Ok, so I have a confession as to why this was late and not because it wasn't ready. This was late due to the combination of laziness and internet problems. Long story short after spending over an hour yesterday morning trying to make the internet work, it did the exact moment I had to leave and then spent another hour in the evening trying to make it work and by then I just couldn't be bothered to turn on my computer to update. So, um, yeah... it wasn't just my laziness!

In all seriousness though, I am sorry that this is over 24 hours late, although some of the blame does lie with BT. But thank you to Demonishfangirl and Hzzml for favouriting/following and a bug thank you to Fairwaters once again for being the only person to review this week. And yes, I felt bad enough for giving them an awful backstory that I too wanted to hug them and then realised that they were fictional characters that I couldn't do so but I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets too invested in fiction :)

Moving on, I hope that you enjoy this week's chapter and I will hopefully be back on time with another chapter on Sunday as usual, with hopefully better internet connection.

Soichiro found himself watching his son for the next couple of days, thinking over everything Mitsu had said. He couldn't deny that Raito wasn't exactly normal but he was as perfect a son as one could want. How could his son, evidence or not, be Kira? He came home every so often to talk with Sachiko, had taken Sayu to school every day for nearly five years and he was doing everything in his power to help the Task Force to catch Kira. So why did something in him agree with Mitsu- that his son had the highest probability of being the original Kira?

He tried to rethink everything that they had found out. L had been about to trial one of the rules in the Death Note, one which may put Raito back under the spotlight as a suspect as well as Misa Amane, but any talk of that test had been dropped ever since Raito had taken over the Task Force. In fact, even he had felt uncomfortable at first, allowing Raito to just take the reins so easily, letting his own son boss him around like it was nothing. But Raito seemed to always be one step ahead of the game, always thinking ahead, of everyone and everything… and that left the possibility of Mitsu's plan to have him brought back to earth seem all the more probable for ousting Kira. It just kept leading him around in circles.

He wasn't sure how he felt about the idea that Raito should see a psychiatrist. On the one hand it would prove that the twins were wrong, that L had been wrong, and that Raito had been innocent all along. On the other, it might prove the exact opposite and the thought of trying to explain to the rest of the Task Force that Raito might be Kira on the professional outside opinion of a top psychiatrist did not seem pleasant. Soichiro wasn't usually one to balk at such things, but in this case he found himself stuck in the middle of something deeply personal and, not for the first time since Raito joined the Task Force, did he wonder if he was fit to be there. After all at every turn he was denying L that his son had any possibility of being Kira, let alone the actual killer. He knew that he had parental bias, but he suddenly wondered by just how much? There was logic behind every one of L's moves, attempts to prove to a jury exactly who Kira was and how he killed. Even when they had the notebook, L hadn't been satisfied. Instead of being afraid of something that was clearly supernatural, that came along with such a strange and terrifying creature, he had been analytical, treating it as any other piece of evidence in a homicide case. How does it kill? How long can it be used for? Are all these rules true or were some put in by Kira in order to preserve his life?

In his head, Soichiro had to admit that he had been avoiding the evidence that pointed towards Raito being Kira. Unlike L, who looked at everything through several different angles under the pressure of several different governments, he had been creating excuses he could see now. Even when it was clear that Raito had done something odd, he had thought that it was just Kira trying to set his son up to take the fall. But now, that only seemed like some kind of outside chance. As Mitsu said, Raito wasn't just thinking about himself and his family, as Soichiro most often was, but instead looking at the whole city, the whole country even, and how to get it out from under Kira's almost dictatorship over who lived and who died.

I have to talk to Raito first he thought, glancing over towards where his son was sitting, deep in thought. It was only yesterday that he had been at the old headquarters, and yet, Soichiro thought that something had changed about him. He seemed to be even deeper in thought than before and earlier, when Matsuda, in one of his usual exuberant moods, had politely enquired of Raito if he wanted anything from the most recent coffee run, Raito had been so startled that he knocked over the previous coffee cup, spilling now cold coffee everywhere. He had then declined and gone off to find something to clean up the mess, but Soichiro had found himself looking at the dripping liquid wondering what was going through his head. It wasn't like Raito to leave coffee, he loved the stuff too much. So what was going on with him now?

