Samuel had stopped by to visit Delia during lunch, as he did almost every day. And, as usual, he found her working in her vegetable garden tending to the tomatoes and cucumbers. She was eight and a half months pregnant then and having a hard time getting around. The August heat also added significantly to her discomfort.
I feel like a Snorlax, she thought as she tried to reach around her belly to get to a tomato hidden on one of the back vines.
But Samuel had a different opinion as he watched her.
She's so beautiful.
She was humming a little tune to herself, as she often did when she was enjoying something. Suddenly, she stopped humming and grimaced as she laid a hand on her rounded abdomen.
Samuel quickly hopped off his bike and ran to her side. "What's wrong, Delia? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Samuel," she smiled. "The baby just kicked." She laid his hand on top of her belly where she had felt the baby squirming. The baby kicked again, harder this time. "There."
He grinned. "Feels like he's ready to come out, doesn't he?" Their child was due in a week.
"I'll be glad when he does. This heat is killing me," Delia said as she fanned herself with the broad brim of her hat.
"You don't need to be outside in this," he said as he led her back inside the house. "Have you thought about my offer some more?"
"Yes, and I'm not going to move in with you," she said as she sat down at the kitchen table.
"But why not, Delia?" he said as he poured her a glass of lemonade. "I'm worried about you being alone in this house, especially with the baby due in just a few days."
"Samuel, you worry too much. I've told you that I'll call if anything happens. And you do have your pager on, don't you?"
He lifted his lab coat. "I even sleep with it on."
Delia winced again. "My back's killing me. It's getting harder and harder to work in the garden, as big as I am."
Samuel smiled as he ran his hands down her curvaceous body. "I like how you look. Very voluptuous."
Delia rolled her eyes and rubbed her aching back. "I think I'm going to go lie down for a while."
"Do you want me to lie down with you?" he said hopefully as he helped her to her feet.
"Samuel, you know that making love can bring on labor."
"But I thought you wanted the baby to come out."
"Nice try, Samuel," she said with a smile as she pushed him out the door. "I'll be fine. I'll call you if anything happens."
He didn't have to wait long. Later that evening, the harsh ringing of the telephone jarred him out of a sound sleep.
"Hello?" he murmured, half-asleep.
"Samuel?" It was Delia. "I think the baby's coming. My back's been hurting all night and now the pain's getting really bad."
Oh my God!
The shock of what she had just said snapped him fully awake, and the resulting adrenaline rush caused him to jump straight out of bed.
"Delia, I'll be right there! Just hold on!" he shouted into the receiver, then quickly slammed it down. He had no time to lose in getting over there. The baby was coming!
Wait, he had to get dressed first! Even though it was a warm evening, he couldn't show up at her house, much less the hospital, in just a pair of boxer shorts. He quickly pulled on a pair of pants and shirt and bolted down the stairs, nearly falling down the last three ones in his haste to get to her house. He rushed outside to his car and tried to open the door.
"Why won't this stupid door open?" he cursed. He then realized he was trying to open the car door with his house keys. He quickly found the right key and yanked open the door.
Unfortunately, he opened the door so fast that it shot back and hit him squarely in the left eye. Shouting expletives, he dropped the keys on the ground and ended up wasting several seconds hunting for them in the dark. After locating them, he jumped into the driver's seat, threw the car into reverse, and backed into the tree next to the driveway, crushing the right tail light.
By the time he reached Delia's house (which was only two minutes away), his eye was rapidly swelling and turning black and blue.
"Samuel, what in the world happened to your eye?" she exclaimed as she answered the door.
"Never mind that," he gasped, "are you all right?"
"My water just broke a couple of minutes ago and I've been trying to clean up the floor…"
"Don't worry about that!" he shouted as he grabbed her arm and dragged her to the car. "We've got to get you to the hospital now!"
"Samuel, what happened to the car? It didn't have a broken tail light yesterday."
"Get in! No time for that now!" He had opened the car door and was trying to shove her into the passenger seat.
She turned around to face him. "I'll go with you if you promise me two things. One, that you won't get us killed on the way to the hospital, and two, that you'll have that eye looked at when we get there. People are going to think that I hit you on the way over."
Once at the hospital, Delia was whisked away to the birthing rooms. Refusing treatment for his eye (which by now was purple and nearly swollen shut), Professor Oak stopped at the nurses' station to find which room she was in.
"Excuse me," he asked the nurse, "which room is Delia Ketchum in?"
"Fill these out," the nurse responded without even looking up from her computer. She handed him a huge stack of insurance forms.
He didn't have time for that!
He repeated his question, and this time the nurse looked up from her computer.
"Oh, Professor Oak!" she smiled. "What are you doing here? And what happened to your eye?"
"Mr. Ketchum asked me to look in on his wife while he was away on his Pokémon journey." A lie, but one he had been using for months to throw off suspicion about the baby's true paternity. "Which room is she in?"
"Room 2," she said as he started down the hall. "Hey, wait! You can't go in there!"
He froze in his tracks. "Why not?"
"Hospital rules state that only the baby's father, relatives, or the mother's labor coach are allowed in rooms during delivery."
But I'm the baby's father!
But, of course, he couldn't tell her that. He had to get in that room somehow. "But that's me…I'm Mrs. Ketchum's labor coach," he lied.
The nurse gave him a funny look.
"You see, since I've been present at multiple Pokémon births, Mr. Ketchum thought that I would be the perfect choice to help his wife out during her labor while he was away," he said nervously.
