Section 4: Flowers in the Haunted Library – Day 2

Author's Note: Sorry about last week. The weather at the beach was great. The wi-fi was not. To all of my U.S. readers: I hope you had a good Fourth of July.

A note on this section: The information on period dress should actually be accurate. I did research! (Okay, so I read one article and picked the time period with clothes I was familiar with. It's summer. That counts as research.) Also, I was wondering about the balance and pacing of humor, case, and Noll angst in this section and the overall story. On the one hand, I want the story to be fun to read. On the other, he lost his twin less than two weeks ago at this point. Thoughts?

Disclaimer: Still not mine. I don't own Ghost Hunt and I don't own the lines I blatantly stole from the anime for the auto-suggestion experiment.


Chapter 13: The Highway or the Scenic Route

Noll was awake, Lin wasn't, and Noll really wasn't okay with that. He had told Mrs. Watanabe that they would return in the morning to see what data had been recorded. It was eight-thirty-two and every extra second that Lin slept was a second not spent solving the case so that the search for Gene could continue. It was another second that Gene's body was alone in a foreign lake.

Noll drummed his fingers on the scratchy hotel comforter as he looked at the digital clock for the third time in as many minutes.

Lin still wasn't awake.

The comforter felt too rough on his fingertips, and Noll pulled his hand protectively away. It was eight-thirty-three.

It was time to wake up Lin.

"Lin!" Noll called out decisively to the sleeping onmyoji, knocking on the door.

Before he could call out a second time, Lin stood in the half-open doorway looking, not disheveled, but at least slightly rumpled. Gene would have been fascinated to discover that their instructor could look anything less than completely composed. He had always wondered, and now Noll knew. Gene wasn't there to share the moment with.

"Noll?" Lin asked, clearly expecting there to be some sort of crisis to explain his sudden awakening. Noll chose to ignore the implied question.

"Obviously," he replied, his tone emotionless but with a harsh undertone. "We're leaving for the Watanabe investigation as soon as you're ready."

He braced himself slightly for the attack that was surely coming. Lin might do as he was told in front of the clients, but away from outsiders, the twenty-six year old onmyoji was the long distance voice of Noll's parents. He was in charge.

The expected scathing reply never came.

It was no longer the middle of the night, and Lin had slept. He gave Noll a long look, taking everything in. To anyone else walking down the hall, Noll looked a bit tired and more than a little uninterested and disdainful. However, Lin was not a stranger. He had known Noll for years. He saw the boy's jittery hands and flickering gaze, heard the challenge in his reply and saw his fear of it being answered. He wondered if Noll had slept at all.

"I'll meet you here in twenty minutes," Lin replied, about to shut the door.

Then, he paused as if remembering something important.

"Go over the temperature readings from yesterday," Lin said, estimating that the task would take at least fifteen minutes. Having provided Noll with temporary distraction from the sparks randomly flaring and dying behind the boy's electric blue eyes, Lin closed the door.

Noll was left staring at the door handle with a vague sense of relief. He returned to his room to analyze the readings.

Exactly twenty minutes later, he and a now-dignified-looking Lin pulled out of the hotel parking lot.

The drive passed quickly in its usual silence.

There were a lot of things that Lin wished someone would say to Noll, but he was not the right person to find the words. Luella, Madoka, and especially Gene would know, but they were all far away. He would let time do its work.

Noll was oblivious to the thoughts concealed in the silence. He stared out of the passenger side window as if trying to absorb every detail of the scenery that flew past. He didn't notice any of it. Instead, he replayed his psychometric vision of Gene over and over again in his mind, hoping for some identifying landmark that he had missed. The trunk opened and the stars that could be seen over any part of Japan gleamed through the boughs of a tree in an unremarkable forest. The woman released him and he sunk into the murky green depths.

The trees outside formed a green blur, but it was a peaceful green unlike the unforgiving green of death visions. The soft green light seemed to spread as Noll let his head rest on the corner of the seat. Within moments, the vibration of the car had lulled him to sleep.

The moment the boy was asleep, Lin felt a wave of peace crash over the tense air. He let the van slow as it approached the highway that would bring them quickly to the Watanabe house. Within twenty minutes, he would have to wake Noll up to investigate.

