An Age of Valour
by the Lady of the Mists
Chapter Nineteen: A Secret from Jennie
It was early the next morning when Lydia was suddenly yanked from her sleep by someone yanking open the windows, letting the bright sunlight into the room. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily as Umbreon looked up, startled by the sunlight and his trainer as she looked towards whoever opened the window. "Jennie, what are you doing?"
"Apparently, you've been taking after my brother's sleeping habits," Jennie said brightly as she walked over to Lydia, fully dressed and wide-awake. "Come on, I've been up for hours waiting for the two of you to get up. Weren't you two planning on heading over to the gym later?" she wanted to know, tossing Lydia's clothes onto the bed.
"Yeah, but we didn't have to get up first thing in the morning," Lydia told her dryly. "The gym isn't even open until nine. And it's only . . ." She checked her watch. "Seven now."
"You're never going to win any more badges that way," Jennie said, shaking her head. "Maybe you should just give up, if you're going to go your entire training career like this."
Lydia stared at her, then glanced at Jennie's bed, where her pillow was. Picturing the pillow lifting up into the air in her mind, Lydia hid a smile when it did exactly that, then sent the pillow flying into the younger girl's head, making her shriek with surprise.
"Okay, that is not fair!" Jennie exclaimed once she'd managed to recover. "I don't have any psyche to fight back with. Honestly, Lydia, I wouldn't think that use your powers against people who have no advantage like that." She placed her hands on her hips, looking defiant.
"Yeah, well, get over it," Lydia said, grinning. "Besides, I wasn't sure that I would actually be able to do it. So just consider yourself an asset to my training." Jennie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "So, what about you? Are you planning on challenging Whitney?"
"Oh, didn't you hear?" Jennie asked her, looking surprised. "Goldenrod's got a new gym leader, just started yesterday. Whitney decided she wanted to hand over the reins to her little sister, Wendy. She's just sticking around long enough to make sure that Wendy's got the hang of things before she goes off to tour the world."
"Classy of her," Lydia remarked. "Well, then, I guess we're going to challenge Wendy and start her first day as a gym leader with two losses. Or three, if you're planning on—"
"I'm not planning on challenging Wendy," Jennie replied with a shrug. Lydia raised an eyebrow. "To be honest, I don't want to me a master trainer or anything, all I want to do is be a world-class Pokémon breeder, specialising in ice Pokémon."
"Really?" Lydia asked, intrigued. Jennie nodded vigorously. "That's really cool. I think that's great, Jennie. You should go for it."
"Yeah, that's part of what bugged Mom and my great-uncle so much was my not wanting to train a whole bunch of different types," Jennie explained as she sat down. "I really love ice Pokémon, but they never let me catch one because they hoped I could grow out of the habit if I didn't have any." She smiled. "It didn't work. The only thing it did was make me love them even more. And I never even liked battling with them—not all the time, anyway—I liked raising them more. That's why when I got that phone call from you, I decided that I was going to start living my dream. I'm going to be an ice Pokémon breeder and this time, Mom's not going to be able to complain. Although, now that she's lost two kids, she should start trying to change her ways."
"After my first impression of her, I kind of doubt it," Lydia said dryly as she rubbed her bandaged arm, flexing it carefully.
Jennie's eyes moved to her arm carefully. "Hey, what happened to your arm, anyway?" she asked.
Lydia explained and Jennie frowned. "It was over by this old couple's house on Route 34," she said. "They have a shelter for abandoned Pokémon, hoping to find them homes."
"Yeah, I know, I passed by there on my way here," Jennie told her. "That's where I caught my first Pokémon here in Johto." Reaching into her jacket pocket, Jennie produced a Pokéball, releasing its occupant. A Smoochum appeared, blinking up at Lydia and Jennie. "Isn't she a darling?"
"Yeah, she's pretty sweet," Lydia agreed, reaching down and petting Smoochum. Umbreon jumped down to talk with the psychic. "Well, this should be interesting," she remarked. "A psychic and a dark Pokémon. Aren't they supposed to be enemies or something?"
"Not unless their trainers are," Jennie said with an evil grin. Both girls laughed and Lydia stood up, grabbing her clothes. "All right, finally! Maybe we can go check out some stores or something."
"Good luck getting that through to your brother," Lydia responded as she headed into the bathroom, pulling her nightgown off as she stepped into the shower, feeling the warm water wash over her. This was the best part about being back in civilisation, the modern devices.
Once she was finished taking a shower, Lydia dressed quickly and walked out to the bedroom she was sharing with Jennie, while Jesse was sleeping next door. She picked up her brush out of her bag and quickly brushed out her wet hair while Umbreon laid her head down on the bed.
Jennie was checking something out on the map that lay open on the desk, frowning slightly at it before she raised her head to look towards Lydia curiously. "Hey, where is it that we're going after this?" she wanted to know. "Ecruteak City?"
"That's the plan," Lydia answered as she slid her traditional headband into place. "And then we'll be heading southeast to Olivine. Why? Is there something that you wanted to do in Ecruteak?" she asked as she returned her brush to her bag and looked towards the younger girl.
