I don't own Pokemon.

Chapter 5: Recovery!

A week had passed since Ash's diagnosis and Brock and Misty had stayed by their friend's side while he was recovering from his anorexia dilemma.

They were there while he was going through therapy to help him overcome the urges to not eat and encourage him that eating will help him grow tall and to survive.

They felt bad when they would see him struggle with accepting that food was a good thing and trying to eat without spitting it out or looking like he might throw it up after successfully eating it.

The biggest thing that was heavy on their minds was this: Would he ever be the same?

(With Ash)

He had just come back from his therapy session with the doctor and he was wondering if he was doing the right thing when he saw the familiar shadow of a yellow mouse in the doorway.

"Pikachu?" asked Ash, watching the shadow get closer to his bed. It jumped onto the bed and gave him a huge hug as it was happy to finally see its trainer again after a week.

The raven-haired boy returned the hug and he had a small smile on his face from seeing his first pokemon.

When they broke from their hug, the boy could tell how sad the yellow mouse had been as it saw how hard its trainer had been struggling with getting better.

It was at that moment that the raven-haired boy knew what he had to do and that was to get better.

"Thanks, Pikachu. You really do help me out as much as I help you out." said Ash with a smile as he was looking at the yellow mouse.

Pikachu let out a happy squeal before looking at the door as it heard someone enter the room.

The nurse had brought the boy his lunch and gently set it down on the tray over his bed before giving the yellow mouse a gentle pat and leaving the room.

Pikachu looked over at its trainer and was wondering if he was going to eat his food or just eat a few bites like he has been.

To the mouse's surprise, the boy ate everything on the plate without showing his disgust for eating.

Pikachu jumped up and down on the bed to show how happy it was for its trainer slowly getting better.

The raven-haired boy just smiled as he looked down at the happy mouse before giving it a gentle pat on the head.

"Maybe I can do this. Maybe there is more to live for again with eating instead of starving myself to death." thought Ash, smiling at Pikachu.

(A Week Later)

After working hard on gaining back the weight that he had lost and graduating from therapy, Ash had been discharged from the hospital without any medication as the doctor felt that he was going to make a full recovery without it.

"We're glad that you're back to normal, Ash. You really had us scared there for a while." said Brock, smiling at the boy as they were eating lunch at a nearby restaurant.

"Thanks. I'm glad to be back." said Ash, smiling as well.

"Ash, I'm really sorry that I was so mean to you and causing you to become anorexic. I never meant for any of this to happen at all." said Misty, apologetically as she looked at the raven-haired boy across from her.

"It's fine, Misty. I took it too hard instead of brushing it off." said Ash, still smiling.

They were all smiles as they finished their lunch and headed to the gym for Ash to challenge the gym leader.

Hope you enjoyed Chapter 5! I'm super sorry that I wasn't able to get this done on New Year's Day, which is my 9 year anniversary on here, but I had a lot of things happen in my life that prevented me from doing so. I got engaged on December 21st, a month from our 5 year anniversary, I had an issue with my car needing its transmission rebuilt and I had to stay the weekend at my parents without my laptop or even a phone charger before I was able to take one of their cars home, and then I went home to help my Mom with my Dad after he had a knee replacement on January 9th. Then, everything crashed once again as we received news that my uncle who had served in WWII and was a POW had passed away the day that I was supposed to head home after taking care of my Dad. My fiance and I went down this past Friday to go to his visitation before the funeral on Saturday and also dealing with the gigantic snowstorm that went through Ohio - not fun at all, but at least we were home instead of down with my parents and limited amount of clothing. Again, I'm super sorry about the delay as I really wanted to finish this on my 9 year anniversary, but I finally finished it on my fiance and I's 5 year anniversary and MLK day. See ya later!

AshKetchumForever-Action first-Think later!