Thank you everyone for hanging in there. Sorry for the long delay, real life can really kick you when you are down. I appreciate all of you who are keeping up with this story & I hope you all continue to enjoy it!

Chapter 11 - ...a small reprieve …

There was knocking on the bathroom door.

Chihiro abruptly snapped back into consciousness after the fourth knock. After making some sort of perfunctory response to her mother, Chihiro laid her cheek back down on the bathroom floor. She didn't have the energy to move just yet. Sighing deeply, she tried to motivate herself to some sort of action. Just how long had she been asleep for? Rolling over to lie flat on her back she stared up at the ceiling. The light coming in from the bathroom window showed her that it was still morning. Maybe only an hour or so had passed.

That explained why she was still so exhausted.

Dried tears had burned paths down her cheeks drying out her skin. The smell of her sweat mixed with copper, from the dried flakey blood still covering her clothing, mixed with the odors she has acquired while in the police station, assaulted her nose.

Still wasn't enough to move her.

Aki's face flashed before her. A familiar ache in her chest grew to unbearable proportions. Based upon experience, she intimately knew that it was possible for a human to survive with a fist sized hole in their chest. The real question was, she knew that she would survive...but would Aki?

Before she could spiral back down that path, something caught her attention. Iridescent flash of pearls visible from the corner of her eye. When she turned, nothing was there. That movement was enough to break her free from the malaise, but not enough to get her off the floor.

Still lying on her back on the bathroom floor, she let the sounds from her parent's kitchen wash over her. The normal sounds of making breakfast was a sharp contrast to emotional and physical state. These sounds were anything but benign. The sounds of "normalcy" caused the wounds from her parent's unstated accusations cut deep.

"I cannot stay here." She spoke softly out loud because she needed to hear her voice to know that she was still alive.

Her words reverberated in her ears. The truth of them took hold. She knew she couldn't remain. She was a stranger in her parent's home. This was no longer a refuge.

Mrs. Fujimoto was another reason why she had to leave.

Chihiro knew that once she regained her physical strength she would probably get arrested for assault and battery of Mrs. Fujimoto. Even though Chihiro wasn't exactly sure what was going on...she knew that Mrs. Fujimoto had been the one to orchestrate Aki's kidnapping. But Chihiro also knew that she would not be able to get a straight answer out of her. Her experience dealing with Mrs. Fujimoto had taught her that much. It would be wasted effort and she didn't have the strength for that.

But she did still have strength.

Using the deep recesses, mentally she planned her next steps. Jumping up, she grabbed her phone, which thankfully was still charged, and she made a quick call to Dean, her moon faced assistant. After speaking with him in short terse phrases, her new plan was put into action. Dean would be there in a couple hours and take her back to her condo. Dean hadn't questioned her or tried to get her to change her mind. He could tell by the sound of her voice that there was no arguing with her. He also knew better than to pry.

Hanging up on Dean, she turned to take the shower she had meant to take earlier. She peeled off the destroyed yukata that was sticking to her skin and threw it into the trash can. Looking down at her skin she realized that the blood had soaked through and lightly stained her skin. Briefly she wondered where Kohaku was and if he was okay… Assuming of course that he was real...

She unbraided her greasy hair placing the purple hair tie back around her dirty wrist. She didn't want to take it off. It felt like her only lifeline connecting her to the fantastical Spirit World. The band represented that she wasn't crazy. In the morning light she could tell that it was a deeper color than the one she had worn before. Maybe, just maybe….she wasn't crazy.

Stopping that train of thought, Chihiro stepped under the running water and began the task of cleaning herself.

Burnt brown water and clumps of congealed matter streamed off her body flowing down into the drain. Viciously she worked with her washcloth to remove all traces of her past eight days. The deep throbbing in her chest felt deeper with jagged edges felt a slightly different deep throbbing in her chest combine with the one she associated with Aki, and she couldn't tell what was causing it. But she was learn how to function with the pain. She had been through much worse. She would adapt.

Too exhausted for more tears; Chihiro continued to scrub. All the hot water was used up, and still she continued to try to scrub herself clean. It would never be enough. Finally the chill of the water was becoming too much for her, so she stepped out of the shower.

