(Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for my ideas...which aren't that great in the first place... oO.)
(a/n: I love how most of you are taking the Joey/Tea thing. It's weird, I know, but shall all be explained... hopefully...Heh... Major thanks to everyone who reviewed! From what I can see, this story is appealing to older audiences, which I like. Now, I have to start writing like a mature and sane person...how difficult.... By the way, I'm an innocent arts student -I know little to nothing about medicine, so please be gentle! If any of you are more knowledgeable than me, please grant me some tips in your review. )
Two: Dr. Wheeler
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Her patient was gawking at her as if she were green. No, not just green. Green with cat ears and red eyes.
She tried not to let her smile waver although for a second it did.
"Well," she vociferated, her tone more breathy than commanding. "Why don't you tell me the problem?"
"You know what the problem is," the irate CEO growled. "Just get this over with. I'm not paying you for talking."
Inwardly, she sighed.
At three in the morning, she had been rudely awakened by a call from a representative of Kaiba Corporation. The man seemed like he was in hysterics and literally begged her to free up her schedule so that she could have a look at none other than Seto Kaiba. He was skimpy on the details, merely eluding to bouts of coughing.
To her surprise, everything regarding Kaiba's appointment was outrageously secretive. He had come in through the back, the halls had to be cleared of any patients and she was forced to free up her entire morning, just for this deranged, paranoid man. She hadn't liked it, especially after running into a pallid and trembling Nurse Tachibana emerging from the patient's designated room.
Now that she was standing in front of Seto Kaiba, clipboard in hand and stethoscope around her neck, she found the situation more surreal than she had imagined it to be. Of course she was shocked by being asked to look at Seto Kaiba, but it had happened so rapidly that the shock barely had time to settle in.
It was settling in quite nicely now.
He still remained the same arrogant jackass she had grown to know, but certainly not love. His eyes carried their same shiver inducing blueness and his hair still screamed for a haircut, bangs falling to those eyes and bringing up the thought about how his forehead probably looked like. Perhaps he was hiding something underneath that mop of chestnut hair. She felt like smirking but controlled herself.
As for his attire, he had settled on more conservative clothing when compared to his outrageously designer high school days. His broad shoulders were covered by a black suit jacket with a matching shirt and pants. She would have thought he was going to a funeral had it not been for the shockingly red tie around his neck, which seemed to add to the morbid style; a noose around his neck, streaming blood, cut throat. However, despite her wanting to be horrified by it, it enticed her. Suddenly, she wanted to see what was underneath that shirt, and when realizing that any moment she would know, her pulse increased.
She took in a deep breath, reminding herself that she was a professional. Seto Kaiba or not, he was still a patient. Like those corpses she had to operate on in med school. She winced at the memory but found the comparison quite accurate. The way Mr. Kaiba acted, he seemed like one of the living dead.
"It says here that you've been coughing a lot," she said, reading off of the clipboard. She raised her eyes to his and was greeted with an icy glare.
"You're a smart one."
"Our records also show that you haven't had a physical examination since July 7th, 1993."
"Maybe your records should be burned."
"Mr. Kaiba..." She slipped off her glasses and rubbed the lenses with the fabric of her coat before putting them back on. "I would like to give you a physical examination, if I may. You may be affected by something more serious -sometimes fatal diseases show no visible sign of degenerating the body."
Except for the fact that you look like you're one of the living dead...The pallid skin was definitely not a good sign.
"Fine. Just hurry up. I have a company to run."
Implicitly, she smiled. He really hadn't changed over the past twelve years.
"By the way, I'm Dr. Serenity Wheeler," she introduced, holding out her right hand. The patient made no effort to even spare a glance at it. Nervously, she pulled her hand back, all the while seething inside.
The nerve of that man! her inner self hissed, slowly transforming into attack mode. However, Serenity suppressed her inner self with a few quick breaths and told herself that she was a professional. This wasn't her first time dealing with a hostile patient...although this was her first time dealing with a bastardly, Joey-hating, money-throwing, selfish CEO.
"Are you going to--"
"No," he answered blatantly, not even bothering to listen to her question.
