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Kisuke Urahara hardly came out of either the school or his house and private lab. He was always busy with his research or with his classes and grading. He taught Chemistry full time, so he had all the students that ever attended SU at one time in their degree since it was a core class. He also taught the nursing classes on drugs and medication. About ten years before, he'd been an Emergency Room doctor, and had spent a lot of time under a high degree of stress. He'd opted for teaching when he came close to having a heart attack due to high blood pressure. Curiously, since he stopped working in the emergency room, his blood pressure hadn't been high at all, and he had been off the meds for the last five years. He pulled the bag close to him and hoped he had misunderstood what Szayel had meant when he called him. He'd gotten all the instruments he would need in case he was right, but he never wanted to do this sort of thing with someone. It was hard enough to have someone you didn't know look at you, but to have to endure more than that…
He sighed, knocking on the door to the Gilgas house. He knew Teresa and Santos relatively well, but to be honest, he didn't see anyone that often. He had not had Nnoitra in Chemistry yet, but he knew the family from his time working in the ER. He heard Teresa's voice announce she was coming to the door and waited. He loved living here, the smell of the beach always made him smile. He smiled as the door opened to reveal the tall matriarch of the Gilgas.
Kisuke had always thought the tall, gaunt woman was beautiful, in a very unique way, of course. She smiled at him, her teeth crooked and seeming to go every direction in her mouth. Some thought that it was odd that she didn't have it fixed. Urahara knew that it didn't matter, she had a genuine smile, and that was more important that straight teeth in his books. He knew a bit about her history, how her family had delayed her medical treatments due to belonging to a religious cult that believed in the power of prayer. She now wore very few skirts, and today she wore a pair of shorts and a light t-shirt today, and he was again astounded by how tall the woman was. She was only six foot two, but still, for a woman, it was so rare to see. He himself was actually shorter than her. When she smiled, though, Kisuke thought it was brilliant, despite the fact, he tried to follow her lazy eye sometimes when he talked to her. Her dark hair was pulled up in the usual ponytail today.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Gilga," Kisuke said, nodding to her.
"Teresa, you know that, Kisuke. Come in. I'll let Nnoi know you're here," she said, ushering him into the living room.
Santos was sitting on the couch with his legs crossed reading a paper. Santos was a darker skinned Lantino man, with his hair trimmed short. He did have a distinguishing scar that ran from above his left eyebrow and extended down to the corner of his lip. Santos didn't speak, merely grunted acknowledgement of Kisuke's presence. On the table was the current issue of "High Times" and he saw that Teresa was drinking one of the therapeutic "teas" that she bought. Of course, he knew that Teresa struggle with daily pain, and the use of the medicinal marijuana helped her to even function on her worse days. He looked up to see Szayel come out of the bedroom.
"Hey, Proff, how's it going?" he asked, nodding at him.
"Well, I am unsure yet, I just got here, are you going to explain what has happened that you can't take this boy to the emergency room?" he asked, glancing between Szayel and Teresa.
Teresa sighed. "The poor thing was in the yard Friday night, out cold, mijo went and found him. He refused to go to the policia or to the emergency room, and he's scared," she said sadly. "I've tried to talk to the pobrecito, pero…" she said, sighing and glancing toward the door.
Kisuke nodded. "Alright, let's have a look," he said heaving a heavy sigh.
He entered the room to see that Nnoitra was seating on the bed half asleep against the headboard, one long arm draped around a smaller boy how had fallen asleep against him sitting up. Kisuke frowned and saw that the boy was wearing a t-shirt that obviously belonged to Nnoitra. From what little he could see of the boy's legs, he was bruised, badly.
"Yo, Nnoi," Szayel said, walking up and shaking Nnoitra's shoulder gently.
"What…" he muttered, blinking his one visible eye rapidly. "Ah, hey, you're here," he muttered, moving to reposition himself.
Szayel looked at him. "First, you might want to read what we found, we can't really say much, he doesn't talk a lot, though he did earlier a bit," he said and motioned to the computer.
Kisuke sat down and audibly gasped when he read the names in the article. "No…"
Szayel exchanged a confused glance with Nnoitra. "What's up, Proff?"
