Chapter VIII: Flammis Acribus Addictis/ Into the Searing Flames

Hello again, Yu-Gi-Oh fans! First, thanks to Glimerofhope and Cymoril Avalon for reviewing my tale. I'm glad Cymoril liked my backgrounds and Glimerofhope gave me a huge compliment. Izzie Stevens is one of my favorite characters on Grey's Anatomy though she wasn't the person Lisa was patterned after. Izzie is pretty cool, and I'm glad you think Lisa's like her! I'd also like to thank Web MD for being my source for how to treat febrile seizures properly.

So we see Seto and Lisa are falling for each other, and Mokuba couldn't be more thrilled about it. Is it happening too fast? I don't know. But I'm hoping that it seems natural. Well, when last we left off, the Kaibas and Lisa had fallen asleep together watching a movie. So what does Sunday hold for these three young souls? I don't own anything but this story, Lisa, her family and any non-established characters, darlings…

Author's notes, over five years later: There weren't many changes here. I did, however, change the title of the Miyazaki movie Seto, Lisa and Mokuba watched. I also sorted out some dialogue.

Mokuba awoke on Sunday morning gradually. When did I fall asleep? Then he realized he wasn't alone. Seto… His brother was asleep on his left, and he felt another warm body on his right. Lisa? Oh, yeah. We were watching the movie together. Mokuba tapped his brother's shoulder. "Seto! Big brother!" he whispered sharply, "wake up."

The older boy stirred, opened his eyes, yawned and sat up, stretching. "Urmph… Mokuba, did we fall asleep?"

"I think we did," Mokuba answered softly. "Lisa fell asleep with us."

"Lisa?" Seto looked over to see his doctor and girlfriend still sleeping. "She's… hold on, Mokuba, does she look a little warm to you?"

The little boy nodded and moved so his brother could check. "Leese," he said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder, "hey, wake up. Lisa?! Lisa!" She wasn't waking; what was worse, she felt really hot. "Mokuba," Seto asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice but failing, "go get that ear thermometer of hers. I think she's caught our flu bug." Mokuba got off of the bed and ran to Lisa's room. Seto, meanwhile, kept trying to wake the girl. "Leese, come on, wake up." She groaned, stirred and started to gag. He quickly picked her up and got her to the toilet in time. She threw up hard, and he held her so she wouldn't hurt herself. Mokuba came back to the room to hear the vomiting and raced into the bathroom.

"Seto?" Mokuba asked, his eyes wide.

"Mokie, she's really sick. Does she have a cell phone?" The raven-headed boy nodded. "Go get it. I need to call one of her friends." Seto knew he couldn't take care of Lisa alone like she'd taken care of him and Mokuba. A female doctor taking care of two boys is one thing, but me taking care of a girl when I'm not a doctor is another thing, especially since no one knows about us yet, he thought. Lisa had stopped throwing up, and was breathing hard. "Lisa, I'll take care of you," he murmured, picking her up and carrying her bridal-style back to Mokuba's bed.

Mokuba returned and held out the cell phone. "Seto…" Without a word, Seto took the cell phone from his brother and thumbed the Contacts button.

Over at Domino Children's Hospital, Jean Louise "Scout" Rhodes was sitting in the cafeteria enjoying a cup of coffee. She had no surgeries today, and was looking forward to going home in a few hours to play with her son, Atticus and her daughter, Alexis. Jack's been so good to keep an eye on them. I wonder how Lisa's doing with the Kaibas… And then her phone rang. Oh, it's Lisa, she thought, seeing the caller ID. "Hi, Lisa!" she greeted answering the phone, "how're…?"

"Is this Doctor Rhodes?" asked a slightly familiar male voice.

"Yes, who's this?"

"This is Seto Kaiba," he answered, "and I need your help. Li… Dr. Hammond has caught the flu virus that my brother and I had and she's really sick."

"Okay, honey, calm down. What's her temperature?" Seto checked and Scout could hear his nervous swallow.

"She's… oh, no. Her temp is 106.5."

"Is she conscious?" Scout asked, now really concerned.

"No, and she threw up really hard just a few minutes ago. She still wouldn't wake up."

