Here's chapter 10
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Ruka looked better and sounded more alert, less hoarse and confused, but he was still tethered to various tubes and monitors. He gave Natsume a weak grin. "I can't believe Mikan followed you. God. What was she thinking?"

"She wasn't thinking." Natsume hadn't ratted Mikan out to his younger colleague – she'd done it herself before Natsume got there. But if he were in Ruka's position, he'd want to know what was going on. Even if he were at death's door, he wouldn't tolerate anyone coddling him. He expected Ruka was of a similar mind. "We can get her a counselor if you'd think that'd help."

"Nah. She's like this. Where did you go?"

"I checked in with someone I know in Spanish Harlem."

It was all he could give Ruka. Natsume had already talked to Kokoro Yome about his with Sister Amanatsu, an ex-nun who'd moved to Japan three years ago. Within a month of her arrival, she contacted Natsume with information that had exonerated a man the Alice was looking for. She'd become a regular informant, but only on her terms, only when she could save someone.

She knew Kuonji, not as a street thug or the confidential informant who'd helped Ruka Nogi take down an Alice Top Fifteen Most Wanted fugitive – Ruka's biggest coup as an agent – but as a young man who was trying to put his life back together. Sister Amanatsu, as she was known on the street, had encouraged him to listen to Ruka and talk to an attorney, pursue entry into WITSEC. But Kuonji couldn't bring himself to fully give up the life he'd known since he was thirteen.

Now he was dead.

Sister Amanatsu insisted he hadn't tried to murder Ruka and Natsume in Central Park. That he couldn't have. She was adamant, and she certainly had nothing to do with her faith in him as a person. She was a realist – she knew Kuonji would have setbacks, would lie, and would disappoint her. He'd done it before. But she was convinced he hadn't committed the sniper attack two days ago because he couldn't. He'd cut a tendon in his right hand a year ago and couldn't pull a trigger, much less manage a sniper rifle.

Kuonji was physically unable to fire an AR-15.

Natsume suggested Koko to make sure the autopsy on Kuonji included a check of his right hand. Not that Yome needed any device – and hell he wasn't thrilled when Natsume refused to tell him his source.

But that was the way it was – he wasn't putting Sister Amanatsu through an FBI interrogation. She worked in her neighborhood and believed in its people, and no matter how many times one or another of them betrayed her trust, she would never betrayed theirs.

The FBI had the wrong man. In her mind, it was that simple.

Expect Kokoro Yome wasn't yet convinced. He had solid witnesses who put Kuonji in the Central Park with an AR-15 at the time of the shooting.

He had the weapon.

He had the silencer.

Koko, in his mild-mannered way, had reminded Natsume that he was supposed to be recuperating, not meddling in an FBI investigation.

Ruka tried to sit up. "I'm supposed to be blowing in that air thing more. For my lungs. Keeps me from getting pneumonia. It wears me out." He sank back against the bad. "Christ. I'm mess."

"Give it a time."

"Kuonji was my guy. Is this going to come back and bite me in ass?"

"I don't know." Natsume didn't bother with niceties, but there was no point in dwelling with Ruka on what he couldn't change. "I think you were right about getting your sister out of here."

"She's pretty, isn't she?"

She was pretty. Very pretty. Natsume had come in contact with her three times in less that twenty-four hours, and he wasn't immune to the feel of that slim body. But talk about mustn't touch. A seriously wounded agent's sister, the president surrogate daughter – an attractive academic who wanted answer to the shooting as much as any of them.

"I'm lowering the boom on her before she does something stupid." Natsume said. "She's upset about you. It's making her reckless."

"Send her back to Kyoto."

Ruka obviously hadn't changed his mind now that he was more lucid. "Why do you want her out of here?"

"Because she does things like follow senior agents."

Ruka, if there's something else, now's the time – "

"My parents," Ruka said weakly. "There're coming?"

"That's what I understand. I don't have the specifics. Ruka –"

"They can take over family duty. Get Mikan out of here. Narumi Anju – that's out, right? That he and my family are friends."

"It's out."

"Mikan can't stay here. At home…." His eyes were half-closed, and he was fading fast, sinking into the bed. "Tell her I'll be there soon. Tell her she can make me a prune cake."

A nurse came over and checked Ruka's IV line, glancing meaningfully at Natsume. He took the hint.

"Take care of yourself, Ruka Don't worry about anything else. I'll look after your sister myself."

He managed a wry smile. "Why am I not reassured?"

Natsume found Mikan chatting with Hotaru in the waiting room. He thought he heard his name mentioned, and when he walked in, even Hotaru went red.

"Looks like I should have eavesdropped," he said. "What did I miss?"

"Don't mind him," Hotaru to Mikan "You have to pass a jackass test to become an agent."