Shaking his head, Soichiro rose and stretched before making his way over towards where Raito was sitting. Today had been a slow day in the grand scheme of things. There were very few cases that the detectives needed to solve and there was nothing new in the realm of Kira, and so most of the Task Force were not here. Aizawa had booked the day off to see his daughter and wife, and Mogi had decided to stay at the NPA station to catch up on work there, along with some of his other work colleagues. Soichiro approved, after all they were not some kind of island from the rest of the world, and had even considered taking Raito home to see Sachiko and Sayu for the express purpose of getting him to stop working. He had been looking tired these last few days and he wondered if it had anything to do with L.

"Raito," he said quietly, attempting not to startle him as before. It didn't work as Raito almost jumped out of his seat. This is nothing like my son at all he thought as he placed a calming hand on his son's shoulder. "I think we need to talk." Raito blinked up at him as if trying to work out what the correct answer to that was. Matsuda had looked up from his laptop, one half of the headphones set just behind his left ear so that he could still hear if anything important happened.

"Of course," Raito said eventually, clearly having decided that this wouldn't be the death of him. He nodded towards Matsuda who merely slipped the headset completely over his ear and then led Raito into the kitchen where there would be no possibility of Matsuda hearing them. Not because he didn't trust the young officer, but because this was family business and as much as Soichiro liked the man, he was not a part of their family.

"What is going on Raito?" he asked, getting straight to the point. Again, Raito paused, as if thinking through his answers.

"It's nothing dad," he said eventually. "I'm just tired, that's all." Soichiro raised an eyebrow at him, wondering when he son had learnt to lie so badly.

"I've seen you tired Raito. This is something else." He laid down the paternal disappointment thick. It wasn't often he had to do so with his son, but this would be one of those moments. He was going to get the truth out of him, whether he liked it or not. Raito looked slightly surprised at having been found out. "Don't start lying to me now."

"Why didn't you tell me about the hospital?" Raito said, seeming to switch tactics. There was an odd note in his voice, one that Soichiro hadn't heard before, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"What about the hospital?" Soichiro asked, trying to see how much his son had truly found out. After all, he knew that L was still alive and that the pair had met, but it might still help to know exactly how Raito had come to that conclusion. Raito raised his own eyebrow.

"Ryuzaki Yagami?" he said, that note now sounding like hurt. "Dad why didn't you tell me that L was still alive? He was my friend!" Soichiro blinked at the amount of emotion in Raito's voice. Is this why he's been so distracted today? He thought. He's been upset all this time because I didn't tell him about L? That made him feel slightly better, but right now he had a rather emotional son to deal with and not quite sure how to move forward with it. Raito had never been one to complain, or even to tell either of his parents about his problems, so Soichiro was a little lost on how to comfort his son, but he supposed that it wasn't all that different to comforting Sayu. So he took in a deep breath and consigned himself to explaining his reasons.

"Raito…" He paused, wondering how he could explain this completely. "When I took L to the hospital three months ago, they weren't sure whether they could resuscitate him or not. None of Kira's victims had been able to and Watari was pronounced dead here. But L… L they were able to get breathing once more but they couldn't get him to wake. He was in a coma, almost brain-dead." He stopped then, thinking back to that day waiting outside the OR, wondering whether the man to come out would be breathing or not. When they had finally brought him out, he was already attached to several machines, face as pale as ever and eyes closed.

"We were able to bring him round, but he won't wake. He was without oxygen for nearly ten minutes after cardiac arrest, it's a miracle that he is even alive right now. If his brain activity gets any lower however, I'm afraid he will be surgically brain-dead and there will be nothing we can do for him," Doctor Yamada had said. It was the first of many conversations in the past three months and it was never easy to watch anyone waste away in front of your eyes.

