Chapter 7! Can't believe this story is already this far along! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. There's a bit of cute fluffiness in this chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt

Chapter 7: Confessions and Comfort

The room erupted with protests and questions. Everyone was talking at once except for Mai who was sobbing, the boy who was guffawing, and Lin and Naru who were silent. Mai had collapsed to the floor, her face in her hands. Monk was leading the boy out of the room and into another while yelling questions over his shoulder. Lin was shocked, but he somehow kept his face blank. Naru on the other hand had lost all vestiges of his mask to be replaced with utter shock and a little irrational (for him) betrayal.

"How did this happen?" Masako asked.

"Who's the father?" Yasu asked, "Is it Naru?" Though he meant this to be a joke to lighten the atmosphere it just increased Mai's tears.

"Are you alright?" John asked, rubbing and patting Mai's shaking back.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Monk yelled, back from his task and crouched next to Mai. He glared angrily at her, waiting for an answer that wouldn't come through the sobs. His hand unconsciously reached out, but he clenched it into a fist. He wanted an answer before he gave his comfort though it was almost killing him.

"Don't worry, we can go to the hospital and take care of this," Ayako said soothingly, but this only seemed to set Mai off.

She let out a shriek, breaking from the group and backing away from them. "No! You can't take my baby! He's mine, no one else's! You can't decide for me! You can't take him away from me!" she screamed at them, tears streaming down her face.

"But Mai..." Ayako tried to reason, but Mai yelled no at her once more.

Naru cut in then, his cold voice cutting through the air like a hot knife through butter. "How far along are you?"

Mai let out a sob, sniffing as she answered, "About a month."

"When did you find out?" he asked next.

"Two days ago," she whispered.

"Is that boy the father?"

Another sob. "Yes."

"Was he the one who beat you?"

A long pause. "Yes," she replied almost inaudibly.

"Did he do it because you wouldn't get an abortion?"

"Yes."

Naru stood right over Mai now, staring down at her with a hard look. "Did he force you to have sex with him? Did he rape you?" Blunt, so blunt that Mai couldn't have stopped her answer even if she'd wanted to.

Naru had to lean in to where his cheek was almost pressed against Mai's to hear her answer. "Yes," she sobed.

With that one last answer Naru made his way towards the door. He went into the room next room with long, sure strides. His face was set in a mask of wrath. His expression promising the return of caused pain a hundred fold.

"Now do you believe the boy? He told you she was just a…" Before the prince could even finish his sentence Naru drilled his fist into the boy's face making him fall to the ground and leaving him with a bloody nose.

"Don't you even talk about her in that manner again you low life," Naru spat at him. He stormed back into the base, grabbing Mai's arm in a tight, vice-like grip and pulled her to her feet. He half dragged, half carried Mai down the hall. They disappeared around the corner leaving an astonished SPR team. Their emotionless boss had just lost it.

Naru nearly shoved Mai through a door somewhere on the other side of the house, slamming the door forcefully shut behind him. They were in a study with floor to ceiling bookshelves. Mai stumbled into an over-stuffed armchair. She barely had any time to regain her bearings when Naru was suddenly glaring at her.

He had his hands on either side of her, resting on the arms of the chair. "Why didn't you tell us?" he asked with barely suppressed rage, "We would have helped you. Why did you keep everything from us? The beating? The rape? Why wouldn't you want to get rid of a baby whose father was that pitiful excuse for a manback there?" The questions would have kept flowing if Naru hadn't forced his trap shut. Though his voice held anger his eyes were filled with concern and a hint of what Mai thought might have been sadness.

Mai averted her eyes from his searching gaze, preferring instead to stare at his chest. "I-I don't know," she answered truthfully tears still sparkling in her eyes.

"It's because you do everything alone. You don't like to take the help of others. You're used to being alone, but you're not," he said sternly, but his tone suddenly turned so sweet and soothing that Mai's head jerks up in surprise, "You have all of us. Monk, Ayako, John, Masako, Yasu, Lin, Madoka… And me." He hesitated before adding himself into the lot. "We'd all help you in a heartbeat, you need to realize that. You're not alone."

The tears started to fall from Mai's eyes again. "I know. I know I'm not alone anymore, but… but I didn't want you guys to be disappointed in me, or take my baby from me. My baby, not his and my baby. I knew you guys would want me to get rid of him, but I can't, I just can't," she whispered, dropping her eyes back down.

"Why can't you Mai?" Naru asked softly, crouching in front of her now with a soft expression.

"Because he's alive. His heart beats. He's just a baby. He hasn't even had any chance to live!" Mai burst out hysterically, angry that no one, not even her friends, could see why she wouldn't give up her unborn child, "Who cares who donated the semen to help create him! Who cares! That's just a small part of what makes up a human being! Just because his father is a scumbag doesn't mean he will be too! I'm his mother, I'm part of him too!" She looked wild trying desperately to make at least Naru understand.

And he did, to an extent. To the extent that he reached out his hands, cupping Mai's face. "Alright, I understand, but you have to understand this Mai, you can't keep things like this from us anymore. We're here and we will help you, just remember that." Then he did something completely unexpected. He leaned in and pressed his lips softly to hers.

If his actions surprised him, then they were completely mind-boggling to Mai. Never in her right mind had she ever believed that she'd actually kiss Naru in a million years. Sure, she had daydreamed about it plenty times, but she never believed it'd actually happen. Those daydreams didn't even live up to the real thing.

