L's POV

"What did you just say?" Anna questioned. Her eyes had gone wide and her face was pale.

For a moment I debated on changing my answer, but it was all the same at this point. "Beyond is alive." We were both silent for a moment, allowing my confession to hang in the air.

Then she was out of the bed, "I can't believe this." I got out of the bed and started toward her, but she rounded on me, "No, you stay away from me." I stopped in my tracks and watched her walk to the closet and pull a pistol out of the duffle before cocking it and pointing it at me.

"Anna-"

"Shut up. I saw Beyond in LA. He was an exact duplicate. Not even I would have been able to tell you both apart. Not by looking at you anyways." She looked me over and shook her head, "How do I know you're L?" My eyes widened. She was going to shoot me.

"I can prove it." I challenged, holding up my hands in defeat.

Anna licked her lips nervously and nodded, "What's my name? My real name."

I met her gaze steadily, "Annabelle M. O'Conner."

The gun lowered slightly, "The boys."

"Nate River, Mihael Keehl, and Mail Jeeves. In order of arrival and status at Wammy's."

She glanced over me and then put the gun down at her side, "I hate you."

I took another step toward her as she put the gun down, "You don't mean that." I offered.

Anna looked down at her feet, hiding her face beneath her hair as she shook her head, "Actually, L. I do a little bit." She looked up and met my eyes. She was so close to crying.

"Anna-" I took a step forward to embrace her, but when her hand went up I stopped.

"Do not touch me. Three months. You let me believe he was dead for three months. You watched me slowly lose my mind over this and you couldn't have said anything?"

"We were being watched." I admitted, attempting to right my wrong.

Anna shook her head again and leaned back against the wall. She took a calming breathe and met my eyes once more, this time she looked to be much calmer. "I suggest you explain yourself. Or I swear to God I will make you wish that gunman had better aim."

I took a deep breath and sat down on the bed. "Beyond called when I was in Dublin. He said he had some information for me." I paused and looked at Anna who was still standing, watching me carefully. "He said we were in danger and that he could help. Before he could help me, however, I had to get him out of prison. So I talked it over with Watari and we conducted a plan for Beyond to fake his death and get him back to England so he could be of assistance." I finished and looked up at Anna.

She was shaking her head as if none of this was making any sense. "L, I saw him. Hell, we buried him. He was dead."

I shook my head, "Do you remember reading Romeo and Juliet?" She nodded. "The drug Juliet uses to fake her death, is real. It's incredibly hard to find, but it exists. Beyond took some of that before he went looking for a fight. Officers found him a while later, seemingly dead. He woke up before the funeral. We buried an empty casket."

Anna shook her head, "You couldn't have let me in on this little plan of yours?"

"The less people who knew the better."

Anna pushed herself off the wall and started toward me. I stood up. I looked down my nose at her as we stood toe to toe. "You're something else do you know that? You let me believe B was dead for a month. You watched me grovel in sorrow and cry and turn into everything I am not while mourning over someone who was alive the whole time. Who else knew?"

"Watari." I confirmed.

Anna and I stared at one another in silence before she wrinkled her nose at me wringing her hands together, "You've been lying to me for a year. You knew about this little plan of yours and Beyond's for a year and you never said anything to me. You just let me believe he was gone. Here." She grabbed my wrist and deposited something into my hand.

When I opened my hand, a silver band sat neatly in the middle of my palm. I looked up at her, but she was already watching me. "Anna, please."

"L, I'm done. This is it. I'm not going anywhere because we have four children together, but you and I just are not working lately. I can't marry- I can't be with- someone I don't trust and I don't trust you. I won't leave you alone, but I can't do this anymore."

I bit my lip, feeling my heart beginning to break, "Anna, come on. I did this to keep you safe. I love you."

She gave me a sad smile, "I'm sure you do. I love you too, but love doesn't fix everything and I have kids to worry about. I don't have time to try and decipher what's true and what's not."

"Anna, L." We both looked to the door to see Watari looking distressed, "Is there something the matter?"

Anna looked to me and then back at him, "Did you need something?"

Watari looked between us and seemed to age a hundred years before he nodded, "The boys just arrived."

Near's POV

"Give me your cellphones." Anna demanded and we all pulled them out of our pockets. She laid each of them, including L's, Wammy's, and her own, on the table and pulled out the SIM card in each one, breaking them in half as she did. "We can't use cellphones anymore, it's not safe. The locations can be tracked when you make a call." She looked between down the line of us. L, Mello, Matt, Wammy, and myself. All standing facing her like soldiers preparing for battle. Something wasn't right. I could see it in her eyes, she'd changed in the past few days. She barely looked at L, instead focusing on me and Matt, occasionally glancing at Mello. Usually there would be some form of communication between Anna and L. A touch, a glance, something, but today it was absent. I glanced at Matt, whose face was scrunched up in confusion glancing between Anna standing in front of us and L and Mello's side. What had happened in the few days we were apart? "Boys, you should go get some rest. We'll head out in the morning." Anna gave us a small smile and headed toward the door.

"Where are you going?" L asked, rather harshly. I instinctively began twirling my hair between my fingers and stepped slightly behind Matt.

Anna looked up from where her hand rested on the door knob. The second her eyes fell on L, a hundred different emotions seemed to explode in her eyes, none of which I was used to seeing in them. "I'm going to find B. I'd like to get to the bottom of this." With that, Anna shut the door tightly and L was out the door at her heels.

"I thought B was dead." Mello chimed in. Matt and I looked to him before we all turned to Wammy for an explanation.

He simply shrugged, "You three will find out soon enough. Now, I believe Anna told you all it was time for bed. We will be changing hotels in the morning."

