Yu-gi-oh

Disclaimer: I don’t own Yugioh, or the characters there in. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

To Serve and Protect

Chapter 22

Before I start this chapter I’ll say openly . . . I don’t do death fics. Death of one or more of my OC’s, yes. (Born to die, after all) But death of a cannon character? Absolutely not. So, as you read this, don’t freak out.

~ * ~

Betaed by Skippyscatt

~ * ~

Joey didn’t want to wake up the next morning. Despite the warm bath, he was sore and slightly stiff. The pains in his chest were getting worse as well. Rolling over sounded good until he tried. His pitiful moan brought a soft snort from Seto, who was sitting in a bedside chair.

“Well, it’s about time you decided to wake up. How do you feel?”

“Like I spent all night running around on a motorcycle beating up people and blowing up shit. Ow!” Joey sat up, rotated his upper body and hunched his shoulders. He still felt lousy.

Seto got out of the chair and crawled onto the bed. He gathered Joey into his arms and hugged him gently. “You really put the hurts on them. Between what you did and what I could do, they haven’t got bus fare. I called around and, with a little convincing, Watanabe’s lawyers all quit on him. He’s going to have to rely on a public defender.” Seto smirked happily. “I suggested to the Head P. D. that he should have one of his better people do the job. It wouldn’t do to have an appeal because the lawyer screwed up.” Seto nuzzled his nose into Joey’s loose hair. It was nearly down to the bottom of his shoulder blades now. It smelled of sandalwood and sage.

“Would you like me to fix your hair? It’s all tangled.” Seto stroked a hand down Joey’s mane of hair onto his shoulder and on down his arm to take his hand. He brought the callused hand up to his lips and kissed the fingers gently. Joey retrieved his hand and cupped Seto’s cheek.

They spent sometime kissing and murmuring sweet nothings, then Joey dumped Seto on the floor with a snicker. “Race you. First one there gets a shampoo.” Seto scrambled up and shot after Joey laughing.

They showered and Seto washed Joey’s hair for him, he also conditioned it. They dried each other off tickling and teasing. When Seto blew Joey’s hair dry, he literally purred it felt so good.

“Damn Seto, I love it when you do that. It’s nearly as good as a blow job.” Seto threw a wet washcloth at Joey, hitting him in the head. “I said almost.” Joey grumped, throwing the cloth back.

When Seto braided Joey’s hair, Joey leaned against him and fought to control another angina attack. Seto mistook his shudder for one of pleasure.

“Like that, do you lover? Almost done.” Seto snapped the elastic and hugged Joey. Joey managed to get himself together and follow Seto down to the kitchen for breakfast.

“Here. Have some bacon.”

Seto handed Joey the plate of bacon, but Joey put it aside. He also refused the potatoes and eggs, instead he took a piece of toast and a cup of tea. Seto worried; this was not Joey’s usual enormous breakfast.

“Seto . . . Sakura . . . I get . . . a little . . . weird after something like this . . . I need . . . space, I guess. Don’t be offended, but . . . I’m going to hole up in my office for a while. Do some work on the computer. Seto, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me. I . . . “

Seto reached out and put his fingers on Joey’s lips. “It’s ok. If you need space, space you shall have. I have some things I need to do too. You can always ring Sakura later if you want something.” Seto wiped his mouth and got up. “See you at lunch.”

Each of them went into their own office, Seto to take care of business and Joey to brood and worry.

When the pain hit he tried riding it out, then he tried laying down but that made it worse. He sat leaning forward, which eased the pain, but he finally couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed onto the floor.

~ * ~

Seto knew Joey needed time alone so he waited until near lunchtime to bother him. They’d reached a silent agreement, never go into the other’s office without knocking first. So Seto knocked gently on Joey’s door.

When he didn’t get an answer, he knocked a little louder. “Joey? I’m sorry to bother you but lunch is going to be ready. Sakura will be hurt if we let it get cold.” Seto knocked for a second time then shamelessly put his ear to the door. If Joey was asleep, he wouldn’t hear the knock.

Instead of a snore, he heard a moan. He didn’t bother knocking again. Anything bad enough to wrench such a sound from Joey was bad.

Seto pushed the door open and stepped into the room. He saw Joey laying on the floor curled into a fetal ball, rocking slightly from side to side.

“JOEY! Oh, my god! Joey, what’s the matter.” Seto rushed to Joey and gathered him into his arms.

“Seto. Oh god . . . it hurts so much. Please. I can’t take it. Please. Make it stop.” Joey hurt so badly he could barely talk. He knew Seto could fix this, he had to. “Oh Seto, I don’t want to die. Please. Help me.”

Seto ran his hands over Joey, looking for whatever was hurting him. He couldn’t find anything.
“Joey, where does it hurt? What’s wrong? You have to talk to me.” Seto started to put Joey back on the floor, but Joey clutched him frantically. “Joey, let me get to the phone. I have to push the panic button.”

Seto got Joey flat on the floor and stood to reach the phone. There was a button on every phone in the house called a panic button because one push would summon a servant, at the very least, and the ones in Seto and Joey’s offices were guaranteed to call Roland and every security man on duty at the time. In this case, Roland happened to be coming to call Seto and Joey to lunch. He burst into the office, gun drawn, ready for anything except what he saw.

Seto was back on the floor with Joey’s head in his lap. He was cradling Joey gently, rocking back and forth, trying desperately to comfort him.

“Joey . . . Joey. Take it easy . . . Roland will call . . . it’s ok . . . ok . . . don’t die . . . please, please don’t die.”

Joey whimpered. “It hurts . . . I’m too young for a heart attack . . . aren’t I? . . . Seto . . . please let me sit up. It doesn’t hurt so much then.”

Roland picked up the phone and called the helicopter hanger. “I want that chopper here in three minutes . . . . I don’t care . . . Wheeler’s sick . . . if it blows, just make sure it holds together long enough to get us to the hospital . . . fuck the engines, get here now.” Roland turned to Seto. “You might want to get another pilot. That ass was crying about warm up time . . . fuck at a time like this.” Roland knelt down beside Seto and Joey. “Boss. I need to check his pulse. Does he have a fever? Damn! Yes.”

