Alone
By: Frogwoman
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, but I do own any original characters in this story (for example...Plum!), so please respect this and don't steal them! Thanks! (although if you really, really love one of them you can e-mail me and ask for use of them...I may let you...)
Rating: PG
Author's Note: Many thanks to my mother for Plum's elusive name! Oh, and it is Rocketshippy but they never *do* get around to telling each other the truth...
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Alone
.
James snuggled deep into his sleeping bag, closed his eyes and...didn't sleep. He'd been trying to sleep for the longest time and hadn't managed to get a single wink of sleep the whole night. He sighed, pushed himself up and rummaged in his small backpack. He pulled out his watch and pushed the little button that made the light come on so he could see what time it was. 1:30 in the morning, and no sleep. He put the watch back and collapsed onto the pillow.
"Sleep, sleep, sleep....I'm so tired, why can't I sleep?" he muttered. It couldn't have anything to do with the cup of black coffee he'd had just before bed, could it? No.
James moaned and put a hand over his eyes.
"James, what is it?" came a soft female voice from the sleeping bag beside his. She sounded sleepy and James pulled his hand off his eyes to look at her. And smiled.
Her red hair was all down in her face, her blue eyes were sleepy and basically she looked as if she'd been hit by a hurricane. He stifled a laugh. Usually she was so perfect.
"Oh. And what's so funny?" she demanded sleepily.
"Oh, nothing...just your hair!"
She threw her pillow at him, "Shut up, Mr. Perfect-hair-even-in-the-middle-of- the-night!"
He rolled his eyes up to look at his shock of lavender hair, "And I don't even use hair spray."
"Oh, go blast off. Get to sleep." she said good-humoredly. That was a rare thing for her. James smiled at her.
"That's exactly the problem. One in the morning and still no sleep."
"I told you not to have that coffee."
James made a face, "I know."
"Give my pillow back so at least *I* can get my beauty sleep."
James carefully avoided saying 'You don't need sleep to be beautiful.' and grinned at her teasingly, "No."
He'd pulled the pillow against his chest and was leaning on it. She made a half- hearted grab for the coveted item, "Just give it back, James!"
"Why would I give up my precious little hugging pillow, Jessie?" he asked.
"Cause I'll pull my fan out in a minute and get you to sleep the hard way!" she growled. He handed her the pillow and lay down again.
Well she was no help.
After a few more hours of listening to her breathing evenly, he fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.
.
"Come on James, rise and shine!" she said, harshly shoving his shoulder. He grunted something and opened his eyes a slit.
"Go away!" he grunted again.
"We have to catch that Pikachu, James. Get up." Jessie grinned.
"I don't wanna." he moaned. She grabbed under his arms and pulled him to a sitting position, kind of leaning on her chest, grinning again.
"Oh, come on." she said softly. James was surprised she hadn't hit him. She was almost acting...flirty. James grinned and played along. He relaxed completely in her arms and lay back against her.
"No...you're too comfortable..." he said.
"I should smack you." she said.
"Go ahead." he said, his voice husky.
She dropped him, "You pervert." she said lightly, hands on her hips. He just smiled at her and got going on his morning stuff...cooking, bathing, brushing his hair...
"So what are we doing today?" James asked, walking back into camp from his bath in the river, his wet hair clinging to the sides of his head.
Jessie burst out laughing.
"What? Do I look funny?"
"Your...hair..." Jessie managed to cough out. She seemed unusually cheerful this morning and James savored the unusual situation.
"What? Isn't this in the latest style?" James asked in a high-pitched voice, doing the model walk. Jessie was almost killing herself laughing.
"Oh, quit makin' an idiot of yerself and cook already!" Meowth snapped. The cat obviously *wasn't* in a good mood that day. James jumped over and grabbed Meowth, put him in a headlock, and gave him a good-natured rub on the head.
"HEY! You'll knock off my charm!" Meowth squealed.
