A/N: Alright, so kicking myself into putting some serious thought into this story now. It's recently come to my attention that this story is nearing its one year birthday and... it's still not finished. How I let this happen, I'm not sure but somewhere along the way I made it complicated and put it out of my focus. Hopefully I can come back and readjust this. Thanks for the reviews.

He had opted to go back in during the midnight shift and follow through to the next morning; changing out during the afternoon shift and then returning once more for the last half of the evening hours. It messed up his sleeping schedule a bit but he was used to that by now and it wasn't like he spent that much time sleeping anyways.

Most of the time spent was in his office as he finished off the newest requests for reports and set them aside for later review; giving himself some time to give a brief walkthrough around the hospital, which was normally part of his usual routine. Something seemed… odd this time though. There seemed to be more energy or some kind of presence around and he couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from. He tried not to concentrate on it but it was beginning to annoy him when he couldn't locate it despite multiple trips throughout the entire building.

"My, my, seems like it's been quite awhile since we've had this many people in here." Milianne remarked as she shuffled her way through a massive stack of folders in her arms; her disheveled locks proved that she had been in the building for much longer hours than he had and yet she still managed to carry herself on through the lingering shift. She somehow managed to seat herself behind her desk without spilling a single folder, however the transition of it to her desk was another story. "Well, living, non-injured groups anyways."

"I thought something seemed different." he replied soon after as he paused just briefly by her desk. "What kind of group is here anyways?"

"Oh, well, there was a delivery this morning so I'm assuming they're the family here to congratulate the new mother and welcome the newest member." she answered. "… Quite an interesting group of people needless to say, but I'm not here to judge."

He must've missed that memo. He had been there all morning but hadn't even heard a word or report about it; oh well, it's not like he dealt with the maternity ward anyways. The one instance he did, it was in an extreme emergency and he just told himself he wasn't going to do that again. "Well, good for them."

"There's been mixed reports about how cute it is; half and half."

"You know how it is, they can't all be cute."

"We are horrible people."

"Quincy!"

How many times had he told her before to stop calling him that in the witness of others? He was just about tired of having to explain it and pass it off as a nickname. Turning back at the voice, he watched as she seemed to merrily stroll her way down the corridor towards them; another woman accompanied her side with a large bouquet of flowers resided in her arms. He didn't want to observe the other woman for too long… something about her didn't seem to settle well with him and yet, piercing blue eyes seemed to cut easily through his own like a kill strike.

"Hey, eyes on me." Cirucci spoke as she quickly drew his attention back to her. "Having fun just walking around and wasting time?

"Yeah well at least it's semi-productive, unlike you probably just milling through your closet." he shrugged in response; catching the touch of a smirk on her lips. "I thought you were going to take the day off?"

"Well you know how much I love messing up your predictions." she commented. "Actually, a friend of mine just had her baby this morning and I'm here to harass her about it."

That must've been what the whole crowd was about, wait… if she knew the person with baby, then she probably knew the people who were already there visiting. Which meant- he didn't want to finish that thought actually. "Alright, well… you know where the maternity ward is. Don't get any ideas."

"But Tia and I were already discussing names and nursery themes." she playfully whined as her lower lip stuck out just a tiny bit.

"Tia?"

"Yeah, she's the blonde-haired, blue eyed stick you couldn't keep your eyes off earlier." she answered; watching as he made quick to defend himself only to stop at the last minute. He must've decided not to give in to her play this time around. About that same time, she felt the light pressure of a hit strike her between the shoulder-blades. She glanced a quick eye over her shoulder to the blonde-haired woman who only stared back at her with a brief tightness across the corner of her lips. "What? I don't understand what your problem is. Anyways, we both hitched a ride to drop by and see the new baby." she finished as she turned back to him. "Hopefully it doesn't look like its father."

"Logically, if you look at the genetics of it-" he started.

"You're beginning to sound like my housemate."

Of course she would interrupt him with that remark. "Well you'll only know when you get there, better get a start on it now." he remarked. "Now then, if you'll excuse me, I think I have some appointments that are coming up soon. I guess I'll just have to see you later, unfortunately."

"Yeah, well I'm not to happy about seeing you later either." she teased. "Come on, Tia, let's go see how that baby is. And I guess how the mother is too. See you later, Quincy."