Right now, Raito was watching him with wide eyes, almost startled at the detail in which his father was going into, but Soichiro felt that he had a right to know. Small things, one person at a time, he needs to understand this he thought. It might do wonders for him.

"It was three months of waiting and praying that he would live. There were times when the doctors were telling me that I should simply pull the plug that he would be happier if I simply let him go but I couldn't." He paused thinking about all those three months, every up and down. The man had fought to stay alive, he just knew it. Who else would survive after having stopped breathing for so long? He supposed that the paramedics had managed to get him breathing and heart working once more, but he had been rushed inside as it didn't work for long. After a while he had researched how long a person was supposed to have survived after cardiac arrest and discovered that actually, the man was most likely to have some kind of after effects even if he did come round. Three to five minutes… it should have been impossible after three to five minutes… "I couldn't tell you about him when it might turn out that he would die in the end." Raito looked taken aback by that, as if it hadn't occurred to him that the reason he wasn't told was to merely spare his feelings. Of course that hadn't been the only reason, but Raito didn't need to know that.

"I… I'm sorry dad," Raito murmured, his head dipping, hair hiding his face. There was a moment's silence between them that seemed to spread out for eternity.

"I saw him yesterday," Raito said abruptly. "He didn't remember me." Soichiro sighed, knowing that this would have come up, as surprised as they had all been that Ryuzaki had allowed his son up in the first place.

"I know. He doesn't remember any of us," Soichiro said gently. "He was in a coma for three months son… a coma that he shouldn't have woken up from in the first place. As shocking as it may be, imagine what it must be like for him." He supposed that Raito might be able to sympathise better with L than he ever could. The pair were close enough in intelligence that Raito would know better what it was like for the other boy, especially since he himself had holes in his own memory. Or so he says said that little voice that kept bothering him in the back of his head. He's been acting differently since we caught Higuchi.

"How much does he remember?" Raito asked softly.

"Nothing," Soichiro said. "Nothing about the Kira case, hence why he knows none of us."

"Oh." It was such an odd sound to come from Raito that Soichiro found himself taken aback. Raito was rarely surprised, and even if he was, he never showed it. Whatever had happened between the pair, it had cut deeper than anything that Soichiro had witnessed before. It was strange to see so much of him at once for Soichiro- his son was a private young man who rarely showed what he was truly feeling towards his own family.

The silence stretched between them once again and Soichiro felt strangely awkward, not knowing how to deal with Raito in this strange mood. He had always been so self-reliant, never asking his parents for anything. In fact, Soichiro could probably count the number of times he had had to console his son on only one hand- even as a child Raito preferred to fight his own battles. He had never been bullied, never been depressed, never truly been in trouble either at school or at home. When he was small, he had always been a quiet child, reserved and usually peerless, although never picked on. Sachiko had referred to him as a wallflower and that he would grow into himself, which he inevitably did. The silence was ended when Raito stood up from his chair, face still hidden, to walk out of the room.

"Thank you dad," he said formally. "It helped." When he raised his head there was the barest trace of a smile, but otherwise there was nothing different to the usual mask he wore.

L woke slowly from the sleep, confused. He was certain that he had passed out downstairs where he had let Raito go for some unfathomable reason but this was not the underground garage. This was the control room, where the many computer screens were blinking back at him and a cushion was dented below him from where he had fallen asleep. He was certain that Mitsu was most likely pissed at him for letting Raito in in the first place, but he vaguely remembered something about a bad joke and the elevator… She must have brought me up here to rest before ripping me to pieces he thought, glancing over at the monitors, showing that Mitsu was currently in the shower. That one he shut off.

