The Dark Side of Innocence

by: Anna Sartin

     James sat across from Giovanni's desk, fidgeting uncomfortably as his boss handed him a bottle of pills.

"They'll make a man out of you," Giovanni chuckled, mirthlessly.

James' eyes were drawn to the gun lying on Giovanni's desk, feeling an overwhelming urge to pick it up.

"This is your last chance," Giovanni was saying, but James didn't hear him.

His hand was creeping ever nearer to the gun, until at last he had it within his grasp. He slowly lifted the gun from its place, compelled by some unseen and yet unstoppable force as he aimed it at Giovanni's head. Closing his eyes, he felt his finger pull the trigger...

James woke up in a cold sweat.

"Where did that come from?" he asked himself, wiping his forehead. He did not have nightmares often, and murder was certainly not the main theme when he did. He rolled over and reached for the bottle of pills on the table between his bed and Jessie's. Why had the boss ordered him to take them?

"They'll make a man out of you," he recalled Giovanni telling him. "This is your last chance. If you continue to fail me after this, you're fired. Jessie too." Giovanni leaned back in his chair and reached to pet the Persian at his side. "You're weak, James," he continued, his eyes reflecting an inner coldness that frightened James, even now as he lay in bed recalling the meeting. "And weak people have no place in this organization. I'm tired of your constant failure giving Team Rocket a bad name."

Before James could point out that Team Rocket was supposed to have a bad name, Giovanni had promptly told him to get out.

"What's this stuff supposed to do?" he wondered, placing the bottle of pills back on the nightstand. He had taken the first one just before going to bed. They were large white pills with a bitter taste.

As Jessie coughed in her sleep, James found his attention turned to her. God, he loved her! He wasn't exactly sure what his relationship with his partner was. They lived together, worked together, and were practically joined at the hip 24 hours a day. They had been best friends for... how long? He no longer remembered. He found it hard to imagine her ever not being a part of his life. Although their unity couldn't exactly be called a romantic relationship, their love for each other was plain. At the first sign of danger in their highly stressful job the first place they took refuge was in each other's arms. Although they were content with their life together in Team Rocket, both secretly wanted more; and neither knew quite how to tell the other.

"Someday," thought James, as he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. "Someday, it'll all work out... Someday I'll figure out how to tell her..."

Lulled by Jessie's peaceful breathing, James drifted back to sleep...

. . . . . .

"Get up, lazy!" Jessie scolded, throwing a pillow at James. "Are you gonna sleep all day?!"

"Go away," James mumbled, turning over to go back to sleep.

"Come on, James!" Jessie ordered sternly. "We've gotta catch that Pikachu! Get up!" She hit him upside the head with her pillow.

James ignored her.

Jessie was starting to lose her temper. She grabbed him by the collar of his pajama top and dragged him out of bed. James mumbled something suspiciously like a swear word and got up. "What did you say?" Jessie asked, as James opened the bottle of pills and swallowed one.

"Nothing," he grumbled, closing the bottle and setting it back down. Without another word, he went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

Not only did their newest plan to capture Pikachu stink, (it involved crawling through a sewer) but so did James' attitude. He kicked Meowth twice (who fury-swiped him in return) and the only two words he said to Jessie all morning were "shove it." Jessie was too shocked to even hit him with a paper fan.

By 2 o'clock, they had been blasted off twice and decided to give up for the day. When they got back home, Jessie went to take a shower and James started cooking a late lunch. He seemed unable to concentrate on what he was doing, and wound up burning the fried rice. He became so enraged that he threw the frying pan across the room, nearly hitting Meowth.

"Hey, watch where yer throwin'!" the Pokémon shouted.

Jessie, who had just come out of the shower, was becoming increasingly concerned. "James, do you feel all right?" she asked, unaware that the towel wrapped around her was slipping off.

"Fine!" he shouted, cleaning up the mess of rice all over the kitchen floor.

       He looked up at her and noticed at the same time she did that her towel was falling to the floor. Jessie blushed and quickly retrieved it. As she rewrapped herself, James felt a strange, violent urge sweep over him. The sudden intensity of the impulse scared him, and he quickly pushed it back down inside him.

. . . . . .

Later that evening, Jessie again approached him about his strange behavior. His mood had greatly improved, and he felt rather guilty about his earlier actions.

"I'm sorry, Jess. I don't know what was wrong with me. I feel a lot better now, though."

"I'm glad," she said, sitting down next to him on his bed. "Hey, James?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"If anything were... well, bothering you, you know you can talk to me, right?"

He looked up at her. "Of course, Jess. We tell each other everything, right?"

She smiled. "Right... but..." her smiled slowly faded, "Sometimes I'm afraid that... maybe you're uncomfortable around me... because I look like her." She lowered her eyes to the floor. "You know... Jessiebelle."

James stared at her, surprised. That was the last thing he had expected her to say. "Jessie, nothing could be further from the truth! You're nothing like Jessiebelle! I mean, you have a temper, but you're not... not..." James stopped, not sure what word to use. How do you describe a person like Jessiebelle?

Jessie continued to stare at the floor. "But I know I can be mean sometimes, and I thought that... well... after today, I thought that maybe you were getting tired of me..."

"Jessie, of course not!" James cried, genuinely distressed as he put his arms around her. "Jessie, you're my best friend in the whole world, and I wouldn't trade what we have for anything! I'd never compare you with Jessiebelle. The woman was deranged! She chased me around with a whip for godssakes!" He shuddered at the memory, and a bitter, angry feeling swelled up in his heart, remembering how his parents had allowed it. Hell, they sat in the same room drinking tea while it happened, remarking on how they thought he and that madwoman were MADE for each other! James pushed those feelings back down inside him and concentrated on Jessie. "You're nothing like her," he said, hugging her tightly. "Nothing at all..."

. . .

That night, after taking another pill, James laid down in bed, thinking about his last encounter with Jessiebelle and his family.

"How could they do that to me?" he thought angrily. "I'm their son... aren't they supposed to love me for who I am?"

Troubled by these thoughts, James drifted off into an uneasy sleep...

"James, dear! It's time for the weddin'!" Jessiebelle said, cracking her whip on the floor.

"Your mother and I are tired of waiting for you to grow up!" his father said, standing behind Jessiebelle. His mother nodded in silent agreement.

Jessiebelle cracked her whip again. "Let the tamin' begin!"

She lashed the whip at him, and he raised his hand in defense. The whip curled its self around his arm, and he jerked it out of Jessiebelle's hand. This time things were going to be different. He unwrapped his arm and took the handle into his own hand.

"I hate you!" he screamed at her, striking her with the whip. Jessiebelle screamed as the whip hit her again and again. At last she slumped to the floor in a bloody heap, beaten beyond recognition.

He turned to his parents.

"I hate all of you!" he shouted, sending his new weapon against them.

Neither of them made a move to stop him, and when they both lay in a state similar to Jessiebelle's, James dropped the whip, in horrified realization of what he had done. He dropped to his knees and began to cry at the sight of his beaten and bleeding mother.

"Oh my god, what have I done?"

James woke up crying. He felt like he was going to be sick. Taking a deep breath, he tried to steady his nerves.

"Are you all right?" asked Jessie, who had woken up to the sound of his crying.

"It was just a dream," he said, more to himself than to her, as he laid back down to go back to sleep. "Just a dream..."

. . . . . .

The next day was even worse.

Their latest plan to capture Pikachu involved using bazookas to distract the newly reunited "Twerp Trio," while Meowth netted Pikachu. Jessie and James would fire shots away from Ash and co. to divert their attention while Meowth tried to net Pikachu from behind.

All was going according to plan until James decided to fire AT the children, missing Ash by mere inches.

"Are you insane?!" Jessie screamed at him.

"Listen, if we just shoot the kid, then we can grab Pikachu!" James reasoned.

Jessie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "WE'RE NOT TRYING TO KILL ANYBODY!!!" she shouted.

"Well, maybe if we WERE, we would succeed for a change!" he yelled.

By the time they got back to HQ, none of them were speaking. Meowth had called James a nutcase, and Jessie was secretly beginning to agree. They sat around the place in silence for a while, until Jessie couldn't take it anymore.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted at James, who was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.

He looked up at her, with the helpless eyes of a frightened child and replied softly, "I don't know."

This answer seemed to infuriate Jessie, (although in truth, it had frightened her terribly) who continued to rant and rave as she stormed around the room. James felt an increasing rage building up inside him, and that strange, violent emotion he had felt toward her yesterday began to surface again.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Jessie shouted, beginning to shake him.

Her close proximity and the smell of her perfume began to make his head spin. His anger/desire began to intensify, and his conscience was telling him he had to get away from her, NOW.

       With his last bit of self-control, he pushed Jessie away from him and ran to the bathroom, locking himself inside. Jessie and Meowth heard the sound of glass breaking, and would later learn that James had shattered their bathroom mirror.

A few minutes later, Jessie knocked on the door.

"James, are you all right?"

No answer.

"James, are you sick?"

"I think so," came the sobbing reply. It sounded like he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the other side of the door.

"James, I'm sorry for yelling at you. Please let me in."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm afraid..."

Jessie wondered at this cryptic response. "Afraid of what?" she asked, first to herself and then out loud.

"Jessie, could you just... leave me alone for a while... please..."

Jessie didn't know what to think. "All right," she finally managed, her voice failing. "James, if you need me, I'll be here, okay?"

She heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by another sob from the other side of the door as she said this.

"James?"

"A-alright..." he finally replied.

Jessie sat down on her bed, not knowing what to think. Her first thought was that James had meant he was afraid she would yell at him again, but some deep, primal instinct inside her was telling her this wasn't the case.

. . . . . .

It was a full three hours before James came out of the bathroom, and when Meowth went in, he gasped at the sight of the shattered mirror. The first-aid kit was still sitting on the sink, where James had used it to bandage the hand that he had put through the mirror. The blood had been wiped up from the sink, and the pieces of glass deposited into the wastepaper basket.

"He really IS losin' it," Meowth shuddered.

James went into the bedroom, where Jessie had fallen into a troubled sleep on her bed. Deciding that the best thing to do with a bad day was to end it, he got himself a glass of water and took another pill, before climbing into his own bed...

James was standing in the kitchen, listening to Jessie yell at him. His eyes scanned the room, looking for something, anything, to silence her. His eyes met with a cutting knife, which he took in hand. He backhanded Jessie, knocking her to the floor.

"Just shut up!" he heard a voice yell at her. It took James a minute to realize that the voice was his own.

Before Jessie could get up, he was on top of her, holding the knife to her throat.

"Just shut up, or I'll kill you!" his voice told her. With that, he began ripping her clothes away as she cried helplessly.

"No, stop it!!!" his mind screamed, but his body wouldn't obey him.

When his hands had completed their task of removing her clothing, his body began to violate her mercilessly as she cried pitifully.

"No, please stop this!" his mind pleaded, as feelings of both pleasure and sickness swept through his body.

"This isn't who I am! I would never hurt her like this! I love her!!!"


James woke up vomiting.

Jessie had woken up as well, and immediately rushed to his aid. Just as James thought it was over, at the sight of Jessie he ran to the bathroom and began all over again. When his stomach had settled down a little, he got into the shower, trying to wash off the physical and psychological filth that he felt. No amount of washing seemed sufficient. He had never felt more dirty in his life.

       When he had scrubbed his body until his skin was almost red, he got out of the shower and found a bag hanging on the outer doorknob, containing a clean pair of pajamas. He got dressed and stepped out of the bathroom, finding that his bed had already been stripped of their soiled sheets. Jessie, (who had already taken them down to the HQ laundry mat) came into the room and guided him over to her bed.

"You can sleep in my bed," she told him.

James' heart nearly stopped beating.

"I'm going to go down and wait for your sheets to get finished," she continued. "I doubt I could fall asleep again tonight, anyway."

James sighed in relief. He let Jessie tuck him into her bed.

"James, I'm so worried about you," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. She gently wiped the hair out of his face, and felt his forehead for any sign of fever.

The gentle touch of her fingers brushing against his face made James start to cry. He didn't deserve to be touched by her! He deserved to be hated, reviled... not cared for. He was so lost in these thoughts, he barely noticed Jessie softly kissing his forehead until she had already done it. This brought on a fresh onslaught of tears.

"I don't deserve you," he said weakly, though his tears. When he stopped crying, he realized Jessie was gone, only to be back a minute later with a cold washcloth to wipe his hot, tearstained face with. "What's happening to me, Jessie?" he asked, pitifully, as she gently wiped his face and neck.

"I don't know, James... I wish I did."

"Jessie, y-you know that I would never do anything to... hurt you, right?"

Jessie wasn't sure what to make of his question. "Of course not," she said, finally.

"I don't know what's happening to me," he said, miserably. "I'm afraid... of myself..." His eyes met with Jessie's, which were filled with deep concern. "Jessie... I think..." He stopped.

"You think what?" Jessie asked him.

"I think I'm losing my mind."

. . . . . .

No one had much to say the next morning, and no one even considered going out to try and catch Pikachu. They were lucky Ash wasn't filing assault charges. Meowth had barely said a word all morning, and Jessie had the distinct feeling that James was avoiding her. Whenever she went into the room he was in, he got up and moved to a different room.

       As she sat in their living room nursing a terrible headache, she heard shouting coming from the kitchen. When she went to investigate the commotion, she found James clutching Meowth by the throat.

"Let Meowth go!!!" the Pokémon screamed, unable to free himself from James' grasp.

"James, let him go!" Jessie cried, rushing to assist Meowth, who was turning blue.

Unable to loosen James' fingers from the gasping Pokémon's neck, Jessie smacked him hard, causing him to drop Meowth. James gave her a deadly look, and raised his hand as if to strike her. Jessie glared at him, almost daring him to do it. In all the years they'd known each other, James had never hit her. His dark expression faded, as if he suddenly realized what he was doing. He lowered his hand.

"Jessie, I- I'm sorry..."

When Meowth had finally caught his breath, he yelled, "I ain't takin' dis no more! Yer tryin' ta kill yer own teammates now!" He turned to Jessie. "I ain't stayin' here ta be killed by dis psycho! I'm outta here!"

"Where are you going?" asked Jessie, hardly able to blame him for wanting to get away from James.

"Mondo's!" Meowth shouted, slamming the door on his way out.

As the slamming door echoed in James' head, a horrible realization dawned on him. He was now alone with Jessie.

"What did you think you were doing?!" Jessie shouted at him. "First that kid and now Meowth? You're trying to KILL people, James! You're turning into a murderer!"

James sprang at her like a crazed animal, slamming her against the wall and pinning her arms so that she couldn't move. Normally, Jessie was the stronger of the two, but James' strength seemed to have doubled, and Jessie couldn't free herself from his hold. His soft green eyes had become cold as ice, and Jessie noticed that his pupils were slightly dilated.

"James, you're scaring me," she pleaded, as he glared at her menacingly.

James felt the now-familiar wave of violent desire rise up in him again, causing the nightmare he had had last night to come back to him. But this time his body was still under his own power.

"No! I won't hurt Jessie, I won't!!!"

He silently commanded his hands to release her, and backed away from her slowly, holding his head with his hands. He wanted to tell her to run, to get away, but he couldn't seem to find his voice. Finally he ran from the room, leaving Jessie in a state of semi-shock. She slid to the floor, unable to speak.

"What the hell just happened?"

Half of her wanted to go after him, and the other half wanted to just run, run as far away from him as she could. Neither side prevailed however, as she couldn't seem to pull herself from that spot. The image of his angry eyes came back to her, and the memory of his dilated pupils caused a new thought to come to her.

"He looked almost... drugged..."

Suddenly she heard crashing coming from their bedroom. The noise had stopped by the time she had plucked up enough courage to go and investigate, and she found that James had totally trashed the place. He was lying on his bed, sobbing into his pillow.

"Jessie, I'm so sorry!" he cried. "I don't know what's wrong with me or why this is happening, but I don't want to lose you. Please don't leave me, Jessie!"

After trashing their bedroom the violence had left his system, leaving only an exhausted and frightened human being, who was now terrified that his only friend in the world was going to leave him. He felt almost sure that after what he had done, she was going to walk out the door and he would never see her again.

Jessie went to pick up their lamp off the floor and put it back on the nightstand. When she had returned it to its rightful place, her eyes met with the bottle of pills sitting on the nightstand. It was one of the few things still in place, James had even torn the curtains from the windows.

"Hey, James?" she asked, picking the bottle up. "What day did you start taking these pills the boss gave you?"

James stopped crying and tried to think, relieved that Jessie was still talking to him. His mind felt strangely clouded, and he found that he couldn't even remember what today was, let alone think back. "I- I don't know, Jessie... I can't think straight..."

"It was Monday, wasn't it?" she asked. "The day he gave them to you?"

"Yeah, I think so... I took the first one before going to bed..."

"And Tuesday morning was when you started acting strange," she continued.

James couldn't think clearly enough to see the connection. He just stared at Jessie in a lost, helpless sort of way.

Jessie looked at the label. Except for a red R stamped on it, it was handwritten. The name of the drug was not written on the bottle, just the instructions followed by a number scrawled at the bottom:

Take twice a day, one in the morning and one before bed.
X-27-230-A

"I'm going out for a while," Jessie said, squeezing the bottle in her hand thoughtfully.

James became hysterical. Clutching her arm, he cried, "No, Jessie! Don't leave me, please!!! I'm so sorry for what I did! I don't want to lose you, Jessie! Please don't leave me!!!"

"I'm not leaving you, James," she told him reassuringly. "I'm just going out for a while."

"But you'll be back, right?" he begged, his eyes pleading with her desperately.

"Of course I'll be back," she said, covering him with his blue blanket. "Try to get some rest, okay? I'll be back soon."

He continued to cry until Jessie kissed his forehead and promised again to return soon.

"I'm so sorry, Jessie," he murmured sleepily. "I'm so sorry... for everything..."

"Shhh... sleep now," she whispered, before leaving their bedroom and going out the door, still holding the bottle of pills in her hand.

. . . . . .

The labs underneath Team Rocket HQ were quite extensive, and Jessie didn't go to them often. She only knew one of the scientists, a young woman in her mid-twenties named Lana. It was Lana that she was seeking now, hoping that she could tell her something about the drug Giovanni had ordered James to take.

She found the young woman caring for a sick Raticate, while a Persian paced back and forth nervously in a nearby cage.

"Can you tell me what this is?" Jessie asked her, when she had returned the Raticate to its cage. She handed her the bottle.

Lana read the label and then opened the bottle of pills.

"I didn't realize they were using this outside of the lab," she said finally.

"What do you mean?" asked Jessie. "What is this stuff?"

"It's a combination of steroids and a behavior modifying drug, among other things," said Lana. "Except unlike most drugs designed to modify behavior, this one was designed to make the subject more aggressive. It was designed for animal-type Pokémon to make them stronger and more aggressive in battle."

"For Pokémon?!" Jessie exclaimed.

"That's right. But I can't believe they're using this outside of the lab already. It's still in the experimental stage, and several of the Pokémon we administered it to have died."

Jessie's face turned white. "D- died?!"

"I wasn't part of the team that invented the drug, but I was ordered to use it on twenty test-Pokémon, and take half of them off of it after a week. Of the ten that continued taking the drug, only two are left."

Jessie felt like she was going to faint.

"The only two left are this Raticate and that Persian over there," said Lana. "The Raticate is dying, but the Persian's body seems to have adjusted to the drug. How are your Pokémon holding up?"

"I'm not talking about Pokémon!" Jessie shouted. "I'm talking about my partner, James! Giovanni ordered him to take these pills!"

Lana stared at her, stunned. "He's testing this stuff on PEOPLE? He's out of his mind!"

Jessie felt a wave of nausea wash over her as she began to cry miserably. Lana quickly got her a chair and told her she had better sit down before she fell down.

"He's got to be insane!" said Lana, getting a chair and sitting down herself. "I had to keep all the Pokémon I administered the drug to in separate cages, because they all became so violent they tried to kill each other. When we tried to get them to battle, we found that the drug hindered their ability to concentrate. They couldn't remember their attacks, they just blindly charged at their opponents and tried to tear them apart. What could he possibly hope to gain by testing this stuff on his employees?"

Jessie continued to cry, her mind recalling James' behavior over the past three days. "Oh my god... James..."

"How is he?" asked Lana.

"It's like I don't know him anymore..." Jessie said, crying miserably, "He nearly strangled Meowth, he fired a bazooka at a twelve year-old child, and he's completely trashed our bedroom! One minute he's like a complete maniac, and the next minute he's like a frightened child, fighting some kind of demon inside him!"

Lana nodded, knowingly. She got up and went over to a nearby desk.

"And now he could die," Jessie continued, crying all the while. "I can't lose him, I can't!!!"

"Listen," Lana said, getting a bag out of one of the desk drawers and coming back over to her. "The ten Pokémon I took off the drug after a week are all still alive. Their bodies suffered from withdrawal for a few days, but after that they were fine."

"Then he'll be okay?" Jessie asked, hopefully, trying to control her tears.

"I can't guarantee you that, but I believe so. We've never tested the drug on a human being before. I can only speculate based on data I collected from the Pokémon I tested it on. I also don't know exactly what the drug is made of, I was only told it contained steroids and something to increase aggressive behavior. But something in it is addictive, because the Pokémon suffered from withdrawal. I honestly don't know what's going to happen to your partner."

"So what should I do?" asked Jessie. "How can I help James?"

"For starters, don't let him take any more of these," Lana said, handing her the bottle of pills back. "Try to keep him calm and relaxed. Don't do anything that would excite him or cause him to become angry. He's going to suffer from withdrawal once the drug's out of his system, but hopefully it should be minor considering he's only been on it for three days. But right now, the most important thing is to keep him calm while the drug's still in his system. And take these."

She handed Jessie the bag she was holding. It contained a syringe and needles, along with vials of clear fluid.

"What's this?" Jessie asked.

"Tranquilizers," Lana replied. "Do you know how to do it?"

"Yes, I went to nursing school for a while," Jessie said. "But the last thing I want to do is put MORE drugs in his system!"

"I know this hard," Lana said, gently. "But if he becomes violent, he could hurt or kill someone, including himself. You've got to be strong for him and keep him under control. But once the drug wears off, he's going to be very sick and very afraid, and that's when he's going to need you the most."

Jessie nodded and closed the bag. She closed her eyes and held it to her chest.

"James..."

Hot tears streamed down Jessie's face as she headed back to the rooms she and James shared at Team Rocket HQ. How could Giovanni do such a thing? Maybe James wasn't the strongest member of Team Rocket, or the brightest either, for that matter. But he had a spark for life that was all his own, combined with a gentle nature that she so loved. How dare he try to take that from him, to turn a sweet, gentle person into a murderer?

Before she had halfway reached home, something inside her burst, and fierce anger surged through her as she started screaming in rage. Half-blinded by tears, she marched the rest of the way home yelling threats and curses, until finally black misery overtook her. When she had reached their door, she fell to her knees and began to cry bitterly.
When Jessie had composed herself enough to calm down some, she went inside and found that James was still asleep. The first thing she did was uncap the bottle of accursed pills and flush them down the toilet. She then got to the video phone and called Mondo.

"Is Meowth with you?" Jessie asked, when she got the young rocket on the line.

"Yeah, he's here," Mondo said. "What's going on, Miss Jessie? He says James tried to kill him!"

"It's a long story," Jessie replied, sighing. "Please see if he'll come and talk to me. Tell him I said that what's going with James is NOT his fault."

"Whadda ya mean "not his fault?!" Meowth shouted, popping up on the screen in front of Mondo. "Dat lunatic tried ta kill me!"

"Meowth, NONE of this is James fault!" Jessie told him. "It's those pills the boss gave him. They're making him violent. He's not in control of what he's doing."

"Did you say pills?!" Mondo asked suddenly, pushing Meowth out of the way.

"That's right, Giovanni tried to use James for a damned test-subject! He could have killed him!"

Mondo suddenly looked like he was going to be sick. He left the screen for a moment and came back holding a familiar-looking bottle of pills.

"The boss gave me these this morning," he said, holding the bottle up to the screen.

Jessie turned white.

"Mondo, did you take any of those?!"

"No, the boss said to take the first one before I went to bed tonight."

"Don't! Get rid of them!" Jessie shouted, and then quickly lowered her voice, remembering that she didn't want to wake James.

Meowth took the bottle from Mondo and read the label. "What is dis stuff?" he asked.

Jessie recounted her conversation with Lana to them.

"Miss Jessie, what should we do?" Mondo asked when she had finished, close to tears himself.

"We'll come ova 'dare (over there); okay, Jess?" Meowth said.

"All right," Jessie agreed. "But not for a while, okay? James needs to rest and it'd probably be better if you two weren't here in case he becomes violent again."

"Jessie, ya shouldn't be alone 'dare if he does!" Meowth said.

