Hello! I am here again to post another chapter! Let's get into it!

The flashing of police lights drew Mai's attention as she parked on the side of the street. It was later in the day and a crowd of people decorated the street, all of them watching with worry and curiosity. Shaking her head at their oblivious nature, Mai flashed her ID to the officers preserving the scene by enforcing the barrier of tape around the two-story traditional house and they happily let her through. Kado was talking to a group of people and when he saw her come through the line, he quickly excused himself and quickly walked over to her.

"Mai, thank God you got here safely." Kado placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Our current victim is four-year-old Rina White, her parents are currently being interviewed. Apparently, she had just got home from school with her mother and went upstairs to play. Her mother started on dinner downstairs and when she came up to get her, she found her daughter dead."

Mai blanched when he handed her a school photo of the child. She was wearing the same uniform that Ren wore every day to school. "Oh, no, that's horrible." She couldn't dwell on the broken family and instead focused on the facts. "What was the COD?"

Kado waved Mai on to walk with him and they entered the house. A distraught-looking man was pacing back and forth and his eyes were bloodshot. On the couch was a woman with still eyes. For a moment, Mai wasn't sure she was breathing. These are the parents of a dead child. She had seen enough of them throughout her career to spend any more time watching them. The two officers next to them seemed to be consoling them the best they could, but Mai could feel the anger rolling off of Mr. White in waves. The clear frustration and unbelievability towards something unfair were causing his current destructive emotional outbursts. Kado grabbed Mai's hand and they walked up the stairs. Mai tried to avoid eye contact with the family photos on the wall.

"She was stabbed 38 times in various locations across the body, but she died after the second stab which flooded her lungs with blood." Kado pushed past a few scene investigators taking secondary photos, ensuring that nothing was missed. "Her body is currently in the morgue, you can talk to the ME later if you want, but we have their report already."

Having a hard time processing the information, Mai just nodded."38 times is an awful lot of overkill. But the fact that the killer was likely in the house – in her room – implies that they watched her for a while. The MO is just like…" She didn't want to finish the thought.

Kado sighed and they entered what was obviously a little girl's room. Blood was soaked into the carpet and splattered onto the walls. "I know and unfortunately, the reason why I called you here was that we know for a fact that this is related to him."

Mai looked at him. "How do you know that, is there something he left behind?" She began scanning the room for any obvious signs.

"Not necessarily, more like a form of direct contact."

Pushing Mai back slightly, Kado slid the door to the room shut. Brownish-red streaks of blood were staring them both back in the face. Mai's name is written out of blood in bold lettering.

Naru reread the address on the note Mai had left more than once trying to confirm, yet again, he was going the right way and to the right house. Ren seemed fairly oblivious to the whole situation, but Naru noticed that Ren was familiar with the location, as he quickly ran up to the door of the house they stood in front of. The contemporary house was Japanese-inspired but a more modern take on a traditional building. The larger windows and sliding doors he could see from his spot maintained the open concept architecture that Naru had seen before. He sighed before walking to where Ren was happily ringing the doorbell.

An older woman swung the door open and squealed as Ren flung himself into her. "Ren!" She said smiling happily. "I missed you, sweetie!" She gently patted his head before looking to Naru. "Oliver, great to see you again."

That is when Naru realized why she had seemed recognizable. When he was here for the conference, he had met this woman more than once. Hina Tanaka was a friendly person and Naru found himself relaxing in her presence.

"Mai sent you here, huh?" She grinned at him as Ren unlatched himself from her and ran towards another area of the house. "You'll both be safe here until Mai and Kado get back. They will likely be back in a few hours."

Naru looked puzzled, which was a rarity for him. "Why did she send us here?"

Hina smiled at him and opened the door further, inviting him into the house. When he was standing in the entryway, she shut the door, locking a multitude of locks and turning to the side to set a security alarm for the premise. She waved him on to follow her and they entered into a living room, where his son was already making himself at home coloring in a book atop a small kids table in the corner of the room.

"We do not have any grandkids, so, when we both found out Mai was pregnant, we told her that we were going to spoil her child rotten with gifts." Hina reminisced slightly as she watched Ren's happy face. "While we do certainly double as grandparents for Ren, we are also a source of protection for him and peace of mind for Mai. When she ever takes on a case of a particular threat, she keeps Ren here as added protection. Not only do we have multiple safety measures in place like bulletproof windows, but both our neighbors are police officers as well."

Naru nodded but something was off. "I don't understand, why would Mai need to have a secure location like this for our son?"

She sighed and sat on the couch in the same room that Ren was playing in. Taking the hint, Naru sat on another couch opposite of her.

