DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon. I swear!

A/N: They're going to Pallet! Hurrah! And apart from that I've run out of things to say - it's becoming a trend, isn't it? - so let's just read on!

Chapter Sixteen - Arriving to a new life

The bus rolled along for another three hours, and although sleep in my system would have been greatly appreciated, it was not to be, as my new phobia of buses overwhelmed my fatigue. No such luck for Ash, who was fast asleep in a world that didn't hassle him with the burdens he now faced in this one.

Maybe burdens shouldn't have been plural. I was the biggest and only burden in his life, and he didn't deserve that. I knew the Pokémon League would never be a burden to him, even if it was incredibly stressful. I kissed the top of his head which was resting on my shoulder and thanked God I had him, now that my parents had disowned me.

A sign flashed by, testing my eyesight with its faded words and quick passing by, but I caught what it said. 'Welcome to Pallet Town.' We'd made it at last.

"Ash" I said softly, gently nudging him out of his slumber. He stirred and looked at me with eyes that pleaded for more sleep. "We're here."

"Shit, I can't believe I fell asleep, sorry Mist" he apologised through a yawn. He fully sat up to face me with a lopsided smile. "I'm supposed to be the tough guy here and I can't even stay awake through one bus trip." I smiled back at him and shook my head.

"No one has to be the tough guy. If we can be strong, well, that's great, but we've always got each other to fall back on. You remember that, Mr Macho."

"Yeah yeah" Ash rolled his eyes teasingly as the bus ground to an abrupt halt. "Well Misty…welcome home" he said quietly. I nodded, fear of an emotionally charged sob escaping me if I dared to attempt words. Maybe I finally was home, where I belonged, where people accepted me.

Ha. Yeah Misty, that'll be the day.

I stood up shakily, leaning on to my crutches and hopping behind Ash until we reached the door.

And there she was. Delia Ketchum, a smile on her face even through circumstances such as these, her arms forever open to her little boy.

"Hi Mom" Ash said, quite solemnly I noticed, as he embraced his mother.

"Oh Ash. It's so good to have you home." Delia broke away and beamed a smile at him before she caught my hesitant eye. I didn't know what to say or how to act, but I instantly relaxed when she embraced me in a hug I would never dream of receiving from my mother.

"Delia, I…"

"Shhh, darling" she interrupted. "Don't apologise, don't say a word. I know." She pulled away and stroked my travel-frizzed hair. "You poor thing. Look at your leg, all clamped up like that. You must have been through the worst lately, Ash told me all about it." She turned back to Ash, who had gotten our bags. "Come on Ash, Misty needs her rest."

Wow. She was incredibly accepting of all of this, and warm and loving. Same old Delia, I thought with a smile.

She drove us from the bus station (since the bus would pick us up where we wanted in Cerulean but wouldn't drop us off anywhere but the station in Pallet. Go figure) back to the Ketchum house, and I looked on in amazement at Pallet and everything I had forgotten about it. Small, rural, a place where people minded their own business. What a contrast to Cerulean.

"Well, here we are! Remember this place, Misty?" Delia asked, turning off the engine.

"Like I could forget it" I said softly. That perfect white house with that red roof, that picket fence and the garden that was obviously lovingly tended to. A place I had visited so many times before and now was going to live in.

Oh boy. I still wasn't quite touching earth on that one.

The house was quiet as I hobbled in behind Ash and in front of Delia. Clean as always, too. But the silence was soon broken by Delia's rarely used bossy tone.

"Now Misty, you rest on the couch. Ash can take the bags upstairs. What do you drink, dear? Lemonade, juice, anything you want" she offered. I crashed on the couch and smiled at her never-ending helpful attitude.

"Just a glass of water would be nice, thanks" I replied as Ash trudged upstairs. Delia immediately fled into the kitchen and I was left by myself to think about the current situation. Was Delia living in a dream world? I was 15 and pregnant. I wasn't there for a holiday.

She came back and sat on the couch beside me as she handed me my drink. I took a grateful gulp, wondering if she wanted me to say something. I didn't have to wonder for long.

"How are you feeling, Misty? Got a lot of morning sickness?" she asked. I nearly choked on my water at the sudden question and stared at her with wide eyes. "Oh relax, hun" she said soothingly as she patted my knee. "You know you can always talk to me about all this. I've been through it myself, remember."

"I know, but you weren't as young" I said. I saw her eyes cloud over and immediately regretted what I'd said. "Were you?"

"I was young enough" Delia replied. "It's scary and all, but…well, at least you've got Ash. He falls more in love with you every day, and it's no wonder. You're the complete opposite to Giselle, you're the only girl he's ever truly loved."

