Chapter Sixteen- Without

-Yugi-

I don't know what's going on. It feels so weird. I remember yelling at Yami, letting out all my pent up aggression at him. Wait, Joey was there too. He looked really shocked at what I was saying and then he told me to move. Move to where? China? It's not like I was in danger or anything.

I slowly started opening my eyes and felt the light pain on the back of my elbows and head. Wait. There were bright lights and the others were yelling at us to get out of the way.

"Oh, no," I heard Tea whisper. I finally did open my eyes, which stung slightly from the pain. I sat up on my own to see my surroundings. I was sitting on the pavement on the other side of the street. Other than some bruises on my arms, I was basically alright. I looked into the street and saw all my friends standing around something. I could here some things but mainly a siren in the distant background.

"... call an ambulance..."

"... is the other boy..."

"... how could this happen..."

I finally stood up, blinking my eyes a couple times to see better, "Yami? Guys?" I staggered over to the group when Tea saw me.

"Yugi," she looked as though she was in a trance. "Thank God you're okay!" she ran over to me and wrapped her arms around me. I could feel her warm tears falling onto my neck and shoulder.

"Tea," I said urgently, "What happened? How'd I get over there? Why was I out cold?" I just blurted out questions as they came to me. I didn't like not knowing what was going on here.

Tea looked crestfallen, and when she finally thought of what to say, she stumbled over the words, "Yugi, when you.. were arguing with Yami, we were trying t-to tell you that a car was c-coming towards y-you." Tears ran freely down her face as she tried to continue.

"So... I got hit?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"N-no, Yugi. You ju-just got a few scratches on the sidewalk." Tea took a deep breath here, as I could tell, this was the hardest part for her to say. "I don't think you sh-should see this, b-but I can't say this because I d-don't want to accept it m-myself." She took my hand in hers and led me to the rest of the gang. I saw the car that must have been the one that came toward us because it had a dent in the front of it.

"Yugi," Yami started, but Tea cut him off.

"H-here," she sobbed. I took a few steps forward and my jaw dropped in shock.

Joey lay in front of me, covered in blood around his mid-section. He had several cuts and bruises on his arms and legs that I could see.

I couldn't believe this had happened. Joey, how could you? How can you be dead? It's not fair! My best friend, and the last moments we had together were with me arguing and yelling. Joey... how could you do this to me?

As I had been thinking an ambulance from the nearest hospital arrived and hurried to Joey's side. A nurse checked for vital signs of life. What's the point, he's dead! There I said it! Dead! He was so annoyed by my ranting that he simply wouldn't deal with them anymore.

Tea started shaking my arm, "Yugi, come on!"

"What for," I asked with apathy hanging on every word.

Yami jumped in now, "The doctors say he's just barely alive. He may make it Yugi! Come on, we're going to the hospital." Before I could object, Yami pulled me onto the ambulance and we were whisked away to the hospital and I couldn't help feeling that the closer we got to our destination the closer Joey was getting to death's door.

-Normal-

Yugi and Yami hurried in with the doctors and Joey's nearly lifeless body. "I'm sorry boys, but you'll have to wait here." The head nurse shooed them to the waiting room.

Yami was outraged, "He's our friend! We aren't leaving his side!"

The nurse sighed, "I'm sorry but no one is allowed in, especially not non-family members." With that she walked away to the E.R.

Yugi sullenly sat down on one of the chairs, looking only at his feet. He kicked his feet back and forth in a sort of trance. Yami on the other hand, paced the room a million times, always checking the time, as though the time that Joey would last would show on the clock. Whenever a new doctor or nurse entered from the emergency room, Yami jumped over to them and asked automatically what was going on with Joey.

Yami had just asked the sixth doctor when the rest of the gang showed up in the waiting room.

"S-so, what's h-happening?" Tea was still overcome with grief from the accident.

Yami shook his head, "Either none of the doctors attending Joey are coming out, or they're keeping us out of the loop on purpose. I don't know what Joey's going through yet, but... if he's lasted this long..." The spirit of the pharaoh left the sentence unfinished and the others understood that Joey was caught in between life and death, fighting to be with his friends.

The guys sat down, Tea next to Yugi, gripping onto the tiny boy's hand like it was her only lifeline. Duke sat across from them and played with his hair and die earring. Tristan, not having long enough hair, body piercing or the want to hold somebody's hand, sat looking all over the room, his head moving like an owl's, moving at each sound he heard, completely unnerved. Ryou, who was normally quiet and outspoken, curled up into a ball on one of the seats, every once in awhile muttering something to himself. Yami continued his pacing of the waiting room.

The group of teens and the few thousand year old ruler waited in the room for half an hour without talking to each other.

