Chapter 35
Non sum qualis eram
"I am not the kind of person I once was."

"Where, you tend a rose, my lad,
A thistle cannot grow."
—The Secret Garden

He made sure that she was always in his sight. Always. He was not going to take any chances with her. When Sango took her out on walks, he was always in a tree above them or a short ways away. Kagome seemed to know. She always looked in his direction, which reassured him somewhat.

But he'd noticed things were not the same. She was better, but not the same.

Not that he wanted her the same, well, he did, but he wasn't going to complain about it. He had Kagome, just not the same Kagome as before, which was fine as long as she was fine. He would be okay with it. He would; he was okay with it.

But one massive change he'd noticed, and he was sure that the others had noticed too but weren't saying anything about it, was that she touched him constantly. Constantly.

If something startled her, her hand found his or her fingers would graze the skin of his wrist.

Sometimes he could watch her eyes glaze over, and when she came out of it, she would look for him and rub her fingers over a section his fire rat, whether it was a sleeve or a pant leg.

She'd always touched him before. She was a touchy person, but this was taking touching to a whole new level. Not that he minded. She could pretty much touch him wherever and whenever she wanted. Sure, it was weird at the beginning, because people had been adamant about not touching him for so long, and then there was this girl who wanted to touch him, who wasn't afraid to bandage him, who fought near savagely to save his life even when he really wasn't in any danger.

He'd never been touched so much in his life. Ever. Not even his mother had touched him so much in the short span that he'd had her in his life.

But this?

Kagome touching him constantly like this?

He was loving it.

Yes, please.

If he had a tail, he was pretty sure he'd have beaten bloody against the ground already.

He felt like everything in him—it felt whole.

He didn't know if he could ever go back to the distance—to the not touching.

It worried him though, because it implied that something had changed. Something wasn't right with Kagome, and while he didn't mind being her touchstone and a source of comfort, if she was struggling with something, then it needed to be fixed, remedied, corrected.

Sango and Kagome were currently strolling through the meadow, and he was in a tree above, watching them and the surrounding area intently.

Since breaking the curse, she'd been insistent on regaining her strength, which she was. She barely even walked with a limp anymore. It had been a few days since the curse had broken, and she'd improved by leaps and bounds. She still wasn't eating enough, in his opinion, but she was eating more.

And she smiled more, not as much as before, but she smiled, especially at him. It was more than he'd had, and he would revel in it at every chance.

It just felt like he was walking on egg shells around her, and he'd never had to do that before. She was tough, but now instead of hard rock beneath his hands, it felt more like hardened sand, like if he pressed hard enough she would just crumble away like dust in the sea.

He wanted her to be happy. Really happy. But he had a deep, sneaking suspicion that she really wasn't.

Except she wasn't talking about it; hence why he was trying to keep a fair distance so that he could eavesdrop in their conversation to figure out what the fuck was up. Or not up.

He'd asked Sango if she knew anything, but even she was at a loss. Kagome wasn't talking to anyone about anything that had happened.

Again, another thing that was odd about this new Kagome.

Kagome always talked, eventually, but she always talked.

So he'd sent Sango on a mission to figure out the issue and to get some sort of details.

Because Kagome had to know who cursed her, she had to. And they'd thought it was the curse preventing her from revealing it, but now, Inuyasha wasn't so sure. They were grasping at straws, as Kagome put it, and she seemed to know where they all were.

"How are you feeling today?" Sango asked. "You seem perkier this morning."

"It just feels like a good day, you know?" Kagome said, probably with a shrug. She stood just in front of a tree, so he didn't have a clear line of sight at the moment.

They kept moving through the meadow before sitting down at the base of a tree. Good. Now he could get into a single position and listen, which he did in a tall tree on the opposite side of the meadow and a ways away from the girls. But still close enough that he could move in if needed.

"Are you still tired though?"

"Sometimes, but Kaede said that would go away with time."

"We're still trying to work out leads on who cursed you," she said, grabbing Kagome's hand with hers to prevent her from picking at her nails, a nervous tick that she'd always had but had become more and more prevalent as of late. She hadn't seem to pick up on them holding her hand or giving her something to hold whenever it started. That had been Kaede's suggestion, and it seemed to work, giving her something to focus on that distracted her from whatever was rolling through that little head of hers.

