~.X.~ ~.X.~ ~.X.~ (Ichigo's POV)
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"
Rukia's voice screamed at him over the phone, and Ichigo had the mental image of her standing in Uryuu's room, with the same paralyzed, horrified expression he had worn when he'd come to. Whatever defense he'd had on his lips died there as Rukia continued hurriedly,
"Where is Uryuu?! What have you done?! Ichigo, there's blood EVERYWHERE!"
Ichigo winced, biting his inner cheek, and checking the surgery sign again; it was still lit, so Uryuu was still being worked on. Hoping to whatever god would listen, he prayed for Uryuu's quick and painless recovery, even though he knew that wouldn't be so.
"Ruki-"
"DON'T 'RUKIA' ME, TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"
"I don't know, okay?!"
Flinching at the loud sound of his own voice in the echoing halls, Ichigo lowered his voice considerably, at least thankful he could get a word in now.
"I don't know what happened. Last I remember, I was at home, lying in bed. Uryuu texted you, I saw it, and then nothing. I have no memory of the past seven hours. All I remember after that was Uryuu clinging to me, bruised, bloody, and broken to all hell. His dad showed up and we took him to the hospital. He's in surgery now."
Rukia was silent for a moment, though he thought he heard a whispered,
"Oh my god..." come over the phone.
Dropping his head into his hand, Ichigo braced himself on his knees and closed his eyes tightly. As much as he was trying to hold it together, hearing Rukia piece things together over the phone made it somehow harder. It was like he could hear everything he was accusing himself of clearly in her voice, making him wonder if it really was true. His thoughts were interrupted, not when Rukia responded, but when she hung up on him.
His eyes opened, and surprised, he looked at the phone which was giving him nothing but a dial tone. He knew already Rukia was on her way to the hospital to see Uryuu, and with another glance at the still lit sign, he gravely wondered if there would be anyone to see when she got there.
He just hoped he was wrong, and that Uryuu would be fine.
~.X.~ ~.X.~ ~.X.~ (Ryuuken's POV)
Uryuu wasn't going to make it. Despite his contempt for the creature birthed from his loins... the idea irked him. In fact, the idea pissed him off. He watched as the heart monitor slowly began to skyrocket, the surgeons frantically scrambling around, and he could almost feel something in him snap. Almost.
What did snap were the surgical gloves, going on over his hands. With a few yelled orders to those around him, he managed to bring order into the room, and continued on the surgery where they left off. He, unlike most doctors of any kind, didn't find a handicap when working on blood relatives. He was the calm, steady hand that none of the others could be. Most likely because they were afraid to mess up and lose their job, but that still gained them no favor with Ryuuken. In fact, that made them less desirable to keep around.
As he worked, keeping an eye on the monitor that had managed to level out before hitting critical levels, he wondered why he'd turned a blind eye to the earlier signs. They had all been there, yes, but he'd been too caught up in his own life to really even care. Still he'd threatened Uryuu, pushed and poked at him, and now the only thing he could do for the boy was to bring him back from the brink of death.
Well. Maybe that wasn't all he could do for his son.
For Uryuu, he corrected himself.
~.X.~ ~.X.~ ~.X.~ (Ichigo's POV)
Three hours, and a very stern Rukia later, Ichigo was still waiting on Uryuu's surgery to finish. for once in his life, he'd begun biting at his fingernails, the stress physically slumping his shoulders as he feared for his friend's life. He'd known Uryuu had looked horrible, but for surgery to take this long... what might have happened if Ichigo hadn't come to? Especially when he did...
Clasping his hands together, he once more rested his head on his knuckles, not bothering to care how they dug painfully into his brow bone. Uryuu had suffered through worse. It was the only thought in his mind save for the gruesome images of how he'd found the male. The same images he couldn't cast out of his mind.
Rukia sat just as quietly beside him now, all of her fight having gone out of her after he'd explained the situation. They'd traded back phones, and not a single word was spoken between them afterward, only making the weighted silence more crushing on Ichigo's soul. She wouldn't say it, but he was sure Rukia blamed him for what happened to Uryuu. Hell, he blamed himself. How could he not, with the evidence stacked against him like this...?
Ichigo's eyes squeezed shut, trying to block the first signs of tears when he heard the doors swing open. Ichigo was the first to jump out of the chair, only to have that same white haired man suddenly in his face, his moves surprisingly sharp as a hand came around Ichigo's throat and pinned him to the back wall, positioned awkwardly over the chair he'd leaped from. Gasping for air and barely registering Uryuu on a stretcher, being rolled out of the room and down the hallway, his entire attention was focused toward the man holding him as he spoke.
"I want to know what you did to Uryuu."
