Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh nor any of its affiliated characters. The story idea is from XOXOserenityXOXO.
Beep. Beep. Beep. The monitor tones out the heartbeat of a sleeping Seto Kaiba as his younger brother watches in worry in from the chair, pushed next to the bed. A cot was set up on the other side.
Mokuba had seen many atrocities in his life, but none measured up to the terror he felt when his brother was rushed into emergency spinal surgery.
The projector had been implanted with a light bomb. No one knew the details and the other employees who were in the room had escaped with minor burns and a few broken limbs. Seto Kaiba had pushed them out of the room and in the process was violently thrown into the adjacent wall from the explosion had it been a real bomb Seto would not have made it at all.
The police had naturally swarmed the place soon after Seto was sent to the hospital but not before Mokuba had the Kaiba security force do their own thorough investigation. He was expecting some results within the next day, but Seto had many enemies.
Mokuba sighs and gets up and heads towards the door to get some water, only to bump into Dr. Kiba, a tall, elderly man and the medical advisor to Mokuba and Seto since they were adopted.
"How is he, Mokuba?" Putting a comforting hand to the young man's shoulder, Dr. Kiba gently motions for them to go out the door.
"He's supposed to wake up any moment now. I was just going out to get some water." Mokuba replies tonelessly.
"How are you? I know this must have shocked you." The doctor asks as they both turn a corner to go into the main lobby of the floor.
Sighing Mokuba answers, "It was a shock. Not just to me but to everyone. Poor Kati, I hope she is doing better?"
Laughing wryly, "You know better than to underestimate my wife Mokuba! She has been nagging me to come and talk to you for some days now. I just figured you needed some room to breathe." They turn another corner and keep walking.
"She's waiting in your office, isn't she?" Mokuba asks while chuckling. "I guess she even made me my favorite stew?"
Stopping in front of the water fountain Dr. Kiba turned to face Mokuba and innocently replies; "It's sitting on my desk in a crock pot if you want some. There's also a bowl, spoon, some bread and cheese. Oh, before I forget, here are my office keys…"
"No Dr. Kiba I…" Mokuba starts to protest.
"Nonsense! I have known you since you were three years old Mokuba…"
"Three and a half!"
"…And I trust that you can get yourself in and out of there quickly. Besides, Kati would not be happy with me if I didn't; and between you and me: a happy wife makes life so much easier! Seto will wake up when his body recovers from the surgery. In the meantime if you need anything, let Kati or me know. I will be leaving for the night. Goodnight!" With that he takes Mokuba's hand, gives him the key with a sly smile and waves good-bye.
Looking at the key Mokuba smirks to himself and grabs a cup of water fills it and turns around only to bump into someone and splash the water all over him.
"Oh, I am so sorry! I wasn't looking!" Mokuba begins to apologize to the red head on the floor, "Here let me help you up." He offers his hand to the nurse, judgning from her blue scrubs, she accepts and he helps her up.
"Thank you… oh Mokuba! What are you doing here?"
"Serenity? Oh wow it's great to see you, well not great under the circumstances," he recognizes Joey's little sister.
"Oh no, it's no problem I'm not hurt!" She laughs it off and notices that Mokuba is not laughing as well. "Wait, why are you here? Are you well? Are…"
He chuckles at her frenzied questions; "No I'm fine it's…" he sobers up, "It's Seto he was in a bad accident. He had to get emergency back surgery a couple of days ago and he's still not awake." Looking up he notices the woman is shocked, her eyes wide and mouth covered by trembling hands. "But, I think he will be fine. He's tough and will get through this," he adds hastily to calm her down.
"Oh Mokuba, how are you though? This is not anything you've ever encountered is it?" She asks after regaining her bearing.
"Well I'm trying the best I can. Thank you for asking."
"If there's anything you need just let me know." She smiles warmly and then stiffens up as if remembering something before digging in her pocket for a pad and pencil. "Before I forget, here is my pager number, it also works as an SMS receiver."
"Thank you very much Serenity. I should get going, I was told that he might wake up either today or tomorrow and I don't want him to wake up alone." He looks around. "Um, actually, could you show me to the room? I wasn't paying attention when I came here." He laughed trying to ease the tension.
