Though it looked like it could have been a cave of some sort from a distance, as Chloe pulled Ash closer to it, it was clear it was little more than a rocky overhang, or perhaps a crack in the cliff that widened over time until it became a hollow in the wall. The errant thought that the entire cliff could fall down upon them filled her with dread, but she pushed the thought out of her mind. If they were going to die, they had plenty of opportunity roughly ten minutes ago. They needed shelter from the rain and they needed it now.

Chloe pulled Ash into the cool, dry hole in the wall, while Pikachu and Eevee dragged their backpacks, sodden with water, through the dirt and the rocks behind her.

Gently, she lowered Ash to the ground, only now seeing the red bite marks where Eevee had bitten into her to secure her and Ash's safety. She watched him for a moment in abject horror until his chest began to slowly rise, then she finally exhaled.

"Thank goodness…" she said, relief flooding over her for the first time since breakfast that morning. "I guess that fall knocked him out…" She looked at his unconscious body sadly. "I should be glad he's alright… but…"

"Kakachu," Pikachu said, trying to ease Chloe's worry, putting his paw on her hand to comfort her. "Pika, pikapika pi Pikapi, pikachu."

Chloe looked at Pikachu and smiled gently. "Yeah, you're right," she said before pausing at what she said. "Wait…"

When she looked back at him, Pikachu tilted his head, confused. "Pika?"

"...nevermind."

Finally getting her backpack back from Eevee, Chloe took out the first aid kit and wrapped a bandage around her arm, covering the bite mark. Eevee rubbed her face against Chloe's leg, trying to apologize.

"I'm not upset with you, Eevee," she said. "You helped get us to safety! If anything, I'm thankful. A little bite mark is nothing compared to that."

"Eievui…" she cooed, still disheartened at everything that's happened so far.

Chloe thought about everything that had happened as well. That growing irritation, that fight with Team Rocket, everything boiling over. And then… her eyes settled on Ash. "Even when I was mad at him, he saved me. Even after I insulted him to his face."

Chloe's arms, legs, and heart all felt incredibly heavy. The feeling in her chest worked its way from discomfort to pain, and she wanted to release that pent up emotion. But looking at Ash's unconscious body pushed such thoughts out of her head. "I have to take care of all of us," she said. "It's up to me to make sure we get out of this safely." She shuddered at the chill in the air, as well as her thoughts drifting to more negative outcomes.

Heat. That's what they needed now.

"We need to start a fire," she said out loud to her Pokémon audience. Chloe stood up and turned to them. "We need to make sure Ash stays warm, so we need to start a fire and keep it going. I need you guys to go get me a lot of firewood, okay?"

"Pika!" he said, nodding before turning to Eevee. "Piipii, pika!"

"Vui!"

Pikachu and Eevee turned and darted out of the cave, into the rain once more.

"While they're gone… I have a few things I need to do, as well."

The first thing she did was gather a few rocks from inside the hollow and set them in a circle nearby Ash; the location of the eventual campfire she would have to build. Next, she began going through her backpack, trying to take stock of what she had and what condition it was in.

All of her clothing, including her pajamas, were soaked, as was the plushie. The ingredients that she had brought with them were all mostly okay; a few of the noodles were soggy, but they could still probably be salvaged thanks to their vacuum sealed plastic and metal items, including the cooking pot and cutlery, were all fine.

During this entire time, she heard Ash's breathing. It was ragged, and sounded like he was in more than a little need of a cough to clear his throat.

She looked over at him. "Maybe… CPR could help?"

She hadn't considered it until now, since he seemed to be sleeping fine, but she thought it might be worth trying. 'If he wakes up sooner, that can only be good, right?' Her mind went through the steps of what she would need to do. She would press into his chest three times. 'Despite the fact that his heart hasn't stopped,' she thought to herself. 'And then…'

She felt her face heat up, in spite of itself.

"There's no way I can do that, right…?" she said, dismissing the idea and looking back at her backpack, pushing the thought from her mind.

Ash wheezed behind her, and her mind immediately went to the effects of oxygen deprivation.

'If I don't… things could be really bad for him…' She looked at his unconscious face, scrunched up like he was having a nightmare. 'I… I guess I don't have a choice.'

She kneeled down near Ash and put her head against his chest. She heard the wheezing even more intensely, but most importantly she heard his heart beating. 'He feels so cold right now…' she thought, feeling his soaked shirt against her face.

Sitting back up, she mentally prepared herself and put her hands over his heart on his chest.