It was a beautiful day, warm but with a cool rejuvenating breeze that cleared away sky's former haze. Lin decided that, as the driver of the van, he was allowed to choose to take the scenic route.

It would take an extra fifteen minutes to reach the investigation site. If that happened to be enough time to make the trip the length of a reasonable nap – well, the drive was really much more pleasant.

With a last look at his sleeping charge, Lin drove past the turnoff.


Chapter 14: Investigations and Apologies

Noll blinked sleepily at the man leaning over him.

"Lin?"

"We're here," the older man said. Noll tried to identify the unfamiliar note in Lin's tone, but his eyes were obscured by the strand of hair that shadowed his face.

Noll unbuckled his seatbelt without reply and glanced at the clock. He'd been asleep for longer than he had thought. He reasoned that there must have been a lot of traffic. While Noll resented any delay to this investigation, and by extension his true investigation, he was glad that the trip had been longer than usual. He winced slightly as he remembered his own behavior that morning. The relentless restlessness of the morning was gone, leaving him feeling drained and a bit contrite. He would find a way to make it up to Lin later.

Now, it was time to work.

Gen was the first to notice their arrival and came rushing down the path to the front door, calling out in greeting.

"Mr. Shibuya! Good morning, Mr. Lin! Mom, Nazumi, they're here."

"I can see that," Mrs. Watanabe called from the doorway with a fond smile. "Good morning."

Nazumi waved from where she stood, half concealed behind her mother.

"Good morning," Noll replied politely. "I trust you had a quiet night."

"We did," Mrs. Watanabe confirmed. "You were right. We didn't even here the tapping at the windows that had been going on before. It was completely quiet."

Nazumi turned away with an expression of distaste, as if to protest that her definition of quiet differed from her mother's. However, she said nothing to contradict the absence of paranormal activity, leading Noll to believe that whatever had occurred had merely been family drama. That really was not his problem to fix.

"I'm glad to hear that," Noll responded dutifully. "If you are ready for us to begin today's investigation, we will collect the data that was recorded last night."

"Of course."

Mrs. Watanabe stepped aside to allow Noll and Lin entrance, with the ever-present Gen traipsing cheerfully behind.

While Mrs. Watanabe excused herself to go about her daily chores, Gen and Nazumi insisted on staying to watch the paranormal investigators at work, despite assurances that it would be boring.

"How can it be boring?" Gen demanded in disbelief. "It's ghosts!"

"Good," was all Nazumi said.

Noll and Lin collected the recordings from various pieces of equipment and returned to base to analyze it with no regard for the children who accompanied them. The data was unexpectedly conclusive. Even though the Watanabe's had reported no activity the night before, the temperature in the library had abruptly dropped close to freezing around eleven and the cameras showed only static. Roughly thirty minutes later, it returned to its usual temperature, a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house. That was a strong indicator of a spirit.

However, Lin had found another smaller temperature change that was troubling Noll. Around the same time that the temperature in the library suddenly dropped, the temperature around the entrance and the nearby kitchen decreased by a couple of degrees. Right before the library returned to normal, these rooms warmed and the hallway by the bedrooms cooled for a moment. It was on the edge of the range of temperature fluctuations that could be accounted for by the quirks of air currents and architecture. However, it seemed too distinct to be accidental.

Noll needed tea.

He stood up and left the room in search of the kitchen he had seen during the tour on the first day. Lin continued typing, knowing without asking where Noll was going. Besides, it was the middle of the day. The danger would come later.

While Lin was uninterested in Noll's departure and even Gen seemed content to imagine glorious tales of horror while technology collected and processed data, Nazumi followed.

"Where are you going?" she asked when Noll paused at the end of the hallway to let her catch up.

"To make some tea," he replied. "Do you think your mother would mind?" he added as an afterthought.

Nazumi shook her head seriously.

They went quietly about the important business of making tea.

When the water boiled, Noll asked, "Would Gen like some?"

Nazumi shook her head.

