Special thanks to mednin for the constant support and reviews.

And to warn you Seto is a little OOC but after all love can change you, some people say so, I use that as an excuse :P

Chapter eleven

Seto was in shock, he just stared ahead eyes wide and a shaking hand still raised like he was still holding the phone which in reality had been dropped to the floor, the second he had heard what Ed had said. He couldn't believe it. Joey was hurt! Just a little more than a week after he had found him, he hadn't even entered the apartment he had gotten for him and now he was on his way to the hospital after getting hit by a car. He was unconscious and didn't look good. What did it mean, didn't look good? Would he be all right or not? Would he lose him forever, after he had just found him? After spending year after year, trying to find him, never giving up and finally succeeding in it, just to lose him forever with no chance of getting him back? It was just not fair, it just couldn't be true. It must be a nightmare, he couldn't lose Joey so suddenly after everything he had done to find him.

He felt a hand connect to his face hard and looked down, he wasn't mad just surprised and it snapped him out of the shock a tiny bit. "Come on Seto, snap out of it please. We have to get moving, you need to get to him. He needs you, come on big bro, move it." Mokuba said urgently, standing in front of his older brother. Seto finally noticed the phone in Mokuba's hand and realised that he wasn't holding it any more. He lowered his still shaking hand, slowly staring blank into his younger brother´s face, hardly realizing what he had said. "Come on Seto, this is not like you, snap out of it. He needs you now, you need to snap out of this, Seto, come on! Get moving." Seto heard the words but still couldn't understand, he couldn't believe that it was true, that this was not just a nightmare that would end any second. That he wouldn't wake up in his room, in his big white bed, being able to look out the window over the garden. He had to wake up! This had to be a nightmare but he was still here, still hearing Mokuba's voice, urging him to get moving, that he needed to get to the hospital.

"What's wrong, Mokuba? Can we help?" Seto looked slowly towards the voice and only after seeing the small spiky haired boy, did he realise that it was Yugi who had said it and that he looked worried towards himself. That's when he noticed something running down his cheeks, it took him another moment to realize that it was his own tears he felt running down. He hadn't cried like that in such a long time. maybe a tear here or there, when he was really down but he hadn´t really cried with so many tears, still there was no sound from him. He was still in shock, he still couldn't believe that Joey really was hurt that bad. That he might lose him, he didn't want to believe that it was true.

"Yes, please help me get him into the limousine and can you come with us? Please, I think I will need some help with Seto." Mokuba's voice said again. Seto slowly looked to him again, still with tears running down his face. "Joey" He wanted to shout, to scream, to call him, to make him come just to see that this wasn't true but his voice failed him. He just moved his lips but still no sound. "Come on big brother, snap out of it, please. Joey needs you."

"What's wrong with Joey? You said, he needs to snap out of it for Joey, why? What is it?" Again another voice and again, Seto couldn't recognise it at first. But this was different, this voice had said something important, something he wanted, something he needed. It had said Joey! He was about to look at whoever owned the voice, still not being able to grasp that Joey was really hurt and that it wasn't a nightmare, he was still waiting to wake up to a morning that just didn't want to come. But before he even got around to move his head towards the voice that had said this important name, he heard Mokuba again: "I'll tell you in the car, just please help me, Yami please. We need to get Seto moving." After that Seto could feel that he was pushed and turned and grabbed by multiple hands. Again he tried to say "Joey", to call for him but nothing came out, no voice. Just tears running silently down his face, as he was pushed out of a door, across a walkway and into a limousine.

"What's wrong now? Please Mokuba, if anything happened to Joey, you need to tell us!" the same voice like before said the name Seto longed for. But he didn't want to hear the name, he wanted the person. He looked towards the voice, hoping to see the owner of the name, instead of the owner of the voice but all that was there, was a spiky haired young man, a little taller than the slightly smaller look-alike next to him. "He had an accident, he's on the way to the hospital or probably already there, that's all I know. The one on the phone didn't know any more either." It was Mokuba's voice, slowly Seto started to recognise the voices again. But he still didn't want to believe that this was really happening.

"Will he be all right?" Yugi asked, his voice overflowing with worry.

"I don't know. I've never seen him like this, not once! No matter what had happened." Mokuba said, with even more worry in his voice as Yugi had.

What is he talking about, never seen him like that? He hadn't seen Joey, yet. How can he say that, what does he mean? Seto didn't understand, even so his mind slowly recovered from the shock he had gotten. He tried again "Joey", he needed to know what Mokuba knew. What had he meant by "I've never seen him like that"? Seto was pleased with his effort, he heard his voice, small not audible for anyone else, they where too far away and the sound of the car was still overpowering his weak voice but he had made a sound again. He tried again "Joey," and this time Mokuba heard him.

"He'll be fine, I'm sure of it, you know him Seto! One small car can't take out Joey, can it?" Mokuba sounded hopeful again, hardly any worry left and that's when it clicked in Seto's head. They hadn't worried as much about Joey as about his reaction. After all Joey would be all right. It was Joey after all and he had been through so much and still always pulled through. One little car couldn't hurt him, Mokuba was right. It was silly to react like he did and it was not like Seto Kaiba to lose it. He had to get a grip on himself.

He took a few deep breaths and then said "Once we arrive, you three go ahead and find Joey. I'll find out more and join you." Seto was glad to hear that his voice was strong and steady again. He needed to be strong, now more than ever. Joey needed him. And he needed to talk to Yugi and Yami, the way they smirked at each other they had figured his secret out. No surprise there, the way he had lost it over Joey. "What are you smirking at each other for?" Seto asked, knowing full well that it had to do with his secret but needing to be sure about it as well as a good start into the subject.

