Not a long one tonight i'm afraid, was at work for ten hours so my writing time was hampered. Only off on Tuesdays now so that's when the big double updates will come out unless i get carried away with a part.

There is going to be a bit of filler as the boys get used to not being together again and a couple of things have to happen but i might rush through it to get to the good parts!

Cheer reviewers, you are absolutely amazing, each and every one of you and your comments not only inspire me to write you make me feel good about myself and that's a big thing to me. Love you all.

Can't actually believe this has got so many reviews so quickly!

Phoe
xxxxx

Chapter 10

Work wasn't a priority. Even after a day 'off sick' Grimmjow couldn't bring himself to actually concentrate on work and he was very glad he had a good team behind him and he wasn't blowing his new job so soon. He couldn't get over the slightly fishy sound to the whole story. How could it have happened that Aizen got to have Ichigo so easily after Isshin slipped into a coma? And of course this mysterious trial that is 'next year; Grimmjow wondered if there would be some hold up and it wouldn't happen until the 'next year' again. Aizen could string it along for years if Isshin's body was holding up alright. There was also this handy change to the consultant to one who seems to be in Aizen's pocket which instantly would get Grimmjow worried anyway and for the change to be without reason it makes it more suspicious. It was possible that the old consultant just moved on but surely if they were friends of Isshin in the first place surely it would mean they'd have stayed in touch. He just had to track them down.

A knock sounded at his door and he called for the person to enter, sending Nnoitra a quick grin as he entered. The lanky man sauntered in and took a seat in front of the big dark wood desk, his long legs splayed out in front of him. "So, whatcha going to do? Are you going to let little Berry boy get away."

Grimmjow signed, thinking for a second before answering. He's spoken to Nnoitra via test the day before, saying he wanted to speak to him in person more and they'd had a brief chat that morning, Nnoitra getting filled in on the basics before having to go and start work when his boys came in. Grimmjow had dropped Ichigo round the corner from his building before driving to work, Ichigo giving him a small and soft kiss on the cheek before walking away and not looking back and Grimmjow had needed a friendly ear by the time he'd go to work, his emotions ranging from upset to absolutely raging about the whole thing.

"I need to find out more about this old consultant, see if I can track him down, maybe try and get a second opinion about Isshin. It's the whole not related thing that is going to be a problem; I technically have no right to go poking about the man anyway."

"Would a private detective help?"

Grimmjow frowned at his friend. "That's a bit extreme to start with isn't it?"

Nnoitra shrugged his narrow shoulders. "That depends how urgently you want to get anything done. You know Rangiku down on the service desk; her husband might be able to help you out. You'll never know unless you try. Plus I'd have thought you'd want to get that kid away from the psycho as quickly as possible."

Grimmjow thought about what he said after Nnoitra had left and at lunch time he wandered down to the staff canteen area, getting a few looks from those that didn't know him well but warm enough greetings from Renji, Nnoitra and a few other's he'd known before he'd left. He spotted Rangiku easily enough; she wasn't hard to miss in a crowd. Her long strawberry blond hair fell in waves around a figure that on most women would seem obscene but she'd been carrying off since she'd turned eighteen. She was a total man eater by all accounts but she'd got married since Grimmjow left and her new husband what why he'd come down anyway. He pulled a seat out on the table she sat on, the other ladies from the service desk looking at him warily but Rangiku was always friendly, more so after a drink or two.

"Mr Jaeggerjaques, it still seems odd to call you that." She let off a laugh that was half normal, half filthy. "How can I help you sir?"

"Well I was wondering if your husband could help me, I find myself in need of help tracking someone down and Nnoi tells me Mr Matsumoto could help me."

That drew another laugh from the woman, that her husband would have taken her name. "It's Mr Ichimaru and I of course am now Mrs Ichimaru." She flashed her shiny wedding band and rock encrusted engagement rings at him. "If you'd have been here you would've been invited. Anyway, how can my dear Gin help you? Shall I give him your number?"

