Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. I also do not own Caitlin and Lisa, but I am using them with permission.

A/N: Hey, all! Thank you again for those of you who keep encouraging me to continue. I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this posted. I know the last few chapters have been intense, but hopefully these next few chapters will be a little more light-hearted. There's a few people (if I'm not mistaken) that have been wondering when Jaden and Alexis are going to get back together. I can't say exactly what chapter number, but rest assured I am one of those who love happy endings, and I definitely want Jaden and Alexis to have a happy ending, so no worries. They'll eventually get back together, but they've still got some obstacles to overcome first. By the way, you all get chapter 10 as bonus for being so patient, so I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 9 – "Peace of Mind to Be!"

Harrington groaned as he woke up from a long night's rest. He was sore everywhere -- especially his head. Slowly he reached up to rub the spot between his eyes where it was really sore. There was something on his nose that felt like a nose-cast. He got up to look in the mirror that was on the other side of the room, but he found that he could only do so by moving at snail's pace. With every little move he made he felt agonizing pain. What happened to make me feel this terrible? When he reached the mirror, his question was not answered, but rather he had another question. Sure enough there was a nose-cast on his nose. "How did I get this?"

A deep, raspy voice that came from over the fireplace inquired, "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You lost a fight to a Slifer Red girl."

Harrington's eyes widened in shock as he asked, "Since when was I fist-fighting a Slifer?"

A sinister snicker echoed throughout the room. "You challenged her to a duel and she refused, so of course she needed some persuasion."

"Dude, that is so not cool! When someone refuses to duel you then you are not supposed beat the snot out of them, Slifer slacker or not!"

The voice laughed as though Harrington had told the funniest joke in the world, "And yet you did, Harrington!"

"What?"

"Do you still have the weapons I gave you to defeat your opponents?"

Harrington nodded, "Yeah, I have the new deck and duel disk you gave me, but what do these have to do with ….? Wait a minute! Are you saying that I beat up that Slifer girl?"

The memories of what happened started coming back to him. He could see the Slifer Red girl fighting with all that she had and then some. He remembered her shoving the heel of her palm upward towards his face and breaking his nose as her hand made contact with it. When this mental replay of events came to the part where his hand grasped the Celtic Guardian's sword in his own hand, he saw the fear in her eyes. When the sword pierced her flesh he could hear her cry of pain as clear and as loud as if he was standing before her committing the horrible act all over again.

"No… How could I have done that?"

The voice echoed through the room coolly, "I gave you a third item to use against your opponents, boy. Remember?"

Against his chest, Harrington felt a cool piece of metal resting close to his heart. He ran his finger along the outline of the item under his t-shirt and felt a fine chain that was encircled around his neck. Fearfully he pulled the mysterious metallic weight out from under the cotton cloth that had kept it hidden, and saw that it was a gold pendant with a name written in hieroglyphs.

"Do you remember the first girl you dueled?" asked the same voice.

"The first girl I dueled?"

"She was an Obelisk Blue, if I recall correctly."

Although Harrington couldn't see the source of this sinister voice, he mentally bet that if he could then he would see a face with mouth twisted into an evil smile.

"What? I thought you weren't going to bring any of the Obelisk Blue students into this!"

"Now, now, Harrington, our agreement was that I wouldn't harm your precious Alexis."

"Who was the Obelisk Blue student that I dueled?"

"Oh, let's see. She had short brown hair, petite, and she was one of Alexis's friends if memory serves."

Harrington felt his heart sank as he realized who the voice was referring to. "Mindy…"

"After I am free I'll release all of your friends, but for now you'll just have to bear with it."

"They won't be harmed."

"Of course not, dear boy. Mindy is in a deep sleep as we speak. There's nothing to be alarmed about."

Harrington swallowed before he even dared to ask about the Slifer Red girl. The voice replied, "You're worrying too much. Right now you need more rest."

As a matter of fact more rest does sound good right now. "It still feels strange that I don't even know your name, bro."

"You'll learn my name soon enough, but for now rest is more important."

