Chapter 13 : Get Out Alive

I am sooooo so sorry this took so damn long to write! This chapter was just a huge plot snarl to me and it took me three years to work around it. A few weeks ago I had the idea to simplify what I wanted to do with it and everything flowed nicely after that. I know it isn't much after so long. For everyone who's stuck with me, I love you all! Even the ones who've forgotten I existed. I kept receiving occasional responses even after so many years and they let me know that it would be worth it to keep going and I maybe hadn't caused all of you to hate me forever.

(I also reread all of the comments I've gotten to get my energy up, and I forgot how many of you were delighted when Light got shot! It pleased me.)

25 November, 12:20 p.m. Madrid, Spain

Alone in a car, a man waited.

Thierry Morrelle, known to some as Aiber and to others by hundreds of equally false appellations, was a man well used to setting out bait and watching patiently until it was snapped up by some unlucky mark. As a professional con man, he knew how to play the odds.

Still, with most of his jobs he had always had some idea of what he was in for. The waiting was tolerable if one actually knew that there would be some payoff at the other end.

Shifting again, Thierry reached idly over for another sip of coffee. The seat beside him contained the crumpled remains of his hastily purchased lunch and a police scanner with the volume on. It was picking up only the usual chatter, and Aiber had begun to suspect, after nearly half a day's vigilant surveillance, that Watari had been pulling his leg.

That, or that the old man had finally gone senile.

Rubbing the rough brush of stubble on his chin and trying to stay alert, he tipped his head back against the seat and fought against weariness. Watari's call had caught him in the middle of dinner with his family the evening before, prompting an emergency flight to Madrid. Not knowing when his quarry might take their leave of Spain, he had stopped only to rent the vehicle (under an assumed name, of course) and pick up the scanner before staking out the terminal. Throughout the long night, he feared to risk even a coffee run, though hunger and exhaustion had finally prompted him to purchase fast food a short time ago, a thing he was morally opposed to under normal circumstances.

Now the coffee was fighting a losing battle with the demands of his body. Thierry's eyelids fell gradually and inexorably closed, and his head lolled against the door of the rented jeep.

Sudden excitement in the police radio jerked him back into awareness. Disoriented, it took Thierry a moment to translate the Spanish in his mind and make any sense of what he was hearing. When he realized that Kira had been spotted in the company of a pale and unnatural-seeming young man, the well-spoken con artist cursed loudly and started his engine.

Peeling out of the parking lot for Terminal 2, Thierry spotted more Madrid police jogging for one of the entrances, and as he drew closer he could see a group of armed uniforms surrounding two very familiar figures inside of the building. With only seconds to think of a plan, Aiber clenched his hands on the steering wheel, gave a mental prayer, and pressed the gas pedal to the floor.

Glass shattered at the impact, bursting around him in a cloud of tiny shards. He swerved to a stop inside the gate, shouted to L, and was on the road as soon as the detective could toss Kira into the backseat and climb in.

After a single glance at Thierry with his dark and unreadable eyes, L scrambled into the backseat, wind whipping his already wild hair into an unmanageable frenzy. There was a flurry of confusion from the police scanner, organization was achieved and lights flashed in the rearview mirror as the police hurried to follow a few seconds behind them.

Thierry saw L crouch beside the boy who had been introduced to him as Light Yagami. Ignoring his injured arm, the genius detective dug furiously through one of his bags, taking out a sizeable first aid kit and pulling gauze from it.

"How does it look?" Thierry asked the detective, sticking to Japanese for now. He kept an ear on the scanner as he sped recklessly through the streets, police still in pursuit.

"The bullet grazed his leg. Thirty-four percent chance it will need stitches," L called back, somehow keeping his monotone in spite of his need to raise his voice against the wind and sirens.

"They shot me. They were trying to kill me!" Light's voice sounded high from panic, but had an unmistakable edge of affront. "Stop. Laughing," he gritted out in an angry snarl.

Thierry furrowed his brows, looking back at them in the mirror. "What?"

"Shinigami," L explained flatly. Turning his attention back to the injured boy, he spoke in words that Thierry could barely catch- correcting Light, apparently, on the fact that the policemen had been trying to kill them both.

