Sango: wow! That was a lot of reviews!

A1969: thanks to all the dear readers who reviewed! Sorry for the late update, though, I was suppose to update sooner, after I saw all those reviews but the computer broke down on me.

Miroku: she tried sticking a Shikon Shard into it…

A1969: shh!!! If Naraku finds out that I stole a shard…

Sango: you stole a shard from Naraku? Now he and Sesshoumaru are gonna kill you!
A1969: mmm…anyway, thanks again to all the readers who reviewed! I really appreciated the reviews 'cause they lifted my morale and showed me that you all want me to update!

Chapter Twenty-six: In the Meantime

XoXoXo

Helen scanned the thick crowds at the airport and sighed. All around her, bustling Americans shoved and looked around for their loved ones who had or had yet to get off the plane. The people around Helen were smiling, happy to see their loved ones back with them. If they were feeling happy, Helen was feeling the exact opposite. Inside she felt like dying. She knew that coming back home-if this place was indeed her home-was the right thing to do but…

Why did it feel so wrong?

She suddenly found herself wishing that she hadn't left, wishing that she could see her demoness mother, wishing that…she could see Sesshoumaru again.

At the thought of Sesshoumaru, Helen felt a tight squeeze take hold of her heart. She shook her head. She had to forget him. They belonged in separate worlds; they were just too different…

But were they really? Were they that different? True, their personalities were very different but…perhaps they shared something that only two people could share…

A woman waving rapidly at Helen made the young woman snap out of her stupor. The woman had medium length brown hair, and the same eyes that Kagome's mother had. "Helen!" she called out with a smile on her face.

The moment she saw her, Helen set aside all her worries and problems and allowed her human mother to wrap her arms around her. "I missed you so much!" Hsia said. "Never allow me to give you permission to go anymore exchange programs." Her mother gave her a kiss on the head and lifted one of her suitcases.

"I'll do that, mom," Helen said as she attempted to tug the bag out of her mother's iron hold but Hsia would yield.

"No, dear, you're much too tired from your trip." She gently led her daughter out of the airport and into the parking lot. Her mother unlocked the car, placed Helen's bags in the trunk and got in with her daughter.

"So," her mother said, turning to her. "How was Japan?"

Helen only nodded.

Her mother, using the intuition that all mothers are blessed with, immediately guessed that something was bothering her child. "You can tell me all about your trip when we get home," her mother said cheerfully as she started the car. "You have no idea how lonesome I've been while you were away, Hellie."

Helen inwardly smiled. Like Kagome, she too had a nickname, but unlike Kagome, only her mother knew about it. "It's good to be home…" Helen said sadly and softly to herself as she looked out the window at all the buildings and people that passed by her.

XoXoXo

Sesshoumaru returned to their camp. He had no emotions; he was silent and even quieter. Kagura sensed that something was bothering him the moment he set foot in their camp. The wind witch, who guessed that her lover had gone after Helen, was pleased to find that he had not been successful in bringing her back.

"You seem troubled," Kagura commented. Sesshoumaru only glanced her way and didn't answer. Instead, he sat down next to Ah-Un.

Rin and Jaken looked at their lord and were very much disappointed to find that he had not succeeded in bringing Helen back. Rin tried to suppress the pang of loneliness that had started to build the moment Helen had left her. Helen had been like a sister to her, someone she could confide in, talk to and play with. Not that, she didn't talk nor play with Jaken it was just that spending time with Helen was different from spending time with Jaken.

"You seem troubled and gloomy," Kagura said as she boldly sat down next to Sesshoumaru

Jaken sighed as his lord turned to converse with Kagura. "Seems as if she's going to stay, Rin," the toad said, admitting one of his worst fears.

Rin sighed and didn't bother to answer.

XoXoXo

Hsia knew that something was bothering her adopted daughter, knew that she was suffering silently without telling her, without showing any of the physical signs associated with emotional depression. She only sign she showed was silence throughout the entire trip back home as well as the sad look in her eyes.