"Cheer up!" James said to the cat as he rubbed his knuckles in a little harder.
"I cheered up! I cheered up! Give!" Meowth shrieked as his charm started slipping, then when James let go, "You deserve *two* scratch attacks! Humans. No discipline...." he continued grumbling to himself as he started rolling up his little sleeping bag. Jessie's laughing fit had calmed and she was sitting contentedly on her sleeping bag in her pajamas, a tight pink shirt and loose grey sweat pants, reading a romance novel.
"So what's happening now?" James asked. She always ended up sharing her romance stories with him orally, since he never *had* been that fast a reader, and didn't enjoy it much to boot.
"Well, Melissa is finally admitting to herself that she's in love with Cal. Cal, of course, being the big strong man he is, is still being mean to her. But, of course she loves him anyway...You know what? This stuff is one big lie."
"How would you know?"
"No woman in her right mind would fall in love with some guy who was a male chauvinist and was nothing but mean to her, and yet that's how every single romance novel ever written goes...just not realistic. I would know, me being a woman and all."
James set aside his pot of chicken soup...yes, chicken soup for breakfast, and sat cross-legged in front of her.
"So what kind of guys *do* women fall in love with? Give me a few pointers here, Jess. I could use the help!" he prodded, grinning sardonically.
"Well...sweet guys, I guess, gentlemen. Guys who treat them right, like they deserve." she said, looking at the ground, then at the cover of the novel. There was a scantily-dressed woman and man kissing on the front. She was slender and blond and beautiful, and he was big, muscular and dark-haired. Jessie smiled sarcastically, "It just never happens that way."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh...nothing..." she said, looking up, flashing a forced smile, "How's that soup?"
"Finished!" he announced, pouring equal portions into three bowls. He ceremoniously handed Jessie hers first and set a spoon in. Jessie's eyebrows drew together. Usually he dug in first and let her fend for herself. She shrugged and started eating.
.
"Prepare for trouble."
"Make it double."
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To uni-"
"STOP THE MADNESS!!" Ash shrieked, holding his head, "If I have to hear that stupid motto one more time my head will explode!"
"Quick James! Say it again!" Jessie joked. James laughed. They hadn't quite lost the cheerful mood of the morning.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"
"To pro-"
"I'm almost ready to hand Pikachu over just to get you off my back with that stupid motto!" Ash yelled. Pikachu looked insulted and thunder-shocked him, "Auglauglaugl...." Ash kind of gurgled, like he always does when Pikachu exacts revenge for something or other.
Jessie and James were giggling again, and Misty and Brock sweatdropped.
"Oh, forget it. James, let's just take a day off and go for a pleasant walk in the woods." Jessie said.
"That sounds very nice, Jessie." James said, offering his arm. Jessie lightly placed her fingers on it as if they were walking into a formal ball together, and they walked off into the woods.
When they got back to camp, they changed into more comfortable clothes. Jessie donned a tank top and cutoffs over hiking boots and an anklet, and James also put on a tank top, over jeans and hiking boots. When they saw each other, they laughed.
"Dressing the same..." Jessie started.
"...must be programmed right in!" James finished.
They walked into the woods together, and alone because Meowth was taking a catnap on James's sleeping bag.
"This is actually quite refreshing." Jessie said quietly. James nodded. He looked around at the bright trees and grass. A swarm of bugs settled on Jessie's legs and she stopped to smack at them. James took a few more steps and went around a big stump. It was the roots of a tree that had fallen over, sticking up into the air, naked, and James grinned. He climbed up onto the trunk and balanced his way along it, walking towards the roots. When he looked down, he noticed that Jessie was right underneath him, looking around for him. She hadn't seen where he'd gone. Good opportunity.
He leaned down and tugged on a loose strand of hair that had fallen down in front of her ear. She jerked, and looked around, but he managed to duck back before she saw him.
"James?" she asked tentatively, "James? Where have you gotten off to."
