Disclaimer - It's a really good thing I don't own anything because it's taken me over two years to post a new fic! Can you imagine if this were the anime we were talking about?

Author - Chibi / Warlordess

Notes - Oh, boy. . . You guys asked for it and I gave in to the temptation and decided to write it. I can't believe I got this all out in one day. And the worst part was that, when I finished, I decided I actually wanted to write a third chapter to wrap it up in a nice, neat bow by concluding things with Ash and Misty talking it all out. Well, maybe I will and maybe I won't. . . Why don't you all tell me what you think after you finish reading this chapter?

OoO

Title - "What She Wants" / part two

Summary - As Delia Ketchum reaches the milestone that is her fiftieth birthday, she invites her son over to discuss with her the one thing he's never been able to give her.

Characters / Ages -

Delia / 50

Ash / 23

Misty / 24

OoOoO

The young redhead couldn't help expelling a shuddering sigh after breathing deeply through her nose. Her attempts at remaining calm after finding out that her fears - not quite her worst, but still - had come to pass. . . Her doctor had already handed over the page from her file that told her the results of the urine and blood tests she'd taken the previous week because the female patient couldn't seem to entirely wrap her head around them even though she'd been highly suspecting of the conclusion since she'd first noticed the symptoms she'd been feeling.

Flashback to the week before and she had been sleeping cozily with her boyfriend and lover, Ash Ketchum, in his home away from home that only a few precious people knew about off of the beaten path of Route Five outside of Saffron City. It was almost two hours of walking from her own hometown but it was well worth it since the two of them rarely got to see each other; perhaps once every two months for roughly twenty-four to forty-eight hours at a time. It was enough time to keep in touch with current affairs but hardly what she could have hoped for in a long-term relationship.

True, she should've just counted her blessings and knew that it was great to finally be with her childhood sweetheart (as some might call him). There had been a few sporadic attempts at commitment before Ash came back into her life on a regular basis but all of them had flamed out rather lamely over silly things. She might have been too petty once in awhile, or else overly romantic by definition for some of the guys she'd been with. Even worse, the one or two who weren't trainers didn't understand her fascination with Pokemon, let alone her specialty in water-types. Or else there were the ones who were trainers, the ones who would joke about challenging her for a badge and would mutter bitterly to themselves should she happen to beat them in an actual battle.

Ash was the greatest combination of those three major things. He would usually brush off her attempts at zealously urging him into cliché notions, or else would let her go on about water Pokemon for a half-an-hour or so before steering the conversation in the direction of his own career at Indigo League, and the two of them battled once in awhile to keep themselves up to date on each other's skill levels.

So she took what she could get from him and he offered her whatever he could afford to. At the same time, she knew she had to set some boundaries up as well since Ash's life was so helter-skelter that he could rarely find the time to think. He was constantly on-call and required to leave at nearly a moment's notice should some event come up that the League thought would appeal with positive press coverage. Much the same thing had led to the two of them reconnecting in the first place.

However Misty wanted no part in that. Her life was busy enough as was considering she was maintaining her gym mostly on her own. She also had trouble staving off the unthinkably aggressive efforts at contact from her own fan club that had come to be as her reputation grew as the fourth and most well-rounded Sensational Sister. Though it did please her a bit to know that the rumors made Ash even the slightest bit jealous. . . No. Just no. She couldn't go on anymore with him if her name and photo would be plastered all over the front page of every local newspaper this side of the world for months to come.

So they'd compromised. Ash would escape his handler and his responsibilities at the League once every month or two and they'd meet up at his secret haven just outside of Saffron City. It was enough distance away from Cerulean so that nobody made the connection to any of his familial relationships. Neither Ash nor Misty told anyone they were seeing each other - (minus their Pokemon, but hey! Who would they be able to tell?) - and neither did they talk about one another in someone's presence or make any reference to a current companionship between the two.

In the eyes of everyone around them, Ash was simply a distant childhood friend who'd grown apart from Misty over the course of the past ten years, and vice-versa.

"I would say that you're roughly six weeks into your first trimester," her doctor noted almost too absently after glancing up at the redhead from the rest of the file sitting on her desk. "We should immediately start setting up prenatal visits after today. The good news is that you're a very healthy young woman otherwise. No smoking, well-nourished, physically active, rarely drinking - though you'll have to cut that back to nil as well," the woman, a Doctor Annie Marshall, continued with the slightest smile at what she knew most young adults would consider to be a double-edged sword.

