"Jon, look I am sorry that we asked you to come here to speak with us, I really am. The fact is that we are all a pretty knit-tight group, and both you and your family are a part of that group. We are only concerned that the others in our little community, specifically those who aren't close friends and connected by our children or our friendship, will be confused and not be kind to you all because of rumors," Henry, who along with Melanie, hosted this meeting, spoke.
Jon could tell that Henry's little opener was a heartfelt statement. He looked around the room to see who all came and saw that it was [Henry and Melanie, Janet and Edward, Timothy (his wife opting to stay home), Emily (whose husband, Vicente, had to work late), and Jack (Amelia too busy with watching Lindsey)].
Looking opposite of them, he saw [Hana and Hideki, Alice and Jackson, and finally Thomas (Evelyn staying home to chaperon Mickey and Trevor's sleep over)]. It seemed like nearly everyone wanted to be here.
After hearing him speak, Jon decided that he should try to be nice and polite; he could see that the others wanted to genuinely help . "Well Henry, I suppose I should be thankful then for at least showing some concern then. I know we all have become acquaintances and friends through our children spending time together in and outside of school. Regardless of that, you all have shown genuine concern and I will at least try to be more open to you."
Danny then started speaking, hoping to make it feel less cordial and more welcoming. "Well Jon, I think we all here do appreciate that you came and we know that you didn't have to come here to entertain our questions and you didn't even have to be polite given that we are, essentially, digging into your family's private life." Several others including Henry's wife, both couples Hana, Hideki and Hannah, Lucas, and several more nodded their heads in agreement. They were grateful that they could get that across to Jon because they, like Jon, felt uncomfortable with having to talk to him in such a questioning manner, they didn't want to make him feel or believe that they were ostracizing him.
Getting the pleasantries out of the way, Henry, the one to ask the questions, asked their first question. "Jon, why does Ellie call Celia her momma?"
The silence was permeable, thick enough to cut glass but Jon answered. "Well we have spoken about this before but Celia is the only mother that Ellie has ever known, Celia has done nothing but love her as her very own daughter and the same for Ellie as her mother." Looking around at everyone, he asked, "Would you have Ellie not know what it feels to be loved by a mom? Would you feel more comfortable if Celia treated her as just another friend then someone to care for?
They were shocked into silence yet again. Despite the previous conversations, the way Jon spoke to them and then asked them the hard questions made it difficult to suggest an alternative without feeling horrible, even more so to argue against.
Jon wasn't done talking though.
"I trust Celia. I have known her since I was fourteen, which was seventeen years ago. I have known that woman longer than I have been alive and longer then I have known anyone of you. I trusted her with my life when we were on the road, traveling across the various regions. Most importantly, I trusted her when I was in my most vulnerable times, uncertainty of my future and direction in life. If I could trust her with all that, then I could trust her to take care of my daughter and be a mother when no one else could or would. If that doesn't make you comfortable, then that is on you."
Chuckling to himself, Jon finished the answer on his final statement. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't either break up their connection or tell Ellie to not call Celia her momma. They love each other too much to just simply stop. Some of you know how it feels to have such strong connections with your own pokemon companions, the same ones that protected you when you were younger.
"Once again, I can't tell you how many times that I am sorry that we questioned you Jon, I don't know how the others feel about it still but hearing you speak, I can now see from your perspective why it's okay with you. Maybe it's just something I need time to accept as normal but even if that weren't the case, I couldn't find it in myself to doubt it. I hope you can at least see where we were coming from and be patient with us as we try to understand." Henry looked around to the others to see if they would speak.
Before Henry could continue to speak, Alice spoke.
"Honestly Jon, as a mother with her own child, I can't argue. Mothers or at least the ones that I know all love our children with our hearts. It is something that we can't help. It is our duty to shower our kids with love so that they don't feel lonely and scared. Since Celia has been with you so long and even since the birth of Ellie, I don't know if it is her deep connection or her emotional empathetic being, but I have to imagine it would be hard for her to NOT love Ellie as her own. If loving Ellie makes her feel loved and helps her become a good person later on in her life, then who could argue against that?"
Jon had hardly spoken to Alice in the last couple of months, mainly because it would always be Celia who would end up conversing with her more than him but after what she said, he couldn't help but be grateful to her for her kind and honest words. He would definitely make more of an effort in the future to talk with her.
"Thank you Alice, I really appreciate your kind words and I know Celia would too."
Alice responded back, "You're welcome Jon, it was my pleasure."
Once everyone had time to absorb what was said and get back to the reason why they were having this conversation, Janet, another person whom he didn't speak to often, was blunt when she asked, "why does Ellie have pointy ears and blue mixed in her dark hair?"
