A/N: I'm soooo sorry guys!

It's been over a month and It's been extremely hard to juggle work and school. But it's reading week and I took vacation from work so I pushed through it and cranked out another chapter. Like I said, I've been sitting on this content, but I had it in a Word document that had 71 pages that were extremely disorganized. So I finally broke up my content into two documents and It seems to have encouraged me to edit and write more chapters. Soo, I have set a reminder on my phone and will try to have the next chapter out by my birthday, which is the 22nd of next month. I haven't forgotten about my fans and my reviewers, I appreciate your patience and commitment to this story.

A reminder, this story is not in chronological order. I will normally mark at the beginning of the story/ section of the story where I think it may be important to denote the time skip.

Alrightie, guys! Enjoy!****

EDIT: Soo I make the HUGE mistake of not reading through this chapter before posting it. A month later, (thanks to my new follower ;) I have realized how incredibly hard it is to read and that there were more than a few spelling errors. My apologies people! New chapter coming out very soon!

About 80 years ago...

It was getting harder each day.

First came lethargy. It made sense, didn't it? Being a squad member was much harder on the body then being at the Academy. She trained harder, slept less, and ate little.

Then came the vomiting. Rangiku attributed it to being overworked, and the pungent smell of men in her barracks. She was the only female that was a seated officer in Squad 10, and the only men who smelled good were her captain and his nephew, Lieutenant Isshin Shiba. She would never tell her lieutenant that, though.

She came out of denial when she'd realized she missed her period.

"Thank you, Captain, for being able to make a house call."

"Not at all, child. My duty is to take care of all sick and injured."

"I'm not sick, Captain."

"No?" Captain Unohana inspected the empty tea cup in front of her. She put it back down gingerly, as if she'd upset it in some way. "Nor are you injured, I gather?"

"No," Rangiku twiddled her thumbs. How was she to come out and say it? How would she explain herself?

"You know, 3rd seat Matsumoto, I hardly think being pregnant warranted a house call. I thought this was about something else."

Rangiku hid her shock well enough, but she couldn't help but let out an exasperated breath. Was it that obvious?

"Don't worry, Soul Reaper." Unohana reached over to clasp Rangiku's hands in her own. "No one else has noticed, if that's what you're worried about. But why come to me?"

"Because I have no one else. Because I can't trust anyone else."

"What about the child's father?"

"I…I don't want him to know." She looked away.

Unohana didn't pry any further. For all she knew, he could have forced herself on her. There was always a part of Rangiku's spirit that she sensed was broken.

"Captain," She stared up to the other woman's eyes, tear ducts glistening. "I want to keep it. How do I do that?"

Unohana approached the door to the office of Squad 10. She knocked twice, knowing there was no need. That he was waiting for her.

"Lady Yachi – Retsu."

"Goodday, Captain Shiba. I take it your nephew is elsewhere?"

"Yes. He has taken on many duties, actually, now that I'm getting older."

"I see. Isshin will make a good captain someday."

She had circled the chair before Captain Shiba's desk before lowering herself onto it. She was deliberately slow, careful not to raise any alarms as to the urgency of the matter they were about to discuss.

"Now then, Captain, what is it that I can do for you?"

The Captain of Squad 4, more often than not, went about her business unchallenged and unbothered. Not very many were still alive that remembered her as Kenpachi, especially since Squad 11 Captain had taken that title away. But they all still revered her, especially Captain Shiba.

It was so very easy for her to pluck Rangiku from his fingers.

"Lieutenant, what brings you here? I see that you've completed your mission with your Captain."

In the weeks that followed Rangiku's departure, Unohana had been busy with Squad 4s duties as well as Squad 10s. It would not be easy to make up for her absence, and in his failing health, Captain Shiba would need more than his nephew to run things efficiently. She'd found a boy, one that had graduated from the Academy in less time than the man that stood before her. Another prodigy. Maybe he would be of use to her old friend.

"I have." He was curt and not really in the mood for small talk.

"Is this about the boy? Have you heard, then?"

He had heard. A boy no younger than himself when we'd attended the Academy had graduated in less time than he had. When he and Aizen had come back from Hueco Mundo and heard the news, he was sure his captain would want the boy for himself.

