Greetings and welcome to those who have found their way to 4th installment of my story. A couple of things before the chapter gets started. First of all, happy 4th of July to all my American readers out there. Remember to drink responsibly, don't blow your fingers off with fireworks and make sure to enjoy spending time with your family and friends. Second thing, a special shoutout to 'checom127' who is the first person to follow and favorite the story. I really appreciate it homie and I hope you continue to enjoy my story. Third thing, is that I'm really sorry about the late release of this chapter. On top of being busy with work over the summer, I soon realized that chapter 4 would nearly be a whopping 6000 words long, which is my longest chapter as of yet. The fourth and final thing is that the rating for this story is being bumped up to M. This needed to be done as more mature rated content will start to show up in multiple chapters in the near future(but no lemon yet, sorry).

This chapter will include, but is not limited to, time skips, a flashback, more childbirth and slightly burnt window curtains. With me clearly being a new writer, I'm always open to new ideas, constructive criticism or just comments about the story in general so feel free to drop a review or PM me if you feel like it. Give me or the story a follow so you'll get updates when I release new chapters as they are gonna start to get real juicy real quick. Alright, less talk, more read, enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or it's related franchises, but I luckily do own a few pairs of socks.

Additional info before reading:

-This chapter takes place a year, minus a day after the events of Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Rough Beginnings

Shula carefully entered a heavily populated dining room which was littered with balloons and birthday decorations. She was carrying a decorative paper plate that had a single chocolate cupcake on it. The cupcake featured brown icing with red, white and yellow sprinkles and a candle in the shape of a one sitting in the middle of the swirled icing. Slowly sliding her way past some of Kelvin's relatives as well as some of her friends, Shula finally reached Ben who was sitting in a red high chair. Igniting her wrist, brought the candle's wick close enough to spark a flame, then set the plate on the tray of Ben's high chair. Upon seeing the cupcake, Ben immediately began to smile and bounce around in his seat as he started to giggle and chirp cutely in excitement.

"Hey, can someone get the lights?" Shula asking no one in particular.

The room became silent as the major source of light was terminated, leaving the candle's flame to dimly illuminate the room. With singing soon following from almost everyone. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ben, happy birthday to you. May Arceus bless you, may Arceus bless you, may dear Arceus bless Ben, may Arceus bless you."

"Alright Ben, blow out the candle." instructed Shula while pointing to the candle flame.

Ben took a deep breath and managed to blow out the candle, although most of the blowing was actually spitting. Applause from most of the Pokémon followed his little achievement as the dining room lights were reenergized. As soon as Shula prepped the cupcake for consumption, Ben immediately started to peck away at sugary treat. Kelvin, who was standing right next to his son, started cutting a large chocolate cake into slices for the rest of the family to enjoy. This cake featured similarly colored icing and sprinkles and also featured the words 'Happy Birthday Ben' spelled out with white icing. After Kelvin was done cutting the cake, he made his way to his Blaziken brother and Delphox sister-in-law, started a conversation and joked around with them as he usually did.

Shula, who was also talking to one of the many Pokémon there, looked over at Ben with her jaw about dropping through the floor after seeing him. Ben and his high chair were completely covered in cupcake. He had somehow managed to smear the cupcake all throughout his face, wings and chest as well as all over the high chair tray. "Maybe it wasn't the best idea to give Ben a cupcake, unsupervised." Shula thought to herself. But the more she looked at her messy son, the more she found the situation to be kinda funny and cute as she let out a little giggle.

"Hey Kelvin, get a load of Ben." yelled Shula.

Kelvin looked over at Ben. Seeing his very messy son prompted a smile to form on his beak as he let out a little chuckle. Kelvin's brother Jerry also noticed the messy Torchic and decided to join in the laughter.

"Dang, Ben must really like his sugar." joked Jerry.

"Oh, I'm gonna get the camera." squealed Shula, as she got up and bolted into her and Kelvin's bedroom.

...

Kelvin watched his wife run into their bedroom and decided to resume his conversation with Jerry.

