I rubbed the moisture back into my dried-out eyes, scolding myself for picking up L's bad habits, but like a child, a small part of me had hoped my very foreseeable problems would have disappeared.

But, the worst thing was I couldn't seem to come up with a solution.

"Violet?" a warm whisper called my name.

I looked over my shoulder, finding L staring at me through coffee slips. I gave him my full attention since he used my first name instead of the honorific, one of the few ways to understand L speak for he's worried.

"I'd been talking to you for the last few minutes, weren't you listening?"

"No, I guess not, sorry."

He took his seat, curling up into position and digging his bare toes into the chair.

"Okay, I'm ready, what's the problem?"

No, if even he could help, I didn't want to be indebted to him or get him involved.

"I'm fine, Ryuzaki, honestly."

The vibration of my cell phone bounced around on the table it was sitting on, I snatched at it at once to send it to voicemail. The heat of his stare never left my face.

I showed my true feeling with my actions, keeping my eyes on my work and screen as I spoke to him.

"Stop acting like you care, Ryuzaki."

The air between us grew chilly and silent.

"Now, I know there's something wrong."

Luckily for me, because I knew L had the skill to drag it or of me or deducted it from thin air, Watari's presence cooled both of our heels, switching the channel to Sakura TV while informing us of an audiotape. The voice was being scrambled and the video was only of a poorly written out KIRA on what I assumed to be a normal white piece of paper. The voice offered up proof of its powers by dropping a name and the time of six o'clock.

Watari changed the channel at L's request, playing the evening news, tuning in just in time to watch one of the news anchors grab his chest with intense pain.

"What the hell is Kira doing?! Kashiwagi Oh was only rumored to have been a blackmailer, he didn't even go to trial!" Matsuda cried out in his usual excitement, as another TV was brought in to help with all the channel jumping this "Kira" had us doing.

"Nonetheless, we need to put a stop to this, now." The words coming out of L's mouth sounded neither like a command nor a suggestion.

I continued to watch people die on the air, hoping Aizawa could get ahold of his contacts at the station to get this damn thing shut off before things get worse. But, the clicks of the room's phone pad getting more and more frequent told me not to hold my breath anymore.

The beating of my heart began to skip as the realization weighed heavy on my shoulders, and if I were to pull the trigger, it needed to be now.

My fingers tapped away quickly, knowing the codes and directionals by heart, though I don't have to use it too often, as it's one of the first things you learn to do as part of cybercrimes.

"Good work, Miss. Petrillo." L offered felicitations between bites of chocolate-coated fruits.

The TVs both had colored bars playing on them, and I held my breath altogether.

"I didn't think we still used SMPTE bars here in Japan," Matsuda said, breaking the silence of relief.

"It's been many years since its last usage, as far as I'm aware of." Chief Yagami noted.

I tuned out the rest of the small conversations going on behind me, keeping everything I had in me to focus on the screen in front of me. Maybe I was in the clear, but once one was under scurrying it was hard to escape. I pushed out a breath, feeling the tiny ache of release.

Like clockwork, the computerized voice of this Kira came back on, unleashing a swirl of profanity in my head as I knew what was happening and could only watch. The United States government is a hard entity to pull the rug over on, and now with my little stunt of blocking unwanted programs on live television under my FBI ID, my true location and motives have been exposed.

The team's mumbles snuff out my inner panic, as I calmly state the idea for me to just do it by hand, a process that will take me a little bit to do since now all my stuff on my laptop I'd been using to aid in the Kira case was down. I heard someone volunteer to go down to the station and get the tape stopped.

I was still working on getting through a "back door" at Sakura TV when I made a spilled second glace up at the closest tv set, catching the death of Ukita and two police officers in front of Sakura's lobby doors.

"I understand how you must feel," L spoke, thumb to the lip. "But, don't go throwing your lives away."

My damn phone started to ring once more, shaking in my left pants pocket. I already knew who it was and what they wanted so there was no need to rush to answer.

"I see now,"

His words, which were a small distance away, now seemed to come off my shoulder.

He didn't say anything as he watched my screen, unsure how to feel about any of it. I took his silence with a grain of salt, excusing myself to the bathroom.

Instead, since the bathroom is located inside the large bedroom, just shut off by its door, I hung out by the window, facing the stars and traffic.

"Damnit, Violet, you've done it this time!" Steve Mason ripped, trying to actively make my ears bleed.

"He isn't worth all this, you know?! The career you've built for yourself, the pave you were going down before Kira, you're throwing it all away for L."

"I didn't do this for L,"

"Don't even try to sell me that revenge idea, that's barely a cover story."

I hadn't even thought of those twelve FBI agents till he said something.

"Violet, they're writing up your warrant as we speak. Hell, I'm probably next. If I'm going down, I got to at least know it was for something meaningful enough!"

"It was for them! I risked it for...them," I stopped midway through my thought to cover myself carefully, so no one listening would gain new information.

"The higher-ups think you should be made an example out of, the presidential cabinet is meeting tonight to make the decision. This will be the very last time we talk, in fear of wiretaps. If it comes to it, I still won't give you up, I promise, even if it makes me an enemy of the state, but I hope to God it was worth the price you might have to pay. Your blacklisted, Violet, and I doubt that will ever change now, even after Kira is gone and forgotten."

I didn't get to say anything else, as I was left talking to a busy signal.

The feeling of regret burned bright inside my heart, but only the regret of casualties.

I knew through his anger he still held onto his fatherly love for me.

Deciding I'd taken up enough time, I turned around to go back to work, seeing L standing against the closed door.

"I'm not even going into the rudeness of listening to other's phone calls with you."

"I understand, though I did only want to inform you that the others have left to Sakura, and I'm hopeful of the clues we'll be attaining."

I thanked him, shoving my phone somewhere on me.

"Would my involvement be an aid to your situation?"

My facial muscles tightened painfully, racking my knowledge of L to answer the question why; why is he offering this? There would be nothing for him to gain from outing himself like that.

"I only mean, I appreciate the sacrifice you've given."

With that, before I could form a reaction, he left me alone in that room.