"I'll be fine," Jessie said. "Why don't you come later tonight? Then we can figure out what to do."

"All right, Miss Jessie," Mondo agreed reluctantly. He stared at the floor, not wanting Jessie to see the worried expression on his face. He had always liked her; calling her "Miss Jessie" from the first day they met. While he knew she and James would probably get together eventually, that certainly didn't stop him from developing a huge crush on her. His mind wandered as he remembered a not-so-long ago time...

"Take care, Mondo!" Jessie had said, blowing him a kiss and she turned leave with James.

"WOW!" Mondo sighed, holding his hand to his cheek. "Miss Jessie blew me a kiss, and I've received it!"

He knew Jessie only thought of him in a little brother sort of way, but the truth was he cared about her; and if James did something to hurt her Mondo knew he would never forgive him.

"And could you bring some food?" Jessie was saying, causing Mondo to snap back into reality.

"Huh?"

"I could sure use one of your "Rocket-Lunches" right about now," she said, smiling faintly. "James needs to eat, and the last time I tried to cook something we had to put out a fire!"

"I'll cook enough for all of us before we come over, okay, Miss Jessie?"

"Sure," Jessie said tiredly, and hung up.

. . .

Jessie expected James to still be asleep when she came back to their room, but he was not. He was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling as he cried softly.

"I'm going crazy," he told her, when she came to his side. "I have to be... I think I'm going to die."

That was too much for Jessie. She sat down on his bed and took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "No, James! I want you to look at me! You're NOT crazy and you are NOT dying! What's happening to you is not your fault!"

"It's like there's someone else inside of me," he said, miserably. "Someone inside me that I can't control... Someone that tries to make me do bad things..." He looked away from her as tears streamed down his eyes.

"James, LISTEN to me! The pills that Giovanni gave you are doing this to you! Nothing that you've done is your fault, do you hear me? None of it!"

"Pills?" he asked inattentively, as though he weren't fully comprehending her. "The boss' pills?"

"That's right," Jessie explained patiently. "They're making you act violent. He used you for some kind of experiment, and he tried to use Mondo, too."

Despite how hard he tried to focus on what Jessie was saying, James couldn't seem to understand her. Jessie's voice swirled through his head, but he could only pick up a few words here and there. The harder he tried to concentrate, the more difficult it became. His drugged mind was becoming increasingly muddled and confused, and he was on the verge of tears in frustration. "I don't understand," he said, wretchedly.

Jessie finally realized that there was no use trying to explain things in James' current state. He simply wasn't able to focus enough to understand her. "Just go to sleep for now," she said softly, running her fingers through his hair.

Frustrated and confused, James began to cry. Although Lana had advised Jessie to use the tranquilizers to keep James sedated until the drug was out of his system, Jessie was bound determined not to use them unless she had no other choice. She was going to try to calm and soothe him herself first.

She helped him to sit up and removed his jacket. James stopped crying and looked at her questioningly with his big, tear-filled green eyes.

"Shhh... it's all right," Jessie whispered soothingly, as she pulled his black shirt over his head. She then helped him to lay face-down on the pillow and started to massage his back. "Relax," she said softly. "Just go to sleep now."

Jessie's hands knew their work. James' entire body melted to her touch, and he murmured her name thickly as sleep began to overtake him.

"Jessie..."

The name was a sighed caress. At that moment every fiber of his being wanted to declare his love for her, to tell her that she completed him, made his life worth living. But sleep took hold of him first. For the first time in what seemed like forever, his dreams were pleasant...

He was lying in a field, and it seemed like he was surrounded by Jessie's voice. She was singing a soothing melody, but if her song had any words James could not make them out.

Had he been awake, James would have realized that Jessie was singing to him softly as she rubbed his back and shoulders. But lost in his dream, it seemed as though her voice was surrounding him, protecting him from drug-induced nightmares and providing him with a much-needed sense of inner peace. The events of the past three days were completely forgotten as he lay in the serene comfort of his dream. Only this moment existed for him now, as if the oceans of time had swept the past and everything else into nonexistence.

"I love you so much, Jessie," his dream-self said. "I wish you were here..."

"I'm right here, James," Jessie's voice said, from behind him.

James sat up and turned around. He realized that he had been lying with his head in her lap the whole time and not known it. Jessie opened her arms to him and he gladly fell into her embrace.

"I love you so much, Jessie," he said again. "Forever..."


There was a knock at the door. Jessie stopped singing and got up to answer it. She didn't hear James whimper slightly in his sleep as she left.

Jessie's singing had stopped. The meadow James had been laying in had changed into a barren landscape, gray and desolate. The wind howled in the distance and an ominous feeling chilled his heart, as though the shadow of Death loomed overhead. Jessie had disappeared, and James was laying alone on the cold ground. He got to his feet and began to franticly call for her.

"Jessie, where are you?" he cried.

A moment ago, he had felt completely bathed in her presence, nurtured like a flower in the sunlight as she shielded and protected him in her loving embrace. But now she was simply gone, and he felt exposed and vulnerable.

He called out again.

"Jessie!"

His voice echoed in the distance, but there was no answer to it. James fell to his knees and began to cry.

"Jessie, please..."

Suddenly he heard the crack of a whip.

"Did you miss me, James dear?" a woman's voice with a thick, southern accent said from behind him.

James spun around, his heart racing with fear.

"Jessiebelle!"

. . .

"You're early," Jessie said, letting Meowth and Mondo in the door. They were each carrying a tray of food.

"We know, but we were worried about you, Miss Jessie," said Mondo. "How's James?"

"He's been asleep for a while," Jessie said, taking the tray Meowth was holding and going into the kitchen. "I don't want to wake him up, but I guess maybe I should so he can eat."

Mondo set the tray he was holding down on the table, and Jessie did the same. Each serving tray had two smaller square trays of food on it, what Mondo called "Rocket-lunches." Jessie took them off one by one and set them down on the table.

"What are we going to do, Miss Jessie?" Mondo asked, taking the now empty serving trays and setting them over on the kitchen counter.

"I... I don't know," Jessie said, trying to hold back her tears as she stared into the next room, where her drugged partner was sleeping fitfully in his bed. "I don't know anything right now, Mondo... except that I want him to get better."

Mondo came over to her, and noticed that she was crying softly.

       "Please don't cry, Miss Jessie..." he pleaded, hugging her from behind. It scared him when she cried, maybe because she didn't do it in front of him often. Jessie crying openly was obviously serious, and was enough to make Mondo start crying himself.

Meowth stared at both of them from the kitchen table. Something was going to have to be done about the whole situation, and neither of his two sobbing human companions seemed to be in a state to do much of anything. He stared at his food. Something had to be done about Giovanni... but what? From what he understood, James was going to be very sick, so he wouldn't be any help. Jessie certainly wasn't going to leave him, which left Meowth with just Mondo to work with. None of them were going to be able to stay here much longer, but where could they go?

"I'm sure James will be all right," Mondo was saying, desperately trying to reassure Jessie.

Meowth watched the scene without comment.

       Mondo was a good kid; he was sensitive, innocent, and fiercely loyal to his companions. Mondo's pleading finally reached Jessie, and he convinced her to awaken James to eat lunch with them. Jessie dried her tears and entered the bedroom, with Meowth and Mondo following silently behind. Neither the two humans nor their Pokémon companion knew the terrible mistake they were making...

"Jessiebelle, what are you doing here?" James asked, backing away from her.

"Why, my dear James, haven't you missed me?" she asked, mockingly.

"Where's Jessie?!" James asked fearfully, beginning to cry. "I want Jessie!"

"Now don't whine like that, James dear. It isn't proper," Jessiebelle said reproachfully.

"Where is she?" he asked again, trying to back further away.

"It'll be just you and me from now on," Jessiebelle said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face closer to hers.

"What did you do to her?!" James shouted, trying to push Jessiebelle away from him. "What did you do to Jessie?!"

"Oh, she won't be bothering us anymore, James dear," Jessiebelle said, playfully putting her whip around James' shoulders. "We'll have each other all to ourselves."

"No, leave me alone!" James shouted, trying to pull away. Jessiebelle tightened her grip and pulled him closer.

"Now James, what could you possibly see in that little tramp? She's aggressive... controlling... I could give you that!"

"Don't call Jessie a tramp!"

"Well, it's the truth now, isn't it?" Jessiebelle said, pulling away slightly. "She's completely unrefined, not to mention as poor as a church mouse. How could you possibly prefer her over me? She's nothing but worthless street trash!"

The words "street trash" hit James hard, causing a surge of anger to burst forth and overtake his system.

"Bring her back!" he shouted, grabbing her neck with both hands.

"You'll never see her again, James dear," Jessiebelle said snidely. "You're all mine now..."

"I'll kill you, Jessiebelle!!!" he screamed, beginning to throttle her...


"I'LL KILL YOU, JESSIEBELLE!!!"

"James, please..." Jessie gagged, trying to loosen James' hands from her throat, "I'm not Jessiebelle!"

James opened his eyes and glared at Jessie with pure hatred. In his half-sleep and drugged frenzy he was not seeing the face of his loved one, but the face of his enemy. He tightened his grip.

"James, let go..." Jessie pleaded, choking and gasping for breath.

When neither Jessie nor Mondo could make James release her, Meowth sprang into action. James suddenly felt something sharp scratch his face. He released "Jessiebelle" and grabbed at the thing that had scratched him. Poor Meowth wasn't fast enough. James' hands shot out and grabbed him, shaking him like a rag doll.

"Let him go!" Mondo cried, grabbing Meowth and pulling him in the opposite direction.

"Stop pullin' Meooooowth!" the cat-Pokémon screamed, feeling quite certain that he was going to be ripped in half if their game of tug-o-war didn't stop.

Jessie wasted no time. Still coughing, she reached for the paper bag on the nightstand and prepared a tranquilizer. She didn't want to use them at all, but it looked like she didn't have much of a choice.

"I'm so sorry, James," she said, as she injected him with the fluid.

James felt a cold sting in him arm and sleep began to overtake him, and he knew nothing more.

. . . . . .

The rest of the afternoon was spent in silence. Meowth and Mondo picked miserably at their food, and Jessie didn't touch hers at all. She finally got up and put both her plate and the one for James in the refrigerator, leaving the other two to pick at their food.

She entered the bedroom and picked up her hand mirror, inspecting her sore neck. Her fingers trailed the red finger prints on her neck and shoulders. Not as bad as she thought it would be, but the front of her neck had two large bruises, where James' thumbs had dug into her. She set the mirror down and turned to James. He was laying so still in his drugged sleep that he seemed almost dead. The idea made Jessie's heart leap to her throat and she ran to his side, sighing with relief when she saw that he was still breathing. She pulled a footstool over to the side of James' bed and sat there awhile, watching him sleep. She barely noticed that she had taken his hand in her own, and was kissing it tenderly.

"Please don't die, James," she heard herself tearfully begging her unconscious partner. "I need you so much... We've been through so much together. I don't know where I would be if you hadn't come into my life... or if I lost you..."

Meowth watched silently from the doorway, as Jessie laid her head down on the side of James' bed and began to cry miserably.

"I'm so sorry, James..." she said, choking on her tears. "I'm so sorry for not being able to protect you..."

Meowth closed the door all but a crack, and went to confer with Mondo.

"What can we do?" Mondo asked a few minutes later, when they had cleaned up the kitchen and sat down to talk. "We can't leave them here!"

"We gotta find a safe place for them," Meowth argued, "An' dat means dey gotta stay here 'til we do!"

"What about taking them to one of their cabins in the woods?" asked Mondo.

"No, da boss knows where all or most of 'em are," Meowth replied.

Mondo though for a moment, then asked, "What about the Orange Islands?"

Meowth thought about that.

"Dat's a good idea..." he responded. "But where?"

"We can go look for a deserted island or something, then come back for them, but what can we do with them in the meantime?" asked Mondo.

Meowth smiled, wondering why his oh-so-simple solution didn't seem to appeal to Mondo. Or maybe the simple brilliance of his plan was beyond the mental scope of mere humans. He laughed at that thought, while Mondo looked on confused.

"Like I said, leave 'em here," Meowth said again.

"But..."

"If we take the Meowth balloon, the boss'll t'ink dat Jessie an' James are workin'..." Meowth explained, waiting for Mondo to catch on.

"And nobody will bother them because everyone will think they're gone!" finished Mondo excitedly.

"Dat's right!" said Meowth, quite pleased with himself.

"But after we get them to somewhere safe, then what? What'll we do then?"

The expression on Meowth's face darkened, but changed when he noticed Mondo looking innocently at him. He turned away, avoiding Mondo's gaze. He knew what the next step was, but could he trust Mondo to do what needed to be done? He glanced back at Mondo. The kid adored him, and he was rather fond of Mondo himself. Besides giving the greatest massages, Mondo was respectful, loyal, and had an air of innocence about him that even his Team Rocket costume could not diminish. He smiled, remembering how the young Rocket often said,

'Remember, I'm YOUR Mondo!'

He didn't want to destroy the boy's innocence; he hated Giovanni for trying to take that very thing from James. He wondered if he could carry out his plan himself, and not bring Mondo into it at all.

"What are you planning?" Mondo asked, worriedly.

Meowth stared at the bottle of pills Mondo had set on the table.

"Revenge..."

. . . . . .

It was several hours before James awakened. Jessie had cried herself to exhaustion. She was laying with her head against her sleeping partner tiredly when she felt him finally begin to stir.

"Jessie?"

"I'm right here, James."

James opened his eyes.

"Where... what's happened?" he asked.

"Shhh... nevermind that now," Jessie said, hoping to avoid the question. "Are you hungry?"

James stared at her. Or to be more precise, he stared at the bruises on her throat.

"Jessie, what happened to you?!!" he asked, horrified.

Jessie looked away, not sure what to tell him.

       Her lack of response frightened James. He felt a lump rise in his throat and sick feeling sink to the pit of his stomach.

"Jessie, did... did I do... this?"

His fingers trailed the fingerprints on her neck, just as hers had done a few hours earlier. They stopped at the two large bruises on the front of her neck. He looked into her eyes, and his own eyes began to fill with tears.

"Jessie, please..." he begged. "Tell me I didn't do this to you..."

"It... it wasn't your fault," Jessie said, her voice breaking as James gently wiped the tears from her eyes. "None of this is your fault, James..."

James began to cry. Not remembering the first thing about how Jessie had gotten hurt, he could only speculate what had happened. Had he gotten angry with her, tried to beat her? Kill her?

Suddenly his heart nearly stopped.

Or had he tried to rape her?

The memory of his horrific nightmare flashed through his mind. Had he dreamed of raping her again? Is what had happened? Had he attacked her in his sleep, and tried to...

"No!" his mind screamed. "I'd never do that to Jessie, I wouldn't!"

"Jessie, tell me what happened!" he begged her. "Tell me what I did to you!"

Sensing his intense distress, Jessie quickly wrapped her arms around him and held him to her.

"Shhhh, it's all right," she said. "You were just having a bad dream... you weren't really awake and you thought I was Jessiebelle."

"I'm so sorry!" James said, crying hysterically. "I love you so much, Jessie! I'd rather die than hurt you!"

Jessie sat there, frozen in disbelief as James continued to cry in her arms. He had finally said it... He had finally said that he loved her.

She suddenly realized that what should have just been the happiest moment of her life had been ruined by Giovanni. Instead of basking in the joy of James' declaration, she was only brought to tears, realizing that if his system could not fight the drug in his veins she could lose him forever.

"Damn you, Giovanni!" she cursed, holding him tighter and beginning to cry. "Damn you straight to hell!"

It was a long time before James stopped crying, but after a while his tears finally abated. Lying silently in the warm comfort of Jessie's arms, the only solid thought that ran through his mind was the fear that if he broke the peaceful silence between them, she would let go. The last thing he wanted was for her to let go.

He wasn't sure how long he had cried. Jessie had cried with him part of the time, he remembered that. His crying had quieted down after a while until it had stopped completely, leaving a warm, comfortable silence between them that gave him a serene feeling of completeness as she held him to her. And in the midst of his inner turmoil, the last thing he wanted was for her to let go and the feeling to stop.

After a while, it was she who broke the silence, asking him if he wanted something to eat. James sighed and held onto her tighter, glad to find that his serene contentment was in fact not in the least disturbed by Jessie's breaking their silence. In fact, the sound of her voice only intensified the feeling; letting him forget, if only briefly, the grief in his heart and mind. He could not remember why he had been crying, or why Jessie was holding him in her arms. He only knew that he needed her, that he didn't want her to let go. He started to sink back into sleep, subconsciously looking for a way, any way, to forget the pain inside him.

"I can't bear it..." his subconscious mind seemed to be telling the rest of his body. "I just want to forget... forget... forget..."

He had also forgotten that Jessie had asked him a question.

"James, did you hear me?" Jessie asked again.

"Hmmm?" he asked, sleepily.

"Are you hungry?"

"A little..." he replied.

"Do you want me to bring you something to eat?"

"No... Please don't let go of me, Jessie... please..."

Jessie kissed his head. "I won't let go," she whispered.

       He clung to her tighter, putting his arm up around her neck to pull him closer. A small gasp of pain escaped her throat, jolting him back into reality and forever breaking the serene, semiconscious forgetfulness that had alleviated his pain.

He looked up and saw that he had grabbed her bruised throat, causing her to react in pain. This completely re-jolted his memory. That's why he had been crying! He was crying because he had hurt her!

As reality re-dawned on him, he began to cry again, this time hysterically; his mind unable to cope with all the horrifying images flashing though his mind at once. Whipping his parents, raping Jessie, choking Meowth, strangling Jessiebelle... or was it Jessie? He could no longer tell which scenes were real, and which were merely nightmares his tormented mind had fabricated. He only knew that they had to stop, they were driving him crazy. He felt himself being pulled closer and closer to what he feared was complete and utter insanity.

"James? James!"

Jessie's voice shocked him back into reality, causing the images in his head to disappear like a popped bubble. She pulled him back into her embrace and let him settle back into her arms. James took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves as she rubbed his back and held him to her. "What's happening to me, Jessie? What's wrong with me?"

"Do you remember those pills Giovanni gave you?" she asked. When James nodded, she continued, "They're what's doing this to you. They make the person who uses them violent. Giovanni used you for some kind of sick experiment."

"Experiment?"

"Yeah, and he tried to use Mondo too. I talked to one of the scientists down in the labs, and she said that the drug you were taking was being tested on Pokémon, not human beings. Giovanni used you for a guinea pig."

"Why would he do this to me?" James whimpered, trembling as he clutched her tightly.

"I don't know, James. I just don't know..."

"What's going to happen to me?" he asked, his voice sick with fear.

"Lana says you're going to be very sick."

"Am I going to... die?"

"No!" Jessie said fiercely, forcing him to look at her. "You are NOT going to die, James! I won't let you!"

"Maybe... I deserve to die..."

"James, what are you talking about?!" Jessie cried angrily. "You don't deserve to die! Giovanni deserves to die! I hope he DOES die for doing this to you! I'd kill him myself for what he's done!

"You really care... so much?" James asked, looking into her eyes.

"Of course I care!" Jessie said, beginning to cry as she wrapped her arms around him again tightly. "I'll never let anyone hurt you like this again, James, I swear it!"

James burst into tears. She was crying for him. Jessie was crying for him... despite all the pain he had caused her, and unaware of the pain he could have caused her; she was crying as though her heart would break. She held him to her, crying for his misery and suffering, completely unaware of the horrific dream that replayed its self over and over again in his mind. Grabbing the knife... knocking her to the floor... tearing away her clothes... Jessie's sobs pierced his heart. He didn't deserve her tears! "This isn't your fault..." she had told him earlier. Not his fault? Pills or no pills, how could he not feel responsible for wanting to rape his best friend? How could he NOT be blamed for wanting to... No, TRYING to violate the woman he loved?

Jessie forced herself to stop crying. "We're going to get through this," she said, holding his chin in one hand and brushing his hair out of his eyes with the other. "We'll get through this together, all right? You and me..." She got to her feet.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

"To bring you some food," she said, hurrying out of the room. "You really need to eat."

       James stared after her, slightly confused by her sudden departure.

. . . . . .

When she got into the next room, Jessie forcefully commanded herself to stop crying.

"Stop it!" she hissed at herself, actually stamping her foot as she wiped away her tears. "You've got to be strong for him, so stop crying!"

"What's wrong, Miss Jessie?" asked Mondo, coming to her side.

"James is awake," Jessie said, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath. "I told him... about the pills."

"Was he able to understand you?" asked Mondo.

"Yes, I think so," said Jessie, going to the refrigerator to retrieve the two plates that she had put in earlier for her and James. "He seems to be able to focus at least. I guess that's because most of the drug would be out of his system by now."

"What about the withdrawal Lana said he was going to go through?" Mondo asked.

"I don't know... Maybe it's too early... I didn't know that you knew Lana..."

Mondo nodded. "I know practically everyone at Team Rocket HQ. I didn't know that you knew her."

"Well, anyway, I want to get James to eat something. He's got to be hungry, he hasn't eaten anything all day."

Mondo watched from the doorway as Jessie took the two plates on one of the serving-trays into the bedroom. Meowth joined him and they watched as Jessie and James ate together.

"We've got to do everything we can to protect them," Mondo said, watching as Jessie took turns feeding both herself and James with the fork she was holding.

"Yeah," Meowth agreed, continuing to watch his two friends thoughtfully, "We do."
The rest of the evening was spent peacefully enough. After helping James into his pajamas and holding him until he fell asleep, Jessie fell asleep in his bed. Although unplanned it worked to Mondo's advantage, who otherwise would have wound up sleeping on the floor. The couch in the next room would have been more comfortable, but he refused to sleep away from Jessie on the chance that James attacked her again. Mondo covered them both up with James' blanket before climbing into Jessie's bed to sleep. All was well until sometime after midnight, when Jessie woke up to the sound of James' crying.

"James, what's the matter?!" she asked him.

"I... I don't feel well..."

Mondo, who had also awakened, turned on the bedroom lamp.

James certainly didn't look well. He was soaking wet with perspiration, and he couldn't seem to stop shaking.

"I... I'm so... cold..." he whimpered.

Mondo pulled the blanket off of Jessie's bed and helped her to wrap it around James' shoulders. For a long time, that was all they could get out of him, until he suddenly said, "Jessie?"

"Yes, James?"

"I feel sick..."

"Sick how?" Jessie asked him.

"I feel... nauseous..."

Jessie and Mondo exchanged glances.

Mondo jumped off the bed and ran to get a basin.

James reached over to the nightstand. Unable to find what he was looking for, he pulled out the top drawer and dumped its contents all over the floor.

"James, what are you doing?!"

"Jessie... I need... those pills... Where are they?"

"Those pills are what's making you sick, remember?"

"No..." he said wretchedly. "Jessie, I need them! Where are they!?"

"You can't have any more of them," Jessie said gently.

"Give them to me!!!" he shouted, gripping Jessie's nightgown. "What did you do with them?!"

"I flushed them down the toilet!!!" Jessie yelled right back. "They were killing you!"

"You wha---" James began, but never finished his sentence. Before he could say anything more, he grabbed the bucket Mondo had brought back and began vomiting his dinner into it.

"Mondo, go get a cold washcloth, hurry!"

Mondo quickly complied with her request.

"You're going to be all right," she told her sick partner. When he had finished, she wiped his mouth with the washcloth and whispered, "Everything's going to be all right, I promise."

"How?" he said pitifully, beginning to cry.

"Hey, where's Meowth?" asked Mondo.

Jessie looked over to Meowth's little bed in the corner. It was empty.



No one slept the rest of the night.

James spent the rest of the night either crying, vomiting, or hiding under five layers of blankets in a futile attempt to keep warm. Although he claimed to be freezing, he was sweating so profusely Jessie actually had to ring out his hair. She swore he felt as though he had a fever, and being under five blankets couldn't possibly be good for him. Still, his cold sweats came and went in spells, so he didn't spend every moment of the night under them. Jessie used the time he spend "unburied" to wipe his face, neck, and rest of his body. The smell of perspiration and sickness was terrible, she finally told Mondo to open the windows and let the room air out. After doing so, Mondo would look out every so often, hoping to see Meowth return.

When morning finally came and Meowth had still not come back, Mondo began to get worried. "Maybe I should go look for him," he suggested.

Suddenly they heard the front door slam shut.

"Where have you been all night?!" Jessie asked Meowth, when he came into the room.

"Out," was the only answer he would give.

Too tired to scold him or question him further, Jessie dropped the subject, and returned to holding James. Although he was not cold at the particular moment, he was still shaking, (Jessie wasn't sure if he had actually ever stopped shaking) and for the last half hour he had been complaining of cramps in his stomach.

"Is dere anything Meowth can do?" the Pokémon asked.

