Author's Note: Part two of the last chapter. YAY :D :D

Also, just as a bit of a warning, this chapter gets a little citrusy at the end ^_^ ...just a little ;P

August 2, 2024. 2:37 AM... 22 Days Left...

I stopped walking and heard Mello come up on my left. When I knew he was within striking distance I wound up for a right hook.

I should have known better.

Mello was expecting it, like he had been each and every other time we'd gotten in a fight. He caught my fist in his hand held it. I wasn't going to back down though, I feigned a felt hook, and instead kicked his feet out from under him. Mello fell back hard and his momentum carried me with him. I rolled once on the sidewalk but scrambled back up on my feet in a hurry. Mello was on his feet as well and this time, ready for a serious fight.

Thirty seconds into the fight my heart rate and blood pressure had increased exponentially. Two minutes into the fight my lungs were struggling to pull in enough air and my movements were getting slow and choppy. Five minutes into the fight my arms and legs burned and ached and my cognitive awareness was reaching zero.

Just don't get hit, I told myself over and over. Being caught I could usually escape from, but taking a hit? Not so much. That's not to say I was weak, or couldn't hold my own. In fact, I had been trained to take a lot more damage than most people these past years, but I definitely had a few weak spots.

But as it turned out, being hit isn't what was going to lose this battle for me. I had taxed my body to the extremes today; physically, mentally and emotionally. First with the warehouse operation, chasing motorcycles, chasing Matt, and on top of all that it was almost three in the morning.

The last of my adrenaline and energy was seriously low and I was seriously slowing down. I went for one more left straight. Bad decision. My muscles seized and froze and for a split second, I couldn't move. Mello caught my left wrist and as I went to pull my hand back, Mello's slipped, but caught again on an inconspicuous golden band on my fourth finger. Mello didn't look down at it, but narrowed his eyes at me. The expression on my face I'm sure gave me away instantly. It was one of defence and defiance.

I wanted to keep up my air of insolence; but I just couldn't stand anymore. I collapsed forward into Mello's arms. The blood pressure and pounding in my head alone was giving me a serious migraine. I shivered and convulsed in the cold night air; it was like walking from an intense workout into a cold shower.

Mello held me indignantly for a moment and then finally looked down at my hand. When he saw the inoffensive object he dropped my hand the way he might a scalding pot of boiling water. I stumbled back and tried to hold onto whatever dignity I had left.

It was Mello's gaze turned defensive then, and he looked up at me. "You're still going around picking fight's eh? Is it just me, or did you become even more unstable after the Kira case? One would think that after that whole business was over, everything would have smoothed itself out."

I straightened up, shook off his remark and responded with, "Oh yeah, because losing four out of five of the most important people in your life to a crazed serial killer is something people just get over. That wouldn't make anybody unstable." I waited for a retort but got none so I continued, "And then, having two of those said four, two of the most important people in your life die right in front of you without being able to help them, it's just so good for your soul," I spat sarcastically. "And THEN, having those two people seemingly come back to life... yeah, you're going to hold it against me if I have a little left over adrenaline I need to burn off?"

"One: we didn't die right in front of you. Two, people lose people they care about all the time. People die, people leave and lose contact, that's what happens Jewel."

"You died in a fire Mello! A FREAKING FIRE!" I hissed harshly but quietly. I didn't need to draw the unwanted attention of any of the patrons or the hostess. "Do you remember how my parents died Mello? Do you remember telling me that I wouldn't ever have to be afraid again because you were there?" I waited for a response but none came. "I went to your funeral Mello. I've seen your grave. You know where it is? I do! I went there on the anniversary of your death every year for eleven years. You should go see it Mello, you should see it and maybe get some idea of what it did to me to see you buried there." I glared at him, daring him to go. "Do you have any idea what this whole Kira thing did to me period? Every time I turned around I was seeing Light Yagami. Every time I saw someone writing in a notebook my heart would jam up in my chest. I couldn't be around candles, lighters, matches. If someone got too close to me with a lit cigarette I started having palpitations."

