Written by Kagura (who can't spell), Beta'd by Kyo.

"Hello?"

The voice on the other end of the exorcist hotline she had called shocked Natalie Swaim. The voice sounded distracted, and Natalie could hear a lot of screaming in the background.

"Er…" she said, slightly distracted by all the commotion she could hear in the background, "I'm calling about…well, I found you in the phonebook...I'm in need of an exorcist."

"Oh!" The voice on the other end of the line lightened considerably. "Well then, how severe is your case?"

"Uh…what?" Natalie asked, confused.

"How many are there in your house? How violent are they? How-"

But the voice was interrupted.

"Get off the damn phone, Komui!" yelled another voice. Natalie flinched at the sound of a loud crash and screams.

"I'm with someone who needs our help!" the first voice screamed back.

"I don't care!" insisted the second voice. "It's your robot that's destroying our building!"

Natalie heard a loud scream from a younger sounding, third voice followed quickly by a thud. "Ow," the new voice groaned.

"Allen, are you alright?" the second voice asked, concerned.

Before the third voice (who Natalie could only assume was Allen) had chance to utter an "I'm okay" the first voice cut in again.

"Ah, Allen! Perfect! I have someone on the phone now that could use your help!"

At this Natalie was brought back to her senses. "Yes, um, do you need my address to send anyone over?"

"Yes, please!" chirped the first voice, while the boy called Allen stammered, "What? Wait, Komui!"

Natalie quickly recited her address.

"Thank you!" said the first voice merrily, while the second one yelled, "This is no time to be joyful!"

"Er, thank you," Natalie said, hanging up the phone quickly. She turned around in her chair and watched her daughter sleep.

Carlie's breathing was slow and peaceful, and she looked completely untroubled as her dreams carried her away from this world. And Natalie was suddenly grateful she called the exorcists. As goofy as they had sounded on the phone, she knew that the exorcists could help her poor daughter. All she wanted was for Carlie to feel safe again.

"Do we really have to go back to our house?" Carlie asked, clinging to her mother's sleeve.

"That's the address I gave the exorcists," Natalie explained. "That's where they'll be expecting us to be."

Carlie bit her bottom lip and gave her mom a pleading look. "Can't we just meet them out here?" she asked, sitting down on their top step.

Natalie sighed and sat down next to her daughter. "Carls, it's the middle of November. It's too cold to stay out."

Carlie crossed her arms in front of her chest in defiance. "I don't care. I'm not going to go in."

"But Carlie," her mom tried, "I need you to come in with me."

"You need me?" Carlie repeated.

"Yeah. I can't see these ghosts. I need you there to protect me."

Carlie was quiet for a while. The idea what her mother needed her was compelling in the least… "Okay, I'll come in," she said.

She stood up with her mother, and treaded into the house carefully. She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding out of relief when ghosts did not attack her and her mom upon entry. Carefully she walked through the entrance hall, turned right at the living room, and walked slowly up the stairs, taking the time to pause on each step. All of Carlie's senses were on overdrive; every little shift in the house caused her alarms to go off.

She crept across the second floor landing and paused outside her bedroom door, trying to see if she could hear either the children or their attacker on the other side. She heard nothing. Taking a slow, calming breath, she casually pushed the door open.

Only the seven children were there. They had all returned whole, and they turned to face Carlie and Natalie as they entered Carlie's bedroom.

"I'm sorry," William said to her.

Carlie nodded. It really wasn't the children's fault.

"But will you help us?" Ana asked, hoisting Eva up more securely on her hip.

Carlie hesitated before nodding again.

The doorbell rang, and Carlie jumped. She had been sitting in silence for the better part of three hours with the ghost children, trying to feel comfortable in her house again. It was working. So far Carlie had enjoyed doing all sorts of random, entertaining things in her room, and she'd only thought of the ghosts' attacker twice.

"Carlie, you need to get down here!" her mother called.

"Coming, Mom!" Carlie responded, running out of her room and across the landing to their banister. "Who is it?" she called down to the first floor.

Her mother looked up from the door. "The exorcists are here, honey."

And standing next to Carlie's mom were three of the oddest looking people she had ever seen. The shortest also appeared to be the youngest, and he had snow white hair. Carlie squeaked when she saw a golden ball fly off of his shoulder.

"Hello," he said kindly, looking up at her.

At his greeting his two companions looked up a Carlie too. The red haired one waved enthusiastically to her. "Hey!" he called. The black haired one just looked at her and hn'ed. Carlie decided she didn't like him much.

"Carlie, come down here and say hello," her mother instructed.

Carlie nodded and hurried down the stairs.

"Hi," she said. She soon discovered that she liked making eye contact with the white haired and red haired exorcists. The black haired one kind of scared her. "I'm Carlie," she said as an introduction.

"I'm Allen Walker," said the white haired boy, the golden ball orbiting his head.

"I'm Lavi," said the red haired one. He nudged his black haired friend. "Yuu," he whined, "introduce yourself!"

The black haired one sent of look of death to Lavi, who just grinned in return. "Don't call me 'Yuu'," he said. "You call me Kanda," he said.

Carlie nodded vigorously. "Yes, sir," she said.

The exorcist called Lavi broke into a grin at her polite language. "Look at that, Yuu," he said. "You went and scared our costumer. Komui's going to get angry!"

Kanda growled at him.

"Kanda-" Allen began, but Kanda interrupted him.

"Shut up, bean sprout," Kanda growled.

Allen then glared at him, and Kanda glared back. Carlie was surprised not to see sparks flying between the two.

"Come on, you two," Lavi said brightly, sticking his hands out to separate Allen and Kanda.

"Um, Allen," Carlie said, giving into her curiosity, "what is that golden ball flying around your head?"

"This is Timcampy," Allen said, sticking out his palm for the little creature to land in.

"What is he?" Carlie asked, intrigued by the little thing. "A golden snitch?"

"A what?" Allen asked. Carlie determined that he had never read Harry Potter. "Timcampy's a golem," he said.

"He's cool," Carlie said.

"Just show us where the akuma is, brat," Kanda said.

Carlie really didn't like him.

"Don't insult our customer!" Lavi chided Kanda.

Kanda glared again.

"What's an akuma?" Carlie was almost afraid to ask.

All three of them gave her confused looks.

"You don't know what they are?" Lavi asked.

Carlie shook her head.

"They why the hell did you call us here?" Kanda demanded.

Carlie shrunk back.

"Stop scaring her!" Allen insisted.

Kanda glared at him again.

"I, uh, we wanted you to get rid of our evil ghost," Carlie tried to clarify.

"You called us here for a ghost?" Kanda yelled.

Carlie took a step back and nodded her head meekly.

"We don't do ghosts," he said, turning to leave.

Allen and Lavi grabbed his long black coat.

"Oh, no you don't," Lavi said. "We've been hired; we have to do what we can!"

"Please help?" Carlie tried, stepping forward again. She stuck out her arm. "He hurt me," she said quietly.

"We're going to try," Lavi promised, grinning at Carlie. "All of us will," he added, yanking on Kanda's coat.

Allen turned towards Carlie. "Now why don't you show us your ghost?"

Ah! The D. Man characters were so hard to write! Feedback please?