"Gen and I don't really like tea," she admitted. "Mother says that for some it is an acquired taste, and that we probably will like it when we're older."

Noll bit back a smile, but a light shown through the clouds covering his eyes as he poured two cups of tea.

"Would you like to bring Lin his then?" Noll asked.

Nazumi nodded brightly, delighted to have a job to do. She followed Noll back to base, careful not to spill.

Lin didn't look up when Noll and Nazumi returned. He did, however, glance over briefly as Noll walked past him. As expected, the boy carried a cup of tea and wore a satisfied expression. He noted with some amusement that Nazumi was also carrying a cup. She looked like a little duckling following behind the leader of their ebony-haired, tea-drinking duck family. Lin shook his head slightly and resumed work.

"Excuse me, Mr. Lin?" a soft voice interrupted his typing.

Lin looked up to find himself looking into the wide, brown eyes of Nazumi. She looked away quickly, holding out the teacup.

Lin took the proffered cup, sneaking a glance at Noll. The boy was watching him with cautious expectation, confirming Lin's suspicion that the tea was a peace-offering and apology.

"Thank you," Lin said and took a sip of his tea.


Chapter 15: Other Options

Noll was well on his way to proving the frequently tested scientific theory that staring at data would not cause it to mutate into an understandable pattern. He still didn't know why the temperature had changed in the other rooms. After a couple of hours, he found that rather frustrating.

The problem was, he reflected as he pored over the architect's plans for the house, that there was nothing to find. Obviously there was an explanation somewhere, but it seemed increasingly likely that the explanation was paranormal. That brought him back to the original issue: there was no reason for there to be a ghost.

Noll shot a wondering look at Lin who was typing as diligently as ever. What could he possibly be doing? Noll had explored every option he could think of and had found nothing.

What he didn't realize was that Lin had reached the same conclusion a half hour before and had found other methods of passing the time until new data was collected.

K-Lin: You were wrong. He did bring me tea.

M-Mori: Call the exorcists! We have an obvious case of possession. Or . . . wait. What did he do first?

Lin hesitated. As much as he would like to have her join him in Japan – to help with Noll, obviously – he didn't want to worry Madoka unnecessarily. It wouldn't be fair to her. He dealt with his conflicting emotions by ignoring them and choosing strict accuracy.

K-Lin: Woke me up and ordered me to get ready to investigate.

M-Mori: That doesn't sound like him either. Koujo, what happened?

K-Lin: A lot of stress and not a lot of sleep, I think. Relax. He fell asleep in the car, and I drove around a bit to give him some time to rest. He seems fine now.

M-Mori: How very parental. Of course usually in that scenario, the child is an infant or toddler, not a – whatever Noll is. Teenager doesn't seem to cover it.

K-Lin: One of a kind. Of course, he'd probably take that as a compliment. I hope any children we have are a lot easier to handle.

Lin looked over the message he had just sent. He had meant that he or Madoka might have children one day and obviously those children would end up spending time at the BSPR, so it would be great if they didn't turn out like the Davis twins. Hadn't he?

He shook his head to clear it of images of little dark-haired children with Madoka's sparkling eyes and mentally prepared himself for the oncoming teasing.

It came as anticipated, but it wasn't what he expected.

M-Mori: Well, that was unexpected. Have you met someone I should know about? You know I would love to meet her.

Lin blushed slightly, more in relief than in embarrassment. He could hear Madoka using her sweetest teasing voice as he read the words she had typed. He felt a sudden rush of nostalgia, not for his home in China, but for England. There was a time when Madoka would have made him uncomfortable, and he would have retreated behind his awkward wall of silence for the rest of the week. However, Lin was an adult now. He could take her teasing and respond in kind.

K-Lin: Hardly. Noll is one of the strongest arguments for abstinence I've ever met.

M-Mori: What a loss to the world. (Making a face at you even though you can't see it.)

M-Mori: He's a good kid, though. Underneath the unwillingness to let anyone know that he cares, he's a good person.

K-Lin: I know. That's why I came.

Lin hesitated, surprised by the serious turn the banter had taken. He supposed they were all still under the cloud of grief enveloping the Davises. He couldn't change that, and he wasn't even certain that he wanted to, but he could pull Madoka out of it for a few minutes.