"It's okay if we don't find them, you know. We have bigger things to worry about. Like Naraku and the jewel shards. It can wait."

Sango stared at her for a moment, and Kagome looked away.

Another thing she'd been doing a lot. Breaking eye contact. If he held her gaze for longer than a beat or two, she would break away, something that she never really did before. Their stare downs were near legendary, and she'd never looked away from him before.

They'd been equals. And now, she just submitted without a fight.

"Kagome, they almost killed you. They would have if something didn't keep you alive. And, to be honest, I'm pretty sure it has to do with Inuyasha."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Sango nodded, "anytime you went down, he always had a really bad reaction. The last time I thought he was going to transform, even with Tetsusaiga."

"Seriously? But how—why—". Kagome floundered in her questioning. "That doesn't even make sense."

"It doesn't to us either, but there's something there. It happened too often to be coincidence."

That information seemed to worry her. She worked her bottom lip over between her teeth.

"But you feel alright though? Just tired?"

"I'm fine, Sango. Or I will be at least. You heard Kaede. These things take time."

Sango huffed with about the same amount of frustration as he did.

"You know that I love you, and you're family in every way that counts, right?"

His eyes flitted to Kagome's reaction, seeing the shoulders hunch and prepare for the onslaught. Maybe they'd get lucky and she wouldn't have a panic attack right here in the middle of the trees.

But from the look of her face as she was starting to curl in on herself, probably not. He prepared himself to leap down and interrupt Sango's impending tirade.

Kagome nodded.

Yep, not a good sign.

"All I want is for you to talk to me."

"I do!"

"I want you to vent, Kagome. Tell me what's bothering you or what about what happened, what those men did to you," Kagome paled considerably at that comment, "so we can help you get past it."

She didn't answer at all, and Sango refused to let her hand go, even when she tugged at it.

"If you're worried about Inuyasha hearing, we can go to the hot springs and make Miroku seal him in the hut."

What the fuck, Sango?

He might have said those words aloud, but they didn't seem to reach them.

"No!" Kagome cried. "You can't do that! He's—he's—he's helping. Really he is! You can't lock him up like that! I—He—"

"Calm down, it was only a suggestion. We wouldn't do that unless it were necessary, you know that."

"Please," Kagome's voice dropped so low that he couldn't really make out what she was saying.

"What do you mean that you 'just got him back'?"

"He wouldn't have anything to do with me, remember? After—" she let the sentence drift off with the implications. He knew exactly what she was talking about.

Fuck.

Maybe Sango was right.

What if he'd been hurting her by staying away for so long?

Ugh, dammit all. Why was he such a fucking idiot?

"Kagome, you didn't lose him. And he was the most obnoxious person without you, so I highly doubt that he's going anywhere soon."

Kagome flinched at that statement, and his eyes narrowed at her reaction.

"I won't even get into all the shit he put us through. And he's practically glued to you. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't popped in. This is the longest he's been away."

"He's over there somewhere," Kagome said, pointing a finger in his general direction.

"I am not surprised. Of course he would stick his nose in business that wasn't his!" She ended the statement on a shout, like he needed it to hear her.

And it was his business!

Kagome was his business!

"I know how hard it is to keep things bottled up, and I don't want you to go through that. We can go to the hot springs, just us girls. We can go talk."

"I can't," Kagome said, tugging on her hand.

"You can't what?" Sango asked with a tilt of her head.

"I don't want to talk about what happened. I just want it to go away. I want to pretend that it never happened, and everything to go back to the way it was."

"Kagome, that's not—"

"No, we did it with Tsubaki, right? She cursed me, and we all got past it and moved on. In fact, no one has brought her up in forever. Why can't we just do the same thing again?" Kagome wiped her face.

Shit.

"Let's just let it go and pretend it was a bad dream."

Sango obviously floundered for words for a moment.

"Kagome, this was so much worse than Tsubaki."

"You think I don't know that! I was there for both of them! You weren't! No one was!"

"You didn't almost die with Tsubaki! And you just want to let whoever this was go? I don't believe that for a second! You're terrified, Kagome! You're so scared that you'd rather run away than face th em again!"

Even he could tell that Sango had struck a nerve and quite possibly the truth of it from the way Kagome recoiled before getting up and darting into the trees. He was already in motion before Sango could move, landing in front of her.

