Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. If I did, the novels would be out in English. And there would be more manga. And psychic babies.
Chapter 36 – Emotionally Upended
-0O0-
Naru turned from the computer screens with a sigh – there was nothing there, and he had milked the false alarm for as long as possible. Hopefully, Madoka was high enough that she'd forgotten about teasing him.
And if not, Naru could probably distract her with the promise of another pill.
But then he caught sight of the empty chair. "Where's Mai?" he asked immediately, whipping around to face his mentor. Everyone else had been watching the monitors; Madoka was the only person who would have seen Mai leave.
"She went to get tea!" Madoka replied jovially. "About... ten minutes ago." Somehow, saying the words aloud enabled the injured woman to understand her mistake. "About too long ago," she amended worriedly.
Maybe it was the drugs, but Naru and Lin seemed to suddenly blur into motion. The lead investigator made to get up, as well.
"Madoka, stay here," Naru barked, throwing a walkie-talkie into her lap. "Gregory, watch the monitors while we look for Mai. Radio us immediately if you see her."
Gregory nodded sharply, falling into Lin's vacated chair as the two ghost hunters hurried out the base door. He inspected each feed carefully before thumbing the button on his radio. "She's not on any screens right now," he reported grimly.
Down the hall, Naru gritted his teeth and tried not to think about the worst possible explanations for Mai's complete disappearance from the video feed. But history was against him - not only did Mai attract restless spirits like moths to a flame, she often deliberately dragged that flame to the darkest corners of the room.
"We will start with the kitchen," Lin informed the base. "The camera in there flickered a few minutes back."
"And you're only mentioning this now?" Naru hissed. The onmyouji had watched the live feed while Naru studied the footage Lin flagged as suspicious.
"There was no corresponding drop in temperature," Lin explained evenly. "And it's perfectly normal for the feed from that camera to flicker. It's one of our older ones."
Naru huffed angrily, but made no further comment.
"Are you there yet?" asked Madoka's over-bright voice over the walkie. Neither man answered her.
"Mai?" Naru called loudly as he crossed the threshold. After all, Mai could answer him if she wasn't lying unconscious somewhere.
And then they almost fell over her unconscious body on the kitchen floor.
"Damn it!" Naru was kneeling beside Mai before Lin even steadied himself against a chair.
"We've found her," the onmyouji muttered into the walkie-talkie.
"Is she alright?" Madoka asked anxiously.
"Yes," Lin announced. "My shiki insist she's unharmed."
"She's also unconscious," Naru contested.
"Poor Mai-chan," Madoka groaned. "The ghosts always go after her."
"I'm... not entirely sure that's what happened," Lin said slowly.
Naru paused in the act of sliding his jacket under Mai's head. "What do you mean?"
Rather than answer verbally, Lin pointed to a teacup on the counter.
"And what is that supposed to indicate?" Naru raised a querulous eyebrow. "Mai came in here to make tea."
"There's no tea in that cup," Lin answered flatly. "Only warm water. Though I'm sure it was quite hot when she placed it there, all by itself..."
"Beside the thermometer," Naru finished, his eyes widening in realization. He glared down at Mai's sleeping face; her already pale skin looked even paler against the black of his rolled-up jacket.
But his anger wasn't only for her - though Mai was likely the chief architect of this idiotic escapade, his brother's influence was all over the blueprints. "What sort of spirit guide leads his charge into trouble?" Naru gritted out.
"Noll?" Madoka's voice crackled over the walkie. "What's going on?"
The ghost hunter took a moment to calm down before thumbing the talk button. "Just deciding whether to exorcise Gene now, or leave it until after I kill Mai."
"What?" Madoka squawked.
"Then I can send them to the afterlife together," Naru hissed through his teeth. "Less trouble for me."
-0O0-
Mai 'woke up' in the solarium again. The same late afternoon sunlight slanted in through the windows, and Mai held the same worn book in her hands.
After many trips into the memories of others, Mai was sometimes able to retain a little of her own mind while in a post-cognitive vision. She usually wound up losing to the vision at some point, but knowing that she was 'only dreaming,' even for a short while, was a welcome change.
It was comparatively easy to maintain awareness in a vision she'd already experienced, like this one. While Linda stared unseeingly at the pages, the part of Mai's consciousness that remained independent locked its attention on the back window.
After all, the killer would come through it soon.
And Charles didn't disappoint – moments later, Mai saw a shadow cross the pane. The near-silent lifting of the window drew Linda's eyes, as well, and Mai cringed right along with her as lithe arms and legs pushed into the room.
Charles' head ducked in last – and Mai's stomach flipped as Gene's face came into view. This wasn't how it went last time!
Unused to changes in her death dreams, Mai dithered with panic for a moment. If Gene was here, it might mean trouble. Nowadays, he only punched his way into the most dangerous first-person death dreams.
Mai honestly didn't think that Linda was going to hurt her – but she had hurt Madoka. In any case, Gene obviously felt it necessary to keep an eye on things - and of course, he just had to be Charles. She hated it when Gene wound up playing the murderer. Mai tried to keep the Gene she knew distinct from whatever character he was standing in for, but it still gave those murder scenes a personal connection that Mai could definitely live without.
Suddenly, Mai felt a foreign discomfort twisting in her belly, and realized that Linda's emotions were taking over again. Here we go, she thought grimly. The sensation of floating over the edge of a huge waterfall overtook her... and then Linda stared at her long-time lover in confusion.
-0O0-
"What... what are you doing here?" Linda asked hoarsely. "I thought that you were still in training camp."
"Disappointed, are you?" Charles retorted, his voice full of barely-leashed fury. "Upset that it's not your new lover sneaking in for a rendezvous?"
Linda winced internally. "I – I didn't..."
"Didn't what?" Charles spat. "Didn't think I knew? My brother told me about your engagement in his last letter. I left camp before the day was out, and called in all my favors to get home! Of course, I assumed that your family had arranged this mess. I even thought that it might be a ruse... that you were just lying to make me jealous." If possible, Charles' eyes got even darker. "I came over as soon as I arrived – and saw you with him in the garden."
