Disclaimer: SAT II tests are the devil…

Catch the Fallen

(A.N.) I am sooooo sorry that it's taken me so long to update. Finals and AP tests and SATs are evil sons of bitches (shakes fist angrily). But anyway, this shot was born from the prompts I've been getting about Mai being in the hospital. This is not the same as Mai being "sick". That one will come later, 'kay? Also, this story has not been beta'd. Actually, I need a new beta. Is there anyone out there that would be interested? My old one and I are no longer speaking to each other, and my new one is leaving the country for a month. I need a temp! All you'll need to do is proofread grammar and maybe suffer some idea bouncing. Thank you!!

The wind teased her hair and hospital gown in a wild frenzy, swirling around her body almost protectively. She could feel the concrete under her bare feet, could feel the dampness of her tears soaking into the bandages on her cheek and neck. With dead, blank eyes, she stared down at the bustling masses of people below her, hearing in the distance the wail of police and ambulance sirens.

How did I get here? she wondered listlessly, delicate hands limp at her sides. How did the world become so cold? As if summoned by her thoughts, the wind carried a chill and wrapped around her, possessing her senses.

It wasn't worth it anymore now that he had turned away from her. There wasn't any sense in continuing to live without him. She knew these things as truth, knew that if she kept waking up without him beside her, she would be living the life of a Shade. Purgatory, Limbo, that's what life would continue to be. It would be cold and gray, bleached like an old bone.

Will you care, my love? Will you grieve for me, knowing that you forced this choice on me? Slowly, she raised her hands in front of her face and inspected them as if they belonged to a stranger. Nails bitten to the quick, some with the remnants of dried blood embedded in the cuticles. No rings. The pink hospital bracelet around her wrist had been stapled together since her arms were too small for the pre punched holes. But that was all right. Food wasn't important no.

Nothing was important now.

Pale brow furrowing a bit, she pried the bracelet off and let it go to the wind, watching as it fluttered away carelessly. There, now I am truly without a name. I don't exist. Just fade away…

She leaned forward slightly, ready, but hesitated for just a second. Then, she shook her head, her short and limp brown hair flopping around in the motion and the wind. Without another thought, she stepped off the roof as ballerina would perform the first graceful move of her dance.

As the world fell past her, as the sky became farther and farther away, she had only one regret.

I should have never loved him.

oOo

Sobbing, Mai Taniyama snapped open her eyes as her body hit the pavement. Pain and sorrow filled her heart as she stared up at the white ceiling above her, shivering from fear and cold. She couldn't help but compare it to the fading blue sky of her dream. Her dream. Nothing more. Nothing more real for her physically. Everything is fine, she told herself over and over, hoping that repeating the mantra would make it true.

"I hate hospitals," she groaned quietly, wiping at the already drying tears on her face. There was too much death, too many lonely spirits, and they threw her growing ESP into overtime. Since she had been admitted to the ER two days before, she had yet to sleep peacefully. This was the fourth time she had dreamed of the woman who had jumped off the hospital's roof.

Mai could hear her heart monitor beeping frantically and she tried to calm herself down, knowing that her elevated pulse and breathing rate would have a whole score of concerned nurses all over her. That was the last thing she wanted. Frankly, she didn't really think she needed to be hospitalized at all. Michiko had overreacted, end of story.

A nurse bustled into Mai's room, smiling warmly at her. "How are we feeling today, Miss Taniyama?"

"I feel great, but it is a bit chilly in here," Mai responded earnestly, absently rubbing her hands up and down her arms, "Can I go home now?" Please say yes, please say yes, please say…

The older woman's smile faded a bit with concern. "I don't know, dear. You'll have to wait to hear what your doctor has to say. He'll be making his rounds shortly, so you won't have to wait too long." She then began to take Mai's temperature and blood pressure and such, a frown beginning to mar her kindly features. "Oh my…" Worried eyes flicked between the thermometer she had stuck in Mai's mouth and Mai herself. "You need to see the doctor right away. I'll be right back."

And then the woman left Mai alone in the quiet room to stare at the ceiling and fret.

Seconds later, the nurse practically ran back into the room with a man that Mai had spoken to before right behind her. Dr. Higuma, if she remembered right.

