Despite all appearances he put up to the general public, the detective L was actually heavily dependent on others. He sat in his solitary throne above a giant support network that encompassed the entire globe.

In the centre of the action sat his closest confidant and the man who raised, Quillish Wammy. Quillish was his public face, his mouthpiece to the world. Without him, L would have been long since cut of from the rest of humanity.

Surrounding Qillish, in a tightly configured circle, stood his most trusted acquaintances. It was a very small group; comprised mostly of people he knew from Wammy's, Roger and a few of the other professors that called the orphanage home, and the top runners for his position, the most brilliant of the children, as well as the few colleagues whom he had ever graced with his physical presence.

From there, it was a rather large gap to the next layer. The various government agencies and world leaders whom L worked with on a daily basis. There were severe trust issues within this group, as L knew everything about each and every member of these parties, and not a single one of them had even laid eyes on the man. They were understandably weary of the faceless detective.

Crouched, like a hungry spider on his web of allies, L ruled his domain unchallenged. But that didn't mean that he was not able to swallow his pride and admit when he needed help.

He tapped his foot against the desk leg nervously as he waited for someone to pick up. On the forth ring his patience was rewarded.

"Hello?"

"Z, it's me. I need your help."

"…" L was met with the expected sound of silence as the woman on the other end of the line processed the words. In the background, he could hear the muffled laughter of children, and the bark of a dog.

"L?" she finally replied, "You know I don't want to be involved anymore, I told you I-"

" I know Z" he said tiredly, "And I apologize, but you know I wouldn't call unless it was important, I really need you to come over."

"…" Another pause, "are you alright L?" the voice asked, "Are you in trouble? Where's Quillish?"

"No I'm not in trouble, though I suppose that depends on your definition of trouble, I'm not in any danger at least."

"So if I come over right now, I will be able to leave in one piece, later today, and go back home without having to fear for my life, of the lives of my family?"

"As far as I can tell yes"

A heavy sigh from the other end. "Alright, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, I just have to drop the kids off at my sister-in-law's."

"Thank you Z"

"I told you L, it's not Z anymore. I've left that life behind."

"Oh, right…sorry"

"Is that two apologies in one conversation? Jeez you must really need my help!"

"See you in a few minutes."

"Yeah, see you."

L snapped his cell phone shut and shoved it back into his pocket. Picking up the bucket of bleach and water, he vigorously mopped the floor. He had been lucky, another foot further and Niri would have gotten the rug.

The poor girl in question was currently seated miserably in the bathtub, clutching an old ice-cream bucket to her chest. It had been an awkward struggle to get her there, she had been sobbing apologies the entire time, even as she continued to regurgitate on herself. The fact that she was slipping in her own vomit the entire walk to the bathroom had made the going incredibly difficult.

Having succeeded in plunking the girl down under the running water, fully clothed (they would need a proper washing anyway) L was faced with the task of clearing the wreckage before his support-team of one arrived.

So far it had taken a copious amount of paper towel and several gallons of bleach, but he was almost there.

By the time the beautiful sound of an automobile pulling into the gravel drive reached his ears; L was finishing up wiping his tainted equipment down with a chemical-drenched rag. He hurried down to open the door, shouting to Niri that he'd be right back.

Zoë Harris-Brant, formerly known simply as Z, was the last surviving member of the first generation of Ls.

She was a small woman with a bushy mane of bright orange hair. She had a classic Irish appearance, complete with jade green eyes and a splattering of freckles on every square inch of pale skin. L had never been so glad to see anyone in his life.

L had had closer relation with he tragic first generation of Wammy geniuses then with any other that came after. It had been mostly due to the fact that they were barley younger than him, and also, he had more time on his hands to spend making friends back in those days.

There had been five of them in the beginning. A, B, X, Y and Z. his first prospective heirs, the unfortunate children.

A had snapped first. He had been the brightest, and first of the bunch. Alec Lehmann, at just seventeen years of age, killed himself because he could no longer take the pressure of living in L's shadow.

His suicide had deeply impacted the rest of them, including L. but no one was affected more than B, the younger best friend.

The events following A's suicide were infamous. B had left Wammy's without warning, and vanished. Then three years later, the Los Angeles murders began.

Thankfully, the other three had dealt with the blow differently. But one by one, they left the orphanage, no longer interested in L's title, not after seeing what it had done to their friends.

Y went first; the impulsive young man took back his given name and joined the United Nations as a peace missionary. Eight months later, eighteen year old Oliver Young lay dead in a Central-African canyon.

