Jubilee stared at Hellenos from where she lay in the hospital bed, so disconcerted by her abrupt return to consciousness that, like one suddenly woken from a deep sleep, she could remember nothing beyond the last thing she'd experienced while awake. Which was extreme pain.

"I cannot believe you," she exclaimed, torn between relief at seeing the angel and anger. He didn't even look guilty. "What kind of guardian angel are you, anyway?" Trying to sit up, she clutched her side and moaned. "That really hurt, too." With great effort, she bit back any further accusations. Surely, Hellenos had a good reason for letting this happen and would deign to share it now. Along with an apology.

Yes, bullets typically do, he said dryly. That was it.

Her last remnants of restraint dissipating, she shot him a dirty look. "What is this, payback? Are you tired of having to work overtime because of me or something?" Aggravated that the angel didn't seem more concerned, she flopped back against the sheets and did her best to look pale and pathetic. "I've been mortally wounded, Hellenos. I could suffer complications for the rest of my life. You could at least act a little more sympathetic. Or are you just mad that it'll cause even more work for you now?"

Hellenos looked subtly skyward. For heaven's sake, stop complaining and check this so-called mortal wound of yours.

Jubilee blinked, confused. Lifting the sheets, she pushed up her hospital gown. Heavy layers of blood-crusted gauze bandaged her abdomen. She threw the sheets back over herself, aghast. "It looks terrible! How am I even still alive?"

Hellenos didn't bother to hide his eye roll this time. Unwrap it and see for yourself.

Dubiously, Jubilee obeyed. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of old, dried blood as she peeled away layers of reddened cloth, wincing in anticipation of pain. But as she stripped away the final piece, her eyes widened. The exposed skin of her belly was smooth and unmarred, without so much as as a stain from all the blood. Dumbfounded, she poked her side, right where the bullet had entered. No pain.

"Oh," she said.

Hellenos looked smug.

After staring at the newly formed skin for a minute, she lowered her hospital gown. "Okay, fine, very impressive," she admitted. "But what was the point of letting me get shot if I was just going to be healed anyway? I know you could've stopped the bullet."

Not I, technically.

Suddenly, she remembered—hazy visions of what had transpired at the warehouse after she was shot, of her ascent beyond the earthly veil, and then being sent back...again. Overwhelmed, she put a hand to her head as it all registered. L and the rest of the Task Force were alright. Light had been caught, his tie to the demon severed. And she was alive—even though it'd been a close call.

But why let things get that far in the first place?

Her eyes lowered. It was so much easier to vent her frustrations on Hellenos, who she could easily see and hear, than on who she knew her resentments truly lay against. "I know Dad could've had you stop the bullet," she amended quietly. "So...why didn't He?"

The angel considered her thoughtfully for a long moment. Then he smiled. Much as you doubt it—everything that has ever happened to you, can be worked out for good. With that, he stepped aside...to reveal the sleeping form of L, crouched in a chair by the corner.

The man looked as pale as ever, head drooped over his knees and hair in more want of a comb than usual. His eyes were closed, the dark circles around them even more pronounced than before. Around him pulsated a heavy, troubled blue hue as he slept.

Jubilee gaped at the slumbering detective. "How long has he been there?"

Three days.

"Three days?!?" she exclaimed. "You mean that's how long I've been out?"

Hellenos nodded.

"And he—I mean, has he eaten at all, or...?"

The others, particularly Mello and Matsuda, have coerced him to eat, drink, and bathe with occasional success, Hellenos answered her unspoken worry. But he has always come right back.

A great tenderness filled her heart as she continued to stare at L's sleeping form. "He never sleeps," she murmured. "How is he doing so now, with all the ruckus I was just making?"

Seventy-two hours straight of high-intensity stress will knock anyone out, Hellenos pointed smiled then. And anyway...I wanted to give you some time to gain your bearings first. I've been looking forward to this little reunion. With a wink at Jubilee's bewildered expression, he waved his hand and faded softly into the background as a faint shimmer.

L stirred. Opening his eyes, he looked blearily at Jubilee. They stared at each other for a second.

"Hey," she greeted.

L blinked owlishly once, twice. Then he sprang from his chair and was by her side in an instant. "J?" he said, looking baffled and concerned.

Her lips twitched upward. "I think," she said, "That it's safe to call me Jubilee now."

Stolen novel; please report.

He stared at her.

"I saw what happened at the warehouse," she explained. "Or I was shown, at least. However that works."

He regarded her for a moment longer in silence. "I see." His eyes swept over her. "Are you—how are you feeling?"

"Great," she answered honestly.

His brow crinkled. "Do you feel any pain? Should I call for a—"

"No." She grabbed him by the arm as he was making to turn away. "I'm fine. Really, L."

He hesitated, then slowly faced her again. The air around him churned with a myriad of colors, unable to settle on one or the other as he looked at her.

Feeling awkward, Jubilee hastily withdrew her hand from his arm. "Congratulations, by the way. On solving the case."

L made a sound that might've been a laugh or a scoff, she wasn't sure which. "You know as well as I that it couldn't have been done without you. And I almost let you get killed in the process. That's hardly worth congratulating."

Jubilee lifted a shoulder. "Hazards of the job. Isn't that right, detective?" He didn't look amused, but she went on before he could retort. "Thank you, by the way."

He lifted an eyebrow. "For what?"

"For worrying about me."

The space between them blushed crimson, but L wore a serious expression. "That isn't worth applauding. That is just the basics of humanity."

Jubilee smiled. "Then thank you for what you did for Light. You did good."

