Author's Note: I GOT MY HANDS ON DEATH NOTE: ANOTHER NOTE! WHOO! ;D Stoked on life ha-ha. And it's so fitting too because it is (WAS, now that I've finally gotten around to uploading this chapter) Friday the 13th ;P ;P ...Looks like we all survived another one eh ;)

So... I calculated it, and I really only need 65% on my French final to get a good grade in the course. Someone wish me luck... I'm really going to need it. My friend Jon broke his shoelace before the test. That's a bad omen. At least we didn't have to write it on the 13th LOL.

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

August 14, 2024. 9:14 PM... 10 Days Left...

All of a sudden, an out of breath co-worker of mine burst into the main room behind us. All heads turned as he struggled to get enough air to make words.

"We-we found it!" he shouted.

Silence around the room.

"The-the bomb! It's-" he heaved a huge breath and continued, "it's here!" he slammed the laptop he was carrying onto the table and flipped it open.

On the screen was a political map of the city, drawn up in bright green LED lines set on a back background. Right in the middle of the squiggly shapes and lines was a pulsing red dot.

"That's it?" I asked incredulous, completely forgetting my earlier problems. "How did you find it?"

"We got a tip that-"

"Oh wait! Now hold on a second. Do you all remember what happened the last time we got a 'tip' about this darn thing?"

"This time we've been able to personally verify that it is the device that we're looking for."

"Oh yeah? And how'd you manage that?" Mello asked skeptically.

"We've been watching this one particular gang for some time now. We sent one of our men in under cover. He got these photographs." The guy with the laptop and the outlandish claim tapped a few keys and the LED map was replaced with screen shots of a black briefcase.

"That could be any briefcase," Mello pressed. "Who says it's got our bomb in it, let alone a bomb period?"

The laptop guy hit another sequence of keys and the next pictures that popped up were ones taken of the inside of the briefcase. The images showed brightly coloured wires, a timing device and a trigger relay system to a pack of explosives.

Mello and Matt shared a cautious but knowing glance. This was our bomb.

"Alright what's the plan then?" Mello asked after a moment.

"That's the thing," our laptop friend responded. "We don't need a plan. This guy, our man on the inside is going to hand us over the bomb. We just have to make it look legitimate. We need a team of FBI grunts and a handful of cops to go down there and bust the place up. Our guy is in charge of guarding the briefcase, so, so long as we can get in and out in a hurry, before anyone else has a chance to arm the device while we're breaking in, we should all be just fine.

"That's a pretty sketchy 'so long as,'" Mello said flatly.

"No one said you had to be a part of the recovery team," our laptop guy said, shutting the top of his computer.

That's all it took. One question of Mello's courage and he, and Matt, were on board with the plan. I, at this point, was ready to face just about anything.

The scariest thing wasn't going in after the bomb. It was when the plan went exactly as expected. We had a team of FBI agents, all dressed in their Kevlar vests and helmets; we had local police and of course there was Mello, Matt and I present as well.

All of rushed, guns blazing, in to an old, rundown, concrete building on the outskirts of the city. It reminded me a lot of Mello's old mafia base. From its dilapidated and crumbling exterior to the general mess and stench of the inner sanctum... Its occupants were quite reminiscent for me as well. Hulking behemoths with automatic weapons and shotguns.

It was one of the tamest gun battles I'd ever been involved in. The few that didn't immediately surrender the moment we busted the door down took shots to the arms and legs and didn't put up too much of a fight after that. Our supposed informant handed over the briefcase the second we had him cornered and we had Mello and Matt do an eyeball ID on it to make sure that it was definitely the one we'd been looking for this whole time.

The whole affair lasted no more than twenty minutes from the breaking down of the door till the last suspect being driven away by the cops in handcuffs.

I watched suspiciously as the last of the wounded were loaded into waiting ambulances and driven away.

That was easy... too easy.

"Okay everyone, gather around," Gevanni called over my thoughts. The lot of us, the police, the FBI, Mello, Matt, Near and I, we all formed up in a circle around Gevanni. "Alright, is everyone present and accounted for? No one bleeding profusely?"

"No one that hasn't already been sent away in an ambulance," I muttered.

