Jubilee didn't get much sleep in the days following. Instead she stayed up late into the night alongside L, watching video after video of footage with renewed diligence while the latter sat at his computer station beside a sleeping Light, alternating between chewing his thumb while staring intently at his suspect, running through kill statistics on his computer, and poring through the pages of Watari's bible.

We now need hard evidence to prove what we know, L had told her. Physical evidence to support the…supernatural evidence.

Jubilee didn't have much to offer in the department of physical evidence, but she did what she could to discover any further information that could help L connect clues in the physical. Of her own accord, she would remain in front of her computer after all the other task force members had gone to bed, staying there for hours into the night. Her only companions were L and Light a few feet to her right—and only one of them stayed awake.

She and L rarely spoke to each other. Occasionally she would let him know that she had forwarded to him certain key clips with her notes attached. Otherwise they worked in complete silence. Armed with L's strategy of comparing and contrasting patterns, Jubilee had a newfound focus in her work. Sometimes though, she caught herself watching the detective while he worked. It really was a wonder to watch the man think. Wheels and cogs of light turned in the air around him, now and then producing fountains of fantastic color that would spill out and over. The whole effect seemed to make him glow despite the gray veil over him, and his eyes seemed to lighten, contrasting almost handsomely against the dark circles beneath them. Jubilee could not deny the fact that she was impressed. She had always known because everyone else said so, but now she knew because she could see it with her own eyes: This man was a genius.

Tonight, however, no ethereal light shows emanated from the detective. In fact, Jubilee noticed that they seemed to have decreased over the last few days, diminishing into a dull, default gray hanging over him. To her surprise, she found that this made her worried for him. She said nothing though. Her own brain was starting to disintegrate into a state of mush from lack of sleep. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open but she pushed on, determined to make some kind of headway. Maybe finding a new clue would encourage L to lighten up—literally.

She clicked a video file at random, barely even registering what it was through her drooping eyelids. As it started to play, however, she sat up straight and her eyes widened.

There was Light, walking from the train station to class. No haze surrounded him. No demon followed him. There was only a faint, yellow glow over the young man.

She almost called Ryuzaki's name to alert him but bit her lip at the last minute, deciding to solidify her find. Quickly she began to pull up and scan through footage from around the same date. Over and over again she saw the same thing—Light, pre-haze and pre-demon.

Then, at last, she found what she was looking for.

"Ryuzaki!" she cried in a hoarse whisper, and leapt up from her seat to bound over to the detective. Reaching his shoulder, she cast a quick glance at Light—who was snoring soundly—and then bent to speak into the detective's ear. She was too excited to wait and write it out.

"November 28th," she said, "Is when the haze first appears."

She stood back proudly. L, however, barely seemed to notice her. To her chagrin he merely nodded and murmured, "I see," then continued to stare blankly at his computer screen. Nothing permeated through the haze of gray around him.

She stood aghast for a moment. How was he not excited? Normally such a letdown of her expectations might have angered her, but she found concern welling up within herself instead. She leaned back down, bracing herself with a hand against the desk to peer into L's gray eyes.

"What's wrong?" she demanded. "This is a big clue. Why aren't you excited?"

L didn't meet her gaze. "I am," he said dismissively. A line appeared over his head and snapped in two.

"You're lying," she said, and then added after a moment, "I'm not guessing—I can see it."

He turned to her then, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Have you been able to tell this whole time whether people are telling the truth or not?"

She gulped at the intensity in his gaze, but held her voice steady as she responded. "I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I only know when I know. And to answer the question you're probably going to ask, no one that I've met so far on the case has lied, that I know of, beyond little white lies like, 'I'm fine,' when they're actually stressed to the point of a nervous breakdown. Now," She leaned forward to fix him with a firm stare, "Answer my question. What's wrong?"

L returned her stare for a brief second before turning away, his hair falling over his eyes. "Nothing is wrong, Miss Amachi. Now get back to work, or go to bed." Once more the line above his head snapped in two.

