Many thanks to Shock Howlett for telling me to get over myself. :D

Anyway, here's Ch. 13 of "Trebuchet". This chapter is going to be split into two parts; Part I and Part II. (This is Part I, obviously). In between I'm planning on writing a first-person equivalent to a compact one-shot from the POV of Noelle Hermand explaining her connection to Kaiba.

Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

Chapter 13

11: 49 AM, Sunday, April 17, 2005

Japan

Dr. Kujaku thought he might have seen something glimmer in the corner of his eye, but he ignored it quite on purpose. His face was still red, and though he tried to hide it, he was obviously quite upset. He wasn't used to being treated by anyone in such a rude manner as he just had been, previous patient or not.

He had tried to convince himself to calm down by taking food that had been set out and available; as he neared the table, however, the urge had come over him to simply take something off of the cheese platter and throw it brusquely in Kaiba's face. So instead, he paused, and reminded himself of where he was. A wedding. Involving a relative. He would not be the one to cause discord today.

Once the gasps had retreated, however, and he heard a harsh thump! on the floor, Kujaku finally turned around to see the commotion. There, in the middle of the room, where the asshole Kaiba had just been standing, there was no one but the woman that looked like him. Was she his mother? Possibly. Sister? Maybe. His eyes then trailed downwards and saw what looked like a billowing heap of overcoat tossed carelessly onto the floor. He then saw bony appendages sticking out of it, and he all of a sudden knew what had happened.

He ran towards Kaiba, and kneeled down too soon, causing him to skid somewhat on his knee like an American baseball player. His hand covered the man's forehead; it checked his pulse later. Nothing seemed to be extremely odd, perhaps a fever. His eyes, however , stayed eerily open.

"Seto-?" whimpered the woman, who was standing motionless above him.

"Wait, ma'am. This isn't over."

"What isn't over-?"

And almost on cue, Seto began to twitch. Barely, at first; but then his head rolled onto another cheek, and it was like shockwaves crashed through his body, and his legs and arms toppled one on top of the others, as if a child was trying to untangle a marionette above the stage. It was as if he were possessed. The other wedding-goers were staring, wide-mouthed, at what they were seeing happen, and who it was occurring to. He thought he might hear small sobs, and glanced up briefly. A brown-haired girl, surrounded by friends, was trying to restrain tears, much to some of her male acquaintance's combined annoyance and pity.

"It's the clonic phase," Kujaku muttered bitterly. The room was quiet enough to permit his words to travel throughout. "The second part of a tonic-clonic seizure. He's relapsing. Someone, quick, call a hospital."

Several women began rummaging in their purses, if they were close at hand; others dashed for them across the room. Kujaku looked back up at Noelle Hermand, who seemed dazed and relieved all at once.

"And you are - ?"

"Noelle Hermand. Former head of Disneyland Tokyo. I resigned a few months ago." She spoke rapidly and breathlessly.

"…Mrs. Hermand. What did you say to him?"

Choking noises came from her throat. She raised a hand to it, questioningly, and with a burst of effort, managed to say "… his name. Only… his name."

Kujaku squinted at her. He then looked over across the room to his own wife, who was, like all the other guests, slack-jawed.

"Kimiko. I'm going to have to leave to take care of Mr. Kaiba."

The woman swallowed, but she nodded stiffly.

Kujaku then stood, and lightly grasped Noelle's wrist.

"Ma'am, I'd personally like you to answer some questions and accompany me to the hospital with Mr. Kaiba?"

"… Yes, of course."

The two then began to move out of the room. Kujaku braced Noelle, as she seemed rather light-headed. As soon as they had passed over the threshold, the room erupted into chaos. A young man with an oddly-colored suit streaked by, asking rather petulantly what the reaction of his nii-sama had been.

Then there was an agonizing "What!"

Fifteen minutes later, the bride and groom were finally ready. People had collected themselves; the group of young friends that had accompanied the brunette had made their leave to console her as she tried to recover in the fresh air. Everyone was pretending like nothing happened, just for their sake. Right as the ceremony was due to begin, the group took their seats once more.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Neither Joey Wheeler nor Mai Wheeler, née Kujaku, would know about the altercation until several days later.

X ~ X ~ X

12:30 PM

The hospital reeked of rubbing alcohol. Usually there would be something on the walls to enliven the white dredgery of it all; but here, that was all that could possibly comfort her. She sat, head bowed, outside his room, feet crossed, neither crying nor thinking. Just sort of sitting there. Guilt couldn't describe it accurately.

Seto had been inside for only the expanse of ten minutes, but Noelle was no expert in the realm of medicine. Asking her to be calm, or to cheer up, when Seto wasn't critically ill but was simply prone to seizures when emotionally stressed – like various employees of the place had already tried to do – was essentially for naught. She was quintessentially inconsolable.

Mokuba, on the other hand, seemed to have been more convincible. But he had retreated in to be next to his brother some time ago. It made Noelle feel slighted, just a tad. What must Mokuba think now? Hell, what must have Seto thought for such a violent reaction? "Emotional overdrive"? Mais non. Cela c'est impossible. All she did was tell the truth!

