Curiosity – Chapter 36 – "Too Close For Comfort"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, Inuyasha you've got to wake up!"

Kaede sat back for a moment in shock before placing a hand on the panicking teenager's shoulder.

"Child, leave him be. He's gone to a better place. Come we must get your arm taken care of, ye re-injured it again during all of this madness." Before she could get out another word her hand was thrown off Kagome's shoulder as the young girl began to do something odd. (At least to her anyway)

"Kagome this is no time to be kissing Inuyasha." She watched as Kagome began to push hard into Inuyasha chest.

"Sis isn't kissing him, she's doing CPR. She's trying to restart his heart – we've got to help her!"

Souta quickly convinced Kaede to continue wrapping the hanyou's wounds while he helped his sister in any way he could. It scared him to see Inuyasha this way; he was supposed to be invincible like Superman not lying dead on his sister's bed. But one thing was for sure, if anyone could bring him back it was Kagome and he had every confidence in the world that she would.

"Inuyasha listen to me you can't die yet! You've got to help finish the jewel and ya gotta get to know your father. He and your mother are waiting down stairs for you and it wouldn't be right for you to die on them!" She paused to breathe into his lungs again before continuing the chest compressions.

"Come on you've got to breathe for me! I know you won't let your brother get away with this; you've got to wake up so you can kick his ass later with Tessaiga!"

The tension in the room was thick as the two women continued to work. It had already been five minutes and Inuyasha still hadn't woken up.

"Ye must face it Kagome, Inuyasha is gone and…"

"No, we've still got one more chance. Souta – run down to the kitchen and get Dad's old medical bag and hurry!"

The boy bolted out of the room and down to the first level of the home at almost a demon's speed, completely ignoring the questions being thrown at him as he grabbed the small black bag and made his way back to his sister's room. Souta thrust the bag directly into his sister's arms the moment he reentered her room; whatever Kagome had planned, he hoped it work. He couldn't stand the thought of no longer having the inu-hanyou in his life and just like his hero would have done in this kind of situation, Souta made a silent vow.

"Inu-nii-chan, if you don't make it through this I promise to avenge you. I know I'm just a kid, but I'll get your brother back for doing this to you, some way, somehow. I swear it."

Meanwhile, during his silent oath, Kagome had hastily dug into the old medical bag and grabbed a syringe and a bottle of adrenaline. Silently thanking her father for always having such a thing on hand, she quickly gathered the correct amount into the small plastic tube (thanks to her late night medical readings), uncovered the skin directly above the unmoving hanyou's heart, and thrust the needle into his aorta. After squeezing every last bit of the liquid into his system, the young miko promptly went back to performing CPR, but the thing was, she didn't feel like she was pushing hard enough when it came to pumping his heart; so she decided to take another long shot and try something she'd seen in an old Star Trek moving.

Paying no heed to how compromising and indecent she would be looking to Kaede, Kagome promptly swung her leg over Inuyasha and straddled his waist. Ignoring the questions from the elder miko on what exactly she was doing, Kagome began literally pounding her fist over and over again into Inuyasha's heart. God, this had to work. There was no way any of them could lose him after they'd been through so much…

And dear lord his mother would be devastated after only just getting him back.

"Kagome ye must stop! You're only damaging your arm even further!"

But she didn't stop; she couldn't. Damn-it he had to wake up!

"Inuyasha listen to me! You can't leave; you promised to protect me remember? And if you're not there whose going to stop Naraku from kidnapping me or Kouga from taking me away and making me his woman huh? You'd really like to see me end up with him wouldn't you?"

The older woman was about to physically pull Kagome away from their dead companion when a sudden noise stopped her. In awe she watched as Inuyasha's chest began to move and the man himself begin to cough, inhaling huge gulps of air at a time before pinning the woman above him with one of his famous glares, albeit wasn't as meaningful looking as it normally would have been.

"Like hell – cough – I would let that happen – cough – wench."

Immediately the two women began to make Inuyasha as comfortable as possible and getting his oxygen tubing hooked back in place, but in all their rushing, it was Souta who noticed the odd gleam in his eye…

"Inuyasha, are you alright?"

That brought the two's attention back – they could see the far off look in Inuyasha's eyes and it made Kagome fear the worst.

"Inuyasha?" She shook his shoulder when he didn't focus. "Inuyasha can you hear me?"

"Mother, where are you?" He uttered barely before the light in his eyes went out again. Kagome began panicking, instantly once again beginning CPR again while telling Kaede to go down and get Izayoi. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to let her see him like this, but if it kept him focused and alive until morning – she was willing to risk anything.