-Tea-

Joey. I don't understand why this had to happen. Why you? You were always there for all of us to boost our confidence. Even if you were the one that needed it the most.

Joey and Odion were dueling on the Battle Ship. Serenity and all the others just saw Odion's monster eat Joey's Insect Queen and Serenity wasn't able to take it.

"My brother. I can't watch! It's just too much!" Serenity began to run away from the duel site when her brother called her back.

"Serenity, come back! Don't leave me now! I needja. I can't get through dis duel witout you here! You're my biggest inspiration Serenity."

"Do you mean that?"

"Absolutely! Where do you think I get all my courage from?" Joey smiled as he said this and his sister stayed to give him courage like she always had.

What will Serenity say when she finds out what happened? I don't know if she can accept it. And neither could I.

-Tristan-

Click

I turned to see a stapler being used by one of the nurses. Why don't they do something useful and help save my pal, or at least tell us what's going on in there!

Creek

I snapped my neck to see a door open behind us. Some patients were coming out. Don't panic man. Soon, he's gonna come out of those doors, when we feel our worst and say something like, 'you guys worried 'bout me? come 'on, ya should know me betta den dat!' Come on, Joey, get out of that bed.

-Ryou-

Joey, how'd you get into this mess. You were the first person I really felt like I could trust, someone that I could talk to about Bakura. Why did you have to get hit by that car? I know you couldn't just let Yugi get hit, but there must have been some way to avoid this. You don't know how good I felt when someone knew, really knew not just through the grapevine, that Bakura beat me, especially since Joey's father beat him too. I thought we could help each other and support each other. But I guess that wasn't meant to be.

-Duke-

I watched irritatedly as Tea breathed heavily, Tristan was so high-strung, Yami couldn't sit down, and Yugi and Ryou were cut off from the world. I can't stand this silence. We were all losing someone here, but that didn't mean that we could set ourselves in our own deluded world. I tried that when I didn't think that Industrial Illusions could produce my game and it didn't work then. It won't work now.

"Would you guys snap the hell out of it?!"

-Normal-

Yami stopped pacing Tea stopped hyperventilating, and Tristan snapped his head over to me. Yugi and Ryou made no movement to look at me, though.

"Look at you guys! For one thing, we don't even know if he's dead yet! Don't you start your morning yet!" Duke yelled not being able to take the silence.

Yami turned his eyes downcast, "Duke, they never said he would be, for sure, alright. He could be dying right now, and we can't help that."

"Yes, but if we can't do anything to stop this now, then moping around won't do anything either!" Duke was losing his cool. Neither Yugi nor Ryou were looking at him and he was getting frustrated. "Will you two snap out of it?!"

Slap

Duke's hand hit Ryou's face, at least the part that was showing. Ryou looked up at Duke to see the tears he was holding back. This was just as hard for Duke as it was for them all. They knew what they were feeling right now, all the pain that they might be losing their best friend. "Duke's right," the albino whispered, "Keeping what we feel inside or trying to disguise it won't do us any good. We have to talk."

Duke sat back down in his seat across from Tea and, for the first time there, Yami sat down on the other side of Yugi. "I think," Duke said pointing to Yami and Yugi, "that you two need to talk to each other first."

Yugi led his yami to the other side of the room that was deserted. He waited to get his thoughts together before talking. "Yami," he started, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for yelling at you. You wouldn't have known what was bugging me because I didn't tell you. The truth is, I really hated it when you were the one winning the duels. It felt like you didn't trust me to make the right choices."

"Yugi," Yami interrupted, "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I don't ever want to take the risk of losing you. You've become such an important person to me now, someone who inspires me. I don't want to lose that."

The younger tri-haired boy started to cry, "It's not that I don't know that, I do. It's just right now, I want to start being independent, or at least a little." Yugi sobbed lightly into Yami's shoulder and the two sat there for a few more minutes, Yugi crying and Yami patting his back.

When Yugi calmed down, the boys went back to their friends.

"…when he was about to duel Odion and his cards almost got blown away?" Duke was saying.

Tea managed a slight laugh at that memory and Ryou was uncurled from his chair. The brunette looked at the pair with still sad eyes, "Did you work everything out?" Yami and Yugi nodded before sitting down next to Tea. "I remember when Joey was just starting out dueling. He was so determined to prove himself, it looked like he'd just make a fool of himself like at school. But he stood his ground."

"Yeah," reminisced Yugi, "During the duel with Mai, he was able to find out how she knew what cards she played. That was brilliant." The group of teens were silent again as they thought of Joey's past. All the duels he won, the opponents he beat and the friends and rivals he made. If Joey did die, his life would not have been wasted.

A nurse stepped into the waiting room looking exhausted, "Does anyone here know a Joseph Wheeler?" Immediately the six teens rushed to her side asking her a thousand questions at a time. "Calm down. We haven't been able to reach his parents, do you know where they'd be."

