Chapter Forty Two – Tranquillity
After knocking, Hailey carefully opened the twins' bedroom door with a tray resting on one arm. The tray held two small plates, each with a neatly made sandwich in the middle; Hailey handed the plate with the sandwich that had lettuce sticking out of the sides to Daniel and the other, which had a thin slice of cucumber threatening to slip out of the fishy filling, to Daphne.
"There you are, just the way you like them," Hailey smiled.
"Thanks, Mum," Daniel said politely.
"Oi, get back in there," Daphne grumbled as she pushed the escaping cucumber back into her sandwich. Hailey chuckled momentarily.
"Maybe I used a bit too much mayonnaise this time around; sorry about that," she said sheepishly. "Anyway, Daphne," she continued, quickly giving her daughter a relatively serious look. "I've decided that you and Peggy are only to go outside to go to school and back, but only with either myself or your father as an escort."
"Why an escort?" Daniel asked cautiously as he tore a corner off of his sandwich; flakes of chicken consequently fell onto his plate.
"The escort isn't because we don't trust you; it's because we don't trust Adelina – I'm worried the same thing that happened this afternoon will happen again. So, please, Daphne, try to understand that-"
"I know; you're just looking out for us," Daphne smiled.
"That's my girl," Hailey smiled with relief. "I know you don't like being punished, but-"
"Who does?" Daniel asked abruptly. Daphne simply shrugged.
"The less I have to associate with that pile of dead wood, the better," she said indifferently before taking a rather large bite from her sandwich. Hailey laughed awkwardly.
"Y-Yeah...I-I'll just leave you to it and I'll see you in the morning; I'll be escorting you and Peggy to school tomorrow anyway."
"Okay, thank you," Daphne grinned after swallowing her fishy food. Daniel looked up at Hailey just as she turned to make her leave.
"Mum?" Hailey turned around and faced her son curiously.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"There's something I want to ascertain," Daniel stated. "It's about Adelina." Daphne moaned with a mouthful of sandwich still lingering in her mouth; she swallowed before she spoke further.
"Geez, you need to remember what 'ignore her' means..." Hailey chose to ignore Daphne's sardonic remark.
"What about her?" Daniel took a deep, yet silent, breath before he spoke, which gave Hailey a cause for concern.
"She called me Two-Tone."
"What?!" Hailey was incredibly rattled by the revelation.
"I was wondering if-"
"No," Hailey said suddenly, cutting off Daniel's question before he could even ask, bewildering him.
"But-"
"I know what you're asking, Daniel, and the answer is no; I haven't uttered a word about that to her or anyone other than my brothers. You have my word on that." Hailey's answer only served to puzzle Daniel further.
"But...that doesn't make any sense; how does she-"
"Knock it off, Daniel, before you turn into an insomniac," Daphne said, almost teasingly. Hailey sighed as she looked at both of the twins firmly.
"NEITHER of you are to look into this. Understood?" Daniel smiled gently.
"Yes, Mum."
"Absolutely, Mother dearest!" Daphne saluted. Hailey smiled kindly.
"Good. Good night, you two," she said as she left the room.
"G'night!" the twins called harmoniously as Hailey closed the door behind her.
Hailey bumped into Colin as she turned away from the twins' bedroom; he'd not long exited from Peggy's bedroom with an empty tray of his own. With his free arm, Colin gently stroked Hailey's bleach blonde hair as she lifted herself from his chest.
"Hey, being clumsy's my thing," he chuckled.
"S-Sorry..." Hailey smiled lovingly as she blushed slightly. "H-How's Peggy?"
"She and Piper are sleeping. As we jested, Peggy's resting in Piper's wings."
"Aww..."
"How are the twins?" Hailey suddenly lost her smile, much to Colin's confusion.
"Yeah, I...I need to talk to you about that..."
"Hm?"
"...she...knows about Two-Tone..." It took several seconds to process who Hailey was referencing; when he believed he figured it out, however, Colin was horrified.
"A-Adelina...?!" Hailey's confirming nod horrified Colin further. "H-How?!"
"I don't know...I don't know what to do about it..." Colin relaxed, but looked worried for his wife.
"Well, technically, we're not doing anything about her anymore, so...stick with that, I guess..." His suggestion provided no comfort to Hailey. "Hey, c'mon...why don't we have a chill out in the kitchen? We can just...try to forget about all of this Adelina crap until...uh..." Colin quickly lost his smile, completely lost as to how to finish his attempt to reassure Hailey. "...something...I dunno..."