On auto pilot she finished her normal bathroom rituals. She took comfort in the mundane tasks of putting lotion on her face and body, brushing her teeth and untangling her hair. Finally, she left the bathroom dressed in modern undergarments, her last pair of clean jeans, and another slouchy soft knit sweater.

In the kitchen she saw her mother finishing-up making breakfast.

"Chihiro, honey, please take a seat; I made your favorite."

This was her mom's peace offering.

Chihiro gave a soft nod and accepted the food. She wasn't sure if she could forgive her mother, but she didn't want to fight anymore.

Less than two minutes later, her father also entered the kitchen, stood behind her reached down and kissed her on her forehead. "I love you so much, you know that right?" A different sharp pain hit her chest. She nodded quickly trying and avoided all eye contact while continuing to eat.

A shaky truce was formed.

Breakfast was finished in silence. Though it still deeply hurt that her parent's still doubted her, she could understand it too. She had put them through hell when she had gone off the deep end. She really couldn't blame them. She had no real excuse for where she had disappeared to...Maybe they would get past this in the future. Maybe.

This was her family. Family was messy. But it didn't change the fact that she still had to leave.

It took Dean longer to get to her parent's house. But by the time he arrived, the media had too.

Four TV vans and several other cars lined the normally quiet street. Huge cameras, microphones, professionally dressed reporters and some pretty scrubby ones too, had camped out on the curve. Chihiro had dealt with the media before, but never like this.

Turning from front the front window, she grabbed her phone, and called Dean.

"Hello Boss, I'm still about 15 mins away. Traffic leaving the city was surprisingly really bad for whatever reason."

"Change of plan, we need a different pick-up location."

"Shit. Is the media really there already? Those vultures."

Quickly, she coordinated another pick-up location with Dean.

Reaching into the hall closet, she grabbed two article of clothing that would help hide her identity. Her parents silently watched Chihiro's actions. Neither of them spoke to one another. The current state of their relationship made it too difficult for words. Chihiro stuffed her cell phone in an inner jacket pocket, gave her parents a sharp nod for goodbye, and went to shimmy out one of the back windows into the side yard. Once outside, Chihiro released a deep breath. The tension in house had been suffocating. She didn't have time for more drama. She needed to figure out what was really going on and how she was going to rescue Aki.

With this new determination Chihiro charged to the backyard fence jumped up and effortlessly pulled herself over it. In her neighbor's backyard, Chihiro kept her body low to avoid detection as she race to the fence on the other side of the yard and climbed over that fence too. This time, her fence jumping, had lead her into a small alley. Growing up in this neighborhood gave Chihiro an advantage in escaping the slew of reporters camped out on her parent's front yard. She raced down the alley until she came to a giant overgrown fern. Chihiro ducked down and squeezed herself through the small opening hidden below. Chihiro continued her zigzagging path down the hill completely avoiding detection.

Within 10 minutes she was standing on the corner where the local mini market was. No one other than a few locals were around. Chihiro gave a sigh in relief. It looked like her plan had worked. She also took comfort knowing that with her father's fishing hat and her mother's oversized jacket on, she was pretty unrecognizable.

When she noticed Dean's late model Prius, she flagged him down.

Through the majority of the drive neither of them spoke. Dean was concerned that he was being followed so they took additional detours that added another 2 hours to the normally 3 hour journey. Chihiro fell asleep for most of the drive. She was just so freakin tired. Dean knew not to ask Chihiro any questions and just let her sleep.

Chiro woke up abruptly as Dean pulled up to a local market near her condo. Blinking a few times she tried to wake-up, but her cloudy mind refused to obey. She didn't even question why Dean had stopped and left her in the still running car.

Maybe ten minutes later, Dean emerged carrying a bag of groceries and placed them behind his seat.

Back in front of the steering wheel, he flashed her his cheshire grin.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty, you might want to wipe off that drool there." Dean pointed to the corner of her mouth.

Chihiro just glared and refused to wipe off the drool she could feel drying on her skin. She was too tired to care how she looked. Sleeping for hours in the car had helped with her sleep deficit, she didn't feel like such a zombie, but she could spare no energy to care about her appearance.

Keeping his grin in place, Dean was unconcerned about Chihiro's glare. Dean had been worried about Chihiro when he had first picked her-up, lost and sacred where the words that came to mind, but seeing the fire back in her eyes. Dean knew that whatever she had gone through for the past week or so, the Chihiro he knew and loved (purely platonic) was still there and she would not be defeated.