"Shit," she muttered, letting her head drop into her hands, clearly regretting her words, no matter how true they might be. "I'll—"

"I'll go," he offered.

"Tell her I'm sorry?"

He nodded and leapt off into the trees after her. She wasn't far by any means, and he cleared the distance between them with ease.

He made a show of cracking branches under his feet to announce his approach.

"Kagome?" He called as he approached her shaking form as it leaned against the nearest tree. She was breathing heavily, but he already knew that she was crying and trying to hide it.

"I'm fine. Just out of breath." She wiped her face with her hands before taking a breath and turning to face him. "See?" She grinned almost manically as if that would convince him that she hadn't just bolted from her friend in the meadow.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah?" Her voice became squeaky, and her lip trembled. He took a step closer to her, but she'd already diverted her gaze to the forest floor,

Her throat moved as she swallowed something down.

He waited, knowing that it was coming.

"Are you?"

A sob escaped her, and he opened his arms as she threw herself at him.

"I was until you asked me!" She buried her face into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her back.

"Sango said she was sorry," he offered, which didn't go the way he'd expected.

Instead of relief, she only cried harder, making his internalized panic rise.

"Why are you crying harder?"

"Because she apologized!" She wailed.

"Why is that upsetting?" He struggled to keep his own volume under control. But he was already nearing shouting levels.

Do not panic. Do not panic. Ask questions. Do not panic.

"She didn't do anything wrong!"

Fuck. This already didn't make any sense.

"So why are you crying?"

Kagome didn't answer, tugging herself against him tighter than before.

"If it makes you feel better, Sango didn't look too happy either."

"That just makes it worse!"

He didn't—He didn't even know what to do with that information. This was starting to go from one nightmare into another and quickly for that matter.

She just needed to stop crying. He could think clearly as soon as she stopped crying.

"Kagome, please, just stop crying," he said, holding onto her tightly, pressing her form against his. She nodded, but the crying didn't abate immediately. He was so not prepared for this. He could barely take Kagome crying before without panicking, and his internal-whatever-the-fuck-it-is was freaking out right along with her.

He just couldn't think when she was upset, and he knew that if he kept talking it would only make things worse. And he would not make things worse for her. Not when they were—she was on the mend.

But her crying did lessen all the way down to sniffling, eventually, which helped his internalized panic meter. So did stroking her hair with his hand, but that was neither here nor there.

"Sorry," Kagome whispered, her voice watery and thick.

"Don't apologize for that, stupid."

Fuck! Why was it so fucking hard to be fucking nice to her? Why? Why?

"Sor—uh, I mean, okay." She leaned back slightly, and he was loathed to let her drift any length from him, but she didn't pull away completely, just enough to look up at him with red eyes and flushed cheeks.

Fucking adorable.

Shit. Focus.

"Why are you crying?"

At this question, Kagome looked away from him, retracting her arms slightly, but not completely.

"It was dumb. I should go apologize." She pushed away, slightly, gently, but he held her firmly in place.

"No! Wait! I mean—I just—can you explain why?"

"Did you hear?" Her voice lowered to just above a whisper. "Did you hear what we were talking about?"

"Parts of it." While not entirely true, it was also not entirely false either.

Kagome sighed, as if resigning herself that it could no longer be secret or forgotten entirely.

"Sango wants me to talk about the—what happened when I—well, you know, went away for a while." She grimaced as she spoke, but he didn't push. He'd seen where that wound up with Sango, and Kagome actually had means of stopping him completely and entirely in the dirt. "But I just—I don't even know—I don't want to talk about it. I just want it to go away and move on with my life. I just want things to go back to the way they were. Does that make sense?"

Fuck yeah, it did.

"You want things to be like before, right?"

She nodded.

Shit. He knew what he wanted to do, and he knew what he should do. But neither really appealed as the solution here.

Things couldn't go back to the way they were. Not exactly, at least. But things had changed, evolved; they'd become entirely different people because of it, and there was simply no way to just undo that sort of change.

Even he knew that. And he was dumb as hell when it came to this sort of bullshit.

"I don't think that it can," he started, feeling her physically slump at his admission. "But that doesn't mean it has to be bad, you know?"

"I think so?" She said, her brow scrunching up slightly as she thought about it.

