Salvation

Warning: Short chapter.

Chapter 20

Coward., It was like Tatsuki's mind kept going over that word. She had known it wasn't the right time to tell him due to everything that was taking place at his house. It would have been selfish of her to want to take advantage of the conflict by blurting out the news of her unplanned pregnancy.

Well it isn't like I made the kid by myself! He would want to know... If I wait for too long, he'll just feel betrayed., Feeling like she was between a rock and a hard place, she rested her back against the wall waiting for the one person that could understand what she was going through to some extent. She honestly didn't know what to do... The child wasn't only hers, therefore whatever plans she had for his or her future wasn't up to her alone.

What am I supposed to do with a kid? Ichigo and I aren't married... I'm still in college and the only work I do is working part-time at the dojo and with this whole pregnancy thing that spare money has gone down the drain... And then there's my parents! How will they react when they find out?!

Cradling her throbbing head in her hands, she waited, without really waiting at all because all of her inner questions were keeping her mind far too busy for her own good.

She wanted to keep the baby. It was selfish and stupid to want to have a child without being prepared or even knowing how to deal with infants in the first place, but she wanted to have the baby. She didn't care if people told her it was wrong or if Ichigo started a fuss, it was her body.

This baby was going to live because she couldn't bear the thought of ending it's life because of someone else seeing it as an obstacle.

Hearing a high-pitched girlish voice she had memorized over the years, she lifted her head and let her bleary pained eyes look down the hallway of the apartment complex she had been waiting inside of. How long had she been there sitting on the floor besides Orihime's apartment door? An hour? A couple of minutes? She didn't know because she had lost track of time while being inside her head, stubbornly making a desicion over her next course of action.

"Tatsuki-chan!" she flinched at the obvious surprise in her friend's voice, once she and the persistant negative presence of Ogichi were standing in front of her.

Rising up from the floor, feeling as if her whole body had aged ten years in just one day, she couldn't even muster a smile for her friend that was now starting to show worry at her graveness.

"I-I need to talk to you alone...," saying this, she shot a wary glance at the unusually quiet hollow turned human standing beside her friend. She had realized over time that Ogichi had a very strong connection to Ichigo's emotions and had the ability to read other people like an open book. If she said her true reason for being there, he would probably run up to Ichigo and tell him himself. He wasn't precisely a good keeper of secrets.

"Whatever...," though annoyed at her request, Ogichi didn't throw a tantrum like he usually would have, "It's not like I wanna' listen to you and King's emo bullshit."

"Ogichi!" Orihime hissed in a admonishing tone though Ogichi was already moodily unlocking the door to their apartment to go inside and give them some privacy.

He left the door open and from what Tatsuki could see, he just nonchalantly plopped himself down on the sofa of the living room, grabbed the remote and started clicking away searching for a channel to watch on the small tv set on the coffee table in front of him.

He's just being melodramatic., Tatsuki realized by noting how calm he was.

"Sorry about that," she looked at Orihime that apologized with her head down in natural embarassment for her husband's permanently bad attitude. "He has complained since this morning that his connection to Kurosaki-kun has been depressing him..."

Tatsuki already heard an unasked question in her friend's words. If Ogichi felt something strange from Ichigo, that could only mean that something was weighing heavily on him.

"Um...," not knowing how to start since so much had happened in just one day, she started with what she guessed was Ichigo's problem, "Ichigo just found out that Ishida and Yuzu-chan have being seeing each other..."

"What?!" Orihime gasped, putting a hand over her chest, her jaw dropping. "Ishida-kun and Yuzu-chan?! But how is that possible?! Ishida-kun has never even dated anybody!"

"I guess," Tatsuki smiled half-heartedly, lifting her shoulders in a light shrug, "appearances can be pretty deceiving, huh."

"Well, I'd say! Kurosaki-kun must have been so angry about it!"

"Yeah, he fought Ishida-"

"He did what?!"

But that's not the only thing... You see I'm pregnant and am too scared stupid to tell Ichigo right now..., Swallowing as her friend continued to have her one-side questioning spree, she readied herself to tell her what she really wanted to talk about.

"-so that's why Ogichi has been having so many mood-swings all day!"

"Ah, Orihime-chan," her friend stopped her endless stream of words and looked at her in wide-eyed curiousity, obviously expecting her to say something else.

"I'm... I'm...," she took a deep breath as Orihime's eyes started dimming the way they always did before she started firing off worried questions, "I'm pregnant and don't know how to tell him!"

Orihime blinked, her curious expression not changing as if her mind was slow in accepting her confession.

"HOLYFUCK! KING KNOCKED ARISAWA UP!" hearing the stunned laughter-filled shout from the living room, Tatsuki out of reflex widened her own eyes and reached behind Orihime to slam the apartment's front door shut.

