I think I'm doing a good job with this fanfic : )
Joey came back from his memories as a door slid open, announcing the arrival of someone. He turned his head to see Atem, Yugi, Duke and Tea standing in the door waiting to be let in. He smiled happily at them. "Come here guys. I want you to meet somebody."
Tea approached him quickly, eager to see the new baby. "Oh my gosh! He's so cute!" She whispered excitedly before waving the others over. Her eyes shone brightly as she took in the baby boy.
Yugi gently pushed his friend aside and immediately said "He has your eyes!" he smiled before frowning. "But his hair. And nose, I think, but he's got the shape of your face." He noticed the big smirk on Joey's face. "I haven't seen you smile in over a year." The others nodded in agreement before Tea asked if she could hold him.
"Yeah, you guys are like family now that I think about it…" the blonde handed his son over to the female teen.
"I'm next!" Duke grinned, receiving a glare from Yugi. Atem just continued staring at the baby before asking "What's his name?"
"I can't seem to find a good name at all. Nothing seems to fit him." Joey looked upset.
Yugi was about to say something until the door slammed open, making everyone turn. "Shit…" was all he could mumble before seeing Tea hand the boy back to Joey.
"You aren't welcome here, Seto!" Atem nearly yelled.
"A little birdy told me where to find you. He said you've been here for a little over nine months but he refused to say why." The cold CEO frowned.
Joey stared down at his sleeping son with determination and protectiveness. "Don't worry. I promised I would keep you away from him and all the other horrible people," he smiled as his son looked happy and bright. "Akemi…" the newborn kicked his chubby legs in glee. "Akemi it is then, my beautiful little sunrise."
Seto mumbled something only for Duke to tell him to repeat what he said and Kaiba did so with a little smirk. "I said… I actually did something good for you, Wheeler."
Joey glared up at him angrily, tears burning his eyes. "I should press charges against you but… I won't." his friends stared at him in shock.
Duke was the first to speak. "But why? After all that he did to you, you won't have him charged!?"
Seto didn't move from his spot as he was surprised. Joey smiled at his friends. "No." he looked back down at the little brunette who was staring at the big brunette in curiosity. "Because this little guy," Joey looked up at Kaiba "Is my last real family and the one keeping me from killing that bastard."
Kaiba slightly glared until Joey spoke again. "Could you guys please leave the room for a few minutes?"
"But - !" Tea and the rest of the gang was cut off by a shake of the blonde's head. They knew he wasn't going to give up until they left… he was more stubborn than they were.
Duke sighed, crossing his arms. "Fine. But you better explain yourself when time's up." He turned and walked passed Kaiba, glaring before shutting the door.
Joey smiled at them nervously, watching them leave the room. 'That's going to be hard to do…' his smile faded when Akemi started fussing in his arms. "It's almost feeding time, huh? I'll feed you in a few minutes, I promise. Mommy just has to tell this evil man some things." Joey whispered gently while rocking Akemi lightly in his arms.
"Explain something to me." Seto caused Joey to look up curiously. "How the hell is he mine? It's impossible for a man to become pregnant. So if this is a joke, tell me right now or I'll sue you for everything you've got." He growled out with a hint of annoyance.
Clearly seeing how serious the monster was about it, Joey decided to push the button to have a nurse come in. "First, I'd like you to tell me something. Did you even think before doing any of those things to me? I still felt the pain when you beat me but I didn't have the strength or ability to fight back." The blonde explained, hard eyes set on the older teen.
Before the brunette could speak, a nurse opened the door, smiling brightly at Joey. "You rang, Mr. Wheeler? Does he need changed again?" she giggled lightly at Joey's immediate shake of the head.
"It's time to feed him is all… and you know I'm still new at this." He smirked slightly before moving his gaze to Kaiba. "Um, before you take him, could you please explain to him how it's possible for a male to have a baby? When the doc was explaining it to me, you had to change all those complicated words into simpler ones for me and again, I appreciate that."
Looking over the CEO carefully, she murmured "okay" and told him to follow her outside the room.
"Oh and Kaiba… only yell at me when Akemi is out of the room. I don't want him to have to watch me kill you if you come back in and start yelling." Joey smirked dangerously until the door closed right before it was opened and in stepped Duke.
"I know you guys are upset with me for speaking to him but if he doesn't know about Akemi, how else can I torture him?" the blonde earned a laugh.
"True, Joey. True." Duke smiled. "Is it okay if I hold Akemi before the nurse comes back in?" Joey nodded and carefully set the bundle in his friend's arms.
"Did the others send you in or did they leave?"
"No." the raven stared down at the little boy. "They were curious as to what the nurse was talking to that creep about so they decided to eavesdrop unlike me who wanted to check on you two."
Joey laughed. "She's explaining to him how it's possible a man can end up pregnant." He nearly burst into tears at the sight of his son forming little bubbles. "I asked her to because Kaiba wouldn't believe that Akemi was his if I told him. But even after the explanation, I'm sure he'll want a DNA test."
