Important reveal coming up… Be ready.
L Lawliet's P.O.V.
I hired private doctors and had them move into the tower to take care of Ellie. She was moved from the hospital to the tower's medical quarters. I interviewed each doctor individually until I was certain none of them had any connection to Kira. This allowed me to stay out of the public eye while still giving her the medical attention she needed.
And she desperately needed it.
She had been repeatedly stabbed, the skin on her lip was torn, she had a dark bruise on her forehead, and her vocal chords had been damaged from excessive screaming. The only reason she was still alive was that most her wounds were cauterized. Mikami had been careful not to strike her anywhere vital, which means it wasn't attempted murder, it was an interrogation. Could Kira have found out she was the one who stole his death note? No, then he'd simply have sent a shinigami to kill her. There was some other reason for this crime.
Whatever it was, Mikami would be serving a very long sentence for this, I would make sure of it. He'd gone out of his way to hurt her as much as possible. So, for retribution, he would live a miserable life in solitary confinement. He'll slowly go mad. An eye for an eye.
I sat on my feet, watching her as she slept.
"Sir," one of the doctors walked in, carrying a clipboard.
"Yes?" I responded, not bothering to look over.
"There's something we found that you should know. Your wife-"
He was cut off as Ellie let out a loud, rough cough. She opened her eyes, squinting painfully at the ceiling. She was awake.
The doctor ran over to her side, checking her vitals. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
She tried to speak, but all she could get out was a raspy breath. "That's alright," the doctor said, "don't worry. You're safe." He helped her to sit up.
She weakly lifted her bandaged arms, rubbing her throat. There were tears in her eyes. She turned her head, spotting me. The steady beeping measuring her heartrate got a little faster. She reached out her hand toward me. I gave her fingers a gentle squeeze to let her know I wasn't going anywhere. I wouldn't be letting her out of my sight again for a long time.
She let go and started flapping her hands about. It looked like sign language, but it was not a form I was familiar with. She was American, after all. American sign language was very different from English or Japanese sign. She never told me she knew sign language...
I pressed the button to the microphone next to me, "Watari, please bring a pen and notepad in here at once." She dropped her hands and rolled her head back, looking at the ceiling. It looked like I would not get to hear her voice for a while.
A few minutes later Watari came in with the notepad, followed by Matt, Mello, and Soichiro. I didn't contact her family; they'd only get in the way and insist she move back to the states. The doctors said she should eventually be fine, so it didn't matter anyway.
Matt and Mello had helped to track down Teru Mikami's home. He'd kept Ellie tied up in his living room. When he wasn't out and about he was at home, torturing her. If Matt and Mello hadn't decided to help, it could have taken another week to find her. Based on her condition, she wouldn't have survived that long.
"Hey there, gorgeous," Matt greeted, putting out his cigarette on a table.
Ellie offered a weak smile to her new visitors.
"God, you look awful. What'd that bastard Mikami do to you?" Mello lisped, breaking off a chunk of chocolate with his teeth.
Her eyes glazed over for a moment, a grimace crossing her fingers.
"How are you feeling?" Mr. Yagami asked.
At that she took her notepad and, with shaking hands, wrote "Take a wild guess," holding it up. Her handwriting was not as tidy as usual. Instead it was sloppy and inept. She was thrown into another violent coughing fit.
"What's the matter? Lost your voice or something?" Matt raised his eyebrow.
She glared at him, but her façade changed as she broke down into tears. She covered her eyes with her hands, attempting to shield herself. Matt and Mello stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Ellie was not a crier. I wanted to pull her into a hug, but in her condition it would only hurt her more, so I held myself back.
Mr. Yagami, who in our world had had a wife and a daughter, grabbed a tissue out of a box and gently pulled her hands off her bruised face. He lightly dabbed the tears off her face, stroking her hair. "It's alright, you're safe now."
That seemed to calm her down a bit, but silent tears still fell as she wrote another message, "Thanks for finding me."
"Happy to," Matt said, giving a smile and a wink under his goggles, "your husband here was distraught. Honestly, I've never seen him so upset about anything. I think you might be his weakness. He could barely think without you."
She looked over to me and gave a genuine smile, full of hope.
"Aren't you going to talk to her too," Mello looked at me, "now's a good time, while she's still awake."