"One. Two. Three." With each count, she pressed into his chest hard with both hands over his heart, trying to force it to beat harder. Then, she swallowed, took a deep breath, pinched her fingers over his nose, and put her open mouth against his.

She exhaled, trying to fill his lungs with more air than they had currently before getting back up and repeating the cycle. "One. Two. Three."

And another exhaled breath into his mouth.

"One. Two. Three."

Breathe…

"One. Two. Three."

Breathe…!

As she rose up from the breathing portion, Ash's body began to shudder and he turned over, coughing up water as he did. He rolled over onto his back, eyes barely open, but his brown eyes met her green eyes for a moment.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay, Ash!" Chloe said, barely able to contain her relief and excitement.

"Chloe…" Ash said, closing his eyes once more and drifting off to sleep, though his breathing sounded much calmer this time.

At first, Ash's drift back to unconsciousness came with a moment of despair, but her mind, still reeling from the events, began to play memories back in front of her eyes. The last moment she had heard his voice before this moment came back to her.. As the ground began to fall under her, Ash shouted her name and leapt to her rescue. Now, her name was on his lips as his savior. She smiled, feeling relieved that he was going to be alright.

"Now… where are those two with the firewood?" she asked, as she began going through his backpack, taking out his sopping wet clothes and trying to find the sleeping bags that he carried.

The fire sputtered fitfully and hissed, but it did burn brightly and warmly, thanks to the wood gathered, Chloe's construction of the wood pile inside the circle of stones, and Pikachu's electricity.

It had been a few hours since they had first arrived in this cave, and she had gone through everything they owned. From her count, it didn't seem like they had lost anything in the fall. Every piece of clothing and equipment was accounted for, even if it was waterlogged. Even Ash's hat (saved by Pikachu) and his Z-Ring (still attached to his wrist) were there. It almost felt like she was counting their blessings. 'Thank goodness. I don't think either of them would be really replaceable if they were lost.'

The clothes from their backpacks were now hanging from a clothesline Chloe found in Ash's backpack, held up by two larger branches that the Pokémon brought back. Ash's shoes also sat near the fire, since Chloe figured that wearing soggy wet shoes and socks wasn't the most comfortable thing for him. 'Hopefully the warmth of the fire and contact with the air will make them all dry enough to wear by the time morning comes,' she told herself. She shot an extra glance at the Pikachu plushie, still soaking wet and dripping water occasionally. It would have to be enough.

Food was a soup made with a few of the ingredients Chloe had brought with her, but more of the food than she initially thought was unusable thanks to it's waterlogging.

She sat, frustrated that her phone had no signal. 'I guess I should be thankful that it even works and didn't short out,' she thought. 'The waterproofing must be pretty remarkable…''

In these past hours, however, Ash still hadn't awakened. 'I guess the fall took more out of him that I thought…' At least, he did seem to be sleeping more soundly than he did initially. Chloe wasn't sure if it was just good fortune or if being tucked in under his sleeping bag was actually helpful, but she decided to count her blessings.

'Still…'

She held her empty soup bowl in her lap, eyes focused on Ash. The rain had stopped hours ago, and since the river wasn't very far from where they had ended up by virtue of being part of their conveyance, she had been able to refill their canteens. But Ash didn't seem to be waking, and as the hours dragged on, her concern was growing.

'...I thought for sure the smell of food would bring him out of it.'

"Pikapi…"

Pikachu sat next to Ash, ears lowered. He was getting more and more worried as well. Eevee copied this expression, sitting next to Chloe.

"Pikachu…" Chloe found herself saying. When the mouse looked up at her, she blinked in surprise. "I-I mean…"

Pikachu's expression fell, and he laid down next to Ash.

Chloe moved around the fire to be by their side, with Eevee following close behind her. She hesitantly reached her hand out to Pikachu and put her hand on his head. She was surprised at how soft and silky smooth his fur felt.

She stroked Pikachu's back, trying to help calm the Electric-type's nerves. 'We have a hard decision to make,' Chloe thought. 'Though really, I don't think it's any choice at all.' She had been racking her brain all day to find some sort of answer to the question, and while she had come up with one, she wasn't sure how it would go over with the intended audience.

"Pikachu," she said, "we can't let this happen."

He raised his head up and looked at her as she continued petting his back. "Pika…?"

"I've been thinking about how best we can help Ash," she continued. "And the way I figure, there are two things we can do in this situation."

"Pi?"

