Chapter Nineteen:

InuYasha's Pain

Kikyo stood next to a small pond as she waited for the half-demon, that in her mind owed her his very life, to appear.

Finally she could hear the near silent thud as his feet his the grassy earth behind her and a soft, deceptively serene smile stretched her full pale lips. In life Kikyo had been beautiful with pale skin and pale pink lips and long ebony hair that she had kept tied back in a low tail behind her. Her red hakama and white open shoulder kimono highlighted that beauty with their simplicity.

In death she would forever be the beauty she had always been and would never grow old but her soul, which had once been almost as pure as her reincarnation, was not warped and corrupted due to the violent nature of her resurrection and the pain of the memories of her death. Though the Oni witch Urasue had attempted to steal Kagome's soul to bring Kikyo back to life the only thing the demon woman had accomplished was stealing the pain and hatred that Kikyo had felt during the time of her death. This in turned warped and ruined the priestess until her soul was unrecognizable.

"InuYasha," she whispered as she smiled up at him, the love in eyes no more then mere artifice. "You've come."

InuYasha felt edgy as he stood before the woman he had once wanted to turn human for so they could marry and live a good, happy, peaceful life. Had things gone the way they had planned Kikyo would have carried the daughter that Kagome now nurtured in her womb.

And I would be unable to protect one innocent hair on my child's head.

"Of course I came Kikyo, don't I always?" he asked as he felt the instinctive need to return to his pack and pregnant mate. Despite the urging of his blood he could not turn and leave, he needed to set things right and tell Kikyo what would be, what had to be.

"You seemed troubled." Kikyo said as she approaches the hanyo and lays a gentle hand to his cheek. Her skin was cold and hard like pottery that had stood unused for years but he did not flinch.

Kikyo stared at the hanyo and for a minute he could feel dread building in his stomach.

"Everything is fine Kikyo." He said softly as he pulled her hand from his cheek.

Kikyo glared at her hanyo as he refused to allow her to touch him but she allowed the man to move from her reach. "Who are those that are traveling with you?" she asked as she stood before him her head held high as she sought information.

InuYasha glanced at her from his peripheral.

"They are my father's brothers and sisters. They are escorting the others and me to the rest. My older half brother needs our help with something."

Kikyo noticed the hesitance in the young man's voice as he answered her.

"I see, and how fares my reincarnation?" InuYasha became suspicious since the priestess never asked after the younger woman. "She's fine." He said curtly as he began to feel more and more unsettled.

"Are you sure InuYasha?" Kikyo asked as angry seeped into her voice giving it a steel edge that had it been a sword would have slashed the half-demon. "Is there nothing you wish to tell me?"

InuYasha's eyes widened as he took a step back in shock. Then he straightened and stood tall as he glared at the woman he had loved with all his heart through narrowed golden eyes.

"Yes actually there is something I wish to tell you Kikyo." He said with a voice that did not falter or waver. "Six months ago I came into my Coming of Age. I took Kagome for my mate and she's now carrying my child in her womb."

Kikyo snapped back as if the hanyo had struck her. She would have never believed that he would have told her something like that with such confidence and not a hint of regret. As shock gave way to rage the once pure maiden struck out at the man that she had once hoped to live with as his bride, once he was human of course.

InuYasha's head snapped to the left as his right cheek stung from the blow. Even though the physical blow gave minimal pain, it was the fact that Kikyo had struck him the surprised him. But then he had known that she would not take his proclamation well he could only be glad that it was he that was taking the abuse of her angry and not his innocent Kagome.

"How dare you," Kikyo seethed. "How dare you betray me once more you loathsome beast!" InuYasha looked at the angry woman with his head held high and his eyes devoid of emotion. Suddenly Kikyo calmed as she studied the man before her.

"Or maybe the little slattern merely seduced you in your time of weakness. Is that it?" Kikyo laughed as she walked back to the pond and studied her reflection. "That's it isn't InuYasha? The little whore seduced you and you like the animal that you truly are couldn't help but take what she so freely offered you."

Suddenly Kikyo was jerked off her feet and pulled to the chest of a furious hanyo. InuYasha bared his fangs at the one that dared to utter such filth about the mother of his child. He would not stand for it!

