He didn't bother knocking before he entered the bathroom. "Yui..." Gendo said.

"Who was that on the phone?" she asked, surprised by his sudden entrance, and confused by the way his eyes avoided looking at her.

"It was your father."

The smile almost made it to her face, but his voice and manner made it die before it reached her lips. "What did he want? What's wrong?" she asked, looking at Gendo fearfully.

"It was about..." He hesitated, then looked directly at Yui. "It's your mother. She..."

"No! Stop making jokes!" she snapped, tears forming in her eyes. "This isn't funny and I don't appreciate it!"

"It's not a joke," he said quietly, his brow furrowing. "He said it was sudden, a freak occurrence."

Yui knew he wouldn't joke about such a thing, but she had to believe he was. Better than the idea that her mother was...

"She's dead. A heart attack."

"Liar! She was only forty... It couldn't have been a heart attack. That doesn't happen to people so young. It's a lie..."

Gendo was torn. He wasn't sure if he should try and comfort her, or give her privacy. This was a completely new situation. "Yui," he said softly, but loud enough for her to hear over her intermittent bouts of crying.

"Get out!" she screamed, and if there had been anything worth throwing at hand, she would have done so. "Get out of here! It can't be! It's a mistake!"

When that outburst disintegrated into crying, Gendo went and crouched next to the tub. Unmindful of the water or his clothing, he reached over and hugged her.

Immediately, her arms went around him, squeezing, and she buried her face into his shoulder and cried. Half-formed words spilled from her mouth, but none of them made sense, or even mattered. There was only a great flood of sorrow and shock, with the only thought in Yui's mind being that it wasn't really happening.

Yui's hand quivered as it hovered over the numberpad. "I can't do it," she murmured. In truth, she wanted to take the phone and hurl it into the other room, but...

"Do you want me to dial?"

Hanging her head, avoiding looking at the phone or Gendo, Yui shrugged, not one of indecision, but of complete helplessness. "I... I don't know what I'll say..."

"Just tell him," Gendo spoke gently, taking her shaking hand in his, "that you're here. He'll understand."

She nodded, but before Gendo could dial, asked one more question. "Can... can he still come? This... is more important than ever now."

"Of course. Just relax, breathe deep, and don't be ashamed to let loose if you have to." His other hand moved methodically up and down her back in an effort to soothe. "Sit down, drink some water..." The words were so inadequate, but it was the only thing he knew to do.

Yui took comfort in the words though, and in the contact. She sat down, the phone still in her hand, and stared blankly ahead. "I don't know what I'm going to do," she said, her face streaked with dried tears.

Gently, Gendo told her, "You're going to call your father right now, and after that get some sleep. You need it."

"It's too soon. I can't. I don't know what to say. What if I..." Yui watched as Gendo began dialing the number and shook her head. "No, stop. I don't want..." But it was too late. There was already a phone ringing at the dialed number.

"Please don't make me do this," she said quietly, still trying to deny the reality of the situation.

"You have to. You can't hide from it; that won't help anything." This was one of those situations where a sharp slap would have been delivered as a wake-up call, but there was no way Gendo could ever do that to Yui. "You just need to..."

/"Hello? Who's there?"/ came the voice from over the phone.

"Yui, talk to him. It's the only thing you can do."

/"Who is that? Yui? Are you there? Yui, I... I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you."/

"Dad? It's me. What... what happened?"