She was eighteen and he was twenty-one when it happened.
They were married now, and lived happily in the Resort Area, away from the trouble of the cities on the mainland. Of course, this presented one very awkward problem when the time came for Dawn to have her baby- there were no hospitals in the area.
"What do you mean? Are you sure?" A panicked Johanna asked.
"Yes mother, I'm sure the baby is on its way."
"Alright. Can you get yourself to the mainland? If you get to Sunyshore I can pick you up and take you to their hospital."
"I should be okay. Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Since there are no hospitals in the Battle Zone, it's the only option. Make sure you've got everything with you!"
Johanna hung up before Dawn could even get another word in. She set the receiver down, hurrying into her room despite the pain to pack a bag. As it was last minute, she couldn't bring everything she had originally intended to, filling an empty canvas bag with the stuff she had already bought for the baby. Throwing on sweatpants and a hoodie, another wave of pain hit her. She left the house as soon as she possibly could, calling out Togekiss.
"Sunyshore City!" The Jubilee Pokémon chirped in response, and flew into the sky, quicker than she ever had before. The Pokémon could clearly sense it's trainer's panic, and responded accordingly. Dawn fished her phone out of her pocket, calling Paul.
"Hello? This is the Pokémon League of Sinnoh's reception desk, how may I help you?" She'd called the wrong number. Dawn cursed her bad luck, before managing to compose herself to have a civilized conversation with the woman.
"Can you put me through to Paul please? It's an emergency."
"I'm sorry, I'm not authorized to put any calls through to the Champion," she apologized and Dawn rolled her eyes.
"He would authorize this call, I promise-"
"I'm sorry, but rules are rules!"
"Can you at least tell him to phone me?"
"Certainly. Can I ask who this is?"
"His wife!"
Dawn hung up the phone as soon as the words came out of her mouth, feeling guilty for having phoned the wrong number and then yelling at the receptionist. Luckily for her and Togekiss, the clouds were high in the sky today, allowing them to fly over the sea and be able to see Sunyshore without too much of a problem. Dawn held her phone tightly in her hand, waiting desperately for a call from Paul.
"Excuse me, Paul?"
"Come in." The receptionist slid the door open and stood in front of the desk, a worried and almost pained expression on her face. "Sonya. Is everything okay?"
"I just got off the phone with someone who was very angry and rude looking for you."
"What did they want?" Paul sighed, rolling his eyes. "If they're looking for a battle with me, you can tell them no."
"They asked me to ask you to phone them. It was… a miss Dawn Berlitz, sir." A wave of panic washed over Paul. If she needed to talk to him she usually would text or call his mobile, but never before had she called the front desk. Lifting his phone, he saw three unread messages from Dawn, all three of which read "call me!".
"Thanks. I'll phone her now." Sonya turned to leave, but Paul held her back. "Wait while I take this call. I have a feeling I may need to clock out early."
"It's twelve thirty, sir. This is extremely early. I don't think the Elite would like it if you abandoned them five hours early."
"Just wait, okay?" He scrolled through the contacts on his phone until he found Dawn's (which she had personalized with a heart emoji), pressing the call button beside her name.
"Finally, I've been waiting for you to call for ages," the annoyed voice of Dawn came.
"What's wrong, why are you phoning?"
"Well, I just thought you'd maybe like to take a trip to the Sunyshore hospital. The baby's coming, and I would rather like you there!" Dawn explained cheerily, until another contraction came and she hissed in pain.
"Where are you now?" Paul asked, pressing various buttons on his computer to turn it off.
"In my mum's car. She's driving me."
"Okay, good. I'll be there as soon as I can, okay?"
"You better get here quick."
"Stay safe, okay?"
"Don't you worry, I'll be fine," she muttered, and then she had hung up. Paul stood up, lifting his jacket and taking a Pokéball off his belt.
"I'm leaving," he announced, and Sonya looked disgusted.
"You can't! The Elite-"
"I'll be a father in less than an hour, and I want to be there for Dawn when she has the baby, okay?" He shot her a rather angry look before storming past her and running down the many flights of stairs into the reception.
"Honchkrow!" Paul called, the bird appearing from his Pokéball. "Take me to Sunyshore City!"
Paul ran through the city, avoiding cars and bouncing on his toes at traffic lights. The hospital was in the city centre, but as he had never been there, it took him a while to find. Eventually he found the building- all concrete and windows, and slid into reception looking dazed, panicked and sweaty.
"Mr. Rebolledo," A receptionist called, beckoning him over. "We've been made aware of your situation. If you go up to the third floor, I believe a nurse is waiting for you there."
"Okay," Paul said, still trying to catch his breath. He lightly jogged over to the lift, getting in with a man with a broken leg, and a girl clutching a Happiny cushion to her chest that looked at him in awe. They got off at the second floor, leaving Paul to stay in the lift that extra, painstaking thirty seconds. He got out of the lift, and Paul was immediately grabbed by a nurse.
