The inside of the Jets' headquarter building was dark when Ash clocked himself in the next day. He headed down the hallways towards his office into the main room where the team would meet.

The lights were off so he flipped them on.

"SURPRISE!" The rest of his team cheered. They were all at the table with small boxes in front.

Ash was a bit shocked, "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"You don't seem to take days off, even when you've been ordered to." Zack explained, "So neither do we. We got you breakfast and then we're going to go and work on your house so that it actually looks like someone decent is living there."

Ash had bought a single story house off Wagner Air Force base and opted for the homey residential section on the northwest part of the city. He managed to nab one that appealed a lot to him for a decent price and it even had a fence that had a small sandbar lined with bushes in a makeshift private beach. Right now, he had little to no décor inside and all around the floor were the brown cardboard moving boxes.

"What about cases?"

"I already called dispatch and said unless something is demanding our attention, we're going to be unavailable for work today." Brendan said, "C'mon, let's eat and then get that new place of yours fixed up. Of course, you're the boss and dictate when we work and all."

"If that's one of those Razz Berry pancakes with chocolate chips, cheddar eggs and hash browns, then you all have the day off."

"Alright!" They cheered and dug in.

Half an hour later, Zack left and Jewell was about to when Damien said he would go with her.

Ash pulled him aside and told her to wait.

"I hear and see you and Jewell are spending a lot of time together."

"Yeah," Damien was thinking about her brown hair and green eyes, "She's a really good friend."

"A good friend?" Ash raised an eyebrow, offering him to elaborate.

When the fellow operator turned a slight shade of red, he was knocked on the shoulder, "Relax man, you're not in trouble." He leaned closer, "I know that you see her as someone more than just a friend, so go after it."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because if you don't, then someone else will. I've seen it happen…more than once I might add."

"Man, why are you still here?" Brendan leaned in Ash's door, "You should be at your house on painkillers and watching sports network on the TV Zack just installed."

"I'll be right there." Ash clarified, "Just filing extra paperwork on the rescue and seeing if a surprise of my own is coming. Did you give the gunmaster our weapon stuff?"

"Yeah done. All inspected and ready to be used again." Decker heard the main door to the meeting area open and was a bit surprised to see Norman Maple. Aside from another one of his fancy suits, he had a guest badge attached on the lapel. "Huh, wonder what he's doing here?"

"I heard he and May's boyfriend were heading to Unova today. Hope nothing's wrong with her."

Brendan caught the last part in what Ash had said, but brushed it off. However it still nagged at the back of his mind.

Ash ignored the pain from the stitches in his side as he moved out of his office into their main room. Decker moved aside to let him through.

"Mister Maple," Ash began, "Good to see you again. How's May? I hope nothing else is wrong with her."

"No, May is fine." He couldn't quite read Norman's face; it had a mix of irritation, concern and impatience. It was evident that whatever he was here for, it wasn't because Ash was one of his favorite people. "May I have a word with you in private?"

"Sure," Ash gave Brendan a knowing look, "Hey, this is my second in command, Lieutenant Brendan Decker."

"Glad to meet you."

"Likewise Lieutenant Decker." Norman smiled at him before it faded.

"We can talk in my office. Brendan, go ahead and meet up with the others at my place. I'll be there shortly."

Ash's office had a rich dark wood with a computer in the corner where he faced the entrance with a black wire lamp over the keyboard. He had some of his personal things on the back wall where a shelf also had a couple model airplanes.

"What can I do for you Norman." The operator of the place sat behind his chair and folded his arms in rapt attention.

He sighed, "Lieutenant-"

"Oh and call me Ash."

"Ash, I'm so grateful that you rescued May and returned her back to us. I don't know if she could have made it out without your assistance."

"I'm glad May is back too. She's one of a kind."

Norman believed that Ash was playing something, as May would likely have never thought of shooting her way through the side of a sinking structure and swimming to shore a quarter of a mile on her own. He saw that Ash had several dark tattoos on both arms that extended further up into his shirt. That was typical of Commandos to get with varying designs of body art. To him, it was rather disgraceful and added to the appeal that he was a "bad boy" under the belief that he was second to none and free to take whatever he wanted. Norman was here to make sure that didn't happen.

"So I spoke with Drew and both of us believed that as a hero, we'd like to give you a gift in appreciation for the heroic acts of May along with the others."

"A gift?" Ash asked suspiciously. Judging by his surprise at that, Maple was now thinking that he was not after a reward as Drew had originally thought.

