Summary: Seireitei Psychiatric Hospital, a place for those deemed insane and beyond help. Can one determined healer prove them wrong and heal the one she loves?
Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort/Angst [possible humor]
Warnings: AU/Sex/Language/Mature Themes
Pairings: Ichigo and Orihime

AUTHORS NOTE: Hello to anyone reading this, I don't really have much to say except that I hope you enjoy it, oh and thanks for reading this.

A Schizophrenics Love

Chapter 1: So you're the new doctor?

A tall woman ran through the slowly filling car park, cursing her luck that made her late on her first day of her new job. It seemed as if the heavens were against her or something, firstly both her and her roommate had overslept, then they found out, (to their dismay) that their boiler had broken and they had no hot water. After an ice cold shower she had realised that she was late and had to leave without having any breakfast. She decided that it was a miracle that there wasn't much traffic on her journey, otherwise she'd have been later than she already was.

"Can I help you?" asked a cold looking woman as she glanced up from her state of the art computer, she was frowning and had her hair pulled into a bun and she was also wearing glasses.

"Good morning, um..." the woman bent forward to glance that the woman's I.D badge that was dangling from her neck, "good morning Nanao-san, my name is Inoue Orihime," she smiled brightly at the frosty faced woman. Nanao just stared impassively at the bubbly auburn haired woman in front of her. Orihime's smile faltered slightly,

"I'm the new doctor who's supposed to start today," she confirmed for Nanao, trying to pretend she hadn't noticed the look of shock that flashed across Nanao's face, though to her credit she did mask it quickly, most people didn't even bother to try and hide their shock. Orihime knew she didn't look like the sort of person who would choose to work in a hospital, a psychiatric hospital no less, but that was her calling and she couldn't help if she looked a bit out of the ordinary for such an environment. Whilst the other doctors chose to wear conservative suits underneath their white lab coats, Orihime would always wear what she felt comfortable in. Today for example she was wearing a knee length light green skirt with several orange flowers adorned on it, she was also wearing a green vest top, it was a darker shade of green than her skirt so it contrast nicely. Her oversized breasts and quirky expressions didn't help her much either when she met new people in her job, they always assumed she was visiting a relative and when she told them she was a doctor they would always give her meaningless jobs as if she were incapable of doing anything but filing away patient records. Orihime didn't mind doing jobs like that really, someone had to do them, but it always irked her when she realised that everyone had completely the wrong impression of her. They thought she was a dumb just above average kid fresh out of university, and half of that was true, she'd only been out of university for two years, but the other half was wrong; Orihime was one of the best.

"So you're the new doctor Unohana-sama was talking about?" Nanao raised a still sceptical eyebrow at Orihime.

"Apparently so," Orihime said in a tone she rarely used, it was cold and sounded foreign to her, but she knew she would have to use it to gain some respect, she would not stand for people walking all over her. Nanao looked her over for one brief second before sighing and pushing a button that opened the doors for Orihime to enter the rest of the hospital.

"Through here," Nanao instructed, "and you can wait in here till someone comes to take you down to Unohana-sama," Nanao led Orihime into the office she had been sitting in and then she pointed to a worn old couch.

"I could go and find her myself you know? I'm already pretty late as it is, and I don't want to cause any trouble," Orihime said as she reluctantly sat down on the couch, this really wasn't a very good start to her day. Nanao shook her head furiously,

"No, you are not allowed under any circumstances allowed to walk around unattended until you've had your orientation. You'll cause more trouble doing that than by waiting around here. Now, if you'll excuse me," Nanao turned away from Orihime and fished out a walkie-talkie, "Kenpachi? Kenpachi?" Nanao barked into the walkie-talkie. There was silence for a few seconds before Orihime heard some crackling and then a gruff voice spoke,

"What do you want woman?"

"Send someone down from your department to escort the new doctor to Unohana-sama's office please. Immediately Kenpachi," Nanao added.

"Yeah, yeah, oi Ikkaku? Get your ass up to the mai-"

Nanao turned the walkie-talkie off and placed it back in her pocket, "someone from the security department will be here shortly to escort you to Unohana-sama," she informed Orihime frostily before sitting back in her chair and refocusing all her attentions into her work. Orihime didn't have long to wait until she heard the sounds of footsteps squeaking along the empty hallway alerting her to the fact that her escort had arrive. She stood up and walked to the door before he even had a chance to knock, she was getting impatient all she wanted to do was start her job. She opened the door and came face to face with a lazy looking man who was completely bald. She smiled briefly at him before turning back to Nanao,

"Thank you for your help Nanao-san," she politely said before taking a step out of the office and closing the door behind her.

"So, you're the new doctor eh?" Ikkaku asked with the same scepticism in his tone that Nanao had. Orihime nodded vigorously, taking care to walk slightly in front of him after she noticed his eyes sliding downwards to her chest when she was next to him.

"You're Ikkaku-san right?" Orihime asked as they walked through the corridor. The whole corridor was a dull grey colour making Orihime feel slightly depressed, but she shook the feeling away. Patients can smell weakness, she reminded herself of the words of her mentor and she did not want to appear weak on her first day.

"Madarame Ikkaku, deputy of security here at Seireitei Psychiatric Hospital," he said his job title with pride and Orihime got the impression that he took his job very seriously. This was a change for her, at the previous hospital she had worked at security had been quite lax, there had been none of this business about walking around escorted until she had her orientation back at Heuco Psychiatric Hospital. She had just been about to ask him why security was so tight when she suddenly found herself pressed up against the wall and Ikkaku was standing in front of her in a protective stance.

"Keep moving Grimmjow," Ikkaku ordered. Orihime peeked round his shoulder and saw a tall man with spiky blue hair leering at her. She felt a shiver threaten to run through her body but she willed it away and forced herself to stare defiantly at the man.