"...sounds nice," Hailey smiled. "It'll give me an excuse to actually drink that Lime Coke you bought me a while back." Colin laughed.
"That's my Honeybee!" He began to make his way towards the staircase. "Makes me wish I—WHAAA!" Colin missed a step on the stairs and almost fell down them; he grabbed onto the banister just in time. Hailey was alarmed and rushed to aid him.
"Are you okay, Colin?" Colin laughed nervously.
"I told you being clumsy's my thing..." Hailey sighed, but with a smile.
Iara lay on top of Keenan's head and watched as he played another one of his games on his PlayBox; he was playing an arcade fighter game, playing as a Gallade and battling a Medicham in a surprisingly scenic background, which had many beds of red flowers within the boundaries of a tall stone wall with two identical Pidgeot statues on either side of the gateway. Iara cheered Keenan on as his Gallade avatar had more health than the Medicham, whose health bar was depleting with each punch and kick that Gallade was hitting it with. Though faintly, Keenan saw a reflection of a white light on the television screen and turned around; Cheryl was behind him with Lily, but Keenan was shocked when he saw Hayden slightly leaning against Lily for support – Hayden appeared to be in pain again.
"DAD!" Keenan literally dropped the controller after instantly pausing the game and jumped onto his feet. "Dad, are you okay?! What happened?!"
"I'm fine, kiddo...it's just a scratch," Hayden replied as he winced.
"A bruise and several grazes, actually, but everything's fine, sweetheart," Lily said comfortingly. Hayden gave a small smile.
"It is now..."
"I-I don't understand...!"
"Your father got hurt helping me out, that's all," Lily said modestly. Keenan blinked in confusion before his worry returned to him.
"B-But-"
"Keenan, relax; it's all superficial – it's just really tender, that's all," Hayden said calmly. But Keenan couldn't relax.
"S-Should we tell Alex, though?!" he asked. Hayden and Lily lost what smiles they had.
"No, sweetie, I don't think that's a good idea right now..." As much as he wanted Alexa to return to them, Hayden nodded in agreement. "Right, then, let's see what we can do about your back," Lily said on a more positive note.
"Thank you," Hayden said quietly as he walked with Lily towards their bedroom. Keenan watched them worriedly until a sudden thought came to his mind.
"It-it wasn't Adelina, was it?!" Hayden and Lily looked back at Keenan in bafflement.
"No, sweetie, just a couple of wild Pokémon, that's all."
"Fortunately, it wasn't the one your mother caught," Hayden added. Keenan and Iara were surprised.
"You caught a new Pokémon?"
"She's at the city's Pokémon Centre right now; we'll pick her up in the morning, so you'll get to meet her soon," Lily winked. "Right, shall we?" She escorted Hayden into the bedroom and slightly closed the door behind her.
No longer in the mood to continue playing on his PlayBox, Keenan simply turned off the console and pushed it towards the television before retreating to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Once inside, the first thing he noticed was Alexa's bed; he saw Chutney and Purukin's Poké Balls, the Seal pouches and the water bottles that fell from Alexa's backpack. He remembered seeing how those items came to be sprawled all over the bed, but it was remembering how livid Alexa was that made him feel gloomy. He sat himself down on his bed and eventually lay on his back, head near his pillows. Iara shifted from the top of Keenan's head to near his right shoulder and looked at him worriedly. Initially, Iara felt happy to feel Keenan's hand stroking the back of her head, but felt very concerned for him when she realised he wasn't even looking at her as he stroked her.
Troy sighed contently as he relaxed on his sofa, resting his head against one of the armrests and his feet close to the other and a cup of freshly brewed tea on the coffee table nearby. Mac sat against the sofa, close to Troy's head, as he slept, Lukie was curled up under the table, partly asleep, Brent lay on the headrests with his feet slightly hanging down the back of the sofa, Zane roosted on the headrest of the armchair, Nate slept on the same armchair and Lucy lay on the floor near Troy's feet, resting her eyes. Everyone was completely relaxed, even when Troy's Xtransceiver began to ring in a monotonous tone. Troy squinted at the caller ID, refusing to lift his head from the armrest.
