Chapter 12: The Healer's Apprentice
Mari shook her head in disgust as she studied the latest damage to the pregnant shinigami's slender body. He was not even beginning to show and already he had been injured by Aizen on several occasions.
"Aizen-sama," she said, gazing up at him disapprovingly, ""If you truly wish Kuchiki Byakuya to survive long enough to have this child, then you need to stop beating him every time he annoys you. He simply cannot take this kind of damage while he is in such a condition. He will miscarry if he is subjected to much more of this."
She bent over the injured shinigami and gently pulled away his bloodied clothing, baring the slashed flesh. She caught her breath as she examined the deep wound to his shoulder.
"He brought this on himself by attempting to attack me. He was unwise," he said, gazing down at the unconscious taichou.
"He will require surgery," Mari said, flicking her eyes upward, "These wounds are deep."
Byakuya moaned and shifted uncomfortably.
"Byakuya," Mari said softly, "try not to move. You've been injured and you need to stay still."
Byakuya moaned again and his hand lifted to his abdomen. Mari leaned over him, touching his face and gazing into his hazy, unfocused eyes.
"Byakuya, are you having abdominal pains?" she asked.
"Y-yes," he managed in a barely audible voice.
He shuddered softly and lost focus, drifting back into unconsciousness.
"Will he and the baby be all right?" Aizen asked quietly.
"Oh, now you're worried about him?" Mari asked sarcastically, her temper momentarily outstripping her usual caution in dealing with the leader of the hollows, "You should have thought of that before you used his shoulder as a pincushion!"
"Mari," Aizen said, in a tolerant tone, "cease with your admonishments and heal him. I do need for him to live. Save the child if you can, but if a choice must be made, put his life first."
"Of course, Aizen-sama," Mari answered, clenching her teeth to hide her disgust.
Aizen gazed down at Byakuya frowning for a moment longer.
"Call for me when he wakes," he said, turning and leaving the room.
"Yeah, right I'm going to call for you…bully," the healer huffed under her breath, "I can't believe he'd beat up on a pregnant person. True, you're tougher than you look, but he is awful."
She touched Byakuya's face gently.
"I wish you and your friend had gotten away. They've got him down in the cellblock. This just goes from bad to worse. And now you two could lose your baby."
Her heart leapt into her throat as she realized that Byakuya's eyes were open. But a moment later, she noticed that he was still unfocused and senseless.
"What's happening?" he whispered.
"I'm going to make you sleep for awhile, Byakuya. You've been injured and you need surgery."
"Am I…going to…to…"
"I'm going to heal you, and when we're done with that, we'll monitor the progress of your baby. Just relax and let the sedative do its work."
She injected him with the sedative and had him moved to the surgery room. She set a healing field around him, and placed a monitor to follow the status of the baby, then bent over him and carefully cleaned the deep shoulder wound. It took nearly an hour for her to slowly knit the damaged muscle and flesh back together, before sealing the wound and turning to his lesser injuries. She was disturbed at the amount of blood he had lost and ordered fluids to be given intravenously. As the surgery ended, she noticed a disturbing drop in the reiatsu of both the shinigami and the child he carried.
"Damn! I thought this might happen!"
She poured more reiatsu into the healing field around him and placed her hands on his abdomen, focusing heavily. He was close to miscarriage, but Mari sent warm pulses of spirit energy into the muscles and the space around the baby, flooding the area with calming reiatsu. Sweat broke out on her forehead as she struggled to keep the area from contracting again. After an hour, Byakuya's reiatsu strengthened, and soon after, the baby's returned to a normal level. Mari breathed a sigh of relief.
But I have to think of something to do. Byakuya isn't going to be able to survive any more injuries like this one. The strain on his pregnant body is already pushing the limits.
Mari sighed in frustration.
If Aizen gets his hands on Byakuya again, I know I'm going to be dealing with a miscarriage next time.
It isn't fair…none of it! But what can I do?
She stared down at Byakuya as he slept, wondering. She thought also of the red haired shinigami in the cellblock. She wondered how he was faring. If Gin was involved, it was likely she would be called down to heal him as well.
She sighed heavily, wishing there was some way to get the two out of the fortress. Of course, there was no easy way to do that. She was much too likely to be caught.
We need help.
We, she mused inwardly, When did I start lumping myself in with them?
