When Layla woke up the first thing she realized is that she was freezing. Not the normal kind of freezing either, the kind that could seep into a person's bones and make them cold forever. She opened her eyes slowly, the light seeping into her pupils burned and made her eyes instantly water.

When she could see clearly she noticed she was in a solid white room, a single lightbulb hanging overhead. From what she could tell the room was clean, and well furnished. She hung suspended from a rope around her wrists and hands, if she strained hard enough, she could touch the bottom of the floor with the tips of her toes.

There was a small desk in front of her, and sitting in the desk is a young blond woman, her eyes surveying Layla with a surprising kindness. She looked almost apologetic as she spoke. "How are you feeling?"

Layla glared at her through sharp grey eyes and bit complacently on her lip. She could vaguely remember grocery shopping for Mello the day before, but everything else seemingly an odd shade of gray, like an out of order television.

"Listen, are you hungry?" The blond woman asked, opening the drawer of the desk. She pulled out a small row of crackers and broke one gently between her fingers. She strode over to Layla, her little heels clicking maddeningly on the tile and gently poked the cracker between Layla's chapped lips.

Layla wanted chocolate, the taste of its hot sugar on her tongue, melting, rich and surprisingly bitter the way Mello likes it. The cracker tasted nothing of chocolate and reminded her of the sacrament that her mother's priest used to shove down her throat after every exorcism. She pulled her head back and spat, smirking slightly when the half chewed bit of cracker landed on the blonde woman's cheek.

The woman sighed, looking annoyed and pulled out a small white handkerchief from her beige trench coat pocket. "No?" she said softly. "How about some water?"

A few seconds later the water was spit out onto the floor at the blond woman's black boots. "Now really?" she said, trying to hide the exasperation that was creeping into her tone. "You need to eat something."

Layla shook her head furiously, greasy locks of brown hair falling into her eyes.

"Okay," the woman said, "By the way, my name is Halle Lidner."

The woman, whom Layla now knew as Halle leaned back against the desk and Layla tried to glare at her, intimidate her the way Mello could with a simple glance from his eyes blue eyes. But she isn't Mello and her eyes can not hold this woman underneath her sway.

"Listen," Halle said softly, "You're here because I need information on a man named Mello. Do you know anyone named Mello?"

Layla had to keep herself from laughing in this woman's face. Of course she knows Mello, knows him better than this bitch does anyway. She has touched Mello, has seen his body in the light through a broken window. She has touched him and caressed him, heard him too. This woman however, will not know any of their secrets.

So, Layla played dumb and acted as if she had never heard of Mello, shaking her head furiously.

Halle tilted her head softly to the side and let out a tiny sigh. "I wish I could believe you."

Layla hung her head and listened to the click of Halle's heels fade off into the distance.

"Bullshit." Rester sighed, "Completely full of bullshit."

Halle sighed and looked through the one way glass at the woman who hung suspended there. She breathed slowly, evenly and Halle couldn't help but notice that the woman had remarkable self-control.

"Maybe she doesn't know anything." Halle said softly, "And even if she did, would that really bring Mello here? Do you honestly think that Mello will care enough to come here and attempt to save her?"

Rester shrugged, still staring hard at the glass. He had always been a hard nosed man and Halle knew even the small sweet body of a young girl wouldn't faze him from his orders. "Near believes he will, and until he does we get as much information out of her as we can."

Halle turned her back on the glass and folded her arms, "I can't help but feel that this is wrong. Look at her, Rester, she's barely even eighteen. She's still a child."

Rester snorted, a strand of straw blond hair falling in his eyes as he laughed, "Yeah, a child that spit crackers in your face and water on your shoes. If that had been a man you'd have socked him in the gut."

She faltered, if it had been a man, she would have socked him in the gut. But this girl looked so innocent with her bright grey eyes and small thin frame. Too innocent, and yet, too mistrustful to actually be so innocent.

"Well," she said slowly, "If she has been around Mello, like Near says, I'm sure Mello's trained her to be this way."

Rester folded his arms and through the corner of her eye she could see him rest his forehead against the glass. "She'll talk soon, she has too."

However, it seemed like soon would not come fast enough. Another week went by, and Halle still had not managed to get a single word out of the woman.

"Come on," Halle said softly, offering the girl a tiny square of a piece of mango she had taken from her own lunch and cut up in front of her on the desk. "Its not poisoned, I promise. Once you talk we can get you down from here and get you more comfortable."

Layla shook her head turning away at the sight of the fruit.

"You can't keep doing this." Halle said softly, "You're practically skin and bones, and you've barely been drinking anything."

Layla spit at her feet and Halle sighed, "At least tell me your name?"

