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Guilty Hero

Chapter 7: That Simple Nurse

“Inu-Yasha!” the demon heard Kagome call from the reception area.  “Your ride has arrived!  Don’t you want to go home?”

Stifling a yawn, Inu-Yasha finished tying his shoelaces, then slowly stood, groaning as his joints popped and cracked in protest.  Eight days had passed since he had first arrived at the hospital wing, half-dead from more than one type of poison in his veins.  Now he was fully healed and almost finished with the road to recovery.  A penetrating weakness still gripped his muscles, leaving them tight and stiff, but Kagome informed him that all he needed was time and rest, which he could get in the comfort of his own home.  So she had given him the all-clear, and the day had finally come where he could go home.  As he walked stiffly out of his room, he uttered a small sigh of relief; he couldn’t wait to escape the asylum-white walls of the hospital for good.  Eight days had been plenty long enough.

“There you are,” Miroku said, twirling his car keys around his index finger.  “You ready to go?”

Nodding, Inu-Yasha headed for the elevators, wanting to waste no time.

“Hold it.  Don’t you think you ought to thank Miss Kagome?  She put in a lot of hard work to get your health back.  Plus, dealing with you for eight days is a tremendous feat in itself.  I believe she deserves your gratitude.”

With a slight growl, Inu-Yasha muttered, “I’m not doing that.”

“Then I’m not giving you a ride.”

Glancing up at his friend to see if he was telling the truth, a snarl tugged at his lip when he realized Miroku was serious.  He needed the ride back to his apartment; he could probably make it there by himself, but then there was the daunting task of climbing seven flights of stairs.  He didn’t have the strength for both.  So, very grudgingly, he turned back to Kagome.  Without lifting his gaze from the floor, he opened his mouth to speak.

“Don’t force yourself,” Kagome said good-naturedly before he got a word out.  “You don’t seem to be the type to give out gratitude willy-nilly.  I’m just glad you’re doing better.”

“Mmph.”  Peering at her from under his bangs, his scowl lessened a bit, and he looked at Miroku once again.  “There.  Can we go now?”

Before Miroku could answer, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, depositing Sango into the hospital.  She quickly went over to them, looking quite relieved.  “Thank goodness.  I’m glad I caught you guys before you left.  Here.”  She passed a stack of neatly folded clothes over to the demon.  “It’s your clothes from the night we brought you in.  The cleaning lady practically killed herself getting the stains and smell out, but she finally managed to in the end.”

Reluctantly accepting the outfit, Inu-Yasha said, “You should’ve just thrown these away.  I was gonna buy new ones like I always do.”

“Hey…”  Kagome came up behind him, peering over his shoulder at the shirt that was on top of the pile.  “Do you have one of those pocket flashlights or something?”

Turning to give her a strange look, for the comment was quite odd and out of the blue, he replied slowly, “Uh, no…  Why?”

“Well, your shirt pocket is glowing.”  She pointed at the pocket on the shirt, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.  “I just assume that you have a light in there.”  Glancing around at everyone else, she realized that Sango and Miroku were mirroring the odd look Inu-Yasha was giving her.  With a slight frown, she asked, “What?”

“It’s not glowing,” Sango said, looking a bit concerned.  

“Yes it is.  There’s something lit inside.  Can’t you see it?”

“It ain’t glowing,” growled Inu-Yasha, beginning to grow irritated.  “Hell, there isn’t anything in there at all, see?” and he unbuttoned the pocket and stuck his hand inside to prove his point.  However, the annoyed expression on his face cleared when his fingers actually touched an object, and he carefully pulled out a jewel shard, the one retrieved from his horrible battle with the human.  In the trauma afterward, any thought of the jewel shard had escaped his mind, and his drunken escapades after that destroyed any possibility of remembrance.

“Huh…” he mumbled, holding out the shard for Sango to take.  “I guess I forgot about this after… well, yeah.”

Absently accepting the piece, Sango continued to stare at Kagome, deep in thought.  “Is this what was glowing?”

Kagome, now beginning to realize that something very odd what going on, slowly nodded.  “It still is,” she added softly, looking a bit uncomfortable.  “Is it not supposed to be?”