"Oh, no reason," Jennie said indifferently, but she was looking like a Stantler caught in the headlights. Besides, Lydia had become accustomed to that particular look after spending months with Jennie's older brother.
"Jennie, don't give me that," Lydia sighed, pushing a sheet of her wet hair over her shoulder. "You've got that look."
"What look?" Jennie said innocently.
"The one that Jesse gets when he's got something that he wants to tell me, but doesn't really want to tell me," Lydia answered. "Now, come on, what's in Ecruteak that you want to do?"
Letting out a deep sigh, Jennie glanced over her shoulder. "I think that we should wait until Jesse gets up to tell you," she said. "Because this involves him, too." Lydia frowned just as the door opened and a very much awake Jesse appeared, fully dressed.
"No need to wait for me, little sister, I'm here and I'm awake," he grumbled as Natu flew into the room and the three Pokémon started chattering to each other.
Lydia and Jennie looked at each other, then Lydia stood up and peered out the window curiously. "What are you doing?" Jesse wanted to know.
"See if there are any flying Snorlax," Lydia answered, still looking carefully outside. Jennie cracked up and Jesse made a face at her as she turned around, grinning at him. "Now, couldn't you do this earlier, because you are awfully hard to get up in the morning, mister, so why the sudden chance?"
"That is not true, I usually do get up earlier than I usually do on a gym battle day," Jesse protested. "So, Jen, what's this big surprise that's waiting for us in Ecruteak?"
Jennie sighed and Jesse took a seat while Lydia joined the Pokémon on the floor, watching the two siblings curiously. "A couple of months ago," she said softly, "I got a letter from Dad, telling me that Mom had prevented him from ever seeing us because she fed a whole bunch of stuff to the judge about the kind of man he'd been before they'd met and stuff. All of it was true, but Dad kind of changed his ways. Anyway, he told me that he loved me, and you, Jesse, and Jamie and that he wanted us to be a family again."
"Dad said that?" Jesse whispered as Lydia stood up and squeezed his shoulder gently. "He really said that?"
With a nod, Jennie continued. "When Mom found the letter, she burned it and grounded me for a whole month for not telling her about it. Apparently, he's banned from ever seeing us. But the thing is . . . the address on the letter was in Ecruteak City."
Lydia's mouth fell open as she heard that, looking towards Jesse. He had an expression of pure astonishment on his face. "Are you sure that he wants us?" Jesse asked.
"I know so," Jennie insisted. "Why would he have contact me if he didn't, Jesse? You remember him, don't you? He's not like that."
"Jen, please, I was six years old when he left," Jesse muttered, looking like he didn't want to have this conversation.
"Six is old enough for memories, Jess," Jennie snapped at her brother. "Six is old enough to remember what our father was like!" Lydia, however, was having a flashback to back when they were in Cherrygrove City.
"How do you all do?" Jack said with a grin, walking over and patting Ivysaur and Eevee on the heads before looking up at Jesse. "Turner, eh? Any relation to a Jeremy Turner?"
"That's my grandfather, sir," Jesse said politely, looking extremely relieved that he wasn't intruding on something anymore.
"That's a good man. Helped me out with some things a few years ago," Jack said lightly.
"Uncle Jack!" Lydia exclaimed, nearly falling over in surprise in shock. Jennie and Jesse stopped arguing to look around at her. Jesse had an expression of confusion on his face. "Remember, Jess? He said that he knew your grandfather! Maybe he'll know something!"
"It's worth a shot," Jesse said, looking relieved. "Do you think he'll even be up just yet? It's only seven-ish." Lydia nodded, grabbing her bag as Umbreon jumped up, hurrying over to her as the trainers hurried out the door and raced down the steps, heading straight for the phone.
Lydia dialled the phone number she knew by heart by now and waited for someone in Cherrygrove to pick up. On the second ring, the chauffer that had picked them up earlier, Peter Linton, answered. "Miss Talon!" he said with a smile as he looked at her. "Good to see you again! And Mr. Turner, of course, how are you, sir?" Then he looked to Jennie. "You must be Miss Turner, then? Very nice to meet you."
"Thank you, sir," Jennie said awkwardly.
"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Linton," Lydia told him. "By any chance, is my uncle there?"
His expression turned regretful. "I'm very sorry, Miss Talon, but Mr. Talon is out of town for the next week," he answered. "And I'm afraid that we don't have the number for where he'll be staying at."
"Hopefully, we'll be out of here by then," Jennie muttered. "Oh, well, guess we've got no choice, then."
"No choice?" Mr. Linton inquired.
"Never mind," Lydia said hurriedly. "Could you just tell Uncle Jack that I called and I'll try again the next time that I've got a phone handy?"
"Of course."
"Thank you," Lydia said as she hung up and looked towards her friends. "Well, it was worth a shot. How about we agree that we don't go see your dad until we get the details from Uncle Jack?"
"I think that's a good idea," Jesse agreed, looking relieved while Jennie pouted, but agreed.