"Shinigami?" Though he had participated in the chase to capture the third Kira, Thierry hadn't had the chance to hold the actual notebook of death when it had been taken from Higuchi. That was something he was grateful for; it was ill luck to see a god of death before your time was up. "It's following Yagami now?" A more worrisome thought occurred to the con man, and he risked an alarmed glance at the detective. "Is it in the car with us?" His skin crawled, and he fought not to look warily at the empty passenger seat beside him.

Focusing on Light, L pressed clean gauze to the wound on the murderer's leg. He kept pressure there with his good hand, fighting for his balance against the constant swerving of the jeep. He hunkered down on the vehicle's floor to steady himself. "There are more than one shinigami. Higuchi had allied himself with one." The explanation was strained from the pain in his injured arm or from the jostling of the vehicle, but otherwise without inflection.

Nearly sliding out of control on a sharp turn when a car moved unexpectedly into his way, Thierry clenched his teeth and held tight to the wheel, his customary sunglasses tearing free from their resting place on his head and skittering brokenly across the street. Barely stabilizing the jeep, he pressed his foot to the gas again and continued to speed as other cars honked angrily.

Letting out a breath as he put more distance between himself and the police, Thierry grimaced. "Merde. My wife bought me those for my birthday. She's going to kill me now."

"There is a possibility that she may not have to," L replied, voice nearly lost in the wind. "Among the police uniforms were several from the GEO."

Hands flexing on the wheel, Thierry gave a roguish smile. "Then I suppose we're lucky that they weren't waiting in their cars."

L's silence had a feeling of agreement to it.

Thierry allowed the silence to take over, concentrating instead on keeping them all alive.

Too exposed on Avenida de la Hispanidad, he turned right onto Calle de Soto Hidalgo, the trees that gave the street a lush shade in the summer still clinging to their fire-colored leaves. Eyes darting to either side as they drove, Thierry felt a tension building between his shoulder-blades.

Taking a left onto the next street, he saw an opening and turned a sharp right just before a turnaround, cutting northwest across a small park of dried grass. The sudden turn drew a moan of pain from Light, who lost his hold on consciousness.

The jeep took to off-road driving easily, but the police cars following didn't have quite the same luck. Though two of them that had been trailing behind made the turn, the closest car spun too sharply, stalling in the street as the officers within it cursed.

Thierry smiled grimly but called back to L. "Any plans back there, mon ami? Spain is a beautiful country but I don't much care for her prisons."

Black eyes lifted from their study of the unconscious murderer and L straightened enough on the floor of the jeep to catch a glimpse of the scenery blurring past them. "Find a parking garage."

Opening his mouth to question the detective Thierry struggled past the impulse and merely nodded. L was the smartest man Thierry had ever known; if he was going to suggest them hiding in what might essentially turn into a trap with only one exit the genius must have some plan.

Cutting off the road whenever he could the con man kept driving. As they neared Madrid proper larger buildings began to appear, and during one of the moments he'd managed to shake the police tails he found what they were looking for beneath a hotel. Shoulders tight as he pulled into the driveway of the hotel's parking garage, Thierry tried to keep from imagining how badly this might go as he took the small slip of paper the garage machine spat out and pulled into the covered area.

L crawled onto the back seat, perched with one knee between Light's legs so he could keep pressure on Light's wound but still watch the cars they passed. Finding what he wanted he told Thierry to park beside an older-model car.

When Thierry had done so L slid from the jeep, brushing Light's blood absently onto his own jeans as he peered into the vehicle with alert eyes.

With a silent beating of wings Ryuk glided through the ceiling to hover beside the dark haired human, still chuckling from the chase. "What are you going to do now?" the shinigami inquired curiously. "The police will find you soon, even with all these cars around."

"Mm," L agreed distractedly. He blinked black eyes and mused out loud. "All I need is a way in..." Remembering Ryuk gave him an idea and he turned his gaze intently to the god of death. "If Kira and I are captured you would be bored. There would also be no apples," he pointed out reasonably.

Ryuk shrugged his shoulders, tilting his head so his heart earring swung. "That's true, but it's no fun if I help too much." Still, he sensed that L was getting at something, and watched with wall-eyed interest and a fang-filled gaping smile.