"No, Meowth," Jessie said quietly. "I don't think there's anything any of us can do."

Mondo sighed tiredly and went to make breakfast.

"Jessie, I'm scared," James said, clutching his stomach. "These cramps are getting worse."

"James, I'm so sorry!" Jessie said tearfully, "I don't know how to help you..."

"I'm dying, aren't I?" he asked.

"No! You're not going to die, James, do you hear me?!"

"Yes, I am!" he cried. "I'm going to die, I know it!"

"James, you're not going to die, you're... you're just..."

"I'm SCARED!!!" he wailed.

Jessie scooped him into her arms as he began to cry again.

"I just want it all to go away," he sobbed.

"I know, James," Jessie whispered. "I do too..."

. . . . . .

The smell of bacon filled the air as Meowth entered the kitchen. Mondo was in the process of retrieving some eggs from the refrigerator when Meowth called out to him.

"Mondo..."

The young Rocket nearly jumped out of his skin, dropping the eggs in the process. "Oh, Meowth, it's you..."

"Whadda ya gettin' so worked up for?" asked Meowth.

"I'm sorry, Meowth," sighed Mondo, kneeling down to clean up the broken eggs. "I don't know why I'm so nervous."

"Meowth knows why," the Pokémon said. "Ya know da boss'll wanna know how you an' James are doin' on those pills soon. We gotta get outta here, an' I mean quick. We gotta find a place for Jess and James as soon as possible."

"Right," agreed Mondo, getting more eggs out of the refrigerator. "When should we leave?"

"Da sooner da better," said Meowth. "How about after breakfast?"

"No, we can't leave so soon," argued Mondo. "Jessie's been up all night taking care of James. We can't just leave her to care for him by herself without getting any sleep first. We can take care of James the rest of the day and let Jessie get some rest, then leave in the evening."

"All right, we'll leave this evening," Meowth agreed. "But we gotta leave before dark."

"Why?" asked Mondo.

"So dat people will SEE da Meowth balloon leavin,' Meowth replied. "We want 'em thinkin' dat Jessie and James are gone, remember?"

"Oh, right..." said Mondo tiredly. "I'm sorry Meowth, I'm just so tired... I was up all night helping with James."

"I know..." the Pokémon sighed. "Meowth was up all night, too."

"Where were you?" Mondo asked. "We were worried about you."

Meowth clutched the bottle of pills Giovanni had intended for Mondo, but would say nothing more.

. . . . . .

"Jessie, I'm so afraid," James cried, choking between sobs, "I hurt so much..."

"I know, sweetheart," she said gently, "I really do..."

James looked up. "Jessie..."

"What?"

"You called me 'sweetheart'..."

Jessie blushed slightly as she fought to control the tears brimming in her eyes. As her partner's pain-filled green eyes gazed at her steadily, despite the fact that the rest of his body was shaking uncontrollably, she gently caressed his face.

"You ARE my sweetheart, James," she told him, the affection in her voice causing him to smile despite his pain. "Always..."

"Really?" he asked.

"Really..."

"Jessie, I love you so much," he whispered.

"James, I..."

"Breakfast!" piped Mondo from the doorway.

Jessie reluctantly released James from her hold and got up. James made a slight whimper of protest.

"Here, James," Mondo said, holding out the plate for him.

"I don't want any!" James said, wiping hot tears from his face with his trembling hand. "Just go away!"

"James, you need to eat," Mondo protested.

"I'm not hungry!"

"Come on," Mondo coaxed, trying to hand him the plate. "You really need to eat--"

"I said I'm not hungry!" James shouted, knocking the plate out of Mondo's hands and spilling the food all over the floor.

"Why did you do that?!" Jessie yelled at him.

James only started to cry again.

"God, I'm too tired to handle this anymore!" Jessie cried, holding her head with her hands as she felt tears welt up in her eyes.

"Miss Jessie, you need to sleep," Mondo said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Go to bed for a while... Meowth and I will take care of James."

Jessie nodded and climbed into her bed as Mondo began cleaning up the food. James' crying echoed in her mind as she fell asleep, causing her to sink into strange dreams...



Jessie was standing in front of a long black coffin. A single red rose was laid on top of it, causing a wave of fear to wash over her. Was this James' coffin? A crowd of mourners stood behind her, but she did not recognize anyone. An old woman stepped forward, taking the rose from the coffin and crying bitterly.

"Do I know you?" Jessie asked her. "You look familiar..."

"You don't know me yet," the old mother replied. "But I know you."

"Who are you?" Jessie asked her.

Instead of responding, the old women put her hand on the coffin and began singing words to a song Jessie didn't know.

"Temari o suki masho, mamaru nani, Itoshi kokoro..."

She turned to the crowd of mourners and continued singing.

"Dare no?"

The crowd echoed the words back to her. "Dare no?"
 
She turned to Jessie. "Anata?"

Jessie didn't know what to say, but the crowd answered for her. "Watashi?"
 
The old woman faced the coffin again and echoed the word. "Watashi?"

"Anata?" the crowd answered back to her.
 
She closed her ancient eyes and held the rose to her breast. "Doto rito uchi rita yume ni ru ukao..."

Although she did not know the song, Jessie felt the solemnness of the occasion. She wanted to talk to the old lady, but she didn't want to interrupt her. The old woman turned to the crowd again, pointing to the coffin. "Dare no?"

"Dare no?" the crowd echoed back.
 
"Anata?" she asked.

"Watashi?" they answered.
 
"Watashi?" she echoed.

"Anata?"

"Manmaru koro eiru..." The old lady sang, crying as the wind blew the petals off the rose and carried them away.

"The petals represent the soul of a lost loved one," Jessie heard a voice, her own voice, say.

"Doko yoku?" the old woman asked the crowd of mourners.

"Wa karan?" they answered.

"Nani ou?" she asked.

"Wa karan?" they responded again.
 
"Nani ga hoshii?" she asked, facing the coffin again.

Here the old woman and the crowd behind her clasped their hands, as if in prayer, and sang together, "Hoshii ha, eien..."

"Who are you?" Jessie asked again. She was crying, but she did not know why. Did she know this woman or her husband? The woman looked familiar, but Jessie was sure she had never seen her before.

"You don't belong here," the old woman told her.

"I... I didn't ask to be here..." Jessie told her.

"I know..." the old mother replied. "You belong... there."

She pointed at a procession carrying a coffin across the street. It was led by the head mourner, a woman wearing a black veil.

"That's where you belong," the old woman said again. "This is the future. You don't belong here."

"The future?" Jessie asked, walking across the street.

The coffin in the procession was also black, but there were no flowers on it. Suddenly a feeling of dread overtook her. She had to see who was in this coffin. If the other coffin contained the old woman's husband, who was in this one?

"Who's coffin is this?" Jessie asked the head mourner.

The woman did not respond.

"Please!" Jessie begged. "I have to know!"

When still she received no answer, Jessie ran to the coffin. Taking a deep breath, she raised the lid...



"Miss Jessie, are you all right?" Mondo cried.

"The coffin... I have... to know..."

"Hey, Jess, wake up!" Meowth's voice called.

Jessie opened her eyes. She was on the floor, with Meowth and Mondo staring down at her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You fell out of bed," Mondo explained, helping her up.

"I never got to see who was in the coffin..."

"Uh? Coffin?" asked Mondo, confused.

Jessie shook her head. "Nevermind... James! How's James?" she asked, rushing over to his bed.

Her partner was lying on his back in what seemed to be a trancelike state. His eyes were staring blankly into space, and his face bore an expression of dull suffering that made Jessie want to cry.

"James, can you hear me?" she asked, waving her hand slowly in front of his face. "James, please look at me."

He turned his head slowly and stared at her without saying anything. It seemed more as if he were looking through her than at her.

"How long has he been like this?" she asked.

"About an hour, maybe longer," said Mondo. "Before that he just laid there and cried, saying that it hurt all over. Now he won't speak to us, and he doesn't respond when we talk to him."

"James, please talk to me!" Jessie said franticly. "Say something!"

He remained silent, staring at her helplessly.

"James, please! You're scaring me! Please say something!"

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He mouthed her name silently.

"Meowth, go get him some water!" Jessie said quickly. "Hurry! Now!"

Meowth hurried out.

"Did you get him to eat anything?" Jessie asked Mondo.

"He wouldn't eat any breakfast," said Mondo, "but he ate his lunch when we offered it to him."

"How long have I been asleep?" Jessie asked.

Mondo looked at his watch. "Almost nine hours."

Jessie nearly fell over. "NINE hours?! Why didn't you wake me up?!"

"You were so tired," said Mondo. "And you needed to rest since Meowth and I won't be here to help you."

Jessie looked confused. "Huh? Why not?"

"Cuz we're leavin' ta find yous a place ta live," answered Meowth, returning with the water.

"A place to live?" Jessie asked, helping James to sit up and drink the glass of water.

"Well, you can't stay here much longer, Miss Jessie," said Mondo. "Giovanni doesn't care about any of us, and if we stay here, he'll just try to use us again."

"Jessie?"

      It was James.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Jessie said breathlessly, relieved to hear him speak.

"It smells bad in here," James said, wrinkling his nose.

Jessie looked away. She couldn't very well tell him that HE was the reason it smelled so bad. But he was sure right. The smell of sickness and perspiration was overpowering.

"Would you like a nice bath?" she suggested. "That would give Mondo and me a chance to clean up in here, and it would probably make you feel better, too."

James nodded, letting her help him out of bed. Mondo began stripping off the sheets as Jessie led her partner into the bathroom.  

. . . . . .

"Here, let me help you," Jessie said, helping James to remove his clothes as the water ran in the tub. He couldn't seem to make his hands stop shaking long enough to undo the buttons on his pajama top.

"I'm the reason it smells so bad, aren't I?" he said, "I stink."

Jessie sighed, wishing she could have spared him that observation. "It's not just you. Everyone smells pretty bad right now, James. We stink, Mondo and Meowth stink, the whole place stinks."

"Because of me..."

"You're sick, James. You can't help it," Jessie said, helping him into the tub. "Besides, you'll be nice and clean in few minutes."

As she helped him to sit down in the tub, she suddenly realized that she couldn't possibly leave James alone. Rather or not he could bathe himself was doubtful, and she felt like an idiot for ever considering leaving him alone in his condition. Somewhat embarrassed, she finally asked, "Would you like me to help you?"

James nodded gratefully, handing her the washcloth and soap and letting her wash his back.

"Everything's going to be all right, I promise," she said, lathering up the washcloth with soap and scrubbing under his arms. "Here, lift up your arms... I'll take care of you, and as soon as you're well..."

Jessie stopped. She suddenly realized that once James was better, she had no idea what they would do. They would have no job, and at the moment she didn't even know where they were going to live.

James hadn't seemed to notice that she had stopped talking. He closed his eyes as Jessie scrubbed him, letting the clean smell of the soap overtake his senses.

"What are you thinking?" Jessie asked, hoping to get him to speak more, maybe even have a conversation.

James opened his eyes. "Promise you won't hit me?" he asked.

"James, do you honestly think I would hit you in your condition?"

"Well, I don't know..." he responded. "I was just thinking how nice it feels... having you wash me."

Jessie almost DID hit him, forgetting his sickness for a moment. But seeing the sincere, innocent look on his face, she smiled and said, "You know what, James? I like how it feels taking care of you."

"You do?" he asked.

Jessie nodded, blushing a little as she continued to scrub him gently. James sighed softly as she washed him. She tickled him gently in places, laughing as she caused him to giggle. The sound of his laughter warmed her heart. Since the whole ordeal with the pills began, it felt as though they had never laughed before. It almost seemed as if laughter were a foreign thing, known to them long, long ago in another lifetime, or perhaps another world.

Rather it was the warm water, the smell of the soap, or Jessie's tickling, James was beginning to feel invigorated, despite his pain. He continued to giggle as Jessie washed his face and neck. Jessie was still laughing herself as she reached for the bottle of shampoo and poured some into her hand.

      "That smells nice," he sighed, as she shampooed his hair. "It smells like... strawberries..."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Jessie said, looking at the bottle. "I grabbed the wrong bottle. I'm so used to grabbing this one, this is my shampoo."

"It's okay," James smiled, as Jessie's fingers massaged his scalp. "I seem to always be wearing your clothes anyway, so I guess using your shampoo won't matter much!"

They both burst into fits of giggles.



"How long is she going to BE in there?" Mondo asked, hearing the laughter on the other side of the bathroom door. "I though she was going to help me clean up. What are they DOING in there?"

"Oh, leave 'em alone," Meowth said, laying on James' newly made bed. "We gotta get ready to leave soon."

"I'm gonna make dinner for them first, so Jessie doesn't have to do it," Mondo said.

"We ain't got time for that!!!" Meowth yelled. "Ya shoulda done dat earlier if ya was gonna do it!

"But-"

"No buts! We shoulda left dis morning like Meowth said!"

"But what if he tries to hurt her again? What if..."

"We ain't got no choice!" Meowth told him. "We just gotta hope that since the drug's outta his system---"

Suddenly the door opened and Jessie came out, closing the door back. Without a word she went to James' dresser and got a clean pair of pajamas, before going back to the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Meowth and Mondo exchanged glances.

"Look, Jessie's a tough goil," Meowth said, "She can take care of herself."

      Mondo just stared sadly at the closed door. "She loves him..."

      "I know..." Meowth agreed. "She don't never say it, but Meowth knows she does. An' James loves her, too. Ya gotta except it, Mondo."

"I know," Mondo said, continuing to stare at the bathroom door. "I always have. But I'll never forgive him if he hurts her."

"Meowth t'inks dat da woirst is over," Meowth replied. "It's Giovanni we gotta worry about now."

Mondo nodded in agreement. He gathered up James' soiled sheets to take to the laundry mat, sighing tiredly as he left.
After finishing her shower Jessie went to get James' sheets from the HQ laundry mat, and found the place bustling with activity. Apparently a Rocket named Agatha had brought her partner's dead body to Headquarters earlier in the afternoon and every Rocket from the Dan'in to the Elite was talking about it. Although greatly interested in their conversation, Jessie knew that the rest of Team Rocket HQ was supposed to think she and James were gone; so she quickly retrieved his bedclothes and left. It was obvious no one had noticed her; she had watched as one person dump almost an entire of box of detergent in a washing machine while listening to the Rockets in the middle of the room exchange gossip about "Poor Aggie."

"Poor woman," Jessie thought as she walked back to her and James' quarters. "If I were her, I wouldn't be able stand it. I don't think I could live if James... No, I can't think like that, James is going to be fine, he'll be FINE! He has to be..."

She checked on James one more time before going to bed. He looked so peaceful in his sleep... so innocent. She could hardly believe that this was the same person who had nearly strangled both her and Meowth a few days ago. She had never stopped to consider that her gentle, easy going partner could have a dark side just like everyone else. But then, that wasn't really HIM, was it? It was the effect of a terrible substance running through his veins.

As she caressed his face she felt a powerful emotion sweep through her, almost alarming in its intensity. A mixture of love, adoration, and fierce protectiveness that overwhelmed her senses, engulfing the very core of her existence and threatening to choke the rest of her out. But somehow it wasn't a new feeling... New in its intensity, yes, but not in the emotion itself. She had always felt protective of her partner; although she had never wanted to admit it, even to herself, before this situation had occurred.   

"Why?" she wondered. The love she felt for this man was so... so precious. It was more than an emotion, it was like a new power inside of her, a new confidence. Why had it taken such a terrible thing happening to him for her to realize this? Did all lessons of such value come at such a terrible cost?

"I love you," she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.

Her sleeping partner offered no response, but smiled at the sound of her voice.  

"And I'll spend the rest of my life protecting you," Jessie continued. "I'll never let anyone hurt you again."

James sighed contentedly and rolled over in his sleep. Jessie tucked him in and kissed him, before going to her own bed to sleep.

"Everything will be all right now," she told herself, desperately wanting to believe it as the image of James' peaceful expression lulled her to sleep. "James is going to get better now... and everything... will be just... fine..."

. . . . . .

Safe... He was safe... He didn't know where he was or how he had gotten there, but James knew that much. He was warm and safe. He knew nothing more, and at the moment he didn't care to. His dream-self only wished to be left in peace, away from suffering, away from pain... But it was not to be...

He felt something on his skin. He tried to wipe whatever it was away, but the strange tingling feeling only resurfaced somewhere else. The sensation intensified, it felt like something crawling on him...

He opened his eyes and screamed. Little black bugs were crawling all over his body, biting him underneath his clothes. He torn away his shirt, trying to get them out, but he could do nothing but scream helplessly...



"Jessie!!! Oh god, Jessie help me, please!!!"

It was just past four in the morning when Jessie again fell out of bed, awakened by the sound of James' screaming.

"James, what's the matter with you?!" she cried, panic-stricken as she ran to his side.

"Get them off me!!!"

Jessie turned on the lamp. James had ripped his pajama top off, and was thrashing about like mad trying to get something off of his skin.

"James, what is it?!" Jessie cried, trying to push his hands away so she could see what he was clawing at. "I don't see anything!"

Her partner continued to cry as he scratched himself, tearing at his arms and chest and causing himself to bleed.

"James, stop it!!!" Jessie shouted, grabbing his wrists. "You're hurting yourself!"

"Jessie, get them off!" he pleaded, tears streaming down his face.

Jessie examined him, unable to find whatever it was that he was desperately trying to remove.

"Get WHAT off?" she asked, trying to hold back her still-thrashing partner.

"They're crawling all over me!" he screamed, still trying to break free from her hold. "Let go of me, Jessie! Get them off me!"

"James, there's nothing on you!" she yelled, trying to hold back her panic driven tears. "Please, stop it!"

Unable to release himself from Jessie's hold, James bit her hand, causing her to cry out in pain. She released his right hand as she inspected her wound, which allowed James to claw at himself with his free hand.

"James, stop this!" she pleaded, trying to get hold of him again. "There's nothing on you! You're seeing something that's not there!"

"I FEEL them!" he cried, drawing more blood as he continued to scratch and tear at his body. "They're biting me! Jessie, make them stop!"

Jessie ran to the closet, digging though their costumes and disguises until she found what she was looking for: the two sets of handcuffs from their Officer Jenny costumes. She ran back to her partner and proceeded to handcuff one of his wrists and then the other to the bed posts.

He howled like an enraged animal, screaming incoherently as he began trying to scratch his legs with his feet.

"James, I'm sorry!" Jessie cried. "I can't let you hurt yourself; I don't know what else to do!"

He continued thrashing wildly, cutting his wrists on the handcuffs. Jessie knew she had to calm him down before he did himself serious harm, but she was at loss as to what to do.

"Lana... I should call Lana..."

She ran to the phone, but before she could find the number he suddenly stopped and began struggling to breathe. She dropped the phone and ran to him. He stared at her with a terrified expression as if silently begging her to somehow help him. Jessie quickly released him from the handcuffs and helped him to sit up. He sounded like he was having an asthma attack, but as far as she knew James didn't have asthma, or any other type of breathing problem.

"A panic attack," Jessie's brain finally kicked in. "He's having a panic attack..."

"James, calm down!" Jessie cried, franticly trying to think of some way to help him. "Please calm down, everything going to be fine..."

When her words had no affect on the situation, she grabbed the bag of tranquilizers on the table and prepared one. "James forgive me, I don't know what else to do!" She injected it into him and he slowly calmed down as he lost consciousness. She quickly checked to make sure he was still breathing.

When she was sure that he was all right, she went to the bathroom to get the first-aid kit. She tended to her own wound first, holding her hand over the sink as she poured on the disinfectant. James had bitten the base of her left hand, between her thumb and her wrist. She could not move her thumb without considerable pain, so she bound it to the rest of her hand as she wrapped the wound. She then carried the kit to the bedroom and began cleaning her partner up.



It was enough to make her cry. His beautiful body was covered with bleeding sores and scratches. He had picked and scratched to the point that his skin was raw in some places, and blood trickled from the open sores. His wrists had red rings around them from where he had tried to break out of the handcuffs and blood was oozing from his right wrist where the metal had cut into his skin.

"James, I'm so sorry!" Jessie told her unconscious partner as she cleaned his wounds. "I don't know what happened... I didn't know what to do..."

The red scratch marks on the left side of his face brought tears to her eyes. God, this man was so beautiful! What had happened to make him do this to himself?

She treated his wrists last, hoping they would look better by the time she got to them. They did not, and as she inspected his wrists she found that the red rings were becoming purple bruises, and the area where the metal had cut into his skin on his right wrist was turning green. She cleaned each one gently, before kissing them both and laying his hands on top of his chest.

She picked his pajama top off the floor and debated rather or not to put it back on him. Finally she decided against it. The last thing he needed was something rubbing against his skin and aggravating his wounds. She examined the garment, finding that he had literally ripped it off his body, tearing all the buttons off.

"He thought something was crawling on him..." Jessie thought, as she picked the buttons up and laid them and the pajama top on a chair. "What did he feel that had him so freaked out? He was like a crazed animal... God, what the hell happened?"

Confused and exhausted, she laid down on James' bed and held him, trying not to touch his wounds as cried herself back to sleep.

. . . . . .

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!
Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Jessie moaned in her sleep. "No... I don't wanna get up..."

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!
Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Jessie opened her eyes. James lay still beside her, one side of his face twitching in his sleep. She sat up, gently moving his arm that was wrapped around her. The movement immediately awakened James, who began to cry.

"James, I'm sorry! Please don't cry!"

James opened his eyes. Pain... he could feel nothing but pain. The light sent intense pain to his head, and the rest of his body felt as though he had been hit by a truck.

"It hurts!" he sobbed.

"Where does it hurt?" Jessie asked.

"Everywhere!"

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!
Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

"I'm coming!" Jessie yelled, getting up to answer the phone.

James closed his eyes, trying to keep the light out. He felt Jessie's weight on the bed shift, and then disappear completely. His own crying drowned out the sound of the phone, so he had no idea where she had gone. He extended his arm out, hoping to reach her and bring her back. When he failed to find her, he was suddenly struck with the fear that he had lost her. His Jessie... his only support left in the whole world, gone.

"Jessie... Jessie... don't leave me!"

"I'm just answering the phone, James," she said, picking up the receiver and pushing the "view" button.

The phone went dead. Either the person on the other end of the line had gotten tired of waiting and hung up, or it had been a crank call. Either way, both she and James were now fully awake, and the latter was in a great deal of pain. Pain which he could have been spared if the wretched phone had not caused her to wake him up. Jessie slammed down the receiver.

"Jessie!" James continued cry for her.

"I'm right here," she sighed, going back over to the bed.

"My head hurts!" he sobbed. "My head... my stomach... EVERYTHING hurts!"

"I don't know if it's safe to give you an aspirin or something," she told him.

"Make it stop!" he pleaded, crying loudly as he gripped her nightgown and buried his face in her chest. "Jessie help me!"

"I don't know what to do!" she cried, trying to control the tears she felt welling in her eyes. "I don't know how to help you!"

"The light... make the light go away..."

"Does it hurt your eyes?" she asked him.

James whimpered in response. Jessie pried him off her and got up to turn off the lamp. She had forgotten to turn it off before and had fallen asleep with it on. She glanced at the clock before turning out the light. It was only eight-thirty? She felt like she had slept for days. Hell, she wished she could go back to sleep for another week or so.

"Jessie, come back!" James whined, reaching out for her.

"Just a minute," she said, going over to close the curtains. She was thankful now that Mondo had put them back up, she had never quite found the time to do it since James had torn them off the windows a few days ago.

When the light in the room had been reduced to a minimum, James slowly opened his eyes. He quickly scanned the room for Jessie, and was relieved to find her shadowy figure approaching him. He quickly latched onto her as she took him in her arms.

"Why does it hurt so much?" he asked her.

She didn't answer him, but began crying softly. "James, I'm sorry!" she finally said. "I'm just so sorry!"

"My body... aches all over... What happened to me?" he asked.

"Don't you remember?" she asked him.

"All I remember is... is..."

He never finished his sentence. He suddenly tightened his hold on her and began whimpering.

"Jessie?" he finally whispered.

"What is it?" she responded.

"Did you here that?" he asked.

"Here what?"

"The whip... Jessiebelle's whip..."

"James, Jessiebelle's far away..."

"No, I hear her!" he insisted. "She's coming to get me!"

"NOBODY'S coming to get you!" Jessie said firmly. "Jessiebelle is miles and miles away, and she doesn't even know where you are!"

"She's coming to get me!" he wailed, his fingers digging into her arms as he clutched her hysterically. "She's getting closer and closer! Jessie help me!!!"

"James, LISTEN to me! Whatever you're seeing or hearing, it isn't real! You're being controlled by nightmares, you've got to wake up!"

"N-nightmares?"

"James, what you're hearing isn't real! You're hallucinating, it's no different than a waking nightmare. You've got to snap out of it!"

