Chapter 59

They had been in their Confinement for over four weeks, making love, feeding each other, frolicking, talking about their lives and making plans for their future together. It didn't take long for Sesshoumaru to realize something was wrong. Kagome's time of fertility should have arrived the day before their mating and again this week and yet her scent never changed. He had a sinking feeling this had to do with the injury she sustained during the battle with Naraku, but surely she had seemed fine after and besides, would she not have healed herself now that she was youkai—and with his youki in her besides?

He knew Kagome suspected something was wrong as well. She was an intelligent female and knew her own body: there had been no ovulation. A few times he had caught her looking off into space with a sad look on her face but his suspicions weren't confirmed until the day they left their cavern.

They had had a family day planned. That morning, they had exited, wearing their mating clothes which Jaken had dutifully cleaned and pressed for them, delivering them with their dinner the previous night, and met their family who had gathered outside to meet them. It was a beautiful October day and the air was crisp and clean. A gentle breeze rustled the changing leaves in the trees surrounding the path and their family was overjoyed to see them after such a long time apart.

Knowing the couple would rather enjoy the outdoors after their Confinement, picnic tables had been set up for breakfast. It was a traditional breakfast of miso soup, broiled mackerel, rolled omelets with grated daikon radish, and various pickles, including ume plums. It was a pleasant enough time and everyone was enjoying their meal until Inuyasha spoke up.

"So what's the deal? You two decided to wait? After putting an infant car seat in that sexy sports car you bought her?" There was no scent of a pup from Kagome and he didn't understand.

Shiori could sense instantly, though her mate remained clueless, that this was not a good topic and tried to keep him, through use of covert bodily pain, from following the foot in his mouth with a serving of ankle. The elders shared looks.

Sesshoumaru sighed and opened his mouth to say something dismissive but Kagome beat him to it. "Chitose and Kazumasa couldn't have pups," she said on a sigh.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Inuyasha brashed. Shiori kicked him under the table. "What?"

"Our souls…before. Chitose and Kazumasa are who we were in our first life. They lived millennia but she never bore pups. Maybe…maybe now that I'm a demon I can't, either."

Sesshoumaru's gaze whipped to his mate's eyes, which were downcast. That was something he had not thought of before. Was it possible? He spoke up, "There may also be something unhealed from her injury by Naraku. Everything should have healed by her own power and then with my youki, but we will not know until we have her seen by a professional."

Kagome's eyes rose to meet Sesshoumaru's. If it was as simple as an injury…maybe…

Kaneko didn't believe that a soul would carry infertility with it to a new body. They were different vessels. She probably looked nothing like this Chitose; she was her own person. "Kagome, Sesshoumaru, it has only been a month. It is far too soon for these kinds of doubts. It sounds like you two both got your heads full of happily ever after and just assumed everything would happen according to your plan, but life isn't like that. Life is not perfect or made up of the things in those stories you read. But you can't get defeatist at every bump in the road. Really, Kagome, this is the kind of thinking that kept you a secretary with debt up to your eyeballs and a pharmacy of antipsychotics in your bathroom cabinet." She hated when her daughter had to see the worst in things or tried to romanticize life. Everyone has something about their childhood they didn't like, but not everyone spends their life mired by the past and there was no such thing as fairy tales. But you couldn't tell her daughter that—she believed she had been to Heaven.

Inuyasha was just itching to say something to that, but his mate had actually formed a grip on his genitals through his jeans and there was no way he was risking the jewels just to tell off Kagome's mom. He and the rest of them knew how wrong she was—Sesshoumaru was actually practicing his deep breathing to keep from informing his mother-in-law—that unless a couple used contraception or they were unable to conceive in the first place, conception from a Confinement was guaranteed in inu and most species of demon. After all, they did little else during that time but sleep, eat and procreate and dog demons knotted on top of that. Shiori actually had to be on two pills because she was hanyou: a demon contraceptive and a human one. He knew Kagome had gone off her pill months ago so that shouldn't be the problem.

The rest of the meal was quiet and everyone's appetite seemed to have dried up. Everyone walked back to the shiro and bid Kaneko and Kagome's grandfather goodbye. Gramps held his granddaughter tightly and patted her cheek gently before following his daughter out the door. He knew his daughter was a realist and he loved her just the way she was, but sometimes he wished just once that she could see life as he and his wife did, and his granddaughter did.

Toga had lagged behind and now walked outside to where everyone was standing watching their car drive away, cell phone in hand. He came up to his eldest and put his other hand on his shoulder. "She has an appointment with Dr. Nensei in two hours. I called in a favor."

Sesshoumaru turned to his father and bowed his head gravely in gratitude.

…..

Dr. Inari Nensei had been the premiere specialist in youkai reproduction for as long as anyone alive could remember yet her appearance remained that of a female in her prime. Everyone knew her name and getting an appointment with her could take years. As soon as Sesshoumaru and Kagome reached the door, it opened for them and they were ushered inside by a white kitsune youkai.

Sesshoumaru recalled the name; she was an immensely powerful fox demoness who had attended their wedding. There were shrines built to the goddess she was named for; the largest was in the West near where he grew up. He wondered what his father had done for her to be so in her debt. The receptionist, another white fox youkai, greeted them and bowed humbly to them from behind her window. They were invited through the door into her office and another white kitsune, this one a nurse, took Kagome's weight and vitals before giving her a gown and blanket and asking her to change for the examination.