"So, how is Ethan doing in school?" quizzed Kelvin.

"He actually doing really well so far. He told me that he's made lots of friends, even with some water types." proudly replied Jerry.

"Wow, really? Well at least it's good to see young kids breaking some of the Pokémon type barriers." stated Kelvin with a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, thank Arceus for that. Hey, do you remember how bad it was when we lived in that water type neighborhood as kids?" asked Jerry, lightly nudging Kelvin on the arm.

Kelvin briefly recalled the hell that was his childhood and shivered at all of the awful memories. "Y-yeah, I remember."

...

Shula moseyed into the dining room wearing a bright smile as she carried a red digital camera. "Alright everyone, get together for a couple pictures." yelled Shula.

Everyone in the room got positioned behind Ben's high chair in preparation for the photo. Shula handed off the camera to her childhood friend, an Infernape named Amy, that showed up to Ben's birthday party only because Shula requested that she do so. After the group of Pokémon got settled for the photo, Amy started a countdown.

"Okay, in 3...2...1" deadpanned Amy, with a few flashes occurring immediately after.

After Shula looked through the photos, satisfied with how they looked, motioned for everyone to return to what they were doing. The group gradually dispersed to their previous places in the home, all except for Jerry and his wife Susie, who were pulled aside by Kelvin and Shula.

"Hey, can we talk to you two for a couple minutes...in private?" requested Kelvin,

almost to the point of whispering.

"Uh, yeah, sure" responded Jerry.

Kelvin and Shula proceeded to lead the Blaziken and Delphox couple to Ben's bedroom, with the door closing behind them. As the parents were discussing a private matter, a Charizard named Sally, who happened to be Ben's appointed godmother, took it upon herself to clean him up.

Sally's POV

Sally stood over the very messy Torchic, thinking of ways how she could possibly tackle cleaning the messiest child she had ever laid eyes on. "How did you manage to get so messy?" she cutely asked Ben, who responding with a couple confused chirps and a slightly tilted head. She carefully picked Ben up whilst getting cupcake all over her hands as she made her way to the kitchen, making sure to hold him way out in front of her. She placed Ben in the sink with him immediately trying to climb out, knowing all too well what would happen if he stayed in the silver bathtub. Sally gently grabbed Ben with a free hand and began to hose him off using the spray nozzle. The Torchic's efforts to escape the watery torture only increased as Ben now resorted to chirping loudly and even pecking at the thing that was holding him hostage.

"Ouch! It's not very nice to peck other Pokémon, Ben." scolded the Charizard.

Ben didn't seem to care as he continued to peck away at Sally's hand while she finished up rinsing him off. Next came a rag and a bar of soap, the most hated part of a bath for Ben. The soap always managed to get into his eyes, making them sting as well as hinder his vision. Sally grabbed the Torchic again, this time with slightly more power and began to thoroughly wash his feathers. Ben was having none of that, as he started to use his sharp talons to assault Sally's hand, causing blood to be drawn.

Oww! C'mon Ben, knock it off!" growled the Charizard, who gave her assailant a Scary Face to gaze upon.

The two Pokémon made eye contact, with Ben's wriggling coming to a slow stop. Sally let out a sigh of relief as she continued washing her godchild, with it now happening retaliation free. Rinsing the last of the soap from Ben's feathers, Sally sat him on the counter while she hunted for a towel to dry the soaking Torchic. After drying him off and combing down his feathers with her claws, Sally made her way into the dining room with Torchic in hand, just as the two couples were making their way out of Ben's bedroom.

Shula looked over to see Sally carrying a sparkling clean Ben which caused her face to light up with amazement. "Woah! Sally, did you clean up Ben?" questioned Shula.

"Yep. Took me a while but I finally got him clean." replied Sally, while handing off the seemingly harmless Torchic to its mother.

"Well thank you so much for going through the hassle of doing that for us. We know all too well how much of a pain it can be to bathe Ben." returned Shula, who looked down at her own hands which featured multiple scars.