L merely nodded, thumb pressed to his lips lightly. "Of course. I have a simple task for you, however, and you will be rewarded with apples if my plan is successful. Could you unlock this car? There's a button on the inside of the door. If you press that, the doors will open."

"..." In answer, Ryuk tilted himself at an angle so his head and shouldered disappeared into the car. He saw the button L had mentioned, considered, and then peeked his head back out of the car. Before he could answer Thierry stepped around the side of the jeep, smile appearing calm.

"Are you trying to get in? I don't have any special skills with lock-picking, and you seem to be down one arm," he mentioned, unable to hear or see Ryuk. From his point of view L had simply taken up the odd habit of musing aloud.

Unable to resist this chance to tease a human Ryuk impishly hit the unlock button. As the locks clicked audibly open with no visible assistance Thierry's eyes widened and he stared at the car, unable to comprehend. Knowing of the existence of shinigami hadn't prepared him for their practical uses.

"Thank you, Ryuk," L intoned. He didn't comment on Thierry jerking slightly at this further evidence of the shinigami's existence. Opening the driver's door with one hand as Ryuk reminded him that he'd earned apples later L knelt on the car seat and with his good arm did a bit of fidgeting beneath the driving wheel. "If you would lend me your hands and a pocket knife, we can be on our way," the detective announced a moment later, looking over his shoulder at the con man. Thierry hesitated, then without protest went around the other side and, with L's careful instructions, they hotwired the car.

As the engine rumbled to life Thierry shook his head in disbelief. "Not that it isn't useful, but how did you learn to do it?"

"A mutual friend," L responded flatly.

Thierry blinked before an amused smile spread across his face. "Ahh, I see. I wondered if she had taught you anything outside of the bedroom."

This cryptic statement had the ability to stall L briefly as the pale man turned wide eyes to Thierry, though his expression didn't show if the other man's guess had been correct or simply so bizarre that even L didn't know how to react. "...Did she say that?" he asked after an instant of mental gymnastics.

Laughing quietly, Thierry shook his head and stepped out of the car to begin transferring their luggage and Kira across to the stolen vehicle. "No, it was just how she spoke of you when we were alone. She's very defensive of you, Wedy," Thierry confided, using the thief's assumed name in case Light was more conscious than he appeared.

Dropping this subject for now and keeping his thoughts to himself L helped Thierry with the bags and left Light to the man with two working arms. Thierry couldn't help the occasional worried glance toward the entrance of the hotel but he relaxed as they pulled away. "Daddy always did tell me the best way to win a car chase is not to get in one," he mused.

In less time than it had seemed the three were packed into the new vehicle. They abandoned the blood-stained and bullet-ridden jeep without a backward glance as they drove away.

LxLxL

25 November, 8:55 p.m. Tokyo, Japan

As none of the detectives in HQ knew Spanish, it took time for the police and news reports from Madrid to be understood.

The investigation had settled down for the night. Dinner had been eaten, dessert had been had, and Sachiko and Sayu were down in the kitchen doing the dishes and arguing playfully over a period TV drama they'd been watching while they cooked. Sayu's brief conversation with Watari had eased some of the girl's stress and she was happier today than she'd been since she'd learned that her brother was Kira.

Near and Rester had disappeared from HQ shortly after the dinner dishes had been cleared away. Since Near was never forthcoming about where he would be going at any moment no one had worried or questioned him. While in Madrid Light had been shot in the leg and Light, L and Aiber were racing across the city, Matsuda was snoring softly in his chair in Tokyo, full of delicious home cooking and unable to stay awake. Soichirou was rubbing his face tiredly and contemplating turning in for the night as well, no longer as young as the other detectives. Mogi was determinedly working through thousands of reports of Kira sightings from around the world, almost all of which were bound to be false.

Aizawa was the only one alert and looking at current news, and he didn't become aware of the situation until the world news station that had dedicated itself to constantly broadcasting information on Kira began showing live footage from Spain.

