Beyond The Walls

Chapter 56: News

Andrew had always hated hospitals for fairly obvious reasons, the same reasons most people hated them. Over time, though, his hatred of the place had grown far stronger – a visit to one of them never yielded good results and those visits were never for good reasons. He was certainly no stranger to a hospital, whether it was a waiting room or an actual patient's room; as a child, he had been accident prone and several of the nurses at the Pastoria General Hospital had grown to know him well with the amount of stitches and x-rays he had needed and the visits had become more serious, though less frequent, as he grew older.

Once he became a teenager, after he had reluctantly returned home from traveling through Kanto, he spent nearly a year in and out of the hospital. Stitches were frequent because of the careless way he constantly cut himself, antibiotics were common because he rarely took care of his cuts and stitches, often leading to bad infections. His drug use had led to two overdoses and then there were those three times he had woken up in a hospital bed to face the terrified tears of his sister, the disgusted glare of his brother, and the disappointed faces of his grandparents. His first time, like Gary's, had been a combination of medications and alcohol; the second time, twin slashes across his wrists; and the final time, a combination of the first two. The suicide attempts themselves didn't shake him at all, looking back on them, but the hospital did – that antiseptic smell, the endless flow of doctors and nurses, the needles, the tests. Everything.

His own visits, however, had never shaken him as badly as the visits made by those close to him; being a fairly watchful and rather concerned elder brother, he had been there with both Nik and Abby several times. He had been there through Nik's broken leg and three bouts of alcohol poisoning. He had been there for every last stitch and cast Abby had needed – many times, considering she was accident prone in the same way he was. He could vividly recall the particularly bad time that she had broken her arm and the doctor had needed to re-break it; that had been, by far the worst, as far as family went. She had screamed and cried and damn near crushed the bones in his right hand to a fine powder with the way she had clutched it; outwardly he had stayed calm and strong but once she had gone to sleep after being given a high dosage of painkillers, he had snuck off to a secluded bathroom and cut his arm deeply.

The last two times he had been in a hospital had been for the same exact person he was there for now. Of course, the first time – the time he had gone along with Alex when he had literally dragged Gary in for what everyone except his stubborn best friend had suspected to be appendicitis – had been far less alarming than the second time. Sitting by his best friend's – then boyfriend's – side while knowing that he could have possibly done something to prevent what had happened had been one of his worst experiences. He could still clearly recall the shame he had seen in Gary's eyes when he finally came to, along with the way his friend had pulled his knees to his chest and began sobbing. With the amount of alcohol that they had all drank, it had been easy to convince even the doctors that it was simply alcohol poisoning; if it weren't for the way Gary had been acting for months prior, even Chris and Chelsea would have fallen for it. But there was no way Andrew could fall for it, he had seen the teenager break down too many times, he had bandaged too many cuts, and he had certainly recognized that hollow expression in Gary's eyes.

And now… He was standing in the hallway, staring at the closed door in the hospital near the outskirts of Viridian City with his arms tightly crossed across his chest, his hands shaking badly as he awaited news. The professor and Chelsea had both ridden in the ambulance, Chelsea obviously because of her own bite that needed to be checked over by a doctor, while he had ridden with Alex, Damien, Chris, and May to the hospital. Damien, being ever calm and level-headed, had driven Monica's Scion, which Alex had driven from Pastoria on Monday, while everyone else had stayed at the lab to clean up the mess that had been left. When they left, the area had been a disastrous scene of blood and smashed glassware and he was sure that the arbok would die from the wounds Umbreon had given it; not that he felt any pity for it with what it had done to his best friend. He was covered in blood, very little of it being his own; he had tried to wash up the best he could in the bathroom but he couldn't do anything for his stained jeans and t-shirt. He'd had to have his own cuts, caused by the shards of glass left by the equipment that the snake had broken when it began to thrash, looked over and had received a few stitches.

