Angel: Ok, here it is... the last chapter.
Inuyasha: Last chapter?
Angel: Yes, since I'm moving and I won't have the time to work on it I'm ending it.
Inuyasha: Yea, moving sucks...
Kouga: Like you'd know, you sit on your ass the whole time while Angel packs.
Sesshoumaru: And you do what?
Kouga: HEY! I went through a box yesterday!
Angel: Yea, only because it had 'under garments' written on the side...
Inuyasha: Perv...
Angel's Disclaimer: Blah, blah. I don't own Inuyasha characters.
Things Change
by Wick3d Ang3l
Chapter Nineteen: The Way We Wish We Were
"Kagome, come on," Kouga called from the doorway.
"I'm coming! None of my clothes fit!" She sighed and tossed yet another outfit into the room.
"Just put something on. Who cares if it's tight?"
"I do! UGH! I have to leave my pants unbuttoned, my shirts all fit too tight, the stupid classes I have to go to are like elementary, I HATE this! HATE it!"
Kouga laughed. "You're so cute when you're angry." For weeks she'd been upset about her clothes not fitting and refused to let him buy her maternity clothes. Her excuse was that she wasn't 'pregnant enough.'
She poked her head out of the closet and stuck her tongue out at him. "You're so mean! How does this look?" she asked stepping out.
She had taken a sun dress and put it on over a pair of jeans. Kouga smiled at her, in his opinion she always looked sexy, especially with what his father referred to as her 'pregnant glow.' "You look beautiful."
She blushed, which he found adorable, that she still blushed at little comments like that even after all they'd been through. "You're a jerk," she said playfully, kissing his cheek and heading toward the door.
--
"Kagome Higurashi, I'm Kia Sanada," said a woman in a black, knee-length dress.
"It's nice to meet you Ms. Sanada. This is Kouga, my boyfriend," Kagome replied, shaking the woman's hand.
"This is a big decision Miss Higurashi, are you sure this is what you want. There is still time if you need to think more about this."
"I'm sure," Kagome said softly as she thought about the events of the week before.
"Well, today is the big day," Kouga said as they walked into the clinic.
Kagome nodded nervously.
"Are you going to be ok?"
She shook her head. "No, I think I'm going to be sick."
"I'm here no matter what."
"I know."
Kagome plastered on a smile as they walked into Angel's office.
"Well I don't care if he is Kami himself! That jerk better get down here by the end of this week or I'm going to rip Brighton to shreds myself!" Angel yelled and slammed the phone down. Sensing the two behind her she smiled and turned around. "I'm so sorry you had to see that! I've been having some, uh... issues with a fertility doctor who refuses to see one of my patients. Anyway, you look great Kagome! I love that outfit!"
"Thank you," she responded. "So..."
Angel gave a sad smile. "Maybe you guys should come back into the office."
They both nodded and followed her into one on the exam rooms.
After the door was closed, she looked at them both, a serious look on her face. "As you both know I don't need the ultrasound machine to tell me anything, so I can either tell you now, or we can go through the whole process."
"Please just tell us," Kagome said.
Angel sighed, she really hated this. "Kagome, Kouga... the baby is a girl."
Kouga hugged Kagome. "We're going to have a girl!"
"That's not all... before there was doubt because of the age of the fetus. It can be difficult to scent before at least 16 weeks, now that you are 20 weeks there is no doubt..."
Kagome squeezed Kouga's hand. "Please just tell us."
"The baby is human, there is no trace of youkai in her aura... I'm sorry."
Kagome was emotionless. "Thank you," was all she could muster as she got up and walked out, Kouga following closely behind her. The whole ride home she stared out the window silently with her hands over her stomach. For 5 months she had been carrying his child. For 5 months she and Kouga had been planning and loving his child. Her heart broke, for her, for Kouga, for the baby that she wasn't even sure she could love.
After they got home she sat on their bed, staring at the floor.