Watching long enough to understand what was happening Aizawa cursed. Assuming command without thinking he ordered the others- including Soichirou- to keep an eye on the events unfolding. Knowing Watari had infrared cameras on at all times he asked the room at large where Near could currently be found. Watari being Watari, he was answered promptly.

Terror of what might happen if whatever plans Near surely had in place to keep another world government from capturing Kira weren't readied sent Aizawa rushing urgently into the waiting elevator, thankful that Watari could remotely control every function in the building from his office. The elevator took him to the floor he needed and he flew out, suit jacket flaring behind him. Watari had told him that Near was on the 8th floor, and though Aizawa was now aware that that floor had a small swimming pool (Sayu possessed a curiosity none of the detectives came close to, and any floor that would open to her had been prowled through and then brightly reported on by the girl) that knowledge wasn't enough to prepare Aizawa for the sight that met his astonished eyes.

Opening a glass door in the center of the 8th floor Aizawa caught himself on the edge of the doorway, his shout for Near cut short as he looked out over a swimming pool that couldn't have been that large, but should have been far too vast to be so thoroughly covered in toys.

Approaching cautiously with his dress shoes tapping on the tiled floor, the normally jaded detective had to take it on faith that there was in fact water beneath the bright sea of ships, rubber duckies, multi-colored plastic balls and pool toys, one of which was a huge air-filled dinosaur such that children who couldn't swim well might float on. He wasn't even aware of Rester until the man cleared his throat from just behind Aizawa, the sound a clear warning. Jumping at the noise, Aizawa looked back at Rester and kept his gaze fixed firmly on the stoic man in relief. "We need Near- there's been a development with Kira," the detective managed, wondering where the albino might be. The surface of the pool was as still as it could be considering some of the ships seemed to be battery controlled and whirred importantly through the colorful mass of objects.

Rester merely nodded. Walking to the edge of the pool the man knelt cautiously, rolled up one of his sleeves and plunged his arm into the water up to his elbow, causing several toys to sink beneath the water before bobbing back up.

Whatever signal he gave beneath the surface was apparently seen. Seconds later more toys stirred in a pathway toward them as something swam sleekly beneath the flotsam. A moment after that Near's head appeared, his eyes covered with swimming goggles and his already colorless hair flattened to his skull in a way that made him seem nearly bald. The boy reached an imperious hand up and Rester effortlessly but gently hauled the albino from the pool while repeating what Aizawa had just said to him. Near nodded, tossed his goggles carelessly aside and headed for the door.

"What's the situation?" Near demanded, not breaking stride as Rester handed him a towel and set a plush bathrobe about the boy's thin shoulders as he walked. Aizawa noted that Near was wearing boy's swim trunks that were covered in space ships and comets. He wondered if he'd ever really adjust to the strange habits of genius.

Shrugging into the robe without paying attention to it Near allowed Aizawa to open the door for him, playing with one of his soaking locks of hair in an attempt to curl it like usual about one of his thin fingers. The towel was draped around his shoulders but he hadn't bothered to use it.

Trying to shake the strangeness of this situation from his thoughts Aizawa gave a terse report on what he'd seen before leaving HQ. In response Near frowned and picked up his pace, bare feet thudding against the carpet as he headed to the nearest elevator with Aizawa. Once again the elevator opened as they approached, and within minutes the group was hurrying through the sliding doors that allowed them into headquarters.

When they got to the monitors the scene that met them was anticlimactic. The other detectives were alert now and studying various reports, but there were no scenes of Light and L being hauled into unmarked vans as Aizawa had feared. Instead the footage available involved excited witnesses being questioned by reporters, shots of the wreckage Aiber had left of the airport's entrance with his jeep, and a few scenes from police helicopters as the city was searched with no avail for the murderer and detective.

Not appearing disappointed in the least Near flicked his pale eyes over the various screens, a very small smile on his mouth. "Watari, get me two tickets to Madrid," he commanded the waiting microphones.

Soichirou shifted to frown at Near. Apparently he'd realized that if Near was leaving, Kira's father wasn't one of the people Near would be pulling along. "If Madrid is our freshest lead I don't believe that you and Commander Rester should be the only ones to investigate. My men may not have the same freedom of movement within other countries that your position allows you but surely, if you bring us along..."

