~*~

CHAPTER TEN

~*~

The weeks went by, and the weather got warmer; instead of grey skies, people woke to stretches of blue. May - it was the time of year when the parks were full of sweethearts sharing ice creams and people dug in their drawers for their sunglasses.

The word 'Misty' was now taboo around Ash Ketchum, who regressed to a scowling, sulking brat for half the time, and a daydreaming young man who simply didn't know what to do with himself for the rest. Tracey still communicated with Anju, so he knew from that link that Misty was well, but he didn't know if he cared anymore.

Linda's 20th birthday approached; slowly, the annoying way these types of things tend to do. Large and stiff white envelopes with golden gilded edges slid through the letter boxes of the cottage in Pallet, the Pewter Gym and the Pokémon Centre in Lavender Town, as well as many other residences. Tracey was dragged to half a million clothes shops, as Linda pondered the perpetually hard decision of what to wear.

The anniversary of the baby's birth, and death came, just a few days before Linda's birthday, and far to the west of Pallet, Misty sat in her apartment on Cianwood Island and stared herself in the mirror.

What was the point? Seriously? What was the point? Her baby was dead, her whole life turned upside down, and when her knight in shining armour had finally come to save her from herself… she chased him away.

Misty Waterflower eyed the reflected teal swirls in the dark mirror, too tired to draw her curtains to allow proper light into her sanctuary. Yes. Yes, there were a lot of differences, even in her appearance from two years ago, but she was still the same person.

Oh and Jyou. Poor Jyou. He had tried to tell her that he loved her. She could still picture his excited light brown eyes, She simply couldn't do that to him any longer.

Disregarding her reflection, Misty rolled over on the bed. She raised the back of her hand to cover her yawning mouth instinctively, as she stretched, and arched her back by pushing her shoulder blades towards each other. She had way too many memories with Ash - it was stupid of her to think she could ever forget him. Which left her with two choices…

Misty smiled her smug little half smile, which hadn't graced her cheeks for so long, that she felt her muscles protesting very slightly. Stupid plan - one worthy of Ash indeed! Oh well. Worth a shot.

Feeling what seemed like a burst of energy in her legs, like she hadn't felt in years, Misty leapt from her bed and broke into a grin. Too bad if Ash was pissed at her - she was going home! Giggling, Misty slid into the living room, calling Anju's name.

~*~

Man that was one ugly punch bowl…

Ash groaned and shook his head lightly. God, now he was offended about the pattern on Linda's bowl…ugh. He glanced around. Tracey and Linda were the only people in the room he knew, but it was early yet. Tracey looked sympathetically at Ash from across the room, but Linda had a firm grip around his arm and they both knew he wasn't going anywhere.

Ash stared down at his wrists. He was wearing a pale blue shirt and trousers. No tie. Linda had glowered at him when he had walked in. But Ash only wore a tie for one girl.

[::=START FLASHBACK=::]

Ash sat on the sofa, picking uncomfortably at his shirt cuffs. He hated wearing suits. He stopped fidgeting as the bathroom door opened quietly and Misty stepped out, looking equally uncomfortable. She was wearing a simple navy dress cut above her knees. She had let down her hair (secretly because she knew Ash liked it down) and for the first time in her life she had applied a tiny smudge of blue eye-shadow.

Misty laughed at Ash's face. He was gazing at her, awestricken. Usually, just the hair down was enough to make his resolve melt away, but as he looked at her now, he felt the last of his wall crumble away for good. She looked beautiful, and for once he didn't care if he thought so.

[::=END FLASHBACK=::]

Ash groaned as the evil word surfaced again. He would have started banging his head on the highly polished table, or maybe just dunked it in the lumpy pink liquid in the punch bowl, but gratefully, he heard Jo's familiar soft voice, gently reprimanding someone for scaring a little girl. Eagerly, he lifted his head to see Jo and Brock…and a young thin girl with waist length lilac hair pulled back into a half-ponytail.

Anju walked nervously into the large room, looking around curiously. In her hands, complete with gold painted fingernails, she held a plain grey videotape. Walking a few steps in front of Jo and Brock, who were exchanging apprehensive glances, Anju stopped directly in front of Ash.