Kouga threw things, ripped up things, yelled at things. He couldn't understand how Kagome was so calm, how she kept from asking him to drive her to the jail so she could murder the man who did this to them. He sat on the couch and laid his head back. When had everything gone so horrible wrong? He had this image in his head of their happy little family, he and Kagome laughing while their child played on the swings at the park. Having picnics at the beach, playing board games until late at night, their son or daughter begging to play just one more before bed. He wanted things to be like they were in all the parenting magazines he'd been reading, he wanted them to have a normal life.
He didn't remember dozing off, but the sound of the door opening jolted him awake. He opened his eyes to see Kagome standing in front of him, she looked so... lost. "I want to put the baby up for adoption."
"Ok well, there is paperwork to be filled out, decisions to be made. First things first, do you want an open or closed adoption?"
"What are the differences?" Kouga asked.
"Well, in an open adoption the mother has rights going as far as visitation with the child. You will be sent yearly updates, pictures, any information the adoptive parents feel is important. In a closed adoption you don't even meet the adoptive parents. We fill out the needed paperwork and then the adoptive parents take the child home from the hospital and that's it."
Kagome nodded. "I want a closed adoption."
"Ok, how far along are you?"
--
When they got home Kagome laid on the couch. "I'm proud of you," Kouga said, sitting on the floor.
"For what?"
"For making a plan and going through with it."
"Yea," she replied dejectedly.
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to."
She sat up. "And what am I supposed to do? Live with a daily reminder of what that bastard did to me!?" She stood up and walked to the door. "I need some fresh air."
--
Inuyasha stretched as he reached for his ringing cell phone. "Hello?"
"Hey, um, are you busy?" Kagome asked from the other end of the phone.
"Kagome! I haven't heard from you for a few days, how did the meeting go today?"
"I... it was awful. I signed my daughter's life away."
"You're making the right choice, it may not seem like it now, but this is the best chance that baby has."
"I know, it's just that a part of me looks at this as me giving away a piece of myself. Yes the baby is Chad's, but she's a part of me as well."
"Nobody said this would be easy. Nothing in life is ever easy."
"You can say that again."
"Nothing in life is ever easy."
--
"Deep breaths Kagome, in, out, in, out," her mother said as she held her hand.
"I know how to breath!" Kagome bit out.
The nurse looked at her chart and whispered with another nurse. "The epidural is on it's way Miss Higurashi."
Kagome nodded as she breathed through another contraction. "Mom, where is Kouga?"
"He's out in the waiting room. He said he didn't want to see you in so much pain and..." she trailed off.
"And what mom?"
"And he doesn't want to see the baby."
"I understand..."
"Kagome Higurashi?" a man in scrubs questioned as he entered the room. A nurse nodded and he came in. "I'm Gerard MacIntosh, you can call me Mac if you'd like."
"I'm Kagome Higurashi and if you don't give me my epidural I can think of quite a few things I'll call you and Mac isn't one of them."
He laughed. "Well then Miss Higurashi, lets wait until your next contraction, that way I have the time to put in the epidural and hopefully have it done before your next contraction because for this I need you to sit very still."
--
"Ok Kagome, the head is out, two more big pushes, we have to get those shoulders out. Take a deep breath and push!"
Kagome pushed with everything in her.
"One more deep breath, and push!"
She pushed again and sighed as she felt the pressure relieve.
"It's a girl!" Suddenly a sharp cry filled the room and tears rolled down Kagomes face. She got one look at her little girl before the nurses took her away to clean her and take her to the nursery.
After she was cleaned and sutured they took her to her own room. Kouga gave her a sad smile as he walked in and sat at the foot of her bed. "She looks just like her mother," he said quietly.
"I wonder if they would let me name her."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know, I guess to me she just looks like a Rin."
--
Angel: It was kind of hasty, but I thought it best to end it now. Besides, what more drama could I put the poor girl through! I'm sorry it's not my best, but I hope you all enjoyed it. Once I get myself set up and adjusted to the single life I may write a sequel for this, but I'm not sure yet. Thank you all for reading.