Sorry, but I realized I haven't thanked my reviewers for a while. So thank you Amelie'sHuman, dragonsofthe8elements , ScarletBanshee , Guest, K.C.M.O, Yumi, Lunar678, Cassie Star, and KashinaKairi for dropping reviews somewhere from ch.20 to ch.22. I read each and every one of them, usually within a week or two. I really liked the mixed reaction on ch.21, whether Nicara or Grimmjow did the right thing, because when there's no right answer one person can't take all the blame.

Chapter 23: Need You Now

And I wonder if I ever cross your mind?
For me it happens all the time.

It's a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now.
Said I wouldn't call but I've lost all control and I need you now.
And I don't know how I can do without.
I just need you now.

Guess I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all.

-Lady Antebellum, Need You Now

Sitting around Nicara in the hospital bed, Orihime and Ichigo watched as she lay unconscious. She'd been out for a day, but the doctor said she should wake up anytime soon. Suddenly, they saw her hand twitch.

"Nicara," Orihime called softly, "can you hear me?"

There was no reply at first, but then Nicara's eyes popped wide open, observing her surroundings.

"Orihime?" she questioned, her voice unsteady.

"Yes! It's me Orihime. I'm so glad you finally woke up!" she shrieked, giving Nicara a hug. "Do you remember what happened?"

She nodded, rubbing the back of her aching head. "I think so. I was walking back from your place when this car hit me."

"Yeah, apparently it was a hit and run. A couple bystanders saw the whole thing, so they called for an ambulance right away cause your head was bleeding really badly."

"Well that kinda sucks, but I guess I should be thankful I'm still alive. How long have I been out?" Her head hurt like hell. It almost felt like it was going to explode, but at least the rest of her body was okay.

"Only a day, " Orihime reassured her. "The doctor said you have a small concussion and a hip injury. I healed you a little bit, but then Toshiro said I shouldn't go around healing everyone, especially if it wasn't from a hollow."

Nicara put on a small smile and placed a hand on Orihime's shoulder. "That's okay, you already saved my life once, remember?" She nodded, remembering that time the hollow stabbed Nicara at the beach. If it weren't for Orihime, Nicara would have died, or at least have an amputated arm.

"Mostly everyone in the class came by earlier," Orihime stated, trying to brighten up the mood.

"Really? That's so nice of them... Did he come by?" she muttered the last part quietly.

"Who?" Orihime questioned slightly confused. Ichigo, on the other hand, scoffed. He knew exactly who Nicara was referring to.

"Grimmjow. Did Grimmjow come by?" She didn't like mentioning his name out loud anymore, but the orange haired girl didn't seem to be getting the hint.

Orihime put on a thinking face which was not very reassuring to Nicara. "Hmm... I don't remember seeing him, and he wasn't at school, but I'm sure he will soon."

"Oh...," she sighed with disappointment. The last time Nicara was in the hospital, Grimmjow was the first person she saw after waking up. They weren't even officially friends that time, yet he still came to visit her. Did he really hate her that much because of the break up? At least they had a student teacher relationship at the moment, he could at least visit her as a student. Perhaps he really didn't give a shit about her anymore.

"Nicara," Orihime spoke up, "Me and Kurosaki need to go now, but your mom will probably be here shortly."

"My mom?" Nicara questioned slightly alarmed.

"Yeah...," Orihime scratched her head feeling a little guilty. "Yesterday your phone wouldn't stop ringing so I picked it up and told your mom what happened, sorry."

"That's alright, Orihime. At least I don't have to lie about the situation this time."

A few hours after Orihime and Ichigo left, Nicara's mother did indeed show up. She was so worried about her daughter, so she took the first flight she could catch. The doctor did a checkup on Nicara and deemed her fine. She didn't have any life threatening injuries, just a minor concussion that should heal over time. The next morning Nicara was released from the hospital, so they gave her a bottle of painkillers to take home.

Remembering about Grimmjow once we got home, I rushed to the guest room to tell him to hide. However, he wasn't there, in fact all his belongings were gone, the blankets neatly folded on the side of the bed. Perhaps Ichigo and Orihime told him about my mom's arrival, how else would he have known? It didn't really matter, at least I wouldn't have to come up with an excuse like the last time.

Mother settled in quickly, making me pasta for lunch. I didn't have much of an appetite though, my head was still hurting.

"You've got to eat some more, Nicara." my mom pressed after seeing me only finish a quarter of my usual amount.

I gave a small sigh, putting my fork down. "Maybe later, my still head hurts even though I already took the painkillers."

My mom gave me a worried glance. "When your friend Orihime told me you were in the hospital, I got so worried. I took the earliest flight I could."

"It's alright mom, I'm still alive, just a little beat up."

"A little? Please don't joke about this. I know I'm not your birth mother, but to me you are my daughter."