Next to leave was X. He settled into a seemingly safer profession as a high-up government official in his birth country, France. But not two years later, Minister of Justice, Alexandre Cabbell was assassinated at the young age of twenty-one. If he had lived, surly he would have one day lead the country as President.

So with three of her companions dead, and the other just as well as, Z was left very much alone. At first, she had stayed at Wammy's teaching Advanced Forensic Science to the new arrivals, but as time passed, Z found being there increasingly unbearable. Eventually she moved out and married a young Professor from the University of Winchester, and took a job there as well.

Following the birth of her first son, Z had cut all ties to Wammy's and officially renounced her alias, telling L that she wanted to live out the rest of her life as normally as possible.

And for years L had respected that, fully intending never to contact the woman again, but with Quillish away, L had no one else to turn to. As a mother of three boys under the age of ten, Zoë would know what to do.

He explained the situation as he showed her up the stairs. Zoë, it seemed, still had some amount of contact with Roger because she knew that L had a daughter, and that the daughter had no mother.

When they got to the bathroom, Niri was in the same position as he had left her, and the tub was close to overflowing. Zoë quickly twisted the knob off, before addressing L.

"Does she speak English?"

"No, none. This is her first time out of Japan."

So it was in heavily accented Japanese that she bent down and said to Niri, "Hello sweetie, my name is Zoë. I'm a friend of your dad's and I'm going to help you get cleaned up, K?"

Shyly, Niri nodded and Zoë proceeded to pull off the girl's soiled clothing. All the while chattering about random things. L felt unnecessary, so he backed out of the room to wait in the hall.

A few minutes later the two females emerged, Niri was wrapped in a thick fluffy towel, and still clutching the ice-cream tub. " I think she's good now" Zoë told L, "If it was from the sugar, one time will have been enough to clear it out. I guess she didn't inherit you stomach of steel"

L looked away. Raito had always had a low tolerance for sugary food.

"Come on love," Zoë put an arm around his daughter and leading her gently to the bedroom. "Lets get some clean clothes on, and then I'll make you some plain rice, doesn't that sound good?"

Twenty minutes later, a pajama-clad Niri sat wrapped up on the couch watching a Japanese animated movie that Zoë had found in the House's bottomless collection, and tentatively picking at a bowl of white rice. Zoë pulled L to the side to talk privately.

"She's beautiful L," she said softly. "You have a really sweet daughter."

L nodded mutely, unsure of how to respond.

His companion continued, "I can tell this is all very hard for you L, but you should seriously know better than to let a child her age have free reign over a mountain of sweets. She didn't know that this would happen."

"I know," he whispered guiltily. "I wasn't thinking straight, it's just so…"

He trailed off, not able to put to words how he felt.

Zoë gazed back, sympathy clear in her green eyes. L turned away. He couldn't stand their pity. He'd seen it in everyone's eyes after Raito had died. He just wanted them all to stop feeling sorry and let him forget.

"This isn't easy for her either you know, think about it. She's never been this far away from home before. And on top of that, I bet she really wants to get to know you, but is too afraid to say anything. Think about it L, she'd only six, you have to act like the adult here, for once in your life."

L flinched. "Don't lecture me Z…Zoë, I know that I have been a lousy father, but I have no idea where to even start."

"Start with the little things then. Ask her about anything, her friends, school, her favourite colour, things that she doesn't have to think about to answer. Then maybe someday you will feel comfortable with telling her the things that she really wants to know."

"And what would that be?"

"Gosh I thought you were supposed to be some sort of genius L, she wants to know about you. Why you were never around, and about her mother. She needs to hear those things."

L fidgeted, eyes glued firmly to his curled toes. "I can't Z…I mean Zoë. Besides, she has her grandparents to talk to her about that."

"But she needs to hear it from you. And there are some things that only you can tell her. Like how you met her mother, stuff like that. She needs to know that you care about her. Here, take a look at this, it was in her room."

She held out a thin notebook. L turned the cover over and stared at the first page.

It was a child's drawing of a cat, done in bright cheerful crayon. "Turn the page."

The next was a flower, a pink one. But the picture on the page after that was a small group of three people. They were crudely drawn, as young children's art tends to be, but it was clear whom they were meant to represent.

The figure on the left had long brown hair and a giant pink grin slashing across her face. Raito. The long black line of her arm joined another, smaller one. A shorter figure with dark hair. Niri.

