Mai had tried her damnedest to stay awake for the rest of the long trek of their journey. They had made it more than halfway through the trip yesterday with only three remaining hours to go. But, she didn't exactly get the best sleep the night before, not that she was complaining but if she shifted just right the lingering aches in her body reminded her of where Naru had been and her cheeks heated up at the memory; it was very distracting but somehow didn't do a thing to tone down her drowsiness. After an hour and a half of repetitive looking scenery passing her by, Mai grew bored and her lethargy decided to take over.

The blustery cold crisp autumn air sends a shiver through Mai as she stares over his shoulder at the same building in her previous dream regarding this case. He was watching a group of women once again, waiting for one to separate from the pack so she could be his next prey.

She watched as one smiled and waved goodbye to her friends before turning down the same darkened sidewalk. 'No, don't leave them!' She found herself mentally crying.

"No, that one's not the one you want." A female voice seemed to speak within her mind, though she knew it had to be the mind of the monster torturing and killing these women. "Wait for the one in the blue dress. I need her."

Mai looked up and focused on the woman in the blue dress. Her cheeks seemed to almost glow in the modicum of light provided by the overhead hanging street lamp and the visual had her frowning in confusion. It wasn't until two women, that were obstructing part of her view of said woman, moved away that Mai saw the way the bottom part of her dress blossomed out across her belly that she became panicked. 'No, not her! Not her baby! Nooooooo!'

Mai is then catapulted through darkness and time, now looking down on the scene below her as if she were floating above it all. The pregnant woman is now tied to the same, if not similar rock, as the first victim she inhabited. The evil female voice once again appears out of nowhere. "You know the deal. You get your sacrifice as long as I get the baby."

'No! I can't watch this! I don't want to watch this! Please...please don't make me watch this!' She knows without a shadow of a doubt that in her own body there are tears streaming down both of her cheeks.

A hand stroking gently down her face was the sensation that woke her up. She looked up into Naru's worried navy eyes. "Tell me."

Those two words had her throwing herself into his arms as she whimpered while more tears made their own continuous path down the sides of her face. She would tell him, she had to, but first she needed to have a moment to simply release the abundance of stricken sadness and fear that was encompassing her heart. "I will. Just. Just please hold me for now."

"Brother, I'll have Monk meet with the Chief of Staff and once we have established where we will be setting up I'll get everyone to start bringing things in. Why don't you take Mai to that restaurant across the street? Let her tell you what shook her up so bad."

Normally Noll wouldn't relinquish control like that but something in his gut was telling him that his brother was right. He nearly prodded his brother mentally for more information, but it was just as easy to talk to Mai. Plus, he couldn't keep using his brother as an information liaison. It would end up being an obstruction to his communication with Mai, and he may not know much about relationships but he did know that without communication there essentially was no relationship.

As he was relaying his plan of action to Mai his eyes happened to skate over the teams, unintentionally supervising their actions. He caught the looks Olivia was giving Mai and grew worried by the amount of hate that seemed to flash in her dangerous looking expression. "Gene, periodically keep a close eye on Olivia. I really don't like the expression on her face." He sent a visual to go along with the message.

"I'll do my best but I will probably have to recruit more assistance."

"Not only Atsuko. I don't want her to end up going after your girlfriend just because she can't get to mine."

"Good point."

Mai wanted comfort food and she wanted it now. Once seated at a booth she perused over the selections of the traditional family style restaurant. She was so thankful to see that her favorite comfort food was on the menu that she didn't hesitate to order the tori shoga gohan dish when the waitress came back around. She also calmly asked the waitress if Naru could have some silverware before she took off to put the order in.

Once she had left Naru turned his concern back on her. "You need to tell me about it, Mai. I realize how horribly these dreams sit with you, but it's better to get them talked about right away."

She frowned but nodded. Explaining it wasn't the hard part anyways. It was deciphering the meaning behind it. "It doesn't make sense that I would dream about the two separately and then suddenly that evil woman became an accomplice."

