A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 42

In the main room at headquarters, the alarm had finally stopped blaring. The usual fluorescent lighting had come back on overhead, glaring down upon the motionless inhabitants of the room. Jubilee had not moved from her spot where she was prostrated over L's body, her shaking hands clenched into fists that were half clinging on to his shirt, half clenched together in some semblance of prayer. Tears streamed down her face and onto the white material between her fingertips.

The rest of the Task Force surrounded her, either kneeling beside her or standing a little ways behind, their heads bowed. Perhaps some of them were also praying for the fallen detective's passing.

At last Matsuda lifted his head to look uncertainly at Jubilee, then at the other men. His gaze landed on Light as the closest authority figure to turn to. "Um, Light?" he began hesitantly. "What do we—that is, should we...?"

Light, his head still bowed so that his hair hid his eyes, held up a hand to quiet the other man. "Another minute, Matsuda," he said. "Especially for Julie's sake."

"Ah," faltered Matsuda. "Right—of course."

Jubilee did not hear either of them. Between sporadic, hiccuping sobs, her lips silently moved as she continued to hold on to L's shirt, her eyes squeezed shut. Somewhere in her distant awareness, she sensed the warmth of Hellenos' presence still beside her, kneeling there with her. He seemed to be speaking, but she couldn't understand his words. He was holding one hand comfortingly to her back, and the other over her clasped hands.

And there was another pair of hands holding on to hers as well.

Slowly Jubilee raised her head to look, bleary-eyed, before her. Besides L's lifeless body she could see nothing, not even Hellenos. The sight made any earlier awareness she had had of the angel's presence instantly flicker out like a light. Choking back a sob, she closed her eyes again, burying her face back into L's shirt.

The feeling of Hellenos' presence returned then, more strongly this time, along with the sensation of another set of hands around hers. With her eyes still closed, vision gradually began to flood her mind.

Another figure was kneeling across from her, on the other side of L. It looked somewhat like Hellenos but more feminine. Wings cascaded gracefully down the creature's back, and its hands were cupped imploringly around Jubilee's fists. The hands had a familiar warmth to them, in a strange way that felt like something she had felt before. Briefly the memory of a warmth cupping her right ear, up on the roof, while Hellenos had cupped her left, flitted through her mind. And then another memory came to her.

Why don't you be his guardian angel then, she had snapped irritably at Hellenos.

Because he's already got one.

Good Lord, there are TWO of you?

Through closed eyes, Jubilee clearly saw the other angel now. It flashed her a quick, encouraging smile. Speaking something that Jubilee couldn't hear, it patted her clenched hands once more with its own. Then it reached out its hands to her, palms up, as though in a gentle plea.

Jubilee's hands only tightened impulsively on L's shirt. But then another warmth whispered through her heart like a sweet, distant song.

Trust me, it said.

Jubilee's ragged breathing stilled. Slowly, ever so slowly, she let her hands unclench. Without opening her eyes or lifting her face, she released L's shirt. Then she raised her hands, palms up like the angel's, and laid them back down across L's chest.

So quietly that only Light—who was closest to her—could hear, she repeated in a whisper her words from earlier:

"Dad...not my will, but yours be done."