Joshua

Josh was immediately blinded by the light: hard, artificial, fluorescent light. He felt himself being pulled gently to his feet – Eve's hand was dragged out of his own. Sergeant Madison was rapidly relaying medical details. As his vision started to clear he realised he was standing on a plastic dais. Four nurses were lifting Eve up onto a stretcher.

"- psychosomatic hypothermia, Shadow Ball, localised in the right arm," Madison finished.

"Take her to the ICU," someone was commanding, "where's Dr Chakravarti? Take Mr Cook through to the ED."

"What? No I'm bloody not, I'm staying with her -" Josh said, shaking off a nurse.

Madison laid a firm hand on his shoulder. "Not the time. Not the time. Let them work."

He found himself being taken through a door as Eve was wheeled in the opposite direction, surrounded by medics. The nurse guided him to a bed between two drawn curtains. He saw a couple of paramedics bustle past the partition with a chansey in tow. Someone was alternately groaning and crying in the next bay over. The place was lousy with arcane machines and dispensers and paperwork.

"Ok, then," the nurse said cheerfully. She was a Native Orange lady with a robust, lilting accent that reminded Josh of his grandma. "Don't you worry about ye girl, now. They look after her, now I look after you. Alright? You call me Nurse Sophie."

Madison appeared by the partition. She pointed to a chair questioningly. Josh shrugged.

"How your arm feeling?"

"It's just numb," Josh said. He realised he was cradling it again.

"Only numb, now?" she said, unconvinced. "Ok, straighten out your arm, nice and gentle -"

His arm moved only reluctantly, like it didn't want to respond to what his brain was demanding. Sharp pains shot through it at random. He hardly paid attention as Nurse Sophie guided him through some range-of-motion exercises. Less than an hour ago his biggest concern was finding a suitable bush. And ten minutes ago … they'd wheeled her out so fast, leaving him of no particular use.

The suddenness of it reminded him of a beginning.

"Eve? Something wrong?" Josh asked. They were the last two people to walk down Old Village high street that evening. Eve had walked into one of the overflowing flowerboxes.

"Oh, erm, no!" she said unconvincingly. "Come with me!"

"… what?" Josh said, trying to keep up.

"Come with me," she repeated. "On my journey. Our journey. I've really enjoyed spending time with you and I don't want to leave."

It had been a golden afternoon, giving way to a warm evening as the sun set in splendour. Eve almost seemed to be framed with hundreds of magenta, orange, and white azaleas nodding in the late breeze.

"Yes," he answered before he could even think. What other answer could there be?

Josh didn't know what he would have done if she hadn't asked that.

"When can I see Eve?" he tried.

"Ye just sit quiet, Shadow Ball is no laughing matter," said Nurse Sophie. "Ye gonna need some Aromatherapy to set that right, ok? I be right back."

"I need your help," Madison said.

"Why?"

"I need to contact Evelina's next-of-kin, for a start."

"She's from Cherrygrove City," Josh started wearily. "Her mother's name's Gabriella. Call the Centre, believe me, they'll find her."

"I'll contact her shortly, then," Madison said, leafing through a notepad. "Right … for my report, can you walk me through what happened again? In as much detail as you can."

Reluctantly, Josh recounted his way through the whole incident, starting from that moment his breath had fogged suspiciously in the warm night air. Occasionally Madison interjected to quiz him in detail: How did he feel just before he swung the knife? Had he been affected by illusions before? After a while Nurse Sophie returned with a chikorita for the Aromatherapy.

"- so I recalled Screwball, and … oh, fuck." He stopped dead in the middle of his account with the realisation. "My pokémon still need treating."

"That's alright. I'll see if I can get someone to come down from the Pokémon Centre to pick them up," Madison said, shutting her notepad. "And we'll have you come to the Ranger Union in the morning so you can strike camp."

"I should go up to the ward. Y'know, to be a friendly face if she wakes up."

"Just sit quiet!" Nurse Sophie insisted. "Let the Aromatherapy do its work."

And then he was left alone. Left sitting in the indifferent glare of fluorescent lights, ignored by people chattering incomprehensibly at each other in medical jargon. 'Of no particular use' was right. Here he was, asked to do nothing but wait. He knew which way was north without ever needing to consult a compass, and yet, here he was. Relying on Sergeant Madison to control the haunter and on nameless doctors to treat the aftermath …

"Don't we look dashing tonight," she commented. It had been years since he had last waltzed, but his feet somehow remembered the steps. Eve was wearing a black cheongsam patterned with sinuous dragonair designs in glittering gold brocade.