There was a short pause while Gevanni looked over us. "Okay then," he pulled out a clipboard. "I have Mello and Near transporting the bomb back to HQ. I have-"

"Mello and Near? Are you insane?" I cut in. "Are you trying to get the world blown up? You know as well as I do that that's a horrible idea. I'LL ride with Mello and bring the bomb back," I said slipping the briefcase out of Gevanni's hands.

"And if he decides to sweet talk you into giving him the bomb and letting him go?"

"Hey!" Mello shouted in protest. I pursed my lips, unimpressed.

"You should at least go with Matt and the bomb and let someone else go with Mello."

"I don't think she should go with the bomb at all! That thing is very temperamental. What if something triggers it?" Matt added.

"Did you build it that shoddily?"

"Not but-"

"Why don't we have one of our men go with Matt and the bomb?" one of the red-shirts asked.

"NO!" Three voices, including mine, shouted at once.

"Why not!" Matt whined with feigned insult.

"Because I don't trust you with any of their men! If they wanted to take the bomb from you, you would just let them!"

"That's cold Mello, that's cold!"

"And I'm not letting the bomb out of my sight again until I know it's been properly disposed of," I added. "I've had enough of chasing this thing around the whole damn city. Getting shot at and blown up for it. I don't think so, not again thank you very much."

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm taking the bomb with Mello."

"NO!" Mello and Gevanni shouted.

"Mello is going with Near," Gevanni tried again. We all just stared blankly at him.

"Alright that's it!" I shouted. This little game of duck, duck goose, was beginning to annoy me. "Matt is going with Near and Gevanni in Matt's car. All of them," I said gesturing to our assistants, "can go with each other." I reached over and pulled a set of handcuffs out of one of the pockets of the nearest policeman. I clipped one end to the handle of the briefcase and the other end to my wrist. "This bomb is going with me. And if for no other reason than to prove my competence, I'm going with Mello in his car. Everyone got that?"

There was a very brief silence before a half a dozen voices erupted at once in protest.

"She should go with Matt and another one of our men!"

"What, does she need a baby sitter?"

"Why doesn't anyone want to drive with me?"

"She should go with Near and you Gevanni and Matt and Mello can just go together."

"No!" a course of angry votes rose above the disgruntled crowd.

"Why are you so set on having Mello and Near go together?"

"Well one of us needs to go with her! We can't let that thing out of our sights either. It's our responsibility too!"

"Hey, I found the damn thing; I should be the one to transport it."

"Well okay, you can shut up now."

She's not going with Mello!"

"So what? You don't trust me?" Mello and I both charged at Gevanni.

"Let's put Mello and Gevanni together and see how they like it!"

"I'll go with Gevanni, Jewel go with Matt, Mello can go with one of our men."

"There's no way in hell I'm travelling with any one of those half wits!"

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"

Twelve minutes, two bars of chocolate and three sticks of bubblegum later my original plan had finally, albeit grudgingly, been agreed upon. I was taking the bomb with Mello; Matt, Gevanni and Near were all travelling together, and the 'half wits' got to leave it up to themselves which of each other they wanted to travel with.

I stormed over to Mello's car and was about to get in when I noticed that Gevanni was giving Mello a hard time for something across the lot. Mello wasn't taking it too kindly based on the look on his face, and I must say I wasn't too pleased with it myself. Those two really needed to learn to get along. What was this preschool?

"What the heck was that all about?" Mello asked me when he finally came over.

I slid into the passenger seat of his car, and came back with, "I could ask you the same thing. What was Gevanni yelling at you about?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"Mello!"

"What was all that kafuffle earlier about anyway? Who cares who drives with whom?"

"What are you asking me for? You were arguing just as much as anybody else was. I love how you didn't want to drive with me by the way."

"It's not like that."

"Isn't it?"

"Something's more than a little off Jewel, can't you see that?" Mello asked me as we pulled away from the curb and started making our way back to headquarters were we had a bomb disposal unit standing by.

"Well whatever. I don't think we have to worry about it anymore. We've got the bomb," I patted the side of the briefcase, "it's going to be disarmed and disposed of. It's all going to work out now."

"If you say-"

Mello couldn't finish his sentence. In that moment we were rocked violently to the side by a huge, black Hummer with tinted windows and twenty-two inch wheels.