Linda closed her eyes with dread. Peter had requested an un-chaperoned visit, and she'd smuggled him into the garden. They'd been out there for nearly an hour, kissing beside the fish pond.
And Charles had seen.
This was not how she'd wanted him to find out. Linda hadn't wanted to tell Charles she was leaving while he was off preparing to be deployed; she didn't have the heart. Not that your 'heart' stopped you from cheating on your lover and friend, a nasty voice in her head whispered.
"I'm sorry, Charles," Linda whispered, looking resolutely out the window. The last rays of the sun beamed over the mountains in the distance – and Linda felt like all the warmth in the world was disappearing with the day.
There certainly wasn't any warmth coming from the direction of her ex-lover. Charles' face was rigid, his fingers flexed and frozen as though carved from ice. His grey eyes flashed arctic fire in her direction. Linda shivered uncontrollably.
"You're sorry?" Charles repeated incredulously. "That's your response? I get conscripted, you say you'll wait for me... do you have any idea...?" He trailed off, unable to speak anymore.
"That's why I didn't tell you," Linda sobbed, tears finally spilling over. "I didn't want to upset you while you were in danger..."
"Then you should have WAITED FOR ME!" Charles exploded. "The ONLY thing getting me through this ordeal," he hissed, tearing at his regulation shirt, "Was the knowledge that I would be coming back to you." Charles shook his head in disbelief, staring at Linda as if she were someone he didn't recognize. "But you... you threw yourself at the first man – no, the first rich man – that crossed your path." He took Linda's silence as confirmation. "You whore!"
Charles' anger hit her like the howling wind of a blizzard, and Linda found herself very frightened. She looked in the direction of the front door... but her parents had already left for the party. "No one's here..." she muttered, panic rising in her throat.
"Do you think that's an accident?" Charles hissed. "I've been waiting all day for them to leave. Your man's not around, either. Tending to sick patients until eight o'clock tonight – his nurse told me when I called for an 'appointment.'" Charles took a step forward, his muddy boot thudding heavily against the floor.
Linda backed away immediately, looking frantically for an escape. She could run... but probably wouldn't make it to the door. Charles was faster – and so much stronger. Linda found herself eyeing his improved musculature, and a twinge of attraction ran through her... followed quickly by a wave of self-disgust. She had no right to be thinking of him that way anymore.
Maybe Charles wasn't entirely wrong in his assessment of her...
Unfortunately, Linda's moment of internal analysis cost her dearly. Charles leapt across the room, took her by the arms and threw her against the far wall. Even as Linda screamed and struggled, she knew no one would hear. She'd always been proud of her big house and bigger property – and now it was going to get her killed.
Linda harbored no illusions of survival; Charles was practically inhuman with icy rage. Linda felt as if her body were trapped between icebergs – a cold man and a cold wall.
Her former lover reached his hand up to her neck, and squeezed. Linda sliced at his fingers with her nails, but he wouldn't budge. Her free arm found the wall, but her fingers couldn't find any purchase. He was so strong... already lights danced in front of Linda's eyes.
From somewhere far away, Linda remembered Peter telling that such lights were 'tricks' that the brain plays on the eyes... Peter! Maybe if she told Charles that it was love, that she hadn't just left him for a softer berth...
"No," she managed, "Please... don't. I... love him!"
Charles froze for a moment, and the pressure on her neck lessened just enough for Linda to get her bearings. He wasn't letting go, though... she'd have to distract him, somehow – distract him enough that she could get away and out the door. Then she could hide, or lock herself in the kitchen with the other phone.
Linda's wild eyes locked on the ridiculous suit of armor that her father had purchased years ago. She could just about reach it with the tips of her fingers... if she kept Charles focused elsewhere, maybe she could knock it over.
"Charles," Linda whispered, biting her lip to keep his attention on her face, "I never wanted to hurt you. You were gone, and I... I'm sorry..." Her fingers brushed something long and rounded – the spear, she realized.
"Sorry?! You keep saying that, but you didn't look sorry last night!" Charles' hand tightened on her neck again, and this time his other hand joined it. Linda choked, but kept edging her fingers toward the armor. "You didn't look sorry when you pulled him closer, you... you..."
A sharp pain lanced through Linda's head – she had run out of time. With all her remaining strength, Linda threw herself sideways, closing her hand around the spear. She pulled at it with all her might, yanking it towards them...
There was a huge crash as the suit of armor came tumbling down on the both of them. Charles yelled in shock, and Linda saw his eyes widen before she closed hers against the onslaught. Charles' hands pulsed once around her neck... and then his whole body collapsed against her. His hands fell away as they went down – had he been knocked unconscious?
Freed at last, Linda rolled out from underneath him and scrambled to her feet. Pieces of armor fell from her as she stood, but Charles' arm didn't move to grab her. Linda fell hard against the wall, exhausted and unable to go further. She hoped that Charles stayed knocked out until the police came – Linda didn't think she could outmaneuver him twice. She managed to drag herself along the wall a ways before looking nervously back at the wreckage – and gasped in horror.
The helmet of the suit of armor must have detached from the body as it collapsed... and the razor-sharp edge of the helmet's neck guard had sliced right into the back of Charles' head.
Blood ran from the wound, spreading quickly across the stone floor.
Linda's legs gave out, and she fell to her knees. The skirt of her dress billowed out around her... there were huge red stains on the white lawn fabric. She crawled back to Charles, reaching out to him with a shivering hand.
No movement. No breathing. Linda swore a chill was already upon his skin.
He was dead.
She heard an awful sound, and looked wildly around the room – before realizing that the horrible keening was coming from her own throat. Linda sagged, her neck thick and screaming with pain, and her heart twisting with horror in her chest.
