Chapter 2: "On my mind..."

Clarity Brown:

Actually Seto has great respect for Dr Garth... explained here (I had intended to wait a while but... hey might as well explain why he respects her and why she speaks the way she does to him.) Juno? Well... that's explained below, she's more then his secretary she's his (gasp) friend! And that of course gets a "snag" here. As for the swinging of fists? Well Seto is: tense, frustrated and realizes he loves Joey but can't accept it, I've seen Seto act really odd around Mokuba, whom he loves... why not Joey? I probably shouldn't have used such an obvious plot device... but I couldn't help it! :( I'm a bit of a novice I wrote most of this myself normally Angelo helps but he's got very little time lately...sigh

BTW: I'm a little down, Angelo got annoyed at me for the faked couples reviews on his fic Two Sides To Every Story (Power rangers ninja storm, I got him started on the slash in it coz I drooled over all the human guys in it... except for Lothar) so cheer me up and review.

Chapter 2: "Believe, accept, move on"

11 years ago

Goldenvale Academy was a prestigious private school for wealthy children. Little Seto was playing with his chess set. He'd still never been beaten... a girl sauntered up to him and looked at the board. "Gee" she said. "That looks like fun"

"Its horribly complicated you wouldn't understand" he sniffed

The girl cocked her head to one side. "You're Seto Kaiba" she commented

"You're nosy" he replied coldly

"No I'm Juno" she smiled. "Juno Athena! You're in my class" he looked at her. "I doubt it I've been moved up twice"

"I've been moved up twice too!" she exclaimed. "What a co-inky-dink!"

"You're annoying me...go away," he said.

"Blunt" she said.

"I always am now go find the decimal equation of pi" he snipped

"Oh that's impossible the digits stretch into infinity" she said. That caught him off guard. "Course, you must've known that and - " her pale brow crinkled. "Merely been endeavouring to perplex and dissuade me from progressing in my efforts at a cultured forthcoming conversation - - - beanpole"

Seto leapt up angrily. "What did you call me?"

"Beanpole" she said as she poked him in the ribs. "You're a stretched out beanpole with all angles!" she grinned again and turned around, skipping away... Seto stared after her for a moment and then sat back down.

"Seto!" Seto jolted awake. Juno was sitting across from him with her legs crossed in a sultry manner. "It's not like you to doze off. God knows you're virtually an insomniac... what's wrong?"

"Nothing Ms Athena"

"Oh, for the - - - Seto Kaiba" she said coldly. "I have known you since we were in that abominable elitist school! I know you're stressing about more then Yvonne and her blunt approach. But you know she's always had your best interests at heart! It's something else...what?"

"Ms Athena...don't cross the line of-"

"Don't make me jump across and shove that ego back up your nose Seto," she said with a cold glare. "I thought we were friends..." she gave a dry laugh. "Of course this is you we're talking about... look what is it?" It hadn't been hard for the passionate Ms Athena to win Seto's grudging respect and rare trust. She spoke to him like he was an equal and thus he had no option but to treat her as one.

"Juno" Seto said quietly. "I- I'll tell you later" the car pulled up at the hospital and he climbed out.

Yvonne Garth had once been a doctor at an Orphanage. She'd hated the treatment of the children there...then she'd gotten an offer at the hospital and gone to work there... hoping to somehow adopt some children or foster them.

But the orphanage hadn't lasted long. She'd been unable to foster any children because of her schedule... and then one day she'd seen her favourite orphan again. Mokuba Kaiba. But it had been in most disturbing circumstances.

Seto had been brought into the emergency room in very bad shape and Yvonne had recognized him. Their foster father had obviously been abusing them. Seto had cracked ribs and lots of bruises courtesy of that monster Gozaburo. It had been lucky he'd died when he did or Yvonne would have rallied those who cared about the boys around and introduced Gozaburo to oncoming traffic.

She'd taken Ms Athena's advice and been blunt, the girl had supplied her with the precise nature of his Stress...and then suggested an approach. If she had beet around the bush and been obscure then Seto would have interpreted her advice as he saw fit.

"Yvonne?"

She looked up in surprise. Seto had always called her Dr Garth. He walked over to her and sat down on the chair opposite her. She pushed away her paperwork and put her hands on the table. "Yes Seto?"

He handed her the piece of paper with the name of a drug written in Seto's clear hand. "What is this drug for?"

"Isozene-180" she read. "Ah yes..." she looked at him over the rims of her spectacles. "What's it to you?" she seemed nervous...that wasn't good in Seto's book.

"Curiosity" he replied.

"And you're no cat" she mused meeting his slightly worried gaze. "Very well. Isozene-180 is an antibody strengthening agent...there's more to it then that but I won't bore you."

