standard disclaimers apply

didnt think the chapter would be this long but oh well. enjoy :) and thanks to you that have reviewed so far

Chapter 4

Her name was Rukia Kuchiki, and she claimed to be a doctor, a medical resident. She told him she had had a car accident six months ago, a serious one, when her steering system failed. "I've been in a coma ever since. No don't start thinking yet; just let me explain."

She had no memory of the accident and she had regained consciousness in the recovery room. Overwhelmed by the strangest sensations, she could hear everything going on around her, but could neither move nor speak. At first she attributed this to anesthesia. "but I was wrong; hours went by, days, and I couldn't wake up physically." she continued to perceive everything but was unable to communicate with the outside world.

"that was the most terrifying period of my life, for several days I thought that I was quadriplegic. You have no idea what I went through, a prisoner inside my body for life." even worse the outside world - the doctors, her brother, her friends - all seemed to believe that she'd suffered irreversible damage.

She had wished with all her might to die, she said, "but its hard to end it all when you cant even lift your little finger. My brother sat by my bed, day after day, hour after hour, and I begged him with my thoughts to smother me with a pillow."

One day a doctor entered the room and she recognized his voice. It was her supervising physician, Ryuken Ishida. Byakuya asked him whether his sister could hear when people spoke to her. Dr Ishida said he did not know, but studies suggest that comatose patients were indeed sometimes aware of what went on around them. So they should all be careful what they said around her.

"my brother asked him if there was any chance I'd come back one day." Dr Ishida answered quietly that he still did not know, but that he should hold on to a reasonable measure of hope, because people had been known to emerge from comas even after several months. It was rare, but it happened "anything is possible," he said "we're not gods; we don't know everything. Deep coma is a mystery to medicine."

"I was relieved to hear that," Rukia said "my body was relatively undamaged. Ishida was not exactly comforting, but at least he wasn't final, either. Quadriplegia is irreversible," Rukia added.

"the weeks dragged on, and on, longer and longer, and soon seemed endless. I lived through them by using my mind and memory to transport myself to other places. In my imagination I'd go everywhere I couldn't go and recount to myself every detail of the places I knew and loved. It was a way to relieve the endless monotony. One night, I was picturing the bustling activity I heard outside my door. I pictured the corridor - the nurses scurrying by, arms full of folders or pushing carts, my colleagues coming and going from one room to another."

"and that's the first time it happened; suddenly, there I was, in the middle of the corridor I had been visualizing so intently. At first I thought it was my imagination playing tricks. I know the place well, after all, I've worked there for several years. But it all felt so astoundingly real. I could actually see the staff around me."

"I could hear the elevator doors, smell the awful meals being served. But no one could see me; people moved to and fro without even trying to avoid me. They walked right through me totally unaware of my presence."

In the next few days she learned to move about the hospital. She would concentrate on imagining the cafeteria and she would be there, or the emergency room, and presto, there she was! After a few weeks of practice she could escape from the hospital. She shared a meal with a French couple at one of her favourite restaurants, seen half a film in a local theatre, and spent several hours in her brothers apartment. "I didn't repeat that visit. It hurt to much to be there, and to see how sad he was, even when he was home. It was bad enough to see him everyday at the hospital and be unable to communicate with him. Besides my dog, Kon, had sensed my presence and went running around and around whimpering. I made him crazy. I couldn't handle it, it was just too frustrating, too unbearable. So I came here to this apartment. After all it was my home, and I feel best here. I especially love it in the afternoons, I've gotten used to having you around." she smiled as though prompting him to say something, he didn't. "I sometimes go back to the hospital to be near my body. If im away from it for too long, I get incredibly exhausted. I never sleep, I just rest, I'm always awake, twenty-four hours a day" she looked sad.

"you must understand, I live in total isolation. You cant imagine what its like not being able to speak to anybody, to be completely transparent, not to exist anymore in everyday life. Im here, I feel alive, yet I cant affect anything or anyone. So you'll understand my surprise, my exhilaration, when you spoke to me this evening and I realized you could see me. I don't know why but I only hope it lasts, I could talk to you for hours, I've seen so much, thought so much, been so alone for so long, I've stored up so many things to say."

