In the morning, Tea's mom made breakfast. Sitting around the table with Mr. Gardner who was getting ready to leave for work, "Are you sure you don't need me to stay home? All of you will be okay?" He asked as he finished his black coffee with minimal sugar in it.
"We will be just fine Brent; everything is over and were going to go see Yugi in the hospital today." Mrs. Gardner explained.
Mr. Gardner sighed, "If I could get my hands on that little twerp, terrorizing my little girl like that…" he bent down to kiss Tea on the head. "Daddy…" Tea said as she rolled her eyes, he smiled at her and continued to get ready for work.
"Finish up kids, were going to be meeting Dr. Motou at the hospital soon." Mrs. Gardner said as she hugged and kissed her husband goodbye.
Soon after breakfast, Mrs. Gardner took all the kids to the hospital. "We need to go to room 313." Mrs. Gardner explained, she was looking at her phone as she was reading a message.
"I just remembered we didn't grab our phones from Kai's backpack." Tristan pointed out.
"Yeah, I thought about that too last night." Joey said.
"Don't worry guys, I'm sure his backpack was taken for evidence or something, we will get them back." Tea said positively.
The doors to the third floor opened, immediately met with a nurse's station with nurses and doctors buzzing around, it smelled of disinfectant and lemon on this floor.
"Mrs. Gardner, kids…" Solomon Motou greeted them with a coffee in his hand, "Good morning Dr. Motou, how many times will I have to remind you, Michelle is fine." She reminded kindly, smiling tiredly, Mr. Motou replied, "At least one more time, Mrs. Gardner." They smiled at each other, turning to the kids, grandpa said, "I'm very happy that you kids are alright, I can only imagine how you must have felt."
They nodded, "It was definitely scary, but poor Yugi must have been more scared than we were…" Tea said.
Catching on, grandpa nodded, and I can imagine you're wanting to see him." Grandpa turned and started walking towards the room 313. He turned before going in, "He just got out of surgery not too long ago, so he is still sleeping, so let's try to be quiet in here please." He explained.
Everyone nodding in agreement.
Stepping in quietly, they all surrounded the bed, taking in the sight of their friend, his face was bruised, under his eyes were dark and the side of his jaw was bruised as well, he was attached to multiple different tubes and wires that kept him hydrated, and monitored his heart, as a precaution the nurses placed an oxygen mask over his mouth.
"Poor Yugi." Tea began, she placed a hand on his, "We should be on our way to the mall right now, not here." Her voice cracked a little trying to stifle her tears.
Her mother placed a hand on her shoulder, "He's okay now, he just needs rest and the support of you guys." Tea nodded, as did Joey and Tristan.
"I can't believe Kai is gone." Joey thought out loud, "I never really knew the guy but its weird that he his gone."
"Kai?" Grandpa asked, "As in Kairi Soto?" He specified.
They all nodded, "That's right." Tristan confirmed, only confirming the name from the story Joey told him the night prior.
Grandpa's mood changed immediately. "I didn't know he was still around; he was behind all this?" He asked angerly.
Joey matched his aggression, "Yeah, the guy went crazy!" Calming he said, "He must have really loved Yugi to go through these kind'o lengths to get his attention again." Joey said as he sat on the small two-seater couches provided in the room.
"Going a little too far if you ask me." Tristan agreed.
"I agree, but I think he was just scared, and he panicked. I don't think he REALLY wanted to hurt anyone." Tea said sadly.
A small groan interrupted their conversation, Yugi stirred lightly, opening his tired violet eyes. He lightly touched the mask over his face when he heard his grandfather's voice.
"Hello Yugi, how are you feeling, my boy?" his voice was calm and loving.
"Grandpa." Yugi said, his voice raspy and weak. Looking around he noticed everyone was around him.
"Hi everyone." Yugi said as he removed the mask from his face weakly. Sitting up he cringed a little, his grandpa placing a hand on his shoulder to keep him still, "Easy Yugi, you just had a pretty lengthy surgery."
Yugi laid back on the pillows, "Surgery?" he asked confused, he rubbed his face to try to wake himself up more.
"Do you remember what happened yesterday, Yugi?" Joey asked.
"Uhm.." He paused to try and remember, "Kind of, I…do remember Kai being there, and..." he paused, remembering everything.