Andrew felt bad for leaving Tracey behind with Shawn and Ash but there hadn't been much choice as the car only held five people. He crossed his arms tighter across his torso and bit his lip, his eyes were stinging and he wanted to simply curl up with Tracey in a warm bed but refused to leave until he knew Gary would be alright. His friend had nearly died with the amount of blood he had lost and the way he had passed out in his arms had terrified him. With a helpless sigh, he turned and walked down the hall to the exit door that led to an outdoor balcony, where he sat down and put his head in his hands.

There was nothing he could do now but wait.

--- --- ---

Damien and Chris both looked up as Alex entered the waiting room looking pale and weary. They had been waiting with May and Andrew while everything was happening but Andrew had disappeared off on his own awhile before while May had been crying nearly nonstop while Damien hugged her and tried to comfort her. Alex had started off in the waiting room with them but had been allowed in the room with Professor Oak sometime later and had then been back and forth between the two rooms that Gary and Chelsea was in; now he was finally headed back to the group of people waiting for news from him.

All three twenty-year-olds looked terrible – May was the worst with blood all over her clothes and a bandage on her leg. She had, as luck would have it, dropped to her knees next to her brother right on top of a piece of glass and sustained a gash of her own that no one had noticed until they were leaving the lab. Alex and Damien had both been in the room with her while a nurse removed the glass shards from her wound but it fortunately was not a severe injury: three stitches, some antibiotics to be safe, and a rather large bandage later found her back in the waiting room. Chris hadn't been quite as lucky with the cuts he had gotten from the shattered glassware, though the total of fourteen stitches to both arms and hands were relatively minor. The wrist that had been constricted by the first snake of the group was x-rayed and looked over by two different doctors before being bandaged, it had been severely bruised and he had been instructed to refrain from moving it too much. After getting antibiotics and painkillers, he too joined May in the waiting room. Damien had fared the best out of all of them since he had stayed out of the way until the snake was no longer a danger and, even then, he had been the one to fetch towels to help with the blood, knowing that there was little else he could do.

Chris quickly stood and met Alex in the middle of the room, nervous about the news but certain that it wasn't going to be as bad as it could be; Alex smiled wanly and led him over to where May was still crying against Damien's chest.

"They're both stable," he declared tiredly. "It looks like that arbok drained most of its venom before it started biting anyone so Chelsea's only having some small issues; she'll probably go home tonight."

"What about Gary?" May asked tearfully, pulling away from Damien to look Alex in the eye.

Alex sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, in that time, May felt herself grow faint and staggered, only to be caught by Damien and Chris before she could fall. "He's alright, May; sit down for a minute before you pass out. Damien, could you go get her something from the vending machine?"

"I'll go get it," Chris interjected as Damien helped the girl into a chair. He felt like he needed to do something, anything to get some of the tension out of his body and someone had to find Andrew.

"Are you alright, May?" Alex asked worriedly after Chris walked away.

"I'm fine; how is my brother?" she snapped irritably in return.

"He's okay for now. He needed a pretty big blood transfusion though – one of the fangs nicked a vein, that's why he was bleeding so much. They redid the stitches to make them neater –"

"How many?" Damien interrupted curiously.

"Thirty something… I don't remember the actual number. The bandage covers his entire forearm, he won't be playing guitar for awhile. But he'll be fine; he'll have to stay here a few days, but he'll be fine."

May nodded, looking immensely relieved by his words but unable to reply.

--- --- ---

It was a bit surprising how empty the hospital was, Chris thought as he picked out snack crackers and a can of apple juice for May. Unlike several of his other friends, he had never been too intimately familiar with a hospital setting, something he was rather grateful for. Unfortunately, he had been within that very setting three times in just over a year, all for the same person, which irked him just a bit. He felt guilty for this particular visit of Gary's since it was because of his project that his younger friend had been injured in the first place, not to mention the fact that he had known that Gary was distracted. Hearing that both of his injured friends were stable had been all that he needed to encourage him to get out of the chair he had been sitting in for the past hour or so but now he found himself wondering about his third former roommate.