The control room was most definitely different to how Soichiro Yagami had described it before. Mitsu had made Matt and Mello clear away all the wires and miscellaneous computer parts, but many of his notes were hung up on movable boards or laid out in a certain order on desks. There had been nearly twenty boxes of notes, some old cases that were burnt into his brain, but most from the one case that he didn't remember, his early notes on various suspects before narrowing down on Raito. Towards the end he wondered if he had had some kind of mental breakdown with the mentioning of Death Gods and Death Notes and notebooks that could kill so long as you had a name and face… but then again, once you thought that the ability to tell someone's name and lifespan was no more than a 'quirk' he thought, continuing his scrutiny of the room.

The chairs and sofas were the original ones, not long used or even well used by the officers. He supposed that they were often too busy to sit down and chat through breaks, or were too intimidated by him to take any. The coffee table was now cluttered with various bits of paper, most doodled on by Mitsu in her boredom, books- mostly various volumes of George R R Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire- and empty mugs. Quillish Wammy would usually clear them away as he chased after L mentally, but with the old man dead, they were merely left and cleared away when either he or Mitsu realised that there were no more mugs left over to make a cup of tea. Same with food or milk or the sugar cubes really. The space by the computers was similarly cluttered and in one corner Mitsu had set up her easel and a sketchpad to keep an eye on him when he was actually working, which hadn't been a lot lately. The only thing missing from the moment before he had left to confront Raito Yagami was the plate that he had used to eat a slice of cake from. Mitsu must have cleared it away he thought fondly, just as Mitsu walked in, clearly having finished with her shower.

"Risen from the land of the dead?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. Her eyes were chips of flint in her face, but she was disguising the annoyance behind a joke, almost testing him.

"I know you're mad at me," he deadpanned and then paused before continuing. "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me."

"Neither does anyone else," she said dryly. "But if the plan was to see if he would try to kill you twice, I could have told you that the answer was yes." He winced at that, knowing it was true. In all honesty, he really didn't know why he had let Raito Yagami in, or even why he had started talking. Raito would have known that someone was in since he had entered too soon after Mitsu and the others had left to not have noticed the car leaving, but he didn't have to answer the call button if Raito had gotten round to pushing it. He could have feigned innocence or pretended that no one was in. They were trying to stay out of his radar, not stick themselves right into it. But something had made him want to play around with the boy, this person who had screwed around in his head and made it so that he had a rather large hole in his otherwise perfect memory. But then he had been caught by something, some motion he had made, a slight catch in his voice that hinted towards a desperation that L was sure even Raito didn't realise was there. And that was it. He had let him up, let him in and now they couldn't go back.

"I know it was stupid and illogical," he started and Mitsu frowned.

"You're damn right it was stupid and illogical! I nearly lost you once Lael, do you want to me do so again? Does this case mean so much to you that you'll throw everything away for Raito Yagami?" There was no catch in her voice where a normal person might have been crying by now. Nothing but anger, annoyance that he had messed up where usually it was the other way around. It wasn't the norm for Mitsu to berate him but he was certain that she had a sharper tongue than even him.

"I just wanted to fix this hole where my memory ought to be!" he shouted back at her, annoyed now himself. She didn't know how this felt, to find everything and everyone a stranger.

"That's what Soichiro Yagami and Matsuda are for! That's what all these bloody notes are for!" she shouted back. "Why risk your life with someone who we know wants you dead?"

"I don't know!"

"Then what the fuck were you doing?" He couldn't answer that. Mitsu was looking tempted into throwing something at his head, perhaps one of the books which was usually a favourite when they were arguing, but as the silence stretched on she just looked exasperated. Contrary to most people's beliefs, when he and Mitsu fought- which was just as often as any set of siblings- it was not usually intellectual or to do with debates. When they were younger it was over who got the top bunk on the bunk bed, as they grew older, how often he was away, which only increased as he grew in infamy, sparking many such arguments as this. Mr Wammy had once voiced that they must have blown their parents ears out with the volume that they could get to. This one seemed to be incredibly short compared many of their previous arguments.

"So," she said eventually, switching flawlessly to Japanese. "What now?" He sighed and dropped back onto the sofa. Despite having rested for most of the day, L could still feel the ever-present tiredness of the coma most likely having been brought on by wearing himself out like that. I should have taken the elevator he thought wearily. There are two of them after all. Apparently, his mind was not set on logic in the past few hours.

