December 31 2006: Author's Nonsense: I was thinking of putting this update off until the new year but wanted to get in a final post so I'm up at 6AM my time to start work on it for all my nifty fans as opposed to trying to get some more sleep…I only have to be up by 12AM, I'll survive on however little sleep I get. Writing is just too much fun to stop just yet. On to the chapter now.

Chapter 11: Shots in the Dark

"Do you like the garden's?" Kaiba asked, knowing the answer thanks to the reaction she'd already given.

"They it's breathtaking." Kagome breathed as she turned back to Kaiba. "I guess I misjudged you, never thought I'd find something so beautiful at your home. Expected more a maze made out of filing cabinets I suppose."

"You are so flattering." he replied dryly. "I wonder how I got along before your magnanimous presence."

Kagome giggled at the teasing but the lighter tone of the evening turned suddenly dark when a shot hit her in the shoulder, pain racing suddenly down her arm and then coursing through her body on a rush of adrenaline, she was pulled forward by Kaiba but heard the passing of the second bullet so close to the back of her head that it felt the heat of the metal going by inches from it's intended target. She had to gasp, she felt feint even while her body was wrung with adrenaline because of the danger that was threatening with the still close assassin whom she was the target of.

Despite her knowledge of the peril she was in, she couldn't get her body to keep up with what her brain wanted her to do, she wanted to run, she wanted to start screaming, to act somehow and yet she just had frozen and while she was moving it was only because Kaiba was pulling her away, his mouth was moving but she couldn't hear whatever it was she was saying to him. Everything felt sort of numb, her arm wouldn't completely react but she stopped trying to move it after a single attempt. Instead she found herself trying to figure out why she couldn't hear what Seto was trying to tell her. Finally he left her crouched in some bushes and moved away but she just gazed after him for a bit dizzily before glancing down to her arm.

The fine white glove had been soaked with blood, some of it still flowing down out of the wound and over her shoulder to stain the fine fabric further. She felt it warm and sticky on her right side and the length of her arm and fingers. She had been through a lot but somehow she didn't want to register the horrific thing that had happened, even the pain seemed somehow lessened by her mind starting to vacate her. The blood loss getting to her. Short pounds did manage to reach her mostly deaf ears but she couldn't figure out what they could be in her confused state.

It was a little while later and she was wondering if she should just lay down so maybe this little nightmare would end before she woke up all nice and safe in her bed when Kaiba returned with some other men in uniforms. She blinked at them, still not able to hear whatever they were all trying to say to her but not minding when they laid her down until they started messing with her shoulder. The agony returning with a vengeance now that she was starting to realize that it was all real and not a dream; that she had actually been shot and her blurred mind was probably a result of the wound she'd suffered. Why would someone want to shoot her? Were they after Kaiba maybe and just missed? But he was built totally different and was much taller, no one could mistake that even in moonlight…why would they go after her.

It wasn't long before the whole thing was just too much and she felt consciousness waning, stars in front of her eyes as she gave a weak smile to Kaiba's worried look before she passed into darkness…

Scene Switch

"I don't care if the police are giving you problems." Kaiba snapped into his phone coldly, his usual controlled voice had taken a dangerous edge that his underlings realized was a very bad sign for whomever had angered him so much he'd allow a breach in his perfect demeanor. "I'm not paying for you to complain to me about whatever difficulties you might be having. I'm paying you to find out who in the hell shot Kagome Higurashi. I want the name of whatever moron it was that pulled that trigger and I want it by this afternoon or you'll never find another job again you incompetent little halfwit."

He turned the cell phone off to hang up the call and was all the more bitter that he'd missed the chance to slam down a phone onto a receiver instead. Somehow needing a chance to break or beat something as he paced in the waiting room where the yokels of the hospital had separated him to keep them out of their hair.

His head swiveled, blue eyes narrowing on the door as it started to open, the bumbling doctor that made his way inside wasn't giving the young CEO anymore faith in the emergency room of the lowly hospital. His personal medical team better get here soon or they too would be seeking new employment, he waited for a short while and when the doctor didn't say something nearly immediately he reached out to grasp his collar. "Spit it out simpleton!"

"Calm down Mr. Kaiba." The doctor frowned and pulled away from being manhandled to straighten his shirt before explaining. "Ms. Higurashi has stabilized for now but she lost a lot of blood and while she's been safely sewn up and lucky enough that the bullet missed almost everything vital to her bones and muscles it will be a long while before she'll be able to safely use her right arm. Meanwhile we are looking to find a matching blood donor for her, we don't have any blood of her type on hand."