"Really?" I asked, trying not to show my overwhelming happiness.

"He said so himself" Delia smiled. "Who knows, this could come out as a blessing in disguise. Ash was for me. Now I can't imagine a life without him."

"Neither can I." My words were as honest as they could be. I couldn't imagine a life without Ash, in spite of everything that was going on.

He sloppily descended the staircase as Delia and I had finished talking and flopped down beside me, grabbing a hold of my hand as if he were afraid I'd run away. Unlikely, Ash.

"You're alright? The trip hasn't wiped you out too much, has it?" he asked worriedly.

"As embarrassing as it is to confess that a three hour trip would wipe me out, it has done exactly that. Would you mind if I had a bit of a nap before dinner?" I asked politely.

"Not at all dear! Ash, show Misty -"

"Yeah Mom, I'll show Misty her room" Ash said, helping me up as he interrupted his mother. He walked behind me in case I fell back, which I thought was incredibly unnecessary but at the same time I really didn't want to go crashing down the stairs.

"So I get my own room then?" I asked as we reached the top of the stairs.

"Of course you do. And it is right over…" Ash trailed off as he walked in front of me and stopped outside a door. "Here." He swung the door open and walked in, leaving me gaping at the doorway. I didn't expect a guest room to be quite so lavish. It was like a hotel room. Towels at the end of the bed with little soaps on top, a luxurious double bed, there was even a TV! The only thing missing, it seemed, was the mint on the pillow.

I tentatively hobbled in behind him, also awed by the welcoming atmosphere my new room naturally radiated. Immediately tossing my crutches aside, I flopped onto the bed and sprawled out to use its full potential of snugness.

"My God, this bed is sooo comfy" I sighed. If I'd been able to jump on it, I swear I would've gone through the roof.

"Only the best for you" Ash said, sitting down beside me.

I had to laugh. "Yeah right. I bet this bed has been here since you were this high." I indicated a short height from the ground with my hand and watched his face instantly flush.

"Well, maybe it has. But now it's just for you and nobody else" Ash declared.

"What about you?" I asked mischievously. Noting his instantly shocked face, I grabbed his jacket and pulled him into a kiss I so badly wanted and needed.

"Misty…Mom is…" Ash mumbled, but my powers of persuasion were obviously too overpowering as he responded to the kisses. His hands wandered over me, sparking those feelings I had missed so much since Washbay, but I was soon to be disappointed when he found some sort of willpower to pull away. "Hold up Mist, hold up." I stared at him in confusion and breathlessness as he lay beside me.

"Damn Ash, don't leave me hanging like that" I teased softly.

"You might wanna wait till this fella's off" Ash said, patting my cast.

"That freaking cast ruins everything" I complained. Ash laughed and held me close, my head resting on his chest as a comfortable silence enveloped us. Unfortunately, I chose the scariest sentence to break it with. "You're going back to the League soon, aren't you?"

"Three days. But I'll only be gone for two weeks at the most, and I'll call every night to make sure you and the little guy are alright" Ash replied, his hand drifting over my stomach. He was acting so calm about all this, while inside I was driving myself into an insane frenzy.

"We're gonna hafta start looking for foster parents soon, you know" I said softly. My voice slightly trembled at the one sentence I had just spoken. We had to give up a part of the both of us to complete strangers thanks to one stupid mistake that hadn't been considered in the heat of the moment. This wasn't easy for me to comprehend.

"I know. When are you due?" Ash asked. Oh boy, was I really discussing this with him?

"Um, sometime around April or May." I sighed, unable to take my eyes off the sigh of his hand on my stomach. If only we were a little older, a little wiser, maybe things wouldn't be as bumpy as they undoubtedly would become in these next few months.

"Okay. Well how about you get that nap you wanted" Ash suggested as he tried to move away.

"No, I don't want a nap. I want you" I said sleepily, contradicting myself in the process. Ash smiled and kissed my forehead and, as though he had just spread sleep powder over me through his lips, I felt my eyelids drooping and found no power to stop him from leaving.

*******

I woke up two hours later in a sleepy panic. Where was I? What had happened to my bedroom? Then it hit me. Pallet Town. Parents disowning me. Oops. How could I have forgotten all that?

I reached over for my crutches and slowly started making my way to and down the stairs. The small steps I took were frustrating, making me have to shed my usually energetic skin for a slow, cumbersome one.

Ash was sitting on the couch watching TV when he caught sight of me halfway down the stairs and, as an instant mechanism, jumped up and walked towards me.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded to know.

