Disclaimer: Pokemon and Team Rocket belong to someone other than me. How disappointing.

Three weeks later, Jessie awoke to the sound of the radio alarm and the wonderful feeling of having slept in a real bed with clean sheets and blankets rather than that God forsaken rag she called a sleeping bag. Yawning, she stretched the kinks out of her arms and legs and graced the ceiling with a contented smile. Who could have known that being back in the bosses’ good books could feel so brilliant? They had finally given the grouchy bastard something to be happy about, a brand new Alakazam. Freshly picked from some hapless trainer they had managed to swindle two days ago. Not the most rare of Pokemon, but not common fodder either. And it was a well-known fact amongst the Team Rocket masses that Giovanni had a ‘thing’ for physic Pokemon, especially strong, highly evolved physic Pokemon. So when they had presented their catch to him he had actually graced them with an air of somewhat pleasant surprise, rather than the usual irritation and indifference that he treated them with. His exact words had been; “Well, it’s comforting to see that you two aren’t complete buffoons.” After which he wrote them a check and promptly told them to get out, having things to do, places to go and people to terrorize, no doubt. Whether or not he actually considered them useful now didn’t really matter, what mattered was the fact that he had greased their palms with a nice rounded ten thousand dollars. A figure like that was worth the effort of working for someone the likes of him.

A knock at the door snapped her out of her reverie. “Jessie? You awake?”

She wriggled out from under the sheets. “Yeah.”

“They’re gonna serve breakfast down in the mess hall in about ten minutes. You’d better get dressed if you don’t want to miss it.”

“And a free meal to boot.” Jessie thought, grinning. The day just kept getting better and better.

“I’ll be out in a minute, okay James?”

“Okay.” She heard the muffled sound of his footsteps as he walked away from the door, and began to peel off her nightgown. There was no time for a shower, so she settled for just a quick face wash and then brushed the knots out of her long mane of crimson colored hair. Slipping on a clean uniform, albeit without the gloves, she exited her bedroom and walked into the small living area she shared with her other two companions. Meowth was nowhere to be seen, whilst James sat quietly on the tired sofa, waiting for her.

She tugged at her jacket, and then nodded to James. “Alright. I’m ready.”

His response was complete silence. He didn’t even look at her, staring vacantly at the blank T.V screen instead.

She frowned. Placing herself in front of him, she waved an impatient hand in front on his face. “Hey! You there?”

He jumped a little, and blinked up at her. “Huh? Oh…sorry. What did you say?”

“I said I’m ready”

“Oh. Good.” He stood up, and she regarded him curiously.

“Are you alright?”

He gave her a charming smile. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You just seemed a little spaced out a moment ago.”

“Oh…I was just thinking.” The tone of his voice suggested it was something more than that, and for a brief moment she considered asking him if he had experienced any more disturbing dreams. But he hadn’t had one in over three weeks, and it was unlikely that they would just pop up again out of the blue. Besides, the subject was somewhat uncomfortable for him, so she let the matter slide. She didn’t want to put a damper on what was turning out to be a pretty decent day.

“Where’s Meowth?” She asked, glancing over his shoulder in an effort to locate the cat.

He shrugged. “Out somewhere. He’s probably gone to chat up his girlfriend.”

Jessie grinned. Some new trainees had come in earlier in the week, and one of them, a young woman called Heather, had been assigned a female Meowth as a Pokemon partner. Needless to say, their furry friend had taken an instant liking to the new recruit.

She rubbed her hands together. “Well then. Shall we?”

The look on his face mirrored her own. “Yes. We shall.”

They walked out of the small living quarters assigned to them and took the short trip two levels down via the elevator to the mess hall, a large spacious room slightly reminiscent of a school cafeteria. It was set out much the same way, with four rows of tables all running parallel and taking up as much room as was possible to allow for the optimum amount of sitting space for diners. Giovanni did not want to waste precious money and resources building another hall because the current one couldn’t hold its own, therefore on a busy day when practically every Team Rocket member had decided to spend the day at headquarters, the place was packed like a tin of sardines. The food wasn’t all that terrific either, and only breakfast and lunch was provided, as Giovanni believed he shouldn’t have to strain his wallet for their evening meal as well, but two out of three wasn’t bad.

Jessie and James were lucky this morning; being some of the first ones to arrive they had a choice of seating arrangements, and decided to take up one of the back tables in the right side of the hall. No sooner had they seated themselves a young boy with an unruly mop of brown hair approached them with a grin on his face, a tray laden with food held in front of him.

“Hey guys!”

