Chapter 2: Awakenings

Jessie woke to find herself tangled in bed sheets and covered in a sticky, cold sweat. She shuddered, for it reminded her of being covered in blood in her dream. Breathing hard, she placed her hand over her quickly beating heart until she calmed down. She thought about her weird nightmare and wondered what its purpose was. She could still remember almost every detail vividly, as if it had been real. Upon remembering the nightmare, second by second, she remembered how it ended. She bit her lip to hold back tears at the thought of her partner, James, and herself dying together.

She looked to her alarm clock. '4:30.....Damn!,' she thought. She wouldn't be able to fall asleep now, so she decided to go to the kitchen for a glass of water. She quietly crept out of the bedroom she shared with her team mates, with trained agility, to not wake them. James and Meowth were sleeping soundly on the bed next to hers, she noticed, before heading to the kitchen. James, Jessie, and their pokemon friend Meowth, had to share a small one-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin with a tiny kitchen and small living room for the time being.

The Boss still had them working on the Pikachu Project, but less than they had been before. Now they were also given smaller missions which included robbing small businesses, pokemon centers, and parks for pokemon while following the twerps around. They were always traveling and on the go following Ash and his Pikachu.

One thing that Jessie, James, and Meowth could count on was a low salary. They got paid close to nothing. They were lucky if they got one decent meal a day. More often than not, they would have to get by with an apple each day or they would have to resort to stealing and scrounging around to get food to survive. A few times, actually, more than they could remember, they had to go without food for a few days straight. They were also forced to sleep on the streets in the alleys, on playground slides, on park benches, and on the forest floor when they were following the twerps around.

When they were extremely lucky, they would get to stay in one of the more run-down Team Rocket cabins. Tonight, they were extremely lucky. A small cabin with two springy twin-sized beds and other small rooms was a luxury for them. There was a time when they would have cringed at the thought of living like they did, but now they were used to it. Their pay kept on getting deducted and the threats of being fired were stronger with every meeting they had with The Boss.

That man was an unforgivable, ruthless, heartless, mean, despicable, perverted bastard to put it nicely. Jessie, James, and Meowth had always hated him and had alwayd been afraid of him. But, they learned that they could hat and fear him even more on one unlucky day. They had been late for their meeting because of the twerps and had also failed to bring The Boss many pokemon. They were yelled at, degraded, and threatened. After minutes of that, they had snapped. James yelled at The Boss in defense of him and his frightened friends. Jessie was shaking and her head was bowed. That was so unlike her. James knew she was trying to hold back tears. Meowth was standing upright with an expressionless face. James hated what this man did to his friends. James told Giovanni, their boss, that they were trying their best and told him to leave them the hell alone.

That was the day they all learned to hate and fear Giovanni more. That was the day Giovanni struck James across the face. That was the day Giovanni had forcibly and roughly kissed Jessie against her will. That was the day James struck back. That was the day they had an even more drastic pay-cut. That was the day they were assigned a change in their mission. That was the day all of their benefits were cut. Now, they were close to being jobless.

When they returned to their decent hotel room that day to pack out, Jessie had cried. James had comforted her and cried also. Meowth consoled them both. At least they were going to go through this together.

They were still together. Presently, they had managed to get to stay in this small cabin in Jhoto only because the team scheduled to be there had left early. Only on rare accounts did things like this happen, though.

Jessie was grateful for the running water in the cabin as she filled her glass. She closed her eyes after taking a sip of the cool water and thought about her eerie and haunting nightmare. She also thought about James. She loved him, her heart said. Her mind wasn't completely convinced though. It still had its icy barrier to be broken.

"Jess, what are you doi-?," started James. He woke up when he heard Jessie cry out slightly in her sleep, and had decided to follow her to the kitchen. Jess had spun around quickly on her heel to face him, and the glass dropped near her foot, shattering. He had interrupted her train of thought and startled her. Her nerves were on edge from lack of sleep and her nightmare. She screamed slightly, more of a gasp, actually, as the glass hit the floor. Upon realizing what happened, she put a hand over her mouth and looked up to James with a scared expression.

"Jess, don't move, you might step on some glass," ordered James with concern. She sighed and silently cursed herself for being so jumpy. She also knew that James would be asking questions that she wasn't ready to answer. As she pondered everything while James went to get things to clean up the glass, she started to feel desperate and teary-eyed. When James started to walk into the kitchen with a broom and a towel, he was about to speak, but before he knew it, Jessie had walked right over the crunching glass, and into his arms. The broom and towel were replaced by Jessie in his arms as he held her while she cried again.

