Chapter 5: A Not So Happy Birthday.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha!
"Happy birthday to you." Kagome sang out as she held the hand of her still unconscious little boy. Tears streamed down her face as Inuyasha and the others tried to comfort her. They all had decorated the room for Hiro's 8th birthday, they even had a cake and ice cream delivered. The birthday theme was monster trucks, Hiro's favorite thing - he wanted so badly to go see a monster truck race but was stuck in the hospital, he watched them on television when he could and was just in awe of them, he even said he wanted to drive in monster truck races when he got older. Kagome and the others had ran to the store before coming to the hospital to get the supplies and even bought two very large remote control monster trucks for Hiro's birthday presents that they wrapped up and would stay that way until he woke up to open them himself. "Happy birthday to y-" she couldn't finish as she was overcome with body shaking sobs.
Inuyasha rubbed Kagome's back and was about to envelope her in a comforting hug, but before he could his phone rang. "Hello?" He said a little irritably as he pressed the answer button and place the call on speaker so he could still hug and comfort Kagome.
"Hey, man, are we still meeting for my refill?" Kio had asked impatiently.
"Right now, I'm in the hospital with my wife, can we do it later on today? I have a meeting with the mayor at lunch time, we can meet after that." Inuyasha suggested.
"Naw man, it has to be now, I have clients up my ass needing their supply."
"The best I can do is if you meet me at the hospital, I'll meet you down there by my car here in about five minutes." Inuyasha grumbled, he didn't want to leave Kagome, but also knew how impatient druggies tended to be, if not met with their supply in a timely matter shit would soon hit the fan. He knew that if he didn't give the clients their supply in a timely manner then he had the potential of losing their business and he didn't want that to happen.
"Okay, see you then." Kio said before hanging up.
"Miroku, you come with me." Inuyasha instructed as he pocketed his phone. "Sango, you stay with Kagome."
"No." Kagome said as she pulled away from Inuyasha wiping her eyes. "Please, let me come with you, I need to stretch my legs and get some fresh air."
Inuyasha nodded and all four of them exited the room and headed for the elevator that would lead them to the lobby.
Walking out of the building and up to Inuyasha's car, Inuyasha popped the trunk open before going through his duffel bag full of the supplies that made up his business. Soon after that a beat up looking white car pulled up and parked right beside us, Kagome didn't pay any attention at all to who was right beside them until that person called her name.
"Kagome?" Kio said in shock as he ran up to her giving her a hug that she did not return. "Why are you here?" He asked as he pulled away from her but kept his hands on her upper arms.
"I'm just stretching my legs before I go back into the hospital." Kagome answered Kio dryly with narrowed eyes sent his way. "Get off of me!" She snapped as she jerked her body out of his hold on her.
Kio looked towards the hospital. "Are you here with Hiro? How is he doing?"
"What do you care about how his doing!?" Kagome spat fire at Kio making him flinch.
"Yeah, I deserved that." Kio mumbled as he scratched the back of his head.
"Kagome, do you know him?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yeah, he's my piece of shit, good for nothing baby daddy!" Kagome angrily yelled.
"What!?" Inuyasha roared as he shot daggers at the man standing in front of them. This was the piece of shit that abandond both Kagome and Hiro when they needed him the most!? This was the absolute moron that made Kagome struggle all on her own, that made Hiro suffer with no one but his mom by his side!? He could feel his blood start to boil with the strong need to kill the fucker right where he stood but held himself back because he didn't want to upset Kagome more than what she already was.
"Aww, Kaggy, don't be like that." Kio cooed as he tried to reach for Kagome's hand, but she snatched it away before he could grab it. "Oh, come on! I really do want to know how he's doing! I've been thinking about you both a lot lately and really want my family back."
"Don't Kaggy me!" Kagome yelled angrily as she took a step further with the other three following her. "And no! You don't just get to show up out of the blue and ask how my son is that you abandoned six years ago! And hell naw! You blew your one and only chance, we are never getting back together! You left me to struggle on my own for six years! You left Hiro to have to go through this without a father! There is no coming back from that! And besides I'm married! Happily married!" She said as she grabbed Inuyasha's hand.
'Happily married?' Inuyasha thought to himself as he felt his heart race in his chest as he encased his hand around hers. 'Wait, what if she said that just to get Kio to leave her alone?' He couldn't explain why his heart twisted painfully in his chest at the thought of her not meaning what she said.
"Why do you have to have to throw that in my face!" Kio snarled making Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango ready for a fight should one happen. "Do you know how it looks to have a sick child!? Everyone looking at you with pity, no one will hire you when you have a sick child because they know you won't put the job first, you'll put your child first! And what about me, Kagome!? What about all the things that we talked about doing together!? All the traveling we were going to do! You just threw that all away for some kid! When I said I didn't want to raise a sick child I was expecting you to say the same thing so we could do all of those things! You took that away from the both of us!"
