Chapter 23: Zero Defects
As he waited for a light to change he sat quietly in his car at an intersection on his way back to the hospital, lost in his own internal conflict. The last few days had been horrific and he was exhausted, both mentally and physically. He had left the hospital about ten hours ago only because he was about to drop. By that point he'd been awake for nearly three days, and not one of them had been a good one. After being sure Roland would not be budging from his spot next to her door at the hospital he had gone home to sleep and didn't as much as twitch for eight hours. When he woke up he showered, changed, and headed to Sarah's apartment to get her a change of clothes. He doubted any version of her would want to be in that horrible hospital gown much longer, and the clothes she'd been in when they got her to the emergency room had been stained with her blood and coated in a fine layer of sand in more than one place. He had been relieved no one bothered to ask about that, because he had no good explanation for it short of the truth, which he wasn't about to share.
When he left Sarah, or Kisara, was asleep again and had another IV in her arm with medication that was meant to clear out the lingering effects of the neurotoxin the medical team had found in her bloodstream, which was what appeared to be causing the seizures as well as the disorientation Mokuba had told him about. The doctors had assured him a few hours before he left very early this morning that the last of the danger had passed, and the likelihood of her having another seizure were very slim. Despite his very thorough understanding of what the word slim meant he had been less than reassured. It was bad enough seeing it when he had managed to get her to the emergency room and the doctors and nurses knew what to do, to have her start to convulse that way in the staircase when he was alone had been one of the most terrifying moments of his life.
Taking in a measured breath he tried to calm himself, unsure of what to do with Kisara. He had been stunned speechless when he realized who he had found standing up on the roof. He had thought, naively perhaps, that she would never remember their past and they could go on the way they were forever. At first that had stung at him, chaffing at the part of him that was the priest as he had loved Kisara more than any words could ever express, but as time went on that injustice of that had diminished and he began to bond with her in this life, began to bond with Sarah. While he loved Kisara deeply, he wouldn't know what to do if Sarah's memory had somehow been erased by the return of her past self. Sarah was his friend and companion as much as his lover, and he needed her in as many ways as he needed Kisara. They were both who they had been in their last lives in so many ways, but they were different as well. In this life he needed Sarah, needed the more complex relationship she could offer him. His short time with Kisara had been intense, but the priest had known little about her save that he had rescued her from a group of slavers when they were young. Truly, they had only known each other for a month all told, and he wondered that they could have loved each other so strongly and intensely in such a small amount of time. If he were honest with himself he was terrified of the possibility that Sarah might be gone, and was beating back the overwhelming feelings of fear and grief in the hopes that something could be done to bring her memory back.
He had also realized, at some point in his tired haze, that he had inadvertently done this to her himself. Despite his promise about never telling her about their past, and his continual efforts to keep others from doing the same, it had been at his own command that she knew. He had told her to remember, having intended nothing more than her recalling her current life, but clearly he had been careless with his words in his panic to mitigate the situation. The power of the millennium rod allowed it's owner to control people's minds, and he had more than tapped into that power when he saw her about to kill both his brother and her human body as she went out of control in the shadow realm. The millennium rod, which already wanted the blue eyes white dragon fully back in his control, had taken his words and run wild with them, making her remember everything it seemed. Pulling into the hospital parking lot he found a spot toward the back and parked. As he got out, taking her backpack out with him, he glanced up at the building, which was about fifteen stories high and modern even by Domino standards, having been built as a state of the art medical facility just over a year ago. Looking it over he was once again unsurprised Kisara had fled when she woke up. The items in the hospital, which to people in this time were normal and understood to an extent even if they weren't medical professionals, must surely appear either terrifying or magical, or both. Considering her experience with magic, which wasn't really what he would call positive, she must have been frightened. He probably would have bolted too.
Walking into the building he stopped at the reception desk and got a visitor's pass, ignoring his impatience with the procedure as it was meant to keep everyone here safe, and then headed to the elevators. Getting out on the eleventh floor he headed toward her room and spotted Roland glancing into the room, looking worried. He increased his speed at once, adjusting the strap of the backpack on his shoulder, and his bodyguard looked over when he heard his hurried footsteps. He shifted out of the way and he stepped past the other man at once. Kisara was sitting up in bed, hunched over herself awkwardly. Half leaning back against the bed, which was tilted up at an angle for her, she had one of her legs pulled up to her chest with the other crooked out at an angle under the blanket. She had her elbow resting on her knee and her forehead was propped on the palm of her hand. Her hair was covering most of her face, but she looked sick. He noted that the IV was gone and a new bandage and been placed on her arm. The doctors must have finished with the medication since he left. "Are you alright?" He asked in Egyptian.
She looked up, still appearing disoriented, but her eyes filling with relief when she saw him. "Not especially." She told him in English, her voice laced with exhaustion. "No one will tell me what's going on or why I'm in the hospital." Her face filled with frustration. "Which is mostly likely due to the fact that for some reason I can't understand anything that isn't English."
He eyed her up and down critically, because she had just understood what he said in Egyptian and clearly hadn't recognized that at all. At his marked and unusual hesitation Roland spoke softly behind him. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba, English was never my strongest subject. I told her you would be back shortly when she woke up, but that was the best I could do. She's been pretty agitated, but she's stayed in bed when I motioned for her to." His frown deepened and Roland went on. "The doctor said it was likely the seizures gave her some sort of short term memory loss."
