Chapter 28: When it all Falls Apart
I've been working on this chapter for a while, hoping to get it just right. I am glad to say that I have finally gotten it where I want it and I'm posting it. Thanks to all my readers of the last chapter, I noticed there are less than usual, but I attributed that to my lack of updating and perhaps it was just a lame chapter, who knows. I hope that I keep getting readers and maybe even some reviewers (just in case this chapter sucks and needs revised badly).
Near, that was his name. He didn't dare tell anyone his full name. He knew the risks of it. He was only a child of 9 years old yet he had the logic skills of an adult. He was sitting in Roger's office, as usual putting together a puzzle. These puzzles were very easy to put together and take apart, sort of like people, he guessed. He could easily break down any person to their most basic components, which may explain his lack of friendships during his lifetime. He didn't mind, he had other things to do. He knew what he was going to be doing with his life, unlike most his age, he was going to be the next L. He knew that the current L was working on the Kira case, and had been for years. No one had received any news from him in years. Rumors had it that he was hiding out somewhere tracking Kira's every move and others that he had died in his line of work.
Roger looked down at his phone for a moment. He cleared his throat and said, "L is dead."
The room was silent for many minutes. Near took apart the situation one piece at a time. He saw the look on Roger's face and it was not one to be expected. It was as if he had already known that L was dead, and didn't let anyone else know for years. Near wondered why Roger would keep that kind of thing from Near or Mello. Wouldn't that have been something useful to know? It didn't matter, Near would simply work as L sooner than expected. He continued to put together the puzzle with no change in emotion.
Mello was not as calm about the situation. After an argument with Roger, he stormed out of the orphanage. Near looked at Roger curiously and Roger cleared his throat. "I suppose we had better get you ready," he said sighing.
Near prepared, a whole department had been made just for him to head. The SPK was born. He would be moving to a place downtown from the orphanage. That suited him fine. Roger had left Near in his office to speak with someone about something in private and Near felt a bout of curiosity. Near opened a filing cabinet and was unimpressed. "Roger should have put these on the computer by now," Near thought to himself. The files were old. He found a file labeled "The L Project". He opened the file and found a few files inside of that file. He thumbed through the pictures. All of the people were young, all male, except for one female in the back. The girl looked to be about 14. He pulled her read her file more closely. Novalie Smith, her file hadn't been updated in many years the last date on the record was before he was born. He looked at her date of birth. She had to be almost 30 now. He another file attached to it with a paperclip. He saw an updated picture the girl in this picture was no older than 16. Her name however, had changed. There wasn't much said about why her name had changed, but there was a note underneath it. "Has refused position on investigation team for the second time and has taken new identity." He was intrigued by the woman; he wondered what could have happened to cause her to have to change her name and why nothing was listed in the records.
Near continued looking in the file, but then closed it after gaining all the information he wanted. These were obviously the L's who hadn't made it. When he was in front of a computer he would be sure he searched the woman from the file. "Ellie Johnson," he thought to himself, "What could kind of person must you have been to turn down the L project twice?"
It had been a month since Ellie had come to Japan and she had secured a job in the ICU. She dealt with a lot of end of life care cases, but she didn't mind. Her life was so submerged with death that she found it a lot easier to sit with her patients in their last hours than others did. She often sat with patients whose families were too distraught to be with them. She felt like an angel of death in a way and she was often given the hardest patients. She began to feel well enough to spend time with Matsuda occasionally. He hadn't been around much lately because of the task force that had come together again, but she didn't mind being alone.
The day would come, she knew it would come. She knew that one day such an event would occur in the ICU. It had been a day like any other. She was given a new admission, not much was said about him except that he had been caught in gunfire. Ellie opened the door after knocking to the patient room. She looked at the clipboard as she came into the room and dropped the clipboard. "Mr. Yagami?" Ellie asked pulling the curtain back a little.
The man in the hospital bed was unconscious. Ellie picked up the clipboard and saw the sad news. He had a chest wound, a collapsed lung, and would soon be on a machine to breathe. She saw his trachea diverted to the side a sure sign of air in his chest cavity from the bullet wound. Pretty soon the pressure would keep his other lung from inflating and he would suffocate or his heart would be compressed and he would die from circulatory collapse. Neither scenario was pleasant.
Ellie checked his vital signs trying not to let it affect her. Ellie found it strange that she checked the vital signs despite the fact that he was on a monitor that did all of these things for her. She had almost missed a case of cardiac tamponade the week before because she hadn't checked the vital signs and she wasn't making that mistake again. Mr. Yagami didn't have cardiac tamponade, however, he was dying. Where was his family? She knew that she should be looking for the family, especially with the grave news she would have to deliver.