"These people, Isshin Kurosaki and Ryūken Ishida…I went to school with them at SoCal…we were all going for our medical doctor degree at the same time…" he said softly. "Dr. Unohana also attended with us," he said thoughtfully. "I didn't know them overly well, but…" He turned and looked at the sleeping boy on the bed. "Twelve years?" he whispered, standing and moving around to sit on the bed beside him.
"Yeah," Szayel said. "Nnoi, tell him what you found."
"Ah, yeah, the dogs were barking, and he was laying out in the back in a pair of undershorts and a dirty t-shirt. That was Friday night, well early Saturday morning. All day yesterday he slept, but when he did wake up, he would run into the bathroom and lock himself in for several hours at a time. I tried putting him in this bed, but I'd wake up in the night, and he'd moved to lay on the floor beside me again," Nnoitra said, glancing down at him. "I called Szay and we got him undressed and bathed, with some effort, and he's covered in bruises and scars. He says that his cousin, Uryū, found out his uncle was doing something bad and wanted to get him away and said he couldn't do that to him, whatever that is."
Kisuke bit his lip, because he understood now why Szay believed he might have been abused more than physically. "Okay, wake him up, I'll check him over, see what kind of injuries we're dealing with."
Nnoitra nodded, shaking Ichigo gently until he muttered and his eyes fluttered open. "Huh? Is it time to cook breakfast, uncle?" he said quietly until his eyes cleared and he realized that someone was here that he didn't know.
Nnoitra gripped him as he jerked and tried to roll off the bed, eyes wide and wild. "Easy, easy, Ichigo, this is Kisuke Urahara, he's a doctor we trust."
Ichigo's eyes didn't leave Kisuke's face, he simply stared at him. "He's a doctor, he'll tell uncle, and uncle will be mad, he's a doctor, he said all doctors were like him, please, I wanna go…" he whimpered, trying to wriggle out of Nnoitra's grip to no avail.
"Settle down, now, Ichi," Nnoitra said with a firm tone to his voice and to Kisuke's surprise, he did just that, stilling, his breath still rapid, but listening to what Nnoi said without hesitation.
Kisuke nodded. "Ichigo, I need to know about your injuries. So I need to see them. Can I take off this shirt?"
Ichigo's eyes went wide and he started to shake his head but Nnoitra's hands were already slipping the shirt up and over his head. Ichigo paused and covered himself with his hands immediately, a full body blush going over him immediately. He chewed his lip and stared at the bed.
Kisuke frowned, moving to get a better look. "There are a lot of bruises, lots of different ages, but these deep red ones are bad, keep an eye on them," he said, moving Ichigo's arm to look down at it closer.
There were multiple layers of fingerprint bruises, and as he felt further, when he got to his forearm he felt an old spiral fracture of the ulna that hadn't been splinted. He winced to think about how that would have hurt. Obviously, his abuser liked to grab him by the arms, the finger print bruising was present on both arms, and usually spiral breaks came when an arm was twisted. He saw that the backs his forearms both had a pattern of large, round bruising, like he…
Kisuke frowned, leaning back and then moving to touch his face. Immediately, he threw both arms over his head and whimpered. He gasped, realizing he was exposed and covered himself up again with his hands, eyes darting up and back to the bed. Kisuke swallowed and nodded.
"Ichigo, I have to feel your ribs, so I'm going to need you to lay on your back. Here," he said, reaching over and snatching the sheet. "We'll cover you up, okay?"
Ichigo stared at him again blankly until Nnoitra spoke up. "Ichi, lay down for him. You're being uncooperative." Kisuke glanced at Nnoitra and saw that the other man had figured out that being firm with Ichigo was the only way to get him to listen. Most likely, it was part of his extreme lack of socialization and the constant abuse.
Ichigo slid under the sheet, looking positively terrified of Kisuke. Nnoitra, laid down beside him though, and put a hand on Ichigo's chest. "Calm down, okay, Ichi?" he said softly and Kisuke watched the boy tremble, but he didn't try to get away from him.
Kisuke pulled the sheet down to Ichigo's waist and started to feel around his ribcage. What he felt appalled him because he'd had several broken ribs from what he could tell, some healed well, others appeared to have never been taken care of when they were broken. His entire chest was beaten nearly bluish-black and every time Kisuke touched him, Kisuke could see that Ichigo was trying not to cry out. There was a steady stream of quiet tears from his eyes, and he was trying very hard to breath normally.
"No new breaks, some old ones, though," Kisuke said, rolling the sheet down further as he pressed on his stomach to check for anything internal.