"Sarah?" He asked after a protracted moment where he absorbed that.
She grunted softly as she put her head back down in her hand, as if she were too dizzy to keep looking up. "What's going on?" She asked him in the most plaintive tone he'd ever heard come out of her. He didn't think she intended to sound that pitiful, which only increased his own agitation as he tried to beat his confusion over her switch back to her modern self away. "I don't remember anything after we got to the arena and I sat down with Mokuba. Nothing that makes any sense anyway, just crazy images."
Baffled, disappointed despite his terror over Sarah's possible loss, and massively relieved all at once he moved further into the room, unsure of what the hell was going on. Clearly, this was Sarah and not Kisara, although he could find no reason for the switch back to her current personality and memories. And if she couldn't remember anything since before the duel started then she clearly had no idea about either her transformation or her past self once again. He made a motion with his hand toward his bodyguard and Roland backed out at once at the silent order, pulling the door shut behind him to give them privacy. Setting the bag down on the floor he sat on the edge of her bed and put his arms around her. Pulling her against him carefully he kissed the side of her head as some of the tension drained out of him. He felt better now, massively so, knowing his Sarah was back, but was also concerned as there was no way her memories were simply gone again. He didn't have that sort of luck. "That's okay." He assured her, his voice sounding oddly gruff as he stroked her hair back behind her ear, calmed by the warm weight of her against him.
Sarah pressed against his side, keeping her face down. "I'm really glad you're here, but what happened?"
He cleared his throat, surprised to find it had constricted as some of his fear of her dying fell away, as the relief of having her back crashed over him. At the odd sound she glanced up slowly and her blue eyes went sharp, seeing that something was wrong. "Someone slipped a neurotoxin into your system somehow." He told her and she frowned up at him. Any thought he'd had of telling her what actually happened was tossed aside at once. He thought at the moment informing her she had been poisoned was more than enough for her to handle. Sarah would never believe what had happened if she couldn't remember it. "After you got to the stadium Mokuba said you felt sick and left to go to the bathroom. He went after you when you didn't come back and found you having a seizure in a different part of the park. You must have been disoriented and walked outside. You've been here for three days."
She stared up at him blankly. "Someone drugged me?"
"Yes."
She took that in for several long moments. "I'm bruised all over." She told him. "Drugs didn't do that."
"You may have fallen somewhere along the way after you wandered out of the stadium." He lied. "Or something else could have happened before Mokuba found you."
"You mean someone attacked me." She stated, her eyes tired and unsurprised. It was the look of someone used to being beaten and he hated it. He hated that his own carelessness and feelings of invulnerability had led to this. He knew better. "That doesn't make any sense. Why leave me beaten instead of killing me, or raping me, or kidnapping me-"
"Stop it." He ordered roughly, deeply upset by the thought of any of that. Hearing her say it so matter of factly made him sick.
"Well what was the point of it then?" She asked tiredly, putting her head back down again. "Why would anyone drug me to begin with? I don't feel as if I'm important enough to do that to."
He rubbed small circles over her upper arm with his thumb, thinking she was wrong about that in so many ways. Even if she wasn't what she was, even if their past and magic had nothing to do with it, just being close to him put her in danger. Even if their relationship wasn't public, even if it had just started, it had gotten around that they were friends. His entire company knew she was his favorite, and he was who he was and hadn't bothered to try to hide it or play it off. He had simply gone on because he wanted that friendship and he wanted her in his life. So, like everything he wanted he took it, everyone else be damned. And even if that was all it was, only friendship and nothing else, he was sure it would be enough to tempt someone to do something with her if they thought it would get him to give into a demand, and that was just the normal psychopaths. What they were dealing with now was on a whole different level. "I'm going to find out who did this." He promised. "And I won't let anyone hurt you again."
She nodded, really believing him, and he relaxed a little more at her faith in him. "Okay, Seto." She rallied herself a bit and looked back up at him, leaning her head into his shoulder and taking him in. "Are you alright? You look like a hot mess honestly."
"You're one to talk." He teased, finding normalcy in the banter. "To think I'm dating someone that lets herself go this way."
She squawked indignantly. "I don't even have a toothbrush here! And they won't let me get up!"
Smiling slightly, he got up, slipping off the bed carefully so he wouldn't jostle her. "I brought you your toothbrush." He told her, pleased he had made the stop at her apartment. Picking the bag up he set it next to her. "And a change of clothes."
"Thank you." She said sincerely. "This gown is a nightmare."
"And about three sizes too big." He agreed, tugging a the side of it with two fingers. "I'll go ask the doctor when you're going to be discharged. I know you don't like hospitals."
"You're kind of the best, so I'm going to ignore the fact that you got a copy of my key without asking, or picked my lock." She told him as she opened the bag to see what he had brought her. "You even thought of a hairbrush."
"Don't change until I'm sure I can take you home." He told her. "They'll just make you change back again."
"My jeans!" She said with tired happiness, ignoring his advise. "Awesome."
Shaking his head he opened the door and found Roland standing there with his arms crossed on the other side of the hallway. He pulled the door closed behind him, giving her some privacy in case she decided to go ahead and change clothes anyway. "How long has she been awake?" He asked the other man quietly.