-0O0-
Mai was aware of herself again for just long enough to process that Linda had accidentally killed Charles. She could also sense Gene somewhere nearby, and opened her mouth to apologize for (sort of) killing him. And then she went over the waterfall again.
-0O0-
"Peter," Linda groaned into the phone. "Charles is dead. I killed him."
"What?" came the doctor's scandalized voice over the phone.
"I – I killed him. I didn't mean to, he was choking me and I knocked it over... the helmet killed him."
"I don't understand," Peter prattled. "What happened?"
"I killed Charles, he's dead!" Linda screamed. "There's blood, everywhere..."
There was a long pause. "Are – are you alright?" her fiancé finally asked.
Linda gave a hysterical giggle. Not even close. "I'm... not... my throat hurts..."
"Alright, good – then just sit tight, darling. Everything will be fine. I'm... just writing up a prescription, so I'll be there in a bit."
Linda froze. "What?" She had almost been killed, had just accidentally murdered her oldest friend and recent lover... and Peter was taking a patient?!
Her fiancé sighed. "Linda, I'm not really writing a prescription," he admitted. "I'm going to call the police, and talk to my friend the detective. I'll explain the situation as self-defense. Then there won't be a scandal, and you'll have nothing to feel guilty about."
Linda's mouth fell open in astonishment. Was he insane? "I have plenty to feel guilty about. I killed him." She stared at Charles, dead on the floor.
"But the man tried to kill you, darling."
The way Peter had said 'the man' irrationally pissed Linda off. Like Charles wasn't good enough to be concerned over. Linda's stomach rolled.
"He did try to kill you... didn't he?" Peter's voice sounded unsure.
Now he was questioning whether she'd been defending herself? Linda tasted bile on her tongue. "Yes," Linda answered slowly. "He did." Her mind reeled. "Why are you calling the police from your office?" Linda asked desperately. "Come now, I need help."
"See, this is why I didn't want to mention it... this way, the story is coming from an outsider. I will appear more impartial."
In other words, Peter wanted the police to know he had nothing to do with it. He wanted an alibi. Linda closed her eyes as the entire world turned to sand around her. "I'm sure it will," she whispered.
And Linda dropped the phone into the cradle, her fingers numb and her heart breaking. What had she done?
Charles had found out that she was engaged to another man. He abandoned his post, went AWOL, to come for her. Because he loved her. And she'd left him for someone who was shoring up his alibi instead of coming to help his bloody fiancée off the floor.
If Linda had told Charles that she killed someone, he'd have been over with a shovel in two minutes flat.
The full weight of what she'd done finally hit Linda. She'd left someone who really loved her for someone with money and prestige – someone who apparently didn't even love her very much.
And she'd killed the man who did.
Who had also tried to kill her, in response to her betrayal.
A deep, black sadness rose up around Linda... or was she sinking into it?
Did it matter?
Linda closed her eyes and let the tears fall. Charles had tried to kill her; Linda had killed him. It didn't even matter that Linda hadn't meant to kill him – she was guilty, anyway. Her humongous mistake had undone both herself and Charles.
And it could never be fixed.
At least not in this lifetime. Maybe she'd be a better person in the next one.
Feeling colder than she ever had in her life, Linda searched the wreckage of the suit of armor for the jeweled knife that had been attached to the sword belt. She spotted the hilt underneath Charles' dead arm, and closed bloody fingers around it.
She had destroyed both of their lives the instant that she cheated on him with Peter. She had killed them both, right then. Death had just taken a few months to catch up to them.
Linda heard a satisfying ringing sound as she yanked the dagger from its sheath. It was the only sound she'd heard since she hung up the phone.
It didn't matter what the police decided – this was her fault. And she couldn't marry Peter now; she didn't even want to. She doubted he would want a damaged murderess, anyway. Linda couldn't even wish that Charles was still alive – he'd just try to kill her again.
Everything she'd ever wanted was dead or meaningless.
Linda studied the glittering hilt of the knife as she expertly flipped it over in her hand. Charles had taught her to use knives a long time ago. He'd run with a rough crowd, and was experienced in several methods of fighting. He'd thought knives were a good thing for Linda to learn about, as she couldn't abide the noise of guns – and there were plenty of knives in the house in case of an emergency.
Vaguely, Linda marveled at how calm she felt, how detached. She almost felt like she was dead already, watching this blood-stained opera come to a close from without.
The blade gleamed in the overhead light as she pointed it towards herself. Always stab downwards and on an angle, to maximize momentum. Charles had taught her that. The irony was not lost on Linda as she aimed the weapon as per his instructions. The rubies glittered as she aimed unerringly at her own chest. Linda took a deep breath and cut her eyes at her dead lover one more time. Charles' blood stained the floor, spreading out in a wide circle and running into the dips between the tiles.
She wondered if her blood would mingle with his in a macabre version of a 'last embrace.' She hoped it would. Eyes closed and crying, Linda stabbed the blade viciously into her own chest.
-0O0-
Mai's eyes popped wide open as she jerked up from the floor. Her hand went immediately to her chest, and she groped for an invisible knife even as the pain faded.
Nothing – no knife, no wound, no bloody skirt, no dead body six inches away. Groaning in both relief and sadness, Mai let her head fall back on onto the wood.
Mai had been wrong – they'd all been wrong. Linda hadn't been strangled, she'd killed herself. And now Mai had to pull herself together and tell somebody...
"Care to explain yourself?" asked Naru's furious voice from behind her.
Mai gasped and tried to sit up – but she should have known better. Her vision swam, her ears rang... was she actually falling over, or did it just feel like she was?
Hands caught Mai's shoulders, and she settled back against someone. Mai could smell perfume, so it must be Madoka. "Shouldn't you be resting?" Mai wheezed.
"You're one to talk," her boss replied. Madoka's tone told Mai she was in trouble.
The newly conscious ghost hunter rubbed her temples, moaning softly. If the easy-going Madoka was mad... then Naru must be in Super Rage Mode.