"You're lying again," said Jubilee.

A slight crease in the detective's brow was the only indication of his irritation. "Very well," he said at last after a pause. He continued to scroll mechanically through the statistics on his screen, not looking at Jubilee as he went on, "I am not excited; because you have merely discovered the date that Kira's power was transferred to Light and he became the first Kira, before the power was then transferred again…thereby making it nigh impossible to ever catch Kira, if his or her power continues to jump from person to person. Which," he added, both charitably and glumly, "Is not your fault, of course. Simply the facts."

Jubilee straightened back up, brow creased. So this was why L had seemed so discouraged lately! He had already solved the case as far as he could see. He was losing hope of there being any further progress. Before she knew what she was doing, she had reached out to lay a hand on L's shoulder.

"Hey," she said softly, tilting her head down to try and catch his eye. "Listen to me. Don't lose hope. I still believe in you."

There was a pause as this uncharacteristic show of compassion registered with both of them. Jubilee blinked, baffled by her own actions, and quickly withdrew her hand. Where had that come from?

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Slowly L's head turned towards her, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks. For a moment he just stared at her, a doubtful look in his eyes. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. She desperately hoped that he wouldn't ask her why, becauseshe did not know the reason herself. Honestly, it was probably slight insanity from lack of sleep.

"Thank you," said L, and through the gray there flickered the smallest flash of light.

Jubilee saw that flicker and felt her heart surge with something strange and new. Compassion, empathy, appreciation? She wasn't sure what. "You're welcome," she heard herself say, and then to her astonishment, realized that she did not regret anything she had just said. Even more astonishing, the words had been true. She did believe in him…and hadn't even known that she did until this moment. And she knew why she believed in him, too. It was because of everything she had witnessed of him—his sleepless nights working tirelessly on the investigation, though never burdening anyone else to; his willingness to put the case, and thereby others, before himself; his ingenuity, his determination and, as Watari had testified, his genuine compassion.

"You should get some rest, Miss Amachi," L's voice cut through her internal revelations. "You must be very tired." The line above his head stayed strong and intact. Jubilee felt her heart soften. He was being sincere.

In a daze—from lack of sleep, and from the overwhelming amount of everything that she was mentally processing—she responded, "You could just call me Julie, you know."

L's dark eyes measured her for a moment. "Very well, Miss Julie," he said at length. "You need sleep."

"I'm fine," she lied.

The corner of L's lip quirked upwards ever so slightly. "Now you're the one lying," he pointed out. "I can clearly see that you need sleep. You're getting dark circles under your eyes."

She laughed. "So? You seem to have them permanently." Though they look good on him.

The unexpected thought made her stop short and she gazed dumbly at him for a second. He said something in response, but she didn't register what. Instead she stared into his large, dark eyes, feeling disoriented and confused. Had she just thought…?

Yes. She had thought—and did think—that he had nice eyes. Very nice eyes, in fact.

She straightened with a sudden jerk. "Um—I—" she stuttered. She stared at L again. Faint wisps of light and color were beginning to make an appearance underneath the gray veil once more. The sight of them, framing his eyes and lighting up his entire countenance, made her heart thump erratically. What is happening to me? she thought, feeling alarmed. "Maybe I do need sleep," she blurted, then rubbed at her eyes. "I think—I think I might be starting to see things."

L quirked an eyebrow and quipped, "We always knew that."

Jubilee laughed weakly, then felt her heart thump again at the fact that he could make her laugh. Feeling a wild panic, she sobered quickly. "Right," she said, swiftly turning on her heel so that he wouldn't see the color rising to her cheeks. "I'll just take your advice then, shall I? Goodnight!" she called over her shoulder, and then all but ran for the elevator.

Coming to a stop at the landing she braced herself over her knees, breathing hard. Feeling her forehead, she wondered if she had a fever. That would explain this madness.

Feeling all right?

