Chapter 20: The Mission

"Are you insane‽" questioned Aizawa. "The last time you used FBI agents, every single one of them died, and you want to put more people in danger‽"

"A single FBI agent," corrected L. "And every precaution is going to be taken to ensure their safety," he insisted.

"Although if they did end up dying it would help prove he is Kira."

"That's not funny! Where do you get off, playing with people's lives like this‽ I-"

"That's enough Aizawa!" yelled Soichiro. "L, think about this for a second. Even if you think my son is a suspect, would the FBI even agree to such a request? What kind of information could we possibly get out of this, that would justify this mission?"

L scratched the back of his head. "If Light is Kira, and he's been changing his actions to avoid detection, then there's a chance he's overlooked something vital; but we'd need someone he doesn't know to tail him to be sure."

"What do you think he could have overlooked?" asked Soichiro grimly. He didn't like being reminded that his son was a chief suspect.

"If you change the first step of your plan, and come up with stages after it, would you notice if those stages would also have worked with the initial first step?" asked L, as Watari brought him a piece of cake. "Kira is changing his moves to avoid detection, but Rose has predictions about all his moves. If he isn't changing what he does after that initial step then-"

"Then Rose's predictions could still come true, regardless of Light's intentions," realised Ukita.

L nodded. "It's unlikely that he's considered that possibility, since he's already taking great pains to avoid repeating himself. Of course the only way to know for sure would be to have him followed again."

"But the chance of finding something vs the risk; can you honestly say it's even worth it?" asked Ide

L paused. "I'll be honest with you all; the chance of finding something credible is less than 1%."

"That low?" gasped Matsuda.

L nodded again. "Light hasn't matched up with any of Rose's ideas so far. I'm assuming he hasn't considered the possibility of accidentally staying true to his original actions, but there's no way to tell if that's happened without close up observation. But considering how the rest of our investigations have gone it's very unlikely we'll find anything useful, even if we do follow him," explained L.

"If it's so unlikely then why would we agree to it?" asked Aizawa. "Why should we continue wasting our resources on this, when we don't even know if she's trustworthy?" The task force looked around in agreement.

"I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying Aizawa. Just because it's unlikely we'll find her clues, doesn't mean he's not still a suspect. Light Yagami was being trailed by Raye Pember if you all remember, and is one of only two people who fit the original profile we built for the killer. I would have suspected him even without Rose's information," insisted L. "But if we were to do this, and didn't find anything of note, it would probably help clear his name faster," he pointed out, before taking a bite of cake.

Watari shook his head, before he went to grab coffee for everyone. It was an ultimatum really. What L was saying was there was no way Light wasn't going to be his number one suspect. So they could either work with L to prove him innocent, or they could continue to blame Rosemary, in which case L would still think Light was guilty and would continue to pursue him as a suspect.

No matter what they decided to do, L would still think Light was Kira. Watari went back into the meeting room and placed the tray on the table.

"Thank you Watari," L began to overload his cup with sugar cubes. "So what do you all think?" The group was quiet.

"I think the quicker we can clear my son's name, the quicker we can catch Kira," said the Chief after a moment. "I've already got cameras in my home, so I'm okay with this, if it means getting answers," the rest of them nodded their consent as well. They all turned to Aizawa.

He sighed. "I suppose we don't have much choice then."

"Very well, I'll try to arrange someone to follow him. In the meantime we'll continue to analyse the killing pattern, and look at the possibility of hackers," he explained before turning to Soichiro. "Mr Yagami, I'd appreciate it if you continued to observe the cameras with me." The Chief looked grim but nodded. If Light really could be Kira, he wanted to know for certain.

"Watari could you please contact Mr Duboir about his men?" asked L, he had worked with the man before, and knew he was more likely to work with L given the circumstances.

Watari nodded his consent, as he handed Rose a cup of coffee. L was pleased to see that she looked a lot better than before.

"If no one has any more objections then I'd like Ide and Ukita to continue going over the number of deaths, and analysing that data. Kira definitely killed less live criminals yesterday, and if that continues our suspicions will remain on Light. Mogi could you please continue looking at the Police data base for any security breaches, see if there's a possibility someone outside got police information; that will help take suspicion off of light. Aizawa and Matsuda, I need one of you to manage the help and enquiries desk. I want the other one to look over the video footage of the FBI agents again; if there's a chance we may have missed something, and anything suspicious happened to the other agents, that could prove invaluable," explained L. They all nodded their consent.

"I'll go to the police station now," said Matsuda. The rest of the task force quickly scrambled to their assignments as well.