Helen sighed as the car pulled up in front of a driveway. Unlike Kagome, who lived in the city, Helen, in the States, lived in a town that was located near a forest of pines, elder and other such trees that provided comfort. Helen had grown up here, spent her time exploring the forest with her friends, and went to school here and a lot more…

Helen got out of the car and looked up at the home she had grown up in. It was a two storey white house with a blue roof and a modest garden in which Helen had spent one fourth of her childhood planting flowers, ruining her mother's prized daffodils, making mud pies and-during the hot weather when the hard muddy ground had cooled-slept in occasionally. She turned to her mother, was about to say something, thought better of it and closed her mouth. She helped her mother bring her bags into the house.

"I'll bring these upstairs, mom, don't worry," Helen assured. Her mother nodded and gave her a comforting smile.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Hsia asked.

Helen shook her head. "No thanks," she replied. "I'd better go and unpack ne?"

Hsia nodded and disappeared into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Helen took her bag upstairs. She passed by the photos that hung on the wall in the hallway upstairs. She stopped and looked at the photos, putting her heavy suitcase on the ground as she did so. The picture that she was looking at showed her human family on the beach. In the picture, she was still very young. It showed her holding a red plastic shovel filled with soil above the head of a man who was partly buried in the sand. The man was looking at the camera with a funny look on his face as if he wanted to say "Look dear, Helen buried me alive!"

The man had thick, messy brown hair and kind black eyes. It was her adopted father, the only father she had known in her entire life. "Funny," Helen said to herself as she placed a finger on the picture. "I have a demoness mother, a human mother…but no fathers…not even a demon one."

She sighed and continued down the hallway, passing by two rooms that were unused. She stopped at the door outside her room which had a sign on it that said: "Enter at Your Own Risk". "I can't believe I'm back here," she murmured to herself. She shook her head, took a deep breath and said, with determination, "I'll forget him…I'll forget the Feudal Era, I'll forget my demoness mother, I'll forget Lady Takeida, Toshimaru and I'll forget…"

She stopped in midsentence. Should she forget…

It was going to be so hard to do. But she had to do it. She had to forget him if she wanted to move on.

"…I'll forget…Sesshoumaru…" She sighed heavily the opened the door to her room.

She entered her yellow and white room. She, like Kagome, had a nice clean room. Not too large and not too small. That was where the similarities ended. A computer sat on the study table near her picture window which overlooked her mother's garden and had a fantastic view of the forest where, somewhere beyond the trees, lay a pond where she and her friends would often run to during the hot summer days. There was a shelf above her bedside that boasted an assortment of books, figurines and other miscellaneous items that young ladies favored. There was a fluffy white rug on the floor where she was wont to spend many an afternoon reading.

She sighed and collapsed on the bed.

XoXoXo

"So she left?" Sango asked Kagome when the latter had told her about Helen's sudden departure. They were resting underneath a tree. "Just like that? Without saying goodbye?"

"She told me to tell you all for her," Kagome said. Her cousin's departure seemed to fill her with emptiness. The kind of emptiness one feels when someone important to them suddenly leaves, without warning.

Sango shook her head. "I was starting to become fond of her," the taijiya said. "Why did she leave?"

"It has something to do with Sesshoumaru, doesn't it?" Miroku asked.

Kagome frowned then nodded. "I guess…she fell in love with him and couldn't stand the fact that he's in love with someone else," she said thoughtfully. "But…"

"But what?" Sango asked.

"But…I think Sesshoumaru's developed feelings for her," Kagome said. "I mean…I could tell by the way he acts…Why else did he try to stop Helen from leaving?"

"He was following his mother's orders," Inuyasha said from the branch high above them. "Sesshoumaru's not the type to like people."

"He likes Kagura," Kagome pointed out.

Inuyasha looked down at her. "I know my own brother, Kagome," the hanyou said with an air of superiority that would have made Sesshoumaru proud. "You all think that he and Kagura are together. Sure, I saw them hugging. I think Sesshoumaru thinks he's in love with her even though he isn't. I can tell by the way he acts around Kagura. And trust me, Sesshoumaru isn't in love with her…but she sure is in love with him."

Everyone was silent.