But she gave pause when she realized the redhead's hands were shaking rather intensely and that Misty hadn't reacted at all to anything she'd said, still staring blankly at the paper in her hand informing her of the positive results of the tests she'd taken the previous week.

Taking a quick look at the proper title listed on the file, Doctor Marshall twisted back around in her desk chair to face her patient once more, wheeling forward until she was right in front of her.

"M - Miss Waterflower, are you alright?" she asked, hoping to be reassuring if she could.

Misty tried to swallow the lump that had somehow grown three times its original size while sitting in her throat, giving a non-committal shrug in response, even as she attempted to form words to say something more.

"Am I right in guessing that this wasn't a plannedhappenence?" the professional probed as softly as she could. The signs were all there, after all.

"No, but. . . I mean, we've been together for awhile now. It wasn't a fling or one-night-stand or anything. . . I just. . ." Everything tumbled out as the redheaded young woman tried to collect herself and draw back in the words and tears that were starting to escape. "No, it wasn't something we planned."

Doctor Marshall felt her brow knit tightly together as she considered what her patient had told her. She'd been phrasing everything in past-tense which was a little concerning to say the least. Noting also that there was no Missus attached to the woman's last name and no male present for their appointment, Doctor Marshall asked the only other question that would contribute to her patient's shaken appearance.

"Is the father going to be involved in future visits?"

The strangest thing happened just then. Or rather, perhaps it wasn't strange since - even at six weeks - any woman's hormones would already start to affect her emotional stability. But Misty Waterflower's entire body stilled, her hands clenching into fists as she returned the test results to her doctor and turned a sharp stare on her, eyes alight with a fire they had been far too damp to produce only a few minutes ago.

"Oh, if I have anything to say about it, he will be."

OoO

"So that was my mom," Ash told her after hanging up his cell and tossing it onto the mattress before hopping around as he tried to pull his pants back up. "Her birthday is coming and she wants to meet me to talk in a few days. I haven't seen her in forever so is it alright if I cut out a bit early? I can come back after, I think, as long as nobody reports seeing me and my handler doesn't learn my location," he went on with an egoistic grin.

Oh, the troubles of being such a well-known celebrity.

Misty sighed as she pulled the covers back off of her and rose cautiously into a sitting position, holding back the slight sense of vertigo that threatened to force her back into the comfort of her boyfriend's bed. She placed a hand to her temple and closed her eyes against the flickering sunlight peeking through the blinds right in front of her but all of that wasn't enough to prevent the faintest moan from escaping her.

"Hey. . . you okay?" the raven-haired champion asked her, walking around to her side of the bed and sitting on her right, placing a hand to her back and rubbing affectionately.

Misty held back a scoff at the very thought of how much he'd changed since he'd been a kid.

"I'm fine. I've been feeling a little under the weather for a few days. I was supposed to go see my doctor today actually. You'll need most of the time your mom gave you just to reach Pallet Town so this is probably for the best. Go ahead and see your mom; you owe her at least that much on her birthday," Misty told him as her symptoms receded and she blinked her eyes open again.

"Wow, bad enough to see the doctor, huh? Sure you don't want me to come with you? It's gonna take you a couple hours just to get back home anyway."

"No, Ash, it'll be faster if you start walking to Vermilion City and take the next ferry to Pallet Town. Just getting to Vermilion will cost you the rest of the day, even if you left now. I'll be fine. I mean, if it's anything too serious, I'll tell you when I see you. . . It's probably just the flu anyway."

"Oh, great, and you're telling me this after having felt bad for a few days and after we slept together again last night?" he asked as his face fell, though it lit up again at the thought that there really hadn't been too much sleeping going on at all. Still, keeping up the charade, "Jeezus, thanks, Myst. Like I needed to get sick now of all times. I mean, I have a challenger battle next week, you know?" he half-heartedly fussed at her though he was clearly still concerned.

"Ash, you idiot! You couldn't get sick even if my flu took on a body of its own and made out with you in front of everyone at Indigo League!" Misty fought back and couldn't help laughing as her boyfriend scrunched up his nose at the thought. "Anyway, you should get a move on. . . And you should probably shower before you go!" she warned him just as he was about to waste more time putting the rest of his clothes on, "There won't be a shower on the ferry after all."

"Good point," he agreed before stripping naked again and making a Beedrill-line for the bathroom. Then, poking his head back out at her, a mischievous smirk playing on his face, he asked, "So. . . do ya wanna join me?"

"Love to," Misty bit at him, taking in his sexual confidence and how different he was now compared to even just one year ago, "but I really should start back home."

"Misty. . ." he murmured softly as he crept back out towards her again, "Look, I know you-"

"-Ash, I already told you, I'll be fine! I can walk home alone, okay?"

