A/N: I apologize this is fairly short. My updates will be a little less frequent for a while, because my work schedule is more intensive plus I have other commitments. I'll do what I can Dx

Chapter XXIX: A House Divided

I felt consciousness return to me, but my eyes were still shut. A sharp, throbbing ache bloomed in my skull, centering around the back of my head. I felt like the room was tilting, even though I was sure I was sitting quite still. I was sitting in what felt like a wooden chair. My wrists were handcuffed together. My ass hurt from the stiff wood I had been sitting on for god knows how long. I slowly peeked my eyes open.

There she was, sitting across from me. Her coal-black eyes were locked on me. Morgan Blackthorne. In her right hand, she had a cigarette perched between her two fingers. I looked in front of me. There was a metal table. On the table there was leather suitcase, sitting in the center, along with an ashtray on the other side, near Morgan. She took a quick drag, and puffed out smoke from her mouth.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked me. She had a smooth voice with a British accent.

"No," I said. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew it was too early to surrender any information.

She held her cigarette over the ashtray and flicked the butt gently to ash it.

"Unbind her hands, Mello."

I felt an intimidating energy draw closer behind me. I heard the jingle of keys, and I nearly jumped out of the seat when I felt leather gloves graze my hands. I felt the tension of the cuffs release and my wrists became free. I moved my arms, and my shoulders ached from stiffness. I placed my hands in my lap and readjusted my sitting position, causing more pain in my lower back. Morgan took a slow drag on her cigarette, looking down at the suitcase. Her eyes looked back up at me.

"I want you to open the suitcase and reach inside," she said.

I stared at the suitcase hesitantly. I was fearful of what I was going to find inside.

"Go on," I heard Mello say aggressively from behind me. "Do it."

I reached my hands out slowly, while trying to keep them from shaking. I slowly undid the clasp on the front and pulled the flap open. I carefully reached my right hand into it. My fingertips touched something that felt like paper. My hand folded around a large stack of papers. They felt slightly crumpled and creased. Like they had been folded and read. My heart skipped a beat. It was the case file I had taken.

"Pull it out and set it on the table," she said.

I did as she said, slowly pulling the stack out. I set it gingerly on the table, staring at it, like it was my death right there.

"Look familiar?" she asked.

I said nothing. My throat was dry and sticky, and my heart was pounding beyond measure.

"Look at me," she demanded. My eyes slowly rose up to meet her fierce gaze.

"What is this?" she asked.

"It's a copy of the Kira case file," I said in barely a whisper.

"Thieving rat!" Mello spat.

A wave of nonexistent heat crashed over me. I began to sweat with fear. I was in very deep trouble.

"After what we've done for you," Mello said angrily. "You've undermined the entire Whammy's House project, as well as all of our collective efforts as L!"

"Calm down, Mello," Morgan said calmly. "Fury has a time and place, dear. But it's not now."

She took a final drag of cigarette and smushed it out in the ashtray. Her eyes fixed on me. It was very clear she was a worthy opponent.

"Who was it?" she said. "Who did you have break into the house? Threaten the life of my child? Shoot at Mello?"

"I didn't have anything to do with that!" I said.

"Oh really?" she said doubtfully.

"Look, I know the invasion and then me stealing to case file and wrecking your surveillance might look strange, but..."

"I think the word you're groping for is fishy. Or maybe distrustful, or even equivocal," Mello said.

"Given how perfectly it all falls together, I have a hard time believing that you were not involved in orchestrating the attack," Morgan said. "I can practically smell the guilt radiating off of you."

"I was using the intrusion as a cover," I said. I could feel tears starting to form. My eyelids were white hot. "I took advantage of the chaos to go snooping."

"But like I said," Morgan said. "It all falls together perfectly. Our security systems automatically release the locks on the doors and disable their alarms if our base comes under attack."

"Um," I said. "That seems a little counter-intuitive."

"It's not really," she said. "It allows us to move throughout the house quicker. And besides, we have a fail-safe. Do you know what that is?"

"No," I said.

"We have heat-sensitive monitors on the door handles," she said. "They track when the heat signature of a human touches the door when the door is unlocked. Because we can verify that neither Mello, Roger, nor the assailant were even in that front room, we know that it had to be either you or the other girl. By identifying the object in the suitcase, you've admitted your own guilt. And it couldn't have been a second assailant, because if you really were innocent, I would think the second party would have tried to harm you, or at the very least, you would have raised alarm about it."

I tried to swallow, but I felt my throat stick together. She reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She pulled one out and pressed it between her lips.

"You don't smoke, do you?" she asked.

"No," I said quietly. "But I don't suppose just one could do much harm."

She pulled out another one and slid it across the table. I took it and put it in my mouth like she had hers. She pulled out a butane lighter with a large dent like it had been shot. She flicked a circular trigger and fire appeared out of the top. She leaned over and lit mine as well. I took a puff and inhaled slightly. I coughed a bit, but felt a slight calming sensation fall through me. Just enough to take the edge off.

