Daisy

Lily sat back after Seto had told her pretty much everything, from his mother's death to after his adoptive father's suicide. She looked down at the notes she'd taken and nodded, more to herself than him.

"I don't believe that you are an ongoing danger to yourself or anyone else. What happened last night was obviously due to the stress you put on yourself by working too much and not taking care of yourself. I think...that perhaps intense therapy and a couple group therapy sessions would be helpful to you."

Seto scowled. "Oh, no. I'm not going to any group therapy. No way in hell."

Lily paused for a moment. "You might not have a choice."

"And just what does that mean?" he demanded, glaring at her even further.

"Your bodyguard filed assault charges," Lily stated, trying to keep her voice as gentle as possible. "The police showed up early this morning to speak with you, but your doctor managed to talk them down for the time being. Though I understand you could easily afford to make bail and hire the world's greatest attorney, there's a chance they could question your ability to care for Mokuba."

"No one will ever take Mokuba from me," Seto snarled, squeezing the arms of the chair he was in out of anger. How dare Roland do this? "And even if they tried, how could some stupid therapy program stop them?"

"Because in my experience with other cases, the district attorney is almost always more willing to be lenient and to work with you if you've got a plan in place," she told him bluntly. Seto buried his face into his hands for a few minutes, growling, before looking back up at her.

"Fine. How does this work?"

"Well, you're under a seventy-two hour hold, which means you're here for the next couple days, at least. If you attend the group session tomorrow and the next day, then I will report that to the district attorney. You will need to speak to the police upon discharge, however."

"When will I be discharged?"

"I'm shooting for Monday evening," Lily said, gathering her long blonde hair over one shoulder. "So, attend the group session tomorrow afternoon at two and Monday afternoon at three, and I will speak with the psychiatrist about getting you out of here right after that."

"Fine," Seto grumbled, and the therapist dismissed him. He went back to his room and lay back on the bed, staring at the badly drawn daisies spotting the wall behind the chair. Back in his days at the orphanage, he could remember one of the night staff, a young woman named Isabel. She was one of the most compassionate people there, albeit a little 'out there,' so to speak. She was all into things like astrology and being one with nature, and she liked to talk about symbolism. One evening, when Seto couldn't sleep, the two of them had sat outside on the steps, looking at the bed of flowers that decorated the ground around them. He named all the plants growing there, and she'd smiled, then asked what his favorite was. He'd thought about it for a moment before telling her his favorite was the amaryllis. His mother used to like to grow them in flowerpots indoors. Isabel smiled again and said that she liked daisies, because they represented happiness, innocence, and youth, all things that could be ripped away much too quickly and easily.

And despite the fact that Seto had never really believed in what she did, or cared about the symbolism of flowers or anything, at the young age he'd been at the time, he already knew what she meant by that. From then on, he'd hated daisies. They represented everything he'd never really had.

When Joey had arrived at Yugi's house hours ago, Mokuba had gotten a little frantic, thinking that the two of them had gotten in some major argument already. Joey explained that while the elder Kaiba had gotten a bit of an attitude with him, he really just needed to crash for a few hours, and promised Mokuba that he'd check in on his brother on his way to work. The little Kaiba relaxed a bit, and the blonde delivered the hug from his big brother before clambering up the stairs to Yugi's room, leaving the other two to finish their movie in silence. Afterwards, Yugi spent about an hour and a half pushing Mokuba to eat and finish some soup, before realizing what the real problem was.

"Do you want to call your brother?"

Mokuba nodded and accepted the phone Yugi was holding out to him. After dialing the number to the hospital and confirming who he was, the call was routed to his brother's room.

"What?" Seto's voice was flat and cantankerous, just like how he answered the phone while he was working.

"Seto? It's me," Mokuba said tentatively. "I just wanted to apologize...if you don't want to forgive me, I understand, but-"

"Mokuba. You aren't the one in the wrong here."

The little Kaiba drew in a quick breath. "No, I was wrong with what I said...you're not like him at all, Seto, you have a heart...a really good heart, too..."

Seto sighed on the other end of the line. "How are you feeling? You still sound congested."

"Yeah. I'm still not feeling the best, but the worst part is just always being really tired," Mokuba admitted.

"Well, they're letting me out the day after tomorrow, so when we get home, I'll take care of you before I deal with any of the other issues."

"Other issues?" Mokuba echoed. "What other issues?"

There was a pause before Seto responded. "I'll take care of it when the time comes. There's nothing for you to worry about, Mokuba. It's all right. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye," Mokuba said softly, and the two hung up. He turned to Yugi and handed the phone back. "I think he's doing a little better, but..."

"It's going to take some more time before he gets all the way better," Yugi said sympathetically. Mokuba shook his head and looked up at Yugi tearfully.

"No…something else is going to happen, Yugi. I can feel it." He shook his head and wiped the tears that were beginning to fall. "This is just the beginning."

Joey let out a wide yawn as he dragged himself off the elevator when he reached Kaiba's floor. It wasn't quite nine at night, yet the entire hospital seemed to be moving just as slowly as he felt. He checked in with the nurse, then walked over to the secluded little room assigned to the rich guy, knocking twice before entering the room. Seto seemed to have just snapped out of a light doze, judging by the dazed yet sharp look on his face.

"Hey," the blonde said carefully, leaning against the doorframe. "I told Mokuba I'd check in on you before heading off to work the night shift."

Seto smirked and stretched a bit before hoisting himself up to a sitting position. "I wasn't aware that you knew how to work."

"Yeah, yeah," Joey muttered. "So, what do I tell the little guy? You're back to being the mouthy prick we're all used to?"

"Sure," the brunet mumbled. "You do that."

"What's wrong with you now?" Joey asked with a raised eyebrow. "Something's going on."

Kaiba scowled and crossed his arms. "It's none of your business, Wheeler."

"Actually, it became my business when Mokuba called us to the psycho-ward in the middle of the night and I ended up sitting here and watching you sleep the whole time."

"That's not creepy at all."

"My point is, we're right here with you, Kaiba. For some reason. So spill it," Joey insisted, shutting the door behind him and leaning back against it. Seto rolled his eyes and shook his head, which made the blonde groan. "Kaiba..."

Seto heaved a sigh and leaned back again, shutting his eyes. "I'll tell you when I get things figured out. Even I don't know what's going to happen yet, and I don't want anything getting back to Mokuba before I do. He doesn't need to worry about anything else, so stop bothering me about it."

Joey rolled his own eyes and exhaled slowly, burying his face in his hands. "Fine, Kaiba. I'm going to head out to work now. Get some sleep, and I'll stop in when I get off in the morning. I'll talk to you then if you're awake."

"Whatever," Kaiba muttered, slipping under his blankets as the blonde left. But he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a long while; after all, the possibility of losing Mokuba was presently more real than it had ever been before.

Author's Note: So I chose to leave out Kaiba explaining his story to the therapist, because if you're reading this, I'm sure most of you know by now that both of his parents died when he was very young, their other relatives ate up their inheritance and dumped them off in an orphanage, and their adoptive father was, in short, the devil incarnate. I figured if I wrote about that, it would become too redundant.