Chapter 7
“Misty…Misty!”
She awoke to the sound of her name and saw May standing above her bed. “May? What time is it?”
“8am. Sorry I woke you, but there’s something I need to show you!” she pulled Misty out of bed and out the door.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Shh! You’re going to wake them up.” They stopped outside of May and Ash’s bedroom door. May put her finger to her lips as she opened the door. Misty looked inside and her heart stopped. Ash was laying on the bed sound asleep, snoring slightly. Katie was sleeping next to him, her head nestled against his arm.
“Isn’t that the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?” May gushed in a whisper.
Misty could barely breathe, “How did she get here?”
May gave her an odd look, “She came in here late last night saying that she had a nightmare. She may have just gotten the rooms confused.”
“Does Ash know that she’s here?”
“No, you know he can sleep through anything…Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think that this might bother you.” May slyly said as they walked out of the room shutting the door behind them.
“W-what? Why would it bother me? I’m sure Ash will protect her from her nightmares better than I could.” Misty sighed. May gave her an odd look but Misty was at the door to the shower, and didn’t notice.
Ash groaned loudly as he heard an annoying beep. He turned his head and saw May’s cell phone light up on the bedside table. He reached for it but felt light pressure on his other arm. He looked down and saw Katie’s tiny head resting on him.
“You, little girl, are going to get me in so much trouble.” he mumbled to himself as he slowly slid her head onto the pillow. Thankfully, she slept right through it.
He turned his attention back to May’s phone. Was it wrong to read your wife’s text messages? Probably. She had been so secretive about it that he was curious. What could she possibly be hiding? He finally decided to look, sitting up and grabbing the phone.
How’s it going Matchmaker May?
Matchmaker? Who was May trying to fix up? He thought hard and remembered that Brock’s younger brother Forrest had been flirting with Sarah, the maid. And yesterday, May had private conversations with both of them. He smiled, May was always meddling with other people’s affairs, especially romantic ones. He broke away from his thoughts as he saw Katie stir and open her eyes.
“Good morning.” she smiled at him.
“Good morning. When did you get here?” he asked.
“Last night, I had a bad dream.”
“Did your mom not wake up?”
Katie shrugged, “I just came here.”
This was bad. Katie had chosen him over Misty. He knew that it was entirely not his fault, but he knew that Misty would still blame him. Maybe, if he was lucky, she didn’t know and he could convince Katie not to tell Misty…What was he thinking? He couldn’t ask a five year old to lie to her mother. He rubbed his eyes, an action mimicked by Katie.
“Well, how about we go downstairs and see what’s for breakfast?” he asked standing up.
Katie nodded standing on top of the bed reaching her arms up to him. Ash hesitated for a second then picked her up and carried her downstairs. To his surprise, there was no one in the living room, or the kitchen. That’s when he faintly heard music coming from out back. He walked to the back door and saw a small party on the beach, almost everyone was dancing to the music on the radio.
“We were wondering when you two would wake up.” May laughed walking up to them.
“I guess we slept in a little.” Ash smiled.
“Well, Katie let’s go get you into your bathing suit.” Misty walked up and took her daughter from Ash and back inside.
“What’s going on out here?” he asked.
“Brock realized that we’ve been here 3 days and we hadn’t had a beach party. So here we are!” May exclaimed gesturing to everyone else.
“Cool! Then I’ll run upstairs and get changed.” he rushed back towards the house.
Ash came back out a few minutes later, “Oh! I love this song!” he ran over to his wife, “Come on, May!” he grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet so they could dance.
“Ash dances?” Misty asked Brock who had sat down beside her.
“When the song is fast enough.” Brock laughed. “So how’s it going? You’re not too miserable here are you?”
“No! I’m not miserable at all. It’s weird being around Ash all the time, but it’s not bad…I guess.”
“And how are you two doing? I’ve been trying to keep my eye on him but I should probably be paying attention to my bride-to-be.”
“How are you feeling? Only two more days, are you getting nervous?” Misty nonchalantly side-stepped the Ash question.
“No. I’m not nervous at all. You know that feeling when you’ve found the one?”
“I can’t really say that I do…but you think Trish is it?”