Turning the corner Dean continued driving toward Chihiro's condo.

"You don't think the media would have found out where you live, do you?"

"No." Chihiro coughed to clear her throat. "No. I have a protected address. They would only know if they had been able to follow us...which I doubt. You went up and down too many crazy back roads… we would have noticed if we had been followed."

"We would have notice? You were asleep most of the drive."

"Fine Dean. As oblivious as you can be, even you would have noticed if we were being followed."

Dean laughed out loud. Yep, His Chihiro was coming back. She would be fine.

"Well, as long as your neighbors don't rat you out, you should be safe."

"I don't see my quiet loving neighbors doing that. Besides, the building security is top notch. I should be fine."

Dean nodded and brought his car up to the curb leading up to the front entrance.

"Here," Dean twisted around and grabbed a grocery bag filled with food from behind his seat. "I know you won't have anything edible in your kitchen now."

Chihiro took the bag gratefully. That was why he stopped. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

Chihiro started to shake her head "no" but then stopped. Something was bothering her. "Can you give me a full investigation report on Mrs. Fujimoto… you might have to go really far back, past twenty years….maybe farther. I don't know what is going on, but I know she is hiding something."

Dean's grin took on a slightly evil glint. "Consider it done."

Of that, Chihiro had no doubt.

"Thank you again Dean, your support and help means a lot."

"Don't mention it Chihiro...Oh and Chihiro, I know you, I know you didn't do anything to Aki. This is all a terrible misunderstanding. I will help you get to the bottom of it."

Chihiro nodded and swallowed hard. Her face hurt too much to keep crying. Opening the door she grabbed the grocery bag and took off.

It was the beginning stages of evening. Chihiro opened the door to her condo and pink sunlight filtered in from her large windows. Taking the groceries she moved through her foyer to head to the kitchen. Movement caught her eye. She turn her head to see a pony size Kohaku was standing front of her couch.

Chihiro looked back to her kitchen, made no motion that she had seen the dragon. Instead, she walked into her kitchen, placed her groceries on the counter, and then walked back to the hallway closet by the front door where she kept her really expensive whisky, bourbon and scotch.

The front door opened, but she was hidden from view.

"Chihiro, we need to talk. The media is going nuts and Hollywood studios are starting to rescind their offers. What the hell is going on! Oh my God! What is that!"

Thunk! Was the sound of a body hitting the floor.

Chihiro popped her head out and saw the splayed body of Ken Watanabe passed out in her in the her foyer. Why had she given him a key to her place again?

Sighing, she grabbed her whisky of choice and stepped over Ken Watanabe's body. With his extended paunch she made sure to lift her legs high enough to not clip it. Still ignoring the dragon she entered her kitchen and poured herself three generous fingers.

With the burn of the first sip she felt her grasp of reality come back. Three more deep sips followed. Warm, smooth, caramel notes and soft burn down her esophagus. She had such a fondness for the rye notes in American whisky. Tonight was not the night for the slight sweetness of bourbon nor did she want to deal with the peat in scotch. Yes, she had chosen well. Tonight called for the slight roughness of whisky.

Taking her glass she reentered her sitting room and faced Kohaku.

"You really are here and not just a figment of my overactive imagination?"

Kohaku nodded.

"This is really happening? The Spirit World? The Black Dragon did kidnap Aki?"

Kohaku nodded at each of her questions.

"You are going to help me rescue him right?"

Kohaku nodded again.

"Okay." Chihiro took another sip and contemplated all that was now a part of her new reality.

Kohaku kept his eyes on her. She seemed so far away lost in her thoughts. He noticed when her pupils narrowed bring back her focus to him. "Then I guess it is time for me to get to work."

Chihiro walked past the dragon heading toward her home office carrying her drink. "I am going to look for your source. Make yourself at home, there are limited food options, but help yourself." she yelled over her shoulder.

Kohaku still had kept his eyes on her. He hadn't been sure what to expect from her...and he wasn't quite sure this was it. His stomach rumbled. With a sigh, he turned to her kitchen. Her offer of food was one he could not ignore. It had been days since he had last eaten.