When he pressed near his liver area, Ichigo did cry out, grabbing Nnoitra's arm and biting down on his lip. "His liver is bruised, at least, I'd rather have him checked and make sure it isn't torn or bleeding. I can take a blood sample back with me, but he really needs x-rays and CT scans at the hospital…" he said, moving away from his liver and down to his pelvis to press on the intestinal area. He felt the boy tense several times when he pushed on different areas.
"I need to check your back," he said, and helped him roll to his side, but stopped him from rolling to his front. He didn't want to cause pain to his other bruises. "That's what I was afraid of," he muttered, pressing against some bruising over his kidneys. He felt him jolt several times and knew even if he didn't admit it, he most likely had mild to moderate bruising to both his kidneys from being beating in his back. He sat back and sighed.
"Well, he's got some major bruising. I don't think he's got any internal hemorrhaging; he doesn't seem to be feverish or anything. However, I would like to make sure he hasn't had any trauma to the bowel and rectum, if you really think that…"
Nnoitra didn't want to put him through the embarrassment of having Kisuke check him there if there wasn't an issue. He reached over and turned Ichigo's face to him.
"Ichi, I need you to tell me what you mean when you say that your uncle did something that Uryū said he wasn't supposed to do. I need to know what that thing is," he said, keeping his one eye locked on Ichigo's two brown ones.
Ichigo's eyes widened. "He-he…did bad things…" he said softly.
"What exactly did he do? What did he say about what he was doing?" Nnoitra said.
"He said…he said…I was useless, a waste of space, that I didn't even make a g-good f-fuck t-t-toy…" he said finally, eyes wide and trembling all over as he spoke.
Kisuke sighed, eyes closing for a moment, and he nodded to Nnoitra. "I'll do the exam, why don't you let him lay in your lap. It's not ideal, but I take it you don't think I can get him out of here to the clinic?"
Nnoitra shook his head as he moved to lean up against the headboard, spreading his legs out and pulling Ichigo up into his lap. Ichigo grabbed the sheet to pull it with him, clutching it against him to keep himself covered. Kisuke wondered exactly how he was going to manage this… The positioning of his patient was going to be impossible to see anything, even with the tools he brought. He was going have to do this in reverse, he guessed.
"I don't think it is a good idea to take him out as long as this uncle is out there looking for him," Nnoitra said. "I'm afraid that if he encounters him, he'll run again, and he might get hold of him again. I just…I don't know who we can trust."
Kisuke nodded. "Alright, this is going to be awkward, but you're going to have to let him hold onto you, let him put his head on your shoulder, facing you, and if you can help hold his hips still, that will make this go faster. Szayel, I'll need you to hold the light for me," he said, handing an LED light from his bag to him. "He'll have to kneel somewhat, but I'll check things as quickly as possible. I'm most worried about fissures and tears, because they can lead to infections if not treated. Has he had any bleeding?"
Nnoitra shook his head. "No idea, he doesn't let us in the bathroom with him," he said, trying to get Ichigo to sit on his knees.
"What are you doing?" Ichigo said, glancing at Kisuke. "What…you already saw everything, go away!" he said, his voice nearly cracking.
Nnoitra reached over and pulled his face to him. "Hey, stop that, you are being a brat. Let him make sure you aren't injured from what he did. He's a doctor, he's not doing anything to hurt you."
"Professor, now," Kisuke said, pulling on a pair of gloves and pulling out the tools he'd hoped he wouldn't need.
"But I don't want him to do anything!" Ichigo whined, and Nnoitra smiled.
"This is for your health and safety, so you are going to do what he says to do, understand me?" Nnoitra said, that same authoritative tone sneaking into his voice again.
Ichigo swallowed and nodded, letting Nnoitra guide him into the odd position, half kneeling, half leaning over him. Kisuke nodded, thinking this would suffice, at least he would be able to see well enough, as he pushed Ichigo's knees a bit farther apart and picked up the sheet off his rear.
"Ichigo, I'm going to touch you, okay? I'm feeling for any tearing inside you, if anything hurts when I touch it, just let me know," he said, squeezing the gel on his fingers as he began to exam him.
Ichigo's arms tightened around Nnoitra's neck and he whimpered against his neck. Nnoitra put a hand on his back and hushed him, trying to keep him calm. He was trembling all over, both from kneeling and from what was happening.
