Author's Note: Matt turns 19 midway through the chapter.

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* * * January 30 * * *

Bambi had decided to put off dealing with her old friends until after her surgery, and Watari had booked the earliest day he could for it. After nearly a week of waiting, she was sitting in an empty waiting room with Mello to her left and Near to her right. Watari sat in the corner to the right of Near, reading the newspaper.

The teen knew that Watari was there to pay for the surgery and to drive her back to headquarters so that she could recover afterwards. What she didn't know, however, was why the other two were present. Rather than bothering to think about it herself, she opted to just ask the boys directly.

"So, why did you guys come with me?" She asked aloud in English.

Mello leaned back in his chair as he answered, "I'm here to get my prescription refilled."

Bambi raised an eyebrow. "You mean the burn heal?"

"You and your damn games," he mumbled as he shook his head.

The brunette's lips curved upward into a sly smile. "Well, you knew what I meant. What does that say about you and 'those damn games'?"

"It says that my best friend is just as crazy about them as you are." He lightly poked her arm.

Bambi stuck her tongue out at him in rebuttal. The blond rolled his eyes and shook his head, though not without a smile on his face.

The hacker than turned to her partner and asked, "What about you, Near? Why are you here?"

Near looked at her as he twirled his white hair around his finger and calmly responded, "L suggested that I come along as moral support."

Mello pushed his way into Bambi's space, glaring at Near as he growled, "I could have just done it. We don't need you here."

Near seemed completely unphased by Mello's reaction-though, Bambi picked up on a familiar hint of irritation in her partner's eyes.

He looked at Mello as he explained, "You may take longer than you expect. I will be able to stay with Bambi after her surgery because I am uninjured."

Mello's grip on the armrest tightened with his rising temper. Bambi rolled her eyes. Here we go again.

She put her arms up between the two and lightly pushed Mello back into his seat. "Relax. It is what it is and there's no point in arguing over it."

Before he could protest, the nurse at the desk called out, "Mr. Moto, Doctor Song is ready for you." The blond got up at the sound of his Japanese alias, followed by Watari.

A few minutes later, the nurse called out again, "Miss Stone, you can come back now."

Bambi got up onto her crutches and followed another nurse into the room. The nurse left to allow the brunette to change into her surgical gown in privacy before returning with a middle-aged woman in scrubs.

The new woman addressed her patient. "Good morning, Miss Stone. My name is Doctor Ono, and I'll be playing the role of your surgeon today-unless you want to switch places, of course!" She let out a hearty laugh before waving her hand in a dismissing fashion.

Bambi cracked a smile at her words. I like this lady.

"All joking aside, lets get started. You will be given anesthesia via a mask so that you aren't conscious for the surgery and so that you don't feel it. The anesthesia will make you feel funny before and a bit after you wake up from the surgery."

The teen raised an eyebrow before asking, "Funny how?"

"It depends on the individual," Doctor Ono explained. "I have had patients come out with a light headache and be fine right away, but I have also had patients who wake up and vomit or have slight amnesia and need some time to recuperate."

"Oh."

"During the surgery we are going to move your muscles out of the way and make as few cuts as possible so that we can extract the microchip. It will take about two weeks for your arm to heal, so until then you will have to keep your arm in a sling." Doctor Ono gestured to Bambi's crutches. "So, you'll be in a wheelchair until you can walk or your arm heals-whichever comes first."

After her explanation was finished, the surgeon left the room and the nurse wheeled Bambi to another room. There, she was helped onto a sanitary table, where she laid down. The anesthesiologist attached the mask over her nose and mouth.

Bambi took a calming breath to ease her last minute nerves before beginning to mentally count down like the anesthesiologist instructed.

10... 9... 8...

Her face began to feel tingly.

7... 6...

Her toes started to feel odd.

5... 4...

Her vision was getting blurry.

3... 2...

Bambi closed her eyes and slipped into the welcoming arms of unconsciousness.

~o~

The darkness around her faded away. She was in her prison again. Her clothes were soaked in blood and her arms were chained over her head once more.

"Amelia~," The ghastly voice of her tormentor echoed throughout the room.

Her heart stopped as she frantically looked around. Beyond Birthday appeared at the door with a bloodthirsty smile and his knife in hand. She screamed at the sight of the murderer as he ran at her. As she watched him raise the knife above her head, she closed her eyes and leaned back, falling through her shackles and the wall behind her.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in her hometown, unscathed. Bambi saw Kato and Melinda walking through the streets, calling out her name. Beyond was sneaking up behind the pair. She opened her mouth to warn them.

Nothing but a raspy sound escaped her lips. She tried to run to them, but each step was like wading through thick syrup. Beyond whipped out a gun and shot both of them. As the bullets violently tore through their bodies, Kato and Melinda collapsed into piles of dust.

Bambi stopped in her tracks, devastated by the sight.

"They can't be gone," she mumbled.

Beyond cackled maniacally at his feat, drawing her terrified expression to him. She saw bloodlust in his eyes as he looked at her before melting into a puddle and down a street drain. As the wind blew her friends' ashes away, she regained her movements. Bambi turned around and ran.

The world around her turned darker and darker with each step she took. As the world faded to black, she heard only the echoes of her pounding footsteps and her shallow breaths.

The sounds were silenced as Bambi's chest began to hurt. She clutched it as a deep, booming voice rang out from the heavens.

"Amelia Stein, you have been found guilty of crimes against our Lord Kira. To pay for your sins, I sentence you to DEATH."

She collapsed to the ground, clutching her aching chest as terrified tears streamed down her cheeks. "No!"

Bambi's eyes shot wide-open. Her heart was pounding. She could feel a cold sweat all over her body and dried tears on her cheeks. The world around her was bright and blurry. She blinked a few times to sharpen her focus.