"Shut up!" he growled. "Kagome did not seduce me, I chose her and I asked her! She accepted me and now she is mine and I am hers. I will not allow anyone to speak about my mate like that Kikyo and I won't allow any threat to my family to live. Do not make yourself a threat."

He then released the woman and turned his back on her as he prepared to leap into the canopy but the dead woman's voice stopped him once again.

"Do you believe that she will want you once your bastard is born?" Kikyo asked as she glared at the silver haired demon before her his back was tense as he listened to the venomous woman.

"Once she becomes no more then a demon's whore in the eyes of all that see her and your brat. You've condemned them InuYasha, both that insignificant woman and the thing growing in her womb. The child won't survive a year of life in this world."

As the Kikyo spoke imaged flooded InuYasha's mind. Images of Kagome being pelted with stones and names vile names and a little girl with silver hair and puppy ears being beaten and tormented as she yelled for her daddy.

Daddy, help me! Make them stop!

He shook his head. He would not allow that to happen. Not to his wife and his little girl.

"Perhaps Naraku saved me when he killed me. At least now I will never suffer the same fate you have inflicted on your so called mate."

With that InuYasha took off as pain erupted in his chest. He had known what would happen if he took Kagome as his bride but at the time he had been unwilling to think about it. He had only wanted to hold her and love her the way she loved him and in his mind he had believed he could protect them, his family. But now doubt and fear swirled in the half-demon's mind. Had he been selfish and ruined Kagome's future? Had he doomed the woman he loved?

No! I can't think like this! I need Kagome. I need my mate.

Kagome had woken up a few minutes after InuYasha left. She had felt her baby move inside her uneasily and the child's distress had brought her mother back from her dreams.

As her pregnancy progressed Kagome soon realized that her baby was able to sense her father and often grew upset when he wasn't close by so Kagome was only half surprised when she looked up in the tree her lover and fallen asleep in only to find him gone.

I wonder where he went off too? She wondered as she carefully moved from the giant silver dog demoness that served as Kagome's protector, bed and blankets for the night.

Aiko gave a quiet huff when the small weight of the pregnant woman left her side.

Happy that she had managed to get up without waking InuYasha's aunt but her happiness disappeared when she looked toward the forest to see the pale blue glow of soul collectors in the distance.

Kikyo! Kagome thought as she felt her heartbreak and her stomach drop. It was only the baby in her womb that kept her from heading toward the lights. If she were attacked by the demon she would not be the only one to loose her life but her defenseless child as well.

So the woman sat near the river and watched the forest as the thoughts of her husband and the resurrected miko together made her feel sick and afraid.

Please InuYasha come back safe. Please don't leave us.

Before too long the distressed mother to be could see the red haroi of her husband as he ran toward camp. As he came into the camp's perimeter he halted as he saw his wife sitting with her knees up against her belly and her arms wrapped protectively around her knees as if she were trying to shield herself and the child within her.

At first she refused to look at him but that wasn't something that he had taken much notice of instead he kneeled before her and wrapped his arms around her as if he were afraid that she were about to be attacked.

Kagome looked up at him in surprise as he kissed her lovingly, almost desperately.

"I love you Kagome," he whispered. "I always have and I always will."

"InuYasha?" She asked as he pushed her legs down so he could see her stomach. He then lowered his head down and kissed her belly. Before he raised his head again he gave a soft growl making the baby inside calm and rest once more.

A/N: Some things came to me when I was thinking on this chapter. When Kikyo was resurrected even the demon witch said that Kikyo was kept alive by her hatred for InuYasha and that made me think that it wasn't so much Kagome's soul but the resentment and pain in Kagome's soul that was still, well Kikyo, so when Kagome retrieved her soul from Kikyo she took what was strictly still her and left behind Kikyo's pain, fear and hatred.

That's my opinion anyway and my way of explaining why Kikyo is so nuts in this chapter.

Also I am having trouble with choosing a name for the baby. I have considered.

Kaiya, which means Forgiveness, Izayoi after InuYasha's mother and Inuko, which I guess, means dog child.

Tell me which one you all like best or if you have a name you'd like to suggest please send it in a review or feel free to message me.

I do not own InuYasha !