Okay, so it wasn't necessarily a quick update, but it was quicker then my previous ones! :P It was Spring Break so I was busy spending it with friends and family. It may be a lame excuse, but hey, the next chapter did get here, did it not?

DISCLAIMER: Pokemon and all related characters are owned by Nintendo and all those Japanese companies I can't spell or remember. . In other words… I DON'T OWN THEM!

Chapter 7

The next morning, the sun coming in through the window was what woke James. Wait, the sun?? James blinked his eyes open, and sure enough, the sun was shining directly in his line of vision. He shut his eyes quickly to avoid going blind, and then made sure to lift his head up before opening them again. James got up and stretched and walked over to the window. He looked out and saw that the snowstorm had finally subsided. But now, there had to be at least 12 inches of snow out there, probably more. It had been snowing 24/7 for about three days now.

Well, that's okay. They had made it through deep snow before. Besides, they could always resort to their trusty Meowth Balloon if all else failed.

Now the only thing left was to wait until Jessie woke up. Then they could finally head for Quartz Town.

A knock on the door interrupted James' train of thoughts and the peace and quiet in the room. James let the person in to find it was Misty again. Only this time, she had a tray full of breakfast.

"Hope you're hungry," she said. "I brought you breakfast."

James licked his lips. "Thanks!"

Misty looked behind him at Jessie. "Has Jessie woken up at all?" she asked.

James shook his head. "Her temperature is down, but…" he trailed off. "Do you think she's okay?"

"Hey, if Pikachu's Thunderbolt never hurt you all that badly, what's a little snow gonna do?" she said.

"Yeah," James sighed. "I guess you're right. I just need to stop worrying so much."

Misty set the tray of breakfast down on a small table beside the chair James had lived in for the past two days.

Before she turned to leave the room, she said, "Make sure you tell my granny when Jessie wakes up. We'll need to make sure there won't be any aftermath damage to her. You know, like shock or vomiting."

James nodded. "I will," he told her.

Misty smiled at him before opening the door.

"Wait!" James stopped her. Misty turned to him. "Thanks for, you know, not kicking us out of here," he said with a sheepish expression.

"Don't worry about it, James," she said back. "We made a truce remember? I have to honor it."

"As do I, so I just thought I owed you all a thanks," James replied. "I know Team Rocket isn't the nicest group of people in the world, but we do have hearts."

Misty's smile returned. She hesitated before grabbing James' hand.

"I know you do, James. I just wish you didn't try to hide it all the time," she said to him.

"I'll try not to in the future," he said jokingly.

They shared a laugh before Misty left the bedroom and went back to the main room where Amy was. James walked back over to his chair and sat down in it so he could eat. It seemed he could fill his stomach as much as possible, yet he'd still be hungry.

Meowth, who had been sleeping on the bed next to Jessie, opened one eye.

"So, wat was dat all about?" he asked. Apparently he had been awake for a while.

"Misty brought us breakfast and asked if Jessie was okay," James answered, cutting his conversation with Misty short. He held up a biscuit to Meowth. "You hungry?"

Meowth leapt up. "You bet!"

He snatched the biscuit from James and devoured it in one bite. James smirked. Meowth was just like him as far as appetites went. They always seemed to be hungry. No matter how much they fed their stomachs. Perhaps that's why they ran out of money so quickly.

As James ate his own biscuit (there were no donuts today), he wondered about Jessie. She must be starving by now. He was surprised she hadn't woken up just because she was hungry. He thought he might as well wake her. She could always go back to sleep if she needed to.

"Hey Jess," he shook her gently. "Wake up."

--

Jessie heard a voice in the very back of her head. She listened to it closely before she could understand what it was saying: Wake up.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a sea of emerald. She looked around her and found everything was blurry. She noticed some lavender as well as lots of yellow and one blotch of brown.

Jessie blinked a few times before everything came into focus. The first thing that came into focus was James. Meowth followed after, and then the rest of the room after them. Jessie didn't know where she was. The last thing she could recall was James yelling at her, her running out into the snowstorm, her sending Arbok to find James, and then… nothing.

She looked up at James again and saw he was grinning ear to ear. What was he so happy about?

"Jessie, you're awake!" he hollered.

"We tot yous were never gonna wake!" Meowth said.