"Well that went better than you expected it to," said Watari, once the room was clear. L nodded, he thought for sure they'd fight him more on it, but it seemed like they were all desperate for clues. Even if they didn't suspect Light, they were still willing to chase up a lead as small as this, if it meant getting closer to some answers.

"The only thing left to do now is find someone willing to tail him," said L, who took a mouthful of his coffee paste. It was gritty and so full of sugar, there wasn't enough liquid to absorb it all. It wasn't at all something any normal person could drink, but this was already L's third cup of the day. "If Duboir is unable to help us, I have a few more favours we can call in."

Watari nodded and began walking down the hall.

"Watari wait," the old man turned around. "Are you certain there's nothing Rose told you about her condition?"

"No. Miss Green has not told me anything. "The old man looked stern, as L blinked owlishly at him for a second.

"That's fine then," If he wasn't going to tell him, there was little L could do at present. Not without alerting the task force anyway. He was just about to finish his drink, and join Mr Yagami when he felt a small tug on his shirt, and L was forced to turn away from his coffee paste.

'I have an idea,' wrote Rose.

"Oh? And what's that?"

'From what I know from the original timeline, I don't think it makes sense that Light would put the Death Note very far away. He's cocky, and arrogant, and isn't thinking of getting caught. '

"So what you're saying is you believe the notebook is still in the house? Hmm no, that would be too much of a risk, but you think it's still in the bedroom?" Rose nodded.

'When your men went in there, they were searching for anything suspicious, and anything that matched my prediction but anything else could have been completely ignored.'

"You may have a point there. I sent in professional operatives that were searching for anything suspicious," L bit his thumb. "You said the notebook was in his desk yes?" Rose nodded; it seemed they were coming to the same conclusion. If Light did hide the notebook close by, it would still be in the desk somewhere.

"I see. Perhaps I can find another agent to go there or-"Rose shook her head.

'I want to be the one to go and check,' L raised an eyebrow.

"You do know, you are still a suspect right? Besides didn't you say you couldn't touch this notebook?" But Rose was insistent.

'The last time you sent men in there, Light found out about them. I may have clued him in that something might happen, but it was your men who fell for his tricks. I know Light, I know how he thinks, the sorts of tricks he pulls. You're still observing him so if I can find out where he is you can get it back. If your men go in, and they're caught, your entire operation could fall apart.'

"No," said L. Wait what?

'What do you mean no?'

"I mean I don't give you permission to leave this hotel and go to the Yagami residence. If you do that, I will have no choice but to consider you a suspect in this case, and you will not be allowed back here."

'What the hell are you talking about? Why can't I go? I can literally go anywhere undetected, and you're not even going to use that?'

"Every time you've involved yourself, our best chances at catching Kira have failed. In the worst case scenario if I send a FBI agent after Light and they die of a heart attack, I'll still have more evidence against him than when I started. In the worst case scenario if I send you after Light, not only will I not have any way of contacting you, or seeing you, but I'll have no way of knowing anything you could be saying to him."

'…Are you actually suggesting I could be working with Light?' Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. L sighed.

"It's not a matter of wherever or not you are, but wherever or not you could. The taskforce doesn't trust you at the moment, and suddenly going to Light Yagami's home will make it even harder to clear your name. I'm serious when I say if you go to the Yagami household I will have no choice but to terminate your involvement with this investigation." Rose glared at him, and for a moment L thought she actually might hit him, but instead she just sighed and walked away. Rose slumped down on the sofa opposite to him, and glared at the wall ahead, staying silent.

L didn't say anything either, it seemed wise not to anger her at the minute. Rose looked like she was trying to set the wall alight with her mind. Was she seriously going to stay there all day? L supposed she could if she really wanted to. Just because she was throwing a tantrum though, didn't mean he was going to budge on his decision.

But the detective in him was curious. He'd told her that he would consider sending someone in, why was it so important that she went? Even if she did believe his men had screwed up, why did she suddenly think her involvement would improve things? He had to know.

"Why do you want to go anyway?"

Rosemary frowned in a way L had never seen her do before. She looked unbearably sad, and he wanted to know why. Had the relationship between Light and Rose been stronger than he first thought? She looked so wistful, was that the look of a former lover? L didn't know, but he waited eagerly for her written answer; it just wasn't what he thought it'd be.

'You're right. I've screwed up opportunity, after opportunity, but I just thought maybe I could actually be of use to this case in some other way, rather than just prattling on predictions, and ideas that never seem to come true. I thought I could maybe grab a hold of some key evidence, but to be honest it's doubtful I'd even get that right. I don't know why I came here sometimes; I'm nowhere near the intelligence of you or Light. If I were then none of this would have had to have happened.'