"Yeah, he got me pretty good but it's the least I can do after what you two have done for me all these years." thanked Sally.

"Are you three planning to stay for presents?" asked Kelvin, kinda butting in on the current conversation.

"Yeah, we can stay for presents." assured Susie.

"Same here" replied Sally

The parents, happy that the trio could stay, then gathered the remaining Pokémon and made their way to the living room where a large pile of presents and cards awaited to be opened. Making themselves comfortable on the loveseat, they slowly began to open the numerous presents and cards. The large, colorful pile of gifts began to shrink until there were no unopened presents left. The majority of Ben's gifts turned out to be baby toys, clothes, money for future schooling, some food and even a few rare candies. With all of the presents having been opened, many Pokémon began to announce their leave.

"Hold on everyone, we got one more present for Ben to open." announced Kelvin. Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a small red box with a bow on top and held it in front of Ben. "Go ahead Ben, open it" encouraged the Blaziken.

Ben, using his beak, pulled up on the bow which lifted the lid, revealing his gift to everyone. Gasps filled the room with many of the Pokémon recognizing the gift. It was a large, peculiar-looking, cream colored marble with a red and black design at its center. The confused Torchic led go of the lid and pecked a couple times at the marble, prompting some laughter to fill the room.

Kelvin pointed at the marble and looked over at his now one year old son. "It's called a Mega Stone, Ben. You'll get to use it when your older, like this." Kelvin picked up the stone and held it firmly in his hand as he began to concentrate. A bright glow soon enveloped his body with everyone in the room shielding their eyes from the bright light. The light subsided as the group of Pokémon began to gaze at the Mega Blaziken in the room. Everyone found the transformation to be quite fascinating but Ben, however, wasn't so amused. He took one look at the slightly taller and scarier Pokémon and immediately burst into tears.

"K-Kelvin please, y-your scaring Ben." informed Shula, who held Ben close to her chest.

Kelvin looked down at his crying son and realized his mistake, concentrating once again as he began to return to his normal form. The now normal Blaziken returned the stone to the red box, closing it and hiding it away for the foreseeable future. Kelvin returned to his spot on the loveseat and joined Shula in comforting Ben.

"Hey Ben." stated Kelvin

The Torchic removed his head from Shula's chest and looked over at the normal looking Blaziken. Happy to see that his father was no longer a scary monster, began to motion that he wanted Kelvin to hold him. Shula passed Ben off to Kelvin who hugged his son close to him, still feeling really guilty for scaring Ben to the point of tears. Shula then realized that everyone who showed up for the party hadn't left yet. Getting up from her seat, she thanked all of them for coming and wished them a brilliant rest of their day. One by one, pair by pair, the numerous visitors said their goodbyes to the family of three as the house became less and less populated by the minute. After Shula said farewell to the final Pokémon, she made her way back to the living room, to find Kelvin and Ben sleeping soundly on the loveseat.

Although she hated doing so, Shula woke up Kelvin, "Hey sleepy, you know there's a thing called a bed that Pokémon usually do that in, right?" sarcastically greeted Shula.

Kelvin looked up at his wife, meeting her beautiful eyes, "Sorry about that, Ben fell asleep and I guess I kinda followed suit." answered Kelvin while stretching. He stood up and gently picked up Ben, trying his best not to wake him up. The Blaziken looked over at his wife who had her hands on her hips while giving him a suggestive look.

"You know...sleeping isn't the only thing that we have to do in our bed." wooed Shula, giving her husband a seductive wink while walking to their bedroom with her hips swaying back and forth.

Kelvin followed every move her body made, thoroughly admiring all of her curves and attractive features. "Damn I'm lucky." he thought to himself as he made quick work of placing Ben in his cradle and rushed into his bedroom with the door closing behind him.