Her rush of words gave way to a moment of silence. She looked at Ichigo.

"you must think I'm crazy."

Ichigo's annoyance had left him, despite himself he was moved by the young woman's emotion and mesmerized by her bewildering tale.

"no you don't seem crazy. But this is all very - I don't even know how to put it - disturbing, surprising, extraordinary. I don't know what to say, I'd like to help you, but I don't know how I can."

"let me stay here. Talk to me, let me live again for a while, I wont bother you."

"you truly believe everything you just told me?"

"you don't believe a word I said." her face fell. "right now your telling yourself you have a totally unbalanced girl on your hands…I guess I never stood a chance, did I?"

He asked her to put herself in his place. What would her first reaction be if she found a man hiding in her bathroom closet - a somewhat over-wrought man, whose explanation was that he was some kind of ghost whose body was in a coma?

Her features relaxed and she smiled a little. She had to admit that her first reaction would be to scream. She granted him that the circumstances were bizarre.

"but I beg you, Ichigo, you must believe me, how could anyone make up such a story?"

"oh yes my business partner could easily dream up a practical joke on this scale"

"forget your partner, Ichigo. He has nothing to do with it. This isn't a joke."

"how do you know my name?"

"oh, I was here when you looked over the apartment with the realtor. I was really pleased you liked it so much. I felt very flattered, I remember you signed the lease on the kitchen counter. I was also here when you brought up your boxes and you broke your model airplane." she giggled. "of course, I'm sorry you broke your toy, but, oh the cursing and shouting."

"I even watched you hang that hideous painting on the wall, although I admit I used all my willpower to make it fall down, to no avail."

"I was here when you did your obsessive-compulsive number with your drafting table. You must have shifted it twenty times before putting it in the only position it could possibly fit. It was so obvious, I couldn't fathom why it took you so long."

"I've been with you since the first day, the whole time."

"you're here when I take a shower and when I'm in bed?"

"don't worry I'm not a voyeur, although I must say you're quite nicely built, apart from that orange hair - that I now know is one hundred percent natural - but apart from that, you're really quite attractive."

Ichigo frowned. She was convincing - or rather had convinced herself - but her story just didn't make sense. If she wanted to believe it, let her. He had no reason to attempt to persuade her she was deluded, he wasn't her therapist, after all.

He glanced at the clock, he just wanted to sleep, and despite her wild tale, she seemed harmless enough, so to bring things to a halt he offered to put her up for the night. He would take the couch in the living room. "the one below my hideous attempt at art," and she could take his bedroom. Tomorrow she could go back to where she had come from, to the hospital, or wherever she wanted to go, and that would be the end of it.

But Rukia did not agree, she stood squarely in front of him, her face defiant, determined. Taking a deep breath, she reeled off an astonishing list of all he had said and done in the last few days. She repeated his phone conversation with Orihime last Saturday. "she hung up on you right after you lectured her, fairly pompously I must say, about the reasons you don't want to discuss your relationship anymore. Believe me!" she begged.

Then she reminded him of the two cups he had broken unpacking. Believe me! and how he had overslept and scalded himself in the shower. Believe me!

She teased him about the time he had spent looking for his keys, throwing a tantrum although nobody was there. She thought he was unobservant because the keys were right there in plain sight, on the little table just inside the front door, Please believe me.

On Tuesday the phone company came around at 5 pm after keeping him waiting for three hours. Then she recalled that he ate a pastrami sandwich, spilled mustard on his coat, and had to change before going out again. "now do you believe me? I've been living with you for ten days. Don't turn away from me, Ichigo, I beg you. Im a waking miracle. Believe me!"

Now he felt exposed, invaded, she had intruded into intimate parts of his life. "you've been spying on me all this time. Why?"

"I haven't been spying on you. Can you see any cameras or microphones in this place?"

"no, I don't, but it would make more sense than your story, wouldn't it?"

"get your car keys!" she ordered suddenly.

"and where are we going?"

