7. Bed rest
"Is there anything else I can do for you, Kotetsu-fuku-taicho?"
"No, thank you Hanataro-kun. I have everything I need", Isane responded in a slight sarcastic tone.
Apparently, Yamada heard that something was amiss with his fuku-taicho, but he didn't get the right message.
"Are you sure? You know, I would be happy to get you anything else", he told Isane smiling at her.
"No, just leave me alone!", she yelled back at him.
Being completely taken by surprise, Yamada stumbled over his own feet and crashed onto his face. Holding his now bleeding nose, he hurriedly left the room, mumbling something that sounded like "Soohry, I'm guhing".
Isane watched him leave silently. If she wouldn't have felt so miserable for herself, moaning about her situation, she would have felt sorry for Yamada and apologized for her harsh tone. Normally. Instead, she was genuinely thankful for being finally alone.
After Hanataro and Isane had reached the white bedroom, the young boy had begun immediately to check, that everything was in order, while Isane had changed into some available sleeping attire behind a wooden screen before laying down on the bed.
Seeing his superior finally taking some rest, Hanataro Yamada unfortunately decided that very moment to take extra special care of his fuku-taicho.
"Hm, you seem to have a fever. I will get you a cold cloth for your head."
"No, that is not necess...", Isane tried to stop him, but he had already gone to the sink at the opposite wall, to get everything he needed.
"You might also get thirsty, so I will get you a nice cold drink. Or maybe a warm tea would be better? Never mind - I'll get you both."
And again he dashed off, before Isane could state her protest, and was back within the blink of an eye. If Isane hadn't been already annoyed by all the unnecessary actions of her taicho-sama towards her, she certainly would have been now. Completely unaware of her feelings, Yamada however, was not done yet.
"Oh, and you will need another blanket and pillow. The standard ones are really not comfortable."
And he run off again. Frustrated at her inability to stop the energetic man, Isane let her head sink deep into the perfectly fine pillow and closed her eyes. Keeping her composure at this level was quite challenging for her. Only the hope, that at some point Yamada must run out of options of what else to get her, kept her from grabbing him by the shoulders, yelling into his face to please leave her alone.
So when he finally asked her, if she needed anything else and did not leave immediately after her negation, Isane lost for a moment her self control and scared him out of the room. Having achieved something at last, she now faced a new problem. What to do next?
She could not leave this room. Unohana-taicho would drag her back into bed at once and seal her to it with some restraining kido spell. She had nothing to occupy her mind with - no paperwork, no books, no interesting cases to think about - nothing. And she could not sleep. The energy pill would work for another 20 hours at least, thus keeping her wide awake. Seeing no other option, she decided to meditate. Maybe then a useful idea would come up in her mind. Sadly, she could not talk to her Zanpakuto Itegumo at that moment. She had left it in her office as always. Itegumo had no healing qualities, so she did not carry it around while working within the care unit.
Meanwhile, Unohana was just finishing some flu and sleeping medicine for Isane in the pharmacy room, when suddenly her seventh seat came sprinting into the room. Apparently unaware of her presence he headed straight for the drawer which contained bandages and ointments for bleedings. Taking a closer look at him, Unohana saw that his nose was heavily bleeding.
"Hanataro-kun, what happened to your face?"
Scared to death, Yamada yelped and dropped some ointment on the floor. Taking a second to catch his breath again, he turned to face his taicho.
"Sorry taicho. I did not see you. I'll use another room", he answered nervously while already heading out of the room again.
"I did not ask you to leave, Hanataro. I want to know, what has happened to you", Unohana answered in her usual kind but stern manner.
"Hai, Unohana-taicho. Well, nothing really happened."
"You are bleeding."
"Yes, but only because I lost my footing and fell right on my face."
"And what made you fall?", Unohana asked, now slightly impatient with her officer.
"Nothing. Really. It was just my usual clumsiness", Yamada replied while paying suddenly a lot of attention to his own feet.
Hearing that Unohana sighed, but remained otherwise very calm. What was it lately with her officers, lying straight into her face? First Isane and now Hanataro. Was she possibly losing her subordinate's respect or even worse, their trust? One way or another, she had to put a stop to that. Stepping right in front of him, she lifted his chin to get a better look at his nose. Seeing, that not much damage was done, she summoned some healing kido and stopped the bleeding.