"Okay, I want you to hang up from me and call 911. It'll be okay, Mr. Kaiba." Seto did as she asked and hung up, and then grabbed the land line. He punched in 911 and got an ambulance to come quickly.

Mokuba ran down the stairs and opened the front door for the paramedics. "She's upstairs. Is she gonna be okay?" he asked, panicked.

"We'll do our best, kid," the redheaded female paramedic said. She and her partner, a blonde-haired woman with brown eyes had a gurney and they went up the stairs, following the little boy.

Seto had just hung up from 911 when something started to happen to Lisa. "Hang in there, Lisa. You'll be okay." Her breathing became labored and suddenly she began to shake. "Lisa?! Lisa!" She was shaking uncontrollably, and Seto began to panic.

"Big brother, what's happening?!" Mokuba had come racing into the bedroom to see the beginnings of the seizure.

"I don't know."

"It's a febrile seizure. We'll handle it," said the blonde paramedic. Seto moved away from the bed and held his brother in a hug for a minute as the paramedics began their work.

"Okay, let's get her under control," one paramedic said to the other. They got her onto her side so her breathing would become more relaxed, and then the seizure ended. They quickly removed her clothing and put her on the gurney. Then they put ice packs all over her body and then covered her with a blanket.

"Would you two like to ride along with us?" the redheaded paramedic asked the boys.

"Yeah, of course," Seto answered.

"What's your relationship with this girl?" the blonde asked. Seto took a deep breath, knowing which answer would keep them with her.

"She's my girlfriend. The three of us were watching a movie last night and we all fell asleep here."

"Okay. Well come on." Seto and Mokuba barely had time to grab their bedroom slippers, but headed down the stairs.

Once in the ambulance, Seto sat down on a bench, Mokuba at his side. Lisa was still unconscious. She was pale to begin with, and with the cold, she seemed as white as a sheet. Seto, seeing her like that, had what he'd call in later years a flash image of the past. In his mind's eye, he saw her with hair that was white but with a slightly blue sheen to it. Her skin had a bluish pallor, and he was placing a blanket over her lifeless form. No, he thought, shaking away the specter, she's not going to die. I won't let her. When he looked at Lisa again, she had blonde-brown hair and she was most definitely alive. He reached out and took her hand, which was a bit cold and clammy due to the fact that she was packed in ice like a fish at the Domino Public Market.

"Big brother?"

"Yeah, Mokuba?"

"Umm… we didn't change out of our pajamas." Seto looked at his brother and then looked at himself.

"Oh, great. We didn't." Then the teen boy gave his little brother a little bit of a smile. "Could be worse, Mokie."

"How?"

"We could've been in our bathrobes." The little boy started to laugh, and then sobered.

"Is she gonna be okay?"

The blonde paramedic, who'd just placed an IV in Lisa's right arm, though looking serious, nodded. "I think she'll be all right. What we're going do is make sure her temperature stays down and that she gets rest and plenty of fluids."

"Where are we going?" the nine-year-old asked.

"We're heading to Domino Children's Hospital since she's still a kid."

"Lisa works there," Seto said softly.

"Wait a minute, what's her name?"

"Lisa Hammond. She's my brother's personal doctor."

Y

Scout Rhodes, Hiro Misawa, Darla Truesdale and Jayda Yuki stood at the ER, waiting for Lisa to be brought in. She was their friend, but to the older doctors, she was also still a kid who needed to be looked after. Two other ambulances had pulled up in the past fifteen minutes, but they hadn't had Lisa and the ER doctors could handle the emergencies. Finally, the third ambulance that pulled up held the young girl that they were watching for. Also with her were two boys that Lisa had talked about in recent weeks, wearing pajamas.

"We've got a fever patient, folks!" the paramedics said.

Scout moved forward. "I'll take her," she said, and moved to the gurney. "You must be Seto," she said as she got close to the teen boy and his brother, "and you're Mokuba, right?" The boys nodded. "We'll get her checked and into a room, okay? Did you two come here straight from your beds?"

"We fell asleep watching a movie last night," Seto explained. "Dr. Rhodes…?"

"She'll be okay, honey. Don't you worry. Do you want me to call her parents?"

