A/N: And we're back again! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your wonderful reviews and all the other support I've been receiving, you truly are amazing readers. We've passed the 200 reviews! That's so incredible, you've made me a very happy writer :D Anyway, I won't keep you any longer, on with the chapter!

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Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover.

Leave It To Brocko

Chapter 28

"Not so fast!"

A yell came from the bushes as Meowth crashed through them.

He immediately ran for Jessie and James, and the next moment both were gasping for air as Meowth pulled them up by their hair.

It was a chaos and suddenly everything went really fast. Everyone was yelling, cursing, crying. Meowth himself was swearing about how those two always managed to get themselves in a mess without him.

From somewhere, Meowth managed to produce a rope, and within a few minutes of pulling, the two Rockets were free from the quicksand.

"Man," Meowth breathed heavily, "I'm getting too old for dis kinda thing."

Both Jessie and James muttered something in agreement, still panting on the solid ground.

"Well, it's over now," Jessie decided, sitting up. "We have Pikachu, so we can go."

Meowth sat up, and James blinked at her.

"But Jessie..." James started hesitantly, before pulling himself together and continuing stronger, "When we give the Boss that Pikachu, he'll send us to chase another Pokémon. We'll never be done."

Jessie opened her mouth in reply, before closing it again, considering. Meowth perked up at this, watching his teammates with narrowed eyes.

"Why not... you know... our plan...?" James asked her tentatively, as if expecting a vicious response he had very probably been getting before.

"Yeah, de plan!" Meowth nodded enthusiastically, joining James in persuading Jessie. "You know dat it could work, Jess! We could just leave Team Rocket and start on our own. We're better dan dis."

The magenta-haired woman was silent for quite some time, while we were slowly sinking deeper in the quicksand. The others were waiting with bated breath, not even Ash daring to say something that could disturb the balance.

"You know what?" Jessie said suddenly, rising to her full height. "You guys are right. I'm better than this." She looked at James, then at Meowth. "We are better than this. I'm quitting Team Rocket! Are you guys with me?"

Man and Pokémon cheered, before the three joined each other in a group hug. Jessie ruined the balance by grabbing James's face and kissing him rather passionately.

"Whoa!" Meowth exclaimed, jumping apart. "When did dat happen?"

"About three seconds before they were sucked up by the sand," Gary answered dryly, which seemed to remind them we were still here too.

Meowth muttered something under his breath in response, before turning back to Jessie and James, who had finished sucking each other's faces off. With the initial euphoria gone, they looked rather lost.

"And er… now what?" James said, before glancing at us. "What are we going to do with the twerps- er... the kids?"

Well, we weren't really kids anymore, but it was better than twerps.

"Uh, yeah..." Jessie looked at us. "If we're the good guys now, we can't really leave them, can we?"

"Yeah, I guess..." Meowth agreed, before throwing the rope in Misty's direction, who had been the deepest in. Several minutes later, we were all standing back on the solid ground, our Pokéballs safe in our possession again, while Meowth returned Pikachu to Ash.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed happily, hugging the Pokémon. After he had fallen silent, no one said anything anymore and a rather awkward silence hung between us and Team- uh, the former Rockets.

That would take some time getting used to.

"So, uh..." James finally said. "We're uh, really sorry for all the trouble we've caused you."

"Yeah, sorry for all those traps and pitfalls and robots..." Jessie trailed off, a distant look in her eyes, undoubtedly reminiscing on all their former attacks on us.

"Yeah, really sorry." Meowth nodded solemnly. "We won't bother ya again."

"Well, uh..." Ash scratched his head, before questioningly looking down at Pikachu in his hands. The Pokémon rolled his eyes slightly, before nodding with a sigh. Ash brightened and gave the trio a grin. "Okay, you're forgiven!"

I blinked, and the Trio seemed somewhat surprised as well-

"Hold it right there!" Misty jumped in. "You're going to let them off the hook that easily?!" She first glared at the former Rockets, before making Ash cower under her stare.

"Well, uh…" James started, and Misty turned to him, blazing in her fury, and he, too, seemed to shrink in her glare. "We ask for your forgiveness as well, Gym Leader." He then bowed deeply for her.

