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A Single Rose
"Arbok, get them with a poisonous bite attack!"
"Weezing, sludge them!"
Jessie and James unleashed their poisonous pokémon at the twerp trio. The twerp responded with, "Butterfree! Go! Use confusion!" Well, at least he didn't send out that irritating Pikachu of his. The last time it had Thundershocked them, it had taken a week for the electrical burns to heal.
The Butterfree used its psychic powers to confuse the opposing pokémon. Arbok looked around, dazed. Who was it supposed to attack again? Was it the Butterfree, or one of the people? It closed its eyes and launched itself at the closest thing it could smell, preparing for its extremely venomous Bite attack.
"Ow! Arbok, hit the Butterfree, not me!" A fan clobbered it on the snout. OK, so that was Jessie. Now that the confusion was wearing off, it could see that Weezing had the Butterfree blinded with its sludge. It slithered over and wrapped the Butterfree into submission.
Amazing! They had actually won, for once! The twerp trio ran off, yelling some obscure threat about next time.
As Jessie and James were walking away victorious, a thought struck the latter. "Hey, weren't we supposed to be trying to catch that Pikachu?"
"Yes we were, why?"
"We forgot! The first time we win, we forget why we were fighting!" James sobbed. He stopped abruptly, sensing something amiss. "Jessie? Are you okay?" His partner in crime was in a heap on the ground, suddenly seeming very pale and fragile. "What happened?"
"Arbok..." she managed, before falling unconscious. Thoughts flashed through James' mind. Arbok was confused in battle... and it had bitten Jessie! She'd given it the command for a poisonous bite, and it bit her instead of the Butterfree! She was probably badly poisoned, and needed to get to a hospital quickly! He picked her up and started running down the path towards a city, he didn't know which one.
A few minutes later, he burst into a hospital.
"Someone, please help!"
Nurses rushed over and loaded Jessie onto a stretcher. One of them started asking James what had happened.
"We were in a pokémon battle and her Arbok got confused. It poisoned her instead of the other pokémon."
"Oh my! That's pretty bad! Arboks are very poisonous! We'll start the treatment right away!"
The nurse rushed off to inform the others, leaving James standing, desolate, in the lobby alone with his thoughts.
She was always so full of life... almost glowing with vitality. Whether she was embarrassed because of a comment he made or angry because Meowth didn't shut up, she was usually so...
This train of thought was going nowhere. James stood up, trying to get a new topic started. A nurse walked towards him out of... he didn't know. He hadn't been paying any attention. "We've done all we can, but there's stil a 50/50 chance she won't make it. You can go see her now."
Jessie looked very delicate right now, and not much better then she had before. She smiled weakly when James walked in. "Hi."
James tried to smile back, but it failed halfway through and came out more of a grimace. He had always been afraid of hospitals, and this was making him more jittery than it would someone else. "What have they got sticking in you?"
Jessie looked at the cluster of medical apparatus around her. "I don't know. IV drips, clotting agent, all sorts of stuff. I have no idea what most of it is."
James tried to make some small talk. "So, when do you think you'll be able to get back on the job? Are you looking forward to being back on your feet?"
Jessie smiled without mirth. "You actually think I'll be going back to work?" James looked confused. "Even if I was going to be able to work again, I would leave Team Rocket. I'm just not getting ahead."
James was still puzzled. "What do you mean, if you were going to be able to work again? I mean, I would follow you wherever you'd want to go, but why?"
"Really?" Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Why would you do that?" James blushed and stared at the ground. He could feel the heat burning in his whole face. Was this awkward, or what?
When he looked back up, Jessie had closed her eyes. He panicked slightly. "Jessie? Are you still there?"
"I have to tell you something before I'm gone," she managed.
"Jessie, don't say that! You're going to be fine! Besides, you're creeping me out." James really liked her, and he really believed that she would pull through. She looked at him through her clouding green eyes and whispered,
"I love you, James."
Amid the drone of buzzers, the scurrying nurses and the general chaos, James stood silently, tears streaking his cheeks.