The girl looked down again and Halle began to walk towards the door.

"Its Layla," a voice said weakly and papery thin. "My name is Layla."

Halle turned and offered the girl a small smile, "Okay Layla, I'll get you some water and be right back."

Outside of the room, Near sat curled up in a chair absentmindedly twirling a lock of his pale white hair. "Good work Lidner." he said in the monotone that she had become so accustomed to.

Halle sighed and sat at the chair next to his, her pale thin hands curling in her hair. "Near, what makes you so sure Mello will return for her?"

Near sighed, and shuffled the small deck of tarot cards he had between his pale spindly hands. After a moment, he pulled out a single card and lay it in front of her. The Lovers.

"Layla, is probably the most important person to Mello. If my assumptions are correct, then soon he will return for her. It is also precisely why Mello didn't seem to interested when you showered in front of him."

Halle bit her lip, thinking again on that night when she had attempted to seduce Mello. He'd seemed disinterested and only fired questions about Near at her. Needless to say, she had been the slightest bit insulted.

"Why did we take her anyway?" she asked.

Near flicked another card upward. Temperance.

"Mello needs to understand that Layla can be used against him. And, the only way to teach Mello anything is to show him. Besides, I need Layla to tell us about the Shinigami named Sidoh."

Halle sighed again, "How would Layla know about Shinigami?"

To her great annoyance Near tipped his head to the side, and spoke softly "I'm not inclined to say."

That evening, Halle retired to her home and promptly undressed, collapsing into a deep dreamless sleep on her couch.

"Wake the fuck up bitch." a voice said sharply.

Halle was suddenly awake, her eyes wide and she gasped. Mello stood before her, his gun pointed directly at her temple. He drove it into her, hard and she bit back the whimper that escaped from her lips.

"Where is she?" Mello roared, his hand going out to yank her by the hair and throw her on the ground. Blond strands lingered on his fingers, glinting in the light of her lamp. He stood menacingly over her, and tilted his head close to hers. Halle could see the glint of his blue eyes, and there was something in them she hadn't seen. Worry, or was it fear?

"Tell me where she is!" he snarled, "Or I'll fucking kill you."

Halle, still slightly sleepy and shocked looked up at Mello, stuttering pitifully. "Who? I don't know what you're talking about!"

"My girl." Mello said, although his voice seemed a little less cruel now. He pulled the gun slowly away from her temple, "Near has her, I know it."

Halle stood, and recollected herself, smoothing out her blond hair with her hand. "Mello, this is the second time you've come barging into my home and waved a gun in my face."

"Just tell me where she is!" Mello cried out again, and this time, Halle could detect a note of anguish in his voice. "I have to get Layla back."

Realization clicked in Halle's mind and she couldn't help but seem surprised, "I didn't think you'd actually come back for her."

Mello's sharp blue eyes focused on Halle's bright golden ones and he glared. "Why?"

Halle shrugged and sauntered towards the kitchen, "Its been a week, and she hasn't spoken hardly at all. I just got her to finally tell me her name tonight."

A sharp look of pride crossed Mello's features and he smirked, "Good girl." He watched Halle make a small pot of coffee, the aroma filling her house luxuriously like a blanket.

"She hasn't eaten," Halle said softly, "I've been trying to get her to eat for a week now. She just spits it back in my face." She reached up to pull down two mugs from her cabinet and handed one of them to Mello.

He took it, his eyes still squinted in concern and set it on the counter. "She might think its poisoned, but, I think she's doing it to spite you. I don't imagine she'd take kindly to being kidnapped Lidner."

Halle bit her lip and pulled the coffee pot out from under the coffee maker. She poured some of the steaming liquid in Mello's cup and then in her own. He declined sugar, and merely began dumping small bits of chocolate inside of the mug from a bar hidden in the back of his pants.

Mello sipped at the coffee, staring into it for a long moment. "I want her out of wherever you and that bigheaded twit have her locked up in."

Halle sighed, "Mello, Near wants information from her too."

Mello snorted, "On Sidoh? The Shinigami? I should have known he'd figure that out after I dropped those clues about the Death Note. She won't be able to tell you much, she barely knows the rules of the thing anyway. She's never had a Death Note. Sidoh just kept her company as a child, nothing more. He'd probably figured it out when he remembered the voices Layla used to hear."

Halle opened her mouth for a moment, wanting to press questions about the young girl, but then decided it was better not to pry too deeply into Mello's personal life. Instead, she glanced at the clock on the microwave and spoke, "Its too early to go in now, but tomorrow night, after my shift is done, I promise I'll get you to her."