"What blood type do you need?" Kaiba asked, he'd find something if these fools couldn't do anything.

"She's AB negative. She requires either another AB negative or an AB positive donor to be able to get the blood she'll need to come out of critical care and really start to recover." The man replied.

Kaiba sighed some. "I'm AB positive. Let's get a move on…I'll donate blood, how much is needed?"

"You should be fine alone…come this way then." The doctor wasn't about to argue a sudden donor and lead him to where he would get it drawn, settling him in the chair. "Here, this will really help her, thank you Mr. Kaiba."

"Don't thank me. I'm not doing it to help you blockhead." the young millionaire snapped as a nurse had him take off his shirt as she needed his arm free to start the process. "Just go take care of her instead of sitting out here blubbering at me."

The doctor headed off, sighing to himself once he got out of the rude kid's presence, that girl deserved to be nice and taken care of if she could put up with the brat; she was a regular saint. He reminded himself that the man was probably also in duress to have his girl shot in front of him but still didn't appreciate the insults as he returned to look over her charts.

"Makes me doubt the world when someone would just walk into someone's back yard and shoot someone." a nurse commented.

"Have you met the guy who owns the place?" another nurse asked with a scoff. "When you do it will surprise you a little less."

"Ladies…let's remain professional." the doctor corrected them. "Imagine if that home owner heard you speaking like that."

The one that had met Kaiba looked at the doctor and let her eyes widen a little at the hint before just nodding and heading off to continue her work, the other just glanced between them confused.

"No one can be bad enough to deserve getting shot in their home." she insisted as she headed toward the door where she would be helping to watch over the blood donation.

Meanwhile Kagome was still resting in her room, drugged to the point of remaining passed out, she'd been conscious long enough to look at people she couldn't hear and motion at her ears but delved back into the darkness before she'd made most of it out. Kaiba was even more disagreeable as usual as the stress started to get to him. He had already realized that someone was likely targeting the girl instead of him but that sort of made the guilt a little worse, he figured it was likely Nicole or some other obsessed fan that had hired some sort of hit man to try to kill the girl. Would they target her family next? He'd already had them called but they were actually taken back to the room as family when they arrived, useless hospital rules.

He would make the man that shot her wish he was dead. He owned more than a couple islands that were otherwise deserted where he could take the culprit to torture so much they would wish they were dead…cowardly bastard. How the hell could I let myself get so distracted to allow myself to be snuck up on like that?

"Hey." the nurse that was finishing with the blood donation pulled him from his mental tirade. "I know it's hard but try to relax a little okay. I'm sure your girlfriend wouldn't want you to make yourself sick with worry. You need to put on a strong front for her so that she can get better faster."

Kaiba originally had a sharp retort but just nodded a little, the woman was one of the few people that actually had some sense or wisdom to her. He forced himself to scowl a little less and nodded to her kind words a little as he held the gauze as she asked him too.

"It's really amazing of you to donate blood to her like this. I'm sure her family might have been able too, but we were already pretty far along when they got here. Every minute will help her…you are a great boyfriend if you are willing to do this for her. Some guys I've seen would just wait even if they could possibly donate to loved ones. Why don't you go ahead to her room and if anyone bugs you say you were given permission." The woman said as she gathered the blood to take to the next step of preparation that was needed.

"Won't you get into trouble?" Kaiba asked with a raised brow.

"Not if you happen to not remember my name." the nurse winked and headed out of the room ahead of him so he could get dressed again. "Don't get up though til you are sure you won't fall over or I'll get in extra trouble for leaving you so soon."

Kaiba glanced after her and had to smile, the woman he would have to send a job offer too after that little observation. She seemed to follow what was best as opposed to the set procedures that the hospital had put upon her, he enjoyed some independence in workers when it was at least wise.

He didn't wait more than a minute or so to ascertain he wouldn't bleed everywhere before he got up, pulling his shirt back on and tucking it in before grabbing his jacket and heading swiftly to the room where Kagome was so much paler than he remembered in the bed. Another sharp pang of guilt when he saw the redness and still threatening tears in her mother's eyes and her younger brother trying to hold back sobs as well.

"What did you do to Kagome?" Souta demanded without reason in his childish passion. "You are suppose to take care of girls if you take them out!"

Kaiba paused, how could he explain what had happened really?