"Shoot; I knew there was a tone I forgot to change," he grumbled as he accepted the call from his mother; soon enough, Harvey and Naomi appeared on the main screen, but Troy didn't see how frantic Naomi looked. "Hi, Mum-"
"Don't you 'hi, Mum' ME, mister!" Naomi yelled. All of a sudden, everyone was wide awake and alarmed; the Pokémon all watched Troy conversing with a panicky Naomi. "Your father just told me about your attacks! Y-You're not hurt, are you?!" Troy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as Harvey appeared on the screen, attempting to calm Naomi down.
"No...w-we've had some casualties during today's attack, but everyone's fine now," he said reassuringly.
"And yesterday's?" Naomi asked. Troy gulped as he looked away from his mother, staring at the window overlooking Route 3, though doing so did nothing to assuage him.
"...y-yeah, I-I'd...I'd rather not go into that one..."
"Aw, baby...!"
"But it's fine!" Troy said abruptly, putting on a false smile. "really, I-I have great support from my gang, so it's fine!" Harvey raised an eyebrow.
"Troy, you're jumpier than a Spoink high on caffeine," he observed worriedly. Troy recoiled.
"Urgh...! It-It's nothing, really!" Harvey's concern only grew; he knew he was putting on a brave face purely for his mother's benefit.
"Troy-"
"Sorry, Dad, I..." Troy lay back down and leaned his head on the armrest. "I'm just really drained; after I've had my tea, I'm turning in for the night..."
"Can't say I blame you; you had two attacks in one week," Harvey said understandingly. "I know I'd—" A gentle xylophone tone began to play in the background. "Oh, hang on..."
Troy waited a few seconds before, to his surprise, the two concealed side screens shot out from his Xtransceiver; Hailey and Colin were on the left hand screen and Hayden was on the right hand screen – but all of them were equally as baffled as each other.
"What the-"
"Whoa, it's a party! Sweet!" Troy laughed.
"I-I didn't see this coming," Hailey chuckled sheepishly. Hayden laughed quietly.
"Who would?"
"So, what's up, guys?" Harvey asked excitedly.
"I-I just wanted to make sure of something, that's all," Hailey said coyly.
"I'm just—aagh...!" Hearing Hayden flinching in agony alarmed everyone else in the call, Harvey and Hailey especially.
"Sorry, Hayden," Lily apologised.
"Whoa, what's wrong, bro? Did you get hurt or something?"
"Y-Yeah...some stupid Crawdaunt tried to attack us; I fell on my back getting away from her. Aaaagh...! ...it-it stings like hell..." Lily looked at the Xtransceiver from over Hayden's naked shoulder.
"He hurt himself trying to protect me."
"Awwwwwww, that's so sweet!" Hailey said admiringly. Hayden, Harvey and Troy gave her a quizzical look, while Naomi tried not to laugh at the facial expressions she was seeing. "...well, I think so..."
"Aunt Hailey, you're so nutty," Troy chuckled.
"I was a little reckless, perhaps, but...it was in the heat of the moment," Hayden smiled nervously as he managed to stroke Lily's head before she moved from his shoulder.
"As long as you're okay..."
"I'll be fine, Harvey; I'm in wonderful hands," Hayden said sweetly. Lily felt herself blushing as she swapped the bowl of water for the first aid kit that was on the bedside table. She then began to rummage through the kit and picked out a bundle of dressings. "What was your thing, Hai—nnngh...!" Hayden winced as Lily applied the first dressing to his injured back as gently as she could. "...H-Hailey...?"
"W-We ARE still ignoring Adelina, right?"
"Yep," Harvey nodded.
"How many times have we established that by now?" Troy wondered.
"I lost count after she kissed me," Colin confessed.
"Why?" Hayden asked Hailey.
"It's just...Daniel told me she knows...a-about Two-Tone..." Everyone, including Troy, felt completely rattled. "N-Nobody said anything to her about it, did they?"
"No!" Hayden said immediately, feeling slightly offended.
"I hardly know the broad," Troy said casually.
"I know I didn't. ...look, don't worry about it; let's just sleep today away and we can all regroup about her tomorrow if it's still bugging you, sis," Harvey proposed.
"Thanks, Harvey."
"Of course, we can regroup tomorrow about anything if you want to...or you can just do your own thing; no skin off my nose," Harvey laughed. Hayden suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, Naomi?"
"Hm? What's the matter, Hayden?" Naomi asked.