"Okay, good news is nothing serious," Kisuke said, feeling a slight tear, and several scars from previous tearing. "A small fissure, nothing major, just need to watch out for infection, just keep an eye for a fever," he said, pressing around the prostate to make sure there had been no trauma there. He nodded, satisfied, leaning back and pulling off the gloves. "No major trauma, but there are signs of old tearing and trauma. This is definitely not the first time this has happened," he said, frowning at the slight blood on his gloves. "There's significant bruising, though, this was done with intent to make him hurt," Kisuke said, frowning. "Patterns are consistent with a rather violent sexual assault, without any lubrication. It's a wonder he's not more injured, however, considering that he's had multiple assaults, it would be consistent."
As soon as Kisuke had moved his hands, Ichigo had collapsed into Nnoitra's lap, pulling his legs into himself as tightly as he could, and sobbing into his shoulder. He tried to tighten the sheet around him even more. Nnoitra sighed, patting him gently.
"Hush, baby, he's all done, we are just going to have to keep an eye on things, okay?" Nnoitra said, stroking Ichigo's back as he sat there.
Szayel gave Nnoitra a long look and then grinned. Nnoitra looked up at him and frowned. "What the hell you grinnin' at, pink haired bastard?" Nnoitra muttered.
"You," he said, smirking even wider. "Look at you, going all care giver," he said, a devilish glint in his golden eyes.
"Care giver?" Nnoitra queried, and then realized what he was talking about. "That's that kinky shit you talk about, isn't it? I'm not doing anything weird!"
Szayel shrugged and Kisuke shook his head, pulling out the butterfly and tubes to take a blood sample. He tied off Ichigo's arm and the boy just stared at him as he took the sample quickly, noticing that he didn't flinch, just stayed there, clutching to Nnoitra like he was a life line. He nodded and stood.
"I'll get this to my lab, I'll call and let you know if there's anything worrying in the tests," he said, smiling as he headed toward the door.
"Wait, what do I do about him?" Nnoitra asked, frowning deeply.
"Take care of him," Kisuke said with a shrug. "I don't know, I'm a doctor, a chemist, I know drugs, biology, not psychology. I suggest finding someone who does mental health, because I'm not it," he said leaving the room. Szayel followed him out and closed the door, leaving Nnoitra to sigh, the naked boy curled into his lap, nuzzling into his chest. Well, hell, Nnoitra thought to himself. Wasn't this just rosy?
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Kisuke came and saw that Teresa and Santos were waiting with their adopted son, Tesra. He smiled at them, and Szayel came and sat down on the sofa by Tesra, sighing.
"He's been abused," Kisuke said, looking between Teresa and Santos. "Pretty badly. I'm taking blood back, but his kidneys and liver have both some mild to moderate bruising, and some other deep tissue and muscle bruises. He's been recently sexually assaulted as well. That explains a lot of his reluctance, but I'm no counselor," Kisuke explained slowly. "I know that you have some experience dealing with trauma, so I believe that you are far more capable of helping the boy than most people."
Kisuke knew about Tesra. Most of Las Noches knew the story about Tesra Gilga, actually. It had made national news, after all. Of course, only the barest facts had made the news. Even that, though, was enough to make people understand how bad it had been for the boy.
Teresa and Santos had been watching the Tournament of Roses Parade during breakfast on New Year's Day in 2000. They rarely watched TV while they ate, but it was a special occasion. Nnoitra and Santos had taken their dishes to the sink during a commercial when Santos looked out the kitchen widow to see Tesra covered in blood and stumbling toward their house. Santos had run out immediately with Nnoitra and they had gotten him into their house because they heard screaming from Tesra's house. They called the police and what they found had horrified even the strongest among them. Tesra's mother was dead, and when the police got there, his father tried to attack them with a knife. They ended up shooting him. Tesra was taken to the hospital immediately, and it took only a short time to figure out what had happened.
Tesra's father had been abusive for as long as the boy remembered, to both him and his mother. The Y2K stuff that year had him more agitated than normal, triggering abnormally high degrees of paranoia. The fact that he was a PCP and meth addict only made the paranoia worse. Tesra had been beaten horribly that night, to the point that his father had nearly smashed on of his hands with a claw hammer, then ended up putting his eye out with it. It was after that that Tesra had managed to get out the door when his father turned on his mother with the hammer, beating her to death with it. When the cops went into the house, they found that it was infested with roaches and maggots. There were blood stains dried in various places in the house, and there wasn't an unbroken piece of furniture to be found.