"to the hospital, I'll take you to see me."

"oh, sure. it's the middle of the night and I'm supposed to schlepp over to the hospital on the other side of town and ask the night nurses to rush me up to the room of a woman I don't know. I'll tell them her ghost is camping out in my apartment, and I really want to get some sleep, but she's dug her heels in, and this is the only way I can get her to leave me in peace."

"do you know of any other?"

"any other what?"

"any other way you're likely to get some sleep."

"dear God, what did I do to deserve this?"

"you don't believe in God. You said so on the phone to your business partner, 'Uryu, I don't believe in God. If we get this contract, its because we're the best, if we lose it, we'll have to ask ourselves where we went wrong.' Well consider just for a moment that you might be wrong now, that's all I ask. Believe me! I need you, you're my only hope!"

Hearing Rukia mention Uryu's name prompted Ichigo to pick up the phone and dial his partners number.

"Uryu did I wake you?"

Uryu's voice was groggy and a little annoyed.

"no, no, it's the middle of the night and I was waiting for your bedtime call."

"really? Was I supposed to call you?"

"No, you weren't supposed to call, and yes, you did wake me. What do you want?"

"to hand the phone over to someone and let you know that this time you've gone too far with one of your stupid practical jokes."

Ichigo handed the phone to Rukia and asked her to speak to his partner. She could not take the phone, she told him, she could not hold any solid object. Uryu was getting impatient on the other end of the line, asked Ichigo whom he was talking to. Ichigo smiled in triumph and pressed the button for the speakerphone.

"can you hear me, Uryu?"

"yes I can here you. What's this about, I'd like to get back to sleep"

"I'd like to sleep too, be quiet a second. Speak to him Rukia, go ahead, speak to him!"

She shrugged. "if you like. Hello, Uryu. You most certainly cant hear me, unlike your partner, who can, but wont listen to me"

"okay Ichigo, why did you call? If you don't have anything to say, its really late"

"answer her"

"answer who?"

"the person who just spoke to you"

"you're the person who just spoke to me, and now im answering"

"you didn't hear anyone else?"

"tell me, Joan of Arc, have you been working too hard? Are you hallucinating?"

Rukia was staring pityingly at Ichigo.

He shook his head. He realized that if this really was one of Uryu's jokes, it was to soon for him to call it quits. Ichigo told Uryu to forget it and apologized for calling so late. Anxiously, Uryu asked if everything was alright, and whether he should come over.

Ichigo reassured him, "everything's fine, forget it, thanks"

"no need to thank me, buddy, if you have a problem, you can wake me anytime with your bullshit. Be my guest! We're partners for better or worse. So whenever you're having a bad patch, wake me up and we'll share. Okay, can I go back to sleep or do you have anything else on your mind?"

"goodnight Uryu"

They hung up

"take me to the hospital, we could have been there by now."

"no I wont. Because if I do, I'm already halfway to accepting your crazy story. Im tired and I want to go to bed. So you take my bedroom and I'll take the couch, or else you can leave. That's my last offer."

"you're even more stubborn than I am. Keep the room, I don't need a bed."

"and what will you do?"

"does it matter?"

"it matters."

"I'll stay right here in the living room."

"until tomorrow morning, but after that…"

"Yes, until tomorrow morning. Thanks for your gracious hospitality!"

"and no spying on me in my bedroom!"

"since you think I'm faking, just lock your door. If your concerned because you sleep in the buff, I've already seen you, you know!"

"I thought you weren't a voyeur."

She pointed out a while ago in the bathroom she would have had to be blind not to see him nude. He cringed and wished her goodnight. "you too, Ichigo, and sweet dreams."

Ichigo slammed his bedroom door "she's mad," he grumbled. He crawled into bed, pulled up the covers and tried to get to sleep. But of course he couldn't.

He kept going over her appearance, her words, and that bit of doubt kept flaring, especially when he pondered how she'd vaporized from the closet to the living room. Or, he told himself, maybe he was the one going mad.

