Chapter 28: Falling Ill
An hour passed. Shortly after arriving at his house, Ash had passed out on the couch. He slept peacefully until the old grandfather clock chimed loudly for the hour.
"Ugh," he moaned as his eyes fluttered open. "My head feels like it's on fire."
"That's kinda what happens when you have a fever," a familiar female voice said.
"Gosh, this must be worse than that Vileplume incident," a male voice muttered.
"Well, it's not that bad," another male voice said. "A fever isn't enough to keep Ash down for long."
Ash turned his head towards the voices, a small smile breaking out on his face. "Misty!" he said weakly but enthusiastically. "Brock! Tracey! What're you guys doing here?"
"We were visiting your mother to catch up," Misty explained. "Then of course you came barging in and made a mess of everything, as usual."
"Ugh," he sighed. "Sorry."
"No need to apologize," the red-haired gym leader giggled. "You've been like that from the day I met you: barging in without permission and causing trouble for everyone. But between you and me, you cause the best kind of trouble in the world."
Ash blinked. "Um...thanks?" he shrugged.
"Hey, to be fair, this is his house," Tracey defended his friend with a smile. "He has a right to barge in here whenever he wants."
"Can't argue with that," Brock agreed. Then he turned to Ash with a more serious expression. "How did you get sick?"
"I don't know," he replied.
"Oh, come on!" May shouted in exasperation from out of his line of sight. "Yes you do! When you went to get the Chaos Emerald, you got too cold! That's what happened!"
"Okay, fine," he huffed and rolled his eyes. "Jeez, what a hassle."
"Ugh, you are impossible!" May shouted back at him. Then he heard the door slam. He blinked, puzzled.
"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.
"May's been worried sick about you ever since we got here," Misty explained. "She's mad at you for being too cool with it."
"I don't get why she's so riled up," Ash muttered. "It's not a big deal. Here, I'll get up and talk to her," he started to stand up.
"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" May shouted for a third time, slamming the door open and marching back in and up to her boyfriend. She grabbed his shoulders and forced him back down onto the couch. "You're staying right there until you're all better, understand?! I don't want you exerting yourself when you have no energy!"
"Ugh!" he grunted, now thoroughly annoyed. "Fine! Have it your way!"
"THIS IS BURGER KING!" Tracey cheered. Everyone face-faulted.
"Where is the emerald again?" Sonic asked his best friend as they walked along.
"It's somewhere on Route 1," Tails said. "Given the simplicity of the path, we should have no problem finding it."
"No sweat," Sonic grinned. "We'll have that emerald in no time!"
"Don't get comfortable," Knuckles muttered, looking to the sky. "The sun's going down quickly, and you know what that means."
"Yeah, yeah," Sonic shrugged. "Come on. Let's hurry up and find that emerald."
Now on Route 1, they walked along until they came to a small river. Following it upstream, they came to a small waterfall. By this time, Sonic had turned into a werehog again.
"My radar's going berserk," Tails said, looking up at the waterfall. "The emerald must be up there."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Knuckles said, cracking his namesakes and running up. He placed his spiked fists on the wall to climb up, only for them to slip and knock him on his butt. "Guh! Blasted wall. The waterfall's making it impossible to get a grip."
"Hm," Sonic mused, looking up. "It looks like the wall is dryer higher up. Maybe you can get a grip up there."
"Hey!" Knuckles shouted. "Don't insult me like that!"
"What?" Sonic blinked. "I wasn't insulting you. I was saying you could get a grip up th–" He cut himself off when he realized what he said. "Oh...whoops," he put his fist behind his head sheepishly.
"Guys, can we focus here?" Tails asked, annoyed. He looked up. "I think Sonic's right. If we can get you up there, then you should be able to cling to the wall, Knuckles."
"But how can we do that?" Knuckles asked.
"Here," Tails replied, handing his radar to Sonic. "I'll fly you up there." He grabbed Knuckles fists and began spinning his tails...only to barely make it five feet off the ground before his arms got exhausted from the echidna's weight. "Well that didn't work," he groaned.
"Now what should we try?" Knuckles grumbled.
"I have an idea," Sonic said. "My arms are super strong and elastic. Maybe I can throw him up."
"You think that'll work?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow (or whatever he had).
"It's all I got right now," he shrugged.
"Let's try it," Knuckles said. "Just don't throw me up too far, okay?"
