A/N: I am so sorry for the extremely long delay. Hope this chapter makes up for lost time.

Chapter 5: The Big Surprise

He tossed and turned in his bed. The nightmare had struck again, however, it was different this time. He heard himself scream 'Miaka' followed by a loud crash. Jerking upright he tried to check the timer on his night stand. His hand griped air as he turned to find bits of what used to be his night stand. The last thing he remembered was Miaka. 'You're losing it' his mind chose the most inopportune of moments to make a comment. 'What the hell is a Miaka? A few weeks in Japan and I'm already talking in my sleep' he thought as he saw his sister had carefully pushed aside the door and switched on the light. He heard her gasp as her eyes darted from the broken night stand to her shell shocked brother.

"What happened" Hayden asked completely confused. He could sense the fear rolling around her in waves.

"That same nightmare. I really don't know what happened" he said trying to examine the extent of damage to his hand. He was really surprised that it didn't hurt. He was sure he must have damaged something when he smashed through the thick Indian redwood of the table. Besides a few splinters, his hand felt fine. He shot a glance at his sister. He knew she was worried. He turned toward her, and gesturing that everything was fine, he calmly asked her to leave him alone and she did.

The drive to Tokyo U was a quiet one. He knew she was worried for him. He couldn't remember the last time he had a sound night's sleep. He dropped off his sister and was about to drive off when he noticed that Hayden had left her note book in the car. He remembered that she had a test and needed those notes. 'Damn you Hayden' he thought as he drove back to the University campus.

He decided to wait out of the car with the book so she wouldn't be late. She grinned as she apologized for forgetting the book and blamed it on stress, when suddenly everything was slowly going black. He felt his body go numb as he gripped the car door tightly. Within a few seconds it was gone leaving Hayden pale as if she had just seen a ghost. Following her eyes he noticed a distinctive set of dents where his fingers once were.

Miaka spent the whole morning frantically making small arrangements for Yui to visit. They had agreed that in the two weeks of Glen's photo shoot, Yui would live with Miaka and Nakago. They had decided that they would start to prepare for Yui's wedding for which Miaka was extremely excited. 'Finally my ex seishi and my best friend are going to get married. Everything had to be perfect.' She kept telling herself.

In the midst of all this commotion, she found the loving arm of her beloved encircling her and drawing her into a warm embrace. She heard the mock worry he had in his voice when he asked her to finish breakfast before she did anything further. She felt him tense for a split second as his palm trailed over her almost flat tummy.

"Finish breakfast koibito. We have an appointment with your doctor." He said as he let go of his wife to pour some freshly squeezed orange juice into her glass. She knew something was up but couldn't quite put a finger on it. She knew Nakago was tightly wound but she expected it to be the stress of the arrival of his former miko and her present fiancée.

Soon after breakfast, she found herself being driven to the clinic downtown. In her excitement she had completely forgotten about the check-up. She noticed that Nakago was a little evasive. She suspected that something was wrong but in the end was too excited to see the first picture of her baby. She looked over at Nakago with all the love she could encompass and walked into the clinic. She hadn't told him that she found another one of her warriors and he was her doctor. She smiled content as she walked hand in hand with her beloved into the clinic.

She was getting impatient. She had been pacing Tokyo airport for the last half hour and she was fed up and bored. Nakago tried to calm her down but Miaka was not one to listen. She was excited that Yui was finally coming home but was also annoyed that she was going to be late. Almost two hours later, Miaka saw a familiar dirty blonde haired model dressed in a white button down shirt and blue jeans. One hand held his flame orange American Tourister Prismo Hardside and his leather jacket while the other was intertwined with his beautiful blonde who wore a matching white sleeveless button down shirt paired beautifully with a short black leather skirt and sleek black strappy stilettos and flowing hair up to her waist. She held her purple Prismo Hardside in her other hand.

Laying eyes on her best friend and former seichi, Miaka's face brightened. She couldn't wait to tell her best friend the exciting news. She ran up to her and gave her a tight bone crushing hug as she chuckled.

"I missed you too, Miaka." Yui giggled.

"There is so much to tell you. For starters, I'm pregnant."

"I know"

"What you don't know is that… I'm having… TWINS!" Miaka exclaimed, drawing the attention of a few other travellers nearby.

