About a month Later

Mai returned home to apartment and closed the door by leaning her back against it. She slowly slid down the door to the floor and sat there lost in her thoughts for what seemed an eternity. She just missed him so much today. She didn't know why it hurt so much more today than usual, but it did. It really, really did. What was she going to do? Why couldn't she let him go?

Mai sat there till her legs grew numb from the angle she held them at. She felt like she had when it first happened. Yesterday she thought that the wound had finally scabbed over and today..today it was raw again. It was her own fault really. She went out to dinner with Monk and Aayako to catch up with the pair as they planned their wedding. They were talking about something meaningless when Monk's cell phone rang and his face paled. Excusing himself from the table he went to answer it, leaving his fiance and Mai to wonder what on earth had gotten into the usually affable apostate monk. Aayako shrugged,"Men" and went on talking about the funny little man at the reception hall who'd had the nerve to criticize the colors she'd chosen for the bridesmaids.

"I mean, You like the color, right Mai?" to which Mai nodded emphatically. She truly did like the ice blue color of the dress. It was really quite lovely on her. It went over her right shoulder and then scooped dramatically to show off her lean back, it wasn't so low as to be slutty but left just enough to the imagination. the simple skirt fell and ended mid calf.

"I like it Aayako. Very classy." The red haired woman smiled at this and then turned her face with a radiant smile up at Takigawa as he approached.

"Uh. Wow. Uh. Yeah. So. Um. You'll never guess who that was?" And both women just looked at him expectantly waiting for him to continue. The monk looked pained and really didn't want to continue but it would be better for Mai if he told her when both he and Aayako could support her. He remembered the weeks she spent hardly eating or sleeping. So much so that Aayako moved the younger woman into her home to look after her. She'd gone so far as to get her doctor parents to prescribe Mai an antidepressant. For months it seemed like Mai was a zombie. Aayako wouldn't even leave her alone without removing the knives from the home and rigging the sliding glass door to the balcony to prevent it from opening. They had been that worried about her. If at all possible when Aayako worked Monk, John or even Masako sat with her. Sometimes they'd watch tv in silence. Others they'd simply read to her. Then finally one day she asked to go for a walk. It was spring time in Japan and she wanted to see the Cherry Blossoms. That's when she had started to come back to them, but it only went so far. Her eyes had never shined quite as much, and her smile was never quite as full. They took would they could get and were happy to have it. None of them knew what had happened that last night only that it left a gaping hole where Mai and once been. No one pushed her. They were too afraid of sending her tumbling back down that hole.

"Naru's back. He wanted me to consult with him on a case" He watched Mai's face as it fell. At the same time Aayako's phone rang and she picked up up stunned showing the table the caller Id. It was there in bright colors across the screen SPR.

Mai felt the blood drain from her face and her stomach lurch. No No NO NO NO! She had just gotten her life back in order. She was attending university. She was working. She had reestablished her independence and was living alone once more. She had clawed herself back to life inch by inch and was not the same but she wasn't the silly heartbroken girl he so casually tossed aside, but in that moment she felt like she was 17 all over again. Standing in the rain by the lake watching as Naru's back walked away from her and Gene's body was loaded into the coroner's van.

Aayako broke the spell they all seemed to be under and answered her phone, "Hel..Helllo?" Mai listened intently to the one sided conversation. "Yes, Yes it has been. No I'm with Monk actually so he had just started to tell me. Tomorrow? I'm going to have to call you back. I don't have my dayplanner on me and I just don't know how our day looks. The wedding's only 9 days away. We're very busy. Oh, yeah, Thanks. Ok, We'll call you Naru..yes. Goodnight to you..oh Mai? Um, no i don't have her number handy. She's very busy."

Aayako got an evil grin, "She's off somewhere with that boyfriend of hers doing God knows what now. They just got back from America a few weeks ago, some island in the pacific and they just jetted off again, Greece, France maybe? I'm not sure she said something about having to learn to make wine. It's so hard to pin that Girl down." Mai was strangely numb as her best friend lied so easily to the only man she'd ever wanted, had ever loved. In the past few months she'd received offers to go on dates, and she had gone on some, but never made it past a second date. She guessed her suitors could tell her heart just wasn't in it. It wasn't fair to them either to leave them on when she knew they'd never be anything more than friends. She didn't know if she'd ever want the attention of another man in that way but at least she had been ok. In the span of ten minutes he'd managed to rent her life to pieces once again.