Dr. Higuma took Mai's temperature himself and frowned. "Miss Taniyama, what is your usual temperature? Is usually colder or hotter than the normal 98.6 degrees?"

"No," Mai replied, confused. What kind of question is that? "Why?"

As the doctor examined her charts and monitor records, he replied, "When you were admitted, Miss Taniyama, you had a fever of 102.4 degrees and had lost conciousness. Your friend…Michiko Takeda said that you had complained of a severe headache and fatigue right before you collapsed at your school. For the last two days, your fever has persisted, even in the face of the medication we have given you." He paused for a moment to make a notation on her chart. "You seem to experience severe nightmares. Correct?"

"Yes…something like that." If you only knew… she thought to herself.

"Then that would account for the frequent fluctuations in your heart and respiration rates," he murmured to himself. Raising his voice a little, he continued, "Now, you're temperature has dropped. Your body is currently in a state of hypothermia, and there is no reason why it should be. I'm afraid that I'll need to run some tests, including blood workups and a CAT scan. Is this permissible?"

A renewed feeling of fear crept into Mai's mind. "Could something be seriously wrong with me?"

"I don't mean to alarm you, Miss Taniyama, but there is a significant probability that there might be."

Taking a deep breath, Mai said, "Do what you have to then, I guess."

"Is there anyone I can call for you, dear?" the nurse asked gently, laying a warm hand on Mai's icy shoulder.

"Yeah," Mai said quietly, shaking uncontrollably. "Yeah, there is."

All was quiet at S.P.R. Without Mai there to complain or converse, Lin and Naru didn't say anything at all, working in silence.

However, Naru was not working. He was trying to, of course, but he kept getting distracted by the fact that Mai had not come into work for the past two days. In fact, her friend, Yuki, had called that first day of Mai's absence to inform him that Mai wouldn't be coming. When he'd asked for an explaination, Yuki had responded in a soft and concerned way that Mai wasn't feeling very well. Her tone of voice made Naru believe that there was something she wasn't telling him, probably at Mai's request.

He was staring out the window in his personal office when he heard the phone ring, but didn't bother to move. Lin would answer it. There was no reason for him to move from his place of vigil as he watched the streets below, searching for the lively brunette who worked for him. Where is she? What could..? Naru shook his head. What was he thinking? It wasn't as if he was her keeper or her boyfriend or anything.

You could be, a soft voice whispered to him.

Shut up, he snapped back. He didn't have time for such foolish thoughts. He was a scientist, damn it.

Idiot scientist, his memory chided him. His brother's favorite label for him.

Without knocking, Lin interrupted Naru's thoughts and watched the young professor for a short moment in silence. Lin knew that Naru wasn't working, knew that he spent all his time staring out the window. The Chinese man had come to realize how incomplete Naru seemed without Mai around to balance him out. He was thinking that Naru was beginning to realize it as well.

He was also thinking that Naru would figure it out very quick in light of the news he'd come to relay.

"Yes, Lin? What is it?" Naru inquired, not taking his eyes off the people on the street.

"You need to go to Tokyo General Hospital."

Naru still hadn't turned around. "Why?"

"Mai's asking for you."

Lin had never seen Naru run so fast.

"Why do I feel numb?" she whispered, hugging herself. Her uneven nails bit into her skin and, even though they were extremely short, drew small pinpricks of blood. She didn't feel it. The darkening sky seemed to turn blacker in her eyes, then gray. Everything was gray now.

Step by step, she got closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Rocks and glass bit into her feet, leaving bloody footprints in her wake, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Didn't she have to feel to care?

"How could you leave me?" she wailed softly into the strong wind that came from the west. "How could you reject me, my love? I can't live without you…"

Without care but with innate grace, she stepped onto the concrete ledge of the hospital's roof. She stared down at the busily moving crowds and wondered over and over again how she had come to this point.

Simple. It was love.

She removed her bracelet, casting away this life's identity, and took that last fatal step.

oOo

Mai nearly had a heart attack as her dream was interrupted. Someone was shaking her shoulders persistently, feeling so warm against her frosted skin. It felt as if her heart was frozen, and that her blood was nothing but glacial runoff. Her body ached, both with fear and the impact of flesh against pavement.

"Miss Taniyama," the nurse called gently, "Miss Taniyama, you must wake up."

