It was a typical morning in the Ketchum household. Delia had just finished her morning chores and was settling down with a cup of tea to watch the news while Mimie merrily swept the floor.

"The mysterious disappearance of Professor Spencer Hale and the crystalline entity that has appeared outside his Greenfield mansion tops our stories today."

A wave of shock ran through Delia.

Spencer? Oh, no!

She quickly ran to the refrigerator door and started yanking off memos, old shopping lists, and other bits of paper until she found what she was looking for.

"How much more can Spencer go through?" she agonized as she located the picture she was searching for. It was a picture of Spencer, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Molly. Standing next to the Hales was another family: Ash, Professor Oak, and Delia.

Many years ago, both Spencer and Delia had been graduate students at Professor Oak's lab. They were old friends and Delia had been thrilled to see Spencer again after so many years. Shortly after she had started working at the lab, Delia's husband left her for his ex-girlfriend. After his departure, Spencer had tried to pursue a relationship with Delia, but Samuel was the man who had won her heart.

Delia lifted the first picture to reveal another one. This one was even older than the first one, taken while she was a student at the lab. It had been taken the day Spencer had departed for a six-week expedition with Professor Alder, an expert in legendary Pokémon.

While Spencer was gone, Samuel and Delia had given into their mutual longing for each other. That night of passion nine months later resulted in the birth of one Ash Ketchum. But they couldn't tell anyone their secret. If word ever got out that Professor Oak had slept with one of his students and gotten her pregnant, the resulting scandal would destroy his career. And Delia couldn't live with herself knowing that she was responsible for that.

But Spencer knew. He was the only other person who knew their secret. He had figured it out when he returned from his expedition. Shortly thereafter, he left the lab for good to become Professor Alder's research assistant. While he was working for Professor Alder, Spencer met another graduate student named Elizabeth Deschamps. She was working on her Ph.D. in archaeology and Spencer was immediately smitten. They married the following year and settled in Pallet Town for a couple of years after getting their respective degrees. Even though they now lived in Greenfield in Johto with their daughter Molly, they stopped by to visit Delia and Ash once in a while. That was, until a little over two years ago when Elizabeth disappeared while on an archaeological expedition. Spencer was heartbroken and tried the best he could to raise Molly on his own, often calling Delia for advice. He had even called her last week about Molly's refusal to eat any foods that were green.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with her, Delia. She's got to eat her vegetables."

"Don't worry about it, Spencer. It's a stage that most kids go through."

"Did Ash ever do this?"

"Well, no. I've never had a problem with Ash refusing food."

Spencer smiled.

Delia continued. "One thing you might want to try is blending in the green stuff with food of another color. You could puree spinach or broccoli into spaghetti sauce and she'd never notice. Or you could go crazy with food coloring and turn her green beans red or blue or some other wild color. Ash used to like when I'd turn his mashed potatoes orange or purple."

Spencer laughed. "I'll have to tell the cook about that. Maybe I'll give purple mashed potatoes a try tonight at dinner! Thanks, Delia."

"Good luck, Spencer. Give Molly a hug for me."

"I will. Tell Ash that whenever he's in Greenfield he and his friends are more than welcome to stop by."

"I'll do that. Bye, Spencer."

"Good-bye, Delia. And thanks again."

Poor Spencer, she thought as she hung up the phone. Even with all of those servants, he still needs someone to help him raise Molly.

Spencer had been thinking the same thing. Even though he knew that Delia still loved Samuel, there were often times when he wished that things had worked out differently between them. The other night he had even dreamed that he and Delia had gotten married and were raising Molly together.

Molly's tugging at his sleeve interrupted his thoughts. "What are you thinking about, Papa?"

"Oh, just thinking about an old friend, Molly," he said as he swept his daughter up in his arms. "Come on. Let's go talk to the cook about dinner tonight!"