"Excuse me!?" Kagome yelled in outrage. "Some kid!? That's not just 'some kid' that's my son that I refuse to abandon! I expected you to put those dreams on hold for a little bit and be the father Hiro needed, but no, you just ran away from your responsibility." She screamed then stood behind Inuyasha silently telling him that she was done talking to this asshat. She took a fistful of Inuyasha shirt as she pressed her forehead in between his shoulder blades as she tried to take deep steady breaths. It was too much for her, she felt ready to fall apart at the seams, what with the condition of her son and the unexpected arrival of her baby daddy, it was too much to handle - and she needed Kio to be gone.
"We're done here." Inuyasha said as he closed the trunk with one hand, so he didn't have to move away from Kagome before crossing his arms over his chest, Miroku came to stand by Inuyasha with the same stance while Sango placed a comforting hand on Kagome's back sending a glare in Kio's direction.
"What about my supplies, man!?" Kio asked.
"Go find another supplier, you no longer work for me." Inuyasha replied.
"Oh, come the fuck on, man!" Kio yelled as he threw his arms up in the air. "You're gonna fire me over some bitch that don't even know what's good for her!?" He scoffed.
Inuyasha felt Kagome flinch and went into beast mode, he growled before grabbing Kio by the collar of his shirt then smashing his back against his crappy car, reveling in the cry of pain the escaped the assholes lips. "If you know what's best for you," he growled as he yanked Kio off of his car before pulling him closer to his face, "you will get the fuck out of here and never let me see your face again or you are dead meat." He said before roughly pushing him once more against the car as he let go of Kio's shirt.
Kio recovered quickly enough before jogging to the driver side door. "This isn't the last of this! Kagome, I don't care if you're married, you will be mine again! I'll make you see that Hiro needs to be forgotten." He said before getting in his car and driving away.
Inuyasha growled once more as he turned to face Kagome before sweeping her into a bear hug. "Are you okay?" He asked before kissing her on the top of her head and pulling away just enough to be able to see her face while still keeping her in his arms.
Kagome took in a deep shaky breath as she peered up to look in Inuyasha's eyes. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
Inuyasha looked at his watch then sighed. "I have to go meet with the mayor. Are you hungry? Would you like to go, or would you like me to bring you back something?" He asked Kagome.
They had been at the hospital for two days and nights now, Kagome really needed a new scenery for a few hours. "Let me just say bye to Hiro and then we can go." She said before turning on her heels and walking back to the hospital with the three others following close behind her.
*X*
Pulling up at the restaurant, about twenty minutes later, Inuyasha and the others all got out of the car and walked inside the building.
"Ah, Kagome!" Boomed the balding fat man when he saw the group walking over to the table he was sitting at. "I did not know that you were going to be here!" He said with a kind smile as he vigorously shook her hand making her whole body jiggle. "Oh, it's nice to see you too Phantom." The mayor said as an afterthought as he let go off Kagome's hands.
Inuyasha grumbled making Kagome giggle. "It's nice to see you too, Mr. Watanabe." Kagome said with a bright smile as she returned his hand shake the best she could.
"No need for the formalities, my dear, Watanabe is just fine." Watanabe said with a smile on his face too before looking at Inuyasha. "Are we ready to go over the details?" He asked keeping the smile on his face.
Koga was there as well with his wife that Kagome had remembered meeting at the after party a few nights ago.
"Hello, Phantom, Mr. Miroku, Sango and Kagome." Koga greeted as he shook hands with each one of them. "It's nice to see you all again. You remember my wife, Ayame?" He asked as he gestured to the woman he had his arm wrapped around.
"Of course," Kagome replied with a smile, "it's nice to see you again as well."
When all the greetings were done, they all sat down before placing their drink and food orders.
"Remind me how much you needed from me again." Inuyasha asked when the waitress walked away.
"Oh, we need one point five million from you, if you agree of course." Watanabe replied as he grabbed some documents from out of his briefcase.
"Absolutely." Inuyasha nodded as he grabbed his check book and a pen out of his jacket pocket before writing out the check as the waitress came back with their drinks before walking away only to return a few minutes later with their food.
Once the lunch meeting was done and Inuyasha's portion of the money needed for the construction to begin was handed over, Inuyasha and the others bid Watanabe, Koga and Ayame a goodbye before leaving to go back to the hospital.
Walking back into Hiro's room, the group saw that Hiro was still unconscious. Kagome took her normal place as she sat on the chair that was right by his bed and took Hiro's hand back into her hand, with her free hand she ran her fingers through his hair.