“Definitely. Since I met her, I can’t see myself with anyone else.”
Misty nodded but stayed silent looking out at the ocean.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Brock asked, a look of concern crossed his face.
“Ash told you about what happened that night, right?” Brock nodded knowing what night she was talking about. “Did he ever give you a reason? I asked him when he got here but he said he didn’t know.”
“That’s what he told me too. It seemed weird, but at the same time I believed him. Ash has never been a very good liar. I think if he wasn’t telling me something I’d know right away.”
“So, you told him about Katie?”
“I did, but accidentally. I happened to be flicking through my wallet and May saw her picture. It wasn’t hard for him to put it all together.”
“And May didn’t?”
“She didn’t seem to think anything of it. But I guess you never really know with May.”
“She’s been acting so weird. First her odd obsession with her cell phone. Then yesterday she was asking me all sorts of questions about my love life. Then Trish got ahold of May’s phone and read the text messages and now she’s hiding something too.”
Brock didn’t say anything, Trisha had told him about her discovery and he still wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
“I’m getting dizzy!” May exclaimed plopping herself down on the sand next to Misty and Brock, “Find someone else to dance with, Ash.”
He smirked, “I will, and they’ll probably be a better dancer than you.”
“Trying to challenge me isn’t going to work. I’m done. Find someone else.” she swung her gaze over to Misty as Ash pouted then he sighed and propositioned Trisha. “So, what are you two talking about so seriously?”
“The wedding. What else?” Brock said smoothly.
“Oh! You seem surprisingly calm. Remember Ash right before our wedding?” she giggled.
“Yeah,” Brock laughed turning to Misty, “He was so afraid that he was going to mess up and say something wrong. I swear I had to reassure him 3 or 4 times a day that all he had to do was repeat and he could handle that.”
“Sounds like Ash.” Misty commented then looked up as something blocked out the sun, casting a shadow over her.
“Your turn.” Ash grinned holding his hand out.
“I-” she started.
“Come on, don’t turn me down! Forrest said you wouldn’t and I can’t lose. Besides,” he winked, “they’re playing our song.”
She listened and heard the familiar tune. She smiled and allowed him to pull her up.
As they walked away, May looked over at Brock, “They’re song?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s a joke between them. Way back when we were traveling together we had stopped in a town and stayed for their summer’s end festival. Where I was taken in, so to speak, by their village’s legend. It was about a woman who’s love had gone off to war. She stood on the cliffs overlooking the ocean waiting for him to return, but he had died and she didn’t know it. She waited there so long that she turned to stone. Well, you know Ash, he thought the story was dumb. No one would stand and wait for someone to come home. Misty on the other hand, commented on how romantic the story was. So to tease her, Ash began to sing Beyond the Sea. You know, the song goes: Somewhere, Beyond the sea, Somewhere, Waiting for me, My lover stands on golden sands, And watches the ships that go sailing.” he sang, “It used to bother Misty, but now it’s funny.”
May nodded and looked over at Ash and Misty who were laughing and spinning each other around.
“Hey!” Brock stood suddenly, “Gary, I’m glad you could make it.”
“Gary?” May jumped up walking over to them.
“Hey, May.” Gary smiled at her, “Sorry I got here so late. I probably wouldn’t have been able to get away, but Misty would have killed me if I didn’t.”
“What does Misty-” May started but was cut off by Katie’s shriek.
“Gary!” Before he had a chance to think, the little girl leapt into his arms.
“Well, hey Katie.” he laughed.
“Huh?” Misty looked over to where her daughter had run, “Gary! You’re here!” she pushed away from Ash and ran over to Gary. Ash watched her, gasping as she leaned over and kissed him.
her boyfriend has been around since before Katie was born and he’s like a father to her he recalled Brock saying.Gary? Misty has been dating Gary for the last 5 years? He was shocked, he and Misty may have lost touch, but he still spoke to Gary. Shouldn’t he have known that they were together? He didn’t like the fact that Gary was holding Katie in one arm and had the other wrapped around Misty’s waist. He jogged over to where they were, “Hey Gary. What are you doing here?”