"One thing's for sure," Sango said. "Sesshoumaru has bad luck when it comes to matters of the heart."

"He's jinxed, in my opinion," the hanyou said snidely.

"Inuyasha," Kagome reprimanded. "Don't say that."

"It's true, he is."

"Then both of you are quite alike," the miko said blandly.

Inuyasha opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it. He knew that what Kagome had said was true.

"Anyway," Inuyasha said, changing the topic. "I think we should start looking for Naraku."

Kagome nodded. "True," she said. "The jewel's nearly complete. He's got Kouga's shards now."

"The more reason for us to get going." Inuyasha jumped out of the tree to land in the middle of the circle. "What're you still sitting around here for? Get your lazy butts off the ground and come on!"

XoXoXo

Lady Shinsuke walked down the long hallway. If the palace had been slightly gloomy before Helen set foot in it, it was certainly gloomier now. The gloominess seemed to match the Eastern Lady's mood quite well. Her daughter leaving suddenly was quite a hard blow for her. But what hurt the most was the fact that Lady Shinsuke had thought that Helen would stay; she wasn't prepared for her child's sudden departure. It had not been her intention to allow Helen to go; she would have taken every means necessary to make sure that she stayed in their time but as she had looked at her daughter, she saw sadness in her eyes. She then knew that Helen needed to get away in order to heal; she knew then that she had to let her daughter go because it was for the best. Besides, her ability to travel through time had given her an advantage over others…

Sighing, she glanced at the paintings that hung on the wall. She stopped in front of one that caught her attention more than anything else. It was a painting of her husband. He held a golden-haired infant in his arms who in turn held a small bouquet of Chrysanthemums in her tiny, pudgy fist. The child was smiling; her smile seemed to cover her entire face. Her bright, silver eyes twinkled almost like stars.

Lady Shinsuke approached the painting and placed a hand on it. "Both of you are gone," she whispered softly. "Must I always thus be left alone? Am I to be deprived of a husband as well as a child?"

She sighed then moved away.

XoXoXo

Helen finished putting away the last of her clothes and looked around the room. She sighed as if she still couldn't believe that she was actually back here. She closed the closet and walked to the picture window.

The phone in her room suddenly rang which made Helen jump. She stared around at the telephone lying on her bedside drawer and sighed. She picked it up. "Hello?"

"HELEN!" four excited voices squealed.

Helen's mood brightened up a bit. "Guys!" she said, warmly greeting her friends Alicia, Andrea, Terri and Emily.

"You're back!" Andrea said.

"From Japan!" added Emily.

"Without warning!" Terri and Alicia squealed.

"Yeah, um…" Helen said, trying to find an alibi for coming home earlier than expected.

"Don't talk!" Terri interrupted. "We're coming over…if you're not too tired, that is."

"And if it's okay with your mom," Andrea added.

"Yeah, sure, I guess it's okay with her and…I'm not tired," Helen said.

"See ya!" the four voices said. There was a click and the line went dead. Helen stared at the receiver in her hand and shrugged. Maybe talking to her friends would put a smile on her face.

XoXoXo

It was only five minutes after the call when her friends came. Her mother, who sensed that her daughter needed some cheering up, didn't bother to tell her friends that Helen was tired and needed rest. Instead, she had graciously shown the four girls into the room.

The first one to come in was brown haired, pale skinned, green-eyed Alicia who was followed by the ever smiling Andrea. Terri came next, arm in arm with Emily. Terri had fiery red hair and blue green eyes while Emily had creamy skin which was accented by her raven hair. "HEY!" the girls immediately shouted, the moment they came into Helen's room.

Helen gave them a weak smile. "Hey, guys," she greeted with not much enthusiasm.

Terri raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. "What's with the I've-never-seen-sunshine-in-my-life-before attitude?" she asked as she and the others sat cross-legged on the white rug.

Helen shrugged and slid from the bed to sit on the rug. "Well, I'm just a bit tired, is all," she said.

Her friends shrugged. "Anyway," Alicia said as she grinned. "How was Japan?"

