Rigorous Relationships

Ash Is In Need Of An Asprin

Ash woke up to an annoying beeping noise pounding at the back of his mind. Opening his eyes he looked down and was confused by what he saw. He was lying in a bed with guard rails on either side, an IV and heart monitor were hooked up to him, and he had a number of bruises and bandages on his body along with a cast on his right arm. Ash tried to sit up but quickly found that to be a bad idea as his body was flooded with pain and forced a sharp gasp past his lips.

His gasp didn't go unnoticed and was questioned with a timid, "Ash?" from somewhere to his left. Turning his head towards the source of the question, Ash saw Serena sitting in a chair with his Pokémon and a blanket on her lap. He smiled wearily at the honey blond girl, "Hey Seren- AHHH!" Ash yelped as Serena tackled him in a hug, forgetting about his injuries.

"Sorry sorry sorry. I'm just really glad you're alright." Serena said in response to causing his pain, and dislodged herself from her injured friend.

"It's alright." Ash said, wincing as Serena got off him. "I'm just a little roughed up, not really sure why though." Ash said, his brows furrowing as he tried to remember what had happened.

Serena pulled her chair closer to his bed, picked up his pokemon, apologizing to them for causing their fall during her dash to get to Ash. "You don't remember, do you?" She asked looking at him with piteous eyes.

"No, what happened?" Ash said his own concern starting to grow.

Serena took a deep breath and told him about two days ago when he'd gone to the Devon Corp. building. How the building had exploded, and how Sceptile had saved Ash and Joseph from becoming pavement pudding after they'd jumped from the burning building. She had barely finished telling Ash about Devon Corp. when his memories started to flood back. His meeting with Joseph, the trouble with Team Rocket, the gifts he'd gotten from Joseph, and Sceptile saving them not once but twice.

"Then you passed out in my arms and we took you to the hospital, " Serena said, wrapping up her story.

"Oh, well I guess that explains that," Ash said as he looked around at his hospital room. "I just have one question. How's Sceptile doing?"

Serena frowned and looked away from Ash's eyes, unable to look at him as she told him about his Pokémon. "Firstly Sceptile is alright, he's not in any danger right now and the doctors think he's going to pull through. He just broke half the bones in his body and suffered second degree burns along his backside. Right now the doctors have him in a weird futuristic tank filled with some liquid that is supposed to help his body heal faster. They say he might even be back to normal by the end of the year."

Ash took all this in without batting an eye, when Serena finished he asked her where they were keeping Sceptile. She hesitantly told him they had his Pokémon in the I.C.U. wing. And as she had expected, he immediately tried to get off of his bed to check up on his friend. Serena, Pikachu, and Eevee were having none of that though and gently forced him to lay back down.

"I have to check on him, he's my friend. I need to see that he's okay for myself," Ash said in protest to his confinement to his bed.

"Ash just calm down, you're in no condition to be moving around," Serena said as she held his non broken hand firmly and comfortingly. "Sceptile will be fine. I'm sure he's a lot like you, strong and resilient. And I doubt he'd let something as trivial as this be the thing that did him in."

Ash relaxed a little and even cracked a smile, "You're right he'll be fine. It takes more than a fall, or an explosion, to get rid of us," Ash said confidently, earnings him a smile and a cute giggle from Serena in return.