"No, it's not that!" he assured her with hands up in defense at her temper, "I was just thinking. . . I mean, I haven't been able to tell me my mom about us, I haven't told her anything. . . I can barely talk to her at all since it's hard for me to keep secrets from her and w - we both know that she can get anything out of me if she tries hard enough."

Misty practically knew what was coming already but let him work out how he wanted to phrase it for himself. She certainly didn't mind watching him sweat.

"Go on."

"Well, like I said, I haven't seen her in so long because of - well, because of this - and I know she's going to want an explanation. . . Don't you think we could tell her, at least? She won't spread the word, I'm sure we can trust her if we just make sure she knows why we haven't said anything before. . . She's my mom, Myst. Plus she loves you like family too. I think she deserves to know."

Misty considered his position, making sure he knew that she was on the fence about the whole thing. It had been her one major rule when the two of them had decided they wanted to get together that neither of them tell anyone for fear that someone would let slip to the wrong person and word would get out. But she also understood that Ash wasn't the greatest liar - even by omittance - and that it was causing him at least some strain in keeping their relationship from his mom of all people.

"Fine, you can tell your mom. . . but make sure she knows why we've kept it quiet like this. I don't want her getting too excited."

He quirked a brow.

"Excited about what?"

Misty bit her lip as she tried to word it delicately. She had her own ideas as to why she was feeling sick, though she definitely didn't want to say anything until it was a sure thing. She was already giving her boyfriend a temporary out, and didn't want to make it permanent by saying that they may have to add a certain addition to their home.

"You know; just excited about you being with. . . someone for the first time."

Ash shrugged and turned back towards the bathroom but not without a quick thanks at her express permission to finally let the Skitty out of the bag. And Misty began to get dressed as well, hoping it really was the flu she was feeling after all.

OoO

As she left the doctor's office off of Cerulean City's Main Street, Misty felt around in her pocket until she found her cellphone, whipping it out and staring at the black screen. Cautiously, as if it alone would seal her fate, she pressed the hold-slash-power button and watched her screensaver and password grid light up.

And she stared. Then she decided she just couldn't do it and put her phone back in her pocket.

She knew that Ash was right in the middle of his breakfast meeting with his mom, Delia, in Pallet Town. Not only would it be unfair of her to interrupt their rare morning together but he would probably reject any call she made anyway because he wouldn't want to detract from the time he and his mom had together.

Misty couldn't really blame him for that. After all, the two of them had been seeing each other exclusively for a year - well, eleven and a half months to be exact - and Ash hadn't seen his mom the whole time, and had barely bothered to talk to her for fear that he would say something she, Misty, wouldn't be alright with.

The redhead sighed as she continued walking back towards her home. It wasn't the first time she'd wondered about her decision to keep their relationship a secret. She knew she'd have to relinquish some of her privacy (which was already relatively hard to come by thanks to her profession) but she hadn't noticed until quite recently just what a tough spot that put Ash in. And still she wondered if it was really worth it. She knew that telling her sisters and friends would be enough for word to circulate towards the paparazzi and that she would quickly have to say goodbye to any time alone. However there were also some perks to coming out.

For one, Lily and Violet would stop asking relentlessly if she was actually a lesbian this whole time. For another, she was sure that admitting to being in a long-term committed relationship with champion trainer, Ash Ketchum, would cause her pathetic fan boys to back off somewhat, let alone whatever other pursuers she (as well as Ash) must have attained as their reputations grew over the years. Plus going public would mean they wouldn't have to limit themselves on time together. Rather than meeting hush-hush at Ash's haven outside of Saffron, they could meet up, well, anywhere they pleased and they could hold hands and kiss and interact however they wanted to as long as it was legal.

It sure was a nice thought anyway, she considered darkly as she yanked her cellphone from her pocket and stared at it again. She got as far as keying in her password and causing her home screen to pop up before she scowled and changed her mind, a trace of fear coursing up her spine.

This wasn't just about their secret affair though. This was much more than that.

Another light wave of nausea puckered up from her abdomen and she groaned under her breath before one hand automatically felt at her stomach while the other covered her mouth. She stopped walking and stood against the cobblestone wall of a nearby establishment as the feeling faded before continuing on her way.

She had to tell him. She couldn't do it alone plus he had the right to know and she'd promised she would say so if it happened to be something serious she was diagnosed with after her visit with Doctor Marshall. He was the biggest part of this next to her.