"You got it. Okay, let's go."
Sonic grabbed Knuckles with his right hand, stood up on a rock, and began swinging his arm rapidly. He spun faster and faster, causing Knuckles to get dizzy. Then, with a roar, he threw the echidna up the wall. Knuckles spun through the air, but he managed to regain his senses long enough to grab the wall with his fists.
"I got it!" he called, shaking his head to reorient himself completely.
"Okay! Careful up there!" Tails called back. "Now get under the waterfall. The emerald seems to be there."
"Right," Knuckles said, moving to the side to get under the waterfall. He went out of sight from his friends for about 30 seconds. Then they heard a splash, and Knuckles popped out of the river beside them, emerald in hand.
"I got it!" he said.
"Awesome!" Tails cheered. "Now let's get this back to the house!"
"Right," Knuckles said, then he looked at the waterfall curiously. "What a strange place for an emerald to fall."
"Probably just circumstance," Tails said as the two of them started back. Sonic, meanwhile, stayed behind a moment to gaze at the waterfall. His mind replayed a story Ash told him...the story of his first day as a Pokemon trainer.
"Or maybe it was fate," he said softly to himself. He smiled and followed his friends back to Pallet Town.
The Ketchum house was now dark and quiet, as everyone headed to sleep. While most of them slept in the guest bedroom, others shared Delia's room. Max slept on the couch where Ash had been, and Bonnie slept on the floor beneath him.
Ash, meanwhile, had retired to his room after dinner. Only Pikachu accompanied him. He grumbled dreadfully as he struggled to fall asleep. Unfortunately, all his coughing and wheezing made it hard to rest.
Just as he rolled over to the side of his bed for the sixteenth time that night, he heard a small knock on his door. He rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Mom," he said, expecting that she'd come up to check on him again. To his chagrin, he heard the same knock again. "Ugh, fine," he groaned. "Come in."
The doorknob turned and the door opened. To his surprise, his mom didn't walk in. Someone else did. "I didn't know getting sick could make you so irritable," she said, putting her hands on her hips.
"It doesn't, May," he replied, turning on a small lamp by his bed so they could see each other. "Everyone's just making a big deal out of nothing."
"Out of nothing?" May said incredulously. "Ash, when a friend is sick, you don't just ignore them. You help them get better. You may not directly take care of them, but you always do something."
"Thanks, but I'll be fine," he replied a bit more curtly than he intended. "Please just go back to bed. You need your sleep."
"I am NOT going anywhere," May growled, raising her voice a bit but still keeping it down so she didn't wake anybody. "You may be my hero, but that does NOT mean we can't take care of you in your time of need."
"Like I said," Ash said, "I'll be fine. Just go back to bed and –"
May harshly placed her hand over his mouth, shutting him up. Her face was directly above his. "It's not like that," she whispered. Her voice, to Ash's surprise, was getting slightly choked up. "I know you aren't that sick and that you'll probably be better by tomorrow. But if I can't care for you when you need someone, what am I supposed to do?" Small tears trickled down her face, and she put her head on his chest. "You were there for me when I almost got killed by that machine. Why can't I be here for you, now?"
Ash heard her sniffle, and a sting of guilt pierced his heart. "May," he whispered. She didn't respond, simply crying into his chest. "May, can you look at me?"
She lifted her head and looked at him, wiping the tears from her eyes. They were still on the verge of falling down her face, though.
"I'm sorry," he said. "You're right. I didn't realize what it meant to you." He placed his hand behind her head and stroked her hair. "I won't stop you anymore."
She smiled lovingly and kissed his forehead, two small tears trickling down her face and falling onto his forehead. "Thank you," she whispered. Then she looked up and saw that he had fallen asleep with a small smile on her face. Still smiling herself, she slowly went to Ash's closet and pulled out a cot. She set it up and laid there, gazing lovingly at Ash's sleeping face.
"You are such an amazing person," she said, partially to herself. "I don't think you realize how much you mean to us all. You find a way to do the impossible. Your love for all living things is unmatched by anyone or anything I've ever seen. And when no one has the strength to stand for what's right, you give them that strength, willing to stand even when no one else will." She reached her arm out and placed it on top of Ash's hand, which dangled over the bed. "You're my hero, Ash Ketchum. No...you're our hero." Her eyes drooped as sleep overtook her, but not before she whispered one last thing to the boy she loved:
"Thank you."