The Common Thread: Part 25

"How is she doing?"

"Well, she's stable and everything seems to be in order. I can't say for sure, though, until she wakes up that she will make a full recovery. Now, I will be back a little later to check on her, but for now you can all rest easy since she's not in any immediate danger."

"Thank you doctor."

Ichigo didn't stir from his place as he stared out the window with his arms crossed in front of him, until he heard the doctor leave. Then he turned his head slightly in order to address Uryu.

"So, what do you think?"

"About what, specifically?"

Ichigo turned and gave Uryu an irritated as he said, "What do you think about that doctor?"

Uryu adjusted his glasses as he said, "Getting you to actually verbalize what is on your mind is similar to a dentist having to pull out a highly diseased tooth from an extremely uncooperative patient. Fortunately, I don't have to be psychic to understand what you are so pitifully trying to ask, so I will reply that the doctors and everyone else are doing all they can for Orihime so just let them do their jobs."

Ichigo glared at Uryu, "Putting aside the insults, what I don't get is if they are doing their jobs properly, why hasn't Orihime woken up yet? She shouldn't still be in a coma right now if those people would actually get their act together!"

Uryu sighed as he replied, "You're comparing Orihime's healing process to how long it takes her to heal someone with her Shun-Shun-Rikka. Remember, Orihime was injured by something other than a Hollow, so none of the 13 Court Guard Squads have any reason to come over to the World of the Living to heal her faster. Therefore, it is up to her body to heal itself naturally, which takes far more time than you or any of us are used too."

Ichigo was about to retort when Chad stepped in and said, "We're all worried about Orihime, Ichigo. Don't forget."

Ichigo made an impatient noise as he threw his arms in the air and turned back towards the window to stare broodingly over the buildings, cars and people going about their daily lives as if they hadn't a care in the world. It irritated Ichigo to no end that so few people actually cared enough about this girl to come and visit her when she needed them most. Besides himself, Tatsuki, Chad and Uryu had come every day while Mizuiro and Keigo came less frequently, but still fairly consistently. Karin and Yuzu had offered to come with him the other night, but Ichigo had quickly vetoed that idea when his dad had started declaring his desire to come along as well to meet this beautiful young teenager whom he had only seen briefly about four years ago. The last thing Ichigo needed was the stress of watching Isshin Kurosaki acting like a complete idiot in front of his friends and fawning over an unconscious girl.

A sound in the door way caused Ichigo to turn his head slightly and see a male nurse enter the room and say, "Good afternoon, all. Hope you all are doing well."

Uryu responded in a somewhat more amiable tone than he normally used, "I believe we are all doing well physically, for the most part, as you can see."

The male nurse smiled and made his way over to Orihime's bedside as he said, "Just here to check that everything's in order. So, this girl's name is Orihime Inoue, is that right?"

Uryu nodded as he said, "Yes, and we are her friends."

The nurse then asked, "Oh, very good friends from the look of it, but I haven't noticed any family around. Is she an orphan or something?"

Ichigo spoke up, "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, no reason in particular. Just curious."

Tatsuki said softly from her position next to Orihime, "Just finish your job and get moving. This girl is unconscious and so can't tell you herself that she would not be interested in the likes of you."

The male nurse looked slightly offended as he said, "Hey! I never meant anything of the kind! Can't a guy make conversation without getting his head chewed off?"

Ichigo turned and gave the nurse a meaningful look as he said, "I've protected Orihime from worse than you. Get moving."

The male nurse started to protest when he suddenly realized that he had no desire to find out just how tough this orange-haired teen was and so quickly finished making some notes from the monitors and tried to nonchalantly exit the room.

Uryu gave a sigh as he asked Ichigo, "Would you try to be more civil to the staff here? Most of these people are merely trying to do their jobs and you act as if they are all out to assassinate Orihime or something."

Ichigo turned and glared at Uryu as he retorted, "That was about the fifth male doctor or nurse that came in here for the sole purpose of checking out Orihime and trying to dig up some dirt on her. How can I not be irritated?"

"While I don't think it's right of them to come in here to gawk at Orihime like a bunch of hormonal teens, you can stop acting like you are a hairsbreadth away from ripping their heads off."

Before Ichigo could say anything else, Uryu said, "I don't know about any of you, but I am rather hungry, so I'll go pick up some snacks from the lower level."

Chad silently fell into step behind the Quincy and Ichigo turned back to the window for a few moments before Tatsuki's voice caused him to turn completely around.

"I'm so sorry."

Ichigo had a pretty good idea that Tatsuki was not talking to him and once he had turned around he saw that Tatsuki's face, while looking into Orihime's calm countenance, seemed to show that she was not entirely aware of her surroundings. He decided that for the time being, he would let her speak without interruption.

"You'll never blame me, but I know the truth. You're right in front of me, but you've gone somewhere where I can't follow and it's all my fault. If you'll just come back, I'll never ask anything of you again."

Ichigo closed his eyes as he tried to process how he should respond. Tatsuki had been all but uncommunicative since Orihime had arrived at the hospital and so he had a hunch that she was probably feeling guilty about the whole accident, but he had never expected it to be this bad. Tatsuki was a completely different person, almost a mere shell of herself and he couldn't stand it anymore. Walking over to Orihime's bedside, he knelt down until he was eyelevel with Tatsuki and made sure she noticed him before he began.

"I'm not good at this kind of thing Tatsuki, but you need to snap out of it. You didn't hit Orihime with that car and she would be the first one to tell you to lighten up on yourself because the whole thing was an accident. You're speaking to Orihime as if she's miles away when she's right in front of you."

