Work Text:
It’s past midnight when Oliver’s phone rings. His team’s most recent case was frustrating, mostly because of the intern’s incompetence. As a result he hasn't gotten much sleep this week. He goes to answer the work phone on his nightstand but its screen is dark. That’s odd.
The ringing is coming from the jacket thrown over the back of his desk chair. Not many people have his personal number. Who could be calling at this time of night? It wouldn't be Martin or Luella, they’re just down the hall. Lin and Modoka are more likely to call his work phone. The people at work who he bothers to give that number are few and far between. Which means it’s someone from Japan?
Sure enough once he fishes the slightly older phone out of his jacket pocket, the caller ID reads Masako Hara. Why would Ms. Hara be calling him at this time of night? She’s usually more conscious of social graces, blackmail not-withstanding. Oliver hasn't spoken to any of his old team in years beyond the long expected wedding announcement for Houjo and Matsuzaki last August.
“What can I do for you Hara-san?” Japanese falls easily from his tongue. Familiar and somewhat nostalgic after having no need to use it without Gene to talk to.
“I’m sorry to disturb you so late Naru,” his old nickname is familiar in a distant way. Sometimes he wonders if Mai deciding to call him by an adaptation of his actual nickname was an early manifestation of her instinctive esp. Or it could have been a coincidence because she had genuinely thought him a complete narcissist. Either way, it was still amusing. “I wasn't… I wasn’t sure if any of the others would think to tell you but you should know.”
“Hara-san what is going on? You sound upset.”
“It’s Mai, Naru,” ice skates down Oliver’s spine and he suddenly does not want to hear what Ms. Hara will say next. Because he already knows. “She’s dead.”
Oliver hangs up the phone without waiting for Ms. Hara to say anything else. There’s nothing else to say.
Denials race through his mind. There’s no way Mai is dead. It’s not possible. He would have felt it. He’d experienced Gene’s death as if it was his own. But, he’d had an ironclad connection to Gene. They’d been fully telepathic when their bond wasn't stretched all the way around the planet. Oliver has no such bond with Mai. The person she’d been closest to psychically was Gene not Oliver.
Correspondingly, Oliver’s psychic bond with Mai is tangential. He wouldn't feel her death unless he used his psychometry. But he doesn't have any personal object of Mai’s. He’d had no reason to hold onto something of hers when he left Japan. The lack feels like a devastating oversight now.
She’s dead.
Two little words. Two words he hadn't needed with Gene. Two words he’d never wanted to hear.
She’s dead.
And he’d found out over the phone. Fom Masako Hara of all people. Because he’d left everything that would remind him of his time in Japan, of her, behind. It’s been years. She’d have graduated high school by now. Was probably finishing up college if she’d even decided to go. It wasn’t an absolute expectation in Japan unless you are going into an advanced field.
An orphan like Mai would have a far higher expectation to go directly into the workforce.
Oliver can't quite imagine vibrant, gifted Mai with a normal job. The very idea is incomprehensible even if she’d do fantastically in any customer service job she chose. Of course she would, Mai is the kind of person that you can't help but like. And she genuinely cares about people in a way that Oliver has never been able to understand or empathize with. It’s something she shares with Gene. Shared. Because they are both dead.
But even then, Oliver can't quite picture it. Mai had always seemed interested in any and every case Oliver had brought her on. Even during their most dangerous cases, Mai asked questions. She’d learned and understood any and everything explained to her. It was impressive, far more than the idiotic interns he worked with now. And with her gifts, she’d be an asset to any parapsychological organization on the planet. No, Mai would have continued ghost hunting. Probably even went to college to study parapsychology.
So why hadn't he brought her up to Martin? Surely it wouldn't be that hard to offer her a scholarship? It probably wouldn't have taken any convincing at all if he brought up her esp. So why hadn’t he tried?
She could be here in England right now. She’d make a far more competent assistant than any of the interns Martin has thrown at him in years. Their last case alone would have probably taken half the time to figure out. He was so stupid. She should be here with him. She belongs with BSPR.
God, he doesn't even know if she’d decided to go to college. Doesn't know what she decided to do with the rest of her life. Had she continued learning about the paranormal? Or had she left it all behind and gotten a job? Oliver doesn’t know. Why doesn’t he know something so basic?
She’d kept in contact with Ms. Hara, probably the rest of the SPR irregulars as well. But not with Oliver. Because he’d been the one to cut off contact. And now he’ll never be able to reopen the door he’d closed.
