The Indigo League Dragon Tamer's Wild child

Chapter 11

It only took a few rings for Reef to answer. " Hey there I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. What's up?" Reef asked and Lance could hear papers rustling so he figured he must have caught him at the office. "I got more information about Ash," Lance said. "Well, that's good what'd you learn?" Reef asked and Lance heard his chair straighten and he smiled because he knows he has Reef's full attention now. "I learned that he was born in Pallet town and grew up there till he left for his journey on his tenth birthday where he traveled the Kanto region battling the gyms. He made it to the Indigo League in the top ten. His last name was Ketchum." Lance said and ground out the "last" out of anger remembering the note.

"What do you mean by "Was"? Reef asked. "His mother disowned him before just abandoning him here in Johto where he has no one," Lance growled and he heard Reef's chair skid out from underneath him presumably as he launched himself out of it. "WHAT!! Reef yelled and Lance winced from the volume and close proximity of it.  "I'm going to send you a picture of the note she left him,"  Lance said before he pulled out the note, took a picture, and sent it to Reef.  Lance put his phone up to his ear and waited a few moments as Reef read the note. It took him a while and Lance figured he was reading it a few times.

"This woman was a terrible mother and I can tell this from the note alone...Lance, you better be the best dad this kid could ever ask for." Reef said calmly but Lance heard the undercurrent of anger in his friend's voice. "I'm going to do my absolute best," Lance answered seriously. "Then the kid's going to get the best dad in Johto," Reef said. "How can you be so sure?" Lance asked honestly. "Because your best effort has gotten you to where you are today and you're a good person. I don't know anyone else who would try to make friends with a half-feral child and then take the child in as their own. Just trust your instincts they haven't steered you wrong yet." Reef said and Lance felt a lump form in his throat. "Thank you Reef I'm glad you have that amount of faith in me," Lance said after a moment. 

"Now let's get you custody of the Kid. The first thing we need to do is notify a judge that we know where Ash is. I'll also file for temporary custody on your behalf and I'll show the judge the note and his birth certificate without his mom's name on it. You'll have to come to the courthouse to file for adoption but because you're a strong capable adult and Ash likes you and seems to have a lot of distrust with adults you have a very strong case as to why we should speed up the adoption process and you get full and legal custody. With everything in my mind that the judge would put up much of a fuss throughout any of this process." Reef said and Lance heard him take a deep breath.

 "This won't take too long since I have connections and you have a strong relationship foundation with the kid. I'll start work on all of that immediately so I'll call you later." Reef said. "Thank you so much Reef you've helped me so much over the years," Lance said. "It's no big deal you're my friend and I want to help the kid," Reef said and Lance heard papers shuffling over the phone. The two said goodbye and Lance went to the vending machine for a bottle of water. When he was done with that he returned to Ash's room and sat down at his bedside.

I hope I can be the dad you need and I want to be the dad you need. I want to learn more about your life before you were abandoned here. I want to learn more about your mother and if you ever felt unloved. If you were I'm going to ensure you never feel that way again and if you didn't feel that way I'll ensure you NEVER feel that way. I will be the best father I can be to you I promise you that.

                                                                                  A few hours later...

"Mmm..." Ash groaned as he sat up and he opened his eyes to see Lance beside him sleeping with his head against the bed. He had his hand on top of Ash's and Ash smiled at that because he couldn't remember the last time any adult had cared so much. The professor had always compared him with Gary whenever he called him and it hurt and annoyed him and his mother always acted off when she did bother to answer. Ash did not have a lot of adults in his life before he left on his journey but then the number dropped to one and then he had no one but maybe Lance can be the adult he looks toward for help. 

I hope this isn't some big lie I think it would break me apart again because I haven't felt this nice in a long time and I just realized it. Ash thought as a nurse silently entered the room and checked him over. Eventually, Lance woke up and saw Ash awake and eating some food and he was a bit shocked but he smiled at the sight before he sat up and started talking with him.

"Don't you have a lot of things to do with the Elite Four?" Ash asked genuinely confused since the nurse had told him Lance had barely left the hospital and he knows Lance being the champion of two regions has a lot of responsibilities. "Yes, but I left Karen and Will in charge of the Johto Elite four and Lorelei in charge of the Kanto Elite four. The rest of my responsibilities are mainly paperwork and checking over the gyms before the season starts and I've finished with the gym here in Goldenrod. My Elite Four have been sending me paperwork via a teleporting Pokemon or just online." Lance said and Ash nodded.

 They chatted for a bit about how long Ash would be in the hospital and it's going to be around two to three weeks to gain his weight back enough for them to release Ash. "When you get out of here you'll come to my house and we'll set you up a bedroom together from scratch where you can make all the choices for the decorations," Lance said and he smiled while Ash looked shocked and he nodded slowly.

"I've never picked out stuff for a room before I hope I do a good job..." Ash mumbled and Lance cocked his eyebrows in confusion. "It's your room it's your choice in decoration it won't matter to me and besides it's going to be your house as well," Lance said and Ash felt tears prick his eyes but he nodded. "You said you went on a journey right? I bet you have some interesting stories from it I know I do. If you don't want to tell me yet that's alright I'm not pushing you I'm just curious." Lance said and after a moment Ash nodded slowly...

Wahoo Chapter 11 is done!! This is a part of a three-part end-of-the-month special I'm running so I'm excited. We will get a few examples of Ash's Kano journey in the next chapter and it will be some instances that I choose and find a little crazy that it happened to a few children on their first journey. The Next chapter is going to be quite long I will warn you now but I hope you enjoy it. I don't have much else to say I hope you have a good day and a good rest of your week and see you next week.-K