Chapter 1: surprise whirlwind

Naru sighed as he stared at the clock. It was the start of his most dreaded season of the year. Summer had finally arrived which meant schools throughout Japan would be letting loose the little terrors that they tended to keep locked up all year around. With the influx of kids roaming the streets, it meant they'd be doing more exploring and mischief to avoid boredom which altogether led to his office being filled with bogus cases that were below his teams notice. He rubbed his head exhausted as he put the twentieth file into the rejection pile before he let out a yawn.

He hated sorting out cases and he'd always let Mai work her way through them. She seemed to have an eye for choosing the cases where there was paranormal activity.

Since Mai had left for England a year and a half ago with that friend of hers, Yuzuki, the office had been quieter and despite what him denying what his colleagues said he did admit that getting information on cases was slower and much harder without Mai's dreams to help, although Naru vehemently denied this to anyone if asked.

Covering another yawn Naru headed towards the kitchen to make coffee. Adjusting to the caffeine drink had been hard for the tea addict but everyone's attempts to make his favourite drink just right, failed exponentially. Luckily he had sworn everyone to secrecy over his caffeine switch, no need to let Mai feel smug or self-important when she came back.

As he set the cup down on the counter he checked his watch, five to nine, nearly time to open the door to the public. Another new day of people coming in, urging him to take a case in their area that they were adamant was a supernatural phenomenon. The only thing Naru could cling onto was that it was one day closer to Mai's arrival and he'd be able to drink his sweet tea again. Naru frowned when he tried to remember the day of her return but sadly it eluded his brain's mental search for the prominent date.

Shaking his head, he made a mental note to get sleep so his brain could rest. It wouldn't do to be overtired and miss a vital clue on a real case. Mistakes did lead to accidents!

Shaking his head he walked over to Mai's desk. Yes even after a year and a half he still referred to the desk as Mai's even though Ayako and Takigawa had been taking turns as assistant.

Naru sat down on the computer chair and allowed his eyes to linger across the desk. A white phone placed near the edge would have been quite unremarkable if it hadn't been for the words 'I see you' written in permanent marker running down the side or the American movie 'Ghost Busters' symbol stuck onto it. Even having known Mai for nine years now her sense of humour still confused him. She'd planted the sticker on the day before she left and despite him ordering her to take it off, it had stayed on. He hadn't the heart to take it off once he'd returned from dropping her off.

Next was the photo of them taken eight years ago, or rather a year after the formation of the team. It was a bit shocking to look back now at how young they were facing the monsters they'd come across. The frame the picture resided in had been bought by himself, after he'd accidentally broken the one Mai had brought in. Naru had expected her to start shouting at him and had rather been looking forward to the verbal match that would entail. Instead she'd come in, raised her eyebrow at the new frame, stared at Naru for a fraction of a second before sitting down and started to work. Naru smirked as he replayed that memory that had certainly been a new side to Mai.

Musing now as he looked for the calendar he thought back to Mai at the airport, suddenly very pensive. Mai had seemed different that day, bolder or rather confident in herself than she'd ever been. Graduating did miracles for self-assurance. He certainly hadn't expected her to hug him so suddenly like that or for him to return the hug.

He knew his parents were beginning to worry about him. Aged twenty six and he still hadn't had a steady girlfriend. He ignored their worried conversations. He didn't know what was weirder, him unable to commit long term or Mai turning down everyone who asked her out.

Out of curiosity only he'd asked her once why. He could unfortunately remember every word crystal clear.

"I'm not looking for a relationship. I'm too busy with my medical course and working here to save up," she had a weird glint on her eye as she'd looked at him briefly before she turned back to her clipboard, they had been on a case at the time, "Besides all those guys were jerks. I'm just waiting for the right kind of guy to ask me out. Then I'll say yes. Until then I'll be too busy working in the hospital in England and then the local one here when I return,"

Naru shook his head that was Mai, always with her priorities straight when it truly mattered.