"Yes." Norman handed Ash a piece of paper. "A little something. It's the least we could do."

The Lieutenant turned it over and looked at the check, it was fifteen thousand dollars. Right away, he noticed it was enough to pay for his own mother to get treated for her sickness with plenty to spare.

On the other side, Norman watched with delight as Ash was contemplating whether to accept the check. To him, it was tormenting, but he had strong morals and zealously stuck to them. For once, he had caught the tough guy, Ash Ketchum off guard. As soon as he saw the surprise in his eyes, Norman knew that he had at least considered accepting it.

So it was his turn to be caught off guard when Ash pressed the money back into his palm. The action caused Norman to look over in question.

"Sir, I can't take any money from you. It isn't right."

For a moment, Norman had lost his own composure, but he had quickly regained it, "Please Ash, you deserve a reward for doing what you did. It appears that you need that money for something." To him, if Ash accepted the money, it would force May to no longer have any contact with him since he would have already gotten what he had intended for rescuing her.

"I'm not taking that money," Ash declared, "I was on duty at the time, so it would not be very ethical of me to accept it. Second, I don't deserve it." He stood up, "Captain Avery Gibson flew our bird into enemy territory to rescue all of them and died after getting shot three times, trying to help us get May and everyone else out. Give it to his widowed wife and daughter. For what he and his family put on the line to help us out, they deserve it ten times more than I do."

"His family didn't even lift a finger and you say they deserve fifteen thousand dollars?"

"Avery Gibson's wife and daughter," Ash raised his voice in annoyance, "Were well aware of the risks he took when he was on duty and stayed by his side through them. They were free to leave at any time they wished if they considered it unsafe. When he was hit, he kept his helicopter over the landing zone while being shot at multiple times. He and countless other servicemen and women like him put their lives in danger to protect the weak. Now because of that, both his Commanding Officer and I have to write a letter to his family, with our condolences on his death. In my mind, he is the true hero and if it were me, that check would be the least you could do."

"You were the one to put those absurd ideas into May's mind."

"What?"

"Take this money and stay the hell away from my daughter." Norman snapped, shoving the check into Ash's chest.

He suddenly turned defensive, "You know Mr. Maple, bribing a member of the military is illegal in most countries, Hoenn included. Especially officers. Or is this your way of threatening me if I don't take this?"

"I don't know what kind of game you're planning, but it's not going to work!"

"Game?"

"Placing those ideas into May's head. What did you two talk about on the island?"

Ash folded his arms, "What May and I spoke about on there is between us and our matter. Now, if you want her to disclose the information of what we spoke about, it's up to her."

"You have no right to violate me and my family's privacy and invade her life!" Norman's face began to turn red with anger. "You don't even know her!"

Keeping his calm, Ash replied, "No, I don't, but May had invited me in without hesitation. It's probably because I was the first person to listen to her in a long time. Mister Maple, how well do you know your daughter?"

"I know what's best for her! We were doing happy and you have no place in our life!"

"I think May was just going along. You were the one happy."

Norman angrily grabbed the check out of Ash's hands and shoved it in his pocket, "I don't care who you are or what you've done in your Federation military! Stay away from May and the rest of my family!"

There was nothing else to say. Ash watched as the man stomped and exited the building. After the conference, Ash and May hadn't seen one another since. They never exchanged addresses or talked about meeting up again, but he did tell her where his team's office was located in case she needed anything.

The reaction from her father meant that she was adamant in setting up this new fold.

Ash was still grinning at the thought of her when he had reached his new house.

Both Norman and Drew were silent as their business jet, a silver and dark green lined Embraer Lineage 1000, thundered down the runway of Petalburg's International Airport before lifting its nose up and slowly climbing out into the sky. Their pilot brought it to altitude and turned the aircraft west to begin the eight and a half hour flight to Unova.

The Lineage 1000 was a business version of a family of airplanes made by aerospace company Embraer. Featured as an ultra-large type of sky yacht, it housed a fuel tank on the lower deck cargo hold space, nearly doubling its maximum range. It had a comfortable room to seat nineteen individuals, although this one only carried eight. Norman, Drew, their secretaries, two other executives and the pilots.

As it reached a cruising altitude of twenty nine thousand feet, the view of Hoenn's west coast faded away within a few minutes and was replaced with nothing except pristine blue waters that reflected white sunshine from above.

