The day that Jubilee genuinely laughed again, for the first time since she'd been brought into solitary confinement, was the day that she finally heard Hellenos again.

They were all in the lounge of yet another hotel room, days after both she and Light had signed on for the case. She was leaning against a couch, gawking as L calmly and methodically handcuffed himself to Light.

"Are you serious?" she heard her thoughts squealed aloud by Misa Amane. "This is what you meant by being together 24/7?"

"I'm sorry." She coughed. "Why do you want to be together 24/7? What is happening?"

"Yeah, I didn't know you were on that side of the fence, Ryuzaki," quipped Misa.

"I'm not doing this because I want to," said L sharply, addressing Jubilee and pointedly ignoring Misa. "I'm doing this in order to keep a constant eye on Light, as was discussed previously. Didn't you read the case file?"

Jubilee glowered at him. "Yes I read the case file."

"Then, with all due respect, please keep up."

She was about to say something scathing, but Misa beat her to speaking.

"But Light's mine!" whined the petite pop star. "How are we supposed to go on dates?"

"You can go on dates," said L, waving a hand dismissively, "It'll just have to be the three of us."

Misa's eyes bulged. "No way!" she cried in disgust. "Are you saying we have to kiss in front of you and stuff?"

"I'm not saying you have to do anything." L turned and eyed her very seriously. "But I will be watching."

Everybody in the room stared at him for a second, before Misa declared, "You really are just a pervert, aren't you?"

At this, Jubilee slapped a hand to her forehead and began laughing out loud. The absurdity of this whole situation suddenly struck her as incredibly amusing. L, enigmatic prodigy and greatest detective in the world, and Light, genius college student and prime suspect for being the world's most famous criminal mastermind to date, were going to be handcuffed to each other indefinitely, 24/7, until further notice. She knew, based on what she'd read in the case file, that L still deeply suspected Light. And while the latter's undeniably high intellect was the primary reason given for why he had been hired on for the case, she knew that L was also just looking for an excuse to keep close tabs on him.

So all of this inanity was L's way of keeping the kid under surveillance without officially keeping him under surveillance, was it? She couldn't stop giggling. It was so stupid it was brilliant.

Beside her, she felt the tingly sensation of ethereal warmth and almost gasped aloud.

Hellenos?

About time, said the angel, crossing his arms and giving her a crooked smile. I've been waiting for you to lighten up.

"Oh man, am I glad to see you," she murmured under her breath. Around her the hubbub of many voices, Misa's higher than the rest, covered her speech. "When can you get me out of here?"

Out? The angel sounded amused. But we only just got you in to right where you're supposed to be.

That stopped her cold. "What?" she exclaimed loudly.

Everyone else in the room turned to look at her, but she didn't care. Let them blame it on the insanity they already thought she had.

What do you mean? she demanded fiercely, turning towards a window and away from the many eyes on her. I told them my story. Isn't that enough?

Hellenos fixed her with a look. Would a mere story, without action, have brought you back to life?

The sound of Misa's wailing distracted her from formulating a response. She turned to look.

"But I'm your girlfriend!" the small girl was complaining as she beat against Light's chest with her tiny fists. "Don't you love me, Light?!"

"Misa Amane." L suddenly leaned towards the blonde girl, his eyes boring holes into hers. She yelped and leapt back behind Light, clutching his arm. "Are you saying," L continued, "That you fell in love with Light that day as soon as you saw him?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" she huffed defensively.

"What were you wearing?"

"What?" exclaimed Misa in disgust. "How should I remember? Why do you care what I was wearing?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Is this another part of your sick hobby?"

L ignored her questions. "Are you also saying, Misa, that after that day, you knew Light Yagami's name without speaking to him?"

"Yes." Misa crossed her arms over her chest impatiently.

"You fell in love with Light and knew his name without even interacting with him first?" L fixed the blonde girl with his unblinking stare.

Misa angrily shoved her face up to his. "What's wrong with that?"

Against her better judgment, Jubilee heard her own voice interrupting them. "Wait, wait, wait a second," she cut in impulsively, one hand raised for emphasis. Darn them all for drawing her in. She stared at Misa. "Whaddya mean you fell in love with him and knew his name without even talking to him first? What?" She stared at the other inhabitants of the room, including Hellenos. "That doesn't make any sense. Right? Somebody tell me that that doesn't make any sense, and that I'm still on planet earth."