Shula shook the excess urine off of the pregnancy test and painfully awaited its result. She hadn't had her period in a little over a month and figured that she may as well spend a couple bucks to make sure that she wasn't pregnant. Only having to wait a couple minutes before seeing the very faint signs of a second red line appearing where it should. Shula closed her eyes in defeat as she waited a couple more minutes, only to be greeted with a much more distinct second red line. Her heart sank into her stomach as she let out a big sigh. Shula wasn't against having another kid, in fact, she wanted a couple more. But the initial fear of being pregnant again stemmed from something that Kelvin had said a couple weeks ago.

Flashback...

An audible crying sound could be heard from Ben's room, half-waking both Kelvin and Shula. It had been the 3rd time that night Ben had woken up his parents with his distress call. Kelvin slowly got up and started to walk around the bed, making the final turn a little too early which led to him stubbing his toe on the wheel post of the bed frame. This caused him to fall and double over in pain as he began to hold his now throbbing foot while cursing under his breath.

"Wha-what happened?" asked Shula, still half asleep.

"I stubbed my Arceus forsaken foot on the lousy bed frame again" growled Kelvin as he continued to wince in pain.

"Do you want me to...t-take care of Ben?" asked Shula who had fallen asleep mid question.

"No, no, I got it." insisted Kelvin while slowly getting up as he began to limp towards the doorway. He then unintentionally walked face first into the door frame, causing Kelvin to reel back a few feet as held his beak in pain. "You gotta be fu..." Kelvin stopped himself from swearing and instead let out a big sigh and ignited his wrists, giving some light to the pitch black room. "I wish we never would've had a kid" angrily mumbled Kelvin as he felt the room.

Shula, although half asleep, heard her husband's mumble and sat up in shock of what he had just said. She didn't think that it was even possible for Kelvin to say anything remotely close to wishing that Ben didn't exist. It also didn't make sense to her either as Kelvin seemed to love Ben to the ends of the earth. Shula slowly laid back down, confused and concerned about what the Blaziken had just said.

After about 20 minutes of comforting Ben as well as changing his diaper, Kelvin returned to bed. Making sure to give himself well enough clearance around the bed frame as to not stub his toe again. He fell back into bed, quickly putting covers over his lower body and immediately fell back to sleep. Shula however, remained wide awake. Her mind still trying to grasp Kelvin's eight word sentence as she began thinking about the future of her marriage, the future of this family, and Ben's future. These thoughts haunted her throughout the night, keeping her up as she shed a couple tears in fear of what the near future held, with sleep finally reaching her about an hour later.

...

Shula's feared that if Kelvin found out that she was pregnant again, he would pack up and just leave her. She had to figure out some way to hide that she was pregnant, but how could she do that? Kelvin would surely notice the obvious signs that his wife was expecting and telling him after multiple months of being pregnant probably wouldn't go over well either. Another option crossed her mind, an immoral and unjust act that went against everything that she had learned throughout her life. That option was an abortion. The eight letter word sent shivers down her spine as she couldn't even bare the thought of having an unborn child killed and removed from her body like some sort of disease. She pushed the evil train of thought out of her head, realizing that the only proper thing to do was to come clean and tell Kelvin.

Picking up the pregnancy test, she exited the bathroom and made her way to the living room. There she found Kelvin and Ben sitting on the couch, enjoying some early morning cartoons playing on the TV. Gingerly walking up to Kelvin, she presented the pregnancy test to her husband, who took it to get a closer look. The blaziken about jumped right through the roof upon seeing the pair of lines on the pregnancy test. He immediately got up and embraced his slightly shorter wife, lifting her off of the floor about six inches. Shula was beyond confused, unable to truly comprehend what was happening in that moment. She fully expected for Kelvin to flip complete shit after seeing that she was expecting, and now he was hugging her? Kelvin paused his hug and looked down at his wife's who was sporting a face that had 'extremely confused' written all over it, prompting him to pry with a question.

"What's the matter honey? Aren't you happy that we're having another kid?" eagerly asked Kelvin.

"I-I mean yeah, but I thought you didn't want to have another one." mumbled Shula, trailing off at the end of her sentence.

Kelvin's bright expression dissipated, being replaced with a look of concern. "That's crazy Shula, what would give you an idea like that?" questioned Kelvin.