"Don't Souta." Kagome's mother intervened. "If Kaiba hadn't acted quickly, Kagome could have died. That's what the doctor said anyway…she had minor temporary deafness in her ears because a shot barely missed her head and one of the nurses say you pulled her out of the way."

Kaiba breathed a little easier…he had managed to protect her from some of the harm, not something he could still forgive himself for when it came to her shoulder but glad at least that her family wouldn't completely blame him. "Yes…she was shot in the shoulder first and then I grabbed her and…I tried to keep her from getting hurt but it was already too late at that point."

"I hear you were giving her blood as well…thank you for helping and saving my daughter Mr. Kaiba, I can't ever repay that. You weren't too late…if you weren't there she might not have made it." the mom said calmly, there was a tense sadness in her voice but she was a wise woman. The current wrinkles around her eyes made her look older in the poor lighting of the room.

"I…I'm sorry then…" Souta gave in at the information. "I didn't know all that…how did you manage to get away from someone shooting at you both?"

"We were in a rosebush maze and I have the layout memorized, I knew where to go so I could outrun the shooter." Kaiba answered numbly, still taken aback at her pale appearance. "It's still my fault though, no one would have shot at her if she wasn't out with me. I have a lot of jealous fans that would react badly to my going out with someone. I should have put more work into the security…I should…"

"Mr. Kaiba." the mother interrupted him. "Let's not think about what could have been done. Let's think about what needs to be done for Kagome. We can agree on that much at least right?"

Kaiba nodded a little, mouth suddenly dry at how childish he must be acting…why did he care so much anyway about the damn girl? A law suit came to mind but the excuse seemed to ring hollow when it was compared to how concerned he was. She really was his friend after all, she wasn't like the rest of the morons and she'd managed to make him smile…he'd repaid that by getting her shot…some man he was turning out to be.

"Souta, will you please go get me a water and get yourself a soda?" the mother wisely asked, getting her younger child out of the room before looking toward Kaiba seriously. "I need to know; is this person going to keep coming after her?"

"Probably." Kaiba answered honestly. "As long as she deals with me anyway. If I play it off as some huge mistake and don't contact her anymore then they should leave her alone."

"Do you think Kagome would agree to that?" the mother asked wisely, as much as she'd like to agree to the idea that would keep her child safe she wanted her daughter to be happy.

"Well…probably not."

"Then we need another idea."

"You can't be serious." Kaiba answered, shaking his head. "I can't keep putting her life in danger like that."

"What if they keep going after her anyway? As much as I wish that would be a simple solution I doubt if they tried to kill her it would be so simple. I'm worried about her more than you I daresay and she doesn't need to be rejected on top of this tragedy…she will need constant care for a while and I will be sending Souta to stay with his grandparents until things get less dangerous and the shooter along with anyone that might be behind them is caught and behind bars."

"What about you?"

"I will stay at the shrine. I won't let someone frighten me away for any reason from my life. I will take care of my children but if I'm alone then I will do everything to show them that they haven't managed to affect my life as much as they probably want to." The mother answered as she looked back at her daughter. "I hate to ask this of you but will you take care of her if she stays with you?"

Kaiba froze a little, she meant for him to take the girl into his home and protect her fully while the threat was being found. Certainly it shouldn't take too long for his forces and the police to find the culprit and bring them to justice…it was the least he could do after he took the pink from her cheeks.

"Yes. I'll have arrangements made right away." Kaiba answered as he glanced up to meet the mother's eyes.

"Don't hurt her." the mother warned, perhaps the most intimidating he'd ever seen the kind lady.

"I'd kill them before they touched her." Kaiba promised in return. The mother a little surprised at just how serious he'd taken it but nodding a little. He'd rather someone willing to kill for her daughter than someone that would just let her be hurt…obviously he hadn't wanted it to happen.

"Excuse me." the doctor from before knocked and then came in, nothing on his face to show he might have heard any of the strained conversation. "I asked your son to wait in the waiting room and I'll need to ask you both to move there as well as we need to take her into another room for the transfusion, we will get back to as soon as we can to tell you how things have gone."

End Chapter

This chapter flowed out easier than I thought it would, I had a couple hang ups on specific words to use but it only took me about an hour and a half to finish it. I figure I should probably get a few hours sleep now before I am stuck being half-awake while hanging with friends tomorrow. Hope you all enjoy the plot twists as they happen, it turned a little darker this chapter but I still like it a lot. Thanks for reading and enjoy.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

orbit bird - Yeah I like it too. And if makes sense, women are the vex of all men after all.