"Getting down the stairs" I replied cheerfully, eventually reaching the bottom landing on my own. Ash met me with a sigh and a pair of arms around my waist.

"You'll be the death of yourself one of these days" Ash grinned, his forehead now touching mine. I shook my head and softly kissed him, only to have the moment broken by Delia's voice.

"Ash! Go and tell Misty dinner's ready!" Ash pulled away and directed his voice to the kitchen.

"She's already up, Mom!" He turned back to me and bit his lip. "You better eat. Mom will die of worry if you don't."

"She doesn't have to worry about that, I'm absolutely famished" I confessed. We walked towards the dining room to find an immaculately set table already laden with the delictables I had been accustomed to in the Ketchum household. Delia rushed in, laid one final plate on the table and gave us a wary but nonetheless happy look.

"All your favorites, Ash, just the way you like them" she announced.

"Oh Delia, you didn't have to -"

"Pizza!" Ash interrupted, scrambling over to the table and sitting himself down as if he were scared the food would run away. I rolled my eyes with a smile at Delia.

"Well come on Misty, dig in, you're eating for two now" Delia urged.

"Feels like it too" I said as I sat down. My stomach was demanding the food in front of me and I had no trouble digging in as soon as Delia had sat down. I think even she was surprised at the amount of food I consumed - she was probably wracking her brain for a gym I could join.

"So Mist, you up for dessert?" Ash asked mischievously as I sat there trying to calm my jangled and thoroughly full stomach.

"Nooo" I moaned, closing my eyes in an attempt to shut out the nausea. "I ate too much. It was all too good."

"I'm glad to hear it" Delia smiled. She suddenly clasped her hand over her mouth and gasped, her eyes widening at the thought that had obviously just hit her. "Misty, it's your birthday soon, isn't it?"

"Well…um…" I stammered, knowing what she would do. The cake would be at least three tiers high, the interior of the house would be unrecognizable as it drowned in decorations, the fuss and bother would be uncomprehendable and pointless.

"Nine days" Ash announced, squeezing my hand.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Delia exclaimed in horror. I didn't even know how she'd had an idea my birthday was close anyway, but I suspected Ash had come into it somewhere.

"Because I know what you would do. I want this one to be very low-key" I said.

"But your sixteenth, it's -"

"Mom" Ash gently interrupted. "She doesn't want a big to-do about it. Promise me you'll respect her wishes while I'm gone. Her wishes are mine too." There was a long silence and I kept my eyes to the ground, fear of seeing Delia angry overtaking me. I was in for a shock when I felt her hand on mine and a gentle squeeze to follow.

"Whatever you want, Misty" Delia said assuredly. It was at this point I realised both Ash and Delia each had a hold of one of my hands, and I finally felt like a part of something. It was a feeling I had never experienced with my own family. I tried to stop the tears and was somewhat thankful when Delia changed the subject. "Now you two know that as nice and easy all this is now, you have made a mistake and I suspect in the next couple of months you'll see yourselves paying for it."

As grateful as I might have been for the subject change, I wasn't ready to dive right into the serious side of things. I knew I had to face up to it sooner or later, but this thought didn't dissolve the sawdust in my mouth.

"We know Mom, it was stupid" Ash said mournfully.

"Well, you probably shouldn't call it stupid. A child isn't stupid" Delia said.

"What we did was stupid" I argued.

"No, what you did wasn't stupid. That, I can say and see clearly, was love. I think it was what you didn't do that was stupid" Delia pointed out. She was right. "And I hate to point this out to you both, but some kind of decision is going to have to be made soon."

"I don't think there'll be an abortion" I said hurriedly. "It seems that adoption is the only way."

"But what about after the baby is born? Are you going back to Cerulean?" Delia asked. Again, I couldn't reply to her, for I didn't have an answer. You'd think the telephone ringing would have saved my hide as it had done previous times before, but I was soon to be a horrible victim to the ringing device.

"Who was it?" Ash asked as Delia slowly walked back in.

"Um…it's your mother, Misty." I locked eyes with her for a second, wondering if she was serious, and when I saw that she was I turned to Ash, panic imprinted in my eyes.

"Go. Be strong, she can't do anything to you now" he said, kissing my cheek as I stood up. I gave him a weak smile and timidly hopped down the hall to the phone. I slowly picked up the receiver, knowing it would soon be encased in nervous sweat, and took in a deep breath.

"Mom?" I choked out.