Opening her teary eyes reluctantly, Mai stared up at the kind woman and tried to summon a smile through her pain. Please go away, she pleaded silently. She wanted to cry in peace.

"You have a visitor, dear. He's very insistent that he see you now and I thought that, maybe just this once, I'll bend the rules and let him see you after hours. You could use the company, I think." In a motherly fashion, she pulled the extra blankets on Mai's bed up to the girl's chin. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah, it is. Thank you." Mai lay still, wondering what she was going to tell him. For a brief moment, the prospect of being near Naru sent a spasm of warm through her body, but the coldness took over immediately. It was almost a painful reaction. It seemed as if her body was rejecting her intense feeling for Naru. But that can't be right…

I should have never loved him.

"Mai?"

Her head snapped to look at the doorway, finding Naru standing there as casually as if they'd met at a teahouse. Hospitals never seemed to bother Naru and Mai wished she had his immunity. "H-hey," she stuttered. She wasn't sure if the cold or the nervousness of being in his presence made her teeth chatter.

Without a word, Naru crossed the room to the foot of her bed and liberated her chart from its holder there, reading it as if he had every right to be doing so. "Have they diagnosed you with anything yet?" he asked coolly.

"N-no. They t-took-k sssome blood b-but they haven't got-ten the resultsss back yet-t." Her shivering became more and more violent, the tremors making it hard for her to force words from her mouth. "It'ssss sssso c-cold," she murmured, curling her body under the covers, trying to find some pocket of warmth.

"You're scheduled for a CAT scan tomorrow as well. Why is that?" Naru asked sharply, flipping through Mai's chart. Her fluctuating temperature wasn't linked to brain activity. Not unless she had a psychological disorder of some kind, which wouldn't even be caught on a brain X-ray anyway.

Mai rolled her eyes behind her boss's back. Figures. He's probably read a bazillion medical textbooks or something. That's the type of thing he probably does for "fun".

"D-do I look-k lik-ke a doct-tor t-to you?" she retorted, though her sarcasm was ruined by her cold induced stutter.

Naru continued to read, processing the medical jargon easily. He had a Ph.D., after all, and had dabbled in studying biology and medicine besides psychic phenomenon. When he came to the notation about Mai's nightmares, he looked up at her and felt his heart constrict. She was deathly pale, her veins easily visible. Her eyes were bloodshot and her lips were blue with cold. Shivering violently, she was buried under a mound of hospital issue blankets. Mai looked delicate when she was good health. The pale shadow that she had become looked as fragile as the thinnest of glass. And just as insubstantial. However, he pushed those thoughts down and focused on being calm. Calm was good. "Is your ESP active here?"

Mai nodded in response, tearing up. "It'sss awful. Sshe k-keepss jump-ping… Ssso sssad…" I don't understand how she could make that choice, the girl added to herself. "Masak-ko might b-be ab-ble t-to help her…" Gods, Mai hated to admit that.

No one can help me… a small voice whispered, forlorn.

"Don't worry about it, Mai. You have other pressing concerns," Naru replied with surprising consideration. How can she worry about others at a time like this?

She smiled at him gently. "Right." Like I forgot or something. I have to get better so I can keep going to S.P.R. so I can…

NO! Do not love! Too much pain!

All of a sudden, Mai's body stiffened and a gasp escaped her throat as a cold more severe than anything she'd felt so far spread through her body. The freezing wave of emotion drowned out the warm feelings of affection and love that she held in her heart for Naru.

"Mai?" Naru queried quietly. Her eyes were half open and had a dull shine to them; her body was stiff as a board. When she didn't answer, he went to her side and studied her intently, noting the tension in her face.

Abruptly, Mai bolted upright. "I have to go to the roof," she stated softly. "I have to help her." With that, she started to push back her blankets and swing her legs onto the floor. When Naru tried to catch her shoulders and push her back down, Mai shook him off and kept repeating that she had to go to the roof.

"The hell you do," Naru growled under his breath. He tightened his grip on her arms a little, but not too much. He wanted to use more of his strength to make her lie down, yet his instincts told him that she would break like a twig if he did.

