That entire morning was pure torture for Serena. Having been pampered her entire life she never had to dirty her hands, or do any sort of manual work, except for her business and all she did there was type on the computer and make calls. She rarely did anything else. So she just didn't know how these chores were supposed to be done, but she did the best she could. She scrubbed clean the sinks, tub, and toilet. She cleaned the dishes, fed the dogs, and washed clothes on the oldest looking washing machine ever. She might as well wash the clothes by hand for all the good it did. She also had to cut logs, which turned out to be quite an adventure. She pulled out the chainsaw. After finally getting it to start, the thing went wild and all she could do was hold on for her life as she tired to direct the chain saw so that it actually hit the logs. She tore the head off the scarecrow in the process. Along with all of these were other chores. When all four boys came home from school that evening they found Serena sitting on the couch with a blank expressionless look on her face. Her eyes were glazed over and her mouth hung open.
"She needs food!" Mokuba said as he aimed a grape at her mouth and threw it. "This is fun." He commented as the other three watched.
"Hey guys." Seto said walking through the door. "What's going on here?" Seto asked pointing to the responseless Serena.
"Nothing, we're ok. We're fine, how about you?" Yami asked.
"No, no, no what's wrong with her!" Seto asked heading over to her.
"She's been like that for an hour now!" Joey said as Seto knelt in front of her. He waved his hand on front of her eyes.
"She's getting better though." Yugi commented.
"Better?" Seto asked incredulous.
"Yeah, she's not going bu, bu, bu, bu, bu." Joey said imitating the noise she was making when they walked in the door.
"I liked it when she was going bu, bu, bu, bu," Mokuba said grinning.
"Why did she do that?" Seto asked looking at Joey.
"She destroyed the scarecrow, Seto. She ripped the suckers head off." Joey said leafing through a magazine.
Seto turned his attention back to Serena as he waved his hand in front of her face again.
"Kanna, what's for dinner?" he asked her. Serena's eyes never moved as she once again began to mutter bu, bu, bu, bu. Mokuba looked at his older brother happily. "See, it's funny!"
"Ok," Seto said standing up. "I'll take care of this." He said as he scooped her up bridal style.
"Can we just trade her in for a new one?" Yugi asked as Seto headed toward the door.
"Naw, she's be ok." He said as he opened the door. He then carried her outside and toward the water barrel that was at the end of the porch. Because of all the rain from the previous night, the barrel was completely filled with cold rain water. Seto brought her over and placed her feet first into the barrel. Serena came up out of the water, sputtering water and wiping hair out of her face. Seto leaned on the side of the barrel and watched her with a smile.
"Feel better?" he asked once she resurfaced.
"I don't belong here!" Serena proclaimed in answer to his question. "I feel it. Don't you think I feel it? I can't do any of these vile things and I wouldn't want to. My life is like death, my children are the spawn of hell and you're the devil himself. Oh man!" she said dramatically as she let her face fall back into the water with a splash. Seto had to work hard to restrain his laughter as he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her face out of the water.
"Baby! We like you!" he consoled. He then let her head drop back in the water and left.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"She's ok. She's doing the dishes." Joey reported as he entered the living room. Serena had eventually dragged herself out of the water barrel and started attempting to fix dinner without a word. Seto nodded his approval as he continued to tinker with a new type of duel disk.
"Seto," Mokuba ventured after a minute. "Do you think she'll figure out that we are tricking her and leave?"
"Not if we don't blow it." Seto said casting a glance toward the kitchen where Serena was. Serena suddenly entered into the living room and started opening drawers. She would rummage through the contents and then shut it and proceed to the next one. Seto exchanged confused glances with his brothers as he got up off the couch.
"Honey, what are you doing?" he asked as she continued to rifle through papers.
"Looking for memorabilia, scrapbooks, photos, memories of our past together." She answered as she bent down to look in the lower cabinets.
"Do we, or do we not posses these things?" she asked him standing back up and looking him square in the eye. She held his gaze for a minute before turning to search another room. Seto followed with a thoughtful expression on his face. Serena entered Seto's room and began to look in his closet. Seto followed her in and she turned to look at him.
"Well, a lot of things are still in boxes from the move and I don't really know where they would be." Seto said buying time to think as he crossed his arms and looked at her. Serena stared at his stance in the closet and she had a flashback. A flashback of Seto standing in a closet in that same position, except this closet was bigger. Bigger and more decorated, as if it belonged to a rich girl.
"The closet." She said suddenly. "And you." She finished as she pointed to him. Seto ran his eyes over the closet and then looked back at Serena as if she had lost her mind.
"That's right, this is me, and I'm standing in front of the closet." He said slowly. Serena shook her head as the image in her mind disappeared.
"Something's familiar." She said as a small smile spread over her lips. Seto thought fast as to how to cover up her obvious remembrance of when he was in her closet on the yacht.
"you got it." He said. "We used to do it, in the closet." He finished. 'That will get her mind off of that.' He thought proudly to himself. 'She hates it when I make sexual innuendoes.'
"Oh stop with the sex stories!" she replied hotly as crossed her arms and turned to leave.
"See, now you're just getting grumpy." Seto said taking her by the arm. "Now I want you to go in here," he said taking her to the bathroom and pushing her in. "Just take a bath and…guys! Get the turtle out of the bathtub! And I'll look for the pictures first thing in the morning, good night, honey." He said quickly closing the door not allowing her a chance to talk back. Later that night, Seto got up and quietly grabbed his key from the table. He walked past Serena's sleeping form on the couch. He looked back at her as he grabbed the manila envelope that the doctors had given him and quickly sneaked out of the house and into his truck.
