She secured her hair sticks in the waistband of her pyjamas. She put on her slippers, sighed and stood on her bed. She jumped at the wall. 

"Glue," she said her hands stuck fast to the white tiles. She hung for a moment trembling.

"Now what?" She thought, "if I say unglue I'll just fall." Then she had an idea.

"Left unglue." To her surprise it worked, she stuck her left had a little higher up and then stuck the right hand above that, in this way scaled the wall. It put tremendous strain on her wrists and shoulders to hang like that, she felt muscles tear and ligaments strain to breaking point. Somehow she kept going. She staggered into the air vent and collapsed gasping.

"Must hurry!" She thought and struggled to her hands and knees. Haku's directions through the pendant had been precise; three lefts two rights and through the grill. She was trembling with the medication wearing off and terrified of being heard. She crawled through the endless steel tunnels getting very dirty and trying to ignore the burning in her throat from the dry recycled air. Goodness knows how many germs she was breathing in!

She finally found the grill, it was loose and it clattered to the floor of what looked like a sort of laundry/locker room. She scrambled back and sat motionless for some moments. When it became clear no one had heard the noise; she hopped out of the vent and fell into a laundry trolley. It was full of nurse's uniforms.

"Damn you're good Haku," She whispered. The vents had certainly been alarmed but he had apparently sorted that out too, he was a miracle worker! She frantically got changed.

But someone had heard the clatter. A male orderly walked in on her. Chihiro froze. The man frowned at her discarded pyjama top and then stared at the slightly grubby nurse's tunic she had half buttoned up. He grabbed her, she struggled but her body was hurting from her climb and not very responsive. It was the same man who had punched her when they brought her in, and he was so strong. He wrenched her left arm behind her in a painful lock; pulling her hand up so she was forced onto her toes. She could not move.

"Now Miss Ogino, I'm going to take you back to bed. I knew all this good behaviour was too good to be true." He began to drag her to the door; she tottered on her toes and cried out as he twisted her arm harder to make her follow more quickly. He pressed an automatic syringe to her arm with his free hand.

"What can I do?" She thought. "I'm not going back, I've come too far!." Then she remembered the Ladies words.

"They are to lash out with when you most need them," muttering silent thanks she extracted a blade from her waistband. She stabbed at the orderly over her shoulder, twisting the blade as it bit into flesh. Rin would have been so proud of her. The orderly gave a cry and fell back freeing her. The syringe snapped in her arm and started to ooze blood. Chihiro turned brandishing her blade. The man was slumped by the dryers, shaking; blood was pouring from his shoulder, soaking his uniform. Chihiro knew the blade had nicked a large vein.

"Please." He whispered, "Please don't kill me..." She shook her head, horrified at what she had been forced to do.

"I'm not going to kill you, I just want to go home," she said. She removed the alarm trigger from his belt; all staff carried one in case of attack. The man had apparently forgotten about it in his surprise at being stabbed. She pressed a wadded uniform to his shoulder. "You must keep pressure on this, I'll trip the alarm when I'm gone and you will be found." He nodded but said nothing.

There was fear in his eyes and for a moment Chihiro hated herself. She buttoned up her uniform and found a pair of shoes in an open locker, they were too small but she ignored them pinching her feet. She removed her pyjama bottoms and wiped her blade on them. She clicked her hair stick back together and placed both sticks in her breast pocket. She found an I.D badge in the uniforms other pocket, it looked nothing like her but she pinned it on anyway. She draped a coat over her bleeding arm; she noticed blood stains on her back in a mirror. They must have splashed onto her when she had stabbed the man. She fanned out her hair over the stains; there was no time to change. Haku had engineered this escape to take place just after the shifts changed; she needed to leave soon to avoid looking suspicious.

"You won't get far." Gasped the man.

"We will see." She replied and marched from the room.

Like Linca had told her to at the ball, she walked with her head held high, as if she was wearing a heavy crown. She strolled through the ward, looking just like a nurse who was late coming off shift, now hurrying to get home. No one stopped her or even looked at her. She gave a smouldering look to the security guard on the way off the ward. He smiled back at her, not even bothering to check if the photo on her I.D badge matched the pretty face before him.

After that it was easy. The hospital was vast and no one questioned the young nurse walking purposefully down the corridors. Inside Chihiro was quaking with panic but she refused to show it. When she saw the main exit she ripped the cord on the alarm. She could hear the exclamations coming from the staff room she had just passed. Chihiro marched out the door and did not look back.