"I know...how long do you plan on staying this time?" As much as I appreciated her presence, I was hoping she wouldn't stay too long.

"As long as I need to until you're fully healed. The doctor said about a month."

"A month? I didn't know you could get that much time off."

"While I'm here I can still access stuff from my laptop and take care of you."

"Are you sure? I've got lots of friends here now, you don't need to stay that long." Never has she ever taken so much time off to spend with me. Even when we lived together in the same house, she would only spend so many hours in a day with me. She always had a checklist of things to do, making sure everything was going according to schedule. So why now? Perhaps there was another reason she wanted to stay.

"Speaking of friends, I'm surprised I haven't seen your boyfriend yet."

I tensed up a little, but steadily relaxed. "Oh...me and Grimmjow kinda broke up a couple weeks ago."

Mom had her full attention on me now. "Why?" she quickly responded, "what happened?"

"It's... complicated..." I didn't exactly want to tell mom that Grimmjow slept with another woman. She never liked him to begin with, so telling her the truth wouldn't be the a good idea, especially because I didn't want her to hate Grimmjow even more.

"Are you two still talking?" she asked with curious eyes.

I shrugged, "Not really, he's been really distance, but I don't blame him."

"That's too bad." mom muttered. Even though she said 'that's too bad,' she didn't sound apologetic at all. Mom was probably glad we broke up, her mind saying 'I told you so.'

That night, I took hours before falling asleep. When I finally did, I had these haunting nightmares. All I could see was a massacre of fighting. Dead bodies lay everywhere. I eventually woke up screaming in the middle of the night, my whole body covered in sweat. Mom rushed over to my room immediately to see what was wrong. She tried to calm me as I told her about the nightmare, but it still took me hours before falling asleep again.

Night after night, I had these similar nightmares. People driving swords into creatures, or the monsters devouring the people. It all ended with death. My nights were restless, receiving minimal sleep. I'd wake up every morning tired as hell, attempting to prepare for school.

Due to the lack of sleep, I could hardly focus in class. My grades began to drop. All that math stuff I use to understand just became a blur of numbers. Mom didn't blame me though, she just wanted my mental health to be stable again. She took me to several doctors and therapists, but nothing helped. They said it was all in my head. They suggested relaxing before sleeping and maybe taking some time off school so their would be no stress whatsoever.

At first I just tried taking it easy at school. I attended classes, but didn't do any work outside of class. However, it didn't help. So the doctors suggested I stop going to school for a while, and that's what I did. Two weeks had already passed, but everything was still the same. In fact, I swear the nightmares only got worse. They even appeared when I tried to take an afternoon nap. As soon as I closed my eyes, the visions would come for me.

During the week, Orihime and the others came by to visit me. Unfortunately my mom answered the door and told them I needed to be alone for a while. I could've texted them and told them to come over while my mom was grocery shopping, but the truth was, I didn't feel like talking to them. I did want to be alone.

The first thing they'd probably ask is 'how are you doing?' and 'are you doing okay?' Was I doing okay? No I wasn't. But what would I tell them? That I'm all weird now all because of a couple of nightmares? I didn't even understand what was wrong with myself, so they wouldn't be able to help me. I just wish my brain would go back to normal. Truthfully, I was starting to doubt if anything was ever going to be the same.

The woman, Nicara, hasn't been at school for two weeks now. Not only that, her grades have also slipped down to about 75%. There had to be something wrong with her. I mean, I've noticed she hasn't been able to focus in school since the car accident, but at least she showed up. The only thing that kept her from going to school is if she was in the hospital or serious pain. However, she wasn't at the hospital, she was at home doing nothing.

Kurosaki and the others tried to visit her, but her mother apparently didn't want any visitors. I actually bumped into Mrs. Shiba the other day at the grocery store. I didn't say a word to her, and neither did she. But, she did send me an (angry) glare. I'm guessing Nicara told her we broke up, or she's just not trying to hide her hatred for me. Not that it really bothered me. I didn't care about her permission, I'd take whatever I want.

I actually sneaked over to Nicara's house several times. I tried to look for an open window, or at least peek inside, but nothing. All the curtains were closed, windows sealed shut. What was her mother trying to do? Make her a vampire? I didn't even see her mutt, Ari, outside anymore.

Not being able to see the woman made me uneasy. For all I knew, she could be dead. I guess I could text or phone her, but that would just be weird. What was I suppose to fuckin' say? I'm callin' cause I'm worried bout' you? That would sound pathetic coming from me. I, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, didn't worry about anyone, especially some human girl. At least, that was what I was telling myself.

My heart felt so lonely, hollow, but in a crazy way I liked it like that. I was the one who told everyone to stop calling and texting me cause I didn't want to talk. They listened, and stopped bothering me.

