A/N: Made it to chapter 7! Don't you think if you've made it this far you should drop a shout out? seriously you've slogged through almost 20,000 words of mine at this point... Thanks for reading!

Here we stand in the Morning Dew

Chapter 7

79 Degrees

"6:54" I grumbled looking at the alarm clock. I'm not sure what surprises me more, that I managed to wake up before my alarm or that I even slept last night. Not after the conversation I had with the boss yesterday. I hope I'm not turning into one of those old people that always wake up god awful in the morning. Didn't Dad complain about that for his last forty-years?

I scanned my room with my blurry eyes. The sun's rising and a faint pink glow is lighting my room through the gaps in the blinds. I scratched the back of my head and looked down to the other side of my bed.

I must have been deep asleep, I wonder at what point did Jayden sneak into my room? Were you wearing the blue pajma's when you went to bed? "Jayden, wake up, honey," I whispered as I shook him gently.

He opened his eyes with a sigh, sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Did you wet your bed last night?"

Instantly tears formed in his eyes, he nodded before burying his head into the pillow he had brought from his room.

"Jayden," I gently whispered while rubbing his back, "I'm not mad, you don't need to cry."

He gave a small moan and hiccup before looking back at me; I gave him my softest smile.

"I need you to wake me up when this happens so we can get your bed cleaned before anything stains." That, and I really shouldn't have you in my bed, you're going to be too old for that very soon. Behind me my alarm clicked and started blaring. It's 7 a.m. The sudden blaring beeping caused Jayden to jump. I leaned forward and kissed his head, "How about you wake up your brother and see how he's feeling?"

We both unbound ourselves from the blanket and Jayden was off running down the hallway and I staggered after him. Jayden stopped in front of his brother's room before barging in and screaming "Good morning!" so loud that the neighbors probably jumped down the street. I know I winced.

I entered Jayden's room, he had peeled off his comforter, so at least that was dry but his sheets and mattress guard were soaked. Jayden had also taken off his red pajamas and Charmander print briefs and left them on top the soaking puddle. I sighed and quickly stripped the bed.

With my arms full of urine coated bedding I briskly walked through the house and thanked god that I made the choice to buy the big laundry machine. As I finally finished pouring the laundry detergent I noticed Shawn standing behind me.

"Oh Shawn, how are you feeling?" I asked and brushed the powder of my hands before I placed them on his forehead. No fever.

"I told you yesterday, I feel fine," Shawn pouted and looked down, "Mrs. Z. said I couldn't leave until I ate everything but it wouldn't fit."

I'll call the school from work this morning to make sure this Mrs. Z. stops force feeding Shawn. He's ADHD medications really have affected his appetite, I've already told them about it so why in the world would anyone harass him like that?

Breakfast was the ever classical bowl of cereal. Disco and Dancer ate their usual one can of soft pokefood.

This was followed by the usually whirlwind of getting dressed and making sure everyone had everything for school before we piled into the car. The two sat in the back seats whispering some secret language they made up. I guess in the grand scheme of things, the biggest problem I have with the boys is that inability to keep their clothes clean and Jayden's bed wetting. I'm as lucky as a single mom can get.

First I dropped off Shawn and he ran towards the elementary school, mixing in with the other kids dropped off by their parents. About five minutes later I was at the kindergarten and Jayden did the same.

I need coffee!

I reached the office and sat in my chair right as my watch read 8:30. I sighed and placed my head in my hands. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. I glanced over the papers that had been placed at my desk shortly before I arrived. I debated on wither to have coffee or read the papers. Coffee won. I grabbed my coffee mug, I had bought it on a family vacation years ago but its words still resonate with me: 'Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.'

I poured into my cup and then as I turned around I almost crashed into an equally dazed Jones, "Morning Jones," Before I started yawning I caught a glimpse at his mug: 'The cops never think it's a funny as you do.'

"You changed your shampoo…" he muttered through half closed eyes.

I smiled with half closed eyes right back at him, "What a nose you have Mr. Blood Hound." The dollar store ran out of apple so I'm using strawberries in cream for now.

"Mm," was his response as we traded places and he poured himself a cup.