There was a knock from inside the room, and Kujaku stepped out, sweating a little at the temples. He saw her and smiled briefly, but it didn't reach his eyes. He bade her stand; with little resistance, Noelle complied, too lost in… her lack of thoughts?... to vehemently refuse.

He took her arm, and leaned in closer to her.

"Tell me what happened."

She shook her head. Non. Je ne dirai personne au dehors de mon fils.

He sighed, and sat back down, dragging her back with him. He tried the question again. Once more, her brain came up with a thought in her native tongue. She was too tired to try Japanese.

Now, the doctor rephrased his inquiry.

"… Seto is awake. He doesn't believe you."

Noelle made little reaction; if anything, after all the commotion less than an hour beforehand, this was what she had been expecting. Rejection.

"But he wants to hear… how you know his father."

Finally, the clouds swirling around her began to back off, and for the first time that day, she looked at Dr. Kujaku straight in the eye.

"I'm sorry you're here. You should be at the wedding…"

"Please. Talk to him. Nobody is supposed to know that name. What was it again? Tom… Tomas… Kiseki?"

Noelle almost smiled at his mistake.

"Cizek. Not Kiseki. Cizek. It's Slovak."

"He was?"

She swallowed, hard, and tried to stand. Instead, she almost fell over again, but she threw out her writing hand to support herself, and it rammed against the wall. She gasped in pain, but quickly convinced Kujaku that she was alright.

"So… was he? How did you meet him?"

Her eyes closed, and her left hand nursed the right one. She exhaled briefly, her indication of a no.

He sighed, scratched somewhere in his hair, and then rolled his shoulder in the direction of the door wherein brooded Seto Kaiba.

"He wants to know. If he is indeed what you claim him to be… your son…. then… he deserves to know your story. Right?"

Noelle straightened, and glared at him. But then, with grace, she conceded defeat, and reached for her non-ailing hand for the doorknob.

"Just remember – he's still mostly in the postictal state, a totally separate form of consciousness that copes with a recent seizure. Try not to upset him. Do you want me to- "

"No," she cut him off. "This is just for me. And for him."

"And Mokuba?"

She considered it as she turned the handle.

"Sure. He needs to know, too."

With that, she inhaled deeply, and hastened inside.

X ~ X ~ X

12:34 PM

The first words she managed to pick up were: "Oh, my fucking head!"

Almost as soon as she was inside, he began berating her, one of his willowy palm resting on his brow. It was funny because he hadn't entirely recovered, and Mokuba would do little to correct him, so it was like being scolded by a drunkard.

But it was her son who was drunk, so though she ignored him visibly, she still felt the impact his words had.

"Mrs. Hermand. You retire and go off the deep end. Where have I heard this before? Maybe Pegasus? Weren't you and Pegasus friends? Don't tell me you've joined the loony cabaret, too. Why can't I know anyone normal."

"Seto… you'll raise your blood pressure," Mokuba whispered, tightening his grip on his brother's hand.

"You seem concerned, Mokuba," Noelle told the boy, rather heartlessly.

The indigo coals bored into her. "Of course. You told my brother that my mother, who died in childbirth, can't be his."

"I never- "

"Hermand, we have brains. We know what you insinuate."

"You weren't even in the room, Mokuba."

"Nii-sama was."

"… I thought you were still mad at him," she said, simply.

"Insane business partners tend to tighten our family bonds," Mokuba enunciated, letting each consonant drip with acid, each vowel poison the blood.

Seto Kaiba coughed slightly, and grumbled something resembling a thanks.

"What's wrong with him still?"

"He's still on an IV drip. Once you leave" – Mokuba said this pointedly – "He needs to get an echocardiogram. This time is better than last time, though; he didn't wake up until they were nearly done with it the last time. He wasn't such a hassle."

She smiled, and it was the fake business smile, the one she used to wear every day, but now was reserved only for the brat sitting in front of her that was not her son.

"I heard that," Kaiba declared groggily.

"May I?" Noelle asked, ignoring the six-foot-one CEO trapped to his bed. She clawed at her mouse-brown hair, and her steel-blue eyes looked between the Kaiba brothers.

"Why are you asking me?" Mokuba muttered.

"Whatever," Kaiba said. After a brief silence, he continued, in a louder voice: "Who are you. Really. Who is my father. And, if you are my mother- " here he stopped, and donned an 'ah-ha' expression as if he believed he trumped her – "why did you give me a name like mine when you're French, not Japanese?"

Noelle took a seat on the foot of the bed, tentatively, as if afraid she might wrinkle a doily in that exact spot. Kaiba's large foot sat like a bump on a log behind her back, and for a second, she was afraid he might, in his chemically induced delirium, start hitting her or rubbing her with it.

"Je peux répondre à tous ces questions," she said in French. Her knuckles whitened; this was the moment. Right now. "And I will. I've waited… such a long time… to get this off of my chest."

Then, with the only noise being the ticking of the analog clock somewhere out of sight, her voice lifted, determination guided her, and she began her story.

This book should be finished by the end of Ch. 13, and after that, as I mentioned earlier, an epilogue (or two!) will be coming.