Natsume pointed at her. "One day, Imai, someone's going to take exception to that mouth of yours."

She gave him a big, phony smile. "Just kidding, Agent Hyuuga." She shifted her attention back to Mikan "I'll see you in a bit."

Mikan made a move to go after her – to escape, Natsume thought – then gave it up and cleared her throat, fixing her hazel eyes on him. "I apologize for following you."

"Apology accepted." He decided not to waste any time on niceties. "Here's the deal. I've talked to Ruka. You're going home in Kyoto. I'm putting you on a plane myself."

She didn't seem surprised and just shook her head at him. "I'm staying here until Ruka's better."

Natsume could feel himself responding to her obstinacy with touch of his own. If they were going to get into a power struggle, he planned to win. Plus, he knew he was right. Ruka was right. The woman needed to get out of the thick things.

"I told him that," She added.

"Your brother wants you out of here. I want you out of here. So guess what? I can pack your bags. Or you can. Make up your mind."

"It's not like I committed a federal offense – "

"Actually, yes, it is. Interference in a federal investigation."

"You're not investigating -" She stopped herself. "Anyway, Hotaru says you had to have known I was following you. You could have stopped me, and you didn't."

Leave it to Hotaru to open her big damn mouth. "Agent Imai is welcome to her opinion."

Mikan tilted her head back, the hazel eyes cool now, intelligent and not particularly apologetic - she didn't regret what she'd done. "I'm not always impulsive."

Natsume didn't give her an inch. "From what I've seen so far, I'll bet you are."

His conversation with Sister Amanatsu about Kuonji death had thrown him. Ruka's certainty that he was the shooter's target, his determination to get his sister out of Tokyo, her friendship with the Prime Minister and Natsume's own growing conviction that Dr. Sakura, with her pretty eyes and brunette hair and her sexy southern accent, was trouble.

It made sense to put her on a plane.

"You don't know anything about me," she said stiffly. "I thought I was following a man who'd gone through a terrible ordeal and had just heard some upsetting news. I wasn't thinking about you as a federal agent.

"Your mistake"

"What, are you going to arrest me?"

"I might."

She didn't seem especially intimidated. "You eat, sleep and drink your work, don't you, Hyuuga-san?"

"And you don't, Dr. Sakura?"

"My work doesn't involve guns and bad guys."

"Precisely why you're going home."

She bristled "I want to see my brother."

"Go ahead."

She walked stiffly out of the room, but Natsume was impressed. He'd done his best to wither her, and she hadn't withered. People far more accustomed to him in a kick-ass mood would have.

He'd have to make sure he didn't touch her again. Catching her when she'd tripped on his feet yesterday, then when she started to go down in the park, this morning when he'd marched her out the door at Sister Amanatsu's – not telling what would happen if he got hold of that slip of a body again.

Mikan rode up front with her knees pressed together, her hands on her thighs and her eyes straight ahead, making no pretense that she liked one damn thing about being sent home. But it was what Ruka wanted – it seemed to be what he needed – so she was going.

She didn't care what Natsume wanted. His threat to arrest her was a lot of hot air – he wouldn't dare. Like Ruka, he needed a place to put his anxiety over the shooting and Kuonji's death, and it was on her shoulders.

Having reporters shouting questions at her about her relationship with the prime minister as she and Natsume had left the hospital hadn't helped her case, either.

Ruka was fully on board in the conspiracy to get her out of town.

And maybe it did make sense. He was improving at least physically. Their parents would be there soon and could help get him back to Northern Woods to complete his recovery. In the meantime, Mikan would make him a prune cake and fix up the downstairs bedroom for him.

When he got home, she'd take him out on the river in the boat. They'd read books on the porch and drink gin and tonics and catch up with each other. It'd been ages since they'd had a good stretch of time together. She was between projects. She didn't know what to do with herself – she could easily stay in Northern Woods until Ruka was back on his feet.

But she'd made it clear to her brother that she was returning to Northern Woods to put his mind at ease, and for no other reason.

He'd been amused. "I can just see you toe-to-toe with Natsume, but I'd put money on Natsume. You still care what people think. He doesn't. He's a good guy, but you're not going to win with him."

She didn't want to win. She just wanted her brother safe and well, and if going home helped him in his recovery, even in small way, then she'd go home.

Natsume negotiated the city traffic with no indication that his injured arm bothered him in the least. "Mad?" he sounded unconcerned.

"Resigned to my fate."

His laugh surprised her. "Is that a touch of the infamous Sakura drama?"

Mikan glanced over at him and saw that his color was off slightly. He had to be in at least some pain. "You've been researching my family?"

"Ten minutes on the Web last night. If all those reporters can do it, so can I. I found some paper you wrote on southern historical archaeology sites."

"Did you read it?"

