Authors note: O…M…G I am so sorry for the delay T_T I just finished off the Christmas Holiday and stupid here –points to self- decided it would be a great idea to try and break her finger by slamming it in a door during the week -_- thankfully its only bruised XD but it put me behind on writing as its hard to type with your index finger out of action T_T I also hate my teachers for the amount of work they gave me T_T this is my time off dammit go away! –cough- anyway rant over again I'm sorry for the delay, please accept this long chapter as a reward

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my own characters XD

Chapter 10

"We're stuck." Naru stated after a moment or two. Mai sighed and gave a nod in agreement.

They were indeed trapped.

She walked back into the room and began to look around the room again, squinting at the darkness in the room, instantly regretting not bringing a torch.
A light suddenly illuminated from the wall behind her and she quickly looked back to see Naru waving out a match, having lit one of the hanging lamps in the room.

"Of course, he happens to be prepared for everything." She muttered to herself, not missing his smirk which caused her to roll her eyes and look around the room again. Taking in the sight of an empty brick room, with no windows and no other way out other than the door they had entered where the key was still, with any luck, tucked securely in the keyhole on the other side of the door. The key…

"Naru….where did you find the key anyway?" she asked after a moment.

"in Edward old office, it's one of the consultant Doctors office's now." Naru replied and after he failed to continue Mai realised he wasn't going to say anything more on the matter.

"I see," she replied, before returning to look around the room, as futile as it seemed.

"If we're lucky, Lin will realise we're gone and start looking for us." Naru replied after a little while.

"If we're lucky?" she replied looking back at him only to sigh when he made no effort of answering.

It was a few hours and they were still trapped, waiting anxiously with hopes of someone coming. Sighing in resolution Mai sat down by the wall letting her finger make shapes in the dirt on the floor, not even looking up when she heard the thud of Naru also sitting down.

They sat in silence for a little while before Naru also sighed and waited for Mai to start talking to him as she usually did in these situations. When a short time passed and he had still heard nothing from his assistant he looked up and saw her staring into space at the other side of the room.

"It's not polite to stare." She stated with a small smile as she side glanced towards him.

"Probably" he simply replied. "I was wondering something though."

"Oh what's that?" she asked looked over to him.

"When did you learn to speak English?" he asked which caused her to smile again.

"When you went back to England I had to return to school, I studied hard and passed my exams so I could attend College, I wanted to do religious studies but I had to take another course, so I chose English; I completed College a few months ago just after you returned." She explained looking down at her lap.

"I see, I guess I need to stop calling you stupid then." This comment caused her to look up at him quickly, her eyes wide in surprise, only to see him with his eyes closed. She couldn't help the smile that graced her lips.

"Thank you." She replied quietly looking down again, a slight blush on her cheeks.

The silence returned, and they must have sat there for a long time as both of them began to drift off to sleep neither knowing what time of the day it was all they knew was that they were both tired and hungry. Mai had soon drifted into a dreamless sleep, for the first time throughout the case, she was unaware how long she had been asleep before she found herself standing in front of Gene who was shaking her roughly trying to wake her up.

"Mai you need to wake up NOW!" he yelled before pushing her backwards.

Mai gasped as she woke up suddenly and sat up from the wall looking around the room. It was colder now, so cold she could see her own breath floating into the air. Looking around quickly she saw Naru was still asleep; she kept looking around before she stopped.

On the other side of the room she saw a scarily familiar figure began to form opposite her; she began to slowly stand up from the wall not taking her eyes away from the figure that quickly turned into that of Edward Johnson. Mai quickly glanced over to Naru before slowly moving closer towards him.

"Naru," She called causing him to stir, only to hear Edward laugh before he grinned evilly at her.

"Now Mai, it seems we've been a naughty girl; coming into places that we have no right being in" He smirked patronizingly to her, taking a step forward. "And you know what they say; Naughty girl, need to be punished!"

Edward leapt towards Mai, pushing her against the wall, causing her to gasp in pain as her back smacked against the wall. He held her hands above her head, lifting her slightly off the floor; he pulled her shirt up to which Mai began to struggle out of the hold before she felt a cold sensation on her stomach just over the bandage on her wound which he ripped off in a sudden movement.