Eventually, Mai managed to slip from his grasp and dash unsteadily from the room, Naru behind.

oOo

The air was cold on the roof, the wind blowing strongly. Just like the evening when the woman had thrown herself to her death. Mai hugged herself in an effort to get warm, but it was a vain effort. Her body wasn't generating much heat as it was. Any warmth was either stolen away by the air or by the knife of sadness in her heart.

"Hello!" she called through numb lips. "Are you here?" Frantically, she looked around, stumbling. "Please answer me! Please! I want to help you!" She couldn't let this woman suffer any more. No one deserved this pain.

Hands grabbed her shoulders from behind, startling Mai and causing a strangled yell to sound from her throat. Blindly, she began to struggle. But, when she heard Naru's familiar voice, she calmed at once and let him swing her around by her shoulders, putting them face to face.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. Gods above, this girl scared him like no one else could.

"I have to help her," Mai said, feeling tears escaping from her eyes yet again.

Damn her bleeding heart, Naru cursed silently. Couldn't she just let some matters go? If she kept getting involved in other people's problems, especially the problems of the lonely and vengeful dead, she wasn't going to live for very long. And if she died… Did she even begin to realize how much she meant to him, even if he never told her in words? He wasn't even sure if he could put her importance to him into words.

"Help who?" he asked as calmly as he could. Only long practice kept the anger and concern from his voice and manner.

Slowly, Mai's eyes widened fraction by fraction, watching something behind him. "Her…"

Naru turned his head, spotting the wavering image of a woman standing on the raised ledge that marked the edge of the roof. Instead of facing outward and ready to jump, though, she was facing them, eyeing them with clear distaste. Or rather, she was eyeing Naru with distaste.

The ghost turned her gaze on Mai, saying, "He'll only destroy you, you know. That's all guys like him do. They take advantage of girls like us." Her eyes flicked behind her, observing the streets below. "They drive us to do stupid things. All in the name of love." When she looked back at them, her eyes were burning with hate and pain. "They don't even know what love is," she spat.

Wanting to help the dead woman, Mai tried to go to her, but Naru's grip on her shoulders stopped her.

"Oh, yes, you protect her now," the ghost mocked, "but it's not me she needs protection from. It's you. She needs to be kept safe from you, just like I needed to be kept safe from Haru."

"I don't understand," Mai said, "Why would I have to be protected from Naru?" It was such a ridiculous thought. Almost laughable. The day that Naru intentionally hurt Mai was the day that pigs went ice skating in hell.

Pityingly, the ghost floated from her place on the ledge, shaking her head at the brunette. "You love him, don't you?" Mai blushed and stuttered, but the ghost continued without really noticing. "You're young. You don't understand yet. It's better just to kill those feelings now since they'll only hurt you later. Truthfully, it'd be better if you did as I did and jump." The ghost smiled faintly. "It doesn't hurt so bad and you don't really have time to be afraid. Come on, come with me," she beckoned, holding out a silvery opaque hand.

Naru felt his hands tighten their hold on Mai, his mind and heart racing. She loves me? What could she possibly love about me?

For Mai, this moment was one of those surreal times where you know, with everything you are, that it is the right time and the right place. There wasn't, in her mind, a better time to say what she felt in her heart. So, she did. "You're wrong," she said softly, looking at the broken woman before her. "It wouldn't be better. Even if he broke my heart tomorrow, that doesn't change the happiness I feel when he's in the same room with me. That will never change, I will never regret that. I may question it sometimes when he annoys me, but I will never regret it. Love isn't something that should be regretted and a broken heart isn't something you should run from. You learn from both, and you give your heart again and again until you find someone who will protect it. You struck out, like everyone does, but never regret loving someone. There is no greater gift than loving someone else."

"You're heart has never been broken!" the ghost shrieked. "You would understand if it had! Go ahead and ask him! He'll leave you, just like Haru left me! He will! They all do!"

Mai knew that. Mai knew very well that Naru would probably walk away, at the worst, but that didn't matter. "Even if he did, nothing would change." When she stepped forward, Naru again held her back. "It's okay, Naru. Really." She looked back at him over her shoulder and smiled reassuringly, a faint flush gracing her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

Reluctantly, Naru released her, but followed close behind her as she approached the ghost woman. He wasn't going to allow her to be hurt. Ever.

Mai held her arms out to the ghost, welcoming and caring. "Broken hearts can be fixed."