And on the other side, the tallest stickman yet, L, distinguished by the black scribble of hair atop the lopsided head. Floating above the three of them was a cluster of red hearts.

He stared numbly. There was a photo tucked between the pages. It was of Raito, heavily pregnant. It had been half way through month eight, he remembered, he had taken the photo. She was sitting on a bench in a park near her family's home.

They had flown in late the night before. Raito wanted to be with her family when the baby came, and the Yagami's had been thrilled to have their daughter back home. L had known the moment they were greeted by his in-laws, and Raito tightly embraced her mother, that it was the right decision. His child would be born surrounded by loving faces.

That morning, Sayu had dragged his wife off to their favourite spa for full body massages. Raito had tried to protest, all that pampering had never been her thing, but L had urged her to go spend some time with her sister, it would do wonders for the backaches that the late stages of pregnancy had been plaguing her with lately.

They were due to be finished any minute now. L had walked the short distance to the spa to meet them, and he loitered around in front of the buildings until they came out.

L suggested that they have a bite to eat at the small café across the street, but Sayu had turned the invitation down with claims that she was meeting a friend to go shopping. But she urged them to go alone.

"Here" she younger Yagami sister said, shoving a small, pink digital camera into L's hands. "Take a few pictures of Rai-chan will you? The lighting is nice at this time of day, and Kaa-san and I want to start putting together a baby book."

With that Sayu strolled away, waving at them over her shoulder. "Have a nice time you two!"

Raito smiled after her sister and looped an arm through L's. The café was a quaint little western themed coffee shop. Cheerful yellow awnings hung over the small patio area. They had finished their meals before L remembered Sayu's request.

"I suppose I'll have to humor them then" he sighed, feigning annoyance. Raito quirked a smile at him. "Give them a break, they're just excited. Anyway, I think it's a good idea. It'll be nice to have a few pictures to remember this time with. It's just a shame that we can't take any together."

"Sorry, you'll just have to settle for the genuine item."

"You know that's not the point Ryuu." She said indignantly, naturally using his Japanese civilian alias. "It wouldn't kill you to have a few pictures around. Kaa-san and Tou-san are desperate to show their friends a picture of you, and they would never tell anyone who you are. "

"Actually it very well could kill me Raito, you know that." They had had this debate so many times now that the arguments flowed from their mouths like a habit.

The only photos of L that currently existed were all locked safely in the drawer of his desk at Wammy's. And there were only three of them. The one picture he relented to posing for at their wedding, one of him standing in front of Wammy's when he was seventeen, the five members of the first generation crouched at his feet, and the last one was black and white, taken just weeks after Quillish had found him. The five-year-old L in the picture stood beside a younger version of the inventor, clutching his hand in a white-knuckled grip.

"Here," L said, "lean back and I'll take your photo."

Raito settled into her chair and rested her hand on top of her swollen belly. "Smile!" L prompted.

Raito smiled. With the autumn sun low in the sky, the golden rays played over her features, and Raito truly did glow.

L peeked at the preview image on the screen. He saw a woman who was both jubilant and nervous, but very much happy. "Sayu-chan was right, the lighting is very nice, Raito looks almost as beautiful in the picture as she does in real life."

"Oh hush, you." Raito scoffed, but she wouldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face. "Don't shamelessly try to charm your way back into favour."

"You wound me my love, what I say is one hundred percent the truth!"

"She loves you L, despite everything, she really loves you. And I know that is you would just stop and look at her, you would see how very lucky you are to have that."

L's vision blurred and he felt the prickle of oncoming tears behind his eyes. "That woman in the photo, your wife L, the mother of your daughter, she would have wanted Niri to know you, she would have wanted you to be there for each other." He snapped the sketchbook shut and turned to go, unable to face the glaring truth of her words.

Zoë watched him walk away sadly. "I'll come back tomorrow with some groceries." She called after him. "But after that, you're on your own. I just hope, for both of your sakes, that you can work past your grief and live the life your wife would have wanted you to have."

A/N: and the aftermath! And someone speaks some sense.

Introducing my Wammy-kid OCs. Or, they're kind of half-OC I guess, as they are mentioned at some point in canon, but it never goes deeper than their titles.

So I hope the pattern is apparent by this point. The chapter is introduced, some plot development happens, then something happens that triggers a flashback for poor L. I hadn't originally planned for these last two chapters only describe one day, but that's how it turned out. I don't really know how long this story will end up being, as I write the chapters as they come to me. But the climax will probably we on Christmas, and will involve L flashing back to Raito's death.

And that's all I have to say about that.