I staggered over to my desk and filtered through the papers. Apparently a call had come in during the night and I'll get to visit the hospital. There wasn't a lot of details in the paper, just that the girl was 14, in room 888 and she has had her Pokémon stolen. They didn't want me to visit for another hour, might as well call the school…

I dialed the phone number for the school and reached a secretary whose ear I proceeded to take off and mince into small bits. What they hell do you guys think you're going stuffing my child's face till he throws up? I'm working with the doctors to change his ADHD medication that's causing his lack of appetite. Hell! You guys were the ones that insisted he go see a doctor for ADHD because he's a 7-year-old with energy. It's called being a kid! If 5 out of 7 kids have ADHD in this country it isn't a disorder it's a normal state of being a kid! It's not my fault you guys have such large classes that you can't deal with 25 hyperactive kids!

When I hung up I felt much better, though I could feel Jones eyes on the back of my head.

"What?" I asked. As though there's anything other than my rant on the phone he could be staring at me for.

"It's surprising, you get mad too," he spoke as he took another sip of coffee.

How am I supposed to respond to that? "I'm sorry you had me confused for a space alien."

"Hey Majori! Sir wants to see you!" Jack's extremely deep voice called.

So it's here, I sighed and got out of my chair before turning and smiling at Jones, "I really should stop hugging who ever happens to walk into work, shouldn't I?"

I walked around the cloistered cubicles; listened to phones ring and men talk until I reached the only walled office in this wing. I quietly entered the room and closed the door behind me.

"Majori, would you stop telling people you're in trouble for hugging someone? You've got people really curious who it might be," he sighed.

I smiled and took a seat opposite his desk, "And what fun would that be?"'

"Have you given any thought to my proposal yesterday?" he asked in a serious tone.

"I'm honored that you would even think of me as suitable for the job, Sir. I don't think I'm capable of being everyone's boss though. Lecturing them, ordering them, and no longer being their friend. Those aspects of the job are what I can't do. I love the look on a person's face when we manage to find and return their Pokémon. Even though the pay and the hours would be better I love that the look people get when they cry in relief that their Pokémon's home and that general out pouring of love... That's why I can't take your seat when you retire." I smiled with my eyes closed, this is the answered I thought up as I tossed and turned last night.

"Are you sure about this? You've instilled a love with all the other cops that I'm sure they would be more than willing to follow you."

"And I love them so much that I can't leave them." With this I decided to take my leave, I've got to get the hospital soon anyway. The coffee must be kicking in because I finally have my signature smile and energy. (Then I wonder why my son has ADHD….)

"What did the boss want?" a guy called out towards me.

I thought for a second on the best response, "Hey Jack, come here for a second!"

He titled his head and walked towards me. He's got to be twice my weight and a whole foot taller than me. He stood a couple of inches away so I launched myself into a hug, "I would have given you more hugs if you had told me you felt left out!" I laughed and hopped off him.

I started walking back towards my desk and turned around to look at Jack with an extremely confused look on his face as everyone surrounded him with questions. What a sweet, shy, young man.

I grabbed a bag which I keep under my desk. It holds everything I need for preliminary investigations. This one's just a simple black messenger bag. For some reason back when I had a sky blue one with a giant heart on it people absolutely refused to take me seriously.

"Bye Jones!" I called as I walked out of our space. What was his first name anyway? I forgot.

"Later," he waved without looking away from his stack of papers.

Exiting the building I shot a nasty glace at the bubbly, happy bulletin board. I need to kill some intern for that.

The hospital's close enough to walk, plus visiting hours aren't technically for another hour, they usually let cops in anyway. The hike to the hospital was only 10 minutes. Walking the path I noticed a sign in front of the bank, the current temp's 79, no wonder I'm sweating just from walking, it's only 9 in the morning, today's going to be hot!

As I predicted I was taken straight to this young girl without having to wait for real visiting time to start. I was given direction through a maze to get to an elevator and then more instructions on how to deal with the maze 8 floors higher.

It's a pretty hospital, a giant wall with covered by a water fall and other walls made completely out of windows. I finally managed to make it to a sign titled 'Sub-ICU' and I walked right in. An older receptionist showed me the rest of the way to room 888. As she showed me the path to the room the receptionist briefed me on what had happened to the girl. She was found after a Pokémon battle went wrong and she was hit so hard that she had to have surgery, she had been unconscious for about 12 hours after the incident.