He watched as the two women passed on by and continued down the lingering corridor. He tried not to focus on anything in particular but… ugh, he was just going to blame it on the lack of sleep recently. Not to mention, there were plenty of other things to worry about right now; he had plenty of other patients that called for his attention.

"Well, that was an interesting woman." Milianne started.

"Nah, Cirucci's always like that."

"Actually I was referring to the blonde." she lightly corrected with a soft cock of her eyebrow.

Yeah… there was something odd yet interesting about her.

As it turned out, there were very few patients who actually called for his attention; most of them were easily taken care of by the nurses instead and we were on their way off his schedule. Which left him in his office, once more; giving him time to easily sort through his notes and send off the finished reports from before. He had told himself he would probably leave around nine or ten and yet somehow the clock was already striking twelve by the time he glanced up to it. He had stayed a lot longer than expected, in fact he had guessed he would've crashed out by now… but something was keeping him awake; something was keeping him clearly conscious and functioning.

He blamed it on the rush of things that needed to get done.

And yet, some far reach of him concluded that it wasn't work that was keeping him here; something about that woman and that group of people- he had yet to see them and yet they weren't settling very well with him just in thought. Which is why he made the concrete decision to not pursue who they were. It was easier if it all just remained a momentary mystery, after all they would be gone in a few hours anyways; in fact, they had probably already left by now. Nothing more to worry about.

He was halfway through flipping aside reports and notes when a light tap at his office door momentarily pulled his attention away from the work at hand. "It's unlocked." he called to whoever was on the other side, although most of the time people just welcomed themselves in regardless. He barely looked up from his work at the creak of the door opening and assumed it was probably just Milianne bringing in more requests for reports- although Gods knew what else was left to write a report on.

"I was surprised by your reaction before."

The foreign voice stilled him partly as the sentence he was in the midst of reading seemed to blur out of focus.

"I guess I had assumed someone such as yourself wouldn't have been bothered by a second glance; in fact, I can't really tell if you had done your homework or… were just merely acting on instinct. She was right when she said you're a difficult shell to break."

Even as much as he felt as though he would regret it… he slowly lifted his eyes from where they had been glued to the report in hand; turning up to look at the blonde-haired woman who stood only a few feet from him now. Those piercing eyes moved to absolutely drown everything in sight.

Cinnamon-toned skin almost seemed mismatched with her lighter strands and bright eyes. A simple, white jacket had been thrown over a pale-blue, tank-top of some sort; half-zipped to reveal a modest glance of her deep collarbones and the dip of her sternum. Her semi-wide hips were dressed with a slimming pair of jeans that fell along the long-distance of her legs and just lightly draped over a pair of black boots that were curved fairly gracefully into a rounded toe. Slender arms were crossed over her chest as a set of pale lips seemed to remain consistent in a brief frown- or maybe just in an emotionless expression that pulled out the stoic composure that suited her all too well.

He hadn't caught on to her before but now… everything seemed to fall together.

While he had never seen her before personally, there had been descriptions, pictures and even brief sketches of her overall look and identity.

She had been a difficult figure to overlook back then… and an even harder one to look away from.

"Tia Harribel…"

A slight tilt of her head seemed to signal that she had heard just the brief whisper of her name in identification. "So you remember me then? Well, actually that's not quite correct, is it?"

"We never actually encountered one another…" he started. "I don't even think we caught a glimpse. I only know you from what I've heard."

"And the same would go for you… although I wouldn't exactly count Cirucci as a reliable source of information; she's not the best informant when she seems to have 'other interest' in her targets. I will give her credit for being able to describe you perfectly though, however there were details I could've gone without."

He made a mental note to speak with Cirucci later and… exchange some choice words with her. There was a brief moment of awkward contact as neither of them seemed willing to push the conversation further; or had no idea of where to take it. "I don't know why you're here or how you managed to get here or why you're even speaking to me at this moment but… that information can stay with you."

"Not curious then?"

"Oh believe me… if there was anything more I want right now, it's answers to this whole thing. But, I don't think I want to risk it. Should there be 'certain' interest in this mess, should there be outside interest in this whole thing, I don't want to be the one with the loose tongue."