When Izayoi was called, she was hard pressed not to bring Touga with her but the logic of the elder miko made sense. If Touga came up as well it might stress their son out and cause even more problems due to the confusion. So with a heavy heart, Touga stayed with the rest of the worried friends while Izayoi headed up to Kagome's room.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Izayoi made her way into the room and asked what she could do, if anything. The young woman instructed her to sit by his head and talk to him; try to coax him back since in his hazed mind he'd apparently been looking for her.

More and more seconds passed and they still hadn't gotten a response. No matter how much Kagome did with her modern teachings, or Izayoi just sitting there talking to him… they were starting to lose hope and Kagome was about to stop when she heard her brother mutter something that just might save their friend.

"Souta, I think you've struck onto something. Help me get his haori off and hurry, we don't have much time."

Only moments took up this task and just before Kagome attempted their last and only option, she sent a small prayer up to whatever God's would listen, hoping this one last excursion would work.

With both palms flat on Inuyasha's chest, Kagome began to gather her miko energy into her hands before letting it jolt out into the hanyou's body – just like a CPAC in an emergency room. His body reacted the exact same way – jumping off the bed and such – while she steadily increased the power of every jolt.

If only she knew the repercussions of this act later, but she didn't care right now! All that mattered was keeping the hanyou below her alive and it brought her to tears when she heard him gulp in a breath and then another.

It was the sweetest sound she'd ever heard.

The first person that had, of course been in his view was his mother and still being in a semi-dazed state, he reacted, sort of, as a child would.

"I found you, Mother."

A watery smile graced Izayoi's face as she cradled her son's cheek -

"Yes Inuyasha, you have, and I will never leave you again."

It had been about four hours now since those horrible events took place and everyone within Kagome's bedroom was thankful for every moment the boy that lay upon her bed kept breathing.

Once they'd made sure that Inuyasha was in the "free and clear" Kaede had gone downstairs to tell everyone the good news. Now all they had to do was make sure he made it through the night. For the first couple hours, the two women had kept him awake by talking to him; wanting to make sure he'd had enough oxygen in him before letting him rest any. His mother only lasted about twenty minutes after he'd gone into a restless sleep, she falling asleep in the chair with her hand firmly grasped in her son's – in no way did Izayoi want him to think she'd abandoned him, even in sleep.

So it was Kagome that was left to watch over them both. Not in the least did she mind, having stayed up on this night before, but it was getting harder to stay awake with the amount of blood that she herself had lost due to re-breaking her arm again during the whole fiasco. It wouldn't have been so bad really… had part of her bone not broken through the skin. But the young woman was sure she'd survive until morning.

Both women were awake when it was just before daybreak; each one nervous as a cat about what could happen when Inuyasha became hanyou again. Would the change put too much strain on his badly damaged body?

It was all they could do to sit there and wait.

Thankfully that wait didn't last long as the sunshine filled the window and ebony hair began to bleed silver and round human ears became pointed and started moving to the top of his head. Relief filled them both as coherent golden eyes opened and a fang filled mouth opened to speak only to stop and clench – supposedly due to the pain. The pain was soon forgotten however as soon as he spotted his mother hovering just to the right of him.

Sensing that the two needed to be alone, the teenager stood and excused herself – stating that she was going to make Inuyasha some pain medicine.

Inuyasha completely ignored her however – didn't even notice when she'd left really – for he was too engrossed with the woman beside him. Slowly, ignoring any pain that was attributed with moving his arm, the hanyou raised his arm to touch the face of the woman he'd lost so long ago.

"It truly is you Mother?" He voiced skeptically. Surely the woman above him was only a mirage.

A beaming smile appeared across Izayoi's face as she raised her own hand to cup his clawed one, emotions taking over as she gazed down at her son's questioning face.

"Yes it is Inu. You have no idea how happy I am to be back here with you and I promise I will never abandon you like that again, not for a very long time."

He removed his hand. "So he protected you then?"

It was her turn to look questioningly at him. "What do you mean?"

Once again he moved his hand, only this time; he easily reached into the inside of her kimono and into the secret pocket sewn into the lining. Izayoi watched his movements to see what it was he would reveal and what she saw in his grasp surprised her.

"You always said that he would protect me when you weren't around, so it was only fair that he take care of you since I couldn't follow you into the afterlife."

She just couldn't hold her tears in anymore; she just found it so thoughtful for him to do that that she just couldn't hold her emotions in any longer.

As gently as possible, Izayoi lowered herself to softly embrace her son and his beloved childhood stuffed dog.