"When Alexa left this afternoon, she said she went to see Keith – that was several hours ago. I-I was wondering if you knew if she-"
"Oh, yes; Harvey and I met her in reception," Naomi answered truthfully. "As far as we know, she's still here." A wave of relief washed over Hayden as he sighed contently.
"Thank Arceus..." As Lily placed the bowl of water carefully on the bedside table, she smiled sweetly.
"I-I can call Keith's room to see if she's willing to-"
"No, leave her be; I just...I just wanted to know where she is, that's all. Thanks, Naomi."
"Of course," Naomi said courteously.
"Okay! Let's get some rest tonight and we can talk more tomorrow if you want to! Sound good?"
"Sounds good to me!" Troy agreed.
"I concur!" Hailey added, almost in song. Hayden simply nodded in response.
"So we're agreed then! Feel better soon, Hayden!"
"Believe me, Harvey, I'll feel a lot better once Alexa's home." As she began to rummage through the first aid kit, Lily admired his stronger confidence in their daughter's return.
"All righty then! Speak to you tomorrow!"
"See ya, Dad!"
"Bye, Harvey, Hayden!"
"Bye."
All three screens on Troy's Xtransceiver suddenly went black as the call disconnected and the two side screens retracted back into the device. With peace and quiet returning to his living room, Troy and the Pokémon could all relax again; Troy took a sip of his hot tea before he relaxed properly.
Hayden flinched as Lily carefully placed the last squared dressing over the final remaining graze; though she was relieved to see that all of the grazes were dressed, she felt slightly despondent that it looked like a white kitchen floor had been tattooed onto his back.
"That's it, Tiger; that was the last one. I'm sorry I don't have anything sweet to give you," she said almost teasingly. Hayden turned around and placed his hand gently on top of hers just as she closed the first aid kit.
"I have YOU, don't I?"
"Oh, Hayden, stop it!" Lily giggled as she lightly and playfully slapped her free hand on her husband's bare chest. Hayden laughed until he realised she was looking away from him; he became confused.
"What? What's wrong?"
"...it's just..." Lily looked up at him and, to his relief, she was smiling lovingly with a gentle blush about her cheeks. "You sounded more confident than you were earlier, that's all..."
"You're a good influence, that's why," Hayden said sweetly.
"I'm just glad you're feeling better, Tiger." Hayden closed his eyes softly as he placed a hand on the back of Lily's head; she closed her eyes gently as he lightly touched foreheads with her before rubbing noses with her.
"What would I do without you, Petal...?"
"Don't worry about it, Tiger..." Lily said in a soft whisper. She and Hayden drew closer to one another as their lips met. They soon broke free from their kiss delicately as they heard knocking on the bedroom door and faced it just in time for Keenan to poke his head into the room.
"Dad...?" Keenan was taken slightly aback when he saw Hayden had cheered up significantly since he first returned to the hotel room, but showed little to no reaction to his father being completely shirtless.
"Hey, kiddo!"
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Lily asked as she signalled Keenan to enter the room. Keenan closed the door behind him and Iara as they approached Hayden and Lily. All of them sat on the double bed as they conversed, Iara hanging from Keenan's shoulder throughout the chat.
"I got worried...are you sure it's nothing serious?" Keenan asked.
"We're sure, sweetie," Lily answered. "It really is just shallow grazing and a bruise."
"My back feels pretty stiff now," Hayden chuckled.
"That's my fault; I made your back look like a kitchen floor," Lily laughed.
"Kinda feels like it, too," Hayden sniggered. Keenan wanted to enjoy his parents' jokes, but he felt unable to, concerning Iara immensely.
"...I..." Hayden and Lily faced their son worriedly. "...I-I want Alex to come back...!" Hayden in particular pitied him; it was clear that he still blamed himself for what happened to Alexa.
"She will, honey," Lily said comfortingly.
"Y-You think so?"
"Have a little faith, will you?" Lily chuckled.
"But what if she gets hurt or-"
"Keenan." Keenan looked at his father in confusion. "We know she's in Driftveil at the very least; that alone is enough to set my mind at ease, and I'm why she's there in the first place!" Lily lost her smile and rolled her eyes; despite him carrying a smile and a slightly playful tone, she knew he still felt horrid for how harshly he treated Alexa.
"Besides...she can take care of herself," Lily added on a lighter note. "No matter where she is, we just have to trust that she's somewhere safe."
To be continued...