17. Isane's worries
Kotetsu Isane awoke the next morning with pains in her lower back and shoulders. This came to no surprise given that she had slept in her office sprawled over her desk. She did not have the motivation to go home after giving the order of letting Unohana-taicho rest. Instead she had started to work on the casualties report of yesterdays attack - over 200 injuries were reported, the academy buildings were in complete shambles and that did not even include the damage the sealing technique of squad twelve caused. It was so much work, that the fuku-taicho had not been able to finish the paper work before sleep claimed her.
Isane was grateful to have fallen asleep at all after occupying her mind for a couple of hours with work. After all, the only other things she could think of right now were her guilt and shame. What had she been thinking and why did she not confide into Unohana-sama sooner? Now the damage was done and she would have to face the consequences. If only she would know, what they would be. No matter what her taicho would decide, Isane knew she deserved it. Actually, she thought what she had done was unforgiveable. So any form of disciplinary action would be kind of a relieve, because it meant at some point in the future Isane could amend for her actions and be forgiven. Forgiven for hurting and risking the life of Unohana Retsu.
The fuku-taicho knew that continuing to hide from her taicho was not an option today. If she wanted things to return back to normal - and she wanted that as soon as possible - and in order not to arouse Unohana's anger even further she had to face and talk to her today. But first she wanted to finish the reports and have them send to the first squad, so nothing would distract her attention when talking to her taicho-sama.
It was 10.30 in the morning when Isane finally put the last piece of paper on the stack with the finished reports. Outside her office she could hear her fellow shinigami working as usual. Well, here at last was something the fuku-taicho and taicho would not have to worry about for a while: the working performance of squad four was excellent and she, Kotetsu Isane, would make sure that it would stay this way. Unless Unohana-taicho decided to dismiss her from her squad or ordered her to work forever at the academy as soon as it would reopen again when the repairs were finished.
Looking now at her clean desk and finding no more excuses to avoid the inevitable, Isane took a very deep breath, trying to summon as much strength and bravery in it as possible, and left her office. Right outside she met Hanataro Yamada, seemingly busy with refilling the medical supplies in all treatment rooms.
"Good morning Hanataro-kun."
"Oh. Good morning fuku-taicho," he greeted back while bowing to his superior.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Kotetsu-fuku-taicho?"
"Not exactly. I have to talk to Unohana-taicho-sama. Do you know where she is?"
At these words, a deep frown appeared on Yamada's face. Something, Isane noticed and caused her to get a bad feeling of foreboding.
"What is it, Hanataro-kun?"
"Well, as far as I believe, Unohana-taicho did not come to work today. She neither has left us a message about her whereabouts. Until now I thought, you knew where she is and that everything was coordinated with you, because yesterday evening she had asked for you. I thought you had talked to each other last evening."
Isane suddenly felt very sick to her stomach. No, they hadn't talked, because Isane had been too busy hiding her sorry self inside her office, in spite of knowing that Unohana wanted to talk to her and even though she knew that her taicho must have felt sick due to the side effects of the instant healing kido.
"No, we did not talk yesterday evening, but I will go to her now. I believe, everyone knows what his respective task is today. If there are any problems, please refer them to third seat Iemura Yasochika-san."
"Hai fuku-taicho."
It was now almost eleven o'clock and Unohana-taicho had nowhere been seen inside her squad's facilities. Where could she be at such a time? Did something happen to her or, even worse, was she too sick to come to work because of what Isane had done? With these thoughts in mind, the fuku-taicho concentrated on finding her taicho's reiatsu signature. Sure enough she found it inside Unohana's quarters, so Isane walked over there worrying sick what might be expecting her there.
"Unohana-taicho? Taicho-sama? Are you alright? Unohana-taicho, please answer the door?" Isane yelled while almost breaking the door to her superior's quarters through her forceful banging at the front door. Despite her efforts there was no answer. It drove Isane close to madness, knowing that her taicho-sama was inside but not responding. In a desperate attempt to allow herself entry, she grabbed the door handle, hoping against hope that she could get in. To her surprise she found the door unlocked and entered.
Ignoring the fact of being in her taicho's quarters for the first time, Isane did not take in the scene around her - the clean but comfortable large rooms with only a few pieces of furniture to make life easier. No, her eyes were searching for the owner of these rooms. Stepping through the living room into the bed room, the fuku-taicho's heart sank at the sight before here. Shivering and shaking in bed lay Unohana Retsu, her eyes closed and unaware of the things going on around her.
The fuku-taicho was at her side in an instant. Raising her hand to Unohana's forehead, Isane could feel the heat that radiated from her body.