But her hysterical partner was no longer listening to her, he just continued to wail despairingly.

"I can't keep giving him tranquilizers, or he'll get hooked on them. But what can I do?"

Suddenly an idea struck her. She grabbed the blanket off his bed and pulled it over both their heads.

"James, I want you to listen to me," she said, firmly but gently as she cuddled her sobbing partner under the covers. "We're going to hide out so that Jessiebelle doesn't find us, but we've got to be very quiet, okay? We don't want her to find us."

As if by magic, his crying stopped. Rather amazed that her tactic had worked, she gently rocked him back and forth, hoping to calm him down a bit. Every muscle in his body was tense, and he was still whimpering in fear.

"She's so close, Jessie..." he whispered, choking back his tears. "I'm so scared..."

"Shhh... We'll be safe in here," Jessie whispered. "This is the safest place in the world, she'll never find us."

"The safest place in the world," James repeated, his body beginning to relax against hers. "The safest place in the world..."

"That's right," Jessie said, amazed at how much influence the power of suggestion seemed to have over him. "No matter how close she gets, she can't get in here because this is the safest place in the world."

"The safest place in the world..." he continued to murmur. "Jessie is... the safest place in the world."

Jessie smiled inwardly at this. "That's right," she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.

She didn't know if going along with his delusion was the right thing to do, but at least he was calm at the moment. Although his hallucinations were caused by the withdrawal, a physical element, the affect they were having was largely psychological. She wondered if she could somehow tap into his psyche and learn how to make him feel safe. Although she had no idea how she might accomplish this, she decided to keep the idea in the back of her mind, and watch for an opportunity to do so. She suddenly felt James shift uncomfortably.

"How do you feel?" she whispered.

"I hurt... a lot," he replied in a small voice.

"Where does it hurt?" she asked.

"My stomach hurts... and my head... and my wrists, too..."

"My poor sweetheart," she whispered in his ear. "I'm so sorry..."

Two weeks ago she would never have dreamed of saying such things. The idea of showing such affection not only seemed weak to her, but it had also scared the hell out of her. The idea of being so close to someone frightened her terribly, despite how much she had desperately wanted it. Clinging to a childhood fear that had plagued her since her mother's death, she feared that if she loved someone, they would leave her and never come back.

As she grew older, she disguised the feeling, even from herself, by associating it with something else that she despised, weakness. She hated the idea of being weak. But as she held her partner close to her she realized that loving him was her greatest strength in the world. She felt as though she could do anything, anything at all, if it were necessary to protect the one she loved. She had heard stories of mothers finding strength they never knew they had to lift heavy cars that their children were trapped underneath; and of course males of every known species were known for fighting, even to their own death, for their mates. Only now did she understand where that power came from, a strength that was truly the most precious thing in the world. She would never be embarrassed to show her love again, and never again would she make the mistake of associating such a sacred and infinitely powerful thing with weakness.

Suddenly a knocking sound was heard, interrupting Jessie's thoughts and sending James into a state of hysteria.

"It's Jessiebelle! She's found us!" he cried, trying to run off the bed and getting tangled up in the blanket instead. He fell to the floor with a thump and started bawling.

Jessie turned on the lamp, which only made him cry harder.

"Jessie, are you all right in there?" a woman's voice called.

Suddenly Jessie's brain kicked in and she realized that the sound had been someone knocking on the door.

"Just a minute!" she called, running to the door. She opened the door to reveal Lana, carrying two large bags.

"Jessie, are you all right?" Lana asked, concerned. "You don't look well."

"Oh, thank goodness you're here!" Jessie exclaimed, nearly dragging the poor woman in the door. "I don't know what to do anymore! Please help him!"

Lana walked into the bedroom, where James was still on the floor sobbing. She set the bags on the floor and pulled a syringe out of one of them, then walked over to James and motioned for Jessie to help her.

"I just gave him a tranquilizer a while ago..." Jessie told her.

"Nevermind the tranquilizers, I've brought something better," Lana said, trying to get hold of James' arm.

James caught sight of the needle and started screaming.

"James, it's all right," Jessie said, trying to calm him down. "This is Lana, she's going to help you."

Despite the influence her words had had on him a few minutes ago, they were having no effect now. Nevertheless, Lana still managed to inject him with the fluid a few seconds later.

"Help me get him on the bed," she instructed Jessie, and together they managed to get the still-struggling James onto his bed.

Unlike the tranquilizers, which had taken affect almost immediately, whatever Lana had just given him seemed to have no affect at all.

"Will this make him sleep?" Jessie asked.

"No, but he'll be pretty out of it once the drug takes affect," Lana responded, "I was so worried when you didn't answer the phone, so I came up straight away."

"That was you on the phone earlier?" Jessie asked.

Lana nodded and handed Jessie a bottle of pills. "These are going to help him endure the withdrawal symptoms. We really need to get an IV in him, but I helped Meowth pack the equipment on your balloon yesterday so we'll have to wait until they find you a place to live."

"You saw Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"The night before last," Lana said, pulling a little machine out of one of the bags and setting it on the nightstand.

"So that's where he was the night Mondo and I couldn't find him!"

"That's right," Lana said, plugging the machine into the wall. "We made some arrangements and I helped him load some medical supplies for James onto your balloon. He and Mondo will set them up when they find somewhere for you to live so they'll be ready for James when he arrives. We're going to make every effort to save your partner."

"What's that?" Jessie asked, referring to the machine Lana had just plugged in.

"A vaporizer," Lana explained, pouring a strong but pleasant smelling liquid into it. "This is just an herbal mixture to help him relax."

"I thought that's what the injection was for?"

"No, that's for the pain," Lana replied. "But it's very strong and he'll be pretty much out of it after a while. We need to keep his environment as calm and soothing as possible. I'm going to make sure he gets all the medical attention he needs, but he's going to need your love and support most of all."

"Jessie!" James whined. "It hurts!"

"Where does it hurt?" Lana asked him.

"Here," he said, pointing to his knee. "I fell down..." He seemed to have forgotten that less than two minutes ago he had been afraid of her.

"How did he fall?" Lana asked, removing the bottom half of his pajamas to examine his knee.

"He fell off the bed when..." Jessie stopped, suddenly realizing that James had nothing on UNDER the pajama pants. He lay completely nude on the bed, and didn't seem to care in the least. In fact, he hardly seemed aware of it.

"Bend your knee," Lana told him.

James did as she instructed.

"It's all right, sweetie," Lana told him after a moment. "It's just a little bruise, you're going to be fine."

Jessie frowned, finding that she wasn't too thrilled with some other woman calling James "Sweetie," especially when he didn't have any clothes on.

"Has he got a pair of boxer shorts?" Lana asked, examining the rest of him.

Jessie nodded, getting a pair out of his dresser. When she brought them over, Lana took them from her and put them on him, which again irked Jessie. She certainly didn't want anyone dressing James but herself, but what especially annoyed her was his lack of protest. "Stop it!" she chided herself. "This woman's trying to help you, and he's too sick to know what's going on! You're being ridiculous!"

Lana examined the wounds on his arms and chest, before noticing his wrists. "How in the world did this happen?" she asked, holding up his right wrist, which was still very green.

Jessie explained the situation as Lana examined the area.

"It hurts and it's itchy!" James told her.

"Itchy?" Jessie asked.

"Where did you get the handcuffs from?" Lana asked.

"We stole them from a costume shop a while back," Jessie said, uncuffing them from his bed posts.

"Let me see."

Jessie handed them to her.

"This isn't serious," Lana said finally.

"But it's GREEN!" Jessie protested.

"These handcuffs are made of cheap metal, and his skin had an allergic reaction. The police use stainless steel, but some costume and novelty shops use something cheaper. He'll be all right."

"You have NO idea how glad I am you're here!" Jessie sighed, relieved that another load had been taken off her mind.

"I meant to come yesterday, but I couldn't get out of the lab," Lana said, pulling a stethoscope out of her bag.

"How's the Raticate?" Jessie asked.

"Dead," Lana replied.

Jessie bit her bottom lip silently as Lana listened to his heartbeat. "Are you a doctor or something?" she asked when Lana had finished.

"Five years of medical training," Lana replied.

"I thought medical school was seven years?" Jessie asked.

"It is," she replied. "But I didn't say school. I said training; as in Team Rocket training. Anyway, is there a place where we can talk alone?"

"What about James?" Jessie asked. "We can't just leave him alone."

"I need to talk to you about some things," Lana responded. "Things he doesn't need to hear..."

. . . . . .

When Jessie had gotten dressed and seated herself at the kitchen table, Lana took her bandaged hand in her own.

"Let me have a look at that," she said, unwrapping the bandage.

Jessie had poured herself a glass of water and was sipping it slowly as she held the glass with her free hand. "So what's this about?" she asked.

"Did he BITE you?" Lana asked, examining her wound.

Jessie nodded.

Lana sighed. "I diagnosed one of the pills that Giovanni gave to Mondo."

"How did you get those?" Jessie asked.

"Meowth brought them to me the other night and I took a few. It seems that the pills contain several times the dosage of the liquid form of the drug we tested on Pokémon. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that your partner is still alive."

Jessie choked on the water she was drinking and spewed it across the room.

"I'm afraid it gets worse," Lana continued. "I also learned yesterday that James and Mondo aren't the only people Giovanni ordered to take the drug. Apparently he tested it on three others, and all three of them are now dead."

A gasp escaped Jessie's throat. She stared at Lana as though the woman had physically slapped her. "What about James?" she asked in a small voice.

"I'm not even sure how he's still alive," Lana replied simply. "I'm going to do everything that I can to help him, but it's very possible that we could lose him without warning."

Jessie felt a pain in her hand, and realized that she had squeezed the glass so hard that she shattered it, cutting herself and spilling the water all over the table. Lana moved to help her, but Jessie yelled, "Nevermind that! The others, the ones who died, what happened to them?!"

Lana sat back down. "The last one died simply because his body wasn't able to handle the withdrawal. He lost his pills nearly a week ago on a field mission, and his partner brought his body back to HQ yesterday in tears. She had no idea what was wrong with him, and didn't think to connect it with the lost pills. At first she thought he had gone crazy, then later believed that he had contracted some strange virus."

"That's the person they were talking about in the laundry room yesterday," Jessie thought.

"Poor Agatha," Lana continued. "I feel so sorry for her. Giovanni gave me the pleasure of explaining to her what had really happened to him, and that was after I had found out about the other two."

"Yes, what about the other two?" Jessie asked.

"One was killed by his own partner when he tried to rape her, and the other shot himself when he realized that he had just killed five people, including his wife and their child. Giovanni himself handled that situation and covered it up."

Jessie stared at the broken glass on the table. "All of those horrible things... could have happened to James... Hey wait!" she said suddenly, looking at Lana. "You said the boss himself covered it up? When? When did all this happen?!"

Lana braced herself, knowing Jessie wasn't going to be rational after hearing the answer. "According to the person who told me yesterday, this all happened about three weeks ago."

Jessie was livid.

"He KNEW!!!!" she shouted, standing up so fast that her chair fell backwards. "That rotten bastard KNEW!!! He gave James those pills two weeks later, knowing full well that people were already dead because of them!!!"

Possessed by an uncontrollable rage, Jessie stormed through the kitchen screaming and cursing as she grabbed a neatly stacked pile of plates and sent the entire pile shattering into the kitchen floor. The dishes in the cabinet were next. She knock the bottom shelf empty with a swipe of her hand and sent half a dozen cups and glasses flying, then proceeded to start flinging bowls and saucers at the wall.

In all that time, the stream of profanity had not ceased. It could safely be assured, as Lana mentally noted, that if words could kill Giovanni would have undoubtedly been a dead man. But Giovanni was not the one who could hear her now, and it was not him that her words could damage...

"Jessie, please!" Lana pleaded. "You're going to upset James, he can here you!"

Jessie stopped, letting the dish she was about to throw slide from her hand and crash into the floor. The frightened sobbing of her partner could be heard in the next room. Jessie fell to her knees, crying bitterly.

Lana quickly took charge of the situation and helped move Jessie, who had been kneeling on a floor littered with broken glass, and get her into the living room and onto the sofa. She then attended to the hysterical man in the bedroom, who had begun hyperventilating when he believed that Jessie was being attacked.

"Is he all right?" Jessie asked, when Lana had come out of the bedroom.

Lana nodded. "You've got to stay calm, Jessie. You have to keep your temper under control. He was terrified, he thought someone was attacking you."

Jessie burst into tears. "He can't die, Lana! He just can't!"

"Jessie, lower your voice," Lana whispered. "You've GOT to try not to panic. If he sees that you're afraid, it'll only make the situation worse."

Jessie curled up on the sofa and tried to calm herself.

"Now listen to me, we're going to do everything we can to help him. He has a much higher chance of survival now that he'll be receiving the proper medical care."

"Don't let him die, Lana," Jessie whispered. "Please don't let him die..."

Lana stared into the young woman's eyes; eyes that were filled with misery and suffering, just like pain-filled green ones that reflected the same thing in the next room. Suffering... all Team Rocket had ever done was bring suffering, from the animals in the labs to the unfortunate people used as human guinea pigs. Just like the angelic looking blue-haired man in the next room...

"Giovanni... he tried to murder him... He tried to murder James," Jessie whispered. "I want him to die... I want to make him die..."

"No, Jessie..." Lana whispered. "Giovanni isn't important now; your partner is. He needs you. Your place is with James, others will take care of Giovanni."

"Others?" Jessie asked. "What others?"

"Nevermind," Lana sighed, thinking back on a not-so long ago conversation she had had with a certain cat-type Pokémon. She fingered a keychain in the pocket of her lab coat, which had once had twenty numbered keys on it. Now there was only one. One key that would mean vengeance or death. Or maybe both.

An hour later, Jessie was still laying tiredly on the sofa. The sound of rain pelting against the window pane was somehow relaxing; the ongoing beat seemed to have an almost hypnotic effect. Jessie lay in a sleepy daze, wanting nothing more than to go to sleep and wake up to find that the nightmare was finally over, or perhaps had just been a long dream. Lana had come and cleaned the cuts on her hands and knees earlier, before going back to tend to James.

Jessie was perfectly content with being left alone. The truth was that the last thing she wanted at the moment was to be in the same room with her partner. She loved him dearly and the fear of losing him was making her sick, but she didn't want to go in there. She felt drained, both physically and emotionally, and now that someone Jessie had confidence in was looking after James she simply didn't want to deal with it anymore. She felt tired beyond endurance, and all she wanted was for her body to be merciful enough to let her go to sleep.

"I'm so selfish..." she thought, through her closed eyelids. "He's sick and frightened and possibly DYING and all I care about is going to sleep..."

Jessie rolled over uncomfortably as a new thought began to form in her mind. "But then I've always been selfish, haven't I? I've always put myself first..."

A few minutes later, Lana came in and found Jessie in tears.

"This is all my fault!" Jessie told her. "It's all because of my selfishness that James is suffering now, it's all my fault!"

"How could this possibly be your fault?" Lana said gently. "You didn't do this to him; you're not to blame."

"But I am!" Jessie cried. "I've always put myself first, never thinking of James. I've been so hard on him ever since we started trying to catch that blasted Pikachu... as if it MATTERED! I tried to become a hardened Rocket and forget that I was a human being... I was so concerned with Team Rocket's success that I couldn't see past my own uniform. Don't you see? When James started taking those pills I didn't even QUESTION what they were or what Giovanni was doing! I put the success of our mission before the life of my best friend and partner, and for that it should be ME suffering now, not James!"

"Giovanni was your boss; you trusted him," Lana pointed out. "So did I, and that's a mistake that we and a lot of other people are going to have to live with. But blaming yourself isn't going to help James, and he's what you need to concentrate on..."

"But I should have known," Jessie whispered. "Team Rocket sent my own mother to her death, why didn't I think they would do the same to James?"

"I can't take away the doubts you have inside yourself," Lana said, sitting down next to her. "But I can tell you that there's a young man in the next room who needs you; who loves you more than anything, and that's got to count for something."

"How do you know that?" Jessie asked.

"He told me," Lana smiled. "He's been asking for you for quite some time. Well, until the drug took affect anyway. Then he started talking as if you were there. He loves you very much, that's obvious..."

Jessie smiled. "How's he doing?"

"A lot better, now that the medication's in his system. He's a bit out of touch with reality, but at least he's not in pain anymore."

"Out of touch?" Jessie asked. "He's not seeing Jessiebelle or things crawling on him again, is he?"

Lana smiled. "No, I think for a while he was seeing you. He was talking as if you were there."

"Really?"

Lana nodded. "I don't know what he sees now, he doesn't say anything. But he responds when I talk to him, and if you take his hand he'll squeeze yours back."

Jessie smiled, before tears clouded her eyes again. "Please don't let him die, Lana," she whispered. "Whatever it takes, don't let him die!"

. . . . . .

The pleasant smell of Lana's vaporizer filled Jessie's nostrils as she entered the bedroom. James had a vacant, dazed expression on his face as she sat down on his bed. He didn't seem to notice her arrival, but when she took his hand in her own he tightened his hold, just as Lana had said he would. He seemed to be miles away, as if his mind had taken him somewhere where pain and misery could not touch him. Jessie truly hoped that was true.

"Where are you?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Far away," he said softly.

"Where?" Jessie pressed gently, hoping to delve a bit into his psyche and somehow bring herself closer to wherever it was he was.

"Over the sky," he murmured. "Beyond the clouds, the rain... I want... to fly away..."

"Fly away?"

"I want... to be free..."

"Free..." Jessie repeated, trying to envision his words.

"Away from the others... from everything. I just want... peace..."

"Me too," Jessie whispered, combing her fingers through his hair.

"I wish..."

"Wish what?" Jessie asked, when he didn't continue.

"My parents... and... grandparents... and friends..."

"What about them?" Jessie urged him on.

"I love them all... but there's no one there like me. I need... I want... someone to understand me. I just want to be happy... I just want... peace..."

For a moment he seem to lose consciousness, and Jessie feared he was slipping away completely. She screamed for Lana, who rushed in to attend to him.

"It's all right, Jessie," she assured her after a moment. "It's just the medication, he's not..." Lana stopped, deciding that "dying" was the last word Jessie needed to hear. "Listen, I need to get some supplies from the HQ supply room. I'll be back in a while, all right?"

Jessie nodded, wiping her panic-driven tears away with her free hand. Her brain had become a broken record, stuck on the three words she most needed to hear. "He's all right, he's all right, he's all right, he's all right..."

She felt James squeeze her hand tightly.

"Jessie..." he said softly.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Please don't make me marry Jessiebelle. I want to be with you."

Jessie burst into tears.

"Don't you see?" he whispered. "We're the same, you and I... I always thought you wanted it too... to fly away... just like me..."

Jessie stopped crying and looked at him.

"Jessie... my dream... is for us to fly away together. Just you and me..."

Jessie's tears clouded her vision as she touched her lips to his. "We will," she promised, overwhelmed with emotion. "Someday we'll fly away together, James... just you and me..."

. . . . . .


Lana found the supply room crowded with people. Just as she had witnessed in the labs and Jessie had seen the laundry room, the agents were exchanging rumors about the odd things that had been happening in Team Rocket recently. Several of them were gathered around a red-haired grunt named Annie, who was sitting on a table gossiping about what was now being referred to by the crowd as "The Agatha Situation."

"Poor Aggie," she said, shaking her head. "The boss had my team-"

"YOUR team???" mocked a male grunt standing near her.

"OUR team," she amended, adjusting her black cap. "The boss had our team drag his dead carcass right outta their balloon, while she just stood there and wailed her head off."

"Like a banshee," her partner agreed. "Ain't her first time losing a partner, either."

"That's nothing," remarked a female Rocket leaning against the wall. "Everybody knows about crazy Aggie by now. But did you hear about what happened to Bonnie and Clyde?"

"No, what?" asked several voices, one of whom Lana recognized to be Cassidy's. She couldn't see Cassidy in the crowd, but sure enough Lana saw her partner Butch gathering supplies at the other end of the room. Despite his disinterested appearance, he (like every other Rocket in the room) had an ear out waiting for the woman to speak.

"She killed him," she finally said, fingering the black flower she was holding. "Says he tried to rape her."

"No!" several people gasped at once.

The Rocket removed her cap and set it on the table, before giving Annie a rude shove off. Annie grumbled something under her breath, but quickly gave way to her senior. Domino was not a Rocket to be messed with.

Lana knew her, practically everyone in the organization did. It was no secret that the pretty rocket Domino had the boss's ear, and she was usually one of the first people to know what was going down in the organization. There was a rumor floating around that she and Cassidy were related; although Lana personally doubted it. She styled her blonde hair in two curls, and wore an alternately styled version of the standard female Rocket uniform; with a white skirt instead of black and a red and white cap.

"The Boss gave her a promotion yesterday," Domino continued. "I heard she got transferred to a training base in the Johto region."

"I didn't know we had a base there..." Annie's partner commented.

"Of course we do, idiot!" Annie snapped crossly, sore over losing her seat as well as her audience. Although the truth was she hadn't known it either. Their team had never been assigned outside of the Kanto region. Cassidy just stared at the young man, disgusted by his obvious ignorance.

"Well, if all I gotta do to get a promotion is kill my partner, it's as good as done!" Annie snickered.

"Aw shut up, Annie!" her partner whined, staring at the ground. He didn't know which was worse, Annie's comments or Cassidy's icy, superior stare. Of course he could say nothing to Cassidy, who outranked him, but he could at least tell Annie to shut her trap. Like it would do any good.

"Maybe Aggie offed hers," Domino suggested darkly.

There was a collective hush as her suggestion sunk in.

"Nah, she couldn't have done that," Annie said finally. "She cried like a baby when we dragged him out. Besides, weren't they getting married this summer?"

"Well, Bonnie and Clyde sure weren't!" Domino said, laughing. "Hell, I never knew Clyde had it in him! Half of Team Rocket thought he was gay, anyway. But has anybody seen Mondo lately?"

"He might have went with Jessie and that loser partner of hers," said Cassidy. "I haven't seen them around here for a few days, either. They're probably off chasing that brat with the Pikachu again."

The group laughed. "Think they'll ever get it?" someone asked.

"Those losers couldn't catch a cold!" Cassidy replied, producing another round of laughter from the crowd.

Lana was silent as she gathered supplies, hoping no one would notice her. It was common knowledge that Giovanni had sent Agatha to her after the removal of her partner's body, and last thing Lana needed was to be delayed by a bunch of nosey, low-class Rockets playing 20 questions. After she had filled the box she was carrying and grabbed several rain ponchos, she took a cooler from the shelf and made a mad dash for the door. Thunder suddenly echoed through the building, startling Butch and causing him to drop the box he was carrying right on his foot. Lana could hear his swearing from half way down the hall, followed by Annie wailing, "Aw, I don't wanna go out in this shit! And on a Saturday, too!"

. . . . . .


Jessie smiled at the soft sighs and contented moans that escaped her partner's lips as she stroked his hair. She had snuggled into bed with him earlier, where he had rolled on top of her and drifted into a semi-sleep. It was a compromising-looking position to say the least. Her legs and arms were wrapped around him protectively; while he had burrowed his nose into her shirt, forming a path between her breasts where his head now lay.

"Well, he sure looks comfortable!" Lana commented, coming into the room.

Jessie blushed. "I didn't realize you were back yet," she said, hoping she didn't sound as embarrassed as she felt.

"I got back over ten minutes ago," Lana replied. "Didn't you hear me come in?"

"No, I guess not."

"I've been sorting the supplies in the other room," Lana said, setting down the box she was holding. "Now we just need to get everything packed."

"Let me help you," Jessie said, trying to squirm out from underneath her partner.

James moaned and tightened his hold against her. "My Jessie..."

Lana laughed. "Don't worry about me, I think you're more urgently needed elsewhere!"

Jessie's blush deepened, but she settled back into place as James relaxed against her again. "Did you get what you needed?" she asked.

"Yeah, we should be all set to go."

Their conversation was halted by the sound of the front door slamming.

"Meowth hates water! Especially WET water!!!"

"I've never seen so much rain!" Mondo's voice exclaimed from the next room. "I was afraid we'd be struck by lightning!"

Jessie attempted to get up again, but this time James started to whimper, so she again reluctantly settled back into place.

"Miss Jessie, are you okay?" Mondo asked, coming into the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you find a place for us to-"

Mondo sneezed violently, cutting her off.

"You'd better get out of those wet clothes," Lana advised.

Mondo nodded. "I'll get another uniform from my room-"

"No!" Meowth said, so suddenly that even James opened his eyes and took notice. "Don't you rememba da plan? No uniforms!"

"Oh, right," Mondo said apologetically. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"But bring one to PACK!" Meowth called as he left. "Don't forget da plan!"

Jessie meant to question Meowth about "da plan," but before she could get a word out he yelled; "Whadda ya all laying around for?! We gotta get movin'!"

