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Disclaimer: See previous chapter.

Enjoy! Very sad chapter ahead!

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Rukia's POV

Everything was dark. It felt like I was being pulled into a dreamless sleep but I kept fighting against it. I could distinctly hear a faint beeping and muffled voices. What felt like fingers poked and probed me. Through all of this, I couldn't move. I felt paralyzed. I couldn't even open my eyes no matter how desperately I desired to. Part of me wanted to continue to sink into the quiet abyss of nothing, but another part refused. Something was telling me to keep fighting. There was a reason I needed to live…

Ichigo's POV

I heard a groan before realizing that I was the one that initiated it. My eyes blinked open against a harsh light and my vision was hazy. I took in my surroundings slowly.

I was in a hospital room—that much was clear without the bleach white walls and the strong stench of medicine. I had an IV strapped to my arm and some clamp on my finger that monitored my heart beat. Bandages covered my arms and I felt my ribs were taped.

I was awake.

I was alive.

The door in front of my bed softly clicked open. A nurse with long black hair in a braid poked her head in and—after seeing me awake—smiled warmly.

"Ah, good to see you are awake," she chirped and came toward me. "How are you feeling?"

I took her words into consideration for a second before another thought crashed into my head. My eyes widened and I shouted, "Where's Rukia? Is she okay? Is she here?" I winced and gasped, placing a hand on my ribs.

The nurse frowned. "You shouldn't yell. Your rib isn't fully healed. You're lucky it hadn't pierced your lung."

I growled but brought my voice down. It seemed her voice held more power than Byakuya even if she hadn't even raised it. "Rukia. Where. Is. She?"

The nurse, whose name tag read Dr. Unohana, placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. I guess she wasn't just a nurse after all. "I'm going to give you some more medicine. It'll make you feel tired so you can sleep," she explained.

"No! Rukia Kuchiki!" I blurted, desperate for answers before the drugs took affect.

Her eyes seemed to cloud over. "I'm sorry," she finally said as she injected more into my IV.

It only took seconds before I could feel my eyelids grow heavy and close. And with that, I was asleep.

Rukia's POV

Flashes. That's all I could process in my subconscious. A vaguely familiar face with amber eyes kept flickering into my mind…who was he? Why couldn't I put a name to that face? I knew him. That hair…what was wrong with me? Why couldn't I remember? Why couldn't I move?

Very slowly, I heard a bubble of voices start to break through. I fought. I so desperately fought to HEAR them clearer. Though from the outside, I was sure my body was as still as ever. On the inside I was thrashing and screaming, trying to stay at least semi-conscious.

"Kuchiki-sama, you will have to wait outside," a feminine voice ordered with a hint of remorse.

Faint, light pressure stroked my cheek. "I understand," a male voice returned who felt close enough to have belonged to the pressure on my skin.

"She won't wake up anytime soon," the woman stated. "I know she's your sister, but you have to wait out in the lobby."

I heard a shift of weight and a chair scrape back against the floor. "If you fail to heal her—"

"Byakuya," the woman—who was probably a nurse—stopped him. "We can only do so much."

I was starting to lose the tiny hold I had. Their words were being sucked away and I was falling into the blackness. I caught a few words that I wished I hadn't. Words like: paralyzed, concussion, amnesia, and then one word…a name rather, that meant so much more. Kurosaki.

Ichigo.

Ichigo!

I slipped from the little resolve I had. I couldn't breathe! My heart felt like it stopped. I struggled and fought, but the darkness finally won.

I let go.

Ichigo's POV

The second time waking up was worse. I could feel every burn and break. My arms and legs felt stiff and my head was groggy. I rubbed my forehead gingerly.

"Ichigo?"

I stopped my movement and brought down my hand, staring at my dad who sat on a small black couch at the foot of the bed.

"Dad?"

He smiled. "Glad to see you. Your sisters are downstairs in the cafeteria. We thought—" he took a breath, "we didn't know whatto think. But, hey—" a different look crossed his features, "being a Kurosaki made you strong!"

I rolled my eyes, sitting up straighter.

"Ichi-nii!"

"Hm?" I looked up to the door to see Yuzu standing there, breathing deeply and clutching a bowl of curry. Karin stood behind her looking relieved. Then, Yuzu flew toward me and skidded to a stop mere centimeters from me. "Hey, Yuzu."

"We were so worried! What happened? Are you okay? Any permanent damage?"

"Yuzu," Karin scolded. "Don't bombard him with questions. He just woke up."

"Oh, sorry, Ichigo," she automatically apologized.

"Girls," Dad began, standing up from the couch. "Why don't you take a walk around. I have to tell Ichigo something."

I was as confused as Yuzu and Karin, but they complied. Karin gave me one last look and gave me a small smile before following Yuzu out. As soon as they left, I turned back to dad.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Ichigo, it's Rukia. I think you should go and see her." He wouldn't meet my eyes, but just her name had me ready to jump out of the constricting hospital bed.

"Where is she? Which room?"

He finally met my eyes, although a solemn look clouded them. "You'll have to hurry. She's in room 14D."