“Not necessarily,” Sango replied.  Turning to face Miroku, who was just as pensive as she, she instructed, “Get Inu-Yasha home and settled, and then come back here immediately.  We have some work to do.”

With a slight grin, Miroku nodded.  “Aye aye, captain.  Come along, Inu-Yasha.”

“Hang on.  I would like to speak with Inu-Yasha privately for just a moment, if you don’t mind.”  Kagome gestured for Inu-Yasha to follow her to a corner of the room, so Sango and Miroku huddled together to discuss this new piece of information.

“What?” Inu-Yasha snapped, growing quite impatient.  “I just want to go home; is that too much to ask, damn it?!”

Brushing his comment aside, for she was used to his spouts of temper by now, she began speaking in a quiet, calm voice, hoping to soothe his temper.  “I have a few instructions for you when you go home to help your strength return, that’s all.”

Scowling deeply, he gave her a pointed glare but clamped his mouth shut, waiting for her to continue.

Satisfied he wasn’t going to interrupt, Kagome smiled at him and started her list.  “First: sleep as much as you can.  Resting up will do wonders.  Don’t do any strenuous activity for a week or so, all right?”

He continued to glare stonily at her, so she shrugged and went on.  “Second: try and exercise a bit every day.  Nothing too strenuous, just a walk or the like.  It’ll help raise your energy level and help build your strength.  Also, try and eat three meals a day.  You seemed to have a habit of not eating at all, and that will only slow you down.”

“Anything else?” Inu-Yasha grunted mockingly, clearly eager to leave.

“Just one more,” she replied, smiling kindly.  “If you can, and I know this will be difficult, but try to refrain from drinking for at least a week.  You know firsthand how it can drastically worsen any medical problems.  We can’t really afford to take any chances.”

Inu-Yasha clamped his mouth shut, his glare increasing tenfold upon hearing this news.  He had already gone almost a week without his booze; how dare she ask him to go another?

Noticing how stiff he had become, Kagome stepped forward and took his hands in her own, lowering her voice.  “I know you can do it.  If you don’t, you may very well end up right back  here, and I know you don’t want that.  So just…take care of yourself.  I have faith in you.”  Giving his hands a quick squeeze, she moved away, letting him know that their conversation was done.

Though still angry, his glare lessened as he felt something in his hands as she walked away, and when he opened his fist, he saw that she had given him a sucker.  For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he should angry or not; a sucker was what was given to an unruly child to calm them down after a trip to the doctor’s.  However, when he glanced up and saw her smiling encouragingly at him over her shoulder, he sighed, and the tension seemed to seep out of his body.  Pulling the cellophane wrapper off, he strode over to the elevator and leaned against the wall, sticking the candy in his mouth.

“Ah.”  Seeing that they were finished, Miroku broke away from Sango and strode over to Inu-Yasha.  “Let’s get you home, shall we?”

“Hmph.  Finally.”  He turned and pounded the button on the elevator, climbing inside without a backward glance.

Kagome watched the demon leave, feeling a bit sad.  While eight days had at first seemed such a long, difficult stretch of time, she was frustrated that he had not stayed longer.  With more time, she felt she might have been able to improve his mental health, rather than just his physical health.  For most of the week he had been his cranky, irritable self, keeping his emotions locked up tight.  But once she had intervened on his fight with Sango and Miroku, he seemed to open up, if only slightly. At the very least, he had stopped being quite so rude to her, and perhaps, if she was not mistaken, almost tolerant of her presence.  With a bit more time, she may have been able to delve deeper into his emotions, possibly help him, but that hope was dashed as the elevator doors slid shut and took him away.

With a disheartened sigh, she turned back to Sango, who was staring expectantly at her.  “I take it,” she said tiredly, forcing her mind back to business, “that seeing that crystal glow is not normal?”

Sango shook her head.  “Not at all.  Do you know what this is?”  She held up the iridescent stone so Kagome could get a closer look.  “This is something that not everyone in the Order knows about; it’s one of our secrets that we keep close to the chest.”

Raising an eyebrow, Kagome crossed her arms and stared levelly at Sango.  “So why are you telling me this?  I’ve barely worked here more than a week.”