Ellie looked at her watch. She was given him at the end of her shift. It became apparent to her that he had already been here for a few hours in the ER before he was taken to her unit. She could see the other nurses avoiding his room. She knew the reason that he was given to her at the end of her shift was he was in a grave condition and would probably die before her shift ended. The burden of bearing the bad news was to be on her shoulders and the attending doctor.
Ellie sat with Mr. Yagami. He was her last patient for the night, and she could have clocked out early after reporting off, but he was dying, and would be dead before the next shift would report. She figured since he was stable, she might as well check the waiting room for the family. If Mr. Yagami did regain consciousness before he died, she knew he would want his family to be there.
As she entered the waiting room she saw the group she was looking for. Many seemed to be injured themselves.
Ellie approached Light. "You can all go in and see him now." Ellie said.
Light looked up at Ellie with bewilderment. "Isn't he supposed to be in surgery?"
Ellie's eyes dropped. "I think you should wait for your doctor to explain the details, but he is stable, and may regain consciousness soon. I'm sure he would like to see all of you if he does regain consciousness."
Light nodded and the group followed her in. "I am not going to ask you to get into the isolation gown Light, but everyone else should for safety precautions. I can only let one person in without the gown and mask."
Ellie helped the team members gown up and put on the gloves and face masks. Ellie lead them to the ICU and they walked into Chief Yagami's room.
His eyes were closed and his monitor showed that his oxygenation was getting worse. Ellie noted that chest tube that had been placed in his chest was draining again. She quickly got a sterile wound dressing and cleaned him. Light and the team members stood back as Ellie worked. When Ellie was finished dressing the wound and disposing of the soiled dressing she turned around to look at everyone.
"I will page the doctor to let him know that you are here, press the call light on his table if he starts to get worse," Ellie instructed as she left the room again.
Ellie returned to the room with the doctor who took Light somewhere to discuss the details.
"Is he going to be ok Ellie?" Matsuda asked in a small voice.
Ellie felt the words choke in her throat. She promised herself when she took the job in the ICU especially in end of life care that she wouldn't cry, especially not in front of the family and she was having a hard time keeping that promise.
"I'm sorry, I can't discuss the details with anyone other than the family and the doctor and other nursing staff who have access to his chart. I wish I could say more, but I can't,"
"You're his friend too Ellie! How could you keep this from us!" Matsuda shouted.
"This is my job Matsuda," Ellie said her eyes starting to tear. "This is also a hospital, and if you cannot control your volume you may be asked to leave," Ellie said strictly.
Matsuda apologized. He understood, his job had similar rules, but it was frustrating. "I'm just worried," he said.
"I understand," Ellie said. "You all look a little beat up, does anyone need to go to the emergency room?"
The group declined. Ellie nodded. The wait was excruciating for Light and the doctor to return. When they did Ellie saw the expression she expected to see on Light's face. It was the expression she was always approached with after the news was given. The only time she didn't see this was with patients who had chronic illness. What she saw on Light Yagami's face was shock and denial. It was the first step of what she expected would be a long grieving process.
"I will be back in a few minutes, nurse Johnsen will you page me if he regains consciousness?" the doctor asked. Ellie nodded.
The doctor left the room and it became quiet. The group waited quietly while Light explained what the doctor had told him. It was just as Ellie had expected. She could see that Light was having trouble speaking toward the end and Ellie patted him on the back gently.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Ellie asked.
"Can you give me your honest opinion of how long he has left?" Light asked.
"A few hours, a day at best." Ellie said.
The mood in the room was sullen. "How could something like this happen?" Ellie thought to herself. She didn't want to ask about Chief Yagami's situation, and she knew none of the group members could tell her what happened. She knew that this was the last time she could come onto this unit; she knew that she would have to take the offer given to her over a month ago. She would join the task force, her time would be better spent there than with patients whom would already be dying. She was lying to herself to think she was doing any good here. She was simply hiding from issues she didn't want to deal with, and she knew eventually it would stare her straight in the face again she just didn't expect it to happen like this.
Ellie occasionally checked Mr. Yagami's airway to make sure that he could still breathe, and every now and then it seemed like he was regaining consciousness, but otherwise it was quiet in the room. Light stayed by the bedside.
After another hour of waiting; Ellie saw Chief Yagami's respiratory rate begin to rise. "I'm going to get the doctor I think he will regain consciousness soon."
