A small one shot about our favorite overworked healer. Bleach is not owned by me but the lawyers say maybe in the next century or two. Enjoy.
Vacation
Unohana was looking rather tired at the regularly scheduled Captains meeting. Twice she had to be nudged by Soi Fong. The wounded from the Arrancar incursions had piled up faster than the healers of the Fourth could patch them. Unohana had done the work of ten healers as she went from bed to bed stitching bodies back together and mending broken minds. The result was that she was on her last legs and needed some down time.
Yamamoto banged his staff against the floor dismissing the Captains. "Unohana, stay a moment please."
"Yes Captain General." She stood her position as the remaining Captains filed out the door.
"You are exhausted." He began with no fanfare. "I am ordering you to take a months vacation down in the real world and to leave your cell phone here so that no one can call you and tempt you to return before you complete your vacation. This is not a request, It is an order."
She didn't question Yamamoto because she knew he was right. "I'll go and brief Isane before I leave."
"Not necessary, I already sent Chōjirō to brief her. You go directly to your quarters and pack, then report here and I'll personally send you to the real world for R&R." Yamamoto said not looking for any argument from his Fourth Squad Captain.
She sighed then departed for her quarters. She felt that she was letting down her squad as she packed her few things, but she also knew that if she didn't take a break she was going to start making mistakes. Mistakes that would cost lives.
She reported back to Yamamoto and he smiled gently as he opened the gate. "Rest yourself Retsu, I expect you to be in tip top shape when you come back."
She stepped through the gate with a small smile on her lips.
Real World:
The accident involved three cars and had already killed one of the drivers. Isshin Kurosaki was directing the emergency crews as they brought the survivors into his clinic.
"Take the woman with the broken leg to three. Put the chest injury in two. And the broken arm in one." He shouted at the emergency workers. His daughters scrambled about fetching supplies for the treatment rooms and were making calls to local hospitals to get blood and other items not carried in the clinic. He looked at the initial reports from the paramedics and went to room two to take a look and see how bad the chest injury was.
He knew that if he didn't start soon this person was going to die. "Karin, have you gotten a hold of the hospital yet?" he shouted.
"No Dad, they put me on hold!" She called back from the nurses station.
"Then hang up and call them again and tell them that we are beyond out capacity here and NEED help!" he shouted back.
"Same old Isshin, always up to your neck in problems." Came the calm voice of Unohana from behind him.
"I'm not giving up just yet Retsu, now if you're here to watch then stay out of my way but if you want to help then get in here and help."
She looked at the unconscious man on the bed and gently pushed Isshin aside. "Go and tend to the other injured, I'll work on this one."
"Thank you." He left the room and started treating the woman with the broken leg. This was going to take a while so he had Yuzu immobilize the patient with the broken arm. Karin assisted her father in setting the broken leg and then splinting it for transport to the hospital.
After the ambulance picked up the two injured patients he went back into room two and found Unohana closing the last open wound on the mans chest. "Don't close the wound completely because it would look rather suspicious if he left with no injury but his clothing was covered in blood."
Unohana nodded in understanding and stopped her treatment short of closing the wound completely. "I don't like this but I understand. How have you been, Isshin?"
He was removing the patients clothing and disposing of it as he replied. "Physically I'm fine. Mentally, I'm a wreck. My son and his wife are having their third child. The moron running the Twelfth won't approve my design modifications for gigais so that she can carry my Grandchild to term here in the real world! But beyond that everything is peachy! What are you doing here?"
"I'm on enforced vacation. Yamamoto sent me down here to get some rest." She replied as she swabbed the patient's body cleaning off the blood.
"Humm, some vacation. First thing you do is show up at an accident scene and then assist in keeping alive the survivors. You never learn do you?"
She smiled a real smile for him. "And you never stop trying to protect the whole world do you."
"Nope. So how long have you got?"
"Yamamoto said thirty days." She said looking concerned about leaving behind her squad.
"Real world day or soul society days?"
"I would suspect soul society days, but he sent me here so it may mean real world days."
"In that case…" He turned and left the room and made his way to the phone. "Let me talk to the chief of staff, Yes I'll wait. Toshi, Isshin here. I'm taking a few days off so we won't be in the area if anything comes up. I know that, so stop your whining. Good bye."
"What did you just do? Unohana asked from behind him.
"I'm taking a few days off so that I can spend it with an old friend. What did it look like? As soon as we send this last guy to the hospital we are closing the clinic for a few days and heading to the beach to relax." He said rather matter of factly.
"Don't you have any responsibilities here that you need to take care of?" She asked incredulously.
"Actually, no. We are a small clinic and we don't have many patients on a normal basis so I can close on a moments notice. I too am actually in need of a vacation so lets stop arguing and take the time we need to keep our sanity, ok?"
Unohana nodded her head in defeat.
"Dad, who is this?" asked Karin with Yuzu standing next to her.
"Girls, I'd like to introduce you to the lady that taught me everything I know about medicine. This is Retsu Unohana. I've known her for a long time. She is going to be staying with us for a while so please show her to Ichigo's old room and make her comfortable please. I have a few phone calls to make and then we are going on vacation to the beach."
The vacation at the beach went well considering that they had to stop Unohana from healing every idiot that got sunburned. Both of the girls took to Unohana almost instantly and Karin had to only deck her dad a few times when they finally got Unohana to put on a bathing suit. She did have a striking figure that she hid beneath her robes and she blushed at all the attention that the males at the beach lavished upon her.
After the vacation was over and they arrived back home Isshin sat at the kitchen table with Unohana. "So I guess that Yamamoto meant thirty days real world time. So would you like to help out around the clinic while you are here or would you like to just sit back and relax?"
"I think that helping out would be fine. I do not like to see suffering."
"I figured that's what you would say. Well just don't use to much Kidou in the clinic. I don't want to explain to the medical board how we fixed some of the injuries without surgery." He laughed.
She smiled at him. "This almost feels like old times. I'm glad I came to visit you."
"I'm glad too. You would have like Masaki, She was a lot like you. I wish that you could have met her."
"I'm sorry that I didn't take a vacation sooner and come visit you when she was alive. I always wanted to know the person that could melt your heart. God knows that you melted mine back then. I just could never get through to you."
"You don't know that. I would have taken you in a heart beat but I didn't feel that being a shinigami, and marriage was a smart thing to do. Then I got exiled and the rest is history." A wistful expression crossed his face as he reminisced.
"Well what do you think about it now that your son is married to another shinigami?"
"He and Rukia make it look easy. I just hope that it continues to be easy for them."
The days passed swiftly and then the hell butterfly arrived one evening.
Unohana went to Isshin's room and sat on his bed waking him gently.
"Time to go?" he asked.
"Yes I leave in the morning. I wanted to let you know that I have had a wonderful time here with you and your girls. You're not an exile any more so come visit some time and bring the girls. My place is big enough to put you up for a visit. Besides a three day here is thirty days there. So maybe we can have some fun."
She left after that and returned to Soul Society. She was much refreshed and had something to look forward to when Isshin desided to visit.