Naru was also living a certain level of surreal-ness. He'd had several unexpected, yet welcome dreams of his own concerning his assistant. After all, he was still a teenage boy. He had to at least have some hormones right? He'd also never expected to have even a small part of his dreams in his grasp.

They were just starting to really enjoy this new found surreal-ness when a quiet knock came from the door. Naru stopped mid-caress and growled angrily into Mai's mouth. "Who the hell is that?" he snarled, eyes still closed and lips still pressed to Mai's.

"I don't know," Mai mumbled, refusing to disengage her hands from Naru's hair.

Silence crawled slowly through the room like a wolf hunting its prey. They were silently hoping whoever it was would just leave if they didn't hear anything. They had no such luck. The silence was shattered by another quiet knock.

Sighing, Mai started to push herself up, but Naru pulled her back down and crushed him mouth to hers. When he finally pulled back, she was in a daze. She didn't notice the door opening until Naru was speaking again.

He was glaring at John who was cowering like a Chihuahua. "What do you want?" he growled. Somehow he had managed to get his hair back into order before he'd opened the door.

"Lin told me to come find you. He said he still has something to show you," John said good-naturedly, his voice steady besides his tremor. His eyes slipped to a Mai who looked slightly like a ragamuffin. Her legs were tucked under her. Her hair was a mess like she'd been pushing her hands through it –when in actuality it had been Naru's hands-. Her eyes were still swollen and red, and her nose and cheeks looked like they'd been dipped in a can of red paint. What he didn't understand was the slight swelling of her pink lips. Before he could make anything of this, Naru was speaking to him again.

"Fine. Go back and perform an exorcism on the boy, then have Monk take him back to the client. We'll be back in a moment," Naru told him. Shutting the door on John, he turned back to Mai and pulled her into him. "We'll continue this later," he murmured so quietly in her ear that a deeper blush spread across her cheeks. He pressed his lips back to hers, giving John about a ten minute head start.

Then he was out the door. Mai was on his heels, trying to keep up with his long stride. Before they got to the base's door, Mai caught Naru's hand. She gave it a squeeze before pushing the door open.

"Mai, my darling daughter! I'm so sorry I yelled at you! Are you okay?" Monk cried the moment she stepped through the door, enveloping her in a bear hug.

Naru looked on in disdain and jealousy for the space of five seconds before turning and heading towards the monitors where Lin sat. He leaned over Lin's shoulder. Immediately Lin started playing the clip.

Mai on the other hand was currently gasping for air. Her ribs were screaming at her though Monk had no clue about that. So far only Naru and Lin knew about how severe her injuries truly were. "Fine, Monk, but I won't be if you suffocate me," Mai gasped out sarcastically, doing a poor job of fighting back.

"Sorry~," Monk sang setting her down, "Are you okay though? Did Naru yell at you? Did he do bad things to you?"

"No," Mai said, shaking her head.

Everyone, especially Masako, looked at her surprised. "Really? I thought he'd blow up on you," Ayako muttered liked she'd hoped he would.

Yasu adopted a sly grin. "So if he didn't yell at you then what did he do? You look a little red to me," he teased, the grin growing when Mai's eyes flitted to Naru nervously. "Oh, my little sister is growing up! This calls for celebration!"

"Yasu, if you even try anything I will have you strung up by your toes in a tree in a matter of seconds," Naru interjected not turning to look at him, "Mai, come over here. I want you to watch something."

"Okay," Mai said instantly, grateful to get away from the others teasing gazes, "What is it?"

"Listen to this," he instructed, gently placing a pair of headphones over Mai's ears. To Mai, nothing seemed amiss though everyone else's jaws had flopped open. "This is in the younger girl's room as well as yours. I want you to watch both screens."

Mai nodded and stared intently from one screen to the other. She waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened. "Naru, I don't hear…" Suddenly, there was a burst of static so loud that Mai knew her ears would be ringing afterwards.

Through the static she could hear a voice. "She's mine! You stole her from me! I want her! She's mine!" the familiar male voice screeched angrily, "I want her! I deserve her! You can't have her! SHE'S MINE! SHE'S MINE! SHE'S MINE!" In both rooms a man, or rather boy, with dark brown hair leaned over the two girls. They stirred restlessly in their sleep.

Mai stared wide-eyed at the screen as the man reached down towards hers and the girl's face. As he caressed their faces, the side of their faces where his fingers touched turned pitch black. The girls woke with twin screams of pain, but one, Mai, got up and left the room. The other, the girl, curled into the fetal position in her bed to try and fall back asleep. The man disappeared in wisps of black smoke.

It was silent for a moment. "Ew!" Mai shrieked, jumping from her chair. The sudden motion jarred her ribs. With a groan, she bent over, using the table for support.

"Are you okay?" the team shouted, crowding around.

"Yeah, perfectly fine except for the fact that some creeper ghost ran his gross little murderer fingers over my face. Sure, perfectly fine," Mai muttered, conspicuously grabbing at Naru's hand. They were standing close enough that the others wouldn't be able to see their joined hands even if they'd tried.

A quiet voice interrupted them. "Um, is Mai-san here?" the voice asked. They all turned to see the bandaged young girl from the day before standing nervously in the doorway ringing her gauze clad hands.

Ok, there you go, another chapter. Sorry if I left it at a sort of cliffy, but I just really needed to end it. It was long. I hope you enjoyed it and all the little fluffy bits of cotton candy. Review please :D