Happy New Year all!
Nokturnallight: You'll have to read this chapter to find out :)
Disclaimer: Still broke, can't draw for shit, Bleach ain't mine
I'm safe up high,
Nothing can touch me,
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside,
You're my protection,
How do I feel this good Sober?
-Pink Sober
Isshin sat at Nel's bedside watching her sleep. He was worried sick about her, especially after seeing the scan results from Unohana-san. He pressed his fingers to his temple. There was no way that his girl could be pregnant, no way in hell. He looked her over. Physically, she was recovering from various bruises and cuts scattered over her body. He looked down at her tummy, where he knew that a fetus was growing and frowned deeply.
No way, no way on this planet...
But it happened hadn't it? She was taken by god knows who to some strange place and raped and abused to the point where she can barely remember anything. Then there was the other problem.
How the hell was he supposed to tell her that she was going to have a baby? A baby courtesy of her rapist as well. A rapist she couldn't remember. He'd talked to Unohana about aborting the baby but she refused him.
"Her system is healing on its own Isshin, we cannot do anything to compromise that. At this rate she may never have a child if we even consider an operation"
"Then what are we supposed to do?" he asked, fighting the urge to shout at her.
"We wait to see if her body will accept the developing baby, or reject it"
"I'm her father-"
"But you are not the mother of this child Isshin. You know full well it isn't your choice to make"
"But-"
"Isshin, remember that...nightmare she had? All that blood and the way she was grabbing her tummy? There's a possibility that she may have conceived then"
"What're you trying to say, that she's already had a baby?"
"No Isshin, i'm saying that she's already had a miscarriage"
Internally, he had scoffed at the way Unohana used the term "baby". He knew that as a Doctor, he couldn't be biased to things such as this, but as the Father of the girl in the situation, it was just so hard for him. He felt that he couldn't allow that baby to live, he almost wished that she would miscarry. He knew that no matter what, their family would find it difficult to be accepting of that unborn child.
And although Isshin didn't want this baby born, he knew it was not his choice to make. He knew Nel, and it killed him inside knowing that she would put her life on the line to protect the...thing. Nel could barely stand harming people out of self defense much less putting harm to potential life. He sighed and continued to monitor the sleeping girl. He would tell her...tomorrow, after her meeting with Kisuke Urahara, who was to help her gain her memories back through complimentary therapy. He was confident in the man's skills, having worked with him before countless times. If Kisuke couldn't do it, then he would have to accept the fact and move on with life the way she was now, half of the girl that they all knew.
"Hypnotherapy?" Nel asked skeptically.
"That's right!" came Kisuke's cheery voice.
Nel was once again seated in Doctor Unohana's office speaking to the craziest person she was sure she'd ever meet. Kisuke Urahara, a.k.a Mr. Hat and Cloggs. Once upon a time he was her science tutor. He was also Grimmjow's foster father. And now he was her soon to be hypnotherapist.
"Don't mind his silly antics Nel, I wait for the day that he grows up," said Unohana, lightly slapping her colleague on the arm.
"It's fine, really, so...how do we start this whole hypnotherapy thing?" asked Nel.
The fan Urahara was absently waving snapped shut.
"Well first of all as your doctor for the moment I'm going to give you an overview of what the whole procedure really is. Hypnotherapy is a form of complementary therapy, that we're going to use to help your body get into a relaxed state. Once you're relaxed enough and fully concentrated on me, one of two things may happen. I will either "suggest" something to you or I will analyze you. We're leaning more on the analytic side though, so we can help you lift that veil you have on your memories and get you right back on track mentally. After analysis happens, you're in with me again for another hour of psychotherapy, and we're gonna talk it all out. Oh, most important thing you need to know is that you are the person in charge during the session, not me; you can pull yourself out of the trance anytime you feel like it's becoming too much for you"
"And what if it doesn't work?" she asked. As interesting as the idea was, she was still dubious about it. The man smiled at her before saying,
"Trust me, I haven't had a failed case of hypnotherapy ever"
She bit her lip, deliberating the situation. If Unohana-san trusted him enough for him to be here then surely she should be able to put some trust in him right? And this did seem like the best way for her to get her memories back. Plus, he did say she was in control, she could stop the session at any time she felt like it...