Jessie turned to me, bowing, and muttering something under her breath about forgiveness. Meowth bowed his head to Gary and Leaf.

Then, simultaneously, "We're very sorry. Please forgive us."

I stared. Leaf and Gary shuffled awkwardly. Ash smiled.

"No! I won't!" Misty said viciously, and the three jumped back and upright again. She narrowed her eyes at them. "I don't believe you, suddenly turning good and all. I bet you have something up your sleeve!" Jessie, James and Meowth looked rather affronted at that. "And besides, you honestly think a simple apology is good enough for all the times you've tried to steal our Pokémon, put them in danger, put us in danger, destroyed our stuff, and, and," she puffed, out of breath and energy, but somehow managing to scrape out a bit more as she turned to Ash, "And you want to forgive them just like that?"

Suddenly it was crystal clear to me. Misty wasn't angry at Team Rocket, not really. And she wasn't angry at Ash, either. Or maybe she was, but not for this reason.

Team Rocket was just a good excuse to let out her frustrations on Ash.

But… he wasn't letting her.

"Yeah!" Ash bounced back, suddenly determined. Pikachu jumped out of his arms. "Yeah, I do forgive them just like that! And what's even more…" He turned to the Trio, who had clustered together during the yelling, and then bowed. "I apologize as well, for all the times we blasted you off."

"Pikapi…?" the yellow Pokémon asked, before looking at Jessie, James and Meowth. It seemed to hesitate, but then Pikachu bowed its head as well, muttering something in his own language to the three.

"It was in self-defense!" Misty exclaimed.

"They apologized, and I forgave them," Ash insisted, still bowing. "We could've seriously hurt them."

"They could've seriously hurt us as well!"

Gary and Leaf looked at each other questioningly, but neither of them moved. I could see Ash's point though. Although Misty was going to have my head for this, and they might be using Team Rocket as a cover-up for their other issues…

"I am sorry too," I said, and I could feel Misty's glare on me as I bowed.

"Well, uhm…" James started, "Sure-"

"You're forgiven, tw- kids," Jessie sad forcefully, sounding awkward. Meowth nodded as Pikachu, Ash and I straightened.

"I can't believe you!" Misty was completely ignoring me, focusing all her anger on Ash, which confirmed that this was about some deeper issue than Team Rocket. "You can't trust them! They're evil!"

Even in all her anger, Misty was still shorter than Ash, and from somewhere the boy had pulled the courage to stare her down.

"Well, Misty," he bit out, "Sometimes you just have to have a little faith!"

The redhead growled, but Ash didn't back down. They stared slash glared at each other for quite some time – enough time for Team Rocket – ah, well, you know who I mean – to awkwardly look at each other, Gary and Leaf to glance at me in question, and for me to shrug helplessly.

"Fine!" Misty snapped suddenly, breaking away from Ash's stare, and marching to the Trio.

"I'm sorry!" She didn't sound sorry at all, and though her head was bowed, her eyes were still blazing. The three former Rockets were quick to stutter out their forgiveness in fear of what she would do if they didn't.

Misty snapped up again, and after shooting a glare in Ash's direction, she firmly grabbed Meowth's paw in what was supposed to be a handshake. The Pokémon's face screwed up in pain.

"I wish you all the luck in the world," she bit out, releasing Meowth and taking James's hand. The man squeaked in pain. "And I hope you become very happy and live in a very nice house-" She turned to Jessie, who kept her face straight when the younger girl grabbed her hand. "-and that you have loads of pink and purple-haired babies," she finished.

"Now, let's go!" Misty marched off in the direction we had come from, not waiting for us.

There were several beats of silence in which everybody looked at each other questioningly, before-

"Well, are you coming, or not?" Misty demanded, her head reappearing out of the greenery.

"Uh, right." Gary snapped to attention. "Good luck," he said to the former Rockets and Leaf nodded at them before the they followed after Misty. They probably just wanted to get away from everything. It was kind of crazy, after all. Pikachu looked after them, before jumping back on Ash's shoulder.

"Right, well…" I started awkwardly, before realizing something. "Are you guys going to clean this up?" I gestured to the artificial quicksand.

