It was a cliffhanger last time, wasn't it? :P You will receive some answers in this chapter. The question is, will it disappoint or not?

DISCLAIMER: If I owned Bleach, I'm not sure what would happen. You'd have to hold me accountable for whatever happens to Rukia.

"How are they faring?" Captain Ukitake asked as the group watched the pair sleep in their confined room.

"Their fevers have gone down. In fact, it's like they had never had one," Captain Unohana replied. "They have a remarkable connection."

"So it was a good idea to bring her here?" Ichigo asked, concerned. He didn't like that they had his sister and Toushirou sleep in the same room (and now the same bed!), but she had been sleeping fitfully for weeks. Then, a week ago, she couldn't wake up from her sleep. She shivered and kept calling out for Toushirou, so Ichigo first had Inoue look at her. Orihime had said that whatever Karin was suffering from was an ailment in the mind, which was something she didn't know how to fix or reject. Next, Ichigo had taken his sister to Urahara's, where Tessai had examined her and said that she needed to go to Soul Society.

"Yes, since both she and Captain Hitsugaya seemed to have recovered. Hopefully we can find out why this happened now," Captain Unohana replied. Since Karin had needed to go to Soul Society for treatment, Urahara had contacted Unohana and she agreed to check the human girl over. She had said, "It's very curious. Captain Hitsugaya seems to be suffering a similar illness." Apparently the boy had been crying out for a girl named Karin in his sleep; every Karin in the Seireitei was called for but none of them seemed to make him recover (and a better part of them had never met the white-haired captain) so he had been taken to the Fourth Division for treatment as well.

Once Karin was brought into Soul Society, she and Hitsugaya were placed in a confined room of high-level kidou to stabilize their conditions and to be sure that she would not simply fall apart because of the high reishi levels. Almost immediately the pair recovered, as they stopped crying out for the other's name and slowly stopped sleeping fitfully.

"What are they dreaming about now?" Ukitake asked.

Unohana concentrated and muttered a long stream of words, and then a screen appeared before the room. She knew a kidou incantation that allowed the cantor and others to see into the dreams of a specific person or persons—in this case, Karin and Toushirou. They had watched previously as their physical conditions recovered, the two search across the snowing plain and find one another.

Now the two were experiencing something Captain Unohana had never seen before. Not only were they dreaming of each other, but they were having the same dream now that they were together. She was sure the Twelfth Division would be highly interested in what was happening between the two young ones. "This must not reach Captain Kurotsuchi until we can make sure he can't touch them," she commanded. The others nodded in agreement.

—x—

The two were dreaming again, he knew it. "Where are we now?" he asked, looking at her.

She glanced around, even going so far as to lean to see farther. "We're in a forest. Yet I've never seen this forest before." A golden leaf fluttered to the ground in front of them. "It's warm, but the leaves are falling."

They walked on, hands together so as to not lose one another. "A snowy plain to a forest of golden trees," he commented.

"I don't have an inner soul," she said in a snarky voice. "So don't even go there."

"I wasn't suggesting you had one," he laughed. "Though, truth be told, it would be interesting if you did."

"You'll have to wait until I die for that," she said haughtily. "I rather like where I am in life, thank you very much."

"Really? You have no desire for glory?"

"Glory? You call my brother coming home all the time, bruised and bloody, glory? You call him having to lie to his family, glory? You say that his school record getting ruined is glory?" she snapped. "No, it is not. We're just humans. A double life like that? I don't need your glory. At least, not until it becomes the life I live."

He was taken aback. But then he realized that she was right. They may have not been his reasons, but he did remember the reasons for which he did not want to become a shinigami in the first place. Some were misconceptions, but the others still held true. Sometimes he wondered if it had been worth it—but he always remembered that if he had not, his grandmother would have died, and if he had not, dreams of the girl next to him would have haunted him forever. So his choice turned out to be a good one.

"Then we don't need to think about that." It was the only thing he could think of to comfort her.

She flashed him a grateful smile, and they continued to walk through the endlessly falling golden leaves.

—x—

"Will they wake up?" Matsumoto asked. She had brought her captain to the hospital in the first place and had only just returned.

"I see no reason why they shouldn't," Unohana replied. "They did before."

Ichigo was watching the room through the other screen they had made. "I think they're waking up now," he announced, eyes still on the screen.

The adults around him looked back at the screen. "Right. Urahara, could you open the door?" Unohana asked. "Isane, please go get food for them; I suspect they're hungry." Her vice-captain left.

One couldn't refuse the woman. "Yes. Let's go." Urahara led the way to the confinement chamber, and after muttering some words, created a doorway. They walked through and Unohana glided gracefully over to Toushirou's bed.

"I-Ichi-nii?" Karin mumbled sleepily, seeing her brother's bright shock of hair. Then her thought process clicked and she tumbled out of the bed, Toushirou attempting to grab her arm as she fell off. "It's not what you think!" she insisted, righting herself.

"It's quite all right," Unohana assured her. "Your brother understands the situation, don't you, Ichigo Kurosaki?" she asked, turning to him.

He nodded, too afraid to say anything else.

She turned back to the girl. "Please get back into your own bed. I'm afraid that I need to do a different procedure on you than on Captain Hitsugaya."

Karin stood up and walked over to her bed as she asked, "Why's that?"