"Shhhh, Jess. It's okay. Shhh.......it will be alright," James gently comforted his partner. Once she had cried a great deal and calmed down a bit, James continued. "Jess, what's wrong? What's the matter?," he asked her. 'I wonder what she's so upset about? I hope that incident with Giovanni isn't troubling her still. I swear, I will kill him if that is the case,' thought James as he slowly rocked Jessie back and forth. A few minutes ago, Jessie's knees had given out, and James lowered both of them to the floor near the kitchen.

"Jess, tell me please. What's the matter?," he tried again. "It's not Giov-," he tried cautiously, but was cut off.

"No!," Jessie snapped through her tears. "It's just.....it's just......well, I don't know......we can't keep living like this. That's all," Jessie started. James nodded knowingly, letting her continue. "I wanted to be somebody and make something of myself." She gave a small sarcastic laugh at that comment. "I hate this job, I need a break or something. I don't know," she paused and inhaled deeply to try to calm herself before continuing. "James, how come things never seem to go right for us?," she finally asked, looking into his green comforting eyes.

"Well.....," he started. He didn't have an answer, for he wondered the same thing, but he had to say something. Jessie was looking up into his eyes from inside his loving embrace with teary eyes pleading for an answer, like it was needed to survive. James was amazed at how she could act hard and callous to the twerps and other people, but then become softer with an almost childish innocence when she opened up.

"I don't know why things never seem to go our way. But I do know that we will only be stronger for it in the end." James said the only thing he could think of to reassure her, even though he didn't believe his own words. "

"When will that be, though? It frightens me to know that the end could happen any time. When will the day come that we finally get 'blasted off' too far? Or when we go without food for too long? Or when Giovanni finally decides that we have 'better uses'?" Tears were now streaming silently down her face. The 'better uses' part was referring to the time when Giovanni had tried to seduce Jessie on that horrible day. And if they were fired, well, no member got away knowing the secrets that they know about Team Rocket. They would be killed for sure. James was silently weeping also. He didn't know what to say to this, so they just sat there on the floor holding each other close for support.

"As long as we stay tagetta, we will be all right, Jess. We are da greatest team eva! Now, don't start signing our death sentences yet, we hafta stay positive." Meowth had heard them talking and crying, so he came to investigate. He hated seeing his team-mates depressed. He had to cheer them up, he decided.

"Oh, Meowth!" Jessie had burst into another fit of tears at his heartfelt comments. They were all now hugging each other. Quickly, tears turned into slight laughter, as they realized how ridiculous they must look with their wet faces all huddled together. James wiped his eyes with his wrist, then spoke with a smile on his face.

"Meowth, you always come at the right moment always knowing how to cheer us up! And we are the best team ever, aren't we?!," James encouraged proudly. They were all laughing and in much better spirits now. Then Meowth remembered something.

"Hey! I forgot to tell youse guys! Tamorrow night dere is a party, and we are all going! We need to get out and have some fun," said Meowth enthusiastically. He had obviously completely recovered from the little 'meltdown' everybody had before, but Jessie and James still weren't.

"But Meowth, we can't........if The Boss found out........we'd be in trouble for going instead of stealing pokemon. And we can't afford to get in trouble anymore. You know what would happen.......," Jessie looked to the floor and bit her lip at the thought of what would happen. She would become Giovanni's 'pet' and they would all be killed. James rubbed her arm for support. He knew that even speaking their boss' name scared her.

"Jess, don't worry! One of the Elite members is throwing the bash, so Old Gio can't hassle us. He encourages other members to 'socialize' with the other teams, in hopes that they could work tagetta and learn someting! If what we do is Team Rocket-involved, then I'm sure that da Boss would be for it," reassured Meowth.

"Actually, it would be nice to do something fun for a change. You know, instead of worrying about stealing or when our next meal will be. What do you say, Jessie?," James asked.

"Well......I guess we all need to get out. So, tomorrow night we go to that party, right?"

"Right," James responded and nodded. Meowth smiled and hopped off to bed.

Jessie yawned and stretched her arms out from James' hold on her. She had obviously decided not to tell James or Meowth of her nightmare. At least not yet.