"Ah, Mello!" I whined as I was forced hard against my seatbelt. Mello checked his mirrors and narrowed his eyes like I'd seen him do far too many times. It was his menacing look; it was his hott menacing look.

Mello looked over at me for a second, but his eyes locked on to something outside the passenger window. "Jewel! Get down!" Before I could react, Mello's hand forced my head down into the seat. I heard the crack of glass and felt the whiz of a silenced bullet and glass where my head had just been.

"They've got to be after the bomb! What did you guys make this thing out of? Gold? Is there a reason everyone is after it?"

Mello wrenched hard on the steering wheel and we jerked left. On Mello's side now was a huge black GMC truck. Its passenger was lining up a shotgun barrel, level with my head.

"Mello watch out!" I cried and, hammering myself under the dashboard, kicked my seat back to give myself more room to maneuver.

The shotgun blast was deafening inside the car, and the scariest thing wasn't even the noise. The scariest thing was the two inch hole that had been blown through my passenger side door.

"If he hits the bomb with a bullet we're all dead!" Mello called to me over the rush of the wind that was circulating through the broken out windows and the holes in the car frame.

"You worry about the car, I'll worry about the bomb!" I called back as we were once again pitched from side to side as either the Hummer or the truck, or maybe even a third, yet unseen, vehicle barreled into us.

We were hit a third time before I called, "Mello, you've got to lose them!"

"No you think?" he responded back bitingly.

"If you've got enough extra concentration to respond sarcastically, you're doing it wrong," I accused, reminding myself of the old phrase, 'If you can kiss a girl and drive a car safely, you are not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.' Einstein was good for more than just math.

"Do you want to explain to me, how an armed escort was overlooked for this situation?" Mello asked me as he pitched the steering wheel from side to side in an attempt to avoid the constant barrage of bullets riddling his car.

"Gevanni felt-"

"Yup there's your answer. That idiot!"

"Let me finish! Gevanni felt that an armed escort would only draw attention to us."

"Yeah, because the people who were after the bomb wouldn't know that we had the bomb anyway. We really should have had a backup plan."

"There was supposed to be a backup plan. There was supposed to be a fake bomb that another team would take to lead the people who were after the bomb away from us."

"Didn't work to well, did it," Mello mused as he swerved violently once more to avoid another aggressive hit from the vehicles around us. "Jewel," Mello said after another moment.

"Yeah, what?"

"I think we're going to have a problem."

"A bigger one than we have right now?" I asked, still fighting for my balance under the dashboard.

"Yeah, just maybe. They're trying to box us in."

"What?" I tried to wiggle out of my cubbyhole to take a look, but another succession of rapid gunfire had me reconsidering how badly I needed to see what was going on. "Mello where are we? Are we anywhere near headquarters?"

"Not really. And at this point I think it'd be a bad idea to head down there. We might have more cover down there, but leading these guys to your brother's organization I don't think is exactly a first-rate idea."

"You're telling me. Are there any signs of the others behind or in front of us?"

"Haven't seen them since we left."

"Alright, I'm calling in for some help!" I fished into my pocket and pulled out my cell. I hit five on the speed dial and waited. "That idiot! And he lectures me about not answering my cell?" I shouted when I got no answer from Near. I closed my phone, this time hitting number six on my speed dial."

"Jewel? What's up?"

"Heh, you're kind of not going to believe this Gevanni."

"What's going on? ...Is that gunfire I hear!" I could practically visualize Gevanni's panicked expression.

"Yeahhh, that's the thing. We could kind of use some help down here."

"Who's shooting at you?"

"Well, I didn't exactly get their names," I grumbled.

"Alright, where are you? I'll send someone right over."

"Mello, where are we?" I shouted up to him.

"Just tell that dumbass to follow the gunfire. They're making such a racket. And tell him to hurry. They're about to lock us in!"

"We're on the same road we were when we left!" I explained back to Gevanni. "We're in between a rock and a hard place, if you don't call in an air strike we're going to be in a world of hurt."

"Alright, alright! I'll see what I can do!" Gevanni's phone clicked off and I shut mine and stuffed it back into my pocket.

"What's it looking like up there Mello?"

