The Silent Place

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.

AN: So here we are, the last actual chapter before the epilogue. And despite me originally being pissed I couldn't write the fic I planned to after Choices, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this universe.

But as I stated in the prologue. This is it. No more. Promise this time.

On to other news this fic, as the last in the series and the one closest to WSF in feel, has actually surpassed it in length. (I added everything up without the AN, as everyone knows I like to ramble on) And I think this may be my favorite in the series. *shrug*

Suggested Listening: Supernova by Ra; This Is It by Stained (yes I did go there with the title); Cry Little Sister (club cave mix 2008) by G Tom Mac

Chapter Eleven: Bang

They were parked around a block away from the address situated inside of their borrowed car, but Mello's nerves were so tense they may as well have been outside the building waving.

Anderson hadn't specified a time so they had taken it upon themselves to take stock of the situation before they went in. They knew it was a trap. They were meeting on Anderson's terms and on Anderson's turf.

They were at a huge disadvantage and didn't even have the element of surprise. They had turned down the street just far enough to see his men guarding the outside of the building. For all they knew they could be shot dead on site, though Mello didn't believe so.

Anderson had put too much work into this for such a simple end. Or he at least wanted to do it himself.

Mello took one last sip of his coffee before Matt started the engine. There was no sense in staying parked that far away when they would have to be seen anyway. As they drove up to the building he couldn't help but feel as though they were driving towards his death.

He sincerely hoped not.

There was a multitude of shouting as they slowed to a stop and he shared a look with Matt as the doors were yanked open. Matt was instantly frisked and his gun taken and Mello was immediately surprised by the fact that he hadn't been.

A younger man walked over to him and he knew his luck hadn't held out. "Don't bother with him; boss says he can't hold a gun with that hand." Mello wasn't sure whether to be grateful that Anderson seemed to know all of his flaws or extremely pissed off.

He settled somewhere between the two and scowled at the men that grabbed his arms and jerked him foreword. He watched as Matt purposely shuffled his feet to make it more difficult and hoped that the redhead wouldn't decide to antagonize them while they were inside.

They were manhandled all the way inside and down a hallway before being shoved into some room with the door left wide open, as though they were no threat whatsoever. He had taken note of all the possible escape routes should they be given the chance to use them.

From the outside one couldn't tell that the building had been abandoned, but from just one look inside it was quite obvious that it hadn't been used for commercial use in some time.

"How much time do you think we have until he gets his lazy ass down here?" Matt questioned from his position closest to the door.

"Not long enough for you to set anything up I'm afraid." Anderson commented as he grabbed Matt's arm and twisted it behind him and pulled him close, gun to his temple. "Fuck!" Matt swore and Mello completely shared the sentiment though he didn't say anything.

It had been an oversight on their part to assume that he hadn't been waiting, probably obsessively, for them to arrive and make a mistake. And Matt not having moved from the doorway quickly enough had been one.

But Anderson had also made a mistake. He hadn't checked him for weapons. Just because his shot suffered now didn't mean he wouldn't have one.

Anderson forced Matt to move with him and further into the room; Mello took a half step back for every one Anderson took. It wouldn't do to be too close to the man. Anderson had always been a good shot.

"So what now?" he questioned the man while his eyes took in every detail. If he took Anderson out his men would instantly rush the room before they could even make it to the stairwell a few doorways down and to the left.

"What now?" Anderson laughed and his gun pressed more harshly into Matt's skull. "Now I kill him to make you understand some of what I went through."

Mello froze in his spot. He hadn't thought that Anderson would do something like that so quickly. But considering his back story, perhaps they both should have. But no matter what, he couldn't let Matt die...

"And while I won't make the mistake of leaving you alive for too long afterwards, I will make sure you suffer." he ran the gun down the side of Matt's face before knocking him hard upside the head with the barrel.

Mello forced himself to stay where he was even as Matt hissed slightly in pain.

"I do wish that you had more people you cared about, perhaps then I would have the same thing reenacted. Though we could probably still have him raped, would that do it for you?" he swallowed thickly at the manic gleam in Anderson's eyes.

If anything he'd prefer Matt to be shot quickly than to have to go through that.

"Perhaps I should call some of my men in from outside, I'm sure they'd enjoy him. Then we could lock him in the building and watch him go up in flames like my sister did. What do you say Mello?"

