"Mello, are you alive?" I asked hopefully, frantically pushing his hair out of his bloody face. "Mello?"

There was no answer…

I must be going crazy to think that his eyelashes brushed against my face. This must be that denial thing that everyone is talking about. I couldn't do this. I couldn't just live in this world without him. He was…is my everything. Without him there is nothing. I reached behind my back and pulled my gun out of its usual spot…but Mello's hand stopped my hand from making its way toward my head.

"Mello! You're alive! Oh, God…" I gasped, throwing my gun on the ground. His eyes parted slightly and a small smile formed on his lips. I cried tears of joy and relief as I hugged him tightly to my chest. "I thought I had lost you!"

"Matt," he whispered hoarsely. I nodded quickly for him to continue. "Hospital…"

"Oh, right…That might be important…" I said, frantically searching for my cellphone. Before I even dialed 911, a large black van tore through the dried out cornfield we were in. I reached for my gun instinctively. The van door flew open and I aimed my gun.

"You really need to stop pointing guns in my face," Light said impatiently.

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm a little fucking paranoid!" I snapped back at him. He hopped out of the van and helped me lift Mello into it.

We didn't even have the door closed and Watari was already ripping through the fields. We had a quiet drive for the most part, until Light finally spoke up.

"I thought you were going to take care of him…" he tried to joke. I glared at him. I wasn't in the mood for his cocky attitude.

"His seatbelt wouldn't unbuckle, oddly enough." My voice probably sounded accusatory, because I half blamed Light and L for not checking the helicopter for fucking bombs and properly functioning seatbelts.

"Look, when we checked the helicopter over there was nothing and everything was working okay. We went inside for maybe five minutes and something must have happened. We're just human," Light explained snappily. I looked over at L, who was being oddly quiet. He nodded in agreement to what Light said.

"I don't care," I said with a sigh. "Let's just get Mello to a hospital and get him the treatments he needs. How much longer?"

"We're only about two minutes away," Light told me. The last two minutes of the ride were silent.

The wait in the lobby was painful. I wore a hole in the floor by pacing, I swear. Occasionally Light or L would offer me a drink or tell me to sit down and stop worrying, but it was Mello's life we're talking about. I couldn't just sit down and pretend that everything is okay when he was so close to death. I thought I had already lost him once. I didn't want to go through that again…

"Are you Matt?" the doctor asked me when he finally came to the waiting room. I stopped mid-step and stared at him with wide eyes. This was it…the moment of truth.

"Yeah…" I said slowly. His face looked way too somber for it to be good news.

"Okay, well currently Mello is in critical condition. We induced him into a coma for a couple of days so his body can heal. He has a lot of…facial scarring. Unfortunately, we couldn't replace the skin missing with grafts without his permission. Seeing as how he's been unconscious since he arrived, his face will heal that way. It will take him a while to recover…Days, maybe," he said gravely.

I didn't really know how to react. From what I heard from the doctor, he was doing okay…but not great. I was extremely relieved that he wasn't on death's doorstep, but I was quite upset that he was doing so poorly. God, I'm going to kill him for not jumping…

"Can I see him?" I asked hopefully. The doctor nodded and I followed him to Mello's room.

"He was conscious for enough time to ask for you earlier. It's too bad we couldn't ask him about the skin graft," was all he said before he left me alone with Mello.

"Oh, Mells…" I exhaled deeply.

The left half of his face was wrapped up. I didn't want to be within ten miles of him when he saw his new face. He had always prided himself on his perfect complexion and his natural beauty. I gently traced my fingers on his covered face before kissing him lightly on the forehead.

He was going to have a fit about his face…and I was scared. Well, at least he's alive, right? Ugh, who am I kidding? It's Mello we're talking about. He'll freak.

"How's he doing?" L said behind me. I shook my head sadly.

"I don't know. He'll be in a coma for the next few days…"

"Matt, you know what you have to do, right?" Light asked angrily, gazing down at Mello. I stared at him in confusion.

"You have to go after the guy who did this to Mello," L explained, equally as angry. I blinked in surprise. From all the people in this world, I did not expect L to condone murder. It was against the law.

"It's justice," Light said, reading my face. "He's tried to kill us multiple times. We're lucky L made it out alive and now Mello is hanging by a thread. He needs to be stopped and you're the only one that has the skills to track him down and end this."

"And you two are okay with this?" I asked cautiously.

"We tracked down his name while we were looking for you and Mello. His name is Blue Jackson. His gang alias is Duke. He can be found in northern California. I suggest you find him, put an end to him, and return by the time Mello wakes. The car is waiting outside for you. You will find everything you need in there," L told me monotonously.

"What—"

"I suggest you leave now," he interrupted me. I threw my hands up in frustration. I was never going to understand this guy! I walked over to Mello and placed a kiss on his forehead, then made my way out to the car that was waiting for me.

So, here I am in northern California…

I don't know if it was made clear before, but Mello and I aren't big fans on California. It was where our parents were killed. We tend to stay away from it at all costs. Being back here didn't really put that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. As much as I wanted to visit my mother's grave, I was on a time crunch.