Noll hated to admit it but he too was confused. "Bennet has narrowed down the ritualistic killings to have happened somewhere in the late 1960s to early 1970s. He only briefly mentioned it in passing so we will have to get with him for more details. The trouble is that stem cell research didn't really begin being looked at closely until the 1980s. So, I don't see how this female 'doctor,' and I use that term loosely, could have been an enraged spirit guiding him to take a pregnant victim."

"Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but it didn't feel right either. It felt...I don't know how to put this, but it felt fragmented and incomplete. Like, not only was a piece of the puzzle missing but that the puzzle was all wrong." Mai arched her brow in confusion. She really didn't completely understand what she was saying. She was thankful when their food arrived and surprised to see Naru order the same thing.

Everytime Olivia went to get another piece of equipment from the vans she would take a moment to stare at the restaurant across the street. She couldn't see where the two had been seated once inside but she had seen them walk into the entry so she knew they were there. What in the hell was so special about that little mouse? She was just so vanilla. No, not even vanilla. Vanilla had a flavor. No the little mouse was just so blandly plain that the connection those two seemed to share didn't make sense to her. It had to be a farce of some sort.

Perhaps Dr. Davis is only entertaining the possibility of a romantic relationship with the mouse because of her abilities? That was the one quality about her that Olivia couldn't degrade. Not having an ability over her own was the only unexceptional thing about herself. She nearly sighed in a way to express her frustration but shook away the momentary moment before she started wading into negative emotions. That definitely was not who she was. She was a woman who either got what she wanted or changed her mind. Dr. Davis just happened to be one of those desires she wouldn't, no couldn't give up without a fight.

She glared at the restaurant once more before taking another box into the hospital. She caught Gene's eye as she passed him and winked at him. She didn't want the defective twin anymore but that didn't mean she wouldn't attempt to get him to grovel at her feet.

Gene groaned in annoyance as Olivia walked past. He really could not stand this woman and didn't understand how she didn't fail the interview to get this job to begin with. If it weren't owned and operated by his family he would assume she tossed money or flirtations the company's way. It was possible that the person who had given the interview had been misguided by her flirtations, but Gene highly doubted that.

He felt her presence behind him before she put her hand on his shoulder. "She's going to be trouble, Atsuko. I just know it."

"Yeah." To steer him away from the annoying presence of Olivia, Atsuko pointed at the vans. "There are only a few boxes left. Let's go get them and bring them in."

A mechanical repetitive thrumming sound infiltrated their eardrums. The wind seemed to pick up, shaking the nearby bare deciduous tree branches. The sound reverberated off the building and increased in sound. Luckily neither had gotten to the van yet so they were able to cover their ears. They both looked up at the roof of the building where they saw a black helicopter touchdown.

This was most definitely not her favored way of travel, but it was definitely the easiest transportation to take from the airport to the hospital. She glared at the burly guy beside her. Bodyguard number who the hell knew, she lost track at this point. This one didn't even try to talk to her, at least the last one had been somewhat hospitable. Granted, Masako did have to admire him from a visual aspect. She didn't think she would be physically attracted to someone with his bulk. The width of his shoulders were probably equal in measure to her height (exaggeration but not by much), and that probably should have scared her, but instead she found herself comforted by it.

He reached a hand up to help her out of the helicopter, and while she wanted to smack his hand away she instead relinquished control and let him take care of her in this way.

Masako glanced at the rooftop entry and took a deep breath. She could already feel some of the spirits that were flittering within the building's walls. Their emotions ranged from calm to completely terrified, and then there were two more that were completely manic. She knew there was another team here to investigate the paranormal events. She could only hope it was a team with at least a modicum of experience. The last team she worked with were complete amateurs, and a majority of that team had ended up in the hospital. Was it too much to hope that it would be Mai's team she ended up working with side-by-side? Although, that was highly unlikely because of the distance she didn't stop herself from wishing for it regardless.

A/N:  Just a quick note.  I currently only have one more chapter written for this story.  It's not over by any means.  But it will remain dormant until my muse comes back for a visit.  I can only hope that is in the near future.