Story of Paul (ComaShipping)

Ash was in a coma. And it was all my fault.

Dawn and Brock were in the hospital room with his comatose body while I stood outside, not sure whether to enter or not. I could hear Dawn crying and I was sure Brock was trying to comfort her with a sorrowful look on his face. For me to go in the room would be even more painful.

I wasn't sure if his mom was coming all the way to Sinnoh or not. Not saying she wouldn't, but Sinnoh was quite a ways from Kanto. If she were on her way, it would probably take a few days at most.

If anyone else were coming to visit Ash, they would see me. I couldn't let anyone know I was here, so I decided to take a walk to the roof of the hospital.

As I overlooked Hearthome City with a gray, cloudy sky looming over me, I replayed in my head everything that had happened yesterday…

I was training my Pokémon outside of Mt. Coronet. I had climbed quite a bit up the mountain, several stories up. I found a good, wide area to train, near the cliff of the mountain.

Apparently, so had someone else.

"Paul?" I heard that all-too-familiar voice. I spun around.

It was Ash and his crew.

"What? Paul's here, too?" Dawn peeked from behind Ash and gazed at me.

"What are you doing here?" Ash asked me.

"What a stupid question," I retorted. "I'm training."

"Oh," Ash said simply.

"And you?" I questioned. I didn't think anyone else would bother trekking up here.

"Looking for a certain Pokémon," Ash answered. "I heard it's only native near the top of this mountain. Have you seen an Absol?"

"Even if I did, why would I tell you?" I smarted.

"Why would you even ask him, Ash?" Dawn folded her arms, puffing her cheeks. "You know he's just going to be an ass about it."

"Maybe one day he'll be nice about it," Ash scratched the back of his head.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"Hey, Paul, why don't we have a battle?" Ash said, clenching his fists.

"Ash, are you serious?" Dawn put her hands on her hips. "What happened to looking for that Pokémon?"

"That can wait. I wanna battle Paul again!" Ash looked at me. "What do you say?"

I stared at him. I had no idea why he wanted to battle me. I didn't really care to challenge him, but something was urging me. The same feeling I get every time he asks me to battle.

And he was the only person I felt that way toward. As terribly odd as that sounds.

Anyway, I smirked and pulled out a Poké Ball. "Fine," I tossed the Poké Ball in the air and my Hariyama emerged.

"All right!" Ash reached for a Poké Ball on his belt. "Go, Monferno!"

"A Fire-type against a Pokémon with Thick Fat?" I figured I already had this battle in the bag. "Hariyama, go! Force Palm!" Hariyama rushed to attack Monferno.

"Monferno, dodge it!"

That was when everything went horribly wrong.

The fire monkey jumped over Hariyama, which caused it to throw its punch downward at the ground. The force of the punch began to split the earth beneath Hariyama's palm, which continued cracking all the way to Ash's feet.

"Huh?" Ash glanced down at his feet and the ground beneath him began to break. It would have been different if it was soil he was standing on…

But we were on the side of a mountain. The gravel under Ash was solid rock that was now spliting apart. And the rockslide began.

"Oh my gosh! Ash!" Dawn yelled as her and Brock started running toward him to try and save him.

I was closer to him. "Ash!" I ran as fast as I could, though it felt like slow motion as I witnessed him fall through the rocks. I reached out my hand, nearly falling with him, while he stretched his own arm toward me as far as he could. Our hands were so close to connecting…

But they missed. By only a few inches.

He slipped right through my grasp. And I watched in horror as he fell toward the ground thirty feet below.

"Aaaaasshhh!" I heard Dawn scream next to me. I turned my head, not wanting to see him hit the ground. I saw Brock holding Dawn back from possibly jumping off the cliff after him. She already had a waterfall of tears coming from her eyes.

I thought my heart had stopped.

I was sure that I had just killed Ash.

I had returned Hariyama to its Poké Ball and ran off. I couldn't face Dawn and Brock, and I couldn't possibly find out if Ash had really…

But then I picked up the Solaceon Press paper today, after not being able to sleep at all last night, and saw on the front page about a young boy that had become comatose after falling off the side of Mt. Coronet. I sighed in relief after finding out he wasn't dead.

But he was in a coma.

…

The least I could do was visit him.

I hadn't been sure if Dawn and Brock were still in his room. There wasn't any way I could just waltz right in there with them watching over him. I ran off after the incident, which was my fault. Now wasn't the time to confront them.

But I wanted to see him. I wanted to see Ash.

I chose to walk back down to his room to check if his friends were still there. When I peeked in, the only person I saw besides Ash was the nurse.

"Excuse me," I said to the nurse as I stepped carefully into the room. "Do you know where Ash's friends went?"

"You mean the girl in the white beanie and the kid with spiky hair?" she asked and I nodded. "They left. The boy told the girl that they should go get something to eat and said they would come back later."

"So they won't be back for awhile…" I muttered.

"How do you know Mr. Ketchum?" the nurse questioned me.

"He's…a friend." I chose to say.

"Oh, okay…" she picked up a clipboard on the end of Ash's bed. "I'll give you some space." She bowed and walked out of the room.

For the longest time, I just stood in the same spot and stared at Ash. The ECG kept beeping every few seconds, but after awhile it was like I couldn't even hear it. Like I couldn't hear anything…

After an indefinite amount of time, I got tired of standing so I sat down in the chair next to his bed.

My mind began doing an auto-play of every memory I had of Ash; every encounter we had had since I first met him. He was this charismatic trainer while I was just…a jerk. I had been training Pokémon much longer than him, but my strategy was nothing like his. He was different. Well, compared to me, lots of trainers were different.

But he was special. And I wasn't sure how to describe it.

I didn't really care about anyone. And people told me I didn't care for Pokémon. But for once in my life…

I looked forward to running into Ash again. Sure I acted like I was mean to him just like I am to everyone else, but…I didn't want people to notice that I actually enjoyed seeing him.

And when he had asked me to battle yesterday…of course I wanted to battle him, too.

Now…this is where he was. I couldn't believe it. I squinted my eyes, not wanting to shed a tear. I never shed a tear…over anything.

I grabbed Ash's hand in both of my own and squeezed it. "Ash, I have to continue my journey…but I'll come back. Every week if I have to. I'll visit as much as possible until you emerge from this coma. And then I'll apologize…and tell you…what our encounters mean to me..."

I paused for a moment, then I thought I heard the ECG beep louder for a second. When I looked up at the machine, it was beeping just as it had a few moments ago. Was I imagining it?

I glanced at Ash and gazed at his face for a minute before letting go of his hand and stepping out of the room.

I'll be back, Ash. I promise.