Seto looked at Roland with begging eyes. “What . . . it’s a heart attack. We’ve got to get him to the hospital.”

“The chopper is on its way. We need to get him out to the lawn. Come on. We can carry him between us.”

But they didn’t need to do that. Yukari had brought a stretcher from somewhere. They got Joey on the stretcher and several of the security men picked it up and hurriedly carried him to the lawn, arriving just as the chopper set down.

The chopper set down and they got Joey into the wide bay doors, setting the stretcher down on the floor the security men all scrambled out. Two of them paused to help Seto in, followed by Roland, who was already talking on his cell phone. As the chopper lifted off Joey finally passed out with one last soft moan. Seto nearly had a heart attack of his own.

“Roland!”

Roland checked pulse and respiration. “He’s out. Leave well enough alone for now. When we get to the hospital, we’ll land on the roof. They’ll come to take him to Emergency. You go with him. I’ll take care of paper work. If they start to bother you, tell them to fuck off. I’ll run interference for you.”

Seto sat on the floor beside Joey, stroking his hair, his hand, anything he could touch without fear of hurting him further. Praying that Joey could hang on until they got to the hospital and found out what was wrong.

~ * ~

The emergency room staff rushed to the chopper to get to Joey. There had been a few nasty moments as the chopper pilot had argued with the hospital air control as they insisted that only emergency craft could land on the hospital. The pilot had told them that he’d rather lose his license than lose a life. Ending “I’m landing now so get the fuckers ready for all hell to break lose. Kaiba Seto is not best pleased.”

Seto followed the gurney into the hospital and when a nurse practitioner tried to keep him from going with Joey he just snarled “Next of kin . . . out of my way” and walked right over the poor woman.

The various attendants did whatever they were supposed to be doing, rushing back and forth, dodging Seto as he stood by the side of the bed, holding Joey’s hand. They tried to get him to leave, but he’d snarled at them so fiercely that they’d given up. Since he didn’t get in the way, they let him stay, very aware of exactly who he was.

Finally an intern approached Seto “Kaiba-sama, please. I need information that only you can provide. Come out to the hallway so I can ask them in peace. Please. We need this information to help Wheeler-kun.”

“It’s actually Jounouchi. But that’s not important.”

“Yes, it is. We need all his names so we can search all the databases. We need a full medical report on him. Do you know if one exists?”

Seto rubbed his chin. “Call Tokyo P.D. He’s one of theirs. He’s on leave right now, but I’m sure they have records. I . . . dammit. I should have gotten copies of all his medical files. I’m . . .”

The intern held up his hand. “Don’t . . . could have, would have, should have; isn’t any help. Do you know if he has a history of heart problems? Family history of any physical weaknesses? That sort of thing”

“His sister had some sort of problem with her eyes. It was genetic? I don’t know. But no history of heart problems . . . that I know of . . . but now that I think of it. He’s been having some pains, but he said . . . ”

The intern gave Seto a stern look. “I don’t care how stupid it sounds, I need to know every single thing. Let me decide if it’s important or not.”

“Ok. He said that he always gets chest pains after a fight. But he said that they didn’t last more than a day or two. I should have questioned him more closely, but he didn’t seem worried.”

Seto wished vaguely that he smoked, or that he had a cup of tea. He searched his pockets looking for something. He wasn’t sure what exactly, just searching. He finally wound up with his cell phone in his hand.

“I’m sorry sir, but you can’t use that here. It interferes with the equipment. There are a few more questions, then you can go into that office and . . . never mind. Let’s go in now. Come on.”

The intern maneuvered Seto into the office and got him to sit at the desk. Seto settled behind the desk in a daze.

“Now. You said he mentioned that he had pains after a fight. Is he a boxer?”

“Mmmm? Boxer?” Seto frantically scrambled to make sense of the question. Finally dragging his attention back from the limbo of worry he managed to force himself to think. “No, he’s an extreme fighter. Club Inferno was his last fight . . . ever. He quit after making a point with some people.”

“I see. Extreme fighting is extremely hard on the body. Do you know how long he’s been fighting?”

“Since . . . well . . . I’m not really sure, but for at least two years. No fights for about six months, then . . . but I’m not sure he didn’t fight in America . . . dammit! There’s just so much I don’t know. He was undercover. A lot is still classified until after the trial.”

The intern bit at his lip as he thought, then he made his decision. “I need to get some inquiries going, but your information has helped us. I know which tests I need to do first. I also know where to go to get the rest of the information I need. “ He tucked his note book into a pocket and stood up. “Why don’t you stay right here and make your phone calls? I’ll send for you if we need you.”

Seto sat and stared into the shadows of one corner, all he could think was Joey was dying and all his money couldn’t change it. He was losing . . . everything.

“Mokuba! I need to call Mokuba.” Seto dialed but the phone at the other end rang and rang. The answering machine finally picked up and Mokuba’s cheerful voice announced that he was on vacation and the machine wasn’t taking messages. Seto slammed the phone down so hard that he broke it.

After snarling out a few choice curses, he got to his feet and went in search of the doctor. He found him at the Nurse’s Station, flipping through a file. His casual stance caught Seto off guard and in a fury he yanked at the man’s arm.

“Hey. You’re supposed to be taking care of Joey. What the hell are you doing?”

The doctor, whose name was Kobayashi, sighed and soothed Seto carefully. “I’m reading Wheeler-san’s files. He’s been fighting off and on, mostly on, for three years. He did some boxing in America. I don’t believe some of the things I’ve been reading. Let me finish this file. By the time I finish, the tests I ordered should be back. Why don’t you go back into his room and sit with him? He’s just back from x-ray.”

Seto rubbed his face with both hands. “I’m sorry Dr. Kobayashi, I . . . it’s . . . fuck. I’ll be in Joey’s room.”

The first thing Seto noticed when he entered the room was the chaos. Joey was screaming and other people were shouting. They were struggling on the bed.