The green numbers on his digital alarm clock indicated one-thirty. He watched the numbers slip by until two-eleven. Then he got up, pulled on a thick sweater and jeans, and stepped quickly into the living room.

Rukia was sitting cross-legged on the window seat. When he came in, she spoke to him without turning around "I love this view, don't you? Its what convinced me to buy this apartment. I love looking at the park at night, where the lights don't quite dispel the darkness that leads into the trees. And just before the sun sets, the long eerie shadows the trees make on that perfect green grass"

"alright, lets go"

"Really? What changed your mind?"

"since you've already destroyed most of my night, I may as well settle this right now. I'm supposed to work tomorrow. I have an important lunch meeting, and I really need at least four hours sleep, can you hurry?"

"I said I'll join you, trust me for just two minutes."

He felt he had already trusted her quite enough. Before he left the house, he asked her again for her last name. she gave it to him, along with the room number she was supposedly hospitalized.

Room 505. It was easy, she said, only fives. But he saw nothing easy in what lay ahead. Ichigo locked the door behind him, went down the stairs and into the garage. Rukia was already sitting in the backseat of the car.

"I don't know how you did that, but im very impressed. You must have worked with Houdini."

"Who?"

"Houdini the magician. Come sit up front, I'm not in the mood to play chauffeur on top of everything else."

"can you try to be a little kind to me? I told you I haven't perfected my aim yet. Even though I focused hard on the inside of the car, I might have easily have landed on the hood. So the backseat is pretty good, trust me, I'm improving."

Rukia came and sat next to him. She looked out the window as Ichigo drove through the night. He broke the silence to ask her what he should say once they reached the hospital. She had an idea.

"you're my cousin from Argentina. You've just heard the news and you've got a layover on your flight to England, which leaves at dawn, and you wont be back for six months. That's why its imperative for them to break the rules and allow you to visit your beloved cousin, despite the late hour."

Ichigo didn't think he made a convincing Argentinean and predicted that the ruse wouldn't work.

"don't be so negative," she said "if worse comes to worst, we'll come back tomorrow." besides, she explained, they would have a better chance of getting in if they didn't seem to be worried. But Ichigo insisted that it was only Rukia's story and wild imagination that was worrying him.

The car turned into the hospital complex. She told him to make a right, then take the third opening on the left and park just beyond the silver pine.

Once they were stopped, she pointed to the night bell warning him not to ring it too long because it annoyed them.

"who?" he asked.

"the nurses. They have to come from the far end of a long hall, and they don't know how to tele-transport themselves"

Ichigo just sat there, his head resting atop his arms on the steering wheel.

"come on, wake up!" Rukia called in his ear.

"I only wish I could," he said ruefully.

Ichigo stepped up to the night buzzer and gave it two short rings. A few minutes later, a woman carrying a clipboard, with glasses and her hair up in a bun with her fringe parted to the side opened the door halfway and asked him what he wanted. He stumbled through his lines as best he could. The nurse told him that the hospital had its rules, that rules were meant to be followed: he should simply postpone his flight and come back the next morning.

He begged, he invoked the importance of extended family, he invoked the exorbitant cost of international travel, he invoked the exception that was supposed to prove the rule. Nothing worked.

He was about to acknowledge defeat when he saw the nurse weaken. She glanced at her watch and said "I've got to do my rounds. Follow me, don't make a sound, don't touch anything and in fifteen minutes you're out of here." He took her hand and kissed it in token of his gratitude. "are you all like that in a Argentina?" she asked with a slight smile.

She opened the door wider to allow him inside. They walked to the elevators and went straight up to the fifth floor.

She opened the door to room 505. The room was semi dark, lit only by a small yellow night-light.

From the doorway, Ichigo could see a woman lying on the bed, apparently sleeping deeply, but he could not make out her features. The nurse spoke to him in a whisper. "I'll leave the door open, go on in, there's no chance she'll wake up, but be careful what you say, you never know with coma patients. At least that's what the doctors say."

Ichigo ventured in cautiously. Rukia was standing by the window and urged him to go up to the bed. "go on I'm not going to bite you."

