Thanks for the reviews, everybody! And just to clarify something that someone was pointing out, the doctors were trying to keep Mai's heart going in the last chapter. It would beat unevenly and stop, so they had to keep working. Thanks for pointing that out to me, a couple of you!!! So, with that said, I'll take a deep breath, and give you probably the most difficult chapter of all. :) Sorry about the wait; it was so hard to write!!!

*I do not own Ghost Hunt in any way, shape or form*

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The first person I saw when I opened my eyes was Naru.

He was sitting on an uncomfortable chair beside me, his head leaned back against the wall. His breathing was deep and even, and his eyes were closed. I could tell he was sleeping. I felt a stab of guilt as I noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

Everybody else--except Lin-san, once again...he was probably watching base--was sleeping and laying in various positions in chairs lining the wall opposite me. I must have worried them all so much.

I shifted and moved my very aching head to give the heart monitor a glare. At the moment I wanted to throw something at it and shut the thing up. I also wanted to yank the annoying IV out of my arm, because it was freaking uncomfortable.

I let out an irritated gust of breath and turned to look at Naru again. The room was so dark, it took me a moment to realize that his midnight-blue eyes were open now.

When I met his gaze, he froze for a moment, his expression unreadable. "Mai?" Naru said quietly.

I looked at him closely, not saying anything. How was he going to react?

"How do you feel?" he asked. His tone was still controlled and vague. How was he really feeling?

I was silent for a moment, assessing my various aches and pains. "Pretty crappy," I finally replied in a hoarse voice.

Naru didn't say anything to this; just held my gaze. What was going through his head?

"How long have I been out?" I asked.

"Two days."

For a moment, I thought he was just going to continue looking at me with his unreadable expression, but suddenly he broke...just like when I'd been with Gene in the waiting room; just slightly different. Just like before, he would have appeared furious: face livid, eyes burning. To me, who'd seen this expression once before, could tell that that wasn't the case--that he was upset.

"Two days,Mai!" Naru repeated, his eyes blazing icy fire. "Do you have any idea how furious I am?"

I looked at him, startled and confused. "Huh? What did I do?"

"You may do a lot of stupid things, Mai, but it's not youwho I'm angry with!" Naru snapped. His voice was still low, and still no one else was up. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Then what are you mad about?" I whispered.

"I'm mad that we let any of this happen to you! I'm mad that we let you go there at all!" He closed his eyes and scowled. "I'm mad that we couldn't do anything for you!"

"Naru, you couldn't have done anything," I said, my voice still weak and tired.

Naru's eyes snapped open and he glared at me. "There could have been!" he snapped. "At least something could have stopped this--" he waved a hand around the room, "--from happening! At least something to keep from getting to the point where I couldn't do anything!"

Hopefully a nurse wouldn't come to check on me anytime soon--they might call security on Naru if they thought that he was angry...which they probably would.

"Naru, since when do you think you couldn't have done anything anyway?" I asked.

Naru looked at me intently. "Mai," he said, his voice going very low. "Your heart had stopped. No matter how strong of supernatural powers I have, there's nothing I can do to help that...not when CPR fails." He closed his eyes once more and took a deep breath through his nose.

My heart lurched as I realized that, technically, I had been dead for at least a few moments. I was just glad that I'd been able to make a choice on what happened to me.

Naru was tense, with his mouth set in a hard line and his shoulders rigid. Gene had told me that I'd been dying, but he hadn't told me that my heart had completely stopped. No wonder everybody had been so upset.

Wait. CPR?! I felt myself blush, and the damn heart monitor picked up a little bit. Where was a heavy book when you needed one?

Naru looked up, his brow creased for a moment, before it smoothed over and he gave a small, Naru-ish smirk. "Are you embarrassed again, Mai?" he asked.

"Huh? No, no; not at all!" I said quickly.

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Then, so fast that I could hardly react, he leaned over and kissed me.

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Mai," Naru murmured in my ear.

He sat back in his chair, and I was frozen in shock. "W-w-what was that for?" I stuttered, unable to form coherent words.

Naru sighed impatiently. "If you're still too slow to figure it out, it's not my problem. Maybe you will eventually."

I stared at him, an impossible suspicion forming in the back of my mind. Then, before I could voice my thoughts out loud, Naru spoke up just loud enough so the others could hear.

"Bou-san, Mai's awake," he called over to the monk.

Then everybody was awake.

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Ooooookay. That chapter took forever to write! Sorry about that! I sat for 15 minutes at a time, I swear, trying to think of what Naru was supposed to say and what Naru was supposed to do! *sigh* It's very hard keeping people in-character! Well, as always, read and review, please! :)