A shaken-looking Professor Oak came back downstairs still holding the sketchbook.

"Hey, I finished my tea, Professor, and I feel a lot…" Ash noticed that his friend looked worse than he did. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Huh? Oh, how are you feeling, Ash?" he said absentmindedly as he felt the boy's forehead.

"I just told you that I was feeling better, Professor Oak. But you don't look so good. Maybe you'd better lie down for a while," Ash said as he stood up and handed the older man his blanket.

"Oh, no…I'll be okay," Professor Oak murmured as he stared at Ash with an odd look on his face. "Sit down for a moment."

"What's up?" Ash asked curiously as he sat back down on the couch. "Hey, is that one of Tracey's sketchbooks?"

"Actually, it's one of mine," Professor Oak said as he sat down on the desk across from the boy.

"I didn't know you were an artist. Were you a Pokémon watcher like Tracey?"

"Yes…yes, I was," Professor Oak replied as he continued to stare at Ash. "Ash, I'd like to talk to you about something."

"About what, Professor? If it's about Vileplume, I'm sorry. I startled it and then the next thing I knew I had a faceful of Stun Spore."

"No, it's not about Vileplume. Ash, while you were asleep, I overheard you dreaming about something."

"I was? What was I dreaming about?"

"You mentioned a name…Sammy."

Ash's face reddened. "Oh."

"Something the matter, Ash?"

"Uh…" Ash started squirming uncomfortably in his seat. "Professor Oak, can I talk to you about something?"

"About what, Ash?"

"It's…uh…kinda, well…I've been having some weird dreams lately."

"Dreams? What kind of dreams?"

"Well, it's about me and this kid I met a couple of months ago."

"What was the kid's name?"

"Sammy."

A chill went through Professor Oak. "What sort of dreams have you been having about…you and Sammy?"

Ash's face reddened further. "Personal dreams. The kind of dreams that guys have sometimes…you know the kind I'm talking about."

Professor Oak nodded sympathetically.

"Anyway, me and Sammy, we're doing stuff like…like hugging…and other stuff like that."

"I see," Professor Oak said slowly, trying to avoid the feeling of rising panic within him. "When did you start having these dreams?"

"A couple of months ago. Right after I met him."

"Sounds like Sammy made an impression on you."

Ash nodded. "Yeah. He was a really great guy. I've never met anyone like him before."

"Ash," Professor Oak said with a shaky voice. "What did your friend look like?"

"Well, he was about my age, twelve or so. He was a little bit taller than I am. He had brown hair, lighter than mine. Brown eyes, too."

Oh God, Professor Oak thought anxiously. "Ash, you also mentioned the name Celebi while you were asleep. Can you tell me about that?"

"Sure. Celebi was this Pokémon we met. It was kind of small and green, with big eyes. It could travel through time. That's how we met Sammy. He said that he had come from the past."

"The past," Professor Oak echoed, heart pounding rapidly. "How far from the past?"

"He said forty years."

"Forty plus twelve is fifty-two," Professor Oak said quietly to himself. "Fifty-two."

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with…are you okay, Professor? You look kind of sick."

Professor Oak waved Ash's hand away. "Ash, do you know what my first name is?"

"Sure. Samuel. But what does that have to do with…" Ash then gave his companion a funny look.

"And do you know how old I am, Ash?"

Ash shook his head. "You're older than Mom."

"Ash, I'm fifty-two years old."

"Fifty-two?" Then it hit him. "Professor, what are you saying?"

Professor Oak picked up the sketchbook and handed it to the trembling boy. "This."

Ash gasped when he saw the drawing of Celebi. "Celebi? When did you see one of those?"

"Keep going, Ash."

Ash turned to the next drawing and nearly fainted. "Oh my God! That…it's me! When did you…"

"Ash, I did those drawings when I was your age. Forty years ago."

Ash's head started to spin. "Wait…are you telling me…you're Sammy?"

Professor Oak nodded. "Yes. I don't understand it myself, but it would appear so. You see, Ash, I've been having dreams like you've been having lately. And they started about the same time yours did."

Ash looked ill. "But how...? How can you be Sammy?"

Professor Oak shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "I wish I knew, Ash. I'm struggling to make sense of it myself."

"Then that means that…" Ash, horrified at the realization that he was having intimate dreams about the man he had come to think of as a father figure and that the object of his desire had been having similar dreams about him, realized that he was going to be sick.

"Ash, are you all right?" Professor Oak said with concern as he saw the blood drain out of the boy's face. "You'd better lie back down."

"I…no!" Ash said as he shoved aside his friend's hand. "Don't touch me!"

"Ash…" At the sight of the boy's terrified expression, Professor Oak backed off. "All right. Just rest there for a bit. Do you feel like eating anything?"

Ash shook his head wildly. "No!"