"About two hours." Roland told him. "She woke up when the nurse was checking on her and panicked. It sounded like she was having a nightmare and the woman shook her awake. She calmed down when she saw me, but she couldn't understand what I was telling her. She was talking, but I don't think it was in English for the first forty minutes or so. I couldn't recognize anything she was saying, but she speaks so many languages I'm not sure which one she was on, or if she was scrambling them all up together." He shrugged. "She's been asking for you since she woke up, I think. Your name was the only thing I got most of the time."
"You should have called me as soon as she was up." He told him, annoyed he wasn't informed the moment she was conscious.
"Ando said you were still sleeping." Roland told him apologetically. "I would have had him wake you up if anything was really wrong. After the first minute or so she was calm enough. She's a bit of a temper on her though. I think she would have beaten us all back if she wasn't so sick."
He huffed at that, the man really had no idea. "I noticed." He glanced around for the doctor. "Did they tell you when she could leave?"
"No, but I didn't ask. I can go get the doctor for you."
"Good." He agreed, turning to go back into the room. Sarah hadn't changed clothes, having left her bag on the foot of the bed, but was brushing her teeth in the bathroom. "Are you allowed to be up?" He asked as he stepped past the small washroom. She spoke around the toothbrush, her words muffled, but sounding very much like she was telling him he shouldn't have brought it if she wasn't meant to use it. Despite his concern for her he smiled slightly again as he sat down in the chair beside the bed to wait for her. A few minutes later and Sarah limped back out of the bathroom, clearly favoring her right side as she went, and was using the wall to help support herself. His amusement faded at once and he got up, helping her back into the bed so she wouldn't tip over.
"I'm fine, Seto." She said, reading his mind as he made her sit back down. "I'm just off balance."
"You're the worst liar I've ever met." He informed her, pulling the blanket back over her legs. "I doubt you'll be leaving today."
Instead of arguing she slumped back, putting her hand over her face tiredly as she shifted to her side and curled up a little. Her complete lack of argument over that was unsettling and he sat back down next to her and reached over to stroke her hair. Sarah let out a low sigh of approval and stilled, and the image of her laying in nearly the same position in the center of that shadow realm ruin blasted through his head. The moment his blue eyes had hesitated in the duel he should have known something was wrong. Never once had his great dragon been anything but instantly obedient, and yet there had been a brief moment of oddness that he had dismissed as a possible side effect of his AI program. He would not deny he had put more coding into his dragon than the other monsters, but he felt more than justified doing it as it was his favorite and he was the one creating the program. Her entrance onto the field had been spectacular, it had been everything he had wanted, and the fearsome display had awed and frightened the audience, which had been perfect, the showcase he had wanted broadcast around the world.
Still, he hadn't noticed anything was really wrong until the end of the match. It seemed strange she had been circling the field overhead, but other monsters had done the same in other duels he had observed using the program, specifically the harpy lady and the red eyes black dragon, and once again he dismissed it, intent on decimating Keith with all the pomp and circumstance the display deserved. But when his blue eyes had stared down at him and cried out as if she was in real pain he knew something was terribly wrong. All at once he had felt the tingle of magic running along his spine and realized he had been feeling it since the duel started and had set it down to the welcome rush of adrenaline he got when he was in the spotlight. But her eyes… they had been the same as Sarah's in that moment, not those of a mindless hologram, and when he turned to look for her in the crowd he saw that the two seats that Mokuba and Sarah had occupied only twenty minutes before were empty. He had ended the duel at once, not bothering to toy with the other man any longer, and sent Keith's life points plummeting to zero. As soon as the holograms vanished he turned on his heel and strode out of the arena.
Thankfully, he wasn't known for his politeness and no one had found the abrupt exit odd. As he vanished under the stadium, keeping his composure until he was out of sight of the crowd, he looked down at his duel disk and was stunned and momentarily baffled to see that the card with his blue eyes white dragon on it was blank. He had ripped it off the disk and held it up, but the image was utterly gone and he sucked in a sharp breath. There was only one reason for her card to be blank. Her soul was no longer safely in his possession. Reaching into his trench coat he pulled out the millennium rod and held it tightly, trying to use it to search for her. "Where is she?" He demanded harshly, and the wadjet began to glow. Grunting, he shielded his own eyes, and when he managed to blink the spots away he found himself standing in front of a large stone door with the blue eyes engraved into it. He could feel the cold, oppressive feel of the shadow realm seeping out of it and knew no good could come from this. Pressing his lips together he shoved it open, more than ready to face whatever it was that was going on.
He was momentarily disoriented when he stepped out into the very place Kisara had died so many millennia ago. He recoiled internally at the sight, but then he heard the enraged roaring. Turning his head he spotted his brother desperately trying to shield Sarah with his body as lightning rained down over the area dangerously, and a hundred feet beyond that the blue eyes white dragon was being sucked toward a dragon capture jar. Without thinking he yanked a counter trap out of his deck and set it off with his magic. The jar had exploded, and free of the possibility of capture she had viciously attacked whoever that man had been, but he felt a blast of magic and could only assume whoever the other man was he had used his own millennium item to escape the bubble dimension he had created in an effort to get her. The dragon had been anything but pleased by the escape and had turned on Mokuba in rage. Without thinking he had put himself between them, knowing that he could calm her if given a few moments. That had worked he supposed, but not as well as he would have thought. He had never imagined he would need to use the millennium rod to make her listen, as he'd never had a problem with that before, but then again she had never been ripped out of her injured human form before either.