Hesitantly, Mai reached out with her abilities – and winced. Naru's aura grated hard against hers, seething with anger and roiling with frustration. She could also feel some relief in there, though... perhaps Mai should get this over with now, before Naru's relief at her awakening wore off.
Screwing up her courage, Mai forced her eyes open.
Naru was now right in front of her, leaning against the counter and holding an empty teacup in his hands. Upon closer inspection, his grip was so tight that his knuckles were white.
Mai gulped.
"Well?" he asked dangerously.
"I... had to talk to the ghost," Mai said softly, forcing her eyes not to look down. "Linda wanted to tell me how she died."
"I thought we had already acquired that information," Naru drawled. His preternatural calm was actually more frightening than open anger – especially since Mai could feel the contrasting wildness of Naru's aura struggling beneath the composed façade.
"Mai-chan?" Madoka asked seriously. "Was this dream different from the first one?"
Mai snapped out of her Naru-trance, sitting up and twisting in place to face Madoka. "Yes and no," she replied sadly. "You woke me up before the dream was over, remember?"
Madoka nodded ruefully, running an unconscious finger over her stitches.
"You woke me while Linda was being strangled by Charles." Mai paused, the memory of a hand squeezing her throat making it hard to swallow. She could feel it again - the pressure, the terror, the pain...
"Mai," Lin barked, using the same no-nonsense tone that so often yanked Noll out of his darker experiences. Amusingly, both Noll and Mai snapped to attention... but at least the glaze went out of Mai's eyes.
"Right," Mai continued, shaking her head to clear it. "The strangling wasn't even close to the end. Linda tried to get away, and she did... by accidentally killing Charles." An enormous, clanging crash sounded from somewhere, and Mai's head spun sickeningly. The armor falling, the body collapsing, the shiny metal disappearing into flesh... "Then... some stuff... and a phone call... she felt really awful." Mai pinched the bridge of her nose – it was a trick Gene had taught her during their training. It both re-established a center of gravity and caused enough pain to ensure that you were awake. "Linda killed herself," Mai finally managed, staring hard at the floor and trying not to cry. "That blood I saw on the dress, it was from where she stabbed herself." Tears spattered the wooden floor as Mai thought about Linda's final moments. Linda had started the chain of events, she had done the first wrong, but... it was all so awful.
Some of the fight went out of Naru upon witnessing Mai's state, but his mouth remained set in a hard line. What had she been thinking, endangering herself like that? Couldn't she have just talked to the ghost with supervision?
Naru hadn't even decided to voice his thoughts aloud when he found himself speaking. "Why did you meet her alone? What if she had hurt you?"
Mai continued to stare at the floor.
"You deliberately tricked the temperature gage." Naru held up the teacup. "You broke protocol, even though the ghost has already hurt Madoka!" Naru could no longer keep his emotions out of his voice.
Mai took a deep, slow breath. "She hurt Madoka because Madoka interrupted her," Mai explained calmly. "Linda was trying to tell me what happened, but I woke up before the end. She was angry." Mai's eyes dropped. "So I wanted to make sure we weren't interrupted again."
"And you couldn't simply explain this to someone?" Madoka asked tiredly. "So we could have set up outside the room as a safeguard?"
"I was worried that Linda would hurt anyone who was nearby!" Mai cried.
"At the very least, we could have monitored the situation on the cameras," Lin pointed out. "And I could have had my shiki standing by in case there was a problem."
But Mai refused to back down – her instincts told her that Linda would have resisted any interference. "And what if that hadn't fooled her?" she countered. "One way or another, Linda was going to tell me her story. I was simply trying to keep anyone from getting hurt."
"Excluding yourself," Naru gritted out.
"There's always a chance of being hurt on a case," Mai snapped.
"And running headlong into danger shortens those odds considerably!" Naru reproved. "When are you going to learn that your indomitable streak of self-endangerment is almost always counterproductive?"
Meanwhile, a tired Madoka nudged Lin. "Alright, Koujo, she's obviously fine – and my head can't take any more of this. Would you please help me back to base?"
Lin was only too glad to oblige. Predictably, neither the defensive Mai nor the furious Oliver acknowledged their exit.
"My instincts told me to go!" Mai cried.
"Did they also say, 'don't tell anyone anything?' or 'please make sure you utilize the most dangerous route possible?'"
"I didn't think Linda would hurt me!" Mai reiterated.
"Shorten that to 'I didn't think' and you'll be spot on," Naru spat.
"Oh, shut it, Narcissist!" Mai thumped her fist against the floor for emphasis. "I was right, wasn't I? Linda didn't hurt me, and now we know what really happened!"
Naru remained unmoved. "And what if you'd been wrong, Mai? What then?"
Mai tried to match his glare... but couldn't quite manage it. After all, she had done something dangerous, and the consequences could have been very bad indeed. "It's not like I've never been in the hospital before," she finally muttered.
"All the more reason you should want to stay out of it in future," Naru sniped. Despite his current emotional... issues, Naru readily acknowledged that the image of Mai lying injured in the hospital upset him greatly.
"I just figured... I'd rather it be me than anyone else," Mai admitted softly.
Naru met her eyes. "Well, I – we wouldn't," he said thickly.
Mai froze in place, shocked at the intensity of Naru's expression and the audible emotion in his voice.
It apparently shocked him, too – a second later, all traces of sentiment were gone. Naru's eyes skated away from hers, and Mai slumped against a nearby table leg. She felt a hot flush creep up her face, and the overwhelmed psychic took a moment to get herself under control.
Then Mai opened her mouth to speak, wanting to keep Emotional Naru talking - but even as she sat up to draw his attention, Mai could see him fading back to default.
"If you could possibly refrain from wandering off alone again," Naru said tightly, retrieving his coat from the floor and nudging the camera back into place with his foot, "SPR would very much appreciate it."