So finally, just as she saw the tip of the Seel monument atop her home come into view in the distance, her step faltered once more and she pulled out her cellphone, opening her Contacts menu and beginning to type in Ash's name. When it appeared, she tapped the call symbol and placed the phone to her ear, waiting for it to start ringing.

One thing that should be known was that, since they didn't see each other as often as either of them would like, they instead upped the number of times they talked on the phone. They still had to be rather secretive about it. Misty would never call with her sisters in the same building, knowing they were such gossips and making sure they were at least five hundred feet away minimum before attempting to dial up her boyfriend. Ash, in similar fashion, would neither call nor accept a call if anyone else was around and would only do so in the comfort and privacy of his League room, or else if he'd managed to beat her to his hideaway outside of Saffron.

All of that being said, she knew exactly how many rings it took for Ash's phone to transfer her to voicemail. And she heard two-and-a-half rings (instead of the regular five) before it shut down on her.

He was indeed screening her calls.

The redhead found herself torn between frustration, indignation, and acceptance. She had already assumed - known - that Ash would do this. Even if he had told her to contact him after hearing back from the doctor, he was still dealing with his mom's questions and incessant concerns. At the same time she wished that he would just pick up. She really didn't think this was something she could leave in a voicemail to be heard at a later time.

She marched the rest of the way home before trying again though. As she entered through the front door, she heard the sounds of a challenger battle going on inside the gym arena to her right, two voices shouting commands at their Pokemon and recognizing Daisy's voice amongst them.

"Oh, so you really did run off again, huh?" Violet asked her from behind the main desk after she'd finished typing up a maintenance report. "Geez, seriously, Misty. . . You should at least, like, tell somebody before you leave the gym! We were counting on you to handle the paperwork today!"

"It's not like I was gone overnight again. Besides, something came up," Misty attempted to say neutrally with a loose shrug but her voice came out sounding strangled and her muscles were too tense to even muster a shake of the head.

"Like, what's wrong with you?" the dark-haired woman asked with a furrowed brow.

"Nothing, feeling a bit sick, gonna go to bed early, I think," Misty managed all in one quick heaving breath as she trampled up the stairs that led to the private home of the four sensational siblings and ran around her other sister, Lily, before even one word could be exchanged between them.

The redheaded water-type specialist slammed her door shut and stood in front of it, eyes bracing themselves in the semi-darkness of her bedroom as she waited to hear any speculation or conversation between her family from out in the hall. Then, after there had been no verbal exchange that she could make out from where she was, she forced her legs to solidify completely so that she could walk the seven foot distance to her bed.

Jeezus, what was she supposed to do now?

Hesitantly she pulled her phone out of her pocket once more and stared at it for a second before unlocking it again. No missed calls or texts. Ash didn't seem to be in any hurry to get back to her. Then again, she hadn't bothered to leave a voicemail so he probably didn't think it was all that important.

Little does he know, Misty thought bitterly.

But she had to tell him eventually anyway. He would have his questions surely but she had been sexually active long enough to know that even the most effective birth control couldn't prevent pregnancy one hundred percent of the time. She could only hope to convince him to hear her out and then to talk out their options together, right?

So she pulled up his contact information one more time and pressed the call icon and waited out the dialing once more. It was the same as before; there were two or so rings and then she was sent to his voicemail.

You would think he'd get it through his head that I really need to talk to him if I'm calling him twice in twenty minutes, Misty thought as her brow twitched irritably as she heard his voice telling her that he was unavailable and to leave a quick message with details so that he could call her back. Just as the beep was about to sound so that she could start verbally harassing him to pick up his phone, there came a knock at her bedroom door.

Misty panicked and hung up the call before she could say anything at all and went to answer whoever was calling for her.

"Hey, little sis!" Daisy greeted with her carefree nature and a slight wave of a hand, "Lily and Violet said you didn't look too well when you came back home so I was coming to check on you."

Before the redhead could think of a response, her oldest sister slipped into her room and walked straight around her to sit at the desk beside her bed.

"I'm fine. It's just the flu. I wasn't feeling well but I went and saw the doctor today and she said I just need a couple days to get back to normal."

A couple days. . . Yeah, right.

"Hm. . ." The oldest Sensational Sister hummed to herself as she stared her youngest sibling up and down. She knew something was off about the young woman but couldn't put her finger on it. Misty had become quite adept at sneaking out of the gym whenever she was alone or in the dead of night and even better at keeping secrets from her family about where she had been spending the time between her leave-date and her return home.

Still, looking at her slightly green features and the discomfort clearly evident on her face, it was clear that she was telling the truth about not feeling well.

