Mai was late for work.

Noll was sat in the main body of the office on the chair facing the door. He was supposedly reading a report from BSPR, but in reality, he was staring at the door and waiting for his assistant to arrive.

It was not out of the norm for Mai to be late by any means. But since Noll had implemented a 'I will fire you if you don't at least call in to say you'll be late' policy, Mai had always phoned when she was not going to be on time. He had given great thought to implementing a 'if you are on time every day for a week, I will take you to dinner' policy, thinking that this would greatly improve Mai's time keeping skills and gave him an excuse to see his assistant in a less formal setting; something Noll had been pondering about for a while.

Today however, Mai had not phoned.

And it concerned Noll.

He had no plans to fire Mai when she did arrive, but he was certainly going to give her a piece of his mind.

He sighed.

And then the door opened.

"Finally!" Noll commented. He put the report he was reading down on the coffee table and glared up at his assistant, who had just closed the door behind her. "I have half a mind to fire you right now. Where have you…"

But he faltered when he saw her face.

She had tracks running down her blotchy red cheeks and silent tears spilling from her eyes. Noll noticed that she was holding herself very stiffly, as if scared her movements might break something.

"Mai, what's wrong?" he demanded, standing up. She walked slowly and deliberately towards him and pulled a crisp envelope out of her pocket.

"Please read it," she whimpered.

Noll's first thought was that it was a letter of resignation. His second thought, that occurred as he began to read the offending article, was he wished it was.

Dear Dr Davis,

I am writing to inform you that you will give me your assistance or I will terminate your assistant. The device currently around her neck will activate when I remotely send the signal.

Assuming you wish to prevent this, I suggest you find my fiancé for me. I have given your assistant something belonging to my beloved.

I did ask for your assistance before and I would have been willing to pay you a great deal of money. But you refused. And I can't take no for an answer.

I'm sure you understand the notation of doing anything for the woman you love, right?

Yours,

Your client

A numb feeling spread through Noll's body as he looked up from the piece of paper. Mai had shed her coat to reveal a metal contraption around her throat.

In her hand was an ornate comb.

"Mai," Noll began weakly. But she looked even more frightened at his tone. He took a deep breath and started again, injecting his usual confidence into his voice. "Mai, you will be okay. I will get that off of you."

"You can't," Mai whispered. "He said if you tamper with it, it'll blow."

"Stand still," Noll ordered. "I want to take a look at it."

Mai obliged. Noll began pacing around her and examining everything he could. He knew next to nothing about explosives, but he had done a little electronics in his time.

The metal collar was tight around her neck; there was a slight bulge at the back of her neck.

"He said that it was designed to explode onto my spinal cord," Mai said. "That'd it'd be a quick death but…" More tears began escaping from her eyes. "I know I should've gone to the police but I was so scared and… I don't want to die…"

"You are not going to die," Noll said calmly. "What you said seems to be true from the placement of things. Lin!"

A moment later, Lin appeared at the door.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Noll passed him the letter and watched as he read it.

"Do you know anything about disarming bombs?" Noll asked seriously. Lin shook his head.

"Should we not call the police?"

"I imagine that this – you said he was a man? - is watching the office and if he sees police then he will detonate."

"We could just comply with his wishes?" Lin suggested.

"Mai, did he tell you anything else?"

Mai had not moved.

"Um," she faltered. "He said you had until sundown. He said that once you've found her that he'll phone my mobile and arrange things…"

"But how will he know?" Lin asked.

"I suspect there is a microphone somewhere in the wiring," Noll said. "I have no choice. Mai, give that here and sit down." Mai complied.

Noll retook his own seat.

"Noll, you can't!" Lin protested.

"I have to," Noll stated. He sat back in the chair. Lin and Mai watched as he slumped back.

"Damn it," Lin said as he began pacing.

"I'm sorry," Mai whimpered.

"This is not your fault."

"But if I had just been more careful…"

"How did he get to you?"

"He pretended to be the postman…"

Noll groaned as he struggled into a more upright sitting position.

"I know where she is," he said as he began scribbling on the back of the report he had been reading what seemed now like a lifetime ago. "Lin, could you…?" He was panting for breath.

"Of course," Lin said. "Do not leave the office."

Lin picked up his jacket and the van keys and strode quickly out of the door.

"Mai," Noll began, with no idea how he planned to continue.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, wiping her tears. "I'll make tea, you look exhausted."

She rose and rushed to the kitchen. Noll wiped his sweating forehead and made to follow her, but his legs felt weak.

In the kitchen, Mai had put the kettle on and was fumbling with cups and teabags. She was desperately trying to ignore how much her hands were shaking. The kettle boiled and she took a deep breath before pouring the hot water.

But as she carried the cups back to the main office area, her trembling hand dropped one of the cups. The smashing sound of the first cup caused her to drop the second and fresh tears sprung to her eyes as the scolding water hit her skin.

Mai fell to her knees and sobbed. The weight – both physical and psychological – of the metal collar around her neck was getting to her.