Mai wondered how Naru could manage to look sexy even while picking up a coat. Her blush only intensified upon realizing that his coat had been on the floor because he'd rolled it into a pillow for her. "I-I'll do my best," she stammered.
Naru was usually pleased when he caused Mai to lose focus like that - it gave him the upper hand. But this time, her blush and breathy response jolted his hindbrain in an extremely unwelcome manner. "Let's go," Naru growled, slamming the empty teacup back in its spot near the temperature gage.
As he waited for Mai at the door, Naru finally thought of something normal to say. He pointed to the innocent-looking piece of china that had started this whole mess. "Later, we can discuss the annoyingly familiar trick you used to fool the thermometer."
-0O0-
Hours later, a significantly calmer Naru made his way to base. He did have years of experience in taming fluxing emotions, after all - though Naru never guessed that he would be using his qigong training to level out emotional issues related to a woman.
At any rate, Naru was hoping to discuss exorcism strategy with Lin before the over-night shift started... but the room was suspiciously empty.
Where on earth was Lin? Naru raised an eyebrow - had the most dependable member of SPR actually skived off?
A quick look at the monitors revealed that Lin was fixing a snack for Madoka in the kitchen. The injured woman was slumped in a chair, her mouth set in a tight line. It must be time for her pills again; she had to take them with food, and Madoka was probably too dazed to handle much on her own.
Even so, Naru rolled his eyes. Was the nigh-imperturbable Lin so distraught at his girlfriend's injury that he abandoned his post without even calling in a replacement? Or had Madoka been whining so much that Lin just gave in to shut her up?
Suddenly, a movement on the edge of his vision drew Naru's eyes. Ah - so Lin had called in a replacement. It was just that he'd called in the wrong person for the job.
Mai lay fast asleep on the couch, a hand over her eyes to block out the light. Naru was momentarily tempted to wake her and tell her off, but decided against it. She'd had a long, ghost-filled day and they needed her to rest up for the exorcism. Besides, his mother always said that arguing late at night gave her nightmares – and Mai had enough of those already.
Naru glanced at the digitized clock on Lin's desk – it was after eleven. Mai should probably re-locate to a bed. Naru sighed - back in the days of SPR Japan, that was a task Naru would have delegated to Bou-san or Lin. But Bou-san wasn't here... and for whatever reason, the thought of the Chinese sorcerer carrying Mai into a bedroom irked him.
Not wanting to venture any further into that minefield, Naru focused on alternate options. He could just leave her there... but Naru had the over-night shift tonight. How was he supposed to concentrate on the case with her lying there all night? And if Mai woke up in the middle of the night, she would want to talk.
Eventually, Naru would need to walk her to her room. So he might as well get that over with now...
"I didn't think she'd fall asleep that quickly," Lin said from behind him.
It was only long years of dealing with the supernatural that kept Naru from jumping in surprise. "We did find her asleep on the kitchen floor a few hours ago," he reminded Lin.
Lin made an amused noise. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" he asked, sitting down at the computers.
Naru cringed internally. He hadn't actually been paying attention to the monitors. "Nothing alarming," he said carefully. The flashing of the computer or bleeping of the thermal alarm would have drawn his focus away from Mai. "You should probably look the footage over, anyway... for continuity's sake."
Lin was glad that he was facing the monitors - Noll would have been incensed at the grin on his former bodyguard's face. "Your shift doesn't begin for another hour," Lin noted in as dry a voice as he could manage. "If you drag Mai-san to bed now, you'll have plenty of time to get a snack and some reading material."
A pause. "I suppose," Naru said, not moving an inch.
Noll was obviously still operating in Emotional Crisis Mode (as Madoka termed it), and was reluctant to do something as intimate as carry Mai to bed. However, Lin had a trump card to play. "Well, I suppose we could order Gregory to do it, he's not -"
"I'll be fine," Naru snapped, already walking briskly to the couch.
Thank goodness Lin was well-practiced at suppressing emotion. He actually managed to wait until Naru was halfway down the hall before exploding with mirth.
-0O0-
It wasn't the first time that Naru carried Mai, after all. He'd carried her to the nurse's office at Ryoukuryou High School when she fainted in the biology lab. There'd been formalin on the floor, and Naru hadn't thought twice about hauling Mai's prone body into his arms and racing for the door.
But somehow, this was... different.
As if sensing his internal drama, Mai moaned softly. Then she moved her head slightly, forehead puckered - and Naru realized that her head was bouncing a bit too hard against his shoulder.
Concerned that Mai would wake up, freak out, and bring both of them down, Naru slowly maneuvered Mai's head into the hollow between his shoulder and his chest. She didn't wake up... but she did burrow into the material of his shirt.
Ignoring the warm feeling in his chest, Naru carried Mai into her room...
...and stood over the bed, wondering what to do next.
Put her down, idiot! Gritting his teeth at his newfound stupidity, Naru laid Mai down on the covers and turned away as quickly as balance would allow.
But his escape plan was foiled almost immediately - undoubtedly missing the warmth of his body, Mai moaned and grabbed for him in her sleep. Naru narrowly avoided her flailing hand, and managed to grab a blanket from the end of the bed. He pulled it over her, and Mai seemed mollified... but Naru noticed her shoes poking out from under the awkwardly placed blanket. Did putting someone to bed also entail shoe-removal?
Eventually, Naru decided that since Mai often slept at odd times and in odd places, she couldn't be too particular about shoes.
His job was done.
And yet, he inexplicably found himself standing over Mai's bed, studying her sleeping face. Perhaps it was the absence of Mai's usual plethora of facial expressions that captured his attention. Her eyes, especially, were always telegraphing her thoughts. Her face looked so different when they were closed... Naru abruptly remembered having the same thought while he waited for her to wake up after the formalin-induced fainting spell. But then he'd had a better excuse for staring at Mai - concern for his employee's health.
Though perhaps he should be concerned about that now, as well. After all, Mai had very recently witnessed Madoka's injury, passed out in a death vision, and participated in a murder/suicide by proxy.
