Chapter Fifty Nine – Respite
The lobby of the Mistralton Pokémon Centre was quieter than it ever was; with the exception of the nurses walking through the lobby to access other areas of the Pokémon Centre and a lone youth with his Misdreavus sitting in the waiting area, there was no real activity taking place. The youth, brunette hair spiked upwards and chocolate eyes behind a pair of sensible spectacles, looked strikingly similar to a Pokémon Ranger; he wore a variation of the Pokémon Ranger jacket that was longer at the sleeves and covered all of his back, a different style of the white and black undershirt that had a single yellow stripe at the front in some kind of V formation, long black trousers and the usual Pokémon Ranger shoes and single glove on his right hand – his left, however, was wrapped in bandages. His Misdreavus, however, wore a pair of glasses with a crack in the left lens on her head. The pair looked at a magazine the young adult was reading contently until a flash of white light startled the pair of them; Cheryl suddenly appeared in the middle of the main lobby of the Pokémon Centre with Hayden, Lily, Harvey, Naomi, Hailey and Colin. The young man and his Misdreavus resumed reading the magazine – even though his Misdreavus probably being unable to make heads or tails of what was on the pages in front of her – as Lily returned Cheryl to her Poké Ball and the other adults handed their wounded Pokémon over to the nursing staff who had approached the sudden arrivals. As soon as she left her Poké Balls with the slightly overweight red-headed nurse, Hailey immediately held her Xtransceiver in front of her and tapped the touch screen several times. Colin watched her through the corner of his eye as he handed his Poké Balls to the middle-aged male nurse with slightly greying blonde hair.
"What're you doing?" he asked as he male nurse left with his Poké Balls.
"I'm calling Daniel; he should be free by now, he has a free period today," Hailey said quietly. "Oh...! I should tell Dad as well," she muttered quietly as she continued tapping her finger on the Xtransceiver's screen.
"Dad's in the know now?" Harvey asked after thanking the young ebony-haired nurse for accepting his Pokémon.
"Yeah, Alexa brought him up to speed yesterday," Hayden said quickly as he parted ways from the sandy blonde-haired nurse, Poké Balls in hand.
"I saw him this morning and said something along those lines," Hailey said shakily as a familiar-looking nurse curiously approached Hayden behind his back; her copper hair was tied up in a very neat low bun at the back of her head and her green eyes were behind a pair of rimless glasses.
"Hello again," the nurse said sunnily. Hayden spun around and faced the nurse with alarm. "I'm sorry to have startled you. I'm the nurse who spoke to your daughter over the Xtransceiver yesterday, about her Zoroark?"
"Oh, y-you're...Hardy, wasn't it?"
"Tanya. And, yes, it was," Tanya said cheerfully.
"You know her, bro?" Harvey asked with a light laugh as he and Lily walked over to him.
"Y-Yeah, she's the nurse who was looking after Xavier," Hayden explained.
"I still am," Tanya giggled. "He's quite popular today; he's with two boys and a group of Pokémon at the moment."
"Is one of them a younger boy?" Hayden asked, starting to subtly point at his eyes. "Twelve years old and blue eyes?"
"Aw, he's the one with the cutest Vaporeon I've ever seen!" Tanya said joyfully. "Do you know him?"
"Yes, he's my son."
"Would you please take us to him?" Lily asked politely as she held onto Hayden's arm. Tanya nodded.
"Of course!"
"You go on ahead; I'll stay here with Hailey," Colin said kindly. Harvey and Hayden nodded at Colin as they followed Tanya with Lily and Naomi close by. Hailey kept her eyes on her Xtransceiver as a second screen shot out from the left hand side of the device.
"Mum, what's going on?" Daniel asked curiously.
"Shouldn't you be in school, Dan?" Ian wondered spontaneously.
"Free period," Daniel replied hastily. "Seriously, Mum, is everything okay?"
"How long have you both got?" Hailey asked in a sigh. Ian and Daniel blinked in confusion.
"So, big sis brought you home, eh?" Xavier asked Keenan as he looked at the Buneary grinning at him; Jollie sat on Xavier's chest as he lay on the bed, with a half-eaten mint Poké Puff in her paws. "Wish I could've seen it."
"She must have bounced really high; it took her a little while to come back down again," Keenan replied with a nervous chuckle. "But, yeah...thanks for saving me, Jollie."
"Buneary!" Jollie said gleefully as she nodded at the young boy.
"By the way, Keenan wasn't kidding about the 'it took her a while to come back down' thing," Ryder began as he looked up at Xavier; he sat on the floor near Keenan with Layla sitting next to him – both Ryder and Layla were munching away at a strawberry Poké Puff. "Seriously, Jollie, how high DID you bounce?! And did you see Rayquaza during the attack?" he asked teasingly.
"Buh-nee," Jollie rolled her eyes, but laughed as she responded.
"To be fair, Jollie, you can reach about two storeys without actually using the Bounce attack," Troy laughed as he watched Reese breaking Ava's chocolate Poké Puff, making it easier for the little Pichu to sink her teeth into; Ava happily munched away at her broken down cake, much to the Buizel's delight as he ate some of his vanilla Poké Puff. Iara lay just behind Ava with a cofee Poké Puff with sugar sprinkles on the icing in front of her; she was in the middle of licking the icing off of the cake.
"Two stories? That doesn't sound like much," Ryder said despondently. "Jumping over two books?"
"Not that kind of storeys, Ryder." Troy ran his fingers through his bangs. "I mean Jollie can naturally jump up to the roof of, say, Keenan's house without any real effort."
"Does that mean she can jump over the house?" Xavier asked with wonder.
"Maybe her Dad was a Blaziken," Ryder joked.
