Chapter 2 - Part 2

*Next Day, getting the party ready*

The whole family was getting ready for the birthday party when the clock struck 10:00 a.m., or ten in the morning for those picky with their time terminology. Both Celia and Jon were getting things prepared that weren't set up yesterday, such as food, plates and utensils.

"I must say, Celia, your idea to set up as much of the party as possible yesterday turned out really well. Heck, it made setting up things today much easier without having to scramble at the last minute." Jon said to Celia, looking up at her with an appraising look.

"Well thanks Jon, I just figured it would be better to just have it ready for the small things, I wouldn't want to keep our guests waiting. Even better I think is that Ellie is helping, maybe she is trying to act more like a big girl now since she is getting older." Both then looked over at Ellie.

Despite it being her birthday, Ellie volunteered to do last minute clean up of any trash and general tidying up. Furthermore, she made sure to do a checklist of the different stuff needed (not that her parents did not already check, but she wanted to be thorough since this was her first big party).

Having finished setting up everything except the foods that would spoil quickly, they relaxed for the moment while waiting for the first guest to show up. Since everyone lived in relatively close proximity to each other, Jon expected everyone to arrive within minutes of each other, a relief it was since he would not have to spend extra time entertaining early birds. For the meantime, the family sat back to talk about how they wished the party would go while taking the time to relax before the guests would arrive.

"Well Ellie, today is your big day. I have been speaking with the other parents recently and I think that you will have a lot of fun with your friends today, but I want you to remember to not go overboard, okay?" Jon asked.

"Okay daddy." And with that, Ellie went upstairs to her room to get her pjs off and some shorts on so she could be ready to have fun.

The Guest have arrived; Jon, Celia & parents, no single first person POV

Ding ding..ding ding.. "Well that must be the first comers, Ellie go open the door to greet them and please prop the door open so that the rest can walk in without having to constantly ring the doorbell, it is a warm day so it won't hurt," said Jon.

"Okay daddy!" Of course the kid was so boisterous, she was excited to see her friends after all but still, she did not have to scream that next to him. He sighed before donning a content smile, he couldn't blame the kid for forgetting the finer details when her mind was running a mile a minute.

It was seconds when the kids, some accompanied by their parents (Jon recognized all eleven who walked in: [Danny (Noah's dad), Mandy (Emma's mom), Edward (Jimmy's dad), Vicente & Emily (Bee's Parents), Zaira (Frannie- Maria's mom), Susan (Kyle's mom), Henry (Oliver's dad), Amelia & Jack (Lindsey's parents), Lucas (Lenny's dad)], came in. He could tell that less than half of the parents showed up but he knew most of them had things they needed to do like work and travel.

Following after the parents was Jessica Connely, the children's teacher. He knew the parents himself since they often spoke with each other in their little community, even more so when they found out that their children were all going to be in the same grade at school. As for the teacher, he knew her as well as a neighbor, a friendly acquaintance and a frequent participant in her student's lives and social events. A small community this was even though it was part of a larger city.

They brought with them many wrapped presents, setting them aside on the presents table as they went to join the Haynes family in wishing a happy birthday to Ellie. After that was done and the kids started playing, the parents started having conversations amongst each other.

What surprised both Jon and Celia was them including Celia into the conversation, perhaps not a huge surprise since most understood that she was as understanding and sapient as them plus she could communicate fluently through telepathy and conversationally with her voice. Nonetheless, Celia found it nice to feel included even if it was going to be short lived since she was going to have to tidy up after the kids and chaperon them so they did not create too much chaos.

Everything was going great for the time being. On one end, the children were talking about many things including their favorite tv shows, what foods they enjoyed at the party, playing small party games and occasionally roping a random parent into their mess.

Way on the other side, however, the parents including Jon were just enjoy the small talk such as inquiring each other about their "good ole" days, days of listening to oldie music, talking about work and the local gossip, asking about when they can pawn their kids on whoever for vacation trips and such, and just anything they could think of. Jessica, being slightly younger than them and there more for the kids, opted to walk around the party playing with some of the children and coming back and forth to the parents to talk a little.