"Whooo...." James said suddenly, and she jumped at his bad ghost noise.
"James! Get out here this instant! This isn't funny!"
He reached down and tapped her shoulder, and she looked up into his face. It was framed by hair and his wide green eyes smiled at her all on their own. She smiled back up at him, just how cute he was running through her mind once again.
"Get down here! You're going to kill yourself up there!" she said. He started to stand and, sure enough, he fell. Right past her, which was a good thing considering he'd have killed her if he fell on her, and onto a rock below. She heard a hard thump and ran over to him.
"James, did you kill yourself?" she asked. He winced in pain and sat up.
"Not quite. Just my ankle."
"Darn. I was hoping it'd be your head so you wouldn't have injured anything." she joked, smiling a brilliant smile at him.
"Oh, shut up!" he said in a light tone, so she knew he wasn't serious. Then he winced again, "It hurts, Jess." he whined. She knelt beside him and pulled of his hiking boot and white sock. She rolled up his pant-leg, feeling small soft lavender hairs against her hand, and investigated his ankle. He had leaned back and had his eyes closed, teeth clenched. The ankle was red, and swelling, and looked very painful.
"Well, we'll have to get you back to camp."
"How? You can't carry me."
"I know...well, I could use Meowth's help...maybe we have a tensor bandage there to keep it in place."
"Well, a lot of good it does us there." James sulked, opening his eyes to look at her, "How will we get it here? Call Meowth really loud? I don't think that will work...he's next to impossible to wake up from a nap."
"I know." Jessie said, pondering. What could she do, except try to move him?
Then again...a thought she'd never had before occurred to her. She could leave him alone by himself and run back to camp and get it.
Whoa. Weird. She'd never considered leaving James before. They were always together, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...she would feel weird without him, like when she'd thought he was missing only a few minutes before.
"I could...go by myself...and leave you here...and get it myself..." she said in a confused voice.
"By yourself? Leave me alone? Jessie..." he started, just as confused as her.
"Well, I'd better be off then..." she mumbled.
"Okay...I guess...if you *have* to..." he said, trying not to let it show that he was scared to be alone.
.
Jessie came into camp at a dead run. She hated being alone. What had she done before James?
"Meowth." she yelled, "Get up, you stupid cat!"
Meowth jerked upright, "Wha?!"
"James has gone and hurt himself. Do we have a tensor bandage or any way of getting him here! I had to leave him by himself in the woods!"
"You *left* James by *himself* in the woods?" Meowth demanded.
"Yes." Jessie sniffed, "And he's probably going to *kill* himself before I get back so just *give me the bandage so I can get him!*"
"Okay, okay!" Meowth whimpered, digging in his backpack and handing Jessie the little brown elastic roll. She grabbed it and started to storm back into the woods.
"Hey wait up!" Meowth yelled.
.
James heard a rustling in the bushes and looked up from his ankle, "Jessie?" he asked hopefully. There was no reply. He looked fearfully with his eyes, still scared without Jessie there. The rustling happened again and he searched hard and in vain.
Until an Arbok swung out of the bushes. James sighed in relief.
"Arbok!" he exclaimed, "Jessie must have just forgotten where I was and sent you to find me! Go on, go back and tell her where I am!" he said again, anxious to be back with Jessie and not all...alone...like this.
Arbok hissed, and it sent a shiver up James's spine to see the look in Arbok's eyes.
"Arbok...?" James asked fearfully. Maybe this wasn't Jessie's...
The Arbok struck faster than the eye could see. A bloody spot appeared on James's forehead and he fell backwards, only semi-conscious. He struggled to pull himself to a sitting position, but the Arbok wrapped around him. It squeezed knocking every particle of air out of his lungs.
"Arbok..." James gasped, "Stop...I can't...breathe..."
