A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 19

Within ten minutes, Watari and Chief Soichiro Yagami had arrived at the door with first aid kits. Watari went to revive Misa, still passed out on the ground; and Soichiro headed towards his son. He stopped briefly by Jubilee's side, handing her a kit that contained bandages, dressing and an ice pack.

"Please attend to Ryuzaki, Miss Julie," he instructed in his usual serious tone that broached no protest.

Jubilee tried to anyway. "But—!" she began. The chief had already walked away.

Jubilee watched as he proceeded to attend to Light, bandaging his cuts and applying ointment to his bruises. She glanced down at the items he had dropped into her hands and grimaced.

Great. Just great.

With tremendous force of will she wiped her face of emotion, turned, and marched towards L. The detective was seated quietly on the floor, one knee up and the other leg outstretched. Without a word she knelt down, opened her kit, and proceeded to clean the cuts on his face without making eye contact with him.

L said nothing during her ministrations, but she could feel his eyes on her. She noticed him bravely retain his silence even under the sting of the alcoholic wipes, which she knew hurt, if the small lightning streaks of red spiking out from under his gray haze were any indication. Forcefully she pushed down any feelings of compassion that tried to well their way to the surface of her heart, and proceeded to apply bandages to his face with aloof precision.

Finally she held the ice pack to his jaw, which was starting to take on a similar color to his under eye circles. "Here," she ordered. "Hold this in place."

He complied wordlessly, his fingers brushing hers ever so slightly as he took over holding the ice pack. Jubilee restrained the urge to flinch, and with a great effort of will managed to succeed. Giving a quick glance at the line over his head, she took note of the fact that the gesture had been done on accident, not as some sort of manipulated test of her reaction. She started to relax.

"Thank you," he said quietly, the line over his head still intact.

Jubilee made the mistake of looking at him then. For the briefest instant her eyes made contact with his and she saw a cool, calculating expression appear in them. She looked away and quickly stood up. Just as she was about to turn away she remembered that she needed to reply.

"Right. No problem," she said as indifferently as she could, and then took her leave of him.

As she walked away, she closed her eyes. A foreboding sense of dread formed in the pit of her stomach.

He knows.

"He doesn't know," Jubilee muttered to herself back in front of her workstation. "There's no way. You're just being paranoid, Julie."

She had left Misa's room and returned downstairs before the others. The only other workers in the room with her were Matsuda and Aizawa, the latter of whom, as usual, graciously ignored her mutterings to herself.

"He doesn't know," she repeated to herself. "Stop psyching yourself out."

"Uh...Miss Julie?" asked Matsuda tentatively.

"What?" she snapped, turning on the officer like she was ready to decapitate him.

Matsuda raised his hands in self-defense. "Uh, nothing!" he squeaked. "I mean, that is...are you alright?"

"Peachy." She turned back to her computer and continued muttering to herself. After a pause she inclined her head towards him, begrudgingly grumbled, "Thanks," and continued her mutterings. Matsuda inched away.