Where Andrew had wandered off to was beyond him but he knew that he had to find him in order to let him know that Alex had news regarding the teens; a glance up and down the corridors had shown that Andrew was most likely not in this wing of the hospital. He pulled out his cell phone and glanced at the screen, hoping to find a new message from Bella. He had sent her a text message as soon as the doctors had finished with him and had received a message in return saying that she would be at the hospital as soon as she could, but she had yet to show up.

He wandered down the hallway away from the vending machine, trying to think of where to look for his missing friend when he noticed a glass exit door that apparently led outside to a patio overlooking the visitor's parking lot. Sighing softly, he wondered why he hadn't looked there first – the long pale hair of the lone person sitting on the bench outside was unmistakably identifiable of Andrew. He opened the door and let himself out, careful not to slip on the concrete that was wet from the earlier thunderstorm. It was gloomy out here, he decided, with the shadows cast from the tall building and the dark clouds that still hung in the sky. Everything out here was wet and the warm temperature made the space rather humid.

Andrew was sitting with his back to him, one leg folded under him with his other leg stretched out to brace his foot against the railing in front of the bench he was on. He was slowly turning his cell phone over in his hand, seemingly just to have something to do and Chris had to admit that he was surprised to see the boy without his headphones on as he usually kept his iPod in the pocket of his jeans. A half-empty bottle of Mountain Dew and an open, yet barely touched bag of potato chips were both sitting next to him on the stone bench.

"Hey," Chris spoke up quietly. Andrew didn't respond. "We were wondering where you went off to. Shitty weather, huh?" Andrew snorted softly and raised a hand to wipe his face. "Alex has news about Gary and Chelsea."

Andrew cleared his throat and spoke thickly without looking up. "How is he – they?" He shook his head distractedly. "How are they?"

"They're both stable but I didn't get the details… What about you, are you alright?"

The blonde boy nodded silently and stood after gathering his food; he walked past Chris without saying a word and headed straight back to the waiting room to hear everything from Alex himself.

--- --- ---

May wanted to reply to Alex's news about her brother, but she simply couldn't find words – her relief was simply too great as more tears fell from her eyes. She found her voice a moment later. "Can I see him?"

"Well," Alex frowned. The doctor hadn't said anything about not having visitors but he knew the way the venom worked as well as the doctors and professor Oak did. It was not exactly something one wanted to see a loved one go through. "You could, but I'm not sure how badly you'll want to; he won't be sleeping for long, what with the fever and vomiting and all of those fun effects of arbok venom –"

"But he already got the antivenom, Professor Oak gave it to him before he passed out."

"Antivenin," Alex corrected automatically, about to go on when he was interrupted again.

"That's not how it works," May said, turning to face Damien so she could explain. She knew exactly what Alex was talking about. "Arbok venom is much more complex than other venoms; the antivenin only denatures the proteins that mess with the blood and the heart. The body deals with the rest on its own with the fever and everything."

Damien glanced back and forth between the two people; having never really had an interest in science, he was completely confused. "Then why bother with the antivenin in the first place?" he asked, mimicking the way Alex had corrected him a moment prior.

"Because the venom has anticoagulants and stimulants in it – without the antivenin, you would either go into cardiac arrest or bleed out," Alex explained.

"Which is what happened with Gary, er, almost happened, I mean."

"Exactly," May agreed, a tiny smile finally gracing her pale lips. The sound of running footsteps made her peer down the hallway and then leap to her feet when she saw three girls racing towards them. "Bella!"

Bella flung her arms around her best friend as soon as she reached her, Michelle and Kate coming to a stop around them, both asking questions at lightning speed. After a moment of clutching at her friend, May pulled away and held up a hand to calm the girls down.

"I got here as soon as I could, sweetie – my god, you're covered in blood! What happened?"

"Are you alright? Where's Gary?"