Ellie returned with the doctor and Chief Yagami had indeed regained consciousness.
Ellie watched as Chief Yagami said his last words to his son. He looked relieved, almost happy to pass on, knowing that Light wasn't Kira. Ellie was pleased as well. She had always had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach that Light was Kira, but it seemed both she and L could have been wrong.
Ellie looked at the monitor. 111/96 was his blood pressure. Those numbers were not looking to be in his favor that combined with the collapsed lung and the paleness of his skin, he wouldn't have much longer.
Chief Yagami weakly smiled at his son and sighed in relief. Light was beginning to get frantic and Ellie could only sit back and watch as Light pushed the Death Note into his father's hands. Chief Yagami looked up from Light to the rest of the room as if he had just realized that he and Light were not the only ones in the room. He scanned the room carefully and gasped. He pointed a shaky finger toward the back of the room. Ellie realized instantly as those around her turned to look at her that he was pointing at her. She stood up and he said, "There are two," and he coughed.
"Two?" Ellie questioned. "Two what?"
Chief Yagami's eyes shut and the room got quiet. His blood pressure and heart rate flat lined and Ellie walked over to unhook his monitor. She followed through with postmortem care as if this were a usual patient but her heart was beating out of her chest. He had singled her out with his shinigami eyes and he had said that there were two. What were there two of? Two names, well she could understand that as she had changed her name. All she knew is that now everyone in that room was going to think she was either Kira or that there was something off about her. She was going to be labeled, just like she was during the investigation with L. She just hoped that it didn't end like it did with L, her pregnant with a child cursed to death, and L himself dying just as the baby was beginning to have a beating heart.
She ignored the gnawing feeling in her chest. She was just going to have to get through this now. She couldn't face those people now. She just had to do her job and try not to think about the raspy words that had just come from the dead man in front of her.
Ellie finished her portion of the charting in the nurse's station as soon as she was done cleaning Chief Yagami up for the morgue. From there Ellie didn't know where he would go; it all depended on the family. Ellie ended her shift after reporting off to the night nurse. Then Ellie walked home. She knew that this wasn't safe, especially in the late hours, but she avoided shortcuts and alleyways and stayed to the main road. She supposed she might take the train back if she started to get worried, but for now walking was fine.
When she finally arrived home Matsuda wasn't there, but she hadn't really expected him there. She put her keys on the coffee table in the living room and walked into her bedroom. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do now, but she knew one thing, she couldn't stand being in these scrubs any longer. She looked in her dresser drawers and found a comfortable pair of pajama bottoms and a top and thought to herself, "Its good enough I'll just be going to sleep in a few hours anyway."
She started the hot water in the shower and undressed. She let the water fall over her in cascades of warmth. The steam filled the room and she sighed. After properly washing herself she exited the shower and dressed herself. She tapped her fingers on the sink contemplating what to do next. She couldn't get Chief Yagami's words out of her head. She decided to do some laundry and eat a small snack and see if she felt like sleeping after that.
Matsuda sat in a room with the investigation team completely shocked. They were discussing the one person he never thought he would talk about with this group again.
"He pointed her out directly," Light said. "I don't know what to think of that."
"He didn't say that she was Kira, he just saw something strange about her. It could be explained by anything, maybe she had two names, or she is going to die and then be resuscitated."
The group discussed it further. They took Matsuda's considerations into mind and then said, "We still want to monitor her, just for a little while, I think you need to discuss her working with the team again. If you can't get her to agree then we will have to do the same thing that we did with Light and Misa." Aizawa said.
"I'll talk to her," Matsuda said. "Hopefully she doesn't turn down my offer as she has done before," he thought to himself.
"I think we should take a break for a few days," Mogi said. "After all that has happened."
Everyone looked at Light. "I agree with Mogi. I need to be with my mother and sister during this time."
The group agreed not to meet for a few days, at least a week. Kira wouldn't take over the world in that amount of time. Matsuda drove home and saw that Ellie was still awake. She was lying on the couch reading a book and looking quite solemn.
"Ellie," he said softly.
Ellie looked up and gave him a weak smile. "I can't do this anymore Matsuda. I thought I could but I can't protect my heart from this anymore." Ellie said sobbing.
Matsuda held her closely. "What do you mean?"
"I gave my two weeks' notice. I don't know what I'm going to do; I can't work in that unit anymore. There's too much death, I thought I could handle it but I just can't."
Matsuda rubbed her back. "I was actually just about to ask you if you wanted to join the task force."
"Yes," Ellie said wiping her eyes. "I accept your offer."