I pulled my tracking device out of my pocket. L had managed to get a chip on one of the helicopters that the people who attacked us used. Usually in situations like this the person comes up with a plan before breaking into a mafia base…but I was just kinda thrown in here with no direction. So…

I found the base soon after I landed in California. It actually wasn't that hard to find. It was the underground section of a chocolate factory. I couldn't help but get re-mad when I thought about how much Mello would have loved to be here. However, these assholes had to tear half his face off and send me after them.

So, right now I'm climbing through an air duct that I made sure had no cameras in it. I could hear some mafia members talking below me. They weren't too smart, and I'm pretty sure most of them were drunk. This was going to be too easy. I pulled out my laser and cut a hole in the aluminum. I could hear them all shout in surprise and get there guns ready.

"Who's there?!" One of them shouted. Yeah, like I was going to answer…

I threw a smoke bomb down and heard gunshots. I quickly put on my goggles and jumped out of the hole. The firing stopped and I moved quickly, exiting the room. Did they seriously just kill each other? Wow, maybe this wasn't going to be bad at all.

I looked at my blueprints of the base and decided that the biggest room would be where the boss was. As I made my way there, I wasn't met with any more trouble. It was pretty easy just to walk through their base. What kind of hideout was this? When I did finally make it to the biggest room, the boss was sitting there with two whore-ish looking girls on his lap.

"Hello, Matt. We've been waiting for you," he greeted me kindly. "How's your friend?"

With that comment, I swiftly raised my gun at his head level from across the room. The girls giggled on him lap like I wasn't a threat.

"Oh, you don't want to do that—"

"I'm pretty sure I do," I corrected him. He chuckled. God, I hate him.

"Not after you hear the deal I want to—"

I didn't even let him finish his sentence before I shot him in the head. The girls on his lap screamed and scrambled away from him. I blew tranquilizer darts at them so they couldn't call for back up. I placed wall bombs on every wall as I made my way up to the factory part of the hide out.

Mello would probably kill me if he knew that I was about to blow up a chocolate factory…Ugh, losing half of his face and one of the world's biggest chocolate factory in the same week…? Well, what he doesn't know, won't hurt him.

I practically flew out of the factory's doors and pressed the red button on my tracker. That should do it. By the time I make it to the airport, this factory will be ashes. Problem solved.

"This is L," I heard L say on his end of the phone.

"Hey, I took care of him. I blew up his base too," I informed him. He was silent. He's so frustrating. "Erm…How's Mello?"

"He's awake," he told me in his usually boring voice, like it was the most uninteresting thing in the world!

"What?" I practically screamed.

"Would you like to talk to him?" he asked. I didn't even have time to answer before I heard Mello's voice in the background.

"He better want to talk to me! That asshole left me!" Mello ranted distantly.

"Um…yeah. I'll talk to him…" I said cautiously.

"Matthew," Mello said shortly to me. My name isn't even Matt, let alone Matthew…

"Mells, how are you feeling?" I asked meekly. I already knew that this was going to be a one sided conversation…

"Hmm…Let me see! I just woke up, you weren't here, and I was just told that I was going to have to go the rest of my life looking like the Phantom of the Opera!" he yelled furiously. He was kinda hot when he yelled…kinda. But now wasn't the time to tell him that…

"Look, Mello. I'm going to be pulling up to the hospital in five minutes. Just give me a chance to explain what happened, okay?" I tried to reason. Tried. To reason. With Mello. Yeah…

"You better be here in five minutes or you will have hell to pay!" he grumbled. I could hear his heart monitor next to him go crazy.

"Mells, please. I'll be right there, I promise. I love you, Mello."

"I love you too." With that, he hung up the phone. This was going to be awesome…

I finally pulled up the hospital and I knew better than to walk in, so I ran. When I made it up to Mello's room, L and Light were sitting outside of it.

"How is he?" I asked as I panted. Light shook his head sadly and L just sat there with no expression. I didn't really know what to make of their reaction, so I went in to the room to check on him. I prepared myself for the worst.

But honestly, I didn't really prepare myself for the worst. I prepared myself for him yelling and screaming and throwing a Mello-fit (which is so much worse than a regular fit). I was prepared for him to threaten my life or even break up with me. I was prepared for him to cry or be hysterical…but I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

The nurse looked at me sadly as she covered Mello's body up with a white sheet. I caught a glimpse of his face and his eyes were glassy. I had actually lost him this time. It was real.

"Call it," the nurse said to the doctor. The doctor looked at the clock and back down at his paper.

"Time of death, 2:12 pm on January 5th, 2009," he said solemnly. I'm pretty sure that I was on the floor now, but I couldn't tell you how I got there. I felt the tears roll down my face. I felt my jaw open. I felt the muscles on my face becoming sore from the facial expression I was making. I felt my heart stop beating for a couple of seconds. I felt the blood in my veins boil with sadness and anger.

Here I was again. In this numb limbo of a lost love.

I pulled my gun out of its usual spot and put it to my head…except this time Mello wasn't there to stop me.

The end.

A/N: Wow...yeah. Okay so a couple things. Sorry it took me so long to update :( I had a couple of exams to study for and I was in the hospital for a bit and... I know the ending was probably the worst thing I could have done...but here it is. Please review...even if you hate me for this.