Chapter One: You Marry Him.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
A/N: Trigger Warning! Talk about child cancer in this story..
Kagome sat on her couch with one hand buried in her hair while the other held an overdue hospital bill. Her elbow, with the hand in her hair, rested on her leg while her forearm with the letter in her hand laid on the opposite leg as she stared at all the other overdue bills that scattered across her coffee table as her heart cracked in her chest.
Light bill.
Water bill.
Gas bill.
Trash bill.
Phone bill.
Car payment.
Car insurance bill.
Health insurance bill.
Rent.
Every bill she stared at with tears in her eyes. She lost her job last month due to too many call-ins. Her son was in the hospital fighting leukemia and she had to be there because he had to have surgery in which she was required to be there during and after the surgeries.
Her job, however, didn't care what was going on and didn't accept the doctor notes that she had as proof of where she had been, so they fired her.
She laid the hospital bill down along with the other bills with a sigh as a few tears escaped past her eyelashes. She wiped them away as she stood up to go fix herself something for dinner.
She opened up the refrigerator - nothing, the freezer - nothing, the cabinets - nothing but crackers and a creepy spider.
"Looks like crackers for dinner - again." She whispered to herself as a few more tears leaked down her face. She walked back to the couch with her crackers and a glass of water, as she sat down her phone started ringing. Looking down at the screen she saw that the hospital was calling. Pressing the green button to answer the call immediately, she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hello?" Kagome answered wiping more tears from her face.
"Hello, Miss. Higurashi." The doctor said.
"Oh, Dr. Hojo, what's going on?" I-is Hiro, okay?" She asked with a gut-wrenching feeling.
"Hiro is doing well." Dr. Hojo answered causing Kagome to release the breath she didn't know she was holding. "However, due to the overdue balance on your account, tomorrow's treatment will be the last one until the bill is paid."
"But he'll die without those treatments! Please Dr. Hojo! I-I'll come up with the money somehow, just please - please continue the treatments." Kagome begged as her heart dropped.
"I'm sorry, Miss Higurashi but unfortunately, my hands are tied." Dr. Hojo replied. "We'll make him as comfortable as possible."
"Yeah, okay." Kagome mumbled feeling defeated before pressing the red button to end the call knowing nothing she could do would make a difference. Sure, she could've screamed and made a scene, she could've cried and begged, she could've done a lot of different things, but nothing would change the hospital's decision until she paid the bill. So, not wanting to make matters worse, she did the only thing she could do - accept the misfortunes that was her life.
"Shit!" She exclaimed as she stood up, and without thinking, threw her phone with all her might to the floor - watching with wide eyes as her phone broke off in three parts and went in different directions. "Shit!" She repeated as she quickly knelt down to the floor to pick up the already cracked screen as she put the phone back together and prayed that she didn't make it worse than what it was. "Please, please, please." She whispered to herself as she pressed the power button. It turned on, though the screen was too badly broken now that there was no way she'd be able to use it.
"No, no, no, no." She whispered before throwing the now useless phone once again before screaming, "FUCK!" At the top of her lungs then crumbled to the floor as deep bodied sobs overtook her.
The next day she woke up, still curled up on her living room floor, to a pounding on her door. Standing up and wondering just when she fell asleep, she made her way toward her door before opening it to reveal her landlord.
"Oh, hi Mrs. Okana, what's up?" Kagome asked as she ran her fingers through her tangled hair.
"Your rent," Mrs. Okana said sarcastically, "it's overdue by a week, and you still haven't paid last months."
"Oh, yeah, I-I'll give you the money soon." Kagome said as she looked to the floor.
"You have until Friday." Mrs. Okana dictated before walking away not giving Kagome time to say anything.
Not knowing what else to do Kagome grabbed her car keys and exited her house.
Knocking on the door to her mother's mansion, she waited for the butler to open the door.
Once the butler opened the door, he scoffed and sneered at her but stepped aside to allow her access inside, she followed the butler to where her mother, stepfather and half-sister all sat in the living room.
"Kagome, dear, what are you doing here?" Her mother asked standing up and making her way to stand in front of her daughter. "Is everything okay? How's Hiro?"
"No, nothing is okay now. Can we talk in private?" Kagome asked.
"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of all of us." Her stepfather scoffed.
Kagome sighed knowing nothing she said to reject talking in front of everyone would lead to nowhere. "Fine, I lost my job last month due to having to be at the hospital for Hiro and now I'm behind on all my bills, including the hospital bill. Mom, they are discontinuing Hiro's treatment until that bill is paid. My landlord came this morning telling me I have until Friday to pay my rent. The last couple of nights all I ate was crackers because that's all I have! My car payment is behind, everything is behind, and I don't know what else to do other than asking you if I can borrow two hundred thousand dollars so I can pay the hospital bill, get caught up on rent and the other bills and get some food!"
Her half-sister, Kikyo, and her stepfather both laughed out loud. "You think we're just going to let you have that much money?" Her stepfather asked through his laughter.
