Beep, beep, beep
Joey slowly opened his eyes to look around the room. All around him, his friends were sound asleep. Sweet Serenity was lying with her head on Joey's arm. Yugi and Atem were asleep in chairs, while the rest of the gang was collapsed on the floor. It was a wonder that they didn't get kicked out. Even Seto had bothered to stay, and he didn't care for anyone, except for Mokuba.
Slowly, Joey moved his arm out from under his sister's head, causing a sharp pain to shoot into his chest. As he let out a soft groan, his sister stirred, then sat up, and looked into her brother's eyes.
"Joey!" she screamed, leaning forward to hug her brother. The other's jumped up when they heard Serenity yell, but Mai was the first to react. She reached forward and gently pulled the young girl away from her brother.
"Serenity, you're hurting him," Mai whispered, as the younger girl struggled to get to her big brother. At the older woman's kind words, Serenity stopped struggling. Instead, she sat down, and took his hand in hers.
"Joseph," his mother said, softly, stepping toward her son. "I am so sorry," she whispered, choking back tears.
"Mom," Joey said, close to tears himself. Silently, everyone began to leave the room. No one wanted to disrupt this special family moment, after they had been separated for such a long time. One by one, they left the room, until Joey and his family were alone.
"Joey, I'm sorry," his mother began. At the same time, Joey started to say the same thing to his mother. They both paused to look at each other.
"Joey, you have no reason to apologize, I was the one who should have noticed that something was off."
"No mom," Joey said, putting his hand on her shoulder, while ignoring the pain that it caused. "I should have told you, or told someone. It's my fault for not staying in touch. Mom, can… I mean would it be okay if I moved in with you and Serenity?"
"Of course," she said, brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes. "For now, you need to rest; you have to build your strength back up." After a pause, she looked toward the door, "do you want me to call your friends back in?"
Joey nodded, and his mother stepped out of the room. Not a minute later, she returned, all of Joey's friends with him. As they all started to talk at once, Joey held up a hand to silence them. Slowly, he began to explain what he had seen while he was in a comma. Everyone was silent as he finished his tale.
"I never really thought about why Bakura was so bitter," Ryou admitted. "Now I see he really had a good reason."
"It's true what Wheeler said," Seto admitted. "I used to be a pretty nice person until my step father changed everything for me. I know I can be an asshole sometimes, but unless you've been through what I've been through, you wouldn't understand."
The others were silent, until Joey offered a smart remark. "So you finally admit to being an asshole. By the way you left out arrogant."
"Shut up Mutt, before I kill you myself," Seto told him, but the bitterness was no longer there.
"You do and I'll come back as a ghost and give Mokabu a candy bar." Both boys thought back to what had happened last time. Joey had given Mokuba a candy bar, and it had caused the boy to nearly burn Kiaba Corp down to the ground.
"By the way, Mokuba where in the world did you get a flamethrower?" Joey asked.
"It wasn't a flame thrower. I was spraying my brother's cologne and some of it went into a candle flame, causing the same affect a flamethrower would."
The room burst into laughter, as Joey's mother made a mental note never to let Mokabu have anything remotely sweet. She then turned her atte3ntion to her son, just to find out that the boy was asleep. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that her son was going to be okay.
(Three Months Later)
Joey was now out of the hospital and happily settled in with his family. The one thing that ever crossed his mind concerned his father. The night he was shot, the police were unable to catch him, and there was a part of his mind that was almost certain that he would return for revenge against all of them. It was something that was on Joey's mind, and because of it, he rarely left his sister alone by herself. Joey realized that he had one main purpose on this planet and that was to protect his sister. If anything else, he would be her savior.
Of course, he had a hard time when it came to Tristan and Duke. Joey and Tristan had been friends as youngsters, even staying in gangs together. Duke wasn't a bad guy either, despite the fact that Joey still hated him for forcing him to wear a dog suit. The truth was Joey didn't think his sister was old enough to date. Also, if anyone broke her heart, friend or not, Joey would have to break their neck. But try telling those two dimwits that. They kept coming around, and flirting with Serenity.
The girl had once asked him what was wrong with them flirting. Joey had nearly flipped until she reassured him that she did not have feelings for the boys. Of course, that was the easy part. The hard part was trying to prevent nightmare about what had happened from coming true. Many, many times, Joey had asked her about it, only to watch as she burst into tears on the spot.
One night, Joey woke up to the sound of his sister screaming. He jumped to his feet, and made it to his sister's room about the same time his mother did. The girl was wrapped up in her mother's arm, crying her eyes out. This was the times when Joey felt as if he had failed to protect her.
Joey's mother looked at him, motioning for him to head back to bed. Reluctantly, he did so. However, it was not long before he saw his sister standing in his doorway. As kids, Serenity often came to him when she had a nightmare.
"Joey, can I stay in here for a bit?" she asked, here shaky voice barely above a whisper. As if to reply, Joey slid over, making room for her to lie down. Serenity climbed into bed beside him and curled into a ball.
"Serenity, what's wrong?" Joey asked rubbing his little sister's back. Softly, Serenity began to sob, causing her frame to shake from head to foot. Joey silently cursed himself for causing his sister to cry, and he sat up, wondering what to do. To Joey surprise, Serenity threw her arms around him, and buried her head in his chest.
"He…He...Dad…" she began, trying to choke out the words. "He used me," she managed to say. "Before he called, he u-used me." With this, the girl burst into even harder tears. Unsure of what to do, Joey wrapped his arms even tighter around his sister and began to slowly rock backwards and forward, hoping the motion would sooth her troubled soul.
In the distance, he heard a knock at the door, and footsteps, and then he heard his mother let out a blood curling scream. This was followed by nothing, the house was silent.
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