Hello. I can't stand to disappoint any of you guys, so I wrote one last, really big, mega chapter. It really sucks but I needed to finish it, so here you go.

~Yume-sama

I do not own anything at all.

For Nicole life was harsh. The day she watched him get into a car, and drive away forever stained her mind. She always ran different scenarios about what she could've done.

Scene 1:

He was walking down the front steps with his back turned to her. It was raining, and gray outside. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Suddenly she couldn't stop herself. She was running after him. She crashed into him like a ton of bricks and wrapped her arms around his waist, crying into his back.

"Why are you leaving? Why, when I'm here for you. I thought…we'd stay together forever."

And he turns around and looks at her. Then he realizes he wants to stay with her.

"I'm sorry, Nicole. I don't know what I was thinking."

And he hugs her back.

And he kisses her.

But that's not what happened. It wasn't raining. It wasn't even gray. And she didn't run. She could hardly stand up. She just watched him. Watched him as he looked back at her through the window, smiling and telling her, 'Goodbye.' with silent lips. And she tightly held his necklace as if, if she let go, she would die. Even if she had stopped him, and rambled on about some nonsense about love, he would've gone, because he was selfless. She had given him a personality, given him a soul. But he happily threw it away for the sake of Justice. No matter what, he intended to live out that purpose.

Even though he left only a year after they met, Nicole stayed at the Orphanage until she was eighteen.

She became the mother-like figure for most of the kids in the orphanage. She remembered the crying and sobbing of all the kids the day she left. They all held tightly onto her pant, begging her not to leave. She can still recall the feeling of the little punches that Mello threw at her legs. Yelling,

"LIAR! LIAR! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T LEAVE ME ALONE! YOU LIED! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T ABANDON ME LIKE ALL THE OTHERS!"

Then she leaned down and kissed his forehead. Saying,

"I'm sorry Mello, I'm sorry. But there's somewhere I have to go. I'm sure you understand that. After all, you're the smartest kid, right?" He furrowed his eyebrows and didn't look the least bit satisfied. She sighed. "Here, I'll give you this. It's chocolate. Eat when ever you feel down. It triggers endorphins in your brain that make you calmer and happier." She smiled as she slipped into into his hands. Then he gave her a hug, and let her go.

She said Farwell to all the little kids that she grew so fond of. She said goodbye to the last people that she considered family.

She could hardly believe that only happened 5 years ago. Now here she was, clutching the necklace yet again in her hand. She laid back onto her bed, staring up at her ceiling. She had painted it like the stars. The stars hid a secret. A picture of L, just as she remembered him. The walls of her room were covered with papers, every thing ever reported on L. She had painted him many times. Paintings of him covered her floor. Him young, him old. Over and over her hand made the image. She was obsessed with it. She could never stop. People called her crazy. Well, the last people that ever came into her room did, that is. She no longer let people into her home.

But she was never void of communication. She still had her internet. She was known as P. The famous artist. She shipped hundreds of paintings, sketches, drawings all over the world. She had been featured in every major art gallery in the world. Yet no one had ever seen her face. She knew that wasn't really necessary, but she had not any desire to be famous. But even despite that, the fact that no one ever saw her made her extremely popular. She thought this was hilarious, so she would always go to her exhibitions and bash on her own art work to see what kind of reactions she could get out of people. Just for the kick of it.

Of course, she and L had obviously been connected. Tons of different theories about their connection flooded the world. Many people questioned the number 3, the number of letters apart from L and P. They came up with all kinds of conspiracies. But of course, only they knew about their real connection.

Then came the day. That day she was in Tokyo. Her Art was being featured in The Tokyo National Museum. She hadn't even unpacked her bags when it happened.

The TV was on in her room, like always, because she had gotten used to it after her time spent with him. It had become a habit. When she heard the word's, " I am L." Come out of the voice of a man she didn't recognize, she spun around at the speed of light. She rushed to the Screen, grabbing it's edges and holding her face against it. She stared at the blurry man, as he talked.

