Me: Thanks to everyone who has supported me.
Kaiba: Is this story going to end anytime soon?
Me: I don't know? I do not own any of the Yugioh characters, but Nicole, Nakia, Jonathon, and Menes.
"I'm fine," Nicole said for the hundredth time that morning. "Will you all stop fussing over me, I'm not a little kid." It was starting to get on Nicole's nerves. To her, it seemed like every five minutes someone would ask if she was okay.
"You were trapped inside a fire," Pegasus tried to reason.
"And I got out," she pointed out. "So stop fussing over me. I have a few burns and that it."
"This is serious," Pegasus reprimanded.
"And I'm being serious. The doctor said I would be released later today," Nicole continued to argue.
"I don't care," Pegasus said.
"Someone please tell him that I'm fine!" Nicole almost shouted.
"Nicole, Pegasus is right. You need to take it easy, you just survived a fire," Duke said trying to calm the girl down.
"Fine," she huffed seeing that her argument was going nowhere. "Then will someone tell me how those three kids are doing and how Atem is doing?" Nicole asked. She hadn't seen or heard anything about the kids since she helped get them out. She had yet to see Atem since they had kissed the night before. At the thought her lips started to tingle and she felt giddy, 'We actually kissed last night, but why isn't he here?' Because of this her mind was playing different scenarios over and over in her head.
"All three kids are safe, the only thing wrong was a few very minor burns and smoke inhalation. I think they all went home earlier this morning," Tea said calmly.
Nicole sighed in relief and then asked, "And Atem?" When no one answered her question or would meet her gaze, she knew something was wrong. "And Atem?" she asked with more force and dread.
"He had some very serious burns that are still being treated. Yugi and their grandpa are up waiting with him," Pegasus said.
"What?" Nicole asked horrified. Before anyone could react, Nicole was up, had the IV ripped out of her arm, and was running down the hall to the elevator. Nicole ignored that pain that shot through her body as she ran, she didn't care about the pain. The only thing that she did care about was finding Atem. Nicole was able to get to the elevator and get the doors closed before anyone could catch her. Once in the elevator, she did a once over of the directory and found which level the burn unit was on.
Nicole had yet noticed the other person that was with her in the elevator.
"What happened?!" screeched a nurse as she saw Nicole run into the elevator and the ripped out IV.
"She went up to the burn unit," Duke said.
"She's in no condition to be running around the hospital," the nurse freaked.
"We know that!" Joey yelled, he was well beyond stressed out.
"We have to get her back down here and resting," the nurse said.
Another nurse that had been watching finally spoke up and said, "I call up to the burn unit, they'll be watching for her and so when she gets there they'll send her right back down here."
"I'm surprised that they let you out of your room?" came a voice from the corner of the elevator.
Until that moment Nicole had thought that she was alone in the elevator. She whipped around to come face to face with Seto Kaiba. "What are you doing here?" Nicole asked confused. From what Nicole had learned, Kaiba didn't get along with the others.
"I came to make sure none of the people were going to sue my company for the accident last night," Kaiba said. 'That had to be one of my dumbest excuses ever,' he thought to himself. He had actually come to make sure that both Nicole and Atem were doing okay. He really just wanted to come and check up on Nicole, but he figured he would kill two birds with one stone and see them both.
Kaiba's answer satisfied Nicole for the moment. She then turned back to the elevator door and said, "To answer your question, no they didn't let me out of my room. I kinda had ran out of my room and into the elevator when I heard that …" Nicole didn't have the heart to finish.
Kaiba nodded, he knew that Atem was still up in the burn unit. 'So she escaped everyone just to go see Atem,' Kaiba thought amused with a smirk on his face.
"What?" Nicole demanded. As soon as the word had come out, she realized how harsh it sounded.
"You're going through a lot to just go see a friend," he said not at all upset at her demand, he was actually impressed.
"What do you mean?" Nicole asked confused.
"Well you have dried blood on your hand where the IV was at, and conscious of it or not, you're trying not to put a lot of weight on your left leg," Kaiba pointed out.
"How?" Nicole asked as she tried to put more weight on her left leg to show him that he was wrong. As soon as she put more weight on her leg, she winced in pain.
Kaiba smirked and said, "I told you."
Nicole was about to say more but the elevator had reached its destination and the doors were opening. As she stepped out of the elevator, Nicole heard shouts coming near her.
"You need to go back downstairs!" yelled a nurse as she approached Nicole.
"No, I want to see Atem!" Nicole shouted determined.
"You need your rest and to get off your bad leg," the nurse on the verge of shouting again.
Kaiba had taken advantage of the shouting to borrow a wheelchair. He had then asked where Yugi was waiting at. Once he was told he went back over to Nicole. "Then let me escort you," Kaiba said as he as he brought the wheelchair closer.
"But-" the nurse started.
"She'll be off her leg and she'll be fine," Kaiba said interrupting the nurse.
"Fine, but she must stay in the wheelchair the whole time," the nurse ordered before she left.
"I don't need-" Nicole tried to say.
"Sit now," Kaiba ordered. 'Why on Earth am I doing this, I would only do this for Mokuba. What is she doing to me, to make me change?' Kaiba asked himself as Nicole sat in the chair.