K-Lin: Laughing at your face even though I can't see it and don't laugh.

Madoka sent a picture, not of her making faces, but of her smiling devilishly at the camera, at Lin. Lin smirked in return.

M-Mori: Now you can see. And you do laugh. I'm pretty sure we've even gotten it on tape at some point. I have incontrovertible proof!

K-Lin: Of course I laugh for you. Seriously though, have you seen anything like the secondary temperature drop before?

As Lin and Madoka launched into an exploration of possible theories related to the case, Noll marveled at Lin's work ethic. Noll was driven and focused, but he was out of ideas. He needed a medium who could contact the spirit, find out who it was and what it wanted. Gen could see the spirit, but he seemed to have some sort of ESP rather than truly being a medium.

Noll needed Gene.

Unfortunately, he was left with only himself and his own unusable powers.

That gave him an idea. Noll crept nonchalantly out of the room with Nazumi trailing doggedly behind him.


Chapter 16: The Home They Built Together

The problem, Noll reflected as his gaze meandered around the haunted library, was that all of the books looked somewhere between ancient and forgotten-in-the-back-of-a-store-selling-used-books. He couldn't know which belonged to the Watanabes and which could help him locate the library-bound ghost without asking. If he asked, he risked alerting Lin to his plans, and his plans were exactly the reason that his parents had insisted on a chaperone in the first place.

Unless . . .

"Nazumi," Noll called. "I need some information on the history of the library. Would you answer a few questions?"

The girl slipped quietly around the shelf she had been lurking behind and nodded solemnly.

"Is there anything in here from previous owners?" Noll asked.

Nazumi looked around the room thoughtfully.

"I think it was a library before we moved in," she said. "Most of the shelves were here before and, I think, most of the books on business management and stuff in the last two rows. Maybe one of the desks?"

Noll wanted to shut his eyes in despair. It was good that something might belong to the ghost, but that was a lot of psychometry. Instead, he nodded coolly at the young girl.

"That gives us somewhere to start then," he said.

"I can help?" Nazumi asked in surprise.

"Yes," Noll replied. "Start going through the books in the last two rows and see if any of them have been written in. I'll start with the other shelves."

Noll walked calmly to the first set of shelves and rested a hand on it gently. It was unlikely that he would find anything that day, he knew, but it often took time to solve the case. While Noll often lacked patience with people or tasks he deemed uninteresting, he could persist indefinitely in pursuit of a goal. He would search one object at a time until he found what he was looking for.

That was why he came to Japan.

Noll focused on the shelf, letting the protective barrier around his mind that separated his sense of self from the world at large weaken, only a little. Too much, and he wouldn't be able to find his way back.

The shelf helped less than other objects he had encountered. Usually, Noll needed only weaken his barrier a little, and he would be pulled in, but no one had poured years of daily life into the shelf as people did with personal objects. It could offer only decades in a quiet room.

There was something, though, before the shelf had become a mere surface on which to place more important possessions, a hint of pride and the whisper of a smile belonging to happier days. Noll grasped the emotion and used it to pull himself into the memory.

In another year of someone else's life, a young man stood next to the shelf, panting slightly with exertion, but with a proud smile on his face.

"Last one," he told his wife.

She looked adoringly up at him from amid the boxes that had yet to be unpacked. She seemed to glow in the hazy light that filtered through the old windows.

"Our first home," she said.

The happy memory faded uselessly. Noll let it slip away, glaring at the shelf in front of him. Other than causing a temporary sense of well-being and hope that he didn't actually feel, Noll's forbidden use of psychometry had done nothing.

He searched the shelf again, more aggressively this time, but withdrew quickly when he found himself brushing past a memory of smothering heat. Noll was unimpressed with himself for having illicitly used psychometry, only to rediscover the fire in the nineteen nineties that he and Lin already knew about from their research. It had been a simple wiring issue caused by nothing more than the age of the house. Part of the house had burned down, so the owners decided to take the opportunity to rid themselves of the weary boards and rusty pipes. They built a new house and moved their remaining furnishings back in. No one had been harmed in the process; it was a dead end.