I wasted no time in throwing back the covers and pulling out the IV that was in my arm, wincing slightly at the adhesive that clung to my skin.

"Try not to be seen. You're suppose to be hospitalized." He looked me up and down. "Er—son, perhaps some clothes?"

I looked down and saw I was dressed in one of those ridiculous hospital gowns. "I don't have anything else!"

"Hang on," he ran back to the couch where a black duffel bag sat. He unzipped it and pulled out some pants and my old Nice Vibe T-shirt from back when I was in high school. "Here," he handed them to me. I took them greatly and he turned around while I changed. Suddenly, the heart monitor went crazy and it's loud beeping filled the small space.

"Looks like you died," my dad smirked. "Now you better run. I'll come up with something."

I placed my hand on his shoulder and met his eyes. "Thanks."

He nodded and I ran out the room. I turned a fast corner to the left and flattened myself against the wall as doctors came running from the right to enter my room. I pushed off against the wall and ran to the stairs, flying down them and to the first level where Rukia's room was.

No one asked any questions or stopped me as I dodged around patients and guests. As I ran down the hallways, my eyes scanned each room number.

14A.

14B.

14C.

I stopped outside the closed door. 14D. On the sign by the door, a little slip underneath the room number read, Rukia M. Kuchiki.

Without another thought, I flung open the door and was stopped cold in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Byakuya hissed. From his tone, it was clear he really despised me.

"To see Rukia," I clarified.

"Haven't I already told you to leave her be?"

I was growing annoyed so I couldn't control the next words that came out of my mouth. "You didn't exactly save her, either. You're no better than me."

He punched me. It happened so fast that my mind only processed a blur of motion and then a sharp, hot sting on my cheek. I rocked back on my heels, caught off guard before anger bubbled up inside me and I became furious.

"You should know your place, boy," he snipped.

I lowered my chin and glared at him the way I'd seen Rukia do when she was about to flip shit. "Let's get this straight. If you don't want us to be equals, fine. But you can't take Rukia away from me."

"I can if I order to keep you away. I still control the majority of things."

I laughed, a bitter, dry sound. "I'd like to see you order someone to keep me away. You aren't exactly a well liked man."

Byakuya was speechless. This had to be a first. "I know you're scared and you're angry," I continued, "but don't take it out on me. And if you hit me again, I swear to God I'll hit you back." I held his gaze until he finally leaned back against the wall.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, in a very different tone.

"I don't know," I replied honestly.

Byakuya shut his eyes. "It will not go well. Her recovery is…under way. She will not be able to hold on for much longer."

"Not yet," I growled through clenched teeth but he paid me no mind.

"As for you, Kurosaki, you have no business here if you are recovered, so go back home," Byakuya proposed.

"I'm not leaving until I know that Rukia is okay!" I refused.

"She will be fine."

"I'll know that when she opens her eyes!" I asserted, balling my fists up.

Byakuya regarded me carefully for a second and then closed his eyes, sighing softly and pinching the bridge of his nose. His eyes then met mine. "Very well. It seems that I can not force you to leave. You may stay. But keep your voice down."

"Yes, sir," I decided to be formal to him since he was letting me stay. I wanted to prove to him that I did, in fact, have a respectful side.

"Perhaps I should thank you. As much as I hate to say, without you, she may not have made it out. But there is also the fact that if you were not there, she would have jumped on the helicopter in the first place and would have bypassed all the injuries she has now."

"Rukia would still have not gone on that helicopter," I countered. "She wouldn't have left all the other workers there. That is a fact."

He stared at me for a second more before turning around and walking out the door. I watched him leave. Finally, I broke through the bastard.I smirked lightly at the thought before it disappeared as I turned back to the hospital bed.

Rukia looked like she was barely hanging on. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I made my way towards her. I sat down in the bedside chair heavily.

"Rukia…if you can hear me," I began and grabbed her cold hand and stroked lightly across her knuckles. The touch didn't register through to her. She still remained with her eyes closed and as still as a statue. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry. None of this was suppose to happen. But you'll be okay. I know you will." I glanced down at her cast covered leg sticking out of the bed sheet. Then my eyes traveled up to her bandaged shoulders and wrapped head. "You'll be more than okay. Soon, you'll be throwing insults at me and making fun of my hair. And then I'll make fun of your height and call you a midget. And with that, you will throw a punch at my face, which I'll easily dodge because I know you too well." I wasn't sure if I was actually trying to convince myself more than her. "And then I'd kiss you and never let go."

I sighed and placed my head down so my forehead rested against the side railing of the bed. "I love you…Rukia," I breathed. "So I need you to wake up. You need to hear those words. I should have said them sooner. You deserved to hear them sooner." It was then that I realized I was crying. Tears silently ran down my cheeks and onto the thin hospital blanket. "Please, Rukia," I squeezed my eyes shut as the air in my lungs came out in shallow breaths.

Soon, the steady beeping of her heart monitor was the only sound that filled the room.

Before it flat lined.

A/N: …Don't hate me! Vent your thoughts in the REVIEWs! Thank you! I'm excided to read your thoughts!