I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I did not mean to let months go by before I updated! I didn't mean to make you guys wait so long. But, here it is, at long last: Chapter 7. We have landed, peeps.

As always, favorite, follow and review if you like it (and even if you don't, I'd love to know what I can improve on). And now:


Chapter 7

Mai gripped the hard plastic of the airport seat and tried to remind herself that she was stronger than some stupid irrational fear about airplanes. It didn't work. So instead she tried to quash those feelings by focusing on the others' conversation.

Ayako and Bou-san were fighting about who got what seat. Nothing new there. John was deep in conversation with Masako (in English, and Mai was immensely proud that she completely understood what they were saying). And Yasu…Yasu was staring at her like she'd sprouted horns.

"What?" She snapped.

He nodded. "Thought so." The young man turned the blonde priest and short medium beside him, effectively interrupting their conversation. "Don't you think so?"

John looked Mai over appraisingly. "Perhaps." He said, clearly uncertain.

"What?!" She demanded again.

Yasu held up a finger to silence her and then began searching through the small backpack he'd brought with him for the flight. He pulled out a small baggy of pills and held them out to her.

"What are you trying to drug me with?" Mai asked.

"Motion-sickness pills." John explained, apologetic.

"I don't need them." Mai assured them both.

"Have you seen your face?" Yasu asked. And then: "Oh. Yeah, no mirror. Guess you wouldn't. Well, you look like a ghost, and I would know that because I hunt them."

"But not see them." Masako chipped in, hiding a small smile. It was the first time in her life that Mai (or any of the others) and not seen Masako in a kimono. Mai was still adjusting to the change, but she found that she liked it. And she had a feeling Masako did too. "You do look pale, Mai." Masako added.

"No." Mai said, ignoring their collective concern.

Yasu sighed. "Plan B, then." He said.

Mai snatched the plastic baggy out of Yasu's hand and went and stuffed it in the trash. "No means no." She replied, unfazed by the five stunned faces before her.

"What if you get sick in-flight?" Ayako demanded, suddenly angry.

"That was all of my pills!" Yasu added right after.

"I'll deal with it." Mai replied curtly. "And if you saved your receipt Yasu I'll reimburse you."

It was not the response any of them had been expecting. Mai felt pleased. She wanted them to understand that she wasn't going to show any weakness, not while they were in England, and definitely not in front of Oliver Davis. And this way she'd gotten the message across loud and clear.

The rest of the wait was uneventful, but Mai didn't miss the constant glances in her direction from all five of her companions. The others returned to their conversations, and Mai was left alone with her thoughts. She could feel their concern and uncertainty. She pretended she didn't notice, didn't care, hoping that if she did it long enough it might actually become true.


The overall air of cheer and goodwill in the house was too stifling for Noll's unsociable nature to handle. Hence his frequent retreats to the garden, where he sat out on a bench in the sun and tried very hard to ignore the pointless events going on around him.

Lin and Madoka had officially announced their betrothal the day they got back from the case, and Luella had of course started peppering them with questions. Noll had effectively managed to tune most of that out, until Luella and Martin both offered to host the wedding there. Then all hell had broken loose.

The house was filled to the brim with odd people day in and out. Florists and bakers and other odd people Noll had no association with. Unable to stand it, he'd fled, returning every few hours for food and restroom breaks before again fleeing to the tranquility of the garden.

As a man of science, when Noll looked at the various vegetation around him he recognized them by their scientific name, their usefulness, and any other host of interesting qualities. He didn't look to them for beauty for peace, but he found as the days passed that he did see it, perhaps not in the way normal people did, but he could understand the aesthetics behind the action.

The sakura tree was what did. He knew that. Admitted it freely to himself. It reminded him of Japan. Reminded him, unwillingly, of Mai. It made him wonder where she was, what she was doing. Sometimes he considered asking Lin or Madoka if they'd kept in touch with anyone from Japan, but then he'd dismiss the idea as foolish and go back to starring at the tree.

Spring was a good two months away yet, so there were no blossoms, but that didn't stop Noll from wanting to see them, to see the physical, tangible connection to a place he missed more than he could express.

He decided, completely out the blue, one afternoon, that he would go back to Japan. Not right away. There was no chance of that, between his mother and father and the SPR management hanging over his head. But one day he was going to go back, and he was going to find Mai and make sure that she was doing okay. And the others too, of course.


The dreams were coming more and more frequently, and in consequence Lin got less and less sleep. He'd done his best to hide it from Madoka, but he knew he'd failed when he woke up in the middle of the night and found her already awake and staring at him with a strange look of determination and concentration.

She'd only said one word. "Spill." And he had.

He'd been cautious to remind her that it meant absolutely nothing, that he wasn't Mai or Masako Hara were. And he'd done his best to remain clinically detached from the experience as possible. He failed, of course. It was Gene.

"What do you think it means?" She asked.

"I wish I knew." He said.

"I suppose telling Martin, Luella and Noll is completely out the question?" She said, cracking a half smile.

"I don't want to add to their pain." He admitted.

"It's a good thing that one Masako Hara and one Mai Taniyama are going to be here soon, then isn't it?" Madoka replied.