"We should get back to bed now. I know we are all tired. And I know you were having nightmares, again, Jess," James added. "But we all should get a few more hours of rest, then you can tell me about it if you want, in the morning. Alright? Oh! And we need to clean up this mess! Don't worry about it, though. I'll pick the glass up; you probably need more rest than I do anyway." James smiled at Jessie as he stood up. He offered a hand to help Jessie up, who smiled in thanks to his volunteer to clean up.

"Ouch! Damnit!" Jessie forgot that she had walked right over glass earlier, and that a few shards were stuck in her feet. She stumbled slightly when standing up, but James quickly helped her over to a chair.

"Hang on a second." With that, he left the living room and returned with a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit that was found in the bathroom.

"Now just hold still," James carefully pulled out each tiny shard of glass from the bottom of her feet. She winced slightly every time a piece was pulled, but she had been hurt worse, so it didn't really bother her. James inspected the bottom of her feet for any remaining shards, and found none.

"There, finished. All better, no?," inquired James as he cleaned her feet with a cold wet wash cloth to make them feel better. He finished by kissing the bottom of each foot as parents would do to their childrens' knees to make them feel better when they fell off their bike.

"Yes, much better. Thank you." Jessie flashed him a smile. 'I am so lucky to have a guy like him around. I don't think I would be able to live without him. If I never met him, by life would surely be worse,' she thought as she looked into his caring eyes.

"James, you really mean a lot to me, and I'm glad we are a team. I mean, you are my best friend.....Hell, you're probably by only friend other than Meowth and our pokemon. But you don't have to be so good to me......But, you always have thought of others before yourself.........Well, most of the time." They both laughed at their reputation of being selfish, heartless, and evil.

"You mean a lot to me, too, Jess. And I like helping my friends and making them feel better. I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't met you and Meowth," he said. 'I also love helping and pampering the woman I love,' he thought.

"Same here," she replied. 'The intensity of his eyes are too strong. I feel as if they can see my thoughts and soul. He might find out that I love him. There, I finally admitted it to myself. I love James.' Jessie's thoughts seemed to leave her in a daze. After a few seconds of intense eyeing, Jessie looked away and spoke.

James was also thinking to himself. 'God, her eyes are so intense and deep. I can almost see her soul. She looked away now. I guess she could feel it, too. She is co cute when she's nervous. I really love her. I don't think I can hold back.......I've waited too long. I can't stand it......'

"Thank you, James. I really should get some more rest, you know. Because tomorrow night will be busy and I don-," her babbling was cut off. James' lips were pressed to hers, silencing her. She was shocked for all of a nano-second, then seemed to melt into the kiss. She trusted James with her life and had hoped for him to love her back, but she had too many love-scars to act upon her feelings because he meant too much to her to lose. James had snaked his arms to the small of Jessie's back, pulling her closer. Jessie had her hands entwined with his blue locks. Their lips parted, inviting each other to deepen the kiss. Their tongues danced together and Jessie moaned slightly. They continued to kiss, letting out all of their emotions for each other that had been muffled for many years. Finally, they discovered the need for air, and had to part their lips to breath. They breathed heavily, swept up in emotion, looking into each others' eyes, no longer afraid of letting the other know how they felt.

"James-," Jessie started.

"Jessie, I love you. I can't keep it in any longer. I love you, Jessica, with all my heart and soul," said James. "If you don't feel the same......"

"No, James. I love you. I feel the same. I love you so much, it scares me. I want to be with you, James," confessed Jessie. Both of their eyes were twinkling with love now. They knew it was meant to be.

"I want to be with you, also, Jessie. We are living a difficult life right now, but I promise that everything will be better for us. If we work together, nothing can stop us." They joined in another kiss, with as much intensity as the first. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before Jessie stood up.

"I love you James. I'm so happy I told you, now." She stopped to yawn. "But I'm really tired. I'm going to bed now. 'Night, James. Thanks for cleaning this up for me. I can't wait for the party."

"Good night Jessie. Don't let the bedbugs bite!" He chuckled at his joke and went to clean up the broken glass and things. They both looked forward to the next day now. Hunger and troubles in work wouldn't bother them now.

(A/N: Please review. I hope this chapter clears up any discrepancies from the last chapter. Thanks to Thorned Rose for helping me out and reviewing! You are great! Well, I will try to get the next chapter up soon. It will be about the party. Ok, thanks for reading this far!)