Then Daisy turned and glanced at the bed and saw the cellphone laying there. She picked it up and Misty held her breath. Luckily the phone had blacked out after a minute of no usage and, since doing so, had relocked once more. That meant her older sister couldn't snoop and see who it was she'd been trying to contact.

"Were you, like, calling someone? Must be important since you're trying to reach them when you're sick," the blond woman smiled knowingly before tossing the device back onto the mattress again and watching her youngest sister for a reaction.

And, boy, did she get one.

Misty jumped, almost imperceptively, but with her eyes on the lookout for such signs, Daisy caught it. And not only that, the green tinge to the redhead's pale cheeks only flushed worse and her gaze averted to the ground again to avoid having to look straight at her as her fists clenched at her sides helplessly.

Daisy rose from the desk chair she'd been sitting at and walked back towards her sister, clapping a hand to the girl's shoulder in assurance before turning a slightly concerned gaze on her face and raising a cool hand to feel for a fever.

"You don't seem hot but, like, what do I know?" Then, with a soft grin, she walked around her sister to stand by the door again. "Look, we were thinking we could totally shut down the gym and go out for lunch together but I can, like, see you're not up for it. Still, we'll close up since it wouldn't be very creditable towards our reputation if you passed out and drowned because you, like, took up a challenge while you were sick.

"You know, little sis; even if you can't reach your boyfriend, you can always totally talk to me!"

And then Daisy was gone, leaving Misty flushed and ashamed as she stood alone in her room again. Her sisters were gossips, she knew. It was why she had never bothered to tell even them about her relationship with Ash. . . though she couldn't avoid it for much longer. They were her sisters all the same and keeping things from family had never proved to be a good idea. The fact that Daisy had figured out (even generally) who Misty was likely to call while apparently ill was enough for the redhead to know that she needed to get over her worries about privacy.

She moaned as she staggered towards her bed once more, falling forward and laying there for a moment before her eyes shot open at another strong surge of vertigo and she flew into the bathroom to worship the porcelain god (as it was so eloquently put by many other people).

Afterwards, she stood up and cringed, taking in the sight before her and flushing almost immediately after. Great. Now the symptoms were starting to get worse.

She ran back to her bed for the last time and leapt onto it, grappling for her phone and unlocking it to reveal the contacts screen she'd been on before being interrupted by her sister before. Begging on the inside even as the frustration began to gnaw at her limbs, she pressed to dial Ash's number.

For the third time that day, she was greeted with the sound of two rings before being cut off by the beginning of his voicemail. A strangled sound escaped from the back of her throat and she sat up in bed again before ending the call and redialing. This time, somehow far worse than before, there was no ringing at all.

Ash had turned his phone off.

Breathing deeply through her nose to relax the tension and aching of her body, Misty pulled herself completely onto the mattress and leaned her head against the wall on the other side of the bed, eyes closed. Then she slowly opened them back up and took in the pristine order and cleanliness of her room, the tranquility that the quiet of the second floor, and the semi-darkness from her closed blinds before closing her eyes once more and leaving that way for roughly forty-five seconds as she tried to calm herself down.

She was pregnant. Ash didn't know. She was pregnant and trying to tell Ash. Ash didn't know and was ignoring her. She was pregnant, trying to tell Ash, and praying from the bottom of her heart that his reaction would be a positive one. Ash didn't know, was ignoring her, and had never even once discussed the possibility of children with her over the course of their entire relationship, least of all the growth that had taken place between them during the past year.

Be reasonable, she reminded herself, It's not like he's ignoring you for nothing. He's seeing his mom for the first time in a year. This is an important day for both of them.

But the fears nipping and gnawing at her consciousness told her that she had to do something about it. She couldn't do anything like this on her own and she couldn't even begin to explain to her sisters about what had happened. Breathing seemed suddenly difficult and she had to force her thoughts to stop spiraling out of control as she attempted to prevent the start of what was probably a panic attack. That certainly wouldn't be good for her unborn child now, would it?

How had this happened? Well, sure, she knew scientifically how, and even the general probability that it could one day happen to the two of them. But she and Ash had barely been together for a year and she had had sex for at least a few years before that without ever facing such consequences. How could she explain to him what was coming? How could she believe that he would be understanding - nay, accepting - when she told him what they were going to have to endure?

What would she do if he said he didn't want children? What if he told her to get rid of it?

A strange instinct overcame her as she placed both hands over her tummy again. Flat though it obviously still was, within she could somehow sense the life that was growing, the heart that was beating. This was their child. Even if Ash said he couldn't deal with such a thing right now, she couldn't let him just take it from her, could she?