Jessie smiled sweetly while James just nodded at him. “Hello Mondo.” She eyed the double serving of powdered scrambled egg heaped on his tray. “Hungry this morning, are we?”

He nodded vigorously. “Yeah.” He shuffled on his feet for a moment, looking somewhat uncomfortable, as though on a first date. “Can…can I sit with you guys?”

“Sure.” She scooted over on the seat, and then poked James in the side. “Move over, James.” He slid over and made room for him, and Mondo beamed as he sat down next to him. Grabbing a bread roll from the small basket provided on the table, his boyish features lit up as he turned his attention to the young man sitting beside him.

“So, how’re you doing Jim?”

“Fine.”

Jessie raised an eyebrow at James’ less than enthusiastic response to Mondo’s attempt to strike up a conversation. Given the chance, he and the boy would babble on for hours over an endless range of topics, most of which Jessie knew next to nothing about. At the moment however, it seemed to her that James was not in the mood to talk, or to put up with Mondo’s presence, it seemed.

There was an awkward silence for a brief moment, until Jessie rapped her knuckles lightly on the tabletop. “Right then. I’ll…uh…go get us some breakfast.” She stood up quickly. “Mind my seat, would you James?”

He nodded again, and she strode off hastily, glad to be far away from the awkwardness of that situation. “God! What is with him today? He’s so…distant.” Silently she promised herself she would have a good stern talk with him once they were far away from their young dining companion.

Reaching the serving bar, she pulled out two clean trays from the pile provided and lined up with the others to await service. Lost in her own thoughts, she almost jumped out of her skin when her vision was suddenly blacked out by two hands coming from behind to cover her eyes. Quickly getting over her initial surprise, she growled dangerously at the unknown person.

“I’m not in the mood for games.”

Someone leaned in closer to her, and whispered into her ear. “Spoken like a true Rocket.”

Her anger faded and she grinned as she recognized the owner of the voice. “Kelly!” Sight returned, and she turned to face the shorter woman. “When did you get back? I thought you were on assignment.”

Kelly shrugged, her curly brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. “About three days ago.” Her soft brown eyes twinkled. “How about you and that stud-muffin of a partner of yours? I thought you were still chasing that kid with the Pikachu.”

“We were. But we happened to swipe an Alakazam from a trainer we met in Sunny town, and we came back here to give it to the Boss.”

Kelly grinned. “Good job.” She took a tray and fell into line behind Jessie. “So, where’s Mr. Sexy?”

Jessie groaned. Trust Kelly to ask a question like that. It seemed like her mind never strayed from the proverbial gutter that it had been in ever since she had met the otherwise pleasant young woman earlier in the year. She took special delight in teasing Jessie about her male counterpart, always telling her she should go and ‘jump him like a jellybean’ as she so delicately put it.

“He’s sitting with Mondo, out in the back.”

Kelly swiveled her gaze until she located him. “Damn, he’s fine.” She mumbled to herself. “Why do you get the good-looking one, Jess? I have to be stuck with Ned.”

Jessie laughed. “Oh, come on! Ned’s not ugly!”

“You’re right, he isn’t. He’s just a major slob. He couldn’t even be bothered to haul his lazy ass out of bed this morning. Speaking of asses, it’s a shame James has to sit down on his. Too damn nice for that kind of treatment.”

Jessie felt her face grow hot as a mental image of James’ posterior suddenly came into view. “She’s right. It is a shame.” She immediately felt embarrassed over that line of thought quickly shook the picture from her mind, and tried to cover up how flushed she felt by putting on a false show of anger.

“Huh. I feel like smacking him on the ass at the moment. He’s being really uptight today.” Flashes of that particular idea ran through her mind, and she felt the heat return. “Damn! That was stupid.”

Kelly waved her hand as though batting away a fly. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Just give him a good humping and everything will be oakie doakie.”

Jessie snorted. “That’s your answer to everything.” But a part of her seemed to like that suggestion.

**

“So, I hear you and Jessie bagged an Alakazam. That’s pretty good.”

“Thanks.”

Mondo sighed inwardly. He’d been sitting there for nearly five minutes and James had barely said a word to him. He was starting to get the feeling that he wasn’t wanted. Still, he forged onward.

“Uh….are you okay?”

He saw James clench his jaw ever so slightly. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Feeling rather dejected, he shifted his gaze to his slowly congealing eggs. James was usually so nice, but today the cold air of indifference surrounded him. “Did I do something to upset him?”

To his mild shock, James spoke suddenly without being spoken to first. “Oh, look who it is.”

Mondo looked up, and felt a sinking sensation in his stomach as he recognized Butch’s form slowly approaching the table. He quickly began to stare at his breakfast again. He had learned from previous experience that you didn’t look at Butch unless you wanted a confrontation.

