. . .Two votes. I've had my poll up for a while, and I get two votes. [This is not counting the two additional votes I got on a choice that I later deleted.] And one of those two votes was me. Come on, people! Ah, well. Hopefully next time will have a better voter turnout.
"Serena? You're awake!" She heard Ash exclaim as she opened her bleary eyes. She sat up, stiff from her impromptu nap. Monica and Ash were sitting next to her bed, Bonnie and Clemont and Pikachu were on the other side of the room but were coming over now.
"I am so, so sorry that Star and Flora made you go through all of that, we talked to them, Flora's sorry too, but Star- not so much, but I'm still sorry," Monica rushed, setting aside the cup in her hands. Ash did the same, sitting on the bed next to her.
He waited a moment before whispering, "Did you. . . are you okay?"
Clemont and Bonnie had just gotten to the bed when the fresh scars in her mind started bleeding out, making themselves known through tears. She didn't want to cry again, especially not in front of her friends and yet there she was, sobbing. She felt Ash's arms wrap around her protectively, his body pressed against hers. She leaned into him, shaking.
"Serena. . ." she heard Bonnie's small voice say worriedly.
"I'm- I'm okay," she muttered, pushing away from Ash and drying her tears with sleeves. "Or, I will be."
Clemont studied her as though she were an invention she was trying to fix. "Maybe it would help if you told us what happened while you were asleep? Only if you want to, of course."
She thought about it. It had helped when she had told Ash about her dad, but she didn't want to burden them with the knowledge. "I guess so," she whispered, wiping her cheeks to get rid of any salty residue from her tears.
"Are you sure?" Ash asked, one of his arms still around her shoulders. Pikachu hopped onto the bed, climbing onto her lap. She pet him, which actually helped a lot with her sadness.
She nodded slightly. "They're gonna find out some time or another. I just wish it wasn't like this." She noticed the lemon-haired siblings exchanging confused glances before turning their attention back on her. In the corner of her eye, she saw Monica wrap her arms around herself, as if she was recalling a bitter memory as well. "I'm going to give you the. . . short version, let's say. Otherwise we'd be here for a while.
"So. . . when I was six, eight years ago today, my dad was coming home from work," she started.
Bonnie interrupted her. "You said he traveled a lot for his job, right?"
Serena winced, reminded of the lie she had told Bonnie earlier. "Yeah, no. Truth is, he worked at a school in Vaniville Town. I wasn't ready to tell you this story earlier. Sorry.
"He was coming home, and there was this explosion that knocked him off his bike- he biked to and from work every day- and he landed across the road. By the time anyone found him, he was- he was dead." The words squeezed her heart, almost making even more tears spill over, but she took a deep breath and continued. "I found out from Calem's mom, who was watching me while my mom went to the hospital. The only person I told before now was Ash. That memory was the last one I saw before I woke up, which especially stung since today is the anniversary of his death."
Clemont nodded with sudden understanding. "That's why Ash was so worried; he must not've wanted you to experience that again."
She looked over at Ash, eyebrows raised slightly. "You were worried?"
He let out a nervous laugh. "Maybe a little."
Bonnie snorted. "A little? A lot of the time, he would stay right next to your bed!" she exclaimed. Serena giggled a little.
"No kidding?" She asked. Ash blushed, embarrassed.
"No kidding," Monica promised from her balled-up position. A small smile started on her face. "It was actually kinda cute to see how much he cares about you. I even got him to explain the whole kind-of-dating thing." Her smile vanished. She curled in on herself a bit further. "Wish I could find a relationship like that."
"I'm glad you told us, Serena," Clemont stated, his blue eyes looking into hers. "You can always tell us anything, no matter what."
Bonnie nodded. "Yeah! I mean, we've all got stuff we'd rather not talk about- Clemont especially-" Clemont's face turned a very vivid red at this. "But if we ever did need to talk, we'd always talk to our friends!"
"See? I told you you could tell them," Ash reminded her, all blush from his tan face gone.
Pikachu agreed heartily. "Pi pika chu pi!" He got up from her lap, jumping onto Ash's head and pushing the brim of his hat down. "Chaaa!"
"Thanks, guys," she said gratefully. She was glad they weren't mad at her for keeping this from them.
"Monica, you tell your story now," Bonnie ordered playfully. "Remember, Flora said that it helps when you share things."
Serena agreed. "I does help a lot. You can tell us anything, Monica. You're one of us now."
Monica smiled weakly back at her. "Thanks, Serena. I think I'll finally tell. This. . . I haven't told anyone who doesn't know my friend Hilda. So as far as I know, only the people of Nuvema Town, me, and Flora know now. But Serena, if you can share stuff that hurts you, so can I.
"Hilda and I are very close, though I haven't been home or called home since I got here a few months ago. It's. . . kind of painful," she started.
"Clemont built a pokémon mind reading thing," Ash whispered in her ear after seeing her confused expression at Bonnie's earlier choice in words. "It worked, but then exploded."
She rolled her eyes subtly. Of course it exploded.
"When we were younger, around five, she would get these fainting spells. She would just turn sheet-white and then drop. It was no big deal, at first. Her mom always chalked it up to the heat. After a while, they started occurring more and more often, sometimes multiple times a week. Her mom knew it couldn't be the heat anymore, so she took Hilda in to see the doctor.