"No, please continue"

Yvonne put the piece of paper down. "As head of this hospital I have certain instincts Seto...one of them is when someone is saying one thing and meaning another concerning pills."

"Someone I know is taking them...I don't know what for"

"As a doctor I couldn't tell you what that would be" she said. "But as a friend I could let you in on gossip from the nurses station" she relented. "Tell me"

"Joey Wheeler"

"Joseph! " she exclaimed. "A bright boy, a gutsy surgeon in the making and a gentle soul...I thought you didn't like him..." she frowned.

"I don't but I want to know why he's taking pills"

"Isozene-180 is..." Yvonne rose. "Let's take a walk," she decided. They strode down the long corridor. "Isozene-180 is a pill that increases antibody production and effectiveness and can use "hunting" antibodies to attack unnatural cells"

"Why is Joey taking them?"

"You mean you don't know?" exclaimed Yvonne. "Bizarre! I thought you would but...well that is a surprise. All his friend know...I think" Seto frowned and looked at her expectantly. "Joseph came from an unfortunate gene pool"

"His father drank, his mother was a heartless wonder bitch... I know"

"No..." with a sigh Yvonne walked along the glass and steel bridge between the two buildings of the hospital. She stopped, gripping a railing and staring down at the city. "Joey is very sick... he developed a tumour some time ago, and its begun to grow in his brain and make it infinitely harder for him to continue his normal life, he must deal with bouts of pain and nausea and dizziness. Times when his limbs numb or feel like they're on fire." She looked at Seto. His eyes seemed distant. "He'll never make it to graduation. He's refused the chemotherapy because he know that it will do very little for him unless he gathers the money he needs for an operation."

"He has his winnings"

"They're gone, he spent them all on Serenity"

Seto stared into the distance. "He's dying?" Why did he feel so shattered?

Mokuba handed Serenity the documents, signed and sealed. "Anything else?" he yawned. Serenity smiled.

"No you're done, I got your clothes set out, dinner reserved and Rebecca RSVP-ed in the positive two hours ago. Does she know you're crushing on her?"

"I'm not," muttered Mokuba.

"Watch your nose Pinocchio," warned Serenity. "It could hurt someone. I've called the car. Chop-chop you have at least 30 minutes of mandatory clothes confusion and panic before the actual dressing up so let's hurry it along."

Mokuba muttered under his breath as he scuttled out angrily.

Bakura walked down the street with the bag over his shoulder. He was looking forward to see Yugi again. After a day of hard work he missed his love. Bakura and Yugi had some classes together but Bakura was studying Ancient Cultures and Yugi was in Ancient languages so there was only so much overlap. And then Bakura was helping out at the museum...

The black gateway opened under his feet, he fell downwards and landed in a strange Egyptian tomb. Someone walked towards him. "Bakura" a voice said. "I know you've not seen me for a while...but don't I get a hug my dear friend?" Bakura stared at the shape. His duelling pouch fell into his lap and startled him into movement. "What's going on?" he murmured in his refined British lilt.

"Well my dear...it's called a card battle. A duel. The Shadow Games. And you'd be surprised at what I'll do to you. Those are your cards...untouched...now rise and play!" Bakura felt the strings pulling at his arms and lifting him like a puppet he checked his cards, shuffled them and picked up the duelling disk. He loaded them and took a deep breath.

Joey stared at the ceiling. He was exhausted but he couldn't sleep, it got like that sometimes, it was stuck in his head...the thing...and it refused to move so he just accepted it and tried to think of something else to do.

So far he'd recited the lyrics to every beetles song and played mental Pong left brain beating right brain hands down. The tumour was set in a place that meant sometimes his body acted weird. Ergo he couldn't be sure when he'd sleep. He was just glad that he wasn't on the graveyard shift for another day or two.

Yugi paced around impatiently. Bakura should have been back by now...he never worked this late. Yami was away in Egypt, Tea had gone to the states for a while and his and Rebecca's grandfathers had taken a trip to Oxford for a few months to lecture.

The others would all be asleep anyway; he was about to give them a ring when the phone rang. He picked it up, his hand trembling.

"Hello?"

TBC

I needed a villain, not a big one but a bit of a kick. Won't be too long I'm not a long-term guy. Oh but go to: and submit slash n stuff for our site! Art is especially welcome. Especially if it's Joey/Seto! I'll be posting a few slash comps in a while. Also check out our RPG it's only got 1 member active aside from Angelo and we need more, its Superhero RPG but you can be any villain or hero you make up on your own! Seriously. Go take a look. TTFN my loves and Good Vibrations!