"Now?!" Jessie protested, as the rain beat against the window pane. "We'd need Noah's ark to go out in this!"

"Meowth's right," Lana told her. "We have to get you two out of here, and we need to get James to those medical supplies." She turned to Meowth. "Did you unpack them when you found a place for us to go?"

Meowth nodded. "Everything's all set up an' waitin' for him."

"You're coming with us?" Jessie asked Lana.

"That's right," Lana said. "Start packing your and James' clothes, but leave all your Team Rocket uniforms here. Meowth, take these supplies and get them packed on the balloon. I'll get James ready to go."



"Getting James ready to go" wasn't as easy as it sounded. First they had to pry him off of Jessie, which was not an easy task; followed by trying to calm his crying once they had succeeded. Lana gave him another dose of medication as Jessie went to the bathroom to change out of her Team Rocket uniform.

By the time Jessie had changed into a sleeveless shirt and miniskirt, Mondo had returned, carrying a uniform under his arm.

"Why did Meowth tell you to bring a uniform?" Jessie asked.

"It's part of the plan," Mondo answered, hoping he wasn't blushing as he stared at her legs. "I need it for the return trip."

"Return trip?"

Mondo threw his uniform in the suitcase Lana had just opened and said quickly, "Nevermind, I'd better go help Meowth!" and ran off before Jessie could ask him anymore questions.

"Well, at least we don't have to pack any dishes," Lana commented, with a sideways glance at Jessie.

Jessie blushed a little and said nothing. She got the point.

This time Jessie didn't mind in the least having Lana help her dress James. In fact, she was grateful for the help. She found that slipping a pair of pajamas on someone was a lot easier than trying to get them fully clothed, especially when having to bundle them against the weather.

After they had gotten James ready, they bundled themselves into suitable rain gear and started packing. James, Lana, and Mondo wore the dark green rain ponchos Lana had brought from the supply room. Jessie wore her own red one, and Meowth had his own little yellow rain coat and matching hat. Although they were now in civilian clothes, Jessie and Mondo still wore their Team Rocket boots. They had put James' yellow rain boots on him, and Jessie had offered hers to Lana.

Lana tried them on and found that they were too small for her, so she remained in her (rather uncomfortable) green high-heels. No one paid much attention when she removed her lab coat and hung it in the closet, after checking to make sure the key in the pocket was still there.



James laid on the bed and watched while Lana and Jessie packed everything, and Mondo ran back and forth carrying everything out. He and Meowth had assembled a large net under the balloon to carry everything.

"Everything's going to get all wet," Mondo said, as he and Meowth walked back in.

"Can't be helped," the Pokémon replied. "At least we got da medical supplies there already."

Meowth picked up a box and Mondo grabbed more suitcases from the pile Jessie and Lana had waiting for them to take out.

For a while James didn't understand what they were doing, but once Jessie explained to him that they were "moving," he begin "helping" by suggesting things to bring.

"Don't forget our beds, Jess, or we won't have any place to sleep. And what about the refrigerator? We can't forget the refrigerator!"

"It's too big to take in the balloon, James," Jessie said, trying to be patient with him. "And so are the beds. Besides, they belong to Team Rocket, remember? All the furniture was already here when we moved in."

After a while James began to try Jessie's patience when he started crying that they would forget his things. "Jessie, did you pack all my photos? You won't forget them, will you? What about my clothes, did you pack those? What about the things in my drawer?"

Jessie attempted to calmly assure him that they wouldn't forget any of his belongings, but when he finally asked "Jessie, you won't forget ME, will you? You won't leave me behind?" her patience was spent. She slammed her suitcase shut and shouted,

"No, James! We're not leaving your stuff and we're not leaving YOU, so stop being stupid!"

James' lip began to quiver, and Jessie instantly felt guilty. She sighed and went over to him, hugging him tightly.

"I would never forget you, don't you know that? I will NEVER leave you, ever."

"The rain's stopped," Mondo announced, coming in. "Once we get everything loaded, we'll be ready to go."

"We're almost finished here," Lana said, handing him another box. "Are you sure the net will support all this weight?"

"Positive," said Meowth coming in. "We've carried heavier stuff den just a few boxes an' suitcases. Why, one time we-"

"Shut your Meowth and get moving!" Jessie said, thrusting a box in his arms. "We can reminisce later!"

Mondo laughed at this, but Lana soon loade him with boxes and sent him out again too.

When everything was carried out, Lana and Jessie got on either side of James and helped him to rise, and supported him as they slowly walked him out. Mondo locked the door behind them.

. . . . . .


"So where are we going, anyway?" Jessie asked, once they were in the air. "It didn't take you very long to find a place for us to go."

Meowth and Mondo exchanged glances, but said nothing.

"What is it?" Jessie asked suspiciously.

Meowth laughed nervously. "Ya'll never guess who we ran into when we landed- OW!"

"Mondo!" Jessie scolded. Meowth had said "OW!" because Mondo had kicked him. "What's going on here?"

"We've arranged for you to stay at a nice a little cottage just outside of a small island town," Mondo said. "It's got electricity and running water, so you should be comfortable there."

"So what's the problem?" Jessie asked.

"Well..." Mondo said slowly, "You're not going to like who we have to thank for this..."

"Huh? Who?"

Meowth and Mondo looked at each other, before Mondo replied,

"Ash Ketchum."

"WHAT?!"

"When Me-owth told 'em about what happened to yous two, dat kid got some friend 'a his to let you use his cottage," Meowth said. "He and the other twerps even helped us move all the stuff in the balloon there so we could come an' get ya faster."

"They did that for us? After everything that we..." Jessie sat down next James, completely bemused. The last time they had confronted Ash and his group, James had fired a bazooka at them; and had almost succeeded in blowing Ash to kingdom come. She was at a loss for words, contemplating the generosity of her "enemy."

"Well, dare's a miracle!" Meowth laughed after a moment. "Jessie's speechless! Meowth never t'ought he'd live ta see the day!"

Jessie meant to give him a sharp reply, but Lana spoke first.

"Look at that!" Lana said, pointing to the west.

Jessie got to her feet. Enormous gray clouds were approaching their direction.

"Looks like the storm isn't over after all," said Mondo.

Lana nodded. "This must be the eye of the storm."

"Do you think we can get there before it starts up again?" Jessie asked Mondo.

"I don't know, Miss Jessie. But we'll have to try."

Sure enough, it was drizzling five minutes later. Meowth had put his rain hat back on, and everyone else had the hoods of their rain ponchos pulled over their heads. Everyone, that is, except Jessie. She stood with her hair blowing in the wind, staring at the oncoming storm as if she were willing it to stay away.

"Please let us make it there safely... Please rain, just wait until we get there..."

Despite her silent prayer, the drizzle soon become a downpour, and a heavy wind began to kick up.

"My HAAAAAT!" Meowth wailed, as the wind blew it off his head and out into the great unknown. A roll of thunder answered his cry, followed by a flash of lightning.

"We're going to have to land this thing!" Lana yelled over the next thunderclap.

"We can't!" Mondo cried. "There's no place to land, we're over the ocean!"

James began to cry, and Mondo soon followed suit.

"Stop it!" Jessie shouted. "We've got to stay ca-"

The thunder cut her off, and soon they were no longer able to hear each other over the howling wind. Soon the balloon was out of control and completely at the mercy of the raging wind. The five terrified individuals in the basket huddled together for dear life. James was screaming.

"We're almost there!" Mondo yelled, seeing over the side of balloon that they were already over land when the wind almost knocked him out of it. But no one heard him. Suddenly the basket tipped over, spilling James and then Jessie after him out of the balloon.

"JESSIEEEEE!" Mondo wailed, clinging to the basket. The balloon tipped again, and the last thing Mondo saw through the blinding rain was Lana hanging over the side of basket with Meowth clinging to her for dear life. Then, with a scream, they too were gone.
te('');The Dark Side of Innocence
-PART SIX-

by: Anna Sartin

Mondo groaned as he opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground, with some kind of shelter overhead. He groggily got to his knees and crawled out from underneath what he soon realized was the upside-down basket of the balloon. The basket had been severed from the balloon itself and the deflated image of Meowth was caught in a nearby tree. The net containing Lana's supplies and all of Jessie, James, and Meowth's belongs had been lost. Overwhelmed by hopeless misery, Mondo began to cry at the sight of the very cottage they had been heading for. What was the point if he was the only one to make it here? He might as well be a thousand miles away.

The sky overhead still contained a few murky dark clouds, but they were no longer flying ominously to the east. They were floating calmly on a light wind, and the sky between them was now a bright shade of blue.

"How long have I been out?" Mondo wondered, when he saw the ground was mostly dry except for a few puddles. It had obviously quit raining some time ago. He started to head for the cottage, hoping Ash and the others would still be there to help him find his missing comrades, but he stopped abruptly when he heard a noise coming from the opposite direction.

"Mreee-owth..."

Mondo ran as fast as his legs could carry him, tripping over his own feet in his haste. He looked up and found Meowth caught in a tree, hanging by his yellow raincoat. Lana lay unconscious nearby. She had lost both shoes in the storm, and her dark green hair was caked with mud.

"Get Me-owth DOWN!!!" Meowth wailed, unable to free himself from the raincoat, which had gotten caught in the tree.

When Mondo had fished Meowth out of the tree, he began trying to revive Lana.

"Lana! Miss Lana! Wake up!"

The woman moaned softly as she opened her eyes.

"Are you all right, Miss Lana?" Mondo asked.

Lana tried to pull herself into a sitting position, and nearly screamed in pain. They found that her left wrist had been sprained, and when Mondo tried to help her stand they found that her right ankle had been injured as well.

"Whadda we gonna do?" asked Meowth tiredly. He looked rather ill, and was half-lying on the ground to conserve energy.

Remembering that they were close to the cottage, Mondo began yelling for help, and pretty soon Lana had Ash and Brock supporting her on each side, helping her to stand.

"What happened to you guys?" Misty asked, eyeing the wrecked balloon. "Where are Jessie and James?"

"I don't know," Mondo said, beginning to cry wretchedly. "We were caught in the storm... they fell out of the balloon..." It took him several moments to control his tears.

"We'll find them," Brock assured him, "Trust me, those two are indestructible!"

"Yeah, if anybody can survive falling out of a balloon, it's Team Rocket!" Ash agreed. "They're pros!"

Mondo sighed, hoping beyond hope that they were right. They slowly started to make their way toward the cottage, but Meowth collapsed after a few paces. "Are you all right, Meowth?" Mondo asked, picking him up.

The cat groaned and passed out.

"He's got a fever," Misty said, feeling his head. "We'd better get him to a Pokémon center."

"What happened to him?" Ash asked.

"They've been out in the storm the whole time," Brock replied. "I'm surprised they aren't all sick."

Mondo sneezed, causing everyone to turn to him. "I'm all right," he assured them. "I was under the basket of the balloon. Poor Meowth got stuck in a tree and was left hanging in the rain." He hugged the Pokémon to him.

"He's lucky he didn't get struck by lightning," Lana said.

"Pikachu and I will take Meowth to Nurse Joy!" Ash volunteered. "That way everyone else can go look for Jessie and James."

Everyone agreed to this. Misty set Togepi down and took Ash's place supporting Lana's left side.

"Thank you so much," Mondo wept gratefully, no longer able to control his emotions as he handed Meowth to him.

"Even if they were our enemies, we helped each other all the time," Ash said.

"Even though none of us wanted to admit it, half the time we were never sure if we were enemies or friends..." Brock agreed.

"They were just this annoying trio that followed us around all the time," Misty laughed. "But they grew on us after a while. We never wanted anything bad to happen to them."

"I'll never be able to thank you for what you've done..." Mondo said, wiping away his tears. "especially considering what happened with James last time..."

"Aw, I wasn't scared!" Ash scoffed, making himself stand a bit taller.

"You were to!" Misty said. "We all were! When James fired that bazooka Brock and I both thought you had been hit! Even JESSIE was scared! She looked like she was going to be sick before she started yelling at him!"

"You were scared for me?" Ash asked, smiling.

"Of COURSE I was you idiot!" Misty yelled.

"Aw, gee Misty! I didn't know you cared!" he laughed.

"Hey!"

But before Misty could catch him he was off at a run, heading in the direction of the nearby town with Meowth in tow and Pikachu running close behind.

"Dumb boys..." Misty grumbled, causing Lana to laugh.

. . . . . .

When they reached the cabin, it was agreed that Misty would stay with Lana while Brock and Mondo searched for Jessie and James. After helping Lana into the cottage, Mondo flung his rain poncho onto a vacant chair before following Brock out the door.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Brock asked after about half a mile, when Mondo sneezed for the fourth time since leaving the cottage.

"I'm okay... just a bit of a cold," Mondo said, before sneezing again. "We have to concentrate on finding... hey, look!"

Brock followed Mondo, who was running toward a pile of junk in a large net.

"The net!" Mondo exclaimed happily. "And it's still intact!"

"What is all this stuff?" Brock asked him.

"Jessie, James, and Meowth's stuff," Mondo replied. "We attached the net to the basket of the balloon to bring everything here, but we lost it in the storm."

"Everything inside it is probably broken," said Brock.

"But everyone's stuff is still here!" Mondo said, smiling. "We can come back for everything that's still usable once we find Jessie and James!"

"Mondo, look over there!" Brock yelled suddenly, sprinting off toward a red object in the distance. Mondo followed him, and soon realized that it was Jessie.

"Jessie!" Mondo cried, running to her.

It looked like she was laying on something green, but they soon found that the "something green" was actually James.

"Miss Jessie, are you all right? Mondo asked, rolling her off of James. "Please wake up!"

"We can't carry them both back by ourselves," Brock said. "I could carry Jessie, and the two of us together could move James; but there's no way we can take them both at the same time."

"But we can't leave either of them here!"

"Maybe we should take James first, since he needs medical attention..."

"We can't leave Jessie here!" Mondo protested, on the verge of tears as he hugged Jessie's unconscious figure. "She could be raped or killed or-"

"Okay, okay," Brock agreed, carefully removing James' green rain poncho. "You're right, we can't leave her alone out here; we'll have to think of something else."

"Jessie can carry James," Mondo said, laughing a little. "I've seen her do it before..."

"She has a fever," Brock said, carefully feeling her face and neck. "She's not going to be carrying anybody anytime soon."

"What are you doing?" Mondo asked, as Brock removed Jessie's rain gear as well.

"It's too hot out here for these," said Brock. "We've got to find a way to cool her down before her fever gets any worse."

"What are we going to do?" Mondo asked. "We have to get them to Lana!"

"I don't know..." Brock said, picking Jessie up and moving her out of the sun. She groaned and murmured her partner's name, but she did not wake up.

He moved over to James, who whimpered as they sat him up. At first it seemed like they were going to have better luck reviving him, but he only managed to throw up on Mondo and collapse back into a stupor. Mondo was beginning to panic. They both needed medical attention and they needed it now.

An idea struck Brock. "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" he asked, pulling out a pokéball. "Onix, go!"

The pokémon roared as it emerged from the pokéball.

"Help me get them on Onix," he told Mondo.

They loaded James on first, and Mondo got behind him to hold him steady. Brock gently picked up Jessie and seated her behind Mondo, before seating himself behind her.

"Onix!" he commanded, pointing in the direction from which they came, "Take us back to the cabin!"

. . . . . .

Jessie was riding behind James on a Rapidash. They both laughed as they galloped downhill, going so fast that the scenery around them was a blur. Jessie felt like she was flying as the hot wind whipped through her hair. The heat was exhilarating at first, but it soon intensified to the point that she felt like she was being smothered.

She started to tell James to make the horse stop, only to realize that she was no longer on a Rapidash; and that the person is front of her was no longer James.

"Mondo?"

Mondo didn't answer her. At first she thought that they were on some kind of train, but that didn't seem right. She tried to look over the side of whatever it was they were on, but she felt a pair of strong arms grip her firmly from behind and hold her in place. She knew at once that they were not James' arms, so who was holding her? And where was James? Where was SHE?

"James, where are you?" she called out. There was no answer. She tried again, with no better luck than before. Finally, too hot and tired to do anymore, she reached forward and leaned against Mondo. "Mondo, take me to James..." she murmured sleepily, burying her face in the secure familiarity of her friend's scent as they rode on...

. . . . . .

Crying... She could hear someone crying... Someone was in pain, someone she knew.

"...hurts... ...my back hurts...."

She wanted to help this person, but she had somehow forgotten his name. He seemed distant, out of reach.

"It hurts... please..."

"Jessie... Jessie, can you hear me?"

Another voice... a closer voice. This person was calling to her, knew her name.

"Jessie..."


Jessie opened her eyes. She found Lana standing over her, looking rather relieved.

"I'm so glad you're finally awake!"

"Wh... where am I?" Jessie asked, sitting up. She found that she was lying on a sofa, but she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. "Lana, where are we?"

"We're at the cottage," Lana explained. "We were so worried about you! Your fever broke earlier this morning, but when we couldn't get you to wake up..."

"Morning? How long have I been out?"

"Since Mondo and Brock brought you here yesterday," Lana said, handing her a glass of water.

"Mondo..." Jessie whispered, recalling her fever induced dream. "Where is he?"

"Outside hanging up laundry," Lana replied, pointing to the open window. "He spent hours yesterday bringing everything back from the net. Everything had gotten wet in the storm and all the clothes smelled like mildew, so he's been doing laundry all morning. But there's no dryer here, so he has to hang everything up to dry. You have a TON of clothes!"

"He's washing ALL my clothes?!"

"And James' things too. And the clothes I wore here, I haven't seen them since I took a bath yesterday."

Jessie realized for the first time that Lana was actually wearing James' clothes. She had on a pair of old sweatpants and one of James' favorite T-shirts.

"It huuuurts!" James' voice wailed from another room. "My back HUUUURTS!"

"James!" Jessie cried, getting up so fast that she became dizzy, and nearly fell to the floor. Lana helped her back onto the sofa.

"It's all right," Lana assured her. "He going to be fine, don't worry."

"What's wrong with him?"

"You fell out of the balloon, remember? James landed on his back and he's in a lot of pain..."

"I don't hurt at all..."

"That's because YOU landed on something soft," Lana told her. "James wasn't so lucky."

"What did I land on?" Jessie asked.

"You landed on James."

James produced another ear-spitting wail, and Jessie realized that he was the person she had heard crying in her dreams just before she had woken up.

"They found you unconscious on top of him, and it was obvious that he landed on his back. He's lucky he didn't break his neck, he could have wound up with a serious spinal injury."

"Lana, is he going to be all right?!" Jessie asked, feeling immensely guilty at the thought of causing him any additional suffering. Just how much could one person go through? Hadn't he suffered enough?!

"Jessie, I can't say for certain. But now that we've gotten him somewhere safe where he can receive the proper attention..."

"I need to see him!"

"You need to rest."

"Take me to his room," Jessie said, holding out her hand. "I can sleep in the other bed."

"We aren't at Team Rocket HQ anymore, Jessie," Lana explained patently. "There IS no other bed in James' room. We set up the larger of two bedrooms for him because there was more space for the medical equipment. The other room has a set of bunk beds and that's where Mondo and I slept last night."

"How come I got the couch?" Jessie asked, feeling a bit snubbed.

"You had a fever, and this is the coolest room in the house," Lana told her. "James' room is warm, but the other room is downright stifling. The window is jammed shut and neither of us can get it open."

James' crying calmed down a bit after a few minutes, and Jessie began to relax. She noticed that the scent of wild flowers filled the room, brought in by a strong but pleasant breeze coming in from the open window nearby. Mondo's humming could be heard outside, pausing occasionally as he sneezed.

"Mondo's such a sweet, innocent boy!" Lana laughed, as they saw him pass the window. "You should have seen him blush as he hung up your unmentionables!"

Jessie turned red. Although Mondo had often done their laundry back at HQ, she wasn't too comfortable with the thought of him gawking at her underwear. "Or maybe I'm too sensitive," she thought to herself. She found the image of James oogling her undergarments equally unappealing.

"Miss Jessie!" Mondo exclaimed happily as he came through the door. He dropped the clean laundry he was holding and ran to her. "You're awake! I'm so glad, I thought you'd never wake up!"

"Mondo, be gentle," Lana told him, as Jessie struggled to breathe through Mondo's tight hug.

"Sorry," he laughed. "I'm just so glad that you're okay!" He hugged her again, half crawling into her lap as he did so. "I was so afraid that you'd... that you'd..."

"Calm down, I'm fine!" Jessie assured him, as he buried his face against her.

Lana laughed at the sight as she limped over to the pile of laundry Mondo had dropped.

"What happened to your ankle?" Jessie asked.

"It seems you and James aren't the only ones with a talent for falling out of the balloon!" Lana said, trying her best to laugh through the pain. "I must have landed on it when I hit the ground."

"Are you okay?" Jessie asked.

"Nothing's broken," Lana replied. "Nothing in comparison to what James is going through. I'd rather have a twisted ankle than a back injury any day. But trust Mondo to come out of it with just a few scrapes and a head cold!"

"My cold's not that bad," Mondo said, crawling out of Jessie's arms. "I've got energy to burn!"

Lana laughed. "Well, maybe you should get some rest now that you know Jessie's okay."

"I'm okay, really!" Mondo insisted, sneezing. "I just hope Meowth is okay, too..."

"Huh? Where is Meowth?" Jessie asked, realizing that she hadn't seen him once since waking up.

"At the Pokémon center," Mondo answered.

"Pokémon center?!!"

Lana motioned for her to stay calm. "He had a fever and one of those kids took him to the nearest Pokémon center. They're going to bring him back on their way out of town."

"They've done so much for us..." Jessie said, looking thoughtful. "And after all that we've done to them, I just don't understand why..."

"It HUUUUUUUURTS!" James bawled again.

"Lana, I need to see him!" Jessie demanded.

"Don't worry, Miss Jessie! I'll go check on him for you!" Mondo volunteered, dashing off hyperly.

"Well, the wreck certainly doesn't seem to have affected Mondo any," Jessie commented. "I don't know where he gets his energy, though. I feel completely drained, but he's practically hyper."

"He's just glad that you're all right," Lana replied. "He's been worried sick about you. He spent half the night watching over you, until I finally made him go to bed."

Jessie just smiled, realizing that her fondness for Mondo had soared to a whole new level. She wasn't exactly sure at what point it had happened, but he had become more than just a friend of the family that consisted of her, James and Meowth. He was now part of their family.

"How is he?" Jessie asked a few minutes later, when Mondo came back out of the room.

"I got him to stop crying, but he seems to be having trouble breathing. And I still can't get him to stop sneezing."

"Sneezing?" Jessie asked, giving Lana a questioning look.

"We're not sure what's wrong with him," Lana told her. "He's been that way ever since they brought him back to the cottage. Maybe he caught Mondo's cold..."

"I want to see him," Jessie said, using Mondo for support as she got up. Somehow this sounded familiar...

"Miss Jessie, you need to rest..." Mondo said, trying to coax her into sitting back down.

"MOVE!" Jessie ordered, letting go of him and pushing him aside as she followed the sound of James' moaning.

Lana and Mondo both sighed and followed her into James' room.

. . . . . .

"Jessie!" James squealed happily, as she entered the room. He was laying on a huge bed, with a tube in his right arm connecting him to an IV stand sitting nearby. He looked rather miserable. His eyes were red and watery and the features of his face were etched with suffering, making him look older than his years. Even his hair was limp and lackluster. But despite his obvious misery, he was clearly overjoyed at Jessie's arrival. "They told me you were sick," he said, holding out his hand to her. "I was so... so..." He stopped in mid-sentence, gasping for breath. Jessie approached him, taking his outstretched hand. His struggle to breathe lasted only a moment, before sneezing loudly.

Jessie knew immediately what was wrong. "Why is the window open?!" she yelled at Mondo, so suddenly and severely that the boy actually jumped.

Mondo was dumbstruck. Jessie had never yelled at him before, despite the many times he had seen her yell at James and Meowth. The combination of being shoved out of the way followed by being screamed at was pushing him to the brink of tears. He tried to respond, but the words stuck in his throat.

"I... I don't..."

"He's got allergies, you idiot! Shut the window!"

Mondo quickly obeyed, no longer able to contain the tears that spilled down his cheeks. He stared at her, starting to sob in his hurt and confusion before running out of the room. Jessie didn't even notice.

"Don't keep rubbing your eyes like that or you'll just make them itch more," she told James, handing him a tissue. He tried to thank her, but wound up sneezing on her instead. "James, your allergies have never been this bad before. Why are they acting up now?"

"My medicine... I need my medicine..."

Jessie immediately felt ill. She had no idea where his allergy medicine was, or if they even still had it. "We'll get more, okay?" she told him, hoping she sounded reassuring as she tried to hide her overwhelming dismay. "Just relax, okay? I'll be right back..."