"I tell you what, it was fun when we were much younger." Edward said, laughing his ass off. "I mean sure times change and music adapts but something about those classic rock songs, the alternative bands coming out and the hip hop singers was different, they hit you in a certain way.

A chuckle was heard and everyone turned to Vicente, who apparently had something to say. "Well maybe you are right, they were good but where I come from, it was all about the long nights of country, salsa dance and the RnB that we jammed to. We usually did our partying in the afternoons, reserving our relaxation for the overnights. We couldn't let ourselves and our pokemon be too tired before the next day's journey, afterall."

"I guess we all did have our ways of doing things, I suppose. We partied a lot in many of the places that Celia and I traveled but it was mainly her doing her best to keep me out of trouble." At Jon's response, a lot of the adults busted out laughing. Some of them more than others since they knew what it was like having pokemon's being the responsible ones and the men having their then-girlfriends smacking them over the heads for years.

"So not to get sidetracked here but did any of you here happen to hear about the new city mayor suggesting that lowering taxes on the properties around here would help drive tourism? I am not sure exactly how that would help but I assume that means they want business owners to do some sprucing up on the aesthetics of the boardwalks and such." Susan said.

No one spoke for a moment, trying to remember if and when they heard or read the news. However, Zaira then threw her hand up, bringing everyone's attention to herself. "Actually, Susan, I did remember hearing about that. I think you are right but I do remember the caveat was that bigger places such as the fancy semi-exotic pokemart slash supermarket, would have to pay extra taxes on any luxury and small shipping load goods. I think it is to try to force them to buy more local goods from around here though. It's fine in my opinion since some of the money is supposed to be routed to refurbishment of local playgrounds and parks. It would be really nice for our kids to have more improved swing sets and recreational areas."

Jon agreed with her. "Absolutely, in fact, I have been trying to get the city to approve of a lot around the conservatory I work at for children and young teens to see rehabilitating and or permanently homed pokemon to give them experience in meeting new pokemon and to help the pokemon get out and enjoy the public forests. If it works, perhaps it would help some of these poor guys find a family that they can settle with and enjoy life."

Enjoying everyone talking so far, Henry chimed in. "Oh absolutely Jon, I like the idea myself. It reminds me of a couple of years ago when several of us had our kids at the park and your daughter led a couple of the kids to a tree where that pokemon trainer from the Kanto region let them play with his…I guess you would call it rehomed…Oddish. The teen was telling us all about it while the kids played."

*Flashback starts*

Ellie, Kyle, Gloria, Noah, Oliver, Lindsey, Ren, Danny, and Lenny were all at the park playing together like they did so many times, with all the other kids who weren't present being home either from being sick with a random summer 'cold' or not being in town along with their parents.

The kids weren't really doing much besides playing in the sandlot, walking through the toddler-friendly jungle gyms, trying to balance on the borders of the sandlot or, in the case of Oliver, speaking toddler gibberish to the others, roughly translating to something about 'let's make castles and holes in the sand'.

It was while this was happening that Ellie, looking all over the park to see all the bigger kids and pokemon trainers, when she saw a pokemon trainer with a tiny blue and round-shaped pokemon with green leaves on its head. It was chirping and giving excited noises when its trainer gave it crystal clear water along with some pot fertilizer to dig its feet into. They were both sitting in a nice shady spot near the sandlot since the pokemon was normally a nocturnal creature.

She didn't know that though and, with some gibberish and loose coordination from her, she got the kids to grab their plastic hand shovels and buckets and walk over to the pokemon.

The pokemon, seeing a bunch of little humans walking his way with all sorts of tools, immediately jumped up into his trainer's arms. The trainer, though, merely laughed and calmed his shivering pokemon down, telling him that it was just kids who wanted to probably play with him.

Once they got there, they started digging into the ground as much as they could, trying to get it big enough to fit their heads in. Once done, Kyle looked at the trainer and pointed at his pokemon, saying in gibberish but a little coherently, "there, we help."