"You've been out for about three days now," James said.

"You had us on da edge of our seats! Don't ya ever do sometin' dat stupid again ya hear me?" Meowth told her sternly, shaking a paw at her accusingly.

Jessie just sat there blinking. "What are you two talking about?" she asked.

The room then fell silent. So silent James could hear the Pidgeys and Starlys outside. Jessie saw James gulp and his smile instantly vanished.

"What? What's wrong with you two?" she asked.

"Jessie, d-do you remember what happened to you?" James asked cautiously.

"Do ya remember yer name? What about Team Rocket? Do ya remember dem? Ya have to remember me and Jimmy! We've been by yer side since da beginning of time! Speak ta me, sista!" Meowth yelled at her, on the edge of a panic attack.

"SHUT UP YOU STUPID FELINE, OF COURSE I REMEMBER MY NAME AND YOU GUYS! I DON'T HAVE AMNESIA!" she barked.

Meowth and James sighed. "That's good," James said.

There was a moment's pause.

"But, seriously Jess, do you remember what happened to you?" James asked.

"I remember a girl being very concerned about her friend after he had pulled himself up and a mountain and almost gotten killed. I also remember that same girl trying to make sure her friend was alright, and her friend only yelling at her. Then there's that part where that girl's friend breaks her heart by telling her she's worthless. The girl then ran out into the raging snowstorm with nothing, but her Pokemon and a broken heart. Other then that, nothing. Why do you ask?" Jessie explained bitterly.

James sulked at her words and felt as though a knife had been plunged through his heart. He knew she was referring to their fight days ago. James also knew he was on thin ice now. One wrong move and he could find himself in a world of pain.

"Jessie look, about the argument… I didn't-."

Jessie didn't let James finish. "How could you James? How could you do something that cruel?" she asked him. James could just make out a small line of tears on her eyelids.

"Uh, I tink I'll go see how lunch is comin' along…" Meowth said. He really didn't want to get caught in the middle of another argument. Plus, he couldn't stand to see Jessie and James fight. He left the room, and doubted Jessie or James even knew he was gone.

"I thought we were supposed to be best friends, James. Weren't we? Does our friendship mean so little to you that you can just throw it away like that?" she snapped at him.

"Jessie I-."

"All I was trying to find out was if you were alright. You didn't have to go off on me like you did. Is it wrong for a friend to be concerned? You were hanging onto the side of a mountain, James! You could have easily fallen and died! Don't you know how worried I was?"

James didn't bother to say anything. He hung his head and let Jessie's words rip through him. He knew she was right. He shouldn't have yelled, but at the time, he was so shaken up from the experience that he couldn't think straight. He'd take it all back if he could.

Then why couldn't he tell her that?

"After all we've been through together…" Jessie went on. "We've been friends for eleven years. Eleven years, James. You have no idea how happy I was throughout those eleven years. I don't care that we always failed at catching Pikachu. We failed together, and in the end we laughed it off. Together. As best friends. Don't these words mean anything to you anymore, James?"

James found himself close to tears now. However, he still remained silent and waited for it to end; like he did with everything else. He never took action with anything. He would always wait until it was over or hope something else would stop it for him. He knew it was wrong, but he was too afraid to do anything. He was afraid of Jessie.

Meowth, who was listening in on their conversation through the door, was waiting for James to say something. Only James could make things right again. Meowth knew he was used to having people help him through with things, but things had to change. He had to do this himself. Meowth wasn't going to help and of course Jessie wasn't either.

Back inside the room, both humans had fallen silent. James could hear Jessie panting and trying to recover from her outburst. Soon, however, James heard Jessie making a different noise. A noise he hadn't heard her make since she was a little girl.

Jessie was crying.

Well, she was trying not too, but it was no use. James looked up at her and could see the tears that had been building in her eyes break through the wall and begin cascading down her cheeks.

"Y-You could've died James!" she shouted at him. "Can that fact even register in your brain? I was worried you would fall! You could've easily fallen!" she yelled at him.

Jessie lowered her head and tried to stop the tears by shutting her eyes, but the tears still leaked through.

"I-If you h-had died… I-I don't know what I would've done. I-I wouldn't be able to go on," she told him, her voice slightly lower then it had been.

"Jess-." James tried to make an attempt to comfort her by climbing up on to bed next to her, but Jessie only pushed him away.