The office was lovely: warm woods and ancient Japanese artwork everywhere. The walls were done in dark wood and rice paper. The exam table was an actual bed, soft, bouncy even, and covered in silk sheets. She had been given a cashmere blanket to keep her warm in her silk gown. Sesshoumaru sat in a deep seated, plush chair done in rich, red brocade with tassels on the arms at the side of the bed. There was a large, dark stained, maple cabinet on the wall by the door and a set of matching cabinets surrounding the sink. There was even carpeting on the floor, which was nice, but Kagome had spent too much time in the medical field to see it as wholly sanitary if it were made with human materials. It had to be magical, like the cloth for Sesshoumaru's mating clothes that was capable of self-cleaning. There were definite benefits to being a youkai now—it was the most comfortable she'd been in an exam room in her entire life.

A knock on the door announced the doctor and she popped her head inside. "All ready? Good, good! Kagome, Sesshoumaru, it's good to see you again so soon after such a lovely ceremony, but I understand this is no social call. Now, tell me in your own words why you're here." She took a seat in a plush chair opposite the couple and listened as they relayed all of their fears, even telling of the fight with Naraku and of their past lives.

"I see," she said mysteriously in the way of all healers. "Now Kagome, I'd like to place my hands on you to see what I can see. Do I have both of your permissions to do so?" At their nods, she lowered Kagome's blanket and parted her gown, exposing her lower abdomen. Placing her hands on her patient's belly, she closed her eyes and peered inside. In a different voice, one not quite female and not quite male but a blend of both, she said, "The Shikon no Tama grew in place of your right ovary, even acted as an ovary to you and when it was removed, your body healed itself, but it is not capable of manufacturing what was never there. Your left ovary is surrounded by a long string of pearls. Tell me, child, have you ever been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome?"

Kagome swallowed, fear and uncertainty in her eyes. Sesshoumaru reached out to hold her hand. "No," she answered.

"I can see here that you had the symptoms all along. Weight gain and difficulty losing weight, depression, difficulty with your cycle, all that waxing you'd been up to, more. Chitose had a similar, demon syndrome and was never able to conceive." She lifted her hands and covered her patient back up before resuming her seat in her padded chair.

When she spoke again, it was with her original voice, "It is a shame no one caught this sooner; there are treatments for humans. In your case, it will be quite difficult, as this is a human condition and you are now a demon, so the usual methods will not work on your new physiology. You are still transitioning to demon form though you will probably not notice any more changes other than to your cycle as you move from a human endocrine system with 12 fertile times a year to a youkai system with only one a year. It may take up to a year to get that situated. I will craft you a tea that may help your youki work with your body to repair your ovary, balance your hormones and resume normal ovulation, but it is not a guarantee. Even if you follow my orders and drink this tea every morning, you may never be able to conceive. I am sorry I do not have better news for you."

There was a crash in the hallway and the doctor cleared her throat and asked, "Please excuse me. My son often comes here after Kindergarten and he can get into trouble. I will be back shortly." She left to investigate the noise and closed the door behind her.

Kagome's lashes were wet with tears and Sesshoumaru moved to sit on the bed and held his mate. It was unfair. Her whole life outside of his family was unfair. The Sacred Jewel as an ovary? An undiagnosed illness that remained though she was capable of self-healing? And now, because she was a demon, her treatment options were highly limited. She had already defeated the great evil for which the gods had created her, why were they still hurting her?

They heard voices on the other side of the door, a mother and child. The doctor was telling her son to be more careful and to not run around indoors.

"But Mama, is it true? She's really here? Can I meet her?"

"Now, Shippou, you know better. She is a patient today, she will not understand."

"Pleeeeeeeeease? I'll be good!"

"I will ask. Stay here, and no more running."

Kagome and Sesshoumaru exchanged looks. There was something odd about that conversation.

Another knock at the door. The doctor poked her head in again. "I'm so sorry to ask this, and I understand this is not a good time, but my son would be honored to meet the Shikon Miko."

Sesshoumaru was wondering how and when the boy had learned what she was as he had listened and was sure his mother had not just told him. Neither had he sensed the kit spying on their conversation. Kagome, whose weaknesses were love, children and chocolate, swiped the tears from her cheeks and nodded enthusiastically.

The door was opened farther and a bundle of red fur came barreling in, hopping up on the bed and into Kagome's lap. "Chi—I mean, Kagome, it's so good to meet you!" He pointedly ignored the look his mother gave him and Kagome only had eyes for the adorable little boy in hugging distance but it wasn't lost on Sesshoumaru.

Kagome and the child carried on an innocent and inane conversation as Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed in suspicion on the doctor. No one alive knew how old this demon in front of him was, there were shrines in her namesake's honor, she channeled some other voice during her examinations and her son had almost called Kagome by another name, the first syllable of which was also suspiciously the first syllable of her name in her former life. He was not leaving until he got some answers and the look he gave the doctor whose eyes suddenly met his said so.

Both turned their attention to the burst of holy power, where Kagome was healing the bump on the little kitsune's head from his recent tumble. When she was done, the kit hugged her around her middle and cried, "Bless you, Kagome! You're so kind!"

Sesshoumaru noted the intake of breath from the doctor at those words and wondered why a simple gesture of kindness and her son's gratitude were shocking to her. Something was definitely going on here.

He looked back to the doctor, about to ask, but she interrupted, "I know you have questions, son of Toga and Aiko. Ask your father to tell you why he built the shrine in Fushimi and you will have the answers you seek. Keep my secret and I shall keep yours: no one will ever hear from us of your destiny as the Shikon Miko." She smiled and continued, "Give me the rest of this day to gather what I need for your tea, and with your permission, I will have it delivered. Come, Shippou. You have bothered my patient quite long enough." After her son left his comfortable place in Kagome's lap, waving his good-bye excitedly, she said, "You may get dressed and leave when you are ready. There will be no bill. Any family of Toga's…well…you'll find out." She bowed, smiling, and exited out the door.

The couple exchanged a confused look before Kagome got up and got dressed.

…..