I racked my brain, trying to think of something relevant to say, but all I got out was, "So… How are you feeling?"
Everyone in the room collectively sighed in exasperation. "Is that really all you have to say?" Mr. Yagami demanded.
I looked at Ellie. She was laughing. She reached up, ruffling my hair, then wrote a new message, "You're too cute you dork." She grabbed the front of my shirt, tugging on it. I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her nose. That was one of the only places that didn't look battered. She held my cheek in her bandaged hand, breathing me in. I didn't need words to tell her how relieved I was that she was alright.
"You went through quite an ordeal," the doctor interrupted, "can you tell us what you remember?"
I sat back down, chewing on my thumbnail. Ellie wrote a new message, "I didn't lose my memory if that's what you're worried about. I remember all too well what happened." She frowned.
"Of course. My apologies. Want some ice-cream?" the doctor offered.
She nodded. "Cookie-dough flavored if you have it."
"Sure," he chuckled, "Whatever you want," then started out the door.
"One for me too," I said.
"Us too," Mello ordered.
"Anyone else," I asked, looking at Watari and Yagami. They shook their heads.
The doctor didn't look too pleased at becoming an errand boy, but went nonetheless. Matt smirked, watching him leave.
She held the pad up, "I thought you guys were gone, doing your own investigation or something."
"We were, but we heard you were in trouble, so we hopped on a flight to come and save your sorry ass," Matt joked.
"Don't start thinking I'm some helpless damsel in distress."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Mello took another bite of chocolate.
"What's going to happen to Mikami?"
I felt anger surge through me at the filth who'd hurt her, "he is going to pay dearly for touching you."
"So," Mr. Yagami said, "What exactly happened?"
Ellie frowned, then took a long time writing. When she turned to show it to us it said, "He blindfolded me and tied me to a chair. I think he owns a death note, because he must have the shinigami eyes. He kept yelling at me, saying he couldn't see my name or life span. He would stab me with a hot fire poker, then yell at me asking what I was. I pretended not to know anything about the death note."
I stared, reading the note over and over. If Mikami had the shinigami eyes, but couldn't see Ellie's name or life span, then this could be a game changer. She'd be able to move about the city freely to track down and get the shinigami's notebooks without a disguise.
"How is that possible," Mello demanded, "Even owners of the death note have their names visible when looked at with the shinigami eyes. But you're saying he looked directly at you and saw nothing?"
"I'm just as confused by it as you are, but yes." She shrugged.
I narrowed my eyes, thinking, "It's possible that this has to do with the reason you can see the shinigami without touching their notebooks. In fact, I have no doubt. There is something very unique about you. What could it be, I wonder?"
"The shiny person came again. He said I was 'one step closer.' I'm not sure what he meant, maybe you can make sense of it?"
"Who's the 'shiny person'?" Matt questioned, eyebrow raised.
The doctor walked back in, carrying several ice cream cones. He gave Ellie the biggest one, then passed the rest out to Matt, Mello, and I. I let the frozen treat cool my mouth as I thought about the figure in white.
"Mello," I said, "what can you make of this riddle…" I swallowed, "When the child weeps at the strike of a bloody midnight, the guardian's memories will be unlocked. The guardian will harness their power to imprison the antichrist forever in a world of nothingness."
"Well," he said, "it would be nice to know the context. Why is it relevant?"
"It may have something to do with the reason Ellie can see the shinigami. Or not. Truthfully it could be anything." I took another bit of ice-cream.
"It was something the shiny person told me," Ellie wrote.
"Who?" Mr. Yagami questioned.
"He comes to me in my dreams and talks to me. Sometimes he gives me advice, sometimes he tells me stories, sometimes he gives me cryptic riddles like that."
I explained, "I have a theory that he is another entity, like the shinigami, but of a different sort. Why he chose Ellie for this, I don't know, but whatever the reason, we should try and decipher his meaning."
"Excuse me sir, there's something-" the doctor got interrupted again
"Look at it piece by piece," Mello took another bite of chocolate, "'When the child weeps' could mean any kid crying for any reason. 'bloody midnight' might have to do with a particularly violent night-"
The doctor tried again, "Sir."
"-Perhaps Kira is going to do some sort of huge massacre all at once and it causes some other shinigami-like supernatural being to awaken?"