"I mean, yeah, we were worried about you, and—"

"Were you?" She stared at him begging for an answer, one that she wanted, and he furrowed his own brows in the confusion of her even having to ask that in the first place. "Were you worried?"

"Why the fuck would you even ask that?" He shouted, and she recoiled slightly at his tone. How could she think that he'd been perfectly fine with everything that had happened to her? How could she think that he didn't care at all about her?

She tugged at his grip, and he only pulled her tighter against him. Fuck what she wanted.

"You idiot," he growled, as she tried to shove him and failed miserably. "I was fucking terrified. How many times did you almost die, woman? That terrifies me."

She stopped fighting, clinging to him instead.

Okay, while he wasn't quite sure why she was flipping between the two emotional extremes, he wasn't going to push her away by any means.

"You're right," she mumbled. "I should go talk to Sango and apologize."

"Hey, I didn't say apologize to the bitch, I just said talk to her!"

Kagome giggled, a sound that made his heart lighter, the ground softer, the sun brighter; it was a sound that made him happy simply because she was.

She let go, and he did too, reluctantly, but he did.

"Thank you, Inuyasha," she said, squeezing his arm before turning back the way she came.

He followed her as she traipsed through the woods, oblivious to her surroundings, because the woman wasn't capable of being aware of anything that might actually kill her.

He leapt up into the trees to follow her and keep an eye out on the area around them as she went to talk to Sango, who was still sitting in the area that she'd been in before. He leapt all the way over to the other side of the clearing, making sure to stay out of sight of the two women.

Kagome emerged from the trees, and Sango lifted her head from her knees to peer up at her. Kagome merely smiled and held her arms open, and Sango scrambled into them, nearly taking the both of them to the ground.

He grit his teeth together, biting his own lip to keep his opinions to himself.

Wasn't like he was jealous or anything.

Kagome hugged him plenty.

"Don't be sorry!" Sango countered with a firm shake of her head. "I shouldn't have pushed you, and I'm sorry! I'll—I'll try to be better about it!" She sat back on her feet as she pulled away from Kagome, opting to hold her hands instead of the girl herself. "You said that you wanted just forget this happened, and I thought that I was helping."

"No, you are! You have helped! I mean, I don't know what would've happened if it wasn't for you. But Inuyasha was right, everything has changed, but it doesn't have to be a bad change. I'm just—I don't know—different now, but I'm still me though."

"Inuyasha said that?" Sango asked. "That's something I'd expect out of the monk."

Kagome giggled, and he settled back against the tree to wait for them to finish their bonding time.

Not that he wanted some bonding time with Kagome. He'd spent less time with her than Sango by comparison. He should be the one to get to be alone with her with people saying jack shit about it. That would've been fair.

The sound of giggling broke through his pout, and he saw Kirara wiggling with her belly in the air as Kagome scratched the fur on her chest.

But, he'd take this if it meant she was happy. Really truly happy.

And judging from the smile on her face, she was.

He stretched out on his belly along the branch and watched her play with Kirara among the grass and flowers.

When he was sure it was time for lunch, he leapt down, startling both the girls.

"Can't you just call out like a normal person?" Sango griped, clutching the front of her dress. "Honestly, it's like you enjoy testing my heart."

"Is something wrong?" Kagome asked, her hands running through Kirara's fur, mussing it.

"It's lunch time," he answered with a shrug, holding his hands out to her.

"Oh, is it that late already?" She said, glancing at the fire cat, who leapt off with a short mew.

"And you couldn't have just called that out?" Sango mumbled, standing to her own feet and picking up Kirara to ride on her shoulder.

"Whatever, let's go," he said, guiding Kagome towards the familiar hut so she could eat. It wasn't like he hadn't noticed how loose her clothes were, and she felt different when he held her. Most of her softness was gone, and she was sharp, angular in places she hadn't been before.

Her hand found his as they walked, and he shifted his eyes to look at her. Sango led the way down the trail with Kirara perched on her shoulder. There was a crack of a branch in the woods, of a branch breaking and falling through the canopy, he'd noted the fat squirrel that had overestimated the integrity of the branch he'd leapt onto, but Kagome flinched hard and pressed herself closer to him than before.

She was skittish. She'd always been a little skittish, especially when bugs and other creepy crawlies were involved, but she'd never been this skittish. She reminded him more of a deer who bolted at every little thing that might be considered scary.