"Mr. Kaiba--"
"No."
"In order to--"
"No."
"Properly examine--"
"No."
Her little fists balled into potential weapons of mass destruction. However, she would keep them under wraps until she knew they were necessary.
Putting the ear pieces of her stethoscope on, Serenity, for the first time in a while, felt hesitant about the simple task of hearing the patient's heartbeat. She was about to ask him to take his jacket and shirt off but was surprised that he did it willingly before she vociferated the question.
"Deep breaths," she ordered, although felt stupid afterward. As she pressed the cold disk to his lean chest and listened to what should have been the rhythmic pulse of his heartbeat, she could also feel him looking at her in such a disdainful way that it seemed like he was boring holes into her. However, her discomfort quickly dissolved when she realized that his pulse was faster than it should have been, breaking into the definition of tachycardia1. After checking his back and discovering the same thing, she pulled away and glanced at him.
"Mr. Kaiba, have you been noticing any symptoms lately.. dizziness, shortness of breath...?" she asked, drawing away and returning the stethoscope to its position around her neck.
"No," he insisted. "I'm fine."
Like hell you are... her inner self thought, observing the rapid rise and fall of his chest. He was clearly having difficulty breathing; if she was smart, she would send him to the hospital right away. However, this was Seto Kaiba she was dealing with. She knew that she had to have hard core evidence that something serious was ailing him before he would take a step into a hospital.
She scribed down some notes onto her clipboard and proceeded with the rest of the tests. She was abnormally quiet, a shocking difference from her usual bantering when with a patient. She could sense that Kaiba was giving her the most loathing glare she would ever receive in her life, worse than one given by a reluctant nine-year-old forced into her office by his mother. Worse than someone in need of a blood test who happened to have a phobia of needles. Just worse.
The rest of the tests didn't fare any better than the first. His blood pressure was skyrocketing, she discovered a shockingly raw throat and when she pulled out the tongue blade, the pale reminiscent pinkness of blood was visible. She quickly checked his lymph nodes, using her fingers to apply a steady pressure and she felt the glands. Thankfully, they were normal sized. When she examined her lower abdomen, he had winced from her applying pressure. Her inquiries were answered with the same response.
"Is there anything you would like to tell me before I send you to do some other tests?" she asked, ticking off the boxes CBC & Differential, hemoglobin and reticulocyte count underneath the Hemotology heading and following with sections underneath General Chemistry.
"No."
"It's a good thing your brother brought you here. Your blood pressure is high for someone your age," she said, folding her arms. Kaiba slipped off the examination table, delivering her another one of his glares, and responded by putting on his shirt. "And I'm worried about your rapid heart rate."
"So what the hell am I supposed to do about it?"
"I recommend a healthier lifestyle. Less work, more exercise, and..." She turned her back to him to reach into a drawer and pull out several sheets. After scanning over them, she circled several groups and handed him the papers. "Follow this dietary list."
"So I'm done?"
"Well, not exactly..." She retrieved her clipboard, which was balancing precariously on the edge of the sink. Unclipping the white and turquoise sheet she had been scribing on previously, she handed it to him. "This is a Routine Requisition. Please take it to the lab next door after you've fasted for 24 hours; once your tests are done, I'll be able to give you a more in depth prognosis."
"I don't have time for this..."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba, but without these tests done, your checkup will be incomplete."
"Useless woman..." She could hear him mutter as he left the room, clenching the papers so tightly that they were most likely crumpled. Once he was out of sight, Serenity released a heavy sigh and crumbled herself against the wall.
Healthier lifestyle...like hell. She had clearly lied to him in fear of being the one to tell him that there was much more wrong with him. So much more.
Seated in her office, Serenity was mulling over Kaiba's results from the examination. The information in her mind and from books were giving her the same ominous result and in anger, she folded her arms and banged her head against the desk. She knew she was in for a challenge; however, for the first time in her practice, she didn't feel capable of it. Seto Kaiba was a strong man -if he would break from the potential bad news she would bear, she didn't know what she would do.
"Ren-bunny!"