"We can stay here and wait for Ash to recover," she said. "He hasn't been completely out of it all of the time, so there's a chance he wakes up and we can all go back together. Only…" She grimaced, not enjoying the dark twist in her thoughts. "...only it's just a chance he gets up anytime soon. We don't know how much longer he'll be out of it. Or if he's got any other injuries that make staying put a bad idea for him." She wasn't sure if the shaking she felt was her own hand's fearful reaction or if Pikachu himself shuddered at the thought. "Which brings me to our other option; one of us can go get help."

Pikachu sat up and looked Chloe in the Chloe looked back into his dark orbs, she had the thought that maybe there was more than met the eye when it came to Ash's partner.

"Since you're faster and I could explain anything to any people who might stumble by," she continued, "I think it would be best if you ran back to Pallet Town as soon as the sun went up. Get Ash's mom, get Tracey, get anyone you can, and then come back and get us. Surely with all of Ash's Pokémon, you all could get back here fast. That… does mean you'll need to leave Ash's side for a bit. And I know that'll be hard. But trust me. Look into my eyes. I promise you, Pikachu, I won't let anything happen to Ash. Eevee and I will take care of him until you get back."

"Kakachu…" he said, looking at her, eyes glittering. He looked at his partner and frowned sadly.

"Ash is…" Chloe hesitated, thinking of the best word to use. "...he's very important to me, too," she said, looking back at the boy as well. "I know you're worried about him. I'm worried, too. But our best chance to help him is to think this through carefully and have a plan. I think this is our best shot at helping Ash." She turned to Pikachu and took his paws in her hands, holding them together. "What do you say, Pikachu? Will you go along with my plan? It's all up to you."

Pikachu looked back into her eyes, and if Chloe wasn't mistaken, she'd have said that a bolt of realization went through the Pokémon's expression. A determined grin went over his face. "Pika!" he said, nodding. "Pika pi Pikapi pikachu pikapika kachu, pika Kakachu."

She nodded. "You've got it. Only…"

She looked out into the darkness outside the hole in the wall they were all hiding in.

"...maybe you should wait until the morning."

"Pikachu."

"Eievui."

Even after dinner and putting everyone to bed, Chloe laid awake in the darkness, staring at the ceiling of the cave from the inside of her sleeping bag. What had started as a random supposition by her friend Mika that Chloe had latched onto had grown into something that she was sure would give her nightmares for the rest of her life. Even still, hours after the fact, Chloe could feel herself falling through the sky, hurtling towards the ground with only Ash's arms to protect her from what could have been her end. And protect her, he did.

She looked over at him, still unconscious. Never stirring at all except for that one moment after he coughed up the river water. The silence, the absence of his cheerful voice and demeanor, was soul crushing. It was enough to drain the last bits of her resolve.

'I'm not strong enough to be out here. I'm not as tough as any of Ash's other friends. I'm not even as tough as Goh is. And look at the trouble I got us both into.' She could feel the tears pooling in her eyes, but she squeezed them away, pushing them back lest the Pokémon hear her crying.

In her mind's eye, she could see Ash's fearful face leaping at her, grabbing her and doing what he could to save her, and now Ash could very well be fighting a battle for his own life that she couldn't help him win.

'It's all my fault. If I hadn't let my stupid feelings get to my head, if I had just gone on vacation with Dad and Mom and Parker…'

In the end, the tears won, and Chloe quietly sobbed as she turned away from Ash's somewhat still form, unable to even have him in the periphery of her vision any longer.

'Coming here was a mistake.'

Pikachu left the cave right after eating breakfast. Chloe wasn't sure how long he would be gone, so she tried not to think about it. She tried calling using the Emergency function on her phone, to call emergency services. No luck.

She sighed, putting her phone away. "This stinks…"

Eevee sighed as well, tumbling on the ground nearby Ash where Chloe was seated. "Eievui." Ash himself was wrapped in his sleeping bag, the act of getting him put inside it something Chloe had to thank Pikachu and Eevee with.

"At least the phone can keep track of time for us," she said, looking at her phone again. "It looks like it's been a little while since breakfast. I guess we could get started on lunch, huh?"

"Eievui!" she said, hopping in agreement. Chloe went to her now dried out backpack and began sorting through the various things that were salvageable. "I guess we could make this instant ramen…" she said, though the packaging wasn't as waterproofed as she would have liked. It would have to be enough.

"Stay here, Eevee and call if you see anything."

"Eievui!" she said, nodding as she began marching around Ash in a circle.

Chloe smiled at the childish Pokémon. 'At least her brightness hasn't been diminished over this,' she thought.