It shouldn't be surprising considering everything, but it was one more notch. One more thing that defined her as different. She'd wanted to be the same as before, but he wasn't sure how that would be possible. But that was a worry for another time, for right now, he just wanted her to eat something.

He ushered her into the hut with a hand on her lower back, holding the mat aside. She took a seat next to the fire, glancing over her shoulder to watch him as he lowers himself to sit next to her. Her fingers played with the extra fabric at his knee, a habit that she'd developed recently and while he didn't mind at all, it just reminded him of her near always present anxiousness. Kaede handed her a bowl, and she took it easily enough. But he noted the way her hands still tremble.

But she doesn't eat it all, and that grates at him. It feels like someone has rubbed the fur on his ears the wrong way. He watched as she set the bowl to the side, half full and interacted with Sango and Miroku.

He nudged her bowl back towards her. She looked down at it and then up at him.

"Finish," he said, returning to his own bowl.

"It's okay," she said with a smile. "I'm full, actually." He stares at her, watching, and it makes him concerned that she's still not eating enough.

Now he's the one with anxiety.

"What?" She asked softly, and he looks away from her and back towards the fire.

"Eat the rest of it," he said, nodding towards the half-full bowl.

"Really, I'm full."

He huffed, and she patted his knee as if to console him.

"I'm fine, Inuyasha. Relax." She continued to talk to Sango and Kaede, but that partially eaten bowl sat on the floor, mocking him, and he briefly consider just how badly she would sit him if he put her in an upper branch of the Goshinboku with the bowl of food and told her she couldn't come down until she finished.

Mmm, probably a lot.

It wouldn't be so bad, but she's never hungry anymore. She nibbles, if you could even call it that, but that's all she does. She never eats a full meal anymore.

She stood up as she Sango decide to go take another short walk.

And on top of everything else, she's not wearing enough to stay warm in the autumn wind. It's too cool for her to be out dressed like that. She'll get sick.

"We'll back in a bit!" Kagome called, and Inuyasha growled as she walked out.

"I'm surprised that you're still here, Inuyasha," Miroku commented as he took a sip of tea, a sly grin spreading across his face.

"Aye, ye have been particularly concerned with Kagome's whereabouts as of late."

"Both of you can go fuck yourselves," he growled, standing to his feet, snagging a blanket off the floor, and leaving the small hut.

He knew that he was fretting over stupid things, and it irked him, but he also knew that she was going to wind up sick if they weren't careful, and he didn't think that he was mentally capable of handling a sick Kagome right now. He shoved the mat aside and strode out following their scents. He was not going to allow her to make herself sick.

She still slept in the small storage room, and so did he. Well, not slept so much as watched her carefully to make sure that no one came in and disturbed her. And also to make sure that there were no repeats of the curse reawakening. They had no way to know if someone could curse her again, or if it was honestly really gone.

He just wasn't one to take chances.

That's all.

Kagome rolled onto her side and whimpered. Frowning, he ran his fingers through her hair, lightly scratching her scalp, which had always soothed her in the past, but she only curled up tighter in her little ball of blankets. Mustering up his courage, he gently shook her shoulder, to rouse her before she got too deep into her dream.

But he wasn't prepared for her to shoot straight up, gasping for air, and then scramble for the door. He was already climbing to his feet after her when he heard the first heave. She'd made it a few bounds from the side of the hut, and he caught her as she fell to her hands and knees and retched, violently, he might add, and used his free hand to pull her hair back as what little she ate at dinner eagerly came right back up. Her body shook, trembling against his arm as he supported her. One of her hands came up interlacing her fingers with his as her stomach lurched again.

Nothing else came up, but she still heaved and trembled against him as she struggled to keep herself upright.

"Easy," he told her, pulling her hair back from her face. "I've got ya."

She took a small breath, pushing herself to a sitting position, and he moved with her, dragging her back against him. Panting, she wiped her mouth with her free hand, still holding onto his fingers.

He turned his face so that his nose was buried in her hair, and he resisted the very strong urge to nuzzle and whine.

"I'm okay," she said, letting go of his hand to pat his arm. "But I do need to rinse out my mouth."

He pulled her up to her feet as he stood, holding her against him as he did. His hands still around her waist, as he made sure that he was steady before releasing her.