"Lets take it easy Yugi, you only just work up, You- "grandpa was interrupted by a memory Yugi shared out loud that he remembered.
"Kai shot himself grandpa, he's dead…" he paused for a moment, "He-he's gone because of me…" Yugi said looking at his hands.
Tea sat on his bed and took his hands in hers, "No, Yugi, you've done nothing wrong! This is nobody's fault but Kai's."
Yugi shook his head a little, "If I had just listened to him at the lockers, none of this would have happened and he would probably still be alive." Yugi debated, tears started to roll down his cheek and he tried to wipe them away as quickly as they fell from his eyes.
Grandpa stepped to the other side of Tea on the bed, and he grabbed Yugi's shoulders, "Yugi, Tea is right, you did nothing wrong. Kai was blinded by love and doing what he thought was right, but you didn't provoke him." Grandpa said, he ran a hand through Yugi's hair and gave him a hug, being careful of his wounds.
Then a doctor knocked on the door and walked in. "Hello Yug- oh! I see you have quite a few visitors Yugi!" Dr. Padgett, a petit, blonde hair, and grey eyes with some freckles, said as she looked at her clip board.
Yugi nodded. "This is my grandfather and my friends." Yugi said his voice returning to normal, after calming down.
Well, I came in to check your incision site. Is it okay if I do that with everyone present or would you like them to leave?" she asked kindly.
"Uhm, I don't mind if they stay." Yugi said shyly.
Dr. Padgett nodded, "Alrighty, I'm going to lower your bed so you're flat on your back, okay?" she explained.
Yugi nodded, as the bed began to lower, it made his torso stretch slightly causing the incision to stretch also, making Yugi gasp and recoil in pain.
The doctor stopped, "I'm sorry Yugi, I'll go a little slower, if it gets too painful, please let me know and I'll stop, okay?" she waited for him to nod before continuing. "Just a little bit more, aaaannnndddd there, all flat." She said cheerily.
"Okay, Yugi, is it okay if I lift your shirt so I can, see?" She asked and waited patiently for him to reply.
"Yeah, that's fine." He said. She nodded and lifted his shirt to find a gauze pad taped to his lower abdomen almost covering his bellybutton.
"Alright, I'm going to remove the tape and gauze, okay?" she asked, knowing its going to be a little painful because of the small hair that was on Yugi's stomach. Yugi just nodded.
Carefully and expertly, she removed the tape with minimal pain, she examined the incision point, it was a little bruised but stappled together, "It looks good Yugi, are you in any pain right now?" she asked as she rebandaged the incision.
"Maybe a little…" he admitted shyly.
"Where exactly are you feeling pain at?" she asked so she can know what type of pain meds he needs. "Umm, my jaw kind of hurts and my face," he explained placing a pin cushioned hand on his cheek, and the incision hurts a little too."
She nodded, "Okay, I'll get with your nurse, Kaleigh and let her know to get you some pain medication, okay?" she said lowering his shirt to normal. He nodded; his face wasn't quite at ease which didn't go unnoticed. "Is there something else, Yugi?" Grandpa asked gaining the attention of the doctor once again.
"Please tell me everything going on, so I know how to help you better, Yugi. Is there more?" she asked.
"Well…" he began, blushing from the eyes on him, "I'm not sure if it's because I'm straight out of surgery but I have a numb feeling almost down to my knees." he explained the feeling in his legs to the doctor.
"Well, the bullet we removed from you was scarily close to your spinal cord, I think its just from it being swollen from the intrusion and me working in that area." She paused; however, I'll take a look just in case, are you able to roll onto your side for me?" she asked.
Carefully he rolled onto his side the best he could, Joey got up and was next to him in and instant to support him. The way Yugi attempted to roll over was more difficult than expected, Yugi put a hand on his incision site to keep it from popping open and to control the pain.
Dr. Padgett gently pressed around on Yugi's back as if feeling for something specific, she pressed on a certain area causing Yugi to gasp and flinch away, "Oh, did that hurt?" she asked concerned.
Yugi nodded, "Only a little." The doctor looked pensively at where Yugi's pain was. "Let me go get Kaleigh with that medication and I want to set up an MRI set up so I can see what is going on in there okay?"
"Okay, Yugi said straining to flip back onto his back, with the help of Joey, Dr. Padgett also held her hands in place for support as Yugi rolled himself back over.