But he hadn't paid much attention to the threats, instead he'd locked onto the piece of information Anderson probably hadn't intended to give away. His men were outside the building.

Matt had grasped that as well and after a slight nod from Matt, he closed his eyes. Mello knew his hand was shaky at best while holding a gun, it being proven earlier, but he wasn't just going to let Anderson kill Matt. And with Matt's consent...

"What? Have nothing to say to that?" Anderson laughed but his expression turned to that of shock as Mello pulled out his gun and fired. Anderson's laughter was cut off as the bullet lodged into his neck and blood gushed out.

A second gunshot rang out and Mello's heart leapt into his throat.

Both Anderson and Matt were in a heap on the dirty floor and for a sickening moment he thought Matt had been hit. But as the redhead stirred it became apparent that he had merely been pulled down by Anderson's grip on him, his head having been turned just in time to move out of the guns path.

"We have to get our ass's out of here now." he pulled Matt off the floor and dragged him from the room. They probably only had a few minutes at best before Anderson's men came to investigate. They had probably been told that they'd hear gunfire so they shouldn't investigate right away.

Anderson's downfall had been his assumption that Mello hadn't had a weapon and wouldn't fire with Matt in his grasp.

Anderson had always been an idiot.

They rushed up the flight of stairs to the next floor, it was apparently an abandoned office building though it hadn't been apparent from the ground floor, and searched for an out, preferably a fire escape of some kind.

They heard the shouts from down below about 'their boss being dead' and that they were to blow the building in ten. They looked at each other.

"Seconds or minutes?!" Matt swore and they ran for the window that overlooked the building next to them, just half a room away. Mello mentally counted the seconds off in his head and with horror realized they wouldn't quite make it.

The roar was deafening as the building blew up around them as they jumped for the window, glass shattering around them like diamonds; the blast tossed them into the air like rag dolls. They were flung against the brick walls of the building next to them.

Mello held onto Matt with all the strength he had, it being made difficult with only one hand, but he managed it.

His eyes were shut tight to avoid the glass that fell with them and he awaited the inevitable hurt, and probable death, that would envelope him when they hit the ground.

It hurt alright, his leg exploding in pain after a sickening crunch, but they had landed on something moderately soft and plastic feeling but he didn't dare open his eyes until everything had stopped falling.

"Mello?" he shook his head slightly, feeling the glass flake off, and slowly opened his eyes. He snorted in mirth. They had landed in a dumpster. A fucking dumpster!

"I bet we'll be safe in here while they leave. I'm not sure if I could move at the moment or not.." Matt told him with a smile, though it was strained. He looked down and searched the redhead for injuries until he noticed something poking out from his side; it looked like a piece of metal.

"Fuck." he tried to move off the redhead but instantly got lightheaded as he moved his leg. He leaned his head onto Matt's chest and took a deep breath to will the nausea away.

"Mello?!"

"What a fucking mess we are. You can't get up with that in your side, and I cant move because I broke my fucking leg." he snorted in laughter at the absurdity of it. Matt obviously didn't share his sentiments for all he did was sigh and try to shift into a sitting position.

It didn't work too well, they were so jam packed into the garbage that it would have been hard to get out if they hadn't been injured.

"Of all the things, I never thought we'd die in a giant rubbish bin." he supposed he was being morose, but what were the odds of them getting out of there on their own? They certainly couldn't call for help, the only people who would come would be Anderson's men, and even then with all the noise the explosion had made it was impossible to tell if they'd even be heard at all. And Matt's phone had been taken before they entered the building.

They went silent and eventually the sounds of sirens came, as well as fire engines and people yelling and rushing about to stop the fire that was left behind.

Mello found himself falling asleep despite all off the sounds until he was being shaken awake to complete silence. It was late afternoon, possibly even early evening, and there was a blurry face staring at him from above with a wide and exasperated grin.

"How the fuck?" he managed to mumble.

"I've been attempting to track you fuckers ever since I went on the run. But every time I got to your last location you had moved. Seriously you make it a bitch to find you guys." Jasper laughed as he began to haul Mello from the dumpster.

Mello bit back the pain and refused to make a sound despite Matt's watchful eyes on him. Jasper set him on the ground and he sat there in a half daze as his foggy mind woke from its slumber. He knew that he had probably fallen asleep not too long ago, but that his body had probably needed to recharge after that shock.

