Ash stared at the clock in the Pokémon Center. Meowth had been in the treatment room for over two hours.
"If Meowth dies, it's all my fault," Ash said hopelessly. "I was so mad at him that I actually wanted to…to…" Ash buried his face in his hands, ashamed of what he had done.
"Ash?"
The boy leapt to his feet at the sound of Nurse Joy's voice.
"Nurse Joy…is Meowth okay?"
"He has some pretty serious internal injuries and has lost a lot of blood," Nurse Joy said, pulling off her examination gloves. "But I've managed to stabilize him, and I think he'll pull through."
Ash breathed a sigh of relief.
"However," Nurse Joy gave Ash a stern look. "I would like to know how your Meowth got into this condition in the first place."
"Where is he? Where's Meowth?" Jessie shouted as she and James burst into the Pokémon Center.
"You!" exclaimed Ash. "What are you doing here?"
"Where's Meowth?" Jessie repeated, shoving past Ash to Nurse Joy.
"Is Meowth your Pokémon?" Nurse Joy asked, confused.
"Yes, he is!" Jessie said. "Now tell us where he is!"
"Um, Jessie…we don't own Meowth anymore, remember?" James reminded her.
Jessie ignored her partner and shoved her face into Nurse Joy's. "Tell us where Meowth is NOW!"
The pair, having a last-minute change of heart, had returned to the spot where they had left Meowth in order to reclaim him, only to discover a puddle of blood. Fearing the worst, they had gone off in a frantic search for their Pokémon friend at the nearest Pokémon Center.
"First of all, you have some nerve barging in here like this!" Nurse Joy's temper matched Jessie's word for word. "I have many sick and injured Pokémon that need their rest! Second, how dare you let your Pokémon get into the condition it's in! Your Meowth was nearly dead when this boy brought him in. You're fortunate that he found it just in time."
Jessie whirled around to face Ash. "What happened to Meowth?"
"Like you care," Ash replied harshly.
"Damn it, you little twerp!" Jessie seized Ash by the lapels of his jacket. "Tell us what happened to Meowth or else I'm going to…!"
"Kill me, like you did my Pikachu?" Ash shot back.
"That was an accident!" Jessie replied, releasing Ash. "We never meant to kill Pikachu!"
"You killed a Pokémon?" Nurse Joy gasped in horror, staring at Jessie.
"It was an accident!" Jessie repeated. "That's why we gave you Meowth in the first place – to make up for what we did."
"Wait a minute. I'm confused," said Nurse Joy. "Who is Meowth's trainer?"
"We are!" Jessie said, drowning out her partner's objections. "And you'd better tell us what happened to him now!"
"Your Meowth has some serious injuries," replied Nurse Joy. "Multiple lacerations and contusions, ruptured spleen, a bruised liver, and has lost a great deal of blood. For a while I wasn't certain that he was going to survive the treatment."
Both Ash and Jessie turned pale and sank down onto the sofa in the waiting room.
"Oh…oh, no. Poor Meowth," James said in a voice quavering with emotion.
"I'm going to find whoever did this to Meowth and make them pay," Jessie declared angrily, slamming her clenched fist on the arm of the sofa. "Did you see who did this, twerp?"
"Yeah," Ash replied in a barely audible voice.
"You did?" Jessie whirled around and grabbed Ash by the jacket lapels once more. "What did they look like? Where did they go? Did you see how many of them were there?"
Ash lowered his eyes in shame. "I did this to Meowth."
"You…you did?" Shocked, Jessie released her grip on Ash.
"I was angry with him – with all of you – for what you did to Pikachu. And I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," Ash apologized.
Before Ash knew what hit him, Jessie's fist flew out and sent him reeling to the floor in pain.
"Get out! Get out right now before I call Officer Jenny!" Nurse Joy shouted. "There's no fighting of any kind allowed in my Pokémon Center!" She bent over Ash and began attending to his bloody nose.
"We're going," Jessie said. "But when Meowth is better, he's coming back with us." Jessie gave Ash a look of pure disgust. "Even though we may yell at our Pokémon once in a while, we've never tried to kill them. Come on, James. Let's go."
-
Once Ash's nose had stopped bleeding, he went outside in search of Team Rocket. He didn't have to look far – James was sitting on a rock just outside the entrance to the Pokémon Center.
"Any news on Meowth?" James asked as Ash approached him.
Ash shook his head.
"How's your nose?" James inquired. "Did Jessie break it? She broke mine once."
Ash shook his head again. "No."
"Look, don't be mad with Jessie," James said. "Her temper gets the best of her once in a - okay, it always gets the best of her – but she was worried about Meowth. Even though she won't admit it, she loves the little guy. That's why it was so hard for us to give him away. But after what we did to your Pikachu, we knew that it was the only thing we could do to make it up to you."
"I do deserve this bloody nose," Ash said, sinking down next to James. "I was so angry with you guys that I took it out on Meowth. And I nearly killed him. I can't believe I got so out of control."
"Look, twerp…if it will make you feel better, you can hit me instead."
Ash gave the blue-haired boy a surprised look. "I don't want to hit you, James. I don't ever want to hit anything or anyone ever again."
"Come on, it'll make you feel better. Besides, you're right. We do deserve it after what we did to your Pikachu." James stuck out his chin. "Come on. Do it."
"No," Ash protested. "I don't want to."
"I said, do it, twerp. Come on, right on the chin."
"No, James."
"Oh, come on, twerp! Hit me! Hit me right now – as hard as you can!"
"James, for the last time…"
James shoved Ash roughly. "Come on, twerp! Be a man for once and hit me!"