L's head lowered, hair hiding his eyes as he rubbed the back of his head. "I figured that you would prefer him not to be killed—since we both know where he would instantly go." His gaze lifted to meet hers. "That, and I could hardly allow the same shinigami who got away with what he did to you and your family get his way again."

Her eyes softened. "Thank you." She noticed then that an unsettled blue still pulsed faintly around him. "What's wrong?"

An unreadable mask settled over the detective's features. "What makes you think anything's wrong? The case is solved, and you are alive. That is all I could've asked for."

Her heart warmed at his words, but she noticed the line over his head bending slightly. "Then...what else is bothering you?"

He exhaled heavily, slumping as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Nothing gets past you, as usual. It could be nothing. I simply wonder if I've truly done anything to salvage anyone's eternal fate. Including—" He looked away. "My own."

More fragments of Jubilee's dreams returned to her, in bits and pieces. You can't escape, Ryuk had said to Light. And, to L...Maybe I'll see you, too. She recalled the line over the demon's head, snapping upon his first statement. "That shinigami was lying," she said. "About Light's fate after death being set in stone, and yours not—" She stopped suddenly, remembering how the line over Ryuk's head had still remained attached while addressing L, despite it having snapped in two pieces.

L caught her hesitation. "So, he wasn't entirely lying then."

Jubilee fisted the sheets between her hands and thought. "What else was it he said? A person can change a lot in several decades?"

L nodded. "That was exactly what he said."

"Well, that part's true, technically," she acquiesced. Didn't she know that better than anyone? She was a completely different person from who she'd been four years ago. "We all have free will and can make the choice to change what we believe in and are living for at any time. But we also have control over that choice. That shinigami was just twisting the truth to try and scare you." L frowned, looking doubtful, so she added, "A partial lie is still a lie, you know."

"I suppose." He didn't sound convinced.

Jubilee took a deep breath, deciding to be more blunt. "You're not going to change so much that you can't go to heaven, L—unless you yourself decide to." And the same goes for me, she realized.

L turned to meet her gaze. "But I wrote in the Death Note."

"So did I."

"You wrote in it to save someone else."

"So did you."

"You didn't write a name," L said, frustration creeping into his voice at last. "I did. I wrote with the intention for Light to die. Maybe not now, but eventually. Complications from Alzheimer's is not painless, J. In fact, one can argue that I've only drawn out his death and added more emotional suffering to it. I've killed him." L stopped and looked down, his hair falling forward. "I always did say...that I am just the same as him."

Jubilee watched L with a pang in her chest. Around him, the blue haze had darkened with tinges of gray that were almost black. And yet... "You're not the same as him, L," she said, instinctively reaching out to touch the colors around him, before catching herself and drawing back. "I—I can see it." The difference between the blackness infringing on L's aura and that which had imbued Light's was clearly apparent to her. What she was seeing now was doubt. Fear. Guilt. Not evil.

Just like it had been with me.

And beneath the shadows of that doubt, the same bright light from before still lingered within L, its tendrils reaching out to dissipate the darkness—just as it had at the warehouse. Jubilee suddenly remembered something else with vivid clarity—a crest of light, surrounding L like a shield as he wrote in the Death Note. The shinigami, unable to advance because of it. Her eyes widened.

L was speaking again, his voice dull. "The rules of the notebook clearly state that anyone who writes a name down in its pages, with the intention to kill, is destined for the shinigami realm. I'm pretty sure that that's the opposite of heav—"

She grasped him firmly by the arm, cutting him off. He looked at her, confused. "There is one who is above all the rules," she told him. "Remember? You and I have both met Him."

L stared at her in silence.

"He's definitely broken the rules for me before," she went on. "More than once, in fact. And I know that He did the same for you. I saw it." Quickly, she summarized the fragments of her visions as best she could. Finishing, she realized that she was still tightly gripping L's arm, and reluctantly let go. "Do you believe me?"

L looked at her for a long moment, cogs and wheels lighting up over his head and gently turning as he processed all she'd said. Slowly, the shadows faded from around him, and he smiled. "Haven't I always?"

She smiled back. "Yeah, I guess you have." Lifting herself up from the pillows, she made to swing her legs out of the bed. "Alright then. Let's get out of here."

This time it was L who grabbed her by the arm. "What do you think you're doing?" The stern tone in his voice just barely masked his alarm. "Don't know if you forgot, J, but you got shot at point blank."

"Yes, I was there," she said wryly.

He looked at her reproachfully. "You need to stay still. The surgeons said one of your lower ribs was shattered, and you've suffered major internal bleeding."

She waved him off. "I got better." He gave her an incredulous look, but before he could protest, Jubilee pushed down the sheets and lifted her hospital gown. "See for yourself." She showed him her unblemished side where she had unwrapped the bandages.

L blinked down at where she pointed. His eyes widened. "That's impossible."

Jubilee laughed. "I thought you told me to stop saying that."

L, still looking shocked, reached out a finger as though to touch her side, then stopped short, seeming to remember himself. "I...see," he said. The colors around him wavered awkwardly.

Jubilee suddenly realized that her entire abdomen was exposed. She jerked the hospital gown back down. "So—can we go now?" She hoped the flush on her cheeks wasn't obvious.

L nodded uncertainly. "The nurses may be concerned about your disappearance though."

"So leave them a note. You can write kanji, right? Just say, 'Thanks for your hospitality. I'm good now.'"

L measured her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, he began laugh. "So you are." Smiling, he extended a hand to help her up. "Let's go then."

Taking his hand, she rose. As he grasped her hand more tightly to steady her, Jubilee caught Helleno's faint grin in the background.

So. Everything had worked out for good.