"How is he doing this….how is a ghost doing this?" Was all that went over Mai's mind; she looked over to Naru to see him stirring and slowly sitting up.

"It's bad to use your abilities you must be punished" Edward sneered, an evil smirk on his face. She froze. A stinging pain hit her, she looked down to see Edward holding what looked like a scalpel which he was using to slowly cut along the stitches cutting them easily, as well as catching the wound itself, causing it to open and bleed slowly.

Mai Screamed. She began to struggle again, this time against the pain filling her senses, she didn't hear the sound of Naru screaming her name, or see him force Edward away. She only felt herself slip down to the floor, the hands trapping her to the wall gone.

Looking up she saw that Naru was standing in front of her, fending off the deranged ghost who was laughing maniacally at his efforts, before he got bored and blasted Naru away where he hit the floor and rolled to a stop, his eyes closed.

"Naru!" Mai yelled as she scrambled over to him, ignoring the blood slowly trickling from the wound. Hearing him groan she was relieved, he was ok.

Hearing the loud laughs from the ghost she looked up at Edward, her anger building as she slowly stood up. "What is it that you want, why did you choose me?" Mai yelled at him gaining Edwards attention.

"Because you saw everything, you were so much like my daughter; fierce, defiant and above all stubborn." Edward explained "What I want is you, him and everyone who has abilities dead, I want to eradicate them all until I am the only one left, and after all you are all disgusting creatures who do not understand your powers." Edward explained which added to Mai's anger.

"Is that why you killed your Wife, your daughter and everyone else here?" Edwards smile was enough of an answer for her. "They were people, just like you and me, they deserved to live freely"

A white glow emanated from Mai and she found herself walking towards Edward, having no thought or say in what was happening, every attack sent her way was blocked by something unknown to her, she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked around to see Alice, with all the other patients Mai had seen standing behind her, they smiled at Mai and she found herself smiling back, before turning back to Edward who was now being restrained by the same male nurses who had carried Alice away in her dream. They gave her a nod and Mai reached out a hand towards the Edward that was when her vision went white until she found herself being thrown at the wall behind her where she screamed in pain before sliding to the ground while Edward's Ghost screamed as the light struck through him and he in all circumstances exploded into a white light.

Naru had awoken by a bright light and sat up to see Mai reaching out to touch Edward, seeing spirits of patients and nurses helping the glowing girl. Standing up he watched Mai's movements and was blinded by a bright light before he heard two screams from within the room.

The light faded and the pain was building gradually as blood slowly flowed from Mai's stomach, she could now hear the sound of deep breathing, which after a little while she realised was her own. She looked around the room to see Naru standing in slightly away from her, his back to her.

"H-he's gone…." She stated quietly, which he barely acknowledged hearing; it was a few moments later when he turned around and his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Bending down quickly, he moved Mai's hands from her stomach, which was slowly turning red with the blood. His face grew hard at the sight of the wound which was once again bleeding.

He got off the floor and ran over to the door pushing at it trying to open it, only to resort to pounding against it when it refused to open before returning to the room

"I must say…this is very out of character of you Naru; to be this worried about someone." Mai said with a small laugh, which was followed with a wince, while Naru just sighed loudly in exasperation, running a hand through his hair.

"This isn't funny Mai; you could bleed to death while we're trapped in here." He snapped looking over to her noticing a small sad smile on her face at his words. He sighed and went over to her and knelt down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, it's just…" he drifted off and looked away almost as if he didn't know what to say.

"I know, it's hard to find a replacement that makes a good cup of tea." She finished which caused him to look back at her and couldn't help but smirk at her statement, which caused her to smile.

"Sort of," he replied which caused her to frown at him and tilt her head waiting for him to explain. "It would be hard to find someone who I care about as much as you."

Her eyes widened at his word and she found herself holding her breath. "N-Naru….what are you saying?" she gasped.