“No one in the history of the force has had the ability to see these jewel shards like you.  Well, no one except Kikyo, that is…”  Clearing her throat, Sango quickly continued with her explanation.  “This is a Shikon shard, a part of a sacred jewel that, when obtained, can drastically increase the user’s power.  It has been coveted by both demons and humans for many years.”

“Wait, wait—a part of a sacred jewel?  Where is the rest of it?”

“Ah.  That is the work of the Order.  We send out fighters to not only protect the city, but also to seek out any jewel shard we can.  Our main goal is to complete the jewel and purify it.  It will then disappear, and this bloody war for it will be over.  Inu-Yasha is usually sent out on jobs where we suspect jewel shards are involved, because he has the most experience with it.  It was stolen once or twice from our vault years ago, and he accompanied Kikyo to retrieve it.  With his brute strength and her ability to see the jewel through flesh, he was able to tear the jewel out in a single swipe, rendering the demon helpless.  They were quite the effective team.”

“But…”  Kagome frowned, a bit confused but eager for more information.  “When did this jewel shatter to pieces?  And didn’t Kikyo work for the demons?”

Sango sighed sadly.  “The last demon to steal the jewel from our grasp was Naraku.  With it, he gained monstrous power, more than any of our fighters could handle.  He was able to sway Kikyo to his side with it.  She double-crossed Inu-Yasha, sending him on a wild goose chase by pretending to sense the jewel on the opposite end of the city while Naraku gathered an enormous force of demons.  When Inu-Yasha finally figured it out, the battle for the city had already begun.  One thing led to another, and Inu-Yasha, when he attacked Naraku, struck the jewel with his claws and shattered it.  The pure force of that raw power being released sent the shards exploding in different directions, destroying Naraku and scattering the shards over the entire city.  Different creatures, human and demon alike, picked them up, and now it’s up to us to gather them all.”

“I see…”  Rubbing her head, Kagome asked slowly, “But what do I have to do with this?”

“Well, you can see the jewel’s glow.  With a bit of training, if you choose to accept it, your powers can be strengthened enough that you will not only be able to see the glow through any sort of material, but you’ll also be able to sense it from a mile away.  Such an ability is incredibly useful to the Order.”

With a frown, Kagome tapped her pen thoughtfully against her chin.  “I’m not sure I want to do this.  I did just start, and I’ve trained to be a nurse, not to be out on the field.”

“I understand.  It is an enormous task to ask of you.  However, I need to remind you that any demon or human who has obtained a shard gains power.  They often murder many innocent people before the Order can pinpoint them and send a fighter out to take care of it.  Lives could be saved if you choose to do this, Kagome.  And isn’t that part of your job as a nurse?  To save lives?”

“You really want me to do this, don’t you?”

Sango smiled sheepishly at her.  “This project has been going on for years.  We would love to end it finally.  It will be good for everyone, especially Inu-Yasha.  He knows it’s his fault the jewel shattered in the first place, and he’s always felt a certain amount of guilt for it.”

With a heavy sigh, Kagome nodded and set down her pen.  Unknowingly, Sango had clinched it when she mentioned Inu-Yasha, and now she needed no more convincing.  “All right…”

“Excellent.  I’m gonna go call Kaede right now.”  She started to stride towards the elevator, but turned back and gave Kagome a grateful look.  “Thank you.  Thank you so much.”

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“Well, I have to admit, it’s nice to see you back on your feet,” Miroku began conversationally as they sat in the traffic of morning commuters.

“Whatever,” Inu-Yasha grumbled around his sucker, clearly uninterested.  “Wanna go grab a drink somewhere?”

Shaking his head in exasperation, Miroku shot down Inu-Yasha’s hope.  “Absolutely not.  A: it’s 9am, B: No bar or liquor store is open yet, and C: Kagome gave you specific instructions that you should wait at least a week before drinking again.  So, no, I don’t want to grab a drink somewhere.”

Growling softly, Inu-Yasha muttered, “And how do you know what she told me?”

“She told Sango and I first, while you were getting ready to leave.”

