"Halibel, hey, you're up." Grimmjow himself had just gotten back on his feet and after all the abuse she'd taken, he'd expected it to be longer for her.

"I am stronger than you." She jibed with not hint of a smile in her eyes. He watched her carefully.

"Are you...alright?" "I'll be fine." She said shortly, roaming the room as he had just done, wanting to know just where everything was and where Bach's men stood guard.

It was like a common room of sorts. They had each been assigned a bedroom with a bed, desk and chair, and out here was a larger table and chairs for all of them, a pair of couches, a bookshelf, a small counter with a burner to make tea. It looked rather modern and clean compared to the damp concrete cell they'd been living in until now.

"So what do you think?" He asked her.

"I think we've given up." He tensed, that was exactly what he'd said to Ichigo.

"Would you have chosen to stay in that cell and be tortured again?"

"It doesn't matter, we're here now." She came to the table and they sat.

"I thought I was doing the right thing." He muttered.

"We'll see in time. What you have to ask yourself, is what are the King's real motives?"

"I'm not sure. He's invested in the kid, that's for sure, and I guess he thinks I can help him." "And yet that first day we saw Ichigo, he wanted to use us to make the boy give up hope."

"I know. That still bothers me." Grimmjow didn't elaborate to explain that the first thing he'd done since getting here was to run to the mirror and look himself over. He had started to worry he'd been so disfigured by the torture that it would be enough to upset Ichigo, but despite the scars and wreight loss, he still looked like himself. And why had the King insisted that he had already been reeducated? Perhaps that was just his word for torture.

"It doesn't bear dwelling on." Halibel said eventually when she saw him straying deep into thought. "What I would like to know, is what's happening out there?"

"Right." He wasn't sure how long they'd been here but a significant amount of time had passed. There had been a couple of days when they'd gone unvisited in their cell, and they guessed that was when the Vandenreich had made their attack on Soul Society. Perhaps that was also when they'd taken Ichigo. "With any luck they'll have killed all the soul reapers."

"If that's true, then we have no hope. That would leave the two of us and that boy out there to defeat them."

"I guess. So what? If we do get out of this, are you saying we have to side with the shinigami?"

"If we want to be a part of bringing these bastards down, then yes."

"Fucking great." He leaned back in his chair, wincing as pressure was put on his ribs and hip. His hip had in fact been dislocated and though it was now back in place, only rest could heal it. His hand and wrist were also broken, and one ankle was bound up tightly but just sprained. He still had some of his spiritual pressure, but spells were in place all over the facility to keep them minimal, so they wouldn't help him much in healing.

"Kurosaki doesn't seem like himself." He said after a pause. "He's weakening."

"He's suffering greatly."

"Yeah well, so did we, and look at us, we're the same as ever."

"It's different with him. He is human."

"Right. What happens if he does turn? I mean, what exactly are they doing to him in that chair? Are they brainwashing him?"

"I think they are trying to make the quincy part of his spirit the dominant one. Maybe that will be enough to make him loyal to Bach, or maybe he plans to do the brainwashing after."

"Damn. They really are putting the brat through Hell." He watched her for a moment. "Halibel, are you okay?"

"Of course I am. Why would you ask?" The real reason was obvious, but Grimmjow didn't say it specifically.

"It's just, when they tortured us, they always seemed to do the worst to you. And I guess after seeing Kurosaki I just started wondering if maybe-"

"-if I've cracked too?" He waited for her to yell at him or reprimand him but she just held his gaze for several long seconds before continuing. "I'm fine, Grimmjow. Are you?"

"I am." He said it without arrogance, almost surprise. "But shouldn't we be, I don't, a little shaken?"

She sighed long. "Like I said, it's different with us."

Ichigo had been sick all night. Every time he tried to drift off he could feel the chair and the machines, feel his body changing, heart pounding, stomach churning. He could feel the straps that held him down, his hands clenched white over the solid wood arms of the chair. He saw Bach's face watching him, hand reaching for his hair.

"Dad!" He sat up sharply in the bed, breathing hard. Sweat had broken out all over him and he gagged on a dry heave but nothing more could come up. He wasn't sure how long this session in the chair had lasted, nor how long he'd been in the ward, but it was silent now. He ran a hand through his hair and shook out the moisture before dropping it back in his lap. His father. His sisters. How long had it been since he'd seen them? Were they wondering where he was? Was Isshin trying to save him, or was he waiting for him to save himself like always?

