Chapter 11 – The Shinji Family (3)

Paul was sitting near at the river bank of Veilstone city with his Torterra beside him. "Torrr" His Torterra called out to him as he nudge against him. Paul blinked at the sudden nudge from his pokemon and he glanced at him, then looked back at the river stream and pet his pokemon. He then pulled out a small gold circular badge that has two wings on it and thinks back to the event that took place in the morning.

"Why wings?" Paul asked as he looked at the badge that his wife gave him while he ate his breakfast.

"Because, you told me you want to test the bonds between the trainer and pokemon right?" Dawn replied.

"Yeah and what about it?"

"It's simple, this badge will not only symbolize as their bonds but also as their dreams taking wings and soaring through the sky" Dawn said with a smile. Paul looked up at her and saw her smile, a smile that he cannot retort back to and so he stayed silent and looked back at the badge.

Paul has decided that his battle frontier location will be in Veilstone City, therefore he doesn't need to be separate from his family for a long time again. "Ah! There you are!" He heard and he turned around and saw Reggie.

"What do you want Reggie" He asked and then turned his attention back to the river as he put the badge away in his pocket.

"I heard that you have finally decided what to do for your frontier style" Reggie started but he didn't get any response from his little brother.

"Can you show me the badge?" Reggie asked

"I'm pretty sure you have already pestered Dawn to show it to you" Paul said as he glared at him, Reggie let out a nervous chuckle since his brother has caught him. "Now spit it out, what do you really want?" Paul asked annoyed.

Reggie cleared his throat and said "Well… you see… Brock has asked me for assistance and… I was wondering…"

"If I can take care of your pokemons and the others right?" Paul intersected with a glare.

"Yes!"

"I refuse" Paul replied harshly causing Reggie to drop his mood and his look. He took a deep breath and pulled a puppy eyes look to him. "You know that look doesn't work on me and besides it's disgusting!" Paul yelled at the last part as he got up and Torterra also got up and the two of them walked away from a sulking Reggie.

"I'm back" Paul called out as he took a step inside the house. "Welcome back!" Dawn called out from the living room. Paul made his way to the living room and saw his wife sitting on the couch comfortably with a bowl of popcorns in her arms watching the TV and he chuckled at the sight. "What you watching?" Paul asked as he slid next to her.

"The Lilypad Town's Contest" Dawn replied.

"Is that so? Then did she win?" Paul asked since he has missed out Maria's battle due to a challenger and was sitting at the river bank. Dawn shook her head and said "Sadly, she lost" Paul let a sound of 'hmph' and got up.

"Oh!? Are you not going to watch it along with me?" Dawn asked

"What's the point if she is not going to appear again?" Paul asked

"But watch it with me, and perhaps you can help her train by using the same moves as these contestants" Dawn suggested

"… No" Paul thought for a while before he replied and went out to the garden and took care of their pokemons while Dawn pouted at him.

The doorbell then and Dawn got up and went to the door and saw it was Reggie.

"Oh! Reggie! Welcome" Dawn greeted as she opened the door wider for her brother-in-law to go into the house. "Hello, Dawn" Reggie greeted back

"Is my cute little brother back home?" Reggie asked with a smile.

"Call me cute and little one more time… I'll make sure that you do not see tomorrow's sunlight" Paul threatened as he stood behind Dawn as he glared as Reggie. In which Reggie just laughed while Dawn lightly elbowed him in which Paul just ignored it as he looked at his brother. "We just met at the riverbank why are you here?" Paul stated

"PAUL! Let's first have your brother come in and sit before questioning him!" Dawn scolded him and Paul just looked at her and sighed.

Once Reggie made himself comfortable in the living room with Paul facing him with the TV still on and Dawn was in the kitchen preparing some tea.

"Will you not reconsider Paul?" Reggie asked

"No means no" Paul replied coldly

"What about Matthew?" He then asked.

"Well… Matthew went on an adventure with Brock's son so… haha…" Reggie explained and gave a small laugh. Tick marks appeared over Paul's head and his eyebrows quirked a bit. At the same time, Dawn came from the kitchen with a tray of two cups of tea and a plate of biscuits. "Here you go Reggie" Dawn said as she placed a cup of tea at Reggie's side of the table.

"Thank you Dawn" Reggie thanked her, she smiled and then placed the other cup at her husband's side and placed the plate of biscuits in the middle.

