Professor Oak looked at his watch and frowned. It was almost nine-thirty and Delia still hadn't shown up for work. She was usually the first one up in the morning, but lately she had gotten into the habit of oversleeping and had even fallen asleep at her workstation yesterday. He went upstairs to her apartment and knocked on the door.
"Delia? Are you in?"
He was shocked by her appearance when she answered the door. She was deathly pale and still in her bathrobe.
"Samuel, I'm so sorry I'm late for work," she said apologetically in a weak voice. "I've been throwing up all morning…must have a stomach bug." She slumped against the door frame, looking as if she would faint at any minute.
He took her by the arm and led her back to bed.
"Delia, don't worry about work," he said as he tucked the blankets under her chin. She was shivering from weakness and the nausea. "You just rest and let me worry about you." As her eyes closed while he gently stroked her hair, something about her appearance triggered a troubling memory.
Rose.
This was exactly how the cancer had started with Rose. She had complained for weeks about being tired all the time, then she started getting sick. By the time she went to the doctor, it was too late. The cancer was to the point where it was inoperable, terminal.
Lying there, Delia looked just like Rose had shortly before she died.
"Delia," he said quietly, not wanting to alarm her. "Maybe you need to see a doctor."
Her eyes slowly opened.
"No, Samuel, I'm okay. It's just a flu bug or something."
"Please, Delia, for my sake. I'd feel better if I knew for sure that you're all right." He didn't want to tell her about Rose.
"Okay." She nodded and closed her eyes again.
"Rest now." He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I'll check on you again at lunch and after work."
When he went up to her room at lunchtime, he found a note saying that she was feeling a little better and had taken his advice and gone to her doctor. After he had finished gathering up the Pokémon at the end of the day, he went back upstairs to her room. The door was slightly ajar and he could hear her crying.
"Delia?" She was lying face down on the bed, sobbing. "Delia, what is it?" He gently touched her shoulder to let her know that he was there. She lifted her head and turned her red, tear-stained face to him. She had been crying for hours.
"I…I…went to the doctor," she gasped between sobs.
Fear gripped his heart. He had already buried one woman that he loved and he didn't think he would be able to survive losing her, too.
"Delia, what did the doctor say? Tell me." He was starting to get frightened.
"She…oh, Samuel…she…"
"She what? Tell me what she said!" He was starting to panic. If Delia was this upset, then the diagnosis must've been something truly awful.
"Samuel, I'm….I'm pregnant," Delia wailed as fresh tears started to form.
A wave of relief swept over him. She didn't have cancer! Then the realization of what she had said sunk in.
"Pregnant?" he said in disbelief. "You're pregnant?"
"Oh, Samuel," Delia sobbed. "What are we going to do?"
He sat down on the edge of the bed and took her in his arms as she cried.
"Shh, Delia. Everything will be all right," he said as he stroked her hair and rocked her.
When Rose had died, he had consigned himself to the fact that he was going to be alone for the rest of his life. At his age, it was much too late for him to start over. But now, here it was a little over a year later and he had a new love, a precious new life…a second chance at happiness. And he wasn't going to let it slip away. Rose's death had taught him that you had to cherish those you loved because you never knew when they might be taken from you. And as he looked down at Delia, there was no doubt in his mind what he wanted.
"Marry me, Delia," he whispered in her hair as he kissed the top of her head.
"What?" She looked up at him in disbelief.
"Marry me. I love you and our child, and I'm going to take care of both of you. I want you to marry me."
"Oh, Samuel," she cried. "It's not that simple." She had been thinking about that, too.
---
"Ash, when your mother told me that she was pregnant with you, I was excited, happy, but I'll also admit that I was also a bit scared."
"Scared?"
"Yes, the prospect of being a father again was a little bit daunting," Professor Oak said with a nervous grin. "I was also worried about your mother, especially since she was so sick. Turns out she was worried about me, too." He hesitated for a moment. "You see, Ash, there was another issue that we had to deal with."
"What?"
Professor Oak took a deep breath. This part was something he didn't enjoy discussing because he wasn't particularly proud of what he had done.
"Even though what happened between your mother and me was consensual, it still didn't change the fact that I had abused my position of authority by sleeping with one of my students. I am guilty of that, Ash. But I was fully prepared to deal with the consequences of my actions. I was going to quit my job, resign my teaching position at Celadon U."
"But why didn't you?" Ash knew that Professor Oak was still teaching at Celadon University. Ash had been looking forward to taking some of his classes next year if he got accepted there.
---
"Delia, what do you mean?"
She slowly pulled away from his embrace to face him. "I mean I can't marry you, Samuel."
The sight of his stricken face nearly broke her heart. "But why, Delia?"
"Because, Samuel, if we do get married, pretty soon everyone will know why," she said quietly as she laid a hand on her abdomen. "And you know what will happen then. Can you imagine what people will say when they see the headline 'Famous Pokémon Researcher Involved in Sex Scandal with Student'?"
"Delia, if that's what you're worried about, then I can take care of that right now. I'm going to go downstairs right now and write a letter to the chancellor of Celadon University resigning my teaching position." As he hopped off of the bed, Delia frantically grabbed his arm.