"Right, I'll do it then" she replied smiling.
"Great! Now I'm going to need you to lean back like this and then..."
The sole occupant of the office was interrupted from his work when the office door was flung open.
"What d'ya want old man? I was busy when yer lil lapdog came and dragged me outta ma house"
"Hello to you too Nnoitra" he replied, closing the folder he was writing in,
"I've just been trying to figure out if you are just plain stupid or if you just adamantly refuse to use the brain you have been given," came the smooth reply of the person behind the desk. It seemed as if he never moved from there, that he was stuck to the desk day in, day out.
"Wha d'ya mean by that?"
"I'm talking about this" a newspaper was thrown and he caught it, eyeing the man from the desk before reading the headline. The straight set of his lips curled upwards to a sneer. "So they found the bitch. Dammit, thought they'd probably think it was a fluke an' leave 'er there ta die"
"And is that all you have to say Nnoitra? Really? Don't you realize how much you've put at risk here?"
"Calm down old man, Mayuri's fucked her up so bad with drugs 'm shocked she even remembers her name" replied the other, still reading the article.
"And what if she starts to remembering things?"
"She ain't gonna remember shit, I cracked her skull open for good measure, 'm surprised she's still kicking"
"Well sources of mine are saying that she's working on obtaining the two years that she's lost, along with her memory of Sexta which seemed to have conveniently disappeared. Your thoughts?"
"Like I said, there ain't no way she's gonna remember nothin'," sneered Nnoitra. "I tol the ole creep to pump her up on some o' that Kyoka Suigetsu."
Silence fell between the two individuals in the room.
"And now I'm convinced that not only did your whore of a mother damage your eye, she also dropped you on your head"
"Well if she did I gotta go visit 'er grave an thank 'er fer tha' fucked up sense o' humor I got from it"
"Where the hell did you obtain that drug from?" seethed the older man.
"Well I stole one a dem samples ya was gonna discard and tol' Maryuri ta get ta work and voila!" he gesticulated with his hands to depict a huge explosion, "some fabulous shit ya got there...dad. Worked like a fuckin' charm. She was hallucinating for days and then she jus went blank, compliant an' very obedient, all the good stuff"
"You do realize that if you get caught, everything I have worked for goes to the dogs as well right?"
"Ya know people all over the damn place. 'M sure ya can sort something out, cover some tracks, you'll figure something out about how to fix any fuck up, after all it was yer idea that I kidnap the bitch so ya could fuck around with the blue headed freak, why're ya complainin'?"
"I'd have preferred if you chose to speak to me about it before dumping her in a pit to be honest"
"Was done's done. Was that all ya wanted to bother me bout cuz I've got shit ta do"
"Stay in town, just in case, I know you have a penchant for wandering off to wherever. I'm gonna send someone in the hospital to check up on her"
"Hn, do wha' ya wanna, I don' really give much of a fuck" replied Nnoitra heading for the door.
"And where is Tesla?"
"Probably waitin' fer me ta get back to fuckin' him, now if ya don' mind Aizen, I got shit ta do...literally"
"Be careful boy, we cannot afford a slip up, especially considering the situation"
"Mm, it's like I said old man, you'll think up somethin'"
The thing that ruined the beauty of drugs was the addiction. The bullshit about addiction was the withdrawals.
In all honestly, Grimmjow was dying to shoot up, and the fact that Yoruichi had cut him off from any kind of drugs wasn't helping the situation either. After dropping Kurosaki off at his place he went to the first convenience store and bought two boxes of 20. He didn't dare look at the alcohol, knowing that he was in for work the next rest of the night had him sucking down the entirety of the cigarettes, eating all the chocolate he could find, working out, cold showers, even counting sheep when he got into bed. Nothing had worked. By the time his alarm went off signaling that it was time for him to get ready to go on duty, the area around his arm where he last injected himself was red and slightly bruised from the scratching he'd been doing.