After being done, Hanataro bowed before her: "Thank you very much, taicho".
"No problem, Hanataro-kun. Now please explain to me, why you just lied to me. You did not just trip. What has my fuku-taicho done?"
Yamada, fully aware of being caught in the act, turned his eyes to the floor again.
"She threw me out", came the barely audible answer.
"And can you imagine, why she has done that?"
Looking up again into his taicho's face, Yamada tried to recollect everything that happened in the white bedroom.
"Well, after we got to the room, I saw to it, that everything was alright. And when Kotetsu-fuku-taicho was finally in bed, I got her everything she might need - just as you ordered. After that I asked her, whether she needed anything else. She said no, but I had the feeling, she wanted something. So I asked again. And at that moment she snapped at me and threw me out. I was so surprised by her reaction, that I tripped and fell on my face."
While listening to his story, Unohana frowned. For her fuku-taicho to lose her temper so quickly was very odd. It could only mean, that she really must feel terrible at the moment and that she was more exhausted than Unohana first assumed. However, she saw no need to share these thoughts with Hanataro. Thus, her usual kind smile returned on her face, while addressing her officer once more.
"Thank you for telling me the truth now, Hanataro-kun. However, to prevent you from making lying to me a habit, you will clean the eleventh's squad rooms for the next two weeks, in addition to your normal duties. Is that understood?"
Gulping hard, Hanataro nodded his understanding. Then he left silently the room, feeling very embarrassed and ashamed of himself. Being satisfied with his reaction, Unohana took the prepared medicine and went over to the white bedroom. She did not expect to find Isane sleeping - the energy pill would keep her from doing so. So, she was not surprised, when instead she found her fuku-taicho sitting in bed, meditating.
"Isane?", Unohana softly called.
Startled at hearing suddenly her taicho's voice, Isane quickly opened her eyes. Right in front of her stood Unohana, holding a phial in her hand. She hadn't even heard her coming in. How long had she been standing there? Isane must have really been lost in thought for the past hour - unfortunately without getting any new ideas on what to do in this place while sleeping was not an available option. Having nothing to say, she just looked at her taicho expectantly.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better, now that I got some rest."
Isane smirked at these words. Actually, she felt worse. The pain in her head and throat had increased and she felt restless. Of course, she wouldn't tell Unohana any of that.
"You do, just after one hour of meditation?"
"Yes, you know that I normally don't need much time to recover", Isane responded confidently to her taicho.
"Alright, then let me check, whether your symptoms have already subsided."
And again, all of Isane's pretended confidence crumbled to dust within a second. She had no choice but to endure her taicho's examination again. Would it always be that way, every time she said, she was feeling better? She truly hoped, that it would not be the case. However, she had an odd feeling, that Unohana would do exactly that: checking Isane's condition every time she reported a change - be it for the better or the worse.
What the fuku-taicho could not understand was, why her taicho did go to such great length for her. She was no important person in Seireitei, she was not suffering from a severe illness or injury, she was not a taicho and, most important of all, she did not ask for any of this! So why did Unohana-sama pay her so much unnecessary attention?
"Well, that is strange. Your fever has gone up, the inflammation inside your throat increased and the look on your face tells me, so did your headache. Are you sure, you are feeling better, Isane-fuku-taicho?", Unohana asked with a very strange expression on her face - somehow it looked like a mixture of anger, amusement, worry and kindness.
Becoming very self-conscious, Isane stared down on her hands. It was very hard to admit, but of course she had to fail lying to her taicho about her current condition. Unohana Retsu was not considered the best healer in Seireitei for nothing. Giving in, she slightly shook her head.
"I am sorry taicho-sama. It's just - I do not want you to make such a fuss about me. I can take care of myself. I am your fuku-taicho after all. And it is just the flu, nothing serious", Isane tried to explain herself.
"Isane, I do not know, why you do not want me to help you. You of all people are aware of my skills and you know that I only have your best interests at heart."
"Yes, that is exactly, why I do not want you to waste your time on me! You are the most accomplished healer I know, there are dozens of patients truly in need of your help and time, while I am not so important and I can take care of myself! So please, let me alone and take care of other people!", Isane was now actually yelling at her taicho.
