Porcelain Girl by GG

When a Girl Lay Dying

Kagome looked into the room her daughter was being kept in at the hospital with solemn eyes. She'd been watching her like this for several minutes, still not quite ready to go in. Her daughter was dying, and there was nothing she could do. Not a week ago she'd given her permission to go out with her friends as a belated birthday celebration. Hatsumi was seventeen, and had been very respectful in allowing her mother and father, though seperated, to have her for her actual birthday. If you had told Kagome when she was saying goodbye to her daughter as she left the house with her friend Mina, the next time she would see her daughter she would be fighting for her life, she wouldn't have believed you. If you had told her that a drunk driver was going to hit her daughter's car as they drove around, she wouldn't have believed you.

It had been hours before any of the victims in the accident had awoken and managed to call for help. They'd all gone off the road and into the trees, leaving little visible evidance for them to be found sooner. Her daughter had been hurt the worst, having been sitting exactly where the other car had hit them. Ribs and right leg, shattered. Right arm, dislocated. Serious trauma to the brain. Punctured lung and serious infection to all open wounds. Her eyes watered thinking of the list of injuries the doctors had reported to her.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Kagome willed herself to stay strong. She needed to be there for her daughter. She slid open the door, causing Hatsumi to turn her head away from the window she'd been staring out of. The younger girl gave her mother a small, faint smile, before her eyes fell to look at the sheets covering her mangled body. She knew she was dying, and she was scared. In school, they always warned about driving accidents and told about drunk drivers who destroyed lives. While she always knew she'd never be stupid enough to drink and drive, she'd never thought she might be the victim in the other car.

"Hi, honey." Kagome murmured, pushing back the hair that had fallen into her daughter's eyes.

Hatsumi stayed quiet,  looking at the sheets with an intensity that suggested there was much more on her mind. Her mother waited patiently, hoping she would speak to her on her own. The quiet that permeated the room was thick like a heavy quilt. She'd began to think of her ex husband, and how he had yet to put in an appearance at the the hospital on this particular night, when her daughter finally spoke.

"Will you tell me a story?" Her words took her mother by suprise. "Like you used to when I was little?"

Tears brimmed the older woman's eyes but she quickly brushed them away as she nodded. "Uh, um... Did I ever tell you about the woman I'm named after?" She barely managed to keep her voice from cracking. Hatsumi shook her head, and Kagome dropped her purse onto the floor. Her mind raced for a moment as she began to recall the details of the story her mother had once told her. "Well, she was very, very beautiful. Too beautiful, some said..."

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A/N: The structure to this story will be somewhat like 'The Princess Bride' with a few interruptions from this supporting storyline.

       Reviews are welcome and appreciated.