"No way." she muttered. "There's no way that this is the face of the boy I knew." And no sooner did he fall over dead. She was shocked. How did that happen. If..if this man was just killed..how?

Her mind was racing. This man was just killed. Was it by some villain? Did L use a fake face and name to lure out this menace? If…if this was really true, if this really happened. If it was possible… then, this man couldn't be innocent. No way he would let an innocent man die..

Then the screen flashed and L's symbol appeared on the screen. She fell backward. Was it really?! His voice came through, obviously using some kind of scrambler. But…but it was still…She listened closely to L's words. She closed her eyes trying to imagine the sound she had almost forgotten. He was saying crazy things. Every word was mystifying. He explained it all so brilliantly. She began to realize, that all this news about deaths, that she had simply ignored…was it by some magic of some kind? Well, as L had just explained to her, he had basically just proved it. She began laughing as she drew closer to the screen.

"This is..! This is amazing L! You've done it! You're so amazing!" She felt her heart brim with excitement. She wanted so bad to tell him! To…to be with him. Suddenly she was struck with a peculiar feeling. As if she couldn't move. Then she started to hear something. Words, whispering, speaking to her.

Protect….find him and protect him…it's what you want…nothing else…

Then she remembered. Remembered something she thought was long forgotten. A spirit, and mission in her soul newly awakened. She knew what she had to do.

It was stupid, almost. Stupid how easy it was for her to find him. All she did was walk out her hotel room. It was New Years and she was getting no where with how to find L. She had purchased a Suite in the Imperial Hotel, and was leaving to go get a drink somewhere, since she was celebrating by herself again. She was walking down the hallway, towards the elevator, when the doors opened, and none other than the Chief of police walked out. She stopped right in her tracks and stared him in the eyes. She had been researching all about him lately. About his family, and everything he was doing, or did. She had to get some lead on Kira, if she was going to find L. She felt guilt fill her up as soon as she saw him, and hadn't the slightest idea what to do. This was the top floor, and there were only two rooms. So it was obvious where they were going. But why, and with all these men, she hadn't the slightest idea.

"U-uhh, sorry." And she simply moved out of the way. They all gave her a nervous looks but walked past her none-the-less. She waited to see what they were doing, but they didn't seem to be doing anything, at least, as long as she was looking. So she walked into the elevator and pressed the close door button. She knew they wouldn't do anything if she didn't actually use it, so she chose the bottom floor. But immediately after doing so, she chose the next floor, and got off on it. She took the stairs up to the suite level and slowly opened the door, peaking around the corner.

The men had disappeared. She walked up to the door and stood silently before it. She stared at it, her nose almost touching it. She felt her legs shaking, sweat dripped down her face. Hadn't…something like this happened before?

'Could L be on the other side of this door?' she thought. 'What…do I do?' She breathed in. She made a split-second decision. Raised her hand, and connected her knuckles with the wood of the door. It was completely silent behind the door. 'Will I…see his beautiful eyes connect with mine…yet again?' She listened closely. She did not here shuffling of feet, instead she heard hard shoes softly walking to the door. Slowly, anxiously, the door opened and revealed the face of an man, with soft wrinkles, and small spectacles. His small mustache covering his lips. He was beginning to ask what it was, probably expecting her to be a maid of some kind. But when he saw her familiar face, his eyes widened with surprise.

"M-Mr. Whammy?" she hoarsely whispered, for it was seldom that she spoke anymore. And her eyes filled with tears. Had she really…really found him? With out a word he grabbed her and pulled her into the room. Covering her mouth.

"Wait here." He said, and walked slowly into the other room. She listened closely to the muffled voices from the other room. She could only catch part of the sentences.

She heard Whammy's voice say, "Sir ..y I ha.. . ..rd?"

And a deep voice responded, " Ex..s. .e."

There was some rummaging and then complete silence. Then after some minutes a door opened and Whammy was soon back with her. He was holding blindfold.

"I'm sorry, but we can't be sure if you are Kira or not, so we must make you wear this blindfold if you want to meet L." She was confused as to why they even thought she could be kira, but she would do anything in order to meet him again, so she agreed.