For a short moment taken aback, Unohana waited for the fuku-taicho to calm down again before she spoke to her again in the most kind and serene voice.
"No, Isane. I will not leave you alone while you are in such distress. You are a fuku-taicho. My fuku-taicho. You are important to the people in Soul Society and to me. And right now, you are ill and deserve nothing less than my full attention. And I will take care of you until you have fully recovered."
Before Isane could retort anything, Unohana continued.
"Now, as for you being able to look after yourself, you have shown poor judgment so far. In addition to that you have been lying to me several times, not only today but also over the past weeks. Therefore I have no reason to trust you right now on anything concerning yourself, especially in regard to your health and your sleep. So until you decide to be more forthcoming and trust me again with nothing but the truth, you will stay here in my care. Is that understood, Isane?"
At these words, Isane's eyes had widened in shock. The tone in her taicho-sama's voice horrified her to no end. And so did the content of her little speech. Whatever her benign intentions behind her secret learning sessions were, Isane never wanted to upset her captain. Surely, Unohana-taicho knew, how much Isane trusted her, didn't she?
She just didn't feel ready to tell her the full story yet. She couldn't put her finger on it either, why she felt this way. Maybe she just wanted to have something significantly accomplished before telling Unohana about it? Yeah, that might be it. As soon as she has something noteworthy, she decided, she would tell her taicho about it. And then her secrecy would surely be forgiven.
Having come to this conclusion, Isane realized that there was nothing she could do right now, to improve the situation and make her taicho feel better. While it hurt of having lost her trust for the moment, she would not waste Unohana's time by telling her about her research project. Not yet.
Regarding her health - well, she could be a nice and cooperative patient and tell Unohana the truth about her flu symptoms. After all, she couldn't really hide her condition from her anyway and this way the healing process might speed up. Which meant, she could return back to her work sooner and help her taicho again. Having made up her mind, Isane straightened her face and responded in all earnestness.
"Hai, taicho-sama. I understand. Seriously, I assure you, I trust you with my life, I always did. And I promise, from now on, I will tell the truth about my flu symptoms."
Well, not the outcome Unohana had hoped for, but at least, it was a start. It did not go unnoticed, that Isane didn't say anything about her other lies or had tried to explain her recent strange behavior.
"Very well, Isane. I really do not appreciate it, when my staff is lying to me. Frankly I find it disrespectful and I kindly remind you, that having been your taicho for many years, I always know when you are not telling the truth. And if you decide to continue worrying me this way with your behavior, I will draw all consequences I deem fit. I rather like not to do that, because you are inestimable to me. Please, do not forget that", Unohana said, displaying a fleeting sad expression.
Seeing this, Isane felt really bad. For a moment, she even opted to spill the whole story, but then decided against it. She would make it up to Unohana-taicho eventually. She just needed a little bit more time, that was all. So she simply nodded her understanding, unable to find any fitting words to reply.
"Now, seeing that your condition has not improved over the past hour, I think it would be best for you to get some sleep", Unohana told her fuku-taicho in a very sweet motherly tone.
"Hai, but the energy pill is still working."
"I know. That's why I created this antidote. It will disperse the energizing effect and put you to sleep very fast."
Hearing this, Isane felt truly grateful for having Unohana as her doctor for the first time since she was feeling sick. Only Unohana-taicho could foresee her desperate need to sleep and contrive a fitting remedy. She eagerly took the phial from Unohana and swallowed down the sour liquid.
"Thank you, taicho-sama."
At this Unohana simply motioned Isane to lay back down and tucked her in. The medicine worked very fast, and it felt like total bliss to Isane. Finally, this long day would be over. And as soon as she would be asleep, Unohana-sama could return to her normal work. With this last thought in mind, the fuku-taicho fell into a deep slumber. How very wrong she was.
Unohana still had to figure out the cause for Isane's persistent sleeping problem . Therefore she had already decided to watch over Isane's sleep. After making sure, that her assistant was asleep and putting a cold cloth on her forehead, Unohana quickly got to her office to fetch some paperwork. On the way there, she met Hanataro and instructed him, to call her only in a case of emergency and to spread the order within the squad. That being done, she returned to the white bed room, pulled up a chair and silently started to work on her reports.