Praise to user Sleonard who guessed it! Our ghost girl had a case of autism! All give praise and reverence to the brilliance of Sleonard! Just one more chapter to go and an epilogue and we'll be done, folks! Please let me know what you think. It was so fun playing with you all. ^.^

Chapter 12

I woke up to a shock of white and periwinkle blue. To my drowsy, half-conscious eyes, I thought I was in the sky. It only lasted for a fraction of a second before I picked out the white, squared ceilings (ceilings don't chance much from hospital to hospital, don't they?), light blue walls, and a lone window. Warm spring sunlight shown through its sheer curtains, which fluttered in a light breeze. I could smell the freshly mowed grass outside.

On the other side of me was Naru, much as I expected him to be: dark, legs crossed, and engrossed in a book. Besides him sat John, who smiled widely on meeting my eye.

"'ello, mate," he said softly.

Naru glanced up, his cheek resting on his hand.

"About time," said Naru, snapping the book closed. "No one passing out from mild blood loss should have been unconscious for that long. I suppose you were busy."

Busy as in 'having my visions.' I had had them while knocked out before, as it was more necessary to be unconscious rather than asleep. From his expectant tone I assumed he was eager for any clues I could give him to the case.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Having a Skype chat with Yasu. Apparently he's thinking of catching a bus over here, because we're all on a little field trip and he wanted to join the fun."

Even John winced. I scratched out the theory of Naru's tone being of impatience and wrote in 'pissed.' Was it because I passed out? Nah, that couldn't be. He wasn't unreasonable, after all. Heck, Oliver Davis was anything but that. But then what?

"Do you…not want Yasu around?"

"More or less, but as he is not an employee of mine, I have little say in the matter. Besides, as he has shown no signs of being a medium, he is most likely safe." But, by the sounds of it, Naru wasn't too please. "Did you or did you not have any visions?"

"Well, yeah, but…" my voice died. I had, for one blessed minute, forgotten all of it. Now my insides twisted sickenly and I hugged myself to keep all of it still, as well as ward off the cold that had put the hairs on my arm on end.

John was looking from Naru to me in dismay. He seemed to want to say something, but couldn't find his place to.

Naru didn't miss my sudden withdrawal into the hospital bed. "The sooner you get it out the better, Mai. Try to be objective. Distance yourself."

"Easy for you to say."

John winced again, this time at my bitter tone. "Um, I'll just get some coffee?"

"You can stay, Father, we're not having some lover's spat." He waved his hand, almost flippantly, before him, eyes downcast to pull out a notepad and pen he had tucked away at his side. "Do your best, Mai. I want to be rid of this…nightmare just as much as you. Once we're done with this…" his voice hesitated, teetered on the edge of softness, and he glanced at John. John probably didn't notice, but after knowing Naru for so long, I could see the lines of his self-consciousness. Saying anything even close to sweet in front of anyone was as bad as stripping naked to Naru.

It was with that smile tickling the corners of my lips that I told him all that I had seen. When the ice tar swirling my gut rose up to cut off my throat, I'd look to the window and the sunlight outside to remind myself where I was, and of that which thawed me best. Like walking in the sunshine with Naru and eating ice cream. Had that really only been today? It was evening already. The days were getting longer.

When I had said all that I had to say, Naru clicked his pen and frowned at his notes.

"Something doesn't add up," he said, pressing the side of the pen to his temple. "There's little doubt she could be a medium. I've narrowed down the list Yasu sent me to a few girls and you've just singled out the one I need, but…where would she have gotten training in an orphanage? Where was the affect of the dead in her life? Of her powers? From what you've told me and what I've read, it's hardly mentioned."

"Yeah, if you can speak with the dead, that's going to stand out in some way," said John.

"And in an orphanage," continued Naru, as though unaware he was speaking out loud, "she would have become very in touch with her powers, especially with the social stress. There would be no way she could hide it from others."

An uncomfortable twinge told me he was speaking from experience, and I took another look to the window.

"Does that…do horrible things like that…really happen in orphanages?"

I could feel both John and Naru respond to me without looking at them in the way John's breath hitched and Naru's pen clicked.

"What do you expect?" He said dryly. "You throw a bunch of children no one cares about into a building and put some people in to watch them, like orderlies to an asylum." Naru snorted. "Did you know? In old English, 'asylum' was used for boarding schools for the poor and orphaned."

"Mai?" asked John.

I had started to shake. It hurt. My body had already gone through so much, and my muscles had already shivered more than many do in a life time. It felt like knives to my gut and pinches to my neck.