"Jessie, don't leave me!"

"Lana, what am I going to do?!" Jessie hissed when they stepped out into the hall. "I don't know where the hell his medicine is, or if I even packed it!"

"Well, if you hadn't yelled at Mondo we could have sent him into town for more!" Lana chided her.

Jessie took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "You said that Mondo brought back everything that was in the net. Where did he put all of it?"

"It's all scattered around the cottage," answered Lana. "All the medical supplies are in James' room, and Mondo piled all the wet clothes in the utility room, but everything else is scattered around everywhere."

"Well, look for it!!!" Jessie demanded, as if the whole ordeal was somehow Lana's responsibility.

"JESSIEEEEE!" James wailed from his room. "Come baaaaack!"

"Please Lana, just DO something!" Jessie wailed, bursting into tears. "I can't take this anymore! I just can't..."

"Is this what he needs?" Mondo asked, holding up an inhaler as he came in from the living room.

Jessie didn't answer, she merely snatched it from his hand and darted into James' room. "James, is this it?! I found it!!!"

"WHO found it???" Mondo asked Lana, as Jessie handed James the medicine. Lana just shook her head tiredly.

James managed to get one squirt out of the inhaler, before crying that it was empty. Jessie took it from him and started squeezing it herself, with no better results. Jessie hit breaking point, she felt like she had just been kicked in the stomach. Mondo approached her.

"Miss Jessie, is there anything I can..."

"Just get OUT!" Jessie exploded, throwing the empty inhaler at him. Mondo ran for dear life, crying miserably. Lana picked up the inhaler and walked out herself, sensibly closing the door behind her. She knew Jessie needed time to calm down, before she cracked completely.

Jessie crawled into James' bed, sobbing against him. James attempted to roll over and hold her, but only managed to cause himself more pain as a result. His attempt to roll on to his side intensified the already excruciating pain in his back, and he quickly gave up and returned to his original position.

"It hurts..." he whimpered.

"Your back?" Jessie asked, wiping her eyes. He nodded. "Lay still, don't move around."

"I was so scared," he whispered, as she snuggled next to him. "I wanted to see you, but they said you were sick. Everything hurt so much and I just wanted you to hold me..."

"I'm here now," she told him, still crying softly as she put her arm around him. "No matter what happens, I'll always be here..."

. . . . . .

After retrieving a box from the room she and Mondo had shared last night, Lana limped into the living room. She found Mondo sitting on the sofa, hugging a pillow as he sobbed softly.

"Mondo..." she whispered gently, sitting down beside him and putting her hand on his shoulder. He leaned against her, clinging to her like a child in desperate need of parental comfort as he sobbed into her chest.

"Why doesn't she like me anymore?" he asked. "I thought we were friends, I thought she cared about me..."

"Of course Jessie likes you!" Lana assured him. "She's just not herself right now. She's upset and afraid..."

"But she's so MEAN!" Mondo cut her off, lifting his head up. "I'd never be that mean to her, never!"

Lana sighed, pulling him into an embrace. She found herself repeating what her father had once told her as a child, when her pregnant mother was throwing dishes across the room. "Mondo, when people are hurt or afraid they act differently than they would otherwise. Sometimes those actions hurt people, and even though they come to regret it later the damage has already been done and they can't undo it."

Mondo hugged her tightly.

"You have to forgive her," Lana said gently. "She's been though a terrible ordeal and the stress is getting to her. She's terrified of losing the person she loves."

"I know..." Mondo whispered, closing his eyes and snuggling against her.

"Why don't you get out of here for a while?" Lana suggested. "You could go shopping in town and see how Meowth's doing at the Pokémon center..."

"Meowth..." he whispered. He had almost forgotten about Meowth.

"And while you're in town you can get food and allergy medicine for James." Lana continued.

"But we don't have any money," Mondo said sleepily.

"Yes, we do. I packed it in the net, see?"

Mondo opened his eyes. Lana pulled an envelope out of the box she had brought in and handed it to him. He opened it carefully, and nearly dropped it when he saw what it contained.

"Where'd you get all the money?" Mondo asked.

"From the boss," Lana answered.

"He GAVE you all this money?!"

"Well, no. I took it out of the HQ account and wrote it off as funds for scientific research."

"You STOLE from the boss?!!"

"What do you think we've been doing all this time?!" Lana asked him. "Who do you think owns all the medical supplies we took for James? It's all Team Rocket property!"

"I never thought of that..."

"Hey, Giovanni did this to James, so HE can pay for James recovery!"

Mondo smiled. She certainly had more nerve than he ever would, especially considering what she had planned for the return trip...

"Here," Lana said, handing him James' empty inhaler. "Take this with you so you'll know what medicine to get for James. And don't get more food then you can carry or you won't be able to bring it all back."

Mondo nodded, putting the envelope in his pocket.

"Oh, and one thing..." Lana said, pointing to her bare feet. "Could you get me another pair of shoes? I'd look rather foolish walking into HQ like this. I'm a size 9˝..."

Mondo nodded, laughing. "Right."

. . . . . .

Jessie continued to sob against her partner, who held her hand tightly against his chest. He wanted so much to be able to roll over and hold her, to offer her the warmth and comfort their embrace had so often provided him since his suffering had begun. But he could only lay there, feeling completely inadequate as his back injury prevented him from doing the one thing they both needed most. "Jessie, please..." he whispered. "Please don't cry anymore..."

Jessie looked up. She gently touched his face, catching a tear that had fallen from his eye. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice breaking a little. "No matter what I or the others are going through, I know your suffering must be a hundred-fold. Maybe I don't have a right to cry, but I just can't help it..."

James tightened his hold on her hand. "Jessie... I don't know where we are right now or why we're here, and I hurt so much I wanna just go to sleep and not wake up, but..."

"Don't talk like that!"

"...but I know everything's going to be okay because you're here with me. I thought I was going to die when I started going through the withdrawal... I thought so when I was taking those pills, too. But I didn't. And now I know I didn't because you were there with me, Jess. You loved me and took care of me. I know I'm still sick, but we're going be fine now I'm sure of it. You have to believe it too, Jessie."

Jessie wrapped her arms around him and kissed his forehead. "I remember all the times we fell asleep holding each other... I always got lost in your scent and the security of your touch..."

James laughed softly. "It's funny... I always thought the same thing. When we held each other... it was like the one place I truly belonged, where nothing bad could ever touch me."

They were silent for a moment, before James asked, "Hey, Jessie... where ARE we?"

"Somewhere in the Orange Islands. Some friend of Ash Ketchum is letting us use this place."

"Oh... But why would any of the twerp's friends help us?"

"Who knows... I'm just glad we're here and you're safe from the boss. But I thought that you were still out of it when I first woke up."

"Out of it?"

"Well, I wasn't really sure of how aware you were of what was going on."

"Why?"

"Because you were screaming about your back, and then when..."

"You'd scream too if you hurt as much as I do!" he snapped, before bursting into tears.

"James, don't cry, please!" Jessie pleaded. "I'm sorry!"

"That's not... really why I was crying..." he said, still sobbing. "Not the whole reason..."

Jessie handed him a tissue. "Huh? Then how come..."

"I was so lonely!" he sobbed. "They kept coming in and out of the room, but they never stayed with me. I asked them where you were and they said you couldn't come to me. They said you were sick and I was so scared..."

His crying triggered a sneezing fit, and Jessie handed him another tissue. Finally, she grabbed the entire box and handed it to him, wondering why she hadn't done so before. James continued to cry and sneeze alternatively for a few moments, until his head collapsed on the pillow, thoroughly exhausted.

"I wanted you to hold me so much it made me feel sick inside... I couldn't sleep because I hurt so and I... I..."

"James, don't talk anymore," Jessie said, as another sneezing fit seized him. "Just rest for now, okay? We'll get you some more medicine somehow."

"I'm so tired, Jess..." James yawned, when he finally stopped sneezing.

"Then go to sleep," she whispered.

"You won't go away?"

"Not until you've fallen asleep, I promise," she said, putting her arm around him. "Then I'd better go apologize to Mondo."

"Is something bad gonna happen to Mondo?" he asked sleepily.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"I had this dream... but I don't remember it anymore..."

"Just go sleep, James. Mondo's just fine... We're all going to be just fine..."

But the more she thought of the mysterious "return trip" the others had planned, she had a sinking feeling that James could be right...
It hadn't taken James long to fall asleep, which surprised Jessie considering the amount of pain he seemed to be in. His expression seemed to bear only peace and contentment, as though he didn't have a care in the world. Jessie smiled wistfully, knowing it was only an illusion that sleep created.

       "We're going to be all right," she whispered to him, letting her fingers sift through the strands of his hair, and travel down to rest lightly on his chest. "From now on everything's going to be fine; I promise you, James. I'll make sure of it..."

       A hint of a smile appeared on his face, and he gripped the bedclothes suddenly.

       "Oh Jessie, please..." he moaned in his sleep. "Harder... Love me harder..."

       Jessie blinked, and then turned bright red. She was immensely thankful that none of the others were in the room. She could already hear Mondo and Lana's laughter in her mind; and when Mondo told Meowth, the Pokémon would take great enjoyment in constantly embarrassing her about it. Still, an erotic dream was better than him suffering through another nightmare. The nightmare of their reality was more than enough for both of them to handle.

       She had never really thought about having a... physical relationship with him. Her pulse quickened and her blush deepened when she suddenly realized how much it appealed to her. She had come so close to losing this man, and now... nothing would make her happier to get as close to him as she possibly could. She imagined them being lost in a happiness that was all their own, where no one could threaten to take it away from them.

       Finally, she got up and began looking around the room. Everything, including the beautiful king-sized bed, was far better than the cheap, standard issued furniture they used at HQ. She wondered who lived here, and why they would let a bunch of thieves occupy their property. She examined everything, looking for anything that might give her a clue as to the cottage's true owners. The drawers of all the furniture were empty, except for the nightstand on James' side of the bed. Either Mondo or Lana had filled the top drawer with medical supplies, and the bottom drawer contained a TR first aid kit, like the one in their apartment at HQ. Lana must have brought one from the labs.

       After checking once more to make sure James was all right, Jessie began exploring the rest of the house. She had no luck finding Lana or Mondo, and began wondering if they had gotten aggravated with her and left. "Don't be stupid! Mondo would never abandon you!" one half of her mind chided. But the other half wasn't so sure. She had always taken Mondo's loyalty for granted, and her conscience told her that it would be her own fault if he had chosen this time to say "the hell with it" and leave. But unwilling to cope with the possibility, Jessie habitually resorted back to her Rocket nature and handled her moral dilemma the way she usually did any time her conscience told her something she didn't want to hear; she told it to shut up.

       Jessie wandered into the kitchen and found it dismally free of food. The refrigerator wasn't even plugged in. She found a set of dishes and cups in one cupboard, and her spirits brightened when she found some canned goods in another. They sank back to the ground, however, when she failed to find a can opener. There were a few empty cardboard containers in the trash, and Jessie's stomach growled as she noticed for the first time that a faint aroma of Chinese food still hung in the air. Her companions at least had eaten at since their arrival. Where the hell had they gotten Chinese food, anyway?

       After pouring herself a cup of water, she next examined the room she had woken up in. Supplies and clean laundry were scattered around the room, but no food. Jessie set her cup down on the coffee table and opened a set of wooden doors. They opened up to an entertainment center consisting of a dusty TV, radio, and old video game system. She tried to turn on the television, until she saw that it wasn't plugged in. Her stomach growled again. She mentally noted that she needed to either find something edible or at least find a can opener to use on the canned goods in the kitchen. Her body was still weak and tired, and being hungry only made her feel worse. The search continued.

       She soon found the bedroom Mondo and Lana had slept in the previous night. It was smaller than the room James was using, with a set of bunk beds that looked like they were built into the wall. Again Jessie caught the faint smell of Chinese food. She didn't know where the smell was coming from, but she was bound determined to find out! Chinese certainly wasn't her first choice to eat on a weak and empty stomach, but it was better than nothing!

       She opened the closet door and found it totally empty except for a small (and rather dusty) chest-of-drawers pushed to the back of the closet. It was also empty. Next she tried the nightstand. The top drawer only contained the uniform Mondo had saved for the "return trip" everyone was being so secretive about, but the contents of the bottom drawer puzzled her. It was filled with sketchbooks, like one might find at an art supply store. A few had sketches of Pokémon in them, but most were unused. As she set them back in the drawer, Jessie suddenly realized Lana definitely wasn't kidding about how hot it was in the room. The heat was almost suffocating. She closed the drawer and decided to have a go at opening the window herself.

"No luck, I see," Lana said, coming into the room a few minutes later.

       "It won't budge," Jessie said, setting the crow bar she had been using back down on the table she had found it. "How could you possibly SLEEP in here?"

       "Now you see why we left you on the couch!" was Lana's reply.

       "Why does in smell like Chinese food in here?" Jessie asked.

       Lana pointed to the trash can in the corner, which contained a few of the same empty cardboard containers Jessie had discovered in the kitchen. Jessie nearly smacked herself. Why hadn't she thought to look there first? Lana handed her an apple as they left the room.

       "Where'd this come from?" Jessie asked her, taking a bite out of it.

       "One of the trees out back," Lana replied. "There are lots of them around the cabin." She led Jessie back to the sofa and motioned for her to sit down, before sitting down in a nearby chair.

       "So where's Mondo?" asked Jessie, propping her feet up and munching her apple.

       "He went into town," Lana responded. "He went to see Meowth and to buy some food."

       "Do we have any MONEY?" Jessie asked.

       "Plenty."

       "Just where did we get "plenty" of money all of a sudden?" Jessie questioned her. 

       "You probably don't want to know," Lana said, yawning. "And from this point on, the less you know about anything going on at Team Rocket, the better off you'll be."

       Jessie stared at her curiously, wondering what that was supposed to mean. Unsure of what to say, she dropped the subject. "You shouldn't be walking around too much on that ankle," she told Lana.

       Lana sighed and propped her feet up on a small ottoman. "Doesn't matter. There's still so much to do... Once Mondo and Meowth are both back we have to prepare..."

       "For what?" asked Jessie. She reached for her cup off the coffee table and took a gulp of the water.

       Lana closed her eyes. "Nevermind... Anyway, things will be easier for James now that we've gotten him hooked up to the IV. Any medication that he needs can be administered to him through it."

       "I'm glad..." Jessie sighed, setting the empty cup and the core of the apple on the coffee table, next to a pair of cheap wooden chopsticks that was also sitting there.  "Hey, where'd all the Chinese food come from, anyway?"

       "Those children brought it for us before they left yesterday," Lana said. "Such nice kids... we should all be grateful for all they've done to help us."

       Jessie resisted the urge to grumble something unbecoming. This wasn't the first time the "twerps" had helped her, James and Meowth in a pinch... but this was the first time she had felt guilty because of it.  Her team's long-term mistreatment of Ash and his friends, along with the recent tantrum she had thrown at poor Mondo, was causing uncomfortable pangs of guilt to rise up in her.

       "Hey, did they tell you who owns this cabin?" Jessie asked Lana, hoping a change of subject would shut her conscience up. "I wonder who would let members of Team Rocket stay on their property?"

       "FORMER members of Team Rocket," Lana corrected her. "And I think they said this cottage belongs to somebody named Tracey."

       "TRACEY?!" Jessie exclaimed in disbelief. The kid that wanted to be a Pokémon watcher? At least that explained the sketchbooks.

       "Yes, apparently his family owns numerous cabins like this throughout the Orange Islands," said Lana.

       "Is his family rich or something?" asked Jessie.

       Lana shrugged. "Who knows? But this place obviously hasn't been used in some time. The refrigerator wasn't even plugged in when we got here."

       "It still isn't," Jessie replied sourly as she curled up on the sofa. So much for shutting her conscience up. Now she had ANOTHER twerp to be grateful for!

. . .

       "We're home!" a cheerful voice echoed through the cabin a few hours later. It was followed by a sneeze.

       "Mondo, we're back here!" Lana called back, as she and Jessie finished taking down the last of the clothes still hanging out back. She heard his footsteps as he ran through the house.

       Mondo soon peeked out the back door, with a large bag in hand. "We brought food!"

       "Thank goodness!" was Jessie's reply. "Wait a minute... what does he mean by "we"?

       As they gathered the laundry and entered the cabin, the two women were thrilled to see the answer to Jessie's question. Jessie was overjoyed.

       "Meowth!"

       "Dat's right!" Meowth held two smaller bags in his arms. "We brought hamboigers!" He was soon swept into a hug by Jessie.

       "Hamburgers? I hope you bought more than just fast food!" Lana smiled, watching Jessie pick up Meowth and his bags and carry all three into the kitchen. She followed them.

       "Of course we did!" Mondo replied. He set his bag down on the counter next to where Jessie had seated Meowth and their bags from "Buddy's Burger Barn". Meowth had already swiped a burger out of one of the bags and was chowing down.

       "What did you get?" Jessie asked, getting a hamburger for herself and taking a bite out of it.

       "Some groceries, an inhaler for James, and..." He sneezed before he could finish what he was going to say, but he reached into the bag and pulled out a new pair of high-heels for Lana.

       "Are you goin' ta be able ta WALK in those?" Meowth asked her. He would never understand why human females wanted to abuse their feet by wearing those things. This pair looked even higher than the last. Silly humans.

       "Of course!" Lana laughed.

       "But I thought the twerps... I mean, Ash and his friends, weren't they going to bring Meowth back?" Jessie asked, digging into the bag for the inhaler as she continued to devour her burger.

       "They were, but Nurse Joy said Meowth was fully healed when I got there, so she let me take him home with me!" Mondo hugged Meowth tightly. "I was so glad!"

       "Can't Meowth EAT around here?" came the Pokémon's annoyed response. Lana and Jessie both laughed as Meowth grumbled about his now-squished hamburger.

       "I plugged in the refrigerator an hour or two ago, so hopefully we can put the food in there," Lana said, as she helped Mondo to put the groceries away. She turned around and was about to ask Jessie to hand her what was left on the counter, but Jessie had already disappeared with James' inhaler. She nearly dropped the carton of milk she was holding at the sound of Jessie screaming her name.

       "LANA!!! Lana, get in here, now!!!"

       Mondo shot Lana a quick glance and then dashed off to James' room. Lana limped behind. They found Jessie a state of hysteria, and James lying on the bed having what appeared to be some kind of epileptic episode. His body was convulsing uncontrollably, and his unfocused eyes were wide open, reflecting a state of panic. Lana waved her hand is front of his face. No response.

       "DO SOMETHING!!!" Jessie demanded hysterically. "What's WRONG with him?!"

       "He's having a seizure," Lana replied, getting some kind of medicine and putting it into James' IV. "This is a common symptom of the withdrawal, all the Pokémon I took off the drug experienced them. It should pass."

       Jessie collapsed into Mondo's arms, feeling tired and ill as she wept into the boy's shirt. Mondo wrapped his arms around her consolingly.

       "There, you're all right," Lana told James gently after the seizure subsided. She rubbed his forehead in a soothing fashion. He only stared at her in confusion, as though he had no memory of what was going on or what had just happened. Lana looked over at Jessie, who was still crying into Mondo's chest.

       "It... it's gonna be okay, Miss Jessie..." Mondo was trying to reassure her. A week ago Jessie would have beaten them all unconscious before letting them see her cry like this. What had happened to the tough, strong woman that never let any defeat bring her down? Mondo wished he had some magical incantation to bring that person back. Her tears were tearing his heart in half.

       Lana could also see the strain this whole ordeal had taken on Jessie. She was both physically and mentally exhausted, and Lana could only hope that the psychological damage done to both Jessie and her partner wouldn't have permanent repercussions that would affect them for the rest of their lives.  Still, she HAD to leave soon with Mondo and Meowth if they were going to accomplish their mission, and that meant that Jessie had to be ready to care for James on her own. Lana sighed. She could teach Jessie everything she needed to know, but she could not repair the young woman's frail mental state. But traumatized or not, Jessie was simply going to HAVE to be able to deal with it.

       "Jessie, come over here," Lana said in a professional manner, sounding rather like a doctor instructing a medical trainee.

       "What?" Jessie asked, resting her head on Mondo's shoulder tiredly, but not moving from her spot.

       Lana ignored the weariness in Jessie's voice. "Come here!" she said again, almost impatiently. They were all tired, and there was no more time to coddle Jessie. Their plan depended on Jessie being able to care for James alone, otherwise they wouldn't be able leave the cabin and execute their plan. Everything she and Meowth had planned for the return trip would be lost...

       Jessie finally removed herself from Mondo's embrace. Mondo stared at Lana, slightly confused by the sudden coldness in her manner.

       "Mondo, go eat your lunch," Lana told him. "When you're done, you and Meowth get to work on repairing the balloon." Mondo nodded and left the room.

       "What is it?" Jessie asked, coming over to her.

       "You need to learn how to take of him," Lana informed the younger woman. She gently stroked James' hair. "I'm going to teach you what you need to know..."

. . .

       When Jessie emerged from the bedroom sometime later, she found her half-eaten hamburger still on the kitchen counter where she had left it. It was cold. Disappointed, but still hungry, Jessie took a bite out of it anyway. There was no microwave here, and no Mondo or Meowth to tell her what they had done with the rest of the hamburgers. Damn.

       Lana had gone to the other bedroom to rest, after spending the better part of the hour explaining to Jessie various things she needed to know. James had remained docile the whole time they were there, looking tired and confused. When they tried to explain what had happened to him, he only replied that he didn't remember. If he paid any attention to anything they said afterward, neither of the two women could tell.

       After explaining James' medication schedule, how his condition was expected to change over the next few days, and what to do if this or that happened, Lana had pointblank told Jessie that she would be returning to Team Rocket Headquarters with Mondo and Meowth. They had a plan to "take care of Giovanni", and they were going to accomplish it or die trying. She wouldn't say anything specific, and after explaining one or two more things about James' condition, Lana had retired to the other room to get some sleep.

       Jessie hoped to get more information out of Mondo. She wandered out of the cottage, and found him repairing the giant head of Meowth, while the real Meowth was reattaching it to the basket. The bags from "Buddy's Burger Barn" were sitting on a nearby rock.

       "Are there any hamburgers left?" Jessie asked, pointing to the bags.

       "Yeah, we saved some for you, Miss Jessie," Mondo replied. "And for Miss Lana and James, too.

       Jessie grabbed one out of the bag, along with a container of cold french fries, and sat down next to Mondo. "Need any help?" she asked, unwrapping her burger.

       "No, that's okay."

       After a moment or two of silence, Jessie spoke up again.

       "Mondo, I'm... sorry for the way I yelled at you this morning."

       She stared at her food, trying to find the right words. What excuse do you offer for throwing a child's tantrum? For treating someone so loyal and kind to you like dirt?

       "I didn't mean it..." she continued. "You've been so wonderful to me and James, and I... I don't know why I treat people the way I do. I'm always taking my frustration out on my friends. There have been times I've treated James like garbage these past few years, ever since we met Ash Ketchum. Most of the time he never really deserved it, and... I guess I turned on you when I didn't have him to yell at anymore."

       Mondo laughed. "That's okay, Miss Jessie!" he replied cheerfully. He let go of the balloon and hugged her. "I forgive you!" The fact was he had forgiven her the moment she had latched onto him in James' bedroom and began to cry. His teenage heart had melted completely, dissolving any remaining feelings of anger or bitterness. He loved her. Even if he could not have her, he still yearned to be near her, happy that she still needed him.

       Jessie returned his hug. "I'm glad... I wouldn't be able to stand it if we lost you!"

       "I'll always be here for you, Miss Jessie!" he smiled.

       Jessie took the opportunity to bring up the subject she most wanted to question him about. "Even when you go back to HQ?"

       "She told ya, huh?" Meowth said, speaking for the first time since Jessie had come out with them. "We was tryin' not to worry yous."

       Mondo sighed and let go of Jessie. "It won't be for long, I promise! We'll be back as soon as we make sure that horrible man can never hurt us again!"

       Jessie suddenly felt dizzy as she stared at Mondo, suddenly realizing how young he truly was. This boy, and a Meowth who shared her own track record of failure, were going to help Lana do... what? These three were REALLY going to take on their former boss?

       Mondo went back to help Meowth work on the balloon. As Jessie sat there and watched them, she was struck by the sudden fear that she might never seen either of them again. She wanted to kill Giovanni too, but what chance did any of them REALLY have? She, James, and Meowth couldn't even succeed in stealing a Pikachu from a group of little kids. What could one woman, a teenage boy, and a Meowth hope to do against a man who had all of Team Rocket at his command?!

       Jessie was no longer sure if she wanted to know what they were planning to do. She was feeling sick at the thought. Getting up, she took her food and one of bags and decided to go see if James was hungry. She could always ask Mondo more later.