Though it was haphazard and farfetched, Misty couldn't help it as her thoughts continued onward in a negative fashion.

What if Ash did say no? What if he left her on her own? What would she do when word spread that she was pregnant with no present dad in the picture? Would she order some sort of paternity test to prove his involvement? How could she even get approval for such a thing when the two of them had kept their entire relationship under wraps before today?

Doctor Marshall's words hung before her tantalizingly as well as her own response.

"Is the father going to be involved in future visits?"

"Oh, if I have anything to say about it, he will be."

She felt her brow furrow and clenched her jaw as she ground her teeth. She would not be alone in this. Even if she had to force it from him, Ash would be a part of his child's life. This was their responsibility! And more than that, this was. . .

"This is all his fault!" she cried out furiously as she dove for her phone again. Ooh, he would pay dearly for making her endure this alone! She would see to it that he paid her for every inconvenience, every anxiety, every hope she'd eventually had about the two of them that had been shaken by the internal strife that was the possibility of having children before they were mentally prepared to be parents.

Once more, she dialed his number and waited through the voicemail that immediately began to play since his phone was probably still turned off. And when the high-pitched beep was heard at the end, she gnashed her teeth together before starting to tell him off.

"Ash, you idiot! Turn your phone back on right now or I'll. . . I'll," she had to pause to brace herself against a fresh wave of frustrated and bedraggled tears, "This is serious! Answer me!" she continued to wail helplessly before gasping for breath through her mouth in compensation for the temporary congestion in her nose that usually accompanied crying.

She ended the call there since she was unable to continue speaking without having to pace her own breathing continuously throughout doing so and reverted to texting instead, her mind under the impression that, even with his phone off, Ash would somehow still receive the messages.

Ash, stop ignoring me! Turn your phone on! I will kill you, dammit!

Why won't you answer? Don't you know what you did to me?!

You motherfucker, I will cut your balls off!

You did this so you have to take responsibility! This is your fault! We're pregnant because of you!

True to her stubborn, childish demeanor, Misty couldn't help placing the blame during crunch time. Plus Ash had always been such an easy target for such things. No wonder Pikachu always electrocuted him, as well as Charizard toasting him up. He was clearly a magnet for misplaced aggression.

She dropped her phone beside her to give herself an extra moment to pull herself together after that emotional onslaught. As minutes crawled by and she felt her intense temper begin to simmer down, she thought back on everything she'd said to him over the course of the past twenty minutes, all of which were not the things she had originally wanted to say to him.

Some semblance of hopelessness settled in the pit of her stomach and left her feeling defeated. Even if she'd been able to reach him now she'd probably still end up accusing him of something he really had no control over. Then he would get angry at her and the two of them would end up bickering about something completely unrelated to their current crisis. And, worst of all, she had already instigated the possibility of a negative reaction from him by calling him names and making threats.

Oh, boy. Perhaps it was time for some damage control.

It was just then that she realized she'd had another way of reaching him all along but had completely forgotten. It was a rarely used contact, even more-so nowadays when the redhead thought about how she couldn't bear lying to the woman who'd taken her in like a daughter over the years, but in this situation she was willing to risk it.

So she tentatively picked up her cellphone again, unlocked it, scrolled through her other contacts, and pressed the one entitled Delia Ketchum before selecting the call icon for the fifth time that morning.

Her hand unconsciously gripped her bare leg as she lay curled up on her bed against the wall in her room, rubbing up and down her flesh as goose bumps began to appear. Then, four rings later, she heard the strangest voice from the other end of the line.

"Mime! Mr. Mime?"

Misty scowled, remembering one of the other few reasons she had stopped contacting Delia regularly. The older woman had left taking calls and messages up to her psychic housekeeper Pokemon and, well, it wasn't nearly as genius a tactic as anyone would think.

"Wha. . . ? Uh, i - is Ash there? If so, can I speak with him?"

"Mime mime Mr. Mime mime mime!" the Pokémon practically screeched in her ear and she could imagine him waving his arms emphatically as though trying to make a more valid point, even if she couldn't see it.

"I don't under. . . Look, this is really important, alright?" she asked cautiously as the last vestiges of her patience wore thin and she enunciated her words to ensure she had his attention. "I. Need. To. Talk. To. Ash. Is he there?"

Mimey continued to repeat his own name for the next two minutes, as if it were doing any good helping her understand what he was trying to say and Misty felt something inside her snap. Giving in to such inhibitions, she pulled the phone away from her ear long enough to activate the video-cam and waited until she saw the mime Pokemon staring back at her rather vacantly.