Then it occurred to Mari that perhaps they could help her as well. But she had to take care of Byakuya and to protect the child he carried. She gazed down at him thoughtfully, wondering how best to do that. An idea came to her, but she almost discarded it.
It's a little crazy…but it just might be that crazy is the only thing that will get us all out of this.
"I'd ask your permission if there was a way," she whispered to an unconscious Byakuya, "but there isn't time to wait for you to wake up. He'll likely be in here any minute to check and see how you are doing. I need to get this started right now. Forgive me, things will be pretty hazy for you for a while, but this will keep him from harming you until I can figure out a way to get you and your Renji out of here!"
"Mari?" Aizen's voice said from the doorway, "I heard he was out of surgery. How is he?"
"He and the baby survived, fortunately," she said in a tired voice, "but he is in a very delicate state. Pregnancy is hard on the body in the best and most normal of situations, but his case has not been normal from the start. Remember that he is male…and even given that the Kuchiki males are capable of giving birth, it is difficult and it puts a strain on the body."
"So what can I do to make sure he doesn't miscarry?" Aizen asked.
"First, do not hit him. Any intrusion on the body registers in the womb. It shocks the system and is bad for both Byakuya and his baby. Secondly, I would strongly recommend that you do not engage in intercourse for the rest of the time he is pregnant. As I said, he is in a fragile state right now. Even normal relations cause reactions in the body that could cause him to miscarry."
"I don't understand why he is in such a fragile state. What affected him this way?" asked Aizen.
"He lost a lot of blood and leaked reiatsu. Both were at shockingly low levels. I was able to infuse him with reiatsu and replenish it, but the blood will need to replace itself. I want to keep him here in the infirmary for a few days, just to monitor him and to ensure that he does not miscarry."
Aizen nodded.
"I want you to let me know when he wakes," he said, turning to go, "Do not worry if you have to wake me."
Mari shook her head in confusion as he walked away. She turned back to Byakuya and gazed down at him sympathetically. His chest rose and fell more steadily now and his reiatsu had returned to normal. She looked around and, seeing that she was alone, she withdrew a syringe and stepped in close to the sleeping shinigami.
"This is going to keep you under for a while, and when you wake, you will appear to have some odd symptoms, but I promise, the effects are not permanent, and they won't hurt the baby. What this will do is protect you from him. Hopefully, it will keep you from taking any more damage. Then, the only other thing is to figure out how to get Renji out of the cellblock. But I just might have an idea of what to do there also."
Byakuya flinched and his eyes opened as she delivered the injection. His eyes grew cloudy and confused and he sank back into unconsciousness. Mari stroked his hair gently for a moment, then went into her office and sat down at her desk, rubbing her eyes and pondering what to do next.
I've never done anything like this.
It's dangerous.
But…it's also the right thing to do.
XXXXXXXXXX
Renji rested fitfully under the weight of the kido restraints. His chest rose and fell unsteadily and his breathing was ragged. His body hurt like hell after the beating he had taken from Gin. He promised himself that at the first opportunity, he was going to engage in some serious payback on Aizen's snaky sidekick. But for now, there was little he could do, but wait for an opening.
He heard his cell door open and close, but couldn't turn his head to see who it was. The reiatsu didn't feel like Gin's, but Renji didn't completely trust his reading, since reiatsu reading wasn't his strong point. The reiatsu felt familiar and he wondered where he had encountered it before.
A cloaked figure appeared next to him.
"You're the one who helped me get in!" Renji exclaimed softly, "Am I glad to see you!"
"I am going to release the kido restraints. When I do, you must come with me quickly. We will have very little time to get from here to where I can conceal you. When we get there, I will explain how you will hide yourself while you remain in Las Noches. When they realize you are gone, they will search far and wide, every nook and cranny. You had best have some good cover when they do, or you will just end up back here! Now, you aren't going to attack me, are you?"
Renji smiled up at her.
"I'll try to remember not to. Anything you say, just get me out of here. Any more quality time with Gin and I think I will vomit!"
Mari smiled.
"I can see why Byakuya likes you, Renji," she said softly.
She released the kido field and he sat up, swaying dizzily.
"Easy, you were lying there for quite a while. Take a moment to reorient yourself."