Near didn't bother to meet the man's gaze, still focused on the screens. "Rester and I know Spanish. Translating for the rest of you would be a waste of time." The former chief of police winced, not having considered that.

Resentful of how dismissively Near always spoke to them, Aizawa gave the boy a stern frown. "You should at least take Watari with you. He was always helpful for L."

Taking over a chair and commandeering several monitors, Near nodded. "I never forget that." The words weren't so much agreeing with Aizawa as a flat statement. In another tone of voice Aizawa might have even thought the phrase foreboding or suspicious, and he found himself frowning more deeply.

"You don't really trust any of us, do you?" For the first time in Aizawa's memory it was Matsuda who spoke aloud what Aizawa had been thinking. Of course, it being Matsuda he'd made the words sad and a little wounded. Aizawa preferred a challenging directness.

The albino apparently agreed more with Aizawa's tactics. Near gave Matsuda a bright smile that didn't reach his eyes. His hair was just beginning to dry and was sticking up in odd, chlorine-stiff lumps about his head and in his eyes, but the boy didn't seem adorable or childlike, just strange. Unsettled, Aizawa was glad for once that his own daughter wasn't here at headquarters.

"I don't trust you any more than any of you like me," Near observed bluntly. "But we don't need either of those things to catch L and stop Kira."

"I can assist Near just as well from headquarters." Watari's polite voice cut smoothly into the room, parting the tension. "I don't believe Near plans to be gone for long in any case. Thank you for kindly suggesting me, however, Aizawa. It's wonderful praise for an old man."

Watari's humility drew automatic protests from the detectives and what might have become a stand off calmed for the moment. Still, whatever Near believed, Aizawa wasn't sure how much longer he could work with someone who had so little respect for anyone else.

LxLxL

25 November, 2:46 p.m., Spain

The stolen car had been abandoned an hour outside of Madrid. Though uncomfortable with assisting Kira, Thierry still felt he owed L for not having made him spend a life behind bars. This gratitude, as he saw it, at least deserved him helping L to find a safe place to stay for a few days before the man would inevitably disappear.

Using his own money Thierry had gone to a used car lot and had paid in cash to get a minivan with tinted windows. A natural manipulator and liar, the French man had no trouble fielding the salesman's questions and haggling the price on the automobile down to what he felt it was worth. Not doing so would have raised more curiosity in the man.

While he did this L and Light had been out of sight in the car parked a ways down the road, out of the casual sight of passing traffic. With Light still unconscious L had sat crouched and tense in the passenger seat, thumb pressed to his teeth as he tried to keep from chewing it bloody again and kept his gaze roving constantly over their surroundings.

When Thierry returned to pick them up, Light was pragmatically stashed in the empty space created by pushing the van's seats flat. L replaced the makeshift bandages on the young man's leg with clean gauze and secured this so it wouldn't slip and Thierry rifled through a paper bag of goodies he'd bought- snacks and drinks for he and L, a sandwich for whenever Light woke up and a bag of apples. He couldn't understand the last, but L had requested them specifically.

With Light tended to and as well as he could be with a fresh gunshot wound L crawled between the front seats to resume his crouched position in this new vehicle, seatbelt fastened awkwardly across his lap and chest. Noting the large supply of snacks L considered gravely before pulling out several small chocolate cakes and biting into them. Leaving another car behind they had turned north by a roundabout path.

Dark eyes shifting restlessly over the scenery, L plucked a few apples from the bag and tossed them behind him. Thierry furrowed his brow before swerving the car in surprise when the apples were apparently caught by the empty air and devoured by some invisible mouth. A quiet stream of French invective followed this as Thierry corrected his driving with a pounding heart. "Does it have to come with us?" he asked tightly, aware that he wasn't being his usual calm self but unable to so lightly adjust to the presence of an invisible, life-taking monster accompanying their journey. "Watari seemed to think that I had to help Kira as well if I want to help you but he's at least a human."