Tentatively, the woman floated into Mai's open arms, and Mai could see tears running down her translucent cheeks. All she needed was someone to care, to catch her when she jumped, Mai thought to herself, wrapping the woman in a hug. There was a slight resistance against her arms, then nothing as the woman dissolved into tiny round balls of light and was gone.

Which left Mai and Naru alone on the roof with the cold wind.

Mai shivered a little as turned around to face Naru, both from nerves and cold. Though she wasn't nearly as cold as before. In fact, she felt better than ever, if a little tired.

Naru wasn't exactly sure what to do. Normally, a situation like this would be dealt with in his usual manner: make a cold remark and then exit in style. But with Mai… Even with his thoughts in turmoil, he noticed Mai's chilled appearance and slid off his coat, wrapping it around her shoulders. "Idiot," he muttered. "You try and get yourself killed. There is no other explanation."

"I'm fine," Mai insisted, looking down at her shoes. What now? Am I supposed to say something more? I can't take it back… She bit her lip unsurely, flicking her gaze up at Naru's blank expression to the ground.

Silence enveloped them for what felt like an eternity, though only a couple minutes passed. "Why?" Naru finally asked, face still as stoic as always. He rather preferred his face blank. It hid what he was thinking, which was good in moments like this.

Mai just had to smile, despite her anxiousness. The narcissist couldn't figure out what there was to love about him? How ironic. "It's everything. That's just how it happened. Do I really need a reason?"

Eyebrows raised, Naru started down at his lovely assistant and debated with himself. He should just walk away. That would be best. He didn't know how to be in love, and he generally stayed away from things he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could do.

Idiot scientist, Gene's memory reprimanded gently for the second time that day.

To hell with it. I'll learn.

"Mai," he said quietly, tilting her chin up so she was looking at him.

Mai gulped. "Yeah?"

"You don't need a reason."

Lightly, he touched his lips to hers, and the whole damn world faded away. Mai was sure that she was dead or dreaming. As the saying goes, her blood was singing. So was her soul. She was almost too shocked to move, but found that, as the kiss went on and on, deepening slowly, her arms slid around Naru's neck automatically. Like they were meant to be there.

When they finally broke apart, both teens felt their hearts racing. They stood in a blissful silence that didn't need words to break or fill it. It was a moment of complete and utter understanding that is so rare in the world today.

Despite her elation, though, Mai was tired, swaying a bit on her feet. Of course, Naru noticed and slid an arm around her shoulders.

"Inside. Now," he ordered sternly, though there was a hint of warmth in his voice and eyes.

Sighing, Mai muttered, "Stop ordering me around."

"I'm your boss, Mai. It's my job to order you around."

They went inside arguing and leaning into each other's warmth.

The next day found Mai back in her hospital bed, though she was sitting on it, rather than lying, and she was dressed in her own cloths. A definite plus in her mind.

"I've never seen such a radical recovery, Miss Taniyama," Dr. Higuma told her as she pulled on her tennis shoes. "Nor have I ever seen such a strange CAT scan. You have an elevated level of brain activity that is not common in most of the population. In fact…" the doctor trailed off, fixing his young patient with a speculative stare, "the only people whose results match yours are those who claim to be psychic."

Mai just smiled brightly at him and replied, "Thank you for looking after me, Doctor." She jumped off her bed exuberantly.

"Miss Taniyama, before you go, I want to make sure that someone will be monitoring you in case your symptoms return. Your file says that you're an orphan, so—."

"She has someone taking care of her, Doctor," Naru said coolly as he entered the room. Without waiting for Dr. Higuma's response, he addressed Mai. "Let's go. We have a new case to take care of. We're wasting time here."

Practically skipping, Mai rushed out the door, waving good-bye to the bemused Dr. Higuma over her shoulder. She almost tripped a few times in her hurry to get out of the hospital, but Naru caught each time with a sigh of annoyed amusement.

Being in love wasn't so hard, he figured. He just had to be there to catch her when she fell.

(A.N.) Not my favorite thing I've written, but... (shrug) I'm still trying to get back into my writer's mindset. Now that summer is here I'm going to try and write a lot more before I fly off to Japan in July. Please REVIEW, and I'll provide cyber-cookies!