With no change in expression, Noll took a few steps to the right and placed his hand on the next bookshelf.

It hesitated in response to his probing, but quickly offered him another scene with the same couple as before. Noll studied them more carefully this time, since it seemed he would be retroactively intruding on their lives for a while. They appeared to have lived during the late nineteen forties or perhaps early fifties based on the woman's attire. Her dress was Western in the narrow-waisted, flaring style popular following the Second World War. It was the color of the sky on a cloudless day in April, and there was laughter in the woman's eyes as she raced towards her new home. She paused as she reached the door, allowing her husband to catch up.

He was a handsome man, a serious businessman during working hours, perhaps, but his eyes shown with the same joy as his wife's during his free hours. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, and he had a broad grin on his face.

"After you, my heart," he said gallantly, holding the door to their new home open for his wife. She kissed him playfully as she passed and swept inside.

Enough. Noll had seen enough of the happy couple's happy memories. He didn't give a damn about the marital bliss of the now-departed. He was trying to find the cause of the ghost.

Besides, a world-weary and bitter voice in the back of Noll's head reminded him that the apparent time period was about right for the couple to be the Kimuras. However joyous the newlyweds seemed, if the woman was Kimura Amaya, she was going to kill herself fewer than twenty years from the kiss Noll had just witnessed.

Noll walked forward to the next set of shelves and raised his hand again. The afternoon passed in a blur of the couple's memories.

Noll watched Mrs. Kimura come and go for several years, placing a new bright flower in the vase on her husband's desk every time it began to wither. Seasons passed in a transition from white to pink to red to gold. Time was made of wilting flowers.

He watched her take away the vase when winter came.

He watched Mr. Kimura studying late into the night by the yellow light of a dull bulb. The book was on management (he just wanted this promotion). The book was on finance (the company would soon be his and it would prosper). Noll could hear the last sighs of ambitious thoughts that had long since been achieved and now rested in the grave.

He watched the book in front of him as he sat at the desk, barely looking up as his wife exchanged the dying flower for one that hadn't yet realized that it had been cut. He knew there had been a time when he would have stopped in his work and told her that the brightest point of the day was in the evening when she walked into the room. It was no less true than it had been then. He didn't know when he had stopped telling her, but he knew that she understood. They both had their duties as members of the Kimura family.

Noll's eyes refocused abruptly on his surroundings, jarred by that last thought. He was a Davis, not a Kimura, and he had reached the last shelf. The scientist in him said that the shelves had been eliminated as possible leads – Mrs. Kimura had committed suicide, but the apparition was a male spirit – and that he would start with the desk and books next.

However, some part of Noll was still frustrated at the waste of time. It seemed the young couple had been the only ones to leave behind the imprint of their memories. After their early life together, there had been too many years of silence in the library, and too many years of emotionless history. Noll feared that there was nothing to find.

He would be content if he could continue the search immediately, but using psychometry was not at all like using the internet or reading public records. His protective mental wall was dangerously low, and he was willing to admit to being a bit tired. The search would continue another day.

Noll turned to find Nazumi staring at him with an unreadable expression. If he had been doing anything overly suspicious or the look had come from someone other than a nine year old child, he would have suspected that it was concern.

"Have you found anything?" he asked.

"Nothing yet," she answered dutifully. "I still have a bunch of books left though. Do you want me to keep looking?"

"Not today," Noll replied. "I have other work to do, and you shouldn't come in here alone. Right now we need to meet up with Lin and your family."

Nazumi looked reassured that she wouldn't be continuing the task alone. To her, Mr. Shibuya was fearless for walking into the haunted library as if it was nothing. The air was thick with the decay time brings even though the room was relatively new, and the light that streamed through the generous supply of windows was cold. It left flickering shadows that danced macabrely, always at the edge of her vision. She inched closer to her uninterested hero.

She really hoped that she wouldn't see the ghost like Gen had.

At least Mr. Shibuya was there. Nazumi scurried after Noll towards the door.