She helped him slowly to his feet and they made their way out of the room. She pushed him into a small storage room as a guard went by, then led him out of the cellblock. They passed down a maze of hallways and through several rooms before stopping at the storeroom they had hidden in before. Once inside, she took their cloaks off and picked something out of one of the boxes on the floor. Renji stared.
"What is that?" he asked curiously, "Is that…a gigai?"
"Not exactly," Mari said, smiling, "but it's kind of like that. This is a cover form. It goes on over your shinigami form and it will conceal you. You will look like a hollow to everyone. We are not going to be able to get out of here until we get some kind of plan together…and that can't happen until we have a better idea of how Byakuya is doing."
Renji's brow furrowed in concern.
"Did something happen to Byakuya?" he asked quickly.
Mari sighed.
"From what I heard come through the grapevine, he lost control when he saw what Gin did to you and he broke his kido restraints and attacked Aizen-sama."
"No shit! He did? He isn't too banged up, is he?"
"Well, besides nearly bleeding to death and nearly losing the child he's carrying, he's fine. But I used something to make things look worse than they are to keep him away from Aizen for as long as possible. And even when he wakes, he's going to be unusually docile and calm. The drug I gave him does that. Hopefully, it will keep him from getting into any more trouble with Aizen-sama. Now, hurry and get into this before the alarm sounds. They're going to discover pretty quickly that you're missing."
Renji slipped into the cover form and turned to face Mari. She studied him carefully and nodded approvingly.
"If anyone asks, just tell them that your name is Takumi and you are my new healer intern. I've already filed paperwork on you."
"Hey," Renji said, tilting his head slightly, "I am really grateful for your help, but…I'm also kinda curious. Why are you doing this? You know, taking chances like this and defying that bastard, Aizen to help Byakuya and me? We don't know you, right?"
"No," Mari said, shaking her head and smiling more warmly, "I guess I just like underdogs."
"I guess," Renji snickered, "Now, let's hope the underdogs can make a clean getaway."
Mari opened the door and led him down several more hallways until they reached the infirmary. She led him inside and took him into her office.
"Oh, I forgot to ask," she said quickly, "You do have good healing skills, right? At least passable?"
Renji nodded.
"I've been having to fix up Taichou quite a bit lately, when he was training to face Aizen."
"Good. You will be actually helping me with some of Byakuya's healing. You will have other duties too, but, most of the time, I want you in with Byakuya. He is resting comfortably, but I would like you to keep an eye on him."
"Okay, anything else I need to know?"
"Yes, don't take off that cover form! If anyone sees you, it will blow your cover and mine. And try not to get too close to Aizen-sama for too long. He is very powerful and has a chance of figuring out you are not who you say you are. So be careful!"
"I will," Reni promised.
He turned and walked into the room Byakuya was in, and closed the door behind him. Byakuya laid, sleeping comfortably, but still frighteningly pale. Renji moved to the dark-haired taichou's side and sat down in the chair next to him.
Byakuya shifted in his sleep and moaned incoherently. Renji leaned forward and stroked his face gently, speaking to him in a soothing voice. The cover form altered his voice a bit, so that it sounded a little odd to him.
"Renji…" Byakuya said suddenly, "Renji…"
His eyes were still closed and he was frowning as though he might be in pain. Renji slipped a hand into his.
"It's going to be all right," he assured Byakuya, "I'm here now. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Mari and I are going to find a way to get you out of here."
The door opened and Mari entered and sat down next to Renji.
"Is he still delirious?" she asked softly.
"Yeah, pretty much," Renji answered without looking up at her, "Mari, how are we going to get him out of here?"
"Well," the healer said quietly, "we have to wait until after the furor over your escape dies down. I'm sure Aizen-sama will be all over the fortress looking for your reiatsu. Luckily, your cover form hides your reiatsu very well. Still, I would avoid spending a lot of time around Aizen-sama or that snake, Gin. You can stay here with me and we will, most likely, be beneath notice. Again, we just need to avoid…"
The door opened abruptly and Aizen Sousuke walked into the room. He started toward them and then his eye fell on Renji and he stared for a moment. Renji looked back warily, trying not to betray a look of surprise or anything that would gain his direct attention, but he couldn't quite help the fact that his heart was pounding madly in his throat.
"Mari," said Aizen in a soft, calm voice, "Who is this?"
