A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 62

The hallway outside Soichiro's hospital room was deathly silent as Jubilee waited on a nearby bench, the other members of the Task Force alongside her. Light wasn't among them. Given the limited size of Soichiro's room he'd been given priority to visit the former chief first along with the rest of his family, who had arrived moments before him. The doctor who greeted the Task Force had informed them solemnly that Soichiro was hanging in there for now, but likely wouldn't make it past tomorrow.

The Yagamis had been in the room for over thirty minutes now. L sat in a crouch next to Jubilee, gnawing violently on his thumb. Aizawa, Matsuda and Mogi leaned against the wall beside them, shifting uneasily as the minutes ticked by. Jubilee anxiously bit her fingernails as she waited. In front of her Hellenos' warmth had gradually come back into her awareness, but just barely, and she couldn't hear him.

"What do you plan on saying to him?" L's low voice interrupted her tumultuous thoughts.

She turned to him. "I suppose—we can simply tell him...what we've seen," she answered haltingly. She hadn't thought much about it on their way there. It had been all she could do to not be completely beside herself with worry the whole time.

L's eyes seemed to grow larger just a fraction. "We?" he repeated softly, before turning away so that his hair fell forward and shielded his eyes. "Yes, I suppose we can," he murmured.

"Oh man," moaned Matsuda, breaking his silence at last and gripping his head in his hands. "I can't believe this is happening. The Chief—he's always been there since day one! We can't lose him now. It just—it just can't be, for him to actually...surely there's some way for him to..." He petered off, turning to L and Jubilee. "I mean, you two ended up okay. If there was a miracle for both of you, then why not for the Chief too?"

Jubilee stared up at the younger officer, her heart thudding with guilt. She didn't know what to say.

"Nothing is impossible," said L at last, quietly. "But...we can't stake all of our hope on such things."

The look of despair on Matsuda's face was heartbreaking. At that moment, the Yagamis finally filed out of the room. Mrs. Yagami and the young girl beside her had tear-streaked faces and red eyes. Light looked more downcast than Jubilee had ever seen him, but if the cloud of black and orange churning about him were any indication, it was for more reasons than just his father's condition.

"You can go see him now," he told them, not meeting any of their eyes. "Just...don't expect him to be responsive."

The men along the wall straightened and Jubilee rose from the bench as L hopped to his feet. They slowly filed into the room, none of them exchanging any words.

On the hospital bed in the center of the tiny, windowless room lay Soichiro, looking frail and somehow small underneath the sheets despite being a tall man. His eyes were slightly open and rolled upwards, unseeing. Several tubes hooked him up to a machine and IV beside the bed, and his breathing came out in quiet, sputtering wheezes.

"Chief," whispered Aizawa, looking pained. Soichiro didn't answer, and there was no sign to indicate that he was even aware of their presence.

"Do you—do you think he's..." Matsuda stammered dumbly, stunned to see his former employer in such a state.

Jubilee realized then that she had been holding her breath since entering, her nerves strewn taut at the sight of their colleague and friend hovering on the brink of death. She exhaled slowly now, and as she did, a whisper of awareness returned to her senses and she detected a small, weak flicker of light over Soichiro's head.

"I think that he knows there are people with him," she breathed softly, almost afraid to raise her voice.

"He looks so...so tired," said Mogi helplessly. "He was always so strong, and he never backed down in anything—but now..." He trailed off, then said firmly, "He was strong until the very end."