I walked into the small room just in time to watch this tiny girl witting up on her bed try to raise her left arm. A therapist of some sort was holding on to her arm gently as the small girl attempted to raise it. The girl had broken out in what looks like a cold sweat, her breathing was shallow and weak. "Alright so you can only lift it this far," the therapist muttered as she jolted something down on her notes.

"Let me try again!" the girl whispered with all her might. "Please, I want to get out of here soon."

"If we push you to hard you'll do more damage than good," the therapist gently chided. She then turned to exist the room and noticed me, "Oh is it already 10 o'clock? Man, I'm far behind."

Without waiting for my response she rushed out of the room. I glanced down at the small girl; she seemed to have something wadded up in her hand. I ignored it and sat down beside her. "Hi, I'm Majori Bliefernicht. You can call me Majori."

The girl squinted at me, I think she needs glasses; it looked like she was trying to figure out how in the world I had just pronounced my name from the movements of her mouth. Ha, my co-works gave up trying to pronounce it when I got married 10 years ago. Not that it's much better than my maiden name: Słobodziane. In fact it's a letter longer….

"I'm part of the Missing Pokémon depart with PCPD, I hear your Pokémon's gone missing."

The girl nodded.

"I wasn't given the details or your name and age, would you mind telling me?" I pulled out my note book and a pen.

She opened and took a small breath before harshly whispering to me, "Christina Beck, I turn 15 tomorrow."

Ekk, what a horrible birthday gift someone gave her."Give me the details about the missing Pokémon," I asked, tapping my pen against the paper.

She clenched her open first in the white sheets as she took a slightly deeper breath, she's in pain, I can see it from the pale face and sweat, "This missing Pokémon is a Pokémon I've had since I was 7, I nicknamed him Butter Bear. He's a Nidorino."

Butter Bear? Really? Oh well, I let Shawn name Dancer two years ago. We ended up going with that just because Shawn was really stuck on the other name 'Barf' and it was the only compromise we could get.

"What do you remember before you got knocked out?"

"Nothing," she whispered looking down.

"Hey has anyone seen support belt?" The therapist from before asked as she walked into the room. She glanced at the floor and muttered, "I can't remember putting it down, but I know I wasn't wearing it…"

I glanced at her waist, she had a fine leather belt on, what is she talking about?

There was a gentle knock from Christina's bed and she held out the item wadded in her first. It was a wide strap of braided cloth covered in a thick film of plastic. Christina then whispered, "I can't remember grabbing but I probably did…"

The therapist smiled and grabbed the belt, and then exited the room.

….. Why did Christina steal a belt? Of all the things in the world to steal… Alright well whatever, we need to get back on topic, "Can you give me the last thing you remember?"

"Floating," Christina answered with all seriousness.

… I guess that counts… "Anything else?"

"The sky was blue."

…. Isn't it normally? "Alright….. Do you know why you were at a diner in the out skirts?"

"I was in the outskirts?"

There's almost nothing useful here…

Christina then clapped her hands together without raising them off the bed, "They sell postcards at the outskirt stand! Right? Yeah, that's right! The cashier at the Pokemart noticed I was buying postcards for mom and dad. I think he said that they sold postcards. Pictures of a train sitting in the middle of the desert." Christina looked so happy about postcards.

"Do you collect postcards?"

"Not really. About three months ago dad was pissed that I seemed to do nothing but sit at the computer, my grades had slipped horribly, my best friend had gotten pregnant, and he found the un-opened box of condoms that she had given me. He gave me the condition that if I wanted to continue living with him and mom that I would have to become somewhat self-sufficient and I would prove this by visiting all the sites in Orre and I had to send him 20 post cards from 20 different places, the only problem is there really isn't that many places in Orre so I jumped at the chance that someplace might have postcards."

I scratched my head. I don't think I'm going to get anything helpful out of her. I guess I need to go to the stand in the outskirts and see what actually happened, "I think I'm going to head out to the outskirts and see if anyone there witnessed the scene. Here's my P*DA number," I mumbled as I pulled out my business card, "Could you write yours down for me so I can contact if I learn anything?"