Michelle surprisingly didn't ask any more questions and instead placed her hands on Kate's shoulders to calm her down. Without the questions distracting her, May took in the appearance of her friends and realized exactly how much they must have rushed to make it. Bella was still wearing a half-apron around her waist from work at the downtown salon in Pallet, extra clips and scissors still within the pockets of fabric, while her brightly colored name tag was still clipped to her blouse. Kate was still wearing her green apron from working at a coffee shop since her morning classes had let out, the cloth bearing several coffee stains, the cheerful name tag clipped to the apron provided an ironic contrast with her pale face and wide eyes. Michelle was the most calm though May could see her hands shaking badly as she nervously smoothed the material of her soccer shorts; she was still wearing her uniform from practicing with her school's team, though she had removed her shin guards and replaced her cleats with polka dotted flats that she always kept in her car. They looked ridiculous, especially Michelle, but May couldn't have been happier to see them.

"I'm alright, Gary's okay for now – one of the arboks in the lab bit him and Umbreon bit it and it tore his arm open. They to give him how much blood did you say, Alex?"

"I didn't," Alex replied nervously. The last thing he wanted to do was add the alarm by mentioning the amount.

"How much was it then?" May asked.

Not wanting to argue, knowing that the girl could be as stubborn as her brother, Alex sighed in defeat. "Three units of blood," he admitted regretfully.

May's eyes widened while the other three girls exchanged glances. "Is that a lot?" Michelle asked.

"That's a type three hemorrhage," May said softly, remembering the passage on blood loss from one of Chelsea's textbooks that she had skimmed through.

"That's bad, isn't it?"

"If he needed a transfusion then of course it was bad!" Kate spoke up, shooting a small glare at Bella for her question. "They don't just give blood for any cut – the human body only has something like six pints of blood in it! Didn't you ever pay attention in biology?"

"No, I copied May's notes; why would I pay attention?"

Another small smile crossed May's lips as she told the girls everything that had happened and all that Alex had told her. Several minutes had passed when she realized that they were missing a member of their group. "Where's Anna?" she asked suddenly as she finished telling them about her own stitches.

Kate and Bella both frowned deeply while Michelle pursed her lips slightly and glanced up towards the ceiling as she usually did whenever she had forgotten something. "Were we supposed to tell her?" Bella asked in confusion.

"I thought Andrew or Tracey or someone would have told her," Kate spoke up.

Alex snapped his attention back to the group at the latest turn in conversation. "Anna doesn't know about Gary?"

"Apparently not," Michelle replied, once more joining the conversation. "Should we tell her?"

"She needs to know about this – her boyfriend almost died and she has no idea that there's even been an accident! She should be here like the rest of us," he replied in disbelief. How could no one have thought to tell Anna? Sure she hadn't made up with Gary yet, but she deserved to know what was going on with her lover.

Kate lowered her eyes to the floor while Bella met May's eyes uneasily; neither of them wanted to be the one to tell Anna. Michelle sighed after a minute and slipped her car keys out of her pocket. "I'll go tell her in person," she offered reluctantly. "I need a shower anyways; I'm totally covered in mud."

As she spoke, two figures rounded the corner at the end of the hall and Bella ran straight to one of them and immediately began fussing over Chris' bandaged wrist while Andrew wordlessly joined Damien, Alex, and the other four girls. To their surprise, he remained quiet as Alex informed him of what was going on, his only response being a few stiff nods. Startled and worried by Andrew's withdrawn behavior, Alex glanced over the group of young people in front of him before turning his gaze to Damien. "You should all go back to the house; you need to get cleaned up and there's nothing you can really do here anyway."

Chris and Damien both nodded in agreement while Andrew gave no response, but May shook her head resolutely. "I'm staying."

"May, there's nothing you can do," Alex began in a pacifying tone.

"I'm not leaving my brother!"

"May…"

"No."