It only just occurred to him that Matt hadn't seemed surprised to see Jasper. "How long have you been trying to wake me?" he asked as Matt was set on his feet while Jasper quickly inspected the wound in Matt's side.

"About six minutes. You were out light a light. But I wasn't really all that worried as you were still breathing." the previously missing man stated as he backed up. "Think you can walk?" he directed at Matt, who nodded.

Mello grit his teeth as he was picked up by Jasper and his broken leg dangled and swayed until he thought he might pass out. One would think he'd be used to pain by then...

"He'd only been hit in the shoulder, that's the blood we saw. He then went to a doctor friend of his and got himself patched up and hid there while he searched for us." Matt told him as they moved to a dark blue four door truck.

Matt climbed into the rear passenger side and Mello was brought to the other side and sat in the middle so his leg could be propped up across the rest of the seat. Mello vaguely noted how he was no longer in contact with Matt and moved to rectify it.

Again he'd almost lost the redhead, and if things went downhill he still might, and he couldn't help the almost overwhelming need to be close to him. To feel him, alive.

He leaned against Matt's side until the redhead moved his arm to pull him closer. The position was awkward and slightly uncomfortable for all his aching muscles but he didn't move. Every few minutes Matt would glance down, as though he still couldn't believe that he hadn't pulled away by then, or perhaps believing he still would.

But Mello had definitely had enough of that; even if it made him uncomfortable at times, even if he was in tears, even if everything felt so incredibly wrong, he was never letting go of Matt again.

"Matt?"

Matt looked down at him, goggles askew and dirt covered, blood matting his red hair and dripping down his face. "Yeah Mello?"

He leaned up and kissed him, Matt's shocked moan making him grin despite the pain that jarred his leg. They should have been dead, and if not for Jasper and his impeccable timing, probably would have been in a few hours if not sooner.

"You alright Mello?" Matt asked, just a little dazed sounding, when they finally pulled apart.

Mello gave him a smile, one of the first real ones in a long time. "Yeah, I think so. I really do." Matt's eyebrows rose to his hairline and he stole another kiss.

Maybe all he had really needed was something to knock some sense into him; something to truly make him understand all he had to lose. He wasn't over his issues, not by a long shot, but he would be damned if he pushed the only person who loved him away, ever again.

"If you two are done making out, I'd like to get you patched up before you bleed to death. If that's alright with you?" Jasper asked a little sarcastically as he parked the car. Mello shrugged and leaned more fully into Matt. Damn was he tired. Though that could be attributed to the blood that oozed from his leg and who knew what else.

He hadn't even realized they had stopped.

Guess Jasper had his points.

"Hey Jasper..... just make sure everyone either thinks we got killed in the explosion, or we died during treatment." both Matt and Jasper looked at him questioningly.

"If we are dead, then no more ghosts can haunt us." he murmured sleepily. He felt Matt's chest move in silent laughter.

"I guess you're right. Sort of like our own version of witness protection I suppose." Matt added and lifted him from the car, though how the redhead had managed it with his own injuries was a mystery to Mello.

"I don't care if you want to call yourselves dead or not, but I better get an actual phone call at least once a week, I'm sick of finding shit out when I'm trying to be murdered. Fuckers shot bullets all through my apartment..." Jasper grumbled.

Mello let his fingers curl around the singed fabric of Matt's deer skin vest and laughed. Only Jasper would worry about a few pieces of furniture. His logic had always been a bit skewed.

Jasper apparently didn't bother with using a back or side door and marched them through the front entrance and into the building.

"Why not come with us?" Mello offered and scrunched his eyes up at the influx of bright florescent lights.

His nose was assaulted with the smell of antiseptic and he assumed that they weren't in an underground doctor's office or such, probably the one that had patched Jasper up.

And knowing Jasper, they were good.

"If you get a large enough place. I don't want to be cooped up in a three room apartment with you lunatics." Jasper spat, though he had a wide grin on his dirt smudged face. Things would be better from then on, he thought.

They had to be.

He heard voices, sounding far away but becoming clearer the more his mind woke from it's haze. Everything ached so he doubted that he was dead or dreaming.

It took a few attempts, as his eyes felt glued together, before he was able to pry his eyelids open by sheer will power alone. The room was dark though he could just make out a hint of light from down the hallway.

He was in some sort of bedroom then. Because no hospital bed was that comfortable.