Serenity cringed from the god-forsaken nickname but quickly plastered a fake smile on her face as she turned around to greet her brother.
"Big brother!" she chirped, her voice abnormally pitched high and seeping of what could only be defined as 'cuteness'. Her older brother punched her affectionately on the shoulder and in return, she giggled rather stupidly.
Here we go again... her inner self spat, disgusted by the routine. You'd think that after twenty-five years he would lay off... not that you're any better, Ren-bunny.
"How goes my lil' doctor?" Joey asked, taking a seat at Serenity's desk. Her office was rather small, mainly filled with books. Her bookcase was filled completely, books even laying on top of books until there was not a single visible space left. Now, her books lay in mountainous piles on the floor. When Joey sat down, he was nearly dwarfed by one of the piles.
Serenity shrugged, continuing to pack up her notes into her briefcase."Same old, same old," she said, smiling. If only Joey knew who her most recent patient had been today; however, a contract prevented her from saying anything. In a sense, although she was exhausted from the entirety of the examination, she felt saddened from what symptoms she had seen. After carefully going over her notes, she could only pinpoint Kaiba being ailed by either a severe virus, hemosiderosis or, god forbid, lung cancer.
She had a sudden impulse to ask Joey about Kaiba's life but knew she couldn't. Even the slightest question would raise suspicion. There was no way she would find out anything else about Kaiba until she got those results back from the laboratory.
"X-ray..." she muttered to herself, retrieving some papers from her briefcase and scribbling quickly on them.
"That doesn't sound good," Joey commented and Serenity started. Blushing, she shoved the papers back into her briefcase.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"You seem worried about this person," Joey observed, walking past Serenity and weaving his way through the book mine to grab her winter jacket, appropriately draped on yet another pile of hardcovers. "You normally don't mutter to yourself about patients."
"I've only been in practice for a year," she said, smiling nervously. "I haven't had to deal with any serious cases until now..."
"What about that woman... the one who went in labor when she was stuck in traffic?" Her brother shook his head. "God, if you hadn't been there..."
A sudden sadness washed over the usually gregarious and upbeat man and Serenity felt a part of it. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she offered him a sympathetic smile.
"If I can save a life, I will do anything," she whispered. After giving her brother a quick hug, Serenity slipped into her sky blue pea coat and followed up by twisting a thin black scarf around her neck with matching mittens. "Movie?"
"Yeah... Heh... something happy, 'kay?"
She nodded, smiling genuinely this time. She had to admit, she liked it when her brother depended on her for a change. It tended to annoy her when everyone assumed she was generally helpless, which was one of the reasons she had become a doctor. Med school had been a pain, but she worked her butt off in order to gain the highest GPA and become one of the most sought-after practitioners in the city. Truthfully, that hadn't been her intention at all -her goal was to work in a small clinic and that was exactly what she was doing. She refused the higher paying and larger clinics, fearing the stress that would come with it. Therefore, it amazed her that Kaiba Corporation had managed to find her. And that, ironically, stress came with it.
"Ren?"
Serenity snapped out of her thoughts to see her brother gazing at her, his honey brows furrowed and lips downcast.
"It's nothing," she said before Joey could ask anything else. Her response resulted in him being more unnerved.
"Ren, you usually tell me everything..."
"I can't tell you everything, Joey," she said, stopping suddenly. They had just exited the clinic and saw a familiar limousine pulling out. Joey cast Serenity an amazed look and she found herself surprised as well.
"Some big shot here?" he asked, perplexed.
"Maybe..."
If he had gone for the further tests, he had accomplished them fairly quickly. Serenity found herself frowning in disapproval and silently, for the first time, ill wished Seto Kaiba.
xox
Tachycardia: Abnormally fast heart beat, caused by the ventricular chambers (in your heart) beating too quickly.
(a/n: Let's see if anyone knows where the concept of Serenity's inner self comes from...? Uhm, sorry this chapter is so cruddy and short. Not to mention that 'Quick Edit' thing hates me and ruined my pretty formatting. I know it's hard to read something that's not visually appealing. Next chapter... uhh... when I'm motivated enough to write it!)