---

Zane decided that while he was at the clinic visiting Mindy for the second time that day he would visit the Slifer Red girl that was brought in earlier. Okay, yes, I'm really going to check up on Syrus. The top-ranking duelist in the school would never admit this out-loud, but there were times where he was concerned for his younger brother. And this is one of those times.

He remembered earlier when Chazz had returned to the Slifer Red dorm and told Professor Banner what had happened to Caitlin. Upon hearing the news of the incident Zane and Banner hurried over to the school clinic. When they had gone in to see how Caitlin was they found Syrus, Jaden, Chumley, Bastian, Alexis, Lisa, and Rachel sitting in the waiting room. Zane would never forget the look on Syrus's face. His younger brother's eyes were red from crying with tears still streaming down his face. His gray eyes looked like the eyes of one who had no hope left. Chumley and Jaden at the time were sitting on either side of him trying to comfort him the best they could. At that moment Zane decided to step out and go down to Mindy's room and see her while he waited for news on how Caitlin was doing.

Later on after he had spent a few hours in Mindy's room, he had heard Jaden, Alexis, Chumley, Banner, Rachel, Bastian and Lisa leave. From the few words spoken between them he could tell that Caitlin was doing better, but she wasn't completely in the clear yet and now they were just waiting for her to wake up.

As Zane approached the doorway of Caitlin's room he silently prayed that Syrus was doing a little better. He peered in through the open door to see Caitlin lying in bed and Syrus was asleep in a chair by her bedside. Zane winced as noticed that his younger brother was sleeping leaning over with his head resting on the bed. The older Truesdale brother approached silently, not wanting to wake Syrus up. He found another chair on the other side of Caitlin's bed that was vacant, so he decided to sit and wait too.

---

When Caitlin awakened the only sound she could hear was the soft sound of someone close to her breathing gently. As she opened her eyes a faint glow from a lamp across the room was all she could see. She groaned as she slowly brought her hand to her aching head. A sharp pain shot through her arm as she did so causing her to quickly drop her arm. A deep voice to her left whispered, "Are you alright? Do you want me to get the nurse?"

She turned her gaze to see who had spoken, and found Zane Truesdale standing over her with a look on his face that she couldn't interpret. She thought she saw a hint of concern, but she wasn't completely sure. Caitlin's encounters with Zane since her first day at Duel Academy were few and far between. Each and every time she had seen him he had usually had an emotionless expression on his face. Come to think of it have I ever seen him smile? "My head hurts, my arm hurts, and well, everything hurts…"

"I'll go get the nurse. She probably has some pain-killers and some other medication for you to take. I'll be right back."

With that, her visitor left her alone in semi-darkness. She lay in her bed trying her best to ignore the pain that was plaguing every inch of her body. With closed eyes she strained her ears to listen to the quiet that surrounded her so she could focus on that instead. Much to her dismay quiet wasn't what met her ears. She heard the sound of gentle breathing coming from her right. Wait a minute! I thought that was Zane. If that's not him then who is that? She opened her eyes and turned her gaze toward the hushed, gentle sound. The source was someone with his head resting on the edge of her bed. She eased her right hand over to his shoulder to wake him without causing herself anymore pain, but failed and instead her hand came down on his head. The poor invalid yelped as pain shot through her arm once again. Caitlin's poor victim woke up as soon as her hand made contact with his noggin. He jumped up from his seat and rubbed his head where her hand had struck him.

A second later the over-head light came on causing Caitlin to squint. "Are you two all right," the school nurse, Miss Andrea, inquired. When Caitlin's eyes became accustomed to the light she faced the nurse and nodded, "I'm in pain just about everywhere and unfortunately, I think I've passed on some of it on to…"

Caitlin turned to see who she had struck. The poor boy that she had hit had been none other than a certain sky blue-haired Slifer with very familiar gray eyes and a pair of glasses resting crookedly on the bridge of his nose. "…Syrus!"

