A long, frustrated sigh fell out of my dry mouth.

I finally had to swallow my pride and admit to myself I was stuck. It's not like it was a middle school book report, there was no room for flourish yet here I was troubled with truth-telling.

Goddammit,

I went back over all the work and interviews I'd done in the last three days, from the little information found at Naomi's and Raye's shared hotel room to the few conversations on the phone with family and friends (via phonebooth of course), and nothing else clicked.

Thinking a little white noise couldn't make things worse, I clicked on the television till I found a channel NOT playing the news. Just some love story aimed at teen girls.

I threw myself into the bed I was already sitting on, listening to some of the handwritten notes hit the ground. Glancing over to the bedside table's digital clock seeing this location's time and doing the math quickly in my head to figure out I had close to ten hours before I'd get an unhappy call from back home.

But, the memory foam took to my shape too well and I felt the last few tiring nights catch up. My inner voice said to fight the oncoming desire, but my eyes grew heavy anyway. Rolling over to the other side to click the table lamp off, I let out a yawn and stole one more look at the TV set.

I quickly shot back up once I realized there were words on top of the screen, blocking small details and partial faces. After reading the text quickly and dissolving their meanings into my waking brain, I let out a laugh.

The FBI just lost 12 people, no way they'd send any more to aid in the Kira investigation.

Of course, no one outside of the police would even know about the first set of agents, except Kira themselves.

I was quick to fix the bun of hair sitting clumsily on top of my head when it zapped me like lighting.

"Can you even make God paranoid?" I let out a deep sigh once I realized I had vocalized an inner thought.

The hum of inspiration lit the fire under my ass to quickly change the channel to one of those Kira worship shows that come on late at night. Everyone called Kira a God, but did he see himself as one?

Or herself, who the hell knows?

After watching a solid five minutes of poorly written hymns and propaganda fodder, I shut the television off. Deciding that maybe if I knew more about Kira maybe I could finish my report on time.

I pulled my laptop closer to me, flipping it open and typing in my ID badge number and password. In just a few minutes I'm already scanning through reports about the criminals' deaths that happened on US soil, but it gives no new information.

Getting restless, I start searching a little deeper but keep running into blacked-out paragraphs and sometimes whole pages.

It didn't make sense as it was still an ongoing investigation and I had 2nd tier authorization, I should've been able to pull up anything from the database.

The sound of beeps and boops cried out, killing the silence in the room. I shot up and dug through my carry-on bag to scoop up the cell phone cradled in it. If someone was calling me on this number, it must have been important.

Unable to recall the number on the front screen, I flipped it open anyway.

Without any greeting, I placed the cell to my ears while picking up the papers from earlier since I was pretty sure I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. With it being an untraceable, unlisted number the caller had to know who would be picking up.

"Miss. Petrillo," I rolled my eyes, knowing at once who was speaking.

"Damnit, Watari, this is my phone." I should have known L have him go through it for numbers.

I heard him move away to clear his throat, showing he was unsure how I might respond.

"Ryuzaki is requesting your presence."

Without filtering myself too well, I let out a heavy sigh carrying a pretty bad word. I muffled through a sorry before asking, taking a second to think it out. My knee-jerk reaction was to hang up and get a new number, but remembering my little problem stopped me.

"...What time?"

I took a sip of the coffee just handed to me, feeling the tiredness trying to sink in again as I once again waited in a chair while L downed a slice of black forest cake. Luckily I liked repetitiveness or this deja vu might drive me nuts.

"Miss. Petrillo, How much of Kira is public knowledge?"

The question didn't necessarily take me off guard, but I couldn't see any point in asking.

Especially me, he could call the FBI Director or just have Watari pull it up himself. I wasn't needed here.

Deciding I'd hesitated enough, I gently sat the drink down to fold my hands into my lap.