"At least go home, take a shower, and get something to eat before coming back here." May still looked doubtful as she glared at Alex; he almost had to laugh as her posture and expression could pass as a near perfect imitation of her younger brother. "Umbreon is probably freaking out since she's part of the reason Gary got so badly injured in the first place, seeing you would calm her down. And bringing her back with you might help your brother feel better sooner."

May lowered her eyes to the tiled floor at the mention of her brother and his pokemon; as much as she hated to leave, she knew Alex was right. Umbreon was fiercely protective of and highly attached to her trainer and was certain to be highly anxious while she knew that he was gravely injured. There were only a few people whom the dark canine liked almost as much as Gary and May was at the top of the list, along with Anna, though Andrew and Kate were both rather high on that particular list as well. The more she thought of the pokemon, the more worried she grew for her wellbeing – the creature was comfortable with Tracey but wasn't fond of Ash and was rather indifferent towards Shawn; out of everyone who worked in the lab, those were the only three people there currently and May could only imagine how things were going there.

A small, wicked smile crossed over Michelle's lips while May briefly pondered what she should do. "If you go home, you stop by Anna's all covered in blood and show her what exactly what happened from her being such a bitch this week – I bet that's exactly why Gary got bit –"

"He wouldn't purposely get himself bit just to get back at Anna; you know Gary's not like that!" Kate exclaimed suddenly, whirling to glare at Michelle, who had been standing behind her the whole time.

"That's not what I meant," Michelle snapped back. "He's not stupid enough to do something that idiotic."

"Knock it off! I'm not going to sit here and listen to you two argue over something like that; I'll go home and check on everything and we'll get Anna. You guys don't have to stay here but if you do, then don't bother fighting anywhere near me." She looked over at Damien after glaring at Kate and Michelle for a moment. "Will you drive me?"

Startled by suddenly being included in the conversation, Damien nodded automatically. "Sure." After seeing May cry so much and after holding her and comforting her the way he had for the past few hours, there was little he wouldn't do for her at this junction in time.

--- --- ---

The ride home was uncomfortable and passed mostly in silence with the only sound being that of the radio. In the end, Chris had decided to stay to keep Chelsea company until she was discharged and Bella had stayed with him while Kate went with Michelle in her car to return to Pallet. Professor Oak and Alex had both stayed at the hospital, leaving May, Andrew, and Damien alone for the ride. Andrew's unusual behavior concerned both of his companions but, too wrapped up in her own thoughts, May paid little attention to him while Damien's main focus was the road as night began to fall around them. Despite her distraction from the boy in the backseat, May could sense the glances that Damien kept sending her way. She would occasionally look over and find herself mildly disappointed to be unable to meet his eyes because of his rapt attention to the road before them. Thinking of the way he had let her cry against his chest was leaving her a bit confused – they had been flirting all week and it hadn't exactly been a secret, but did this bring things to a new level? Surely he was just being concerned in the way that friends normally were but she couldn't help questioning it.

The car reached the downtown Pallet and May looked over at Damien once more as they pulled to a stop at a red light; their eyes met in the dim light and May blushed slightly, lowering her eyes to the fabric of the seat she was sitting in. She looked out the window at the local shops and felt a hand close over her own. Turning, she found that the hand belonged to Damien and their eyes met again.

"Hey," he said softly, running his thumb over the back of her hand. "He'll be fine, you know how Gary is." She held his gaze for several long seconds that seemed to stretch on into eternity until a coughing sound came from the back seat of the car; Damien turned to look at Andrew with slight concern. The moment was broken. "You okay?"

Andrew gave a small smirk that was a faint shadow of his usual grin. "Oh, I'm fine; just choking on the sexual tension here, that's all. The light's green, by the way."

May turned a delicate shade of red and returned her gaze to the window while Damien scowled and drove on in silence for several minutes. As they reached the southern edge of the town, May directed him towards Anna's house, to the surprise of both boys in the car with her.

