I Know, You Know (Death Note) *L/OC*

10. In The Doghouse

I sincerely hoped that L wouldn't mention our little break-in stint to Gibson or the others. Seeing as it hadn't benefitted us in any way – not to mention caused a fair bit of trouble – I didn't see a reason for any of them to know about it. Telling L 'not to tattle' seemed a little juvenile though, so I didn't. Who knew if he'd even do as I asked anyway? I just had to hope that he had the sense to keep his mouth shut.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem the case, because as soon as I got to the hotel the following day, I found Gibson in a particularly tetchy mood. And something told me it was most likely my fault.

Sure enough, as soon as he spotted me, he got to his feet and beckoned towards one of the doors. "Gee. A word?"

Uh oh. I gazed imploringly in Kenichi and Chad's direction, but they both pointedly turned away. Cowards. They knew I was in trouble and they weren't going to get involved. L, on the other hand, continued to type away at his laptop with his weird habit of only using his index fingers. Why wasn't he in trouble too? Had he ratted me out and somehow managed to get himself off the hook?

I didn't have chance to feel annoyed about that possibility. I was more concerned about Gibson's wrath right now. I meekly followed him through the door, which he promptly closed behind me. I would have preferred to have stayed where there were witnesses, but I guess it wasn't really my choice.

He turned to face me, arms folded across his chest. "You have some explaining to do."

I knew it wouldn't work, but I figured I'd still give my innocent approach a shot first. "Explaining about what? I don't know what you..."

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid!" Gibson cut me off angrily. "I know you tried to get into Jin Tanaka's office yesterday."

Damn, he was really was in a bad mood. I muttered something about a tattle tale, which Gibson seized immediately.

"You think someone told on you? Gee, we've been keeping tabs on that building ourselves. What do you think we thought when we heard that the fire services were called out yesterday?"

I stared at him in surprise. "You were monitoring the building? But you said you had to follow protocol and wait for a search warrant."

"That's what we were doing! But it's not against protocol to keep surveillance on the building from outside as well," Gibson pointed out.

I gaped. "Why didn't you tell me? If I'd known that, I wouldn't have felt the need to rush in myself!"

"Did you really think I'd be happy to just wait for a search warrant without doing anything else? I thought you'd trust me to know what I was doing," said Gibson in an uncharacteristically cool voice.

"Well, you should have trusted me and told me what you were doing!" I protested.

"How can I when you go behind my back and ruin our operation by getting the building caught on fire?" Gibson shouted.

I was flabbergasted. "You think that was my fault? You think I intended that to happen? You of all people should know I avoid fire like the plague! They locked us in and tried to burn us alive!"

Surprise flitted across Gibson's face, though it was quickly replaced by suspicion as he registered my slip-up before I did. "Who do you mean by 'us'?"

Crap. Now I'd accidentally gotten L into trouble too. "I meant me," I said unconvincingly, trying to cover up my mistake. "Just me, myself and Gee."

"Gee..." said Gibson warningly. "Who else was with you?"

I sighed. I couldn't think of any possible lie to give him. "L."