Greetings, and welcome back to 'All I Want For Christmas is a Pokémon'! Now, my hugest apologies for taking so long with this...I've been pretty busy with helping babysit my nephew, and that can be quite tiring (he's one and can be quite the cute ball of energy). So, don't think that I've abandoned any of my stuff that I'm working on...just take it as me slowly but very surely working on writing when I have the time and energy.

For a quick recap of what happened last chapter: After many run-ins and distractions, AJ, Pikachu, and Kaitlyn finally made it to Doctor Andrew's office. And, with more news of yet another failed stowaway search, Stephanie feels it's time for another roster-wide meeting. Now, onto the new chapter, and I hope you all enjoy it. =)

Looking inside and seeing just the person she was coming to see, AJ said "Hey there, Doctor Andrew. How've you been this evening?"

The doctor, a man in his late 20s named Andrew Carrington, had just put what looked like a roll of gauze back into his first aid kit when he turned to look at the new arrivals to his office. "AJ, good evening! I've been doing well, just making sure I have everything packed and ready for when we finally head out again. What brings you my way this evening?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could help give a check to this Pikachu here," AJ said as she held the Pokémon in question up for Doctor Andrew to see.

"I see you've finally caught a Pokémon of your own, AJ. Congratulations!" Doctor Andrew smiled. "Bring it over here, and I'll start my examination."

"Well," AJ began as she made her way over to the doctor after she closed the door behind her. "Actually. There's a bit of a funny story here."

"'Funny story'? How so?" Doctor Andrew asked as he went about getting the instruments he would need.

"Well. Tell me, Doc, how familiar are you with the stowaway that's been following us around lately?" AJ asked as she sat Pikachu on the open examination table.

"Familiar enough to know from the meetings Stephanie's been having lately that it's a Pokémon that's been causing a lot of property damage. I hope the poor thing hasn't hurt itself too badly, what with all of the light bulbs and tech stuff that've been broken and damaged," Doctor Andrew said as he made his way over to the pair. "Why the random question?"

"Umm, well," AJ began before fidgeting a bit. "Can you promise to keep what I'm about to tell you a secret? Because it's a pretty big secret here."

"Uhh, sure, AJ, sure. Your secret's safe with me," the doctor said, a bit caught offguard by the shorter brunette's sudden request.

Seeing the look on the doctor's face had AJ feeling like she could believe him. 'I hope Doctor Andrew's not lying here,' the brunette thought before gesturing to the Pokémon beside her and saying "Well, Doc. Say Hello to Pikachu. Our friend the stowaway."

At first he didn't quite know what to say. Doctor Andrew knew AJ had a bit of a reputation for being a jokester at times, something he saw firsthand when he saw the aftermath of a prank she and her fellow Chickbusters pulled on some of the other wrestlers-'I'll still never get how they managed to paintbomb a group of ten at once,' he thought with a light chuckle-but from the serious looks on both AJ's and Pikachu's faces, he could tell that this was no joke. Finally managing to find his words, the doctor cleared his throat before saying "OK, April. Your secret here is safe with me. But, you do know you'll have to tell Stephanie about your new friend here soon, right? I'm fairly certain she'll notice something's up when the stowaway just disappears out of the blue."

"I know, I know," AJ nervously nodded. "I'm still thinking about how I can break the news to her."

He could tell there was maybe something more to what the shorter brunette was saying. From the way AJ said what she said to the way he saw her rubbing Pikachu's back to the Electric mouse seeming fairly receptive to the gesture, it seemed to help him piece something together. "Could there be another reason why you haven't told Stephanie yet?"

A light laugh escaping her, AJ said "Yeah. Yeah, there is."

"And just what is that reason?" the doctor asked.

"Well, if she'll be open to hearing me out about it," AJ began "I'm going to try asking her if there's any possible way I can let Pikachu stay with me and be my first Pokémon."

...

Not feeling pleased with the news she just got from the younger brunette with her, Stephanie sighed before saying "OK. Thanks for the update. Alex."

"No problem, Steph," Alex said after relaying the results of her search. "Sorry I didn't have better luck with finding it."