"Well maybe it's time for you to grow up and move on then. I was strong enough to handle it,"

"Strong enough to handle what Mello? From what I saw you didn't handle anything. You just ran away." I turned to walk away and leave myself when an interesting thought crept its way into my mind like a spider. "That bastard," I paused, I almost couldn't bring myself to say it, to believe it. "He knew didn't he? He knew this whole time."

Mello's pause was longer than mine had been, "I'll say one thing for that freak of an albino, he sure can keep a secret."

There were a lot of reasons that I didn't like my brother. This was, so far, the only reason he had ever given me to full on hate him.

I didn't say anything back to Mello but instead, turned and started walking towards our organizations headquarters; I heard Mello following me the whole way but refused to acknowledge him. The whole way I wore a cool and collected expression. I wore that expression to the front door, I wore it in the elevator and through the hallway, I wore it all the way into Near's conference room where I found him sitting at the head of the table, building a gigantic fortress out of dice. It looked as though he was almost done too. It would be a terrible shame if anything happened to it.

With the plane expression on my face, I walked past Gevanni (the only other person in the room,) stepped onto a chair, onto the table, and with all my rage sent ever last die flying off the table with one forceful kick.

Before Gevanni could react I placed my steel-toed boot on Near's chest and gave a firm shove backward. My stunned brother tipped over in his chair and did a summersault before coming to a rest sitting up against the back wall.

I glared angrily at my brother from the tabletop until I felt two arms wrap around me and lift me off the table and onto the floor.

"Let go of me Gevanni!" I ordered. When he saw that I wasn't going to attack Near further he released me.

"He asked me not to tell you," Near said stoically and glanced at the monitors on the far side of the room. Over the security feed I saw Mello waiting coolly across the street.

"I don't give a damn what he asked, you arrogant freak, you tell your sister shit like that." I was pretty sure that was the first time in my entire life that I had ever played the 'Sister Card' and I was pretty sure if there was ever a time to play that card, this was it. I shot Near one last accusatory glance before I turned to leave.

"Still believe in ghosts?" I asked Gevanni, motioning to the monitor as I passed him on my way out of the room.

I walked casually back to the elevator and from the elevator back out the front door. Mello was still waiting for me. I didn't acknowledge him. Why should I afford Mello any common courtesy when he hadn't even had the decency to let me know that he was still alive?

After having him shadow me silently for over ten minutes I finally asked, "Are you going to follow me all the way home? You know, my landlady doesn't let me keep strays that I pick up off the street."

"Real funny Jewel."

Matt was gone when we got back to my place. I knew I'd see him again. If for no other reason than, after knowing that he was alive, I'd search for him to all corners of the Earth if that's what it took.

Mello let himself in after me and walked casually over to my book shelf to peruse my collection.

"That's it then? You just didn't feel like telling me you were alive?" I asked flatly.

Mello stopped halfway along my bookshelf and gingerly removed a dusty, leather bound volume from my alphabetized 'S' section. With his back still towards me he examined the tome; flipping open the front cover and skimming the pages.

I didn't want to ask him what book he had, I didn't want to ask him what he was doing. Asking implied interest, interest implied a degree of attachment... I was not remotely attached to Mello. At least, not to a degree where he needed to know about it.

Finally he turned towards me and slid the volume across the table to me.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I knew this book inside and out, I had read it at least a dozen times. The first story was notably, 'The Adventure of the Empty House,' in which Dr. Watson famously recalls how Holmes seemingly came back to life after an all but certain death.

"Nice try," I muttered quietly, "but Holmes only waited three years before revealing himself to Watson, not eleven."

"You're going to get picky over eight missing years?"

"No! I'm getting picky over eleven missing years!" I stomped my foot like a child. I knew I had no right to get so upset. Mello and I were both adults, we could both make our own decisions in life. It wasn't as though... it wasn't as though we were married. I stared down at my left hand and twisted the engagement ring that wasn't Mello's around and around in my fingers.

"Where's the one I gave you?" he asked, seeing my not so subtle action.

I looked up with a stern look on my face and crossed my arms over my chest. "I pawned it. Years ago, I don't have it any more."