"I knew I'd find you here, you little tramp!" Mom screamed. I gulped back the influx of tears her words had just created within me. "What the hell are you playing at? The pair of you could be seen somewhere! If you were going to move out you could've at least gone somewhere isolated!"

Her words both angered and confused me. If I was going to move out? I didn't think I'd had an option when she had announced it.

"And what, go through a pregnancy all by myself?" I asked sarcastically.

"You deserve to. God Misty, you have no idea how thick you are, do you?" Mom asked rhetorically. "What are we gonna say when people start asking after you? You obviously had no consideration for the rest of us when you decided to run off like that."

"But Mom, I thought I was considering everyone. Remember, I needed to move out, the family and gym's reputations relied on it? Or was that just me mishearing you?"

"Don't be a smart aleck! You're in more trouble than you'll ever know girl, and I hope you're not expecting the lot of us here to forgive you!" Mom yelled.

"For Chrissakes Mom, you wanted me to move out yourself! You said so! And Dad seconded it, and I don't CARE if you never forgive me, I have a family here that loves me ten times more than you guys ever will!" I exclaimed in a flurry. I cringed thinking of my sisters though. They had done so much for me and saying goodbye to them earlier had been so desponding.

"Oh you'll care, Misty. You'll care when that boy feels an ounce of pressure on his shoulders and makes a run for it, you'll care when the world turns its back on you. And I swear to heaven and Christ above Misty, you'll care in a couple of months. Maybe that will give you time to think about how you're gonna rectify this situation, you little whore." With that the phone went dead and I burst into tears, cursing so loudly I'm sure Delia would have wanted me out of the house right then and there.

"Fuck my bitch of a mother! God DAMN her to hell! I hate her, I HATE her!!!" Realising my horrific outburst and the implications it could have, I slammed the phone down and sprinted (if you can sprint on crutches) out the front door, not quite sure where I was going. I only made it as far down the end of the deserted street before I collapsed on the sidewalk, gasping for breath from the toll I had taken on myself.

The night air wrapped itself around and in me as my lungs cried out for some sort of relief. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't. I could see why she was angry at me for falling pregnant but the bickering had been going on way before all this had happened. And now she had the nerve to call me a whore.

The most painful thing of all was knowing that she meant it - it wasn't a heat of the moment thing.

I sat on the sidewalk without a single car or pedestrian passing me by, silent tears staining my cheeks, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably and my heart feeling like it had hit the floor and shattered in the process. I must've looked like an absolute wreck, because I certainly felt like one.

It took all my courage to walk back to the Ketchum house, nerves shooting me at the thought of Delia hearing me curse so loudly. Where the hell had my sense gone in that one insane moment? Did I want to jeopardize my only shot at being accepted somewhere?

The door was unlocked and the front hall empty. I could either go to the kitchen and apologise or make a run for it up the stairs. Again I lost my sense and got up the stairs as fast as I could, my head screaming at me all the way.

Rectify it, Misty. Make it better than worse.

But I can't. I truly can't.

I bloody well could, I thought later, but at that moment my logic had completely evaporated. Must have come with the whole my-heart-is-shattered-again-by-my-mother thing. Not that I could really make excuses for myself, it wasn't the right thing to do.

Five minutes later I was enfolded in the spring night's gentle breeze on the balcony, my eyes cast out towards the now blurry scenery of Pallet Town. Damn my mother. She had no right to call and say those things after she herself kicked me out.

I leant against the balcony's railing with my hands lazily dangling over the side. Tramp. Thick. The only adjectives Mom would ever use on me again. If she ever spoke to me again, that is.

Something had suddenly wrapped itself around my waist but I was far from alarmed when I felt small kisses dropping on the back of my neck. I blinked away my tears and forced myself to smile.

"She's such a bitch. I don't know how she could've produced something as beautiful and kindhearted as you" Ash whispered, the breeze carrying his words into my ears.

"You don't even know what she said to me" I said softly, my gaze reverting from Pallet's dotted veil of darkness.

"Misty" Ash said sternly. I slowly turned around to meet his eyes, waiting for him to go on. "I know you and I know your mom. I know that when you put the two together I find you like this."

I bit my lip and stared at the ground. "It doesn't matter what she said. Look at me, Ash. Here I am with the biggest of all burdens on my shoulders and I can't stay in control for a minute of it. How the hell am I gonna survive if I keep breaking down at every minor obstacle? I can't cry every time someone calls me names, I can't run away from this and I can't escape it by avoiding people. There's no way out."

"You have every right to cry" Ash said.