L didn't know what to say to her.

He'd never met a person he felt inferior to, he didn't understand the kind of self-doubt Rose was clearly having about herself, but he still wanted to help her. Rose was sick, her skin was grey, and it didn't seem like this train of thought was going to help her recover.

L didn't know what to say to her, so he held her hand instead.

Rose looked up at him, and he looked down at her. It wasn't a planned thing; neither of them knew what to do. But L was glad he held her hand, because it seemed like her cheeks were just a little bit more flushed, and he was glad to see her look that way again. They were quiet, neither one said a word, then she smiled a little, and he smiled back. Her cheeks seemed to get warmer by the second, until L could feel their heat right on his own. It was nice.

Rose could feel electricity shooting up her arm, until her hand was numb and L must have been feeling similar because the two of them were both losing grip on the other. She couldn't take her eyes away from him, and it was only when their hands finally fell apart that she could get a sense of where she was again. Her heart was pounding, she didn't feel like she could breathe, and he didn't look much better. L had never held a hand so cold. It was unnaturally so, and he probably would have taken the time to notice, were his own not so blisteringly hot now. He knew he should speak, he had to be the one to speak in this case, but he didn't seem to know what to say. He felt for the first time in forever clueless, but it seemed somehow he managed to open his mouth enough to say something.

"You're useful to this case Rose-chan," it came out raspier than he wanted, and didn't seem like the sort of thing you were supposed to say, but Rose didn't seem to mind that. She nodded, and clasped her hands tightly in her lap, seemingly unwilling, or unable to move them towards writing anything. L wasn't sure if he was happy, or disappointed, but feeling his own shaking hands, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to write either.

"I..." talking seemed quite difficult right now, "I'll be going to the observation room if you need me; Watari has something you can help him with." Rose nodded again, and seemed to gulp just a little. It was a tense moment as they waited for Watari to come back to keep an eye on her. When the old man finally did come back L didn't hesitate to leave.

Watari wasn't sure what had happened whilst he was gone, but as his former charge quickly walked away, he could swear there was more colour in his face than before.

…

'Damn it,' thought light as he surveyed his school.

This may not be as easy as he thought. He'd looked everywhere but with so many people studying and taking mock exams, it was just too risky to write anything here. He'd wanted to avoid writing right outside the TV stores as that would look suspicious, but if he did it here he'd be caught before the day was out. But where else could he write? Then it hit him, he could just write the names down as he walked to and from school. It wouldn't look strange to write in public, even if he was doing so it in a school notebook. It could be a grocery list for all people knew. Light didn't look particularly distinct or shady so he was unlikely to be questioned on his journey, and he had already taken the steps necessary to remove the paper he had kept in his wallet (An initial idea he was certain Rosa would have already told the police about). Writing on his commute would also avoid any of the obvious suspicion that would occur, if light suddenly started going to a new location. It was genius really. As Light turned to look out the window, the only downside he could think of was that he'd have to wait so long to get back to it.

…

Watari didn't questioned what they'd talked about, and Rosemary couldn't be happier. He just directed her to one of the spare rooms where he was continuing to observe the deputy, and handed her a scanner. Rose wasn't allowed access to the internet, or more advanced technology out of fear that she would either leak information, or break it beyond repair with her presence but she seemed to be able to handle this fine. It was technology but a very old model, with bulky cables that connected to only one of the computers Watari had set up. Her job was to scan in documents, which would then be uploaded to a private database for easy access. It was a similar idea to the cloud, but a lot more secure; not to mention very advanced for 2004. It meant that they could have permanent records of the evidence in the event that it got lost or stolen. The network was only partially unlocked. Rose couldn't see any of the previous information that had been scanned, but a little pop up did come up to warn her if something was already on the system. So it was pretty easy to tell what they'd looked at.

It wasn't the most interesting job in the world but Rosemary would have been happy to have scanned things forever frankly; it was a good distraction from thinking about L. She didn't want to think about whatever that was. It was sad to say, but she may have been worse at relationships than L. She'd had crushes before but she didn't even know if that was what this was. It wasn't like she'd never kissed anyone, or felt weak at the knees before, but they hadn't even done that. They'd just held hands. Rose could still feel sparks of electricity moving up and down her arm when she thought about it.

'Stop it, stop it,' she didn't want to think about this any longer. She just wanted to scan documents and not have to deal with this bullshit. For a while it almost worked, there was a hypnotic rhythm to scanning in documents. Watari glanced at her from time to time, but he was clearly engrossed with his own work on the case, so Rosie could calmly ignore the world around her, until she ran out of documents.

