The sun was setting along the hills and the moon was soon to peep out along with the stars.
The pideys were flying back to their nests, where they were to settle to sleep.
"Kara, time to come in now," called Misty, stepping out of the front door.
There was no sight of Kara in the front garden.
'Kara knows she's not allowed out of the front gate,' thought Misty.
When Misty finally gave birth to Kara, Ash thought it would be a good idea to move out of his mum's place and move in to their own brand new house.
Ash had enough money to buy a decent house with plenty of rooms and space.
Ms Ketchum (Ash's mother) lent some of her green finger skills to the front and back garden.
She did it beautifully with trimmed bushes and different rows of coloured flowers; it was the best looking garden out of Pallet town (that's not including Ms Ketchum's own).
"Kara!" shouted Misty, again.
Misty was beginning to get worried now; she couldn't stand to have pictures in her head of her daughter injured or lost.
Misty quickly rushed around the garden and kept calling out her daughter's name.
Pikachu leaped out of the front door to see what was going on and ran up to Misty, who was close to tears.
"Pika," called Pikachu.
"Pikachu, get Ash," ordered Misty, looking under the bushes.
Pikachu followed Misty's order and soon after Ash came to the scene.
"What's the matter, Mist?" asked Ash, seeing Misty had tears welling up in her eyes.
"Ash, Kara…..she's gone," cried Misty as she hugged Ash.
"Hey, it will be alright. Now have you looked everywhere in the garden?" comforted Ash, still hugging Misty.
This is what Misty loved about Ash; he was always calm and comforting to be around when things got bad.
Misty nodded and she parted from her hug.
"Mist, you ring my mum to see if she's there if not don't worry because Pikachu and I will go and check Pallet. Ok?" demanded Ash.
Misty nodded once again and breezed back into the house to phone her mother-in-law.
"Pikachu, come on let's see where my daughter has got to?" called Ash and with that Pikachu jumped on to Ash's shoulder.
Ash was trying to think of places where Kara loved in Pallet.
The only place Ash could think of was his mother's house.
His mother, Delia, seemed to spoil his daughter on a lot of things from money to presents. Also when ever Ash and Misty wanted to spend time alone, Delia always offered to look after her grand daughter.
That's why Ash loved his mother so much; she was always there to lend a hand.
"Daddy…..Mummy…..Daddy," called a sad and lonely voice in the forest.
"Kara!" called Ash, stopping in his tracks.
"Daddy!" the voice cried back.
"Ok, daddy's coming, Kara. Stay where you are," Ash called once again.
He could tell Kara was upset because of the whimpering that her voice made.
Ash and Pikachu rushed in the forest to rescue Kara in what pain or trouble that she got herself into.
They leaped and snapped branches off of trees that stood in the way of a father reuniting with his daughter.
"Daddy!" cried Kara.
Her voice was getting louder so Ash knew he was near.
"Nearly there, sweetie," Ash called once again.
Ash couldn't see very well as it was dark and being in the forest made it even darker.
He knew that Kara was scared out of her wits because she can barely sleep in her bed when it's dark, so he put in a bed light so if she got scared she could switch it on.
Pikachu then ran up ahead of Ash and then stood to the side of injured Kara.
"Daddy! Pikachu!" cried Kara, staggering to stand up.
"There you are," smiled Ash, relieved to find his daughter.
Ash slowly walked to his daughter's side and saw blood stains on her dress.
"What happened to you, Kido?" asked Ash, seriously.
Kara cried into her dad's chest as the pain increased in her leg.
"Daddy….it's hurting," stuttered Kara, ignoring her father's question.
"Where is it hurting Kara?" asked Ash.
Kara slowly placed her hand on her right leg and pleaded "Please daddy, don't touch it."
"I'm not going to touch it, I'm just going to have a look," comforted Ash, carefully lifting her dress.
Her shin had a large deep cut that was still bleeding.
Ash couldn't do very much as he wasn't a doctor and he didn't have a clue what to do in this situation.
"Pika!"