Because Mai is dead.
Gone.
Like Gene.
Why does everyone he loves go where he can't follow?
Oliver can’t breathe.
Is there going to be a funeral? Has there already been a funeral? When did she die? How did she die? Mai is, was, only 22. She’d always seemed completely healthy when he’d known her. So had she been in an accident? Was she murdered? Was it a ghost?
If she’d continued ghost hunting it would have probably been with the JSPR irregulars. Matsuzaki and Hojou would have taken care of her. They would protect Mai.
But what if she’d started working with a new team? Oliver has no way of knowing if her fellow investigators competence levels. Mai had a tendency to get herself into complicated and dangerous situations because of the nature of her abilities. What if there was no one around that could protect her? It’d taken Oliver to save her a few times during his year in Japan. And it is the absolute truth that no one on the planet rivals Oliver for sheer power.
Had she died because he introduced her to ghost hunting? Please no. Please don't make this his fault.
Oliver can’t breathe. He’s on the floor and he can't breathe. When did he get there?
How did she die? He has to know. He needs something of Mai’s. Oliver doesn't have anything of Mai’s. How could he have let himself be so stupid? Would Lin have anything of Mai’s? Would Madoka?
Oliver can’t breathe. Someone is knocking on his door.
Should he just call Ms. Hara back? She would know. If Oliver asked, she would tell him. He should ask about the funeral too.
Oliver can’t breathe. Luella is here, when did she get here? Shouldn't she be asleep?
Where’s his phone? Oh. It’s floating. Damn he’s poltergeisting, he hasn't done that unconsciously since he was a teenager. That’s dangerous, something could hit Luella. He should stop.
Oliver can’t breathe. Martin is here too, he’s saying something but Oliver doesn't know what. Probably telling Oliver to stop poltergeisting.
Mai is dead.
Oliver can’t breathe. Darkness encroaches on the edges of his vision.
Gene. Mai. Why them?
Oliver doesn’t want to be in a world where neither of them live.
After all, what’s the point?
Has his life been in any way fulfilling since returning to England? No.
He’s written more books. Finished his actual doctorate on top of the honorary one Cambridge gave him when he was fifteen. Lead BSPR cases, some of which were interesting.
But, what does any of it matter?
Oliver can’t breathe. He doesn't care.
Without Gene, he’s just waiting for his own powers to overwhelm him. It’ll happen eventually. He’s run the numbers multiple times. They’ve tried other partners. But none of them could replicate Gene’s effect on his PK. Their bond was intrinsic. They’d shared a womb. Their powers matched each other exactly. Yin and Yang. Opposite but equal. Balanced. A matched set. There was no one else who shared that.
Except Mai. Possibly. Potentially.
It was a hypothesis he’d developed while calculating the likelihood of his own survival in a fit of fatalism years ago. Oliver and Gene shared a bond in life. Gene and Mai shared a bond, though theirs was created after Gene’s death. Her abilities overlapped with Gene and Oliver’s in almost all the ways they didnt with each other while also being inherently unique. Like Oliver, Mai’s powers were powerful and constantly evolving. If they kept growing, one day her ESP would rival Oliver’s PK and Gene’s Mediumship in strength.
A triangle is an inherently more balanced shape than a line. Were he and Gene only ever meant to be a pair, or were they a trinity?
Would a bond have eventually developed between him and Mai similar to the one he’d shared with Gene? How would it have differed? Would she have been able to regulate his PK similar to Gene? Had Oliver been his own undoing?
It didn't matter. He hadnt even discussed his hypothesis with Lin or Madoka. Because they would have told Martin and Martin would insist on trying. Oliver would never let that happen. Every single other psychic or medium they’d found to try had been injured by the attempt. Oliver himself had called off any and all experiments after someone was critically affected. Oliver would never risk Mai like that. Not even if a tangible bond had developed.
So Oliver will die. His abilities are already more powerful than his body can handle on its own. And they are still growing. Eventually they will hit critical mass and either his body will shut down to protect itself or he’ll explode in a PK event of the magnitude that no one has ever seen before and people will die. He hopes it’s option one. Oliver hasn’t killed anyone with his PK and he never wants to.
It’s only a matter of time. Before he’s thirty, by his calculations.
So what’s the point?
Why is Oliver still here when Gene and Mai aren’t?
Neither of their abilities were destructive in nature. Not like Oliver’s.
Will he see them when he inevitably dies? He hopes so. Please let me see them again.
Darkness consumes him.