He felt awful. His eyes were bloodshot and he was sweaty. He shrugged and headed for the bathroom. At least it wasn't cramps, right? He could deal with it for the most part. As long as no one annoyed him or asked him too many questions, he could deal with the day.
.
.
.
"You look like shit Jaggerjaques"
He ignored his partner. His head was killing him, his arm was cramping. Kurosaki wasn't making it any better either.
They were walking through the station for the first time since Nel's return. Well, Grimmjow was dragging himself, Ichigo looked like he was walking on air.
"Heading up to the office?"
"Na, m' going to Squad 4, got some shit to sort out" mumbled Grimmjow, "I'll meet you in 20 though"
Ichigo nodded and headed for the elevators while Grimmjow headed for the stairs. There was no way that he'd put himself in a situation where he'd end up in an elevator going through these withdrawals. He'd kill everyone in there by the time he got to Squad 4. Three flights later and he was standing outside the solitary door on the basement. He opened the division door and was flooded by uniforms. Rookies, the doughnut deliverers, the memo deliverers, they swamped the place. He ignored them, and made a beeline for the back of the huge room. There were two doors side by side, one marked U.S. and one marked G.I. He was in no mood for the former so he chose to knock on the latter's door then opened it.
"Yo...Ichimaru-Keibu?"
"Maa, Grimm-kun, have a seat, s'been a while"
He walked into the office and sat in chair opposite the captain. Although he's known the captain of the narcotics division for years, he was still a bit uneasy around him. It was partially because he had a way of knowing things, as well as the fact that he used to work with him before he joined the force. As he was about to open his mouth to speak, the grinning captain placed an unmarked bottle in front of him. He didn't even need to open it to know what it was.
"H-how did you know?" he asked the grinning man.
"Well, I hate ta break it ta ya Grimm-kun, but yer an addict. Don' matter how long ya'v been clean fer, y'all always want some H. Ya keep comin' and sayin' stuff like its fer seeing how long ya can go without, but we both know tha's bullshit. Ya just wanna shoot up. And who am I ta judge? Gotta do what we gotta do ta make livin' bearable don't we?"
Grimmjow could only nod. He swallowed, then picked up the bottle and slipped it into his coat pocket, mumbling a silent thanks.
"Well as much as it's great ta see ya an' stuff, I gotta meet Granz in Squad 12 for the drug analysis on Nel"
His ears perked up immediately. "Can I come?"
"Sorry Grimm-kun, it's just me and him, I ain't even allowed to bring Ulqui-kun along, but I'm sure y'all be hearing bout it soon if we get anything outta it soon, now run along ta yer division before Starrk blows a hole in ma head fer keepin' his lieutenant."
"Oh, fine then."
"And one more thing Grimm-kun?"
"Yes Captain?"
"Imma need ya to be careful on the streets. Word has it that Nnoitra's back from Spain an' we can't have ya runnin inta him on the streets now can we?" said the Captain, his eyes slit open to show a glimmer of sapphire, "I need you to be extra careful"
Grimmjow nodded slowly, watching the man walk out of the room. Having Nnoitra back on the streets wasn't going to make it easy for him to work on Nel's case, they hated each other ever since childhood. The hate grew even more in teenage years and then they ended up working together in a gang, and there was no love lost between them, especially when Nnoitra had discovered that Grimmjow was stealing white from under the boss's-who so happened to be Nnoitra's foster father's-nose. He ended up telling the whole deal to his foster mom, the drugs, the gang banging and from there she had him put under protection while they investigated Nnoitra and his elusive father Sosuke Aizen. But a criminal such as Sosuke wouldn't get caught so easily, someone else got framed and locked up, while he and his son packed up and set sail for Europe.
His arm cramped suddenly and he was reminded of the bottle the captain had passed to him not too long ago. He fished it out and put it back on the table. He didn't need it. He was fine. He took five step towards the door and sighed.
Who the fuck was he kidding?
He turned and swiped the bottle, putting it back into his pocket before leaving the office.