A/N: MY BAD!

alright, so some changes have been put in thanks to a reviewer, I had changed what happened in chapter 3 and forgot to post it up on here before continuing with the story so Darrel did NOT die of a heart-attack. He killed himself, anyone who read he died of a heart attack, I recommend re-reading chapter 3. Sorry for any confusion. shrugs innocently oops on my part!

Chapter 6

It had been nearly fifteen minutes since I met with the strangely familiar man from the force and I found myself standing outside an expensive hotel building. I walked in through the sliding glass doors and made my way to the elevator.

Up on the top floor, I made it to the room specified on my hand and knocked on the door, suddenly nervous again.

The door was opened and I was greeted by a young man who introduced himself as Matsuda. I followed him into the sitting room of the hotel where two computers were set up surrounded by mountains of papers.

"Ah, you must be Miss Swanson," a man sitting at one of the computers said, shaking my hand "I am Yagami-san, head of this investigation"

"Nice to meet you" I said, had this been the man on the phone? No… it wasn't the same voice.

"L will be out momentarily, he has gone off to the kitchen to get some sweets" Matsuda said with a laugh.

I tried to laugh, but the sound that came out of my mouth sounded forced and unreal. Had he said 'L'? Could it be the same L that I had known as a child? I highly doubted it. It would only be so lucky for it to be him and currently, luck was not a friend of mine. Darrel had just died days ago. I couldn't just run off and hope to find my child-hood love. Things didn't work like that here in the real world.

"Ah," said a voice coming from the doorway into what I assumed was the kitchen, "so my speculations were correct, you are, in fact the same Marie Swanson."

The voice sent a thrill down my spine just as it had done over the phone but this time it was even greater. It seemed so close and triumphant and now, I had a face to match to it.

My heart lurched. He looked the same as he always had, although perhaps a few years older, taller and more tired than I had ever seen him, but something about him made me want to leap for joy.

"L?" I asked, cautiously, my mind was a cruel thing that often played tricks on me like this.

"Hello, Marie" he said in his cool, monotonous voice though I could detect the sound of many sleepless nights in those two words.

Before I could control myself, I was across the room and ran into him with a thud. I heard the air being knocked out of his lungs from the force of my embrace causing him to fall backwards, only to catch himself against the doorframe. I sobbed all those year of heartache into his chest at that moment. I didn't care that he was obviously uncomfortable. I was finally reunited with my best friend who was now awkwardly patting my back asking what was wrong as if he had no idea all the pain I had been through because of him.

"Um, Marie, I can't really breathe that well with you hugging me like that" L said, finally.

"Sorry," I sniffled, "I just missed you so much" I released him looking at his face that now sported a confused look.

"You missed me?" he asked, "Why?"

I punched him in the arm playfully, he recoiled, "Why wouldn't I? You're my best friend!" I said, smiling but he only looked more confused.

"Marie, how can I still be your best friend? I haven't seen you in years. We're practically strangers now." He said, obviously not thinking to spare my feelings. Straight to the point, that's what L always was. He never took notice of other people's emotions, only worried about the logic. But my heart practically shattered because the fact was he was right.

He wasn't my seventeen-year-old best friend anymore. He was a grown man who had a life of his own that I was no longer a part of. He may have seemed the same at first, but this now showed that he was very different. My old L would have noticed how this statement hurt me before it even did and would apologize immediately. This fact only showed one thing:

L didn't care about me anymore.