The Boat That Rocked (Rocketshipping Fanfic)
Part Twenty-Three
Meowth had his paws crossed over each other, his bright eyes watching James pace up and down the kitchen, his mobile stuck to his ear.
Arms reached around the cat Pokémon and drew him close. Lisa held him to her chest, her gaze too following the blue-haired man as he walked the length of the room again and again.
He was waiting. Waiting and listening for whatever happened on the other side of that phone call. The atmosphere was tense, thick with crackling and suffocating expectations and emotions.
"You okay, Lisa?" he murmured, paws on her arms, head looking up at her.
She nodded, a weak smile flitting across her lips.
Suddenly James halted, his grip tightening on the plastic in his hand, his eyes wide.
Lisa rose, the chair scrapping noisily on the tiled floor, making Meowth flinch. They stared at James, waiting, constantly waiting. After what felt like hours, the man relaxed and bowed his head.
"Jaime?" he spoke quietly, voice almost a whisper.
But by the frown forming on his brow, the woman wasn't responding on the other side. "Jaime?" he repeated, his voice loudening, deepening. "Jaime, are you there?"
And then, her voice so clear that Meowth heard her perfectly with his cat hearing, she said, "Yeah, I'm here."
"Is everything okay?" James asked, cautiously, dreading the answer.
"Jessie is alive, if that's what you mean." Came the sarcastic reply.
James let out a faltering breath, a sigh of relief. "And you? What about you?"
"Oh, I'm perfectly fine." A pause. "What do you want me to do with her?"
James blinked, seemingly thrown by her question. "Well…Help her."
Meowth twitched in Lisa's arms. That woman. She doesn't care 'bout Jessie one bit – of course she would ask that.
"Shall we wait for you or get out while we can?" Oh, that's what she meant. Meowth's ears flicked, trying to listen past Jaime's voice but still hearing nothing but silence or a hiss of static.
"What do you think?" Why are you askin' HER?!
"I don't know what Alphonse's new plan is, but it won't be good. He'll probably be coming directly after you – trying a new tact. So perhaps separately for now would be best."
"James, don't listen to her." Meowth spoke up.
Green eyes met his, eyebrow raised questioningly.
"We've trusted her this far, but-"
James raised a hand to silence him, shaking his head slightly. "Get out of there then, take Jessie to safety. I'll contact you when everything is over."
"Right." The line went dead.
"You're an idiot, James!" Meowth snarled, squirming in Lisa's grasp. "An absolute idiot!"
"She won't hurt Jessie." He was stuffing the phone into his pocket, turning towards Lisa and the Pokémon.
"We can't know that! That guy – her brother- he could have done anythin' to Jessie! How can we trust a woman who comes from something like that?"
"The whole city was like that. And from what I've heard, Team Rocket did a lot worse."
Meowth bared his fangs, snapping his gaze away from James. "You're an idiot." He repeated under his breath.
James placed a hand on Lisa's shoulder. "Lisa, I can't go to them – but you can."
The girl visibly flinched. "Wait, w-what do you mean?"
He retrieved his phone from his pocket and showed the blank screen. "I'll give you this. You call Jaime, get her location, and go there."
"So you don't trust her!" Meowth cried out.
"Shut up!" James' eyes flashed. "I do trust her. But I'm scared. I'm scared, okay? Like you said, Alphonse could have done anything to Jessie. She'll be scared herself, right? She might be hurt. Jaime has herself, no first aid, and she'll take them to a safe place but nothing beyond that."
The man closed his eyes. "I trust Jaime to look after Jessie but nothing beyond that. Do you understand?"
Rage was beginning to seethe inside the small Pokémon's stomach, burning inside his chest. "All this was based on somethin' half-assed? You mean that woman will do what you say, and nothin' more? That if Jessie is bleedin' to death right now, she'll do nothin' but take her somewhere safe?! Is that what you mean?!"
"That's exactly what I mean."
Meowth jumped from Lisa's arms, landing on the table, spinning around on his two legs and pointing an accusing claw at the blue-haired man. "And you say you trust her – she'll let Jessie die!"
"She'll only let Jessie die if it means that keeping her alive would result in my death." He said simply, his voice steady and his gaze unyielding.
"You really are an idiot." Meowth was exhausted. He couldn't believe that the entire plan was based on this half-trust of James'. It meant that though Jaime would follow his plan to save Jessie, she would also throw away her life without a second thought – and James knew that all along.