“Hmph.  Well, she told me that I should wait a week if I could.  And that isn’t gonna happen…”

“Kagome seemed to have the utmost faith that you could—“

“Just forget I said anything, dammit!”

Miroku glanced at the demon out of the corner of his eye; Inu-Yasha was strangely irritable for a day when he should be almost happy (for he was never actually happy), and he had the feeling that it wasn’t just the beginning of withdrawal symptoms.  In fact, he was most suspicious that whatever Inu-Yasha was annoyed about, it had something to do with the nurse left back at the Order.

As nonchalantly as possible, Miroku asked, “So, what do you think of Miss Kagome and her glowing jewel shard?  It’s not a common occurrence, that’s for certain.”

“Kikyo could see ‘em too,” Inu-Yasha replied with disinterest, staring out the window at the building flashing by.

“Yes.  Sango and I are hoping Kagome will submit to training.  With some luck, we’ll have an excellent shard-hunter with us, and the jewel will be complete in no time.  I know that it’s never that easy, but at least the process can be sped up.  Seven years is a long time to gather shards.”

“Well, she can’t do it,” Inu-Yasha said, his tone firm.  “She’s the only nurse that damn place has.  She can’t leave.  Besides, she just started here.”

“Good nurses are much easier to find than shard hunters.  I think we’ll be all right.”

Frowning deeply, the demon turned back to the window and remained silent for the rest of the trip.  Clearly, he did not like that news at all, and it did not go unnoticed by Miroku.

When they reached the apartment building, Inu-Yasha quickly got out, eager to get back to the solitude of his apartment.  However, before he disappeared inside the building, Miroku called out, “Sango and I will visit in a couple of days, all right?  Try and follow what Kagome told you to, and I’ll see you later!”

“Whatever.”

Miroku watched as Inu-Yasha went inside, feeling a bit depressed.  This felt just like any other time he brought the demon home from the hospital.  Inu-Yasha would fall back into his destructive habits within the day, and by the end of the week he and Sango would be constantly worrying about their friend once again.  With a sigh, he pulled away from the curb and headed back to headquarters.  He could only hope for the best, as he always did, and pray that Inu-Yasha might see just how sick he was.

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Miroku sighed boredly, tapping a pen on his unusually clean desk.  For some reason that they were trying to uncover, there had been next to no demon attacks in the past few days, and work at the Order was reduced to simply city patrols, nothing more.  He and Sango had sent out their informant to discover what was going on, for the quiet was uneasy, but he had yet to return, so they could do nothing but wait.

“How goes Miss Kagome’s training?” he asked conversationally, breaking the silence.  “How many days has it been now?”

Blowing her nose on a tissue before she could reply, Sango answered thickly, “It’s been four days, and she’s all ready done with training.  I don’t think even Kikyo picked up on her powers that fast.  We would test her in the field, but since there is nothing to test her on…”

“Unfortunate,” Miroku said, leaning back in his chair, “and confusing.  I’m beginning to be concerned over the lack of demon activity going on.”

“I think that ah… ah… ah-CHOO!!”  Sango sneezed so loudly that Miroku started in surprise, then stared at her in reproach as she soaked another tissue.

“You should be at home resting,” he informed her sternly, getting up and walking over.  “Why did you come in today?  I can handle things myself.”

“I didn’t want you to get swamped,” she replied stuffily as Miroku helped her out of her chair.  “And I’m not going home now, it’s not worth it.”

“Of course you’re not going home now.  How can I take care of you if you’re at home?  Now lie down.”  He brought her over to the couch that sat against the opposite wall and made her lie down, then he retrieved her coat and laid it over her as a blanket.  Taking his own coat, he rolled it up and tucked it under her head for a pillow.  “Better?” he asked, crouching down by the couch so she didn’t have to strain her neck.

Sniffing, she pulled the coat up and murmured, “You’re so bossy…”

With a grin, Miroku brushed a stray hair from her pale face and stood up.  “I am going to pick up some medicine.  Don’t move from this spot, all right?”

“Hmph.”  Still, she couldn’t help but smile as he brought the tissue box over and set it in her reach.

“I’ll have the secretary bring you some tea with honey on my way out.”