"Twins, oh Miaka, I'm so happy for you. Anyway meet my fiancée, Glen Ross"

"Hehe.. Hi Tasuki…" she giggled. "Let's go home…" she continued as both best friends walked hand in hand towards the Toyota Fortuner that Nakago had hired for this day. Miaka was back to her old genki self, the tiredness forgotten as she told Yui stories of the past year that she was with Glen, far away from home. Suddenly realizing that she had forgotten something she dug into her handbag and pulled out a picture.

"Yui, my babies…" she said handing over the picture of her ultrasound to Yui.

"Oh Miaka, I'm so happy for you. They are so adorable. Can't wait to meet them." Yui said as they entered the SUV.

The evening was peaceful. Somehow she had a calming effect on him. He was so stressed out from lack of sleep, the near fainting episode and the strange dreams. He was a little sceptical about taking her out but he didn't want to hurt her. He didn't have the heart to tell her about is because he knew she would worry and then force him to rest. He wanted to be with her and that made him feel better.

He looked over his menu card toward her. Her flowing platinum blonde hair complemented her steel grey eyes that matched the broach of her deep purple chiffon one shoulder dress. Her composure and elegance only heightened her beauty and made her even dearer in his eyes. 'Dear Gods, what have I done to deserve such a beautiful and smart lady.' He thought.

"Ryan? What is it?" he suddenly heard his date say.

"Um... Nothing. Why?"

"You have been staring at me and the poor attendant waiting to take your order. Is there something wrong?"

He ordered food and they talked and laughed. Somewhere in the middle of the evening he noticed that Steph was distracted. He saw her smirk but before she got back to the conversation at hand. He turned to look but by that time no one was there in her line of vision.

"Who was that?" Ryan was curious. He rarely saw Steph get distracted this easily.

"Just an oldd friend" She smirked again, filing the newly acquired information for later.

He had insisted on driving her home. She had seen the distinctive dent marks that were still evident on the passenger side door of his Lexus. He had anticipated the question that was going to follow the moment she laid her eyes on the door but for some reason she had not said a word about it before. The moment he put the car in ignition as she fastened her seatbelt, she turned to him and in the most polite way asked, "Do I need to know what happened? Because if I don't, the topic ends here."

He didn't know how to explain to her the crazy things happening to him. If he told her now, he would have to share some of his most vulnerable secrets. He was not ready for that now.

"Not today. Maybe some time later."

She didn't pursue the topic and quietly filed the information for later. She noticed the dents were not from any instrument but she couldn't figure how it happened.

"So tell me why you live with Keisuke? There are so many places you can rent."

The question caught her by surprise. She decided her living arrangements were not something that she needed to hide.

She thinking carefully, she replied, "Renting a place is a little too expensive for a short time. I didn't plan to live here in Tokyo for long so I decided on living with him. Anyway after his sister got married, he had a spare room and has allowed me to stay there. We have been splitting the cost ever since."

His face drew into a half smirk, one which Steph loved so much as they entered the drive way of the Yuuki residence. He insisted on walking her over to the door and as she knocked on the door, he leaned in to give her one long good night kiss. Sparks flew as their lips met and the world exploded around them. They had almost forgotten that they were at the front door when the latch turned and door opened to reveal a tall, handsome blonde man.

"Excuse me..." he said in his deep low voice.

"N.. Nick... Wh... What are you doing here?" Stephanie was stunned. She hadn't expected to see her brother at this hour of the evening.

"Good evening Mr Raine." Ryan managed as he held Steph close. 'Why was his boss at his girlfriend's house and why did she call him Nick?' his thoughts raced.

"I understand you will be staying in Tokyo much longer now, considering..." he finished as he ignored the other man at his door step.

"I think I'll leave now.." Ryan now turned and hardly took a few steps towards his car.

"Stephanie, won't you introduce your boyfriend to your brother?" Nick began. He saw Steph stiffen at the comment. Ryan stopped and slowly turned around digesting the implication of the statement. "Brother? So that means... You are Stephanie Raine? Sister of the man who owns the company that I work for? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want you to fall in love with my name like all the other guys."

"We shall discuss this later. Good night Miss Raine, Sir" He nodded at both of them and drove off.

"Well played Nikola Machivelli" Stephanie crossed the threshold and went straight to her room without even a backward glance.

A/N: I apologize once again for the extremely long delay in uploading. Life has been keeping me busy away from completing this story. The next chapter is already on the way and I shall update soon.

Until then...

Happy reading

PP