"Of course, she is burning up. I was sick for several days after only healing some minor injuries. Unohana brought me back into life and then continued to work and healed the others during the fight. How could I have been so stupid to think that she would be alright after these hardships with only a couple of hours sleep?" Isane berated herself.
Remembering the care Unohana had given her when Isane had been sick last, the fuku-taicho left her side for a moment to retrieve a bowl of water, some cloths, towels, some additional clothing and two cups of tea. Isane was determined to help her taicho through this the best she could and right now that meant remaining at her side and helping her through that darn fever.
"Unohana-taicho? Taicho-sama. Please wake up for a moment."
Unohana Retsu stirred at these softly spoken words and slowly opened her eyes. Getting back her orientation and remembering yesterday's events she was surprised to find her fuku-taicho sitting beside her bed inside her quarters.
"Isane, what are you doing here?" was the first question that came to mind, while she tried to sit up.
"Please taicho, you mustn't get up. You are very ill, so please lie down", was the immediate response while Isane gently pushed her taicho's shoulders back down towards the bed.
"I was very worried that you did not come to work today and nobody knew where you have been. So I started looking for you and found you here. Your door wasn't locked."
"I must have been too tired to close it properly."
"Hai taicho-sama. I am very sorry for what has happened and I..."
"Isane. I know that we have to talk about it and we will. I promise you. But right now, I am afraid my condition does not allow me to have such a conversation at the moment. The after effects of the kido spell and the energy pills I took seem to be stronger than I anticipated yesterday. All I want to do right now is sleeping. Please return to the squad and see that everything is in order. I will be fine as soon as I got some more rest."
"No taicho, I will not leave you here alone in this condition. Frankly, I think it would be best to get you back to squad four, where we could better monitor your condition."
"Isane, all I need is some rest and I certainly do not want to be moved over to single bed room, where all I would do is sleep as well", came the tired but rational response.
"Alright, I will let you stay here. However, I am not going away. I will take care of you until you are back on your feet."
"Isane..."
"No, taicho-sama. It is my fault you are sick right now, so it is my job to make you better. I left third seat Iemura in charge and finished already all paperwork, so there shouldn't be any problems. Now, I agree you need to sleep some more, but before that we have to get you out of these soaked clothing and some fluids into you. Alright?"
Feeling too tired and weak to argue with her fuku-taicho Unohana slowly nodded her head in a positive response. Seeing this, Isane felt a little relieved - at least something was working out - and she started to help her taicho out of her soaked nightwear into a fresh one. The fuku-taicho then coaxed Unohana Retsu into drinking some tea before she tucked her neatly back into bed and put a cold cloth on the taicho's still burning forehead.
Unohana Retsu fell back asleep very fast and Isane used that time to shortly return to squad four. There she informed the squad of their taicho being sick and gave out the order that the third seat would be in charge of everything for the time being until she and Unohana-taicho would return. No one questioned the fuku-taicho's order. A lot of the shinigami had seen Unohana's condition last night and the others had a least heard about it. So this came as no surprise and everyone resumed their work while Isane returned to Unohana's side.
It took another eight days until Unohana's fever had finally gone for good and she felt strong enough to address her fuku-taicho's misbehavior.
"Kotetsu-fuku-taicho."
"Hai Unohana-taicho?"
"I think we can agree that I am not sick anymore thanks to your care."
"Maybe taicho, though I think you should still take it easy", Isane said while bringing two steaming mugs of tea into the bed room and handing one to Unohana.
The older woman couldn't help but raise a skeptical eyebrow at her fuku-taicho: "Said the woman, who stayed with me for the past eight days without sleeping or taking care of herself. Fuku-taicho, have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Because if you did, you would have noticed that your face is pale and fallen in and that you have huge dark rings surrounding your eyes."
"I am alright, taicho-sama. It is you I am worried about."
"Kotetsu-fuku-taicho. I thought I told you many times before that I do not appreciate it when people lie to me. Yes, I have been sick for the past couple of days, but I am much better now. You, on the other hand, are not fine. Your face is drawn with worry and you are exhausted. Now, I will get up and prepare a futon for you and you will get some sleep and do as I say. Is that understood?"
Oh how Isane had missed that kind but stern voice with the scary smile in addition to it. Even though it normally scared her to be on the receiving end of such a lecture, nothing made Isane more happy right now. Her taicho was clearly feeling better and no permanent had been done due to her selfish actions. So all Isane did in response was to bow deeply to her taicho-sama and then settled down on the bed Unohana had prepared for her.
"Rest my dear Isane. We will talk about everything tomorrow." Unohana ordered while tucking Isane in and watching her fall asleep.