Just as he opened the door, he heard Sango whisper, “Thank you.”  His smile broadening, he disappeared into the hallway.

Whistling merrily, he made the short drive to the convenience store.  As he climbed out of his car, he shivered in the brisk October wind, but thought nothing of it.  Truthfully, he was glad for the chance to take care of Sango.  She always tried to be strong and show no weakness, and this made it difficult for him to prove that he was able to care for her; such an opportunity as this was not going to be wasted, and if he had to go without his coat, so be it.

“Hm?”  Shutting the door, he glanced up at the store and noticed someone sitting on the bench outside with some bags at their feet.  A closer look told him that it was Inu-Yasha, opening a carton of cigarettes.  “Hey, Inu-Yasha!  Look at you, out and about!”  He quickly jogged up and stood in front of the demon, crossing his arms to brace himself in the cold.

Glancing up at him from under his bangs, Inu-Yasha grunted his hello, pulling a cigarette out.  “Fool.  What are you doing without a coat?”

“Oh, Sango needed it.  So how are you?  Feeling better, I guess, since you’re out.”

With a sarcastic scoff, he flicked his lighter and attempted to light his cigarette.  However, he was having quite a bit of difficulty keeping his hands steady enough to do so; they would twitch and jerk, making it practically impossible to get the tip of the cigarette in the tiny flame.  A bit concerned, Miroku held the lighter still so Inu-Yasha could finally get the tip alight.

“…Thanks…”

As the demon took a drag, Miroku studied him carefully, and noticed that it wasn’t just his hands that were twitchy, but his entire body as well.  His arms and legs would spasm at random intervals, not violently, but enough that he could tell it irritated Inu-Yasha to no end.  “Are you all right?” he asked again, wanting a real answer this time.

“I’m fine,” Inu-Yasha growled, but when he looked at Miroku’s face, he saw that answer wouldn’t fly.  With a disgusted sigh, he grumbled, “I haven’t had a drink in four days.  I swear, this’s gonna kill me faster than the booze would.”

Miroku stared at him in surprise.  “Four days?” he repeated.  “That’s… wow.  I’m impressed.”

“Hmph.  I don’t care.  I’ve never been so miserable in my life.  I’ve had a damn headache for the past four days, and damn stomachache for the past three, and the shakes for the past two.”

“Well…”  Trying to keep a smile off his face, Miroku asked, “If it’s been so horrible, why didn’t you get a drink?  You never were one to follow orders, you know.  You could’ve raided your liquor cabinet or gone to the Tap any time.”

This earned him a glare.  “You were the one who yelled at me in the car on the ride home about getting a drink!  And besides, that nurse told me to wait a week…”

“Mmhm…  Tell me, do you do everything the nurse tells you to?”

Inu-Yasha sighed and took another drag of his smoke.  He normally would have gotten angry at such a comment, but he was too tired to bother this time.  “If she was able to get me back on my feet after that last go around, she must know what she’s doing…” he mumbled, looking almost embarrassed for saying such a thing.  That statement was dangerously close to a compliment, and he did not give those out easily.

Nodding, Miroku decided to change the subject before the demon did lose his temper.  “So…  What are you doing here?  I see you have some bags.”

Nudging one of them with his dirty sneaker, Inu-Yasha answered, “Cleaning supplies.  My apartment reeked when I got home; I got sick just walking inside.  In fact, I’ve spent the past four days scrubbing the place, trying to get the smell out.”  He shuddered at the thought.  “It was horrible.”

Not really surprised, Miroku added, “And a phone?  Did you get a new one?”

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes.  “I don’t what the hell I did to my old one, but it was fried.  So yeah, I did.”  Growing bored, he stood up and made to leave, then swayed dizzily a moment and sat down again.

“Will you be able to make it home all right?” Miroku asked in concern, taking a step closer in case the demon needed assistance.

“Yes, yes…” Inu-Yasha grunted, waving him away.  “I’ll be fine in a minute…”

After studying him for a moment, Miroku said quietly, “How much longer do you think you’ll last?”

With a sigh, Inu-Yasha replied, “Let’s put it this way…  The Tap opens in three hours and twenty-seven minutes.”