Helen grew thoughtful. Thinking of Japan made her think of the people she had left so suddenly behind…people like Sesshoumaru, for instance…and she didn't even say goodbye…

She looked at her friends. They were all giving her expectant looks as if they expected her to tell them of glamorous times in her native land, of eating Miso soup and daikon radish, of knowing the "in" gadgets. "It was…enjoyable," Helen said with a shrug.

Emily's eyes bore into her own. "Are you alright, Helen? You don't seem to be yourself…you seem…depressed…tired…"

"Am I?" Helen asked.

Her friends nodded. "C'mon, spill the beans…what happened in Japan to make you leave?" Terri prodded.

Helen looked wearily at them and wondered if she should tell them about Sesshoumaru. She decided that she would, though not the part that he wasn't human…or anything about the Feudal Era. "Well…I…met this guy…"

"Guy?! What Guy?!" Her friends immediately raised themselves to a kneeling position so that they towered over Helen. Her friends, like all teenagers, were very concerned when came to matters of the opposite sex. Terri grabbed Helen's shoulders. "You didn't tell us about a guy! Not even in the few emails you sent us!" True, Helen had sent her friends emails ever since she had arrived in Japan but since she fell into the Feudal Era and got mixed up with Sesshoumaru, she had stopped sending her friends detailed messages about life in Japan.

"Well," Helen said, as she jerked Terri's hands from her shoulders. "I was just…busy over the few days, is all."

Her friends narrowed their eyes at her in a mock dangerous manner. "So tell us about this guy!" boy-crazy Terri said. "What's his name?"

"How'd you meet him?"

"Is he cute?"

"Where did you meet him?"

"When did you meet him?"

"Is he hot?"

"Is he rich?"

"GUYS!" Helen said, raising her voice and her hands. "One at a time! Sheesh, I don't have ten mouths." Her friends had done one good thing. Helen was feeling better. Sadness and bitterness were leaving her. "So…who wants to start first?"

"Me!" Terri said as she thrust her right fist into the air as if she were about to answer a professor's question. Helen nodded her head in Terri's direction and prepared herself for whatever question her friend would throw at her. "Uhm…yeah, what's his name?"

Helen chewed her lower lip. "His name…" her voice trailed off and a faraway look came into her eyes. "Sesshoumaru…his name's Sesshoumaru." Maybe telling her friends about him would lift the heavy weight she felt in her chest.

"Sesshoumaru? That's a funny name," Andrea commented. Helen was about to open her mouth to throw an insult at her but thought better of it. "Okay, my question," Andrea continued. This was how they talked about boys…as if they were having a conference. "Hmm…Where'd you meet him?"

Helen thought for a moment. She remembered the day she met Sesshoumaru. She had been playing her violin then he came out of nowhere then he kidnapped her. She had hated him at that time. At that time, she had thought that she would hate him forever, but it turned out that she had fallen in love with him.

She fixed her gaze on Andre. "I met him…at my Grandfather's shrine…at the Sacred Tree," said Helen.

"Sacred Tree? Is that some Japanese thing?" Andrea asked.

Helen gave her a 'look'.

"Yes, it is," the young woman said. Seriously, talking about Sesshoumaru was starting to hurt…

She looked up at her friends and felt tears gather behind her eyes. "Um…guys…-"

Emily's eyes suddenly widened. "WAIT!" she shouted quite suddenly, making all of them jump. "Guys…aren't we forgetting something?"

Alicia gave her a puzzled look. "Um…a gift? Oh right! A gift! We forgot to give Helen a homecoming present!"

Emily nudged her hard in the ribs. "Not that, you idiot!"

Alicia glared at her as she gently rubbed her tender side. Andrea thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. "Oh!" she said. "That!" She suddenly started giggling. Terri's eyes widened and she looked at Helen. Helen looked at them with a puzzled look. Her friends' strange behavior momentarily made her forget her thoughts about Sesshoumaru.

"Guys…what are you hiding?" she asked.

The four of them started giggling. "We thought you were too tired?" Andrea teased.

"Suddenly with the knowledge of something mysterious, my exhaustion has flown the coup," said Helen. "Spill."