"They found out that she has this condition where she'll faint often, but they couldn't figure out why. Other than that condition, she was in perfect health. They said she would probably grow out of it, so I just learned to get used to it and know how to help."
Clemont interjected. "That was awhile ago though, right? You did say the two of you were around five years old, after all."
Monica nodded. "The doctor said she'd get better, but as we got older, she started fainting more and more. Her mom started getting really worried, even though my mom is a doctor herself and said that Hilda would be fine. She even recommended a medication for her mom to ask the doctor about. Hilda ended up having to take it, but it helped a lot.
"It was around when we were nine that we met Flora. Hilda and I made a pact after befriending her that when we started our journeys, we would take Flora with us. We always thought we would be on our journey together. Her mom was still concerned, though, to the point where she said that Hilda couldn't become a trainer."
"But that's no fair!" Ash exclaimed. "If her medicine was working, then why couldn't she do what she wanted?"
"That's just it: the medicine was working. Her mom didn't want her to run out and be caught in a dangerous situation with her fainting spells before she got to the next town, where she could refill her prescription. Hilda called her brother Hilbert when her mom told us- he had been a trainer for about three years then- and he came home to try and straighten everything out. He even offered to come with us to make sure she was safe, but her mom wouldn't budge a bit.
"After that, Hilda kind of withdrew herself from the world. She wouldn't come outside into the woods to see how many pokémon we could meet, and she stopped watching whenever passersby had battles, which had before been one of her favorite things. I even offered to let Flora stay with her when I started my journey, as those two were closer than Flora and I were at the time, but she turned me down, saying that Flora at least deserved a chance to see the world. Basically, she removed herself from her dreams of becoming a trainer and winning the Unova League."
Serena blinked, eyes widened at the tale. "That's horrible that she had to give up her dream like that!" She thought about how lucky she was that her mom let her go on a journey instead of staying home and training for rhyhorn racing. Of course, this was a different situation, and she couldn't imagine being in Hilda's shoes.
"Yeah, Hilbert and I thought so, too. We called her as often as we could, but each call got shorter and shorter as Hilda came up with excuses for cutting us off. He and I called each other to discuss that, but neither of us could get her to come back to her fiery ways. She had always been adamant about being a trainer; we didn't see any reason why she should give up the fight." She lifted a shoulder. "Once I left Unova, every time I call she barely says anything, or doesn't pick up at all. Living with her mother being so protective must be really hard on her, but she shouldn't have given up. Who knows? Her mom might've eventually seen reason and let her go, but now I guess we won't know. And I guess that's that."
Everyone was speechless for a moment. "That's awful," Bonnie finally said, breaking the silence.
Monica nodded. "There's not much to do about it, though. Hilbert and I have tried everything."
Clemont put a hand to his chin, thinking. "Maybe if there was a way to get her interested in being a trainer again. Her mom might trust her more now that she's older, right? If she really wants this, then she should be interested if we give her something to be interested in."
"That's a good idea," Serena praised. "Her love for being a trainer couldn't have completely gone away. It should still be in her, buried real deep inside her. She just hasn't been able to sense it for a while, that's all."
"Yeah," Ash added. "Maybe we could show her a battle or something." Serena rolled her eyes; of course he would suggest a battle. But then. . .
Bonnie's eyes sparkled. "Uh-huh, and Monica could battle someone! She could call Hilda, and then we would show her the battle. That could get her back into it!"
"That's. . . actually a great idea." Monica smiled gratefully. "You guys would really be willing to help?"
"Of course we are!" Ash grinned. "Anyone who wants to be a trainer should be a trainer."
Serena laughed lightly. "Of course you would say that, Mr. I've-Traveled-Across-Six-Regions." She was vaguely aware that his arm was still around her, but she didn't care. It felt nice.
"Who should you battle, though?" Clemont asked. "Bonnie isn't a trainer yet, and I would rather work behind the camera on this one, so that leaves Ash and Serena."
The two trainers looked at each other. "I mean, you have more experience, so you should probably battle her," Serena said.
"Yeah, but you should practice your battling so you can get better," Ash countered. She had to admit, he had a point. She had barely had any battles at all; she didn't count Team Rocket, of course. He was right that she needed to gain the experience.
"Uh, maybe you should just let Monica decide?" Bonnie interjected, an eyebrow raised at them. "She is the one battling either of you, ya know."
Serena blushed lightly. "Oh yeah, of course. Which one of us would you rather battle, Monica?"
The purple-haired trainer looked between them. "I guess I'll battle. . . Serena."
She grinned, squeezing the slightly disappointed Ash beside her. "All right then, let's go get set up on the battlefield outside! We should call Hilda as soon as possible; that way we can get her back to normal as soon as possible."
Monica smiled right back at her. "Thanks again for all of your help. Now, let's do this!"
I was going to include the battle in this chapter, but I decided to wait a bit. So, you all have to wait for that action for a little while. I'm still working on the next chapter of "Winter Wonders"- that should be updated within a week- and my friend asked me to write him a fanfiction about him and his girlfriend, so I'm working on that as well. Soon, though, you can expect a one-shot I wrote for a fanfiction contest on Google Plus [that I did not win] and the first installation of a songfic collection. See y'all soon!