Taking the cooking pot out of the cave and by the river, Chloe dipped it in and got a pot full of water. Looking up, she saw a tree nearby that seemed to have a marking on it.

At a little higher than her eye level, there was a hole pierced in the tree, like someone had taken a giant needle and pushed it through. The peculiarities of it caught her attention, but there wasn't anything that could be done with it, truly, so she carried the pot back to the camp.

Eevee was still marching around Ash in a circle, making her paws land perfectly in the tracks she was leaving all around him. Chloe cracked a smile and set the pot over the firewood she had gathered that morning. Thankfully it had been dry outside for about a day and a half at this point, so the wood was much less waterlogged than previously.

Still, her fire starting tool wasn't the most cooperative thing. She had packed it with the rest of her belongings back in Vermilion, thinking that she may end up camping out like this. Only she didn't assume that it would be their best way of getting heat for cooking.

She continued to strike the starter, trying to get sparks to hit the tender she set up, but it was more difficult than she thought. "I'm already missing Pikachu…" she sighed as she struck it a few more times. Her arm was beginning to tire when a spark finally caught on the tender. She crouched down close and blew on the spark, and it caught and quickly grew into a flame.

"Thank goodness…"

It took a little while for the fire to heat the pot up to boiling, but eventually lunch was well under way.

"Mn… ugh…"

Chloe's eyes widened as she heard Ash beginning to stir. She got up immediately and ran around to him. He was still lying in his sleeping bag as he began to sit up.

"Ugh… my head… where am I…?"

"Ash…?" she asked, reaching a hand up towards him.

Ash turned his head to look at her, his eyes going wide. "Chloe-you're alright!" A wave of relief flooded over his pained expression as he reached for his head, running his fingers through his hair. He began to look around, frowning. "Wait… where's Pikachu?" he asked, his tone instantly changing. "Where are we?"

Chloe frowned and lowered her hand. "Let's start with what you remember."

Ash closed his eyes. "I remember… It was raining. We were fighting. You ran off. I chased you. You were saying something… and then the cliff fell and I jumped after you. I don't remember anything after that."

Chloe nodded. 'That's pretty much everything that happened,' she thought. 'I guess it's lucky that he doesn't remember the CPR…' She averted her eyes and looked away from him.

"You haven't said where Pikachu is yet," he said, looking at her, staring with concern in his brown eyes.

'He hasn't even noticed the food yet. I guess Pikachu is just that important to him.' "Pikachu is fine," she said. "He went to go get help since I didn't know how much longer you were going to be unconscious or-"

"Well I'm great!" Ash said, jumping to his feet and out of the sleeping bag. His determined expression quickly twisted into one of agony before he fell backwards onto his butt. "Aaaaayowch! My ankle!"

Chloe raised an eyebrow but otherwise kept her distance. "-how many other injuries you might have," she said, finishing her thought. "I'm guessing you twisted your ankle when we fell."

She turned to her backpack and pulled out her first aid kit and moved to where Ash was. "Now sit still."

He nodded, watching her closely.

"Tell me where it hurts," she said, starting with a gentle touch above his ankle. She watched his face closely, but he didn't seem to react, so she moved her hand down slowly. There was no reaction until she got just past his ankle and he hissed through his teeth.

"Ow ow there that hurts…!"

She nodded. "Yeah, you've got a twisted ankle alright," she said. "The best thing to do is to bandage it up tight. This might hurt a little but stay still."

As gently as she could manage with still restricting Ash's range of motion, Chloe began wrapping his ankle with the bandage. Ash was completely silent, watching her closely as she attended to his injury.

His eyes widened. "H-hey, why is your arm bandaged up like that?" he asked.

She kept wrapping. "Oh, Eevee bit me when we were trying to pull you out of the river," she said. "After you jumped and caught me, we hit the river below. I guess you hit it pretty hard, since it knocked you out, but if the worst lasting injury is a twisted ankle, I guess we should count ourselves lucky, huh?"

Ash relaxed and let her work. "So you had Eevee do that to try and pull us out, huh?"

She nodded, her ponytail bobbing in the air. "It's not like I wanted to do it and Eevee didn't like it either, but we're alive, right?"

He chuckled under his breath. "Yeah, I… Pikachu and me have had to do stuff like that before. You and Eevee must really trust each other to do stuff like that."

She smiled, pulling the bandage taught. "Well… I guess we do, don't we?"

"Eievui!" she chirped, happy at the praise.

"In any case, that should be better, though you still shouldn't try to walk on it. We're still waiting until Pikachu comes back with help."