…
For Jon, this question was a bit of a stumper. How could he even explain this away? Maybe he was a bit naive about it but he had honestly hoped that the few people who did see the ears and hair would have kept it to themselves because they thought it was their imagination. Of course he would be wrong but he had an idea, and hoped it would work.
"Well this is something I am not entirely sure of if I were to be honest." Scratching the side of his head in pretend confusion. "She seemed slightly different at birth but I just assumed that was normal for babies at the time since I never really been around babies from my small hometown or throughout my journey. Celia did literally spend night and day with her though, often taking care of her and raising her. When she got older, I assumed it was some harmless, even cute, mutation from having been comforted, treated, and healed with her psychic energy, and being communicated almost entirely via telepathy. Celia even communicated with her in a way sometimes when she was still in her mother's womb because she wanted to communicate emotions to her.
Some of the parents voice their doubt, wondering how such a thing could happen. "Uhhh, how would that be possible? I don't know much but that sounds crazy to me." Jon and the others looking over at Janet. Janet continued, "I mean I know that there are pretty crazy things out there such as Pokemon with inorganic bodies and the legendary pokemon that people go crazy over like the Regis and Rayquaza but I still wonder how a pokemon can affect a baby's development."
"Now honey, I know it does sound rather far fetched or presumptuous but is it really that crazy? Hell, some people out there in the world have all kinds of unique abilities and whatnot. Some even supposedly have psychic powers. And then you have those who argue that humans are actually a type of pokemon themselves but I don't want to get into that because I don't know much and a lot of people would disagree because of ethical reasons but still."
Seeing the couple begin a debate, others started chiming in and it soon got loud with all the conversations going on about what was or could be possible, unique humans, etc.
While this was happening, Henry, who went to the kitchen to check his house phone that was ringing, came over to Jon and Timothy. Both were talking about something about scientific research that could uncover more about the human anatomy when Henry quietly asked them to join him in the kitchen. Tim got a call from his wife.
*Tim gets a call from his wife, it's not good news*"Oh shit. I forgot that I left my phone on silent. She must have been trying to get a hold of me if she had to call your house phone." Tim spoke, feeling like dumb and anxious about possibly getting yelled at for ignoring her. However, Jon felt anxious since he was called in the kitchen too since he thought there was no reason for him to be there if it was only Tim's wife calling; he was starting to think something bad had happened.
Entering into the kitchen, Henry informed Stephanie that her husband and Jon were in the kitchen and, soon, placed the phone on speaker.
"Hey hun, sorry I didn't pick up your calls earlier, my phone was on silent and we all have been in Henry and Melanie's living room talking. Is something wrong?" Tim said, trying to calm his wife before she could reprimand him just in case she was mad. However, what he heard wasn't what he expected.
"Tim…please…you and Jon need to come back to our home now…I can't explain over the phone since it would take too much time but it's not good…Jon, if you can hear me, Ellie is sick and Celia had brought her here, panicking, and when I got Ellie out of her arms to start treating her, she begged me to save her and said something else.. Plea-" before Jon could hear the rest and before they could stop him, Jon immediately ran off. He ran down the hallway connecting the kitchen to the living room, running past the surprised, now silent talkers who stopped after seeing Jon run out the house into the raging storms outside.
Jon fucking knew he didn't feel right, he just knew it but he didn't care about that now, he had to get to Tim's as quick as possible. Not caring about the cold raindrops smashing against his face, his pants and feet getting soaked, or the thunder and lightning above, he ran haphazardly over the slippery grass and then the sidewalk as he rushed over to Tim's.
Jon sees the front of Tim's house, he starts running faster.Once there, he bursted through the front door, immediately catching Stephanie by surprise. He was about to push through when Stephanie stopped him, asking Jon to calm down so she could talk.
In a distraught voice, Jon begged, "where are they?! Please, where is Ellie and Celia?" He could hear how his voice sounded and was almost ready to cry. He needed to keep it together and asked again, "please Stephanie, where are my girls?"
It broke Stephanie's heart to see Jon like this. She knew the poor man was torn up about Celia and his daughter when he didn't even know what was happening. Telling him was going to make him worse but, first, she needed calm him down before she could explain. "Jon, listen to me, okay? Right now-"
"NO! Please show me where they are now! I have to see them…please…" he begged. Before she could try to explain again, he tried to push past her to try to look in the rooms to find his family.
Stephanie grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to reason with him that he first needed to calm down but he wasn't listening. Before he could push through her, however, Tim came through the front door and immediately grabbed Jon from behind, putting him in a hold.