“Pin him down. We got to . . .”

“I’m trying! It’s like trying to pin an eel.”

Seto threw a spectacular fit.

“What the hell is going on here?” He reached out and grabbed an arm, he threw the owner against the wall. “Get off him! Now!”

Seto managed to get the two orderlies off Joey and out of his way. In fact, he snarled at them so furiously that they backed against the wall. The nurse slipped out the door and went for the doctor.

The sight that met Seto’s reddened gazed was guaranteed to send him straight into orbit. For some reason known only to them, they’d strapped Joey to the bed. They’d run straps around the mattress under Joey’s shoulders, waist, and ankles. He was restrained at the ankles and wrists, but they hadn’t managed to get the rest on him. He was struggling frantically, half sitting up.

Seto reached into his coat and produced a knife from a hidey that Joey had sewn into it. He slashed the straps in two quick jerks and started unbuckling the cuffs from Joey’s wrists.

“Seto! Why . . . what . . . I can’t be here. I have ta get out. I . . . lemme go . . . please . . .” Joey clutched at Seto, nearly blind with pain and fear. Seto felt an unreasoning fury. “I hate hospitals. I wanna go home. I’ll be bedda soon . . . then we can go home . . . can’t we? Seto? Please. I can’t be here.”

Seto’s heart nearly broke. He knew Joey hated hospitals, and this was one reason why. “Joey, I’m so sorry. We can’t go home until they figure out what’s wrong. Please . . . just relax. I’ll find out what’s going on.” Seto started to get up from the side of the bed, but Joey clutched him even harder.

“Seto, I wanna go home. Pleasepleaseplease. Take me home . . . oh, god . . . it hurts . . . please. I’ll be bet . . . “ Joey doubled up in pain. “They won’t give me anything. Ooh, it hurts. T t.they just keep asking me what drugs I’m on . . . Seto . . . you know I don’t . . . please. At least let me sit up.”

Seto pinned one orderly with a furious blue glare. “You! Out!” the man scuttled sideways out the door. Seto eyed the other, somewhat more intelligent looking man for a moment. “What the hell is going on? Answer! Now!”

The orderly gulped, then managed to stammer, “His records are all messed up. We got two different files. He’s some kind of . . . criminal . . . yakuza . . . so we assumed he was on some kind of drugs. It’s . . . we . . . “

Just then the door snicked open and Dr. Kobayashi hurried in. “I don’t know what’s going on in here and I don’t want to. Get out. I don’t even . . . Just go . . . you’re all on report. I’ll be having words with the Department Director.”

The doctor took a deep breath and turned to Joey and Seto. By now Joey was in such pain that all he could do was cling to Seto and whimper. Seto was in such a fury that it was all he could do not to snatch Joey up and take him home. He knew that it wasn’t the right thing to do, but the temptation was severe.

“Doctor, this is an outrage. It’s unconscionable. I’ll sue you and the hospital and everyone involved. What the reasoning behind this is, I don’t want to know. I’ll be taking him out of here the second you get him stabilized. You have . . .”

“SHUT UP!” Seto snapped his mouth shut. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what they thought they were doing. And I don’t care. I agree with you that this was outrageous. I apologize. Now. Pay attention. Wheeler-san has pericarditis. It’s extremely painful, in case you hadn’t noticed. It’s an infection of the pericardium, the sac around the heart. There’s actually two sacs, one inside the other, with fluid between them. That fluid has become infected, along with the inner sac. It’s not life threatening, if it’s treated in time.” Seto nearly sagged with relief. Joey was half-unconscious again.

Dr. Kobayashi flipped through his chart again. “I’m afraid that this little escapade may have exacerbated his condition. We’ll just have to see. First, I’m going to order an I.V.” He held up his hand. “I know it’s going to be difficult, but we have to have it for the analgesics and the antibiotics. We may even have to put him on corticosteroids. He is going to have to take a full course of both and it’s not going to be shots. I don’t want to have to be giving him shots every two hours and they need to be administered intravenously not intramuscularly. So . . . IV.”

Seto gritted his teeth. This was going to be a fight first to last. One, Joey hated needles with an almost psychotic fervor and two, hooking Joey up to an IV was going to be interesting, to say the least. Getting him to tolerate being strapped to a board to keep him from pulling the IV out in his sleep? Seto didn’t even want to contemplate all the problems they were going to have.

It didn’t turn out to be as much of a fight as Seto had thought it would be. The nurse who came in to put in the IV needle was so tiny that she looked about twelve. She couldn’t look threatening if she wanted to. She had Seto hold Joey gently, saying, “Put your hand over his eyes and kiss him or something. I’ll slip it in and maybe he’ll never notice.” Joey flinched slightly, but Seto hushed him and he settled back down. He seemed to calm down if he could sit up.

Then an intern came in and started to inject something into the IV bag. Seto stopped him before he could even get the needle into the vial.

“Wait. I want to see that.”

“But . . . he’s supposed to have . . .” The intern started to consult the chart.

“I don’t care.” Seto held out his hand in a clear demand for the tiny bottle. “I want to see that it hasn’t been tampered with. Let me see it.”

Seto took the vial from the man, inspected the pristine seal and handed it back to him. He did the same for the other vial and watched as the medicines were injected into the IV through the port at the top of the bag. He couldn’t help being a little paranoid. What a few people wouldn’t do for just a minute in this room unguarded.

Joey was still pretty much out of it, laying still, his breathing labored and harsh. When the intern was finished with the medicines, he pulled a cannula from a pocket on the wall and twirled a small knob beside it.

“This is oxygen. Do you want to smell it?” his sneer set Seto’s teeth on edge.

“So, I’m paranoid. You have no idea how many people want both of us dead. He’s a police officer and I’m Kaiba.”

The intern gulped. He’d never seen Seto, many people hadn’t, but he’d heard of him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. He’s got that tattoo and . . . they were reading his records at the Nurse’s Station. I . . .”

Seto looked up sharply. “I want to talk to your Head of Security and my man, Roland, at once, please.