As this was going on, the parents who at first were concerned with their wandering toddlers, realized that they were just checking out the cute little pokemon that many of them had seen on their own adventures as trainers or regular travelers years ago, perhaps Kanto they thought.

Celia, deciding she wanted to join in on the fun, used her telekinesis to grab many leaves and fly them around the kids and the Oddish, who looked happy with his new hole, dug and filled with fertilizer. The kids looked up at the leaves then Celia, seeing her controlling them, and started to giggle and yell in excitement and the Oddish, watching too, was just too amazed to do anything else.

While that was happening, the parents walked up to the older teen and began talking to him, telling him how nice it was that he was allowing their kids to play with his Pokemon.

The trainer, Seth being his name, told him that he was fine with it and that he thought it was good for Grey, his Oddish, to have some fun with kids since he was actually a rehabilitated pokemon that took an interest to him when he was in Kanto.

"Yeah, poor guy had it rough before we found each other at a local clinic grounds. I spotted him and, my father being a pokemon trainer and a botanist, I knew he would love good soil so I went to a nearby community berry garden and grabbed a couple handfuls of soil and gave it to him. He loved it and before I knew what was going, the clinic that was actually watching over him, just told me to take him since it was clear to them that we were going to be good friends."

Jon, a conservationist researcher whose conservatory worked to rehabilitate, research, and help pokemon (especially plant-based pokemon) seemed pretty happy with that story. Looking over at his daughter and the other kids playing with the pokemon while Celia entertained them, he found that today was a great day to go out to the park.

*Flashback ends*

Done with reminiscing, the parents couldn't help but remember the happy faces of their kids that day.

"Damn, I wish my kid was there so I could have watched them have fun too," said Mandy.

"Oh yeah, it would have been a blast to have more kids there that day," Henry responded, laughing immediately afterward.

Soon after the conversation, the adults got silent, content on enjoying a few appetizers while watching their kids.

However, Danny, Noah's father, broke the silence, asking them what they thought of the upcoming rough weather that was supposed to be nearing within a week or so. "The meteorologists said that it was possible that there were going to be some rough rain storms with strong winds coming in due to the warm and cold fronts colliding around this time of the year."

Jon decided to speak up first, "well I am not really worried about it except the winds and what it could do to the house and garden. We are about down with our small annual harvest for most of our stuff anyways so it would not hurt too bad."

A couple murmurs of agreement roll through the group as another parent interjects saying they were not even sure if the storm were going to roll in at all, the weather people were wrong about last year around this time and the conditions were actually worse last year than this one.

Again, some parents could not help but agree with them, it is not that they do not trust the weather forecast so much as they are hoping, based on previous experiences, that the forecast was wrong.

Mandy, Emma's mother, asked "So you think the kids are enjoying themselves today?" Again, all the other parents looked over at the kids just having fun and couldn't help but laugh at the rhetorical question. Noticing that the party needed a bit more cleaning, Jon went to pick some stuff up and relieve Celia of the chaperoning duty so she could clean up the bigger messes while occasionally playing with some of the children. The rest of the parents mill about occasionally talking to the others, eating some food, and listening to their children talk about how fun the party was. Jon looks over and notices Ellie running around with the goofiest grin imaginable and calls out to her, reminding her to be careful inside the house and to run outside with the kids and the party games set up outside. That done, Jon is able to relax a bit more while enjoying the mood of the party.

Jon continues to enjoy himself, cleaning and talking to the parents and even his daughter's teacher from time to time, the party has been going for well over an hour and half already. However, Jon and the parents notice that the kids have gotten a little quiet and have gathered around in a circle outside. Curious as to what the commotion was, they begin to walk over…

With Celia, first person POV

The party is going great, I do not think we could have done better had we tried, I thought. I was talking with Jon, the other parents, and Ellie's teacher. It was great and just asking how everything was and how everyone was doing did help make the impending "dread" of cleaning up and keeping the chaos of the party at a minimum seem small. Thank goodness too, I mentally chuckled to myself. After fifteen minutes or so, she told everyone that she had some cleaning and chaperoning to do, leaving them to continue their conversations. She looked over to Ellie, watching as she was talking to a couple of her friends, Oliver and Gloria she believes, and just enjoying herself overall.