The night breeze showered them with cheri blossom, each petal dancing with the others. Eve giggled, and slapped Josh's arm playfully with her free right hand. "You said you couldn't dance!" she said accusingly.

The chikorita seemed to have gone to sleep. He felt like something was dammed up in his chest. He felt brittle as deadwood.

Well he wasn't going to allow it to crumble here. Josh got up, and disappeared into the lobby. Nobody took any notice. The hospital's corridors all looked very much the same. Any hospital of this size ought to have one. He slipped through an automatic door, into the godswood.

This sacred space was secluded, at least. The moon peered down between the branches, conjuring a stark chiaroscuro of moonlight and deep shadow. A few benches lurked beneath the nodding leaves. He quietly circled the wood, to make certain he was alone.

There was nobody else here. Right. He sat down on a bench in the shadow of a linden tree, staring at a moonlit dandelion until something cracked and tears blurred it. Once one tear arose, there was no stopping the others. Despite everything, somehow it had all gone wrong. He cried because he was tired and overwrought and a damn spare part. He cried because his last conversation with Eve had been a pointless argument over salvage and now she wasn't even conscious. He cried because he wasn't supposed to need rescuing.

He didn't know how long he sat there sobbing. But tears wouldn't solve anything. He methodically dried his face on a sleeve, mentally trying to pull himself together. Right. That's enough of that.

Nobody noticed him return to the ED, except perhaps the chikorita, which ignored him anyway. The pains in his arm gradually diminished, while he just gazed at the wall.

"Excuse me, are you, uh, Joshua Cook?"

Josh looked up, expecting to see a nurse. They were actually a youngish fellow in a worn hoodie, straw-coloured hair glinting in the harsh light. He looked inquiringly at him – there was a familiar shade to his blue eyes – and Josh realised his own were red. Don't you dare comment.

"Theobald Joy," he said. That explained the eyes. "Whatsername, Madison, said your pokémon are in need of treatment."

"You're here in the small hours of the morning just for that?"

"It would seem you're to be given special concessions," Theobald said sardonically. "I've come to collect my niece's pokémon, too."

"Imogen's behind this, isn't she?"

"Gabriella, actually," Theobald said. It wasn't until much later that Josh thought about that.

"Listen, you can't live in this hospital," Theobald said, somewhat more gently.

"But if Eve -"

"They're not going to let you in to see her. You're not next-of-kin. Come back to the PokéCentre. You can have the guest room."

"The Pokémon Centre …"

"Gabriella will be here in the morning. I'm sure she'll let you in to see her."

"I suppose," Josh said reluctantly, "there really isn't any sense in staying here."

Somehow, Josh caught a few hour's shallow sleep, floating on the delirious boundary between true sleep and waking as the sun rose. He hadn't really slept, and it wasn't really a new day, but he still waited till about six o'clock to take a shower, for a semblance of normality. At this hour the Joys were either asleep or working in the Centre below. Feeling a bit like an intruder, he knocked on the kitchen door before he went in. Oh. Someone had let most of the pokémon out for breakfast.

There wasn't a cacophony of greeting. For a moment Josh thought he would somehow have to explain it all – but something in that quiet look they gave him said they all knew very well what happened. Screwball swivelled two out of three eyes to observe him. He'd almost forgotten it was a magneton now.

"Er. Thank you. For everything," he began lamely. "I wish I'd known it could use a Fire-type attack."

Screwball didn't say anything. It just swivelled its third eye round, and stared.

[It will be done,] it said eventually.

Ivysaur was quiet, lying in the sun with Megaera, which wasn't in itself unusual. But he wasn't looking at him, either. "What's wrong, Ivy?"

[… I'm the ace.]

"I couldn't release you after I saw that Fire Punch."

[I battled the fire in the Tourney final for you,] Ivysaur countered flatly. It wasn't about petulance, or a demand for praise. It was, Josh realised, a point of pride.

"Heatmor wouldn't have tried to kill you."

A pressure against his leg made him look down. Meowth was haughtily rubbing up against his legs. He was almost purring. Meowth wasn't stupid. He knew exactly how Josh felt about him. This was just bizarre.