"Why does everyone think that I need to be babied? I'm perfectly fine," Nicole said again.
"Why don't you like people fussing over you?" Kaiba asked genuinely curious about her answer.
"It makes me feel helpless," she answered softly. "It reminds me that I'm helpless, like I was helpless to help my parents."
Kaiba knew what she was talking about, he hated the feeling of being unable to help someone he cared about. In a matter of minutes Kaiba had pushed Nicole to where he was told Atem was at. They both immediately spotted Yugi and his grandpa sitting in the waiting area. Kaiba rolled Nicole over to the pair and then sat next to Nicole.
Yugi looked up surprised to see Nicole and Kaiba sitting in front of him and his grandfather. "Hey what are you doing up here?"
Nicole couldn't bared to look at Yugi, she somehow felt responsible for what had happened to Atem. So she was unwilling to meet anyone's eyes on the matter.
When Kaiba noticed that Nicole wasn't going to say a thing he said, "My elevator was hijacked by her." Pointing his thumb at Nicole.
"What?" Yugi asked confused.
"I ran out of my room and into the elevator when I heard about Atem. Yugi I'm so sorry," Nicole said as tears started to slide down her face. "It's all my fault that your brother is hurt."
"Nonsense," Grandpa said. "You did nothing wrong, it was Menes that did this. So you shouldn't blame yourself."
"How?" Nicole asked shocked when the older man mentioned Menes' name.
"I told him about what's been going on," Yugi said.
Rubbing the tears out of her eyes, Nicole finally asked, "So how's he doing?"
"Well the doctors say that we should be able to see him anytime now. He had a few major burns on his arms, but the main thing was all the smoke inhalation," Yugi said as he took a hold of Nicole's hand a squeezed it to comfort her. When Nicole still looked depressed he decided that it was time for a new tactic. He decided to use a tactic that always worked on Atem. "So how was your date, apart from the burning fun house?"
Nicole went beet red, she didn't know how to respond. "I-"Luckily Nicole was saved by the doctors coming out to greet them all.
"He's stable and he'll be just fine," the doctor said with a smile. "We'll continue to check on him throughout the day, but he will have to stay the night tonight." With that the doctor left.
Since Atem was in a room by himself, they were able to go inside. Kaiba could have went in as well but he said that he needed to get back to his company, and muttered something about now that his rival was okay he didn't need to be there anymore. So Yugi ended up pushing Nicole into the room. Upon seeing his family and Nicole enter the room, he propped himself up and smiled at them.
"Hey how you feeling?" Yugi asked as he entered the room.
"I hurt," Atem said as he rubbed a bandage on his arm. He then looked at Nicole and asked, "How about you?"
"I'm fine," Nicole said as she covered up her hand to hide the dried blood from the IV.
Atem noticed this movement, "You were down hooked up to an IV?"
"I was," Nicole said, she didn't want to tell him that she had freaked and ran out of the room to get here as fast as she could.
Finally what seemed like an eternity, the elevator came back down. The group of friends and Pegasus got on the elevator, and rode it up to the burn unit. When the elevator dinged, they all piled out and went to where they had last saw Yugi. When he wasn't there they turned around and headed to the reception desk.
"Excuse me, you could tell us where Atem Muto is?" Tea asked nicely.
"I'm sorry but we are not allowing fans to go in and see Mr. Muto," the receptionist said snarkly.
"No, where his friends?" Duke said.
"I'm sorry, but no," she replied.
"My name is Maximillion Pegasus, now will you please tell me where Atem is?" Pegasus asked getting fed up with the lady.
"I'm sorry but no one is allowed to see him right now," she replied.
"It's okay Nancy, they are allowed to go see him," said a doctor as he walked towards the group. "I just got done and your friend is going to be okay. He's in the room on your left if take this hallway and turn right." He pointed to the hallway that he had just came from.
"But-" Nancy said.
"They are like his family, they are allowed to go and see him," the doctor said before walking off.
The group wasted no more time before they headed down the hall to see their friend and hope Nicole had made it to the room as well.
"So let me get this straight: you ripped out your IV, ran down the hall on your injured leg, and was forced to ride in the wheelchair or else," Atem said with a chuckle.
"I was worried, all they had told me was that you were still up here. So my mind assumed the worst," Nicole said in defense.
"I-" Atem started to say before there was a knock at his door and Joey, Tristan, Tea, Duke, and lastly Pegasus walked into the room.
"Hey you're up!" Joey said in excitement. He then noticed Nicole sitting, in her wheelchair, right beside Atem. He then addressed Nicole, "And you made it up here."
They all started talking at once to each. It had quickly turned into a shouting match in Atem's room, it was mainly between Joey and Tristan. They talked about anything and everything. After a while Nicole noticed her uncle standing in the corner of the room. She was about to get up when Pegasus looked at her and said, "No stay put and enjoy some time with your friends." With that being said he walked out of the room and turned left.
"Well I think that's my cue to let all of kids to have fun," Grandpa said as he left the room as well, but headed in the opposite direction.
"Why doesn't your grandpa go and talk with Pegasus?" Nicole asked out of curiosity.
Me: Uh Oh
Nicole: What?
Me: You'll find out in the next chapter. I figured this would be a good place for a chapter break.