New Beginning (Pearlshipping-AshxDawn)

Chapter Six

One night, Ash was sitting on the couch, watching one of Dawn's past contests. In this contest, she was in her late teenage years, so she had been on her journey for a while at that point. This was the first time that Ash had seen Dawn perform in a contest. He had known that she was a Top Coordinator, but he wasn't expecting her to be THIS good!

Dawn had also mentioned that in this particular contest, she was going for her final ribbon so that she could enter the Grand Festival, which would later turn out to be the first Grand Festival that she would win, having previously lost, coming so close to winning other Grand Festivals.

As Ash watched the television, he could tell that Dawn was really enjoying what she was doing. He glanced down at Julia, who was curled up beside him on the couch, also watching the contest.

It's great to be able to spend time with dad like this. I wasn't able to do this with my first dad... she thought.

The video eventually ended and Ash got up to turn the TV off.

"Thank you for spending time with me." Julia said, taking the video and putting it back with the others. They had watched a few videos that night.

"You're welcome, Julia. I really enjoyed it. I had never seen her perform before. Your mom knew what she was doing. She was very graceful in her performances and so were her Pokemon, something really important for contests."

"You know, this is the first time that I can remember ever spending any real time with my dad." said Julia.

Ash looked at her and walked back to the couch and sat down, looking confused. Surely she and her first dad had done something while he was still in her life?

"You didn't do anything with Kenny?"

"Mom says that when I was a baby, my dad would do stuff with me, but I was too young to remember that part of my life. When I was three, things with my parents started to go wrong. They began to distance themselves from each other and argue...a lot. Which grew worse as the years went on.

"I...I grew up hearing them fight and wished that we could just be a happy family like my friends' families were. I was scared when I heard them yelling. But one thing I do remember is that my dad was never mean to me. Mostly, he just ignored me. That's why I don't have any real memories of doing anything with him.

"When I was six, they had the worst fight that I've ever heard them have. There were a lot of bad things said and a few broken things that night. My dad left us for a few days after that fight and when he came back, he had divorce papers. I never saw him again after that.

"I was glad that he was gone because there would be no more fighting, but I was sad because my mom and I were all alone now. We both were sad and unhappy and it never changed. After my dad left, things got bad again. The kids at school began to bully me because I didn't have a dad anymore."

Ash remembered Dawn telling him about that.

"He never said goodbye to me. He left when I was already asleep and I woke up the next morning and he was gone. I never got a goodbye from him." Julia said sadly and looked at the ground.

Julia closed her eyes tightly, but a few tears fell as she remembered the painful memories of the past.

Ash had heard only a little of this from Dawn and now he had heard it from a child who was only six at the time and learned what she had seen and went through. He felt himself frown, especially at the last thing that Julia had said. Her dad didn't care enough about her to even say goodbye to her.

Ash reached over and pulled Julia to him, hugging her as she cried. He rubbed her back and ran his hand through her hair as she cried. He always did that to Dawn when she was upset. He couldn't believe that that was what they had gone through.