Left you a bit on tenterhooks with the last chapter, or so I hope.
Let me know how you think it's going, means to improve and so on. i'd love to hear from you.
Chapter 21 – Loss
Seto Kaiba ran down the long corridor. How had she run so fast? He felt lost in his own home. Where could she have gone?
"Olivia?" He stopped to call her name, turning on the spot as the world seemed to wheel around him. She had looked so frightened. Someone who had always been so strong for him. He could hear footsteps behind him. Knew that Tristan and Bakura would be following, but they didn't know this house like him. He had to find her. Turning he headed off down a corridor on the right, and then a left, a right, and then almost tripped over.
On the floor lay a mobile phone. Olivia's phone. He picked it up and looked at the screen. He put it to his ear.
"Livvie? What's wrong? Please tell me. Are you there?"
"Mr Newington?"
"I! Yes…Mr Kaiba? Where is she?"
Seto looked at the door in front of him, standing slightly ajar.
"I think I've just found her. I'll call you back."
Slipping the phone into his pocket, he stepped quietly up to the door.
Back in the living room, Yugi and Tea sat with an extremely worried Joey.
"I mean, what could be wrong? She always seems so happy." He said, leaning against the back of the sofa, his eyes fearful and wide.
"I know what you mean." Said Yugi. "When we visited you, even when it was becoming pretty certain that you weren't going to wake up, she always had something good to say. She'd removed stitches or changed a bandage, you were getting better on the outside, even if the inside maybe wasn't."
Tea didn't say anything, she just looked down at her feet. Minutes passed in a silence that seemed to threaten to envelop them. A silence that was broken when Tristan and Bakura returned to the room.
"No sign." Panted the taller of the two, leant against the doorframe, as Bakura, face as pale as his hair, slumped into a chair.
"I don't do running." He panted quietly, elbow on the armrest, face leant into the hand. He looked steadily up into Joey's eyes. "Don't worry, he'll find her."
Seto approached the door slowly. It was one of the many downstairs rooms, the only difference being that this was where Olivia was using to work towards her course. He hovered, looking into the room without entering. From the small adjoining bathroom came the noise of a flush. A noise of a door and there she was. Stepping slowly out into the wider space. Face pale and eyes wide. He slipped inside the room as she pulled the door to its clicking close behind her, leaning back against it, sliding down, landing with a heavy thud.
He moved slowly towards her, looking into the eyes that didn't even seem to have enough shine in them to reflect his presence. Her head leant back against the door with as much care as if it was no longer attached, it had merely been left there. Empty. Squatting down onto his ankles he reached out a hand, slowly, hesitantly, more than a little afraid. He put his fingertips lightly to her cheek, and moved closer as he let them slip round to cup the side of her face.
She spoke, a hollow quiet sound that pierced his soul.
"It's gone. It didn't work."
He frowned a little, trying to figure out her meaning, and then her eyes came alive, staring straight into his own. Realization hit him like a wave of water, so icy cold he almost shivered. Her eyes were pleading, emotion tearing at her like a torrent in which he would surely drown.
"How can you be sure?"
"How can I be sure?" Her voice grew louder, almost hysterical, and yet her eyes remained dry. "Seto you may be intelligent, but you know nothing at all if you can't guess that."
Her words struck him hard, making him wince. Looking up at her, meeker, he saw her eyes widened, watering.
"Oh Seto, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it I didn't I"
He pulled her towards him, slipping down onto his knees as he pulled her face into his shoulder. Her sobs shook him, angry and anguished, for life lost, tormented by the thought of what might never be. So much grief, so much he didn't know. How could he know if she didn't tell him. How could she tell him? He needed her to be strong, but there are times when even the strong must allow themselves to be weak. He held her close, understanding and yet not fully understanding. Realising that love for someone could be like this, and that the woman in his arms was probably the first person who could be called a friend for his sake alone. She didn't have to be the way she was with him. He would have hired her even if she had been some heartless bitch most probably, but she wasn't. He wanted her to be happy, for her own sake. Was that selflessness? Was he her friend? It made him nervous to consider it. Sometime he'd ask her, but not now.
Eventually, once the sobs had died away, she spoke again.
"I have to go home. Paul will worry."
"Yes, of course." He pulled a small device from his left pocket, tapping deftly. "A car will be waiting outside." He stood up, bringing her to her feet. "Can you stand?"
Oddly she felt, as her knees buckled under her and he swept her into his arms, she probably would have been able to, had he not asked her. As it was she let him carry her, curiously disarmed by his words. When she had first met him, he had been the wreck, and in many ways she had carried him to this point, the point when he could carry her.
He put her gently into the open car door, looking up into her face tenderly. Wordless messages passed between them for a moment. He kissed her forehead and stood up.
"If I don't hear from you for a few days I'll understand."
She nodded, he shut the door and the car drove off. Olivia shrank into her seat, anxious to avoid the press that crowded round the car, slowing her escape. There seemed more of them than usual, someone had twigged where Yugi and the others were.
Joey sat with his back to the door, talking about how long his recovery would take, and other things Olivia had told him, when he realised that his friends weren't looking at him any more. Looking slowly over his right shoulder he saw Seto, leant against the doorframe, hair tousled, shoulder tearstained, look stern.
"Is she alright?" Yugi asked. The wrong question.
"No."
"Will she be?" Joey asked. The right question.
Seto paused, hesitated even, a look of pain flitting stealthily over his features.
"I think so." He turned and left.
They sat together, uncertain. Then Bakura got up from his seat and walked over to the window. He watched in a half amused, half terrified manner as a member of the press who had apparently…parachuted in, was rugby tackled by a hoard of guards and dragged away. Turning away from the window, he looked over at his friends.
"We need to do something about this."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's been decided. Until this has all died down, it's best that as many of the gang as possible get away from Domino. Yugi is going to visit his parents. Tea and Tristan have relatives in Europe that they can go to, and Bakura will just spend some time in the UK. He is right. Things are only going to get worse when I go out in public, and none of them can afford the level of protection I've got with Kaiba. They need to get away, and I need time to heal. I have a goal now, to be back on my feet, to be healthy, to have this all this legal stuff sorted out in time for September. The last year of school. I want it to be our best. This is for the best. None of us want to be apart, but we have the internet, and phones, and Tea can write a pretty good letter when she feels like it. It will be fine.
I don't know what happened to Olivia. I guess she'll tell me if she wants to, but it seems to be between her and Kaiba.
I'll admit I was kind of jealous, to see the emotion in him. Emotion for her. Maybe there's something there that I don't know about. Could there be? No. I mean I'm sure they're not. She has a husband. But that meant nothing to my mother. Oh God, they can't be. Are they?
I'm being irrational, and I've just ruined a pretty good sketch of the fireplace in here as a result. If they are, what business is it of mine? Damnit Joey you know exactly what business it is of yours. The problem is you're in no position to be making demands on anyone. Who'd choose you over anyone now? No one, and certainly not him.
Today I get my friends back only to lose them again. Tomorrow…all I can hope is that things turn out better with my Dad.
I don't own Yugioh, but I sort of wish I did. The maybe I'd be like a female version of Kaiba, only probably more evil.
Please review me, it would mean a lot to me, and I'd like to thank those of you who have been reading this since the beginning.