As he approached the bed and looked down, he continued asking himself what he was doing there.

The motionless woman was paler than her double, and thinner. Her hands had begun to turn inward in the seizing up that occurs in long-term coma patients, and she looked frail, but the resemblance was striking.

He took a step back. "are you her twin sister?"

"you're hopeless. I don't have a sister. that's me lying there, no one else but me. No one is playing tricks on you and you aren't dreaming. Ichigo please, you're the only chance I have, you have to help me."

"can you imagine what its like for me to see myself like that, growing paler and more wasted by the day. Believe me, Ichigo! You're the only person I've been able to communicate with for six months, the only human being who senses I'm here and hears me."

"why me?"

"I haven't the slightest idea. Maybe because of the apartment? Because your living in my space? Or maybe there's something special about you. Have you ever had ESP experiences?"

"Never. I'm a complete rationalist, and this whole thing is starting to freak me out."

"you think I'm not freaked out?" she asked him.

Of fear, she'd had more than her fair share. She had watched her own body gradually withering away, lying there with an IV drip to irrigate her, a feeding tube to nourish her, and a catheter to carry away her waste.

She could move about all over the city, invisible, but she couldn't so much as make her own body's eyelids flutter.

She had no way to explain to him how this was possible, she could no more answer his questions than she could those she had asked herself everyday since the accident.

"you cant even begin to imagine what goes through my mind." with a forlorn look, she confided in him her doubts and worries. "I ask myself how long can this mystery possibly last? Why has this happened to me, of all people? I'm a scientist, not a whacked-out psychic who's been trying to astral project since the sixties. How did I get trapped here, separate from my body? How can I get back? Will I ever be able to lead a normal life again, even for just a few days, walking on my own two legs, talking to the people I love and having them feel my touch? Its torture, believe me."

"I don't know how many days I have left before my heart gives out. At first, people came to visit often; friends and colleagues from the hospital would stop by several times a day - and they'd all talk to me, they all tried to talk me back from the coma. But that was only for the first few weeks. Now my friends have stopped coming, my colleagues still look in, but they don't talk to me as if they believe I could possibly wake up anymore."

"only my brother valiantly holds on, but I can tell he's weakening. I've heard the doctors and nurses speculating on how long the hospital will let me keep this room - in an ordinary situation, they would have transferred me to an extended-care facility after a few weeks."

"you must understand Ichigo, I've been here, watching myself die. I'm terrified and I'm all alone. You're my first ray of hope. Do you know how wonderful it is to have someone hear me? To be able to talk and have you respond? To be able to feel it when you touch me? You're my only human contact. I may be a ghost Ichigo, but I'm a human ghost."

He lowered his gaze, avoiding her desperate eyes. "to die you have to leave first, and you're still here," he murmured.

They remained silent for a long time, then he took her hand. "Come, lets go home. I'm tired and so are you. Come back with me."

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him comfortingly. Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with the nurse, who was looking at him with dismay.

"are you okay?"

"Yes, why?"

"your arm in the air like that, your fingers curled, it looks like you have some sort of cramp."

Ichigo quickly dropped his hand from Rukia's shoulder.

"you really cant see her, can you?"

"can't see who?"

"no one"

"would you like to rest a little before you leave? All of a sudden you seem a little overwrought," the nurse tried to soothe him "its always a shock to see a loved one in a coma, why don't you sit down and relax for a bit"

Ichigo spoke slowly, as if searching for lost words. " No really I'm fine, I'll just go now"

The nurse was concerned that he might not be able to find his way back. Pulling himself together, Ichigo reassured her that he could, the exit was just at the end of the hall.

"I'll say goodbye here then."

Ichigo said goodbye and started down the corridor.

The nurse saw him lift his arm back to the horizontal and heard him mumble

"I believe you Rukia, I believe you"

The nurse frowned, shook her head and went on her way, thinking nothing more of it.

woohoo another one down and yeah about the argentinean thing........i got nothing but i hope you enjoyed. please read and review, i welcome all sorts of reviews (even flames) and i'll try to update again as soon as possible weeeeeeeeeeeee