Goddamned Ogichi and his fucking hearing! He knows that this is a private conversation and was still paying attention to it!

Closing her eyes, she could already imagine the hollow jumping out the window of the apartment and rushing to Ichigo to rub the information in his face.

"Please tell me that your windows are shatterproof...," she whispered, her hand still lingering on the doorknob of the door she had just heartily slammed.

"Um... I'm not sure, but I hid the phone-book from him a couple of days ago because he was about to call the Kurosaki Clinic to go off on Kurosaki-kun for being so down..."

Leave it to Orihime to say something so weird in such a moment. A slight trembling smile quirked her lips, though her eyes remained closed.

"Tatsuki-chan...?" the tell-tale concern in her friend's tone gave her the courage to open her eyes to finally look at her.

"I'm stupid for letting something like this happen, aren't I?" her smile felt more like a crack on her face as her eyes blurred at seeing Orihime quickly shake her head.

"Don't you dare say something like that, Tatsuki-chan! Sometimes things like this happen for a reason, so that means that this baby is meant to happen!"

A year ago she had been trying so valiantly to be both Orihime's and Ichigo's anchor during hard times and now... She needed an anchor more than anything. She who had always been so independent and seemed to always have her life well-put together in front of all who knew her.

I feel stupid for breaking down like this! I don't like breaking down in front of anyone! I'm supposed to be an anchor for my friends, not just another freaking burden!

"And you don't have to be so scared about telling Kurosaki-kun! I don't know him as well as you do, but I know him well enough to say that he wouldn't turn his back on you! And he does do it, he'll be hearing from me and he's not going to like it!" Orihime's stubborn brave words combined with her usual girlish voice had a small chuckle leaving Tatsuki.

"I'm sure you will...," she looked at her friend, knowing full well that the backbone Orihime had earned was actually thanks to Ichigo, and not to Ogichi alone. If it hadn't been for Ichigo fighting everything about Orihime and Ogichi being together, her friend would have still been a sobbing pushover. Ichigo had given up on her the instant that he saw she had grown stronger and more adamant about what she wanted.

If only I could be that strong now...

"You still have to tell him... He'll do the right thing. I know he will. Kurosaki-kun always does the right thing even if it hurts him," Orihime said solemnly, probably thinking of exactly how giving their friend was.

But... I don't want to be another responsabilty. I just want Ichigo to want to be with me without...

She had to admit that the only thing she honestly yearned from Ichigo was his love, not his bravery or power, but his love. But what if that was too much to ask for?

"Tatsuki-chan... Don't cry! It's all going to be okay!" surprised she blinked as her friend abruptly hugged her tearfully.

Frowning over Orihime's heartfelt exclamations, she raised her fingers to one of her cheeks as her friend rubbed her back reassuringly. Inspecting her fingertips over her friend's shaky shoulder, she couldn't help smiling ruefully at the moisture glistening there.

She had been crying that whole entire time without realizing it.

"-just let it all out! You'll feel better once you let it all out! You'll see!" Orihime assured her, though her own voice cracked with emotion... and strangely, it was true. Hating to cry as much as she did, letting herself show some actual emotion made her feel some very needed relief from it all even if she stopped being the anchor for a brief weakening moment.

***

Damn it! How couldn't I've noticed it?! This whole time!, Rukia shun-poed as quickly as her body allowed over the rooftops of the night-blanketed Karakura. Her heart was hammering so wildly that she couldn't even hear the wind being sliced by her speeding body. The panic at overhearing what was determined at a tai-chou meeting minutes earlier had caused her to take action. She hadn't even had time to think of a plan when she...

We're all going to be put on trial! All of us had a part in this! We all knew the truth! I should've had a good strategy! This was just a disaster waiting to happen!

Every single one of them had made their mistakes and in some way were atoning for their sins committed in the past. The war that was about to break loose was just one of the many consequences of their actions. Just recalling her own sins made her feet move faster to her first destination. Even after seeing Ichigo again, she hadn't been able to tell him the real reason why she had left him and that had been burdoning her for the longest time.

If he was blaming himself for Orihime's resentment, Rukia was blaming herself for stopping a relationship that could have begun because of her selfishness. If it hadn't been for her none of them would have been in danger.

She could still remember the day Orihime had told her about her feelings towards Ichigo with stunning clarity. She could also still recall the panic her friend's confession had brought and how she had quickly reacted by 'confessing' her socalled love to Ichigo so he would never find out about Orihime's girlish feelings that seemed more like a crush than a woman's love.

Their relationship had all been a sham from the begining. She had cared for him, yes. Had even harbored deep feelings of gratitude and friendship, but it hadn't been like the love between lovers that had no lies separating them.