Regardless of the reason, which he would think over more carefully once he had Sarah back to a healthy and functional state, he had managed to stop her and return her soul to her body. After that things had been a nightmare of blood, fear, and confusion. The situation hadn't improved much over the next few hours even once they got her to the emergency room, because no sooner had he arrived with an ashen, nearly comatose Mokuba behind the ambulance than she had started having seizures. He had been left in the emergency waiting room holding his brother up and trying not to start hurling things about the room in rage over the injustice of it all. Mokuba had said nothing the entire time they were there, only sat silently staring after where Sarah was as they tried to stabilize her, or was passed out in a chair. He had finally left once they moved her out of critical care early that morning to take his brother home. He had been terrified to leave before he knew what was going on, terrified she might die as a result of the duel, or whatever the doctors told him she'd been drugged with, and equally terrified to let his brother out of his sight, even with Roland there to take him home. He hadn't been gone more than thirty minutes to drop Mokuba off to sleep at the mansion, to find Sarah had escaped her room when no one was watching. At least he had found her before she could get any farther than the roof. He didn't even want to think about what would have happened if she had wandered outside and gotten lost in the state she was in.
"Will you take me home?" She asked, bringing him back to the present. Letting her hand drop she met his eyes, hers filled with exhaustion. "I hate hospitals. I'd rather feel bad in my own bed."
"I know you don't like it here." He replied, reaching up and running his hand over her head, but didn't promise anything. Stubborn as she was he wasn't letting her out of here until the doctors said it was safe. It was worth the fight.
"And I missed your duel and our date." She continued, clearly upset. "I really wanted to see you win. How badly did you crush Keith by the way?"
"I was satisfied." He replied, keeping his face impassive.
Sarah sighed sadly. "I wish I had been there."
She had no idea how much she was. "It's not important."
"Yeah it is." She replied. "Maybe we can watch it online later and you can give me a personal commentary. I bet it's saved on about a million sites by now." He hummed in agreement and she changed the subject. "Is Mokuba okay? I must have freaked him out."
He supposed that depended on her definition of okay. He had no idea how Mokuba was, other than still recovering his stamina from a shadow duel. So far Mokuba hadn't said anything about what had happened, but he knew it was only a matter of time now before they had time to talk. "He's fine." He assured her, although he wasn't entirely sure that was true.
Sarah smiled at him tiredly and there was a knock on the door. Turning his head he let his hand slide away from her as the doctor came in. The woman was in her mid forties and had a plain but welcoming sort of face. "Good morning."
Sarah let out a sigh of frustration and forced herself into a sitting position before he could try to stop her. She swayed, but kept herself up as she spoke in English. "I can't understand her, Seto."
"She said good morning." He told her before turning to the doctor and switching to his first language. "Sarah's first language is English. She's having trouble with the others she's learned."
The doctor nodded and turned to Sarah and spoke haltingly in English. "It's been a very long time since I spoke English. The nurse coming to her shift at noon is fluent. Would you like to wait for her or would you be comfortable with Mr. Kaiba translating for us?"
Sarah looked at him in askance and he shrugged, not wanting to invade her privacy if she didn't want him there, but also wanting to know what was going on. However, pushing what he wanted would likely backfire with her. "It's up to you."
"Seto can translate." She told the doctor and then sighed in frustration. "This is my job."
"It's fine." He soothed.
Sarah clearly didn't agree. "Can you ask her when I'll get this back?"
He nodded, very aware she would be stuck on this until she had an answer. "Sarah wants to know how long it will be until she can understand other languages again. She's my translator at Kaiba Corp. She speaks a dozen languages fluently. She's understandably upset about this."
The doctor moved to her and he got up so he was out of the way as the doctor pulled a small flashlight out. Smiling at Sarah warmly she set her hand under her chin and tilted her head up so she could shine the light in her eyes. Sarah grimaced, but didn't pull away. "I would think she should be back to normal in a few days, possibly a week. Side effects of seizures can be fairly broad, and the neurotoxin in her system did more to her than that. I would expect her to be tired over the next few days while she recovers, but there's no reason to think she won't remember everything she's encoded in her long term memory. If she'll get back anything directly after she was poisoned I'm less certain about, but the possibility is there."
He nodded, summarizing, and fully relieved that she might not remember any of this and they could simply go back to their lives, or at least she could while he worked out how to kill whoever it was that did this to her, because he was going to kill them."She thinks no more than a week on the language issue, but isn't sure you'll remember anything that happened after you were poisoned." Clearly, Sarah was a much more skilled and patient translator than he was, but he thought that covered all of it.
Sarah relaxed noticeably, and he was sure she had been very worried that she would somehow lose the skill that kept her working, as if that would mean he would let her starve to death or something equally ridiculous. The doctor went on. "Can you ask her how she's feeling? Specifically?"
"She wants to know how you feel."
Sarah shrugged. "I'm dizzy and have a headache."