"Samuel, no! If you do that, then I really will be responsible for destroying your career. And I can't live with knowing that because of me you can never teach again, can never work with Pokémon again, having people say terrible things about you. Please, Samuel. I'm begging you. Don't." She was clutching his arm so tightly that her fingernails were digging into his skin.
"All right, Delia. I won't say anything." He sat back down on the bed next to her and took her hand in his. "But I still want to marry you."
"Samuel, would you be asking me to marry you now if I weren't pregnant?"
He hesitated for a moment. "Delia, I…"
She cut him off. "Never mind, Samuel. Don't feel as if you have to marry me because you have to." His hesitation had told her exactly what she wanted to know. "I don't want another short-term marriage. I can't handle going through that again."
"Delia, I would never do to you what Will did! You have to believe me!" he pleaded desperately as he clutched her hand.
"It's not that, Samuel. I want a husband who married me out of love, not obligation. It's not fair to me, to you, or to our child."
"But Delia, I do love you! What more can I do to convince you of that? To hell with my career! I'd gladly give it up to be with you."
"And I just told you why you can't do that." She laid back down on the bed and buried her face in her pillow. "I think you'd better go. I just want to be alone now." The entire day -- throwing up all morning, learning that she was pregnant, crying all afternoon, and now the disappointment in learning that Samuel really didn't want to marry her – had left her drained. All she wanted to do now was cry herself to sleep.
"I'm not leaving you, Delia. Not when you're this upset. It's not good for you or the baby. Please let me stay here with you. Please," he pleaded as he started stroking her hair.
With a sarcastic laugh, she lifted her head. "But that's how we got into this situation in the first place! Oh, why weren't we more careful? Why?" She put her face back into her pillow and started weeping hysterically.
But we were careful, he thought as the entire bed started shaking from her sobbing. Except…
Except, he realized, for the first time they had made love. That evening under the tree when they had lost control.
That must've been when it happened.
"Delia, please don't cry," he begged as tried desperately to calm her down. "You're going to make yourself sick again. You've got to think of yourself and the baby now."
As if on cue, Delia's head shot up and she began to gag. "Oh no."
He held her as she retched in the wastebasket next to her bed, but there was nothing left in her stomach to throw up. Between being sick in the morning and being upset in the afternoon, she hadn't eaten anything the entire day. When she stopped heaving, she collapsed limply on the bed.
He was frightened by how pale she was. "That's it, I'm calling the doctor." He reached for the telephone on the nightstand.
"No, Samuel," she said weakly as she reached for his arm. "I just want to sleep now."
"And I'm staying here with you," he said as he laid down next to her and pulled the comforter over both of them. As he held her in his arms, her eyes closed and her breathing slowed until Samuel was certain that she was asleep.
Oh, Delia, forgive me, he thought as he tenderly kissed her forehead. This is all my fault.
---
"You mean Mom was the one who didn't want to get married?" Ash had assumed that Professor Oak was the one who didn't want them to be together.
"Yes, Ash. And I can't say that I blame her, given everything that happened."
"But Mom wasn't responsible for what happened."
"I know she wasn't, Ash. But people can be cruel. There would've been a huge scandal if people found out what happened between us. People would've said some pretty nasty things about me, Ash. But they also would've said some pretty nasty things about your mother as well. Unfortunately, it works both ways." Professor Oak sighed. "I can handle being called lecherous, a dirty old man, a cradle-robber, and worse…but I never would've been able to tolerate people saying that your mother slept with me just to get me to hire her, left her husband because of me, used her body to influence me, deliberately got pregnant so I'd marry her." Professor Oak's jaw clenched tightly. "I would've killed the first person who dared to say that your mother was a…well, you know. It was never like that at all, Ash."
Ash sat there silently for a moment, deliberating what Professor Oak had said. Then the realization hit him.
It's all my fault.
Professor Oak noticed the change in expression on Ash's face, and he didn't like what he saw.
"Ash, what is it?" he asked with concern.
"It's my fault," Ash said in a quiet trembling voice. "You guys didn't even plan on having me in the first place, and I would've ruined Mom's reputation, your career. I'm the reason why you can't even be together." Ash looked ready to cry.
Professor Oak felt his heart sink. The last thing he had wanted to do was make Ash feel as if he had been the one to blame for everything that had happened.
"No, Ash, no," he desperately tried to reassure his son.
Ash felt the tears starting in his eyes. "If I was a….a mistake," Ash choked on the words, "then why didn't you just…just get rid of…" Ash buried his head in his hands.
"Ash, listen to me," Professor Oak said as his near-grown son cried like the abandoned child he really was inside. The man he had thought was his father had never known he had existed, and his real father apparently had never even wanted him in the first place.
"Ash, look at me," Professor Oak ordered. "Look at me."
Ash raised his tear-stained face.
Professor Oak looked directly into Ash's eyes. "Ash, don't ever think for one second that you were a mistake. Your mother and I loved you, and we loved each other. You were conceived out of that love. We not once, not ever considered getting rid of you."