Finally Naru found the calendar and glanced down to see that she'd returned home… yesterday. Naru frowned, why had no one told him? He sighed; she'd probably come in and visit today anyway. When she did come through that door, he decided, he'd ask her out to dinner to the small quiet restaurant a few blocks away. She needed to be caught up on what had been going on at SPR and then maybe she'd fill him in on her time in England. It'd be a date, a work date, Naru nodded as he placed the calendar back where he'd got it and went to his office to grab a folder.

His father's voice echoed through his mind on the one time Martin had approached his son to ask him about his and Mai's relationship, "She won't wait forever son, pretty soon she'll give up and say yes to the next person asking her out,"

That was preposterous, Naru thought. Mai wouldn't have met anyone during her stay in London and if she had his parents would have rung him, but they had been careless in the consistency of their phone calls for the last few months. Enough! Mai had said it herself; she'd be too busy to have a relationship.

At the same time he heard the bell above the door twinkle Lin's office door opened. Grabbing the file from his desk that he'd been searching for, he left the room and nearly dropped the file once he stepped into reception.

Lin looked uncomfortable as he had a pink child's schoolbag hanging from his left arm and a little girl, wearing a white t-shirt under a red dress, cradled in his right. The child wasn't even a year old and it was staring diligently at the pram by the door as if it held all the wonders in the world. The baby was adorable with chocolate eyes and a mop of black hair but it was the woman standing beside Lin he stared at.

Hair slightly longer and tied back into a ponytail the woman didn't look any different. "Mai?" his voice sounded shocked even to his own ears.

She took her eyes off Lin briefly to smile brightly, "Hey Naru," before she turned serious, "Now Lin, feed her at twelve and she should doze right after that for a couple of hours. Her foods in the bag and only needs microwaving but make sure it's not too hot. I just changed her nappy before I left the house so it should be fine for a while but there are fresh ones in the bag if you need them. If she gets restless there's a couple of toys and books she can play with or if you have the time take her to the park, she likes looking at the trees. If she cries give her, her dodo," Mai spoke at breakneck speed before glancing at her watch, "I'm sorry to ditch her on you but my shift started five minutes ago, I'll be back by five," she kissed the child on the forehead causing it to gurgle sweetly before she headed to the door, "Yuki wave bye to mummy," she cooed at the child before straightening up, "Thanks Lin, I owe you one, bye Naru," like a whirlwind she was out the door just as soon as she'd come in, leaving the office occupants frozen in their seats, or shoes since they were standing.

Lin stood frozen staring at the door, his brain most likely going into overload before he glanced down at the baby Yuki and panicked as he saw the tears burst from the large brown saucer eyes. Naru nearly smiled at the look of terror on the Chinese man's face as he looked to Naru for help, nearly.

The office door crashed open for the second time that day and Ayako and Bou-san entered or were close to entering if Ayako hadn't frozen at the site of the squalling child in Lin's arms. The woman took in the scene slowly before jumping into action.

"Give her to me," Ayako demanded and Lin hurriedly dumped the child into her arms before backing off as far as possible and collapsing onto the sofa.

Ayako crooned softly as she rocked the baby, a tender expression on her face, until its cries slowly subsided.

"And you said I wouldn't make a good mother," she smiled haughtily at the monk, "There goes you last excuse for us not having kids old man," the monk groaned and plopped onto the couch opposite Lin, not willing to get into a personal argument in front of his friends and workmates.

"Any who, who owns the baby?" she froze as the thought occurred to her.

Naru glared at the bundle in Ayako's arms, "Her names Yuki and Mai's the mother," with that he slammed the office door and fumed as he listened to the child crying yet again on the other side of the wall.

This was going to be a long day.

Hey, thanks for all the reviews last chapter, you guys are awesome and I hope this chapter picked up compared to the slight boringness of the last (is that a word? boringness??). Well the next chap has a bit of a cliffie cuz I've already written it. Just needs to by typed up and posted, sadly I'm in the middle of my mocks and the weekend may be hectic so next week at the latest. Ciao