"Oh, and Nazumi," Noll called as they left. "I'd appreciate it if you waited to mention this to Lin. I prefer not to discuss leads before I know if they'll prove relevant to the investigation."


Chapter 17: The Auto-suggestion Experiment

"Focus your eyes on the light . . . Try to match your breathing to the glow of the light . . . Nice and slow . . ."

Noll stood calmly at the front of the darkened guest room, letting his voice fall smoothly into the mesmerizing, pulsating light. The soft red light glowed and faded and glowed and faded in time with the steady breathing of the room's occupants. Even though Noll was the one performing the auto-suggestion experiment, he had to concentrate to stop himself from being lulled into the soothing peace that spread over the room. Only Lin, standing by Noll's side with impeccable detachment, seemed immune.

"Tonight, a vase will move, this small ceramic vase to be exact. It will be sitting on end table that is in front of you now, and it will move."

Noll flicked the lights back on and watched the eyes of the three Watanabes be irresistibly drawn to the vase. He didn't feel any particular triumph at the successful hypnosis. Noll was a professional, and Madoka had taught him well; it always worked.

Tomorrow, if the vase had moved, they would know that the paranormal activity was caused by latent PK and not a spirit. Now it was time to leave.

"Thank you for your time," Noll said, knowing that the Watanabes were in too much of a daze to truly listen. He ushered them politely from the room.

"In order to conduct our investigation," he added, "we need the room to remain undisturbed until we return tomorrow."

"Of course," Mrs. Watanabe replied with a vague smile. Then, "That means you, Gen."

The boy glared.

"I heard what he said!" Gen protested.

"It's not your hearing that was in question," his sister commented dryly.

Noll almost smiled. "I never doubted your hearing, though I'm still in some doubt as to whether the problem is your inability to comprehend or to obey," teased another younger sibling in another time. Much like the siblings in the time before, Gen and Nazumi continued their quarrel down the hall without a second thought as to the reason behind the instructions they had been given.

Mrs. Watanabe smiled apologetically.

"I'd better go break up them up before it escalates. Do you mind showing yourselves out?" she asked.

Noll agreed as graciously as he was able, and then she was gone.

The moment the door closed, he whirled around towards Lin.

"Mr. Watanabe didn't show up for the experiment," Noll stated flatly. "He's the wrong age for it to be likely that he has latent PK ability, but so are the others. Mrs. Watanabe is too old, and Gen and Nazumi are too young. Also, like the others, he was around for all of the reported incidents."

Lin paused to consider the implied question – God forbid Noll actually express doubt.

"Ideally, he would have come," Lin admitted. "However, as he is middle-aged and male, he is the least likely candidate for an already unlikely cause. If the experiment fails to turn up results, we won't tell them what it was for, and we can perform it again when he is present. His absence shouldn't be too detrimental to the case."

Noll nodded, reassured.

"Then, we're done here," he said. "There's nothing more to do on the case until tomorrow."


Chapter 18: Take-away and Lakes

Noll clicked on the next link, determinedly ignoring the knocking on his door.

"Noll!" Lin called, not yet concerned, but patience wearing thin.

With a last lingering look and an annoyed sigh, Noll acquiesced to the inevitable and answered the door.

"Yes," he said flatly.

Lin eyed the younger boy curiously. After Noll had declared further research on the house pointless – it was being pursued by the researchers at the BSPR and Noll had run out of leads – Lin had been left to his own devices for the remaining afternoon. As lovely as that had been, afternoon had long since drained into the pale evening and was now darkening into night. Lin wondered what Noll had done with his free time.

Whatever the boy had chosen, Lin was quite confident that it hadn't involved dinner. Noll would eat if it occurred to him or if he felt so inclined, but it was much lower on his list of priorities than anything related to his work. Thus, a potential food snob was lost. Often, when Noll was working on something that lasted more than a few days, the job of providing food to be absentmindedly consumed during work was left to whoever cared. Right now, that was Lin.

"I was going to go get some take-away," Lin said.

Noll regarded him with utter disinterest and a disdain that implied Lin obviously should have known better than to approach him with information of so little relevance to the investigation.

"Would you like to come?" Lin prompted.

Noll's look of disdain now mingled with one of disbelief.