"Happy birthday, Hiro." Kagome whispered as her eyes filled up with tears once again. "Once you wake up, we'll have a real birthday party for you."
Dr. Hojo walked in looking over his clip board before putting it down on the table and walking over to Hiro, he placed his pointer finger and his middle finger on the bend on Hiro's wrist then looked at his watch for a few seconds before putting Hiro's hand back on the bed. "Hiro's vitals are all good and even has elevated some which is what we look for when patients start to wake up." He said as he jotted some notes down on the clip board. "He's responding slightly with the chemo-radiation therapy, typically I would like to see a bigger response to therapy." He sighed as he placed the clip board back down. "I would like to try immunotherapy; it'll help boost his immune system - we do that in hopes that once the immune system is boosted the body will have a greater chance at fighting the cancer. However, before we do that, I want to give him a stem cell transplant in order to make sure he's in good shape as possible to give him the best chance at responding positively to the immunotherapy treatment."
"What if the immunotherapy doesn't work?" Kagome asked in a meek voice as tears gathered in her eyes. "It seems that no matter what we try, nothing works."
"I know it must be frustrating to see someone you love go downhill; however, Hiro is at a standstill at the moment. He's not getting any better, but also not getting any worse. We will work with him as long as his body will work with us. I promise, Kagome, we are doing everything in our power to make sure Hiro beats this a second time." Dr. Hojo said as he placed a comforting hand on Kagome's shoulder giving it a slight squeeze before making his exit after telling them that he's going to put in the order for the stem cell transplant.
Tears were running unchecked down Kagome's face prompting Inuyasha to grab her hand before gently pulling her up, he sat down in the chair she was sitting in then pulled her down to sit on his lap. She curled up against his chest as she soaked his shirt once again in her tears. He wrapped his arms tightly around her frame as he moved one hand up and down along her back while he ran his fingers through her hair with his free hand. He didn't say anything, just held her as he rocked her gently back and forth as she cried.
About an hour later the doctor came back in with Ms. Kaede and started the stem cell transplant. "This will take a few hours to complete, once this is complete, Hiro will need some time for the transplant to take effect. We will start the immunotherapy tomorrow morning and see how that goes before moving on to our other options."
Dr. Hojo left with Ms. Kaede after they had everything set up and made sure it was working okay.
Inuyasha sat with Kagome for about thirty minutes as they watched the transplant running through the tube and into Hiro. He felt her go limp and realized that she fell asleep, he knew that she had not been sleeping well lately, so he stood up and walked to the cot that was in the room before lying her gently down onto it. He tucked her in and began walking away but was stopped when a hand circled around his wrist. He realized that it belonged to Kagome and gave her a questioning look.
"Please, lie down with me, I don't want to be alone right now." Kagome begged with big watery eyes.
Inuyasha nodded as he scooted on the bed beside Kagome, she moved around until her back was against his chest then she grabbed his hands and wrapped them around her in a tight embrace.
Sango and Miroku, seriously needing to get some type of rest, bid them a goodnight and promising to come back in the morning before they left to go home.
The doctor walking in the next morning woke Inuyasha up, however, Kagome was so exhausted that she didn't even hear the door opening and closing or that Inuyasha and the doctor had started to talk about starting the immunotherapy in about an hours' time.
Inuyasha nodded his understanding before getting out of bed, stretching as he walked towards the bathroom after the doctor had left, he used the toilet before hopping in the shower. Once he was dried and dressed, he walked out of the bathroom and noticed that Kagome was still sleeping and that Sango and Miroku had showed back up with what looked like take-out boxes that smelled like they had biscuits and gravy inside them.
Miroku handed Inuyasha his and Kagome's boxes of food before sitting down beside Sango and eating his own food.
Inuyasha didn't really want to wake up Kagome, but she also hadn't eaten very well in a few days, so he walked over to the bed and gently shook her awake. She gratefully ate her food before falling back to sleep.
A few moments later, Dr. Hojo walked in with the supplies needed for Hiro's treatment, hooked Hiro up and started it before leaving the room once again.
An hour later, Kagome woke up and walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Once done, she walked out before grabbing Inuyasha's hand making him sit in the chair next to Hiro's bed before taking a seat on Inuyasha lap and curling against his chest as she watched as Hiro finished up the rest of the treatment.
Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly as he pressed his lips against her temple. "I guess I'm your favorite seat now?" He asked with his lips against her ear.
The only answer he got was a smile that spread across her face. He smiled in return as he kissed her temple once again.
They all sat in silence, each of them saying their silent prayers for Hiro to improve and to wake up soon.
Kagome held on to Hiro's hand while she had her eyes closed as she prayed as hard as she could. She felt a slight squeeze of her hand and opened her eyes, she gasped and stood up. "He's awake!"
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time, see you soon!