He nodded, looking somewhat like a chastened child. "Yeah, I know," he said. "Thanks, Chloe. And… I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked, giggling. "You saved my life when I was the one who put it in danger. I should be thanking you for diving to grab me. If I had hit that water first instead, who knows what might have happened?"

Ash shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but then the familiar rumbling of his stomach reverberated in the small chamber. "Eheh… I guess it's been a bit since I last ate, huh?"

"About a day," she said, turning back to the pot.

"A DAY?!" he exclaimed. "How long was I asleep!?"

Chloe began serving up a bowl of the soup as she explained in detail what happened, though she left out the moment of giving him CPR.

After listening closely to everything, Ash put down his bowl. "Sounds like I gave you guys a big scare, huh?" he said, looking at the shadows cast on the wall by the fire.

"You did," Chloe responded. "But it feels like everything's finally turning the corner, so it's okay. Once help arrives, we'll all go back to Pallet Town and have a laugh about all of this. You'll see."

Ash chuckled in his bashful way. "Yeah, you're right," he said. "I still need to apologize to you, though."

"For what?" Chloe asked as Eevee moved into her lap. The Evolution Pokémon curled up in her lap and yawned. "You've tried to apologize for something two or three times already, so go on, spit it out."

Ash moved his hand to his lap, reaching for Pikachu, but because the mouse was out running for help, his hand felt nothing, and his expression dropped.

"I'm sure Pikachu is alright," Chloe said. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Ash nodded. "Yeah. Sorry, I guess I keep gettin' distracted." He turned and looked at her, across the campfire, now burning low in the afternoon. "I wanted to apologize. You're right. I have been tryin' to take charge out here, and I already told you I don't like doin' it if I don't feel like I have to."

Chloe smirked, feeling a bit cheeky. "What, did you not think a city girl like me could cut it out here?"

Ash looked back at her, and whatever teasing she was going to subject him to went right out as she took in the downcast, regretful look in his eyes. "Yeah, that's part of it," he admitted. "But not the main thing. Besides-" He gestured to the campsite around him. "-you've got a handle on doin' all of this. Clothes are hung up? Fire's made? Dinner's made? You're way more ready than I was when I started travelling." He gave a rueful chuckle. "Maybe even more than I am now."

Chloe waved her hand at him. "No, I don't think so. I just came with a lot of supplies, and Dad was practically begging me to pack them up before we left Vermilion." The weepy, frightened voicemail she heard the first morning she woke up in Pallet Town only confirmed that he was afraid his little girl could get in big trouble away from her daddy.

'Funny enough, Dad was right about that.'

"Besides, Ash," she continued, "you said that was only part of the reason. What was the main one."

"Oh, right," he said, averting his eyes from her. He scratched his cheek with an index finger, sitting up but still on the sleeping bag. "I guess I was just payin' attention to you, and I wanted to help you out."

"What do you mean?" she asked, mind already beginning to race about what it was possible he could have noticed.

"On the bus ride, when we were talkin' about the differences between Vermilion and Pallet Town, you said…" He paused, frowning as he went over his memory. "Well, you didn't say," he corrected himself, "But you meant somethin' like 'I don't have a place at the lab'.

Chloe's eyes widened as she remembered the bus ride, herself. Ash noticed her faltering, then, losing faith in herself in the moment.

"Hey, you belong there, too, y'know? It's like Goh told me, everyone relates to Pokémon differently. And the way you take your time and consider what's best for Eevee is just your way of relating to them."

"You really think so?"

"No doubt about it. You being there helps the lab be the kinda place it is!"

Ash continued. "I know what it feels like to not have a place where you feel like you belong, so I didn't want you to feel like that. And so, I guess I thought if I showed you how cool Pokémon or being a trainer was…" He sighed. "But instead it just pushed you away, didn't it? I must've looked pretty stupid."

Chloe frowned at him. "I don't think you looked stupid at all!" she said, pouting. She wasn't worried about overplaying her hand here; she genuinely just wanted to reassure Ash with her friendship. "I mean, maybe I didn't get why you were acting like that, but your heart was in the right place, and that's what's important, you know?"

'Though I can't deny,', she thought, 'that it is really charming of him to go through all this effort for my sake.'

Ash took her words with a smile, though there was still a sad look in his eyes, as if he was reliving an unpleasant memory. "Thanks, Chloe. I guess I just wanted you to have a good time since you came out here with me after all. I wanted you and Eevee to get that much closer, so maybe it'd help you guys figure yourselves out!"