Later the hospital would have an investigation. They never did work out how she had got a weapon; or how she had managed to get out the air vent and escape without triggering an alarm; all this while supposedly sedated. Though the police were alerted, Chihiro Ogino was never found.

As promised Scott was waiting in the car park. He got out of his car and hugged her.

"Nice look," he said holding her at arm's length, admiring her uniform. "Very attractive." She giggled, giddily with joy.

"I don't know how you did it and I don't think I really want to know." He said pointing to the blood stains on her back; the gentle night breeze had betrayed her secret by blowing her hair over her shoulder. She winced at Scott's words; she hoped the man had been found.

"Let's get you out of here." Said Scott, bundling her into his car. Scott had a Jaguar, which Chihiro was very grateful for as it purred quietly into life and they sped off through the deserted streets.

"So," he said, "any idea where you want to go?"

"Yes," she replied, "You got a map in here?" He indicated to the glove box. She pawed over the map; it took a while to find what she was looking for because the image Haku had given her of the place was a view from above, as a bird or dragon would see it. All she had as a guide was the landmarks. When her eyes roamed across the right area, however, the pendant flared up and practically burned her.

"Get onto the main road going west; I'll guide you from there," Scott nodded. After driving for a few minutes in silence Chihiro decided to say something.

"Thank you for doing this Scott." She whispered.

"I wanted to," he replied, "You really did not need to be in that place. Anybody with half a brain could see that."

"You're a good friend," She yawned, still tired.

"I have more selfish motives for doing this." He said, but Chihiro was already asleep.

After about an hour of sleep, Chihiro woke to guide Scott to a field in the middle of endless farmland. The Jag bumped over the field until Chihiro called a halt.

"Do you have any tools in here?" he nodded, puzzled.

"We will need them." She got out of the car. Luckily the moon was bright enough to see by, or Chihiro may have missed the concrete slab altogether. In the middle of it was sunk a manhole with an iron cover. This fallow field was miles up the valley where Haku's river once flowed. Now with the river redirected underground, the area seemed to have a sense of wrongness about it.

Chihiro looked down the V-shaped valley and could see the lights of the housing development that had hurt Haku so, miles below. She glowered at it, for a moment she really did hate her own race. She knew there was very little flat land left to build on in Japan. But all the same, she could not help hating the people who bought those houses.

Scott came over with his toolbox.

"We need to lift the cover," she said in a strained voice. Scott groaned.

"These things usually need a special key tool Chihiro, but I'll try." He tried a screwdriver and a hammer and chisel, but the cover refused to move. Then Chihiro felt the pendant burn painfully hot again, it was a warning.

"Scott get back!" She shouted and they both stumbled over the ridged field.

There was a rumble under their feet and then a pop. The cover sailed into the air and hit the ground with a thud a few yards away. Chihiro could hear water running. She gave a little cry and made to run towards the hole, but Scott grabbed her.

"Where are you going?" She looked at his worried face.

"Home!" she replied, "I don't belong here Scott, my place is with them." Scott's face seemed to twist in pain for a moment, but he let her go.

"I love you Chihiro," he said quietly. "I have since the moment I saw you." Chihiro's mouth hung open, not knowing what to say. He smiled at her confusion. "You're beautiful, and not just in your looks. There is a little light inside you that you can't hide, no matter how hard you try to. You're a wonderfully warm, caring person, I'm sure I'm not the first or the last to fall for you." Chihiro closed her mouth and swallowed, still silent. "But I also knew your heart lay elsewhere. I tried to win you, but now I know what I was up against. There was no contest really was there?" 

Chihiro just looked at him. The water noise increased in volume as if getting impatient. Scott looked over the hole.

"I hope he takes care of you."

"Who?" she squeaked, finding her voice at last.

"The person you've been trying so desperately to get back to."

"Haku?" She chuckled at his serious face; his blue eyes did not waver and demanded an answer from her. "We are not together!" she protested, "He does not see me that way." Scott laughed bitterly, Chihiro did not like the sound it, gave her the impression she was breaking his heart.

"You really are blind. How could any man, mortal or immortal, not see you as the amazing woman that you are?" He bent forward and kissed her cheeks.

"Good luck I hope you find every happiness."

"Thank you again," she said blushing furiously. He gave her a huge blue-eyed wink.

