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I'm so, so, so, sorry for the late update! Work…it sucks. And then I got really sick. But anyway, here is the next chapter! I know many of you were quite upset with me. Hopefully now this will change your mind? Enjoy!

**Song: Hospital by Lydia.

Disclaimer: See previous chapter.

~ / ~ / ~ / ~

That sound. It seemed to be as loud as the earthquake itself. It sliced into my heart and I stared in disbelief at the flat line moving across the screen. No, the machine was just malfunctioning. Rukia wasn't really…

Finally, the whole picture became clear after what felt like eternity when in reality, only two seconds passed. "Rukia!" I jumped up, and in my haste, knocked the bedside chair crashing to the ground. Just as I was reaching for her, the door burst open and doctors came bustling through.

"Get out of the way!" one of them ordered as he pushed me away from her.

"No!" I shouted and strained against him.

"Isane!" he called. "Get her stabilized!"

Another doctor placed two paddles on Rukia's small chest. "Yes, Ryuken! Charge it to 250, now!" A ring went through the air before she shouted, "Clear!" Rukia's body jolted and thumped down. "Again, 250! Clear!"

No.

"Go 375, Clear!"

Rukia.

"Clear!"

I couldn't blink, couldn't look away from her pale body being thrown and jerking from the electricity; afraid that I would miss something. I felt weak and limp. I sagged into the arm of the doctor and the pressure of his hand clasping my arm was the only thing keeping me rooted.

The scent of cherry blossoms wafted from behind me. I didn't turn, already knowing who was behind me. "…Rukia?" the sound was soft, barely audible from all the commotion, but I heard it. The timbre was heartbroken and strained. I realized in the next second Byakuya was being taken away, under protest, by two doctors. "Wait!" He was shouting it. "Wait—listen— Rukia, if you can hear me, do not—"

"Get them out of here!" Ryuken ordered sharply, and the other doctors physically pushed Byakuya out and pulled me along, throwing me out into the hallway, still struggling. I was so uncoordinated that I ended up ramming into Byakuya's chest. Surprisingly, he flashed his hands out to steady me, but when I looked up his eyes were hard and cold, staring at the closed door to Rukia's room. The noise faded, and it seemed deathly quiet in the hallway. His grip on my shoulders got noticeably tighter.

"Uh—Byakuya, let go."

His eyes flashed down and he released me. "They will stabilize her." He closed his eyes. "She is strong. It would be best if we did not stand here. I advise you to head into the cafeteria and wait. It is useless waiting here." With that, he turned around and walked steadily down the hall to the elevators. My hands formed fists as I glared back at the closed door. Rukia was on the other side and I was stuck here. I had to trust the doctors with her. But I couldn't just walk away. God dammit, why couldn't they let me stay in the room with her! Instead they locked me out here, pacing like a damn caged animal.

"Fuck!" I slammed my fist into the nearby wall, letting all my anger and guilt pour out with it. The weak wall crumbled under my fist and a large hole formed as I pulled my hand back.

"K—Kurosaki?"

I blinked and brought my hand down, turning to whoever spoke. "Oh, Kira, it's you."

His green eyes looked from the hole in the wall to the closed door to Rukia's room. "I just, uh…" he looked back to me, and it looked like he wished he hadn't come, "came to see how Rukia was doing. I'm checking on everyone. Almost everyone had been admitted in."

I bit my lip. "I really have no fucking idea how she is." I thrust my finger to the door. "Those bastards won't let me see her and they kicked me out when she flat lined."

Kira's eyes went wide. "I'm sorry, Ichigo."

I scoffed. "And you know what really gets me is that I have no idea why she flat lined. In my mind she just had a broken leg, hell, two broken legs, maybe a cracked rib or something, I don't know, I didn't ask. But I know she had a concussion. How could a concussion cause her heart to stop? Something else is going on with her and no one is telling me!" I stopped and glanced at Kira. It was then that I noticed he had tears silently running down his face. "Oh, God," I realized, eyes going wide. "Where's Momo?"

He didn't look at me but I saw his shoulders shake. I couldn't take it. I was lightheaded and felt myself sliding against the wall to the floor and pulled my knees up to my chest, feeling the strain of my ribcage. "And the others?" I asked, staring at the floor. "Rangiku, Shuuhei, Toshiro, Shinji?"

"They're okay. For the most part." He settled down on the floor next to me. "As we were leaving the building, a piece of cement fell and struck Momo. She was bleeding heavily from her head. I carried her out while Toshiro watched me like a hawk. He is her sister after all. The doctors are saying she will be in a coma." We sat in silence for a few minutes until his next words caught me off guard. "You know, the officials are claiming the earthquake to be a bomb."

My head lifted. "A…bomb?"

"Don't ask me why. Apparently that makes the most sense to them."