Ash turned round to see Pikachu carrying an injured Bellosom.
Ash glanced at his daughter and said "You've been in a Pokemon battle, haven't you?"
"I didn't mean to, Bellosom and I were ready to test our skills so I thought it would be really cool if we went to the forest. That's when a flock of spearows came out of nowhere and attacked us," explained Kara.
Ash smiled and thought 'Spearows must hate our family if they attacked Kara as well as me when I was a kid.'
"Come on, let's get you home," said Ash, lifting Kara up carefully.
"Pikachu, are you ok carrying Bellosom?" asked Ash.
"Pika," nodded Pikachu.
"I love you, daddy," whispered Kara, looking into her dad's brown eyes.
"Love you, too," beamed Ash, quickly kissing his daughter's forehead.
Kara slowly brought herself closer to her dad's chest so she could hear his heartbeat and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Ash finally made it back home while waiting in the house was a worried Misty and concerned Delia.
Misty rushed to the door, where her husband was carrying their sleeping daughter. Delia raced up behind and smiled in delight of their return.
"Where was she?" asked Delia, helping Ash lay down Kara on the couch.
"In the near by forest," replied Ash, watching the two women look at Kara's leg.
"What was she doing there?" asked Misty, seriously.
"Well….er…" stuttered Ash.
That's when Pikachu came in carrying the injured Bellosom and looked up at its trainer.
Misty gasped seeing her daughter's new pokemon hurt, she ordered Pikachu to put Bellosom in Kara's room.
"I did warn you, Kara is too young to have pokemon," shouted Misty.
"Do you know how much trouble you caused, Mister?" barked Delia, angrily.
Ash looked at the ground, trying to ignore the women's moaning; he felt like he was 13 again with his mum telling him off.
Ash knew Kara wanted a Bellosom ever since he took her to the Spring Pallet festival. Bellosom was petal dancing on the wooden stage and Kara was fascinated with her. After the show, you couldn't hear Kara stop talking about the Bellosom that she saw.
"Ash, are you even listening to us?" demanded Delia.
"Huh?" asked Ash in puzzlement.
"And you're meant to be a father," moaned Misty.
Ash couldn't take no more, he rushed off outside to be alone so he could cool down.
Ash knew he wasn't a good father to Kara; he had no experience of fatherhood. He sometimes questioned himself whether he was just not meant to be a father or was it because he, himself, never had a father.
Ash leaned on the fence as he gazed into the stars.
'Dad is in one of those,' thought Ash.
Ash never really knew his father, his mother told him that he was on a pokemon journey, but Ash thought to himself that he's better off dead in his mind.
Ash knew for a fact that he wasn't coming back, even if his mother or Professor Oak said he would.
The last time Ash saw him was when he was five years old and looking out and seeing this tall muscled figure in the descendent walking out of Pallet.
Ash remembers, his little feet running as fast as he could, to catch up with his dad, but his mum and Professor Oak holding him back. He gave a bit of a fight, but surrendered from remembering crying in his mother's arms.
"Ash!"
Ash turned round and saw his mother and his wife walking up to him.
"You should be looking after Kara," said Ash, turning back round and facing the stars.
"She's alright, we put her to bed," replied Delia.
"Did I say something to upset you, honey?" asked Misty, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"No, of course not, I just came out for the fresh air," lied Ash.
"Ash, you are a good father, you do know that don't you?" smiled Delia as Ash turned around to face them.
"Of course I do," Ash lied again.
"You are a good father, but not a good liar," chuckled Misty.
Ash knew he couldn't lie any more because his mum and Misty could always work out a lie from telling the truth.
"How can you call me a 'good father' when it was me putting Kara's life at risk. If it wasn't for me getting that Bellosom for her nothing would have happened," Ash finally admitted.
Misty ran up to her husband to give him a big hug of support and kissed him on the lips.
"You're a good father, Ash, you have to believe in yourself," said Misty.
"Misty's talking sense, Ash," winked Delia.
Ash smiled and thought 'Maybe, I am being too hard on myself.'