There was silence for a moment, before Matsuda meekly volunteered, "That doesn't make any sense."

Hellenos grinned, looking highly amused. I agree.

Misa looked affronted. "But I'm telling the truth!"

"Listen," said Jubilee, "I'm no genius detective or whatever, but it doesn't take rocket science to know that you can't tell someone's name just by looking at them. Not naturally, at least," she added, glancing at Hellenos. "So…?" She waved a hand in Misa's direction in an invitation to explain. Misa just stared at her dumbly. She sighed. "How did you find out Light Yagami's name?" she asked slowly, articulating each word as if to a child.

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

Misa's mouth opened and closed like a fish for a few moments. Finally, she threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know, alright?" she cried. "I can't remember how I found out, I just did, and then we started going out." She turned back to L and her expression reverted back to one of anger. "And things were going just fine until YOU showed up!"

She continued to babble on, delivering a verbal barrage at L. Jubilee turned back towards the window and Hellenos.

"This is weird," she muttered. "They're weird." She jabbed a finger discreetly at the ensemble gathered behind her, still arguing. "All of them. And yet they think I'm the crazy one."

You complain, but I think you rather enjoyed playing detective back there just now. Hellenos glided to stand beside her, gazing out the window at the setting sun.

Jubilee sniffed. "Did not."

You were rather good at it.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop."

Jubilee. The angel's voice had sobered. She glanced up at him with wide eyes. In all seriousness, you must learn to trust and embrace your circumstances.

She turned away again to stare at the sunset, stubbornly crossing her arms.

Go on. Go and talk to him.

"Talk to who?"

Your employer.

"What?"

Hellenos heaved a heavy sigh and looked skywards. Honestly, Jubilee…you've seen heaven, angels, and God Himself face to face. Surely you know that getting along with your fellow man is fundamental.

"Why don't you tell that to him?" She jabbed a finger back in L's direction. "And if it's fundamental, then maybe Dad should have waited 'til I got that part down first before He sprung the rest on me." She turned back to the window and crossed her arms again. "Seems a little bit out of order, doesn't it?"

If He waited for everyone to get their act together before He showed them grace, we'd all be waiting into eternity. He considered her out of the corner of his eye. Surely you know by now that grace is given, not earned?

"Do I?"

He turned and fixed her with a stern look. You do, but as is the human condition, you make yourself forget.

She stubbornly said nothing.

She was sure he was about to sigh again, but after a lengthy pause, he simply said, As that grace has been freely given to you, so you now have the opportunity to give it to others. But do what you want. He turned back to the window with an air of indifference. You humans, after all, have free will.

Jubilee threw up her hands in exasperation and defeat. She hated it when he played that card. Every time he stopped pestering her and told her to just do what she wanted, it was a surefire way to make her do the opposite. Turning on her heel, she marched over to L, Hellenos gliding smugly beside her. The rest of the task force was still busy arguing amongst themselves. L turned to face her. Beside him Light, still handcuffed to him, was trying to calm Misa down.

She stopped abruptly before him. "Hi," she said shortly.

He acknowledged her silently with a nod.

"So." She looked from him to Light and back. "Let me get this straight. If what you want to be true is true," She indicated Light with a gesture, "Then you're basically deliberately chaining yourself to a serial killer."

"Pretty much," replied the detective without emotion.

"Who could potentially kill you, at any moment, supernaturally."

"Yep."

"That's…either really brilliant, or really stupid. And crazy."

Most humans are a combination of all three, Hellenos pointed out.

"I'm usually the first," said L humorlessly.

"Huh," was all Jubilee said.

An awkward silence passed.

"Well." Jubilee turned to go. "Good luck." She marched back to her position in front of the window.

Hellenos glided back to her side again. Is that what you call trying to get along? he asked dryly.

"What? I said good luck."

Hellenos rolled his eyes, something he must have newly picked up from her. And you think he's the asocial one.

Jubilee didn't respond at first. Chewing her lip in thought, she turned back to Hellenos after a beat. "I thought of something I can embrace about my circumstances."

Oh? And what would that be?

She pointed at L. "At least I'm not the one chained to him."