She jumped back with a startled yelp and collided hard with the wall.

"Hellenos!" she hissed between her teeth. "My God, don't scare me like that!"

The angel arched an eyebrow. What…did you forget that I'm always here?

"Um…"

And don't take the Lord's name in vain. The angel crossed his arms sternly, but his lip twitched. Something's distracting you, I see.

Jubilee stared at him for a second, then shook her head viciously to clear it and turned away to jab at the elevator button violently. "I'm just tired," she mumbled.

Uh-huh.

As she waited for the elevator doors to open, her glance slid back towards the young detective still sitting downstairs in the main room. No light emanated from him at the moment, but the sight of his dark hair falling over his face made her heart beat irregularly once more. She caught herself staring and turned back with a jerk.

"I think I might be going crazy, Hellenos," she muttered under her breath. "Or having a heart attack. A slow, drawn out heart attack. Kira must have gotten to me."

Not possible, said the angel dismissively. Kira cannot touch you. Now, mind telling me some of the symptoms of what is ailing you?

She glared at her guardian angel. "You know exactly what I am thinking and feeling," she snapped.

Perhaps, said the angel airily, But you don't.

"Argh," grumbled Jubilee, and then beat the elevator doors with a fist. "What is taking this thing so long?"

Hellenos made a show of examining his fingernails as he leaned casually against the elevator frame. Maybe it will arrive once we finish figuring out what ails you.

Jubilee stared at the angel, then at the elevator, then back at the angel. "You didn't," she hissed. She glanced nervously down at where L was sitting.

Don't worry. He won't notice you.

"Open this door," Jubilee ordered. "Why are you doing this?"

Hellenos looked up to shoot her a serious expression. Because there is something important that you need to see. And sometimes, it takes a closed door before you are willing to see it.

Jubilee threw up her hands. "Fine," she said. "What is it?"

That is for you to figure out, not me to tell you.

She gave him a look of daggers. "So you won't let me go forward until I listen to you, but you won't tell me what it is that I need to go forward?"

Do you expect all the answers to just be dropped into your lap? When Jubilee continued to scowl at him, he sighed and said, You are a clever human, Jubilee. You have all that you need to understand anything you wish, so long as you are willing.

Jubilee's scowl slowly melted off her face, to be replaced by a crestfallen expression. "Maybe I'm just not willing to see what you want me to see then," she murmured.

Hellenos gave her a considering look. Then be willing to be made willing.

Jubilee's shoulders drooped in defeat. "Alright," she said softly. She turned away to think. Crossing her arms, she tapped her foot and thought hard. Her gaze slid slowly back down to the detective. She narrowed her eyes at him and squinted. A memory of a past prayer entered her mind.

Dad, help me to see what you see. That was what she had asked right before discovering the changing patterns in Light's haze. And right before she had noticed L in the spirit for the first time.

Below her, soft colors glowed and emanated from the pale young man. He tilted his head in thought and chewed on a thumb. For a split second, as Jubilee watched, the gray haze around him seemed almost silver from the gentle light. Her breath hitched as the light caught his eyes and somehow, unexplainably, caused his entire face to brighten and the hard angles of his visage to soften. The overall effect was the loveliest thing she had ever seen.

With a shuddering breath she tore her gaze away, just as a small seed of suspicion slowly took hold of her. Both Watari's voice and Hellenos' rose up from within the confines of her memory, overlapping from multiple moments in time to become one.

God is love, Watari had said, as had Hellenos many times before.

Love is seeing the best in someone, had been Hellenos' words in explanation of Dad's love for her. They had been Watari's words as well…in reference to L.

With a sudden, gut wrenching mental click that made the whole world seem to tilt on its axis, all the pieces fell into place. Jubilee gaped in horror as realization hit her like a freight train.

"Oh no," she breathed.

With a bright, revelatory ding!, the elevator doors opened.

Hellenos grinned at the stricken look on her face.

Going up? he said.