Shula let out a sad sigh, "It was something you said a couple weeks ago and it's been playing back in my head ever since then." explained the Blaziken, trying to contain her emotions as best as she could.

Kelvin was always careful about what he said around his wife and didn't remember saying anything that would deter her from wanting to have another kid. "Well, what did I say?" inquired Kelvin.

Shula started losing her emotional battle with tears starting to form. "You said that you w-wish that we never had a k-kid." stuttered Shula.

Kelvin let go of his wife in shock and took a few steps back. He couldn't believe what he supposedly said to Shula and definitely didn't remember saying anything like that to her either. "W-when did I say that?" fearfully asked Kelvin.

Shula was now on the verge of bursting into tears. "R-remember when you s-s-stubbed your toe on the bed f-frame? You said it right a-after that happened and I unfortunately h-heard it." trembled Shula.

Kelvin did remember stubbing his toe, but couldn't recall if he said anything after that. He also remembered being extremely sleep deprived that night and really pissed that his toe and beak suffered injuries within thirty seconds of each other. All of a sudden it hit Kelvin, Shula had been living in fear of him for the past 2 weeks. That would explain her odd behaviors recently: leaving the room when he entered the same, putting little effort into their daily share of affection and even refusing to talk to him for hours, sometimes entire days. Now Kelvin wanted to cry, not only for his wife but for his marriage, both of which had been suffering for the past couple weeks.

Shula was now crying, tears running down her cheeks and all throughout her feathers. Kelvin took notice and decided to wipe away some of the salty drops of sadness, prompting the crying Blaziken to open her eyes. "It's alright Shula, I'm not gonna leave you." reassured Kelvin.

"Y-you're n-not?" sobbed Shula.

Kelvin just shook his head, "I love you Shula, and I wouldn't trade you, Ben or our second child for the entire word." promised Kelvin, while laying a caring hand on Shula's stomach.

She was beyond overjoyed to hear those words as she hugged her husband while she cried tears of joy, burying her face into Kelvin's chest with his feathers soaking up all of her tears. Kelvin gave his wife a gentle hug with one arm, while kneading her long head feathers with the other. The loud, happy crying of Shula got the attention of Ben who looked over from the TV to see his mother, face deep in his fathers chest. Slowly scooting his way to the end of the couch, hopped down and made his way to Shula. Feeling something small grab her, Shula looked down at her leg, prompting Kelvin to do so also. Both of the parents found Ben hugging Shula's leg with him looking straight up at her with a confused expression.

"Why mommy sad?" question the little Torchic.

Both of the parents' hearts melted into nothingness in reaction to the cuteness overload that was their son. Shula bent down and picked Ben up, who proceeded to then snuggle her neck. The Blaziken couple shared a kiss before sitting down together on the couch, now enjoying the cartoons together as a happy family once again.

"Shula, I'm gonna need you to push a little harder this time, okay? requested a white masked Dr. Al.

"O-okay" responded Shula through a gritted beak.

Screaming once again filled the room and the adjacent hallway as Shula pushed with all her might. Kelvin was at his wife's side, holding her hand which could've easily been mistaken for a vice grip. He had no idea how strong Shula actually was, but he guessed that when your giving birth there's really no limits to your grip strength. All of a sudden, the tight grip on his hand became relaxed as the screaming finally died down but was soon replaced with the cry of a newborn Torchic. Sighs of relief filled the room as Dr. Al hoisted up the newly born Torchic.

"Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Blaze, it's another boy!" exclaimed the Alakazam.

A bunch of newborn screenings and some cleanup later...

"So, what name have you two decided on this time?" inquired Dr. Al.

"I think we're gonna go with Lucas Firestorm Blaze, this time." answered Kelvin, with Shula just nodding her head in approval.

...

Now Ben wasn't present at the hospital when his brother was born. He was back at home, being babysat by a 15 year old Ninetails named Jess. She did have previous experience with babysitting very young Pokémon but nothing could prepare her for what would happen in the next few minutes.