"Eie!" she chirped, hopping from Chloe's lap to run around the fire to hop into Ash's. Ash chuckled and began scratching behind her ears like he would for Pikachu.

Chloe smiled at the sight. "I guess that's why you brought us to that flower field," she said with a gentle smile.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm not tryin' to tell you t' go one way or the other. You and Eevee'll find that path together by working it out together. I just wanted t' give you a place you could be yourself, y'know?"

"Thanks, Ash. I mean that." She smiled in his direction, the light from the low fire flickering in her eyes. He looked up at her and Chloe saw the flickering flame in his.

Her heart began to beat just a little faster at that moment.

"Can… I ask you a question?" Chloe said, looking across the fire into his eyes.

Ash nodded, looking straight back at her. "Of course!"

"You said that you knew what it was like, not having a place you really fit in. But a few days ago on the bus, you said that you didn't really worry about fitting in someplace. So… what did you mean by that?" Her tone was gentle and soothing. 'There's a story here. Something about Ash he probably doesn't talk about a lot. It's that part of Ash that I want to see and talk to the most.'

Ash chuckled, a little embarrassed. "Wouldja believe it was right here in Pallet Town?"

She gasped. "No way."

"Yeah way," he said. "I can remember it like it was just yesterday." There was a wistful, gentle expression on his face as he stroked Eevee's back. Clearly having a Pokémon at his side helped him relax.

"When I was a little kid, I… I wasn't really popular. I didn't have a lot of friends here in Pallet Town. I mean… it's more like I didn't have ANY friends, really. The only person who ever even gave me the time of day was Gary."

"Professor Oak's grandson?" She remembered hearing Goh rant about this guy, this Gary Oak, a few weeks back.

Ash nodded. "Yeah. We used to go looking for Pokémon in the forests around here together. But one day, he stopped hanging around me. He got really popular with the other kids in town and he started bullying me, so I fought with him right back. We were rivals from then on." Ash's expression darkened as he thought about it. "When I started as a Pokémon Trainer, I did a lot of stupid and mean things, because I was so caught up with beating Gary that I forgot that the Pokémon are the most important thing. I love Pokémon. Not just my Pokémon, but all of them." He looked at Chloe, a smile on his face. "Pokémon are just so awesome and cool, and I love that we get to live with 'em. I love Pokémon Battles, and Contests and all sorts of competitions you can do with 'em! You can do anything with Pokémon by your side! Pokémon are just the best!"

He calmed down a bit and smiled again, like he was seeing a good memory this time. "Even after Gary stopped being my friend for a while, I still went looking for Pokémon, and they were always willing to hang out with me, too. For a while, until I left on my journey, Pokémon were practically the only friends I had. And even though I loved 'em, it got pretty lonely sometimes." He looked up at Chloe. "Goh's really lucky to have a friend like you always around. Even if you all don't get along all the time, having someone who sticks by you makes things a lot better than having to do them alone."

"W-Well," Chloe said, scooting around the fire closer to him. "You and I are friends now, too, right?"

Ash chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, we are."

"Then I won't let you feel lonely, either, Ash," she said, looking up at him. "I know there's lots of stuff I don't quite get yet. About Pokémon, about Eevee, about you. But I want to learn. I want to take all these experiences and I think they'll help me figure out what Eevee and I should do." She paused and shook her head before pumping a fist confidently.. "No, I'm sure they'll help Eevee and I figure out what we should do!"

Ash pumped a fist right back. "That's the spirit, Chloe! You can do anything you want! That's what I think." He offered her a fist, and she brought hers to it as well. "And… thanks for bein' my friend, too."

She blushed and giggled. "You're welcome Ash."

Eevee yawned in Ash's arms and curled up, making Chloe smile. "Why don't you get a bit more rest? I'm going to see if I can find fruits we can eat since our food stores are running a bit low, what with falling in the river."

Ash tried, unsuccessfully, to look undiscouraged. "Y-Yeah, I guess so, huh…? I probably should take it easy. Eevee and I'll be here and I'll shout if we need you to come back quick, alright?"

Chloe stood up and went to the laundry line where she took Ash's cap from where it was hanging. She walked over and put it on his head. "Just rest for now, Ash. Leave this to me."

She stuck her head out of the cave, looking for any wild Pokémon. Once she saw the coast was clear, she began walking along the cliff, looking for some sort of food. There was a spring in her step in the afternoon sun. And when she closed her eyes, she could see Ash's smiling face there, filled with gratitude.