Mello nodded, "Fine. We'll stay here for a few days, then be out of your hair."

She said nothing, not bothering to comment on the fact that Mello had just invited himself to stay at her home for a few days. "I have a guest bedroom you two can share."

Mello took a sip from his chocolate coffee concoction and let out a sigh, tilting his head back and shaking his head. "I put you through so much."

Halle had a feeling that this sentence was not directed towards her at all and she watched the scarred boy's hair shake slightly along with his movements. He looked so tired and human, and for a second she felt bad for him.

"She'll be okay." Halle said after a moment, "She seems very strong."

Mello said nothing as he tensed his shoulders and hung his head in the same way Layla had every time Halle had left her wordlessly. "I push her a lot." he said suddenly, looking sad and faraway. "I push her all the time. But she never leaves me. I keep trying to make her leave. Push her away, make her mad enough so that she'll run far away from me and never come back, but she always stays."

"She must really love you." Halle said softly, draining the last of her coffee.

Mello shook his head, "Yeah, biggest mistake of her life."

The next morning when Halle woke up to the buzz of her alarm she noticed Mello already awake and staring at a photograph in his hands while sitting on the sofa next to her. She leaned over and Mello tilted the picture towards her. The photograph showed a small little girl with long brown pigtails next to a little blond boy who Halle knew was Mello. The little girl appeared to be hugging the child Mello to her and he gazed up at her, looking as if he was trying not to smile.

"Cute," Halle said softly, "Is that Layla?"

Mello nodded, then brushed a thumb over her face in the photograph. "Little bugger she used to be. Could barely speak any english at all at first. I had to teach her myself. Whenever she knew someone was pointing a camera at us she would run and throw her arms around me, just to annoy me."

Halle laughed at the mental image of a child Mello, getting all worked up over a little girl hugging him. "You two must have been like peas in a pod."

Mello snorted and pocketed the photograph. "No, we were more like a bird and a worm. With her constantly trying to poke her head up around me and me trying to peck her eyes out. Its still like that sometimes. And sometimes..." he said suddenly his voice trailing off into a whisper, "Sometimes its the most wonderful thing in the world."

When Halle walked into the SPK unit she was startled to see Giovanni holding back Commander Rester. His hands were covered in droplets of blood and he looked to be enraged. When he turned she could see a bloody mark on the left side of his shoulder.

"What's going on here?" Halle said sharply.

Both Rester and Giovanni looked at her surprised. Giovanni let go of Rester and let out a small sigh. "Rester was interrogating the girl, asking about the Shinigami. He said something she didn't like and bit him."

"And I let her have it." Rester snarled.

Without speaking to either of them, Halle ran into the room where they had been keeping Layla for the past week.

When Halle walked in the room she was horrified to find Layla sporting a blackening eye and a busted lip along with several bruises along her shoulders and neck.

"Jesus Layla." she said softly, "I'm so sorry."

"I thought he was going to rape me." Layla said softly, and for a moment Halle could hear the musical accent in her voice.

Then, completely surprising Halle she began to cry, and Halle realized that the poor girl had finally broke. "I just want to see Mello..." she said softly, "See Mello...see Mello..."

It took Layla a moment to realize that Halle had left the room and had come back with a warm damp cloth which she now rubbed gently over Layla's bloody lip and eye. "Mello's coming for you, he's going to be here tonight. Just a little longer kiddo."

Now that she had glimpsed Mello's feelings for her, it made the girl far more easy to relate to.

"Mello wants to see you Layla, he'll be here really soon okay. And you'll be staying with me for a few days and get to go...wherever you and Mello live."

Tears spilled down her cheeks, burning the cut on her lips. "...Mello." she said softly, "I want to see Mello."

Halle felt bad suddenly for her and she brushed a tear away with her finger. "Mello would want you to eat, do you want to eat, Layla?"

Layla shook her head vehemently, tears and snot flying from her nose and eyes.

"Okay," Halle said gently, "okay, but I want you to drink some water, alright Layla?"

She returned a few moments later with the water, which Layla hastily drank, small rivets of it spilling down her jaw.

"Easy easy," Halle instructed, "You'll get sick if you drink to fast."

Halle suddenly glanced up and stared at Layla's wrists, raw and red from the rubbing of the rope.

"Layla, I have to go, but Mello and I will be back tonight, I promise."

Halle turned, leaving the girl behind, the click of her heels growing dimmer and dimmer as she left the room.

"She's in bad shape," Halle said, later that night when she had picked up Mello from her home and had stopped back at the SPK base.

"What do you mean, bad shape?" Mello snapped, looking her over. Halle could tell Mello was itching to pull his gun out and aim it at her face.