A warm, soft hand took mine and the bed creaked as John sat down. He wore his usual khaki slacks and a blue T-shirt that brought out his eyes. For not the first time, the freckled baby-face struck me as being more cherubic than priest-like. Twenty-one and he could still get away with sneaking through a middle school.

"You need to remember that with great evil, there is also great good. In order for there to be a choice for man to choose good, he must also be able to choose evil."

"But to a child…and there's more of them…"

But what troubled me most was that Naru and Gene had been in an orphanage once. They had been adopted. What if…what if…

"Nothing like that happened to me or Gene, so don't give that thought any time," said Naru, in his usual mind-reading way.

"But I can't accept it—how could anyone do that and still be sane? That just…I can't…"

The coldness finally clamped down about my throat. I couldn't speak, just sob. Hot tears trickled down my face, which were caught by John's clean white handkerchief. As I cry, he shushed and spoke calm, clean words to me, of heaven, of angels, and a God who accepted every tortured soul and healed all wounds.

Naru watched out of the corner of his eye, tapping his pen, and occasionally glancing at his notes.

"So those visions she showed you and Masako…they were representations of rape. To be expected, as even healthy minds use metaphor and symbols to convey traumatic experiences. She was trying to communicate her trauma, to make sense of it, to seek healing."

But that wasn't right, and I shook my head hard. Naru didn't catch it, but John did.

"What is it Mai?"

I sniffed and breathed deep in attempts to loosen my voice.

"She just wanted it to end."

Naru looked at me now, or rather, at my wrist, which lay heavily bandaged next to me on the blanket. I tried to explain more, but what more was there to say that hadn't been repeated?

"A truly broken soul," said John.

"Yes," said Naru. "But, then, why is she still here? What is she waiting for? Any malady caused by the head trauma wouldn't be in effect in the spirit. How did she become so malicious…." He stopped, eyes widening, than narrowing with a quiet curse.

"What?" John asked.

He stood up. "I need to clarify something with Masako. If you'd excuse me."

With that, he swept out of the room. My stomach sank. I had hoped…but then, I couldn't expect him to read my mind all the time, right? And we were professionals. Not to mention it wasn't like he would know how to comfort me when I myself didn't know how.

John's soft handkerchief came up to dab the corner of my tear-scraped eye.

"Mai," he hesitated. "Would it be okay if…if I prayed for you? Or give you a blessing, I should say."

I shrugged. It wasn't like it would bother me much if he said something about me in his bedtime prayers or whenever he did that sort of thing.

To my surprise, he didn't leave, but closed the door, locked it, and then picked up the crucifix that had been set on the bedside table. After slipping it back over my head, he kneeled down beside my bed, folded his freckled hands against the white covers, and bowed his head.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name," he paused to allow the words time to sink into the room, like the writes of an ancient spell. I found myself clutching the handkerchief to my nose, desperate to not ruin the quiet with a loud sniff.

After only a second of thought, he continued, in the most reverent, meek of voices. "We thank thee for thy protection of our friends, especially of our Mai Taniyama. As we struggle through this time to give ease to those both living and dead, please bless us with thy guidance, as we are always under thy care."

A breath of breeze gusted through the room. The sheer drapes rustled, lifted up, and left behind the smell of the sunlight.

"God Almighty," he breathed, "at this time, please give Mai comfort. Her soul is tender and clean, and her heart, which years to care for all those she meets, suffers with the darkness she has witnessed in her work to heal. It's a sadness beyond comfort, for the wounded, the sickened, the weary, and those weighted down with sin, are always with us.

"And…please…bless her with happiness. Bless her with peace. And while not one of thine servants, as your daughter, please rain upon her head the affections of a loving Father in heaven.

"In the holy name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen."

Never had a religious prayer or ceremony ever touched me as the one John murmured besides me. The reverent way he pleaded for me to a higher power gave to me more than any words or reasons John, Naru, or anyone else could have given me. And since I couldn't remember having a Father, and had been alone of parents for so long, the fact that he asked for anyone to be my loving Father…

When John rose and gifted me with a self-conscious, but satisfied smile, I had tears in my eyes for a whole other reason. He dried those as well. Then, as he leaned in, another warm spring breeze brushed through the room and he drew towards it, towards me. For a moment he hovered near, almost as though to leave a kiss on my head.

Then I blinked and he was striding to the door to unlock and open it.

"I'll go see if you can get released, if Naru hasn't yet." He hesitated in the doorway. "And keep my crucifix. As a gift. It's…very special, and I hope will help keep you safe."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. I am here to serve, after all."

And with that, he left, leaving me with a vague impression that I had just missed something that still lingered in the hospital room.