. One of her doctors told them that she must be a favorite of one of the Gods up in heaven for her to be improving so rapidly. Inuyasha had asked Kaede about it when he had returned to the past to tell their friends about her recovery.

After fielding a bunch of questions about the state of his hair, and a declaration from Sango about how incredibly sweet he had been for doing that, he finally asked Kaede who had responded with the fact that it probably had something to do with her miko powers. They had been unable to fully heal her before because it was she who was sick, therefore her powers were weakened. However with the addition of her brother's bone marrow (which mention of had required a lot of explanation on Inuyasha's part and a lot of 'I don't know ok?') which was pure and healthy, allowed her powers to latch onto that and so could heal her quicker.

"But to be honest I really don't understand much about how this medicine works in Kagome's time," she had added.

Over the next few months Kagome had gotten stronger still and had managed several trips down the well to visit her friends there. Inuyasha never let her strain herself too far, always next to her like another shadow.

Soon Kagome wanted to return down the well and get back to the shards and Naraku, but Inuyasha was hesitant…

"You're always the one who says we waste too much time sitting around and not looking for the shards, and now you're saying that we shouldn't go?" Kagome demanded with a fire in her eyes that he was grateful to see having returned.

However he didn't want to see that fire go out. "Kagome…I sat by your bed, I saw you get sicker and sicker, I saw you get to the border of death…and I don't think I can do that again…"

"We have to collect the shards Inuyasha! I'm the one who broke it, I have to be the one to put it right again!"

"NO!" Inuyasha screamed, grabbing onto Kagome's shoulders and holding them tight. "I can't lose you again, I'm sick of losing the people that I love…"

Kagome looked up into his face shocked. His eyes had been clenched shut when he spoke and he hadn't opened them yet. Did he just say…? She couldn't believe it. He loved her? She had harbored her feelings for so long…and for him to say that he loved her…?

On a bubble of elation her body acted of its own accorded and leaned herself up to press her lips to his.

Inuyasha's eyes popped open. She's kissing me. Kagome is kissing me…and then his thought processes turned themselves off and he closed his eyes, leaning into the kiss.

It was chaste but displayed all that it needed to. Slowly separating from each other they couldn't tear away their gazes.

"Kagome, I…"

She saw where he was headed before he got there, "Inuyasha, I know." She interrupted him. "I know that you only want me to be safe, but I have to do this." She pressed further, "Do you think that I could be okay with the fact that the jewel that I shattered is still scattered all over feudal Japan? Or how about how the more time that goes by, the shorter Miroku's life becomes because we haven't yet defeated Naraku?" She turned her gaze to the ground. "We've already wasted enough of Miroku's life caring for mine these past several months. If I get sick again I'll come home ok? I'll take my medicines everyday and not doing anything stupid or rash…but I have to get back there and do what I've been doing! I can't place my own life above anyone else's."

Inuyasha enveloped Kagome in a hug, "You're too damn selfless for your own good you know that?" He sighed, "Alright."

She pulled away a slight bit and stared into his face in mild shock, "But you will take care of yourself you hear me." He ordered, like a father scolding their child, "You take your medicine and you don't strain yourself too hard."

She showed him one of her dazzling smiles and he swore that his knees knocked for a moment, "Inuyasha, you are amazing!" She snuck another kiss from him and blushed at the dazed look that took over his face. "I promise that I will watch after myself!"

"You better!" He said with a slight smile, "Besides, you're too damn stubborn to die…at least you better be!"

She laughed slightly and laid her head on his chest in a hug, "Loving you…" she missed the delighted look on his face at these words, "and with your love, I don't think anything bad could ever happen to me."

In complete contentment they fell asleep that night in each other's arms and the next morning Kagome once again packed her ridiculously stretched out bag and made her way to with Inuyasha to the well to continue their journey hand in hand. With the darkness behind them, all they had to look forward to was the light of the dawn.

I struggled with this for a while, and I couldn't get the ending quite how I wanted it, but it is done with now and my sister can stop hounding me.

I hope you all enjoyed To See the Dawn!

Buh bye

Sammery