"You don't have to apologize. It seems like that's been the story of everyone's searches. I just don't get it. It can't have left already, if what Natalya told me about her shirt is any indication. So, where could it be?" the older of the two wondered as she ran a hand through her hair.

Alex could tell that this was getting to her boss. She had a feeling that it wasn't easy having a job like the one she had-after all, helping oversee the careers of the people that worked for a company like the WWE would probably be enough to stress anyone out-so seeing Stephanie seeming as stressed as she was had the shorter of the two feeling a bit bad for the older brunette. Wanting to change the subject to something less stressful, Alex said "Well, in other news, I got a chance to talk to Maryse a bit ago."

"Oh, really? How'd that go? She didn't start teasing you again, did she?" Stephanie asked as she and Alex began to walk back to her office.

"No, actually. She told me that she's sorry about how she used to tease me all those years ago. So, I guess in my case at least, solo searching wasn't a total bust."

"I'd say it wasn't either. I'm glad to hear that you two made up about all of that," the older brunette said. Stephanie knew about some of the past troubles Alex had with some of the women that were on the roster, so it came as a big surprise to hear that the younger brunette made up with one of her past tormentors. "At least you two finally patched things up. And who knows? Maybe that could lead to some tag matches for you both in the future."

Laughing a bit at that idea, Alex said "Maybe. Just gonna depend on if she'll even be open to the idea. I mean, just how would that even work? Who would our opponents be?"

"Hmm, that is a good point you make there," Stephanie said. "Well, there's the difference in dynamics between you two. And there's the different in-ring styles you both have. ...How about if we…."

As she talked with the older brunette, Alex could tell that at the very least this was something to temporarily take Stephanie's mind off of the failed stowaway search. 'At least it's something that's calming Steph down a bit. And it's sounding like I may have a possible future new tag partner. I guess maybe my flop of a search wasn't so bad, after all.'

...

Having pulled his stethoscope away from Pikachu's chest, Doctor Andrew made a note on the sheet he had already made some other notes on from his examination of the Pokémon.

Keeping her eye on the Pokémon, AJ was feeling relieved that Pikachu had been behaving so well during his examination. Sure, there had been a slight moment of worry at first where he growled at the doctor, but that was luckily calmed and taken care of after AJ helped calm him down. 'And good thing, too. Wouldn't want Doctor Andrew to get shocked by him.'

Setting aside his stethoscope, Doctor Andrew then began a physical examination of the Pokémon. "OK now, Pikachu. I'm going to check out your head, paws, ears, and tail. It's just to make sure you aren't hurt in any of those areas," the doctor calmly said.

"Piiiii," the Pokémon nervously said. Turning to look at the human named AJ, he saw her giving a look that it was okay. And if she said it was okay, then he knew he could trust the doctor. Relaxing himself, Pikachu sat in wait of ...just whatever it was that the doctor was going to do next.

Taking note of the stowaway's now relaxed demeanor, Doctor Andrew began his examination. He began by lightly taking hold of the Pokémon's head as he looked it over. 'No noticeable signs of major injury. Eyes are brown. Face and head have adequate mass and normal weight. Ears are of normal length, with what appear to be some areas that have faint scratches. Faint current can be felt in both cheeks,' the doctor made mental notes of before writing down his observations and notes on a fresh sheet of paper on his notepad.

Continuing on with his examination, Doctor Andrew took hold of one of

Pikachu's paws in a manner similar to his first examination. 'Pads of both left and right paws have same texture, of adequate roughness and toughness to aid in walking and running. Claws of adequate sharpness with some ...with some broken off. There ...there appears to be what feels like ...fragments in paws? Will have to give a closer look.' Taking note of the slight flash of discomfort he saw go across the Pokémon's face, Doctor Andrew said "Sorry about that, Pikachu. I didn't think I'd feel anything there. I'll be more careful next time, I promise."

A light growl came from the Pokémon before he said "Piiiii" as he could feel a slight tingling in his cheeks.

