Loyalty

Loyalty 12

Loyalty

Chapter 12: Bittersweet

Ash wasn't sure for how long he slept. This was a consequence of pushing his abilities too far, of wanting to do more than he was meant to do. It was his attempt at bending destiny and it always left him in exhaustion. The worse part this time was that he didn't know if he succeeded and he feared that he failed. "Ash, honey... how do you feel?"

Ash slowly turned his head to the side, his head hurt and his vision was just starting to clear up. He slowly sat up, the room was white, the endless white of a hospital. "I have a headache, but I'm okay." He responded to his mother's gentle concern. Ash searched for answers in his own memories, but couldn't find them. He must have passed out before anything was definitely known. "How is Jessie?"

Delia's face was a mix of relief and sorrow as she tried to find a way to explain. There was no way around it, no way to change the truth. "Jessie is alright," she replied honestly yet incompletely. "She is recovering; the doctors say she'll be fine. The wound wasn't deep, her vital organs were unaffected, it was only a flesh wound for her." The hint of something more, something worse, was left hanging in the air for a few more seconds.

"And?" Ash's vision was clear now. He could clearly see his mother's expression. Her face was tired as if she had gone without rest for a considerable amount of time, perhaps a whole day or two, he wasn't sure for how long he slept.

Delia looked into her son's eyes. Her eyes were still slightly red, she had been crying before, it was easy to notice. "And the little boy will be alright as well." There was another moment of silence and it was obvious it pained her to say anything more.

Ash's face held a frown. "The little boy... one child, only one..." His twin didn't make it out of the ordeal alive. It was a great relief that Jessie and her son were going to be alright, but the other child, the loss was bitter, tainting the occasion.

"Ash..." Delia stumbled over her words. "I..." She trailed into silence, her own thoughts so jumbled together that she couldn't organize them into words. "Your father..." Ash got to his feet and Delia stopped him. "You just woke up; you shouldn't be getting up so soon."

It was when he felt a tug on his arm that he realize there was a drip. He removed it, pulling out the needle hurriedly and cringing at the feeling of pain. "I'm fine," he insisted with the stubbornness that Delia had become all too familiar with in both the son and the father. "I want to see Jessie and the child. I want to talk to James and call Misty." He paused, giving his surroundings another studious glance. "Where am I?" He knew he was in a hospital, but he didn't know where.

"Viridian City," Delia answered simply. "Misty is still here, Jessie, James, the baby and Gary. Laiki has gone back to headquarters though, the doctors insisted because she was... scaring the patients and Gary... albeit in different ways."

Making the patients think they were worse off than they were, to vent her frustrations with their worries was something Laiki would do. As to what she could do to spook Gary, Ash quite honestly didn't want to know, but he guessed that it possibly entailed high rated, inappropriate use of medical equipment for non-medical indecent purposes. Laiki wasn't a bad person really, not evil at least, but she wasn't exactly a caring soul beyond the few exceptions that she truly held dear and she held a rather loose set of morals that were peculiarly adjusted to the convenience of the situation and her whims.

'I see..." Ash finally voiced as he once again started for the door. "Get some rest mom; I won't leave the building for a while, so you don't have to worry." He smiled for her sake, trying to tell her that the worse was over... but it wasn't.

xoxox xox xoxox

Out in the seemingly endless hallway of the hospital, Ash found himself face to face with Giovanni sooner than he expected. The Rocket boss was walking over from the opposite side of the white hallway, heading in the direction to his room where his mother still was. The atmosphere was quiet as this area of the hospital was off limits to most, save for a few trusted visitors and the top ranked doctors and nurses. Ash didn't stop; he wanted to check on everyone and didn't have time to get into a discussion and possibly an argument with his father right now. He didn't breathe a word as he focused on the path ahead, continuing to put one foot in front of the other in an automatic rhythm.