"If you don't mind, just don't mention my name to him in bed tonight, I wouldn't want him to get jealous or anything." Grimmjow grinned at her, Rangiku laughing so hard her biggest assets bounced. He lifted out his wallet and pulled his business card out, handing it to the woman. "It's got my personal number on it but he can call the office during work hours. Thanks Ran."

Rangiku waved him off with his own business card before sliding it into her bra and continuing her lunch, turning to her friends to re-join the conversation.

It took two days for Gin to get in touch with him, his secretary putting the call through to his office line for him to accept. Two days of Nel being a bit quiet and of course no Ichigo at karate practice. Grimmjow had spoken to Urahara about it but he just said the man had taken personal leave from his classes and postponed his own training for a while. Grimmjow wasn't sure how much to share with the man but assured the blond that he was working on it.

He held his phone handset for a moment as Mila Rose transferred the call and soon an oily voice came through.

"Mr Jaeggerjaques, my darling wife tells me you need help finding someone, how may I be of service?"

Grimmjow didn't like the sound of the man on the phone but he trusted Rangiku to a point, the woman wasn't stupid and seemed to be a good judge of character. "Yes Mr Ichimaru, I am trying to track down a consultant and a doctor that used to work in the Southern General, moved about two and a half years ago."

"Do you have names and descriptions as well as reasons for leaving? The more information I get the faster I can get results."

"Before I tell you all the details I'd like to know what I'm getting myself into including fees, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, my base rate is 500 a week with an initial contact of 1000. If the search takes only one week half of the initial contact fee is refunded. For a friend of the family I'm sure I can work out a discount. Long distance searches can have added fees and after a month the rate goes up but the excess is only payable on completion of the contract. Does that sound good to you?"

Grimmjow thought for a moment, that was a lot of money and though he had some put away through habit, this could eat into it substantially if the search takes a long time. "I don't have descriptions of the men but I do have their names and specialities, surely they can be traced through that."

"Yes that would be very helpful. Would it be too forward for me to ask for the reason you are looking for these persons? I would like to know if it's a positive or a negative so at least I know the kinds of places to look. Are they good guys that you're looking for for good reasons, good people for bad reasons or bad people for good reasons, bad reasons, any reasons?"

"I would prefer to meet to go over the details for this, if that's ok?"

"Absolutely, you're paying for it after all. I can come in later today if you want to do it at work or you could come to my office after work one day if you would prefer."

"Today is good, come to the office after lunch and we can sit down alright?"

The man on the phone agreed to it and they hung up. Grimmjow buzzed through to his secretary saying he had a meeting in the afternoon but not sure what time the visitor would arrive but he was to be sent straight through. Grimmjow spent a little time jotting down some notes for the meeting so he would be more prepared.

The man that was shown in to the room a few hours later looked nothing like Grimmjow expected. The man was tall but very thin with silvery grey hair that had little to do with age it looked like. He had a broad, thin lipped grin that closed his eyes to almost slits as he strode in, walking up to Grimmjow's desk with his hands in his pockets. Grimmjow stood and held out his hand, Gin accepting and shaking it before taking the proffered seat, crossing his hands over his stomach.

"Well Ran was certainly not exaggerating when she told me you were hot. How can I help you Mr Jaeggerjaques, trying to track a missing lover or hunt down some revenge I'm sure a man like you has plenty of stories to tell?" The grin widened as Grin leaned forward, leaning his elbows on Grimmjow's desk.

"To be honest Mr Ichimaru, it's a bit of both. I need you to find two doctors, a Dr Jushiro Ukitake and a Mr Shunsui Kyoraku who specialises in brain tumours and the like."

"Oh did they harm a member of your family or do you need them to help one?"

"I had a boyfriend years ago, but we broke up and I left town. I'm now back and I find out not only has he got someone new, his dad is really sick and his old doctors left. Problem is my ex's new partner is a total scum bag who beats the shit out of him and he's kinda in control of the hospital so the dad is in trouble."