The Arbok stopped squeezing, dropping him to the ground. Then it lowered its head and bit him hard on the shoulder. As the poison seeped into his bloodstream, James passed out, his last sight being the bright grass fading into black.
So fast...
The attack had only lasted about five seconds...
.
Plum looked up from her notebook when she heard a cry out in the woods. Her delicate eyebrows drew together and she stroked back a strand of her long hair. That wasn't some wild Pokémon...that was human. She jumped to her feet and walked to the door, scooping up her loose cream-colored tunic from its hook by the door. She slid it over her simple blue sleeveless dress, and walked out the door, breaking into a run when she realized it was nearby. She moved silently, her moccasins making no sound on the grass and leaves she ran on.
Plum came into a clearing, and saw one of the worst sights she'd ever seen. She gasped, and darted back into cover. The wild Arbok that lived in one of the nearby trees was killing a human being. She crouched in cover, waiting for the Arbok to look away just long enough for Plum to get the boy out, safe, away from the huge snake.
Arbok started to drag the boy back to its lair for its children, dragging him roughly across stumps and rocks. The boy was unconscious, and his lavender hair was dragging out behind him like some strange surrender flag.
Plum held back tears and silently sneaked after them.
.
Jessie stared in shock at the area where she'd left James. The grass was all pushed down, flattened, and there were spots of blood...James's blood. She brought a hand to her mouth, terrified.
"James?" she asked, scared. She ran her hand through the grass where James had been sitting, "Meowth, where's JAMES?!" she yelled.
Meowth looked worried, "Well, I smell Arbok, and James, and blood...and I think poison too...do you have yer Poké ball with Arbok in it?"
Jessie dug at her belt and pulled off the ball, "Yes, here."
"Is it inside?"
"Arbok, go!" she said, tossing the ball. Arbok popped out and looked nervous.
"Arbok, what is it?" Jessie asked.
"Ch-arbok! Char...bokuh!"
"What did it say, Meowth?" Jessie demanded, desperate.
"There's a bigger Arbok around!" Meowth said nervously, searching around him.
"Oh no. If you smelled that and poison and blood....oh no...James!" she screamed into the trees. Despite herself, tears welled up in her eyes. This just went to prove both that love never worked out the way it did in romance novels, and that she should never have left James, ever.
.
The Arbok had taken a quick rest, and Plum chose that moment to sneak in to grab the boy. He was unceremoniously sprawled in the grass, head near a rock, his one bare foot very close to the Arbok's nose. The ankle of that foot was obviously sprained, and now there were bite marks on it too. The Arbok had been dragging the boy by his injured ankle. Plum delicately pressed her index and middle fingers to the spot under the jawline where an artery pumped close to the skin. Good. There was a pulse. It was weak and fast, but it was still there. She looked at the Arbok's closed eyes and nervously struggled to pick the boy up. He was heavier than he looked.
Plum managed to get him into cover, just a few seconds before the Arbok woke up. She sat him up against a stump, not worrying because they were upwind to the Arbok and it couldn't smell them. She placed a hand on his head, to discover he had a heavy fever. Besides that, he had a thick bruise on his forehead, and his nose was bleeding profusely, obviously he'd hit something, and he also had that ankle. Plum took a handful of cool grass and lay it against his forehead. He needed medicine, and, fortunately, the perfect person for medicine had just managed to save him from the Arbok.
Plum was a certified Pokémon pharmacist, and also a herbalist for humans. She knew exactly what to mix up for any ailment, Pokémon or human.
She put her arms under his and dragged him to her cabin. When she got him there, she lay him in a bed and poured a bowl of cold water. She flicked on her stereo and her comforting music drifted from the speakers. As she settled into singing softly along, she swabbed cold water onto the boy's face. Plum wondered what his name was, and who he belonged with. If so, anger creased her brow when she realized that person had just left him alone like that.
She mixed up the antidote for an Arbok's poison and tried to lift his head so he could swallow it. Unfortunately, he was still unconscious, and couldn't swallow it. She gently lay his head down. There wasn't a lot she could do.