Her… oh, yeah… "No, Doctor Rhodes. I should do it. Thanks, though." As Dr. Rhodes worked over Lisa, Seto made two phone calls. First he called Roland and got him to bring changes of clothes. Then Seto thumbed the Contacts button on Lisa's cell phone, searching for a number that indicated her parents' number. "Home" seemed to have the right area code, so he hit the "Send" button.

Not quite a thousand miles away in Kirkland, Washington, Gigi Hammond was sitting up in bed with her husband of 27 years, Darren, enjoying her cup of coffee while he read the morning paper. Usually, they would've gone to church, but there had been a function at the university where Darren taught the previous evening. So the couple had decided to stay home this Sunday morning. And then the phone rang.

"Good morning, Hammond residence," Gigi greeted.

"Mrs. Hammond?" asked a young male voice on the other side of the phone.

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is Seto Kaiba, Lisa's boss and we're at Domino Children's Hospital. She's been taking care of my brother and me for the last few days and she caught our flu bug."

"Is she all right?" Gigi asked, sounding anxious.

"Geege…?" Darren whispered, also worried. As he couldn't hear the other end of the conversation, his fatherly instincts were on. If someone had in any way harmed his little girl, the six-feet, two inches tall man would be her avenger.

She's sick, Darren, Gigi mouthed. He nodded.

Seto continued, "She fell asleep watching a movie with us last night, and this morning when my brother and I woke up, Lisa wouldn't wake up and she threw up. Her temperature was 106.5 and we had to call 911. She had convulsions."

"Convulsions?!" Gigi yelped.

"Yeah. She'll be all right, Mrs. Hammond. The paramedics got to the mansion just before it happened, and they started working on getting her fever down. Has she ever had fevers like that before?"

"When she was little, she had pretty high fevers, but nothing like that. Is she awake?"

"Not yet, but I think Dr. Rhodes will be able to talk to you in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'd like that."

"Um… Mrs. Hammond, could I ask you something?"

"Sure, honey, and you can call me Gigi, if you'd like."

"Gigi, then. I know this is probably the worst possible time to ask you, but…I'd like to start dating your daughter, if that's all right."

Gigi smiled. "All right. It's okay with us. From what Lisa tells us, you're a nice boy."

"Thanks, Gigi." Scout exited the exam area, and Seto handed her the phone. And then Roland arrived with the boys' clothes. The boys dressed while Scout talked to Lisa's mother, and when they'd dressed, she was standing outside the men's room.

"Everything's all right, and I explained it to her parents."

"Can we see her?"

"We're moving her to a private room, and then you can stay with her. Lisa's parents said it was okay."

"Thanks," Seto said. When Scout left again, Roland asked how Lisa was and Seto informed him. "We'll be staying here for a while, Roland. Keep it really quiet, okay?"

"Okay, sir."

Y

Lisa felt as if she had been floating. She remembered falling asleep watching the movie, and could swear she'd been dreaming. Seto had been calling out to her, and Mokuba'd been worried. What a dream, she thought and opened her eyes. What the..? I'm…

"Hi, Leese," Seto said, coming into her field of vision, "how're you feeling?" She groaned because her mouth was very, very dry. Realizing this, Seto grabbed a cup of water with a straw in it and helped Lisa to drink it.

"I feel kind of weak," she admitted. "Where are we?"

"Domino Children's. You gave Mokuba and me a real scare yesterday morning."

"Yesterday..? It's not Sunday?"

"It's Monday. You've been out probably 36 hours." She looked over at the clock to see it was 9:30.

"Oh, you're awake," Scout Rhodes said, coming into the room with her various instruments.

"Hey, Scout, guess I'm your patient," the teen girl said. "How did I end up here?"

"Well, Seto called me and said your fever was up to 106.5 and apparently, after he hung up from me, you had convulsions. The paramedics had to do standard procedure to get you stable."

"So I was...?" Lisa flushed, knowing that the paramedics had had to strip her naked and pack her in ice. And then she realized she was in a paper hospital gown.

"You were when you came in," Scout confirmed. Then Lisa looked at her new boyfriend, who had turned fire red.

"Seto? Did you...?" she asked. Scout, who had finished her quick exam of her young friend, wisely left the room.