He translated and the doctor nodded, taking her wrist to feel her pulse. "Ask her about her ribs."
"You're ribs?" He asked, confused by the question.
"Are broken." Sarah replied tiredly, and he frowned, having not been told that. He had seen the chains around her before he blasted them off her with his magic, but he hadn't really bothered to look at her sides. He had been much more worried by her arm, which had resulted in a disturbingly large pool of blood forming around her. It hadn't occurred to him to check and cursed himself for not being more careful. He hadn't exactly been gentle as he could have been as he carried her out to meet the ambulance.
He glanced at the doctor. "Her ribs are broken?"
"Yes, two of them on her right side. Does she want a painkiller?"
"Do you want anything for the pain?"
"No." Sarah replied. "Can I go home?"
"She wants to know if you'll discharge her." He replied.
"I'd like to keep her here until early afternoon to monitor her. Her blood work came back normal this morning, but I'm concerned she's still dizzy and that she can't speak Japanese right now if she's normally fluent in it. If she can walk straight by then she can go."
"Not until after lunch at the earliest." He told her, not phrasing it as an option, although he knew by law they couldn't keep her here.
Her shoulders slumped. "Fine."
"Do what the doctor says." He told her firmly. "A few more hours here won't hurt you even if you don't like it."
She sent him an irritated glance. "Stop being bossy."
He raised an eyebrow in challenge, knowing this was an argument worth having with her if she was going to be stubborn about it. "And take the painkillers." He told her, knowing very well what she was doing. "It's not worth you being in pain so you can think straight and fake that you're fine to get out of here. If you aren't I'll just bring you right back." She pressed her lips together in irritation at being caught in that scheme. "She's decided she would like something for the pain." He told the doctor as she sulked.
"Somehow I doubt that's what she just said." The doctor replied, appearing entertained by the battle of wills she could see but not understand. "But I'll bring her something. I doubt she's comfortable." She went on as Sarah leaned back in the bed, tired, but impatient. "Is she allergic to anything? Does she have any past medical history that might cause any sort of complications?"
"No, she doesn't have any allergies." He told the doctor, already knowing that. "And she doesn't have any medical issues."
"Any possibility of pregnancy?" She asked.
He fought down his very interesting and undefinable reaction to that and answered her. "No."
"Check with her please." The doctor instructed.
"She wants to know if you have any medical problems she should know about, or if you might be pregnant."
"I mean, maybe if we'd gone on our date." She replied moodily, and he stared at her, his eyebrow raising, completely thrown by her total lack of filter once again, and trying not to show it behind his impassive mask. Sarah realized what she had said a moment after it came out of her mouth and her entire face went from porcelain, to pink, to red. She started babbling at once. "I mean, I have birth control obviously. Not that I, not that it was, not that you should think, I mean, oh my gosh." She put her head down in her knees, trying to hide. "I should have waited for the nurse." She whispered, mortified, and refusing to look up at him. Despite everything, all the stress, the exhaustion, and his very real concern over what had happened, and her health emergency, a snort of gleeful, self-satisfied laughter escaped him. "I hate you so much." She informed him, talking into her knees.
Clearing his throat as he got himself under control he spoke to the doctor, amusement thick in his voice. "No, she's not pregnant."
The doctor raised her eyebrow, but let it alone. "Is there anything else I should know before I leave?"
"Is there anything else you want me to tell her?" He asked. "Anything that might lead to your death or further permanent mental instability?"
"You aren't even funny." She informed him. "But no."
"There's nothing else."
"Alright, I'll have the nurse bring her something and come back in a few hours to check on her." The doctor sent him a smile. "She's much calmer now that you're here. Tell her to stay in bed until she's not so dizzy. I don't want her to tip over and hurt herself worse than she is." He nodded and the woman left, taking Sarah's chart and scribbling in it as she left.
He was still smirking, fully pleased with himself, as the door shut yet again and Sarah grumbled as she finally emerged from her very useless hiding place. "Shut up. I did not mean to say that. I am clearly not at my best right now."
It was simply too easy to tease her about it right now, and he was sure she couldn't even put up a decent fight feeling the way she was, so graciously he beleived, he let it pass, although the smug smile stayed on his face. "I-" Before he could finish his phone rang and he sighed in annoyance, pulling it out. Seeing that it was Yuka he answered it. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Kaiba." His secretary said. "But there's been an emergency shut down in your experimental lab. The project manager said the AI program may have overloaded the computer."
Knowing he couldn't ignore that, not when production needed to be streamlined as quickly as possible, he forced his anger at the interruption back. "Tell him to shut everything down. I'll be there shortly."
"Of course, Mr. Kaiba. I'll be sure that's done."
Closing the phone he put it back in his pocket and looked back up at Sarah regretfully. She had turned on her side to face him and had her head resting on the mattress. "You have to go." She stated with surety.
"It can wait." He said, deciding to stay after one glance at her tired, pain filled eyes. She might be trying to hide it, but she was clearly in a bad way.
She sent him a look that told him she wasn't buying that at all. "You have more important things to do than sit here with me all day."
"No, I don't." He told her honestly.
Her expression softened and her cheeks flushed pink again. "I'm fine here, Seto." She told him. "I'm just going to sit here until they let me leave. Go do whatever it is you need to do." He didn't move and she made a shooing motion. "Go on. I'm really fine."