"Right, well I am a bit confused, can we try that again please?"

Grimmjow took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down a bit. "I'm sorry it's just a bit much. My friend's dad has a brain tumour and needs these two doctors to come back and have a look at him because I think his new doctor is an ass and keeping him in a coma so the boss can keep my friend under control."

"Right, a different version of the first story but I'm getting a good picture here and I can see you are quite passionate about it. I'll do my best to find these men, is there anything we can do for your 'friend'? If I picked up your stories right he seems to be in a bit of trouble."

"Yeah that dick Aizen is pretty much controlling his life." Grimmjow broke off as the wide fox face grin fell from the face, his eyes creeping open showing the piercing blue, a darker shade than Grimmjow's own but very sharp looking.

"Sousuke Aizen?" Gin's voice said more than his words did, making it crystal clear there was bad blood between him and the hospital administrator. Grimmjow nodded not saying anything. "Any your 'friend' is trapped with him? That is bad luck my friend, very bad luck. I sincerely hope we can help your friend quickly before anything majorly bad happens to him."

"He turned up on my doorstep with his shoulder pulled out, his ass in tatters and his face about twice the size it should be."

"As I said I hope we can get him before anything major happens. You don't know this man and you should be grateful for that. Unfortunately for me I do know him but that can only help us out. I am going to forgo my initial fee for this and I will get right on to finding these doctors. If you can get any more information on the men, a description or even an age bracket would be useful."

"Ukitake is a friend of Isshin so I would estimate they'd be about the same age. So he's at least 55 and I imagine since the pair are friendly together and the other one is a consultant he's a similar age. From what I gathered from Ichigo they left together so you are looking for them together at least."

"And they left two and a half years ago yes?"

"Around that yeah, what do you think anyway, do we have a chance?"

"Tell me, what is your perfect outcome?"

Grimmjow thought about that, his ultimate dream outcome was Ichigo back in his arms but he had to be realistic. "I want my friend safe and some resolution for his dad even if it's not a good one."

"Realistic but hopeful. I'm going to go and see my lady before I go and get started. You will get weekly reports unless something major crops up and I feel you need to be made aware of it but you can contract me as often as you like within office hours. If for some reason I can't come to the phone leave a message. Do you have any other questions?"

"No, thanks for everything." Grimmjow stood as Gin did, holding out his hand to shake the other man's again in farewell.

Gin didn't release his hand right away. "Thank me when he's back in your arms."

iiiiiiii

Ichigo sat in Sousuke's house feeling his mood dip even lower. Sousuke had been waiting for him when he got home; sitting quietly on the sofa as if he knew Ichigo would walk through the door that day. For all Ichigo knew the man could have been sitting there yesterday and planning to sit there every morning till Ichigo came back. Or maybe he just knew Ichigo needed a day out to collect himself and the smug smile was because he had been right.

"So you came back."

"You knew I would. You really hurt me Sousuke; I didn't think you would go that far."

"Do you really want to annoy me this quickly Ichigo? I would have thought you'd be apologising to me and trying to make it up to me."

"Apologising for doing nothing wrong? I really don't want to fight, I want to put it all behind us and move on. I've cut ties to Nel and Grimmjow and I just want to forget about this but I'm sorry, I did nothing wrong."

Sousuke's smile was worrying, almost patronising towards the other man. "See, that wasn't hard now. Come here and show me how much you missed me." Sousuke held his hands out and beckoned Ichigo over to him, the man going because he had no choice. There wasn't any point in arguing with the man especially since he was dropping the whole thing now. Ichigo allowed Sousuke to hold him, the arms to tight and hurting his shoulder a bit but he just reminded himself that this was his lot in life now. It didn't matter anyway, he'd ceased to exist since his dad stopped breathing and wouldn't live again until the coma was over, one way or another.

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