The short boy brought his hand down from the spot where she had hit him. When his eyes met hers he smiled as tears gently trailed down his cheeks. "Caitlin, you're awake! You're all right!"

Caitlin gasped in disbelief over what she had done to her precious Syrus. "I am so sorry, Syrus! I didn't mean to hit you!"

His tears started flow more freely as he smiled at her and responded by throwing his arms around her. He wailed, "I thought I was going to lose you!"

Zane smiled a small smile as he observed, "He feels no pain, Caitlin!"

Nurse Andrea also smiled as she approached her patient with two white tablets and a glass of water. "This should help with the pain, dear."

Syrus released Caitlin as she gladly accepted the pain-killers she was offered. After she had taken the medication she thanked the nurse as well as Zane for fetching Nurse Andrea in Caitlin's time of need. Zane nodded in response and quietly left the room.

The middle-aged nurse gasped as she stated, "Oh, dear! That's right. I need to ask Zane to do a favor for me."

Syrus stated, "I needed to talk to Zane myself, so if you want I'll give him your message."

A few minutes later Syrus was out the door and running like he was chasing down the wind. It didn't take him long to find his brother. Zane had not gone a long way off. In fact the clinic was not even five minutes away when Syrus found his brother on the path that led to the Obelisk Blue dorm. "Zane, wait up!"

The older Truesdale brother stopped and turned to face his younger sibling upon hearing him call on him. He asked Syrus, "What is it?"

"Nurse Andrea wanted me to ask you to go tell Rachel that Caitlin woke up and that she's going to be in the clinic for a few days. She also wants either Rachel or Lisa to bring her assignments by after class tomorrow so Caitlin won't get too far behind."

"Is that all?"

Syrus shifted uncomfortably as he responded, "Well, that's all that the nurse wanted me to ask you to do for her."

"What's wrong?"

"Well," the younger boy started, "it's Caitlin. I was wondering you had any advice on how I should tell her… or if you think that now would be a good time to …"

Zane sighed, "If you haven't told her how you feel about her yet then I suggest you do so. You came real close to missing your chance earlier. Time waits for no one."

Syrus sadly frowned. "But does she…?"

"I say you're worrying over nothing."

"Do you really think so?"

Zane nodded. "Now go tell her."

---

Once he made it back to Caitlin's room, Syrus reclaimed his seat next to her beside. Caitlin's gaze met his as she reached for his hand, "I'm sorry I worried you, Syrus."

"There's no need to apologize. If anyone should be sorry, it should be me."

"Why do you say that?"

The azure-haired boy replied sadly, "I had something to tell you, s-s-something important. I've had many opportunities to tell you, but each time I chickened out. Because I waited so long… I came real close to missing my chance to tell you… I thought about the many ways I could say it, but none of the fancy ways of saying it seemed right."

He blushed as he continued, "So, I'm just going to simply say it… I really, really like you a lot, and I'll even go as far to say that … I love you, Caitlin! When I was bringing you here to the nurse's office the thought that I could have lost you wouldn't go away. You may not feel the same way, and that's…"

He was cut off by a cold index finger pressed against his lips. Caitlin smiled at him as tears of happiness welled up in her eyes. "Who says I don't feel the same way?"

With that, her finger that had been resting against his lips beckoned him to draw closer. Syrus felt his face burn crimson at the gesture, but he didn't turn away. Instead he smiled and did as his lady-love bid him. When their faces were still a few inches apart, Caitlin pulled him close to her and claimed his lips with hers.

---

Bastian and Lisa sat quietly outside Caitlin and Lisa's dorm room gazing at the stars. Bastian didn't know precisely what to say. Lisa had been melancholy for most of the day, since the realization that she may loose her best friend had sunk in. He wished that he had the right words to comfort her, but for the moment all words of comfort and peace of mind escaped him.

"I never should have run off and left her on the trail like that," she said softly, "If I had stayed with her she would probably be sitting here with us right now!"

"Don't blame yourself. You didn't know what would happen."

Lisa turned to him with eyes full of tears. "I knew that the duelist responsible for the attacks was still out there," she replied bitterly.

