Jane Grey

Chapter 31: Wilting Rose

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"He-Heart Attack?" I stuttered.
"Remember the guy I was telling you about, she was getting involved with him and he was pretty bad news." He seemed almost unbothered by this though. I wanted to just leave the conversation there, growing increasingly uncomfortable as I jabbed at my ice cream, but he had absolutely no qualms with talking about his dead criminal sister. His face was forlorn, gazing at memories that were so far out of reach from touch, a dream that wouldn't come to mind anymore. "If it wasn't for me though...I doubt she would've even gone down that path."

I looked down at my lap, a heaviness in my heart growing stronger by the minute, and fiddled with the bandaids on my face. He stopped me though, grabbed my wrist and wresting my hand back on my own lap, "Don't make it worse Jane, you don't wanna look like me," he chuckled.
"What's the matter with that?"
"I got these from fighting with people and getting into the wrong kind of business. You make those scabs worse and people will think the same of you."
"Why are you so concerned with how others think of me?"

He sighed deeply, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Go home Moreaux, before you get hurt any more."
I took his advice and did, strolling into the main room and collapsing on my chair. L oddly enough wasn't there yet and the entire room was deserted. How peculiar. And so, I was left alone with my thoughts, and then it clicked "I never told him my name..." Now that was suspicious. I had never told my companion my name (first nor last) and in return he told me nothing of his names. We simply referred to each other as 'Grey' and 'Gold'. I hummed and out of curiosity took control of the main computer. Bringing up files of criminals and entering the descriptions of my companion. Since he got into bad company, it wouldn't be unrealistic if he had been arrested once upon a time. Nothing. Nothing came up. I hummed in deep thought once again, chewing at my nail and picking at my cheek scab, not even registering that there were people behind me. Even when someone stated 'check the American Criminal Database' I was so deep in my head that I didn't even notice.

I found a couple of people matching the description, but I didn't have time to click on their profiles or pictures before I noticed the sounds of clanging and clinking behind me. Snapping my head behind me, swivelling in the chair, there before me was Light and L...chained together. This was not previously discussed with me, but then again why would it?

"You two are handcuffed." I stated.
"That is correct,"
"Why."
"I feel the need to keep an eye on him." I received no further explanation than that.

Finally, filing in one by one was Matsuda, Mogi, Soichiro, Misa, and Aizawa. They seemed completely unbothered by the fact that my brother and a murderer werre handcuffed together for an indefinite amount of time. I know it probably seems like I zoom past many interactions and details, its mostly because I actually have no hand in it. My expertise is not needed all the time and if it doesn't interest me then it is extremely unlikely that I'll even focus on it.

Come the evening, I was in the kitchen with Watari and we were discussing my behaviour - he was adamant that grounding me was not the most efficient way for me to learn from my mistakes (though I'm sure deep in his heart he secretly loved that I was just being a kid) - when he brought up the topic of influences. I asked him about my brother and sister, now that I had taken a growing interest in them I wanted to know more. What relevance does this have to the case at hand? Well for starters, Harper was killed by Kira and second I have no clue about Harrison - no pictures exist of him as far as I'm aware. If I can somehow get in contact with Harrison, then perhaps I can have another person helping my cause or even helping the investigation.

"Lower Lords, Harper Moreaux, was a troubled girl, influenced to adrenaline by her brother and infatuated and obsessed with the love and power that she thought Beyond Birthday could provide." He took a sip of his tea, taking a moment to refresh his memory of my brother.
"Harrison Moreaux, or affectionately called 'Golden Boy' by his parents in their only noting of him, was a strong influence to his sister often coming home intoxicated or high on narcotics or covered in blood - as stated by Harper's memoirs - and since disappeared from all public sight." Watari asked why I wanted to know, and rather than telling the truth like a good daughter would I told him a believable lie (it really wasn't, it was just late enough for him to believe it for as long as I needed it to).

He kissed my cheek goodnight after washing up our cups, and escorted me back to my room shutting the door behind him. I wasn't quite done though with what I wanted to do. When the halls were silent, I carefully clicked the lock open and crept down the hall to the main computer. Light was sleeping on the couch beside L, whilst he was working at his desk like normal. For a moment, I thought I had been caught, and yet before I could even say anything L handed me a series of documents in a file;

"You looked like a mirror of a female me when looking at these profiles, it reminded me of how much I wanted you to stay alive," He whispered, his computer glare lighting up one side of his face while he stared at me, "So even though I'm giving this to you, I want you to stop whatever you're planning and stay alive."
"You say that like you're going to die,"
"Well, in this line of work, I might-"
"No. I told you how I feel about you saying that. You can't die...you just can't" A lone tear trickled down my face, absorbed into a bandaid. "If you die, if Watari dies, who else would I have left?"
"Unfortunately you'd have Light." I laughed sombrely, what a time to be making jokes.

"You have to stay alive first L. If you don't then I'll die too mentally. I'll wither away like a rose in winter."
"No you won't. You have a stronger will to live than that. Those months in that basement proves that."
"That was then, this is now,"
"Jane, if you're to be a rose in winter then at least be in permafrost, you must stay alive for as long as possible and see this case through to the end."

I trudged back to my room, slightly depressed and upset at the idea of L and Watari leaving me, but as soon as I locked my door and sat on my bed I turned on my lamp by my bed and read the file from cover to cover. It gave me all the answers I needed, from the name of my companion to his crimes and his family and my God did everything crash around me.