"Hi. Remember me? Anju?" Ash nodded suspiciously, and Anju saw his eyes dart hopefully to the doorway, and then the hope in them fade, as he saw no one else there. "I have to give you this," she said, indicating the tape with a flick of her wrist. Ash put out his hand for it, but Anju hesitated, and withdrew the tape protectively.

"What?" asked Ash.

"You have to promise to watch all of it, 'kay? Do you promise? And on your own?"

Ash nodded seriously, and took the tape curiously. Okay no prizes for guessing it was from Misty…Ash felt anger boil up inside him and his fingers clenched down hard on the cornered plastic. Tracey shepherded him into his bedroom, where there was a VCR, and then left Ash alone, as Anju had instructed him to.

Ash pushed the tape into the machine with the bottom of his palm as he perched on the end of the bed, and patted around the bedcovers with his other hand blindly for the remote control. The screen flickered into life with a faint 'zup' sound. Ash pressed the small triangle rubber button, and there was a click as the video began to play.

Grey lines of static danced across the screen briefly, before it settled down to show Misty. Ash started at the sight of her; there were bags under her eyes, and her hair looked un-brushed, but she was back, and she was Misty.

Her eyes sparkled, and she nervously tugged at her hair, now cut so short it hadn't a hope of going back up in the ponytail. Her mouth curved up into a nervous smile, and Ash felt his resolve weakening already.

"Ash. If you haven't already turned the video off thanks…I guess you're annoyed with me. I don't blame you. I was really annoyed at you. I still am actually. Er, well what I was thinking, is that…maybe we can be annoyed at each other - together again?

I was thinking about our pact you know. I threw it away the night I left, and I'm sorry Ash. I thought I was doing what was best for you I guess… So…" Misty bit her lip in thought. "Togetic and all my other Pokémon are fine - Poliwhirl evolved into Poliwrath…and about the baby…" She paused and swallowed. "That wasn't your fault. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I was so scared…"

Her voice dropped to a whisper and she put her arms around herself as she stared away from the camera. "All of a sudden there was all this blood, and my stomach felt like it was about to collapse in on itself, and I was screaming from the pain…there was no one around…and all of a sudden there was this tiny baby on the floor, all purple and covered in blood and gunk…he was so small Ash, so very, very tiny, but so beautiful too. And I knew he wasn't breathing, but I slapped him, and tried everything, but he was just so tiny, and he just couldn't breathe…"

Misty turned her eyes back to the camera, and Ash winced as he saw the tears, so like the ones that had escaped from his eyes and were dampening his cheeks. "It wasn't your fault," Misty repeated again. Her eyes clenched shut and opened again. "But why didn't you try to find me? It's not like I was asking for a national search party, but not even one lousy carton of milk with my picture on it! Can you understand how I got mad at you? Sacrificing everything for you, and then seeing you dating supermodels when you should have been looking for me?" Misty's mouth twisted up in a wry looking smile. "Mind you, I've always been paranoid about the supermodels haven't I?" Ash laughed quietly.

"Anyway Ash," came Misty's voice, solemnly again. "I can forgive you, and I can be sorry - but only if you forgive me, and are sorry too." More tears ran down Ash's face, and he wiped them away with his sleeve immediately. "I'll be in my special place, Saturday night, about seven. I always go there now. If you want to see me, I'll be there. And if you don't want to see me, then I'll know if you, if you…don't turn up…but Ash, even if we can't have what we had before, can't we still be friends? We've been through so much together…so much I can quote cliché lines like that! At least, at least…" Misty was crying openly now, but trying stubbornly to hide to extent of her tears, "you can come and we'll…we'll make up another pact."

The camera suddenly jolted, and the picture was turned on its side as Anju rushed from behind it to hug Misty. Misty reached over and one of her tears fell onto the lens. She flicked a switch, and the screen went blank. The room fell silent.

Ash turned the television off, and ejected the tape, all accustomed, and not really thinking. He smiled, and looked at his watch. 5.32.

He was going to see his girlfriend soon.