The intern just nodded, the look in Seto’s eyes scared him. A lot. He hooked the plastic tube of the cannula over Joey’s ears and fitted the nose-piece then quickly left to deliver his message.

~ * ~

Roland entered the room along with the Head. “Sir? What’s wrong?” Roland darted a quick look at Joey, who was now completely out of it. He relaxed slightly.

Seto proceeded to inform Roland of what had been going on at the Nurses Station.

“They have been reading Joey’s files, private files that only the doctor should have access to.”

Roland made a face, if there was one thing he hated it was this sort of situation. He didn’t have much control over who was reading what, he could only turn to the Head of Security and give him an angry glare.

The Head crossed his arms over his chest. “Ok, who is reading what? I need particulars.”

Seto told him that the intern, at least, had read things he shouldn’t have. He also told the man that he suspected that the orderlies had also read classified files. The Head nodded several times, then left.

When he came back some twenty minutes later, he informed Seto that he had removed the file clerk from her position and had a little talk with the head floor nurse.

“She was totally unaware of what was going on. The clerk is . . . was, one of those feather headed, as my mother calls them, flibbertigibbets who has no idea of proper decorum. She’s also a gossip. She’s going to the secretarial pool and, if she doesn’t straighten up, out the door. We don’t invade people’s privacy like that. It just isn’t done. I apologize for this mess. I’ve transferred everyone who read the files to other floors. Floors where their lack of . . . desecration doesn’t make much difference. Again I apologize.” He bowed and left. Leaving behind a sense of relief.

Roland shook his head. “I don’t trust this place any farther than I can throw it. Security is, to be frank, shitty. I’m putting two of my men on the door.” Roland held up his hand as Seto opened his mouth. “I don’t care if it is intensive care. And I’m making arrangements to have him moved to a private suite as soon as possible. I’ll take care of hiring private nurses and whatever else I can think of.”

Seto felt tension he hadn’t even noticed drain away. “Thanks, Roland . . . he’s got pericarditis. I guess . . . I can’t think. Can’t process. Dammit. Roland . . . find my laptop. I need to research.”

Roland didn’t like the gray look around Seto’s eyes and lips, but he knew arguing with Seto when he was in a ‘mood’ was useless. He looked at Joey, who looked terrible. His eyes were sunk back in his head and circled with black. He was pale and gaunt looking.

“I’ll go find it for you . . . Mr. Kaiba?” Seto gave him a tired look but nodded for him to continue.” You should try to rest while you can. I could get you a medical reference book from the nurses’ station. I’m sure they’ll be more than cooperative.”

Seto settled himself more comfortably on the bed next to Joey. He couldn’t get up because Joey wouldn’t let go of him. “Thanks Roland. You’re a good man. I’ll see if I can’t nap a little. If you get a book, just leave it on the table. My laptop . . . never mind, you know what to do.” Seto closed his eyes.

Roland shut the door carefully, hoping that Seto would go to sleep for a little while. He wondered for a moment if he shouldn’t have the doctor see Seto as well. Shaking his head he went to find the book and laptop.

~ * ~

Joey floated on a haze of drugs and pain, he felt like his heart was being stabbed over and over again. All he wanted was for it to quit. All he wanted was to sit up, but they kept trying to make him lay down. Something had to be doing this to him. Something he could make stop.

Seto woke to Joey trying to get out of the bed. He was pulling at the IV needle and mumbling something about ‘hurting’ and making it stop. He had managed to get the tape off and had already torn the vein enough to make it start bleeding.

“Joey! No, don’t do that. Joey, love, stop. It’s . . . Joey!” Seto tried to gently pull Joey’s hands away from the needle, but Joey resisted, tugging at the needle again. Seto lunged with one hand for Joey’s arm and the other for the call button. He wound up with one hand wrapped around Joey’s arm holding the needle in the vein, and the other groping for the call. He yelled for help at the same time and was relieved to see one of his own men stick his head in the door.

When the man saw what was going on, he yelled for a nurse and rushed to help Seto keep Joey from injuring himself further. They wrestled Joey to the mattress and Seto clenched his fist around the needle and Joey’s arm even tighter. Joey still managed to tear the vein more. Not very much but enough to make a bloody mess.

The little nurse entered at a run with an orderly behind her. She snarled delicately and told Seto to hold Joey down, the Kaiba Corp. man to lay across his legs and the orderly to get hold of the damaged limb. After a little more wrestling they managed to do as she said. She got a good look at the tear and sighed in exasperation.

“It’s not too bad. But that vein is ruined for the foreseeable future.” At Seto’s groan. She clarified. “It’s not permanently damaged, but I can’t use it for an IV until it heals. I’ll have to do a cut down if I can’t find another good vein. And I know you won’t like this, I don’t either, but we’re going to have to restrain him. We can’t have him yanking the needle out.”

Seto groaned again. This was not going well at all. He could see that they were going to have to restrain Joey. He could also see that it was going to be a fight. He couldn’t blame Joey for not wanting to be tied down, but he could also see that he couldn’t be allowed to pull the IV out.

By the time they got done, they were all exhausted. The new orderlies thought things out a little better. They put the straps on a new bed, then transferred Joey into it and pounced. They got him strapped down before he could puzzle out what they were up to. He screamed and cursed them; and Seto, and Roland, and everyone he saw. But he was weak and ran down before he exhausted his respectable vocabulary. Seto realized that Joey could swear in three languages.

Seto wound up sitting half on the bed, half on a stool that one of the orderlies brought for him. He kept up a constant babble of reassurances, hoping to get through to Joey that they really weren’t trying to hurt him, but the pain and drugs made Joey muzzy and uncooperative. He fought and struggled against the straps, hurting himself, trying to sit up, and making everything worse.