"Leave it," Noll said quietly. "It doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry," Mai cried. "I didn't want you to have to use your abilities… I was just so scared and…" She broke down and hid her head between her knees.

"Mai," Noll said. "Come here."

"I'm sorry," Mai repeated.

"Mai, I cannot move just yet, so come here."

Rather pathetically, Mai crawled towards her boss, who heaved himself from the chair onto the sofa. Mai took the seat next to him.

"I'm sorry," she said yet again.

"Stop saying that," Noll said. "Lin will find this woman, and then all of this will go away."

"I have a bad feeling about this," she said.

"Probably because of your situation, I doubt it is your intuition."

"I hope you're right."

Noll took Mai's hand.

"What did you see?" Mai asked after a few minutes of silence.

"This woman was just in a house," Noll replied. "Nothing horrible…"

"Then why didn't he know where she was?"

"I…" Noll faltered at this. "Something does not add up."

There were another few minutes of silence.

"Naru, just in case everything does go wrong," Mai began.

"Don't."

"But-"

"No, Mai, you can tell me once you have that thing off your neck."

Another minute of silence.

"I'm sorry," Mai said yet again.

"Stop saying that."

"I don't know what else to say…"

"Mai, everything is going to be fine," Noll said. "And once this is all sorted out, you can try and persuade me not to fire you for being late."

It was a poor attempt at humour and Noll knew it, but Mai chuckled weakly nonetheless.

"That would certainly make for an interesting next job interview," Mai commented. "'So why did you leave your last job?' Well, I had a bomb put around my neck by some psychopath and was late for work so my boss fired me."

Noll smirked at the thought.

"I think it would show excellent strength of character that you came through such an ordeal," Noll said.

"Would you hire me if I said that to you?"

"No," he admitted. "But only because of your record for tardiness."

"I think I had a pretty decent excuse this morning," Mai retorted.

"The first ever decent excuse you have given."

"Hey!" Mai protested and Noll almost smiled.

The office phone rang. Noll answered it.

Mai could not hear who was on the other end.

"Yasuhara? What…?" Noll sounded confused. He listened for a moment, then Noll swore. "I'll explain later, who is she protected from?" Another pause. Then Noll swore again.

"I have to go." He hung up.

"What is it?" Mai asked.

"Lin has been arrested for attempting to get to a protected woman. Our client's fiancé is in protective custody from her abusive ex."

Mai felt a heavy weight in her chest.

"Mai, we'll find a way around this."

And then Mai's mobile rang.

Mai pulled it out of her pocket and put it into Noll's waiting hand. He answered it.

"Hello?"

Mai could not hear the response either, though she thought that even if she had been the one to answer the call, she would not have heard anything over her thumping heart.

"You know she is in police custody," Noll said. A pause. "I'm sure you're not."

Mai tried desperately to remain calm.

"I can't do that."

It was amazing how aware she suddenly was of every fibre of her body.

"No!" Noll was obviously refraining from shouting. "Don't you- Hello? Hello? Damn, he hung up." Noll turned to face Mai. "Mai…"

"Naru… I…"

"Mai, it's going to be fine," he said quickly. But Mai was up off the sofa and backing away from him. "Mai, come here, I'll just take it off you, it'll be fine."

Mai shook her head.

"I don't want you to get hurt too…"

Beep.

"Oh no! It's a countdown, isn't it? No…" Mai pulled at the collar, trying to rip it from her body.

Beep.

"Mai come here, I will get it off you," Noll insisted.

Beep.

"No!" Mai shouted and backed further away. "Naru, I'm sorry."

Beep… Beep…

"Mai! It'll be fine."

Beep... Beep...

"Naru, I love you, I just want you to know that, okay?" Mai said with a strange sense of calm.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

"Mai, don't say it like that."

Beep… Beep… Beep…

"But it's true, okay?"

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

"Tell the others too, okay?"

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

"Mai, you're not going to die."

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

"I'll wait for you," Mai said. "I'll wait with Gene."

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

"No," Noll said tersely. "Mai, you'll do no such thing. Mai, I-"

But he was interrupted with a small explosion.

Mai's head slumped to one side.

Her body sunk to the floor and Noll mirrored her actions.

"No…" he whispered. "Not again…"

He rushed to her side and cradled her body in his arms.

"Mai? Can you hear me?"

He checked for a pulse.

"Mai!"

As if on autopilot, Noll lowered her body to the floor and began performing CPR.

"Mai!"

But she just lay there.

And reason began to creep into his mind. CPR would not save her. Not if her spinal cord had been broken.

"Mai…"

He hugged her body close to his own.

When the police rushed in, hours later, he just sat there numbly. Somehow Yasuhara and Lin had explained what was going on. Noll had no idea how much the police knew or believed about what psychic abilities had been used.

He didn't much care.

Paramedics pulled Mai from him.

He watched her body go.

She was gone.

Author's note: So after all the fluff I've been posting, someone actually asked me for "something horrible" I hope this suffices!

If this left you sad, FLUFF WEEK STARTS TOMORROW! I'm half tempting to put up the Monday prompt now because it's probably Monday somewhere in the world...

Please review :)