After that he brought her into some room, and she did a lot of waiting and sitting. It must have been 2 or something hours. But she didn't care. She just wanted to see him so bad. Even if she didn't actually see him.

Then she heard a door open. And she sat up, and waited patiently, wondering with fear in her stomach if it was him. Then she decided it didn't matter. And she sat up straight, and decisively made her statement.

"Listen, who ever you are, I don't care. But here's my point. If I were Kira, then I probably would've killed L already. Because I know his face, unlike most people. And even if I don't know his name, it's not like I'll ever figure it out because after all, he is L. And has always been so." She said huffing.

It was silent. "Still as argumentative as ever, I see." Nicole froze. A delectably cold, deep voice sliced threw the air. It was the voice of a man. "It's been nearly ten years now, hasn't it?" No emotion detected.

She swallowed. "…yes.." She was on the verge of crying. 'I want to see your eyes…' she thought hopelessly. She heard him shuffle closer to her. Standing right in front of her.

"How did you find me." he asked. There wasn't even any inflection.

"How do you think?" He was silent.

"I haven't the slightest idea. It's actually quite amazing. How did you do it."

She smiled, and let a cough-like laugh out. Feeling over-whelmed with both sadness and happiness at the same time. "Fufufu, that's. A. Se-cret~!" He was silent yet again. "If you value my skills, then you should let me join the team. Consider it a trial run." 'What a total lie..' she thought. 'But anything to stay close to him.'

"….I've seen your paintings." He said, shocking her. She smiled.

"What do you think?" a pause.

"I don't have much of an opinion on art, but I think it's interesting. It reminds me very much of you."

She chuckled. "But, I must ask, what's the point of using your alias when you always show your face?"

"What?" she asked. "I don't know what you're talking about." He was silent again.

"Every show, you come. You've been caught in several photographs and even quoted in several articles about your art. There have even been articles solely about 'fans who greatly abuse P's art', which all revolve around you. I don't understand the purpose." She was dumb-struck. It was no surprise that L could find out any type of information he wanted, but what she was confused about, was why he had done research on her? Had he followed her as closely as she followed him? With this thought on her mind, she blushed.

She silently thought about the two of them standing alone in the dark room. Just like so long ago. Then her smile disappeared. She opened her mouth, and let the words slip off her tongue.

"It will never be the same as it was, will it?"

The Investigation had been going on for quite some time. No one questioned where she lived, or where she came from, or even who she was after L had confirmed that she was Nicole Haruka, their new coworker from England.

It only became a problem when Light was brought in as part of the team. He began to notice how little she stood out, her common gazes at Ryuuzaki's face, and her strange name. He knew it was fake. He couldn't find any information on her. And so he thought of her as a threat. It was certain that she would have to be eliminated.

The work hours were very long, but sometimes everyone would go home early, and that was when she would come back to the room to talk with him.

"I see you still refuse to sleep." She said as she walked back into the room and sat down on the couch across from him.

"Sleep is not my pr-"

"Yes, yes, sleep is not your priority." she interrupted.

"Why do you persist to come back after everyone has left. Don't you spend enough time with me." He said, stuffing a marshmallow into his mouth.

She was quiet. "It's never enough time." she said blatantly. He looked up at her. His eyes were dark and void. But there was a spark, a spark in there that said, 'I'm sorry'. "I know.." she trailed off…

She got up and walked over to him, sitting beside him. He still sat in his strange position., after all these years. "It's really dangerous, isn't it. Light…he's…I think he's definitely Kira."

L looked back over at her. "You think so to. So it's not just me."

"This whole second Kira thing, these new powers..do you think there's more? Like…if they could kill from just voice and name? Do you think that could be possible?" He shook his head.

"I think that's very unlikely." She leaned against him unknowingly. He stiffened. "…" He looked over and inspected her. "Your hair…is really long now. Do you ever cut it." She looked up at him.

"No, not really. Do you think I should?"

"Not particularly."

"Hm."

"Hm, indeed."

