Many thanks to Theta-McBride and WildfireDreams again for your reviews!
I guess only time will tell if you both will be upset with me... or not ;)
"You are doing everything in your power to find a believable reason to go to Japan aren't you?"
Caroline jumped and slammed down the screen on her laptop. She let out a shaky laugh and said, "Uncle Roger, must you creep up on me like that?" Caroline glanced over at the time and winced. "What are you doing awake anyway? It's 3 in the morning."
Roger smiled at her and said, "You know I could ask you the same thing, and you're avoiding my question."
Caroline turned back to the computer and sighed. She opened it back up and said, "You caught me."
Roger wanted to laugh as he looked at the screen and saw that she was looking up flight tickets to Japan. "You know you can't just leave and go to Japan. You have no idea where L is staying and you also know he wouldn't tell you. It's far too dangerous for you to be there."
Caroline sighed and put her head in her hands. "You know that I love him, don't you?"
Roger smiled sadly and sat next to her on the couch. He placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and squeezed lightly, "Yes. It's rather obvious between the two of you."
Caroline smiled and began to play with her fingers nervously. She jumped up from the couch and began pacing the room. Roger furrowed his brow at her, this was not like her at all. "Uncle Roger I have a terrible feeling that something bad is going to happen. Every week that passes it gets stronger and stronger."
"It's very normal to fret over L's well-being, he's in the heart of the most important investigation of his life. He's going to take risks, but you have to trust that he knows what he's doing."
Caroline turned and faced Roger, he was alarmed to see that she had tears in her eyes. He knew Caroline, and he knew that she never cried. "But did you know that he suspects the chief of the task force's son? Not only that but he went so far as to pose as a student at the university to watch him. He's even asked him to join the investigation! His chief suspect is next to him every day!"
Roger knew all of these things, but he wondered how Caroline knew for L specifically asked him to keep this information between them and not leak anything to Caroline. "How do you know all this?"
Caroline immediately flushed and looked at the ground. "Well, before he left L sort of taught me how to hack into things, so I kind of hacked into your e-mail…" Caroline trailed off at the end of the sentence and looked at her uncle warily.
To her surprise Roger chuckled, "I should have known that there was no way he would be able to keep you in the dark. You are far too smart for your own good. Have you told him you know?"
Caroline shook her head. "I plan on telling him when I land in Japan."
"Caroline, I really don't think…" Roger started.
Suddenly she felt angry. She was tired of being told to stay put by everyone. She was left to sit in the dark and hide behind her piano while the men ran off to war. It wasn't fair, she knew that she had helped L a great deal before he left for Japan. She knew something bad was going to happen, and she wouldn't sit back and be told no anymore.
Roger watched as Caroline's face turned red and her tears quickly dried. She looked over at Roger and he could swear her eyes were almost black with anger. "I'm going. I will find him, and I will help him, that's final. No one will stop me. If something happens to him while I'm sitting here playing my piano without a care in the world I will never forgive myself."
Roger sighed. "Once again, you prove to me that you are my brother's daughter." Roger pulled a sheet of paper out of the printer and a pen off of the desk and began writing something. He stood and walked to where Caroline was fuming. "And I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I stopped you and something happened to him and you were able to stop it." Roger grabbed her hand and placed the piece of paper in her palm and closed her fingers over it. "This is the address to the hotel in Japan." Roger placed his other hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly, "The only reason I'm telling you is because I have the upmost amount of respect and faith in L. He wouldn't ever let anything happen to you, even if it meant his own life."
Caroline pulled Roger down into a hug and let out the breath she had been holding for what felt like forever. "It won't come down to that. I won't let it. We will both be coming home when this is over. I guarantee it."
The task force had long since left, yet L was still wide awake. As he was reviewing notes on the case he smiled as he came across many with Caroline's delicate script scrawled all over the pages. He hadn't seen her in three weeks, and as cliché as it sounded those weeks had been the longest of his life.
Even though he could only logically put down about 24%, he was more than certain that Light Yagami was Kira. To him the young man made it obvious, L's only problem was coming up with the proof. He was three weeks in, spent almost all of his time with the boy and still he was no closer to solving the case.
What L needed was a break, a distraction if you will and he knew the one he wanted. He smiled to himself as he pulled out his phone to call Caroline. He frowned when he noticed in England it was well past 4 in the morning, much too late to phone her. He toyed with the idea of leaving her a voicemail when his phone rang.
He was surprised to see Caroline's number on the screen but quickly accepted it. "What are you doing awake?" He asked suspiciously.
He heard Caroline's laugh through the speaker and calmed instantly. "I'm sorry for disturbing you father."
L smiled and said, "I'm sorry, I just wasn't expecting a call from you at this hour."
L could practically hear Caroline's smile. "Yes, well I figured now would be a good time for me to call you. I figured all of the investigators would have left by now."
"You are correct." L stated plainly.
"Well that's good, because I could use a hand with my bags." Caroline stated.
L immediately sat up in the chair and his eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood. What did you say again?"
L heard a muffled crackling and had to laugh at the 'oh shit' Caroline let slip out that sounded far away from the phone. "Sorry, I dropped my phone. Never mind about the help, I got myself into the elevator."
L stood up and started pacing. "Caroline, where are you?"
Caroline laughed nervously, "It depends. Are you in a good mood or a foul mood?"
L stopped pacing and ran a hand over his face. "That depends on where you are."
"Oh, well in that case I'm at home in bed… naked." Caroline paused, "What kind of mood does that put you in?"
L let out the breath that he was holding and chuckled softly. "That puts me in a rather sour mood, knowing that you are so far away from me in such a state and I am not there with you."
Caroline laughed and said, "Well that's good then, you will be quite happy to know that I am in fact much closer than you believe."
L sighed and walked into the entry way of his suite. "I was afraid of that."
Caroline smiled to herself as she exited the elevator on L's floor. She was certain now that he wouldn't be angry with her. Maybe a little peeved, but she could deal with peeved. She walked up to his door and laughed into the receiver, "Perhaps you shouldn't have taught me to hack before you left. I happen to have learned all of the little details in the case that you conveniently left out of our conversations but shared freely with Roger." L was silent over the line and Caroline smiled triumphantly, knowing she had outsmarted him. "No need to beat yourself up over it. You should probably come open the door, you know it's not polite to keep a lady waiting."
Caroline laughed at the muffled 'damn it' she heard before L cut the line and opened the door.
I thoroughly enjoyed writing this chapter more than any other I think :)