"Ugh…your head is hard as a rock…"

The words were hard to make out, but Orihime's muddled wits were able to make some sense of them. She didn't open her eyes right away since the effort was too much work. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to curl up and drift peacefully back to-

"Hey! Wake up!"

The insistent shaking made Orihime feel extremely nauseous, but when someone slapped her face sharply her eyes flew open. Immediately, her eyes connected with a pair of brilliant blue ones.

"Grimmjow…" Orihime mumbled, "what…"

"Don't talk," cut in Grimmjow, "Just…just lay there, but stay awake. Don't fall asleep."

Not having the energy or brainpower to argue with him, Orihime complied. Looking up at him, Orihime attempted to smile, but apparently it didn't work very well since Grimmjow stared at her for a few seconds before laying her on the ground as quickly as he dared and then standing up.

Hearing the crunching of snow drawing near, Orihime was about to turn her head when Norainu's large, furry, dear face came into view. His brown eyes looked her over and she saw what seemed to be panic and disbelief quickly morph into relief.

"You all right?" Norainu asked in concern, to which Orihime tried her best to say "Yes!" but it only came out as a kind of affirmative sigh.

Seeming to understand what Orihime was trying to do, Norainu looked up at Grimmjow. Neither said a word for a time. To Orihime's skewed senses, the silence seemed to last an absolute age, but in real time it was only half a second as Aizen spoke up just then.

"Well, well, well," said Aizen in amusement, "I knew you found it difficult to follow my orders most of the time, but I never expected that you would have the courage to do something so…so…"

Waving his hand as though trying to turn the wheels of his mind, he finally said, "Well, for lack of a better word, 'foolish'."

"Tell me," Aizen went on in a tone that seemed to show sincere curiosity, "did you save that girl because you love her? You think that by saving her, you can somehow make up for all the pain you've put her through these past few years?"

"Yeah right," snarled Grimmjow, "Like I'd ever fall for a girl like her. I just didn't like the thought that she might have some sort of control over me since she treated my wounds. Now, we're even."

"I see," answered Aizen slowly, "And the fact that you are standing almost shoulder to shoulder with one whom you attempted to kill less than two days ago…my, my, my, you certainly have shaken things up and made it more interesting. You and Gin, that is."

"So," Aizen's voice was just barely above a rumble, "the question I have to ask is…what will you do now?"

Author's Note:

I know, I know, another cliffhanger...sorry. I wanted to go longer, but my brain is refusing to function after having spent several nights this week barely getting between six and seven hours of sleep. May not seem like much, but when you're essentially brain dead after rehearsing for several hours and not having eaten since 4 in the afternoon...well, enough of my sob story.

I'll do my best not to leave this hanging for longer than a couple of days, if not trying to finish it out when I wake up tomorrow.

Hope you're liking where things are going and thank you to everyone who has recently favorited or started following this story. I am so happy you are enjoying it!