. . .

       Jessie was left alone with James for the rest of the afternoon. Rather it took that long for Mondo and Meowth to finish repairing the balloon, or they found something else to do afterwards, Jessie did not see them again until Lana called everyone to supper. James claimed he was not hungry, but Jessie intended to bring him some dinner after she had finished hers. Sick or not, she doubted James could ever stay "not hungry" for very long.

       She heard Lana talking as she approached the kitchen, telling Mondo that he needed to change his clothes. Mondo started to say something in reply, but fell silent as Jessie entered the room. He sat down quickly, avoiding Jessie's gaze. Meowth was already stuffing his face.

       "Is James hungry?" Lana asked. She was wearing her own clothes again, and part of her long green hair was pulled back with a rubber band.

       "No," Jessie answered curtly.

       Maybe she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what the three of them were going to do, but she was getting damn tired of feeling left out of their plans. Jessie stared at her plate to avoid looking at her companions, and noticed that their dinner included peas. She wondered how in the world Lana had managed to open the can without a can opener, until she noticed it lying on the counter. Lana opened a drawer with no handle and put the can opener in it. The drawer blended so well into the woodwork that Jessie had overlooked it entirely.

       "Did he eat lunch?" Lana asked as she sat down at the table.

       "Yes," answered Jessie, still not looking up. "But when I offered to bring him some dinner he said he wasn't hungry. I'll try taking him something later."

       Dinner was a mostly silent affair, no one attempted conversation after that. Jessie picked at the food on her plate, wondering if she was more annoyed with the people sitting across from her or worried about them. It amazed her to think that at the moment she was more concerned about Mondo, Meowth and Lana than she was about James. At least James wasn't going to purposely attempt something that could result in his death.

       Meowth and Mondo wolfed down their food, eating as though their lives depended on it. Lana attempted to eat with a bit more class, and only barely succeeded. Jessie eyed each one of them closely. Meowth always ate like a pig, but Mondo usually had better manners than this, especially in front of her. She had no idea about Lana, but she found it hard to believe that this was normal behavior for the woman. What was their hurry? Meowth was licking his now-empty plate as though he would never taste food again. As Mondo took another piece of chicken, Jessie was annoyed to see that the serving plate in the middle of the table was empty. They hadn't left any chicken for James.

       "What's the big RUSH?!" Jessie finally shouted, slamming her fork down on the table when Mondo stuffed the whole piece of chicken in his mouth and wound up choking on it. Lana slapped his back and the half-chewed meat went flying out of his mouth and onto his plate. What little appetite Jessie had had was now gone.

      "What the hell is going ON?" Jessie asked. "Why are the three of you eating like someone's going to take the food away from you?!"

       "We're in a hurry, Miss Jessie," said Mondo, after an awkward silence. "We have to get ready to go."

       "NOW?!!!" Jessie practically screamed. "You're going TONIGHT?!"

       "That's right," Lana said, finishing the last few bites of food left on her plate.

       "You can't be serious!" Jessie cried. She had expected them to remain at the cabin with her for a few more days, at least. Preferably a few weeks. It had never occurred to her that they would abandon her so soon.

       "Yes, we are," Lana replied simply, beginning to clear the dishes from the table. Mondo grabbed his chicken back as Lana took his plate.

       Jessie grabbed her plate protectively before Lana could take it. At least James could have her chicken, she had only taken one bite out of it. "Have you all gone CRAZY?!" she yelled. "You're really going off on some crackpot mission that you've had less than two days to plan out?!"

       Nobody responded. Mondo continued gnawing on his chicken while Lana set the plates in the sink. Neither looked at her. Jessie stared at Meowth, but he wouldn't meet her gaze either. What was WRONG with these people? Did they WANT to die?! And who was going to help her and James if they did? Finally, Jessie rose from the table with her plate in hand and stormed out of the room.

_

       "Miss Jessie, please don't be mad at us!" Mondo begged as he ran after her, following her into James' room. Jessie slammed her plate on the nightstand, with a force that sent her remaining peas bouncing off the plate and onto the floor. James watched the scene with interest.

       "What am I going to do if you all DIE?!" shouted Jessie.

       Mondo tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Die? He had tried to push all thoughts of death to the back of his mind. He didn't want to think of the terrible possibility that he or his friends might get hurt, or worse. Now that fear had resurfaced and formed a lump in his throat that no amount of swallowing would make go away. He didn't want to die, the very thought terrified him, but he didn't want Giovanni to be able to come back and hurt any of them either. Hard to believe that less than two weeks ago he had idolized the man.

       "I... we... we aren't going to die, Miss Jessie," he whispered, hoping that his voice didn't shake.

       "You IDIOT!!!" Jessie shouted, repeatedly slamming her fist into the top of poor Mondo's head. As usual, venting her frustration out on the nearest available convenience as she had often done to both James and Meowth during their years of working for Team Rocket.

       James was watching both of them carefully, even though his brain was only processing about half the information it was receiving at the moment. What he perceived from their exchange was unknown.

       Jessie stopped suddenly. Mondo cowered, holding his hands over his head. Where had she seen that look before? That lost, miserable look of terror that pleaded with her to stop being so aggressive?

       In James.

       How many times had he given her that look, which she continually ignored, as she constantly blamed him for their failure? And now she was getting that same look from Mondo, who she had just apologized to earlier in the day for mistreating him. What in the hell was she DOING?!

       As she pondered these thoughts, Jessie suddenly realized that she was hearing a strange sound. Laughter. Nobody in that room would have expected to hear such a thing, and now it was coming from the most unlikely source of all.

       It was coming from James.

       Mondo was already staring at him, his hands rubbing his sore head as he did so. Jessie also turned to stare, completely dumbfounded, wondering what a man in his condition could find so humorous.

       James stared right back at them, and continued to laugh. This was a familiar scene; Jessie whacking some guy over the head while he cowered helplessly. Like Jessie, he recognized the familiarity of the situation, even though he had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that Jessie had just beaten the brains out of somebody, and for once it wasn't him! His suffering, confused mind had found that simple concept so hilarious he just had to laugh. And laugh he did.

       Mondo suddenly realized what James had found so amusing, and began laughing himself. Jessie was right about what she had said earlier; in some odd, twisted way he had taken James' place since Jessie was no longer able to use her partner as a scapegoat. He also knew that the reason Jessie had just bashed his skull in was because she cared about him, and genuinely feared for his safety.

       Jessie continued to watch them laugh, still not seeing how the two of them could find the situation funny.

       Finally James gently took one of Jessie's hands in his, and when the laugher had finally died down Mondo took her other hand with both of his. They both squeezed her hands affectionately, as if silently trying to convey their love and acceptance to her. So what if she was loud, violent and pushy? They both loved her the way she was.

       Jessie squeezed back, overwhelmed by how connected that squeeze made her feel to her two companions. She wished that she could build a wall around this moment, around these two people, so that she would never again have to fear losing them. She opened her mouth, meaning to apologize to Mondo for losing control, but instead she lost it completely.

       She wept.

. . . . . .

       "Are you sure you have everything you need?" Mondo heard Jessie ask for the third time, as he prepared to leave with Lana.

       "Yes, Miss Jessie!" he replied a third time. "Miss Lana says we don't need to bring ANYTHING."

       He had changed back into his Team Rocket costume, and he realized that for the first time in his life, wearing these clothes made him feel dirty. He remembered how the red R on the front of his shirt had felt like a badge of honor the day he first tried it on. It now felt like a malevolent scarlet letter, making him stand out as an evil and corrupt person.

       "How long are you going to be gone?" Jessie asked Lana, who had just come out of the cottage from checking on James one last time.

       "Probably only a few days," Lana said, as Mondo helped her into the hot-air balloon. "We won't be long if everything goes according to plan," she added, trying to sound reassuring.

       Jessie was NOT reassured. She watched as Meowth jumped into the balloon, and Mondo fired it up. Only a few days was going to feel like a few years. 

        "See ya, Jess!" Meowth called, as they flew away. "Take care 'a James!" He and Mondo watched Jessie stare after them helplessly.

       "Come back SOON!!!" they heard Jessie yell, before they lost sight of her completely.

       "We will," Mondo whispered, as if Jessie were still able to hear him. He wiped his eyes, trying to fight back his tears. The harsh reality of the situation was completely sinking in, and it filled him with dread. If they failed in what they were trying to accomplish, then they would never return. Jessie would never know what had happened to them. They must NOT fail.

       As he stared out over the horizon, he closed his eyes and tried draw upon every ounce of strength he possessed. There was no going back.

       It was about to begin.
"She'll be all right, Mondo," Lana tried to assure her young companion, who was gazing unhappily in the direction of the cabin they had just left. "We're all going to be fine."

       Mondo turned and looked at her. Why didn't he believe that? Now that they were on their way back, every shred of confidence he possessed felt as though it was being stripped away. A feeling of dread hung over him.

       Meowth curled up and went to sleep, seemingly unconcerned.

       "Miss Lana, why did you join Team Rocket?" Mondo asked, deciding to engage her in conversation to take his mind off his fears. Lana was sitting down in the basket to take her weight off of her twisted ankle, leaving Mondo to keep watch.

       "My father was a Rocket," Lana answered. "He joined Team Rocket when I was a child. When he died on a mission six years ago, I dropped out of medical school and decided to follow in his footsteps. My brother David idolized our father, and he idolized me when I joined Team Rocket. My mother hated me for it." The bitterness in her voice was plain.

       "Why?" asked Mondo.

       "She blamed Team Rocket for his death, and when I left school and went to train at Team Rocket HQ she never forgave me. I came home every weekend to visit, but that was mostly for David's sake. Mother rarely spoke to me. Then one day I came home and found everything was gone. Clothes, food, furniture... the house was empty. The neighbors told me she moved everything out in the middle of the night and vanished, taking David with her. I haven't seen them since."

       "Do you miss them?" Mondo whispered.

       A look of pain swept across Lana's face. "My brother and I were always close," she responded after a moment. "I often wonder where he is and what he's doing..."

       "Maybe you'll find him someday," Mondo offered, trying to sound cheerful.

       "Maybe... but I doubt it. I'll probably never see my family again," She looked up at Mondo sadly. "That's the price I paid... for selling my soul to Team Rocket."

       Mondo looked away from her without saying anything. There was nothing he could say.

. . .

       Night had fallen over Team Rocket HQ by the time the Meowth balloon had landed there. Lana noted that Giovanni was there; his helicopter was parked on top of the roof. The trio hoped they would be able to make it to Jessie and James' quarters before anyone spotted them. Hope failed them.

       "Hey, Mondo, the boss wants to see you!" A familiar voice informed him as he entered the building.

       "Miss Domino!"

       "He sent word for you to report to him this morning. Where have you BEEN?" Domino asked, pushing him in the direction of Giovanni's office.

       Mondo felt like a Mareep being led to the slaughter. He stared after Lana with a sick expression as she walked in with Meowth in her arms.

       "Later, Mondo!" she smiled casually. "Thanks again for helping me with this Pokémon that escaped from the lab!"

       Mondo stared helplessly as she walked away, without giving him a second glance. She was just going to walk away and LEAVE him?!! Domino continued to push him down the hall, and he felt another lump in his throat as she shoved him into Giovanni's office.

       "Sir! I've brought the rookie that you sent for!"

       Giovanni looked up from the report he was reviewing. "Ah, excellent 009!" he praised Domino. He then glared at Mondo. "About time! You were supposed to report to me this morning!"

       "I-I-I'm sorry, Sir," Mondo stuttered, standing at attention. "I was helping one of the scientists."

       "All DAY?!!"

       Mondo cringed, but forced himself to calm down. He couldn't afford for Giovanni to think that he was acting suspicious. "Y-yes, sir. She needed help with some field research."

       Domino raised an eyebrow. Field research? Lana hadn't said anything about field research...

        "You may leave now, 009," Giovanni told Domino, without taking his eyes off Mondo.

       The tone in his voice told her that this was an order, not a suggestion, and Domino promptly left the room. She shut the door behind her and immediately began eavesdropping. The boss had never sent her out of the room to yell at another Rocket before, even other members of the Elite. Giovanni dismissing his best agent so that he could hold a private meeting with someone as low on the Team Rocket totem pole as Mondo was an occurrence so incredible that it was almost unbelievable. Had it not peaked her curiosity, Domino would have found the notion rather insulting. But her Elite Rocket instincts were telling her that if she stuck around she might learn something worth knowing...

       On the other side of the door, Giovanni gazed steadily at Mondo. "I assumed you'd gone off with those three useless incompetents again. Have you seen them?"

       "No, sir."

       "I'm glad to see their constant failure hasn't rubbed off on you, at least. But you should have been reassigned ages ago. They were demoted to rookie status almost two years ago, and are no longer worthy of your assistance."

       "You mean Miss Jessie and James are no longer my seniors?" Mondo asked, genuinely shocked.

       "That's right," he affirmed. "I deleted them from the Team Rocket database altogether, but one of our recruiters reenlisted them while they were in the Johto region. They've contributed nothing to Team Rocket since then, I even gave them the opportunity to try and make themselves useful in the Hoenn region. They are totally incompetent. You'd do better to assist a team like Butch and Cassidy."

       "If they can stay out of jail long enough," Mondo muttered, forgetting his place for a moment.

       "Yes, you have a point," Giovanni replied darkly, reconsidering his last statement. "They seem to have become as inept as those bumbling idiots you were training under. Perhaps they should have joined Professor Namba..."

       Mondo shuddered. Professor Namba had been working for free since the destruction of the Team Rocket command center he had been in charge of. Giovanni was taking the cost of the destroyed base out of Namba's salary (which by Mondo's estimation would be for the rest of the poor man's life), and the scientist had barely managed to escape "elimination" when he tried to leave the organization. His usefulness as a scientific genius kept him alive, but Giovanni was getting tired of having his bases blown up. How Jessie and James had gotten away with wrecking the Viridian City gym was a mystery to Mondo.

       "But nevermind..." Giovanni reached down to pet his Persian. "I called you here to report how those pills I gave you are working."

       The blood drained from Mondo's face. "I... I haven't been taking them."

       "Why?"

       "Miss Lana told me not to," he answered, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. "She said there had been some... problems with them." He could only hope he wasn't creating a huge problem for Lana by pointing the finger at her, but he had no idea what else to do, and no time to think about it.

       Giovanni's face darkened. "What kind of PROBLEMS did she say?" he asked, opening the drawer in his desk where Mondo knew his gun was kept.

       "Sh-she didn't," Mondo gulped, trying not to pass out in his panic. Forget worrying about Lana, he needed to start worrying about himself! "She just made me give them back!"

       Giovanni closed the drawer, and Mondo breathed an inner sigh of relief.

       "Very well. That experiment has been put on hold due to some... complications. In the meantime, I'm giving you a new assignment. I want you to track down James and his team, and tell them to report to me at once!"

       "Yes, sir!"
      
       "If for some reason they refuse to follow my orders, I want you to bring them here yourself... by whatever means necessary."

       Mondo stared at the man in horror. He was being ordered to deliver his comrades to the very man he had just helped them escape from. Now he could not return to the cabin for fear of being followed, not unless Meowth and Lana succeed in their plan... Suddenly his attempt to stand at perfect attention was disrupted as he sneezed. He quickly apologized. He didn't feel well in the least, but he was determined not to show any weakness here.

       "And Mondo?" Giovanni continued.

       "Sir?"

       "You've spent several years at the bottom ranks of this organization. If you were to succeed in carrying out my orders, you could easily be promoted to a full Dan'in."

       Now Mondo understood completely. Never had anything been more horribly clear to him. Giovanni figured Jessie and James would contact their "pet" assistant/trainee eventually, and if they refused to return to HQ then Mondo could use their trust in him to easily deceive them. After all, any rookie could be bribed with the promise of a promotion from the boss, right?

       "He thinks I can be bought!" Mondo thought angrily after Giovanni had dismissed him. "He thinks I'll deliver James into his hands, just so that I can wear one of those ugly black uniforms!"

       Domino had quickly removed herself from the office door before it opened and hidden in the utility closet across the hall. Mondo didn't notice when the closet door opened, and Domino silently began shadowing his footsteps.

. . . . . .

       Meowth lay sprawled out on Jessie's bed, wondering how his friends were doing back at the cabin. He already missed them far more than he cared to admit.

       "Jess 'n Jimmy'll be okay," he told himself, before a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

       "Everything okay?" he asked, as he let Lana in. The two of them had split up after the incident with Domino, so that Lana could go to the labs and make a few excuses as to where she had disappeared to for the past few days. He hadn't expected her back so soon.

       "I hope so," Lana responded, opening the door to Jessie and James' hall closet and retrieving the lab coat she had left there. "I tried to be as quick as possible, but I hope I didn't arouse anyone's suspicion in the process. Is Mondo back yet?"

       "Not yet," Meowth answered. "Hope he's not in trouble with-"

       Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!
       Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

       Pulling on her lab coat, Lana rushed to answer the phone. A knock at the door (followed by a familiar sneeze from the other side) stopped her in her tracks, and both she and Meowth smiled, relieved. Meowth answered the door while she resumed her rush to the phone.

       "What's da matter with you?" Meowth asked, noticing at once the storm-cloud expression on Mondo's face as he let him in.

       "I hate that man!" Mondo yelled, storming in. "He wants me to sell out Jessie and James! He said he would promote me if I find them and bring them to him... by whatever means necessary!" Feeling rather dizzy, he leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. "I hate this..." he whispered.

       "Ya don't look too good," Meowth commented.

       "I don't feel well at all..." Mondo responded. His head felt stuffed and heavy, and his stomach was in knots from the stress. "Do you know what he told me?" he asked softly. "He told me that Jessie and James were demoted over a year ago... for constant failure. They always tried so hard to please him, and he never cared... not at all."

       Meowth sighed. Over the years Jessie and James had told Mondo all kinds of success stories about their "glittering careers" in Team Rocket. Naturally these stories had little or nothing to do with the actual truth (as Meowth loved to point out) but it was obvious Mondo still loved hearing them. At first they had done this so that Mondo couldn't take word of their failure back to the boss, but even after their day-to-day failure became common knowledge they still continued to lie, simply because they couldn't bear to admit the truth. The look of adoration in Mondo's eyes filled them all with hope, and gave them a much-needed ego boost when they were feeling down.

       Of course, Mondo had been aware of their hardships. It was no secret that his beloved seniors had lost Giovanni's favor, and that they had spent years trying to catch the same Pikachu (which they told him was a "secret mission" from the boss). But no matter how many times they failed, no one could destroy Mondo's belief that Jessie, James, and Meowth were the perfect team. And all three of them had taken great comfort in that.

       "Yeah..." Meowth sighed sadly. "We wasn't just demoted, we was all kicked OUT! And if only we'd known better, we wouldn't have joined up again!"

       Mondo thought about that. He had never dreamed they could be demoted back to rookie level, anymore than he could have imagined that Giovanni would find them all so worthless that he would try to use them for lab rats. But as much as he wished his friends could have been spared the horror they had been put through, he hated the thought of them leaving Team Rocket without him even more. What if they had chosen to just walk away after learning that they had been fired? He might have never seen them again. Rather they were his seniors or just his fellow rookies, they were still the same three friends he loved and adored, and he didn't want to lose them. And now that they were safely away from the clutches of Team Rocket, he had to make sure that THEY didn't lose HIM. He wiped his forehead, trying to ignore the fever he knew was creeping up on him.

       "I can't get sick now..." he told himself. "I can't..."

"Who was on da phone?" Meowth asked Lana when she came out of the bedroom a few minutes later.

       "Jessie," Lana replied. "I told her she could reach us here if she needed to."

       "Is she okay?" Mondo asked, looking up.

       "James had another seizure and she was a bit panicked, that's all. She just needed some reassurance. But those kids showed up after we left and are staying with her at the cabin tonight, so at least she won't be alone..."

       "Brock, Ash and Misty?" Mondo asked. "Why are they there?"

       "They needed a place to stay for the night and it's on their way out of town," Lana responded. "Brock made them all dinner and Misty made something called "Mystery Stew" for Jessie..."
      
       Meowth shivered in disgust, as memories of Misty's stew haunted him. She had made it once when Brock was sick and he, James and Jessie had stolen a taste of it. Both he and James agreed that the female member of the twerp-trio was probably the only person on the planet whose cooking was worse than Jessie's. Why Jessie loved that stew was beyond them, and how she could eat it without becoming violently ill was one of the great mysteries of the world. All he could figure was the she must have taste buds of steel and an iron stomach.

       "Mystery Stew?" Mondo asked, noticing Meowth's reaction. It was his experience that food with "mystery" in the title usually tasted like the world would have been better off if the mystery had never been discovered. The "Mystery Meat" in the HQ cafeteria was a prime example of this.

       "At any rate I'm glad she's not going to be alone," Lana said, fishing the key out of the pocket of her lab coat. "At least for tonight, anyway. We've got to get started if we're going to carry out our plan..."

       "Can we really DO this?" Mondo asked.

       "We wouldn't have come back if we couldn't," Lana replied dryly. "I stopped off at the labs while you were in Giovanni's office. Fortunately my lab assistants have been seeing to my duties; I told them I'd been away conducting some field research."

       "At least that matches the story I told Giovanni," Mondo thought.

       "I dismissed them for the night, but I don't know how I'm going to get everyone else out of the labs," Lana continued.

       "Maybe ya won't need to," Meowth suggested. "If we was real quiet, maybe nobody'll notice what we're doing." 

       "They may not notice us stealing one of the lab specimens, but they'll notice it's gone tomorrow morning when someone comes in to feed it!" Lana argued. "Then what?"

       Feeling tired, miserable and feverish, Mondo tuned out their conversation. Let them figure out the details of their plan, he doubted he could offer any valuable input anyway. He just wanted to do his part in bringing Giovanni down so that everyone would be safe and he could go home to Jessie.

       Unbeknownst to the three conspirators in Jessie and James' old quarters, an eavesdropper was listening thoughtfully to their conversation from out in the hall. When an agreement was finally reached between Lana and Meowth, Agent 009 removed herself from her listening post and headed in the direction of the labs.

. . . . . .

       A short time later, Lana slowly led Meowth and Mondo though the huge network of labs under Team Rocket Headquarters. To their surprise, the place dark and totally empty.

       "Why ain't 'dere anybody here?" asked Meowth.

       "I... don't know..." Lana whispered, looking around curiously. "This place was full of people when I came down here earlier."

       They walked slowly through the network of laboratories, computer rooms, weapons lockers, and rows and rows of caged Pokémon.

       "At least we don't have ta bother gettin' everyone outta here," Meowth remarked.

       "Yeah, but I wonder why everyone left so suddenly?" Lana asked softly, more to herself than her companions.

       Lagging behind, an exhausted Mondo was fighting both his sickness and his overwhelming fear. Taking down Giovanni was the most dangerous thing any of them had ever attempted, and if something went wrong, it could cost all of them their lives. The reality of the situation had finally hit home. He struggled to be brave, to remember that he was doing this so that Jessie and James would be safe, but he was fighting a losing battle. He had never been more terrified in his life.

       "Mondo, what's that matter?" Lana asked.

       "I'm scared," he whispered, his voice shaking as he unsuccessfully attempted to keep from sobbing.

       "Don't be afraid," she whispered, turning around and putting her hands on his shoulders firmly. "Whatever happens, we're all in this together."

       Mondo nodded and wiped his eyes.

       They reached the door to the lab where Lana and her assistants worked. Like all of the private laboratories, it was locked by a state-of-the-art security system. Lana punched in the six-digit entry code on the key pad and the door opened.

       "The security code is 7-6-2-5-3-8," she told them. "It spells 'rocket' on a telephone keypad."

       Mondo laughed weakly. "That's clever."

       Lana shrugged and limped inside, motioning for them to follow her. "I didn't choose it. I trained under Professor Sebastian before he was reassigned to the Johto region; this used to be his lab."

        "Do you have to reenter the code to lock the door back?" Mondo asked.

       "No, it locks on its own when you shut it."

       They stopped in front of two rows of cages. All were empty except for one, where a Persian was twitching in its sleep. Lana pulled the key out of her pocket and fit it into the Persian's cage, but hesitated to turn it.

      "This should be easy pickin's," Meowth remarked. "All we gonna do is switch this drugged Persian with da boss's Persian, an'..."

       "He'll get exactly what he deserves!" Mondo finished.

       Lana left the key in the keyhole, and limped over to her desk. Her injured ankle was hurting her considerably, but she tried to consol herself with the knowledge that if their plan worked, she could go back to the cabin and lay around for as long as it suited her. After all, she would be out of a job, wouldn't she? She grabbed one of the black and white Team Rocket pokéballs from out of her desk and handed it to Mondo. "Use this to capture the Persian when I get it out of the cage."