The interior was enough to compete with any five star hotel, with a rich burgundy colored carpet, plush chairs, a large bathroom, dining table for four that could be pulled out into a meeting one, a large flat screen TV across from a sofa and at the back was a closed off private section that served as a personal office with network and telecommunication connection from an executive terminal.

For the first couple hours of the flight, Norman, Drew and their executives talked business, going it over an early dinner of shrimp risotto with mushrooms and freshly steamed vegetables with a chocolate torte cake before polishing it off with Kalosian Champagne. Eventually, everyone had gotten a little tired and was more than ready to get on the ground in Castelia City. Unfortunately, when Drew pulled up the GPS location on the flat screen, they had five hours still to go. It would be close to ten in the evening when they would touch down.

He sat on one of the sofas with a pullout table when Norman approached. He saw the older man coming and waved him over to the chair on the opposite side.

"Just confirming our reservations on the Royal Unova tomorrow night." He said. They were set to meet up with Unovan officials for the purpose of their trip on the famous moonlit cruise. "They're still on."

"Good."

"Definitely," Drew agreed, "So you're probably not here to tell me how good the torte was, although it was delicious. What's on your mind Norman?"

"I wanted to give you this." He reached inside of his pocket and set a tiny velvet box on the side. Opening it up, he took out a fine gold ring that had one blue and one green colored diamond on the top. It looked to have cost a week's worth of his pay.

"May had a toy one as a child and adored it. I had the jeweler copy it into something real. Those diamonds were mined in Kalos' Reflection Cave."

"Did you have something planned for a proposal?"

"Originally, I was going to have it on our Royal Unova cruise. Now that she's not here…" Norman paused, "We can schedule it for another time."

"Any other plans I should know about?"

"You're acting like a kid," Norman snapped, "You love May, don't you?"

"Of course I do."

"And I know that. Now is the time to make it official. You're definitely know what is going to be best for her future and the sooner it happens, the better."

Drew set the ring back in the box and closed it, "This have to do with that Commando guy?"

The look in Norman Maple's eyes told him everything, "I have a feeling that we're going to get to know him quite well."

"What happened?"

"I tried giving him the check. Fifteen thousand dollars, enough to pay for just about anything he wanted, but he didn't accept it!"

Drew had to force himself not to recoil in front of his future father-in-law, "He didn't? That's enough to pay just about any debt he might be in! Maybe even haul his ass back to the Federation in first class tickets! It's probable that he didn't come here willingly."

"He was more worried about May's safety and he's putting fantasies in her head that will put her at risk!"

The other man chuckled, "You're funny when you get worked up. I don't know what the fuss is all about. She just came out unscathed from an endangering ordeal! People feel obligated to feel and do things to get a better appreciation of life when they realize how close of a brush with death they experienced. Think about when you go to see motivational speakers or read their bestselling books of complete nonsense. You feel like you can make a difference and change your lifestyle to suit that. Come two weeks and you'll revert back to your old self. So I'm not really worried about May. She's going through that right now. Let her enjoy herself around this guy, besides; it could mean our company's relations with future military clients could be warmer."

Norman nodded, but he still didn't look convinced.

"I met the guy." Drew scoffed, "He's not May's type. Of course people are going to feel affection towards someone who saved them, but time will pass. After all, he's a Commando. Fighting and killing enemies is probably all he knows and won't function properly in social terms. I have money, wealth, offering just about anything May would want. What does he have in answer to that?"

Now that he had put it into perspective, the words had soothed Norman a bit and put him at ease.

"Although I have to admit, her partner in crime, Dawn annoys me like none other. She has to be something we need to deal with. Now this Commando called Ketchum, he'll be history in a matter of weeks, he's probably on call twenty four seven and the fact that his unit's demand for intervention on domestic threats is growing everyday, the time he can spend with May regardless will be reduced."

"I hope you're right. Dawn's been a pain in my rear for almost two decades."

"Dawn will be history too once we're married." Drew smiled, "May's time for education and with her will be cut once she has to care for our children."

"That makes me feel much more at peace. Thank you so much Drew, talking like my son-in-law already!" He clapped him happily on the back, "You are Arceus' blessing to my family."

This week was supposed to have three updates, but a family emergency with my grandmother (She was one who inspired me to write) will likely set it back to just two, with the second one being at the weekend. Hope for three, but expect just two. A big thanks to everyone who has faithfully followed this story and those who patiently await the next update. It may be a while, but it will be rewarded.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you all give my writing purpose.