"Hmm…should we tell her?" Alicia said in a mock thoughtful voice.

Helen looked annoyed.

"I dunno…she's been grouchy the entire time we've been here," Terri added.

Helen narrowed her eyes in an annoyed manner.

"And she's too tired," added Emily, clearly enjoying Helen's annoyance.

"GUYS!" Helen said suddenly. "Will you spill or not?"

"NO!"

Helen blinked in surprise. She had thought that her friends would eventually tell her as was the case when they withheld information. For them not to tell her anything meant BIG surprise up ahead. "Why aren't you telling?" Helen asked.

"Well, we promised him that it'd be a sur-OW!" Alicia was cut off from her sentence as Emily nudged her in the ribs once more.

Helen raised her eyebrows at them. A he? Their surprise had something to do with a he? "Guys…what are you hiding?" she asked them.

Her friends smirked at her as if they were withholding very vital information in which case they probably were. "We're not telling!" they chorused.

Helen gave them a perfect replica of Sesshoumaru's death glare. "Please?" she said.

"You'll find out tomorrow!" Emily said with a giggle. She turned to the others. "C'mon guys, let's get going." Her friends stood up.

"Wait!" Helen said. She hated surprises. "Please tell me! Besides, what's the hurry? It's Saturday tomorrow! No school!"

Her friends smirked at her again. "Oh, you'll see tomorrow, for now, we're keeping you in the dark!"

Her friends immediately rushed out of the room before Helen could stop them.

XoXoXo

Sesshoumaru was not the type of person to go emo. No, he was the all powerful Lord of the West. He had to act cold to be labeled powerful. He didn't want to end up like his father. Look what happened to Inutaisho, he went and fell in love with Izayoi and look where he was now…in a grave.

Sesshoumaru was not the type of person to go missing someone. So, of course, he didn't miss Helen or thought he didn't. Still, he just didn't feel the same without her. He didn't love her, that he was certain. If so, then why did he feel like total crap right now?

He had left Kagura and the others to amuse themselves by the lakeside where they were camping. "To amuse themselves" was a complete understatement. Ever since Kagura had taken Helen's place, a gloomy atmosphere seemed to settle over them all. Jaken openly voiced his dislike of them wind witch while Rin, thought sweet and understanding, sometimes threw a complaint every now and then.

He stopped when he came to a cliff. He liked the fell of the wind whipping peacefully around him, liked the sensational view that a cliff had to offer. It made him feel superior.

A scent reached his nose.

It was Kagura.

She jumped from her feather to land right behind him.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her from over his shoulder. "You should be with Rin and Jaken," he said.

She looked at him wearily. "I thought that maybe we could spend some time alone together," she said she approached him and embraced him from behind. "Besides," she whispered softly. "I thought that we should talk."

Firmly but gently, he loosened himself from her embrace and turned to face her. "What is it that you wish to discuss?" he asked.

Kagura looked up at him through her lovely long lashes. "I thought and thought…Sesshoumaru…that maybe…it's time…we should get married."

That was the day Sesshoumaru's eyebrows shut up in surprise. His eyebrows rose so high they were in danger of disappearing into his hair. "Nani?" he said although he heard her perfectly.

"You heard me," Kagura said with a blush. "I thought that…yes…we should get married."

"Married…?" A life with Kagura suddenly flashed through his mind, a life lived falsely and miserably and that was when he realized that he no longer-or he never really from the beginning-loved her.

"Well?" Kagura asked expectantly.

If he was any other man, if he had been Inuyasha or his father, he might have said yes. After all, who could resist Kagura? Her beauty, perfection and figure would certainly have moved any other man to say yes, but alas! He was no other man, he was Lord Sesshoumaru. And so, on that day, Kagura left him, weeping with bitter rage and vowing eternal enmity to the woman who had managed to make Sesshoumaru's head spin.

XoXoXo

A1969: I'm really sorry for the late update! It won't happen again, I hope.

Sango: no of course not.

Miroku: can anyone say five reviews?

A1969: I'd like to thank those who reviewed by the way! They really inspired me and snapped me out of the dreaded Writer's Block…Dum dum!