DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon, or know anyone from Pokemon! Comprendo?

A/N: Will Misty forgive Ash in chapter eleven? I dunno if I would if I was her...find out in this thrilling installment of...MISTY'S DILEMMA! :)

The next day, all was quiet at Misty's house. Ash hadn't come back, and at first, Misty had been too angry to care. But now she was worried. It was now approaching three o'clock in the afternoon and he still hadn't come back. What if he had crashed the car on a country road and no one knew?

Pikachu was most worried about its trainer, and Misty understood when it asked her something along the lines of, "Pika Pika, Pikachu Pika Pi."

Misty sighed. "Okay. Let's go." She grabbed the keys to her beat-up Holden, clutched Togepi and hopped in the car with Pikachu.

Where would she start? Cerulean was huge, and even though she had lived there for all her sixteen years, she didn't even know all of it.

"Let's try...let's try..." If I were Ash, where would I go to hide? Misty figrued that to find Ash, she must think like Ash.

"Burger King!" Misty slammed the accelerator and headed in the direction of Ash's favourite restaurant.

Sure enough, the red convertible that had caused absolute disaster the day before was parked outside. Misty sighed, scooped Pikachu into her arms and walked inside.

He was there alright, but his old Pokemon League Expo hat was hiding his face. Misty walked up to the counter.

"Um, a double cheeseburger and a regular coke, thanks" she asked politly, warily fishing money out of her purse.

"Would you like any fries with that?" the cashier asked almost as warily.

"Did I ask for fries? NO! If I wanted fries, I would've ASKED for fries!" Misty yelled at the startled cashier, causing the restaurant to elapse in silence.

She glanced around in embarassment. "That's, um, three dollars sixty, thanks" the cashier annouced. Misty handed over the exact change and angrily swiped the tray of greasy food away.

Pikachu sighed, and remained stationary on her shoulder as she sat next to Ash. She slammed her tray onto his table, producing a shocked stare on his face.

"Now look what you've done. You've made me worse than all my sisters with PMS" she groaned, half-teasing.

Ash shrugged. "Sorry." He turned away, staring out the window, but Misty wouldn't let him. She grabbed his face and turned it towards hers so he was staring straight into her eyes.

"Look, I came here to talk to YOU, not your stupid cap, so listen up!" Misty was tougher than ever, especially after learning to live by herself for five years.

Ash gave her a daunting gaze, and nodded. "Sorry" he tried to say, his face still painfully clutched in between her fingers.

Misty let go and sighed. "I guess I should be apologising. I kinda blew up yesterday" she shrugged and started to unwrap her burger.

Ash looked at her in amazement. "Well, you had every right to be. I had no place there, embarassing you and all your staff..." Ash had come to realise overnight what he had caused, and how stupid he had been.

Misty forgot her burger and cocked her head to one side thoughtfully. "Don't apologise until we get our ranking. If it's bad, you're gonna have to get down on your knees and beg for life-long forgiveness" she grinned.

Ash tried to smile back, but it came out as a sparing sigh. "I was just trying to give you a cool birthday present."

"Oh it was cool, it was just delivered at the wrong time...where did you get it, anyway?" Misty asked, curiosity suddenly reaching her.

"I won it cos of the Pokemon League. Come second and you get a car" Ash shrugged, glancing out the window at it. "I've had it for a year. I thought you might want something a little more...um...sophisticated than your car, so I drove it up from Pallet."

Misty looked at him in surprise. "You did that for me?" she whispered, unable to believe it.

"Well...yeah. I reckon you deserve it." Ash smiled as he turned back to her. "You run that gym so well, and you never seem to get any credit for it. So I thought, what the hell?"

Misty felt her heartbeat rise, but she settled it with a disgusted and forced bite of her burger. "Yuck, this is greasy, fattening crap" she declared, immediatly throwing it back on the tray.

"What are you on about, it's good" Ash disagreed, taking a big chomp out of his deluxe whopper.

Misty raised an eyebrow in disgust and stood up. "I better get back. I think the guys there will be worried about me." Ash nodded and Misty stared at him in confusion. "Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah. I will" Ash said vaguely. Misty looked at him and sat back down.

"Come on, I'm not that mad at you. You've only got a couple of days here, make the most of it" she pleaded.

Ash looked at her, taking in everything he had forgotten about for five years, and had learned again over the past days. "Okay. Let's go."

She took her car, and Ash drove the convertible with Pikachu at his side. They arrived at her house in under five minutes, and Misty unlocked the door. Everyone at the gym noticed her arrival and made a note of it.

"Like, hi Misty!" The familier voice of Misty's sisters hit her and she shrieked in surprise as she saw them, standing in her living room.

"Hi! It's so good to see you!" Misty cried out, throwing her arms around all three of them.

"Wow, totally the same here!" Violet replied. She noticed Ash at the same time her sisters did. "Well well, who's this all grown up?" she asked, sounding more like a mother.

"Violet, please..." Misty said through clenched teeth, but they were already approaching him.

"If it isn't little Ash Ketchum! How you been, sweetie?" Lily cooed, hugging him at the same time.

"Great...just great..." he replied in a strangled voice.

Lily let go and went back to Misty. "How did the inspection go?" she asked cheerily, unaware of what had happened.

Misty laughed nervously. "Funny you should ask...really...it went really..." She glanced at Ash, who was pretending to look the other way. "Good. He loved it." Which had been the truth, until Ash arrived.

Daisy sighed with relief. "Thank God for that, we were sooo worried you'd, like, stuff it up."

"I wouldn't stuff it up!" Misty half-yelled, suddenly realising she was lying to them about that too.

Daisy waved a hand distractdly, not caring anymore.
Misty mentally sighed and took their bags. It had been a long journey for them, and Lily had already crashed on the couch from what she claimed was heat exhaustion.

"So, how long are you here for?" Misty asked.

Violet shrugged. "Only about a week or so. We gotta get back to our studies and everything."

Misty's head spun. People were coming and going from her house like ants. She felt dizzy as she sat down and chatted aimeably with her sisters.

"Misty, I think I'll go, um, take Pikachu for some fresh air" Ash said to her discreetly.

Misty's huge green eyes stared at him. "Okay...don't be long, lunch will be ready soon" she said worridly, wondering where he would go.

Ash smiled. "You know I wouldn't miss lunch."

Misty smiled at him as he walked out the door with Pikachu at his feet, then quickly turned back to her sisters, who were talking at a thousand miles a minute.

A/N: Okay, Misty hasn't TOTALLY forgiven him yet, it depends on the ranking. I promise you'll find out the ranking in chapter twleve. Eleven down, four to go!