Sea of Darkness

L felt everything in that one moment of time, deceit, pain, sadness, anger, and most of all, confusion, and depression.

His hands shook as his tongue tasted that bitterness in the back of his throat, the one that he still today, could not describe. Even after tasting it so many times before. Then the pain in his stomach welled up, and the throb in his head. His stomach churned as he realized he was the only one noticing what was happening and suddenly, his eyes burned, tears stinging behind his grey orbs.

"Watari!" He screamed out in the middle of the Head Quarters, where silence had once stood, now stood an air of fear, confusion, and panic throughout the head quarters as everyone attempted to figure out what was happening.

L jumped from his seat, time slipping through his fingers as he felt like he'd never get there. His hands searched the old man for a pulse, and his heart rapidly beat in his chest, feeling that emotion of lonliness and dread beat at his heart until a hole formed.

"Watari!" He screamed again as he slowly shook him, feeling nothing beneath his fingers. His skin was becoming too cold..too cold..

"WATARI!" He screamed once more and his breathing became ragged as his heart slowly died inside of him.

"Watari?..Oh god, no." Soichiro whispered as he ran in behind him and then followed the rest, it all happening in slow motion to L.

The sound of the bells rang noisily, but behind that was the music of bagpipes. Bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, just as they did at A's funeral, and even at B's.

This was the end..

Soichiro softly moved the detective as he kneeled down and felt for a pulse as well, but his hands moved quickly and were much sturdier than those of the slightly quivering detective.

"He has a pulse..for godsakes, someone call an ambulance!"

Light moved quickly as he dialed a phone number on the phone sitting beside L's computer.

L was screaming inside, but outwardly silent now as he put a hand on Watari's chest, feeling the shallow breaths: That was the only thing giving him comfort now.

Everyone watched the detective as he shook and felt the chest rise and fall, rise and fall, and his eyes become glassy with unshed tears.

"Don't die..please don't.."L whispered in English, the others looking at him, wishing to heaven that they knew English now, just so that they may know what words of comfort L, the emotionless drone, had for the unconscious man.

Was he speaking of love? Of pain? Of the case, even?

The ambulance arrived shortly and L's throat began to dry out as he rode in the back of it, watching in silent depression as the machines were hooked to the man who had always been his iron wall and shoulder.

"Watari.." He whispered quietly as they unloaded him and rushed him into the hospital, the others pulling up in a car following L inside quietly. No one knowing exactly what to say when L's actions had all confused them.

When they had all thought he wasn't capable of showing such emotion for another being.

Such love and compassion.

Such a bond.

They sat in the waiting room, L quivering slightly in his position, knees brought to his chest and skin a few shades even paler, making him look as though he were dying. But inside, he was.

He blood had become thin and cold, and his organs felt as though they were decaying. If Watari didn't live..he wouldn't want to go on either. He couldn't go on.

A doctor finally came out, looking at each of them, "You are his Mr. Watari's friends, then?"

"I'm his adopted son." Whispered L as he looked up, innocence and a child-like lust for knowledge glimmering in his eyes.

"Alright then. Your guardian, then, will be just fine. He's recovering nicely, it seems he just forgot to take some of his blood pressure medication, which mind you, is extremely important he take. In his old age, it is not unnormal for him to forget such tasks."

L's face blushed pink with slight anger at his last few words. At his age. But his raw emotion of relief spared him the lecture of what 'old age' truly meant.

"Thank You."

The doctor nodded, "He's alright now, we've given him his dose of medication, and he should be alright as long as he just rest for the rest of the day. He's adamant about being let out, so we're releasing him. Make sure, please, that your guardian takes his medication, alright son?"

L cringed at the nickname, son, and sighed disdainfully, "Yes. Thank you, thank you very much."

A few minutes later, Watari, sitting in a wheelchair, was wheeled out into the waiting room and he smiled at L with a large, toothy grin. "Eh, didn't think I could be killed off that easy, did you?"

L's breath shook and his voice quivered, so he dared not speak, but instead gave an actual, true, genuine, smile. Before Watari stood,

"Sir, we have to ask you sit down in your wheelchair." The nurse whispered.

"I'm trying to hug my son who thought I was dead for godsakes." Watari mumbled as he clung ahold of the detective who stood in his normal slouched position, unable to break free, but not exactly wanting to.

L quivered again, and a single tear rolled from his eye as he breathed in the elder man's scent which always smelled like coffee, vanilla, and something very, very sweet.

Matsuda gasped and then covered his mouth in order to prevent himself from ruining the moment and for the first time, they watched something very, very, private happen. L allowed his walls down for just a few short hours. He allowed himself to become human.

And all the one minute they hugged, it felt like hours and days. And through that one hug, Watari could feel all of L's fear, pain, and depression sink and melt away like a sea of darkness.