"Ash, I'm not going to hurt you," Professor Oak tried to reassure the frightened boy. "Ash, I'm still the same Professor Oak that's known you all your life. I'm your friend."

"A friend who's been having dreams about me," Ash said accusingly.

"Ash, we need to talk about this," Professor Oak said as he pulled up a chair and sat down directly across from the couch where the boy with saucer-sized eyes was staring at him intently. "Look, Ash…if it is possible that we did meet once --that I did somehow travel through time to the future-- then the Sammy that you knew --the one you're having dreams about-- doesn't exist anymore."

"But you're Sammy," Ash insisted.

"I'm the Samuel Oak of the present. The Samuel Oak of the past, the one that you met and have been having dreams about, no longer exists."

Ash thought about it for a minute. "I guess you're right, Professor."

"And Ash, I can assure you that while the young Samuel may have had…feelings for you, I can assure you that the Samuel sitting here before you doesn't have those now."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Ash, I do care about you. You're my neighbor, my student, my friend. In some ways I even think of you as my own son."

Ash was surprised. "Really?"

"Yes, Ash. But I don't have desires for you."

"But…but you said that you've been having dreams about me like I've been having about Sammy!"

"Ash, maybe the younger version of me did have feelings for you, but I can assure you that I don't have those now."

"How can you be so sure, Professor Oak?" Ash said skeptically.

"Because, Ash, I have those feelings for someone else."

"Someone else? You mean like Tracey?"

Professor Oak was momentarily confused. "Tracey? Oh no, Ash. Not..."

"Brock?"

"No, not…"

"Misty?!"

"No, Ash! It's not like that."

"Then who, Professor?"

Professor Oak sighed. As long as he was confessing everything else, he might as well come clean about everything. "Ash, I have those feelings for your mother."

Ash's eyebrows shot up. "My mom….you and my mom? How long have the two of you been…been…?"

"I've loved your mother for years, Ash. But we didn't start dating until shortly after you left on your Pokémon journey."

Ash suddenly looked ill again. "Professor, are you saying that you've been having dreams -- guy dreams-- about my mom?"

Professor Oak suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Ash, as I've explained to you before, all men have those kind of…"

"Ewww!" Ash threw the blanket atop himself and disappeared.

"Um…Ash?" The lump under the blanket didn't move. "Ash, as I was saying, if you're worried about the dreams you've been having about…about Sammy, I can assure you that those type of dreams are a normal part of growing up. It's normal to have desires about someone you care about."

Ash, who by now was dying of embarrassment, groaned. "Can you leave me alone for a while, Professor Oak? I don't feel so good."

Professor Oak decided that it probably would be a good idea for the two of them to have some time alone to sort out their thoughts, so he stood up and pushed the chair back to his desk. "Ash, I'll be working in the other room if you need anything." He made a move to put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder, but then decided that in Ash's state such a gesture could easily be misinterpreted. Professor Oak pulled his hand away, regarded the lump under the blanket one last time, then headed to the other part of the lab to do some paperwork.

An hour later, the ringing of the videophone interrupted his thoughts.

"Hello?"

The image of Delia, clad only in a white silk robe, appeared on the screen. "Samuel?"

Oh yes, I'm definitely heterosexual, thought Samuel when he realized that Delia wasn't wearing anything underneath her bathrobe. "How are things at the Cinnabar Spa?"

"Oh, wonderful," Delia smiled as she nibbled on a slice of melon. "It's so relaxing here. They're spoiling me rotten."

"You deserve to be spoiled once in while, Delia," he smiled as made out the outlines of her curves underneath the silky material.

"I just wanted to see how things were going there. How's Ash?"

The mention of Ash's name snapped him out of his fantasizing. "Uh…he's good. Fine. Ash is fine. He had a little run-in with some Stun Spore earlier, but he's all right now."

"Stun Spore? What happened? Is Ash all right?"

"Delia, you don't have anything to worry about. He's fine. I treated him with some salveo weed tea and his fever is gone."

Delia dropped her slice of melon. "Fever? You didn't tell me Ash was sick! Have you called the pediatrician yet? How high is his fever? Do you have any children's ibuprofen there?"

Samuel silently kicked himself for having mentioned the Stun Spore in the first place. "He's not sick, Delia. Stun Spore exposure sometimes causes fever in humans. It's easily treated with salveo weed tea. Ash is fine now."

"Are you sure? How do you know he won't have a relapse or something like that? Maybe I should come home and take him to the doctor."

"Delia, there's no need for that. First, unless Ash is exposed to Stun Spore again, he won't have a relapse. And if he does, I'll just give him some more tea. Second, there's no need to take him to the doctor. Ash's fever is gone – he's perfectly healthy." Healthy physically, anyway. He wasn't so sure about emotionally after their conversation earlier.

"Are you sure, Samuel?"

