Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach! I just enjoy it.

Warning: this fic contains mature themes and situations.

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

It was hot. Every student in Karakura High School was counting down the seconds until the bell freed them from their scholastic prison. Unfortunately, there was still almost twenty minutes left and it seemed that their teacher would drone on and on for every last one of them. Even the best student among them, Uryuu Ishida, was off in his own world.

Usually, Uryuu hung to every word his teacher said, but he'd been having more and more trouble focusing on school lately. It had been two months since he and his friend returned from Hueco Mundo. The human world had remained quite for those two months, and due to lack of communication he suspected the same was true for Soul Society. Unfortunately, their foray into the land of hollows only turned out halfway successful. They had been able to stop Aizen, but unable to capture or kill him. In the end he escaped along with the two other traitor shinigami and a hand full of the Espada. Thus their current situation was overshadowed by the fact that Aizen was still out their, and certainly planning something.

Sitting here, in a classroom, it all seemed so mundane—torturously so! Big things were going to happen, and instead of training or working out strategies he was sitting in a school pretending to care about chemistry. They ought to be doing something, anything, but this. And he knew his friends felt the same way. Uryuu, always the observer, turned to check how his friends were faring.

Ichigo Kurosaki was staring listlessly through the window, head propped up in one hand. Doubtless, as soon as the school bell rang he would hurry off to Urahara's shop to get in some training. With Rukia off in Soul Society, it seemed there was no one left who could get through to him. They still had contact from her, but it was quite limited. Kurosaki blamed himself for not capturing Aizen and was brutally forcing himself to become stronger. To Uryuu it seemed that he could see nothing else. His determination was almost scary. Uryuu trained vigorously to keep up, but he would never match Kurosaki in strength or resolve it seemed.

Across the classroom, Sado sat impassive as always. But even such a face could no longer fool Uryuu, after spending so much time together. By the set of his shoulders, and his almost impossible stillness, Sado was just as on edge and alert as Uryuu and Kurosaki were. Sado was calm and collected no matter what, but that didn't stop him from being ready. Uryuu knew that Sado was quietly training and preparing for whatever might be thrown their way next. High school paled in comparison to everything they had to face recently, none of them could really afford to sit back like normal teens.

In fact, the only one who didn't seem ready to jump at a moment's notice was Orihime Inoue. Right now, she was sitting slightly slouched in her chair examining her hands. Her face was a mask of sadness and confusion. At first Uryuu thought that this was because of her imprisonment, but it somehow didn't seem right. When they first got back, she smiled often, her smile gave them hope and held them together as a group. She was obviously glad to be back. But now, she seemed like she wasn't here most of the time, that her mind was elsewhere. He didn't like when she withdrew like that. It effected them all—since they got back she really had been the glue that held them all together. As long as she could still smile, everything would somehow be okay. But something was hurting her and she wasn't letting anyone in. How could they all sit by and watch?

Ten minutes before the end of the school day, Ishida had made up his mind. They needed to find out what was bothering Inoue and take care of it. Maybe she was trying to protect them again. Still, how could he condone that?

As soon as the bell rang he rushed after Kurosaki, but the red head had disappeared all too quickly. Sado wasn't the "relating to girls" type and he had gone off quickly enough as well. It had to be Uryuu then. He really didn't know what he should do, but he decided a simple approach would be best. So that afternoon, he decided to let his school work wait and he made cookies instead.

After dinner, armed with the batch of cookies he headed for Orihime's apartment. He knew something was wrong the moment he turned onto her street. Her reiatsu reached out to him and the emotion coming from her was incredible. In Soul Society, he had felt people's souls cry out with many different feelings—intent to kill, pain, the desperation to cling to life—but this was different. Never had he felt such overwhelming hopelessness before. He ran the rest of the way to her apartment pausing only when he got to her door. Inside he heard a muffled sound, was it crying?

He straightened up and knocked on the door. "Inoue" he called, "It's Ishida. I have something for you."

There was shuffling and her voice called out, "Just a moment."

After a couple minutes, the door opened. "Good evening, Inoue," he said smiling, "Can I come in?"

The red head nodded before pulling the door open. "Of course Ishida, it's always a pleasure."

"I made some cookies and I thought you might like some," he told her as they walked inside.

And finally she looked at him and smiled. "Oh! Cookies! I love the peanut butter ones! I used to put lots of sprinkles on them and eat them with rice. What kind did you make?" Even as she asked her smile faded.

He laughed nervously as she lead him to sit down. "These are just plain boring chocolate chip cookies."

"Really? I love chocolate chip! My favorite way to eat them is with strawberry ice cream!" Her smile came and went once more.

"Well, I don't have any ice cream but here you go." He uncovered the plate of cookies and let her pick some. While she started eating he looked around the room. A cup of tea was sitting on the table in front of a picture of her brother. Had she been talking to him before crying. He wished he could do something to help. But having company seemed to comfort that intense spirit pressure that was radiating from her earlier.

"Mmm…" Inoue put a hand under her chin to catch the crumbs that were falling. "These are really good Ishida! Thank you for thinking of me!"

He smiled in between taking neat nibbles on his own cookie and wondered how to start. Finally he decided a direct approach would be best. "Actually, I thought maybe you could use some company. You seemed a little sad a school today."

"Oh." She began fiddling with the hem on her skirt keeping her eyes hidden. "You noticed." Her voice was so soft he could barely hear her.