"Look here, you extraneous excuse for a clown!" she shouted at him in fury, "I don't care what it is you think you're doing or what you're protecting or whatever! You get him over to this phone now or I will personally be overseeing your job transfer!"

Mr. Mime heeded her words and ran straight out of sight, screeching the entire time. Less than sixty seconds later, a befuddled Ash came into view, shaking his head and scratching his scalp at the Pokemon's oddly aggressive behavior. Then he finally looked at the monitor to his mom's house phone and saw his girlfriend staring back at him.

"Oh, uh, Misty. . . Why are you calling? This really isn't a very good time for-"

"-Ash. Sit down." she told him rather frankly and he was compelled to do exactly as she'd said thanks to her tone. "Listen, we have to talk. I mean, something - something big has happened and I had to tell you as soon as possible and why did you turn your cellphone off anyway when I've been trying to reach you for the past two hours because this is really important and it involves both of us no matter how you try to get out of it and you have to know that-"

"-Misty, whoa! Slow the heck down, would ya? I could barely make out any of that you were just saying. . ." he shushed her rambling and she pressed her lips tightly shut, telling herself she couldn't hold it against him and that she was acting outrageously. "Now, what are you trying to say?"

"I - I just. . . I thought I might be wrong so I couldn't tell you before but i - it turns out I was actually right and I needed to tell you because we're going to have to talk about it and make some changes and th - this is big, Ash, like I already said. . . and. . ." But she faltered, somehow finding that now that she had his attention, she couldn't figure out how to break it to him.

Thankfully he decided to make his own assumptions as a means of giving her time.

"Oh no, you're not going to take back your permission, are you?" he asked.

"P - permission to do what?"

"To tell my mom about us!" And his eyes widened as if this really would make or break his morning. "You don't understand, Myst! Mom's been grilling me for over an hour about. . . about stuff and she won't even let me get a word in but I know the second she does I'm gonna have to tell her because she just won't let anything go and telling her would actually fix everything! So you can't! There are no take-backs on this one, Myst!"

"Wha. . . ? No! This has nothing to do with that! Or, well, maybe it sort of does. Believe me, Ash, once I tell you what's up you're going to have no choice but to tell your mom about us."

Of all things he had been expecting, that response wasn't it. What in the world had changed Misty's views so vastly over the course of the past few days? He'd barely convinced her to give her blessing in originally telling his mom about their relationship and now she was pushing him to do so without a doubt.

"So what is it?" he asked courageously, watching his girlfriend's gaze flicker to her left, then right, then down.

"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to tell you," she barely managed to whisper, looking rather terrorized.

"You - you're not breaking up with me, are you?" he, himself, flinched at the very idea. He hadn't even gotten the chance to explain everything to his mom and the redhead was going to end it like this? Over the phone?

"Where on earth did you even get that from?" Misty asked with a distractingly raised eyebrow before she shook herself out of it and tried to refocus. "I love you, you idiot! Why would I break up with you?"

"Well, I love you too, scrawny!" he retorted immaturely, "So then what is it you're freaking out about?"

"It's. . ."

"Did someone see us leaving my place? I thought I gave you enough time for a proper head start but I must not have. . ."

"No, it's not that. It's. . ."

"It isn't your sisters again, is it? Did they try and set you up with another one of those girls from their fan charter?"

"No!" Misty screeched, finally fed up with his presumptions. "Ash, I'm pregnant!"

What met her after this confession was the exact same stark silence she had been fearing the whole time her mind had been whirling around in the privacy of her own bedroom, musing up all the ways this entire thing could go South.

She closed her eyes and drew in a sharp breath. That wasn't how she'd meant for it to come out but he'd really given her no other option but to just say it before he went on with other possible reasons for her random call.

Ash, who'd had ended up on his feet while running through the list of things he'd thought she'd say, felt his legs give way and he fell into the seat that, thankfully, happened to be available for those who were making longer video-calls on his mom's house phone. And then he stared at his girlfriend as if waiting for her to take it all back.

"You're. . . come again?" he asked.

"I. . . we're pregnant," she repeated with a slight alteration. The new attachment to her statement seemed to shake him up even more as he leaned forward, one arm on the table in front of the monitor and the hand attached ruffling through his hair as if itching for a way out.

Which was probably what he was looking for anyway.

"How?" he finally found the strength to ask.

Misty shrugged off the question. It was hardly important when compared to the grand scheme of things.

"It just. . . happened. I've been taking my birth control but, you know, sometimes these things just. . . Nothing is one hundred percent effective," she attempted to explain.