"What are you two discussing about?" Dawn inquired

"Reggie, is going to help Brock's place and what's us to help take care of the pokemons at his daycare" Paul explained as he took a sip of the tea that his wife prepared.

"And he refused!" Reggie exclaimed after taking a piece of biscuit from the plate and Paul glared at him. Dawn then glared at Paul and Paul felt her look and averted his gaze away from hers. "We'll do it Reggie" Dawn took the offer.

"WAIT! WHAT! DAWN!" Paul called out to stop her while Reggie was shedding tears of joy and the husband and wife duo started to argue. In the end, Paul lost the argument to Dawn who was kneeling on the ground while Dawn posed a victory pose.

'Score 1 for Dawn, zero for Paul' Dawn thought with a triumph smile Paul looked at her and glared 'I'll make you pay Troublesome' he thought while Reggie took her hand in his and shook them as he cried a waterfall of tears.

"OH MY! IS THIS THE END FOR SARA'S GARDEVOIR!?" Lily screamed out which caught Dawn's attention and she looked at the screen where she saw Sara's Gardevoir kept getting punch by punch by Harry's Primeape. The screen then showed Sara's worried look as she thinks of something to do next.

"I just hope that this sight will not trigger that memory of hers…" Dawn said softly.

"What memories?" Paul asked and Reggie looked at her confused.

Maria, Rose and Ryan were watching the battle from the resting room. Ryan clenched his teeth and clutched his knuckles into fists. Maria watched with worry as well as Rose, "Ryan… will… will… will Sara be alright?" Maria asked.

"… I don't know Maria… but I hope she will be…" Ryan replied. Rose had a bad feeling and quickly left the resting room and made her way to the stage. "I hope she won't do something stupid" Ryan commented, but once he said that the screen showed Gardevoir on the ground with wounds and Primeape ready to land another punch on her, Sara jumped in. "SARA!" Ryan and Maria screamed out in surprise as she got hit by Primeape's punch which shocked all the judges, contestants, Lily and the audience. Ryan and Maria wasted no time and quickly ran to the stage to where Sara is.

"SARA!" Rose yelled as she reached to the stage and ran up to her who was lying in Gardevoir's arms. "GARD!" Gardevoir called out worriedly.

"ROSE! SARA!" Rose heard Ryan's voice and turned around and saw Ryan running in with Maria beside him. "Ryan!" Ryan ran up to them and looked at Sara who was unconscious but was having a heavy breathing, he gritted his teeth and quickly picked his sister up bridal style and turned to the judges and yelled "I FORFEIT AS WELL AS SARA!" and the three of them with Gardevoir ran off with an unconscious Sara in his arms. Harry was silent and didn't know what has happened but he did feel bad about what just happened and he looked down with his Primeape looked at him worriedly.

"She'll be just fine, all she needs right now is to get a lot of rest now" The doctor said. Ryan bowed at the doctor and left the room, with Maria and Rose beside the sleeping Sara. "Sa… Sara…" Maria said with teary eyes. Ryan looked at her and then looked at Rose who was also looking at Sara with worried eyes and tears threatening to fall. "How about you both go home first, I don't think we will be participating some contests for a while" Ryan said.

"But!" The both of them yelled at the same time.

"Don't worry, once Sara is up and awake, I will let you two be the first one to know and we will head back home" Ryan assured them and the two of them reluctantly agreed and left the Hayden twins.

Maria got back home thanks to Rose's Mime Jr. who used teleport. Maria went to the front porch with her head down. The door slammed open and Maria was bought into a tight embrace. "Mo… Mommy… you're crushing me" Maria said. Dawn loosens her hug and looked at Maria, Maria sniffled and then bit her bottom lip. Paul walked towards her, he may not understand what has happened in the past but he cannot stand his daughter in that state. He picked her up and that was when Maria couldn't hold onto her tears and let them flow free. Paul felt her tears seeping through his clothing and can feel the wetness on his shoulder but he didn't mind. He gestured Dawn to come inside and Dawn nodded as she got up from her kneeling position and followed her husband and daughter into the house. Paul sat on the couch with his daughter sitting on his lap burying her face in his chest as she kept crying and he was soothing her while Dawn at the beside him and put her head on his shoulder and put her hand on Maria's back. Paul placed his head on his wife's head and the Shinji family stayed like that for a while.

Maria: Please review