"You should have just sold it back to the jeweller, I'm sure you would've gotten more money for it," the blasé tone with which he said that just made me more angry with him.

I turned on my heels and stormed into my bedroom, slamming the door behind me; half praying Mello would come in after me, and half praying he wouldn't. I sat down on the foot of my bed and stole a glance into my closet. There, on the top shelf, nestled safely in the corner was a black velvet box. A tiny thing, it was no larger than the Rubik's cube that was sitting beside it. The black velvet of the box was coated in a fine layer of dust, as I had not so much as touched it since... since back in January when I had been... I stared back down at my left hand, and at the golden ring that rested on my fourth finger. I hated yellow gold. I had always preferred white gold; white gold and princess cut stones, not like the round stone that I had now.

Suddenly my door clicked open and Mello's figure filled the frame. I gave him a pouty look and pulled my legs up under my chin. Why did it always have to be like this? It was like there were always two parts of me, and they were always fighting. There was one part of me that wanted nothing more than to scream, 'Mello! You're alive!' and run and jump into his arms and have him hold me and love me and we could pick up right where we left off. Then there was the other part, the part of me that just wanted to say, 'To hell with it all. Mello left, AGAIN. He didn't want you, AGAIN. Grow up and get over it,' and be able to move on with my life. But I knew that as angry as I was with Mello, the part of me that wanted him would never go away. When you love someone that much, you can't just 'grow up and get over it.'

I released a breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding and started with, "You know what Mello? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm not as strong as you, or as smart as you. I'm sorry I can't keep it together the way you do; I'm sorry I'm illogical and irrational and uncontrolled. I'm sorry you hate my brother," I jabbed a finger in Near's general direction for emphasis, "but I'm not sorry for loving you. I'm not sorry for missing you," I poured every ounce of conviction into my words and that's all it took.

That was all I said before, in one fell swoop, Mello lifted me off the end of my bed and dropped me in the middle. I was crying a torrent of tears before Mello's first kiss made its way to my lips.

He was everything I had been craving for the past eleven years. His kiss, his touch, his smell. The feel of how perfectly our bodies meshed together and the feeling of absolute elation when our skin met. Air and water and food, they were keeping me alive; Mello is what brought me to life. I moaned and bit my lip in ecstasy as my hair came undone and Mello's hands got tangled in my silvery, silky web.

My arms and legs and body were still sore, but this time the pain felt good. "Mello..." I whispered silently and I was silenced with a chocolate flavoured kiss.

Chocolate and bubblegum. I tasted chocolate and bubblegum.

Mello sighed and the sound brought new pleasure to my ears. He ran his hands down the back of my neck and to my shoulders, but stopped suddenly when he got to my arms.

I looked up into his eyes and found him in deep concentration, lost in thought, his gazed focused in on another time and place. I looked down at my own arms and discovered what had triggered this.

Crisscrossing white lines were etched in all directions over my upper and lower arms. It had been so many years I had almost forgotten they were there... even if I never forgot what they meant to me. Eleven years and seven months ago I had been locked in an abandoned asylum for safekeeping. Eleven years and seven months ago I had escaped by scaling a chain-link fence bordered with razor wire. The results hadn't been pretty.

But I didn't want to remember that now. I wanted to get lost in the moment with Mello. I reached up to him and gently guided him back down to me. "Hold me," I begged quietly.

Mello wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him.

"Closer," I whispered. Mello's arms tightened around me and I whispered, "Closer," again. Mello's hug was suffocating me before I was finally satisfied. I ran my hands along the curve of his back and the flat of his chest and fell asleep in eternal bliss.

Mello wasn't in bed with me when I woke up but I found a hastily written note taped to the lamp and the side of my bed. Without getting up I pulled it down and read it.

Gone to England... I'll be back this time.

Why wasn't I surprised?

I heard a noise in the kitchen then. Mello must have just written the note and not actually left yet. I threw back the covers and went to great him, only to discover that it wasn't Mello in the kitchen. None of the seven men with menacing expressions standing in my kitchen were Mello.

Author's Note: Be sure to review and tell me what you think of it :) I can't improve if I don't get feedback.