Chapter 20

For a few moments L stared at the chain that connected him to his sleeping suspect and wondered how he'd gotten to that point. Actually he knew full well how he'd gotten to this point, he'd done it himself. At the time it seemed the only way he could guarantee Light didn't kill him or do anything without him knowing it; handcuffing himself to the boy.

He had watched for weeks, no months, as he had both Light and Misa in custody, and learned nothing; except that Kira was brilliant. He had watched as Misa seemingly changed personalities in just a few minutes, and what was more incredible, he saw the physical change in Light when the same thing happened to him. In front of his own eyes he saw the calculating, cold eyes of his suspect change to the innocent, open eyes of student Light Yagami. He watched it happen and couldn't figure out what was happening. Right after that happened Light suddenly changed his tune, he recanted everything he had told L before going into custody, and wanted to get out immediately to help L find Kira. L had sat there in front of his screen, watching them both, day after day after day, trying to figure out if this was real, what was happening. Did Kira have the ability to give this power to people and then take it away as he saw fit? Or, if he was right about Light, did he plan to lose this power only to regain it at a later date?

The only thing he had going for him at first was the fact that there had been no deaths since Light went into custody, making everyone think that Light was indeed Kira. Then suddenly, two weeks worth of criminals were killed in one day, and in no way did either suspect know any of them or were able to do anything to kill them. The task force then turned on him and demanded he release them, which he agreed to do under a few conditions. One was to plan an elaborate trick to see if Light would break and kill his own father to save himself from execution, but it didn't work, he stuck to declaring his innocence. L had to let them go, in a fashion. He kept Misa there are headquarters under surveillance and Light was now handcuffed to him.

He looked again at the sleeping teen lying in bed beside him as he continued to work on his laptop. They had just moved into the building he had built unknowingly to the task force, with more security than they had thought possible. Misa had her own floor she was locked into and the task force had their own areas so no one had to leave. And for the past few months they had worked and found nothing. He was becoming almost despondent, be could feel it. Nothing he could come up with made sense except that Light was or had been Kira. And yet, he obviously was not anymore. But someone was, someone was killing criminals and he wasn't any closer to finding out whom and more importantly how.

He closed the laptop and drew his knees closer to his chest, his thumb to his lips. Why should he even bother to continue this constantly chasing in circles. All he seemed to be doing was putting his and other lives on the line and getting nowhere. They had already lost a member of the task force to the second Kira, who would be next? How could he stop this? Would he ever be able to stop this? Suddenly he felt like he just didn't care to try any longer.

Christine had been very glad L had warned her there would be no communication between them for a while, although she hadn't realized it would be months. She hadn't realized this case would take as long as it had. It had been over a year since L had gone to Japan and it didn't seem as if he was any closer to bringing Kira to justice. She knew he had to be frustrated because she certainly was for him.

She was keeping up with the news; as best she could piecing together what she heard with what she figured was really happening. What she also heard was that police all over the world were beginning to slow down their search for Kira. She could only imagine that he had begun threatening the higher ups as he seemed to have amazing power. And were would that put L?

She nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell phone rang she was so deep in thought. She sighed however when she didn't see the much wanted "unknown", it said "Private" instead.

"Dr. Thompson."

"Good evening, Dr. Thompson I trust you are doing well?" she smiled happily as she recognized Watari's crisp tones.

"I'm doing well, Watari. I am so glad to hear from you!! Are you and L well?"

"I'm well, I am concerned about L at the moment. He is in a fit of depression the likes of which I'm sure I've never seen. He sits in front of the computer, facing the opposite direction in his chair, he refuses to even look at it. " Christine couldn't help but smile to herself. She had seen that look before, the pout on his face was enormous and he even refused to speak. She had left him to his sulking and gone back to her apartment. She could just imagine what he must look like.

"I'm sure he's very frustrated with this case, he was when I spoke to him last a few months ago. Has anything positive happened for him?"

"Unfortunately, things are at a standstill at the moment. At least on our side. It does appear the police are caving into Kira's threats and leaving L and the Task Force on their own. But I am coming to the reason for my call."

"Yes?"

"He needs to talk to you, I fear. And because of his constant surveillance of one of his suspects he does not give himself five minutes alone. What I propose to do, if it is agreeable to you, is call you a little later, and bring the phone to him. I will take his charge for a while at that time without giving him time to protest, but he desperately needs to let loose a little steam."

"I think that's a great idea, Watari and I'll be ready whenever you call. I have an idea on how to help him relax a bit. Thank you for coming up with the idea."

"I shall be calling you again in about 2 hours time. "

"I'll be ready." She said and hung up. She giggled to herself, she knew what she wanted to do, she just wondered if she could go through with it. More importantly would L go through with it. They had never been shy with each other in their sex life, but she wondered if he would accept something like that over the phone. She wondered if this is what Watari had in mind when he called her in the first place; she wouldn't put it past him.