I had originally planned for Quil rescuing Tess to be a two parter. Last chapter would have had Quil looking up at that piece of ceiling as it came falling down upon him and Tess while this chapter would have gotten Quil out from the tower with Um's help. But I've been dragging on forever with Quil being in Violet City, so I combined the two into one to get things sped along a bit.

So, this chapter focuses on Quil's recovery, leaving the next chapter the final chapter of Quil being in Violet City before he gets a move on with his mission. I have a bit of a plot thought up for the next arc, but I'm still working it out. But I'll worry about that when the time comes. For now, read up on this chapter and review please!

I hadn't known how long it has been after I blacked out from leaving the burning building. I barely rememebred much of what happened anyway after that. What I could remember was panicking at the sight of humans coming to grab me. I went to go flee out of fear, but Um told me that they just wanted to help. I struggled with one of the humans as they picked me up.

"Trust me," Um had said. "I promise they won't hurt you." I was too scared to even attempt to calm down. I freaked out even more when I felt something prick through my skin. It was sharp and it hurt. I began crying, wishing for all of this to go away. Then, I blacked out, whether it was due to the sharp thing or I just freaked out so much that I passed out, I couldn't tell.

The next time I had woken up, I was lying on something quite comfortable, I was in some sort of inside room, and Um was looking directly at me with his paws on the bed. His head was resting on his paws, his ears drooping on each side of his face. He looked kind of funny like that.

I sat up and went to remove the blanket and froze as I stared at my paws. They were wrapped up with white cloths of some kind or something. Why were they wrapped up? I began to unwrap one with one of my wrapped up paws when Um suddenly spoke up.

"I wouldn't do that if, um, I were you."

I stopped, startled, as I looked over to him. He was still in the same position while sleeping, though now his eyes were open and he was looking over at me. "What?" I asked, confused.

"I said that, um, you wouldn't want to do that," Um said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Your, um, paws have been, um, scorched," Um said. "They're, um, kind of bubbling right now, um, so to speak. Kind of like, um, blisters."

I slowly moved my paw away from the paw I was unwrapping, not really wanting to see what my paws would look like. Memories of what happened sometime ago played out in my head, like a really bad nightmare I thought I would never get out of. I remembered rushing into the burning tower just so I could save Tess from being burned alive. I had lifted something that was burning hot and remembered how bad my paws were being burned, yet I hadn't let go, at least not util I made sure Tess was safe. Tess! It was then I remembered what happened after I got out.

"Tess!" I said worriedly, beginning to get up, only to be gently held firm by Um. "Let me go! I need to see if Tess is all right."

"Tess is, um, fine," Um said. "She's, um, resting and you should, um, be too."

"Tess is going to be all right?" I asked hopefully. "She survived the fire?"

"She, um, did," Um said. "Though she did, um, receive some major fire burns, she'll, um, be up and at 'em in, um, no time."

"That's a relief," I said, relieved to hear Tess was doing all right.

"You sure are the, um, sleeper," Um said. "Sleeping for three whole days like, um, that!"

I snapped my head up at Um, eyes wide with shock. "I slept for three whole days?" I asked, surprised on hearing this news.

"Oh yeah," Um said. "Guess I forgot to, um, mention that." As if on cue, my stomach began growling really badly. My entire body fell back against the pillow, my muscles shutting down.

"So hungry," I said weakly.

"Don't, um, worry," Um said as he began walking towards the door. "I'll be back with some, um, food in a, um, minute. In the, um, meantime, you, um, have a visitor you, um, may like to, um, speak, um, to."

Um then walked out the door, leaving it open for my visitor to walk in. My eyes lit up and my mouth hung open slightly as a familiar purple rat caring a scope poked his head in and walked right on in. "Rat!" I said surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be half way to return that scope thing by now."

"Yeah. You'd think that, wouldn't you?" he asked, setting the scope down. "I was quite astonished when you handed me the scope and left to save Tess. I didn't think you'd actually do it, but you amazed me Quil."

"Yeah," I said. "I surprised myself doing that. But what are you doing here Rat? Shouldn't you be on your way to take that scope back to where it's supposed to go?"

"Well, yeah, I'm supposed to," Rat said. "I mean, I know how to get to Goldenrod since I've picked up a map and memorized it, but I'm just a lone Rattata. The Rockets probably know where we're heading and if I had shown up there alone, I'm pretty sure I'd lose the scope what with how weak I am."

"I don't think you're weak," I said, prompting a small chuckle out from Rat.

"That's because you're not a Rattata," Rat said. "There are only a few pokemon out there in the world who barely have enough strength to take down stronger pokemon alone, and I'm one of them."

"Oh," was all I could say. I wish there was a way I could help Rat out, but there wasn't anyway I could since I was afraid of even my own fire. Wow! I'm afraid of a lot of things. I wish I wasn't. Sometimes, I wish I just had the strength I needed to fight back so that I wouldn't need to rely on anybody. I could have been halfway to returning the scope by now where it belonged if I wasn't this weak myself. Hmm. Perhaps Rat and I could help each other along the way. There was an idea now.

"You know," I said. "Perhaps we could help one another on the way. We both need a lot of strengthening, so what do you say?"

Rat looked up at me, the thought of my suggestion running through his mind. After about a minute, he smiled slightly. "That sounds like a perfect idea," he said. "To think, I'll be the first Rattata out of many to be able to beat any pokemon that comes my way! I'll be known throughout the world!"

I smiled, happy I could cheer Rat up. I just hoped I could overcome my fears and be as strong as Rat said he was going to be. Um came walking back in at that moment with a familiar pink nurse right behind him.

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon," Nurse Chansey said. "Guess you just can't seem to stay away from me now, can you?" I had no idea what she meant by that. Um only coughed slightly while Rat looked confused at her.

"Yes, um, well, here's some, um, food for you, Quil," Um said as he grabbed a flat thing with all this delicious food on it with his teeth and set it down before me. I immediately began to dig in, biting into everything and filling myself up quickly. By the time I was done, I felt really tired.

"I'm feeling sleepy again," I said.

"All natural, Quil," Nurse Chansey said. "A big meal does that. So go get some rest."

"But Rat and I need to go," I said. "We have a mission to do."

"It can always wait," I heard Rat say as I laid my head down on the pillow. "We can leave tomorrow, right?"

"Well, seeing as how Quil didn't have that much damage to him this time around other than his paws, yes, the two of you may leave tomorrow morning," Nurse Chansey said.

"Great," I said with a small smile. "I'll see you all then." Like that, I was out like a light.