27th of January 2013
Halle Lidner entered the room which was now the SPK headquarters.
"Near," she said, "I've been contacted by Mello."
Near, who was working on some finger-puppets, looked up.
"What did he say?" Near asked.
"He said Takada is dead. According to him, his partner, Volpes, killed her. He gave me the location of Takada's body, as well."
"So, this was the result of Mello's plan," Near muttered, more to himself. "It did help us quite a lot."

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Blaire was on her way to L's favourite cake shop. At this very moment, all she felt like doing was whine about how often she had to go to this stupid cake shop. It was the umpteenth time she had to do this. Now she felt bad for Watari.
A motorcycle came from somewhere behind Blaire. For some reason, she watched it stop in front of the hospital which was only about ten feet away and kept watching as the man got off the bike and took his helmet off. She kept walking while watching the scene, and when the man got his helmet off, Blaire figured out that this was Mello. The last time she saw him must've been a bit more than 6 years ago, but this was most certainly Mello.
Blaire was quite surprised. Why was Mello going to a hospital? She decided it wouldn't hurt to just follow him for a bit.
He headed to the hospital and entered it. He spoke to a nurse at the reception and then headed to the elevators. The hospital lobby was quite crowded, so Blaire managed to sneak into the same elevator as Mello without being seen by either Mello or the receptionist nurse. The elevator was just as crowded.
She managed to get off at the same floor as Mello, along with several other people. He went to the right, Blaire turned left. She waited for two minutes before she started following him again, returning along the corridor and going to the right. She decided to walk slower, anyway.
Obviously, Mello reached the hospital ward first. It was quite a long way along the winding corridors of the hospital. When he went through the doorway, he saw a nurse working at the wires of one of the monitors. A continuous, shrill beep could be clearly heard, and, even though he did not show it, panic quickly rushed through Mello's head.
"Don't worry, she's fine," said the nurse, noticing Mello. "There's something wrong with the machinery here, I have to replace it, so I disconnected it. That's why it's beeping."
The nurse wanted to add something, probably she wanted to ask if Mello was a visitor, but at that very moment another nurse came in and said:
"Mr. Nakamura's situation has just gone worse, hurry, I need you to come with me."
Probably this Nakamura was someone important, because the nurse left the room, forgetting about her patient or Mello. She, of course, also left the monitor working, so the beep continued.
Mello sat down on a nearby chair and looked at Volpes. He was not sure whether to believe what the nurse had just said or not, so he grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse. It was steady. Mello gave out a sigh of relief.
"Wha..." spoke a voice from the doorway. Mello turned. Had he been followed? He barely managed to recognize Blaire, a friend of Volpes's (and Near's) from Wammy's House. Her face was red, but, unlike the first time he saw her in the orphanage, she was not angry - she looked like she was about to cry.
"She's dead..." she whispered. "She's dead!! And it's all your fault!!"
Mello opened his mouth to object, but Blaire did not give him the chance to do so.
"I can't believe it! How could you let her die?! Huh... After you sent Matt to die, you did the same with her?! Do you have any idea how much she cared about you? I bet it never even mattered to you!!" Then, she stormed out of the small room, leaving Mello behind.
Although Volpes was not dead, Mello still felt the horrible guilt of the past events. He did not assure the safety of any of those two people, the only people he had.
"I wish you'd wake up," he started saying, "only so I can tell you how sorry I am. And how much I love you..." He was still grasping her hand.
Meanwhile, Blaire was living yet another tragedy. She barely had the willpower to get back to L's secret headquarters, but she did not want to do so to give him the awaited cake. She wanted to tell him something else. Now, she had nobody, so...
She soon barged in L's hotel room. Or rather small apartment. He was sitting on his usual armchair in another room, still drinking some tea which Blaire had prepared before leaving. She went straight to him.
"L!" she called.
"I don't believe you need to shout," he said. "Now, have you brought what I have asked you to?"
"No! And you'll need someone else to do your shopping from now on!"
"Why is that?" asked L, his calm tone contrasting with Blaire's fury.
"I can't stand the whole thing anymore! Volpes is dead! She's dead!"
"Volpes from Wammy's House who, according to you, left the orphanage to go with Mello, another of my successors?"
"Yes!" Blaire half-shouted. She threw herself on an armchair next to L's, finally feeling tired. She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, willing to hold back another round of tears. Then, she felt a warm touch on her left wrist, the one closest to L, so she opened her eyes and gazed at him.
"What the heck are you doing?" asked Blaire weakly.
"I wanted to see if you had calmed down," answered L, his tone still calm.
"By doing what? Checking my pulse?"
L did not answer. It didn't matter much to Blaire, anyway. There was no turning back now.
"I hope you don't intend to commit suicide," said L, finally.
"That's exactly what I'm planning to do."
"I can't let you do that."
"As if you can stop me. Anyway, why do you care?"
"I have nobody left either," L said after a pause of almost half a minute. Blaire thought he was not going to answer, but now he had her attention. "It's the truth, don't be so surprised. I am glad to have you around, not only because you are a good spy, but also because you are a pleasant company and trustworthy, too. And I believe you misunderstood me. I did not ask you to spy on Light Yagami because I had no other choice. I did so because I knew you were intelligent enough to see through his words and tell me how he actually felt about everything that happened around him. And I am sure that it did thoroughly annoy you to be sent to buy me cake so often, but it also thoroughly annoyed me that you refused to sit down and enjoy the cake with me. Stop thinking so darkly about your being here. You are not my slave, but one of the few people I have really liked and cared for. Remember that both me and your other friend from Wammy's House, my other successor, Near, would be alone if you died."
Blaire got up from her chair. L probably interpreted this as a declaration from her stating that she had had enough of this and wanted to leave, so he also got up. But, instead of going towards the door, she just hugged L. She didn't find the power to hold it in anymore. She let go of him after two seconds in which she received no response from him.
"I'm sorry, she said, stepping backwards and trying not to cry again.
"You misunderstood me again," L said. Blaire was sure that he was talking about the speech. He was probably lying, that's what it really was. "I must be a good actor if I managed to fool you this easily," he continued. Blaire blushed. She was so embarrassed of how naive she was... "I thought it was obvious that I don't usually express my feelings, but I believe I can make an exception for you."
He leaned in and kissed Blaire softly.
"You really did fool me," she said, after he pulled back.
"I wouldn't be so sure. You don't seem to be that surprised."
This time, Blaire leaned in and kissed L.