"That might explain how she knows Sky Uppercut," Keenan said seriously. Jollie merely shrugged indifferently at the prospect.
"Bun?" Jollie was the first to see and hear the door to the recovery room opening. Troy, Keenan and the Pokémon then watched as Tanya slightly entered the room to allow passage for Harvey, Hayden, Lily and Naomi. After Tanya quietly bowed and left the room, Keenan happily ran over to Hayden and Lily, embracing the pair of them simultaneously.
"Mum! Dad! You're okay!" In an instant, Lily and Hayden both held their son warmly.
"Of course we are, sweetheart," Lily said with a loving smile on her face.
"We're glad you are as well, kiddo," Hayden smiled dotingly as Harvey and Naomi walked over to Troy.
"You doing okay, sport?"
"Yeah, everything's placid as a puddle here," Troy nodded. What smile he had suddenly weakened a little as he hesitantly asked his next question. "How did things go down there? Alexa gave me a brief run-down on what she got up to, but..."
"Well...let's just say that her efforts weren't for nothing," Harvey began, a proud smile gradually reaching his lips.
"She and Keith managed to buy us enough time and were able to weaken Adelina's Pokémon just enough for us to take care of," Hayden continued as he looked over at Troy.
"In the end, though, your Aunt Hailey brought the war home in our favour, and it was...actually very hard to watch," Harvey said with his smile fading into a frown.
"Josh defeated Carter – Adelina's Malamar – with Hydro Cannon," Hayden concluded.
"So it's over then?" Ryder asked hopefully as he swallowed the last of his Poké Puff.
"Yep," Harvey nodded.
"Awesome!" Ryder jumped up onto his feet and immediately gave his Zoroark brother a high five.
"I know, right?!" Xavier was equally as euphoric as Ryder. "Man, Alex's gonna be so happy when she hears that!"
"She and Keith both!" Ryder agreed, his bushy tail wagging wildly. Hayden looked around the room.
"Where ARE they anyway?" he wondered. Naomi also looked around and began to worry.
"I-I would've thought that they'd be here..."
"It's best to leave them alone," Keenan said with concern. The four adults turned to him in confusion.
"How come?" Lily asked gently.
"I think something happened with Robbie; Keith looked really upset when Alex and I found him and... ...I think she's still talking to him," Keenan explained.
"Oh, yes, his leg," Naomi said quietly. "I never thought of that..."
"I think we can afford to give them a little space for the time being," Harvey winked.
"They should know about what we just went through, though," Hayden said in very mild objection.
"They bought us time, Tiger; we can buy them some in return, can't we?" Lily asked with a very tiny playful smirk.
"Y-Yeah, I guess," Hayden said anxiously. Jollie hopped off of Xavier's chest and onto the floor as she began to quietly make her way out of the room. Ava discarded the second half of her broken Poké Puff to hurriedly follow the Buneary. Ryder and Layla immediately noticed the two small Pokémon exiting the room and quietly chased after them, looking slightly panicky. Somehow, nobody seemed to notice the departing Pokémon as they exited the room.
A lone Cyndaquil looked up at his Trainer as the pair walked down one of the Pokémon Centre's many corridors; Cyndaquil's Trainer was a girl in her mid-teens with long chestnut hair that was straight at the top, wavy at the bottom and was parted over her right shoulder, wearing a red and blue t-shirt with the words "I love P.O.K.E.M.O.N" in yellow font behind her, a pair of short pale blue shorts and white trainers. The pair eventually passed Keith and Alexa, who were completely oblivious to the passing girl and her Cyndaquil as Alexa looked at the final few millilitres of rapidly cooling cocoa in her beverage cup and as Keith watched her doing so; Alexa's smile was still loving, while Keith was still bewildered.
"I meant what I said yesterday," Alexa began quietly. "I did enjoy the night we ended up spending together in Driftveil...even if I did feel conflicted afterwards..."
"I meant what I said yesterday, too; I love you, Alexa...and I don't want to do anything you don't want me to," Keith said in earnest.
"I know," Alexa nodded. "The only reason I felt conflicted about everything in the first place was because I was uncertain about the state of our relationship...especially since we didn't talk about it once before it...happened."
"But I didn't get that vibe from you at the Humilau Water Gardens yesterday," Keith said as he raised an eyebrow. "Now that I'm thinking about it, you were happier than a Clamperl all day!"
"I WAS," Alexa laughed. "It...it was a great day for me overall; I made up with my Dad, Xavier regained consciousness after his surgery...you and I had breakfast together..." She looked up at Keith, her face beginning to blush from such a sentimental day. "I wasn't thinking about anything that happened beforehand; I was just enjoying the day as it went along..."
"So you weren't thinking about the fight we had after Oblivia?" Keith asked hesitantly. Alexa shook her head, but his sigh concerned her. "I say fight, but...it was one-sided..."
"Keith-"
"I'm..." Keith sighed again as he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "I am so sorry...I was such an insensitive asshole..." He gave Alexa a timid smile. "Professor Hastings really gave me hell for it when I told him what I said to you."
"Keith, we don't need to go through all of this again," Alexa said anxiously. "I already believed your apology and I already apologised for doubting you..." Keith's smile died completely.
"I'm still sorry about how horribly I treated you..."
"It's okay, I forgive you..." Keith wasn't so sure; Alexa sounded fairly unconvinced. She looked up at him and saw how tense he appeared to be. In turn, Keith looked straight into her eyes; as comforting as they were, they weren't enough to put a smile on his face.
"You said you were ready to answer your own question, right?" he asked with slight dread. Alexa smiled at him sweetly as she placed a hand on his knee, which made him blush a little and face her with a mix of perplexity and anticipation.
To be continued...