He remembered arriving at their destination, Matt carrying him, and then.... nothing.

It was blank, as though the memories had been wiped clean.

He gave himself a few more minutes to fully wake, the memories still not forthcoming, and wanted to be coherent when he alerted them that he was awake. He was thirsty as hell and his mouth gave the sensation that he had eaten cotton.

Not even ten minutes later he hears footsteps that stop in the doorway, though he doubted that they knew he was awake. "A glass of water would be nice." he mumbled, his voice sounded raspy, startling the person who had been watching him.

He was glad that he'd let his eyes slip shut for a moment as the light was suddenly flicked on in the room.

He carefully opened his eyes and let them adjust to the bright light, though he supposed it was only a normal bulb that seemed unbearable to him. He struggled into a seated position while the man, an older gentleman with graying hair, poured him water from a small pitcher that had been on his bedside.

He would have seen it if the damn light had been on to start with.

He took the glass and only lifted it to his lips when he was certain he wouldn't drop it. It wasn't so much that his hand was weak, as it was sluggish from disuse. Though how long he'd been out he didn't know.

"I'm surprised honestly." the man stated. Mello looked up at him blankly. "From what I've hear about you, I'm surprised you weren't demanding to know who I am. Or where you are."

It hadn't occurred to him that he should, as his last memories had suggested that he was safe. He narrowed his eyes.

"You really don't want to rile him up, he may have a broken leg but he'd probably beat you to death with the cast if he thought you were a threat." Mello rolled his eyes at Jasper, who's voice had come from the doorway.

"Don't give him any ideas." Matt called from behind Jasper and lightly shoved at the man to get him to move, Jasper reacted with a snort of amusement though didn't do anything back. The slow way Matt walked suggested he probably shouldn't have even been up.

"You've been out for a few days." Matt told him softly as he sat on the edge of the bed, his face was slightly pale though he didn't appear to be in any pain.

He took another sip of water before attempting to speak again. "Why?" his voice was still slightly raspy though at least now he had an explanation as to why.

"Your leg got infected, not surprising since you boys were in that dumpster for so long." Mello felt as though he'd been splashed with cold water. The last time he'd had an infected limb...

He forced himself not to tense, and to calm down. Jasper had mentioned a cast, which would naturally mean he still had his leg. "He probably could have phrased that a bit better." Matt sighed and rested his head against his shoulder.

His naked flesh warmed where the skin of Matt's forehead touched him. He hadn't even realized he was shirtless. What the hell medications had he been on, or was still on?

He hated a foggy mind.

"Well at least my memory lapse is explained." he commented dryly though Matt looked up at him in question. He sighed.

"I remember nothing after the moment we stepped inside the building." Mello supposed he could have passed out or something, though he would have to ask at some point. Right now he wanted coffee, and something to eat.

Though he doubted he'd actually get the former unless it was decaf.

He found he hadn't any need to state his thoughts as his stomach chose that moment to let out a loud groan that left Jasper in peals of laughter. Honestly, it wasn't that amusing.

"Alright Jasper, lets get them something to eat. We can poke and prod him later." the older man stated, though Mello now believed him to be the doctor. He couldn't be certain though.

The main light was shut off though the bright hallway light was switched on which illuminated the room in a soft half-light. He wondered if they assumed they would rest a bit before they actually ate.

He was still tired...

He noted how Matt still sat on the edge of the bed, though there was plenty of room for him to have lain down. He began to get that almost itchy feeling the longer Matt stayed in contact with him and eventually pulled away and flopped back onto the pillows.

He heard Matt sigh heavily and move to get up. His heart fluttered unexpectedly and he gently grasped the redheads arm. "Stay." he mumbled. He felt Matt freeze in his grasp before his arm slipped from his grip.

For an agonizing moment he thought Matt might still leave, though all Matt did was curl on his side next to him. He was smiling.

Mello yawned in response and shifted closer though not enough to touch.

"Love you..." he murmured to the redhead. He realized it was the first time he said it to him in person in a very long time. The phone call didn't count.

Matt entwined their fingers and Mello knew that everything would be alright. Maybe not completely. But for now, it was enough.

-End Bang-

AN: YAY IT'S FINISHED! Well almost... there is still the epilogue. But other than that its done.

So tell me what you all think? (by the way, this totally blew the original out of the water word wise, and this was in 3rd person! Ha, take thaT!)