"That's ridiculous. Why would someone—"

His eyes hardened. "You do know who owned our business before Ukitake was, right?"

I sighed. "I'm not ready for a history lesson. But yeah, I guess. I only know his last name. Aizen."

"Yes. Sosuke Aizen. He got fired and decided to make his own company in a building not to far from ours. He's the boss of that place; and his manager? Gin Ichimaru."

"What does this have to do with anything? And so what about Gin."

Kira sighed. "Look, Rangiku told me that an hour before this so called earthquake, Gin called her from home and demanded her to leave. He didn't tell her why, just to leave. She didn't, of course. It seems Gin knew exactly what was going to happen."

"You think Aizen set a bomb to destroy us?" Suddenly my nightmare from what felt like days ago came rushing back. A bomb. A bomb struck our building. I squeezed my eyes shut. "No. It was an earthquake. It felt like an earthquake."

"Have you ever been in an earthquake before?"

"Yeah, once. But…it was when I was nine."

"So you don't really remember."

I frowned before our heads both snapped up when we heard footsteps sounding down the hall before stopping in front of us. "Hey, you two!" Shuuhei was looking down at us with a forced care free attitude. "Stop moping. Let's get to the cafeteria and get some food. Looks like you need to get your minds off a lot of things."

I looked at the closed door to Rukia's room once more. "I really don't want to leave until I know for sure Rukia is stabilized." No sooner had the words left my house when her door opened and the doctor I knew to be Unohana walked out with a tall male doctor with glasses. It took a moment to register that man to be Ryuken, the bastard who threw me and Byakuya out.

Unohana smiled softly and clasped her hands in front of her. "Kurosaki-san, a word?"

I scrambled up from the floor. "How is she?"

She gave a wary glance toward Kira and Shuuhei, probably not wanting to say in front of them. I sighed. "You guys go ahead. I'll meet you in a moment."

Kira nodded and Shuuhei gave a mumbled, "All right."

As they left I turned back to Unohana. "Give it to me straight."

"Kurosaki-san, listen to me. Rukia doesn't have just a concussion. She never did. The reason why she passed out in that building is because she has Ventricular fibrillation."

"What?" I blinked. "What is that exactly?"

"Ventricular fibrillation is irregular heart rhythm consisting of very rapid, uncoordinated fluttering contractions of the lower chambers of the heart. The ventricles do not pump blood properly. Blood pressure drops dramatically, depriving vital organs, including the brain, of their essential blood supply. The majority of patients lose consciousness fairly quickly and require emergency medical assistance, including CPR. Patients who receive CPR until their heart can be shocked back into a normal rhythm with a defibrillator have much better survival rates. If Rukia did not receive defibrillator she would have died within minutes. Ventricular fibrillation is usually associated with some kind of heart disease. Kurosaki-san, ventricular fibrillation is often triggered by a heart attack."

"Heart attack…she had a heart attack?" I tried to come to terms with this. Part of me felt overjoyed that she was alive and breathing, but the fact that she had a heart attack...

"Her sister suffered the same tragic disease. The heart attack was triggered by Rukia feeling excessive amounts of fear and stress during the collapse. Now concussions affect all the systems in the body and can lead to irregular heart beats which can put strain on the heart. They can also cause a blood clot that can travel to the heart resulting in a heart attack or blockage. Are you following me, Kurosaki-san?"

"I am," I managed out, although my legs felt unsteady and wobbly, forcing me to use the wall behind me for support.

"I do not want to throw this all to you at once, but there is more," she continued. "About the scars on her back…they appear to be from some form of blade."

"I saw them. How recently did that happen?"

"From what I can tell, a few years old. Kurosaki-san," Unohana's face turned to worry. "do you know of Rukia's background at all?"

"I just met her five days ago…hold on. How long was I even here for?"

"You were unconscious for four days."

"So, nine days then."

She nodded. "I see. Perhaps she should tell you herself."

"There's no way she did that to herself, right?"

"No, no, not at all."came the voice of Byakuya Kuchiki. "She was in foster care for some time because her parents died when she was only a baby. Her sister, who was my wife was at the orphanage with Rukia until Hisana became adopted. The foster family would not adopt Rukia and so Hisana was unfortunately adopted and forced to leave Rukia behind. A few years later, Hisana and I fell in love, and we married. Hisana went from orphanage to orphanage, trying to find Rukia. Rukia had been in numerous foster families and Hisana never found Rukia until she suffered a heart attack. Thankfully, I found and saved Rukia from her fifth foster family. It seemed that Rukia had been abused in her foster family."

I clenched my jaw in frustration. I didn't know what to say.

"Rukia has had a hard life, Ichigo. She can not be let down again."

"I won't fail her," I growled.