Chihiro stared at her computer monitor and feverishly typed. She was on a research mission. She needed to determine where the source of Kohaku's power was. She had started on a basic spirit search online hoping that google would have the answers. But typing "where to locate a spirit's source" and other renditions led her to webpages focused on ghost and other apparitions….Hoping for something, she found herself lost in accounts of spectorial encounters and paranormal investigations. she paused her research. Was everyone she had come into contact with in the Spirit World dead and a ghost?

"Hey Kohaku, are you alive or dead?"

Kohaku, who about 15 minutes prior, had made his way into her office, was curled up on the center rug, still pony size. He raised his head and made a snake like gesture with his tongue.

"Fine. I get it, you are alive. You don't have to be an ass about it. It was a serious question." Chihiro turned back to her computer screen and started another search.

A few hours later, Chihiro, who was still in research mode, took another sip of her drink and when she tasted it, almost spit it out. Once she had finished with her whisky she moved on to coffee, it seemed like the more reasonable choice. But her cup had gotten cold and stale. She went over to the larger pot to refill, but that was empty too. Just how much coffee has she had?

She walked past the sleeping dragon and went back to her kitchen to brew another pot. She wasn't sure if she was on the right path to find Kohaku's source. Zeniba hadn't given her any real guidance except telling her that it was somewhere in the human world. It wasn't as if the stupid dragon could talk and help her out.

Looking around her kitchen, she saw that the dragon had done as she told him to do, he had helped himself to her food. Practically everything Dean had bought her was eaten. "How did he open this stuff without opposable thumbs?" She held an empty glass jar of kimchi in her hand. She made a note to check his claws next time maybe they were more human shaped than she had thought. That would explain something….maybe…

She looked over and saw that Ken was still passed out on her floor now producing doll bubbles. His back was going to hurt when he woke up. Chihiro almost felt bad for him. Almost.

Fueled with another pot of high octane coffee she went back to her task.

Since she didn't get any luck researching where spirits' sources.. She remembered a conversation she had with Lin regarding Kohaku being a river spirit. Could it be that simple?

Fingers flying across the keyboard she started looking up the Kohaku River.

What she found made her heart sink.

The webpages before her showed her the news article about new apartments being built on top of the Kohaku River. Pages of environmental protesters, rallies and press releases filled her screen. Thats right, when she was little, her family had lived close to the Kohaku River, falling into to it was how she had met Kohaku the first time….but she had to find his source...not the river, otherwise, wouldn't Zeniba just have told her to take him to his river?

She tried other search terms relating to the river but nothing seemed right. After several more searches she began to lose her ability to focus. The computer monitor became more fuzzy. Blinking several more times did not help. Her fingers and wrist were starting to cramp, her shoulders felt like rocks, and her eyes felt like they were dry enough to start bleeding. A glance back at her clock showed her that it was almost midnight. She had been at it for almost eight hour straight.

She needed a break. She closed down her computer and left her office.

She noticed that Ken Watanabe was no longer sleeping on her floor. Had he talked to her before leaving? Chihiro couldn't remember. She walked out onto her balcony and stood by the iron fence. Moonlight shone down on her. Everything was frozen over. Maybe it would snow soon. She kept staring out into the distance, too tired to notice the silent figure of a man watching her from the other chair on her balcony. A flash of movement caught her attention. Movement she was now starting to associate with a certain dragon. She turned and saw Kohaku, back to being cat sized, was curled up on one of the outdoor chairs.

"Hey Kohaku," She spoke to break the silence of the night. Her breath was visible in the chilly air. She wrapped her arms around her smaller frame.

As usual, Kohaku said nothing, but his watchful eyes never left her. Chihiro took this as a sign he was letting her know that he was listening and paying attention.

"You look like you are doing better. No more blood since you have been here."

….

Chihiro shivered some more and tried another topic. "Do you know where your source is?"

….

"Do you know what your source is?"

Kohaku just stared at her.

"If you say "it is the source of your power," I am just going to hit you."

She sensed the dragon laugh. She smiled and found herself sitting across from him in the other chair wrapped in a thick outdoor wool blanket. She took a moment to relax feeling her neck and shoulder muscles slowly release their tightly held tension.

"Kohaku, thank you for being here when I arrived. If you hadn't been here, I'm not sure what I would have done. I was barely hanging on."