Duke, curious, asked how a man could get pregnant before handing Joey his son back before answering. "They call it male pregnancy or mpreg for short. It's extremely rare but not impossible. It only happens when a man has both male and female parts. Do you get it?"
Duke blinked, his mind taking everything in for a moment. "I think. So you were born with both parts then?"
"Yeah," Joey frowned "except I didn't know until I found out I was six weeks pregnant. And if I hadn't - ." The door opened carefully, revealing an agitated and pissed off Seto with the nurse moving him.
"Alright!" she exclaimed a tad nervously, proving that Joey was right as she quickly walked up to him and Akemi. "Who wants some food?" Joey let her gladly take him as he whispered 'sorry' to her. She waved him off and immediately left the room to feed Akemi.
It was quiet as Seto Kaiba glared despisingly at the blonde and Duke moved to a chair close to Joey who smiled and said "Go ahead and yell. I've had worse done to me but you already know that."
The brunette grit angrily, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "No. I didn't always think." He told himself to calm down before he beat Joey a third – or was it fourth – time. "I want to get a DNA test done. Immediately."
Duke could see that his friend was pissed by his hateful glare towards the man he and his friends all loathed. But why was Joey so angry now at him?
"So when did you actually think?"
"In class, when I saw right through your mask and I got a call about work. I was pissed and couldn't wait to get my hands on you. But I had to end up waiting a couple months because I couldn't find the time due to my job!"
Joey snorted. "Then instead of trying to force me to get better, you should've stayed at work for the rest of the year. But if you hadn't tried so hard, I would've killed myself. There hadn't been any thoughts but I never had time for those because I couldn't really think but when I did, I imagined what you would do to me next. So I guess I should thank you!" Joey practically yelled. He was breathing heavily and turned on his side. "Talk to the nurse about the test when she brings Akemi back in. I'm going to sleep. I want everyone but Yugi gone when I wake up." He wasn't going to let anyone but Yugi see him cry.
The door slid shut behind them as they left Joey alone. It was quiet until Duke said "Still can't believe he wanted to talk to you. And what did you mean when you said you didn't always think?"
"I guess you weren't paying enough attention when he asked when." The brunette looked around. "I need to find that nurse so I can get that test taken care of."
"What if he is yours?" Duke already knew that it was really Kaiba's child. He just wanted to know what the man would do if he found it was his.
"Full custody." He could hear the raven teen's breath stop a moment.
"Why? Why do you want to keep hurting Joey so badly? He finally has something that actually makes him happy after over a year of depression and you're willing to take it away!?"
"I'll let the mutt see him." But it seemed Duke wasn't having any of it. He forced the CEO to turn and face him but he didn't even get a chance to let a word out when a sniffling sound came from behind him.
"Not again." A terrified voice entered behind Seto.
Seto turned to see it was the nurse from before holding Akemi tightly. "What do you mean 'again'?"
But she didn't even answer him before nearly shoving the child in his arms and ran straight to Joey. The CEO glared down at the boy in irritation. He wasn't used to holding children and didn't plan on getting used to it either. He could hear the nurse trying to get Joey back in the room but it wasn't working. Kaiba could see that the infant had the same brunette hair as him but it didn't mean anything. He looked up at Joey to see him glaring as he bit the side of his lip, letting it bleed.
"Please, Joey!" the nurse was in tears now. "You're opening your wounds again and your son needs you!" she cried out, finally drawing his attention.
"Akemi…" he whispered before slowly turning back into the room to wait for his son.
Duke approached the young woman. "Are you okay?"
She turned to face the raven, wiping her eyes and smiling. "I – I'll be okay. Thanks. I'm just scared for Joey and the baby is all." She sniffed before continuing. "When Joey had first come here, he was covered in bruises. It was raining and a patient who had broken their leg, was just leaving with their father when they found him. When the other nurses and a few doctors arrived, he was only mumbling. He would say 'hurts', 'stop', 'don't want this', 'weak'. So after some X-rays and an examination, it was confirmed that he had been raped multiple times and constantly beaten. It took him about a week to wake up." She sat down and watched her patient's door.
Kaiba could feel Duke's hate radiating on to him and he didn't like it. "I think you should take the kid to Wheeler now. Then we can finish talking about him when you come back." She took the baby from him and quickly headed into the room.
"You raped him multiple times!?" Duke got in his face. "He lied and said you only raped him once!"
"Guys? What's going on now?" Yugi and the others came back from getting a snack after eavesdropping on the brunette's conversation with the nurse who took care of the two in the room.
Hearing a sigh, they looked towards Joey's room. "They're both asleep." She quietly shut the door behind her with a smile before noticing the extra company. "Anyway, as I was saying," Duke sat back down, not wanting to get thrown out. "he had been raped multiple times and constantly beaten." She heard a few gasps and growls but went on. "We weren't able to get in contact with anyone he knew because his last two family members were gone and even though he had woken up, he wasn't speaking much. It was only after less than a month of puking and odd cravings did he actually talk."
