Talyak - Yes. That sale, had it gone through, would have killed the company. He should have been paying attention.

Chapter 22

(Voiceover, narrator) This is the DoubleMale Special Housing Unit at Pelican Bay. Since 1958, all DoubleMale prisoners in the US Correctional System are placed in DM-SHUs regardless of offence or sentence length.

Camera pans across the main security gate. Cut to man behind a desk. Popup: Edward Hapten, Warden, Pelican Bay State Prison

(Warden) The DM-SHU is really some of the worst we've got. We'd like to keep them in General Population if they were non-violent offenders, but the DM's get much more aggressive than most prisoners. A confrontation escalates to violence much more quickly and we've had fights break out where we had to gas the entire section to restore order.

Cut to busy cafeteria. All prisoners are wearing powder blue jumpsuits.

(Warden) We use every trick we can to keep tempers calm in the DM-SHU. Soothing colors, classical music, even the cleaning products are calming smells. All DMs have rage issues, just some have better control than others.

(Voiceover, narrator) At Pelican Bay, they are experimenting with a new diet and drug therapy to control the testosterone rage and aggression that many DoubleMale prisoners have. Proponents say this new treatment will help rehabilitate violent criminals and will prevent violent behaviors in non-violent inmates. But is it ethical to medicate people in this manner?

Cross cut to a 'woman' with a full beard in an office wearing a lab coat.

(Voiceover, narrator) Dr. Robert Nijami says no. Dr. Nijami, of Oxford University, has been studying DoubleMales for twenty-six years.

Popup: Robert Nijiami, PhD, G-DNA Biochemistry, Oxford University

(Dr. Nijiami) Using pharmaceuticals to control male behavior is counter productive. We need behavior to control behavior.

- Video clip. Documentary, Inside America's Toughest Prisons: Pelican Bay

His back hurt.

His feet hurt.

His school uniform looked like a tent.

And he was in love.

Joey had fallen in love. With baby Jesse.

He'd thought about it. It wasn't that he didn't want a kid - he just didn't want one now, in high school, in his body. But kids were fun. Kind of like playing soccer - it was work learning the skills and keeping in shape, but the game was still something he liked playing. Joey had spent the first few months thinking about how bad it could be and how to make it go away. But once he considered how good it might be, he began thinking maybe Jesse could stay.

In each set of sonogram pictures, the baby was becoming more and more real. Those little hands. Those tiny feet. That cute little nose. Not even born yet but he had definite tastes in food, music, even friends. Jesse liked Yugi's voice, but he kicked when he heard Kura. And the way he kicked, he was definitely going to play soccer!

But raising him was impossible. Who would take care of him? They didn't have enough money as it was. Mom was the only one working. Quitting school wasn't a discussion Mom would even have - she just kept saying they'd figure out something if that was what Joey wanted.

What Joey wanted was reality to go back to being normal. Or maybe an ex-boyfriend who wasn't an asshole. Or an option for giving Jesse away that didn't involve cutting him out. Or didn't risk seeing him - because Joey knew that if he actually carried the kid to term, there was no way he was giving Jesse to anyone.

He had another month to figure it out. Be a father or be responsible.

Either way was gonna be one more thing that hurt.

xXxXxXx

They took his access card. And his master keys. They disabled his remote access until he reminded HR that his homework was on that server. As soon as they restored his access, he moved all of his and Mokuba's files to a server under his control. School, personal, and technical.

R&D could beg if they wanted Seto's labors.

Seto had been barred from personnel, from contracts, from design, and from games.

"Go to school," HR had said. "Let us worry about business. Do not be in such a rush to give up your childhood."

It was humiliating.

A single phone call. Seto was outsmarted by a single phone call. The markets weren't open yet, the trade was pending. Sakura announced a pre-emptive pull, but nothing was final until the damn market opened.

It was the kind of petty trick Seto used to play on Mokuba, when he wanted to teach his brother to think before acting.

And Finance just played it on him.

What is wrong with me, Seto fumed. Why am I so addled that I am losing at children's games? I outplayed Gozaburo, why am I losing to these brainless gibbons? It doesn't make sense.

The door behind him slid open, disturbing the solitude of the inner courtyard.

"I am not to be disturbed while I am meditating," Seto growled. Not that meditation, or exercise, or anything else was helping him restore his personal control.

"Forgive me, Kaiba-sama. There is a guest here to see you."

"Who?"

"The Supreme Father of the Hedonist Unitarian Church."

Seto groaned. The Church had run the orphanage where Seto and Mokuba lived. Gozaburo had made a sizable donation, and every few years, the Church tapped the Kaiba coffers. It was the first time their leader had come, but that most likely meant they wanted a larger check. He sighed heavily. "Show him to the library. I will be there presently."

A small personal donation. Seto was on an allowance now, so he needed to be more frugal. If Father Ishtar wanted more than that, he could get it from Finance or whoever was pretending to run the company without him.

But it was his classmate waiting for Seto.

"Do you often pretend to be your father?" Seto asked as a maid served tea.

"Not often." Ishtar Malik grinned and shrugged. "All for the greatest good. I just need a signature and I'll be on my way."