“I see.”  Seeing how badly Inu-Yasha was shaking, he was prompted to offer, “If you wait just a couple minutes, and I can give you a ride home.  I just need to pick up one thing and I’ll be ready to go.”

Normally, Inu-Yasha would have immediately turned down the offer, never one to look weak.  However, this time he merely nodded and settled back on the bench to wait.

After picking up the cold medicine and dropping Inu-Yasha back at his apartment, both remaining silent through the ride, Miroku quickly returned to the Order’s headquarters and jogged up the stairs to the top floor, eager to discuss his meeting with Sango.

“Sango!  I have some wonderful news!”

She jumped in surprise at his abrupt appearance, nearly spilling her mug of tea all over her coat.  “Miroku?  What—“

“I just saw Inu-Yasha at the convenience store,” he interrupted, kneeling next to the couch and pulling the plastic off the medicine bottle while he talked.  “He looked horrible, and I found out it was because he hasn’t had anything to drink in four days.”

“Four day?  That’s impress—“  Sango tried to comment, but Miroku barreled on, clearly excited as he removed the measuring cup from the lid and twisted the cap to open it.

“I asked why he hadn’t, and he informed me it was because the ‘nurse told him to wait a week’.  Now, he certainly isn’t going to make it a week—in fact he told me he’d be at the Tap as soon as it opened—but the fact that he waited four days because Kagome told him to is wonderful!”  He poured out the medicine into the cup, a good deal more than necessary due to his excitement and handed it to her.

“Miroku.”  Sango took the cup and simply held it, not drinking from it.  Her stern tone immediately silenced him, and he looked sheepishly at her.  “Please.  I have a headache already.  Explain slowly—why is this so wonderful?”

“Oh, dear Sango, don’t you see?  Inu-Yasha listens to Kagome!  He trusts her!  Perhaps she can be the one to help him!”

“Oh, Miroku…” she sighed in disgust, rubbing her forehead.  “Don’t get your hopes up.  She’s only a nurse.  How would she be able to help him?  We sent him to the finest therapists, doctors, psychiatrists… you name it, he’s been to one!  And have any one of them ever helped him?  No.  Not a one.  So what, pray tell, is so special about Kagome?”

“You should have seen him, Sango.  He looked awful.  He was pale, he had the shakes…  He told me that abstaining from liquor was going to kill him faster than drinking would.  He said he had never been more miserable.  I asked him why he didn’t just drink, if he was so sick, but he said Kagome had told him not to.  He’s never obeyed any of the other doctors like that, has he?”

Sniffing, Sango snatched the bottle from his hand and poured some of the medicine back in it.  “I think you’re grasping at straws,” she replied. 

“Listen to me, please,” he said, taking the bottle and the medicine and setting it on the table beside her so he could take her hands in his own.  “You said so yourself: we’ve tried the finest doctors in the world, and none of them have helped Inu-Yasha.  So what can it hurt to try a simple nurse?”

“It can hurt Kagome,” Sango snapped back.  “I can tell, she wanted to help him.  She did what she could in the week she had, but I could tell that she wanted to do more.  But Inu-Yasha is so stubborn…  It would hurt Kagome terribly if she tried her hardest to help him get well, only to be crushed in the end.  I don’t want to do that to her.”

“Sango, please.  If Inu-Yasha is willing to trust her, and Kagome is willing to help him, then don’t you think that this might… possibly… work?”

Sango stared dubiously at him, his face so earnest and pleading.  She doubted she had ever seen him more honest than in this moment.  “You truly think she can help Inu-Yasha?” she asked softly, sniffling a bit.

“I do.  I really do.”

With a heavy sigh, she finally gave in, nodding as she looked away.  “All right.”

Kissing her forehead, Miroku climbed to his feet and headed for the door.  “I’ll go talk to Kagome right now.”

“Miroku?”

He stopped with one foot out the door, then poked his head back inside.  “Yes?”

Sango was looking up at him, as though she hardly dared to be positive.  “I hope she’ll be able to help him.”

He tried to smile encouragingly at her.  “Me too.”

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There we go.  Chapter seven.  I hope you enjoyed it!  Please, leave a review and let me know what you think.