Everyone stood in stunned silence. Misty stood and leaned over Ash using the bed for support.
"Ash, wake up. Please, Ash, don't go. I love you," Misty could barely choke out the last words, "I need you."
Misty buried her head against Ash's body. His lifeless body. She could never see that smile of his that made her feel so good inside. She would never again experience that blissful ignorance of the evil that he always had. She wished that this all wasn't true, but death laughed at her and continued to let the machines drone on. She begged him to come back. He had to. She continued to sob into Ash's corpse and she knew her dreams would never be answered.
But then something interrupted the moan of the monitors, almost too short for Misty to recognize. It was a feeble beat from Ash's heart. Then the monitors continued to cruelly pronounce Ash's death. Then it came again. And again. They were getting stronger now.
"His vitals are returning to normal!" one of the nurses shouted in joy. The entire room cheered as Ash stabilized. Misty now shed tears of joy instead of sadness. Ash was alive. He was back. Ash's eyes fluttered open but no one but Misty even noticed since they were already celebrating his return from the dead. Ash smiled weakly.
"You must be my guardian angel," he said to Misty. Misty grabbed him and hugged him. She held him as though if she let go then he would slip away from her again.
"Don't you ever do that to me again Ash Ketchum. Not ever," she said, tears still streaming down her face. Ash hugged her back.
"I may do that Misty if you don't loosen your grip," Ash said, his voice sounding a bit strangled. Misty released Ash from her death grip and then she kissed him. And it was even better than the first kiss they had at the convention. It was Ash's first kiss of his new life. In one sense and another.
Soon everyone noticed that Ash was awake and rushed over to see him.
"Ash, how are you feeling?" Brock asked, concern for his friend flooding his voice. Pikachu leapt up onto Ash's chest and snuggled up against his cheek. Ash put his hand up against Pikachu's back and began petting him. The doctor's were all asking questions as well.
"How do you feel?" one asked. Ash gave a weak laugh.
"I feel like I just died," he replied smiling. The doctor's wrote all this down in their notebooks and when they were satisfied that they had enough information, they left to consult across the room. An agitated nurse replaced the doctors.
"I hate to break up this reunion," the nurse said, not sounding sorry at all, "but this is the critical care ward. We need to bring Mr. Ketchum to one of the recovery rooms." The nurse disconnected Ash from all the machines surrounding him. Misty flinched when she detached the heart monitor from Ash and it resumed the long constant beep that had moments ago pronounced the demise of her love. When the nurse had finished separating Ash from the equipment, she wheeled him down the hall towards the recovery wing.
"I can walk," Ash grumbled under his breath. The nurse pretended not to hear him. When they reached the recovery room, the nurse left the party in there to continue the reunion.
"What did I miss while I was out?" Ash inquired. Misty smiled, a reaction that was hard not to do now.
"To be brief, we put Cassidy and Butch behind bars, took down Team Rocket, and saved you," Misty told him while unsuccessfully trying to keep laughter out of her voice. Ash sat bolt upright, a look of shock on his face.
"I missed all that! You took down Team Rocket by yourself! How!" he asked still stunned. Misty couldn't suppress her happy laugher this time.
"Well we stormed the headquarters and while Brock and our pokemon held off Team Rocket, I got the antidote. Then Jesse and James freed the capture pokemon and then…" Misty trailed off as she realized that Jesse, James, and Meowth weren't with them. She looked around the room to find them. They were skulking in one of the corners looking rather uneasy. They looked out of place over there.
"What are you doing over there? Come on and join us," Misty said jerking her head to indicate for them to come over. Some things made you automatically part of the group. And saving her best friend and boyfriend was one of them.
Team Rocket seemed to ease up after being invited to come over and join the group. They walked over and joined the group. Ash still narrowed his eyes.
"Ash they helped save your life and take down Team Rocket. They're one of us now," Misty told him seeing his expression.
"Then why are they still wearing the uniforms?" Ash asked them. His expression was still suspicious but less so now. Team Rocket looked down to see that they were still wearing their old uniforms. The two removed their vests with their red R on it and threw them away at the room's door.
"I wonder if any of this is on the news." Brock mused aloud. Ash picked up the remote to the room's television.
"Let's find out," he said flicking on the set.
"-ow let's go to our reporter in the field, Cathy," the anchorman said and the screen changed to the picture of a woman reporter. Behind her looked like a battle zone. Firefighters were putting out massive forest fires. Police were rounding up members of Team Rocket.
"We're here live at the site where just a half hour ago Team Rocket headquarters was destroyed. Reports are still rather sketchy, but it appears that two pokemon trainers and two former members of the Rocket gang destroyed the place. Over one hundred members of the Rocket gang have been apprehended. It appears the police have the leader of the gang," the reporter woman said running over to where two police officers were escorting Giovanni to a police car.
"What do you have to say about your gang's headquarters being destroyed?" the woman asked him. A tall lean man with rather disheveled chocolate brown hair and ice blue eyes stepped between Giovanni and the reporter. He wore an expensive suit that was now rather dirty from being on the scene.
"Mr. Giovanni has no comment," the man said coolly while barring the reporter from Giovanni.
"Who are you?" the reporter asked the man.
"I am Mr. Giovanni's lawyer," the man said.
"Then will you answer a few questions," the reporter stated rather than asked.
"No I need to stay with my client," the man said as he began to walk away.
"A statement at least," the reporter said. The lawyer turned around.
"I will say this. Mr. Giovanni is not the leader of Team Rocket. He is an honest businessman who was on route to a meeting in his helicopter. He saw a fireball erupt in the jungle and went to investigate. That is all," the man told the camera before following Giovanni into a police car. The camera turned back to the reporter.
"This is Cathy Shirling with continuing coverage of this event fo-" Ash turned off the television.
"So was that really the boss?" Ash asked. Jesse nodded.
"That is the boss and that was his lawyer," she said solemnly. The group continued to talk and Ash soon found himself just as close to Jesse and James as Misty and Brock were. They were interrupted when Mrs. Ketchum burst into the room.
"Ash! You're OK! Thank goodness. The doctors said that you had died for a moment," Mrs. Ketchum said as she kissed and hugged her son fiercely.
"Mom you're hugging me too tight," Ash managed to gasp out. Mrs. Ketchum loosened her grip but didn't let go. Brock nudged Misty.
"Jesse, James, and I are heading to the pokemon center. I think Ash would appreciate a while alone with his mother," Brock whispered to her. Misty shook her head.
"I'm not letting Ash out of my sight Brock. And besides," Misty said smiling and glancing over at Ash who was trying to fight off his mother, "I think Ash will need someone here to make sure his mother doesn't kill him." Brock smiled too and he Jesse and James left. The three had trodden on the two Rocket vests that Jesse and James had thrown there earlier when they. The vests now looked broken and no longer menacing. Misty sat down in a chair and watched the struggle between Ash and his mother. Everything was back to normal. No everything was better than normal. Soon Misty's eyelids began to droop. She realized that she hadn't slept in almost three days. She closed her eyes and let the blissful darkness of sleep envelop her.