"But, dear, it's her son." Kagome's mother said timidly. "If I don't let her borrow the money, he'll die."
"Then she should've thought about that before she got pregnant at sixteen like the little slut she is!" Her stepfather yelled at her mother.
"Wait." Kikyo said with an evil glint in her eye and a wicked grin curling her lips. "You can have the money."
"What!?" Kagome's stepfather bellowed but was stopped when Kikyo put up her hand to stop his further complaint.
"You see, I'm supposed to be marrying an out-cast, nobody knows his true name because he tells everyone to call him Phantom." Kikyo explained.
"Hmm, well I guess someone has to marry you. Congratulations, where do I send the wedding gift?" Kagome asked sarcastically. She had heard about Phantom. He was supposed to be the most ruthless man there ever was, she heard his name being thrown around by all the dealers indicating that he was either dealing too or he was the one that was running it all.
"You see, dear sister, if you want the money then you marry him."
"You want me to marry Phantom!?" Kagome asked in disbelief. "No, absolutely not! I won't do it!" Kagome couldn't help but to feel scared and intimidated at the thought of having anything to do with a man that dangerous.
"Okay, then I guess you don't care if you son dies or not." Kikyo said in a sing-songy voice.
"Okay, fine." Kagome said defeated. "I'll marry Phantom, just promise me that you'll pay my son's medical bills."
"Don't you worry about that." Kagome's stepfather said with his own wicked grin that matched his daughter's. "Once you marry him, the money is yours."
Kagome nodded then took a deep breath and looked at the three people standing in front of her with a determined look. "When's the wedding?"
"Next Friday." Kikyo answered.
Kagome nodded as she turned on her heel and left the house. She got in her car and left and headed towards the hospital to see her favorite little boy.
Walking into the room, her world felt so much brighter as she watched her baby boy's million-dollar smile stretch across his face. She was finally able to breathe better as she reached his bed and felt his hand wrap around hers.
"Hi mom." Hiro said with his bright smile still curling his lips.
"Hi baby, how are you doing?" Kagome asked him.
"I'm doing okay momma, but the nurse told me that this might be my last treatment for a while, w-will I be okay without them?"
Kagome was highly pissed off that the nurse would tell him something like that but stomped it down for the time being. "Don't you worry about that, you let me do that worrying." She said with a sigh. "Anyway, I seem to remember that a certain little boy's birthday is coming up. Got any big plans?" She asked with a smile and a wink.
Hiro laughed at his mom making her laugh as well. "The nurse said something about the hospital throwing a party for me. All the kids that are here and able will be there and they said that my outside friends and family can come."
"Oh, that'll be fun, I'll definitely ask you friends if they can come."
Before Hiro could respond the doctor walked in to check on him. "Ah, Miss. Higurashi, nice to see you."
"Nice to see you too, Dr. Hojo."
Dr. Hojo was a young doctor, only a few years older than Kagome who was 24 years old herself.
A nurse walked in just then with a smile. "Hello Mr. Hiro! How's my favorite patient?"
Hiro's dazzling smile spread across his face once again. "You say that to all your patients Ms. Kaede." Hiro said with a laugh.
"Yeah, but I really mean it when I say it to you." She told him with a wink. "Don't tell the other kids."
They shared a laugh, but after they were done laughing everyone could see how much a simple laughter stole Hiro's energy leaving him exhausted.
"How was your fever last night and this morning?" Kaede asked.
"It went down some last night but came back up early this morning." Hiro answered a little breathless.
Kagome noticed the slight tremor to his body just then and wondered if they were caused by his sheer exhaustion from the laughing he just did.
Kaede picked up his chart to have a little look. "It's still a little high but much better than what it used to be." She clicked her tongue receiving one of Hiro's famous smiles in response.
"Are you in any pain today?" Dr. Hojo asked while Kaede was listening to his heart and lungs.
"Yeah, in my chest and back." Hiro answered.
Dr. Hojo made some notes in his clipboard as he asked. "On a scale from 0-10 how bad is the pain?"
"About an eight."
Dr. Hojo nodded as he wrote something else in the chart then looked at the time. "Here in about ten minutes, we can give you some more pain meds." He said as he pressed on Hiro's neck checking his lymph nodes as Kaede checked his blood pressure.
"How's his weight doing?" Kagome asked.
"Hmm," Dr. Hojo hummed as he checked his chart, "looks like he lost two more pounds since we checked it last week."
Kagome sighed, she was afraid of that - every time she saw him, he looked weaker and smaller - it broke her to see him that way. She watched as the doctor looked over Hiro's skin.
"His Petechiae looks a little better today." Right as Dr. Hojo said that Hiro got a nosebleed, but it was easy enough for the doctor to stop.
"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something here or do you want me to go get you something?" Kagome asked Hiro.
"No thanks mom, I'm okay I don't think I can eat anything today." Hiro answered.
