Hell and Healing

SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right, Truth and Justice, Motive and Mayhem.

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Hell and Healing

Chapter 6: Shanked

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Another two weeks passed with arguments between Matt and Mello becoming the norm. The other inmates still saw Matt as the leader, but everyone stayed out of Mello's way.

It was just a few hours before Mello was scheduled for release and they were out in the prison yard. For once, he wasn't spending his time with basketball or weights. Rather, he was simply leaning against a fence gazing at the sky and ignoring the fact that Matt was just a few feet away.

"You're going to be let out today," Matt said softly.

Mello let out a soft hum of agreement.

"Will you at least visit me?"

"No." Mello didn't take his gaze from the sky. "I hate you."

"You miss me," Matt replied.

"Doesn't mean I don't hate you."

He couldn't really argue with that logic, so Matt moved instead to box Mello against the fence, a hand on either side of his head.

Mello's gaze lowered from the sky, falling to the eyes hiding behind those orange goggles. "Don't start a fight."

"I don't intend to," Matt replied quietly. "Look me in the eyes and tell me you hate me." He pulled his goggles up, out of the way.

A moment passed in silence before Mello turned his gaze away. "This is stupid."

Satisfied, Matt lowered the goggles again. "Yeah, but it's effective, isn't it? Come visit me sometime."

"I don't want to," Mello snapped, glowering at Matt again.

They both saw it at about the same time. The man was walking in what could have passed for a casual manner, if not for the slight gleam of metal in his hand. A spoon, sharpened into a deadly weapon, peeked from the end of his sleeve. Winking brilliantly, obviously, in the sunlight.

They followed his progress across the prison yard, wondering absently who he planned to hurt. Then their attention returned to each other once more.

"I want you to visit," Matt insisted.

"And that makes me want to let you stay here and rot!"

"So cold," Matt shook his head, giving a quiet sigh as he gave up, pushing away from the fence and turning to walk away.

Mello wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but he stayed where he was, turning his gaze back to the sky with a quiet sigh. Maybe he would come visit. Maybe.

An hour later, they were still on the yard and, after much introspection, Mello decided to seek Matt out. He caught sight, briefly, of the spoon-wielding inmate as he reached Matt, boxed him against a piece of fence as Matt had done to him an hour before.

"Change your mind?" Matt asked easily, tilting his chin up.

"Yeah, but don't expect me to be nice or to bring you shit," Mello growled.

"Just having you visit is more than enough," there was a light smile on Matt's face. "Come a little closer."

Reluctantly, Mello stepped forward. Something in the way Matt's gaze had shifted as he spoke told him that it was probably important. A long, tense moment passed as he tried to read Matt's gaze.

The tension wound up in Matt's shoulders like a cobra coiling back for a strike. Then, in a flash, the spring of energy was released.

Mello was jerked to the side, slammed up against the fence with enough force to have him reeling. There was a curse, then a sharp pain exploded in his side.

A siren wailed as inmates threw themselves to the ground, hands on their heads. Without knowing when he'd done it, Mello found his arms around Matt, felt a hot moisture on his hand.

Blood. But it wasn't throbbing, like an arterial wound would. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Mello realized that was a good sign and applied pressure to the wound, ignoring the way Matt hissed in pain.

He snarled in reply when his own wound was discovered, when Matt pressed his hand roughly against it. They held each other up, held the bleeding wounds until gurneys and EMTs had arrived.

Mello was only vaguely aware that he was no longer leaning on the fence, that he was on his back, that something had gone terribly wrong. Then, his world faded to black.

That, he decided, probably wasn't a good thing.

There was a soft hiss. It was the first thing Mello was really aware of when he finally awoke. The soft hiss of oxygen being pumped into a face mask, which he then realized was on his face. His nose was cold, so was his right arm. Everything else was warm, blissfully so, and he found his gaze wandering.

This was definitely a hospital. He looked at his right arm, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw that it was scarred. He hadn't hallucinated the last few years, but he did have an IV and blood transfusion going. And a handcuff securing him to the gurney.