Even as Ichigo reached for the arm to let pressure off his neck, the ice in the man's stare stopped him cold in his tracks, his breath hitching slightly like someone had hit him in the gut. If looks could kill, Ichigo would have been dead a thousand times over. Thankfully they couldn't, but it didn't make the awkward situation or position any easier to bare. Ichigo had just opened his mouth to try and give the man an answer when Rukia spoke up.
"There's no need for-"
"You weren't there." the man spat back, without even taking his eyes off Ichigo, but the lethal tone kept her from saying anything more.
Taking a shaky breath to steady himself, Ichigo did the only thing he could think of; he told the man everything.
He explained he'd been out that evening, how he'd gone back to his house and heard Rukia's phone go off with Uryuu on the other line. How he found the phone and started texting Uryuu back, and about the seven hour gap in his memory before he came to and found Uryuu like he did. He also went on to add that Uryuu had been acting extremely strange for several weeks before this, but was cut off mid sentence, and every word made him cringe inside.
"A total of twenty one broken bones, of which include his fingers, arm, and ribs. Several fractured bones, of which include his legs and ribs. Ripped and torn muscles in his legs, arms, jaw, and anus. Internal and external bruising on a grand scale, so much so that it alone will take weeks to heal. Heavy internal bleeding. A severe concussion he may live past. Blatant signs of asphyxiation. Bodily abuse and trauma, as well as mental trauma, and a high possibility of all these factors sending him into the coma that will see the end his life if nothing else will. THAT is what your seven hour gap of memory did to Uryuu. You're going to continue to tell me you don't know what happened?"
Ichigo had never actually wanted to lay down and die before; but he guessed there was a first for everything. This man... had voiced everything Ichigo feared and more, but what got to him the most was he was right. Something happened, and it was because of him. Ichigo found he couldn't respond to the man, and after a few seconds, he was dropped back into his hair, forced to look up at the white haired man whose gaze told him if murder was legal, Ichigo would have been dead before anything was said.
"You can write out the check to the Ishida house hold for the 120,000 yen prescription glasses that were broken in your seven hour gap."
If that statement hadn't startled Ichigo, when the man turned away, what he said over his shoulder did manage to steal his breath.
"Also, I'm giving you five minutes to leave MY hospital, which is more than I should give you. If you don't leave, you will be escorted out, forcefully, by my hand picked security team. Maybe they'll have a seven hour gap in their memory before you leave, too."
For a moment, Ichigo couldn't move, only watched as the man disappeared around a corner. It took Rukia's gentle nudging to finally get him to numbly walk out of the hospital, oblivious to the several members of security who watched him leave.
It took Ichigo a few hours of Rukia's help to realize he wasn't going to be there for Uryuu when he woke up, whether that was for the better, or for worse.
~.X.~ ~.X.~ ~.X.~ (Uryuu's POV)
Memories were blurs. Thoughts, a fickle breeze; here and gone. Pain surrounded him, but on a muted level. Bearable. Life went on. But... what kind of a life was this? Could this even be called life...? He was a floating mass of nothing, but even that wasn't true. What was true? He wasn't sure anymore. What he was sure of was the pain that had been held at bay for so long... was starting to creep back up on him. He wanted to whimper, but heard no sound. Ichigo still wasn't done with him.
He was going to die but Ichigo was going to make sure he suffered first. Hadn't he suffered enough yet? He was sorry... so, so sorry... He promised he would never tell a single soul about what had happened if only it would stop the pain. Stop the rapes, stop the torture... He would live with whatever happened, if only the pain would go away. He'd be good.
He'd be good because he was sorry.
But the pain just kept rising, and he felt something deep stuck in his throat. His chest rising and falling of its own will, without his conscious thought of breathing, and he could feel fingers in his hair. Images blurred before him, of before the pain had numbed, when Ichigo had forced his way into his mouth, and suddenly he was gagging, choking around Ichigo's member again. Vaguely he thought there was beeping and possibly Ichigo's voices around him, but suddenly everything was darker, and he didn't feel his member anymore.
In fact, for once, the pain was gone.
~.X.~ ~.X.~ ~.X.~
Uryuu flinched when his eyes squinted open without his consent. A bright, white light hit him squarely upside the head, making him extremely dizzy. Colors danced in his vision after a few seconds, like the lights were creating rainbow reflections off of silver plates and moving water. Nothing made sense. His body was floating, even as it was strapped to the bed. He couldn't remember anything except how unnatural things were. Suddenly too tired to think, he turned his head to the side, trying to get away from the un-colorful, colorful lights. The only thing that registered to his sluggish mind was a white coat and white hair sleeping beside the bed.
Processing that information, however, was still leagues away from his time. Within seconds, Uryuu was out again.