Dr. Kobayashi hurried in and examined the torn vein, Joey swore at him. He taped it carefully with a butterfly and sighed. After taking vitals he turned to the little Hematology Tech and asked her several questions. Then he grumbled. “I don’t like it, but we’re going to have to sedate him on top of everything else. At least until the pain medication really takes effect. He’ll fight the needle like a tiger. Some people are like that. They just don’t do well with having IV’s. In his case, I think he thinks the needle is the source of his pain, so if he pulls it out the pain will stop. I need to look at my references again. There’s something I’m missing. Something simple. Damn.”

He wrote some notes on Joey’s chart, took his vitals again and left. Soon after, a nurse came in and without being asked showed Seto the vial, then explained, “This is IM, intramuscular, so I need for you to get out of the way a little. I have to inject him in the hip. It will knock him out completely. We’ll keep him out for 24 hours then see where we are. I just hate this. He’s so beautiful, it’s such a shame he won’t cooperate.” She swabbed Joey’s hip, while Seto held him still. She injected him, then sighed. Joey was still struggling, silent and grim.

He gave Seto a look so full of reproach and anger that Seto nearly forbade the injection. But even if Joey never forgave him, he knew that it had to be done. Joey was only hurting himself and interfering with his treatment.

Joey whimpered. “I hurt, please let me sit up. I . . . wha’ . . . Seto you . . . “ Joey gave up his battle with the sedative and drooped forwards.

Seto nearly cried. All Joey wanted was to sit up for some reason. So Seto cranked the bed into a semi seated position and settled to keep watch over his lover. If he wanted to sit up, he would make sure he got to even if he was unconscious. It was the best decision Seto could have made.

Finally Dr. Kobayashi came back into the room. “Well, I’ve checked all my references and figured out that one of the reasons that Wheeler seems so combative is that laying prone makes the pain worse. I’ve examined all the test results and it’s a bacterial infection of the pericardial sac. Probably brought on by blows to the chest. Trauma. If what you say is true, and I’m not doubting you, just the reliability of your ephemeral data. Anyway, he’s probably had a mild case of pericarditis after every fight and managed to heal himself. Do you know if he took anything for pain after his fights?”

Seto felt a cold chill. Joey had told him he always took antibiotics and painkillers after a fight. He told the doctor that, and recounted with a feeling of despair, how Joey had gotten a prescription for some from Dr. Higa but they’d gotten distracted and never filled it. Dr. Kobayashi grimaced but decided it couldn’t have made much difference.

“This has been building up for a while. I’m not sure that a course of pills would have done any good this time. We caught it before he could develop some of the worse symptoms. I don’t think we’ll even have to stick him. We just have to keep him calm and pump him full of antibiotics, pain killers and anti-inflammatorys. We can probably have him out of intensive care in 24 to 48 hours and home within the week. But he’ll have to stay on anti-inflammaitorys and antibiotics for a while. He should be on his feet in three months or so. Bad news is. I heard from Tokyo P.D.” Seto looked up sharply. “He’s well known as one of the worst patients in Japan.”

Seto relaxed. “I can usually get him to do anything. Well, almost anything. If we can get him calm enough to really listen to me, I’m sure I can persuade him to leave the IV alone. If laying down makes him hurt worse . . . “ Seto stopped talking and started thinking. The doctor smiled at Seto and left, envying Joey slightly. If someone as handsome and rich as Kaiba Seto loved him that much he was a very lucky man.

Seto made sure that Joey hadn’t managed to dislodge the nasal cannula, kink his IV, or do anything else to cause problems, then he moved to the corner of the room and started making notes on his laptop. He was going to have to keep Joey entertained while he was sick or he wouldn’t stay in bed. He’d be running all over the house trying to do everything he wasn’t supposed to. So entertain Joey. *Oh, man. And no sex to help with that.*

Seto also made sure that Roland had made proper arrangements for Joey’s transfer from ICU to a ‘regular’ room. Or as regular as anything Seto would allow. When he saw that Roland had arranged for Joey to go to the Emperors suite he had to smile. Joey would be hysterical.

Joey shifted slightly on the bed, Seto watched him for a long moment but he didn’t seem to be waking up. He was just shifting restlessly in his drug-induced sleep. The tiny frown between his eye brows faded and he settled down. Seto went back to his typing.

~ * ~

Dr. Kobayashi peeked into the room just before his shift ended. Seto was curled against Joey, holding his hand. He told the security men standing at the door that they could have chairs if they wanted. Both men shook their heads, but thanked him for his consideration. They both knew that if Roland caught them sitting down on their job they wouldn’t bounce before they hit the street.

Roland also checked on Joey and Seto. Seto opened his eyes and looked at Roland. Roland looked back for a moment then nodded at Seto and closed the door again. He knew that Seto wasn’t going to sleep well until he was sure Joey was going to be all right.

Seto greeted the sunrise with a decidedly grumpy attitude. He’d been trying to sleep, but the constant disturbances of nurses coming in to check everything from vitals to oxygen flow to fluid in the IV bag, kept him from reaching the deep REM sleep his body craved.

The catheter insertion had been the worst. The first interruption had been the night nurse coming in to insert a catheter, Joey wouldn’t be allowed to wake up for at least 36 hours they’d decided, which necessitated a catheter. Seto had gotten out of the way, held Joey’s hand, and winced in sympathy. Joey wasn’t going to be happy about that either.

Seto slept, woke, ate what Roland brought and stayed close to Joey. The doctor was in and out for most of the day, checking on both of them. He offered Seto a mild sedative to help him sleep but Seto refused, preferring to stay alert in case Joey decided to wake up and get difficult again.

Roland entered the room and handed Seto a thermal cup of tea. He leaned against the wall near the bed and watched Joey for a while. Then watched Seto.

“Mr. Kaiba, you need to get some real sleep. Why don’t you lay down on the other bed and sleep? I’ll stay right here and watch you both. If he wakes, or even moves a lot, I swear I’ll wake you right away. Please, sir. If you don’t get some sleep soon, you won’t be any use if you’re needed.”