Jess was comfortably laying on the couch, contently watching her favorite TV show, Flareon Feud. As she was adjusting her position on the couch, slight hints of smoke began to fill her sensitive nostrils. The more she sniffed the stronger the scent seemed to become. "What the heck?" Jess said to herself, taking a few more good whiffs, while started to look around the room for Ben but ultimately failing to find him. All of a sudden the smoke detectors went off, beeping fiercely with Jess lowering her also sensitive ears. Getting concerned about her and Ben's safety, she got up and started to frantically searching first in the living room, then in the dining room and finally in the kitchen where she found him using Ember on a kitchen towel that was hanging from a drying rack. Jess looked farther back in the kitchen to see the kitchen table and also some drawers that were charred black and smoking due to Ben's previous assaults. She picked Ben up and placed him behind her, then turned her attention to the burning towel. Carefully grabbing the non-smoldering part, ripped it off of the rack and onto the floor. She then proceeded to put the fire out with her large group of tails, smothering the flame until it went out.

Catching her breath, she turned around to find that Ben had wandered off again. She entered the dining room to find few newly burnt chairs and a slowly growing fire on the window curtains. Now Jess was starting to panic. She quickly grabbed a flower vase, pulling the flowers out and splashed the water on the burning curtains, luckily extinguishing the fire. Jess reluctantly entered the living room to find a scorched coffee table, a burning loveseat and couch. Frantically stamping out and smothering the remaining fires, she looked over to see Ben who had begun to charge up an Ember attack pointed directly at the large flat screen tv. Her heart skipped a beat, fearing the worst if Ben landed that attack. She sped over and positioned herself between Ben and the tv with her arms stretched wide as she started to use Hypnosis, releasing pulses of hypnotic psychic energy towards Ben. He fell for the trick, as his eyes started to droop with his body promptly dropping to the floor, out cold. Jess let out a massive sigh of relief and began to survey the damage, realizing that it was way worse than she had originally thought. "Oh Arceus, I am so dead" Jess fearfully said to herself.

...

Kelvin exited the bus, thankfully not having to deal with a moody Ampharos for a bus driver this time. He quickly made his way home, excited to pick up Ben so he could finally meet his new baby brother. As he opened the entrance to his home, Kelvin was greeted with the distinct smell of smoke. Entering the kitchen he immediately spotted new singe marks on the kitchen table with more being on the lower kitchen cabinets as well. His inspection was cut short as the sound of soft padding entered the kitchen. Kelvin looked over to see a rough looking Ninetails with frizzled fur, soot marks all throughout her body and bloodshot eyes. Kelvin's jaw dropped as his eyes got huge at seeing the complete mess of a babysitter.

"Wha-what happened to you?" concerningly asked Kelvin.

"Uummm...Ben kinda started setting a bunch of stuff around the house on fire which I had to hunt and quickly put out. I think he did that for a good 10 minutes before I could use Hypnosis on him to calm him down." spoke the Ninetails with her head hung low, feeling ashamed that she couldn't stop Ben from starting any of the fires and the fact that she forcibly put Ben to sleep.

Kelvin wasn't upset at all that any of this happened, but he was a little jealous that Jess knew Hypnosis. "It'd be real nice to know how to use that move" he thought to himself, recalling all the times it would seem that Ben would never stop crying. Kelvin resumed his inspection of the newly burnt parts of the house, making his way into the dining room and eventually into the living room, where he found Ben under a blanket, snoozing away on the couch.

He looked back at Jess, "When did you put him asleep?" quizzed Kelvin while pointing towards Ben.

Jess took a couple seconds to gauge the time, "I think like five or ten minutes before you showed up. Although I'm not really sure."

Kelvin just sighed and signaled for Jess to follow him as he made his way to the kitchen with a very worried Ninetails in tow. Kelvin opened a cabinet and started to rummage through it, eventually pulling out a small potion bottle and placing it on the counter. "Okay Jess, I just want to say that..." Kelvin wassuddebly interrupted by a childish sob coming from Jess. She had collapsed on the floor with paws over her eyes, crying uncontrollably. Never before had anything like this happened to her and the fact that she also forcibly put a kid to sleep made it even worse. Not only did she feel bad for Ben, she feared that Kelvin was going to fire her right then and there.