"Lisa… uh..." He had seen her, and had liked what he'd seen.

"Be honest," she said gently.

"They did it so fast, but I did see you. And I thought you were beautiful."

"You saw my stretch marks?"

"Yeah. I thought only women who'd had babies got them."

"I've been battling with weight most of my life and I got pretty heavy for a while there. Add puberty to that, and you get really bad stretch marks."

"You've got those, and I've got what I've got. And that makes us even."

"Even?"

"Well, you did see me naked."

"I was treating you!" Lisa said indignantly.

"But," he asked, moving close to her and growling seductively, "did you like what you saw?" He looked straight into her eyes with a very naughty sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes," she whispered. She couldn't lie to him. Oh, man…

"Where's Mokuba?" she asked softly.

"At school." To her relief, he pulled back from her. "He didn't want to leave this morning. But I made him."

"What about you?"

"I said I was at the hospital with a sick friend."

"How did you end up staying here?"

"I told the paramedics and the admissions people the truth." It took a few seconds for what he'd said to sink in. Then she looked straight at him, eyes wide.

"You told them we're..?" He nodded. "You really are serious about me," she breathed.

"Lisa, you're the first girl I've felt this way about. And yesterday when I thought something might happen to you, it really scared me," the CEO admitted. "Do you think your friends will tell?"

"No. They protect me because… well, even though I work like an adult, legally I'm still a kid." Seto smiled a little bit at that.

Y

At Domino High School, Team Yugi couldn't help but notice that Seto "Nearly Perfect Attendance" Kaiba was once again not in school. Yugi, concerned, headed to the office before heading to the lunchroom to find out if the teen multi-billionaire had called in sick again.

"No, Yugi, but he did say he had to take a friend to the hospital yesterday," answered Ms. Bloom, the secretary, who bore a passing resemblance to a grown-up Parvati Patil from Harry Potter.

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, but I think the homework ban is over."

"Okay. Thanks, Ms. Bloom." Yugi exited the office, and his friends were waiting for him.

"So, where's Moneybags?" Joey asked.

"Well, he's at the hospital with somebody," Yugi answered.

"Moks?" Joey asked, concerned.

"No. Ms. Bloom just said he was there with a friend."

Tristan looked a little puzzled then said, "Do you think it's that doctor?" They each exchanged glances, and agreed to head to the hospital after school.

A few hours later, school finally let out for the day, and Yugi, Teá, Tristan and Joey met at the shoe lockers. "Are we ready to go?" Yugi asked, then noticed a kid not wearing Domino High's uniform moving through the crowd of kids leaving the school. This kid seemed very familiar, and then…

"Yugi?" Mokuba Kaiba stood before the four older kids.

"Hey, Mokuba. Where's your brother?"

"He's at Domino Children's. Lisa got really sick yesterday and he didn't want to leave her in the hospital alone 'cause her mom and dad aren't here."

"Is she okay, Mokuba?" Teá asked. "Oh, we already got Kaiba's homework."

"Thanks! Well, she was really sick yesterday. She had a really high fever and she threw up pretty hard. She had convulsions after she threw up and Seto had to call 911. She didn't wake up all day and she wasn't awake this morning when I left, but I called Seto at lunch and he said she woke up at 9:30. He said she was a little weak but she was gonna be okay, and the doctor said she could go home later tonight."

"But if she's weak," Joey said.

"She's gonna go home with us. Seto said it's the least we could do for her 'cause she really took good care of us."

Mokuba led the four teens out to the limo, and as he did, dialed his cell phone. In Lisa's hospital room, Seto heard his cell phone go off. He answered. "This is Seto Kaiba."

"Hi, big brother. I got your homework."

"Are you on your way?"

"Yeah, and… don't be mad, Seto."

Seto looked at Lisa, then said, "I won't get mad. What is it?"

"I'm bringing Yugi and his friends. They wanted to see how Lisa was. They were worried about you when they saw you weren't in school."

"Just a second, Mokie. Lisa," he asked, putting his hand over the receiver, "are you okay to have visitors? It's the geek squad."

"Could you not call them that, please? For me and Mokuba?"