He gave her a quick, wry smile. "I only had ten minutes." He made a turn to Haneda Airport, impervious to the crush of traffic. "Anyone else in Northern Woods?"

"The property manager. Neighbors, friends. I won't be alone."

"This property manager lives in your house?"

"In a separate cottage."

"Fancy."

She smiled. "My grandmother used to live there. The place is lovely, and it's very special to my family, but I wouldn't say it's fancy."

"My uncle's redecorating the house I grew up in. He did up the half bath like it's a tropical paradise. It's awful."

Mikan laughed in spite of her determination to stay irritated. She didn't want to let him off the hook for pressuring her, threatening her with arrest. "Why don't you go up there to recuperate?"

He turned to her without warning, his eyes almost a blood like from the afternoon light, then shifted his gaze back to the congested traffic ahead of him. "I wasn't seriously injured."

"But the trauma of being shot –"

"I've been shot before."

She didn't push her point further. "The distinction being that the bullet didn't actually hit you."

"I don't need to recuperate."

"You want to find the real sniper before he tries again," she said quietly, without any hint of accusation.

"Everyone does.'

"But you're one of the victims. The FBI and your bosses can't let you intruding – any more than you wanted me following you this morning."

His eyes pinned on the road. "I'm not worried about getting in trouble with the FBI or anyone else."

"In a way, we're in the same position."

"No, we're not."

She decided to abandon that approach. "Does Special Agent Yome believe Kuonji is their man?"

Natsume didn't answer. She started to point out the signs directing them to her gate, but he'd already made the turn.

"I see. Wrong question. You're not going to or you can't tell. If the shooter, whoever it is, actually targeted you and Ruka, he had to know you were going to be at that news conference. You can't just pull off a sniper attack in Central Park without advance planning. Was Kuonji capable of that kind of detailed planning?"

More silence.

"Then the real shooter – the guy who set up Mr. Kuonji – must have known he was one of Ruka's informants, manipulated him somehow because of it, and then killed him when he no longer needed him." Mikan thought a moment. "No one's going to think Ruka slipped up, will they? Blame him because the real shooter found about Kuonji?"

"Mikan, I'm not discussing the investigation with you."

"Why not? I'm about to fly to Kyoto and spend the next few days baking prune cakes and fluffing pillows in anticipation of my brother's arrival. I'm not going to meddle in the FBI's and the Alice's business. Even if I wanted to, how could I?"

Natsume glanced at her. "Time to change the subject."

She wasn't getting anything out of him. "How far did I really get before you were onto me this afternoon?"

"Not an inch. I saw you get saw you get into your cab."

Mikan believed him. She told herself she wasn't surprised and had no reason to be embarrassed, but felt a jolt of heat that, after he parked, prompted her to try to talk him out of escorting her to the gate. "I've got an hour. There's no chance I'm not going to make my flight."

"That's right," he said. "There isn't."

"You know, I'm not a prisoner you're transporting."

"It'd be a hell of a lot easier if you were," he said, getting out of the car.

Mikan decided not to pursue that one.

In spite of the bullet wound in his arm, he insisted on carrying her bag, and bought her bottle of water for her flight. He was a federal officer, and thus allowed to escort her all the way to her gate.

When her flight started to board, she felt a prick of panic at the idea of leaving. "If there's any change in Ruka's condition –"

"I'll let you know myself. I promise."

She had the feeling Natsume was a man who didn't make any promises. "I'll be on the first flight back to Tokyo."

"Understood."

"All right. Fair enough." She straightened, sighing, awkward. "Well. I guess that's it. Take care of yourself, okay, Natsume?"

He gave her that toe curling smile. "Just get on that damn plane."

She blow him a kiss, hoping to throw him off his hard-ass game and assert some control over her situation, but he grinned and winked at her, sending hot sparks right through her.

Just as well she was getting out of town. Another day with him, and they'd be in bed.

The thought propelled her down the jet way.

When she took her seat on the plane, the realization that she was alone hit her. Her throat tightened.

But wasn't this what she used to? Never mind that she'd been all but run out of town on a rail, she was on her own with no one to answer to, no one to rein in her impulses – and no one beside her, she thought with an unexpected rush of emotion. When she got to Northern Woods, she could do as she pleased. Wasn't it the way she liked it?

Whether she liked it or not, it was the way it was.

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I wanted to say Thank you to the following:

*Me Myself And Bunny
*nix
*gabsterela
*Haruhi-chan131
*MizuKaze53
*Pastellen
*AnimeMango
*Guest
*riaanaa

For the nice reviews (chapeter 8&9)...

and

*Octaves
*darkjewel512
*decemberlove031210
*Trepidation Chance
*IrisCherieHathaway

For following LDWAL

also

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Till next time
Claire-chan143