The hacker found herself in the hospital, attached to a heart monitor. Near sat in a chair on one side of the room, looking at her. Bambi frowned as she realized that he must have witnessed her reactions to the nightmare. Hopefully he doesn't say anything about it. The injured teen looked to the other side of the room. To her surprise, Watari wasn't there. Instead, the nurse from before was standing there.

"Miss Stone," the nurse addressed her. "I don't know if you remember, but you woke up after the surgery earlier and weren't feeling well, so we let you rest. How are you feeling now?"

Bambi's heart rate had returned to normal by this point and she said, "I'm exhausted."

The nurse jotted down a few quick notes on the chart before turning back to Bambi. "I'll help you get changed into street clothes so that you can leave." She then turned to Near. "Sir, you'll have to wait outside. I'll bring your sister to you."

Near nodded his head and got up to return to the waiting room. Once the curtain was closed, the nurse helped Bambi up and into the clothes that she was wearing before. With her arm in its sling and her ankle not fully healed yet, the nurse helped the teen onto her good foot and into the wheelchair.

As she wheeled the young woman out of the room, the nurse informed her, "Doctor Ono gave your prescription for pain medication to your grandfather earlier. They also wanted to let you know that your crutches are in his car."

"Okay."

When they reach the waiting room, the nurse let Near take control of Bambi's wheelchair. As the two of them neared the exit, they met up with Watari and Mello-both of whom were holding onto canes.

As the two of them started walking beside the wheelchair, the brunette looked up at Mello in curiosity and asked, "Dude, what's with the cane?"

Mello smirked down at her before responding, "You're supposed to be able to walk next week without crutches. The cane is for you, I'm just holding it until then."

It was a dumb excuse, but Bambi knew that she would never get him to admit the true reason. Instead of prying, she huffed and moved to fold her arms, hurting herself in the process.

When the four of them reached the car, Mello took the front passenger seat, and Watari helped Bambi into the seat behind the blond. After Watari and Near got in the car, Watari returned to the newest Headquarters.

* * * February 3 * * *

Bambi sat on the hotel couch next to Matt with his laptop open in front of them. The two were jointly writing a program to help find Kira's victims when Near walked over to L, who was sitting across the room in front of his own computer.

The youngest prodigy spoke up. "Ryuzaki, all of the paperwork is completed."

L took a sip of his tea-coated sugar cubes before saying, "Good."

As Bambi listened in on the conversation, she began to wonder what would happen to her next. I guess that's it. With L working on the Kira case, he'll probably have other work for us. She frowned at the thought of having to leave now. Her own thoughts on the case aside, she really liked getting to know Matt and Mello over the course of the past several weeks.

Mello walked by, stopping near the couch to listen as Near addressed L again. "We were only here because of the Beyond Birthday case. Now that it's officially over, what are our next assignments?"

L turned in his chair, looking at the teens near the couch for a few moments before responding, "Your next assignment is to help me complete the Kira case. Nothing else matters anymore." With that said, he turned back to his computer.

Near nodded and made his way to one of the computer screens to begin his work. Mello smiled at the news before continuing with his previous task. Matt redirected his attention to his laptop again, not particularly caring. Bambi looked down at her lap.

L's decision reminded her of the nightmares that kept haunting her every time she slept for the past few weeks, particularly the ones since she listened to the voicemails left by Kato and Melinda. The more Bambi though about it, the more she came to the conclusion that her friends-and everyone else that she cared about-could be in danger if Kira were to ever find out about her involvement with the Task Force. She needed to wipe any traces of her past off the grid and sever any connection between her and her childhood friends.

Matt asked Bambi a question about the code they were writing, returning the front of her attention to the task at hand. Still, she continued planning in the back of her mind.

At around three o'clock in the morning, after she and Matt had finished writing and debugging their program, Bambi wheeled her way to the bedroom, opened her laptop and began to set out on her plan. After a quick search through her archives, the hacker found the IP Address to Kato's laptop.

She spent a little over an hour breaking into his computer without setting any alarms off. Once she got inside, she created a new Microsoft Word Document. Inside the document, Bambi left the address to a safe video chat that she had set up earlier. Following the address, she left short instructions.

"February 8 / 22:00 UTC / Bring Melinda."

She signed the document off with her initials and saved it before leaving his laptop and closing her own.

Bambi heard a knock at the door and looked up to see Watari standing in the doorway. He walked in and took a seat next to her.

"Bambi, you're still having those nightmares, aren't you?"

She sighed before admitting, "Yeah, every night."

"Near told me what happened after your surgery." Bambi frowned at the news and the old man continued. "It only confirmed my suspicions. The dark circles under your eyes nearly match Ryuzaki's. He and I have taken note of your inability to focus on the case, as well."

The brunette looked down at her feet as she softly asked, "Then, why keep me on the case?"

Watari took note of her sullen reaction and put a fatherly hand on the teen's shoulder, directing her attention to him as he spoke. "It's okay to be scared, Bambi. These are all normal reactions for what you have been through."

Her gaze remained at her lap as she said nothing.

A few moments passed before the inventor reached into his pocket and pulled out a small book. The title of the book was 'Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'.

As he handed it to Bambi, he explained, "Whether you have PTSD or not, this book should help you get past what happened and allow you to be yourself again."

"That's easier said than done," she mumbled.

As Watari stood to leave, he added, "One more thing, Bambi. Once your arm heals, I want you to take a day off and go do something that you enjoy. Being cooped up in here won't help you."

Once he walked out of the room, the brunette looked back down at the book. She stayed that way for a few minutes before opening to the first page. Well, here goes nothing.