"Find a way to fix this," he replied, still tired. "There's a two percent chance that Raito might not be Kira and that he's being set up but his actions speak against that." Sometimes, L just needed to run through the old evidence to find something new. Not always, but at times like these it helped from going too far back in his mind. "However, I think that Raito did not expect to find me alive so there is a fifty percent chance that he may be in shock right now."

"Only fifty?" Mitsu asked sceptically. "He practically stumbled his way to the bus stop." L cocked his head to one side, considering that and then recalculated.

"Seventy five percent chance then. We have to leave room for an act." She nodded before he carried on. "As a serial killer, Raito is most likely figuring out a new way, once past his shock, to try for my life again, most likely involving the notebook and some way of gaining my real name if he doesn't already have it." He paused, frustrated. "But I don't know how to prevent him from getting it if he doesn't, especially if this Kira two is involved who only needs a face!"

"One of your notes mentioned that there was some kind of deal that the owner of a notebook can make a deal to be able to see a person's name and lifespan," Mitsu said off-handedly.

"For half of their remaining lifespan," L said, half wondering where she was going with this, although the other half had guessed and rebelled against the thought. I promised to leave him alone.

"Well, why not ask someone who was born with a gift like that?" she continued innocently, like he hadn't already spotted the route she might have taken with that comment.

"No."

"Why not?" she asked. "To catch a killer, why not ask a killer? And if not, he can at least be able to tell who any imposters are."

"I promised that I wouldn't get him involved." L was adamant. It had passed through his mind a couple of times as well, but he had left his friend behind to heal and the reports were that he was steadily improving. He would never be the same, but at least he wasn't morbidly trying to carve people up anymore out of curiosity to see how far one could live and recover through the ticking numbers above your head.

"To him or yourself?" Mitsu wasn't impressed. "He's technically involved whether you like it or not. Besides, I was thinking."

"Dangerous," he jibed. "About what?" he asked after she shot him a look, one hand inching towards the closest book.

"Shinigami… they can't be seen by anyone who doesn't own a notebook and he kept seeing A talk to a person we never saw in the recordings…" That woke him up slightly. Surely not… He's never been anywhere near a notebook like the one described in my notes but the eyes and the evidence… How didn't I see it? Is it possible? It seemed inconceivable but if it was true, Mitsu would be right. He was involved.

"Fine," he sighed. "Call Dr Collins."

"Done it already," she said airily, rising from the back of the sofa where she had been sitting. "I wanted to know if she could give our favourite moon a session." He blinked at that, nonplussed.

"And Yagami-san agreed to that?"

"With difficulty, but yes." She paused at his disbelieving glare. "Eventually. I had to drill it into his thick skull."

"Well, since you are clearly on top of this, you can sort it out." He paused and then felt unable to resist the urge to leave with the final word. Rising from the sofa he stretched and began to leave. "Just so long as I don't walk in to find you sharing 'jam flavours' again…" He didn't need to turn around to see her blush.

"That was one time!" she shouted and he only just managed to evade the book that thumped into the wall where his head had been a moment before.

Before you all start shouting 'OOC! Too OOC!' there was a reason to all that in this chapter. As this is part 2 of the fallout from chapter 6, there needed to be some kind of feelings emoted from the two most emotionless (or so they claim) characters from the manga. This was hard to try and keep them as close to character, especially for L, when there are so many screwed up feelings hanging around. L is both easier and harder to write since I have Mitsu to balance him out but for Raito there will be some exposition on the OOC in the next chapter as, yes, you are probably as surprised as Soichiro in his emotiveness during this chapter.

Hopefully though, they have stayed as much in character that they are not unrecognisable (also, anyone else love the idea of L arguing with a sibling of any kind, even Mello or Near?) but please tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but flames are not!

Please leave a nice review and I will be back next week with some more Raito and somebody both new and old ;)