"Today's the day! I can't wait," Joey smiled excitedly.
"I know. Serenity's getting her bandages off today," Téa said as she and her friends stepped off of the hospital elevator.
"Hello, Joseph," Elizabeth smiled at her son. "And hello, everyone. It's good of you to come."
"Hi, Mrs. Wheeler," replied Yugi. "We all wanted to be here for both Joey and Serenity."
"So did I," echoed another voice from the opposite hallway.
"Hi, Mokuba," Tristan greeted the younger boy, who was carrying a small bouquet of flowers.
"You think Serenity will like these, Joey?" Mokuba asked.
"Aargh! Flowers! I knew I forgot something!" Joey groaned and smacked himself on the forehead with his open palm.
"Don't worry about it, Joey," said Téa. "I think Serenity will be happy just to have you with her."
"Hello. I don't believe we've met," Elizabeth smiled at the dark-haired boy. "I'm Serenity's mother."
"Hello, Mrs. Wheeler. I'm Mokuba Kaiba." The boy shook Elizabeth's hand.
"It was very nice of you to bring Serenity flowers," Elizabeth smiled, admiring the bouquet of colorful wildflowers in Mokuba's hand. "How did you know that Serenity liked daisies?"
"Joey told me," Mokuba said.
"Joey, how come your dad isn't here?" asked Téa, looking around the waiting area. "Doesn't he want to be here when Serenity gets her bandages off?"
"Uh, he had to go outta town on business," Joey muttered, glancing down at the floor. "But he wanted to be here…really, he did."
But both Elizabeth and Joey knew that that was a lie. The night before, Joey had yelled at his father for not even coming to the hospital to see Serenity.
"Serenity needs ya', Dad!" Joey shouted. "It don't matter if you're really her dad or not, you are her dad!"
"Really her dad…?" Alex Wheeler's eyes grew wide with shock. "Who told you?"
"Ma did," Joey replied. "She also told me about what happened between the two of you. And how you were the one who split me and Serenity up!"
"Oh, she did, did she?" Alex sneered sarcastically as headed for the door.
"Hey, wait a minute! Where are you going, Dad?" Joey grabbed his father's arm.
"Out," Alex replied. "I don't know when I'll be back."
"You're going out to get drunk again, aren't ya'?" Joey shot back. "Man, it all makes sense now. All these years when the going got tough, you'd just run off and disappear for a few hours…days, even, and go get plastered, while I had to sit at home alone wonderin' where you were and if you'd ever come back!"
"But at least I did come back. Unlike your mother," Alex countered. "Now take your hands off of me."
"At least Ma had a good reason for leavin'! She was trying to protect Serenity because you couldn't deal with the fact that she wasn't your daughter!"
"You're just about to cross over the line, son. Now let go of my arm," Alex repeated with a dangerous edge in his voice.
But Joey's grip grew tighter. "No! I'm not lettin' go of you unless you promise me that you're gonna go see Serenity in the hospital!"
Joey lightly touched a forelock of his lanky blond hair to make sure it was still covering the cut over his eye from where his father had hit him. And despite Joey's stand, his father had left. Joey had no idea when he'd be back, but the boy was used to his father's disappearances. After all, they were the reason why Joey had learned how to fend for himself on the streets.
"Oh, that's too bad," said Téa.
"Seto wanted to be here too," said Mokuba. "But he…"
"Don't lie, Mokuba," rasped a low voice from the direction of the elevator.
Mokuba ran up to his brother. "Seto! What are you doing here?"
"You weren't at breakfast this morning. And when I asked the servants where you had gone, they told me that you had gone to the hospital. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out the reason why."
"Seto, Serenity's getting her bandages off today," Mokuba told his older brother. "And I wanted to be here when she did."
"Hello. I don't believe we've met," Elizabeth smiled in Seto's direction.
"This is Serenity's mom," Mokuba informed his brother. "Mrs. Wheeler."
At the mention of Elizabeth's name, Seto's unsmiling face hardened. "Mrs. Wheeler? Elizabeth Wheeler?"
"That's right," Elizabeth replied.
Seto stared angrily at the woman he held responsible for his mother's death. "Mrs. Wheeler, did you know a man by the name of Hiro Kirigawa?"
"Hiro…? Elizabeth gasped as her eyes met the boy's ice blue ones. "Oh my God." To everyone's amazement, Elizabeth reached up and lightly touched Seto's cheek. "You're Hiro's son, aren't you? I should have known. You look just like him."
Seto flinched in disgust at Elizabeth's touch. "Don't touch me."
"I'm so sorry about your parents, Seto," Elizabeth continued, her voice gentle. "I knew your father. He and I were friends."