Serenity giggled, " It's no problem, what's the room number?"
"218"
"Oh I was walking that way anyways. Follow me." She turns and starts walking towards the main hospital lobby with Mokuba trailing behind, still worrying about his brother.
Falling into step with her as they approached the corridor that led to Seto's room, Mokuba is jolted out of his reverie, "I was going to check up on a friend of mine, and actually, you might know her as well. Would you mind coming in with me? It might do her well to be around people her age and she's been so stressed at work."
"Ah, no, I guess I don't mind…"
"Good! Here we are!" She stops in front of room 218, and then points to the left. "Her room is two doors down, so come in there after you check up on your brother. I'm going to be there for an hour then I need to go home. See you in a bit!" With that Serenity leaves with a swish of her ponytail.
Poking his head in the door, he sees that Seto is still sleeping peacefully. Closing the door he heads towards the door Serenity had shown him. Approaching it he heard some girlish screams, opening the door he finds a blond girl half sitting on the bed half standing trying to grab the item in a scolding Serenity's hands.
"…Rebecca I told you that I can't give you back your glasses until I get the OK from you grandfather!" explained Serenity as she laid the glasses on a table, far away from the bed.
"But I can't see anything without them!" Rebecca whined as she flailed her arms still trying to reach her glasses.
"You were trying to grab your computer, 3 feet away from you, while your leg was still in a cast and fell over spraining your wrist in the process." Serenity deadpanned as she helped Rebecca back into bed.
"With all this mischief I can see why the glasses had to go." Mokuba announces his presence while chuckling at the argument between the two women.
"Oh hey, you made it! Mokuba I would like you to meet Rebecca Hawkins. Rebecca this is…" Serenity tries to begin the introductions only to be interrupted.
"Mokuba Kaiba, younger brother of Seto Kaiba, a.k.a. my jerk-face boss." Rebecca fills in sourly while crossing her arms.
Taken by surprise Serenity takes a breath to begin scolding Rebecca for her language only to be interrupted by Mokuba, "You're the intern from the other day! I am…"
"Intern!" Rebecca shrieks loudly and pounds her fists on the bed, "You honestly thought I am an intern?"
Mokuba, who was standing by the door, approaches the bed and smiling apologetically tries reasoning with the girl, "Look, I didn't know what to think but since it was a message from R&D I thought you were an intern because they are the people they send up for stuff like that."
Re-crossing her arms she pouted, "Well I'm not an intern, I'm the new apprentice Head of Technological Research of R&D at Kaiba Corp."
Mokuba froze. Carefully he looked at Serenity for confirmation. She only smiled at him in sheepishly.
"Seriously?" He stops next to Serenity and sits on the bed.
"Yes. I was supposed to start that day but I wasn't able to attend the meeting that afternoon to meet with my boss because of my ankle."
Mokuba leans forward slightly, "Well, it's nice to meet you."
Rebecca tilts her head in confusion, and Serenity starts giggling uncontrollably.
"When Seto told me I had to train a new Head of TR, I didn't think I would get one so pretty."
Three hours later:
Mokuba's cheek still smarted from the slap Rebecca had given him. He could not believe that her hand had actually connected. Serenity, through poorly controlled giggles, had told him afterwards as she applied ice on his cheek that Rebecca did even aim because she couldn't see. In Rebecca's words: "I saw a black blob next to a red blob and tried to hit it."
Throwing the ice pack in a trash bin near the bed, he sat down in the chair to return to his silent vigil. The surgeon had come in earlier to check on Seto's vitals and reassured Mokuba that Seto would wake up within the day.
Beep. Beep, beep, beep.
"Mokie…Mokuba." Seto sounds out sleepily.
Mokuba jumps up in excitement and grabs his brother's hand, "Seto. Seto! I'm right here, you're O.K. you're in the hospital."
Seto opens his eyes to see Mokuba's smile and tears of happiness and worriedly groans out a raspy, "Why?"
"Don't worry about that." Mokuba hit the nurse pager and noticing that Seto was rapidly gaining consciousness let go of Seto's hand to walk to the door calling for the nurse. Walking back he moves the chair out of the way and goes to stand near the cot on the other side of the bed.