She got up and wandered over to her bookshelf. Looking through the titles, she finally selected a fat one called 'The Effects of Pokémon Attacks on Humans: Volume 1 - Grass and Poison Types'. She flipped to the 'Arbok' section and read the effects of a bite, like there obviously had been on his shoulder, considering his shirt was soaked with blood there. Fever and chills. The poison also constricted the bronchioles, it said, and so there was a chance of suffocation, or at least difficulty breathing. She closed the book with a slight puff of dust and bit her lip, worried. She needed to get him conscious so she could give him the herbs, and she needed even more to get him to a doctor who had the proper antidote. She could only treat the symptoms, not get rid of the poison, only keep him alive, not cure him.
His nose bled some more, and she gently clamped her hand over it. He didn't need loss of blood on top of all his other trouble. She was worried. He really needed to get to a real human doctor. She slipped his tank top off and gently probed his ribs and stomach. She had no idea if there could be anything else awry in there. He could also be bleeding to death inside and she wouldn't know.
But at the thought of leaving her safe haven, Plum cringed in terror. She hadn't been to the outside world in years, since she was five or younger. It had been terrifying, and her mother had promised she'd never have to go out there again.
That wild Arbok had killed her mother though, and Plum wondered if her fear of leaving would be the death of another person. Only she didn't know this boy, and his friends might never know what happened to him. If he had friends. Plum wondered if he was some sort of hermit, like she was. He didn't look like it.
Plum stroked his hair back and sang softly to him, hoping to offer what comfort she could.
.
Jessie buried her face in her arms, sitting exactly where James had sat. She wanted to cry and cry and cry. Once an Arbok got hold of a person there was no way they could live. Surprisingly, she felt a comforting paw on her shoulder.
"We'd better leave before the thing gets us too." Meowth said quietly.
Jessie looked up, face hardening with resolve, "I am *not* letting an Arbok get away with *my* James, and I will find him, whether the Arbok gets me or not. I'm *not* abandoning him again!" she said, standing up and looking around for Arbok-tracks in the grass.
"Jessie..." Meowth started.
"Are you going to scent the trail for me or not, Meowth?" she asked sulkily.
"I guess." Meowth said in a resigned voice. He sniffed, "That way." he said quietly, and they set off.
.
Pain.
Light. Too bright.
Closed eyes. There. Better. Comfortable.
A soft voice. Female. Jessie? He forced his eyes open again, seeing blurry shapes around him. Slowly they congealed into a face, bent over him. A smile formed.
"Hi." said a soft voice.
"Jessie..." he moaned. The girl was about his age, and had long hair so dark a purple it was almost black, and her blue eyes were almost like Jessie's...not as beautiful though. The girl's hair was pulled into two buns by either side of her bangs, and a third on the back of her head. From each hung a thick strand of hair so long it almost reached knee-length.
"Jessie? Is that who you were with? I need to know. I have to get you to her so she can take you to the hospital..."
"Jessie...." he moaned again. That was the only coherent thought his mind could process, an image of her face, her beauty...red...
"What's your name? Please, tell me!"
"James...my name...."
"James, wake up!" she said in a commanding voice. His eyes skewed over to look at her again. Confusion. Why was she here? She wasn't Jessie. Needed Jessie....
"Jessie..." he whispered again, trying to stay there so he could wait for her. Wait for her to come back for him...he was scared...all alone...
"Here, drink this." the not-Jessie girl said. He let her put the stuff to his lips. Bad. He swallowed. It was awful.
"Where's Jessie....?" he whimpered.
"I don't know!" the girl said, voice tinged with fear and frustration, "I want to find her as much as you do so she can get you to the hospital."
"Said...said she'd come back for me...I have to be there..." he said, only realizing it as the words spilled out of his mouth. He struggled with his weak body to sit, until pain stabbed through his stomach and chest and he fell back, breathing labored.
