A/N: (Heavy, very heavy sigh.) I had to rewrite this, because the handwritten one was clunky and I didn't like how Nanao came off. That's what happens when I write past midnight and am half asleep, apparently. Anyway, here's Ring True.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, nor do I make any money off of this.

"You said you'd be by my side forever." Nanao's voice was soft in the room of the medic division. "I had to know that wasn't true. But I don't want you to go any time soon. And I don't know how much of this I can take."

Shunsui lay comatose on the hospital bed, his breaths even, but his eyes never opening. No one had told Nanao exactly what happened, and to be completely honest, she didn't really want to know. Captain Unohana had said he had a concussion, and that he had fallen asleep, and he just wasn't waking up. She said that it happened sometimes, but Nanao couldn't find it in her heart to accept it. She just wanted Shunsui to wake up. She'd give her right arm to have him awake.

"You need to wake up." Nanao sighed, her voice a little stronger and a little shakier at the same time. "If you don't wake up soon, I'm never going to let you drink again. And I'll make sure you actually do your paperwork for the rest of your life." She ran her fingers through her hair that had been let loose nearly an hour ago. Her head had started to ache and she had taken the pins out in hopes that it would help.

"Keep talking to him." Isane stepped into the room, checking the machines that harbored stats and vitals. "It can help comatose patients wake up." When Nanao didn't say anything, she wrote the vitals and stats down and exited the room.

"I always knew you were a good man." Nanao continued, softer now. "But good men don't leave their teammates to do all the work." She paused and slowly added, "Or at least to do all the work without keeping them company." That's what Shunsui had been good at all those years. She had rarely been left alone with any paperwork unless emergencies called.

The monitors beeped their steady beep, making Nanao inhale deeply. She wasn't about to cry, she wouldn't let herself do that here and now. But she wanted to, and she probably would when she got home. The thought of going home without Shunsui made her eyes burn with tears even more, but she stomped them down.

"You don't want to stay here." Nanao breathed in again, realizing that focusing on her breathing helped quell the tears. "You want to come home with me, like we've done every day for the past nine months."

Nanao's ring caught the light.

"You want to be awake before this spring, don't you?" Nanao continued, touching her ring for reassurance. "We finally have our wedding all planned out, and that's not something you can miss." In an attempt to stop fidgeting, She folded her hands in her lap.

Her stomach turned at the sight of Shunsui in that bed, with wires hooked up to his chest and an IV in each arm. In all the years she had known him, it had never been this bad. Lisa had even told her as a child, "Captain Kyoraku rarely exited a battle with more than minor flesh wounds".

"You will wake up." Nanao tried to keep her voice even. "If I have to do my paperwork here, eat here, and sleep here, you will wake up. Don't doubt me."

Shunsui, or the monitors, didn't respond.

But in the back of her heart, and the front of her brain, Nanao knew her fiancé would never doubt her.

A/N: This is so different from the handwritten one. It's not quite so disturbingly sad in my opinion, and there's less ranting dialogue. But what did you think?