"What's got into – ok, Ivysaur. Screwball, Meg, you're with me. Soon as we can we'll all go up to the hospital."

Cianwood City in June felt like a holiday. It was holiday weather, sunny, promising a hot afternoon. A few morning surfers were strolling down to the beach through the otherwise quiet city centre. Not that Josh ever surfed, but even so it felt incongruous to be heading away from the sea.

The Ranger Union was across the street from the cathedral, inhabiting the old town hall. Odd that he'd passed by the Union several times before, but he'd never really seen it. The ranger on reception duty left him waiting for Sergeant Madison on a superbly uncomfortable metal bench. Come on, Madison, damn it. He kept glancing at his Pokégear, though he couldn't say why. He couldn't shake the feeling that he really ought to be at the hospital. But somebody had to strike camp.

Madison appeared through a side-door. "Ah, Joshua. Come on through."

Josh wasn't sure what he'd expected from the Ranger Union. Probably he ought to have expected this fairly banal office, staffed with rangers in boring sweater vests, complaining about the Wi-Fi and threatening the printer. Admittedly in most offices the staff didn't all have collapsible batons clipped to their belts. A lot of those rangers greeted Madison as she went by – Josh could have sworn one sergeant addressed her by rank despite being peers. None of it seemed to be forced respect.

They ended up at a large double-door with a wicket gate set into it. The sign stencilled across the door read: TELEPORTARIUM.

The teleport hall was brightly lit and slightly echoey. A row of circular platforms dominated the space.

"Wait here a minute," Madison said, heading off to an office partitioned off to one side. Above that was a big electronic board that looked rather like an Arrivals & Departures board. The information it carried was strange:

Deck III: Standby

L-0:00

Assigned: Outbound

Deck IV: Refraction

L-2:53

Unassigned

There were three natu stationed around each platform. One of them hopped around on the spot to watch him more closely. A couple of fully-equipped rangers suddenly burst through the door. "Deck Three!" one of them shouted. They pounded up onto a platform and seconds later disappeared in a flash of witchfire.

Josh could hear some of the conversation at the office door. "You can have Deck Four," the ranger in the office was saying. "We're about to change the impellors anyway."

"Come on up, Josh! Deck Four," Madison called to him.

The natu watched him as he went past, in unison. Josh noticed the top of the platform was marked with a double pentagram. Madison motioned something in the direction of the office.

"Five seconds. Try to visualise the bay," Madison said. "It may help with translocation."

Teleportation didn't really feel like anything. One instant, stark white light and the smell of floor cleanser. The next, living sunshine, golden-brown strand, the smell of the sea. A moment of irrational panic seized him, like waking up suddenly in a strange room.

It passed, almost as fast as teleporting. He was faced with, well, the campsite. Madison's umbreon sat stiffly in the shady lee of Eve's tent.

"Thank you, Calidore," Madison said. "I'm going to have a look inland. I'll be back in a while to teleport you back."

Josh rubbed his eyes, and looked around wearily. You'd struggle to find any sign that a battle had happened here at all. In that moment he hated that the pokémon to attack was a haunter, a thing that left no trace of its violence behind. There ought to be something visible, something to say what had happened.

Josh started to take down the tents, working methodically without really thinking. He let out Ivysaur to help, who began to work as methodically.

"I'm a-still a trainer. I have responsibilities," he said after a while.

Ivysaur apparently ignored that, gathering up tent pegs.

"I know you'm the ace, but ye have your limits."

[So do yow.]

Josh decided not to answer – he did not need reminding of that particular detail. "Lyra had a cob on her," he said.

[Lyra is an ace, too,] Ivysaur explained patiently. [More than that, she's Eve's ace. And she day get te fight.]

"Do they blame me?"

[Of course not.]

Josh was fastening bags onto #14 when Sergeant Madison returned with her gardevoir floating beside her.

"So. Er," Josh said, feeling obliged to make small talk. "How long have you been on duty?"

"Oh, about eighteen hours."

"Eighteen hours?"

"It's not that unusual for a ranger," she said casually. "After we teleport back I'll get a break. Ah, you may well see me soon in any case. I'm liaison for her family on this one."

They were going to let him see her, and it was all Josh could do not to run down the corridor to be the ward.