"Ichigo?" the door had swung open silently. He looked up to the figure in the door. "You've woken."

The teen didn't answer Bach. He bowed his head again.

"Everything is set up in the centre. You won't be alone while you recover."

"Then I want to go now."

"Alright. But we have to discuss the espada's condition first."

"I understand what's wrong."

"But you also understand you can never address it. I never have, because I am sure it would push Grimmjow over the edge. He is the weaker of the two, you know." "It's wrong."

"But it's the only way."

"Fine. I won't say anything."

"Good. Then I will help you down to your room." He got an arm around the teen and helped him up. Ichigo hated to be so weak and to have to rely on this man of all people to help him, but he wanted to rest somewhere other than this place, so he allowed it.

Grimmjow looked up from the table where he was sat with Halibel when the door opened. Instinctively he rose, knocking back his chair, but the King made no threatening moves.

"Ichigo could use some help." Was all he said. Grimmjow looked to Halibel, she nodded and he moved forward to take Ichigo's weight. "There. Now behave and we'll have no problems." Neither man responded to the patronizing order. Grimmjow kept and arm under Ichigo and got him to the couch. He slumped onto it, holding his stomach.

"You look horrible." Grimmjow said to him, taking a seat next to him while Halibel went to the other couch.

"I'll be okay." He breathed with eyes shut.

"I can take you to your bedroom."

"Not yet. I just need to sit."

"Okay."

Grimmjow didn't really know what to do for the teen. They weren't exactly friends, he had no words of comfort or small talk to make, so they just sat in silence. Ichigo eventually fell asleep as he was. Halibel rose to examine the books that had been provided.

"They're from the world of the living." She commented, pulling one from the shelf.

"So are the quincies from there too? I mean, are they even human anymore?"

"I doubt it. I am not sure what this realm is, but they likely came here long ago. With their spiritual pressure, they no doubt evolved. They could be as old as the soul reapers."

"Huh." They lapsed back into silence but it wasn't long before they were startled by a noise from Ichigo. He jerked awake, looking around in confusion.

"Hey kid, remember where you are." He flinched from Grimmjow's touch but the espada gripped him tighter when brown eyes remained unfocussed. "Kurosaki?"

"Grimmjow..." he was slow to return from his nightmare. "Shit." he dropped his head into his hands, pain obvious in his features.

"Kid?"

"I think he just needs time." Halibel had set her book down.

"Okay."

The door opened. Someone brought them in a meal. Grimmjow realized how starving he was, but when he rose, Ichigo didn't move.

"Come on." He helped him stand and got him to the table but while the espada ate, Ichigo just sat there still holding his head.

"You need to eat." Halibel told the teen but he was unresponsive. By the way he half held his stomach, they guessed food didn't have much appeal to him.

"Can you help me to my bed?" He muttered after some time. Grimmjow obliged, and it took most of his strength to get Ichigo to his room. The teen practically fell onto the mattress. He groaned in pain and clutched his stomach. Grimmjow hovered uncertainly, not sure what he should do.

"I'm okay." Ichigo breathed when he saw the espada waiting.

"You're far from okay." he whispered back, but left him to rest.

Grimmjow shut the door and sighed.

"It bothers you, doesn't it?"

He looked to her, she was back on the couch and he moved to sit next to her. "Why should it?"

"Because you've been there."

"Not there. We were never in that chair." Her eyes cast sideways. "Halibel?"

"I just meant, you know what it is to be in pain like that."

"I guess. But who cares?"

"It's called compassion, Grimmjow."

"I know what it's called but I don't have it."

"You do, you just can't admit it." He was startled by her touch on his cheek and she brought his face around to look her straight on. "Look at me, Grimmjow. In the time of Aizen, would I have even spoken to you?"

"Thanks."

"I don't mean it offensively, I just mean I have also changed and you know it. So why would you think you haven't changed?"

"We've gone soft, Halibel, that's what's happened."

"No. You were just trained to believe that caring for another was a weakness. It's not. It's all that got us through those months."