They shared a moment of silence. Then she sat up and turned towards him.

She suddenly felt her throat constrict. "I always thought about you, you know." And she reached into her shirt and pulled out the necklace he had given her. She took it off and held it tightly in her hand. "I could never let you go."

"…you always cry for the stupidest reasons." He said, reaching over and wiping a tear off her check with his forefinger. She gasped. She hadn't even realized it. " Won't you stop that?" She bit her lip, squeezing the necklace so hard that it made an impression in her hand.

"As you wish…" She choked out. Squeezing her eyes shut and sobbing even harder despite herself. He stared at her quietly, lowering his eyelids and sighing. He pulled her closer and held her in his now big arms. 'Still skinny though…' she thought as she gripped them tightly.

"I guess this is all my fault…" he said sighing into her hair. "You and me…it was doomed from the start…because…I don't understand why someone like you had to come into my life. And make me so happy, and so sad at the same time. I thought it would be okay because we were kids…but now we've both gone and…and now you might die too. I never wanted that. I wanted you to move on." She sniffed and pushed away so she could look at his eyes. They were full of sadness, trying so hard to express emotion.

"But I love you L. I do now and I always have. And there's nothing to do about it. You might die…and.. I might die. But I don't care. I know protecting the world, and preserving justice was and is always the most important thing. But that doesn't change the fact that I love you. So just let me…let me love you. Don't be afraid to love me too. Don't be afraid that I'll get hurt. Because I know I might, and I know you might, and it is scary, but it's okay! So…please…please…!"And she fell apart on his lap and hopelessly cried.

And after a while he lifted her up by her shoulders, and he knew, and she knew that they could never be happy with this fear filled love, but even so, he kissed her, cold lips against warm ones. Both trying so hard…so hard to tell each other that they loved one another. And they held each other for hours that night, falling into a sleep that they had both been wishing for for ten years. Desperately, for one night, trying to live a life that they could never have.

It was late. He had just had a dream about Whammy's house. With his snow-filled arrival. With his loneliness. With the tree's. With her smiling face. With her warmth, with her arms wrapped around him. He woke up crying. And he heard a sound. It was distant but he heard it. The sound of bells. And he knew what it meant. So he went to her room, without even knowing why. She was sleeping. Soundly, softly. Like he never could. He slipped in beside her and watched her. That's all his eyes wanted.

It was suddenly red. Red everywhere. A siren so loud it could be heard across town was going off. She bolted up in her bed and threw off her covers. Her initial instinct. She ran out of her room, still in her pajamas, making her way into the main hall. She could see from the top of the stairs that everyone was freaking out. L was sitting in his chair, he didn't see her. Why didn't anyone wake her up? She rushed down the stairs, just as L began to shout for Watari.

'What?!' She thought. 'It's Ki-!'

"Ra?!" L's voice shot out, before a cry of pain.

She was standing just outside where everyone was gathered.

Her life flashed before her eyes just as his did. She was full of fear. She ran, pushing through everyone, everything was going in slow motion. As he fell she reached out and caught him in her arms. She looked down at him, as the life was leaving him.

"NO!" she shouted. "NO, PLEASE DON'T GO! I LOVE YOU! STAY WITH ME!"

In his last moments he smiled and said,

"As you wish."

Then her heart stopped.

"Huh?!" Nicole shouted before she fell out of her seat.

She blinked and rubbed her head, wondering where she was.

She sniffed. "Oh yeah, forgot I was outside." She shivered.

"Sure is cold." she went back inside, deciding she didn't want to go to school today. "I sure did sleep a long time, probably missed the bus." she shrugged. "Well, figures since I stayed up all night watching…DeathNote?" She looked down at her feet. "Why doesn't that make me sad anymore?"

She walked into the kitchen and noticed the note tapped to the counter. It read:

Thank you for making breakfast today sweetheart.

School got called off this morning, sorry I forgot to tell you.

I'm in a hurry.

I love you.

I'm sorry if I upset you.

~Mom

She read the note and smiled.

"I wonder what it was I dreamt about?"