"Maybe, but it's not like Kira killing people would be anything new," Matt said.
This time the doctor nearly yelled in order to be heard, "Sir!" Everyone looked at him in annoyance.
I almost dropped my ice-cream, "What is it? There's no need to blurt unexpectedly."
He cleared his throat. "As I've been trying to tell you, Ellie is pregnant."
That was not what I had been expecting. Everybody gawked at him, mouths hanging open. Ellie beamed.
The silence was broken by Matt punching the air, "YEAH! Congratulations, that's great news! Nice job," He smacked my back, "you guys had a little too much fun, didn't you?" He winked at Ellie. She blushed.
The doctor cleared his throat again, shutting him up. He adjusted his glasses, "Under normal circumstances, yes, it would be happy news. However, in her case…"
"What are you saying," Mr. Yagami demanded.
"Maybe I should talk to you two alone," He looked at me pointedly.
I took another bite of ice-cream, "No, it's quite alright. They'll find out about whatever is going on sooner or later. It'll save time to simply tell everyone at once."
"Very well," he said, "I won't sugar coat it," he looked at Ellie, "with the state your body is in, it simply cannot undergo a pregnancy. If you carry it to term, then the process of giving birth might be too much for your body to handle. If you have this baby, the chances of your survival are slim."
Everyone looked at Ellie as she processed this. She scratched a message, "But that'll be months from now. Won't I be at least partially healed by then?"
"Well, yes, but you've undergone extensive trauma. You'll need more than a few months to heal before your body can handle something so strenuous."
I bit my thumb while Ellie wrote another note, "So what are my options?"
The doctor sighed, "Well, at this point there are only two things you can do. One: You can carry the baby to term and hope that you survive, or two: you abort and live for certain. The fetus is still very small, you're only about two weeks along, so if you do decide not to chance it-"
She stopped him, writing a new note, "If I keep it, what is the likelihood that I'll live?"
"I'd say about a 3% chance."
"Ellie," Mr. Yagami said softly, "No one will blame you if you decide to abort."
"I'm keeping it."
I didn't want her to make a rash decision. "Let's value our lives. Do you need to sleep on it?"
She shook her head, determination on her face, circling the note again, "I'm keeping it."
"As you wish. Tell me if you change your mind," the doctor wrote something on his clipboard. "Push that button if you need me." He left, closing the door behind him.
"3% isn't a lot to go on," Mello commented.
Ellie waved it off, writing another note, "There was a time when I was positive of there being a 0% chance that any of you would show up in my closet. And yet, here we are. My instincts say to keep the baby, and they've never steered me wrong. Have a little faith, I have a good feeling about this."
"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better about it. Are you sure you're just not being prideful? You shouldn't play with your life like this," Mr. Yagami said.
She crossed her arms and stared him down.
"I think you have her answer," I said, finishing off my ice-cream.
He looked at me angrily, "How can you just sit there so calmly? Have you no heart?"
I ignored him, playing with my bottom lip. I stared at Ellie's stomach.
"Whatever, do what you want," Mello said, "Matt and I are done here, so we're going to go back and try to catch Kira, or have you all forgotten about the insane serial killer on the loose?"
Ellie wrote a new note, "Thanks for finding me. Good luck!" She drew a little heart at the bottom of the page.
Matt smiled, "Later, gorgeous. We'll be seeing you around. Just don't die, or I'll kill you, got that?"
She rolled her eyes playfully and offered a wave as they left. Yagami and Watari excused themselves and followed, leaving us alone.
When they were gone, she scribbled another note, "So, about Kira… I won't be any help getting the shinigami's notebooks while I'm like this. What do we do?"
"We'll have a few monitors brought down here and have you work from your bed. We still need your eyes to know what he's up to. He hasn't broken his pattern of killing criminals since he's gotten to Tokyo. In the meantime, focus on getting better." My eyes once again flickered to her belly. Did I really put a living being in there?
Ellie placed her hand on her stomach, smiling gently. It didn't take long for her to fall back asleep. I didn't disturb her; she needed the rest.
I called Watari and asked him to bring three monitors to Ellie's medical room. Our operation was not going to halt just because of a few injuries. There was no time to waste.
We may end up having only nine months left to catch Kira.