Atem raised his hand in embarrassment. "Why did he finally say something?" If his boyfriend hadn't been holding his hand, he was sure he would've killed Kaiba.
"We examined him, to see what was wrong, and, when we told him the results… he said it was impossible. So as the doctor explained to Joey how it wasn't impossible, I was there helping with the 'big and complicated' words." She nearly laughed but went on. "He finally accepted it and told us he would try to carry the baby to full term but then wanted to give him up for adoption. It always hurts to hear that an expecting mother wants to give her – or in this case his – baby away."
Kaiba refrained from speaking his mind. He already had enough people who wanted to murder him so he just sat there, tense at the thought of Akemi growing up in the same orphanage he did.
"There was this one time that Joey had to share a room with someone but he was okay with it. According to his roommate, they were talking about people they thought were amazing and when the patient mentioned…" she leaned in to whisper "Seto Kaiba, Joey burst in to tears and tried hiding under his sheets only to fall off the bed. His roommate shouted for help due to being worried for him as well as scared. We had all decided that Joey wasn't allowed to have another roommate and none of the faculty or those who were near him said that name."
Yugi raised his shaking hand while squeezing Atem's with his other. "How far along was he when it happened?"
Thinking carefully, she said "when we told him about his pregnancy, he was nearly two months along. Then when that happened he was halfway along." Yugi nodded in response, letting her continue. "Seeing as how I was the one taking care of him, I got him out of the room with a little bribing. I had tried making him smile while we walked through the halls or the outside garden but he continued on with that blank and depressed look." She sighed heavily. "I know it couldn't have only been from this Seto person for him to be so depressed but I wouldn't ask him. He's been my friend since I started watching over him. But, I was extremely glad that when his son was born healthy, Joey cried and begged to hold him."
"He asked you to call us a couple weeks ago, right?" Tea quietly asked, still glaring down at Seto.
"Yes. He wanted you guys here for the last bit of his pregnancy and to apologize for making you worry so much about him."
"He doesn't need to apologize. It's Seto that needs to apologize for hurting him. But knowing Kaiba, he thinks he's above apologizing to somebody." Yugi lightly growled.
The light haired nurse gave worried and nervous looks. "Yes, but from what Joey's told me about him, this Kaiba person may hate everyone but Joey's just glad that he gave him something even though it wasn't intentional. Heartbreaking really if you ask me."
"What's so heartbreaking about it?" Seto asked rudely. "It's not like they were ever together or actually liked each other. Wheeler will always be a loser no matter what he does." He could feel the angry vibes radiating off the dweebs but he wasn't going to let it bother him. He never had before so why start now? The brunette stood and began heading towards the elevator. "Mutt said he wants all of us except you, Yugi, gone. So I'm done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow."
After the elevator doors closed, the nurse smiled. "Well, he's just a bundle of joy, isn't he?"
Duke glared at the metal doors. "That's Seto Kaiba for you… only caring about himself and his brother, no one else." He noticed a terrified look on the woman's face as he realized what he said. "He's a rich and arrogant bastard that'll do what he wants to anyone. So, if I were you, I wouldn't tell anyone about this."
Back in the room, Joey was currently watching his son sleep. "Oh, my little Akemi," he whispered, "I see a lot of your daddy in you. Let's just hope you don't turn into him. I can't afford to lose you too." 'I may have friends with me to help but there's still something I didn't tell them. I'm afraid they'll be shocked with me for it though but if I have Yugi tell them for me, it won't be so bad.'
Yugi waved goodbye to his friends and made Atem promise not to attack Kaiba when they left. The taller wasn't very happy but if he wanted to share a bed, he had to listen or it was the couch for a few nights. Sighing, Yugi headed to Joey's room, thinking of what Joey wanted him for. 'I guess I'm glad he wants me to stay but why make everyone else leave?' He opened the door halfway and poked his head inside. He didn't have to ask Joey what was wrong. He could tell by the overflowing tears that it was something he had kept from his friends. "It's going to be okay. I promise. No matter what happens, we'll all do our best to keep you and Akemi safe."
Joey continued watching his son sleep as he responded. "I know you will… but that's not what worries me right now." The overflowing tears and urge to bawl forced him to hold himself tightly. "For a few weeks now, I've wanted to tell you all something… the others won't approve but if you tell them, it won't be so bad." He saw Yugi nod as he sat down in the chair Duke had left by the bed. "I… I've been having these weird dreams since I got here. Most of the time I can't remember what they are but the few I do recall make me worry."
Taking hold of Joey's hand, Yugi calmly spoke. "I won't tell them if you don't want me to. Now, what were the dreams about?"
"I was raising Akemi… with Kaiba." Joey choked on a sob. "The weird and scary part is that I was happy about it. I don't want it to come true. I don't want him to have anything to do with my son!"
Probably not a very good chapter… what do you think?