       "Right..." Mondo took the pokéball and stared at the red R on the black side. Team Rocket's pokéballs could capture almost any Pokémon, rather it belonged to someone or not. They could use one later to capture Giovanni's Persian when they made the switch. "But what if it's too strong and the pokéball won't hold it?"

       Lana stared at the key to the Persian's cage, and slowly moved her hand to turn it. "Hopefully we won't have to find that out..."

       As she opened the door, the seemingly asleep Persian watched Lana through slitted eyes. When she unwisely moved to touch the animal, her error would prove to be a fatal one. Its eyes opened completely and it lunged from the cage, knocking Lana off-balance and throwing her backwards. Its teeth tore into her shoulder.

       Meowth sprang into action and fury-swiped the enraged creature, giving Lana the opportunity to push it off. "Mondo!!! Throw da pokéball!!!" he yelled.

       Mondo stood frozen to the spot, too terrified to move.

       As the Persian charged at Meowth, Lana painfully managed to get to her feet. The heel on her right shoe had broke off, and the other shoe had been lost entirely. "Mondo hurry!!!" she yelled.

       The pokéball dropped from Mondo's hand and hit the floor, useless. After that the world around him became one nightmarish blur, as his fever and his instinct for survival dueled with each other for control of his body. Finally he turned and fled, as his survival instincts overpowered both his fever and his own judgment.

       Meowth had gotten ahead of him and fled the lab, but Mondo did not see him. He saw nothing except the door, and his mind and body knew nothing other than his objective of reaching it. "I don't want to die!!!"

       He heard Lana scream behind him, and as he drew nearer to the door he felt something latch onto his back. With all the force he could muster, he pushed the weight away from him and flung it to the ground. To his horror he found that the "weight" had actually been Lana, trying to use his body for support as she ran/limped towards the exit, but Mondo had no time to remorse over his error. After jumping onto a table and wrecking everything on it, the enraged Persian leaped from it and lunged at Mondo, who fled in terror. He scrambled out of the lab and slammed his hand into the button that closed the door. It slid shut, trapping the Persian on the other side of it. Mondo slumped to the ground, bursting into tears of exhaustion and relief.

       "Sitting down on the job?" a woman's voice asked him.

       He felt a cold chill as he realized that the voice was not Lana's. He looked up. In front of him stood Domino, holding her trademark black tulip-shaped weapon in her hands. Before he could say anything he heard a female scream, and it was not coming from Domino. As his feverish mind fought to retain consciousness, he noticed Meowth vainly trying to jump up and reach the security keypad that opened the door.

       "What are you doing?!" Mondo cried. "Don't open the door!"

       "You idiot!!!" Meowth yelled at him, as another agonizing scream could be heard from the other side of the door. "Lana's still in there!!!"

       The screams had stopped by the time Domino had kicked Meowth out of the way, entered the security code on the control panel and opened the door. She calmly fired her weapon at the Persian and it collapsed to the ground, motionless. Rather Domino had killed the creature or merely rendered it unconscious neither Mondo nor Meowth could tell. What Mondo saw next would burn itself into the very core of his memory and haunt him until the day he drew his last breath.

       Lana was dead. Of that there could be no doubt; the Persian had ripped out her throat and gorged itself on her body. Meowth tried to fury-swipe the emotionally distraught Mondo out of his state of shock and get him to flee with him before Domino could make her next move, but the boy remained motionless. As Domino turned to face them Meowth fled the room, hoping beyond hope that Mondo would follow. But the traumatized young man's mind and body had reached their limit, and could endure no more. He passed out.

_

       Meowth ran through the corridors of Team Rocket Headquarters as though he was being physically chased by the horror and sheer terror he felt. Everything had been destroyed, everything! At last he reached Jessie and James' quarters and locked himself inside, listening against the door for the sound of Mondo's footsteps. The exit was still a long way off, but if worse came to worst they could escape out one of the windows. Meowth clung to the dying fragments of hope that Mondo would catch up and meet him here. He never did.

       When it became apparent that Mondo was not coming, Meowth could only assume that he had been caught, or worse. He asked himself rather or not he should escape while he still could, or wait until the commotion had died down and then see if he could find Mondo and try to rescue him. Meowth wasn't in the habit of being unselfish, especially when his own neck was on the line, but after what had just happened to Lana he was determined not to lose another teammate. If Mondo was still alive, he had to find a way to help him...
This time Jessie had to see who was in the coffin.

       The head mourner was standing in front of it, her face veiled and her left fist clutched against her breast. As Jessie looked out amongst the crowd of mourners, she realized that all of them were wearing Team Rocket costumes. So was she.

       "Please, tell me who's in this coffin!" Jessie begged the woman. "I have to know who's coffin this is!"

       The woman did not answer her.

       This time Jessie made no move to open the coffin. Instead, she grabbed the woman's black veil and ripped it from her face.

       "Domino???"

       Domino laughed insanely, and removed her fist from her breast. She held it out over the coffin and opened her hand, dropping two rings on the coffin lid. Jessie leaned in closer to look. Now where had she seen those rings before?...

. . .

       Jessie was pulled from sleep by the sound of laughing. She tried to cling to the fleeting images from her dream before she lost them forever, but they were fading fast. There was something about those rings...

       Finally she opened her eyes. "You all right?" she asked James groggily, rolling over on her side to look at him when she realized the laughter was coming from him. She had shared the bed with him last night so that Misty and Brock could occupy the beds in the next room. Ash had slept on the sofa with Pikachu. "What's so funny?" she asked.

       "I had the GREATEST nightmare!" he replied, with a mischievous smile on his face.

       "About what?" Jessie asked, wondering how a person could have a great nightmare. The images from her own dream were now too fuzzy to recall, much to her disappointment. Pangs of nostalgia were still nagging her over those rings, but she could no longer picture them clearly in her mind.

       James laughed again, replaying his dream over again in his mind. "There was this guy with a stupid fan selling Magikarp, and he was telling me how the Magikarp was a Pokémon gold mine. I kept trying to remember where I'd seen him before, and suddenly it hit me!"

       "What hit you?" Jessie asked, amazed at how much better he seemed to be feeling.

       "He'd swindled me before! He sold me that stupid Magikarp that evolved in Garados and nearly got us all killed. And every once in a while I'd see him somewhere and he's try to swindle me again!"

       Jessie certainly remembered the time James had been conned into spending all of his (and her) paycheck on a useless Magikarp in its ridiculous gold-plated pokéball. At the time she'd seriously considered grabbing a blunt object and beating the crap out of him.

       "So you know what I did?" he asked.

       "What?"

       "I grabbed one of his Magikarp and I kept hitting him over the head with it! And it felt so GOOD!!!" He laughed again, almost giddy with delight.

     "Um... and just how was that a nightmare?" Jessie wanted to know.

     "Well, then the Magikarp evolved into Garados and tried to eat me... Oh, but Jessie it was WORTH it!!!"

     Jessie looked on as James continued to giggle to himself, wiping tears of merriment from his eyes.

     "Well, you certainly seem to be feeling better at any rate," Jessie commented, running her fingers through his hair before getting out of bed.

     "My back still hurts," he replied, suddenly looking serious. "Hurts to laugh, hurts to move, but... I'm SO tired of laying here!" His last six words were expressed in a long, drawn-out whine. "And I'm worried Meowth and Mondo and what's-her-name..." He yawned, trying to remember the name of the green-haired woman who had taken care of him.

     "Lana," Jessie answered, approaching the window.

     "They're going to be okay, right Jess?" he asked, trying his best to roll over without making his back feel worse. He swore he was going to have nightmares about thunderstorms and falling out of air balloons for the rest of the decade.

     Jessie stared out the window, where the sun had just begun to stare out the horizon. "I... I don't know..." I don't know anything. I don't know if I can do this alone... Damn it, Mondo! Why did you have to go with them and leave me here alone?! Why did any of you have to go at all? Come back!!!

     In silence she watched as the sun rose, spellbound both the breathtaking beauty and the grim knowledge that she had recently acquired that one day the sun would set on her life and she would never see it rise again. Her chest became heavy and pained as her thoughts drifted to that far off yet inevitable time when the sun would rise as it had for billions of years but she herself would not live to see it set. Oh, how she feared that day... And how close James had come to seeing it!

     "Jessie, come back to bed," James yawned sleepily. "It's still early."

     "In a minute," she replied, her tear-filled eyes still fixated on the rising sun. She and James had watched the sunrise many times in their years spent together, but this was the first time it had ever touched her on an emotional level. As she watched the sky slowly change to different shades of gold, orange, and red, she wondered if Meowth, Mondo and Lana were still alive and breathing under the same sky with her.

     "Even if they are, they might not live to see it set again tonight..."

. . . . . .

     "I'm scared..."

     "Don't be afraid. Whatever happens, we're all in this together."

     Mondo stared into the woman's eyes, trying to draw comfort and strength from them. He could feel her hands pressing firmly on his shoulders. "I remember, Miss Lana. I won't forget... But why aren't you here? Please come and help me!... I'm scared... Lana? Miss Lana?..."

       "Miss Lana... come back..." Mondo opened his eyes and found a woman he had never seen before mopping his forehead with a damp cloth.

       "No, I'm not Lana," she said gently. "I'm a nurse for the Team Rocket med unit. I've been sent to look in on you."

       "Where... where am I?" he asked groggily.

       "You're at home," she answered.

       Mondo realized it was true. He was in his own room, in his own bed, at Team Rocket HQ.

       "Everything's all right now. You were involved in a serious accident down in the labs last night. Do you remember?"

       "Accident?" he asked, confused. He had been caught trying to steal a Team Rocket lab specimen, so why wasn't he in a Team Rocket cell? Why would they send someone from the med unit to care for him?

       "Agent 009 reported that you were assisting one of the scientists, and one of the lab experiments attacked you. You're very lucky to be alive."

       "Miss Lana?..." he asked. "Where is she?"

       "The scientist? She's dead."

       Mondo's chest tightened, and tears immediately begin to spill from his eyes. "I was hoping... that... that it was just a dream..."

       The nurse used the cloth to wipe his eyes. "No... but don't think about that now. You still have a fever and you need to rest. Go back to sleep, I'll be back to check on you later."

       The woman gathered her equipment into the bag she was carrying and left, but Mondo paid no to heed to her. The events of last night were playing and replaying in his mind. Pushing Lana down, slamming his hand into the button that closed the door... His hand still ached from the impact. He had locked her inside the lab with the Persian...

       "I killed her," Mondo whispered, as hot tears spilled from his eyes. "I killed her..."

. . . . . .

     The sun had risen completely by the time Jessie pulled herself away from the window. James had fallen asleep, curled up on his side clutching Jessie's pillow. Leaving him to what she hoped were pleasant dreams, she walked into the living where Ash and Pikachu were asleep together on the couch.

     "So close," she thought wistfully, gazing at the sleeping Pikachu that she, James and Meowth had never quite been able to grasp. "But that's always been our problem, hasn't it? Close, but never close enough... our whole lives..."

     As she walked past them her thoughts again strayed to her missing comrades, wondering what they were doing at the moment. Everyone had been fine when she called them yesterday. "Whatever plan Meowth and the others had in mind must be motion now..." she thought, as she picked the video phone and began dialing her old phone number. She glanced back at Ash and Pikachu and sighed.

     "I wonder where we'd be by now if we HAD ever managed to catch Pikachu?" she mused, as the phone at the other end of the line began the ring...

     ...and ring...

     ...and ring...

     No one answered.

_

       Inside Jessie and James' old quarters, Meowth was hard at work. He had dismantled the video phone in their bedroom and sabotaged it; now it would not receive any incoming calls. Now that Mondo had been caught, it was entirely possible that Giovanni would bug the phones, putting Jessie and James in danger if they tried to phone anyone at HQ. There could be no contact between them now.

       "I hope 'dere all right," Meowth said aloud, as he put the machine back together. He would head to Mondo's place next and do the same to his video phone. He had no idea what to do after that.

       All night Meowth had waited, not sure what to do as he spent one of the most miserable nights he ever remembered in his life. His untreated wounds pained him terribly, and he had slept light in fear that any moment someone would enter the place and discover him.

       Suddenly he heard voices coming from the other side of the door, and he quickly hid under James' bed. The sound of a key turning was heard, followed by foot steps. Someone was coming in.

     "It's bigger than I thought it would be," a male voice said.

       Meowth peeked out from under the bed, and saw two men and a woman enter the bedroom. The two men he recognized as Bashou and Buson, Rocket agents from the Johto region. The woman was Wendy from Team Rocket's Human Rescources Department, he had seen her once or twice before.

       "It was merely a glitch in the system that Jessie and James weren't relocated to rookie quarters last year," Wendy told them. "This place is yours now."

       "I hope I never see the Johto Region again," Buson said, removing his sunglasses and putting his hand through his short, blonde hair. "Ever since we ran into those damn kids from New Bark Town, our lives haven't been worth living."

       Bashou gave a nod of agreement. "Ever since that incident, everything we've tried to do has backfired on us. Every time we turned around, the cops or those damn kids were there to interfere with our plans!"

       "And Giovanni has really laid into us," Buson continued. "He relocated Professor Sebastian over to Tyson's base where his research would be "safer", but less than a month later Sebastian sent word back to us that Tyson and a whole squad of his grunts got thrown in jail! And did the boss bite THEIR heads off? No, he bailed their sorry asses out!"

       "But that all happened nearly two years ago," Wendy replied. "You mean to say the boss is STILL mad at you after all this time?"

       "Yes, because everything's gone downhill since then," Bashou replied. "Our bases in the Johto region have had a string of rotten luck. We requested to be transferred to the Kanto Region months ago, and now that we're here I hope we've left Johto's problems behind us!"

       "Yes, and get back to our objectives!" Buson continued. "We'll be back on the fast track to success in no time. We'll be at the head of this organization before you know it! Bashou and Buson, Master Thieves!"

       Wendy raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't let the boss hear me say that if I were you," she remarked, as they left the bedroom to go inspect the kitchen. "And I wouldn't look on this transfer as a stroll in the park, either. We've had our own problems here. A lot of strange things have been happening here lately, and people have been turning up dead."

       "Dead?" Bashou and Buson asked at the same time.

       "Last night there was some kind of accident down in one of the labs, and one of our scientists was killed. Agent 009 apparently rescued a rookie who was down there, and after the med unit carried him out, the place has been sealed off and no one is allowed in."

       "Rescued?" thought Meowth. Why would they say Domino "rescued" Mondo? She couldn't possibly believe that their business down in that lab had been innocent! And if she had overheard their conversation about switching Giovanni's Persian with the one in the lab, she knew quite well that it wasn't. What the hell was going on?

       "I feel sorry for the poor kid," Wendy continued. "They say he hasn't regained consciousness yet. But that's only been one incident of several disasters we've had lately. Last week Agatha, one of our agents, brought her partner's corpse back here from a field mission and had the whole place talking about it for days. She claims he started having convulsions or something, and then just dropped dead."

       Bashou and Buson exchanged glances.

       "Before that another guy got shot by his own partner," Wendy continued, "and last month several Rockets went missing, and nobody's been able to find out what's happened to them." 

       Bashou and Buson stared at each other, both trying to conceal the knowing grins they were exchanging. They both heaved an exaggerated sigh of dismay, as if their hopes of being transferred to a calmer base had been dashed.
      
       From under the bed Meowth kept an ear open, hoping Wendy would mention where Mondo had been taken.

       "You two sure arrived early this morning," Wendy said, oblivious of the looks the two men were giving each other. "I had to get up an hour early just to arrange quarters for you."

       "Just how it turned out, I guess," Bashou answered. Neither he nor his partner had any plan to volunteer the information that it was Domino who had arranged for their early transport mere hours ago after phoning them in the middle of the night.

     "Well, I hope this place meets with your approval," Wendy finished, turning to leave with her associates. "It's the best you'll get until you prove yourselves more useful than you were in the Johto region. But hell, as long as you're not as incompetent as the idiots who used to live here you'll be all right by me."

     From the bed, Meowth stifled a growl.

     "It'll do for now," Buson replied, with a glint in his eye as they exited the apartment. "We won't be here long..."

. . . . . .

     "Miss Jessie is still burning up! I don't know what to do..."

     "You need to get some sleep. Go to bed, Mondo. I'll stay up and sit with her...

     "But, Miss Lana..."

Mondo lay on his hot, tear-soaked pillow plagued by a fever that would not abate and haunted by memories of the friends he had failed and the woman that was now dead because of him. An unending stream of tears flowed from his eyes as he recalled that night at the cabin, his heart in his throat as a feverish Jessie was laying unconscious on the couch. How Lana had kindly, although firmly, sent him to bed as she put another damp cloth on Jessie's forehead. He remembered the intense, irrational fear that had possessed him that Jessie's fever might worsen, that she might never wake up again. The horrifying thought that after everything that they had been though together that she and James might both... die.

     Die.

     Mondo struggled to breathe, his chest tightening as his raw, uncontainable grief overwhelmed him. Jessie had not died. Neither had James. Lana had died, after saving them both! It wasn't fair, it wasn't right!!! And it was all his fault. Now he was going to die, he was sure of it. His body was going to suffocate him to death, an act of judgment not from an executioner or a higher power, but by his own conscience. But the final, fatal moment he expected never came. The pain of grief just went on and on...

. . .

     Meowth was surprised to find the light turned on as he entered Mondo's room. Having learned nothing else from Wendy's conversation with Bashou and Buson, he had surmised that Mondo was either in the Team Rocket medical center or had been taken to a secure location to be treated and then questioned by Giovanni later. It had not occurred to him that they would bring Mondo back here; Meowth had only come for the purpose of sabotaging Mondo's video phone.

     Mondo lay drenched in his own perspiration, ragged breaths escaping his throat. His cheeks flushed red as though as internal fire burned underneath them. He didn't notice that Meowth had entered the room.

     "Mondo?"

     "She's dead," he whispered. "She's dead!"

     Meowth set the bottle of pills he was carrying down on the floor and jumped onto Mondo's bed. There was no way Mondo could escape in this condition. They would have to remain on the base and find a way to salvage the operation, or else everything they had done up to now would amount to nothing.

     "She's dead," Mondo said again, in a hypnotic tone and he stared right through Meowth. "I killed her..."

     "Ya didn't kill Lana, dat THING did," Meowth replied, shivering as he remembered the Persian's claws slicing into his flesh. His wounds still throbbed painfully.

     "Yes, I did!" Mondo cried, covering his face with his arms. "I... I pushed her... I panicked and I pushed her down. I pushed her down and I ran, I left her there so I could get away myself! Then I shut the door, I locked her IN THERE!!!" He thrashed violently to his left, meaning to roll over and hide his face in his pillow, but instead he rolled completely off the bed, hitting the floor with a thud. Too weak to even attempt standing up, he pressed his hot face against the cold floor and continued to cry. "I murdered her..."

     Meowth stared at him from up on the bed. What could he say to the boy? He HAD pushed Lana back, and in his blind panic had shut her inside the lab. He was responsible for the woman's death.

     "Meowth, what am I gonna do?!" Mondo wailed, now groveling on the floor in grief and horror.

     Meowth watched the pathetic human figure. Do? What WERE they going to do? Lana was dead and their plan was in shambles. The Persian they were going to replace with Giovanni's was either dead or in the hands of Domino. They needed another plan and they need one fast.

     "Damn these things!" Mondo screamed, trying to throw his bottle of pills that Meowth had left on the floor across the room. He only managed to slam the bottle into the floor, still in his hand.

     Suddenly an idea hit Meowth. He jumped off the bed, and took the bottle from Mondo's hand. It was going to take time, but they might still be able to salvage their plan.

     "What are we going to DO?!" Mondo continued to weep into the floor.

     Getting in Mondo's face, Meowth replied, "We're gonna make sure dat Lana don't die in vain. We're gonna make sure we DON'T fail!"

. . . . . .

     Back at the cabin, Jessie was happily devouring the leftover "Mystery Stew" that everyone else shunned as she sat in bed eating breakfast with James. His condition definitely seemed to have improved overnight, and Jessie was overjoyed with the fact that he could sit up and converse with her. Several pillows supported his back, and the painkiller recently injected into his IV seemed to be kicking in. "Do you want some stew?" she asked her partner when she noticed he was eyeing her bowl with an odd expression on his face.

       "I'll pass," James laughed nervously, as a multitude of sweatdrops appeared on his head. He quickly went back to eating his bowl of rice porridge Brock had made for everyone, eager to show that he was completely satisfied with what he was eating so that Jessie wouldn't make him get any closer to the foul tasting substance she was consuming.

       "Everyone says they'd rather stick with Brock's cooking," Jessie said. "I admit he's got a knack for it, but I can't believe I'm the only one who appreciates the superb flavor of this stew. It just goes to show I'm the only person here with any taste!"

       "Hey, even Misty won't eat her own cooking!" they heard Ash's approaching voice yell from the hallway. "Obviously YOU'RE the one with no taste!"

       "How DARE you question my taste!" Jessie yelled, throwing a pillow at Ash as he appeared in the doorway with Brock. "Twelve year-old twerp!"

       "I'm thirteen!"

       "Whatever! Go way!"

       "Is that anyway to treat someone who brings you food?!" Ash shot back, pointing to the plate of rice balls Brock was holding.

       James and Brock both sweatdropped, watching the pointless exchange without comment as the more animated members of their respective teams fought their verbal battle. James eyed the rice balls Brock was holding hungrily, wishing that they'd both shut up so that the oldest twerp would get around to handing out the food.

       "And how can you EAT that stuff, anyway?" Ash asked, crinkling his nose at the smelly concoction Jessie was chowing down on. He wondered how James could stand to sit so close to it.

       "It's really good!" Jessie told him as she finished what was left in the bowl. "Are you sure you don't want any, James?" she asked, turning to him. "There's still a bit left."

       "N-no thank you!" he answered quickly, cringing at the thought. "I... um... I'm full!"

       "Oh, well let me take that for you then," Jessie replied, taking the bowl out of his hands and out of his reach as she got off the bed.

       James whimpered as she left the room with the twerps, his breakfast, and that delicious-looking plate of rice balls, now seeing the flaw in his seemingly flawless excuse to avoid the Stew from Hell. Those rice balls had his mouth watering, and now he couldn't even finish the porridge left in his bowl. Stupid Misty and her stupid stew...

. . .

       "You look tired, Ash," Misty commented as Ash entered the kitchen. Togepi sat beside her eating rice ball, while Pikachu lay curled up on a nearby chair. The Togepi she was caring for was actually her second, her first having evolved into a Togetic some time ago.

       "I am tired," Ash grumbled, sitting down at the table across from her. "You and Brock took both the beds and left me stuck on the couch. It's so hard it's like sleeping on the ground!"

       While Jessie was secretly inclined to agree, she couldn't resist the urge to taunt the youngster. "That's my personal revenge on you for never letting us capture Pikachu!" she said with a self-satisfied laugh. "Besides, you could always have gone and snuggled up with Misty!"

       The aforementioned Misty choked on her food, while Ash shot up from his chair.

       "Pikachu, THUNDERSHOCK!!!"

       Everyone waited for Jessie to be electrocuted by the rodent. Nothing happened.

       "Uh, kid?" Jessie finally spoke, after opening her eyes. "Your Pikachu's asleep!"

       Ash groaned and Jessie laughed insanely, feeling empowered by her small victory.

       Brock took advantage of the distraction to sneak out of the room with the plate he was still holding. He had seen the defeated expression on James' face when the well-meaning Jessie had taken his food, and had recognized his successful but flawed strategy to make sure he ate a breakfast that did NOT include Misty's so-called "cooking". He swore, if the man was going survive after he and the others had gone he was going to have to come up with better tactics. Still, he mentally chuckled, Jessie hadn't managed to kill him yet.

       James actually squealed with joy as Brock reentered the room, staring at him worshipfully with big tear-filled eyes and silently vowing to never call him a twerp again as he wolfed down the food.

       Brock laughed at the scene, his mind recalling similar domestic images of his siblings back home. He wondered how his family was doing, but his mind quickly flashed back to time he, Ash and Misty had chanced upon James' own family estate years ago. "I wonder if they ever worry about their son?" he wondered. "Would they be sad if they could see the condition he's in now?"

       James thanked him profusely as he returned the now-empty plate, and Brock resolved to have a talk with his companions. Jessie, he had observed, was an emotional basket case going from high to low and back again trying to deal with her partner's illness while worrying about the absence of her other three companions; and James, in his weak (and not always coherent) condition was in no better state to care for himself.

       "It wouldn't be right leave them alone yet," he decided as he headed towards the kitchen. "They could both use some physical and emotional support. It couldn't hurt to stick around a few more days."

       He stopped dead at the sight of the full-scale food fight currently underway in the kitchen, smacking his forehead after a rice ball hit him square in the face.

       "Or maybe it could..."