Packing up the picnic, it was time to go back inside and back to work. You carried the basket with all the empty containers that once held food and L carried the blanket and glasses. Entering the doors to the stairwell, not happily skipped down the stairs satisfied with the meal.

"I'll be back I'm going to the bathroom" Maki said.

"Ok" you replied, letting her go down another hall as you and L followed boy downstairs.

It was well pat lunch now, and you'd only have a few hours of daylight left. Of course you could work into the night, but in a case like this time is everything. L went to check the time by putting his free hand into his pockets for his burner phone but found it was empty.

"Do you have my phone?" He asked.

"Nope. You probably left it downstairs somewhere" you replied.

L didn't think much of it, you were probably right. Walking back into the lab you put everything down on one of the benches and went to go join the others in going through files for a solution. Boy ran over to the chalkboard and grabbed some chalk to start drawing his equation again. You wondered when he'd crack it, he's been working on it for ages.

"Got anything?" L asked.

"Not yet. There's still an ingredient missing, as long as we can find it we should be able to make an antidote and vaccine but all these files have no hints" Dr Matsudo replied.

"Maybe they hadn't actually found it yet" Suruga inquired.

"They did though, that's why Makis dad burnt the syringes when they were attacked so blue ship couldn't get it" you added.

It was confusing, they definitely did have an antidote made and being tested, but when blue ship attacked it was burnt. They must have deliberately not written the last ingredient just in case they were hacked or something. Makis dad sadly wouldn't have survived even if he didn't invent himself with the strongest sample of the virus. Blue ship would have gotten the answer from him and then killed him anyway. So even though his death was horrible and unfortunate, at least he was able to protect the antidote and sent Maki to run to safety.

Poor maki... lost her mother only a few years before and then watched her father die. You'd have to ask the staff about trauma therapy for when when you got back to wammys.

"Whatever the missing ingredient is it can't be something that clashes or cancels out the others, so at least that rules out some options" Watari said.

"Exactly, although it still leaves a lot of option to test" L replied.

As everyone talked, you saw boy climb onto a chair from the corner of your eye. Slightly worried he'd fall you turned to watch him just in case. He'd again drawn out that equation of his, the exact same one as all the other times but this time he seemed to be further into it. It looked bigger.

It was some kind of graph next to a bunch of numbers you didn't understand the meaning of. Like a code almost. He drew limes into the graph of what we already knew the answer to, he seemed stuck on the last part. Turning back to the numbers at the side, he lined them up and began to count. You couldn't really tell what he was doing. Complex math wasn't your thing, solving crimes was.

Once he'd counted them all up, he drew in the answer and turned back to the graph. He pondered for a second, trying to figure out what to do. And then you could practically see the lightbulb go off over his head as he draw the last line onto it. He circled the numbers connected by the lines and put them together.

"20!" He said proudly.

Everyone turned to look at him, wondering what he was talking out. Even though you had no idea how that math worked, he did just figure it out so you wanted to encourage the young child.

"Well done!" You smiled, holding your hand out for a high five, one he returned excitedly.

"Hang on..." L said, getting up and walking over to the equation.

He scanned it over, running the numbers in his head and suddenly something clicked.

"Calcium! 20 on the periodic table is calcium! K did give us the missing ingredient but so no one would be able to track it he gave it to boy through a hard to crack equation knowing he'd he be able to solve it!" L exclaimed.

Taking the list of ingredients and and getting up, Dr Matsudo walked over to the board to confirm the theory. And sure enough, it lined up with what was in the list of ingredients.

"Of course! It'd cause a chemical reaction to kill the virus!" He said.

Did a child just solve this case? Boys answer was the key that unlocked everything. He'd DEFINITELY fit in at wammys that's for sure.

"If K gave boy a dose of the antidote so he wouldn't get the virus while they were back at the village, there's be evidence of it in his bloodstream right? So if we took a blood sample from him we can confirm the effects, then we can produce an antidote, give it to maki and use it as leverage to stop blue ship!" You added.

The breakthrough joy in the room quickly turned to panic when you made a sudden realisation.

"Where's maki?" You questioned.

L looked around, not seeing her anywhere. It'd been ages, how long does it take to use the bathroom.

"(Y/n) go check the bathrooms, I'm not a girl I can't go in there" L said.

You headed upstairs to look for her. Maybe he felt sick? Maybe you'd have to give her the talk? You worried maybe the virus finally kicked in and she'd collapsed. Opening the door to the girls bathroom, it was silent.

"Maki?" You called out.

No response.

To your dread, all the stalls were open, and no one was inside any of them. Now the panic was really starting to set in. Heading back down the halls you opened every room and looked inside calling for her, but couldn't find her anywhere. This was bad, very bad.

Rushing back to the lab you practically kicked the door open.

"She's gone! I can't find her anywhere!" You exclaimed.

"WHAT-" L replied.

Everyone looked at each other in panic.

"Start making up the antidotes! If the virus kicks in she'll need it fast!" L told the others before rushing out with you.

You both ran up and down the halls of the lab, looking for her and calling her name. When you couldn't find her inside the building you busted the front doors open and found it'd had gotten dark, only making you worry more.

"MAKI!" L called out.

"MAKI WHERE ARE YOU?" You added.

You couldn't see her anywhere in the car park, around the building, on the roads nearby she'd just vanished. But you did notice one thing on the ground...

"L! Your phone!" You called for him.

He rushed up to you and sure enough at his feet was his burner phone. But it'd been forcefully snapped in half. Maki couldn't have done that, she was only a kid and too weak to snap a phone. But an adult could...

Maki must have taken L's phone and called someone...

"How did- no... she must have called Kujo and tried to reason with her and when she couldn't they took her!" You exclaimed.

L just stared down at the broken phone in a daze, the situation dropping on his like a pile of bricks. Dropping to his knees and hunching over in a panic he to your surprise, began to sob. Dropping down next to him you pulled him into your arms, tears threatening to fall from you too.

"Don't worry we'll find her" you tried to reassure.

"I was meant to protect her! I promised nothing would happen to her!" He replied.

"L sweetheart, no one could see this coming it's not your fault. She's probably trying to avenge her dad and because she's just a kid she didn't exactly think this through. Grief does things to your head, especially that young"

"My heart... it hurts"

Those words made yours hurt too. L probably cared about this child he'd only met recently more than his own parents cared about him. He was a better father figure to the kids in his life that weren't even his, than his own parents were to him.

All this trauma processing he'd been doing had definitely made him more emotional and in touch with his emotions. And in all honesty, you'd argue that looking after these kids had softened him up too.

"We'll get her back. If we work through the night we can get these antidotes done by tomorrow and then we go after them" you said.

"We don't even know where they are!" L sobbed.

"Actually... those cakes I made..."

He looked up at you in confusion through the tears.

"Remember those tiny trackers you made?"

"You... put them in the cakes?" He asked.

"Yeah. I got paranoid blue ship would catch up with us and since they're so small you can swallow them without even noticing it. It won't harm your body either since they're tiny. You, me, Maki and boy all have trackers in our stomachs right now"

L gave you a smile, again reminded why he loved you so much. Wrapping his arms around you, he rested his head on your shoulder.

"You think of everything..."