She dropped her hand but he kept watching those greens eyes. Those eyes who had always linked to his own in the moments of his worst pain, and hers. They'd shared it all together, and they'd survived it together. But Ichigo was alone if they didn't help him. He sighed.

"Fine, you're right. It bothers me to seem him like that when I know how strong he was before." he conceded.

"Good. Then protect him."

"I already said I would."

"But do it because you want to, not because I told you to."

"Fine, but how? I can't stop them from taking him. I couldn't stop them from- sorry." He looked away from her.

"I told you to stop apologizing."

"Yeah. I know."

He leaned back. She picked up her book. At some point, they fell asleep like that.

Several days passed before Ichigo was taken again. The teen must have have figured out they would come for him, because the morning they did his hands shook through breakfast and he could barely eat anything. Grimmjow had watched him recover slowly, and get well enough that he had cleaned himself up, picked out a book to read, talked with the espada. But then at the prospect of returning to such pain, everything deteriorated again. His spoon hit the side of his bowl until Grimmjow grabbed his wrist to stop it from shaking so much.

"Sorry." Ichigo said without meeting his eyes. Grimmjow slowly released him but his hand continued to shake. He had no words for the kid. He knew nothing of how to comfort. He just sat there with him.

"You have to stay strong." Halibel said.

"What's that even mean?" Grimmjow shot at her, suddenly angry, his default emotion kicking in as he grew increasingly confused about his feelings of concern for the boy.

"Grimmjow." She warned.

"I'm sorry Halibel, but how is he supposed to stay strong? We should be coming up with a fucking plan to get out of this place! All three of us are together now, it's our best shot at making a run for it. The kid's as strong as he's been in days, why not fight it out when they come?"

"Because we'll lose and then they'll break us up again." she said cooly. He watched her for a long moment and then sighed.

"Fine. But we can't just sit on our thumbs. We have to come up with some sort of plan." "A plan, yes. But recklessness will only end badly." She agreed. Ichigo glanced between the two at the table, before settling back on Grimmjow.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not yet."

"Grimmjow."

"Yeah?" "Just, don't do anything to get taken from here, okay? If I have to come back here and be alone..."

Grimmjow was taken aback by the emotion in his eyes. The man who'd always been such a fierce opponent looked so...delicate now. The warrior in him wasn't gone, but he was muted under such sadness, such suffering and before he knew what he was doing, Grimmjow reached out and put a hand on his arm.

"I won't."

And then the door opened. All three of them rose but there was nothing to be done. Ichigo stepped willingly forward into their waiting hands just in case Grimmjow did something stupid. He watched them take him away, such defeat etched in sunken shoulders.

"Motherfuckers." Grimmjow growled when the door shut.

"Come on." Halibel gripped his arm. "We should work on that plan."

"You're going to go bald." Halibel warned him. She set her book back down, Battle Royale. Grimmjow had read the back flap and was surprised that something like that was of interest to Halibel. Now he stared at the two teens on the cover, blood specked, their eyes haunted, and could only see the face of Ichigo. His hands had knotted tight into his hair as he sat there in the long silence. He only realized just how tight when Halibel spoke and he withdrew his fingers from the blue mess.

"You're thinking about him in that chair, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!" He launched himself from the couch, pacing. Now that his own wounds were much more healed, he was restless. He found himself pacing back and forth in their common room all the time, driving Halibel crazy as she tried to read or tried to get him to sit down and talk strategy. But all he could see now was Ichigo in that chair, the single tear rolling from his cheek.

"Why in the hell does it bother me so much?" he'd asked the ceiling about five times today alone. It had been three days since Ichigo had been taken. Halibel had stopped answering the question.

"And we're no closer to a plan." he sighed, dropping into a chair at the table and gripping his hair again.

"Our options are limited." she said.

"We've come up with nothing in three days!"

"Calm yourself." she warned. He took a breath but it did nothing and when the door opened he was on his feet in a flash.

"Kurosaki." He moved at once to relieve the guard of his burden. Ichigo slumped against him entirely. He was relieved to have the teen back in their company but he looked to be fresh from his Hell. Normally, he recovered in the medical ward first.

"The King and doctor are occupied." The guard offered as an explanation. "If the boy gets worse, call for help."

He shut the door on them.

"What the hell does that mean?"

But he hoisted Ichgio up and over to the couch.