"You have to stay in that bed." He ordered. "I mean it, or I"m staying here."
"I promise not to get up until they say I can." She agreed. "I'll call you when I get home."
"Roland will take you home if they discharge you before I get back." He told her firmly, standing up.
"I can call a cab."
"In Japanese?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or were you hoping for the best?"
She wrinkled her nose in frustration. "Fine, but he has better things to do than watch me."
"Not today he doesn't." He assured her. "Be good for them. They're helping you." She sighed again, giving up on the whole thing, and he let his more gentle side back out. "It's only for a few more hours."
"I know." She agreed quietly.
Leaning down he cupped her cheek and kissed her gently. Sarah arched up into the kiss and warm contentment filled him. Rubbing her cheek he pulled away, smiling down at her. "I'll see you soon. I'm glad you're back."
"I didn't go anywhere." She told him.
His insides knotted. "You almost did." He replied, unable to stop himself from kissing her again. Sarah reached up and put her hands on his face, holding him to her for several long moments before letting him get away.
"I have too much fun driving you to distraction to die, Seto Kaiba." She informed him seriously. "Now go on, you have things to do and I'm told I need to practice behaving."
"I've set you up for failure I'm sure." He replied as he headed toward the door. "I put your cell phone in your bag. Call me if you need anything, or when they discharge you."
"I will." She agreed, shifting carefully and pulling the sheet a bit higher up. "See you in a little bit."
"Yes, you will." He promised as he left, fighting the urge to stay the whole way.
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Hours later, having skipped lunch and mostly lost track of time, he had his arms up to his elbows in the supercomputer in one of the labs at Kaiba Corp, trying to figure out what was going on. The AI program, while massive, wasn't big enough to overload this thing, and yet there were alerts going off left and right. He had Noah investigating as well, but he was handicapped by only existing virtually. Someone needed to be moving things around manually who also knew what to look for and could fix issues as they came up. There were several other computer engineers in here with him, all competent and trying to help him isolate the problem, which was frustratingly elusive. As he examined a circuit board closely, unsure if it was the hardware or software that was tripping them up, his phone rang and he muttered to himself as he leaned back out of the computer. Pulling his phone out he saw Sarah's number and picked up at once, thankful for the distraction despite his normally disturbing intensity in such matters. "Did you get home safely?" He asked, wondering if they were going to need to replace at least half the memory on this thing to fix it.
"I'm still at the hospital." She told him and he frowned when he noted she was speaking Egyptian again. It was even more worrisome because he knew she hadn't learned that in this life. It was clearly leaking over from her last one. "They won't let me leave yet."
"Why?" He demanded, underlying worry in his voice as he too switched to that langauge. Really, he had been hoping she would have been discharged after what the doctor said. He could only assume something wasn't going as well as hoped, which had his anxiety rocketing up yet again.
She ignored this question. "It was the coffee."
"What?" He asked, confused.
"The coffee." She repeated. "I couldn't figure out how they drugged me, or why they would drug me." Sarah sounded so tired. "I was with both of you all day, except when I ran home to change, and we ate all the same things except the coffee. It wasn't supposed to be me that was drugged, it was supposed to be you. You're the only one that drinks it and everyone knows that. It was just random chance that I drank it. I haven't had any since I moved here, but it smelled so good." He was silent as he processed that, livid and confused. It has seemed as if it were certainly her that man was after, but perhaps not. And why the hell hadn't he thought to check that? "Don't drink anything anyone gives you."
"I'll take care of this, Sarah." He told her. "Did you have another seizure? Is that why you're still there?"
"No." She told him. "I'm only dizzy. I'm really okay."
"I find it hard to believe that's the only reason they would keep you there." He stated.
There was a brief pause before she answered. "I couldn't remember my address." She told him quietly. "And right after you left I apparently started speaking something other than English, but no one knew what it was and I couldn't tell the difference either." She didn't like that at all, sounding fully unsettling. Even now she was continuing to speak in Egyptian, having not noticed, and was replacing untranslatable words with English ones. "And it's still all jumbled up wrong and it won't follow the rules properly at all."
"Rules?" He asked, confused.
"Languages have rules." She told him. "Some of them are crazy rules, but they all have them. You just have to know what they are and it's easy. But I can't seem to put the right rules with the right language." She sighed tiredly. "But I think I have Japanese mostly right again, except my head hurts so bad I can't hold conversations for very long except in English, which is fairly ridiculous if you think about it since it really has no rules at all. I mean, seriously, it's like the wild card language. It makes no sense when you start to think about it."
"It's your first language." He said. "Of course that's the easiest."
She pushed on. "I didn't call to tell you any of that. I'm rambling and I know you're busy. I wanted you to be careful about someone putting something in your food or your drinks is all."
"I'll be careful." He told her. "And I'm going to come check on you tonight. If they release you before that call me back."
"You don't have to." She told him. "I'm really okay."
"No, you really aren't." He told her in that tone that told her he was going to get his way. "I'll see you in a few hours. If you need anything call me back."
"Okay, Seto." She said, surprisingly meek. "Bye."
"Goodbye, Sarah." He said, his voice calm. However, as he slipped his phone back in his pocket worry began to gnaw at him. Clearly, something was very wrong, and he wasn't sure exactly what had been shaken lose in her mind, or what that might mean for her, or for him.
