The next day she ate breakfast at the pokemon center, and then went to check out the market again. She and Yarrow enjoyed seeing all the different types of food, Yarrow managing to wrangle a bite or two from kindhearted stall owners. Alex wandered around. Now that Yan was gone, she really didn't know what she wanted to do. There was plenty of time until her next gym battle, and she had no particular goal in mind. Rivertimed seemed like a nice place to stay, but she wasn't sure how she'd get money. Alex had only been in two real battles, one she had lost, the other she had barely won and had more to do with Yarrow's abilities than her own. She hadn't trained at all, preferring to just avoid wild pokemon if possible. Alex didn't like the idea of training either. She hated seeing Yarrow hurt, and Yarrow dying continued to haunt her dreams. She wished there was a way to make Yarrow stronger without training her.

These were the thoughts that were in Alex's mind when a girl yelled 'Wanna have a battle?' at her while she was walking through out near the edge of town. Alex had heard a few challenges like that, probably because Yarrow ran around her feet, but she had turned them all down.

This time when she turned the trainer down, the girl shrugged and threw out a pokeball, catching it deftly as her eevee landed on the ground.

"Quick attack the girl, eevee."

Alex gasped, not believing that command. It couldn't be allowed, could it?

Whether it was allowed or not, Alex was still knocked over by the eevee, falling on her hands and wincing as they scraped against the ground.

Yarrow was furious, and didn't wait for any attack to be ordered, simply launching herself at the other eevee.

Alex tried to watch the battle, but it all became a blur of brown and 'Tackle', 'Quick Attack' and 'Bite'.

When it was finally over, and it felt like eternity, Yarrow was on the ground with a misshapen leg and bleeding heavily. She was trying to get up, but obviously couldn't. Alex began to cry. She stood up and stumbled over to Yarrow.

"Your money." Sighed the girl, obviously uncaring. "Half of it, in case you didn't know."

Alex reached down and gently picked Yarrow up, resisting the urge to throw up at the sight of blood.

The girl sighed again.

"She'll be fine. Pokemon heal fast, don't you know that?"

Alex vaguely wondered how she knew Yarrow was a girl, but it was pushed aside by more pressing thoughts.

"Do you want me to carry you, or put you in a pokeball?" Alex asked Yarrow quietly, somehow afraid talking would hurt her.

"Eevee." Replied Yarrow faintly, pushing just a bit closer to Alex.

"Money, come on kid."

"I don't have any." Alex said slowly, having to think about these words. It wasn't completely true; Alex did have a bit of spare change. But it was extremely meager, and she didn't think this trainer would care for half of it.

"Waste of time." Muttered the girl under her breath, turning around and leaving. Her eevee seemed to want to go over to Yarrow and Alex, but she called it as she walked away and it followed.

Alex took Yarrow to the hospital and listened to a kindly nurse explain that Yarrow would be perfectly fine, eevees were sturdy, she'd just need a few days all wrapped up, and that Alex should get some sleep.

Alex did as she suggested, only to have awful dreams of Yarrow dying in the hospital room. After two of these, she gave up sleeping and went to visit Yarrow.

Almost all of Yarrow's body was covered in white bandages, and she was sleeping peacefully. Seeing this Alex felt so much guilt she could drown in it. She supposed other trainers would have been angry, but it was her fault, wasn't it? She had let the other trainer do this, she hadn't given Yarrow orders, she hadn't trained Yarrow. If she had, maybe she would have been a little bit angry, but not at Yarrow, at the world. She couldn't see how anyone would be angry when Yarrow tried so hard to stand even when she was so badly hurt. Alex shifted her eyes to the pokemon beside Yarrow to avoid thinking about it.

This pokemon was an ekans, though it was hard to tell with the bandages wrapped all over it. It seemed to be awake; its eyes were open. Alex didn't know that much about ekans though, except that they were a lot like snakes, which she didn't like.

This one had to be bored, and Alex felt pity for it. She reached out a hand to gently touched the ekans scaled head, becoming braver when it made no movement. She gently stroked cool scaly skin, liking the feel of it almost as much as Yarrow's fur.

"Hey." She whispered. "You must be bored."

The ekans didn't reply, so she sat patting it a while longer and then left the center, confident at least that Yarrow was okay.

She went back to bed and didn't have any nightmares this time.

########

Down in the healing ward, the ekans and Yarrow talked.

"See, I told you Alex would pat you if she thought I was asleep." Yarrow said smugly.

"Yeah, yeah, so you know your trainer well. Great for you." Replied the ekans in a sarcastic but obviously female voice.

"You started it." Yarrow said, making it a fact instead of a taunt.

The ekans dipped her head, and the conversation was dropped. They both did need to sleep after all.

######

The next day Alex woke up very early, stopped to check in on a sleeping Yarrow, and decided what she was going to do that day while eating her breakfast.

She was going to find a job. There were two reasons for this. One, she needed money, and two, she should do something while Yarrow was in the hospital. She didn't admit this might have something to do with the shame that came with seeing Yarrow.

It wasn't surprising that she found one because most people trusted that kids who were pokemon trainers were at least smart enough to convince their parents to allow them to wander around alone. It was surprising that she found one that worked well for her and paid well, but Alex supposed the universe owed her some good luck. To be fair, she still has to find the place and interview for it, but Alex hoped it wouldn't be that hard.

"So, another interviewee. And you are?" the woman who had introduced herself as Trista asked in a way that made it clear she wanted Alex's full name.

"Alexandra Wood. Alex." Alex replied, feeling rather timid now that she had finally gotten there.

"Well, Alex, do you know what we do here?"

Alex shook her head.

"This is the Rivertimed Center for abandoned and abused pokemon. You have to be good with the pokemon to work here, even if it's only for a couple of days. You do know that this is only for three days, right?"

Alex nodded, thinking it was best if she stuck to non-verbal answers.

"Good. Now you should come and meet the pokemon. It's really their choice." Trista said, striding over to a door that led outside. Alex followed her feeling more than a little nervous.

Trista opened the door and whistled loudly. A colourful assortment of pokemon moved towards her, none going ahead of the others and all moving very slowly.

"Now, everything's okay. This is Alex, she might be working with us, there's nothing wrong." Trista soothed, and the pokemon moved a little closer. One broke free of the pack, an Umberon that limped slightly. He walked forward with a proud tilt of his head and settled into a spot only a foot away from Alex.

Trista chuckled.

"That's our Darkness. He refuses to be scared of anything. Try patting him, he'll only move if he doesn't like you."

Alex reached out to touch the black pelt and tried a shaky smile. Darkness allowed her to touch his pelt, which was as smooth as velvet with an air of carelessness. He seemed to be saying, 'This pathetic little girl? She couldn't hurt a Iggybuff if she tried.'

The other pokemon moved closer upon seeing that Darkness was being treated gently, and eventually Alex had a small crowd of pokemon gathered around her, softly touching her or just staring. She said nothing at all, not wanting to scare them away.

Trista didn't seem to fear speaking however.

"Well, they seem to like you, even Darkness. I guess you're in. You start right now. Go inside and get the blue and red bag of pokemon food in the room on the left." Trista said, gesturing vaguely in that direction.

Alex nodded and carefully stood up to do so.