Thinking about Mai's latest misadventure pissed Naru off all over again. Mai had to have gotten that idiotic temperature gage trick from Gene. That had been one of his favorite methods of arranging unaccompanied (and unsafe) conversations with ghosts. Naru ground his teeth - obviously, he needed to have a talk with his twin. Gene was supposed to keep Mai out of danger, not teach her new ways to find it!
However, an increasingly irrepressible part of his brain noted, If Gene is concentrating on teaching Mai stupid tricks, that doesn't leave much time for inadvisable romantic entanglements.
And here Naru came up against a distressing truth - though Naru was anxious over the dangerous paranormal 'skills' Mai was learning, he was almost more concerned by the discernible contentment he felt upon realizing that Mai and Gene would have less time to engage in out-of-body dates.
Naru tried to tell himself that he was merely glad that Mai had less opportunity to tie herself emotionally to someone who was no longer of this world... but he knew there was much more to it than that.
He didn't want Mai to be with Gene like that - and it wasn't just for altruistic reasons involving her happiness in life.
Naru closed his eyes at this overt admission of jealousy. It felt like he'd just loosed the first stones in an avalanche.
A feminine groan brought Naru out of his reverie. Mai twisted in the bed below, her face pinched and her voice sounding pained.
"Charles, please don't go!" she moaned, reaching up a hand as if to pull something to her.
Naru inhaled sharply - Mai was dreaming about the case again. Was she possessed right now? Naru knew that her first-person dreams were sometimes the product of being possessed by the resident ghost.
Anger surged through him. "Leave Mai alone," Naru ordered quietly. "You've put her through enough." He didn't feel a drop in temperature, though... and he couldn't hear the metallic clinking that seemed to accompany the arrival of either ghost. If Mai wasn't possessed, then it was possible her previous link-up to Linda Banderson had enabled Mai to sync fully with Linda's emotions without actual spiritual contact.
Which could be just as dangerous as possession.
Mai twisted again. "You can't leave me!" she cried. "I couldn't bear it if you were captured, or hurt!"
Case research flashed through Naru's head – the ex-boyfriend Charles had gone into the army. Mai must be witnessing the day he'd told Linda he was leaving. Naru pursed his lips. Ordinarily, he would let Mai continue the dream in order to gain information... but they had information. They were almost ready for the exorcism. And the obvious agony on Mai's face, even co-opted agony, made Naru's gut twist.
Mai has done enough today, he decided. Without further ado, Naru reached down and took hold of her shoulder. "Mai," he said softly. She calmed slightly at his touch, but was obviously still dreaming. "Mai," he repeated more firmly, leaning over her. "Mai, wake up." She only groaned more loudly, and Naru knew he had to go for the face - it seemed to work the fastest. Not wanting to slap Mai or throw water at her like others did, Naru did something he figured would throw her off, even in sleep. He took Mai's cheek firmly in his hand and brought his lips to her ear. "Mai, it's very important that you wake up," Naru said loudly, ignoring the tingling warmth of Mai's flushed cheek.
Suddenly, she stopped moving under the hand gripping her shoulder. Naru barely had time to pull back before Mai's eyes struggled open.
"Naru?" she asked hazily. "What's important?" She was barely awake.
"It was important for you to wake up from that dream," Naru replied steadily. "It's dangerous to sync so closely with a ghost, especially one you mean to exorcise."
"But you need to know as much as possible... if you're trying to calm them into leaving on their own," Mai murmured, already fading back into sleep.
"Well, that's not exactly what we're thinking of doing, and I need you to be on point tomorrow. You tend to be less reasonable when you're tired, so you need to sleep without astral projecting or constantly crying out in terror."
"Hm, not something easy to control, Naru." She still managed to argue with him while practically unconscious.
"I'm sure," Naru replied fairly.
"I heard you," Mai said, smiling with her eyes closed. "Your voice told me to wake up. And I could feel you, calling me back."
"You could... feel me?" he repeated confusedly. What did that mean?
"Your aura. Can you feel mine, too?" Mai asked, reaching out blindly.
Naru threw his unoccupied hand into her path, as she seemed about to accidentally whack him in the face. "I'm... not as sensitive to auras as you are, Mai," he replied slowly – admitting that Mai had more talent in any paranormal area sort of rankled.
"Hmm, I thought, since we're so connected, that you might..." she trailed off. Her hand went slack on his arm - she was asleep again.
Connected, she'd said. What did Mai mean by that? She could have meant that they were 'so connected' in a social sense... Naru was closer to Mai than he was to most people in his life... but it didn't sound like she was talking about that. Intrigued, Naru sat down on Madoka's bed, studying Mai and thinking.
Barely a minute later, Mai started groaning again. "Please, Charles... stay," she pleaded. Naru's eyes widened in surprise - and then narrowed in frustration. How was Mai going to get any sleep?
He wasted no time in waking her again.
"It's the bed," Mai moaned, regarding Naru blearily. "I think it was one Linda slept in, or..." She blushed. "Did something with Charles in." It was pretty obvious where her dream had been headed - when Linda was begging Charles to stay, she didn't just mean 'stay out of the army.'
Any other time, Mai would have enjoyed the way Naru stiffened beside her. But she was embarrassed herself, and exhausted.
"So sleep in the other bed," Naru finally said. "Madoka can take this one."
"You want Madoka to sleep in a haunted bed?"
"The bed isn't haunted," Naru replied patiently. "Your susceptibility to Linda's emotions has caused you to sync with anything suffused with her presence. And as I was just telling you, that's dangerous."
"Could you feel her emotions, if you touched the bed using your psychometry?" Mai asked interestedly.
"Probably," Naru noted. "But given what you've just told me, I'd likely see something useless and traumatizing."
Mai giggled - and then slid deliberately onto the floor next to Naru's feet, taking blankets and a pillow with her.