The next thing James knew, he was lying on the ground moaning.
"Oh God…oh, James, I'm so sorry!" Ash knelt down and bent over his victim.
"For a little twerp, you sure do hit hard," James said, sitting up and wiping the blood away from his mouth. "Have you seen my tooth?"
"Oh man, let me help you up." Ash helped James back up onto the rock.
"It's okay. I think all my teeth are intact," James said, wiping his bloody mouth on his sleeve. "Feel better now?"
Ash shook his head. "No, I don't. Actually, I feel even worse now."
"Then why did you hit me in the first place if it didn't make you feel any better!" James shouted. "That was the whole point of all this!"
"This is wrong. This is all wrong. Revenge is wrong. I wanted to make you guys pay for what you did to Pikachu because I thought it's make me feel better. But I feel even worse now." Ash buried his face in his hands. "Oh man, I'm so confused."
"Look…even though you may not believe it, we liked Pikachu too. Especially Meowth – the other day he was rambling on about how the two of them were handcuffed together or something, and they became friends."
"All you guys were trying to do was make up from what you did and I nearly killed Meowth." Ash began to cry. "I nearly killed Meowth, and I nearly hit Bulbasaur. I probably would've killed him too if I hadn't come to my senses. Oh God, I want to die."
"Well, don't do that, twerp," James said. "You'll put us out of a job. All we've done these past few years is chase after you and your Pikachu. Matter of fact, I don't know what's going to happen to us now. The Boss will probably fire us." James sighed. "We're the worst Team Rocket agents in the world."
Jessie, who had just returned from getting some burgers, gasped at the sight of her partner's bloody mouth and glared viciously at Ash.
"Did he hit you too, James?" She raised her fist and advanced menacingly on the younger boy. "I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget, twerp."
"Lay off him, Jessie," James interceded, sticking out his arm to block her path. "We've both had enough for one day. Besides, it's not his fault. I forced him to hit me."
"You…?" Jessie gave her partner an incredulous look. "James, have you lost your mind?"
"No. Matter of fact, I think that punch in the mouth knocked some sense into me." James stood up and took Jessie's hand in his. "Jess, remember a little while back when we found out that we weren't members of Team Rocket anymore?"
"So? We paid our dues and got back in."
"Jessie, remember how we talked about how we were going to form our own team? Just you and me and Meowth?"
"James, do you have a concussion? You're not making any sense."
"I'm making perfect sense, Jessie. Look, all we've done these past few years is chase around the twerps and try to steal Pikachu. Now that he's gone, what's left for us, Jessie? What are we going to do now?"
"I…I don't know."
"The Boss is going to fire us for sure after what we did to Pikachu. So why don't we start our own team instead? Just you and me…and Meowth, of course?"
"I…oh, James…" Jessie's eyes filled with tears, and she embraced her partner. Ash watched in disbelief as Jessie tenderly wiped the blood away from James's cut lip.
"Believe it or not, twerp, we did like your little yellow rodent," Jessie admitted grudgingly, glancing back at Ash. "Pikachu always gave us a reason to get up in the morning – something to look forward to each day."
"And now we've got something new to look forward to each day," James said, smiling tenderly at Jessie.
"But that still doesn't excuse what you did to Meowth," Jessie said, eyeing Ash coldly. "We never intended to harm your Pokémon."
"I know. And I'm gonna make it up to Meowth right now," Ash said determinedly. He marched into the Pokémon Center and made his way directly to the Critical Care Unit.
"How is he, Nurse Joy?" Ash asked softly, staring down at the unconscious Pokémon, who was wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
Nurse Joy studied the monitors that were keeping track of the Pokémon's vital signs. "A little better. He's still unconscious, though."
"Can he hear me?" Ash asked, sitting down in the chair next to Meowth's bed.
"I don't know, Ash. Why don't you see?" Nurse Joy moved aside, and Ash gently took the Pokémon's paw in his hand.
"Meowth, I'm so sorry for what I did," Ash said softly. "And there's no excuse for what I did. Matter of fact, I should be lying in that bed instead of you. Someone really needs to kick the crap out of me for what I did."
Jessie, who had entered the room, made a move towards Ash, but James stopped her.
"I hope that you can forgive me for what I did, Meowth. I know that what happened to Pikachu wasn't your fault. You didn't mean to kill Pikachu." Ash's lower lip began trembling. "None of this meant for any of this to happen."
"I forgive youse, kiddo," Meowth whispered in a weak voice as his eyelids fluttered open.
"Meowth!" Jessie shrieked excitedly, pushing aside Ash and giving the Pokémon a huge hug.
"Geez, what's with you, Jess?" Meowth said, confused. "Did youse get bopped on the head too?"
"Oh, Meowth!" Jessie planted a huge kiss on the Pokémon's forehead.
"Okay, I'm officially delirious now," Meowth muttered as James proceeded to give him a hug. "Yeoouch! Watch the ribs, Jimmy!"
-
"So where are you off to now?" James asked as Ash gathered up his backpack.
"Guess I'll head off to Littleroot Town. What about you?"
"Like I said, Jessie and Meowth and I will start our own team. It's time for us to move on. Nurse Joy said that Meowth should be well enough to travel in a couple of weeks. That'll give us enough time to figure out what Jessie and I will do with our lives." James extended his hand to Ash, who stared at it in disbelief for a moment, then shook it. "Good luck, twer…Ash."
"Good luck, you guys," Ash smiled. "Come on, Bulbasaur. Let's see where our path together leads."
And the two continued down the road to Littleroot.
To be continued…