"Not promising, I'll tell you that. It's a good thing Matt suped this car up last month. The only way we've made it this far is by outrunning them."

"You got this Mello! Gevanni's sending help."

"That'd be great if I actually trusted the guy."

"Mello, he's not that bad."

"Except that he IS!"

"You only don't trust him because-"

"Don't, finish that sentence."

With Mello's sternness suddenly everything got quiet and for a moment I believed I was imagining it until Mello said, "They're leaving!"

"WHAT!"

"They're falling back."

I poked my head up cautiously like a prairie dog testing the wind for hints of its predators. When no gunfire immediately took my head off, I slid back into my seat and checked the view from the rear windshield.

Sure enough, the Hummer and the GMC had stopped. I was mentally preparing myself for some sort of rocket launcher, but not only were the vehicles stopped, they were turning around to leave.

"What the...?"

"Your boyfriend made a deal with the devil for that one."

"Who says Gevanni did that?" I asked, flipping the right way around in my seat and buckling up.

"Who else? They were so freaking adamant about getting the bomb just two seconds ago and now what? They just leave after you put in a call to your boy toy?"

"Call him that one more time... I'll admit it's a little weird but-"

"But nothing. I don't trust that guy."

"It takes a rat to know a rat, is that it?" I asked saucily.

Mello and I made it safely back to our headquarters without any more incidents of crazed terrorists.

"Jewel! Thank heavens you're safe!" Gevanni tackle-hugged me the second I got out of Mello's car. I tried not to notice Mello's ticked off expression at that. "Alright you!" Gevanni shouted to the cop I had lifted the handcuffs off. "Bring the keys over here, and let's get that bomb disarmed now!"

"Upstairs, if you don't mind. I feel more than a little exposed out here."

Gevanni nodded and the whole lot of us tramped into the building and piled into the elevator. I don't remember ever having to ride with so many other people before. It was a good thing I wasn't claustrophobic.

"Alright, get those cuffs off of her," Gevanni ordered the second we were all in Near's office.

The cop, and a handful of other people, including Near, Matt and Mello, gathered in a small, half circle around me. The cop slipped his key into the lock and removed the stainless steel bracelet from around my wrist. He then unlocked the cuffs from the briefcase and put them back in his pocket. He passed the briefcase itself off to a member of our bomb disposal squad.

"I'll give you guys a hand with that bomb. I built it after all." Matt shadowed the technicians and the police out of the office, leaving Mello, Gevanni, Near and I standing there in silence.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but my contentment was short lived.

So what now? I wanted to ask... No, I didn't want to ask. I didn't want that awkwardness on my shoulders. But I did want to know the answer.

"Well then," Near finally started, "I suppose I ought to thank you and Matt for your contribution these past two weeks in recovering the bomb."

"Although if they hadn't built it in the first place," Gevanni added under his breath.

"Sure, whatever," Mello responded, and then turned to go.

"W-wait!" I said, before I could even think.

Mello stopped without turning around, "Yeah? What?"

"W-well...?" there was a long pause as I fought to find my words.

"Look, if you don't have anything to say, I'd appreciate it if you didn't waste any more of my time. I've been here far too long already. Caught up in your guys' problem."

Well fine then, ass.

I let the snarl form on my lips, but I bowed my head to hide its presence from those around me.

It was looking like it was going to end exactly like it had last time. It was looking like Mello really was going to leave.

"Are you, going to stick around? Maybe we can work on more cases together?" What was I saying, and why couldn't I make myself stop talking!

"In case you've forgotten, there are more than enough warrants on my head to keep me on my toes if I stuck around here."

"We could take care of those," I suggested weakly.

"We're on different sides of the law Jewel. We always were. It's not going to work out... But for the record, I am sorry."

With that Mello disappeared from the office, and from my life... Again.

Author's Note: Whew! It's all over... or is it? And what's Mello going to do now?

Sorry if the apprehension of the bomb seemed a little rushed and lacking of detail. I was rushed and I really didn't know how to make it incredibly believeable. I also didn't want to take away from the later car/gunfight scene, so yeah.

Well hope y'all liked it :)

I promise I'll get right on responding to my reviews and PM's the second I finish my Statistics and Data Analysis final!