"Let me go! Tim, let go of me, I need to see them!" he nearly screamed.
Tim didn't let go of Jon, trusted his wife to know that Jon should wait so he held on, hoping that holding him for a bit more while Stephanie spoke to him would calm him down.
Jon kept thrashing about though, and was about to throw all his weight behind him to get out when Henry, getting to the house a little late, came in and grabbed onto Jon too, telling him that he needed to calm down. "Jon! Look man, I know you are upset right now but yelling and running into whatever room they are in won't do them any good! You have to trust Stephanie, she wouldn't be trying to calm you down if she didn't think it was important now, please settle down so she can talk."
It took another few seconds but soon, Jon ran out of steam and frustration and came to a standstill. Henry and Tim then walked him over to the couch and sat him down while Stephanie got them all a change of Tim's shirts and some towels to pat themselves dry with. No longer raving like a madman or trying to escape their presence, Jon looked up at Stephanie.
He looked defeated, tired, and ready to cry at the drop of any bad news."Stephanie, I am sorry for being so…for being so emotional and agitated right now but please tell me what is going on with my family? Please."
Stephanie took a deep breath and started, "Jon, I do not know all the information for now but Celia came to my house in a panic, beating on the front door. Before I could ask her anything, I saw that she had Ellie in her arms. Not wasting any time, I rushed them inside and took Ellie, who was unconscious, from her arms. I could tell by her drenched clothes, pale face, pale lips, the shivering and small breaths that she was suffering from hypothermia."
She looked over at Jon and could see him looking worse from the news but continued, "while this was happening, Celia kept begging me to save her life…She said she wouldn't be able to live if she died." She took a second to pause, knowing the next thing was probably going to be too much for the man. "The next thing she said was 'please baby, mommy's here, please oh please come back to me!' and she was crying. She begged Ellie to not die… she said to your daughter that, and I quote, 'you were the best thing your father ever gave to me, please don't die now'… with the last thing being 'please save my daughter'."
It was right there that Jon broke down and began to cry. Just pure, visceral crying with sobs that made even Tim pull Jon into a hug to let his friend cry it out. Both Tim and Henry couldn't help but feel sadness for the man and prayed for whatever deity out there to never let them go through the same thing.
"Jon, I know you are crying but you need to hear me, I promise I will treat your daughter to the best of my abilities. Right now, it would be too dangerous to move her to the hospital but I am an RN nurse with experience in the emergency room, I can take care of her properly in our house."
Jon was still crying but was able to look up at Stephanie and give her his gratitude from the bottom of his heart. He was able to start calming himself down knowing that Ellie was probably no longer in immediate danger but is confused, where is Celia?
Stephanie wishes to talk to Jon in private."Before you go in, I would like to speak privately to you, please follow me in the kitchen."Not knowing what she wanted to tell him but knowing it had to be important, Jon got up to follow Stephanie.
Tim wanted to go since it was his wife talking but Henry laid a hand on his shoulder, urging him to let them speak in private. Henry then reassured him, "Tim, let's just wait in here, okay? Whatever it is your wife needs to tell him, she must have a good reason to tell him in private but I am sure she will share it with you and me once she lets Jon go see his kid."
Tim nodded his head with a yes, "Yeah, I guess so man. I want to know myself but I am sure it has to be really important if she took Jon aside to tell him first, it is about his daughter and Celia after all." With that settled, both men just sat on the couch in silence while they waited for Stephanie to come back.
*Stephanie knows the truth*"Jon, in case you were wondering, Celia passed out right after the last thing she said to me. I assumed it was due to the emotional distress of the situation coupled with the loss of her energy and adrenaline, so I placed her in the same bed as Ellie once I got the guest bedroom set up with blankets and after putting them both in warm, dry clothes. For Ellie's treatment, I left Suiteya, my ninetails, in there to use her tails and excellent body heat to improve her treatment."
After hearing all that, Jon stopped crying but he still sounded trepid with anxiety. "Stephanie, thank you so very much for saving my family. You didn't just treat my daughter since, if what you said was true, then she would have been in terrible trouble without your help. You saved my daughter's and Celia's life and I couldn't be more grateful to you for that. May I please see them?"
"Yes, you may but please be slow and quiet there. They need all the rest they can get and we can talk about it later but Ellie will need to go to the nearby clinic to get a follow-up to make sure that the hypothermia didn't do any lasting damage. I don't believe there will be any since Celia brought her to me in time but it never hurts to check." She finished telling him.