Ash swallowed hard.
"Ash, you were the innocent one in all this," Professor Oak continued gently. "Don't ever think that you were to blame for anything that we did."
Ash sniffled and wiped his nose on the arm of his shirt.
"I loved your mother, Ash. I still do. I wanted more than anything for us to be together. But we both knew that was impossible, given the circumstances. The day after we found out that your mother was pregnant, she had a run-in with a wild Tauros and ended up in the hospital. Fortunately she was all right, but I was terrified because I nearly ended up losing both of you that day. Do you remember Professor Hale?"
"Sure." Professor Hale was an old friend of the family. Once in a while he and his family would stop by to visit him and his mom.
"He was working as a graduate student at my lab at the time. He saved your mother's life by keeping the Tauros away from her. Nearly got his arm ripped off in the process, too."
"Mom never told me about that. Did Professor Hale know about you two?"
"Yes, Ash. Even though he never admitted it, I still believe that's the reason he left my lab shortly thereafter. He was fond of your mother, you know."
Ash was surprised at this piece of news. "No, I didn't know." Now Ash understood why his mom kept those old pictures of Professor Hale and them on the refrigerator.
---
Professor Oak stuck his head inside the hospital room. "Delia?"
"Samuel?" She was lying in bed with an IV in her arm.
"I just spoke with the doctor. He said that except for being slightly dehydrated, you're going to be all right."
"And the baby?" she asked fearfully. When she was admitted to the hospital, she had been told that she had fainted and fallen off of the fence surrounding the corral where the Tauros lived. Delia had been afraid that something had happened to the baby.
He took her hand. "The baby's fine, too."
"Thank God," she said, relieved. "I was so afraid that when I fell…that the baby…" She brushed away a tear.
"Delia, that's something we need to talk about. You can't continue to work around the Pokémon in your condition. It's too dangerous."
"But the reason you let me have the apartment over the lab was in return for being the after-hours caretaker of the Pokémon."
"I know. You can still live in the apartment, but I'm not going to let you near any of the wild Pokémon. I'm not going to take a chance of something happening to you or our child. I almost lost both of you today."
Delia was silent for a moment. "Then I can't stay in the apartment anymore."
"What? Delia, I just told you that you could…"
"No, Samuel," she insisted. "I'm not going to stay there without paying my way. And since I can't work for you anymore, then I can't stay. Besides, I think it would be a good idea if I left, anyway. Once it becomes obvious that I'm pregnant, people will start to get suspicious."
He opened his mouth to protest, but then realized that she was right.
"But what about your research? Your thesis?"
"I think my thesis is on indefinite hold," she said, looking down at her stomach. "All the more reason why I can't continue to stay at your place."
"But where will you go?"
"I'll figure something out. But right now, I want to get some rest. I'm still kind of woozy." As she laid back on her pillow he tucked the blanket around her chin. "How's Spencer?"
"The doctors are still sewing up that gash in his arm. I'm going to go back downstairs now and check on him. Meanwhile," he kissed her forehead, "you get some sleep."
Once outside in the hallway, he slammed his fist into the wall.
Damn it, it's not fair! She won't marry me and now she's going to move out. I'm losing her. Losing her and our child.
Well, he was going to find a way to keep that from happening. Even if he had to stay up every night for a year, he was going to come up with a way to keep from losing her.
---
"Samuel, where in the world are you taking me? Can I open my eyes yet?"
"Wait, we're almost there. Okay, now you can open them."
Delia opened her eyes and saw that she was standing in the yard of a pretty, little white house, complete with white picket fence.
"What's this?" she said with amazement.
"Even though Christmas isn't for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd give you my present a little bit early. Do you like it?"
Delia was incredulous. "It's lovely, but there's no way that I can afford to stay here."
"You don't have to. It's completely paid for. It's yours." He handed her the key.
"Samuel, I can't accept this! I can't live off of your charity. No." She handed the key back to him, but he wouldn't take it.
"Delia, if you won't marry me, at least let me take care of you and our child. The baby is mine too, and I want to provide for him or her. Which brings me to another topic." He handed her a piece of paper.
"What's this?"
"It's the papers setting up a trust fund for our child. Naturally, you'll be in charge of administering how the money is spent, but there's more than enough there so that you wouldn't have to worry about working if you didn't want to."
Delia's jaw dropped when she saw how much money was in the account. "Oh my God! Where…how…?"
"I inherited quite a bit of money when my grandfather died. He owned most of the land around Pallet Town."
Delia re-read the statement over and over. She couldn't believe how many zeroes there were after the first number in the total. "I…I can't…"
"Delia, please let me do this. I want to be part of our child's life. I also still want to be a part of yours, if you'll let me."
"Thank you, Samuel. Thank you for everything." She threw her arms around him.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to hold me like that again," he sighed as he wrapped his arms around her. "Do you think that maybe…we could…" They hadn't made love since learning that Delia was pregnant.
"Well, seeing that I don't have to worry about getting pregnant now," she said with a tiny smile, "I think that perhaps we can try."
Together they went into the little house and shut the door.