He wasn't awake for long before a nurse arrived, giving him a cup of ice water and telling him he'd be out of recovery soon.

Which meant he'd been in surgery. He turned his mind back to the last thing he remembered and decided he must have gotten stabbed, too. Pretty bad, if he'd passed out and needed blood transfusions.

He didn't know how much time passed, but they switched out the mask for some tubing to deliver oxygen to his nose and the empty bag of blood was removed. Then he was being wheeled down the hallways on the gurney, into an elevator and then off to the floor he was going to spend the next few days on.

They removed the handcuff, moved him to his permanent bed and handcuffed him to that one instead.

When he was settled in and the nurse was about to leave, he stopped her. "Hey... can you tell me, the other inmate. Is he okay?"

She paused, glanced at the doorway uncertainly, then returned her gaze to him. "Yes, he's fine. In better shape than you are, actually."

Mello laughed softly, despite the pain it caused in his side. "I always get the short end of the stick, even when he's the one trying to save me," he shook his head a little, smiling to himself.

He hadn't expected to feel that relieved, but he felt as if a weight had been lifted off of him as the nurse left. His gaze shifted to the window and he wasn't surprised when he saw it was already dark out.

He drifted between sleep and consciousness for a while. At some point, someone had dimmed the lights in his room, lowered the back of the bed so that he was resting in a more comfortable position. Absently, he was thankful for it, but not quite awake enough to realize there was another person in the room.

When morning came, he woke slowly, shifting, groaning when the pain shot through his side. He brought a hand up, rubbing at his eyes with a soft grimace.

"Good morning," the voice was soft, a gentle intrusion.

It was met with a snarl as Mello reached out, raising the back of the bed so that he was somewhat upright. There was a tray of food nearby, but he was more interested in the person sitting at his bedside. "What do you want?"

"To assure myself that you're as well as the doctors claim," Light replied easily, giving a small smile. "L is sitting with Matt."

"That's a little backwards, don't you think?" Mello asked as he pulled the rolling table close, so that he could reach his food. Clear liquids diet. He grimaced.

Nothing but coffee, broth, jello and popsicles. Disgusting. He sighed, pouring a cup of coffee and sugaring it as much as he could with what they gave him before he sipped it.

"Maybe," Light agreed, "but I think you were more of a positive influence on Matt than I was."

Mello grunted into his coffee cup, letting out a quiet sigh. "He talked me into agreeing to visit him."

"That's for the best, I think," Light replied easily. "You're the one that can remind him of the depth of his mistakes."

"By beating the shit out of him?" Mello's smile was lopsided as he took a long drink of his coffee.

"I was thinking something a little more legal," Light chuckled. "I can see they didn't exaggerate. If you're still talking like that, you'll be fine."

"Yeah, yeah. I was supposed to be released yesterday," he jerked his wrist against the handcuff that still secured him to the bed.

"They'll be by to remove those soon enough. You'll have to return to the prison to pick up your things when you've been discharged, though," Light smiled. "I assume you have the means to find a place to stay for recovery, but I'll mention that your ID is still cleared in security."

"I figured it would be," Mello shrugged, picking up the popsicle and tearing the paper open. Grape. Well, at least it wasn't orange.

"If you give us some warning, we can have a room ready," Light offered.

"Yeah, I'll come. I want my usual room, though."

"I'll arrange it," he promised, then picked up the book he'd been reading when Mello woke and returned to it.

"... you're gonna stay?" Mello wasn't sure what he thought of that.

"Yes."

He frowned. "What if I don't want you to?"

"You're in handcuffs. Do you really think you can force me to leave? And no, the guards won't help you," Light smiled faintly as he glanced up from his book to watch Mello return to his breakfast with a glower.

"Fucking assholes. Every last god damned one of you. Fucking assholes. What the hell is it about a high IQ that makes people into such flaming, fucking assholes?"

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A/N: And more drama! Gasp! Originally, I had planned for Mello to remain uninjured and for there to be a waiting room scene with him, L, Light and Near, but in the end I decided this was better. Prepare for a short time skip!