"I thought you were going to take a shower and check on the lab?" Damien asked in confusion as he turned down a curvy road with a few scattered mansions.

"I am; I just need to tell Anna."

He gave May a strange look as she instructed him to stop in front of a Victorian house. "You do realize that you're covered in blood, right? You're going to give the poor girl a heart attack!"

Andrew leaned forward and poked his head between the two front seats. "She just wants to make Anna go through what we went through today – you know: the gore, the anxiety…"

"Then make her watch Alien!"

"No go; it's her favorite movie," May spoke up dully. She opened her car door and began the trek up the long driveway leading to the house while the two boys stayed in the car.

"Stubborn, isn't she?" Andrew mused as Damien watched May with a surprised expression on his face.

He shook his head and opened his door to join her. "Determined – Alex and Gary are stubborn," he corrected the blonde teen before closing the door and leaving him alone.

Andrew groaned and leaned back against the back seat once more. "And here I am, by myself, talking to myself… God, I've seen Jurassic Park too many times," he muttered in annoyance as he reluctantly pushed his door open and hurried to catch up with the other two.

--- --- ---

Anna sighed as she reclined on the blue leather couch in her mother's living room as she idly flipped through the channels on the large television. She was bored and had nothing to do; her mother was out at dinner with some friends, her own friends had seemingly disappeared off of the face of the planet for the day, and she hadn't been able to get Gary on the phone when she tried calling him earlier that day. With her guitar and bass over at her boyfriend's house with most of her books, the only thing for her to do was try in vain to find something to watch. Unfortunately, as was the common curse with cable television, there were hundreds of channels and nothing worth watching on any of them. Quiet footsteps sounded but Anna barely glanced up as her sister entered the room; she paid Rachael no attention until she heard that familiar tinkling sound of the piano keys.

"Christ, Rach, knock it off! You're as annoying as Gary!"

"And, yet, you don't complain when he plays," the other girl responded coolly without glancing up.

With a soft curse and a dark mutter, Anna turned back to the tv, pausing momentarily on an episode of Scrubs that Andrew constantly quoted before moving on to a cheesy horror movie that Rachael rolled her eyes at. Amidst the screams from the television both girls distinctly heard the doorbell ring but neither made any move to get up to answer it.

"It's probably for you," Rachael spoke up as she continued playing, remembering how many times the other girls they had grown up with had stopped by to attempt talking sense into Anna.

Cursing vehemently this time, Anna turned off the television with an annoyed flourish of the remote control. As Rachael looked over at her, she swung her legs over the arm of the couch and climbed down, flashing her revealing underwear beneath the miniskirt she wore at her sister.

"So classy," Rachael sneered derisively.

"You're such a fucking prude," Anna hissed.

"You kiss your beloved boyfriend with that mouth?"

"Tell me; are you that prim and proper while Gary fucks you?"

"Just answer the damn door!"

The doorbell rang again and Anna quickened her pace as she headed towards the front door. She impatiently opened the door and froze when she saw May and Damien standing on the porch with Andrew climbing the steps behind them. Opening the door wider, she could see that May's dark skirt and polo shirt that she often wore in the lab were stained with a dark red liquid. She barely noticed the bandage on her friend's leg as she focused on her pale face.

"May! What happened?"

May squared her shoulders and frowned at Anna as the girl led them into the foyer. "Your boyfriend nearly bled to death in the lab this afternoon, that's what happened," she snapped. Anna's face paled dramatically and her eyes grew wide in sudden shock and worry.

"May," Damien breathed, putting a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"Well, that is what happened," Andrew spoke up thoughtfully as he closed the door behind him. "A bit more blunt than I expected, but that's the basic premise."

Anna led them to the nearest room with seating, which happened to be the kitchen, and dropped shakily into a chair at the table. "What happened in the lab?"

"Umbreon got jealous of Loki and tried to bite Gary's face off for it." May and Damien both gave Andrew exasperated looks while Anna let her rapid heart rate calm a bit; if Andrew was joking, then it couldn't possibly be as bad as it sounded. "What? I've been stressing out about this for the past few hours, I need a good joke!"

