"I’m so glad you decided to meet with me, Jessica", Lauren shook Jessie’s hand and sat down in front of her. She was wearing a short yellow dress with yellow shoes and a large yellow hat with wide brim that covered most of her face and blonde hair.
"So, I see you’ve decided to reconsider my proposal." Lauren smiled.
"Yes, I have. I want to hear more about your plan."
"Well it’s simple actually. You go to the Police, file a complaint, you tell them your side of the story in the most heart breaking way that you can, and let them do the rest. After this thing go public, I show up and give them a similar version. Giovanni will probably offer you money so that it won’t get to court, but you have to make a whole scene, and then take the money, and we’ll share it, 50:50."
"Oh, so there’s money in it for you too?"
"Jessica, you have to take the money, or otherwise people will think that you lied."
Jessie leaned back in her chair. Lauren wasn’t stupid, but neither was Jessie. "Ok, but we’ll share it 70:30, since I’m doing most of the work, and you need me."
"fine, Jessica, just so you’ll see that money isn’t the issue", She smiled, "I’m so glad you decided to go through this. It was the thought of being apart from James that made you do it , wasn’t it?"
"How did you know we are about to be separated?"
Lauren smiled. "In time you'll see that I know everything I need to know."
Jessie sighed. "So, when are we getting started?"
"We can go to the police now."
"Now?" Jessie didn’t think she'll have to start so soon.
"Yes, what are we waiting for? Giovanni will take you away from James on Monday, and we better file the complaint as soon as possible. I’ll give you a ride now, but first-" she took out of her yellow bag a big black leather cushion and handed it over to Jessie. It was very hard. "You will have to go to the toilets now, put this between your legs and press it as hard as you can so that your thighs will be covered with blue marks. When they’ll question you, show them the blue marks and tell them that he did it."
"A medical examine?" Jessie shuddered.
"It’s necessary, I’m sorry. It’ll be a part of your story- When they’ll ask you why you didn’t complain before today you’ll say that today he attacked you physically. Now go to the toilets over there-"
Jessie took the cushion and went to the toilets. When she was sitting there with it between her legs, she wondered how did things go so wrong.
She got out after a few minutes and handed the cushion to Lauren, her hand shaking and a sad, embarrassed look on her face.
"Let me see," she stretched her hand and lifted Jessie’s skirt a bit so fast that Jessie couldn’t manage to move Lauren’s hand away, and saw the red marks that were becoming blue. "Very good." She said shortly.
Lauren drove her fancy car to the nearest police station and Jessie sat next to her and looked nervously out of the window.
"We’re here." Lauren said after a few moments, waking Jessie from her daydreams.
"Here? I don’t see any police station."
"It’s around the corner. I can’t drive you that far, because we shouldn’t
be seen together."
"Wait, aren’t you going to tell me what to say?"
"There’s no need to. You just have to say that he verbally abused you and that today he jumped on you and that’s why you decided to complain. I know you’ll do it in the most persuasive way you can."
Jessie sighed and opened the door, and Lauren took her hand. "You’re doing the right thing, Jessica. Everything will be ok. You just go and give them a great performance and it'll all work out just as planned."
Jessie smiled sadly and got out of the car. She walked slowly for a few moments and then entered the police station. She walked over to a policewoman (She chose to go to a woman, hoping that she’d be more understanding), took a deep breath and then spat: "I would like to file a complaint. Sexual harassment."
-
They spent the next day relaxing with out mentioning the boss' decision even once. They had a quiet dinner and after it was over, Jessie packed her stuff and James washed the dishes. He still haven’t decided where to go after Jessie and Meowth will move out with the new partner that the boss wants to associate them with.
"Don’t ya think ya should go and tell her now?"
James turned his head over to Meowth. "Tell what to whom?"
"Tell Jessie dat ya love her."
James sighed. "Meowth, don’t be ridiculous. What good would that do?"
"This is yer last chance ta tell her. After tomorrow it’ll be too late and
she’ll neva know."
He looked sadly at the Pokemon. "It’s too late already. Let’s say I’ll tell her, let even say she feels the same. Then what? We’ll have a whole love scene here and starting from tomorrow I’ll never see her again."
Meowth felt sorry for James and Jessie. He walked over to James and put one paw on his leg, trying to comfort him. James smiled and continued drying the plates.
Jessie finished packing and fell asleep right away, or at least pretend to. She wanted to avoid the heart breaking scene with James, especially now that her mind was tired from thinking about Lauren’s plan. She didn’t think she’ll be able to stand seeing James so sad and to think about not seeing him again, if her plan won’t work.
James finished washing the dishes and went lying down beside Jessie, who was lying with her back to him. He was sorry that she went to sleep so quickly, because he wanted to say so many things to her. He pulled himself as closely as he could to her, hugged her and then fell asleep. He didn't notice that she was crying.
When Jessie fell asleep, she dreamt another dream. She was again crying on the floor of a dark room when her mother appeared. She smiled, caressed Jessie’s cheek and then opened a secret door. James was behind it, and he entered the room, walked over to Jessie and hugged her.
-
"I don’t understand why we had ta leave so soon. I wanted ta say goodbye to James. Don’t ya wanna say goodbye?" Meowth was pretty upset that Jessie made him leave before James woke up.
"Shut up already, Meowth. Why do you need to feel sad so early in the morning?"
"Yer crazy. I don’t understand ya not one bit."
"Look, fur-ball, you’ve been nagging all the way. what’s the use of saying goodbye? It'll only make things harder."
Meowth felt that there was something more than that, but he couldn’t say anything because they had arrived to the Team Rocket HQ. They could see that something was wrong even before entering the HQ. When they did, they spotted Cassidy and Meowth ran over to her.
"What’s goin’ on?"
"Don’t you know? The boss was taken to investigation this morning!"
Jessie froze in her place when Meowth, all shocked, asked why and Cassidy
answered: "Some girl is accusing him of sexually harassing her!"
"Dat is crazy! Who would do sucha thing?" Meowth couldn’t believe it.
"I don’t know who she is, but she’s definitely crazy. The boss will crash her
and nobody will believe her", and then she noticed Jessie standing frozen and looking all pale and she asked: "What are you doing here any way?"
"We were about to meet our new partner today", Jessie tried to hide the fear in her voice.
"So, the boss finally decided to kick James?" Cassidy looked all smug, "good decision. Any way, nothing is going as planned today. Go home and come back after all the mess is over."