----------------------------------------

In the days that followed, Jubilee did her best to be more cordial around the strange character known as L. It was difficult, considering the man had tied her up and locked her in a room for over a month and she was still not quite over that yet. But two things helped.

The first was Light. Against all her expectations, the kid was actually polite and even charming. Completely gone was the dark and sinister haze that had shrouded him back when she first laid eyes on him. Now he engaged her in friendly small talk each day as they worked together, while the detective brooded silently at his side in quiet observation, darting occasional furtive glances at his suspect. With a youthful sort of innocence, Light would try to draw L into the conversation so that it would be between all three of them. Perhaps it was on behalf of him being younger than both L and Jubilee, but they both managed to speak to each other in a more civil manner with him around.

The second thing that helped her have a gradual change of heart towards L was Watari. The kindly old man acted as an ambassador of sorts between her and the detective, particularly now that the latter could no longer interrogate her privately.

"Good morning, my dear," he greeted her jovially one morning while delivering a mug of hot coffee to her door. "I've taken the liberty of ordering room service for you, so your breakfast should arrive shortly. Also, Ryuzaki would like to confirm whether you have been seeing anything new lately?"

"Thank you," she said in surprise, reaching out for the mug. Its contents smelled rich and aromatic, unlike the instant coffee provided in her room. Watari must have brought along his own coffee grounds and machine to use at the suite he shared with L. "Er—yes, I have been able to see my guardian angel again, as was the norm before…but I have not seen anything around Light. The dark aura from before is gone, along with the demon." In the back of her mind she mused over just how bizarre this conversation sounded.

"Very good," Watari nodded, taking this information in stride. "If you should ever see anything out of the ordinary, please alert me. Now, is there anything in your accommodations that we can provide to make you more comfortable?"

She was unused to this sort of attentiveness and consideration. "Huh? Oh, uh, no, this is fine, thanks," she stammered, gesturing to the small but cozy room behind her.

"Ryuzaki insisted that your every request be met to make you comfortable, so please do not hesitate to let me know if you need anything."

She was taken aback by this. "He did?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes." Watari looked guilty for a second, then added, "Granted, it is because he theorized that the more comfortable you were, the clearer your spiritual senses would be. Which, I must personally interject, is not always true; but in this case I agree with doing all that we can to make you feel at peace."

She sighed. Nobody was nice just to be nice anymore, were they? Though she wasn't one to talk. Former pickpocket and all that. "I see," she said.

"Do not think too badly of him, Miss Julie," said Watari then. "He has a good heart…he's just learning how to use it."

She considered the old man for a moment. "I know you must be close to him," she said at last, "But frankly, and with all due respect, he doesn't seem to have a heart. That's just my observation though," she added quickly, suddenly mortified that she had spoken so candidly.

To her surprise, the old man just chuckled. "You are more like him than you think, my dear," he said, then added with a twinkle in his eye, "With all due respect."

She arched a brow skeptically. "How is that?"

"Everything that he says, as jarring as it may sound, is simply a passive observation…from his perspective at least," Watari explained. "He never means it as an insult. The poor boy just doesn't realize that most of the world would take it as one." He shook his head, then smiled. "The concept of offense goes right over his head. He hasn't had much interaction with other people, you see, so how would he have gained that concept? You might notice that he rarely seems insulted by anybody or anything."

Jubilee considered this, and with a sinking realization found that it was true. No amount of screaming or criticism that either she or Misa hurled at him ever seemed to faze him. She had always thought it was his infuriating way of acting like he was right, but now she saw that it was because wasn't even thinking of himself. It was because he was single-mindedly focused on the task at hand—which, in this case, was the investigation.

She turned away. "Then he's a better person than me," she said softly. Over her shoulder, she called, "Thank you, Watari, I'll be over after breakfast."

With a nod, he closed the door behind her. She turned and leaned her back against it, thinking.

"Hellenos," she said at length. "Did you notice that that old man glows…the way Pastor Andrews did?"

Hellenos crossed his arms. Are you really asking me that?

She started laughing, and he, after a moment, joined in.

"It's boring when you can already see everything and know everything," she complained at last, still giggling. "How am I ever supposed to surprise you?"

Hellenos smiled at her. Trust me…you humans never cease to surprise us.