"He reminds me a bit of you. Not just because of the funny coloured hair," she continued, not looking up from her paperwork. "He has this unshakeable sense of purpose like you'd had when you graduated. I hope it doesn't fade away, don't you, Lieutenant Ichimaru?"

Acutely aware that Unohana's words were deliberate, he engaged her in conversation. If he wanted to know where she went, he'd have to play along.

"Toshiro Hitsugaya, is it? And you've met him?"

"I have. I advised Captain Shiba that it would be wise to make him a seated officer, if only to help out now that 3rd seat Matsumoto is away."

"I'd heard about that as well." He didn't hear about it so much as he found out on his own. Gin was known for his recklessness, and everyone in the Gotei 13 had… expectations of him. Fortunately for him, that meant that he was not monitored as closely by his captain in the weeks that followed the return home from a long mission. And he would not fail to be witnessed by other soul reapers coming out of a bar at 4 in the morning, or with arms slung around questionable women, even if he didn't sleep with them in the end. When he took his leave of Aizen, he went straight home, seeking emotional comfort more than anything else. And if it lead to sex, then…

But she was not there. And he could sense that she hadn't been there in a long time. He could tell that she left of her own volition though: the apartment was clean and she'd carried some of her personal things with her.

He traced his mind for anything remotely resembling an argument or disagreement, even a look of disapproval. He remembered nothing.

"Fuck!" A surge of spiritual pressure escaped from his body and knocked a mirror off the wall, sending the shards of glass all over the room.

And now he was with Captain Unohana, after double checking that she was in fact, not in her barracks, nor anywhere else in the Court of Pure Souls.

"I'd heard about some disquiet in the district where you both grew up. I thought it would make the most sense for her to go, seeing as you weren't here." And she's a lot nicer than you are, Unohana thought to herself.

"Well, I…" he paused, unsure if implicating such direct concern for her would be in their best interest. "Captain Aizen was under the impression that there would be no more missions. His was dismayed to hear of 3rd seat Matsumoto's departure. Especially since he was forbidden to know if she was deployed within the region of his command. It could ruin his whole operation." It was a long shot, but he supposed Unohana would be more willing to receive a captain's concerns than a Lieutenant's.

"This was a goodwill mission, Lieutenant. No need for your captain to be alarmed. I wasn't –"

"I was under the impression that all Captains must discuss and vote on special missions." His smirk faltered at the realization that he'd cut her off.

"I see." She looked at him woefully, understanding that Aizen had nothing to do with this visit. And whether it was because she knew that the young girl wouldn't be able to hide her secret without his help, or she sensed the desperation in the very core of his soul, she was prepared to offer him information.

"Do you love her?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Don't patronize me, child," as kind as she had become over the centuries, part of her was still ruthless, part of her still relished the sport of killing. "I will not tell you where she is unless you tell me the truth. What that truth is, is none of my concern," She stood up from her seat, still much shorter than the man standing before her. He could see the edges of a deep scar behind her braid.

"Now," she said, arranging her hand so that they were clasped together under the sleeves of her captain's garment. "Do you love her?"

It was a quiet place, with no neighbours for miles. The door was already open and he slid through easily.

Why isn't there some kind of barrier?

He took in the layout before him. It had two floors, which was very uncommon in the Rukongai, but something she must have gotten used to as a soul reaper. There was a simple kitchen and plenty of space to sit. More than either of them had ever had.

" Why do you need two floors, Ran?" he mumbled to himself.

He sensed her, then. She was somewhere in the house. He was careful not to reach out to her with his spiritual pressure, even though it was so magnetic, so intoxicating. He rounded several corners before he found her, back to him, bathing.

"Ran?"

She jumped up out of the tub to face him, covering her breasts with her arms. A thin film of spiritual pressure glistened around her, almost as if she was glowing. He raised an eyebrow at this anomaly. Spiritual pressure was only supposed to release itself like that in action. Before he'd startled her, she was in a state of rest. He studied her face; eyes wild and lips quivering, and wondered why she was so scared, why she'd felt the need to run away, why….

Both eyebrows were raised now.

"Ran."

Her body loosened and began to drop: she'd fainted. Gin reached for her and caught her before she fell back into the tub, careful not to disturb the mound of her belly and the baby growing inside.