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Hours later and he was walking back into her hospital room after sending Roland home for the evening. Sarah had changed into the clothes he brought her and was signing forms to be released, which was clearly taking all her concentration to do. She looked better, and her hair was a bit damp so she must have been stable enough to be allowed to take a shower. As she sat on the bed struggling through reading he knocked lightly on the door to get her attention. She looked up when she heard that and gave him a strained smile. "You're back." She said.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, eyeing her critically.
"Better." She told him truthfully. "And ready to leave." She finished the last of the paperwork as she spoke. "And now I suppose I can. I was about to call you actually."
"I'll take you home." He told her, helping her to her feet after slinging her pack over one of his shoulders.
She kept them firmly under her, appearing much more steady than she had been only a few hours ago. She nodded, switching back to her first language. "Do you mind if we speak English?" She asked. "I got Japanese and French back about two hours ago, but it's still pretty hard for me to work through right at this moment. I feel like I have a loose wire or something."
"Of course." He agreed, switching to her native language with ease.
"Thank you." She said gratefully. "I suppose if nothing else this gives me a very firm understanding of what it's like for normal people to try to learn a second language."
His lips curled up. "It was about time you gained some empathy for the rest of us."
"Yeah, no one would ever classify you as a normal person under any category, Mr. Genius." She said as they headed out. She handed the paperwork to the nurse at the desk and thanked her sincerely for all her help. He nodded to the woman, and then led Sarah out to his car, mindful that he wasn't outpacing her. Despite her insistence she was fine she was limping, and he wasn't fully convinced she was altogether fully balanced. "So should I even ask about what I did when I was apparently in a hallucinogenic state? One of the nurses said I pulled a fast one and went up on the roof."
His eyes slid to hers as they walked down the hall. "You were just confused, Sarah. You came right back down with me."
She sighed unhappily, clearly picking up that he wasn't being fully truthful. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Another long pause. "What exactly do you remember?" He asked at last, being very sure not to trap himself into an answer in any direction.
"I remember going to our seats in the stadium, and seeing you walk out…" She trailed off as she fought for information. "And then…I was there again, in the stadium? No, that can't be right." Sarah stopped talking for several moments as she tried to catch the elusive thought, but it seemed to evade her and she slowed to a halt. "You were there." She blinked rapidly, her pupils contracting. "You were..." He was standing right in front of her listening intently, on edge. "It was...different. You were different and the same." That clearly didn't make any sense to her at all and her forehead crinkling. "But you were in two places at once." She shook her head as they stood in a corridor of the hospital. "That must have been some sort of drug."
Reaching over he caught her hand on impulse and began to lead her forward again. "Apparently you simply have some subconscious wanderlust." He told her. "You didn't do anything overly strange considering how confused you were. You don't need to worry so much. Are you alright with the elevator?"
"Yeah, it's fine." She agreed, lacing her fingers into his. "What was going on at work?"
"A computer issue." He told her. "I have a program running a full diagnostic. There's not much else I can do until it finishes tomorrow."
"It's going to take that long?" She asked with surprise.
"It's searching through an entire super computer." He told her. "Sadly, I've been forced to be patient." Her lips twitched up at that as they got onto the elevator and rode it down to the first floor, with her squeezing his hand and trying to pretend the small space didn't bother her. Once they were in the lobby he kept moving toward the exit, wanting to get her home so they could both relax. As they stepped out into the open she sucked in a deep breath of relief, taking in their surroundings.
"This is a nice hospital." She told him. "I mean, I don't really like them, but it is really nice. I've never been in one that was this good before. It's the same one Mokuba was at with his appendix isn't it?"
"Yes." He agreed, thinking he should really donate to this place after what they'd done for both of them. Clearly the staff was competent, the hospital well run, and the care was excellent. He'd certainly given money to far less worthy institutions. Spotting his car in the crowded lot he pulled his keys out and swung the ring around his index finger absently. When they got to it he went to the passenger side and unlocked it for her, holding the door open. She smiled at him as she slid gingerly inside and he tossed her bag in the back before moving to the drivers side. They left the lot with no further incident and Sarah began playing with the radio, seemingly to pass the time more than anything. After several minutes of silence he changed the subject as he merged onto the freeway. "I have all the videos and the list of everyone that was working that night. My security team is going through it now."
"That's good." She said, shaking herself out of whatever she was thinking. "Although I don't envy anyone that task. The theme park was nuts that night."
"By this time tomorrow I'll have whoever did this to you." He told her, not caring one whit about how hard the task was.
"At least it was me and not either of you." She said reasonably. "Not that I wanted to be drugged, but still it could have been worse. Someone must have been trying to sabotage the presentation of the new system."
"It shouldn't have happened at all." He snapped, his temper flaring. He cared very little about why it had happened. "And it shouldn't have happened to you."
She sighed tiredly. "I'm really all right, Seto."
"Other than not being able to speak anything but English, having several seizures, fighting off vertigo, and nearly dying several times over the course of the last few days you're just fine." He agreed sarcastically.
"I guess it's pointless to tell you to relax about it."
"Very." He agreed. "I'm going to take you home and then go find who did this."