He'd never seen just how awful it was after a session. Ichigo vomited non-stop until everything in his stomach was expelled and then he suffered dry heaves over the course of the next twelve hours. He lay on his side on the couch like he was dying. His whole body shivered and sweated. He did his best to contain his pain but moans escaped him from time to time. He could barely move on his own, Grimmjow had to help him hold a glass of water and drink it. He spilled most of it and the rest came up again shortly after. And even when he was past the dry heaves, he was still sick, his skin on fire, his eyes barely able to open for the pain light caused him.

Grimmjow caught glimpses of what was going on in Ichigo's mind. The word dad seemed to mutter out in his sleep alot, or the names of friends, Grimmjow knew some, like Orihime and the ones who had invaded Hueco Mundo. He wondered what had happened to them, and why they had not come for Ichigo as the teen would have come for them.

He slept sitting on the floor leaning against the couch while Ichigo lapsed in and out of consciousness over the next day. He woke stiff from having sat the same way all night, head bowed and knees up. But a weak hand on his shoulder stirred him awake and he turned to Ichigo.

"Bathroom..." was all the teen said. Grimmjow got an arm under his shoulders and helped him stand. The teen swayed and fell against him and it took two arms around him to get him into the bathroom and sat on the lid of the toilet.

"What do you need?" Grimmjow crouched before him.

"Shower."

"Bath." He countered. "I don't think you can stand up and I'm not holding you up."

Ichigo just nodded. Grimmjow ran the bath for him and Ichigo struggled out of his shirt. Grimmjow was surprised to see Ichigo's ribs as prominent as his own, even though he'd been here much longer. He was a bit taken aback by his entire appearance. The teen's face was thin but not as gaunt as he would expect from this sight. Ichigo caught his startled expression and looked down at himself.

"I can't believe they've done this to me." he whispered. His hands shook as they ran down his chest. Grimmjow watched him cover his face. "How is this possible?"

"They're evil bastards." Grimmjow responded.

"...yeah."

He grabbed the sink and tried to stand but his legs failed him and Grimmjow moved quickly to catch him. His arms wrapped around pale, cold flesh, he felt the rapid rise and fall of his chest. His most immediate thought was to drop him, to let him go and get away, because this feeling, of sympathy, of compassion, of maybe even caring, was so foreign to him- but he could practically hear Halibel in his head telling him to watch out for this boy so he didn't let him go, he just stood there with him in his arms, feeling the shudders, feeling something in him start to break.

And when Ichigo felt arms tighten around him in response, when he knew this man really had changed, and wasn't going to judge him, he let it out. He sobbed, half naked, in the chest of a man who'd once lived only to kill him.

The water drained from the bathtub. Grimmjow sat with his back adamantly to the naked teen but tossed him a towel without looking at him. Ichigo did his best to dry off and cover himself up before telling Grimmjow he was ready. They didn't bother even testing the strength of Ichigo's legs. He'd almost fainted against Grimmjow after exhausting himself with tears. He hadn't even been able to get his pants off himself.

But Grimmjow never commented, never made it awkward when he'd needed help with the most basic tasks. He'd gotten him in the tub and then silently sat with his back to him in case he'd needed help. Now he brought him to his bed, pulled fresh clothes from the drawer. They all wore the white short sleeve shirt and pants that marked them as prisoners or patients in this place. He helped him dress. It was so strange, and silence reigned between them. When he was settled, Grimmjow rose and left him without a word.

Ichigo thought he would fall asleep immediately, but he couldn't. His mind that always went back to friends and family now settled on the sixth espada. He had found comfort in him. And it wasn't that he was a former enemy that bothered him.

It was because he was being helped by someone already so broken.

Hello again! What an interesting mix of reviews! This story is bringing out a number of reactions and opinions, which I think is very suiting as it does the same to me! I've never taken a story in this direction before and I am rather weary of doing so, but I think it's worth some unease to expand my writing horizons.

I got both the comment that this is OOC and IC. I've also been asked who my target audience is. I'll say this: the physical side of the H/C relationship in this one just seemed natural- I don't really want to spoil anything, but yes we will see Grimmjow and Ichigo together. Is that all that's going on in this story? Certainly not! I'm not going to pigeon hole this one genre or another, but I will happily read whatever your thoughts are on this stroy.

Thanks as always,

Riza.