She Cried Out In Pain by Layla-san

Chapter One

She Cried Out In Pain by Layla-san

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She cried out in pain.

The luxuriously furnished room was silent except for the moans coming from the young girl lying in her bed. The day began to darken but she didn't get up to light the candles.

"Nnnngh!" she cried out again and almost bolted up, clutching her stomach. She was covered in sweat, and her hair and her clothes clung damply to her skin. The silky bed covers were also stained with blood.

She bit her trembling lower lip and closed her eyes wearily. "Please... help me."

She had barely calmed her breathing when another contraction hit, sending waves of pain through her very core. She groaned and twisted to her side, one arm around her rounded belly. Her hand clenched the pillow under her head as she fought to breath through the overwhelming pain. Sweat trickled to her eyes and the room swam.

"Ahhh!" She couldn't think or move. It was too much. "Please!"

She panted for breath. She was almost there. She looked around, and she quivered as tears filled her eyes. Wiping her face with her sleeves, she cried out again in anguish.

Why was she alone?

The next contraction came before she expected it, and she screamed. 'Is there supposed to be this much blood?' she dazedly wondered.

Another scream escaped her lips and she was suddenly overcome with the urge to push. Grunting, she bent her legs and gasped. Her body shook. She panted and tried to focus, but she could not stop crying. It felt like she couldn't get enough air, and the pain was too much.

"Mmmmmgh! Nuh!" She pushed with all her might.

She bravely endured the agony. She threw her head back as she gave another push. Tears mixed with sweat. She didn't know what to do. She sobbed and screamed and pushed harder.

"SESSHOUMARU!"

A burning sensation tickled her lower belly.

"Aaahhh!"

She fell back into the pillows in exhaustion. Feeling something between her legs, she sat up and weakly lifted her arms.

An infant's cry filled the room.

"Oh..." she gasped. She stared at her little baby with wide eyes. "Oh..."

The small thing wailed and continued to show off the power of its lungs.

Her child was alive, had been born safely.

She burst into tears. "Oh! You're the most beautiful thing I ever saw!"

Sobbing and shaking, she wiped the birth fluids and some traces of her blood off the baby's face with a cloth, and brought it to the small tub she had prepared when she had realized no one would be there to help her with the birth.

It hurt to stand and she felt dizzy with all the blood loss, but she smiled in awe at the baby as she bathed it. As her child turned from a pink, bloody mess into a clean pup, the babe calmed relaxed.

Once she was done with bathing and drying the newborn infant, she wrapped several thick blankets around it and brought it back to the bed, though she didn't want to lie in her blood again. She pulled a blanket over herself and cradled the pup in her arms.

As they bonded in that special, quiet moment that mothers experience when a new baby is born, life around the castle stirred up again. The sun had set and the moon had risen.

Her eyes once again were pooled with unshed tears as she heard the murmurs, the shocked and angry voices, the disappointed footsteps, and the speculation. None of them had been wishing for a healthy birth. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, and gave her child a courageous smile. "From now on it's just you and me. I won't let anyone hurt you. I love you."

The door burst open.

The end of peace.

A tall, impressive man came in. He stood next to the bed, where she was recovering.

She was trembling and whimpering helplessly. Her eyes were sunken, her hair was a mess, her lips were cracked, and she looked exhausted. The pup had fallen asleep next to her, and she wrapped an arm around it.

"Sesshoumaru..."

He held his calm gaze. She was barely old enough to be called a woman, and at that moment she looked more or less like a child, just a little girl.

"Sesshoumaru." She lifted a trembling hand and reached out for him. "You came..."

Her fragile hand rested on his elbow for a few seconds. When he didn't move, she let it drop next to her.

"This is- this is our baby, Sesshoumaru. Isn't she so beautiful? She looks just like you..."

He took in the pup's dog ears, the absence of markings on her skin, her toothless gum, and her tiny hand that could barely be called a claw. She had a patch of soft, silvery hair on top of her head, and had she been awake she would have looked at the world with bright golden eyes, but Lord Sesshoumaru thought her face still held Kagome's feature behind those chubby cheeks and button nose.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome called his name. "Won't you say something?"

He shifted, and stared at the wall across the room. He had sired a hanyou. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The room smelled of Kagome's blood and amniotic fluids. She could still feel something trickling between her legs.

"Sesshoumaru," she sat up with a groan. "I know that- Well, we should talk, you know. She's healthy and that's what's important, right? Please say something, Sesshoumaru. Sit down next to me, be with me."

She gazed at him wearily.

He turned away.

She desperately reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Sesshoumaru!"

"Release me."

"Why didn't you come when I went in labor? You said you'd be here!"

"Let go, Kagome."

"Don't leave me!" Her other hand rested on his bicep. "We're a family... Sesshoumaru, I can't do this by myself. Please, you promised. You said it did not matter. Don't go. Don't leave me alone. Don't forsake our daughter. Don't you want to hold her? Name her?"

He twisted his arm out of her grasp, and walked away. "I need not stay. You are fine, as is the hanyou."

"Sesshoumaru! Please! Sesshoumaru! Don't! I need you!"

The door shut behind him.

Kagome stared in dismay. She grit her teeth, but the tears still came. "Sesshoumaru, I love you still..."

Her shoulders shook and she clamped her hands over her mouth. How many times had she seen him turn his back to her? It was his room, yet he hadn't slept in his own bed for months. She was always alone, day or night. Every being in the castle despised her. And now, Sesshoumaru had truly left her... betrayed her... He had...

She drew in shaky breaths. Loneliness and fear chilled her insides and she shivered. "You promised..."

She covered her face and silently wept in the dark room.

Her daughter woke up and wailed. Kagome quickly swooped her in her arms and held her tight. The pup smelled her mother's milk and fell silent. When she held her to her breast the pup instinctively opened her mouth and began to suck eagerly. Kagome planted a wet kiss to her forehead and gazed out the dark window, her tears never stopping. The pup's sucking felt good, as if she might suck the ache out of her heart.