"P-please don't fire me Mr. Blaze. I-I didn't mean for a-any of this to happen, I s-swear." pleaded Jess.

Kelvin looked down at Jess with a caring smile slowly forming on his beak. Bending down, he pet the crying Ninetails which prompted her to look up at him with tears still running down her cheeks. "I know you feel badly about what happened today and I assure you that it's not your fault. Sometimes events like these happen that are just way beyond anyone's control." These words seemed to calm Jess down a bit as the waterworks started to let up.

"What I was going to say is that I am very impressed by your ability to keep calm in a stressful situation, like what Ben just put you through. I firmly believe that if you weren't the one babysitting today, this house would probably be up in flames with Ben still in it." Kelvin shivered in fear at the last part of his sentence.

Jess slowly got up, with her head still held low. "I r-really thought that you were gonna f-f-fire me after you came home to this." said Jess' trembling voice.

"Your too great of an asset to be fired Jess and I'm not completely sure what me and Shula would do without you." confidently spoke the Blaziken, who was sporting an infectious smile.

That's all that Jess needed to hear as she quickly sped over to Kelvin hugged the hell out of his right leg, which caught him a bit off guard. "Thank you so, so much Mr. Blaze." said the grateful Ninetails, as she enjoyed the warmth of Kelvin's leg.

"It's no problem kiddo." replied Kelvin, who returned her hug with a couple pats on the back.

"Hey, maybe next time you can show me where you keep your fire extinguishers" joked Jess.

Kelvin chuckled at the Ninetails' clever joke as he made his way to the sleeping Torchic with an awakening potion in hand. "I'll show you where they are next time you come up to babysit, alright?" Jess smiled as she followed Kelvin into the living room and started gathering her things.

"Hey Jess, I know we agreed to 25 poke-dollars but I think you deserve a little more for dealing with Ben's shenanigans today." spoke Kelvin, as he reached into his wallet and pulled out a fifty dollar poke bill and held it in front of Jess.

Jess' jaw dropped upon seeing the priceless piece of paper, "A-Are you sure Mr. Blaze? That's a lot of money for one babysitting."

"You've earned it today. Take it kid." insisted Kelvin, while still continuing to impose the bill on Jess.

"T-thank you Mr. Blaze." taking the bill in her mouth, opening her purse and placing the generous babysitting payment in it. The two Pokémon said their goodbyes with Kelvin getting right to work on waking up his son. Carefully spraying the contents near Ben's beak, he watched the potion do its job as two little sleepy eyes slowly opened.

"Hi Benny" greeted Kelvin.

Ben's eyes got wide as he jumped up from his covers towards his father. "Daddy!"

Kelvin caught Ben and gave him a big hug. "Did you have fun with Jess?"

"Yeah, yeah, we play firefighter." replied Ben while flapping his tiny wings.

Kelvin was shocked that Ben had a name for the 'game' that he was playing with Jess. "Oh, t-that's great Ben but no playing that game when mommy or daddy aren't here, okay?" scolded Kelvin.

"Ok" sadly replied Ben.

Kelvin hated seeing Ben upset but knew that the next piece of news would raise his spirits, "Hey, do you wanna see your new brother?"

Ben gasped, "I have a brudder?"

"Yep, he was born a couple hours ago. Are you ready to go see him?"

Ben furiously nodded his head and with that Kelvin and Ben were off to the bus stop.

That's all from this chapter folks. I'd like to thank everyone who has made it this far into my story and make sure to stay tuned, for the future of this story is looking up. A friendly reminder to the people reading this that I frequently post and update the status and release dates of the chapters that I'm currently writing on my profile page. Follow me or the story to get notifications on when a new chapter goes live. Everyone have an awesome rest of your day and I will talk to you peeps in Chapter 5 :D