"I'm sick of crying!" I exclaimed. "All I do is cry! I want to laugh again, I want to smile and know that I have nothing that can take that away! But I can't be in command of my every move at the moment and it kills me, it really kills me because I'm so used to being in control." I shook my head and fiercely kicked the balcony railing with my plastered foot, knowing it wouldn't hurt. "Fucking hell, why did this happen to us?! Did we deserve this?"

Ash stood there staring at me, his eyes burning into mine with an intensity I'd never seen before. What was going through his mind? What was going through my mind? Nothing was making sense. I held back my tears in a desperate attempt to prove myself stronger and stared back at Pallet. His eyes stayed on me, almost intimidating me with their stare.

"So you're asking if we deserve each other" Ash said flatly. I swiftly turned back to him to see his eyes now staring at the ground. "Maybe I don't deserve you, Mist. I treated you like shit and the last thing I deserve from you is the love and warmth you've given me."

"What?" I asked in disbelief. I hadn't meant for him to interpret the question like that. "You don't deserve me. You don't deserve the burden I've become, the whining, crying, illegally pregnant bitch that I am." I took in a shaky breath when I had stopped rambling and cringed in discomfort at the silence that now surrounded us. "You deserve a beautiful, well-rounded, head-on-her-shoulders girl. You deserve another Giselle."

"DON'T!" Ash yelled, his eyes flashing in pure anger. "Don't you ever, on your life, compare yourself to Giselle. I fully forbid it Misty, I'm dead serious. Just don't."

His words froze my throat over but sent my mind sprinting. Watching the anger gushing out of him in a torrent of words, I wondered if I had truly made the right choice in coming to Pallet Town. The last thing either of us needed was our own personal stresses bouncing off one another. How had he degenerated from a comforting presence to a form of anger I'd never seen in him before? Even when he had shaken me at Washbay in those first few days I hadn't been this scared.

It seems the emotional hurt overtakes the physical ones at times like these.

"Why, Ash?" I finally spoke up, my voice breaking into a whisper. It took him a painful minute to reply and even then his voice brought me little comfort.

"There's no point comparing someone I love with someone I cared for."

I didn't know how to respond and instead waited for him to go on. When he didn't, his eyes still firmly wandering from me, I sighed and grabbed my crutches but didn't move. I just kept staring at him expectedly, like my eyes would command him to talk or move or something. Not this deathly silence.

"I'm going" I feebly managed to choke out.

"So am I, in three days. I'm gonna be hundreds of miles away from you…and look at us." Ash finally met my confused gaze and smiled, filling me with some kind of hope. "Is this really how you wanna remember our last days together? Arguing about trivial things that we can't prevent?"

I slowly shook my head but found words impossible to come by. God I loved him. He could render me speechless with one glance or sentence, he could turn even the worst of situations around and he always seemed firmly glued to my side no matter what. This wasn't even a spat that we had just been through. My emotions had knocked me to the ground and Ash had been caught off guard too, but now he was picking me up again, as only he could do.

"Misty, if all you can do is cry until the rivers of your heart dry up, then do it. I know you're sick of it but you'll get through it, and we'll both come out on the better side of this eventually. But until then, if you have to cry, don't even think about it. Just go for it. Who knows, crying might suck now but it might also help with the pain. Lord knows I've cried since all this happened" Ash said.

"You've…cried?" I asked quietly.

"I sure have" Ash groaned. "I've cried for everything and everyone involved in this except your mother. She doesn't deserve tears." I stared at him for about twenty seconds, taking in everything he had said and finally walked up to him as slow as I dared. I didn't really want this moment to be over. Again I lost words but referred back to that saying about actions speaking louder than words as I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck and pulled him into a long, loving kiss.

I wasn't exactly keeping track of time or anything but I know that kiss lasted long enough to temporarily dissolve my tendencies to cry, and that when we finally did break it off, words were not a necessity. I think our eyes and our facial expressions said it all. We were both as scared as each other but at the same time we were also as hopeful.

We stayed locked in the embrace for a long time, my head resting on his shoulder and a million similar thoughts invading my brain space. A few stuck out, and one in particular finally put a smile on my face.

You will get through this, Misty Waterflower. How could you not with the world's youngest Pokémon Master, the guy you love and the one person who feels the same way you do by your side?

A/N: Oops, nearly left the A/N in italics, lol! Anyways, feel free to review, flame, constructively criticise, it all goes down well over here. Ah, I nearly forgot to mention…I know I update this thing really fast, but there's gonna be a bit of a delay because I'm going away for the weekend (with just my mother, my brother and my great-aunt. Should be a blast) so I won't be able to upload. But Monday should see the return of these chapters, and until then stay cool everyone!