"This is too twisted." He said, his head falling into his paws.
"I'm sorry, Meowth. It had to be done this way."
Meowth didn't respond, keeping his head low, holding back his rage and the swirling confusion in his heart.
"J-James…"
"Here, Lisa," Meowth heard the girl take the phone. "I want you to go and just keep walking. When you're some distance away from here, call Jaime. Her number is in there." A tap as the man hit the plastic with a finger. "Make her tell you where she is. Go to her. Take the first aid kit that's underneath the sink." A pause. "Okay?"
"Yeah." A shuffle as Lisa stuffed the phone into her jean pocket, the sound of rustling clothes as she moved across to the sink.
"How will we know when it's… over?"
The sound of cupboard doors opening as the girl searched for the first aid kit, pushing various things aside.
"I'll call either of you. Tell you these exact words: 'It's all over now, it's safe. We can go home now.'"
Meowth moved his head to peer at James. He was looking at Lisa with a serious expression on his face, as if what he was saying was of the upmost importance.
"Those words – trust nothing else, okay?"
Lisa wasn't answering, her mind busy with retrieving the green box at the back of the cupboard.
"Lisa, do you understand?"
The girl pulled back, the box in her hands. "I get it, I get it."
The cupboard doors swung shut. "So, what are the words – tell me them."
Her grip tightened on the box, shifting slightly. "'It's all over now, it's safe.'"
James raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"'We can go home now.'"
"Good. Remember that. If I say anything else, don't trust it."
"Yeah, I get it, okay? I'm not stupid."
The girl has attitude when she isn't scared.
-#-
Jessie glared at the dark-haired woman. She hated the way she twirled the phone around in her long fingers, her eyes considering her with an empty expression that sent a chill down her spine.
She had kept quiet while Alphonse had been here, his presence silencing her in fear of having the gun turned on her – or worse. But now she didn't hesitate to spit in the woman's direction.
"You enjoy that?" she hissed, her mouth cruelly twisting.
Something stirred in the woman's eyes and she stepped towards her. "And here I thought you would be a bit more understanding."
"What?" Jessie leaned back in the chair, the seat groaning slightly at the movement.
"My brother just threatened to kill me. I just got you out with your life. I pretty much just saved you." The woman kneeled down at Arbok's side, a hand resting on the purple scales.
"GET AWAY FRO-" Jessie's voice was high, loud, hysterical, the words screeching from her throat painfully.
"Shut it." The woman's quiet shot of distaste spun a web of hatred in Jessie's heart but silenced her all the same.
"What are you gonna do? Arbok's dead."
Her dark hair fell across her face, hiding her expression as she gazed down at the fallen Pokémon. "It's not dead."
"But you said-"
"I know what I said." She looked up at Jessie, eyebrow raised, a small smirk on her lips. "I lied. Do you really think Alphonse would let it live if he knew?"
You lied to save Arbok? Jessie couldn't believe it. She needed to see for herself. She strained against her bindings once more. "Cut me free."
The woman paused, studying her. "No please, my red queen?"
"Cut me free, please." She spat.
The woman was tall and slender, her figure seemingly never ending as she rose from her crouch. To Jessie's surprise, she pulled out a pocket knife that had been tucked into the back of her trousers.
"Why didn't you use that earlier?" she wondered out loud.
The woman didn't answer.
"Your name's Jaime, right?" she asked as the knife cut into the rope at her ankles.
"It is."
"Don't people usually cut the ropes at the wrists first?" Jessie said, watching Jaime move to her other leg.
The rope fell away and she looked up. "I'm getting you free, isn't that enough?"
Jessie's eyes moved to watch the unmoving body of her Pokémon, waiting impatiently for her hands to be freed.
Jaime stepped around to the back of the chair and she soon felt the knife working at her wrists, the blade dangerously close to the veins underneath the skin. She gritted her teeth, expecting at any moment for the knife to slip and her blood to pour.
Again to Jessie's surprise, Jaime once again stood in front of her, the knife in one hand, the cut rope in the other, and Jessie's wrists intact. She motioned for her to move, to go to the fallen Arbok.
Jessie didn't hesitate. She threw herself forwards, her feet skidding across the concrete as she rushed to the snake's side, her fingers reaching out.