Seto took a deep breath, and said softly, "Okay. Mokuba, bring them. It's okay, and I'll be nice."

"Great! We'll be there in a few minutes! Bye, big brother!"

Fifteen minutes later, Mokuba arrived with his larger friends in tow. "Hi, Seto! Hi, Lisa," he said, bounding into the hospital room. "I brought you visitors." Lisa tapped a button on her hospital bed so that she could sit up. By this time, she was in a purple silk nightgown that Seto had brought in from the mansion, so she was decently covered.

"Hey, kiddo," she said as he climbed up on the bed to give her a hug.

"Is it okay if we come in?" Yugi asked, peeking around the corner.

Seto, who'd been sitting in a chair, stood up and said in his rather cold voice, "You may enter, Yugi. Bring your… friends." He turned to look at Lisa as if to say, I'm being nice.

Thank you, she mouthed. "Hey, guys," she said tiredly.

"Hi, Lisa. How are you feeling?" Yugi asked, coming in followed by his three buddies. They all had the look of people who were coming in to visit a terminally ill patient that they knew in passing.

"Guys," she said, getting a serious yet slightly comical look on her face, "I'm not dying. Get those death looks off your faces." The four teens looked at each other and started cracking up.

"Sorry, Leese," Joey said. "The way Moks told it, you were practically at death's door yesterday."

"Did he? Well, the reports of my possible demise were somewhat exaggerated because somebody was there to help me," she smiled wryly. "So how was school for you guys?"

The teens and Mokuba talked for a bit (Seto joined in the conversation a bit, but remained silent most of the time) until about five PM. "Will you be back in school tomorrow, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

"No. I can't leave Lisa alone yet. And I won't trust anyone else with the job of caring for her." Yugi hadn't been looking at Seto, but now he and the other three teenagers looked at the teen multibillionaire, surprised at what he'd just said. But when Yugi looked up, Seto Kaiba looked his usual impassive self.

Yami?

Yes, Yugi?

Are you feeling from Kaiba what I'm feeling from Kaiba?

Yami thought a minute. If you're referring to how he's acting with her, you're not the only one who's confused.

Yami, it's kind of weird that he's so insistent that he takes care of her.

Yeah, aibou. Tell me about it.

"Guys," Yugi asked as he and his friends left the hospital, "does anything seem funny about Kaiba and Lisa?"

"Maybe. He did go over an hour without calling us geeks or the wiener patrol," Tristan pointed out.

"You guys don't think..?" Teá asked.

"But this is Seto Kaiba." Joey looked a little puzzled and then asked, "You think there's something goin' on with them? Wouldn't Mokuba've said somethin'?" The other three thought for a short moment.

"Maybe it's nothing or they're just friends," Tristan said.

"Guess we'll see," Yugi said.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital room, Lisa said softly, "They suspect something."

"Could you tell that?" Seto asked, now looking a little bit alarmed.

"They're not sure," she answered, "but I could tell that they thought it was possible. Is it because you were, at the very least, civil? Or that you've provided them rides?"

Seto thought a second, and nodded. "I've been… well…."

"I've seen you act cold, but you think you acted like a jerk."

"I did. You wouldn't like me very much if…."

"I knew what I already know?" His eyes widened at that.

Y

At eight PM, Lisa was discharged from Domino Children's Hospital. "Lisa," Seto asked as the three were driven away in the limo, "are you okay with me taking care of you? I mean, I'll, um, have to help you with everything."

"I trust you."

"Hey, Lisa?"

"Yeah, Mokuba?"

"Could we watch a movie when we get home?"

"Okay. Why don't we watch Castle in the Sky?"

A rather abrupt ending, but my initial draft was quite a bit different. This and the last chapter were initially a single chapter. However, in my typing, it has morphed into a three-chapter section. So now Seto has had a flash of the past, and it differs from what Lisa's seen. He knows she has powers and accepts it… I think he accepts more than we know; his attitude, it seems to me, is just contrariness for contrariness's sake.

Thanks again to all of you who are reading and reviewing! To those of you who are reading and haven't reviewed, I'd love to hear from you. If you have questions, I'll be glad to answer. I'll even be glad to hear from you if you just want to talk! Thanks! Read and review, folks!