"Alright, you get some rest Yugi, I'm going to go tell Kaleigh to set your pain medication and that MRI set up for you and I'll see you in a bit, okay?"
"Yugi nodded, "Okay, thank you."
She smiled, "You're welcome Yugi." She said as she walked from the room.
"You can't feel your legs Yuge?" Joey asked worriedly.
"Well, I can, sort of." Yugi explained, sitting up more, he then put his hands on his thighs and ran his hands down to his knees, only to there, I can't feel them from my knees and up."
"Can you move them at all?" Grandpa asked worriedly.
Yugi looked from his grandpa to his feet, he tried, his left foot moved more than his right one did, his right one only ticked just a little.
"I can, but not much." Yugi said also worried for himself,
"Don't worry, I'm sure its just swollen from the doctor doing surgery near such a delicate area of the body, let's not get worked up, okay?" Mrs. Gardner said calmingly.
An hour went by with everyone talking about the incident.
Joey and Tristan gotten into an argument about who was braver and were bickering making Yugi and Tea to giggle at their friends.
A knock came from the door, a girl with black curly hair and brown eyes came in with bags of liquid medication for Yugi's IV.
"Hello! I'm Kaleigh, I'm here to give you your medicine and to take you to your MRI with Dr. Padgett." She said kindly, and almost excitedly.
"Hello Kaleigh." Grandpa greeted. Yugi nodded.
Kaleigh walked over to a computer, scanned her RN badge and proceeded to type.
"Okay, and just to verify, can I get your full name and date of birth?"
Yugi blushed, "Yugi Motou, June 04, 2006."
Kaleigh smiled, "Thank you Yugi!"
Yugi couldn't tell if this was her normal personality, but it wasn't till then he noticed a Dark Magician Girl pin on her lanyard holding her badge, she was fan girling professionally causing Yugi to smile a little.
"You don't have any allergies to medications?" Kaleigh asked.
"Not to medications, no." Yugi said.
Kaleigh smiled and nodded, she cut off flow of the saline bag that was running out, untwisted it from the tube that was running into Yugi's hand and replaced it with the medication. "This will probably feel a little cold going in, but it shouldn't hurt, okay?"
Yugi nodded again, "Alright, I'm ready."
Kaleigh administered the medication. "There you go. You should feel better in a couple of minutes." She said. "Now let's get you to the MRI. Dr. Padgett said you were feeling numbness in your legs, do you feel comfortable trying to move yourself to a wheelchair?" she asked softly?
Yugi hesitated before nodding. "I can try."
Kaleigh nodded, "I'll be right here to help if you need me." She said encouragingly.
"I can help too." Joey said standing up, he walked to the other side of the nurse.
"Thank you, Joey." Yugi said bracing himself to stand up.
Yugi put one unsure foot on the ground, still hanging on to the bed.
"Don't worry buddy, we gotcha." Joey comforted, he had a hand on Yugi's arm and one at the small of his back, same as the nurse. "Thank you." Yugi said, putting most of his weight on his first foot, then the other following. Steadily Yugi took a successful step then another toward the wheelchair, taking another step Yugi stumbled slightly, the nurse and Joey securing their hold on him, "Sorry, I'm okay!" Yugi reassured quickly, making it to the chair and twisting himself in a sitting position.
"Thank you both for the help." Yugi said calmly, relaxing in the chair, he felt a little stiff.
"Anytime buddy." Joey said with a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You're welcome, Yugi. You ready to go?" Kaleigh asked before unlocking the wheelchair locks.
Yugi gave her a nod, "I'm ready."
Kaleigh nodded, "You all are welcome to wait here, he shouldn't be longer than 30 minutes." Kaleigh explained as she wheeled Yugi out of the room.
"Man, that was hard to watch." Tristan said sadly.
"Yeah, I hope he's going to be alright. He's been through enough already." Tea said from the chair.
"Don't worry kids, Yugi has been through a lot and has always come out stronger than before. This time he'll just need a little help and patience and he'll be just fine." Grandpa reassured the teens.
"Dr. Motou is right, he needs you all more than ever. I'll do what I can to help also if you should need me." Mrs. Gardner said placing a hand on the older man's shoulder.
He patted her hand as a thank you.
"We will just have to wait to see what the MRI says and go from there." Grandpa said.
Everyone sat down and waited for Yugi and the nurse to come back with the results.