A shadow passed over him, and he winced at the sound of Butch’s harsh voice. “Well, well. It is true what they say. Fly-boys do stick together.”

“Hello to you too, Botch.” The swagger in James’ tone was painfully evident. Mondo began to feel very vulnerable.

Butch sneered, and Mondo sneaked a glance. James was idly scratching patterns into the table surface with a fork, while Butch regarded him with an air of contempt.

“What do you want anyway, Botch?” The tone of James’ voice surprised him. He knew that he disliked Butch, but Mondo had never known him to purposely try to rile him up. It was though he was spoiling for a fight.

Butch placed both hands on the table and leaned forward until his face was mere inches from James’. His lips curled into an angry sneer. “My table’s run out of bread rolls so I’m here to take yours. You got a problem with that, pretty-boy?”

Something dark flickered in James’ eyes. “As a matter of fact I do. These are ours, and you’re not going to lay a finger on them.”

Butch leaned in further. “And who’s going to stop me? You?”

James merely smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

Mondo sank lower into his seat, trying to make himself invisible. “Please James. Just let him take the stupid things…” The last thing Mondo wanted was to be in the middle of a fight over something as ridiculous as bread rolls.

He saw Butch straighten, malice churning in his stare. He made a half-turn as if to walk away, and for a wonderful moment Mondo thought he had given up on antagonizing James. His hopes were cruelly dashed when Butch whirled around to face them again suddenly, and made a wild grab for the basket, either out of spite or just plain greed. The instant his hand came into contact with the coveted bread product James sprang into life. Still holding the fork, he clamped his left hand around Butch’s wrist and brought his right down, using the utensil as a weapon. The sharp prongs stabbed viciously into the soft flesh on the back of Butch’s hand. Mondo saw Butch’s eyes bulge, and he opened his mouth to scream. No sound left his mouth however; James released the fork, and planted his palm on Butch’s face, shoving him roughly backwards. The force of the push sent him reeling backwards, and before he had a chance to regain his bearings James had launched after him, tackling him to the ground where he proceeded to pummel him mercilessly, grinning the whole time.

Mondo remained curled up in his seat, terrified, and at a lost at what to he should do. A voice in his head suggested he should try to go and break up the fight, but the look on James’ face suggested that if he tried to do that then he would end up getting bludgeoned too. And all he’d wanted was to sit next to someone for breakfast.

**

“Hey! Someone’s fighting!”

Jessie turned her head to see a large commotion stirring up at the back of the hall. A crowd had gathered, and she could hear the sounds of struggle emanating from within the circle of people. Of course no one was trying to do anything to stop the fight. It was always much more entertaining to watch it instead.

“What’s all the fuss?” Kelly appeared beside her, chewing nonchantly on an apple.

Jessie shrugged. “I dunno. Probably just two beefcakes slugging it out.”

Kelly narrowed her eyes. “Hey, isn’t it right next to your table?”

Jessie stared. Mondo sat low and still in his seat; James was no-where to be seen.

Alarm bells began to ring in her head. “Yeah. And where’s James?”

As if on cue, the crowd parted like the Red Sea, revealing James locked in a death struggle with none other than Butch. Her partner seemed to have the upper hand, slamming his fist repeatedly into Butch’s face.

“What the hell?!” She dropped her tray and took off at break-neck speed, snapping at people to get out the way as she pushed through the mass of on-lookers. Shoving one particularly slow moving person out the way, she caught James’ arm by the elbow just as he was about to land another one on Butch’s nose.

“James! Stop it!”

He ignored her completely, yanking his arm out of her grasp and continuing his assault. Blood coated his knuckles, and Butch battered almost weakly at his chest and face, but it seemed that James barely felt the blows.

She grabbed fistfuls of his black shirt and pulled with every once of strength she had. “For the love of God! Get off him!”

Mondo appeared suddenly, having gained the courage to step in, and wrapped his arms around James’ neck. “Come on Jim! Let him go!”

The tugging and pulling finally caught him off balance, and he tipped backwards, landing on the both of them. Butch took the chance to scramble away weakly, and was helped to his feet by several on-lookers. Blood oozed generously from his nose, which looked sure to be broken. His right eye was swollen and red, and blood also seeped from his right hand, where James had stabbed him. Despite his pain, he hissed with rage.

“You fucking bastard!”

He lunged for them, but was held back by members of the crowd. Obviously, they had seen enough for today.