Tatsuki shook her head as she said, "Her body is right in front of me, but she's not here."

Ichigo blinked in confusion before he said, "What?"

Tatsuki raised a shaky hand to rub her forehead as she said, "When Orihime disappeared the last time, I told you that I had always been able to sense her presence and that I was worried because I was not able to feel her anywhere."

Ichigo nodded and said, "Yeah, I remember. So?"

Tatsuki looked Ichigo in the eye as she said, "Even though her body is lying right here where I can touch her hand and feel her pulse going, I can't sense Orihime's presence."

"I…what…how…I don't get it."

Tatsuki shook her head, "I don't get it either, but as soon as the car hit Orihime, something happened. I don't know what, but it…it's my fault and I can't fix it."

If Tatsuki had been prone to crying, Ichigo was sure she would have broken down long ago, but because she was not that kind of person it almost had more of an emotional effect on him as a result. To hear to absolute dejection and guilt in her tones was more than he wanted to deal with, but Tatsuki had been his friend for years and so he couldn't stand to see her in this state.

"I feel just as helpless and frustrated as you, Tatsuki. I completely don't understand what may or may not have happened to Orihime, but as Chad and Uryu have said before, the more you blame and punish yourself now, the more Orihime will hurt later because your pain will affect her. Personally, I don't get it, but from what I've heard, she's pretty good at…what's the word…ummm…emphasis…no…darn it, what was the word?"

"Empathy?"

"Yeah, that, I guess. Anyway, if you're her best friend, then quit blaming yourself and start figuring out how you're going to…I don't know...do whatever girls do."

Tatsuki looked from him to Orihime and then back before raising her eyes to the ceiling and saying, "Well, Orihime, you sure know how to pick them. I guess I can see why you would be attracted to him now, but I still think he's an idiot most of the time."

Ichigo stood up and asked, "Just what are you talking about?"

Tatsuki closed her eyes and shook her head as she said, "I'll explain when Orihime wakes up."

"Explain what?"

Tatsuki gave him a more Tatsuki like expression and said, "You really are an idiot who needs absolutely everything spelled out for you. Keigo, Mizuiro, Uryu, Chad and even some of your Soul Reaper friends figured out Orihime's 'secret' forever ago, while you're still clueless."

Ichigo retorted, "Why would I want to know Orihime's secrets and how do you know that everyone else knows them? You're not making any sense. "

Tatsuki rolled her eyes as she said, "Of course it wouldn't make sense to you because you're a clueless idiot, so let me help you. Orihime is in love."

Ichigo blinked before he said, "In love? With a guy? That's her big secret? Why does she keep it secret? Who is it?"

Tatsuki gave him a small smile, "Use whatever amount of brain you have in there to try and figure it out. I'm sure if you think hard enough, you'll discover the answer. She's loved this guy for a long time for all the times he's saved her and she's followed him to different dimensions and saved his live a number of times. That's all the help I'll give you."

Ichigo was opening his mouth to speak when Uryu's voice said, "Well, I hope you guys like rice balls because that was the only item that looked even remotely appetizing downstairs right now."

Ignoring the food, Ichigo decided to try and ask Uryu, "Hey, Tatsuki's been telling me that Orihime's in love. Is that true?"

Uryu paused for a moment before turning and looking from Ichigo to Tatsuki very slowly before answering, "Yes, I guess it is in a way."

"Well, do you know who she loves?"

Uryu gave Ichigo a condescending look as he replied, "You mean you haven't figured that much out yet. You're just as clueless as ever."

Ichigo retorted, "Will you guys stop calling me clueless? This is the first I've ever heard of this and I'm just trying to figure out who the guy is?"

Uryu stood up to his full height as he asked, "Why are you so agitated about finding out that Orihime has a guy whom she loves?"

"Well, from what I hear from Tatsuki, everyone else seems to know who this guy is and I just want to be sure that it's someone we can trust her with."

"Why would that matter to you?"

"Because she's my friend and what kind of friend would I be if the guy she liked turned out to be a huge jerk who only wanted to go out with her as a trophy girlfriend or something! Or what if this guy is no good and only ends up hurting her! Is this guy even someone we know?"

Uryu gave Ichigo a small smile as he replied, "Oh, we know him and you know him too, but it would be too easy to just give you the answer, so we'll just let you figure it out."

"Whatever! I don't really care. I just want to make sure that he's not going to-what was that?"

It took the four friends a little time to figure out what the noise they were hearing was, but once they realized the source it took a few moments for them to even process what was going on let alone how they should react until Ichigo snapped them all back to reality.

"Orihime!"

She had flat lined.

Author's Note:

Once again, don't start reaching for your shot guns just yet! If I killed off Orihime that would be the end of my story and Ichigo would have no reason to keep on living (in my opinion, but we'll ignore that point for the time being).

In my opinion, before Ichigo can come face to face with the fact that he truly loves Orihime, one of two things needs to happen. Either 1) she starts going out with someone else (preferably someone who is a complete and total creep but is very good at hiding his true nature from her since Ichigo needs to want to save her from such an evil boyfriend) or 2) she almost dies. As melodramatic and cliché as my reasoning is, in Ichigo's case things need to be paraded in front of him before he finally gets a clue so that's why I settled on this near death experience for Orihime.

Hopefully, that helped to clear things up a little since I don't want you to think that she is actually going to die. Just need to snap Ichigo out of his stupor before Orihime comes back.