"Mr. Rebolledo, please come this way." It sounded so serious, and Paul couldn't help but panic. The nurse consulted his clipboard, and then turned back to Paul. "There have been some complications with Miss Berlitz's delivery, so she has been taken in for an emergency C-section. This is a very routine procedure, and takes place in a lot of women each year. She should be fine." Paul paled. He was right- Dawn wasn't okay. "You may join Mrs. Berlitz here to wait for her to come out of the operating room." The nurse took the clipboard and left down the corridor, leaving Paul to wait with Johanna.
"She's going to be alright, you know?" Johanna reassured him.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well, the doctors all seem certain. And she said 'no need to worry', which means she'll be fine." She was so casual about this, and Paul couldn't understand how she could be so calm at a time like this.
He started pacing, rubbing his eyes and desperately checking his phone as a way of distracting himself from reality. There was already a breaking news story that Dawn had gone into labour- he assumed Sonya was responsible for this getting out.
"I didn't actually think you'd go through with it, Paul. The wedding, the house. Everything. I didn't think you actually loved her," Johanna admitted. "Of course, I let her go through with it because she seemed to genuinely love you, but I wasn't sure her feelings were reciprocated. But seeing you now, so panicked like this… I'm sure you do actually love her. There's no way a person that didn't care could look so worried." Paul turned to Johanna, who had a steady stream of tears running down her face.
"I do love Dawn. Maybe not at first, but now, definitely. I couldn't imagine a world without her, and we're going to raise this child properly. She's gonna be okay, I promise." Paul knew he couldn't promise anything, and that the only thing he was capable of doing was waiting. But Dawn was a fighter- there's no way she would leave that room in any state apart from alive and kicking.
The red light on the door flicked off, signifying the surgery was over. Both Paul and Johanna's attention turned to the door, waiting for Dawn's bed to be wheeled out of the room. It was, and they followed it down into the ward. She was lying, completely conscious, holding a small, wriggling mass in her arms.
"You missed it," she noted, glaring at Paul.
"I got here as quickly as I could," he explained, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. He moved the blanket slightly, staring at the baby cradled in Dawn's arms.
"It's a girl, by the way," she said, staring fondly at the baby. Johanna looked on from the other side of the bed, a tear falling onto her already damp cheeks.
"Can I hold her?" Paul asked, almost hesitantly. He wasn't completely convinced Dawn would let him take the baby, but she stretched out her arms, and he took her, nursing the baby close to his chest.
It was magical. The baby wiggled slightly, and Paul moved his arms, making himself more comfortable on the bed. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and stared up at Paul, not fully able to see him. Her eyes were a light blue, and when she blinked, Paul felt pride swelling in chest and tears springing to his eyes. They started to fall down his cheeks, and he wiped his face furiously with his sleeve.
"Are you… crying?" Dawn asked, leaving towards him the best she could.
"I'm just emotional about… this," he excused, gesturing to the baby balanced in his arms.
"That's no reason to cry, Paul," Dawn said softly. "I should be the one crying- I'm the one who had her stomach cut open."
"What are we going to call her?"
"I don't know. We'll decide sometime soon. It's not urgent."
"I guess," Paul sighed, reluctantly handing the baby back to Dawn. "You did great."
Dawn was allowed home from hospital two days later, and as soon as she carried the baby over the threshold of the house, Paul started crying. He had officially started his paternity leave from the League, who had suspended all business until he returned in two weeks.
"Will you stop crying? It's all you've done for two days."
"I'm just happy."
"I really didn't think you'd cry when this happened. In fact…" She stared at the baby, not wanting to make eye contact with Paul. "Part of me even doubted that you'd still be here."
"Your mother said the same thing," Paul said, setting Dawn's bag down. "Am I really that untrustworthy?"
"Clearly, we thought you were. But you've proved your worth!" She said, elbowing him in the arm.
The couple brought the baby into their newly made nursery, and Dawn placed her gently in the middle of the cot. She looked so peaceful and quiet, and they couldn't help but stop and stare at her for a moment.
"Felicity," Dawn said suddenly, snapping her head up to look at Paul.
"What?"
"For the name. It means happiness, and since you cried so much, I thought it fitted."
"Yeah… yeah, it works. I like it. Felicity…" Paul repeated in a whisper, not taking his eyes of the small person lying in the middle of the cot.
As much as he felt embarrassed for crying in front of everyone he knew, Paul was content. Both Dawn and the newly named Felicity had made it put alive and well, and he couldn't be more thankful for that. Wrapping an arm around Dawn and kissing the top of her head, he supposed he could get used to this cushy and cute life he had always said he hated.
AN: It's done, and I'm kinda upset? Anyway, moving on to new things starting next week or the week after! It'll be a contestshipping fanfiction entitled "of ribbons and roses" and I hope you all come back to read that! Thank you for reading this to the end! c: - pachi