Tesra had often spent the night with Nnoitra, and they would often care for him when he was sick or hungry. At the school, he never had food, and one of the teachers or other kids would get him something to eat every day. He would tell them that his father said they didn't deserve nice things or money. He was often told they were worthless.
At the mention of it, Tesra looked up, his one eye going between Teresa and Kisuke. "He's…he's hurt too, huh?" he said quietly. "Mamá will help him, so will Nnoi. He likes Nnoi, sometimes…sometimes we have to find a safe person, you know," he said quietly, looking out the window and smiling. "Here was always my safe place, even before everything changed."
Kisuke nodded and said goodbye to everyone, heading out to run the blood tests he needed to run. He was hoping he didn't find anything too horrible.
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Cang Du lounged on the sofa in the living room. It didn't smell as bad up here as it did up in the attic where the cooking went on. He didn't mind the smell much anymore, but sometimes it got too much so he had to come up. They'd put in a filtration system in the roof so none of the smell got out, and they lived outside the city limits of Las Noches anyway. No one really bothered them being a few miles outside the border of the town. His pipeline was a good one, though. He looked up when he saw one of the dealers come in, Kūgo. Boy that mother fucker was crazy, he thought as he came in. He was always twitchy and seemed to hear things. Whatever, Cang thought as he took a long draw off his joint. Personally, he didn't do any of the hard drugs. Made it hard as hell to run a business if you were methed up.
"Yo, Kūgo, how's it hangin'?" he asked slowly.
"Good, good, got good sales today, but can't find a regular," he muttered, then saw on the other side of the room, on a futon, was the person he was looking for. "Well, shit, there he is," he muttered.
Cang leaned over the back of the chair and looked. "Oh, that fucker?" he muttered. "Yeah, he came over here the other night, all fucked up, said he couldn't go home, needed a hit. Might have taken too much of the script shit you sell him. He hasn't been awake for like thirty-six hours, might make sure he's not dead…" Cang said frowning.
Kūgo nodded, walking over and pulling on Ryūken's shoulder. He groaned and cut his eyes up at Kūgo, both blood shot and rheumy. "Good, ya ain't dead," Kūgo said, smiling. "Went by the hospital, said you didn't come to work today."
Ryūken grunted, sitting up and rubbing his head. "Yeah, got anything for me?" he muttered. "Shit's worn off," he said, looking up at him.
Kūgo didn't think he'd ever seen the man look like this. He was always in a fresh suit, perfectly styled hair, immaculate nails, and placid. This was unusual to say the least. "Yeah, man, got some 'ludes, some percs, vics, some Xanax, and a few 'dones. Probably got some more tomorrow, but you usually don't go through them that fast."
Ryūken snorted. "Just bring them here, I can't go to work or home," he muttered.
Cang turned around and stared. "What the hell happened? Did you piss hot or something?"
"No, just don't fucking ask," he muttered, standing and stumbling to the bathroom. "Leave it the fuck alone," he said, slamming the door behind him.
Kūgo shook his head. "Good thing the bastard pays in a month advance if he ain't working no more," he muttered, leaving the baggie on the futon and leaving.
"Hey, Kūgo," came a female voice from one other rooms.
Kūgo looked up to see Bambietta, wearing nothing but a white miniskirt and the stupid white hat with a chaos wheel on it. She was technically wearing a white lace body stocking under it but it didn't leave anything to the imagination. She was smoking, of course, and the acrid smell of the meth hit him. He hated the ammonia smell that it sometimes carried. She was starting to look bad, though, her face was drawn and he could count her ribs easily. It was obvious the meth and her were not mixing well. That's why he stuck to scripting.
"Bambietta, how's it going?" he asked, smiling as she came up to him.
"Good, how's that alien search of yours?" she asked, smirking at him.
Kūgo's eyes lit up. "I found the alien that's here, I'm going to get him to bring the aliens back for me," he said smiling at her.
"Good for you, Kūgo, good for you," she said, walking away toward the stairs.
Kūgo smiled. Yes, he had to figure out where he was… He was still thinking about the visitors when he headed back outside, picking up the package Cang left for him by the entry. He had to make money somehow, he thought.