Tristan answered her, "His folks are divorced and his dad's an all-time drunk. His mom's living in America with his sister so there's no real hope getting a hold of any of them."

"That's a shame. I'm sure they'd have wanted to say goodbye to him."

"What?!" Again they all started questioning her, not wanting to believe this may be the last time they ever see their friend alive.

Yami pushed them back and asked as calmly as he could under the circumstances, "Could we please see him right now?"

"I suppose, since you seem to be the only people close enough who care about him," the nurse reluctantly said, "Come with me." She began to lead them to Joey.

Yami looked behind to the rest of the group, "Let's go." He said hoarsely.

The trip through the E.R. was a very quiet one, as they passed by each room they saw many other people whose lives may also have been hanging between life and death. With each one they saw, they wished that their friend still had a chance to live. "He's here." The nurse spoke apathetically.

Slowly they all entered the room. Joey, who looked barely alive anymore lay on the bed, I.V.s attached to his arms and bandages covering his stomach. Yugi couldn't look at Joey much longer, it looked like he was hanging from a mere thread from death. He looked hard at his eyes, which were closed, not letting anyone see the dark brown orbs that always showed such courage. "I-I can't do this." Yugi was about to cry again when a small constricted laugh broke the tension.

"Keh, look who's here," The blonde coughed some more and opened one eye to see his friends, "De-keh keh- gang's all h-here." He raised his hand to wave them closer but retracted it swiftly, his arm had been badly damaged on the impact.

The doctor nodded them over to Joey, "I'll leave you alone now." He turned and left the room.

Click.

"Joey," Tristan murmured before going to his best pal's side. I can't stand to see him like this. He was always so full of energy, it isn't right that he's confined to a bed.

"Ah, man. What's up wit you?" Joey wheezed, "Ya look like ya got hit by a..." he drifted off at his own comment, reality sinking in. "Neva mind."

The rest of the gang didn't know what to say. It wasn't like they had to do this everyday, and they wouldn't want to say the wrong thing or else it would haunt them all for the rest of their lives. Five minutes passed with all of them trying to say something but none of them managing anything. "Kehk-hak, don't all jump at da same time," Joey said, lightening the mood.

"But Joey," Yugi started, "Well w-we..." he stuttered, not sure how to say what he was thinking.

"Hey Yuge," The blonde boy shrugged, "I know what's goin' on. But dat doesn't mean I'm gonna be scar'd like a baby. I'm gonna face dis like a man." He tried to flex his muscles to prove it, but was still in pain so he couldn't.

Ryou attempted a chuckle, "That is what you'd say Joey."

"Yeah," coughed Joey, "Dat's wha' I'm talkin 'bout!" A bout of coughing overcame him and when he stopped his face looked extra pale. "I-I know dat, well, you probably won't get da chance ta talk ta me again, but- coughcough- I really think dat Yugi an' I got sometin ta talk about." A slight blush crept up on his face as he said this.

The others looked like they were just waiting for a reason to get away because they made their slow way out. Yami looked back before leaving Yugi and Joey alone.

"So Yuge," Joey started, "Have you an' Yami made up now? I mean, really." He said seriously.

Yugi stared at Joey for a second before breaking down and crying.

"Huh, uh Yuge. I didn't tink it was dat bad of a question." Joey was confused.

Yugi kept crying though, "It's just that, y-you, you're going to... and you're asking about me and if e-everyt-thing is okay w-with me."

"Well duh, man," The blonde said, "I mean, it's not like I'm gonna have any- coughcough- other chance to know if- kerfkerf- you g-guys made up." He coughed harder, "Don' worry bout me. I don't havta deal with this much longa. Jus talk fast."

"Well, Yami and I... we talked earlier and I decided he should stay... and Yami, he agreed that he'd let me have some of my independence." Yugi recapped.

"Heh, dat's great. Sounds like everyting's alright now." Joey smiled. He breathed a sigh of relief as he rested his head.

"No Joey! How can you say that when you're... when you're-" Yugi's voice trailed off again.

"Doncha think dis is hard fer me too," Yugi's best friend asked, "Fer me ta just stop livin' before I start? It's not easy pickens fer me. I-I'm just glad dat I had just a great friend like you ta at least get me on da right track. Tell sis, I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye myself." His eyes pleaded to Yugi before lay down any energy he had before gone.

"Joey, I'm sorry... for giving you such a hard time... when you were trying to help me."

"Don' worry pal. I- cough- neva held it against ya." with that Joey took his last breath.

The door opened and Yugi exited to see his friends. They looked expectantly at their pal, hoping that all this was a dream. "H-he's gone, guys."