I could not help but smile. Out in the wild, the opportunity for friendship was practically zero. Out there, there were pokemon and other creatures that were trying to survive in their own way; they either foraged, scavenged, grazed, or…hunted. I definitely could not have made friends with the beings that were hunting me but neither could I make friends with beings that weren't in my species and were most likely in competition for the same food source I was after, perhaps I could have been neutral and accepted their presence but friendship, no. That is why I was so happy for my Blueberry. She has many friends and does not have to worry about surviving because of me and the loving man she has for a father.

After a while, leaving my thoughts off to the side for a while, I decided to do a bit more of trash pick up, thanking my telepathic abilities since it made it far easier than normal. Unfortunately, some things still required me to be meticulous and even physical for the things too complicated to solely rely on telepathy for.

I then watched my daughter run away in pursuit of her friends who were going toward the backyard for the outdoor party games. I looked over and noticed Jon starting to move away from the other parents and the teacher in order to relieve me of a large portion of the workload. I was grateful, because he helped me decrease the workload and make it easier for me to focus on the cleaning. Then I could hear my 'husband' warning our daughter to be safe and to go outside to run. Of course, he always does have to remind her, if he doesn't then I am the one who has to fix her cuts and scrapes. I decided to go outside to "sort of" watch the kids who were already outside, including Ellie. Jon is working inside but still talking from time to time with the other adults, enjoying himself well. Good, he deserves to after making this party happen.

Enjoying myself so much, I did not hear nor turn around to the sound of the 'thump' that had hit the ground from a little distance away. However, that immediately changed when I heard my baby scream out loud, calling for me.

"MOMMY!" followed by crying.

… … … …

I could almost hear my HEART beating itself through my chest, that word and cry may as well have been the biggest panic button in the world to me! I feel the spike of adrenaline rush through me as I assumed my BABY was hurt. I rushed over to her before anyone else could, barring a couple of kids, only to notice that she was, in fact, not severely injured.

They tried to help but I arrived and was immediately able to take over the situation. Ellie was crying so much, despite how little she actually was hurt but… the cries…they broke my heart and I immediately picked her up in my arms, cooing to her and rocking her in my arms as she tried to calm herself down while taking a few breaths. I moved the children aside for a brief period so Ellie could have some space to feel comfortable as she steadied her breathing.

While that was happening, I started hearing some of the kids talk in the background. Questions like "did she scream for her mommy? I thought her mom was not here?", "did she just call her daddy's pokemon 'mommy'?", "she yelled for her mommy and gardevoir came, does she call her mommy? Is gardevoir her mommy?", etc. I also noticed that Jon and the others arrived as well, wanting to know what the commotion was, but I decided to ignore it for now to comfort my poor baby. The other stuff can be dealt with afterwards.

With Jon, first person POV

The first thing I noticed was that some of the kids were surrounding Celia, now that was not any cause for concern. The concern came when I saw Celia cradling Ellie into her arms, a crying Ellie into her arms. One of the kids informed me that Ellie fell while running and screamed for her mommy to come help her.

Wait. Wait a second… her mommy?! Like she screamed for mommy, Celia who is a gardevoir, to help… I couldn't help but feel slightly lightheaded. I am neither mad or upset at Ellie for calling to what is rightly and biologically her mother nor at Celia for answering the instinctive call of motherhood that all loving mothers know. I am not mad or upset, however, I am concerned that others, namely Ellie's friends heard it.

Their parents are also hearing the questions and look confused by what they have heard and are seeing take place between Celia and Ellie. Verbally, Celia is cooing and talking to Ellie to calm her down, ignoring the crowd on the side that are taking looks at them. That is what I am worried about to because even though nothing is happening overtly crazy or abnormal besides a talking gardevoir (though they knew already she could verbally speak our language to a degree), some may start to have ideas and they know, like I do, the laws regarding interspecies intercourse, specifically what the law calls "Pokephilia." It would be a stretch even at the moment but big things always start from something small.