"Look, Oliver," Hina said leaning back against the back of the couch. "I'm not going to try to hide anything from you because I love Mai and Ren, and I want him to have an amazing life." She watched Ren color talking to himself quietly. "Mai's job is not very ordinary and sometimes, it does place her in danger and possible death at times. Believe me, she's been in the hospital a few times, even when she was pregnant, it was a recurring event, Kado even put a sum of money aside dedicated towards her possible injuries."

Naru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Unfortunately, Mai being injured was a common occurrence when she was working with us as well. She was fairly impetuous and impulsive, and would often run head-first into danger, regardless of the possible catastrophe to her person." He looked to Ren in concern. "I figured that she would have avoided conflict when she was pregnant with him, but I suppose that would go against everything in her nature."

Hina laughed. "I think you misunderstood," She sobered and looked at him seriously. "Mai may not have wanted a baby at first, in fact, she hardly recognized his existence for a while. It is weird remembering her like that when she is so attentive to him and protective, rightly so. But she had a hard time facing something as profound as having a child alone." When she saw Naru look down in shame she stuttered slightly. "Please do not think I am implying that she was alone because you were unaware of Ren! She chose not to say anything and, while I fought with her on it at first, I understood her reasoning."

Anyway, it wasn't until she went to an ultrasound just a month and a half into her pregnancy when she got to hear his heartbeat that she started realizing how much she actually did love Ren, even when it didn't seem like she wanted to face the reality. She had a pretty big shift within her mentality and when that happened, she really did try everything to prevent any harm coming to her or her baby. She even told me and Kado that she wanted Ren to live if there was ever a complication and she couldn't speak for herself. Unfortunately, at work trouble always seemed to find her and when she got closer to her due date, Kado kept her at the office and away from criminal interviews."

Naru took a moment to process what Hina was telling him. He doubted that Mai would willingly shell out any of the information that he had just learned. A thought occurred to him. "Do you mind if I asked you some questions about her while I have the opportunity to do so?"

Smirking widely, Hina stood up and moved over to a bookshelf. Grabbing a thick-looking binder, she walked back and set it on the table, only then was Naru able to realize it was a photo album.

"I thought you would never ask!" She opened up the first pages and turned it so it was facing Naru. "You say a word of this to Mai and she will have both our heads. Now, this first photo is when she first joined the team. Oh, she just looked so cute in her outfit!" The photo looked fairly old and a younger version of Mai stood shaking hands with Kado, her smile showing genuine excitement.

Moving his eyes across the page he looked at a few different photos of Mai and her team working or talking, even one at a Christmas party. The times changed slightly and he was looking at a photo of himself and Mai at the conference. Mai looked beautiful and he remembered every exquisite detail about her that he was able to refresh from his previous memories of her at SPR. He stopped at a smaller, almost black, photo of an ultrasound. He could clearly make out the head and arm of a baby and a small moment of transcendence shot through him as he saw one of the first images of his child.

Flipping through the book more he smiled at a picture of Mai with her legs elevated on a chair and a laptop on her lap. She appeared deep in her work, but her free hand rested on her growing stomach.

"That was when she was about six months along," Hina said watching Naru. "Her feet were starting to hurt and that was all Kado needed to hear before he ran to get her a chair. Being the proud person she is, she insisted that she didn't need it, but quietly accepted it. I don't know if she wanted to make my husband feel better or if she actually did need it."

Naru nodded through her story. "She sure looks like she has been alleviated from something uncomfortable." He watched, picture to picture, as Mai's pregnancy got further and further along until he was looking at Mai, clad in a johnny gown with an IV in the back of her hand, holding a newborn in her delicate arms. She looked exhausted and rapturous at the same time, staring at the person she held dearest.

Hina chuckled slightly at the photo, no doubt remembering something from the moment it was taken. "She hates having her picture taken, but when I showed her this one, she wanted a copy immediately. A few days after she had been at home with him, she asked me how I would describe motherhood in one word." Naru watched her, obviously waiting for her continuation. "Consuming. It's pleasantly consuming to be a mother."

Staring at her for a moment longer Naru smiled slightly. "I can see why she liked this one." He looked back to the album. "May I also have a copy?"

"Just reach behind the front photo, there should be a few copies in there!"

He didn't think she was serious but to his surprise, there were a few copies. He grabbed one and tucked it into his jacket pocket nodding to Hina in thanks.

"If you want, we can also watch the videos I took of her delivering Ren?" She said standing up. "They only let me record after he was born, but it is still pretty exciting."

Naru nodded his head quickly, wanting to learn as much as he could about what he may have missed, and looked to Ren while Hina snuck away to grab the video.

Okay! Another chapter came and went! Please R&R if you can, if not don't worry! I'll be back next week regardless of anything!

Cheers!