James, held in place by Jessie and Mondo, made no attempt to break free and continue the fight, although Jessie was sure he could have easily shrugged them off if he really wanted to. He smiled coldly at his victim, taunting him. The expression sent a cold chill down Jessie’s spine.

Butch seemed equally disturbed, his anger fading a fraction. “You’re out of your fucking mind, Morgan.”

James scoffed. “Well then. I suggest that in the future you don’t try to take my bread rolls.”

“Bread rolls?!” Jessie yelled incredulously as Butch was led away. “Are you saying this whole thing started over bread rolls?”

James shrugged casually. “He tried to take them so I stabbed him with a fork.”

“Not to mention you broke his nose! God, James!” She released him, Mondo following suit, and turned away from him. She rubbed her forehead as though in pain. “You could have just gotten some more from the counter!”

“That’s not the point.” He said darkly. “They were mine.”

“No, James, that is the point!” she yelled furiously, putting herself dangerously close to him. “Because of your little temper tantrum, the Boss is going to chew our asses off!”

“So fucking what?!” James suddenly roared, the sheer volume of his voice causing her to stagger back a few steps. Mondo whimpered in fear.

“He can kiss my ass for all I care!” Jessie balked at the heat of pure rage coming off him. “I couldn’t give a shit about what he has to say!”

There was complete silence for a few moments, Jessie stunned into saying nothing by the pure ferocity of his outburst. She realized she was shaking, whether with anger or fear, she didn’t know.

She drew in a shaky breath. “Well,” she said softly “You should.”

The P.A system whined, coming magically to life. Giovanni’s voice boomed over the speaker. “Jessie and James, report to my office immediately.”

Jessie groaned. “Ah, shit.”

**

Jessie was certain they were going to be hung, drawn and quartered. However, Giovanni was surprisingly lenient, choosing to simply thunder and curse at them for twenty minutes and then throw them out, telling them they had to leave first thing in the morning to continue the ‘Pikachu’ mission. So, their time off had been officially cut off, but at least he hadn’t taken back that bonus he had given them, most likely due to their recent success. Still, they had been very lucky.

Later, in their quarters, an uneasy silence occupied them. He sat forlornly on the couch, staring at the empty T.V screen. Jessie sat at the coffee table, staring listlessly into her coffee.

The door swung open, and Meowth entered. “Hey, youse guys, I keep hearing dis rumor dat Jim was in a fight at break…”

Jessie shot him a withering glare, and his ears drooped, “Oh heh. I….I’ll just go ‘an fix me a little snack…” He disappeared into the tiny kitchen.

She continued to watch the brown liquid slosh around in her mug, fighting with herself as to whether or not she should say something, until James solved that dilemma for her.

“I’m sorry, Jessie.”

She didn’t bother looking up; she knew he’d still be staring at the T.V, the T.V which he had never turned on for what seemed like forever.

She stared harder at her coffee, feeling the coldness working its way into her voice. “Damn right you should be sorry. Because of you we have to start chasing Ketchum again in the morning.”

He didn’t reply, and she heard him shift slightly in his seat.

She continued on. “And did you see the look on Mondo’s face? The poor kid was scared half to death. He’s afraid to even look you in the eye.”

“What about you?”

She looked up sharply, to see he had turned in his seat and was facing her. “Are you afraid?”

The question startled her, but she hid her surprise. “No James.” Her tone softened. “I’m just angry, and disappointed. I expected better of you.” She gave a hollow chuckle. “Remember, I’m supposed to be the hot-tempered one, not you.”

Her small joke seemed lost on him. His shoulders slumped. “I know. I’m sorry.” He looked away from her again. “And I’m sorry for yelling at you like that.”

She waved dismissively. “Forget about it.”

The silence returned, growing thick until it became almost suffocating. Meowth peeked his head from out the kitchen, his ears twitching. No doubt he had been listening in on their whole conversation. Jessie saw him out of the corner of her eye and glared. He disappeared from view again.

She sipped her coffee, and made a face because it had gone cold. Sighing, she decided to ask him the question that had been gnawing at the back of the mind the entire morning. “James?”

“Yes?”

“Is there something you want to tell me?”

She saw him stiffen ever so slightly. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Is there something on your mind? You’ve seemed distracted all morning.”

He didn’t answer.

She tried the next question. “Any more nightmares?”

He stood up abruptly. “No Jessie. There is nothing I want to tell you.” And with that he walked briskly into his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

She stared in stunned silence after him. Meowth emerged from the kitchen chewing on a piece of cheese. “Sheesh. What’s his problem?”

Jessie merely sighed and rested her forehead against the table, cursing herself for having dragged herself out of bed this morning. And the day had started out so well.

TO BE CONTINUED…