Damien rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the girl who glanced back and forth between Andrew and May nervously. With a small sigh, he briefly told Anna what had happened, making sure to tell her that he was okay as he did so. "May needs to shower and check on the lab and I think Andrew needs to lay down for a bit, so we figured we would stop by and tell you what happened so you could go with us when we head back to Viridian."

Anna shot a nervous glance towards the living room; her mother had asked her not to go out anywhere while she was gone. Of course, this was rather important, an idea she was sure Nicole would agree with. She nodded after a minute and stood up again. "I'll get my stuff together and meet you guys at the house. Go ahead and get everything done, I'll be there as soon as I can."

She showed them out a moment later and sighed heavily as she leaned against the front door, covering her face with her hands until the feeling of weakness that was threatening to overwhelm her passed. This was not the time to get emotional, she warned herself. She had to keep her wits so that she could gather up all of the belongings she had brought with her and make her escape without making too much of a scene. As guilty as she felt, she had to stay strong until she saw Gary. She just had to.

As soon as she was sure that she wasn't going to break down in tears, she ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time and nearly tripping on the rug as she headed towards her room. It took her a moment to locate the red backpack she had brought with her; as soon as she found it, she began grabbing the clothes lying around her room from the past week and quickly flung them in. The handful of books she had brought with her were thrown in on top while she frantically searched for the small messenger bag that served as her purse. After quickly checking that she had everything, she pulled on her boots and headed downstairs with both bags in tow.

"Rach, I'm going – tell Mom I'll call her!" She flung open the front door and heard her sister call after her as she stepped out onto the porch.

"Mom said not to go anywhere, Anna! Don't you know how to listen?" Rachael asked snidely as she followed her out.

"Gary's in the hospital, I have to go and I somehow doubt Mom will have a problem with that when she finds out," Anna snapped back, heading down the steps without looking at her sister.

"And what exactly are you going to do there? Hold his hand? He's a big boy, Anna, he doesn't need you there."

Anna whirled around to face Rachael as she followed her down to the driveway. "That's exactly your problem – you don't know what it means to be there for someone. Maybe you would have figured that out by now if you weren't such a stuck up bitch."

Rachael snorted softly and crossed her thin arms over her chest, pausing in front of the porch as she calmly met Anna's eyes. "You say that now, but who was it that ran out on her boyfriend just because he was worried about someone? Sounds a bit like hypocrisy to me –" Her words were suddenly cut off by Anna's hand connecting with her cheek in a powerful slap that silenced her in shock.

"Get back inside, you worthless cunt," Anna hissed as Rachael raised a hand to the red spot where she had just been hit. With a final sneer at her sister, she turned and headed down the driveway, following the road in the familiar path that she had so often followed to her best friend's house. Behind her, she heard the front door slam, the noise echoing along the quiet road as she walked with grim purpose towards her destination.

There was no way her sister was keeping her from getting to Gary's side and she knew her mother would understand. To hell with Rachael, she could sit and mope around the house all she wanted; Anna was done with that, she had done it enough all week as it was. There were more important things in life than petty grudges.

--- --- ---

::Author's Notes::

Hmm… Damien and May? I hope this chapter didn't disappoint after the action towards the end of the last one! As always, please review and let me know what you think!

And…

I've reposted Changes! It's now called The Challenge and it's been rewritten for the most part. It's five chapters long right now; I'm going to try to update it often and it still needs to get caught up with this story. It is Ash's side of this as he prepares for the Pokemon League competition at the Indigo Plateau with Gary, Andrew, and Chelsea; a lot shorter than this, along with less drama, angst, and heavy metal references. Check it out if you're interested.

Snailsgomoo – Thanks so much!

Kasandra – don't worry, I've got plans for Gary and Anna! ;) Thanks for reviewing!