"You're in Soul Society as a living soul. I need to do things a little differently with you, that's all. There's nothing to be worried about."

"Why are we here?" Toushirou asked as Captain Unohana checked the girl over.

"You both didn't wake up from your sleep. Plus, you were calling each other's names. We didn't know what to do, so we brought Karin to Soul Society and placed you two in the same room," Urahara explained. "When that happened, you stopped calling out and began to sleep restfully."

"You were watching us sleep? What are you, creepers?" Karin demanded.

"Karin!" Ichigo admonished. "Be grateful they wanted to help you." Karin was sure he was scowling, but since the curtains around her bed had been pulled shut to give her some privacy, she couldn't see him.

"I'm sorry," she replied. "Thank you. But, still, that's a little…" she trailed off.

"I understand. Most people don't want their sleep to be monitored," Captain Unohana said gently. "Well, I've finished. You seem to be healthy, but I'd like to keep you here for a while longer."

"Okay." Karin nodded. After being a part-time nurse for a good deal of her life, she understood why Captain Unohana needed her to stay wherever they were.

Isane entered the room as her captain began to look over Hitsugaya behind the closed curtains. "I have their meals, Captain."

"Ah, good," her captain replied, sticking her head out. "Give Karin's food to her."

Toushirou looked up at her as she moved her hands over his body in a procedure he was familiar with. Her spiritual pressure was soothing as she used it to check him over. "What's wrong with us?" he asked quietly.

"Physically, nothing. Mentally? Your connection has harmed you both. I'm not sure what to make of it." She paused for a moment, and continued. "If we separated you, I'm afraid you might break out into a fever and chills again in your sleep. It seems that you're fine during the day. But we cannot have her stay here."

"I need to go back to my duties," he whispered, a high note catching in his voice. "Captain Unohana, she's just a girl."

"I know; calm down Captain. We might have to have someone from the Twelfth Division check you over, see what's wrong with your mind."

"Why can't the Fourth Division do that?" Toushirou asked. To go to the Twelfth Division meant last resort.

"We've never had this sort of thing before. We're healers, Captain Hitsugaya. They are the scientists; they discover a good deal of the cures for us. When we can't figure out what's wrong with a patient, we send for the Twelfth Division to discover it for us. They have a unit that specializes in the mind. Perhaps somewhere, someone knows what's happening to you two. It may be that something like this has happened in the past." She retracted her hands and smiled. "You're fine, but as I told Karin, I need you stay here a while longer." Captain Unohana stepped out and pulled back the curtains.

Toushirou was given his food, and he quietly accepted it. As he ate, he thought about their situation. He and Karin were placed in the same room and were going to be observed for an indefinite amount of time. It was possible that a team from the Twelfth Division would be called in to examine their conditions. Someone is going to tell the Captain-Commander sooner or later. He's going to find out. He's going to… to… he'll do something to her. He'll make her stay here, or he'll kill her and then make her stay here, or… or… His mind flooded with the possibilities. Whatever happened, the Captain-Commander finding out worried Toushirou. And undoubtedly his superior would be told about the little human girl that was causing trouble for one of his captains.

He felt a weight on his bed and looked up to see Karin, finished with her meal, sitting next to him. "What's wrong?" she asked, head cocked. "You seem more troubled than usual."

"They found out. It'll be all over Soul Society soon."

"That's a problem, isn't it." It wasn't a question.

He leaned closer, though he was sure that the others could hear him. "Two souls that can see into the other's dreams are phenomenal. Even more astounding is that you are alive. But the Captain-Commander will find out—that isn't a doubt—and that's really what worries me."

"Why? It's not your fault you're connected to me this way." She frowned at the presumed injustice.

"No, it's not, but he will see you as disrupting order. If I can't sleep without you—that isn't funny—" he broke off his speech to chide her snickers "—then my division can't function because if I try to have Matsumoto make all the decisions we're in trouble."

"That's not fair to her," Karin protested.

He sighed. "She is a flighty person and doesn't do her work unless I get extremely angry. That's just how it is. But back to my point. It's never good if a division can't function. However, we're one of the remaining divisions that have both a captain and a vice-captain, and on top of that, one of the most organized."

"So it'd be really, really bad if the Tenth Division stopped running properly."

"Exactly. And since you would be part of the problem, you are trouble."

Karin's face expressed fear at his words, and she paled. "Th-then, I'm… He's not going to kill me, is he?" her voice had risen, breaking into a sharp note.

Her brother had heard her. "No one's going to kill you," Ichigo snarled, his hand on his hilt. "Not if I've got anything to do with it."

"Now, now, please calm down," Urahara said. "Let's be rational."

"Don't worry; we won't let you be killed," Captain Unohana assured them, smiling. "If we let you get killed, it wouldn't solve anything. Captain Hitsugaya would still be sick. Then we'd have to waste the time to find you amongst all the souls in the Rukongai."

Karin looked relieved at her words, and Toushirou felt relieved as well. But he did not think that the Captain-Commander would just leave them alone. His superior was going to do something about her, and he wouldn't rest easily until he knew what that was. Toushirou looked at Karin and took that last thought back. I'll sleep just fine, since she is here. Instead, I will just be restless. Which is not a good thing to be, but I know I'll sleep fine at night.

Please review? Chapter four will be out on Sunday!