It had been so long since any adult, or anyone else for that matter, had expressed sympathy for Seto, that for an instant the boy felt the protective wall of coldness around him crumble. But then his father's – his adoptive father's – words came floating back.
Trust no one. If anyone is trying to be nice to you, it means that they want something from you. They don't really give a damn about you. No one does.
Gozaburou had taught him well.
"You were more than friends," Seto said accusingly, his voice as cold as his ice blue eyes. "You ruined my parents' marriage. You destroyed my family."
"Hey, you can't talk to my ma like that!" Joey grabbed Seto by the shoulder and spun him around, ready to smash his fist into his rival's face.
"No, Joseph. Let him go," Elizabeth ordered. "He has every right to be angry with me."
"Wha…?" Joey was stunned by his mother's request.
"Seto," Elizabeth said gently, "both your father and I never meant for this to happen. We both agreed that it was a huge mistake. It happened only once, and I swear to you that it never happened again."
"Your word means nothing to me," Seto shot back. "Why should I believe the woman who seduced my father and destroyed my parents' happiness? We were happy…everything was happy until you came along and destroyed everything!"
"I'm sorry, Seto," Elizabeth said, tears forming in her eyes. "We never meant to hurt anyone. Or at least your father didn't. He never wanted to hurt you. He loved you a lot."
"Don't patronize me! I'm not a child!" Seto shouted. He wanted to hurt her, make her suffer the same way he had suffered when he had heard his parents fighting all the time. "You're a lying, disgusting, filthy who…"
"No one calls my mom that and lives, Kaiba!" Joey lunged for Seto, but had to be forcibly restrained by both Tristan and Yugi.
"Seto, if you want to hate me, go right on ahead. But don't hate Serenity. Don't make her suffer for my mistakes," Elizabeth pleaded. "She's the innocent one in all this. She's your sister, Seto."
"I don't want anything to do with you! And I don't ever want to see your face again as long as I live!" Seto turned and headed for the elevator. "Come on, Mokuba. We're going home."
"You'd better run, you bastard, because when I catch up with you, I'm gonna kill you for what you just called my mom, you sonofabitch!" Joey shouted as he tried to break free of Yugi's and Tristan's grip.
"Seto, wait!" Mokuba dashed down the hallway. "Don't you want to see Serenity?"
"Mokuba, you're too young to understand all this. Come home with me," Kaiba said, extending his hand to his younger brother.
"No. I wanna see Serenity! She's our sister, Seto! And we've gotta be there for her when she gets her bandages off," Mokuba insisted stubbornly.
Seto knelt down next to his brother. "Mokuba, you weren't there. You weren't around when Mom and Dad were fighting all the time. You didn't fall asleep listening to Mom and Dad argue and wondering if they were going to split up. You didn't stay up late crying because you were afraid that you weren't going to have a family when you woke up."
"But we do have a family, Seto," said Mokuba, placing his arms around his older brother's neck. "I have you. And now we have a sister. Joey's mom is right. Even though you're mad at Mrs. Wheeler, Serenity didn't do anything wrong. She's really nice, Seto. I promised Serenity that I'd teach her how to play Duel Monsters when she could see again."
"Fine. If you want to stay, then that's up to you." Seto pulled himself free from his brother's embrace. "But I'm not staying here."
"Seto, wait!" Mokuba ran after his brother, but the elevator closed in his face.
"Let me go! Let me go!" cried Joey as he tried desperately to break free of his friends' grasp. "I'm gonna wipe up the floor with that fuc…"
"Joseph, watch your language!" Elizabeth sharply remonstrated her son. "Especially in front of the younger boy." She pointed to the dejected-looking Mokuba, who had just appeared in the doorway of the waiting room.
"Ma, you heard what that creep called you!" Joey said incredulously.
"Seto didn't mean it, Joey," Mokuba explained. "He's upset. He said that he's mad at your mom because she made our parents fight."
Elizabeth knelt down next to the boy. "Mokuba, I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents. And I'm sorry that I was the one that made them fight. Your father and I never meant to cause both you and your brother such pain."
"Thanks, Mrs. Wheeler. Even though Seto says you're bad, I don't think so."
Elizabeth smiled and gave the boy a quick hug. "Thank you, Mokuba. That's very nice of you."
A nurse appeared in the doorway. "Mrs. Wheeler, the doctor is ready to remove your daughter's bandages now."
"Come on, everyone. This is the moment we've all been waiting for," said Tristan, loosening his grip on Joey. "We said we were all going be there for Serenity, so let's go."
To be continued…