Almost a month since the accident, I was lying on my bed trying to fall asleep like every other night, when I heard my phone beeped. It was a text from Grimmjow. My heart skipped a beat as I clicked to view the message. It was the first time he texted and started a conversation with me since we broke up. It was exciting to say the least.

Are you asleep yet?

It was a reasonably simple question, after all it was almost midnight. I quickly replied to him with a simple 'No'. Why did he want to know? Was he planning on talking to me, so he was making sure if I was awake? If so, what would he want to talk to me about, there wasn't much to say.

He didn't reply back, or at least not right away. Five minutes later I heard a light knocking sound against my window. I ignored it, thinking it was probably a wood pecker or something. That's when I received another text from Grimmjow, that said:

Open your window.

I slowly made my way across the room and pulled the curtains aside. On the other side of the glass was none other than Grimmjow, his icy blue eyes boring into mine. Even thought I knew it was probably him, I still jumped back a little from his intense stare, my heart pounding against my chest. What was he doing here?

"Well are you going to stand there, or let me in?" he barked. I must have been staring at him like an idiot.

Without even thinking, I immediately opened the window and let him crawl in. I haven't seen him for a while now, so part of me was happy to see him, the fact that he finally decided to visit me warmed my heart. He looked mostly the same, just a little tired, but I guess that would be expected since it was already midnight.

Silently I closed the window behind him. My heart was pounding against my chest, Part of me didn't want him here since I was such a mess. I didn't want him seeing me look so weak. We stood about a meter apart, his eyes observant, mine shyly looking at the ground. Neither of us said a thing which made it really awkward. He was the one who came here, so there must've been a reason. Finally, he spoke up.

"You've gotten thinner," he stated.

"What...?" I questioned looking up.

He took a step towards me and grabbed my wrist. "Have you been eating?" he questioned, his face serious.

The sudden contact took me by surprise. He hasn't touched me since we broke up, unless it was to punch me during training.

I tried to pull my hand away from him, but he just tightened his grip. Next his hand brushed a couple strands of hair from my face. I could only stand there frozen. What was he doing? He brushed his hand down the side of my face, but then roughly took hold of my chin, forcing me to look straight at him.

"What's wrong with you?" he practically demanded.

"Nothing," I muttered.

"Nothing? You haven't been at school for several fuckin' weeks, your grades are barely a B, you won't talk to anyone, you've gotten thinner, and you skin's as white as a ghost!"

"It's nothing," I repeated once more. He didn't need to know about the nightmares I was having. He'd probably think I'm a big baby afraid of a couple scary dreams. He wouldn't understand.

"Nothing my ass. Quit lying to me."

My eyes flickered angrily at Grimmjow. "If you just came over to call me a liar, you can leave now."

"I came here to see you."

"Well you've seen me, I'm fine, so you can go home."

Grimmjow let out a frustrated sigh. "Who are you trying to kid with this facade of yours? It's obvious there's something wrong with you."

"It's none of your business." I replied coldly, turning my back to him. He didn't seem to like the cold shoulder because he grabbed me forcefully, but not enough to hurt me, and spun me around to meet him eye to eye.

"Just spit it out!"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't!" he shouted.

Several seconds of silence went by, I was trying to make out what Grimmjow had just said; it didn't make any sense.

"Then leave. Just... go away," my voice quavered. If he didn't give a shit about me, then I didn't want him here anymore. However, I knew that was a lie. He did care about me, that's why he's here, yet he is still unable to admit such a caring gesture. Why did he have to be so confusing?

I didn't want to cry in front of Grimmjow, but I couldn't hold my tears back any longer. My knees gave in, so I ended up sitting on the floor crying. I expected him to call me weak and leave, but he didn't. Instead, I felt his arms cradle around me, pulling me into his chest.

"Don't fuckin' cry," he muttered. "It just makes you look weak."

I stifled some tears back so I was no longer balling my eyes out and buried my face into his chest. His body felt so warm and comforting. I wasn't sure if I missed him specifically, or perhaps I just missed the feeling of company in general. Either way, I just didn't want those pair of arms to let go of me.

"I'm sorry," was my muffled response.

I felt him lift me up off the floor, next thing I knew, I was in his lap, blankets pulled over my body. We were in my bed now. I looked at him slightly confused, was he staying the night?

"Go to sleep," was his only answer. I didn't argue with him and did as I was told, his body heat and blankets warm against me.

For the first time that month, I fell asleep without having a single nightmare.

Author's Note

Random: There was an earthquake where I live last week, and it scarred the shit out of me. It only lasted about five seconds, but I really thought that was the end for me. So yeah, if you ever notice that I haven't updated my profile or answered your pm in a year, then it probably means I'm literally not here anymore. That's a scary thought, but I really don't want you guys to think I ditched the story, I wouldn't do that without proper notice.