"Delia, trust me. I've taken care of my children and grandchildren when they were sick before -not to mention that I doctor Pokémon on a regular basis- and in my opinion, Ash is fine. There's no need for you to come home. Stay there and relax."

"Well, if you say so, Samuel," Delia said somewhat reluctantly. "But let me talk to Ash just to make sure."

Samuel nearly dropped the phone. If Ash told her about the conversation they had earlier…

"Um…hang on for a second and I'll go see if he's around." He stuck his head in the next room and saw that Ash was no longer on the couch. "Delia, Ash isn't around right now. He's probably outside taking care of the Pokémon."

"Oh. Do you think he should be doing that after what happened? He might be weak from the fever."

"Delia, please stop worrying about Ash. He's fine…really. Like I said, I've got a fairly decent background in medicine and if anything happens, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of him. And if it's anything I can't handle, I promise that I'll call the pediatrician right away. Is that all right?"

"Well, okay," Delia said. "But call me right away if he even has the slightest sniffle, understand?"

"Delia, stop worrying. You went to the spa to relax, remember?"

A chime rang. "Oh, I've got to go. It's time for my facial." Delia hopped off the bed. "I'll call again later just to make sure everything's all right there."

"Delia, you don't have to…" Click.

Great, he thought bitterly as he hung up the phone. Now she's worried about Ash. Way to go, Samuel.

"Sometimes I really do need to learn to keep my mouth shut," he muttered as he went upstairs to find where Ash went. He went to Tracey's room and knocked on the door. "Ash? Are you in there?" He opened the door a fraction and peeked in. Ash was lying on the bed with Pikachu at his side, staring at the ceiling. Professor Oak quietly approached the bed. "Feeling any better, Ash?"

"Dunno," Ash replied dully, not bothering to look at his visitor.

Professor Oak stretched out a hand to feel Ash's forehead, but Ash immediately flinched at his approach.

"Ash, I'm not going to hurt you," Professor Oak reassured him, even though he was somewhat hurt by the boy's reaction. "All I'm going to do is check to see if your fever's gone. Is that all right?" He spoke in the voice he normally used to calm wild Pokémon.

After glancing at the older man warily, Ash nodded.

"Fever's gone," Professor Oak reported as he gently laid a hand on the boy's forehead. "Do you feel up to getting back to work? It's time to feed the Pokémon again."

"All right," Ash said without much enthusiasm as he sat up. "Come on, Pikachu."

I wonder if he's ever going to trust me again, Professor Oak thought sadly as he watched the pair head down the hall.

For the rest of the day, Ash avoided his host. He even passed on dinnertime, claiming that he didn't feel like eating.

"Are you sure, Ash? You've been working hard all day taking care of the Pokémon."

"I'm just not hungry, that's all," Ash said as he stared at the floor. "Can I go to my room now?"

"There's a documentary on the Pokémon Science Channel tonight on the evolution of electric-type Pokémon. I was wondering if you would be interested in watching it with me."

"No thanks, Professor," Ash shook his head as he picked up Pikachu. "I'm gonna turn in early."

"Good night, Ash," Professor Oak called as Ash and Pikachu headed upstairs.

He tried watching the documentary alone, but found it hard to concentrate on the evolution of Mareep while he was worried about the boy upstairs. Sighing, he turned off the television and was heading back to the lab to finish up some work when there was a knock at the front door.

"Delia?! What are you doing here?" Samuel exclaimed at the sight of the woman standing on his doorstep.

"Oh, I just couldn't enjoy myself while I was worrying about my baby," Delia said as she went inside and stood in the hallway. "Ash? Sweetie?"

"Delia, you shouldn't have canceled the rest of your trip just for this," Samuel told her as he closed the front door.

"Well, I tried to relax like you said, but all I kept thinking about was Ash. I had this feeling that something was wrong." She went over to the foot of the stairs. "Ash?"

"He's already gone to bed, Delia," he informed her as he took her by the arm and led her into the adjacent living room.

"Already?" She glanced at her watch. "But it's only seven-thirty. I know I told you that he needed to go to bed early, but I was thinking more along the lines of nine-thirty or ten." A worried expression crossed her face. "He's not feeling sick again, is he?"

"Delia, we need to have a little talk about Ash," he said as he sat down next to her on the couch. "First, let me assure you that he's fine physically. I checked him myself and his fever is completely gone. But you're right…something did happen earlier."

"What?"

"Delia, Ash and I had a little talk earlier. Has he told you about the dreams he's been having lately?"

"Dreams? What dreams?"

"Delia, Ash has been having dreams lately about someone. Someone that he cares about."

"What kind of dreams?"

"Well…intimate dreams, apparently. 'Guy dreams' as your son so eloquently put it."

"Guy dream…? Oh, those kind of dreams. Oh, I guess my baby is growing up, isn't he?"

"Yes, Delia. He is."

