Chapter 3

"Ow, ow, ow!" Joey whimpered as Mai's long fingernails dug deep into his hand.

They had been out enjoying a friendly meal together when Mai suddenly cried out in pain and announced at that point that she was pregnant. An ambulance was called to rush her to the hospital as she was heavily in labour. Now there she was in the final stages and Joey never left her side during the whole time. Partly because her nails were almost anchored through his hand, but mainly because he never left a friend alone in times of need. Even if he was having a hard time dealing with what was going on.

"Almost there, just a few more pushes." The midwife told Mai as she struggled to force out the baby's head.

Joey turned in response to the midwife talking and saw a sight which he wished he hadn't. "Holy crap, there's the head!" then he felt Mai dig her nails into his hand even deeper as she pushed one last time. "Ow, ow, ow!" he whimpered again.

A moment later there was the sound of a baby crying. "Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy." The midwife told her.

"Did you hear that?" Joey said almost crying as he rubbed his now-free-from-Mai's-grasp hand. In disbelief he added; "You're a mother now." He couldn't tell if Mai was laughing or crying. Probably just tears of happiness he told himself.

"Sir, we offer all the fathers the chance to cut the umbilical cord." Another midwife said as she held out a pair of huge scary looking scissors towards Joey.

"I'm not the father." Joey said sheepishly. "Just a friend."

"Oh." Gasped the midwife. "I see." She turned away and cut the cord herself.

"I'm just gonna go get some air while you clean up." Joey spoke half to Mai and half to the midwives. "I'll be back shortly."

He raced outside and leaned against the wall almost banging his head as he rested it back and closed his eyes. He couldn't understand why Mai hadn't told him that she was pregnant. Although now that he thought about it, he should have realised sooner as her dress sense had changed drastically over the months as she went from her usual style to the big baggy look. He hadn't wanted to comment about the change as he knew just how dangerous it was for a man to talk about women's fashion and still be alive at the end of the conversation.

Glancing at his watch he decided to venture back inside the hospital and find out which ward that Mai and the baby had been moved to. He wasn't sure just what he was going to say when he saw her again.

It didn't take Joey long to find where they had been moved to. He poked his head around the curtain that ran around Mai's area of the ward. "How ya feeling?" he asked her.

"I've just given birth to a baby so how do you think I feel?" Mai replied rather coldly.

"Sorry I asked." Joey rolled his eyes and then looked at the baby who slept peacefully in the small raised crib at the bottom of Mai's bed. His heart melted at the sight. "Can I hold him?" he asked.

"If you really want to." Mai snapped back.

Carefully Joey placed his hands under the tiny baby and lifted him into his arms. "Have you thought of a name for him?"

"Not yet." Mai huffed.

There was silence for a moment as Joey didn't know what else to say or do. He looked at Mai who was doing her best not to look at him or the baby. "Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant? I thought that we could tell each other anything." He paused for a moment. "I can handle the fact that you're with someone else."

"There is nobody else." Mai said as she quickly glanced at him before turning away again.

"These things don't make themselves!" Joey exclaimed a little too harshly as he nodded downwards to the sleeping baby.

Meeting Joey's glare and knowing that he wouldn't stop pestering her until he had been given an explanation Mai told him the truth. "It was a stupid drunken one-night stand. Neither of us knew or wanted this to happen." She turned away once she had finished, not wanting to see the look on her friend's face.

Joey felt like an idiot. If there had been anybody else in her life then Mai wouldn't have been spending as much of her time with him instead of her lover. Awkwardly he asked; "Have you tried to contact the father?"

"I tried." Mai said still looking away with tears in her eyes. "I lost track of all the calls and letters I sent him that he never responded to, so I think it's very clear that he doesn't want to be involved."

Seeing just how upset she was Joey tried to cheer Mai up by saying; "Scum like that don't deserve to be fathers away. You're both better off without him."

Mai turned back to Joey and saw him making cooing noises to the baby still in his arms. She felt a lump in her throat. "I'm not keeping the baby." She quickly turned away as Joey looked at her. "He's due to be put up for adoption any minute now. I'm just waiting for him to be collected."

"But why!" Joey cried not believing that Mai would do something like this. "Look at him!" He forced the baby into her vision.

"Please don't." Mai cried as she turned the other way with tears rolling down her face. "The less contact I have with him then the easier it will be for me to let him go."

"So you do want to keep the baby?" Joey asked seeing the tears on Mai's face. She nodded. "Then what's stopping you?"

"I can't raise a child on my own." She said still not facing him and more tears flowing down her cheeks. "I know that many people do manage on their own but … I just want him to have a better life than what I can give him." Mai was now crying freely.

Joey didn't know what to do. He hated to see any of his friends upset or hurt. He looked down at the baby. "Then let me be there for you both."

"It won't work." Mai said as she wiped the tears from her eyes and faced Joey.

"Why won't it?" he asked. "You're one of my best friends, but I feel for you more than that. I know that there's the age difference between us but it doesn't matter to me." He looked her straight in the eye and could feel his own swelling up. "I love you Mai, and I can't think of a better way to spend the rest of my life than what I could with you."

"I feel the same way." Mai admitted "But it won't work because…" she paused and took a deep breath. She knew that what she would say next would hurt Joey. "… the baby's father is Kaiba."

Joey shook his head not wanting to believe what he had heard. He couldn't ever imagine the two of them together; he didn't want to imagine what happened between them. Closing his eyes he turned his head away and hung it to one side as he fought back the tears that were likely to fall otherwise. He was also angry, but not with Mai only with Kaiba.

He opened his eyes and saw the sleeping face of the baby he held. Kaiba's baby, he told himself. He stared hard expecting to feel hatred towards the baby, but felt nothing but love as he could see the resemblance of Mai upon the tiny face. No matter how much he hated Kaiba, the baby had nothing to do with the rift between them, just like it hadn't asked to be born.

"Nothing's changed." He told Mai as he met her gaze. "I will love and raise him as my own." He looked deeper into her eyes than what he had ever done before. "I'm serious about this whole thing."

Lost for words, Mai struggled to get her reply out before the curtains opened and the midwife stood there with the woman from the adoption services. "I have some papers here that need signing and then we can take the baby off your hands."

"I've-changed-my-mind!" Mai blurted out in the long word. She stared at the adoption woman and spoke firmly. "I'm keeping my son."

The woman let out one long annoyed sigh at having her time wasted. "At least you decided before the papers were signed." Was all she said before she turned and left mumbling about time-wasters. Mai watched her leave and then saw the happiness that covered Joey's face.

"Well I still have some paperwork that needs to be filled in." The midwife said as she reached for her clipboard and pen. "What's going to be the name given to baby-Valentine?"

Mai shook her head. "Not Valentine. Wheeler." She looked and saw Joey as his eyes watered and danced with joy. "Joseph Wheeler." She told the midwife.

"Did you hear that?" Joey said in a silly voice as he spoke to his son. "You're named after me, your daddy."

"I thought that you weren't the father?" the midwife asked confused after Joey had told her earlier that he wasn't the father.

"There's been a change of plan." Mai said happily as Joey approached her and handed over the sleeping baby.

"I see." Smiled the midwife as she watched the happy family before her.