"Grimmjow..." Ikkaku said warningly, his finger reaching to his sides to finger his taser gun. The man named Grimmjow narrowed his eyes at Ikkaku before muttering a string of profanities and walking off down the hall. Only once Grimmjow had turned a corner did Ikkaku let out a sigh of relief,

"Well that was lucky. C'mon...ah did you tell me your name?" Ikkaku asked as they resumed walking again. Orihime shook her head,

"No I didn't, I'm Inoue Orihime, and what did you mean by 'that was lucky'?"

"That was Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, he's been in here for about two years now and still nobody has figured out his 'thing' for women."

"Thing?"

"Grimmjow doesn't like women, it's pretty simple, he can get pretty violent if you don't know what you're doing around him, so watch out. Today seems to be one of his calmer days, but on a bad day..." Ikkaku chuckled darkly and pointed towards his taser, making Orihime shudder involuntarily, she didn't like to think how often that taser had been used.

"I hope he's not one of my patients then," Orihime muttered quietly, more to herself than to Ikkaku, but he heard anyway.

"I wouldn't imagine Unohana-sama putting you on his case, she's the only woman who ever comes into regular contact with him, and the rest of his doctors are males. Speaking of Unohana-sama, this is your stop," Ikkaku had stopped outside a door labelled "Chief." He knocked twice, waited a few seconds the pushed open the door, indicating for Orihime to follow him in.

"Yes Ikkaku?"

"I've got the new doctor here for you,"

"Ah, excellent, take a seat Ikkaku, I'll need you to escort her round the hospital in a moment, where is she?"

Orihime took this as her cue to step from behind Ikkaku and smile at her new boss. She supposed she looked friendly enough, though Orihime could immediately tell this was not someone to mess with. She looked rather young, but she had an aura about her that suggested she was older than she appeared.

"So, you're Inoue Orihime, my new psychotherapist?" although she was smiling at Orihime, she couldn't quite manage to get rid of the doubtful tone in her voice. Orihime had to school her expression carefully to stop her eyebrow from twitching, is every person I meet here going to ask me that question?

"Yes I am, and it's very nice to meet you Unohana-sama," Orihime bowed slightly before sitting down in the chair in front of Unohana's desk, she noticed that Unohana had her work file on the table and it was obvious she had been reading up on Orihime for a while.

"You have quite an impressive history Orihime-san, you graduated top of your class, your grades have always been exceptional, and you've gotten excellent recommendations from both establishments you worked at prior to coming here,"

Orihime beamed, she had worked so hard all her life to get where she was now and she was damn proud of it.

"That all means nothing here at Seireitei Psychiatric."

Orihime blinked several times at her new boss, what is she saying? "I don't understand Unohana-sama," Orihime frowned. Unohana lent forward in her seat and gave Orihime a serious look,

"This isn't like school, or the other hospitals you've worked at. Everyone here has a serious mental illness that causes them to be an extreme danger to either themselves or society. In most cases they are untreatable and we are just here to care for them, but there a few who still have that little shred of sanity in them. You must treat each case differently here, treat everyone as individual. Essentially, everything you've learnt from textbooks or teachers has to be thrown out of the window, that kind of thinking will get you killed here" Unohana paused and scrutinised the woman before her, she looked visibly shocked but there was something in her eye – determination? – that told her that she had found a keeper, "you may think I'm being over dramatic, but I'm only telling you this for your own good. This environment doesn't suit everybody, so I'm going to give you the chance now to lea-"

"No," Orihime cut her off before she could even finish her sentence, "I don't want you to even give me that chance. I knew what I was getting into when I picked this profession, and I'm definitely not going to back down now I've gotten to where I want to be!"

There was silence in the room for a few moments and Orihime began to wonder if she had done the right thing interrupting Unohana whilst she was talking. All Orihime's fears were washed away when Unohana suddenly broke into a maternal smile,

"Excellent, that is just what I wanted to hear. Now, let's get you started shall we? I'm giving you three cases to begin with, and depending how you do with these three by your yearly assessment I will think about either giving you more, or taking some away. I'm just going to brief you quickly on your patients so you know what to expect when you meet them later on. I'll give you their files and case history later on. Your charges will be; Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, though she prefers to be called Nel, to put it simply, she is a 23 year old woman who thinks she is five years old. She's easy to please and very hyperactive and she has a fierce temper, so watch out for that. Your next patient is Ulquiorra Cifer, he is suicidal and is on suicide watch at all times, under no circumstances are you to bring any sharp ended object into your meetings with him, not even a pencil I'm afraid, you'll just have to remember every detail, though this should be easy since he is also rather silent. It's not often you will hear something out of him that doesn't have any relevance to suicide or death. Your last patient is your most difficult of the three I would say. His name is Ichigo Kurosaki and he has been diagnosed as a chronic schizophrenic and he also has an extreme case of multiple personality disorder. He's been here five years and we haven't gotten much out of him, tread gently with him, he can become pretty nasty when riled up. Think you can handle it?"

Orihime nodded straight away, "Hai Unohana-sama, I won't let you down!"

Unohana couldn't help but smile at Orihime's carefree attitude; it made a difference to the usual sullenness she had to deal with, "Good. Now, Ikkaku, take Orihime-san to meet her patients, and stick with her today please as part of her orientation."

Orihime got up from her chair and bowed politely at Unohana before following Ikkaku out of the door.

"C'mon then, it's time to enter the madhouse," Ikkaku muttered.

AUTHORS NOTE: Well that was the first chapter, I hope you liked it, if you did can you review it for me? And if you didn't can you still review it for me? Also, if you did like this, there's another story called "Taming the Red Queen" written by "xXsnowfeltXx" and it has some of the same ideas that I've used, so you could check that out. Review please.