Her tears started to flow freely down her cheeks as she started to sob. Bastian wrapped his arms around her and drew her to him. She buried her face in his chest while he stroked her hair. It broke his heart to see Lisa like this. He couldn't tell her that everything would be all right especially when he wasn't sure that would be so. When Lisa's sobs subsided, she looked up to see eyes that said as much. Instead of covering it up he gently wiped the tears from her eyes and softly replied, "Outside Duel Academy the chances of coming across someone who wouldn't hesitate to assault an innocent girl is just as likely as it is here. No matter where you go, Lisa, there's always someone out there who won't hesitate to commit such an evil act. We never know when or where such a person will strike. All we can do is take what protective measures we can to defend ourselves and our loved ones. I know that's probably not much comfort, but…"

"It may not be much, but it does help a little. Thank you, Bastian."

With that she embraced him as she tenderly brushed her lips against his cheek. He tightened his hold on her slightly as he relished the feel of her so close to him. Tears glistened in her eyes as she continued, "You're wonderful, Bastian. Have I told you that lately?"

He blushed. "I… I'm …"

Their eyes locked as he took in the beauty he held in his arms. The moonlight cast a silvery light on Lisa's hair and face giving her features a heavenly glow. Her lips were only inches away from his, and they seemed to invite him to close the distance between them. He closed his eyes and claimed her lips in his. For that moment there was no one else in the world but them…

Until they heard someone clear his throat, someone close. Reluctantly the two parted and looked up to see Zane Truesdale standing over them. Both of them blushed as Zane smirked and said, "I hate to break up the love fest, but I thought that you two might want to know that Caitlin woke up about half an hour ago."

This bit of news brought the two lovebirds to their feet quickly. Lisa questioned, "Is she all right? Is she okay? Is Syrus still with her?"

Zane nodded. "Yes, she's fine. She had a few aches and pains when she woke up, but the nurse gave her some medication for it. The nurse sent me to tell you and Rachel that she's fine, but since she's still recovering from those deep wounds Caitlin needs to stay in the clinic for a few days before coming back to class."

Lisa nodded in understanding. "Does she want me to bring Caitlin's schoolwork?"

"I think that's the plan she had in mind."

"I will."

Zane turned toward Rachel's door and then turned back to the couple, "Rachel and Banner aren't in there alone are they?"

Bastian chuckled, "I'm not sure, but I think as long as you knock first you'll be safe."

"That's okay. I'll wait until tomorrow."

Lisa went to her door and opened it. After she turned the light on she beckoned to the two of them to come inside. The two boys did as she bid them. "You won't have to wait if you leave a note on her door," she said as she retrieved a pen and a sheet of paper from her desk.

Zane replied, "That's true."

Once he accepted the pen and paper offered to him he set about writing his message. Once he had finished, Lisa provided him with the scotch tape to attach the message to Rachel's door. When he finished his task he thanked Lisa for her help and turned leave. He hadn't taken more than one step before Lisa called out, "Wait a minute. Since it's getting late why don't you two head back to your dorms together?"

Bastian thought about it for a moment. He really wanted to spend more time with Lisa, but since students had been told to not go anywhere unaccompanied… "Well, that might be best. Tomorrow though don't go for your morning run, and wait for me to come and escort you to class."

Lisa nodded. "That sounds good."

With that Bastian joined Zane their silent walk back toward the Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue dorms leaving Lisa in the safety of the Slifer Red dorm.

A/N: In the series they mentioned who the school nurse was in season one, but I don't remember her name. All I know is that she was way younger than middle-aged, and she turned out to be one of the monsters in one of the Shadow Riders' deck. So if any of you remember her name then I'll gladly replace Nurse Andrea with the school nurse from the series. Raymanly73, thank you so much for all your help! Thank you Lisa, James, and William for all your help as well! Thank you all who reviewed and kept encouraging me to get back to this. Again I apologize for the delay in getting this posted. Until next update, peace out and God bless!