The nurse gave him a look that clearly said that she didn't believe a word he was saying, but she decided to give him a break. After all, the poor man had somehow ended up with a black eye trying to get over here.
"All right, go on then." He was already opening the door to Delia's room by the time the nurse had finished speaking.
The obstetrician looked up from the foot of Delia's bed.
"Hello, Professor Oak," she smiled in recognition. "What are you doing here? I thought Pokémon babies were your specialty, not human ones. And what happened to your eye?"
He wished people would stop asking him about his eye.
"I'm Mrs. Ketchum's labor coach."
The doctor gave him the same look that the nurse had given him moments earlier.
"Oh….here comes another one," moaned Delia. Samuel rushed to her side and took her hand.
"I'm here, De….Mrs. Ketchum."
Her face contorted in pain as the next contraction started. They were coming faster and faster now.
"Breathe," said the nurse standing behind him.
Huh? He was breathing. What was the nurse talking about?
"Tell her to breathe," the nurse ordered. "You're her labor coach, tell her to do her breathing exercises."
Professor Oak panicked. What in the world had he done? He didn't know the first thing about being a labor coach. Matter of fact, he had never actually been in a delivery room before. And Pokémon didn't usually have difficult labors; most of them were hatched from eggs, so there was really nothing for him to go on there.
The pain of her crushing his hand brought him back to his senses.
"Please give me something for the pain…anything," she moaned as the contraction subsided.
"Sorry, Mrs. Ketchum, you're too far along for that now. It won't do any good," said the obstetrician briskly as she readied the delivery instruments. "But we're now to the point where if you give me a couple of good pushes when the next contraction starts, this baby will be here shortly."
"Did you hear that, Mrs. Ketchum?" Samuel said excitedly. "The baby's almost here! Speaking for the baby's father, I know that he'll be thrilled to see his child."
Delia smiled weakly at him. She understood exactly what he meant. Then her face contorted again and she gripped his hand.
"Okay, Mrs. Ketchum…push!" ordered the doctor.
Delia sat up and pushed as hard as she could. Sweat rolled down her forehead and into her eyes.
"Great, Mrs. Ketchum! Here's the baby's head! Looks like he or she has your husband's dark hair!"
"Did you hear that?" Samuel told Delia excitedly as he tried to peer around the bed to see what the baby looked like.
"Okay, one more big push and we'll see if you have either a son or a daughter," said the doctor brightly.
"I can't…I'm so tired," Delia gasped. She couldn't take any more of the pain.
"Please, one more push, Mrs. Ketchum," Samuel urged her. "I'll be right here to help you."
She looked into his eyes and pushed as hard as she could.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Ketchum. It's a boy!"
All three of them -- the baby, his mother, and his father -- were crying.
---
After everyone had left, Delia lay in bed and watched as Samuel fussed over their son. He was clearly smitten.
"The chin and mouth are yours, Delia, but the hair is definitely mine. And the eyes, hmm…I think they look like mine, too. Speaking of which," Samuel gently laid the baby in his basinette and replaced the ice pack on his injured eye.
Delia giggled weakly. "I wonder what everyone at the lab is going to say about your shiner?"
"I'll tell everyone that I got in the way of Primeape's fists. Which reminds me." He looked out the window and saw the sun coming up over the horizon. "I'm going to have to go back soon."
He sat down on the edge of her bed and kissed her. "I know we discussed names, but is there one that you think best suits him?"
Delia leaned over and gently stroked the baby's cheek. "Yes. I know the perfect name for him."
---
"Ashley? Your middle name is Ashley? But that's a girl's name!" Ash was incredulous.
"Ashley is also a man's name. It was my grandfather's name, as a matter of fact. But for the reason you just mentioned, I convinced your mother that Ash would be a more suitable choice."
"Thanks, Professor Oak. I owe you one there."
Professor Oak took his wallet out of his back pocket, rummaged in it for a second until he found what he was looking for, then handed Ash a small snapshot.
"For obvious reasons, I don't show that picture to anyone."
Ash looked at the picture. It was the same one that he had found in the shoebox in his mother's room.
"As you grew up, Ash, I tried as much as I could to be there for you without arousing anyone's suspicion. I bought you presents for your birthday and Christmas and told your mother to tell you that they were from your father. When you were in school, I tried to go to all your school functions and sporting events; fortunately I had a built-in excuse because Gary was in your class. And I was so proud of you when your mother told me that you wanted to become a Pokémon Master. Although I was a bit concerned when you showed up at my lab in your pajamas."
Ash grinned. "Yeah, but if I hadn't got there late, then I wouldn't have got Pikachu. Oh yeah, that reminds me." During their entire conversation, Pikachu had been out back playing with the other Pokémon. "I'd better go see what he's up to." Ash quickly got up from the couch and suddenly felt dizzy. The emotional roller coaster of the last twenty-four hours: learning the truth about his family, the drinking binge and resulting hangover, coupled with a lousy night's sleep (he'd had nightmares all evening) and not having eaten any solid food since the previous afternoon had finally caught up with him. Ash felt his knees buckle.
Professor Oak saw his son stagger and leaped up from his couch. "Ash, are you all right?"
"I'm…feeling kinda…dizzy," Ash said in a weak voice.
Professor Oak saw the blood drain out of Ash's face and knew that his son was about to faint. He quickly grabbed Ash's arm and pulled him back down onto the couch.
"Put your head between your knees." Professor Oak ordered.
"What?" The ringing in Ash's ears was so loud that he could barely hear what Professor Oak was saying.
"Just do it!" Professor Oak grabbed Ash's head and shoved it down.