He was unable to hear the laughter his reaction and words provoked from the happy and apple-fed shinigami. With the roomy van Ryuk could sit by Light easily and listen to the fun conversations of the humans. L turned his dark eyes briefly to Ryuk before resuming his watch out the windows. "Ryuk finds humans entertaining. I could threaten to withhold apples from him if he remains but using the threat often would decrease its effectiveness." L lapsed into a strained silence, thumb returning to his mouth now that the cakes he'd chosen had been eaten. "...Did Watari alone send you, or are you here for the new L?"

Having expected this conversation, Thierry shrugged. "Well, now, that depends on Watari," he remarked with wry humor. "If it helps to ease your mind, as long as he hasn't turned on you we should all be safe. That esteemed gentleman called on me last night with the request that I be waiting at the Madrid airport for yourself and your... companion. I still owe you my freedom and if this works out we may be even."

Not missing some of Thierry's phrasing, L turned his head, eyes intense and blankly hiding their thoughts. The con man withstood this for less than a minute before chuckling. "All right, I surrender. I'm sure you must have a few questions but I can't tell which one is bothering you at the moment."

"...What reason did Watari give for my protecting Kira?" L inquired, the question implied by the context as the words had been stated flatly.

Thierry sighed. "A strange one. I asked him, as you assume. You've been known to let the occasional harmless criminal off the hook, as Wedy and myself give evidence to, but not killers. I worried that it was blackmail, or perhaps the Imperius curse," Thierry admitted, the last reference completely lost on the genius detective. Then again, L didn't have several young children who enjoyed the Harry Potter stories.

Wanting to get a reading on the other man and see if any reaction to his words showed, Thierry slanted a glance at L as he spoke, keeping his attention on the traffic but his peripheral vision focused on the detective. L's usual position seemed more defensive than usual, as if the man were trying to protect himself from whatever his old father figure might have said of him. "Watari informed me that it was worse than blackmail, and implied that he would have preferred if something so simple as a curse were involved. He said you have a... certain attachment to the killer. It may even be..."

Thierry's words were interrupted by Light groaning quietly. L's eyes immediately turned to the brunet.

LxLxL

Waking in the back of an unfamiliar van to the sound of a voice that was only distantly familiar and pain throbbing in his leg, Light resisted the instinct to panic. Looking to either side of himself he noted that Ryuk was still entertained, but he knew the shinigami well enough to understand that even if he'd been captured by the Spanish government that wouldn't change.

"L?" he called out, lifting his head to peer toward the tail of the van and then twisting himself carefully to see the front. He met L's gaze and seeing the older man unfettered and with no armed guards around him Light relaxed. If they had been caught this certainly wasn't the sort of transport a government or L's replacement would have given to either of them.

The instant after those fears were calmed he had several new ones to replace them. L was sitting tightly wound and chewing his thumb, a sure sign that he was under heavy stress and trying to hide it. Beside him, driving the car, was a man Light knew as Aiber. He recalled the man rescuing them but only as a glimpse of recognition around the pain exploding through his leg.

That they were still with the man wasn't as good of a sign as it might seem. L had to know that they couldn't trust Aiber; even if he'd helped L out in the past, the only way for Aiber to have realized where they were to save them from the Spanish police was for Aiber to be partnered with Near. He wondered with a flash of irritation what they'd done to give themselves away before he pushed that annoyance aside in favor of trying to find a way out of this mess.

As these thoughts flashed quickly through Light's mind the young man frowned at L. The other genius didn't seem inclined to say anything at all.

"L, why is he still with us?" Light demanded, wanting to know if L was using his mind at all or if whatever blind morality kept the detective from giving Light a photo and name for Near to kill him and solve their problems was now making L believe that Aiber wouldn't betray them both.

Rather than answer him L turned his face toward Thierry. Thierry arched an eyebrow at L but obligingly replied. "I think he wants me to take this one. I'm with you because it's the only way to help him. Neither of you are in much shape to drive, correct? I'm sure L could manage, but I'm the only one here with two fine arms and no gunshot wounds. I also wouldn't sleep easily without knowing I'd done all I could to help."