"Kira is under a mainstream media blackout, but it's still really easy to go online and catch up on one of the many pages created to worship. It's supposed to be a temporary thing while the head of the FBI and congress meet in the morning to finally decide where the US stands on things."

I tried to ask him why he needed to know any of that, but L just sat there plopping sugar cubes one at a time into his drink mindlessly. I was beginning to think I shouldn't have come down here.

"You have informants, Ryuzaki, in the bureau surely they informed you of this."

"I've been unable to reach any of them,"

I watched him place one foot on the carpet, wiggling his toes to get the blood flowing back before moving the other. Even with the crook in his back, he was taller than me, I had to till my head up just to watch his face for anything. The thought of saying his name crossed my mind, but the connection to my mouth wouldn't pick up.

"I believe they'll pull out of the investigation, maybe even openly support Kira."

"Percent?"

"Hmm, 5 percent."

Ryuzaki percentages were always lies, but like all other lies, they hold inside a grain of truth. So, I learned early on to add a zero at the end of that number and you're a lot closer to an answer.

"But... it's American we're talking about here. Kira's treading on most of the criminals' constitutional sixth amendment, we've always been the one to give aid no matter what."

I sighed hard, asking myself if I believed in what I was saying or if I just felt the need to say it.

"Is this why you brought me here? To shake my faith in the system?"

L walked over to the exposed window, staring out into the dark.

"No."

I was about to ask him to just tell me, having too much on my caffeine power brain to play any games, when out of thin air my mind pulls out what was said earlier.

I believe they'll pull out of the investigation, maybe even openly support Kira

Standing up and walking beside him, I think for a minute if this is the line of dialog I wanted to go down.

"I understand now, you're asking me to pick a side, your side."

"I need someone on the task force I know I can trust, no matter what, Miss. Petrillo. Someone who won't question my decisions."

L turned his head slightly towards me, our eyes meeting quickly. He wanted someone willing to do something illegal without blinking an eye, and once upon a time, he wouldn't have had to ask.

Things were different now, I never wanted to go back to him.

Although, I couldn't outright tell him to go to hell, not with those few nerve endings buzzing like crazy.

"I'm not the person for this job."

"I disagree."

Pushing a lock of hair behind my ear, I went back to my seat.

"I came here under pretenses, I need to study up on the last few months of the case."

L called for Watari to bring over the files I was requesting understanding I couldn't write anything down or take something with me. I mindlessly agreed to the rules as I began my research to burn to memory everything I might need.

My next flowing stream of conciseness started me out on the hotel's white couch, face buried close to the cushions That bitter smell of roasted beans enticed my senses alive, causing me to sit up and spot a cup of black coffee with a strip of a chocolate bar sitting inside. I had to rub my eyes, trying to remember how I might have gotten back to my hotel.

"Morning,"

I turned my upper torso around to face the back of the couch, watching Watari picking up papers I must have knocked off rolling in my sleep.

"Morning, thank you so much for the drink."

A smile lit up on my face, remembering why I always liked Watari in the first place. Although, I was a little surprised he remembered how I drink my first cup of the day. Guilt sat in about the other day and I offered to pay him back for the chair I broke, but he kindly declined.

I looked over, noticing L in the same spot he was from last night with a steaming cup. Trying to decide if I should thank him or just leave him alone and slip out the door, the clanging of my saucer as I placed the cup back down filled the space between us.

"I can only offer you location."

He said it so calmly and smoothly I had a hard time taking the bait. I couldn't help but wonder why he wanted me to join the task force so badly.

"Are we talking continental here or..."

"Township."

I stood up and picked up my personal belongings returned to me, thinking over the very tempting offer.

"I know the children are still in Whammy's house."

"Do you know how many there are?"

Matter of fact I did, fifty of them throughout six continents but only one of them were for gifted children. Within the eleven years, I had narrowed it down to twenty-five and wasn't wanting to spend another eleven on the rest.

I sighed, promising him I'll keep in my thoughts but unsure just how far I should trust him.