Stand by You Part 1 of 4

Chapter 16: That's Weird

About a month had passed since Jessie, James, and Meowth had come to work for Delia and Professor Oak. It took much longer than expected for the trio to perform all the tasks that Professor Oak assigned them, but each week they got better and better. Ash's Pokémon took a while to warm up to them, especially since Team Rocket had attempted to capture most of them in the past, but by now they were all good friends. The trio now had an impressive amount of money saved. One day after work James noticed Jessie standing in the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror.

"Everything ok?" James asked her. He looked around to see if Meowth had followed them in, but he along with all of their Pokémon were downstairs.

"James....it's complicated", she responded.

"I'm sure I could keep up if you explain it to me slowly", he said cautiously.

"You should sit down", she suggested.

James sweat dropped and sat down nervously. Jessie sat down next too him and held his hands. James didn't like the look on her face. He internally started to panic as a thousand negative thoughts flooded his mind.

"Jessie...you're not going to.....Jessie I'm sorry... please...don't" he stuttered.

"Relax, James. I'm not breaking up with you if that is what you are thinking", Jessie told him.

James took a deep sigh of relief. He looked at her with a little more confidence, until he realized that he still had no idea why she was acting so serious.

"James, I'm sorry. I can't do this now", she whispered. A few tears ran down her face and dripped onto the bed.

"Jessie, you have to tell me now. I'm so worried. Did you do something horrible happen to you? Did you do something horrible? Did you lie, cheat? You have to tell me so that I can forgive you", James told her.

Jessie smiled. "Of course James would forgive me., he's just that kind of guy", she thought to herself.

"Nothing you tell me will make me love you any less than I do now. No matter how bad it was. It can only go up from here, I promise. Now, can you tell me what's wrong before I have a heart attack?" He asked patiently.

"Dammit, James. You're so god damn loyal", she told him.

"What are you saying?" he asked. "I mean, what are you really saying? Please tell me. I won't be mad."

"Ha! Like James could ever really get mad, disappointed sure, but not mad." She thought to herself. "But then again, I didn't think a relationship would do this to him....make him so concerned.....has he always been this way and I just never realized it?".

Jessie just watched him. He watched back, coming up with countless scenarios that might drive Jessie to act this upset and distant from him. "Is she sick with a fatal disease? Is she severally depressed? Did she cheat on him? Did she kill someone?" he asked himself. Then she smiled; a wide, genuine, grin.

"James, don't worry about me. I was just...testing you", she told him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" he asked.

"I just wanted to see how far you were willing to go for me. That's all", Jessie responded.

James stared at her in disbelief. He knew that she wasn't that great of an actress. She was lying, there was something else on her mind, something that she was not ready to share with him yet.

"You know I won't believe that for a second", he reminded her.

"Then I guess you will just have to wait and see what I mean", she replied.