Mai straightened herself up. ' Not this time asshole. You get nothing else from me. Not another tear. Not another sleepless night or day spent feeling like some sort of wrung out wash cloth. Not a fucken chance." She squared her shoulder and marched into her room she went into the box she kept hidden on the top shelf of her closet. She kept her most precious things in there. The key to her childhood home, the picture of Gene and Oliver, pictures from SPR's original run, a broken friendship ring, a small Christmas ornament that Lin had given her after the church case and she ran her hands over each item with love. She sighed and leaned back against her headboard. Tears started to slowly make their way down her cheeks. "Who am I kidding? " she whispered to herself.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Across town in a sparsely furnished office Oliver looked at the phone he had just hung up. He'd just called together his old team with the exception of Masako Hara because he'd never quite forgiven her for blackmailing him. He also knew that she'd hurt Mai on more than one occasion and quite frankly to get Mai he couldn't have more pain around. He knew that his very presence would more than likely be enough.

He looked at the phone he'd just hung up and felt numb. He knew that something was up when he'd called the monk and he stammered when asked if knew Mai's number, mumbling something about her having been really busy lately and he'd have to check his phone book to see if he had her number. When Naru changed the subject and asked him he could come by his new office to consult on a case the monk surprised him and said he might be able to but he was getting married next week and couldn't commit till he talked to his fiance. It never occurred to him that Aayako was that fiance. He was more taken back when Aayako also said she was getting Married. He could hardly stop his questions of it was the monk she was marrying. He wished her well and asked if he could put him in touch with Mai. The woman had said Mai was off with another man but something about it didn't ring true to his ears. Did they forget that he picked fact from fiction for a living? He did have to wonder though was was so bad that they had to lie to him.

The young man leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose in an obviously irritated gesture. All too soon the memory of when he tried to call Mai that once came rushing back. It had been a few days after Gene's funeral and in an attempt to fix the damn he had created in himself he'd called her cell phone. He didn't think she'd answer when she saw it was him but he could hear her cheerful voice on her voicemail message and that would help. He had no idea what he's say on the recording but he knew it would be the truth. He'd beg her he thought to talk to him, to fly to London or let him fly to her and answer his question. Was it him or Gene she wanted? He never got the chance. He heard a chime and a boxed voice on the other end of the phone letting him know that the subscriber he had called was no longer available. His PK had spiked so badly when he heard that that he shattered all the windows on the 6th floor of the building that BSPR made their home in. Luella, Martin and Lin had rushed to his office while the other employees looked around in stunned silence. Martin stared at him with his mouth gaping, and Luella rushed to wrap him safely in a tight hug but all he could so was look at Lin his lips quivering and his eyes haunted. "It's not me" he said to the tall Chinese man who knew of his parting words to Mai. Lin had tried to convince him that he hadn't been fair and to not get on the plane. To see her at least one last time and get the answers he needed and if it was him to never let that young woman go. He hadn't wanted to hear it and told him as much. Lin let it go because it was the only time he could ever remember seeing the usually self assured young man so rattled. Not even being possessed had left him in such a state.

Naru closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Someone was going to answer him God damn it. He was going to find out if he had to level this entire city. He turned in his chair and looked out his window at the lights from the high rises around him in Tokoyo. It really was quite different here than London. Everything was so new, but held so much history. He absently wondered if one of the lights he was seeing was hers. Could she see his little light shining for her? Did she know that it was all for her? He signed and turned around, once more looking at the paper with numbers scrawled on it that Lin had provided him once the phone system had been hooked up this evening. He'd kept the same number just in case people remembered it. He picked up the phone and punched in the numbers for the next name on his list. "Hello, I need to speak to Father John Brown please. Yes, can you tell him its Kazuya Shibuya? Yes. I'll hold."

Perhaps the priest could help him.

(Ok, so what do you guys think?))