It was only 11, what the hell was she supposed to do for the rest of the day? She didn't want to go anywhere near L with all these stupid thoughts in her head.

'Well I mean, they never said I had to just scan in documents', sure L would probably be annoyed at her for overloading the database with rubbish, but right now she didn't care. Rose just wanted an excuse to do something, besides stare at a screen for the next 6 hours, or talking to L. So she scanned in her notebook pages, her drawings, random documents that had more to do with budgeting than Kira. When she ran out of those, she went through her wallet. Rosemary scanned in her loyalty cards. Her Holland and Barret, Waterstones, and HMV card, all went into the system with a satisfied tick next to them. It was closer to 1 now, and Rosemary was nearly out of things to scan. It was just as well really, she was starting to get bored of this too. In fact she probably would have relented and asked Watari if he needed help, were it not for a curious little pop up that said:

ITEM ALREADY ON SYSTEM: CATALOGUED DOCUMENT 1482

That wasn't possible. This had to be a glitch; there was no way her driving license was already on L's system, that didn't make any sense. She scanned in an old subway voucher to be sure, but the system read it with no problems. It gave it a tick, and registered it as a new item. There was no mistake; her driving license was logged onto L's system.

'What the hell?' why did L have access to her driving license? How did he even get it? Yeah she was about to put it on there herself, but it was her license. She could do whatever she wanted with it.

'Screw not talking to him,' thought Rose. She was going to get to the bottom of this now.

…

It was hard for Soichiro to tell, but it seemed like L was being quieter than usual. His eyes were on the screen but he seemed distracted almost. The Chief couldn't tell what was on the detective's mind, and he couldn't bring himself to ask. Ryuzaki was such an eccentric character that Soichiro wasn't sure he was prepared for the answer, so instead he focussed on his home, and tried to keep his eyes peeled for anything suspicious.

L failed to notice Soichiro's curious looks. He tried looking at the screen, but he could feel himself getting distracted. His whole body felt tense. He may as well have been sitting down in his chair normally, for all the comfort he was feeling right now. That hadn't been the first time he'd held someone's hand before. He'd done it with quite a few men, and even a woman had held his hand at least once; admittedly, it was only so she could fling him down a flight of stairs, but that was beside the point. He had never felt like this before, whenever he'd held a hand. L wasn't even sure what this was; it was so different than anything he was used to. There were equal parts of his brain that wanted to explore this, and find out more, and parts of him that wanted to bury it, and focus purely on the case that lay ahead.

'This isn't worth focussing on,' he wanted to divert his attention from it, but that was proving so difficult now. This was the worst possible time to feel this way.

*BANG*

The door to the observation swung open, startling both L and Mr Yagami. It was hard not to notice the scowling woman in blue, with a notebook clenched in her hand.

"Rose what are you-"she shoved the notebook in his face.

'Why is my driving license on your system?!' this was not a good time for her to find that out. L glanced at Mr Yagami, who looked very concerned at the angry English woman.

"Mr Yagami I think its best if I talk to Rose privately," the old man was about to argue that leaving them alone didn't seem very professional, but one look at the murderous woman made him think better of it. He didn't envy L right now, he could certainly say that.

…

The two walked towards the kitchen at the end of the hall in silence. L could feel Rose's eyes on him as they made their way there. He'd hoped this kind of situation would never come up between them; but now that it had, he had to try and diffuse it.

"Rose I-"

She slapped him across the face before he could continue. L held his burning cheek in amazement; he never thought she would actually hit him.

"…That really hurt."

She shoved her notebook towards him again and tapped rapidly at the note.

"Because I put it on there," he couldn't really deny it at this point, she was far too angry to believe anything else.

'Why?' L continued to rub his sore cheek.

"Because I wanted to find out who you were," Rose did not look satisfied with that answer.

'You had no right to do that!'

"Well yes I did, you're a suspect." This rubbish again.

'Even if I am a suspect you could have just asked. Why the hell do you trust me so little that you felt the need to steal from me‽'

L stared at her.

"Please tell me you're not serious Rose. I have access to some of the world's most confidential records, and I still have no idea who you are. When I got your license I put it through all of them, and there was not one single match. There is no record of your name, your school, not even your birth. I shouldn't have an easier time tracking FBI agents, but I do. But do you want to know the real reason I didn't ask you about it? I didn't ask you for your license because I think you already knew you wouldn't be on there?"

Rose shook her head.