"So who's he having these dreams about? Is it Misty? I know he seems to be interested in her."

"No, Delia. They're not about Misty."

"They're not? Then who?"

"They're about someone your son met a couple of months ago. They involve a boy named Sammy."

"Sammy? Ash told me that he and his friends met someone named Sammy a couple of months ago. Ash said that he and Sammy became good friends, but I didn't realize Ash felt like that about his friend. Oh my."

"Delia, as I told Ash, it's perfectly normal to have those type of dreams about someone you care about. I quite frequently have dreams about you," he said as he took her hand in his. "But lately I've also been having dreams like Ash has been having."

Delia gave him a perplexed look. "I don't understand."

"Maybe I should explain. This may be a bit hard to follow, but please try to bear with me. A couple of months ago, Ash and his friends met this boy named Sammy. And like you said, Ash and Sammy became good friends. The interesting thing was that Sammy and a Pokémon named Celebi came from the past."

"The past?"

"Yes, forty years in the past, to be precise. Celebi has the ability to time travel, and apparently Sammy got sucked into a time portal and ended up in the present, where he met Ash."

"But if Sammy was from the past, then how did he get back? Did he ever go back?"

"Yes, Delia. With Celebi's help, he did. And Sammy grew up…he grew up to be a Pokémon researcher. But he never exactly was able to remember what happened to him forty years ago until recently."

"If Sammy is a Pokémon researcher, then do you know him?"

"Yes, Delia, I do. I know him quite well." He gripped her hands tightly and looked directly into her eyes. "Because Sammy is me."

"What? Samuel, you're getting me confused. How can you be the boy that Ash met?"

"Because Delia, like I told you, Celebi has the ability to time travel. I apparently got swept into its time portal and the younger me somehow ended up in the present a couple of months ago."

"But…but if you're Sammy, then if you're having dreams like you say Ash has been having…" Delia gasped. "Samuel, are you saying that you…that you're having desires for my…my son?"

"No, Delia! No! As I tried to explain to Ash, maybe the younger me had feelings for him, but I don't have those feelings for him now."

Delia's stricken face told him that she didn't believe him.

"Delia, oh God, Delia…you're the only person I desire. You're the only person I have those feelings for."

"Samuel…I…I wish I could believe you, but…"

"Then believe this, Delia," he said as he reached up and cupped her face in his hands. "I swear to you that you are the only person I want to be with. I care about your son, that's true, but only as a friend or as a father might a son. But you…you're the one that excites me. You're the one that arouses me. And I know exactly how to prove it to you." He pulled her close and kissed her passionately. "I want you so badly right now, Delia," he whispered as his kisses trailed down her neck. "Especially after I saw you in that robe earlier. The only daydreams I've been having lately are about how you looked under that robe," he said as his hand made its way to her breast and began caressing it. "And if Ash weren't around, I'd like nothing more than to act on the dreams right now."

"Samuel…I…" Delia pulled away from him. "Don't."

Samuel felt his heart sink. "Delia, I…"

"Samuel, I don't know what to think right now," she said as she stood up and stared at the man she loved with confused eyes. "But I think I'd better go see Ash."

"Delia, wait," he said as he frantically grabbed her hand. "Please…you've got to believe me when I say that I feel absolutely nothing sexually for your son. I've been trying to convince Ash of that all day, but I haven't been having much luck. And that's another thing, Delia. I told Ash about us."

Delia's eyes widened in shock. "You did what?"

"I told him about us. I thought the only way to convince him that I felt nothing for him sexually was to tell him that the only person I have those feelings for was you."

"Oh my God, you…you told Ash that we've been sleeping together?!" Delia sank down on the couch and buried her face in her hands.

"No, Delia," Samuel tried desperately to reassure her. "All I told him was that I have feelings for you and that I've loved you for a long time. But I didn't tell him that we've been sleeping together."

"You guys have been doing what?!"

Both Delia and Samuel whirled around and saw a stunned-looking Ash standing in the doorway. He had overheard the last part of their conversation.

"Ash!" a horrified Delia exclaimed at the sight of her son. "I…"

"You…" Ash said with a trembling voice as he looked directly at Professor Oak. "You've been having sex with my mom? I thought you said you've only been having dreams about her!"

"Ash," Professor Oak began. "What two consenting adults do in private is their own business. But yes, when two adults love each other, they often express their love by…"

"Oh God, I don't want to hear any more of this!" Ash said furiously as he dashed out the front door with Pikachu on his heels.

"Ash!" Delia cried as she leapt to her feet and ran to the front door. "Ash!"

"Let him go, Delia," Samuel said as the two watched Ash and Pikachu fly down the side of the hill and disappear down the road that led back to the Ketchum house. "He needs to be alone right now."

"But he…"

"He needs to sort out everything that's happened right now. And quite frankly, so do we," Samuel said as he shut the door.