"Inuyasha, I'm fine." She said, taking a couple shaky steps towards the small river that ran through the village. He moved with her, hands out at the ready, in case she fell or stumbled.

Because she wasn't. She wasn't fine. She was better, but she was not fine.

She scooped water into her mouth, spitting it out into the grass beside her. Kagome took a few more swallows before pushing herself to her feet, which he eagerly helped with, guiding her back into the hut and to her blankets.

"You're sure that you're alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, just—yeah, I'm fine."

He walked her back inside, helping her into her bed, tugging the blankets over her shoulders and tucking them in around her. She made a small noise, letting out a small sigh in the process, as she quickly fell back asleep.

He heard Sango standing at the doorway, but refused to look up at her for a few moments. But when he did, she didn't speak a word before going to lay back down as well.

She wasn't fine, but neither was he. He wasn't okay either. There was something wrong, and he knew that there was some connection between himself and the curse too, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. It was there, and as long as he kept Kagome close, whatever had been needling him the past few weeks was calmed.

But maybe her mother would be able to help. They'd done all they could here, so maybe a visit back to her time was due. While he'd be regulated to staying at her home, she'd be able to get some help that he couldn't offer her here. It didn't settle well, but he'd do what was necessary.

He didn't sleep the rest of the night.

The following morning, he waited until she'd eaten breakfast before suggesting they go on a short walk.

He held his hands out to her, and she grabbed hold without hesitation.

"So, why'd you drag me out here?" She asked him, holding onto his sleeve as they walked.

"I think that you should go back home," he said, and her steps faltered so quick and hard that her entire body went rigid, nearly jerking to a complete stop. "Just for a little while!" He quickly added. "You just haven't been home in a while, and I thought that you might want to visit while you're healing."

"O-Oh," she breathed, and he grabbed her hand in his own, feeling the cool clamminess of her skin under his. "I thought—" She took a couple deep breaths before clearing her throat. He could already see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

Dragging her into a hug, she clutched at his coat, burying her face into his shoulder.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm okay, really." She pushed away a little, wiping at her eyes with her fingers,

He stood there, waiting for her to continue, because he could tell that she had more to say about it.

"I know that I should go back, but—I mean, I don't—what is Mama going to think? It's been so long, and then I'm going to show up like this?" She flopped forward against him, hands covering her face.

"Kagome," he started, reaching up to hold her arms, but she kept going.

"And school! I haven't even touched my homework and textbooks! I was already behind and now, I—I don't even know what day it is and if I've missed tests or not! I'm going to be so far behind!"

"Kagome!" Her mouth snapped shut so quickly that her teeth made a hard clacking sound. Her eyes diverted from his face to his chest, and he frowned a little at that.

"I'm sure that it'll be fine. Your mom's probably just worried, and you always do fine at school. And—" He swallowed the lump in her throat. "I can—I can go with you, if you'd like."

She nodded vigorously at that.

"The whole time?" She asked. "You'll stay the whole time?"

"Course."

A feeble smile twitched the corner of her lips, and she gave him an equally small, but resolute, nod in response.

"Okay, then I think that I could stand to go home for a bit." The smile grew slightly. "Kaede said that she's really impressed with how well I'm healing, despite everything that's happened."

"That's—that's good."

Right? That was a good thing. Right?

She smiled at him, small, but it was there. And he'd take what he could get. At least she was smiling now, he could handle anything as long as she was smiling at him. Kagome took a step away, and for the first time in weeks, he felt like everything was going to turn out alright.

A/N: So, it's been a rough week guys. We just found out that our Dobie has sarcoma and a growth at the top of her spine. We're opting to give her surgery, but we're looking at maybe 2-4 weeks if things don't go well. Oh but wait, there's more; the first week in November is the 8 year anniversary of my brother's death, and in just another 5 weeks is the first anniversary of my grandmother's passing.

I might disappear for a bit. I don't know. Writing gives me purpose and helps me process, but I might not publish for a week or two in there. Sorry. I know there are some of you that look forward to Thursdays because of this, and I genuinely hate to disappoint, but it's just a lot to process, especially since every single one of those anniversaries is because of cancer.

So I love you all, and I hope to see you next week. But if I don't, I hope that you guys still have a great week.