"I'd rather not," he replied.

"Do you care what I get?" Lin tried again.

"Not especially. If that's all?"

As Noll turned to go inside, Lin found himself reaching out to catch the boy's shoulder mid-departure. Lin wasn't sure why he did it. He just felt like he was missing something important lurking under their mundane conversation, and he worried that it was something he needed to know.

Noll's expression of feigned, polite interest provided no answers.

"I'll stop in when I get back," Lin said, struggling to find something to say. It didn't matter what words he chose; there was an unspoken barrier around Noll, and Lin wasn't ready to be the one to break it. Someone else would have to do it some other day.

"Okay."

Noll returned to his hotel room to look at pictures of Ashinoko Lake from another angle.

As promised, Lin returned a short while later bearing the white, wax-coated containers of some sort of vegetable curry, chosen for its familiarity. He knew that it was supposed to be thicker, sweeter, and just generally a bit different from the curry eaten in England, but he assumed Noll would be too busy to notice and probably wouldn't care even if he did.

"Noll," he called, barely bothering to knock this time.

Noll's response was more prompt than last time, perhaps because he recognized immediately that Lin was not going to allow himself to be ignored. This time, however, Noll couldn't be bothered to answer the door.

"You have a key," Noll called in reply. "You can come in."

Having been granted somewhat dubious permission to enter – there was a definite possibility that "You can come in." meant "I acknowledge that I can't stop you from coming in." – Lin opened the door.

He found Noll sitting on the couch, his laptop resting on the table in front of him turned so that Lin could not see the screen. Lin placed the food beside the computer without too much concern about the secrecy. Noll was not a normal teenager in many ways, and the sort of trouble he attracted could not be found on the internet. Lin prepared to leave and allow the boy his privacy.

Then again, Noll was not a normal teenager in many ways. Lin paused. He remembered last night when he had let Noll walk away, believing that everything would be fine in the morning. It eventually was, but Lin suspected that he had somehow failed as the boy's temporary guardian when he had missed whatever he had missed that night. There was no excuse for making the same mistake twice.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Lin asked. He hadn't wanted to be sent to Japan, but he would take care of Noll as promised.

Noll gave Lin a considering look.

"If you like," he replied after a moment.

Lin sat down on the edge of the couch that was as far away from Noll as possible and ate his meal without further attempts at conversation. Having gained temporary acceptance, Lin knew that he had to wait. Aside from occasional plotting, Noll was private and slow to share, not secretive; he would be willing to tell all eventually.

After a several minutes of silence, Lin deemed it safe to continue.

"You're working on something," he began.

Noll looked up from the screen. He didn't enter the conversation, but he also didn't tell Lin that the project was not his concern. Lin considered that a positive start.

"Would you be willing to tell me what it is?" Lin asked.

The guarded, considering expression on Noll's face returned. Then he nodded, reaching a decision, and moved closer to Lin who peered inquisitively at the image on the screen before him.

Lin allowed himself the duration of a long blink to feel much older and much wearier than the twenty-six years he had lived could take responsibility for.

He opened his eyes again and regarded the now-visible image of a lake with resignation.

"I assume this isn't the one," he said.

"No," Noll replied, and Lin could almost believe the surface-deep serenity of his voice. "It doesn't seem to be."

"Of course," Noll continued, carefully bland words concealing a cold current of despondency, "it's possible that it is this lake, and simply not the right part of the lake. I'll add it to the list of less likely possibilities, but I cannot eliminate it entirely."

"Naturally," Lin agreed softly.

Noll didn't seem to hear the reply. He was already sinking back into image after image of Japanese lakes.

Lin waited in silence until the younger boy began to eat absentmindedly. Then, satisfied that he had done all that could reasonably be expected of him and plagued by the nagging sense that it wouldn't be enough, Lin returned to his own room. The haunting green scenery remained with Noll.


A/N: Did anyone else notice the title of a Doctor Who episode that I accidently stuck in here? Oh well.

Next time: Part of the case is solved, the elusive Mr. Watanabe returns, and Lin is reminded why Noll wasn't allowed to go to Japan alone.