The Trio seemed to startle out of their daze, and Meowth nodded, pulling out a little sack from who-knows-where. "Sure ting!" He emptied the sack in the quicksand, and the ground solidified in front of our eyes.

"Chemical reaction," Meowth explained with a shrug.

"Right." Ash smiled brightly at them. "Good luck with everything! And we'll keep in touch!"

"We will?" I muttered under my breath, but no one appeared to hear me. The Trio nodded, and with a few more parting words, Ash and I headed back to the path.

"You know," Ash said cheerfully in the silence that followed, "I don't think they'll bother us now anymore."

"You might actually be right..." I agreed. I was surprised when I actually felt a bit sad at the thought that we wouldn't see them anymore. They had been part of our travels and lives so long, after all.

What was I thinking? They were annoying. And besides, I had a feeling we would still see them, one way or another.

We joined the others again, Misty marching in the front, Leaf and Gary walking together at a safe distance from her. I glanced beside me, and was rather surprised by the expression on Ash's face. It was heartbreaking to see, a combination between emotions I couldn't pinpoint. Then, he swallowed, and his face brightened again with what I now could see was a forced smile.

He turned to me, and I quickly looked away, not wanting him to know that I had seen whatever emotion that had been.

"It's pretty cool, eh Brock, that Team Rocket is now, well, no longer Team Rocket?" He laughed a bit. Pikachu was staring at its Trainer with a befuddled look on its face. "And I always thought they were already a couple, but obviously not." He laughed again, but it still sounded forced.

Yeah, they were a couple now. Another pair of people I had managed to match make. I supposed I should be happy, but instead my thoughts were whirling around Ash and what was going on with him.

"Yeah, I'm getting much more perspective with love," Ash muttered, more to himself than me. His grin disappeared as he stared ahead at Gary and Leaf, at Misty.

A heavy feeling settled in my stomach as I followed his stare. I momentarily hesitated, and then asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Ash looked up, but his grin faltered when he saw my face. "Why do you think I'm thinking about something?" He avoided the question.

"Because you look…" Depressed? Down? Sad? "…in thought."

"Oh."

I waited. Pikachu watched Ash with curiosity. Ash himself seemed unsure whether to tell me or not. He opened his mouth several times, and closed it the same amount of times.

"Ash? You okay?" I prodded gently.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just…" He glanced at the three teenagers in front of us. "I think…"

I had to bite my lip to prevent words from rushing out. He would tell me, just, slowly. Keep the pressure low. He would tell me.

"I think…" He frowned slightly. "I think Leaf likes Gary." If I hadn't been biting my lip my mouth would've fallen open.

"Romantically," he added. "I think… she flirts with me, did you notice? I think she does that to make Gary jealous."

"You- you think so?" I managed to get out.

"Well, yeah." He sounded somewhat defensive, before falling back in the sad tone. "And I think… Gary likes her too. Romantically."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

I didn't know what he was thinking. I didn't know what he was feeling. I didn't know how to react to this situation so that it would work my plan's advantage, or what reaction I had to avoid. Should I agree with him? Or say that he was imagining things?

"I don't know what to, Brock," he confessed, quietly. Pikachu chu'ed sympathetically.

My thoughts whirled, but in the end-

"…I don't know, either."

And Brocko, I really didn't.

A/N: So… this chapter wasn't quite planned like this, but it turned out like this, so hey, why not. It works better this way, I think. Thank you very much for reading! Reviews are loved and cherished :D

Thank you!

Recommendations:

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Pokémon: Guardian of Fate by JennaJayfeather. FFN. A sadly unfinished multi-chaptered suspenseful story with an interesting new take on WishfulShipping. It's based on the game (and the game characters) and that gives a pretty cool result.

Jimmy Neutron: Dojo Dialogue and Tuesday by WeAsLeYkid8. FFN. Two companion pieces, both one-shots, about the cute pairing that is Jimmy and Cindy. Cindy is having some troubles, and Jimmy, being the friendly rival that he is, tries to help her, oblivious to the fact that he's part of her troubles.

Feel free to recommend a story to me!