Seto gave Roland a dismal look. He wanted to stay right with Joey, but he knew Roland was right. He let Roland help him take off his boots and coat. He lay down and pulled the light blanket over his shoulders and fell asleep before he knew it. Roland sat down in the straight-backed chair by the door and watched, his eyes flicking back and forth from Joey to Seto. *Man, they’ve got it bad. Lucky stiffs.*

Roland watched them both sleep for the rest of the night, he heard the watch change in the hall and he watched the light through the windows. Dawn broke to see him still watching, waiting for Seto to wake, or Joey. Neither did, so when they changed watches again, he gently shook Seto by the shoulder and told him he was going to get some sleep himself.

Seto rubbed his eyes with his fists like a small child and grumbled, “Joey ‘wake?”

“No sir. I’m just off watch now. I’m getting some sleep. You need anything, just ring for a nurse. I think Wheeler-kun is better. He’s not so tense. I’ll send in the doctor if he’s here.”

Seto stood up and started folding the blanket. “Send me some tea, please . . . Roland?” Roland turned to look at Seto. “Thanks. You’re a better man than I deserve. Get some rest.”

Seto put the blanket over the foot of the bed and turned to Joey. He took his hand and stroked the long slender fingers. He brushed his bangs from his face and touched his cheek. Joey blinked once then snuggled into Seto’s hand. Seto picked up the call button and pressed it. When the nurse came in, he asked her if Joey should be waking up. She read the chart, consulted her wrist watch and nodded.

“He’s been out for almost 48 hours. He should be waking up in a little while. We gave him two shots in the night. You were pretty much out of it, but Mr. Roland examined the vials both times and said we didn’t need to wake you. I’m going off shift in about twenty minutes, but the day shift nurse is a really nice girl. You’ll like her.” She left with a soft ‘good day’ to the door guards.

Seto finally pulled himself together. He knew he wasn’t doing Joey any good like this, his thoughts all scattered, his mind closed down. So he got himself together, picked up his laptop and settled down with the computer on the small bedside table and the book in his lap. As he read, he glanced at Joey from time to time. Joey was starting to shift uncomfortably once in a while. Seto found the Mayo Clinic web site and searched for pericarditis. The information he found was comforting, if everything went well Joey could be out of the hospital in another three days and well on his way to full recovery in two weeks.

“Mmmm. Wa’.” Joey cleared his throat, making a harsh barking sound. “Water. Seto?”

“Right here. Joey love.” Seto got him some water. “I’m so sorry. I know you hate to be tied down, who wouldn’t bu. . . . that is . . . Joey! Stop that.” Joey was giving Seto a look that made him blush and stammer. “You’re sick. I mean ill.”

Joey sat up a little straighter. “Set me up some more. It . . . the pressure is less. Umm. //…// Seto? I. . . . “ Joey yawned so wide it made his jaw crack. “I think I’ll go back to sleep again. I love you.” Joey drifted back off as Seto was readjusting the bed. But this time the sleep was rest, instead of drug induced stupor. He didn’t even try to fight the restraints. Seto started to seriously worry. He went to the door and told one of his men to get someone. They came back with Dr. Kobayashi, who took vitals, careful not to wake Joey.

“He’s recovering nicely. Temp is down, pulse, and respiration normal. We’re home free, I think. He’ll wake up completely in a couple of hours. Just let him drift in and out. When he totally wakes up, call me.”

Joey woke several more times and each time asked for water then went back to sleep. The doctor checked in periodically and each time, he was satisfied with Joey’s condition. Seto started making serious arrangements for Joey to be moved to his suite. He talked to the nurse and she said that the easiest way would be to take the bed Joey was in now to the suite, instead of trying to move Joey from one bed to another. So that was what they did.

~ * ~

“Seto?” Joey’s voice was soft and rough. “Seto? I’m thirsty. Can . . . “

Seto was there at once with water. He helped Joey drink, then checked the IV. It was still in place, taped securely to Joey’s arm with several pieces of tape. Joey was in a semi-seated position, which was about all the bed would accommodate, but it seemed to be much better for Joey than flat on his back.

“Seto, I need to . . . shit. Do not tell me you let them . . . son of a bitch. Seto, I’m so gonna get you. I’ll have an infection sure as the world. Let me up. I gotta get . . . Seto . . . I’m still thirsty. Oh. Thanks.”

Joey, it seemed, was a really bad patient; of the complaining and whining sort. When he wasn’t combative. Seto rolled his eyes, just glad that Joey was awake enough to whine.

The minute he had his drink down he started in again. “Seto not that I’m complaining but I truly hate hospitals. Every time I go to one, I wind up restrained, in a straight jacket, or drugged to the gills. I mean, really. Seto, I wanna go home. I’m fine. Really I am. Please. And a catheter? why? I hate that too. It doesn’t hurt any more really. Please?”

Seto wondered idly how long it would take Joey to run out of complaints and shut up long enough for him to talk. It didn’t take long, as Joey saw that Seto wasn’t going to crumble under his complaints. So he decided to sulk instead. Seto managed the sulking just long enough for the doctor to come in.

“Well, how do you feel? And don’t tell me fine. I’m sure you don’t. We’ll remove the catheter and restraints as soon as we’re sure you’re not going to throw out another fever and get delirious again. I want a serious self-examination.”

Joey grumbled a little but settled back and gave the doctor a proper answer. “I hurt. My chest still hurts. But it’s getting better. I think I strained a few muscles fighting. Um . . . I didn’t hurt anyone, did I? “ Seto and the doctor both shook their heads. “Ok, good. My arm is sore. What happened there?”

“You tried to pull the IV needle out. You’re lucky you didn’t have to have a cut down. Whatever that is. Joey, if you don’t cooperate, I’m going to . . . I’m not sure what, but you won’t like it. I promise.” Seto stopped abruptly and bit his lip. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so worried that . . . but you’re not through answering the doctor yet.” Seto shut up.

Joey looked at Seto with his heart in his eyes. “Seto, please at least hold my hand. Did I say nasty things to you? I’m sorry. I . . . I still feel like I’m about to either fall asleep or pass out again. And I’m kinda nauseous too.”