Chirstina nodded and took my note book to scribble her number. As she finished and handed the paper back she clasped her hands together as though she remembered something else. She started making strange pointing movements towards a bag on the wall.

I grasped the white plastic back for her and handed it to her.

She held a single finger up to motion me to wait. From the bag she pulled out her wallet.

"Oh, you don't need to pay me," I muttered. City takes care of that.

Christina shock her head slowly and pulled out a wad of cash, "I think I stole this from someone at the outskirts, I can't remember where I got it from."

I stared at the wad of cash for a moment before recalling how she had stolen the therapist's plastic belt. "Are you by chance a kleptomaniac?"

Christina blushed, "I don't know. I have a tendency to suddenly realize I took things without asking. Normally it's little things, like pens, but I've come too with strange things like ham before."

Did I get my pen back? I gently touched the pocket I normally stuff it; I had done it so habitually I hadn't even thought about it. It was there.

"Could you see who it belongs to?" she whispered looking right at me, she was still squinting.

I tentatively took the cash, "Sure."

Upon returning to the office I sat down for a second and glanced over at Jones, "Yesterday, was your assignment at the outskirt stand in the desert?"

"Hm, yeah, what about it?" he leaned back in his chair to look over his shoulder. Why does he have a baby carrot hanging out of his mouth?

"My case is a girl that was hit by a Pokémon and while E.M.T.'s took her to the hospital her Nidorino was stolen."

"She was hit by a Makuhita," he said without hesitation. He offered me a couple of baby carrots from a plastic bag.

"So what's the story you've got?" I asked grabbing a handful.

"Your girl was talked into a battle with my guy by a dude that I've been calling 'Grease.' Grease lent my boy a Makuhita which during the battle went nuts attacked the girl. When the battle was done my boy's Sealeo and the Makuhita was gone."

"Sounds like the Nidorino disappeared with the three. Did anyone remember anything about it?" I threw a couple baby carrots in my mouth.

"Only that it had a nickname that caused serious giggles," he sighed placing another baby carrot in his mouth.

"That's helpful."

"I know. There was one other thing."

"Hm?"

"Someone stole all the money out of my boy's wallet."

My baby carrot almost fell out of my mouth. No way. How? "How much money was stolen?"

"Apparently about 50,000 poke."

I reached into my pocket and counted the money I had yet to turn into lost and found. 49,000 Poke. "I need his phone number."

"How did you get that?"

"My girl said she had no idea where she got the money and thought it may have been stolen so she asked if I could return it."

"There's no way, things never work out this evenly," he muttered, leaning back in his chair in disbelief.

A/N:

Almost nothing in this chapter was without foreshadowing! I am so glad it worked out just right~~~~~~ I'm so glad that people who know me in reality don't make it over here. They would have taken a Look at Majori's last name and started screaming about how I miss spelled my own last name XD No this is the proper way to spell my last name, my last name got miss spelled when my ancestor came through Elias island, this is what it was originally. It's funny when I met people from Germany, they looks so confused at why I would misspell my last name XD

I never did explain why it was that Majori hated the nickname pearl did I? It involved her back story and why in the world her parents would give her a name like Majori anyway. Maybe I'll find a way to sneak it in but at this point I'm not too sure…..

I'm so glad I got to finally say why in the world Christina was on her journey in the first place. I mean I hopped everyone could tell it was a forced journey from the way which her dad thought about it.

Medical lesson: Remember PKU? Time to build on that! The brain damage caused from consuming Aspartame and other Phlyenkentics (eggs and Milk) can manifest itself not only as seizures but much more subtle behaviors and OCD tendencies…. Kleptomania is considered an OCD condition (it can also come from brain damage!) where people do steal randomly and don't even know it. I once met a woman while I was at work with a ham under her shirt! Her husband came back and paid for the ham…

I'm not quite sure what I should do about the next chapter, I wanna bring in Makuhita's owner but at the same time it feels almost like she's reluctant to be written right now. I have two potential perspectives that I'm debating on for the next chapter...

Please review!