Six hours later:
"So you see Mr. Kaiba, the wound is healed and his back will be fine but he will need to go to some therapy."
"Therapy? What therapy? You said his back is fine!" Mokuba asks furiously. Standing outside of Seto's room Mokuba was only thankful that the doctor was telling him this at all. Seto was not going to be happy to hear this.
"Well the surgery went well but he certainly can't just walk out of here. He will be bed ridden for 8 months in which time he will need to go into therapy to make sure that he does the muscle strengthening exercises we give him. After that he will move on to walking exercises, etc." Taking one look at Mokuba's murderous face he backtracks, " but the alternate route would be to hire a home nurse. We have plenty that we can recommend you. He or she will need to be on call 24/7 though and present at the house for an extensive amount of time so…There is no alternate route, if he doesn't start the exercise regime he will not walk, ever…"
Holding up a hand to stop the doctor Mokuba speaks firmly, "I will talk to Seto about it, since there is no alternate route. Thank you for all your hard work doctor." Shaking the doctor's hand and greeting him, Mokuba opens the door to Seto's room and steps in cautiously. "So how much of that did you over hear?" he asks lightly as he drops into a nearby chair.
"Enough to make a decision. Just get me a home nurse; whomever this hospital recommends, actually never mind, just get the best one this godforsaken place offers and give me back to my laptop, it's been THREE DAYS!
The next day:
"Serenity! Wait up!" Panting a raven haired girl ran up to Serenity on the street near the hospital
"Thalia, hello!" greeted Serenity.
"Hey, did you hear? Seto Kaiba is looking for a home nurse!" Thalia squealed excitedly, "All the others are putting their resumes in. The word around the hospital is that he is looking for the best one."
Grinning at her friend's cheerfulness, "How does this affect me Thalia?" and continuing to walk towards her home Serenity readjusts the groceries in her hands.
Noticing Serenity's bags, Thalia grabs some and walks alongside Serenity, "Well I know you need more money to keep up with the apartment payments and since a nurse assistant's job doesn't pay well despite the knowledge and training…"
Sensing something amiss, Serenity kindly asks Thalia to get to the point.
Stopping them, Thalia turns to Serenity, "Don't be mad," and bowing the woman spills her secret "I-signed-you-up-for-the-job!"
Silence.
"Oh is that all?"
Thalia looks up from her bowing position to Serenity in awe of her friend's apparent nonchalance.
Laughing Thalia's expression, Serenity explains, "You're not exactly discreet you know! Asking if my home nursing license is up-to date. Asking me if I thought I could do the job. Slipping me an extra paper to sign on the bottom of the documents, that just so happened to be the resume I sent to you to look over a while ago." Holding up a hand to stop Thalia, "Yes, I did notice that despite all the chaos. Now I really need to get these groceries home because I need sleep."
Resuming their walk, "So will you do it if you are chosen?"
"Probably not, you know as well as I that he is not exactly Mr. Congeniality. Did you know that the first nurse to go help him after he awoke practically ran back to me in crying fits?"
Making a sympathetic face Thalia counters, "Yeah I heard about that, but lets face it, Sami can't handle someone telling her that her shoes are untied without apologizing for it. You on the other hand, I really think that you could do it!"
Arriving at the apartment entrance, Thalia hands Serenity her groceries.
"Do you really think so? I mean I might look it, but I'm not a pushover. Joey always says that he is so mean and cold-hearted, and the brief times I've met him he certainly fit the description."
"If anyone can do it, it's you Serenity!" Thalia smiles warmly at her best friend. They had graduated from the same college and had known each other even before then.
Her spirits cheered Serenity laughs, "Then I'm sure I can handle it if you say so!"
"So you'll do it if you get chosen?"
"Sure, I will accept the job. Besides I heard it comes with a great pay raise and I could really use that!"
Jumping up and down in glee, Thalia hugs a giggling Serenity as tightly as she could considering the bags in Serenity's hands, "That's perfect! You go the job!"
"I what?!"
Thank you for reading! :) Please review!