Anna's POV

"Anna!" I closed my eyes lightly before turning around. When I opened them, I found L running up to me- well running for L, which was more like speed walking.

"What?" I allowed him to catch up with me before staring on my way again.

"Why are you doing this?"

I paused once more and looked him over. "Doing what exactly?" I asked meeting his eyes.

"Running off to find Beyond in the middle of the night? You don't even know where he is and you have no way of finding him. Stop being irrational and let's talk about this." I hugged myself against the cold and looked up at the sky. It would probably start snowing soon. "Anna, come back to the hotel. If you want to see BB, I will call him and we can meet up with him." I looked down and noticed L was still not wearing shoes. He must have been freezing. "Anna?"

I looked up from the floor and nodded. Instinctively I started to reach out for his hand, but stopped myself. I saw him glance down at my hand. He'd noticed. When our eyes met again he simply nodded and ushered me back toward the hotel allowing me to walk beside him with neither of us saying anything.

When we did finally reach the hotel, he went into the kitchen to call Beyond and I went into the bedroom to check on the boys. They were all fast asleep. Mello was on the edge leaving Matt between himself and Near, who was cuddled into Matt's side. The moonlight was streaming in through the window, casting a silver glow on them. I felt a hand fall on my shoulder and took my attention away from the scene before me and looked up for find Wammy standing beside me. "I put Gia in my room. She's lying on the bed if you wish to see her."

I nodded, "Just a moment." I crept over to where Mello was sleeping and opened the dresser beside him, pulling out the gun I'd deposited in it earlier. When I turned back to Wammy, his face had gone white. "I don't need them to find this."

I followed Wammy down the hall to where his room was and opened the door. Gia was lying in the center of the bed on her tummy with a pillow resting about a few inches away from her on either side of her. I walked into the dimly lit room and sat on the bed as delicately as possible. Her breathing was even and peaceful. I ran my finger down her cheek and smiled slightly.

"Anna?" I looked up to see L standing in the doorway watching me. "Beyond is on his way up. Evidently he wasn't very far away." I nodded and turned back our daughter. A tiny laugh escaped her lips in her sleep and I had to smile. She was adorable.

I got up and followed L out to the living room where Wammy was already standing in an uncomfortable silence with another man. L cleared his throat and caught the attention of everyone in the room.

The other man had shaggy brown hair and stood with an exaggerated hunch so he wasn't much taller than myself, but had he straightened up he would have been as tall as L. His dark eyes and hair stood out in grave contrast to his pale skin and had I not known better, I would have thought I was seeing a ghost. "Anna… it's good to see you again."

I looked him over for a moment and nodded. "I wish I could say the same."

Beyond smiled almost cruelly and looked to L, "So you told her I'm alive." L nodded. "I figured you would. I thought it would have been much sooner though. I'm surprised you kept her in the dark for so long." I glanced between the two men I'd grown up with.

I could see L trying to keep his composure, but it was weighing on him, "You told me not to." He responded.

Beyond raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Of course I did. Anna never would have trusted me to help you. She would have assumed it was a trick." His gaze flickered to me and then back to L. "I never thought you would allow this to go on for this long though. I assumed you would have told her the second I arrived in England that I was alive."

I felt annoyance fill me. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here."

Beyond looked to me and nodded, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you are. Now do you want to explain what exactly why we're in danger and how those people knew where we were?" I asked.

Beyond gave me an amused look and sat down on the couch, pulling his knees to his chest in an eerily similar manner to L's. "You're in danger because L here has put quite a few pissed off criminals behind bars. Criminals who have connections to the outside world and would be very happy to get revenge on him. As for how those people knew where you were, it's quite simple actually." He paused, "Do you have any jam? I'm afraid I left my jar at home." He looked down regretfully.

I snapped my fingers a few times, annoyed with him. He was as addicted to jam as L was to every other sweet food. "Beyond, focus. How did they know where we were?" I asked crossing my arms.

Beyond looked between L and I and smirked before looking down at his shoes. "Well, it's simple really. I told them."

I looked to L whose face was turning red. "You told them? I trusted you."

"It was a test. More of a game actually. I wanted to see if the world's greatest detective could defend himself. I was unaware Anna was with you." The smirk reappeared, "Well… not with you, but I'm sure you know what I meant." L and I exchanged glanced and I touched the spot where my ring used to be. "Don't act so surprised. Body language speaks wonders. Can I see the baby?"

"She's asleep." L jumped in agressively before I had a chance to.

Beyond looked from him to me and I shook my head. "No, you can't."

"Anna?" I turned to see Near standing in the doorway, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

I looked him over quickly and then looked to L, "Take his phone and do not let him leave." I walked over to where Near stood and led him back to the bed room and knelt down beside him as I tucked him I under the sheets. "Nightmare?"

He nodded lying on his side so I had a clear view of his face, "Was he telling the truth?"

I felt my heart clench tightly and began to feel nauseous as I nodded, "Yeah, Baby. He was."

Near averted his eyes for a moment as if to think before he looked back up at me, "So you're giving up?"

I shook my head, "I'm not giving up, Near. I just can't play L's games right now. He and I need to work what the rules are first." Near watched me for a moment before he nodded. I pressed my lips to his forehead and stood up, "Go back to sleep, Sweetie. We leave in the morning."

I walked back into the living room to find L and B staring at one another from opposite sides of the couch. "What's going on?"

L and Beyond broke eye contact and looked to me. L stood up and brushed past me, "Nothing." He mumbled as he disappeared into the kitchen.

I watched him disappear and turned back to Beyond, "What the hell did you say to him."

B simply shrugged and met my gaze steadily, "The truth."