"Stay put. Where did she say she'd find you?"
"...stump...roots...in the air...the ghost noise...pretty...she's so pretty..."
"Oh, there! I know where that is! I'll try to go and find her. You stay put, don't move. The fever should come out soon enough, but still don't move. I don't know what else is wrong with you inside."
"Okay." James moaned, lying down flat again, then dug around his pockets kind of weakly, "...when you find her, give her this..." he whispered, handing Plum a single red rose.
.
Plum ran as fast as possible back to the fallen-down tree with the roots in the air, hand still clutching the rose. She smelled the acrid scent of Arbok poison, and looked down to see human tracks in the grass. They meandered off in basically the same direction the Arbok had gone. She followed them as quickly as possible.
.
"Meowth, do you smell him anymore?" Jessie asked, hands on hips. The tracks continued, but the blood spots had stopped. She searched around with her eyes, scanning every little nook or cranny where he could be hiding, if he was still alive. Nothing. Jessie's eyes welled up with tears again, but she wouldn't allow herself to cry in front of that blasted cat.
"James?" she called, frustrated that her voice sounded shaky. Meowth looked up at her, and his face softened when he saw her tears. He'd always known there was something between Jessie and James.
"I hate being alone." Jessie mumbled, voice still not totally under control.
"He'll be okay." Meowth said in a rare moment of compassion. Jessie hardened her face and yelled for James again, and this time her voice didn't quiver. Meowth nodded. She sure was a tough, mean girl, but she loved James and wasn't gonna let him get killed. He grinned kind of crookedly at that thought.
There was a slight rustling in the trees and Meowth looked around nervously.
"Jessie? Get yer Poké ball out..." he warned. Jessie pulled the red-and-white sphere from her pocket and pushed the button, preparing for trouble.
The Arbok glided silently out of the trees. Jessie gasped in fear. It was more than twice the size of her Arbok, with longer teeth, and more intelligence in its eyes.
It looked at her, starting to do its glare attack, and she closed her eyes. When the glare didn't work, it lunged towards her, and she ducked, feeling the wind it created right above her head. Meowth leaped out of the way, trying to find a way to scratch attack its eyes. Jessie's fingers closed around a thick, stout branch on the ground and she crouched, prepared to jam the sharp end into the Arbok if it tried to attack her again.
She heard Meowth scratch attack it and jumped, whirled around, and aimed the stick at the huge purple snake's forehead.
"Where...is...my...JAMES?!" she screamed, ramming the stick at the Arbok.
.
His eyes opened suddenly, the pupils widening, green searching everywhere for only one person. Jessie. He turned his head, seeing nothing but wooden walls, listened, hearing nothing but music coming from a small stereo in the corner. Alone. No one else here.
"Jessie?" he asked, hopefully. He couldn't see the whole cabin. Maybe someone else was here...maybe Jessie was here...
He pulled his arms back, resting his elbows on the pillow, pushing himself upright by his arms. He sat, and wrapped an arm around his stomach, sick. Bare stomach. He didn't have a shirt on. There was blood on his shoulder. He searched around the room, but there was no one there. His already strained breathing got heavier as he started hyperventilating in fear.
Breath. Breath, "Come on, breathe..." he whispered to himself. But the breaths kept coming hard and fast and his eyes blacked out. He collapsed back onto the pillow, feeling sick and nauseous, like he could throw up. The odd, unpleasant taste that accompanied that feeling drew up in the back of his throat. Couldn't throw up. No.
He swallowed hard. He was scared, alone, no one there. His stomach churned and he searched around for something to throw up in, let his hand fall over the edge of the bed. His fingers touched a bucket. Winding his fingers around the handle, he brought his face down over the bucket as the contents of his stomach heaved into it. Then he lay there gasping in pain and sickness and fear.
He searched around in the pockets of his jeans again, and found his Poké ball.
