Author's Note;;

Freakitten;; Thanks! I really appreciate your review and I hope I don't wind up disappointing you (or anyone else). He is a difficult character to write.
Ragamuffin;; Yeah, Soichiro has issues. Lots of them. –sighs- Well, I think you'll like this chapter. I do, so far. Can you tell the difference in my writing now that I know where it's going?


Chapter Twelve:

Tense didn't even begin to describe how the next few hours went. The Team had finally gotten over their shock, and Mr. Yagami was more or less ignoring both Light and I unless he needed to ask us questions pertaining to the case, and I was in my usual seat trying to track Watari down. The sensor that was usually in his shoe was apparently in a sewer in the Kanto region, but the one I had put in his hat was in a dumpster behind a restaurant in the Shinjuku area. I had one more tracker to find, but it wasn't even a blip on my radar. And tracking his cell-phone while it was off was difficult, but it was possible.

Matsuda was at the bank arranging to take out the necessary funds in case the exchange needed to happen. Also, if they were watching me, they would have noticed if I weren't making any effort to get them their requested money. What they didn't know was that the ransom money was coming from an account in which I had specified only give me marked bills. Mogi-san was out doing fieldwork at the locations I knew Watari to have been in last, as well as heading to the river and the restaurant. If there were any clues we would find them. His instructions were to call from each site and give me a visual via the laptop I'd made him bring and instructed him in using properly for the purposes of this investigation. Aizawa was at the Police Station trying to track down Watari's cell-phone. We also had it set up that if the kidnapper called again and I answered, Aizawa could listen in and try and figure out the location of the caller from there. The police had their uses and I was bent on utilizing anything possible that would help me find Watari. Find and rescue Watari, and send the people who'd dared take him from me to jail.

When everyone aside from Matsuda and Mr. Yagami had left for the day, (Matsuda because he was living at Headquarters and, well, I wasn't sure why Mr. Yagami hadn't left yet but he was still there) I drilled onward. Eventually, though, Mr. Yagami asked to speak to Light privately and I refused to take off the hand-cuff to allow him to do so. "He's still my prime suspect in the Kira case, Yagami-san."

"I think, Ryuuzaki, that perhaps your judgment has been impaired. Or perhaps you forced him to, what, fool around with you by promising to clear his name? You do have a tendency to use people!" He pointed accusingly at me, "What did you do to my son?" I stood my ground, face impassive as usual, and Light was the next person to speak.

"He didn't do anything to me, Dad! And stop pointing – it's rude." That vein on the side of the older man's head was bulging again and it looked painful, but he lowered his hand and cringed at the obvious thought of being taught manners by his son. Light spoke again before I could say anything, "He didn't promise me anything! In fact…" I watched as he took a step toward his father, "If anyone did anything to instigate last night it was me."

Mr. Yagami took a step closer to Light and said, "I will not tolerate that in my family or in my house."

Light only smirked confidently and said, "Good thing I'm not living at home then." I read the narrowed eyes and knew the statement had hurt him to say, but I remained silent. This was obviously a family matter and something I wasn't part of. Matsuda had made himself scarce when it had begun and I believed him to have gone to the kitchen, but for all I knew he was standing outside the door. I couldn't really go check. I sunk back into my seat not sure when I had stood up and curled into my usual position once more, relaxing once Light's father had left, and I turned back to my computer.

"Light-kun," I said softly, looking at him with just my eyes, not turning my neck in order to see him fully. "Why did you do that?" He sat in his usual seat as well and I prompted, "Why did you say those things? He is your father, do you" I paused, searching for the right words. He'd essentially told his father he chose me over his family. No, perhaps it was simpler than that. Perhaps he was merely telling his father, in not so obvious tones, that if it hadn't been me it might have been some other guy. A surge of jealousy flooded me as I pictured him with some faceless man and I was glad I'd gotten to him first. Wait, what was I thinking? This man was Kira. Kira might have had motive for driving his father away…but I didn't want to think of Light as Kira anymore.

I blinked; my judgment had been compromised by my feelings. Kira would want to win me over in a blatant display by driving his father away and showing me he cared for me. Kira might want to drive his father away in case, one day, he had to run for it or kill his own father. If, for some reason, Kira had to make himself scarce in the future and perhaps faked his own death, then driving his own father and family away would hopefully mean they would mourn less the death of their son. No, it didn't really work like that, but Kira was childish and perhaps thought that might work. "Ryuuzaki…my father should accept me for who I am, not who I am with."

I almost asked him several times for proof he wasn't Kira. And there were other questions I wanted to ask him too, but I was afraid of the answers I might receive. His fierce denial of being Kira would certainly flare up, and he'd demand to know why I still harped upon that when he'd just told his own father off in my defense. But I needed to know, and someday I would ask him, Light…did you kill him? Was it you or just someone else with your power? No, it must have been you, although your type of killings until that point didn't include the mentally unstable. And then my questions changed for a minute for, in that minute, I was going under the hypothetical situation in my head where I was certain of his guilt. Why did you kill him?