"No, I guess. . . but. . ." Words were hard to come by so Ash decided against them for the following few seconds. Then, finally, he went on. "How long?"

"Six weeks. . . It must have happened the last time we were together, the one before your mom got in contact with you."

Ash grunted but didn't immediately respond. He seemed to be trying to work out a solution to everything in his head though clearly there was no way around it.

"What are you thinking?" she asked in a hushed tone.

". . . Don't know."

"Are you scared?"

"Hell yeah, I am, Myst! We never planned for this! We never even. . . we never brought it up even once! Why didn't we? We both knew it was possible, didn't we? You're the smart one here too! Why didn't you ever force me to talk about this kinda thing?" he begged of her in such a way that she couldn't even respond to his accusation.

"Because I didn't think too much about it either. I mean, we were practicing safe sex, Ash. We used protection, I was on the pill, and we never did it so frequently that something would manage to, you know, slip through." Then, under her breath, "Or so I thought.

"But here we are and it's happened and I. . . I can't be the only one who knows. I can't do it on my own, Ash. I really. . ." she gulped back the dread that had been crippling and molding her emotions all day before continuing, "I really need you to be here with me through this."

"I have to go."

"What? But Ash!"

"No, Myst, it's not that. . . I was just. . . it was a really important talk with my mom and she's waiting for me to get back and explain. . . things. I promise we'll talk about it later."

His words were enough reassurance for her to drop the subject and bid him farewell.

He was still planning on explaining things to his mom. That meant he'd be telling her about their relationship which meant he wasn't going to leave her, Misty, alone. That would have to do for now.

Misty sighed before falling sideways towards the cool fluffiness of her pillows and curling up into herself even tighter than before when she'd been sitting. The first battle was over and they'd come out relatively unscathed. There was still plenty to discuss between them but she knew that they'd be fine if they did their best to compromise and contribute to the situation.

And she couldn't help imagining it somewhere in the back of her head. Her sisters were sure to be the aunts from Hell, but they would never reject her for having a child out of wedlock, especially if Ash and she remained together in the future. . . which actually sounded like a possibility at this point, irrational suspicions be damned. And Delia, oh Delia. . . She was a saint amongst everyone Misty had ever met. She would surely be ecstatic at the thought of being a grandmother, the redhead knew for sure.

Over all, her support system could have been a lot worse.

Still, and her brow furrowed at the thought, surely Ash was at least the tiniest bit troubled over her proclamation a few minutes ago on the phone. She'd at least had a couple of hours to get used to it and now he was due to face those same two hours. At least he wasn't alone. Perhaps he would even tell his mom after explaining to the woman about their relationship.

Then she thought back to how contentious she'd been in her text messages and that voicemail almost an hour ago. If he were to only have those things to reflect on when thinking further about their situation, he would probably give pause to visiting her immediately after. The least supportive one in all of this may have indeed been Misty, herself.

Deciding to do something about that, she fumbled around in her bed to find her phone one last time and unlocked it, accessing her text message menu. His name was still the most recent one of them all, of course, so she pressed to open their conversation and took in the sight of her many aggressive messages to him earlier that morning with reluctance and guilt nibbling at her conscience.

What could she say to comfort him now of all times? He had to know that she loved him; at the very least, they'd just reiterated those words over the phone a few minutes ago. . . No, he needed something more than that, something that would put him at ease towards everything they were going to have to face.

They. She hoped and prayed that the keyword would remain throughout everything that would soon come at them. Then she blinked as it hit her and she began typing rapidly on the screen before pressing send, wondering if he'd turned his phone back on, or how long it would take him to see what she'd sent. And at the same time she doubted the validity of her own words. Not that they weren't honest, of course, but. . . would they be enough to console him?

She waited just long enough to read the timestamp on the message and then, knowing it had been sent off successfully, she locked her phone again and twisted around to connect it to her charger before laying on her back and facing the ceiling, willing her eyes closed and her temperament calm until she could find something less stressful to think about.

We can handle this together, Mr. Pokemon Master.

OoOoO

Notes - Yay, it's finally, really over! Or is it. . . ? ((shot)) I guess I shouldn't pull the same stunt two chapters in a row, but seriously, you guys seriously spurred me on into writing this all in one sitting and, now that it's done, I could totally see the conversation that would take place between Ash and Misty when they meet up again. It would be great! Misty would have the hedge clippers and Ash would have to drop his pants so she could. . . Oh, haha, that's wrong! Sorry, I take that back! She wouldn't do that to him! I don't think. . .