It's warm.
And just as the woman had said, the Pokémon's weak pulse could be felt, beating against her fingertips.
She let out a sigh of relief. So that means that she saved my Arbok – in a way. However she also let the Pokémon take the shot and she also made it hurt me.
The wounds in her shoulder ached, a stinging pain matching her heartbeat, agony flaming when she moved.
"We have to move." Jaime spoke above her.
"We have to get-"
"No, we don't," she interrupted. "My priority is getting you to a safe place. Bring it with you, but we aren't going anyway near a Pokémon Center."
Jessie spun around to argue, ready to explode with an episode of expletives and poisonous words but the steady gaze she whirled around to meet made her voice freeze in her throat.
She turned her head downwards, letting her hatred and rage bore into the concrete floor instead. "Who are you? Really?" she whispered, struggling with getting the words out.
"Jaime." Came the curt reply.
"That's not what I meant." Who are you to James? Why do you know his name? Was that him on the phone?
Something red and white flashed in front of her and she focused on what Jaime was giving her. A Pokéball? She looked quizzically at her.
"It's for the snake. We need to travel light – we can't be carting around an injured Arbok. Or rather you couldn't." A pause. "That hurts, right?"
The woman was looking at Jessie's shoulder. "Of course it bloody hurts."
Jaime nodded, a distracted look in her eyes. She turned away, walking across the room to stand besides the opening in the wall.
She wants me to hurry up. Jessie returned her attention to Arbok, mumbling a "return," relieved when the Pokémon was in a safer and warmer place than the cold hard floor of the empty room.
Jessie rose, walking towards the waiting woman who nodded, turning and stepping into the shadows of the corridor.
-#-
The light was blinding as they stepped out of the derelict building, the shining metal door swinging shut behind them with a loud slam, the bricks crumbling slightly around it.
The road was empty, the tarmac dotted with potholes and collapsing heaps falling away into the dirt gutters. This district of abandoned buildings and forgotten streets were surrounded by a small forest, the road that once led here now claimed by nature, the trees uprooting man's hold on the island.
Jaime started making her way down the road, being careful of where she placed her feet. Halfway down the collapsing road, she glanced behind her to see Jessie slowly following her, her jaw set. She hates my guts. She continued walking. Though I don't blame her.
"Hey!" the red-head called. "Where are we going?"
Eyes wide, Jaime spun around, her hand rising to silence her with a violent wave. Jessie blinked, surprised, a flicker of fear in the blue spheres. Her stepping faltered and she tripped slightly, her body jarring against the ground as she stopped herself. She winced, gripping the Pokéball in her hand tighter.
That shoulder looks nasty. It'll probably get infected if it's not seen to. "Be quiet." She hissed across the distance between them.
Thankfully the woman nodded, understanding the situation. If Alphonse is nearby, we're dead, even if he did say that I could have Jessie now and do what I want with her.
"I wonder if he brought anyone else with him…" she mumbled under her breath, searching the surrounding buildings for signs of people in the shadows or the glint of a sniper. Would he even set up snipers here? Jaime sighed, putting her hands on her hips, watching the stumbling woman.
"Seriously," she muttered. She raised her voice so Jessie could hear her without her words echoing in the lonely street. "Do you want help walking, my red queen?"
Blue eyes burned a hole in head.
"That's a no then." She turned around, throwing a dismissal wave over her shoulder as she did.
Jessie followed Jaime as they walked down the street, the forest becoming clearer and taller before them as they neared it. Reaching its outskirts, Jaime turned back around and waited for Jessie to arrive beside her.
"We're going to find a safe spot and stay there. James will call us at one point to tell us it's all over." She patted her trouser pocket where her phone was kept.
Unreadable emotions flickered across the woman's face and then vanished without a trace. She nodded.
Jaime hesitated before stepping into the shadows of the trees, searching the undergrowth and the canopy above for danger.
Her grip tightened on the blade still in her hand.
"Let's go." She said, stepping forwards.
A/N::
Life at University is great! I love it but the amount of work oncoming is terrifying I feel.
Anyway back to the story - I was surprised at some of your comments on Arbok. Yes, the Pokémon was in a dangerous position, but I had said it was still alive. It was Jaime that lied to Alphonse. Her thoughts didn't lie.
Anyway, thank you for your continued support!