Well, that answer was obvious, but there was so much more to a person than the surface of what they did. The depth of their emotions and state of mind weren't reflected as easily on the still waters that belied their true natures. Until Light had killed him, I hadn't felt the need to involve myself with this case. In fact, there had been a small part of me that had agreed with Kira. And then I was back to doubting Light's identity as Kira once more, back to doubting myself, and back to wondering just what kind of situation I was in. Eventually I settled on the fact that even though I knew I should step off this perilous cliff and get out of this relationship, there was a selfish part of me that wanted to have the cake and eat it, too. And Light was deliciously irresistible.

The door opened and Matsuda came in carrying what was left of the Baked Alaska that had been in the freezer and he handed me a slice which I took and began picking at more than eating. Light politely declined and those were the only words he spoke until the next morning.

Mogi had called during the course of the night from each of the locations and, while there had been nothing suspicious at the sewer, nor inside of it and I was glad we had infrared cameras that we could hook up to the laptop and dangle into them, but there had been signs of a struggle behind the restaurant and dried blood on the corner of the garbage bin. It was one of those large, industrial sized ones and it was forest green. But the Ultra-violet light I'd had Mogi bring found blood stains and I instructed him to take a few swab samples to be compared to Watari's DNA. Finally, around five-thirty in the morning, I told him he'd done a good job as he handed everything back to me. He went up to one of the empty bedrooms and did as I instructed; he rested. I'd told him to have a lie in, to sleep late, but he was there the same time the others joined Light and I once more at eight. The usual time. If any of them noticed that neither Light nor I had changed our clothing, they didn't say anything, which was probably for their benefit as I was likely to snap at them for any small infringement on their parts.

When Aizawa showed up that morning, for he was supposed to visibly check in with me three times a day, I handed him the blood samples and asked him to forward me the results when he had them. He took them with a nod and headed for the forensics lab at the police station, it was his specialty after all. Having the cooperation of the police department without the actual department knowing about it certainly had its benefits and perks; yet another reason I hadn't been keen on keeping them out of this. Any help provided, no matter the source, was better than none. The police could be effective in the right circumstances.

I jumped as my phone rang and pulled it out quickly, noticing it was from Watari's cell and slid a cord into the slot that the charger normally went into. I pressed a button on the computer that would connect the phone to Aizawa's office computer and let it ring until it was almost too late. I flipped the phone open and made my voice sound breathy, as if I'd run to get the phone as I pressed another button for the voice converter. "Hello?"

"Ah, L. I assume I am speaking to L. Take off the voice converter or I will kill him." I shivered and prepared myself mentally for what I had to do.

"Not until I know he is safe. I want to hear his voice, I want from his lips he is for the most part unharmed." I waited as silence fell over his end, and then there was a shuffling and Watari's voice came as if from a distance.

His voice sounded tired and cracked, as if they'd tortured him, "Don't give them anything! Don't do what they want. Just" But he was cut off and there was a thud and a grunt.

"Did I say you could say that? I said to tell him you were fine! You idiot! Do you want to die here?" Silence once more and then the abductor's voice came over the receiver once again. "Now, you've heard his voice and aside from a bleeding lip he is fine."

I hesitated, hand trembling as my finger hovered over the button and I felt the phone slide out of my hand. They already knew so much about me, I didn't want to give them this. Light was holding it and he turned towards the computer, opening up a word program and indicated I should tell him what to say. I nodded and he pressed the button and his voice was confident, something I didn't feel at the moment. "Very well, here I am." Light never deviated from the words I typed, speaking them fluently and I understood just how charismatic he could be when speaking. His tone changed flawlessly as he conversed with the abductor, and I listened the whole time since he'd switched the phone's speaker to 'on.' The location of where the exchange would take place was settled and then the time. Light was smiling into the receiver, he had them convinced of his, L's, sincerity and when he hung up I was glad for it.

He walked back to his computer station and said, "Remember how you asked me to constantly scan for his cell-phone, Ryuuzaki?" At the same time Aizawa called Matsuda's phone, the only one I was allowing on aside from mine and Light's, and I told him to answer as I looked at Light's monitor. The signal from Watari's cell had been scrambled, but there was one location that had been transmitted at the very beginning at the call and once more at the end. He couldn't be Kira, or so I told myself, but there was no evidence proving his innocence yet and so I couldn't, in good conscience, release him from custody. I smiled as I took the phone from Matsuda. I compared the location Aizawa said he'd tracked the phone to and it was a match. Well, it seemed this was a point for us, but it could still be a trap. I thanked Aizawa and asked about the blood that Mogi had collected. He said he'd have the results in an hour and I thanked him again before hanging up.

I pulled up a satellite image of the area that Watari's phone, and probably Watari himself, were in and realized it didn't look much like anything. It was also three blocks away. Smiling once more I called a break, much to the relief of the other members of the Team, and I headed for the kitchen as my stock of sweets had been nearly depleted over night, Light trailing six feet behind me as usual and looking like he was about to collapse if he didn't get some sleep soon. I had pushed him to stay up all night, but he'd never complained. He knew how much Watari meant to me and had stayed up all night with me to help figure this out. I studied him carefully, pondering whether or not to let him sleep, and he shook his head as he read my thoughts in that uncanny knack he had of doing so. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. We can rest when we've found Watari." I nodded thoughtfully as I took a sip of coffee, stirring it with a lollipop as I mixed in more sugar.


A//N

OK, so I really like it. Yeah, I can definitely tell the difference in my own writing now I have direction and purpose again. :D Can you? O.o