"I would really like to lay down in my own bed." She agreed, realizing there was no getting this out of his head. "I miss my pillow."
He sent her a look. "Your pillow?"
"Oh come on. I know you have to have a favorite pillow. Everyone has a favorite pillow. Mine is one of those memory foam ones that conforms to your head."
"Of course it is." He replied, finding her ridiculously adorable. "I'll be sure to buy you ten more if it keeps you in bed resting."
"I mean, that probably won't really tempt me all that much if I want to get up." She told him. "But we could make an awesome pillow fort."
He huffed in amusement as they came up to her apartment building. Turning into the underground garage he pulled out the security card he had for the gate and swiped it quickly. "Thank you for taking me home." She told him as the gate opened to let them through.
"It's not a problem." He told her as he parked next to her car.
Sarah unclipped her seatbelt. "The doctor said I shouldn't go into work until Monday. I could probably make it if you needed me for something though. I'll send the note to HR in the morning."
"There's nothing that urgent." He replied, fully intending to keep her off until she had recovered. Reaching back he took the bag before she could think to grab it and got out. Sarah escaped the car before he could help her and they walked toward the elevator together. In less than two minutes they were walking into her apartment and she let out a relieved sigh as she headed back toward her bedroom. He went after her, setting the bag down on her couch as he passed. Not bothered by him following at all she crawled into her bed, kicking her shoes off as she went and snuggling her face into her pillow as she reached around blindly for her comforter, which was balled up haphazardly at the end of the mattress where she must have kicked it the last time she was here. Shaking his head he reached down and put it over her. Sitting on the side of the bed he began to stroke her hair back, enjoying the silky feel of it.
Sarah opened her eyes and caught his hand, tugging at him lightly toward her as her cheeks flushed. "Do you have to leave right away?" She asked shyly. "Lay down with me?"
Deeply pleased by the bashful invitation he tickled at her cheek for a moment before shrugging out of his trench coat and tossing it to the end of the bed, very sure he could stay for awhile. Leaning down he took his own shoes off and then laid down next to her, shifting a little as he did. Once he stilled Sarah surprised him by scooting right up against his side and setting her head on his shoulder. A moment later she draped her arm over his chest, her fingers playing almost nervously with the collar of his shirt. An involuntary hum of contentment escaped him, almost a purr really, and he relaxed all over as the smell of spices and vanilla caught him up and the warmth of her body began to permeate into him. Sarah was still, save for her busy fingers, and he twisted a lock of her hair around his fingers, playing with it absently. "Do you ever feel like we've done this before?" Sarah asked in Egyptian, her voice soft and dreamy.
He put his hand on the back of her head and ran it down to her neck. "What do you mean?" He asked quietly, using all the self control he had to keep his body relaxed as his mind snapped to attention.
"I don't know." She said, snuggling her face against him. "I always had this weird feeling that I'd met you before, or that I knew you somehow. It was so strange the first time I saw you in class." She shook her head a little. "And then that woman, Ishizu, told me this ridiculous story about reincarnation and now it's just stuck in my head." He saw her smile a little ruefully at herself. "It's a pretty thought I suppose, overly romantic, but I kind of like it anyway." He continued to say nothing, only tickled the tips of her fingers down her back, which had her squirming against him in the most marvelous way at the sensation he was provoking. He stored it away for later use. "I know that's silly. I'm sure you don't believe in past lives."
He edged around that with great care. "Do you?"
"No, not really." She told him. "I guess I don't really know what I believe as far as death or an afterlife go, but I never thought there was much of a point worrying about it as I would find out one way or another eventually."
"You are not allowed to find out for a very long time." He told her firmly.
"If you're going to be pushy about it what choice do I have?" She asked, pushing herself up a little so she could gaze down at him. Her blue eyes were twinkling playfully. "And I suppose you could convince me to stick around one way or another."
"Is that so?" He asked, liking the way her thoughts were going. "I did get the feeling things were going well when you mentioned something about how our date was meant to end-" Sarah had grabbed a pillow and hit him with it before he could finish and he laughed as he grabbed it from her.
"Do not get any ideas in that head of yours-" She started with mock outrage.
Tossing the pillow aside he swept his arm over her and twisted, putting her below him on the bed and kissing her deeply. Sarah responded at once and his mind went hazy with lust and affection. He loved how she reacted to him, loved how eager she was, loved how genuinely she felt things. He just loved her. Pulling her tighter against him, thinking of nothing but getting closer to her, he was jolted out of the sensation when she let out a pained yelp. He jerked up at once and she hissed as she pushed him away a little. "I'm sorry, my ribs, it's not your fault."
He pushed himself up at once, taking all of his weight off of her and cursing himself a fool. Sarah shifted, grimacing as she put her arm over her right side. "Sarah?"
"It's really okay." She assured him as she sucked in an uncomfortable breath. "Maybe we could try it with a little less… squeezing?"
Shaking his head he laid back down next to her and carefully pulled her back against him. Leaning his head forward he kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry. That was thoughtless."
Tilting her head up she kissed him warmly, managing to wiggle so she was cradled against his side. "Hey, Seto?"
"Yes?"
"Just kiss me again." She whispered, inclining her head for him. More than happy to comply he leaned in, letting himself get lost in her for a little while.