"Right to the point. Excellent. How much?"

"Deal with Dad for donations. I just need you to acknowledge the procedure and we can get started."

"What procedure?"

"Wow." Ishtar shook his head. "When you ignore something, you go all out. Look, if you don't sign, I will just forge your name. I'm not going to let Joey suffer for your ego."

Katsuya is not the one suffering, Seto thought, but he sat down instead of speaking. "Which leads me to ask, why are you here if you don't actually need me?" He sipped his tea and tried to pretend that he didn't want to hear about Katsuya.

"I wanted to hear it from you, personally. You are really willing to give your child to the Church? I mean, you are, like, the last person I would expect that from."

"And you are correct. If I had a child, I would never surrender it to anyone."

"Then why are you being such a butthead about Jesse?"

"Jesse?"

"Joey's baby. He calls him 'Jesse'. Isis likes it too, so that will probably be his name officially."

Kaiba Jesse. It sounded horrible.

"Jounouchi's child is none of my concern. Why are we discussing this?"

"Right. Sorry. You gonna sign?"

"Sign what?"

"Just that you were notified about the procedure. I know you got the official forms because you signed the receipt."

"It was mailed?"

"Couriered."

Seto waved dismissively. "Then at best, my secretary signed it. I have no idea what you are talking about, and no idea why you are discussing Jounouchi's offspring with me."

Malik stared at him for a moment, then put down his tea. "Ok. Wait. I'm confused. Are you saying that you don't care that Jounouchi is having a fetal transfer, or that you are not the baby's father?"

Seto felt a cold rush through his body. Fetal Transfer Surgery was extreme. And Katsuya was at least seven or eight months along. That kind of risk? The boy wasn't capable of it. This was another lie.

"I'm saying both." Seto sipped his tea and tried to remain calm.

"How are you not Jesse's father?" Malik laughed. "We didn't even need to test for that."

"Au contraire, since I was excluded as the father."

"Joey was excluded. You were the only possible match!"

"I am afraid Jounouchi lies." Seto fought to keep his breathing level. "I have the test results, if you don't believe me."

"Yeah. This I gotta see. If you are not the biological, I'll donate money to you."

"Wait here."

The Hedonists were a nuisance, but they generally weren't fools. Ishtar would not be here if he did not honestly believe that Seto was the father of Katsuya's child. And he would not believe it without proof.

The test results were in Seto's top desk drawer. His hand shook as he pulled it out, a plain unmarked envelope. The letter and data looked valid. No obvious signs of tampering. None of the clues to a forgery - mismatched text, blurry logos, typos that no professional organization would allow. He handed the document to Malik.

The young priest took it and studied the results. "This isn't Jesse."

"What do you mean -"

"This isn't Jesse. You are excluded, yeah, but this is the wrong child."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Look, this is you. If the child has all of these, you are the father. If he's missing two, it's a maybe. If he's missing more than three, you're excluded."

"And notice that there are no matches whatsoever."

"Which is how I know it's not Jesse. Chromosome 47 is 'Not Present'."

"So?"

"Isis is the mother. Chromosome 47 is the G-Bomb marker. Jesse has to have that because his mother has it. Even if you weren't Jesse's father, you'd have one match there. Where did you get this?"

When a week went by and the results had not arrived, HR offered to contact the lab directly. He provided the results.

"From someone I trusted." Seto was so angry he was almost dizzy. 'Trust me,' he thought, 'this will not look like an accident. When I am finish with him - with all of them -'

"Kaiba?"

"What!"

Malik hesitated, giving the former executive a concerned look. Then he pushed a form and a pen toward Seto. He looked at it.

This letter confirms that I, Kaiba Seto (biological parent), am aware that Jounouchi Katsuya (gestational parent) is having fetal transfer surgery. By signing below, I am not granting my consent to the procedure in question but only acknowledging….

"What is this?"

"Notification."

Notification. Permission to risk the baby's life in a procedure to give a child who may be his child to the Whore of Babylon. First the Board tried to hide his son, now Ishtar was trying to steal him.

He tore the form in half. "Where is Jounouchi?"

Malik took a step back, real fear in his eyes. "Kaiba? Calm down."

"I have been lied to for the last time. I will not calm down." He took a step forward, kicking the coffee table out of his way as he did. "Katsuya would not agree to this reckless medical travesty if his life depended on it."

"His water broke."

"What?"

"Joey's water broke two weeks ago," Malik repeated. "Actually, he went into labor at 30 weeks, but they stopped it and told him to reduce his activity. His water broke while he was watching TV. Male Hermaphrodite pregnancies are classified as high risk anyway, so he's been on bed rest at the birthing center. The baby's still too early to actually deliver because his lungs may not be fully formed yet, but just lying there isn't helping. This seemed like a sign. Isis is flying in this weekend, so all -"

For a moment, Seto's vision actually shaded red. "A sign!?"

"Killing me does not help you."

"It will feel good," Seto growled. "Where. Is. Katsuya."

"HUBC," Malik answered quickly. "Security will stop you if you go in armed or blood covered."

"Then you should drive quickly so I don't have time to kill you."