Irked at L's refusal to directly respond, Light ignored Thierry's ridiculous question in favor of trying to will L to answer with his mind. Apparently unaffected by this L blinked slowly at Light before breaking eye contact to look out the windows. Light's annoyance flared into anger and he forced himself to relax as much as he could and calm his mind. He spoke with his eyes closed, confident that he could read details from vocal inflections and knowing that straining to constantly watch L and Aiber would get him little but a sore neck. "I suppose you're with us out of simple concern for our health?" he asked Thierry, infusing the words with sarcasm.

"Not for your health," Thierry disagreed amicably. "For his. If that's too altruistic for you, don't worry, I have my own reasons for helping him."

"I'm sure you do," Light remarked dryly. "Are you driving us directly to Near, or only to a holding cell?"

"Now my feelings are hurt. Do you need reassurance? How about a promise..." Thierry smiled to himself and L slid his gaze to watch him, thumb still to his teeth. "On my honor as a con man, I'm not knowingly leading you into a trap. If it helps, I've never met Near. Is that the fake L you mentioned in your little publicity stunt?"

Again Light ignored the obvious question. "You're being remarkably calm, considering your situation."

Thierry arched an eyebrow and spoke indulgently as though humoring a child. "And what situation is that?"

"L knows your name. He can supply me with it at any time and your loyalty will be assured up until your death," Light replied smoothly.

For the first time since Light regained consciousness L spoke, the words slipping quietly into the van. "Light-kun's threat is ill-considered for several reasons," he mentioned conversationally.

Opening his eyes Light tilted his head again to stare at L, frustrated with the other man undermining his attempt to control their circumstances. L turned his black eyes blankly back to Light, shields at full.

"Oh?" Light forced a chuckle. The pain from his leg was a constant distraction. If they could only get away from Thierry and he could rest and recover he was sure he would be back to normal in a few days, but he hated how vulnerable they were right now.

"I will not supply Kira-kun with any names. It is also unadvisable to threaten the person currently operating our vehicle. And, lastly... Kira-kun may find that killing others without his Death Note is more difficult than he seems to assume."

L's last words sent a chill trickle of foreboding down Light's spine. His hands immediately went to his stomach, where the otherworldly notebook had been kept close to him since Ryuk returned it. His hand flattened against the thin layer of his dress shirt covering only warm skin. Resisting the useless urge to lift his shirt and make sure that it really was missing, Light still whipped his head back around to stare wildly at L. "Where-? Did it fall at the airport? L, we can't leave it with the Madrid police," he told the detective with the thinnest layer of self-control covering his desperation. "The consequences for the world would undermine everything I've tried to do..."

L's black eyes met Light's for another instant as Ryuk laughed uproariously. Then, calmly looking away, L selected a lollipop from the bag beside him and put it into his mouth before conscientiously offering one to Light. When Light ignored it to continue watching L the dark-haired man sighed. "Light-kun misunderstands. The notebook of death remains with us until I can safely destroy it. I removed it from him while he was unconscious." Thierry arched his eyebrows at L, apparently impressed.

The trickle down Light's spine became a maelstrom in his stomach and mind and he gritted his teeth to keep from shouting. He couldn't fight the other man for it while they were in a van and he was fighting blood loss. When they'd reached their destination was a different matter. He just had to keep control- no situation was as hopeless as it seemed, and he'd won arguments with the detective before.

Pretending unconsciousness, Light lapsed into silence to brew his plans in peace. A prickling at his neck let him know that L was staring at him before eventually returning his attention to the road ahead of them.

Normally I'd put comment responses here, but since most of those are years old I assume no one remembers what they said anyway! I'll settle with more profuse thanks.

The GEO that L mentioned seeing are the Grupo Especial de Operaciones, who function somewhat like SWAT operatives in America- they're specialized and highly trained members of the police force. Their training includes learning how to conduct high-speed car chases, but in this situation, given that it wasn't known when or if Kira and L would be going through the airport, there was probably only one operative commando involved. (A five-man unit.) So, with them spread out inside the airport, none were readily able to grab vehicles and give chase or the situation might have gone differently... The information was courtesy of Wikipedia so it may be wrong, though! This is also the end of the first 'arc' for TYA, sort of how Goodnight Moon was an arc. I didn't feel like starting a third fanfic for it though, so the arc will just keep going with this whenever I have time to write it.

Get Out Alive is by Three Days Grace.