"What are you doing?" Naru asked in his 'are-you-an-idiot' voice.
"I won't let Madoka sleep in a haunted bed, but I'm not sleeping there, either." Mai tossed the blanket around until it settled into a cocoon. "So I'll sleep down here."
"That's ridiculous."
"It is not," Mai replied testily. "I don't want any more nightmares. I have too many."
"I agree with that completely," Naru murmured softly.
Buried in covers, Mai was glad that Naru couldn't see her body freeze at his words of open concern. "Besides," she said, trying to keep the conversation going, "I have no problem with sleeping on the floor. I'm from Japan, remember? I mean, I slept on floors in my apartments for years. And this rug is pretty soft, so I'll be fine."
"You could just share a bed with Madoka," Naru mused. "That would be the reasonable thing to do." He piled on the disdain, trying to edge out the part of himself that found Mai's antics distressingly adorable.
"She moves around a lot," Mai countered, snuggling into the warm covers and feeling sleep pulling at her again. "It would wake me up."
By the time Naru accepted that Mai was not going to get up off the floor, she was already asleep. Sighing heavily, he sat down on the edge of Madoka's bed. He wasn't about to leave Mai alone; she was obviously the ghosts' primary target and needed supervision.
But staying with her was not helping him regain in internal peace of mind... so Naru pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, and called Madoka.
"Noll?" she asked hazily. "What's up? Where's your walkie-talkie?"
"In the base." He'd forgotten to take it with him when he'd left with Mai.
"Oh. Then where are you? Isn't it almost time for your shift? You're usually disturbingly early for duty, Nolly-no-mates."
Naru rolled his eyes. "I see your drugs have kicked in," he muttered. "You should go to bed now."
"Well I would, but I can't drag my boyfriend to bed with me until you get there," Madoka simpered.
"Must you be so..." Naru just trailed off, trying to erase that image from his mind.
"Open about my looooove?" Madoka sang. "You would do well to take a page out of my book, Noll. You might even get it together some time this millennium."
"Stop being ridiculous and get up here. Mai needs looking after."
"Get up here? You mean you're with Mai? In our room?"
Naru did not like the lecherous tone that had crept into Madoka's voice. "Don't imagine stupid things. Mai fell asleep in base, and I had to carry her up here. She's not resting well, though - you'll need to share a bed to make sure she stays asleep. Ask Lin for a charm that we can put under the pillow."
"Hmm... that might take a bit," Madoka said, slurping up whatever she was eating. "It takes Lin a while to make charms. He's such a perfectionist."
"He always travels with ready-made charms against spirit intervention," Naru spat. "We just need an extra one for this bedroom."
"We-ell... he should probably take time to strengthen it," Madoka wheedled. "Mai-chan seems determined to be as involved with the ghosts as possible."
Naru couldn't argue with that. "Fine," he grumbled. "Just get up here before my shift starts. And no nonsense with Lin tonight - Mai needs you here." And we're not going into an exorcism with three team members at half-mast.
"Oh, you'll understand love eventually, Noll," Madoka crooned.
Refusing to rise to the bait, Naru just hung up on her.
So Madoka would come up and relieve him. In the meantime, Naru could... stare at the wall and think. He'd neglected to bring anything useful with him - not that he could have taken a book while carrying Mai.
His personal equanimity in mind, Naru studiously avoided looking at the sleeping psychic. Over the next few minutes, he measured the dimension of the room with his eyes, analyzed the furniture to establish its age (he concluded that Mai was probably right about the beds belonging to the previous owners), and hypothesized that the perfume on Madoka's end table had been purchased by his adopted mother. It was one of her favorite scents.
Eventually, Naru's gaze found Madoka's suitcase... and saw books spilling out of it. Excellent. He padded over and extracted the nearest two. The first was an historical text about Ancient Chinese rituals - Madoka was quite earnest about her relationship with Lin, wasn't she? Naru smirked to himself at his mentor's unexpected sentimentality. The other textbook turned out to be a familiar guide to analyzing psychic dreams - how apropos. Naru slid the text about China back into the suitcase, and returned to Madoka's bed with the dreams book.
He gave Mai a cursory once-over – she looked peacefully unconscious – and cracked open the book. Naru remembered leafing through it back in Japan, after Mai had shown signs of psychic dreaming. He thought back to SPR Japan's second case, the child with the possessed doll... he'd returned from information gathering to find Mai unconscious and banged up. Lin informed Naru that Mai had reported seeing a strange dream after having been yanked down an obviously haunted well. Naru had monitored her carefully over the next case...
Mai twisted in her cover-cocoon, whimpering softly. Naru raised his eyebrows. More nightmares? He wondered whether Mai ever really slept on cases. Naru remembered Masako Hara complaining that Mai was a noisy sleeper, but he'd assumed that she was simply being catty. Perhaps he should have taken the medium more seriously.
"Nooo," Mai groaned. Her face twisted and a hand emerged from the cocoon. "Naru, help me..."
He froze on the bed. Could she sense that he was nearby? Mai had said that she felt him earlier...
"Make it go away," she whispered. "Please?" Her hand stretched unerringly towards him.
As he extended his hand to Mai, Naru felt as if he were reaching across a much larger precipice than the gap between bed and floor. He stopped for a moment, gazing into space and actually listening to what his instincts were trying to tell him.
Then Mai actually cried out in her sleep, and Naru quickly took her hand. She quieted immediately, and Naru couldn't help staring at her, his brain working a mile a minute and his internal workings rocked by the undeniable satisfaction he felt at Mai's response to his touch.
It couldn't be that, he told himself. Naru was almost as amazed by the desperation coloring that thought as he was by the conclusion his mind kept throwing in his face.
Mai pulled his hand toward her body, and Naru unthinkingly allowed himself to be pulled to the floor. He was too busy trying to find solid mental ground to stand on.