“I snuck away. Misty really wanted me here.” he shrugged.
“I missed you!” she exclaimed kissing him again.
“How can you possibly miss him already?” Ash grumbled, “You’ve only been here 3 days.”
Misty rolled her eyes as Gary laughed, “Don’t you remember, Ash? I’ve been studying in Hoenn since March.”
Ash flushed, “Oh, so you haven’t seen each other in, like…4 months…”
“Gary?” Katie asked stealing the attention away from Ash, “You know Ash too?”
“Uh huh. I’ve known Ash my whole life. You remember when we went to visit my grandpa before I left?” Katie nodded, “Remember Mrs. Ketchum? She’s Ash’s mom. We’ve lived next door to each other for a long time.”
Ash’s eyes widened at what he had just heard, he looked over at Misty who was trying to avoid his gaze. He shook his head roughly and walked back to the house.
“Ash…” Misty said softly going after him. When she reached the house she saw him quickly running up the stairs. “Ash!” she called after him. He stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around but he didn’t say anything. “Ash…I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to say.”
“I guess I understood why you didn’t tell me. I understood why Brock and your sisters knew. Even now, I can see why Gary knows…”he finally looked her in the eyes and she was startled by his expression, “But my mother!? Why? Did you really hate me so much?”
“Ash, you have to understand. We went to the lab to visit Prof Oak before Gary left and your mom just showed up and…I didn’t even have to tell her, she knew the second she saw Katie.” Misty could feel her eyes starting to tear up.
“Do you have any idea how frustrating this is? It’s like there’s this huge joke and everyone around me is in on it! How many times do I have to say I’m sorry before you stop punishing me?”
“Punishing you?! How am I punishing you?”
“You were all over Gary out there! And you keep putting me at a distance the whole time we’ve been here!”
Misty laughed mockingly, “You have issues seeing me with Gary? It just makes your blood boil doesn’t it? Well get over it, because last time I checked you were married. Therefore I don’t have to sit around and wait until you are ready to pay attention to me!”
“That’s not what I mean! I get it, I understand, you, Gary and Katie are a happy little family and I screwed up! But why did you tell everyone but me?”
“Why should I have told you? You were done with me, and frankly I was just as done with you.”
“What are you two arguing about?” May poked her head up the staircase causing Ash and Misty to both freeze.
“Uh” Ash looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Ash is mad about the fact that no one told him that Gary and I were together.” Misty rolled her eyes.
“Oh, quit being such a baby, Ash.” May waved him off, “Although, it was a little shocking.”
Misty smiled softly, “Trust me, I was shocked too. Trisha was actually the one that set it up. She had just started dating Brock and felt that she needed to pay me back for introducing them. She had run into Gary at a bookstore and set us up on a blind date. She didn’t realize that we already knew each other. We had a lot of fun, and continued to see each other and now, 5 years later, here we are.”
May sighed, “That’s a sweet story. I never would have guessed that you and Gary would do so well together.”
Ash was silent. Why hadn’t anybody told him? The secrets that his friends seemed to be keeping from him just kept piling up. And his mom? She knew that he had a daughter, and she didn’t think that he should know? This was all too much to handle. He looked over at May. She had a strange look on her face. While she was smiling, her eyes were clouded over and looked almost sad. But that wasn’t possible, how could May be affected by these revelations?
Misty rolled her eyes at Ash, then went back downstairs. May stared at him for what seemed like a long time. He avoided her gaze, looking everywhere but at her face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“Are you okay? You seem really shaken up about Misty and Gary…”
“I-I’m fine. It’s just weird, you know. I saw Gary at Christmas and he never even mentioned that he was seeing anyone. It was just a shock.” He smiled but he knew she would see that it was fake. She gave him a hard look, almost as if trying to read behind his words.
“We should probably go back outside, they might start worrying.” she said softly grabbing his hand and leading him back outside.
a/n: There you go, chapter 7. It ends a little abruptly but I couldn't think of a way to write any more without moving into the events of the next chapter. Just a hint, it's a big one for all the pokeshippers reading this! I'm actually pretty excited to finally be putting all the thoughts that have been swirling around my head down on paper.