"Tell Linca I said hello, the university is just not the same without her." Chihiro was even more disturbed by this then she had been at his confession.

"How... who... how did you know? I did not tell you!" He smiled again.

"Sayonara, Ogino-san." He said with a formal bow. "I don't suppose we shall meet again." He sighed, "He is waiting for you." Chihiro gave him a stunning smile and ran over the rutted field with a giggle. She peered down the manhole. There was a ladder leading down into the swirling, wild water. Chihiro was a good swimmer but she did not relish the prospect of struggling in that water. She climbed down the ladder and let go. The cold water embraced her and swept her down the tunnel.

Above ground Scott watched her go. 

"I'm going to miss you," he whispered. He turned to go, but there was another rumble and water jetted up from the hole soaking Scott. He ran back and found he was holding something. He opened his right hand to find an emerald the size of his palm.

"Thank you." The words whispered through his mind, making Scott shudder. It was like the ocean had just decided to talk to him, the voice was strong with vast power in its hidden depths. Scott just smiled.

"Look after her," he said. He took his gift, got in his car and drove away.

The water swirled around her dragging her down the pipe. She trusted the river, of course, she did. But when she saw the pipe narrow, she tried uselessly to struggle against the current. The water seemed to sigh as if disappointed.

"Hey!" she shouted at it, "You're not the one who needs oxygen to live!"

"Trust me!" The water seemed to say. She took a deep breath and was sucked under. It was dark and cold, she grazed her hands on the concrete sides. Her lungs started to burn for air. She bit her lip as bubbles tried to force themselves from her mouth.

"Chihiro," his voice was all around her, "listen to me, you have to drown." Chihiro shook her head cursing him internally; did he not know she would die?

"It's the way things are. I can't help you unless you are drowning, just like when you were a child. I helped you then, I can help you now. Just take a breath." His smooth voice sounded so reasonable, so warm. However, Chihiro's instincts overpowered her trust. She shook her head again. She was going to hold on to her air for as long as possible.

"Chihiro," whispered the river again, more insistent now. "These pipes go on for miles, with no breathing spaces. I need to guide you down the correct ones to get you home. I can't do this if you won't accept my help!" She was getting flashes before her eyes. The water seemed to move a bit faster, he was angry. "Chihiro, if you don't do as I say you will die; you will be too weak for me to save. You said you had faith in me, now prove it!" He was right she opened her mouth to apologise and water rushed in. She clamped her mouth shut, body shaking.

"Please... I know you are frightened, I will not hurt you." He begged his voice bordering on frantic.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. Her lungs rebelled, expelling the water and sucking in more in a desperate effort for air. It was incredibly painful and suddenly she had no control any more; she panicked. Her arms pushed at the water in an attempt to get to a surface that did not exist. She sucked in more and more water; her gag reflex was getting weaker she was starting to black out. Everything was icy black.

Her hand hit something, it was warm and yielding; she grabbed at it. The thing pulled her to it; she struggled feebly as it pulled her deeper. She jerked back when something touched her lips. Hands grabbed her head and pulled her back. All was confusion for a moment; then she realised she was breathing. Air soaked down into her tortured lungs and replacing the water, she did not even need to cough. She wrapped herself around the air source in the most intimate embrace she had ever given anyone. Haku just held her, breathing into her mouth. She relaxed a bit. The current pulled strongly at her, she opened her eyes to see a soft light around them both. They were static in the rushing water; Haku's command of his element was extraordinary.

She pulled her lips from his for a moment and glared at him. He gave her a lazy smile in reply, his green eyes were even more green under the water. His hair was swirling around him like ribbons of kelp. He caught her lips with his again and she began to breathe once more. His breath tasted sweet and it slipped in and out of her lungs like damp satin. Her chest was no longer irritated. She was no longer cold; the heat from his body was warming her. She was no longer afraid; he was holding her almost as tightly as she was holding him, keeping her safe from the wild water.

She reflected that she had been a baby the last time she was given a life-giving substance from someone else's body. It had the same pacifying effect now as it did then. She was completely relaxed as they started to move down the pipes at lightning speed, she almost fell asleep, almost. She stayed awake because she was marvelling at the feeling of his arms around her and his soft lips touched to hers.

A/N and Scott bows out of this story... but I could not help myself... I brought him back in a later volume.

More sweet fluff... Because I can and the world needs it. Happy Friday my lovely readers.