"Dad?"

He looked up as his daughter grabbed the TV remote, turning down the volume on the live broadcast where a blonde girl was fighting one of the League Elites' Sealeo with her Linoone.

"You've, um, you've been really focused on that for a while now," Jenny noted tentatively, gesturing to the article he was holding. "Is there something wrong?"

He glanced back down, staring hard at the golden G-shaped logo and frowning. "It feels...It feels like a memory is attempting to surface," he admitted. "Something important."

Jenny wrung her hands nervously. "Well...I know you were looking into them. Before the accident, I mean. You never said why, but you sounded convinced that they, uh, 'needed messing with'."

"I am still planning on it," he said grimly.

"When you're like this?"

He rolled his eyes. "I will travel to Sinnoh in a wheelchair, if I must," he said, gesturing vaguely to the seat he was in. "I believe, however, I can walk again as soon as the chips of my, um...pro-thesis are replaced."

"I'm not worried about whether or not you can walk, Dad, you've had those things for years," Jenny said quietly, placing a hand over his. "What I am worried about is you getting lost in the middle of nowhere trying to get around Sinnoh. According to uncle Richie, the entire porting system is down and travel methods just about boil down to either walking or using the occasional public transport."

"Could I not simply ask him to guide me?"

Jenny pressed her lips hesitantly. "I think he's busy with his own cases," she said eventually.

"In that case, a map will have to suffice."

"Dad, do you- do you really have to go there?" she asked, squeezing his hand tigether. It sounded like she almost didn't dare. "I'm just- I know things are hard right now. I know that any little bit of memory you can reach is important, I've seen what it did to everyone in Johto, we all saw it. But we have a home in Violet with photos and giffies and videos and anything you can imagine, and I just want to know that you're not going to get hurt because I just can't do this...!"

His heart sank. "Oh, Jenny, sweetie..."

He pulled himself over to his daughter's side best as he could with his unresponsive knees, reaching out to gently tug her into a hug and allowing her to finally break. He didn't say anything yet, silently waiting as she cried in his shoulder and carefully brushing his fingers through her hair.

It wasn't that he didn't understand where she was coming from. She'd lost her mother not six months ago, and she'd almost lost her other parent in such a short timeframe... He was obviously a magnet for trouble, too, and always seemed to pile injury over injury over things in his brain that he wished he didn't know he had. She had every right to feel the way she did. There was a small twinge in his chest that made him doubt his own decisions, that made him think about reconsidering- that maybe he should go back to Violet with her and just let things come back to him at a pace he was comfortable with. But…

"Jenny," he whispered when, after a few minutes, she'd finally winded down to just the occasional hiccough. She pulled away slowly so she could look at him. He very carefully took her hand and gave it a squeeze, meeting her gaze and trying to pretend her eyes weren't red and puffy. "I know you are afraid," he said quietly, "and I do not blame you for it. I only need to look at myself to understand- and you are right, there are many, many memories to be re-discovered at home, in Johto, where our pasts are shared. But those are memories for me to find again along the way, when there is time. For now..."

He used his spare hand to pick the article with the golden G-logo up again. "...For now, this is something I must do. Perhaps there is something personal behind it, but it feels...crucial, to follow this lead. A feeling where, if I do not take action, it could result in more than simply hurt. And I do not mean myself."

"Dad-"

"Seeing all these scars on myself...if there is something I have come to realize, it is that I am one who cannot be taken down so easily," he continued, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "I can be bruised and battered and broken, but I always, always find a way to stand up again."

He shifted slightly, moving his hands up to cup his daughter's face and gently stroke her cheeks with his thumbs, smiling. "Jenny...I cannot tell you not to worry about me. But I can promise you that I will return to you, and that I will still be myself at the end of it. One way or another, even if I somehow find myself crawling to Reverse and back, I will come back and I will still be able to recognise you as my baby girl and love you all the same as I do now. I promise."

He'd managed to wipe the first couple drops away, but then there was a new onslaught of tears and he gently cradled her in his arms, holding her close.

He would come back. He knew it'd be okay.

He'd promised her.

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The fabulous Key-chan here! For those who missed the light reference in the beginning, this scene takes place during the Hoenn League, at the same time Key is battling Glacia. Considering Jenny left mid-challenge to go find her father and no mention was made for the remaining chapters in Calamity Calls, we felt it was important to put something out there- especially since Professor Hawkshaw's murder is going to be a recurring subject in both Deliverance and Dimensional Destruction.