7:20AM- Outside of Brock's hospital room
"So how's Brock doing?" Ash muttered, he whips his hat off running a hand through his messy black hair with a shuddery sigh.
"A bit better," Daisy says, chewing the bottom of her trembling lip nervously.
"Brock's got everyone so worried even that police officer came back to check up on him." Lily says, softly.
"Officer Jenny?" Ash says, a little hesitant. He makes no other attempt to draw attention to the situation.
"He works for the international police force," Violet informs him. "He's trying his best to find any leads that will help him capture team rocket's leader but so far he keeps coming up empty handed."
"I'm sure whoever the guy is he'll nab him soon." Ash says, offering his own exclamation. Trembling from his most recent memories it made it more difficult to finish his sentence.
"I mean how hard is it to find someone like the leader of team rocket." Daisy says, with cautious optimism. She glares back at her brother Ash who quickly looks away."I mean it's not like it's rocket science or anything."
"Rocket…" Ash mutters.
"I know team rocket's leader is bound to be hiding somewhere. I just wonder where the leader of team rocket is?"
"I can probably name a few guesses."
"Wha-?"
Ash glances back at Daisy, looking hesitant.
"What you just said."
"What thing?"
"That thing about guessing."
"What guessing?" Ash says, his voice is oddly firm.
"About team rocket." Lily says, to which Daisy quirks an eyebrow.
"Forget about it."
"Ash-"
"I was being sarcastic," he says, rubbing the sore part of his shoulder muscle where Giovanni laid his hands on him. "Just drop it, okay."
"I guess so." Daisy says, her voice dropping to a conspicuous whisper. (Ash, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?)
She can't exactly argue with him.
"What happened while I was gone?" Ash says, instead. "...is Brock getting any better?"
Brock's hospital room - flashback
"Come on, Brock speak to us." Daisy says, resting a hand upon Brock's back.
She could feel Brock's erratic heartbeats.
"I have the gym to look after," Brock says, warily. "My brothers…my sisters…so many responsibilities." he sounds more shy than fearful.
Looker's upbeat attitude suddenly turns concerned after he hears Brock's rigid breathing. "Brock it's okay to look after yourself once in a while," he tells him. "Even adults have to give themselves short periods of time to rest and recuperate."
A moment of silence passes between them. "All of a sudden you're treating me like a child." Brock mutters beneath his breath.
"Under certain provisions," Prof. Oak kindly amends. "In the eyes of the law you're old enough to care for your siblings and look after your mother's gym. But in this hospital you're also still a child and a patient who needs supervision."
"Worrying isn't doing you any good." Lily says.
Brock soon began inhaling short, shaky breaths. He could feel his heart throbbing inside of his ears as he pressed the back of palms against his eyelids. "Cuh-come on, you guys it's not as bad as it looks," he says, fear seizing his heart. "I'm okay. Why won't any of you believe me?" He fought back tears.
It sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than anything else.
"All of the stress you never managed piled up much too quickly." Violet says, with a warm reassuring smile. "You're a good, strong, brave big brother for enduring the burden your parents gave you for so long and your siblings thank you for giving them those things. Whether you know it or not."
Daisy bothers herself to display a disjointed dialogue from yesterday's brief intense conversation his siblings had sent back to the part time Cerulean Gym leaders.
"I would have much rather had them speak to you over the phone but after last night after you suffered another attack I thought I'd keep these for posterity instead." she says, her eyes were shimmering with tears. "Like, I thought-" she sniffles. "...you weren't going to make it but it's the burden of proof that your siblings along with some help from yours truly they're okay even if you aren't."
She handed Brock her smartphone to gauge his siblings reactions.
(Voicemail) Forrest - Brock Prof. Oak told me everything! You gotta pull through this -
…
(Voicemail) Forrest - Daisy's voice mail keeps cutting me off but I'm looking after the house now! I'm the one who's looking after our siblings! I'm the one who's handling the heavy lifting now because that's what you taught me how to do.
…
(Voicemail) Forrest - All you have to do is sit back and relax. Everyone misses you Brock and get better soon, okay?
-.-
7:44AM
Flashback - Ash and Gary are 7 years old
Gary - Brock you can call him grandpa. We're practically brothers aren't we? Even if we aren't related by blood we bonded with each other. Ash on the other hand...
Ash - What is this the grandpa olympics? Brock can share my grandpa too if he wants.
Gary - Are you suggesting we divvy up our grandpas?
Ash - We each give Brock fifty/fifty.
Gary - How's that supposed to work? Those are two halves of a whole person.
Ash - Do you have any better ideas?
-.-
Prof. Oak pulls Brock protectively into his arms after his strong and determined character had once again shattered revealing his fears. The teenager had pushed aside his own exhaustion that was bleeding him of his precious energies as he eagerly encircled his arms around the Professor's waist.
Just like the last time Prof. Oak had held him in his arms when he was a little boy. He noticed his hands had fisting themselves tightly around the fabric of his lab coat.
Brock was clinging to him as though he were some kind of lifeline.
"...I wasn't strong enough…" Brock says, between sobs. "...I couldn't even defeat those grunts from team rocket by myself…what kind of gym leader am I? I lost to them." he says, before sobbing louder.
"It wasn't your fault this happened," Prof. Oak says he eventually lays his big square head upon Brock's head stroking his mess of soft spiky brown hair until his sobs had died down into rounds of soft steady breaths.
Brock pressed his forehead against Prof. Oak's shoulder. "I trusted my pokemon, I did everything right..or at least I thought I did…it wasn't a competition or even a friendly battle. They wanted to take my life for my Onix. They wanted to take my Onix away from me."
Most times Prof. Oak was able to volunteer a satisfying answer to a problem. With a little knowledge he could formulate a plan to help him. He could come up with a brilliant solution but for some reason his mind was drawing blanks.
Prof. Oak being pitted against Team Rocket and their efforts to separate trainers from their beloved pokemon could never be met with a solution. Speaking realistically there may never be a solution to answer Brock's own question let alone a satisfactory outcome. Or even there may be no answer of any kind to resolve the problem.
Brock was fortunate enough the leader of Team Rocket had summoned an ounce of mercy to stop those grunts from attacking him.
Brock got lucky somehow and despite his hatred for Team Rocket he was able to breathe a sigh of relief after Looker who was working alongside Kanto's local police department confirmed their leader had spared the child.
What were the odds as his survival plummeted against two Team Rocket grunts and their feral Victreebell?
Why had Brock been spared?