"Like I was saying," she said, smoke billowing from her nose. "It's hard to believe that you weren't involved in this attack. An unknown person comes and attacks our house, which causes the doors to unlock and grants you access to our computers. The trace on the computer and the destruction of the surveillance computer could be blamed on the attack."

"I told you that if you proved trustworthy, I'd tell you what you wanted to know," Mello said.

"Knowing what I know now," I said. "I doubt that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said.

I didn't say anything. I just stared. I took a second drag of the cigarette. I coughed only a little this time. I could taste of hint of mintyness.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked a second time.

"You're the woman who screwed my boyfriend."

She didn't say anything this time. She just looked at me.

"Did Near ever mention me?" I said.

"No."

And that's when I noticed it. The scar on her chest. A line straight down the middle disappearing into her shirt.

"Did you have heart surgery?" I asked.

"Three years ago," she said.

"Because I seem to recall hearing Near had donated his organs," I said. "Was it a heart transplant?"

"That's none of your business!" Mello said. "You're in no position to be asking questions. In case you haven't noticed, you're in deep shit."

I could see I was getting no where trying to turn the tables on her. They were a team, tightly knit, fiercely loyal. I knew the only chance I had was to speak with Mello separately and divide them with doubt.

"So what now?" I said. "What are you going to do to me?"

"She knows too much," Mello said.

I gasped. I knew what he was implying.

"Are...are you going to kill me?" I breathed.

"I'd really rather not," Morgan said. "But we do have ourselves a little pickle, don't we? While I'm not entirely convinced that you're as innocent as you claim, I think killing you would be premature, to say the least. I think the best first step we can take is to verify your identity and detain you. And you can be assured that this time there will be no exploring, and your lodgings will not be as comfortable as they were previously, since you no longer enjoy our trust. However, we cannot keep you that way for very long without some form of warrant. The British Parliament has been less than helpful to us lately, so that begs the question of what to do. We cannot let you walk out of here, not with what you know, especially if you are involved with the attacker. But for now, you will be held in a secured room, with the other girl, until we have decided upon the next step. Is that okay with you, Mello?"

"Sounds fine," he said. "We have five days to detain them before we need an official warrant."

"Very well," she said. "Have Roger try to get that bloody constable on the horn again."

"Put your hands back behind your back," Mello instructed me. "If you try any funny business, I will hit you on the back of your head again."

I placed my hands around the back of the chair as he told me. I felt the cold metal bind around my wrists again. He also tied a strip of black cloth around my eyes, blinding me to the outside world. I felt his gloved hand grasp my right arm, pulling me to my feet. My back and legs ached badly, and I could feel my joints pop. As we exited the room, after I heard the door shut, I listened carefully. Just two sets of footsteps; mine, and Mello's. Now was my chance.

"Please forgive my forwardness with your wife," I said. "I was just rather fond of Near and I found some things I read to be perturbing."

He didn't say anything.

"I wouldn't do anything to sabotage your endeavor, whatever it may be," I said. "Do you believe I collaborated with the attacker?"

"I don't know," he said.

We stopped. I heard the click of a door unlocking. The door opened and we stepped through. I heard the door shut behind us. His hand released from my arm.

"I'm going to remove your shackles and blindfold now."

Once again, I felt the weight of the metal disappear from my wrists. He removed the blindfold from my eyes. As he turned to leave, I quickly grabbed his wrist, not aggressively, but pleadingly. He turned back to me. His expression was cold and emotionless.

"Do you not suppose..." I began. "Do you not suppose you could answer perhaps a few questions of mine? Do not think that I'm not aware of what position I'm in, I know I have betrayed your trust and I haven't paid you the great respect that I owe you. After all, you were far ahead of me in line for the succession."

"I guess so," he sighed.

"After the explosion in the building," I said. "Did...did he feel any pain?"

"According to Morgan, he was only actually alive for a few moments afterwards. He died on the scene once, but was resuscitated. He was declared brain-dead and Roger signed off for his viable organs to be donated."

"I'm sorry for it," I said. "I would have hoped he'd have died quickly and with no pain. But I suppose if he had, then a few people wouldn't be alive today."

I thought carefully about how I would proceed.

"Were the original L's organs donated as well?" I asked.

"No."

"I find that rather strange, considering Near wanted to conduct himself in many of the same ways that L did. Was it his expressed wish for this to happen?"

"No," he said. "But given the circumstances, we're confident that that's what he would have wanted."

"What circumstances?"

He just looked at me, again.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It was too bold of me to ask."

"Anything else?" he asked.

"No," I said. "That's it for now." I slowly released my hand from his arm, letting my fingers graze down his wrist.

He turned to leave, but I could see a shift in him. Like a seed had been planted, and now a plan was in motion. Play to his passions. The door shut behind him. I knew, to some people's perspective, what I was doing was manipulative, maybe even evil, but to me, it was just business. I had to work my way into this "endeavor" of theirs, but Morgan was an obstacle. An obstacle to be overcome, nothing more. It was very clear to me that even though Mello was logically brilliant, he was emotionally stupid. All I had to do was to plant the seeds of doubt in him.

END OF PART 5