Dr. Kobayashi shrugged. “That’s probably a side effect of the medicines. I’ll let you have anything you want to eat, as long as it stays down. Plenty of fluids. We’ll be keeping track of your urine volume for a while, to make sure your kidneys are ok. And your arm is sore because you tore it trying to pull out the IV. Now. If you’re really good and stay calm for . . . oh . . . say . . . the next twelve hours and you don’t throw another fever. We’ll let you out of restraints tomorrow morning, until then I’d recommend being very nice to Mr. Kaiba. We can’t get a private nurse until tomorrow noon at the earliest.” The doctor smiled kindly at both young men and sauntered out, mumbling to himself. ‘See how you like that Mr.-combative-I-hate-my-lover-Wheeler.’ he shut the door with a decided click.

Seto eyed Joey, who eyed him back. Joey squirmed, trying to get comfortable, Seto rushed to try to help him.

“Please Seto, just my one hand. I don’t care which one. My nose itches.”

Seto reached out and rubbed Joey’s nose for him. “Joey, I know you hate this. So do I. But if you throw out a sudden fever, you could really hurt yourself before I can stop you. Please. I know you’re mad at me but . . . ”

Joey made puppy eyes at Seto, Seto groaned in frustration. He really didn’t like having to keep Joey restrained, but Joey was strong and sly. If he got combative Seto knew he had no chance of doing much by himself and this suite put help too far away. “Shit! Joey stop that. You can be as mad as you want. I’ll beg forgiveness on my knees. But you’re not getting loose until I’m sure you won’t hurt yourself, or anyone else. I don’t care if you hurt me, I deserve it. But I can’t, . . . won’t let you hurt one of the nurses or . . .”

Joey gave in with one sad sigh. “All right. Seto. I’m not mad at you. I . . . just hate hospitals. Don’t give yourself a spasm or something. And begging?“ Joey started to say something else, then just leaned back into his pillows. “Seto, I’m just too tired for this. We’ll work it all out later. But if I have to be tied up, you have to wait on me. I’m cold. Please?” Joey held out his arms as best he could with his wrists strapped to the mattress. Seto climbed on to the bed and settled against Joey kissing his cheek and pulling the blanket up.

“I’m really sorry Joey, just go to sleep. I’ll do anything you want, except let you up. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have. . . “ Seto trailed off as he realized that Joey had drifted off again.

After making sure that Joey was properly covered, Seto settled down to finally gather every shred of information he could on Joey. He ran searches on every search engine available and hacked into any server that might have files. The things he found nearly drove him into a frenzy. There were so many contradictory files, he wasn’t sure what was truth and what was carefully constructed cover. He copied all of it to the Kaiba Corp. main frame and started deleting everything he knew to be false. Then he sent a message to Tokyo P.D. directing them to make sure that all incorrect records were deleted or tagged. He knew all this was petty, but if he didn’t do something useful, he was going to go nuts. Joey slept on.

Seto searched until his eyes watered and he felt shaky. He realized that he hadn’t eaten properly since Joey’d collapsed. He only eaten sandwiches and yogurt that Roland brought him. He rang for someone and was pleased when Yukari came in.

“Yukari, I’m glad you came. I’m hungry and thirsty. Would you get me something fit to eat? Roland has been bringing me stuff, but all of a sudden I’m so hungry.” Seto blinked at Yukari’s wide smile.

Seto turned to check on Joey and found that he was awake. “How long have you been awake?”

“Not that long. I was just watching you. What are you doing. You looked so pissed.”

“Never mind that. How are you? Do you hurt? Do you want anything?” Seto cupped Joey’s cheek in one hand and fussed with the covers with the other.

“I’m ok. My chest don’t hurt. That’s to the good. But . . . “ Joey flushed brilliant crimson. “I really want this catheter out. It makes me feel like I gotta pee. Then I forget and strain, then it hurts. Please Seto, make ‘em take it out. I’ll be good, I swear I will.” Joey looked so upset that Seto decided to see if the doctor would let them at least do that.

When Seto rang the call button again, a nurse came in to see what he wanted. He asked her if it would be possible to do as Joey asked, but she sighed and shook her head. “We’ll take out the catheter in the morning, but if we take it out and then he has to ‘go’ we’ll have to put it back in again. That would probably irritate his urethra quite a bit. I’ll go talk to him. I’ve heard that he can be quite the whiner.”

Seto flipped. “How the hell do you all know so much? How many times has he been in the hospital? And why? He won’t tell me anything.”

“Well. I know he was in for a . . . broken something. Leg, I think. And then again when he was . . . oh, but we’ve all been cautioned about gossiping. If you really want to know why don’t you ask him. After I talk to him of course.”

Seto gritted his teeth and vowed to find out from Joey if he had to tickle the information out of him.

The nurse explained things to Joey, Joey whined, the nurse got stern, Joey pouted. Seto wondered if he was too young to go bald. Yanking out his hair seemed to be the only option he had.

“Seeeetoooo. I wanna go hoooommmmeee. I do’ wanna be heerrree. Take me home. Please.” Joey squirmed on the bed. He’d only been really awake for less that thirty minutes, but he was already driving the help crazy. He’d rung for the nurse four times. And all four times he’d asked for the catheter out. Seto gave him points for persistence and the nurses double for patience.

“Joey, leave that button alone. You’ve asked every nurse on the floor the same question and gotten the same answer. If you just wait . . . Joey, you’re going to fuss yourself into a fever, then where will you be. Just . . . lay there for a while. If you don’t rest, you’ll have to be stuck. I wish I knew what they mean by that. I don’t like the sound of it. So just rest, let the drugs do their work and . . . just rest.” Seto opened his computer and searched again. What he found was nothing he wanted anything to do with.

Joey gulped. “You mean they stick the needle right into . . . not on your life . . . or mine. I’ll be really, really good. I swear. I don’t want them sticking a needle into my chest. Damn . . . that’ll have to hurt. Seto, I’m hungry. I want . . . Seto?”

Seto found himself hovering over Joey, tears trickling down his cheeks. “You’re hungry? What are you hungry for? You tell me and I’ll order it for you. Are you . . . you’re really feeling better? Please. God. Joey!”