Chihiro purposely faced the night sky avoiding the dragon's steady gaze.

"I'm not going to ask about how you go in here or how you knew I lived here. Frankly, I do not want to know. I am just so glad you are here."

Right after Chihiro finished speaking, Kohaku flew out of his chair and was now seated in her lap. Absently Chihiro began to pet him. His scale were smooth with a lightness and his mane was very silky. She felt the edge of his tail wrap around right wrist. Not to stop her, but to increase their points of contact. She could feel more of the tension she was holding in ease away a slight pain in her chest was starting to dull.

"This is nice."

She felt Kohaku nuzzled deeper into her lap in agreement.

"Maybe this is why people get pets. Maybe once this all over, I will get a cat or small dog. I feel my stress level dropping just being with you."

Kohaku snapped his head up glaring at her. He did his snake tongue thing.

Chihiro laughed. "Don't worry Kohaku. No one could ever mistake you for being anyone's pet. You are much too wild and powerful."

Satisfied Kohaku settled himself back into her lap.

Chihiro kept petting him; too tired for words, they enjoyed each other's silence. Her stomach grumbled loudly, but Chihiro ignored it. She was too tired to eat. Slowly her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep.

Chihiro found herself getting up from her chair outside. She was surprised to see that this time she was in her home and not in the cove. Noise from the kitchen brought her attention. Was she dreaming? This felt so real.

Inside her small kitchen she saw a man standing by her stove cooking something.

Instead of panicking, Chihiro for whatever reason was unafraid of the unknown man. He was familiar somehow.

The man must have sensed her presence and turned to face her.

Haku?

"You've grown up…"

His steady golden green eyes met hers. Chihiro swallowed hard and made a conscious decision to not notice how extremely beautiful, in a purely masculine way, her childhood friend was.

"Is that so surprising? You have too."

Chihiro opened and closed her mouth. She had no response to that.

Chihiro went to walk forward, but her body gave out. She felt weak from her lack of eating any food since breakfast at her parent's house the other day. Did you deal with low blood sugar in dreams?

Haku came around and gently escorted her to the small breakfast table. Chihiro felt more of the spider webs that connected them grow. What was that? She went to ask him, but instead, was silenced when he placed a plate of food in front of her. He raised an eyebrow silently commanding her to eat it.

Chihiro, too weak to put up a fight grabbed her utensils and began to dive in. She didn't know what she was eating. But with every bite she felt her strength coming back. Magic?

Haku turned back to the stove and brought himself a plate and joined her at the table.

"You need to take better care of yourself." He lectured.

Chihiro rolled her eyes at that. "I can say the same thing for you too." She mumbled as she continued to eat.

Haku ignored her and began eating too.

Chihiro was mildly surprised that the silence of the meal did not feel awkward. Was this the way it was with old friends?

Chihiro went to ask Haku a question, but he spoke first.

"You have son."

Chihiro looked up at him confused. Son? What was he talking about?

"What?"

"Don't lie to me Chihiro, I have seen the boys' room. Evidence of him is all over this place."

Chihiro blinked at him a few times trying to figure out who exactly Haku was talking about. Her eyes drifted over to the fridge door where a couple of Aki's drawings and school reports were hung. Did he mean…

"Are you talking about Aki?"

"Do you have more than one?"

Chihiro just looked at him. The stress of everything "What the hell is going on here? Why are you acting this way? I am grateful that you made me food, but that gives you no right to go through my house or judge how I live my life!"

Both of their eyes clashed at each other. She swore she could see sparks and the ache in her chest grew.

"Nothing is wrong Chihiro. Absolutely nothing at all."

"Haku, seriously, can we just have a normal conversation with each other? I thought we were friends-"

"Fine Chihiro, as your friend, I think that it is important that you make wise decisions because your actions, especially now, have lasting impact on those around you."

"Haku, I have no idea what the hell you are talking about! But how I live my life is none of your business!"

"But what about your quest?

"My quest to save Aki has nothing to do with you."

"You are correct. It has nothing to do with me." Haku disappeared right in front of her. One moment he was there and the next he was just gone.

"Haku wait!" Chihiro screamed out trying to reach him. She did not understand what had just happened. Her heart shattered on the floor.

Thank you for reading!

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XOXO Thyme