Chapter 1

Her phone was ringing. She didn't need to check who it was; she knew it would be Yugi. Nervously she bit her lip and, after a few seconds of deliberation, she hung up. She couldn't face talking to him. Not just yet anyway. When she was ready, she would tell him. But she wasn't ready yet. It had been about six months since she'd woken up to find herself physically weakened after three months of inactive sleeping. She'd then had to endure another month within the hospital walls recuperating and during that time Yugi had never left her side. Somehow this had allowed their relationship to develop and the strong feelings of friendship blossomed into love.

But dating Yugi hadn't been easy, because you weren't just dating him; you were dating the Pharaoh and the Face of Friendship too. Sometimes it felt as though she was in some bizarrely surreal foursome and that didn't always settle comfortably with her. She loved him; even if she wasn't quite sure which 'him' it was she was in love with, she knew that she loved him. There were just times when she wished their relationship could be more... normal.

Her phone rang again. And again she hung up. He was going to hate her when she told him, then he'd leave. He'd leave her and tell the others what she'd done and they'd leave her too. Then she'd be on her own. It was the one thing she feared more than anything; being on her own. Somehow being in a coma had made that fear worse, not better and even though she was trying really, really hard to learn who her friends were now, the scared little girl inside of her still wanted things back the way they were before. Back when their friendship group was a safe haven in a world of madness.

Everything in her squirmed and twisted as her phone rang for a third time.

'I'm sure Yugi wouldn't do that to me,' she stared at her phone as though it were some kind of giant killing machine. 'I'm sure he'd understand and everything would be okay. So why... why can't I convince myself he won't leave me when he knows?'

Almost as soon as her phone rung off it started ringing again. Swallowing hard she forced herself to answer it.

'Téa, are you okay?'

'I'm fine,' she lied, 'I was just in the middle of getting ready.'

'So you ready now?'

'Yeah.'

'Okay, I'll pick you up in about five minutes then. See you soon.'

'See you,' she tried to keep her voice as level as possible as she hung up.

Her eyes drifted towards her reflection in her bedroom mirror. There was a paleness to her cheeks and a redness to her eyes that a bit of makeup would have to fix before Yugi arrived. She knew she would have to tell him eventually, but not tonight. Tonight she would smile and talk and act as though everything were completely normal. But things weren't normal. How could they be normal when she...?

'Explain to me again why you're dragging me to this thing,' Kaiba folded his arms, whilst throwing Tristan a seriously unimpressed look.

'Because we're the reason Crovell was born two months early.'

'So his birthday's our fault, does that really mean I have to go too?'

'No, but you're coming anyway; that way I can make sure… I don't want to come back to her. Seto, I don't like her.'

'I know.'

'I don't like the way she thinks she can just come out whenever she wants to.'

'I know.'

'I want you to get rid of her. I don't want her to…' he turned his head away. 'Not again,' he gritted his teeth, 'I don't want that to happen again.'

'I know.'

'Then we have to find her deck and destroy it,' his hands balled into fists. 'I can't have a normal relationship with you when she's around, because every time she... she does that.'

Kaiba turned his head away and said nothing. What could he say? He knew Tristan was right; he knew they had to get rid of her, but at the same time... At the same time he knew she had the upper hand. Okay, she might not have won over the people who mattered yet, but everyone else was definitely sucked in by her. She'd also proven time and time again she was the one in control of when the Flip happened, not him. And now... now she had something over him which would slowly increase her importance and diminish his.

'The prototype is still working okay, right?' Kaiba deliberately changed the subject.

'Yeah, I guess,' Tristan stared down at the black leather cuff bracelet on his right wrist. 'There a few things I'm not sure I can remember, but they're definitely not important things.'

'Maybe I should charge the Chip up before we go out then,' Kaiba frowned, 'better safe than sorry.'

'Here,' Tristan removed the silver strip from the top side of the cuff and handed it over to him, 'but at some point you're going to have to work out a way of making this experimental Ohpayo technology of yours self charging.'

'I don't need to make it self charging,' he glanced up at Tristan as he carefully sent waves of Ohpayo energy into the strip of silver, 'I just need to add the contacts to the other side so it can automatically charge from you.'

'That's what I meant,' Tristan rolled his eyes. 'But in the mean time it would be nice if you at least showed me how to charge it myself.'

'Yeah, I will, tomorrow,' he passed the silver strip back to him.

'And could we come up with a better name than the Chip for it,' Tristan slotted the strip back into place, 'something a little bit more Etean and less robotic.'

'My invention, my choice of name,' Kaiba smirked.

'Whatever.'

'Are you two coming or not?' Mokuba suddenly poked his head round the door of their room. 'Only we're going to be late at this rate.'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' Kaiba rolled his eyes again, 'let's get this over with.'

'Remember you promised you wouldn't argue with Téa,' Tristan shot Kaiba a look as they made their way out of the room.

'Hey I'm not the one arguing with her,' he held up his hands defensively, 'she's the one with the problem, remember? Not me.'

Mai gave a content sigh as she stared down at her beautiful sleeping baby daughter. She couldn't believe how happy she was. Behind her, she heard the soft approach of footsteps, followed by a loving pair of warm arms wrapping their way around her waist.

'Mrs Lutoni-Wheeler I presume.'

'How did you know,' she twisted herself around to face Joey, placing her arms around his neck as she did.

'Well the guy who sent me to find you said you'd be the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.'

'And was he right?'

'I found you, didn't I?' He kissed her passionately.

'Why Mr Lutoni-Wheeler,' Mai smirked as the kiss ended, 'not in front of the baby.'

'She's asleep,' he kissed her again.

'But she's not deaf.'

'But she is only three months old.'

'And she's also Crovell's little sister and you remember what he was like at her age.'

'Aye,' he rolled his eyes, 'I remember,' he sighed. 'Are you sure you don't want to come to this thing tonight?'

'Someone's got to stay here and look after Jo.'

'Didn't Korin offer to do that?'

'Joey, you're going to be late.'

'I don't want to go without you.'

'It's your son's birthday Joey; you pretty much have to go.'

'Why couldn't Ahna have had it here like I suggested? Then I wouldn't have to leave you behind.'

'I'll be fine Joey, you go.'

'I want you to come.'

'Joey, I can't.'

'Please.'

'You're going to be late.'

'Fine,' he kissed her for a third time, 'I'll go, but I'm still not happy about leaving you here.'

'I know,' she smiled sweetly at him, 'but I'll be here, waiting for you to come back.'

'You'd better be,' he playfully narrowed his gaze on her, but didn't move.

'Joey,' she laughed, 'you have to go.'

'I know, I know,' he rolled his eyes as he turned, 'but I'll be back soon as I can, promise.'