I look over and see Jessica, the teacher, just standing there idly and with something of a blank-like face. I do not know what is going through her mind…

With Jessica Connely/Miss Connely, first person POV

I went with all the parents to investigate the commotion that was going on, clearly not an intended part of Ellie's birthday party. I see that Celia, Jon's Gardevoir, is surrounded by a few kids so I decided to walk around and figure out what happened. I was paying attention to Celia but could hear something about, "Ellie," "yelling," "hurt herself," "the Gardevoir came," "calling for her mommy," and… WAIT WHAT!? Her mommy? She doesn't have a mommy except for the mother-like figure she has in Celia. I wonder if the kids may have heard incorrectly, exaggerating or perhaps just assuming.

That can wait later, Ellie probably needs help. I move around and get a good view of Celia and Ellie, seeing Celia taking good care of her. I figured my assistance is not required and decided to just wait for everything to calm down. Still interested in their dynamic, I sit to the side and observe, taking in everything I can. Chuckingly at my misplaced suspicion, I almost stepped away to check on the other kids when I noticed it. Through Ellie's teary, emotionally vivid eyes, I see the tiniest bit of a red tint.

I stopped. I looked and then I stopped again. I do not consider myself a vulgar person by most definitions but… oh fuck. Ellie. My student Ellie. The sweet little girl I have taught since preschool last year has red tint in her eyes.

I look at Celia and sure enough, like I suppose to expect anything differently, I see the red in her eyes much more strong but still not that far off in hue. Then her hair caught me off guard. I have seen Celia the Gardevoir before, several times before today; at parent-student conferences, school events, award ceremonies, and, hell, even that time when Ellie's father came to pick her up from school. I never really paid as much attention to her hair as I was doing now. She is not a shiny gardevoir and, yet, I noticed the tiniest bit of blue in her hair, like Ellie.

… …

Oh. Oh. Oh… Oh my goodness. I just had to suddenly pay attention to Ellie's briefly uncovered ears and see the slim, blunted points of them, slim and blunted points that should not exist. I then remembered that day during recess when I noticed her ears and now, admittedly, a hasty excuse for why she calls Jon's gardevoir, "mommy."

… …

The ears, the hair, the eyes, the clearly deep love between each other and the use of familial words around each other. Is Ellie, the sweet girl that is called Blueberry by her parents and a few others, the child of a gardevoir, a pokemon?

"...oh. Oh fuck! Oh fuck! What the hell am I thinking? I HAVE to be imagining things? I am just pushing traits I see on Ellie onto the gardevoir and vice-versa… that has to be it. Get it together Jessica, take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, then look again and you will surely stop imagining things."

I stood there and waited. I waited and, yet, when I opened my eyes, I looked over to see Jon looking slightly jarred by the attention everyone was giving to the child/gardevoir duo. Sufficed that I took my mind off the two for a minute, I looked back over to observe again since Celia was still comforting Ellie, who was now just hiccuping and looking slightly embarrassed. I could see from the corner of my vision Jon giving me a long glance before looking somewhere else but it did not change anything, I still saw them. I saw the red in their eyes, the slightly blue tint they shared, the slightly pointy ears on Ellie that I never once seen on another human even those with long slender ears, and that comforting love. Celia looked like any other mother comforting her child (perhaps gardevoir aren't so different in their affections toward others, never seen them be affectionate but still could not imagine them benign affectionate in many ways like humans).

In any other scenario, it could have very well been chalked up to her being sweet to a hurt child and giving her that maternal love that she would obviously know that Ellie lacked but that was it, any other scenario. Hell, the traits already make it look a little suspicious (though the thought of what would be considered an impossibility would make most people forget it but has anyone ever really proven it is impossible? Not including the most current, conventional scientific understanding of pokemon breeding). But then I remembered too that she screamed for her mommy, and who else but Celia, who shares a few particular traits with Ellie, comes rushing over. And I remembered another fact, no one has ever known, met and, as far as I know, got the name of Ellie's birth mother.