Kagome sighed with a sad look in her eyes, but she nodded as she bent down to give Hiro a hug and kiss on his cheek.
"Miss. Higurashi, can I speak with you in the hall please?" Dr. Hojo asked as he moved to walk towards the door.
Kagome's heart dropped; she knew that the only reason that the doctor wanted to talk outside was because he had bad news. She nodded her head as she followed Dr. Hojo out into the hall.
"What's wrong, doctor?" Kagome asked as she tried to get the lump in her throat to go down.
"Unfortunately, we found more nodules last night." Dr. Hojo said.
Kagome felt like she got punched in the chest and the air stole from her lungs. She swallowed multiple times to try and get the feeling to go away. "What does that mean for Hiro?"
"It means that chemotherapy by itself is no longer working, and because you have an overdue bill, I'm not even supposed to suggest this but once you get the bill paid, we can go ahead and start a new treatment called chemo-radiation. It's a treatment that we use both chemotherapy and radiation therapy at the same time, and we'll see if that has any effect on him." Dr. Hojo explained. "However, you must pay your bill before we can start and its imperative that its paid sooner rather than later." He said before walking off.
Kagome slumped against the wall breathing deeply for a few minutes trying to gain control of her emotions while a few tears trailed down her cheeks.
Once she knew she had control of herself once again she walked back into the room.
"Is everything alright, mom?" Hiro asked.
"It will be, just things are tough right now but not for much longer." Kagome said with a slight smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something." She said patting Hiro's leg to tell him to scoot over so she could slide in beside him on the bed. Placing her arm around his shoulder she felt her body relax the rest of the way when he cuddled close to her. "What do you think about me getting married?"
Hiro sat up straighter and looked in her eyes with a serious look on his face. "Honestly?" He asked and waited for her to nod her head. "It would make me feel better knowing you had someone in your life in case I don't make it through this." He answered.
"Oh, Hiro." Kagome whispered with tears in her eyes. "Have I ever told you, you have a heart as big as the world?" She watched his million-dollar smile curl his lips. She hoped with all her heart that he would make it through this devastating battle. And by the way, she wasn't for sure how this marriage was going to go, as far as she was concerned - she'd marry this man, get the money and then divorce him right after. She didn't know how to feel about being in the same room, let alone married to a man as dangerous as Phantom.
Soon Hiro's exhaustion won, and he fell into a deep sleep prompting Kagome to take her leave like she usually does every visit when he fell asleep.
She walked into her apartment, throwing her purse on the kitchen table before making her way towards her bedroom and walked to her closet. Opening the closet door Kagome rummaged through the clothes hanging up looking for her white sundress that she knew for a fact was hanging up somewhere in there. Finding the dress, with a 'ah-ha,' and taking it out to look it over before sighing and hanging it on the hook that was on her closet door before kneeling down on the floor looking through the very few boxes of nice dress shoes that she owned before finding her pair of silver strap on shoes, standing up with the box in her hands as she walked to her dresser before placing the box on top. She then opened her jewelry box that sat on top of her dresser and scanned through it until she found her blue fake diamond earrings with matching bracelet and necklace and sat them out along with her shoes. She went back into her closet, reached up on the top shelf and brought an old dusty box down, coughing and waving her hand in front of her face as dust dropped on her from the top of the box, then walked back to her dresser sitting the box on top before opening it to reveal a small, elegant silver hair piece that had six prongs and a little pink flower on it.
"I never thought I would ever get to wear this." She whispered as tears pooled in her eyes as she remembered the original owner of the hair piece. "Am I making the right choice Grandma?" She asked as she ran her fingers over the pink flower. Her grandma died when she was ten, Kagome missed her so much, whenever she had a problem or anything that she needed help with - she'd always go to her grandma for help. She was Kagome's person; she was neck and neck with her father in people she sought out to help her with whatever she needed help with or just needed someone to cuddle with for a while.
She cleared her throat and wiped the tears from her eyes as she closed the box once again before placing it next to her shoe box to be ready for Friday. "Let's see, white dress - check, something blue - check, something old - check, I don't have anyone to borrow anything from so I guess this is just going to have to do. I hope it's good enough for Phantom, and if it's not then oh well." She said with a sigh. "Four more days and I'll no longer be Kagome Higurashi."
She left her room walked in the bathroom, turned on the hot water in the shower and got undressed while the water was getting hot. Once the water was hot, she turned the cold water on some to get it to her desired temperature before stepping in.
As she was rinsing the conditioner out of her hair, she let out a terrified shriek the bathroom went dark, and the hot shower turned into a cold shower.
"Great, they shut my electric off!" Kagome cried as she finished her shower in cold water and in the dark. What's next, first she finds out that Hiro won't be getting anymore treatments, she broke her phone, landlord is only giving her a few days to pay rent, she is being forced to marry a dangerous stranger and now her electricity is off. She turned the water off, got out and dried off before dressing in her night clothes and curled up on her bed as she sobbed herself to sleep.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time! See you soon!