"It's okay, Pikachu, Doctor Andrew didn't mean to do that. He was just checking out your paws. He's not going to hurt you. He just wants to help you feel better," AJ said as she rubbed Pikachu's back in a bid to try to keep the Pokémon calm.

Looking over to the human named AJ and hearing the way she talked, Pikachu could tell that she was telling the truth. Managing to get himself to relax, Pikachu simply said "Pika" as he looked at the human named Doctor Andrew.

He was surprised. Doctor Andrew hadn't seen anything like this before when it came to some human interactions with wild Pokémon, so just seeing how AJ managed to help Pikachu calm down, it was surprising. 'Pikachu seems to have taken a liking to April. Maybe he would be a great first Pokémon for her.' Getting back to the matter at hand, the doctor said "Thanks for that, April. That was pretty helpful of you, like something a Trainer would do for their own Pokémon if they started to feel upset. Now to get back to the examination."

"I-It was nothing," AJ said as she could feel a slight warmth climb up her cheeks. As she watched and listened on while Doctor Andrew continued with his examination, she couldn't help but think back to what Kaitlyn said. 'Responsible Trainer. Kait said the same thing on our way here earlier. Maybe…. Maybe this is a sign that me and Pikachu would make for a good team.'

Finishing his examination of Pikachu's tail and making his final notes, Doctor Andrew said "OK. So, if I can say one thing, Pikachu here is largely in pretty good health. I say 'largely' because ...well, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but he's got some scars. Also, when I felt his paws, I felt what might be pieces of glass in them."

"Pieces of glass?" AJ asked before remembering what Stephanie said about light bulbs being broken at one of the roster meetings. "OK, I think I might know where those come from. Anything else I should know?"

"Like I said, he's in pretty good health for a Pokémon that doesn't have a Trainer. His weight and length are in a fairly normal range, and his inner electrical current is pretty good. I'd say all he needs treatment-wise is a bath and to get those pieces of glass taken out of his paws so that they won't get too embedded and cause him any real pain."

Before she could say anything, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Fishing it out, AJ saw that she just got some texts from Kaitlyn.

"Roster-wide meeting. Come join soon."

"Meeting's still going. Where are you?"

"Update on everyone's searches: No one's found the stowaway. No plans on what to do next."

"Meeting's over. Leaving soon. Hope Sparky seeing Doctor Andrew has been going well."

"Heads-up! Steph and Alex are headed your way!"

"Think of something to say and do about Sparky!"

While she wanted to laugh at her two-toned friend using the nickname she gave Pikachu, she couldn't because of the news she just got.

'Oh man. What do I do?! Do I take Pikachu and run? Or do I stay here and try to tell Steph everything?' the Latina thought, her mind getting whipped into a nervous frenzy of ideas.

Something didn't seem right. Pikachu could tell that the human named AJ wasn't feeling good at the moment. He didn't know why, but he guessed it may have had something to do with that strange box she had. Slowly wagging his tail as he tapped her shoulder, Pikachu saw that he managed to get the human's attention. With her looking at him, the Pokémon asked "Pika?"

"Yeah, I'm with Pikachu here. Everything okay, April?" Doctor Andrew asked.

"No. No, not really," AJ said.

"What is it? What's wrong?" the doctor asked, feeling a bit concerned about the shorter brunette.

"I just got some texts from Kaitlyn. And the last one said that Stephanie's on her way here," AJ said, getting nervous looks from both the doctor and the Pokémon.

Ruh-roh! OK, looks like some pretty big good news/bad news stuff going on here. Good news = Looks like Pikachu's check-up went pretty well, and even better is that Doctor Andrew was cool enough to not rat AJ out about having the stowaway. And it sounds like Alex just might have another future tag partner after she had her own talk with Stephanie. But. bad news = AJ missee out on a roster-wide meeting AND Stephanie's headed to the doctor's office. Zoinks! Just how will things go when Stephanie gets to the doctor's office and sees the stowaway? That shall be answered...next time! Until then, don't forget to RR please. =)

(*sends love and good vibes out to you all* Stay safe and healthy out there, lovelies.)