"Weezing, go." he said weakly, tossing the sphere at the foot of his narrow bed. Maybe it wasn't human, but it was company of some sort and he would be glad of that.
"Wee-zing!" the thing said in three sad voices.
"Come." James said softly, and Weezing floated down beside the bed. James rested his hand on Weezing's biggest head and closed his eyes, Weezing's heat seeping into him through his fingers.
Maybe James could survive until Jessie came for him.
.
Plum followed the tracks quickly, being used to that sort of thing, and came into a patch of bush swarming with mosquitoes. In the middle a battle raged between a huge Arbok and a girl with long red hair with her Meowth. Plum leaped forward, dropping the rose in the grass and marking the spot in her mind so she wouldn't lose the flower. She pulled a heavy branch from the ground, as the red-haired girl obviously had, and slammed it into the back of the Arbok's head. The girl looked at Plum, who smiled shyly and pulled a Poké ball from a pouch at her belt.
"You and your Meowth can weaken it, and I'll capture it, kay?" Plum said. The girl nodded and slammed the sharp stick she was holding into the Arbok's forehead. The Pokémon fell, stunned, and the Meowth delivered a powerful scratch attack to the Arbok's face.
"Poké ball, go!" Plum shrilled, throwing it at the Arbok. It vanished inside in a flash of red lightning, and both girls and Meowth stood watching the ball shake, breathing heavy. Finally it stopped moving and Plum smiled.
"Thanks." the redhead said, moving towards Plum, "But I have to go. I have to find James."
"James? Is your name Jessie?" Plum said hopefully, walking back to where the rose lay in the grass, a bright spot of red.
"Yes." Jessie said, heart pounding.
"I found your friend James." Plum said.
"You found him? Where is he?" Jessie demanded. Plum smiled wanly.
"Back at my cabin. Your name was the first thing he said when he woke up. It was all he would say for a while. He said to give you this." she replied, holding the rose out to her. Jessie took it and delicately stroked the petals as if the flower was precious to her.
"Is he okay?" she asked, looking up with tears in her eyes.
"He's been hurt pretty bad. He got poisoned, but he's alive. Come on, I'll bring you to him. I'm a herbalist, and I've given him some stuff to get rid of the fever, but he needs to get to a real doctor."
Jessie nodded and followed Plum through the woods, and as they moved, Plum filled her in on what had happened to the boy while he'd been attacked and how he was. Jessie was running her fingers through her hair and mumbling about how hair spray had no staying power anymore. The bright red strands fell all around her head and shoulders, hanging past waist-length.
"Oh, I just wanted to make something clear...Meowth is *not* my Pokémon." Jessie said, glaring down at the cat.
"He's not? Why is he with you then?"
"Because I want to be." the cat Pokémon said in a raspy, heavily accented voice, and Plum stopped and stared at him.
"You can talk? Wow! I've never seen a Pokémon who can talk before."
"Self-taught!" Meowth crowed.
"Are you James's Pokémon?" Plum asked.
"No. I don't belong to anyone."
"Wow. You just travel with them because you want to?"
"Yep. I'm da Top Cat."
Plum grinned, "And you're awfully cute."
Meowth grinned and a slight purr echoed.
"Can we get to James?" Jessie asked, hands on hips, voice worried, "I've been away from him for almost a day now and it's been entirely too long!"
Plum smiled looking around at the woods, which were darkening with twilight. She kept walking, and when they got to the clearing where her cabin was, Jessie started running towards it.
"Go right in! He's just inside!" Plum yelled after her, smiling. Meowth grinned up at her.
"They really love each other, ya know." Meowth said, "They jus' won't admit it!"
Plum nodded and they meandered slowly towards the cabin, letting Jessie and James get some time alone together.
.
He was flat on his back in the bed, chest bare, with one hand on Weezing, eyes closed. Jessie ran towards him and he woke up when he heard her footsteps.