She doesn't like it but she has to tell him that she knows.Looking at her, Jon could see that she had a slight grimace on her face, looking a bit uncomfortable. She then spoke, "Jon…I had a really good look at Ellie when I was treating her…the ears, the blue in her hair…I opened up her eyes to check the responsiveness of her pupils but when I shined a light in them, I could see some red hazy tint over her irises. With the way that Celia spoke to me, I know. Ellie isn't only just your daughter. I will let you go now but we have to talk about this when you are done. For your family's sake, okay?"
He nodded his head numbly, not having the energy or the argument to refute her claims. She knew but she didn't care because he wanted to see his family. He was grateful for that because he just wanted to see them.
Showing him the door, Stephanie gave him one last look before opening the door, keeping it cracked just in case he needed to inform her of any immediate changes in Ellie's condition. He said, "okay," clearly too distraught and scared for his daughter to argue back to the person treating her.
Jon is desperate to see his family.Walking through the guest room door, he gently made his way to Ellie, ignoring the ninetails.
Trying to keep his composure, he gently rubbed her forehead, running his fingers through her hair. "I…I heard you were sick, blueberry…I am glad you are safe now though." He looked over at Celia then back to Ellie. "I see your mommy is here and I heard that she…she…uh…she saved your life when she brought you here, that was smart of her." Having gone through such a rollercoaster of emotions in the last half hour, his hands started shaking and his voice began to crack even harder, crying as he looked at her.
"I…I am so sorry…I. I wasn't there, I went to some stupid meeting when I should have…been there with you and your mother, enjoying a day inside."
…
"Please," he begged, "please forgive your daddy for not being there…there for you. I felt like something was off today but I just thought that may…be I was being…too paranoid or something. I told myself at work that once I got done with talking to everyone at Henry's. We would all stay at home, put on a movie, and eat pizza and ice cream. Please wake up soon baby, I will buy you all the toys you want when you do. Your friend, Gloria, her mom said you would get better but I'm still scared so please don't keep your daddy waiting."
He looked over at Celia and couldn't help but imagine how distraught she would have been if she had been the one to find Ellie and bring her here. Not knowing or checking to see if anyone was in the room, not bothering to care about or think about privacy, he starts talking out loud.
"Celia, I am sorry that you had to go through what you did," he said as he moved his hand on top of her hand. "I love you so very much, you gave me such a wonderful little girl and when she was in trouble, you saved her…you are a better parent than I could ever be. All those people were concerned about you being a mother for Ellie and, yet, you proved that you were the best mother you could possibly be. I promise to be a better father for Ellie, I am not letting this happen again ever."
*Stephanie gives Jon some privacy, and tells the truth*Outside the door, Stephanie could hear some of what Jon was saying and felt terrible for the man. He and his family have been the talk of their little community group over something that, now that she realizes, they couldn't understand. She knew that Jon must have felt really uncomfortable about the truth coming out since she could see that they would be judged and questioned, perhaps even in trouble. She felt bad for eavesdropping on him in the first place. She knew now it was better to leave and just go to the living room to wait with her husband so Jon could finish up.
Once she got back to the living room, she was able to settle in before"How are they? Is Jon alright?" she was asked by Henry when she walked in.
"I don't know honestly, he knows that they will mostly be alright but I think this thing has really scared the hell out of him. He needs to be in there for the time being, for their sake and his."
"Damn it, that sounds horrible, and I hate it for him. They don't deserve this, I know you are right but I still hope that they get well as soon as possible." Henry said.
"I hope so too man…" Tim said as well.
…
They sat there for a while in silence when Tim thought enough time had passed and decided to ask, "Hun, what was it that you and Jon had to speak about in private? I don't mean to be nosy but I know you probably just wanted him to hear it first since you never like to break any bad news to patients in front of others."
"It was about Ellie and Celia, I don't know what y'all know but I've seen Ellie and everything about her. I told Jon that I knew." Stephanie responded.
"That you knew what? That we were talking about the events of the last week or so? Stephanie, he already knew about that and I am sure he would have already guessed that you knew as well. Why bring-"
"No. None of that Tim, that isn't what I was saying. Everything about the way that Celia begged me to save Ellie, the way she cried and begged when talking to Ellie, and the differences that Ellie had compared to us…"
"Tim, she is only half-us. We never heard about Ellie's birth mother because she doesn't exist, or well not the stories we were told. No, she is only half human." She said cryptically.
Henry interrupted, "Wait. what do you me-" but Stephanie interrupted.
"Ellie is the daughter of Jon and Celia. Celia is Ellie's birth mother. She is the way she is because she is half human and half gardevoir."