Stand by You Part 1 of 4

Chapter 20: Dreams

**Flashback Dream**

The trio of troublemakers looked around at their new temporary 'home'. They had discovered an old abandoned shack the day before last and decided that it was the perfect place to hideout. The twerps were staying with a family friend in a cabin right outside of Blackthorn City in the Johto region. Ash, Misty, and Brock planned on staying put for a few days in order to celebrate Christmas, and Team Rocket decided that is would be wise to do the same.

"We did a great job fixing up this old shack", said James.

"It was a good idea to board up dem windows with dose logs from de woods", said Meowth. "Not only does it look a lot nicer, but it's keepin' all of dat cold air outta here".

"Wobba Wobbufet", Wobbufet agreed.

"I just love this tree topper!" Jessie squealed as she placed the decoration on top of their little Christmas tree. It was a star with a picture of Arbok and Weezing on each side.

"It ain't half bad", Meowth commented. "Yous two are good at making stuff like dat".

The three of them had spent the past two days insulating a decorating the shack best they could with limited resources, and now it was finally complete with an abundance of handmade decorations. The had stockings over a fake fireplace, wreathes on the windows, and paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. Their little tree was adorned with silver bells that Meowth had swiped off a Stantler sleigh and some lights that Jessie had taken off someone's roof. James poured them some partially frozen eggnog and the three drank proudly to their latest accomplishment. They huddled together under two large blankets.

"Maybe I should have made some hot chocolate instead", said James, shivering. His two companions gave him a knowing look and he got up and ran to the kitchen to put on a pot of water.

"It's almost a shame to leave it, we spent hours making this crummy old shack look halfway decent" said Jessie.

"It's almost as nice as da place we stayed in last Christmas, and dat place had heatin' and furniture too" said Meowth. "Mondo's gonna be impressed".

"I love our decorations, we should sell these and make some money" Jessie added. "One year my mother and I had to stay in a place like this for a few weeks during the holidays".

Meowth and James' ears perked up at the sound of this. Jessie rarely talked about her past, none of them did. "She was on a mission for Team Rocket. We had to follow this group of TR traitors. The Boss thought that they were trying to form some kind of resistance against Team Rocket. She had them bugged and would spend hours listening to their conversations as I sat and played with my only doll".

James and Meowth were silent. There wasn't much that they other two knew about Jessie's mother. They knew that she was a very important member of Team Rocket and that she had disappeared in an avalanche while on a mission searching for mew when Jessie was still very young. She never came back. Her dad left her family before she was born, and so Jessie was placed into foster care. Jessie was poor her entire life, both before and after her mother's disappearance. She hated foster care and was often mistreated. It wasn't until a year after her mother's death that she met James at Pokémon Tech.

"Ah,..Jessie?" asked Meowth.

"Yes?" she asked back.

"If your mudder was so important in TR, den why were yous so poor?" he asked cautiously.

James smacked Meowth with a spoon. "That's not a very polite question Meowth" scorned James. "You should know better than to bother people with personal questions like that".