"Inoue," he said gently but her eyes remained fixed on her skirt. He tried again, "Inoue." No response. What could he do then? Should he change the topic and leave it for now? But it was obviously upsetting her. In the end, he shifted closer to her on the sofa and put a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Orihime." This time she turned to him, her grey eyes wet with unshed tears. "Tell me," he urged.

In the next moment, she began to sob uncontrollably, her hands coming up to bury her face. This situation was new to him and Uryuu had no idea how to act. Should he get her to stop? Let her cry until she couldn't cry anymore? He made small circles on her shoulder with his thumb and her it was going to be okay. Although, truth be told, he couldn't be certain it would.

After a few minutes of Ishida awkwardly comforting her, Inoue pulled away muttering quick apologies.

"It's okay really, I'm more concerned with what's upsetting you so much. You seemed okay when we got back."

"I was then," she started, "Well I guess I wasn't really but I thought I was. But now I just really don't know what to do anymore. I . . . I . . ." her voice trailed off so Uryuu gave her shoulder a squeeze of encouragement. She looked up into his eyes and he nodded.

She shook her head in response and began fiddling with the hem on her skirt. "I don't know how to say it. I feel so. . . " Finally she looked up and said in a determined breath "I'm pregnant." Her strength gave out then and her eyes started tearing once more.

Uryuu was shocked. His hand dropped from her shoulder and he just stared at her. Though of course this just set her off into full blown sobs, taking his astonishment as rejection. "No, Inoue don't it isn't that. I'm just surprised is all." She nodded hiccoughing slightly.

Uryuu cleared his throat. "Do you mind," no, that wasn't it he'd start again. "I don't mean to pry but, would you tell me who the father is?" His concern for her was growing, and he had half a mind to find whoever did this to Inoue and deck him in the face. Of course such a move would be completely rash and something Uryuu was more likely to see Kurosaki do than himself. But rationality didn't stop him from wanting to hurt whoever put his friend in this position and abandoned her.

She hid her face once more shaking her head. Uryuu replaced his hand on her shoulder and started rubbing again. When her sobs started to calm and he began to feel more natural in the role of comforter, Uryuu slid his hand over and started rubbing the top of her back. This quieted her down a lot and her sobs began to cease. "Inoue, it's alright you can tell me," he whispered keeping his hand moving over her shoulders.

When she spoke she talked into his sleeve, "It wasn't. . . I didn't want. . . I. . .," there were a few more body wrenching sobs before she pushed herself up and looked at him through her tears. "Ulquiorra."

She stared into his eyes searching for signs of hate now that he knew the truth about the child's father. But Uryuu was sure to return her gaze with nothing but compassion and she relaxed a bit and began talking once more. "He forced… Aizen ordered him to do it. I don't think he wanted to either. But he did. And now I'm… I'm… " More tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she waited for him to push her away in disgust. But he didn't.

Uryuu couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was never a doubt in his mind that Aizen and the Espada were horrible, but that they would do this was inconceivable. Anger welled up within him so intense that he felt he could tear Hueco Mundo apart with his bare hands to fin those criminals and make them pay for what they did. But now wasn't the time for acting rash.

Instead, Uryuu wrapped his arms around Inoue and pulled her to his chest and whispered into her hair. "Shh…. It's okay. It's all going to be okay. Somehow it will be." He let her cry a little longer and then he pulled away from her and looked her in the eyes. "Inoue listen. I swear it on my life, that neither of Aizen nor the Espada will ever hurt you again. I will be here to protect and help you, no matter what that entails."

Overwhelmed, tears threatened to spill from Inoue's eyes once more, so Uryuu decided to try and distract her from them. "Now it's getting late, maybe you should get some rest."

The sad girl nodded. "Thank you Ishida. I thought…"

"You thought we'd all leave you alone to suffer?"

She was quiet. "Well I guess I didn't really think so much as fear."

Uryuu put on his best smile and tried to look reassuring. "No. Being comrades means your stuck with us no matter what happens."

She returned his smile and this one seemed to linger more then her previous smiles this evening. Then it suddenly stopped as she added, "Don't tell anyone! Okay?"

"You have my word." With that he stood to leave straightening his now rumpled shirt and pushing up his glasses. "Goodnight Inoue."

"Goodnight Ishida. Thank you."

Authors Notes: Well, I hope you like it. I will be getting into exactly what it means to reproduce with a hollow in the next chapter, as the only people appearing in this one don't really know much about the subject. Updates should come fairly quickly.

Take a look at the Publish date for this fic: 3-11-2009. The Bleach manga is out up to chapter 348 right now and this fic will try to be current with the manga up to this point. As more chapters come out I will try to keep the relevant information true to this story as well, but I'm not psychic, so if the new manga chapters contradict what happens, than it is what it is.

A note about names: If you are like me, than you constantly refer to Ishida as Ishida since that is how he is mostly called in the anime. However, this story is from Ishida's perspective and probably he doesn't think of himself as just his last name. So Ishida will be referred to in narrative voice as "Uryuu" and when being called by someone else as "Ishida." As the perspective here is limited to Uryuu, the narrative will also refer to others in terms of last names (i.e. Ichigo will be Kurosaki unless someone shows up who calls Ichigo by his first name when talking. Ishida doesn't.) And since I am writing in English and not Japanese I have dropped the suffixes for the purpose of this fic. Same as the only foreign words I will use are ones the refer exclusively to concepts important to the manga/anime Bleach (like reiatsu and zanpakuto.)

There that's enough notes probably for the whole story. Hope you liked it! :D