She should have told him the truth! Rukia felt that she was the one that deserved his hate because from the very start she had been comparing him to a man she shouldn't have been with in the past. A man that had had a loving good wife and had rejected her to stay with her until the very day they had both died. A man she had knowingly slept with when he had belonged to someone else. Her guilt wasn't only about Ichigo but for her taking a married lover when she had been too young to understand how wrong and painful it was.

In the begining she had been so angry at thinking of Ichigo starting to desire Orihime, but when she had cooled her rage she had come to the heartbreaking realization that if she hadn't interfered in Ichigo's choices Orihime wouldn't have found love in his inner-hollow.

If she had thought about the possible repercussions, Ichigo wouldn't have felt the need to sacrifice his chance in true love by giving his hollow a body.

Now all of our lives are at stake... If it hadn't been for me, Ichigo would have had a normal relationship with Inoue and that hollow wouldn't be in a walking illegal soul-transfered gigai! He wouldn't have existed to begin with!

Urahara would be condemned once again for his experiments because he had been the one that had originally came up with the idea. Rukia would be held responsible because she had known what Ogichi was and hadn't informed it and with her position as resident shinigami, her offense was probably doubly as griveous. Ichigo could be even executed for permitting and allowing the obviously succesful experiment to happen with his own hollow of all things. Both Ogichi and his 'body' would be destroyed. Orihime also ran the risk of execution and having her child aborted. Even Arisawa, Ishida and Sado were on the Soul Society's hit list for accepting the crime and remaining silent about it.

And what was most saddening of all... They were all going to die and the Soul Society, in its quiet hush-hush manner, would cover it all up with even more lies. Their transgressions would become nothing more than a rumor, erased by a pompous burocracy that loathed having their mistakes and slip-ups aired out publically.

It'll be like we never existed! We'll end up being another filebox under Central 46!

Hating to see it all end so unfairly. she finally landed silently on the metal veranda of the porch of the place she had to go to first. She could sense the presences she sought inside, probably unaware of the unwanted predicament she was about to reveal. Nobody was going to like her brand of news, especially when lately everyone had been trying with great difficulty to heal their old wounds on each other. Learning how to accept one day, to become fugitives the next wasn't going to help matters...

Still shaking from both fear and her ealier excertions, her feet touched the concrete flooring of the porch. Taking a couple of deep breaths in hopes to calm her pounding heart she effortlessly due to her soulform walked through the glass sliding door of the apartment.

"Woah! What da' fuck are ya' doin' here, shinigami?!" she wasn't surprised at seeing the starkly pissed white hollow leaping up from his lazy lounging on the couch of the living room.

"Where's Inoue?!" she snapped breathlessly, knowing full well that Orihime was a lot easier to deal with than the hollow.

A hard scowl appeared on his face that was so disturbingly like Ichigo's.

"What da' hell you want with her?" he asked suspiciously eyeing her. Even after all this time, Ogichi didn't trust leaving her alone for extended periods of time with Orihime.

"What's going on...?" hearing the voice of the person she wanted to talk to, Rukia blinked taken aback at seeing that she wasn't alone. Standing beside her was a very tired-looking Tatsuki that was just as puzzled as her.

She is a part of this too, so I guess I should just tell them everything! We don't have much time to get out of here!

Forcing her surprised down, she knew that she had to move things along quickly because as badly as things were, time was definitely not on their side.

"The Soul Society!" both of the girls standing in front of an open doorway of what seemed to be a bedroom gasped. "They know and now have sent out an order to arrest any of us on sight!"

"What...?! How da' fuck did they find out?!" Ogichi snapped at her as if it were her fault they were all now in danger.

"I didn't say a thing!" she snapped back, "They had a remote squad watching over the town ever since I requested permanent residence! They figured it out on their own!"

Seeing that the hollow wanted to continue arguing, she continued on angrily, "Listen! If you don't want you and Inoue dying you'll just go with me-!"

"How are we 'sposed to trust you when you're one of them?!" he shouted, for the first time showing actual fury instead of that misplaced merriment he usually displayed when taunting others.

Closing her eyes, she reeled in her temper. Dealing with Ogichi was almost the same as dealing with Ichigo. They were both equally as stubborn and couldn't see what was good for them during desperate times.

"You guys really have no other choice!" she finally hissed, putting an end to the escalating argument.

She could only hope that Ichigo was a bit more accepting with the situation and was moving quickly on his end. When she had found out, she'd had no other choice but to accept Renji's help. She had told him not to get too involved since it was their problem but he had insisted on at least informing the others to start readying themselves to run until being ready to face their speedily moving pursuers.

***

I'm actually splitting one looooong chapter into two. Explains the shortness...

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