"We're just happy that we won a bet." Yami said grinning widely. A bet? A bet? Joey got hit by a car and is in the hospital in god knows what state and he is thinking about a stupid bet? Seto thought, giving him one of his death glares "What bet?" he asked, just to see where this conversation would lead to. It might still be about him and Joey. And much to his dismay it was.

"We had a bet with Tristan, Duke and Joey about possible candidates for his secret rich guy. And we had our bet on you from the start. We knew that you've fallen head over heals for him for a long time but when Yugi told Joey, he just laughed." Yami explained and Yugi had the same annoyed face he had, when Joey had laughed in the game shop on his first day, seeing them back. So it might have been there that Yugi had talked about his suspicion and if he had, Joey hadn't believed him.

"Okay, I admit it was me all along, but be good and don't tell him, at least not yet. I'm not ready for him to know and worry that he might not accept any help from me, since we never really got along. And I doubt that he would believe you right now anyway and I will deny it all, understood?"

"Fine, at least for now but not forever. He is our friend and he has a right to know." Yugi said and Yami nodded in agreement, just as they arrived at the hospital. Mokuba, Yami and Yugi left for the inside, while Seto who had spotted Ed standing outside, walked right up to him. "How is he?"

"They won't say much since it's all confidential and I doubt they will tell you. But his mother and sister are on their way, so they can ask and I can find out then if you want me to. But since you are in thouch with him, it might not be necessary. I do know whatsoever that he is currently having an operation and that he has a lot of internal bleeding. I also know, that one leg is definitely broken and badly, really badly. I'm not sure if they can save it, it looked almost crushed. I'm sorry, that I have nothing more than that. But I assume that until after the operation they can't say much either." Ed looked worried, maybe partly for his boss, too. He hadn't seen his reaction over the phone, but did know that he was suddenly gone from the phone, replaced by Mokuba and even so Seto hadn't even heard Mokuba talking on the phone, hell he hadn't even noticed that he had dropped it, Seto was still certain that Mokuba must have been worried after seeing Seto reacting so badly.

"Thanks, please listen around the hospital and try to find out more, I´ll contact you later." After having said that, Seto went inside the hospital. He knew where the waiting area for the operations where so he went there. Upon reaching his destination, he saw Mokuba as well as the two spiky haired young men. They didn't look quite as hopeful and relaxed as before. "I assume they didn't tell you much?" he just said, before they could ask if he had found something out.

"Just that he is in there and that it doesn't look too good for him." Mokuba said, hoping that Seto would not get into another shock state.

"Same here, but I know a little more. He has some internal bleeding, they are trying to stop it as we speak. They´re also trying to save his leg that is visibly broken, it looked rather crushed I heard and might be beyond saving but it's not sure. Right now nothing is sure, not until the operation is over. It depends on how this operation goes it seems. I also know that Serenity and their mother are on their way over and they will get more information from the doctors, so we'll just have to wait for them. I'll go back out and see if I can get them here faster I will also call Tristan and Duke. They would want to be informed, I guess." Mokuba as well as Yami and Yugi looked at him in surprise. "What are you staring at me for?" he asked them.

"It's nothing, just earlier you got so freaked and now you're back to usual, all business like and cool. It surprised us a little." Mokuba said, still looking more worried than surprised, so it was a little of that too, it seemed.

"I'm fine, I would have been fine from the beginning if I hadn't have a few nights with nearly no sleep and it caught me off guard, as I was just thinking about having a rest since I could hardly keep my eyes open but I'm more awake now after the little shock and I'm fine, so don't worry. I mean, honestly, it's not like me to freak out on you like that, now it happens once and you keep looking at me like it could happen any second again." Seto said and turned to leave right after that. He went outside again, taking another deep breath. It wasn't easy to stay calm but he kept chanting to himself Joey is tough, Joey will make it, Joey is tough, Joey will make it. He knew Joey could make it, even if the odds were against him, he always had luck on his side and Seto was sure it would help him this time around, too. If it hadn't been for Joey's luck and his strength that he had proven with all he had been through, Seto could not have been so cool. And it was only on the outside, he was still afraid of losing him so soon after finding him and he was still wishing to wake up from this nightmare. But by now he knew it wasn't really a nightmare as much as he hoped it to be.

Seto took another deep breath, before phoning Serenity first. He was happy that Mokuba had saved all the numbers of the geek squat into his phone once and that Serenity's was one of them.

"Where are you?" He asked as soon as she picked up.

"I'm on my way to Joey. Do you know something? Is he okay?" She asked. Seto could hear how worried she sounded and wasn't surprised. After all her brother was in the hospital after getting hit by a car and she had no idea how he was.

"I don't know much, they don't want to tell me since I'm not family but I know that they are operating him as we speak and I assume they don't even know much until after. Where exactly are you and do you need help to get here faster?"

"No, I think we're fine. We should be there tomorrow morning at the latest. You think he'll make it?"

"Sure, he will. A street mutt like him is tough and with his ridiculous luck I wouldn't get rid of him, even if I wanted to. Don't worry, you know Joey. He'll pull through." Seto tried to sound reassuringly but had to fight the tears never the less and kept chanting Joey is tough, Joey will make it, Joey is tough, Joey will make it.

"Thanks Seto, for making me feel better. And thanks for being there for him. I'll see you soon, okay."

"Okay, see you." Seto ended the call and phoned Roland instead of Tristan and Duke. They probably would get worried and might not be careful on their way. He just would let Roland pick them up with the news and keep an eye on them. And he could take Kai too, on his way. Joey had probably still been on his way to meet with him and he must be worried by now. And no matter how much that guy could irritate him, he had guts and he had been protective towards Joey and he had to give him some credit for that. And Joey might need his friends, and he would get whatever Joey needed.

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