Seto nearly collapsed he was so happy. Joey tugged at the restraints and snarled. Seto climbed onto the bed and put his head on Joey’s shoulder. They just lay that way for a while, Seto pulling himself together, and Joey wishing he could hug Seto. Finally Seto gathered his shredded nerves into some semblance of order and managed to get off the bed without falling. He was really shaky now.

“Seto? When is the last time you had real food and not just half a sandwich or one of those girly yogurt things?” Joey was worried. He felt good, nothing hurt much, so he turned his attention to Seto. “You don’t take proper care of yourself. Call someone and get us food. Now.”

Seto scrambled to do exactly that. He was relieved when Yukari came in with a covered tray. There was enough food there for both of them Yukari smiled when Joey thanked him profusely.

“I thought you might be getting hungry. I checked before I ordered. You can eat anything that doesn’t make you nauseous. And the doctor only said that you shouldn’t eat too much at one time . . . oh, and Mr. Kaiba, he said that you were to eat, not just pick at it and feed Joey. The private nurse will be here . . .” Yukari looked at his watch. “In about an hour. She’ll take over. Doctor says that you’re to sleep for at least four hours or he’ll sedate you. Eat.” Yukari pointed at the tray and left.

Seto fed Joey almost in a daze. He felt like he’d been turned upside down and shaken. He was off balance, a thing that rarely happened to him. He decided to just let things happen for once. Roland would make sure that things went properly, or Yukari, or the doctor. Seto sighed, yawned and put the tray aside.

“You had enough? I’m full.”

Joey yawned and nodded that he was full too. He settled down to go back to sleep, Seto snuggled down next to him and they both drifted off. When the nurse came in to change the iv, she just quietly injected the medicines into the bag and switched the tube from the old bag to the new one. She smiled gently and picked the blanket up from the foot of the other bed and covered them both with it. Then she slipped quietly out of the room.

~ * ~

When Joey woke this time, it was with a feeling of relief. He felt so much better he felt renewed. He raised his head and looked at Seto sleeping peacefully beside him. He let his head drop back and just waited for Seto to wake up. The restraints chafed him, the IV was an annoyance but the catheter was going to have to go. To say that it was uncomfortable was an understatement. Joey possessed himself of patience for about ten minutes then he blew in Seto’s ear until he woke up.

“Seto, please see if I can get loose. I . . . my back hurts, my wrists are getting raw, and so are my ankles. And I feel like I have to pee really bad. And I think the IV is caught on something. Other than that I feel fantastic.” Joey knew he sounded whiney but he couldn’t help it. Every time he was in hospital something bad happened to him.

He remembered his first time in the hospital, his father had managed to beat him badly enough that the neighbors complained about his crying. After he got out his old man put him right back in. He couldn’t understand what they were doing to him and he’d fought. It had all gone downhill from there, he now had a reputation as a fighter, which had followed him through several more admissions. Each one had it’s own story. All of which he was contemplating now.

Seto managed to pull his brain back into his skull. He wanted to do what Joey wanted but he knew that just pulling on things wasn’t a good idea, so he tumbled off the bed and went in search of the doctor, followed by Joey yelling. ‘And tell that muther fucker that I ain’t best pleased with any of this. I didn’t do nothin’ ta deserve ta be treated like trash.”

Seto wondered if he could just scoop Joey up and take him home. Joey decided that he had to get himself together and convince the staff that he wasn’t crazy or violent or what ever they thought he was.

When Seto came back with the doctor, Joey had managed to get himself together better. He was civil, answered the doctor’s questions with a minimum of sarcasm, and agreed to keep the catheter for another two hours while they ran tests. When the doctor left he took the restraints with him.

Seto stood at one side of the bed, biting his lip. Joey reached out and stroked his arm.

“Hey lover, come ‘ear. Don’t just stand there. I still don’t feel a hundred percent, but I want to hold you. Please. Let me?”

Joey held out his arms. Seto crawled into them with a sigh.

“You’re not mad? . . . please don’t be. . . you scared the shit out of me. I thought you were having a heart attack. Please?”

Joey snuggled Seto. “I’m not mad at you. I’m sorry I scared you. I scared myself. I was sure I was a goner . . . Seto, I’m still really sick. I . . . what the hell is wrong with me.”

Seto explained exactly what was wrong and what the doctor had said caused it. They settled down for some serious cuddling before the orderlies came in to start the tests.

It took almost three hours instead of the one promised, but in the end Joey was free of the catheter. He made a pained face and grumbled. “I’m in for it, I just know it. I hate this. I’m so gonna have problems. Dammit.”

Seto nuzzled into the curve of Joey’s neck. “Joey, it’ll be ok. You’re taking antibiotics, shouldn’t that take care of any problems?”

Joey shrugged. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he didn’t think so. The last few hours were strangely disjointed, he’d drifted in and out too much. Seto looked drawn and wan.

“Never mind. I just want to lay here, hold you, and wait for the results of my tests. I’m tired again. Wake me when he comes back, ok?”

“Sure” Seto felt exhausted. All he wanted to do was sleep in Joey’s arms. He felt shattered and out of step. Like the last few hours had happened a long time ago or to someone else.

When Dr. Kobayashi came back to give his report, he smiled and motioned to the nurse. She smiled back and took the reports from him. “I’ll tell them when they wake up. If that’s ok.”

The doctor just nodded. The news was good. They’d managed to catch the disease before it had gotten too far. They wouldn’t have to do a stick or perform any kind of surgery. All they had to do was keep Joey on antibiotics and painkillers for a while.

Dr. Kobayashi shook his head. “Keeping that young man resting is going to be a trial of patience for all of us.”

“But they’re so cute together.”

~ * ~

This chapter seems slightly disjointed because I tried to portray the horrible quality of having a loved one in the hospital. Time seems to crawl, but there’s huge gaps where time just seems to have disappeared. Almost like having a black out.

A cannula is the plastic nose piece that they put in your nose for oxygen.