"There is no birth mother… because Celia is the mother." Could that even be right? I cannot just think that is true without asking but that is the problem. How could I even begin to ask such a question, if it is very well true, and Jon admits to it, technically that would be pokephilia, and pokephilia is a crime. Jon would never admit to that because of the potential ramifications for him and his family. Plus, if that type of information ever got out, what would the government do? The idea that a humanoid pokemon and a human interbreeding and the possibility of an actual, thriving offspring resulting from that would bring in swarms of government officials and scientists.

"What would the parents of the other kids think?"

Several of the other parents, different POVS, scattered thoughts

What did they say? Ellie hurt herself and cried for her mommy? Celia, a gardevoir, came rushing over in response? What? WHAT?

It was rather confusing and some of the parents could not begin to wrap their heads around it.

Mandy, one of the parents, directed her attention at Emma and asked, "what did she say again, I am confused?" Her daughter looked at her and said that Emma called for her mommy and the nice gardevoir lady came over to make her feel better. That clarified things but she was still left with questions, and uncomfortable so. Why would Ellie call her dad's gardevoir her mom if that is who she was talking to (had to be given that she knew that her daughter's classmate did not have her birth mother), why does Celia treat her like she is her baby, her own daughter? Is Jon okay with that type of interaction (perhaps he is since Ellie clearly loves her like family and would not be surprised if he did too, trainers and the like tend to love them like family)? The questions kept rolling around her head as she watched Celia tend to Ellie, not unlike how she would with her own daughter.

Edward, Jimmy's dad, was more perturbed than probably any other adult. It was not that he disapproved or thought it was disgusting that Celia and Ellie loved each other like family or that Celia took care of her, like now. What did concern him was that Jon was very trusting toward Celia in regards to Ellie's health; he loved his two companion pokemon like close friends and they even did their own things around town but leaving his boy in care of them beyond protection was another thing. If his kid was to be hurt or wounded, he would rather he be there to care for him or get his mother, Janet, to do so. Furthermore, how such a…dynamic came to be was another mystery himself, though he was willing to chalk it up to Celia and Ellie being around each other since Ellie's birth. He could not identify the feeling or place it but he just knew something about the situation made him uncomfortable. He looked around and figured some of the other parents were probably as confused and concerned as he was. Perhaps they can talk later and settle the topic so that they would not have to be surprised next time they came over.

Bee's (Maria B) parents, Vincente and Emily, were silent talking to themselves, discussing much of the same thing that Edward and Mandy were thinking about. Both decided that there was not anything they could do except just let things go and give Celia and Ellie privacy as they got some food for Bee and themselves; it was also getting close to time for the gift opening and they knew that would take everyone's mind off what would happen and make Jon's poor kid feel much better.

Other parents that were present were too concerned with Ellie and their children's mood, though they still were a little confused and questioning what happened. Given that the party went a little quiet, they implored their children to continue on playing with each other, eating and having fun while Jon, Celia and Ellie took a moment to get composed and back into their own party.

…

Some parents, however, thought it was still something that needed to be addressed and would wait till a more appropriate time to get together and talk before asking Jon some questions.

Back to the party

After Ellie finally calmed down, everyone enjoyed a little bit more time playing some party games, talking about different things, comforting Ellie and letting her know they were glad that she felt better and just enjoying each other's company.

Once it came time to open the gifts, everyone gathered around and watched Ellie open her presents. For Jon and Celia, it was great since they got to watch their daughter thank each person for their gift and even share them with the other kids to enjoy or play while they were there. For the others, it was just really nice to see someone so happy after being upset and, for the kids, fun to play with the toys with Ellie.

*We need to talk*

Despite all the fun and goodwill going on, some people, particularly Jessica and some of the parents, still had some feeling of apprehension left from the incident that occurred earlier. They could not be blamed for being curious, suspicious and or concerned, it was something they did not expect. With the party winding down and everyone getting ready to retire back to their homes, the feeling only increased. One by one, the kids, and the parents that did attend with them, began to leave. As this was going on, some locked eyes with one another and a thought, an unspoken message, passed between them: "we need to talk."