'I don't know what you're talking about,

"Oh so you have no idea why there isn't a single government record of you? There's no reason for you to be so thoroughly erased from the world. Nothing about you makes sense Rose, and it's not because you're a ghost. What are you hiding?"

'That's none of your business!'

"It is my business, because you're hiding something during an investigation where people are being murdered!" Rose flinched, she'd never head L raise his voice like that.

"This is a case where people are dying from notebooks. What is it that you think is so farfetched I won't believe it?" He almost had a point there.

This was silly, all of it. If she told him the truth he probably would believe her, but honestly why should she? If he couldn't trust her, the tiniest bit, what incentive did she have to help him? She didn't even know if he was going to keep Light alive and he was stealing her property, and lying to the task force, on top of all that. All this time she thought she needed him because he was the smart one, but who cared how smart he was if this was how he operated?

'Even if I was going to tell you before I would never tell you now. I'm going to Light Yagami's house, and I am getting the notebook. You can kick me off the case if you want, I don't care,' she crumpled her note to the floor and left.

L stared at her as she walked away.

"…This day could have gone better."

…

"Well this day went better than expected," remarked Light, as he walked home from school. "I knew I could get a lot of writing done, but today I surprised even myself."

"Yeah, yeah that's great. Are we going to get apples now?" asked Ryuk, as he hopped behind him. Light sighed.

"Right apples, come on." To be honest he was just as eager to get some. Ryuk had been particularly annoying today, and at times it had been genuinely distracting.

"You know at first I was a little worried honestly. Even though I planned for work under observation, these conditions are tight. I'll give L credit; I think anyone else would slip up."

"And you're sure you won't?"

"So long as the song and dance between us stays the same, there's not a whole lot he can do to get evidence. At some point he's either going to have to reveal himself, or give up altogether."

"So either way you win?" asked Ryuk

Light just smirked.

…

'I can't believe I'm back to this shit again.'

Here she was riding yet another bus to Light's house with only a vague idea of where she was going. Is this really what she wanted to do? Maybe she was being hasty about all this. L was right; she did have a terrible track record whenever she got involved.

"What am I thinking? I can't do this kind of thing, I'm useless," she buried her head in her hands. It wasn't too late to stop, she hadn't actually gone to Light's house yet.

'Maybe I can just go back and…' you know what screw that too. Even if she didn't go to Light's house, that didn't mean she had to go back to L just yet.

'He crossed a line, and he knows he crossed a line.' But he didn't care. Of course he didn't care, he was L. But for some reason the fact that he was willing to use her like everyone else, just hurt.

'I guess I thought he trusted me.' What a stupid thing to think. He had probably told the entire taskforce to look out for her, maybe it was already too late to turn back.

Rose looked outside the window at the lush trees, and pretty shop fronts. She was in this mess anyway; she may as well go and have a look in town.

…

*Chomp*

Ryuk was going through apples at a record pace, as they walked towards the high street.

"Be quick about it already. I don't need anyone seeing floating apples next to me." Ryuk gulped down another apple core before responding.

"You know you haven't been very nice to me lately." Light rolled his eyes.

"No really, you should take a page out of Rose's book. She always got me plenty of apples."

"Yeah well Rose didn't have entrance exams, or police surveilling her, now did she?" The Shinigami just shrugged, and continued to eat his apples two at a time.

'Rose,' lately he'd missed her. Perhaps because she was really the only person who knew he was Kira, and he couldn't even talk to her anymore.

'I wonder what she's been up to.' He was certain she was working with the taskforce and L now. Light had done everything he could to avoid his past actions, and for the moment it seemed like it was working, but he still wished she's never joined L. For however brief it had been, they'd been friends once. The two of them had grabbed coffee, and he'd tried to teach her Kanji. Now she was playing for the other team, and he doubted he'd get the chance to talk to her again. Occasionally it felt like she was still around, though light knew better. The taskforce would never trust her to trail him, but still; when Light caught a flash of blue out the corner of his eye, it took all his will power not to turn to whatever handbag or shopfront he'd seen instead of her.

"Didn't that girl look like Rose?"

Light's eyes widened. But it couldn't be could it? He turned around, and indeed there she was; her bright blue jacket, her long sandy hair, everything that was rosemary lay before him.

"Rosa?" She turned to him with the coldest expression he's ever seen on her face. Her skin was ashen, and her face looked gaunter than before. What had happened to her?

She stared at him. She didn't have that panicked look on her face that she did before, she just looked like she wanted to go home. After a minute Rose finally wrote something down for him.

'What the hell do you want Light?'