"Jessie..." he gasped, struggling to sit up. Jessie sat on the edge of his bed and helped him sit by pulling him up on his shoulders. She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close, stroking the back of his soft hair. She felt his hands wrap around her waist, returning the hug. There were tears of happiness streaming down both their faces.
He had been sure he was going to be calmer as soon as she was back, but here she was. And now that he had his face snuggled against her chest, his heart started to pound, and his breathing got heavy again. She smelled so good and her hair was all down, red and beautiful around her face. He wanted to touch it.
"Jessie..." he whispered again, lifting his hand to touch her soft red hair.
She stroked his hair in return, whispering, "Shh..." then she pulled back from him, "It's just a good thing I took that first aid course Team Rocket offered that one time." she said, with an almost caring sound to her voice, resting her palm against his forehead, then moving it down to his cheek. Her hand was pleasantly cool against his fevered skin. He had a sheen of sweat on him, but she didn't care, he was sick, "You're burning up." she informed him, "Now lay back and try to breathe slowly and deeply, okay? I need to see if your ribs all got broken."
He lay down on his back obediently, and she gently probed his heaving chest with her small cool fingers while he studied her face and body. There were smudges of dirt on her cheeks, and she had scratches on her bare arms. She'd been in some sort of fight, and she'd obviously won.
"You should wear your hair down more often." he mumbled. She smiled at him and patted his cheek affectionately. Just then Plum and Meowth walked in.
"Hey, James. Nice ta see ya!" Meowth said, jumping up on the bed and sitting on James's pillow next to his head. Jessie gently touched his chest, trying not to dwell on the fact James had the perfect male body...
"Well, I don't think that Arbok busted anything." she said, smiling at James's chest, "We should get you to the doctor though, James, you're sick."
"I threw up." he whispered, "I lost whatever medicine you gave me." he continued, looking up at Plum. Plum smiled.
"That's okay. You're going to the hospital now."
"Jessie..." he started whining, "I hate hospitals."
She rolled her eyes at his whining, "Oh, shut up, James. Be a man." she said, smiling, joking a little, forcing her eyes away from his chest to look at his pale face again. He smiled weakly back at her. She bent down and used the edge of her tank top to wipe away some dried blood under his nose. James just stared at her.
Between Jessie, Plum and Meowth, they managed to get James onto his feet and support him on the 15-minute walk back to camp, where they eased him onto his sleeping bag and Jessie fed him some soup while Plum helped Meowth with the balloon.
Once they were loaded up and James was settled comfortably as possible into the balloon, Jessie spoke to Plum for a while.
"Come with us. Join Team Rocket and have some adventures with other people. It's a really independent and mostly carefree life." she said.
"No." Plum said softly, "I have to stay here. I can't go into the outside world. It's just too much for me, I'm not ready yet. Maybe you can come and see me someday."
Jessie smiled and nodded, "Take care of yourself, Plum." she said, climbing into the basket of the balloon, while Meowth started the flame.
"You too Jess, and you look after James."
"I will." Jessie grinned, brandishing a huge paper fan out of nowhere. Plum smiled and Jessie, James and Meowth floated off into the sky.
.
James recovered in only a couple days, since he was strong and had been in pretty good health before the attack. The day after he got out of the hospital, they terrorized Ash, Misty and Brock even with James on crutches.
Ash's head didn't explode when he heard the motto again.
.
Plum dug a deep hole with the stick she'd used to hit the Arbok, right beside where her mother was buried behind the cabin. She dropped in the Poké ball containing the huge Arbok who'd killed her mother and almost killed James.
Her tears fell into the hole after the Arbok.
"I'll never forget." Plum whispered, and covered the ball with soil. The Arbok would never see light again.
And Plum walked back into her cabin, lay on her bed and listened to music until she fell asleep.
.
Author's Note: Tell me what you thought, please? (frogwoman_66@hotmail.com)
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