She led Mello to the room Layla was kept in and when she opened the door she found herself surprised by the emotion in Mello's voice when he saw her.

"Oh God,"

Mello rushed forward and sliced Layla's hands free from the rope that bound them. She fell into his arms, Mello catching her gently. Layla looked up at Mello and her face crumpled, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Mello, I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I-I-I tried, to keep quiet, I did. But I t-told them, I told them about Sidoh."

The intensity in which Mello cradled Layla surprised Halle, not expecting anything but a few terse words of comfort from the blond mafia boss.

"Its alright Kiska, its okay. Don't be afraid. I'm here now." he spoke hastily, rubbing her wrists gently between his hands.

"What the fuck did you people do to her?" Mello snarled glancing at Halle.

"One of our commanders, she bit him and things got out of hand." She muttered, trying to avoid his sharp blue eyes. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"See," Mello said to Layla gently, wiping her tears away with a gloved finger, "I knew you were a little Kiska!"

She didn't say much, only buried her face in Mello's coat. He stroked her hair lovingly and stood gently trying pull her up. She tottered on her feet for a moment then collapsed before Mello caught her.

"She hasn't been walking," Halle said quickly, "Only a few trips to the bathroom."

Mello turned and glared at her, his eyes vicious. "So you kept her in here like a goddamned animal?" He pulled off his fluffy coat and placed it over Layla's shoulders before hoisting her in his arms and following Halle out the door.

Halle was surprised at how muscular Mello's arms seemed underneath his coat, flexing with every step he took. "If she wasn't in my arms, I swear to God I would go through this building and kill every single one of you I could get my hands on." His eyes looked deadly and Halle had no doubt that he meant exactly what he told her.

Still though, he followed Halle out to her car waiting impatiently for her to unlock the doors. Once she did though, he opened the backdoor and gingerly arranged Layla on his lap before closing the door softly.

Halle slid into the driver's seat and gazed at the young couple through the rearview mirror. Layla's hand curled around the scarred side of Mello's face and she saw the corners of the man's mouth twitch as if he were holding back a smile.

"She needs to eat," Halle said suddenly after they had been driving for a few minutes, "She's not eating, and she's getting thinner."

Mello reached out a hand and stroked Layla's hair back. "Just rest now, you're safe."

Halle turned back slightly, "Did you hear me? She needs food."

Mello snorted rudely at her, "Yeah, I heard you. She also needs to fucking rest too. I can't imagine she got much rest dangling from the ceiling and with your Commander busting her face open."

Halle bit back the retort that was on her lip, she didn't like such an attack against her teammate, but realized Mello had every right to be angry. She reached the driveway of her apartments and pulled into the parking space reserved for her.

"Come on Kiska," Mello said softly, after Halle had gotten out of the car and walked towards her apartment. He lifted Layla into his arms, and she sighed, slinging her arms around his neck. Mello could feel the bones in her wrists against his neck and he swallowed, "We've got to get some food in you."

He lead her up to Halle's apartment and stepped inside, kicking the door closed with his foot. He placed her gently on the couch and covered her gently with a blanket Halle had handed to him. "You're safe," he said gently, "You'll wake up and you'll be in the same place okay? I'll make you something to eat, and then we'll go to bed."

Halle watched the two of them together for a moment, finding herself strangely fascinated by the Mafia leader's gentle demeanor. This was a man that had killed fellow members of the SPK, cut off a mafia leader's head, and had aimed a gun at her several times now. And here he was, the same man, stroking another woman's hair and reassuring her that she was safe with him. How strange it all seemed.

She busied herself with making tomato soup and once she had it in a bowl she handed it to Mello.

"Thanks." he said softly, propping Layla up on the pillows. "I just want you to take a few bites okay Kiska?"

He lovingly fed her a few spoonfuls of soup, and once it she had eaten a fourth of the liquid Mello stopped, wiping lovingly at her lip with his gloved hand. "Good girl."

After a moment, Mello soon disappeared into the bedroom with Layla, and Halle collapsed on the couch utterly exhausted.

When she awoke the next morning she was pleased to find that a gun wasn't pointed at her head. Instead, she walked into the guest bedroom to find the bed neatly made with a bar of chocolate and a note on top of the pillow.

She moved the chocolate bar aside and smiled as she read the note.

Dear Halle,

Thank you for helping me find Layla last night.

We would have stayed longer but I think she'd be more comfortable at home.

I won't apologize for anything I did or said, but I will tell you thank you.

However, we are not friends. I'll keep in touch.

-Mello

P.S. Don't you dare waste that chocolate bar. Put it in your coffee or something.