"W-We're supposed to be friends James," she said.

"We are friends," James said back.

"We're supposed to b-become the b-best members of Team Rocket," she still wouldn't look at James.

"We will, Jessie," James told her, trying to climb back onto the bed again.

"We're s-supposed to be with each other f-f-forever."

"We will be."

"We're supposed to r-retire and become Pokemon trainers. T-Together."

"And we will, Jessie."

"How come you're so sure?" she snapped at him, her eyes glaring a hole through his face. "How do you know all these things?"

James gulped. He had to say something. Slowly, with much hesitation, James grabbed one of Jessie's hands.

"Because," he said. He took one hand and reached down his shirt before pulling out a gold chain he was wearing around his neck. On the end of the chain was a small locket in the shape of a crescent moon. He watched as Jessie's eyes grew wide. "We're best friends. Together forever." He jingled the locket around. "This is proof. Y-You still have yours… right?"

James was now sweating. What if Jessie had thrown her locket into the snow after he yelled at her three days ago? James gulped. She couldn't have done that. These lockets were special. James had won them both at a small carnival they went to in between retiring from the bike gang and joining Team Rocket.

He had given Jessie the sun locket while he kept the moon locket. That day was still so clear to him.

--

"Yes! I won Jessie!" a twelve year-old James hollered, pumping his fist in the air.

"Good job, James!" an eleven (almost twelve) year-old Jessie had said back.

James retrieved his prizes from the counter and turned to face Jessie. He looked at both necklaces in his hands before handing one to Jessie.

"Here, I want you to have this one," he had said.

Jessie took the necklace with the sun on it. "Thank you James, but why are you giving it to me? You won it," she said.

James shrugged and smiled. "We're best friends. We need something to represent that friendship. As long as we keep wearing these necklaces, we'll keep on being friends."

"Why did you give me the sun half?" Jessie asked. She wasn't trying to be rude, she was just curious.

"Well, you're always full of energy and sometimes you do have a hot temper. I'm usually calm and quiet, just like the nights when the moon is shining," James explained, putting the necklace on.

Jessie smiled before giving James a quick peck on his cheek. James instantly went crimson.

"You're so sweet James," she had told him.

--

James gulped again. "You do have yours, right Jess?" he asked again.

A few seconds went by which felt like years to James before Jessie moved her hand. Copying James' previous motions, she reached down her shirt and pulled out a golden chain with a small sun on the end. James grinned.

They sat there holding the lockets and staring at each other in silence for a long while before any words were spoken.

"Did you really mean what you said nine years ago, James?" Jessie asked him. She had stopped crying by now. "That we'll always be friends as long as we have these?"

James nodded back quickly. "I meant what I said with all my heart," he said.

A small smile flickered across her face. Then she closed her hand around the locket and looked down.

"Then… why did you-?"

James put his fingers to her lips. "I yelled at you because I wasn't thinking straight. I had just experienced a life-threatening situation, Jessie. I was badly shaken up from the whole thing, and I guess I wasn't thinking clearly," he told her. He removed his fingers from her lips. "Think about it Jess, would I really yell at you like that if I was in the right state of mind?"

Jessie shook her head. "No, I know you wouldn't have, but… your words were just filled with such hate… I thought-." She didn't finish for she had begun crying a bit again.

James pulled her into a tight embrace. Jessie must've thought that James didn't want to be friends anymore. That's why she had gotten so upset. Not because he yelled at her, but because of what he had yelled at her.

"I'm sorry Jessie. I really am," James told her. "If I could take it all back I could. But, you know now that I didn't mean it, don't you?"

He felt Jessie nod her head into his chest. "I'm sorry I ran away," she mumbled. "That was a very immature and stupid thing of me to do."

"I'm just glad you're okay," he whispered.

She smiled and looked up at him. "I'm just glad we're still friends," she whispered back.

"We'll always be friends," he told her.

"Best friends."

"Together…"

"… forever."

Okay, I hope the last part didn't go overboard with fluff or make Jessie and James seem OOC. I just wanted to make it really sweet. Oh, and in the next chapter I'll wrap things up. Yep, that means it's the last!

Oh and beware, it'll most likely be kinda short. Kinda like an epilogue rather then a chapter.