"I thought you had gained some intelligence since I left." He sighed and smiled as he watched her grow annoyed.

"Why you!-" she yelled but cut herself off with a wince before she collapsed back against the wall. He watched her as quilt hit him which turned into shock as he noticed tears tracing down her cheek.

"How is it even now, after everything I've done, after everything that's happened…." she asked quietly looking him in the eye. "Even after saying something so nice….you still manage to hurt me….."

Naru just sat there looking at her, absorbing her words; he felt a part of him grow angry at himself for upsetting her which he pushed away and did the one thing that he had been longing to do for a long time now, the thing he had kicked himself for not doing 4 years ago, the thing that followed him into his sub consciousness and haunted him. He Kissed her.

She was taken by surprise at first but didn't pull away, infact after a moment or two she returned it much to his relief before they both separated for air.

"I'm sorry I always hurt you" he stated softly looking at her, watching her every move.

"Why did you kiss me?" she asked a feeling of hurt hitting her that maybe he was using her feelings for him against her. However when she looked up at him next she realised that was not the case.

He smiled at her, placing a hand on her cheek, leaning in towards her. "After I left to return to England I realised something that I should have a long time ago and when I was sitting in my study or in my room at home I couldn't stop thinking about it….about you….Mai Taniyama….I realised that I had fallen in love with you."

Her world stopped and her heart exploded at his words and she couldn't help but stare at him in surprise, a light blush appearing on her cheeks as she he stared back at her waiting for her response.

"B-but before you left…." She began only to be stopped by him placing another kiss on her lips.

"Forget what I told you when I left, I was being…stupid…I love you Mai" he replied almost choking on the word which caused her to smile.

"When you left, I was hurt, angry and felt very alone….It was like losing my family for a second time, everyone kept in contact with me but it wasn't the same….I feel almost ashamed to say that I blamed you for a little while." She explained and watched him look away from her guiltily. "And yet after all these years, I never stopped thinking of you, wondering how you were doing, what you were doing and even how you were coping without a cup of my tea." He smiled at this. "I soon realised that my feelings for you….never changed….so Naru, I love you too." She finished with a loving smile which he quickly captured in a powerful kiss.

When the kiss ended, or rather when they had run out of oxygen, they looked at each other for a moment, catching their breath. A dizzy spell hit her and she found herself collapsing sideways.

"Mai," Naru called worriedly as he caught her and held her up.

"Not a word about your looks…"She replied weakly which caused him to both smirk at her words and frown in worry over the weakness of her voice.

A twang of pain hit her and she found herself doubled over slightly, wincing as the wound stung and throbbed. She felt Naru's hands on her shoulders and glanced up giving him a weak smile which he returned before he moved carefully so he was sitting next to her by the wall where he moved her so she was leaning against his shoulder.

She winced and gave a gasp in pain before settling herself on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Mai; we'll get out of here soon." He told her with a sigh, his mind going into over drive as he thought of ways to get out, all the time worrying about the amount of blood that was seeping from her side.

Mai couldn't help but smile despite her predicament; she was after all leaning on Naru's shoulder, him having just kissed her. Hearing his words she gave a nod so he knew she had heard him, however she had already thought of an idea.

She closed her eyes and began to concentrate.

Opening her eyes again she was in front of Alice who was smiling down at her sadly.

"Thank you Mai for everything…..I can't tell you how sorry I am that you got hurt…."

"I know, Alice….I need you to do something for me." Mai replied to which Alice gave a nod.

"Anything." She answered eagerly.

"Please…tell Lin where we are…." Mai asked before everything went black and she found herself drifting off, oblivious to everything except the darkness that was filling her senses as she faded out of conscious.

Whee there we go some NaruXMainess ^^ about time eh? I'm sorry if the fight scene and the exorcism of Edward was a little bit of an Anti—climax…but I really struggled to think of a way to get rid of him XD I hope what happened afterwards was acceptable as well so much OOC…..-brain overload-

Thank you all who reviewed please stay seated for the next and probably last chapter of Welcome to the Mad House.

Please R&R

StrawberryFairy

x