There was a reception desk, nurse's station, whatever it was, in the middle of the ward, patient rooms on either side. There was a nurse at the desk, and he was the simplest way to find out where Eve was -

Halfway there he found himself enveloped in a forceful hug. "You're here!" Gabriella said.

Like mother, like daughter. It was much the same kind of hug. When the hug eventually broke, there was Gabriella appearing almost un-Joy-like. It wasn't just that she was out of uniform. She was looking worried. He glanced over Gabriella's shoulder, and there was Imogen, without a trace of smirk on her face.

"Mrs Joy," Josh said politely. There was no point in acrimony.

"Gabriella. Please," she said. She sounded tired.

"Woss happening."

"She's still asleep," Imogen said. "The shaking's subsided."

"They say, um …" Gabriella started awkwardly.

"How's your arm?" Imogen asked.

"What? Oh. Slightly stiff, thass all."

"Good. Good," Gabriella sighed. "Come on in."

She looked like she was deeply, peacefully, asleep. Eve peacefully asleep was something he'd seen before. But there were electrodes trailing from her scalp, and a monitor loaded with information he didn't understand by her bed. They must have given her Aromatherapy as well. The citrus cocktail tang, like neroli oil and bergamot, competed with the ambient hospital smell.

But there was nothing to do but wait. Nothing to do but watch Eve's chest rise and fall. None of them said much. Sleep itched at the back of Josh's eyes. Fatigue was blurring his thoughts, which was just as well, because he didn't want to think. At one point he went down to the hospital cafe to fetch coffee and sandwiches for the three of them. Gabriella disappeared for half an hour on some opaque errand. A doctor brought in a meganium for another round of treatment.

By late afternoon the room was warm and stuffy from lingering Aromatherapy. Until his Pokégear buzzed with an incoming text message. This had bloody better be good.

Call me on videophone. ASAP

It was Mum's number. Reluctantly, he headed down to the videophone bank near the lobby. With any luck it wouldn't take long. It wasn't only Mum answering – Dad was there as well, in his work clothes. He must have finished early today, which he never did lightly.

"Oh, thank heavens you'm alright!" Mum immediately cried.

"What?"

"The nurse told us everything," Dad said.

"Everything?" Josh said. A penny dropped. "It was Gabriella, wasn't it?"

"Ye should have called!" Mum chided.

Josh waved his hands in a hopeless 'What's the big deal?' gesture.

"How am ye, son?" Dad said.

"My arm was stiff fer a while, but thass about it."

Mum raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Ye tried to go mano-à-mano with a hungry haunter and your arm was just numb?"

"I had my knife," he said, which wasn't an answer. Wait a minute. They seemed to know a lot about what happened; which meant Gabriella knew a lot about what happened; which meant that Madison had been talking.

"How is she?" Dad asked.

"Still asleep. No-one seems te want te explain what that means."

"Do you want us to come out?" Mum asked. "You don't have te be there alone."

"No, no … there's no need for that," Josh said.

His Pokégear buzzed again. "She's woken up."

Hospitals had a way of taking the urgency out of drama. He'd resisted the urge to run back up to the ward – and yet straight away he was left outside to anxiously shuffle his feet while doctors conducted tests and family time followed. It can't be bad news. I can't hear any crying, Josh told himself. It didn't help much.

It seemed like hours till the two older Joys emerged. "Your turn," Imogen said. "Come on, Gabby, let's get some proper food."

He opened the door almost cautiously. Eve was sitting up in bed. She was looking oddly tired, and subdued. They'd removed the electrodes from her head.

She gave him a distant look, as if she'd never seen him before. "You're here."

"Of course I'm here."

He retrieved Eve's Poké Balls from a pocket and put them on the side table. He hesitated for a moment, before perching on the edge of the bed.

"Guilty conscience?" she said frostily.

"… how are you feeling?" he tried, taken aback.

Eve gave him a complex look. A confusion of emotions battled across her face.

"I had a dream. I was scared, I think. Still am," she said with a brittle smile. "Don't tell anyone."

Josh didn't know what to say. Eve stared at his navel, like it was neutral ground. Part of him wanted to hug her till she started giggling again. But he didn't, and he didn't know why not.

"I'm sorry," she said abruptly.

Afterwards, he couldn't say where this had come from. But he meant it all the same.

"I love you."

The slightest of pauses. "I love you too."