He nodded. It was a good idea, mostly. "Masako only. I don't want to involve Mai."

Madoka nodded in understanding. Although she hated to see Mai so unhappy about Noll, she couldn't blame the young psychic. Noll could be a pain in the ass on a good day. And Madoka doubted Mai would consider meeting him again a good thing.

"Are we inviting them to the wedding?" Lin asked.

Madoka frowned. "We definitely should." She said, "but if Noll doesn't know about everyone by the time of the ceremony…"

Lin sighed. "If Noll doesn't know the truth seven months from now then he's a much greater idiot than I ever anticipated and we'll have to take all of his PhDs away."

Madoka laughed until she cried at the idea. Lin smiled, and hoped Noll pulled himself together.


Luella went alone to the airport. Martin, Lin and Madoka had all offered to accompany her, but she'd declined them all. Lin and Madoka needed to focus on each other, and Martin had to keep an eye on her son.

They came out of the gate some half an hour after their plane had landed. Luella wasn't surprised. She'd heard that a few storms in the Channel had made things more difficult.

Lin had helpfully provided her with pictures of each of the members of SPR that she didn't know. Luella didn't think she'd need them. She could tell who was who based off of the descriptions the Chinese man and his fiancé had given her.

She already knew Ayako and Takigawa, they came first, already searching the crowd for her or Lin or Madoka. The two young men were obvious to identify, the blonde priest and be-speckled Japanese man made an unmistakable contrast. The two young women that trailed behind them were much harder to distinguish, but only as long as it took for Luella to see their facial expressions. The lighter-haired young woman was talking and laughing freely, moving excitedly and animatedly. That was definitely Mai Taniyama. The other young woman was reserved and cautious, and Luella decided that she was the famous Japanese medium after a little longer look.

Confident that she knew who was who, Luella made her way through the crowd to her guests. She had a lot of explaining to do. Most of all to Mai.

Ayako and Takigawa greeted her warmly, but formally and introduced her to the rest of the group. Luella did not miss the blatant shift in Mai's mood. The smile and ease were gone, replaced by a wary caution masked by calm politeness.

"Thank you all for coming." She said. "I cannot imagine the sacrifices you have made to come here and I just want you to know that I appreciate it beyond words. I would like to say that my son would appreciate it as well, but I believe you all know him, and so that lie won't work." They agreed, laughing. Luella noted how Mai's posture and facial muscles tightened at the mention of Noll and sighed inwardly. Noll had certainly done a number on her.

"Martin has arranged for all of you to begin your work with SPR on Monday, so the weekend is yours to do with as you please. Mai, Yasuhara, I'm afraid you both begin classes on Monday. The new term begins and it's mandatory for all students. Martin has arranged it with the school that you'll each have four weeks of "work-leave" to use throughout the semester, but only with Martin's written permission." Yasuhara looked understandably displeased by this development, but Mai actually looked relieved. Luella frowned.

"Now that all that formal business is taken care of, I've arranged for cars to take you to your apartment complex, where Lin and Madoka will be waiting to show you around and make sure you get settled in. I wish I could stay and see you all safely back, but I'm afraid I have some work to take care of." Luella explained. She led them out to the cars, made sure that they all had their luggage and that their currency exchanges had gone correctly. She waved as both cars took off and then retreated to her own, determined to get this all into motion sooner rather than later.


Yasu collapsed onto his unmade bed in his unfurnished apartment and allowed exhaustion its victory. He'd never felt so tired in his life, and he often stayed up late staring at computer screens looking for ghosts.

He dimly heard Takigawa in the room next door moving around. Didn't that man ever feel tired? Yasu sighed and covered his ears, hoping to drown out the noise long enough to fall asleep.

Except he couldn't sleep. He laid there and laid there, but no sleep would come. Frustrated he sat up and stared at the blank walls, searching for something to help him go to sleep. Nothing came to mind.

Defeated, he got up and went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. He'd packed the box at Ayako's suggestion. She'd told him before he'd left that this might happen, but he hadn't really believed her until that moment.

John came and joined him not long after. Takigawa was snoring loudly from his own room, much to both of their amusement. The girls were all in the apartment above them, no doubt already blissfully asleep.

"Do you think we made the right choice?" John asked abruptly.

Yasu considered. "I guess that depends on how things go with Mai and Naru." He replied. Sure. They'd all come out here for their own personal reasons. And they'd all get something out of the experience no matter what happened, but all of them knew that they'd really come all the way to England because Noll needed to be broken out of his own mental prison, and because Mai needed to face her demons.

There was no way to know exactly how things were going to turn out (though Yasu judged that they all hoped for a favorable outcome, based on the betting pool he'd started before they'd left. The estimates on the pairs impending engagement ranged from three months to a year and a half.) but it was clear to all of them that before this was through, things were going to change.


I know, shorter sections than usual. Shorter overall, actually. But I felt really bad about waiting so long to update, so I went ahead and did this one. I'd love to say I'm going to update again soon, but I don't know that for sure, so I guess I'll just warn you guys that it might be a while before I get a chance to update again. :(

Until Next Time