Unohana nodded. "That is all. Rukia will be fine so I want you both to relax and eat something."

I nodded and watched as she left with Ryuken beside her. And through all that time, Ryuken had not said a word.

"Ichigo," Shuuhei began. "You look like shit. Cheer up. Rukia's fine. Now eat something."

I sucked in a deep, uncontrolled breath in a gasp, and said miserably, "But I was there. I was there when it happened." I grabbed the cup Shuuhei handed me as he sat down opposite of me and took a gulping drink, mostly to have him shut up. The liquid spilled over on the table as I set it down forcefully.

Shuuhei looked up at me and said, "If you can't forgive yourself, how do you think Rukia will?"

I shook my head. My eyes were full of tears, again. "What am I going to do?"

Two hours passed before I could finally see Rukia. She was still unconscious but the doctors insisted she would wake soon. I sat down beside her again and stared at her still form.

"Can she hear anything?" I asked Unohana who stood by the monitors, checking everything and marking things in her clipboard.

"Possibly. Feel free to talk to her. Pretend I'm not here," she smiled and resumed her work.

I moved a stray strand of black hair away from her face. Oh, how I desperately wanted to see her violet eyes and hear her voice again. "Rukia."

Rukia's POV

Rukia.

It was a whisper in the storm that roared and thundered around me, but I recognized the sound. Ichigo. That was Ichigo's voice. I remembered. How could I forget? The fact that I finally remembered had me straining against the binds that tied me back.

"Here!" I screamed, as the void pulled me farther away. "Ichigo, help me!" This was coming out of my very core, the thing that had survived my body after everything.

My soul.

Rukia, come back to me. Please. Just open your eyes. Wake up. I know you can hear me. So, please, come back.

I couldn't. He was on the other side and I was being dragged inch by inch into the dark no matter how hard I fought.

You're not going to make it, a logical part of my brain declared and I felt that it was correct. Part of me wasn't.

Ichigo's POV

"Ah," Unohana spoke softly and I glanced to her. "You see this?" she pointed to Rukia's heart monitor. "She's coming around. She should be opening her eyes soon."

I smiled. Rukia would be okay. She was fighting like I knew she would. Finally, the moment I had been waiting agonizingly long for. Her eyelids fluttered gently and she gave a light groan. I shifted farther on the edge of the hospital chair as her eyes fully opened. She glanced around her and her face looked slightly confused.

"Rukia," Unohana stepped forward and placed a hand on Rukia's shoulder. Her violet eyes zeroed in on the doctor. "You are in a hospital. You were in an accident but are fine now. Are how you feeling? Any pain or discomfort?"

Rukia stared at her for a moment before shaking her head. The movement caused her to get a flash of me and she stopped her movement, staring at me intently.

"Rukia?" I couldn't help the grin that stretched across my face. "I'm so glad you're all right." I still held her hand and my grip tightened softly. She glanced down at our hands before slowly tugging away. I dropped her hand at once, sensing something was wrong.

She met my eyes once more before opening her mouth to ask, "Who are you?"

My heart dropped. This was what I was worried about. "Rukia…you don't remember me?"

She gave an uneasy glance at Unohana. She gave a tentative smile, perhaps encouraging. Rukia didn't take it. She closed her eyes and inhaled shakily. "Nii-sama…I need Nii-sama."

"Of course," Unohana said. "He's right outside." She walked to the door and opened it. Byakuya nodded to her and stepped inside. His eyes stayed on Rukia and he stopped at the foot of the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I don't…" she carefully glanced at me. "I don't remember this man. Although, I feel I should."

Byakuya sighed. "Rukia, he's Ichigo Kurosaki. I suppose you can say you have an affiliation with him and he to you."

I was surprised. This was the time Byakuya could have lied to her and say she had nothing to do with me. Instead, he told her that we were together.

"Where's Renji?"

"He, uh," I shook my head. She got it immediately.

"Oh…I see." she stared back at me. "Who else? Who else is dead?"

"Our boss," I answered, although my attention was focused on Unohana. "Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked her.

"Of course." She led the way out into the hallway and closed the door softly behind her.

I crossed my arms, feeling all my energy drain. "Will she ever remember me?" I demanded Unohana.

"She will. Just give her time. Her brain is trying to heal and protect itself. As you said earlier, you two have only met nine days ago. She barely knows you."

"Then how does she remember Renji?"

"The brain in a mysterious object. One can never know. Don't you worry. She will remember. She will."

"I hope you are right."

A/N: How was that? SUSPENSE! Don't ask me about Rukia's illness, I'm honestly winging it, haha, and it is just making the right amount of sense. Now go check out Silent Deadly Love by Darkkiss15 and leave some of your amazing support by dropping some reviews there! But don't forget to leave some here ;)