He didn't even realize that he had pulled Mai onto his lap... Naru looked down and she was just there. Tear tracks gleamed wetly on her face and Naru felt a surge of emotion. The hand not locked in Mai's death grip reached down and wiped them away, stroking her cheek gently. Mai smiled softly in her sleep and Naru closed his eyes, suddenly and irrationally terrified. His head flopped back onto the mattress behind him and he tried very hard to ignore Mai's breath on his thigh.
It couldn't be that. It would be fruitless. Mai didn't love him, she loved Gene.
Who is dead, his mind reminded him mercilessly.
"Who Mai still sees on a regular basis," he hissed to... himself. Cripes, one step toward whatever this was and he was already descending into schizophrenic madness.
It's not Gene she's calling for now, his traitorous mind noted. Not Gene she's clinging to like a limpet.
"He's not here," Naru reasoned, arguing with himself out loud again. He was going crazy...
Not crazy, his brain insisted. In denial.
Naru had no counterpoint for this assertion. Denying he was in denial was beyond redundant. So Naru moved immediately to suppress his thoughts by focusing on the outside world... but that just brought him back to Mai's breath against his leg and their interlocked hands. Which brought him back around to thinking about that.
Oliver Davis exhaled testily, and did the only thing he could think of to stop the vicious cycle. He closed his eyes, blanked his mind...
And fell asleep.
-0O0-
Madoka snuck down the hall towards the bedroom she shared with Mai, hoping that she might catch Noll staring cutely at Mai. She even had her cell phone camera at the ready - Noll was annoyingly quick.
But when Madoka slipped into the room, she found Mai's bed empty. Messy, but empty. It was also missing covers... wait, why were the covers on the floor? Madoka edged around the bed - and stopped, mouth dropping open in shock.
In her perusal of Mai's bed, Madoka had somehow missed seeing Noll's head leaning against her own bed.
But there was no way she could possibly miss that Noll was asleep on the floor, slumped against the bed with a happy-looking Mai out cold on his lap. One of Mai's hands was fisted in the fabric of Noll's pant leg; the other... was holding Noll's hand. Of course, Madoka immediately looked for Oliver's other hand – which was tangled in Mai's hair!
Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside Madoka, and she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from alerting the couple to her presence. How exactly had this... oh, who cared about how it happened, this was progress! Lots of progress!
With an evil smile, Madoka raised her cell phone and snapped at least ten pictures. She made sure to get every angle possible, including a close-up of the hand-holding. Neither Noll nor Mai even stirred, despite the camera's picture-snapping noise and Madoka's quiet giggles. 'Not resting well' indeed.
Despite the late hour, Madoka texted Yasuhara the best picture. She also texted Lin, who should be almost done with his charm-strengthening and would likely want to see this for himself. She set the phone to vibrate just as Yasu blew up her phone with tons of expletive-filled texts in all caps.
WHAT THE F***? IS THIS REAL?
THEY'RE NOT POSSESSED, ARE THEY?
SPAT OUT MY FOOD ALL OVER THE COUNTER, YOU'D BETTER NOT BE SH***ING ME!
Madoka typed back, giggling even harder. Totally real, and I don't think they're possessed – these ghosts wouldn't be so lovey-dovey.
Lin swept in a moment later, goggling appropriately. "They're not possessed," he noted, a hint of awe threading his usual flat tone.
"No, I don't think so," Madoka snorted gleefully.
"Should we... wake them?" Lin asked hesitantly. That would be the responsible thing to do...
Madoka turned horrified eyes on her boyfriend. "What? Of course not! We've waited so long for something like this to happen! Besides – just think of how hilarious it will be when they wake up like that!"
Lin's lips twitched involuntarily. "Fine, but we are not sitting up all night waiting for that to happen," he said severely, dragging his girlfriend from the room. "We are conducting an exorcism tomorrow."
His girlfriend pouted for a moment. Then her enthusiasm returned so fast that it made Lin slightly dizzy. "Ooh, I know! Since Noll's obviously unavailable for the over-night shift," she said with a smirk, "Let's kick Gregory onto base duty, and we can stay together tonight!"
"I will take base duty, and you can stay in my room with Gregory." Lin's tone brooked no argument. "You are injured and on drugs... and I don't go vegetarian on cases just to lose myself to your carnal appetites."
"You know, that might be the sexiest thing you've ever said," his girlfriend replied, winking cheekily.
Lin rolled his eyes. "As a lover of horror movies, you must know what usually happens to idiots who have sex in haunted houses."
"Yasu's still alive," Madoka pointed out. Her phone buzzed with another text - had Yasu sensed that she was talking about him?
CAN'T BELIEVE I'M MISSING THE BEST CASE EVER, I HATE COLLEGE!
Madoka snorted again. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll only get better;) Madoka wrote back. Though I was hoping Noll's fall from grace would loosen Lin up enough to have *fun* on a case... but no go, again.
Oh, I'm sure it will get worse before it gets better, Yasu texted back. And sorry to shatter your dreams, but I don't even think slipping Lin your drugs would loosen him up enough.
Madoka stuck her tongue out at the phone. "I don't know if I can live in a world where Noll has more fun on cases than I do," she muttered plaintively.
Lin smiled faintly. "I can almost guarantee we'll be having more fun than Noll when he wakes up tomorrow morning."
-0O0-
AN: So... yeah, I'm back. It turns out working over-time every week is not conducive to getting chapters out with any regularity. Who knew?:/
And yes, my car really did go on fire... which was entirely my fault lol. I was adding oil in the rain, and my grip on the container slipped. A little oil fell onto the just-turned-off engine, and up came the flames. Luckily, I kept blowing on the fire while I was jumping up and down screaming for help, so it stayed small and I managed to get it out without a major incident.
Now when my doctor asks about my asthma, I can say it's well-controlled enough to blow out a car fire:)
At any rate, this is by far the longest chapter ever - because I wanted to make sure the sleepy-time scene made it in;)
So please forgive me, I'm doing my best:) You guys are wonderful:)