A/N: Hello everyone! My God, it feels like forever since I've touched this story! I have been battling residential hospitalization for my mental health for 4.5 months, the termination of my personal therapist, admission to an intensive virtual partial hospital program for extensive trauma survivors, the sudden unexpected death my beloved doggie furbaby to GME while I was away in St. Kitts celebrating my Granny's 95 years of life, and technical issues and crashing of my laptop nearly every day for a long while now. To say I've been stressed would be a tremendous understatement!

But alas, most of this has passed and cannot be changed and so I have gone through the various stages of grief numerous times, probably stuck at bargaining for far too long, but I am back to FF.

Short chapter as I wanted to get this edited and published before my laptop crashed for good, but I hope to get a new laptop soon in the coming months hopefully after I get my certification in legal transcription, God willing!

So, cheers to thriving in 2023 and I'll see you all on the next one!

I'll also be working on some future Rangershipping fics like the family Christmas one I promised you as well as some others with the gang a bit older and set more into adulthood. How long that will take before they are released I cannot say as of yet. But much more Rangershipping fics and fluff to come! I've settled on my other couples as well so no going back. It will not completely mirror the ending of Inevitable Love but if you've been paying attention, I think you can guess who at least one other major pairing will be in future stories.

Anyway, enough of my monologuing. I present Chapter 31!

A few weeks have since passed and Lunick was still in a coma. Dr. Joy had explained that the EEG revealed that Lunick's brain switches between silent brain activity to minimum but widespread neural activity across its brain, meaning that he was having periods of small neutral activity to some constant flow of electricity and signals throughout the brain. In lay terms, Lunick was switching between perceived near brain death to varying levels of consciousness. He was maintaining a minimal conscious state, meaning he could continue to improve continuously, but likely limitedly.

Solana mentioned that she had seen him blink and squeeze her hands back a few times, asking if that meant if he was regaining full consciousness, but Dr. Joy dishearteningly maintained that those were spontaneous flexes and movements done without external stimuli and internal effort, done without conscious attempts or endeavor. But he added that Lunick was showing more residual activity more often than not, indicating the possibility of slightly more favorable results. But as he stated before, neither milder nor deeper comas are good indicators for greater or lesser chances of recovery. It was up to the severity of Lunick's brain injury and the fight in his spirit to keep living, though the latter was more of a sentiment than an actual scientific fact.

Nevertheless, Lunick's pulse oximeter showed he was able to now sustain breathing minimally on his own, so the endotracheal intubation was removed and replaced with a nasal cannula to deliver supplemental oxygen and increased airflow to help with his respiration. His heart rate and blood pressure were below normal but not abnormally so where intervention was needed, and he was still receiving intravenous fluids to maintain homeostasis and body fluid balance as well as to replenish fluid volumes and manage pain.

As she suspected, Solana was only able to stay overnight a few times before the hospital started reinforcing its 'Family Only' policy and she was once again restricted to visitation hours. Dr. Jared Joy tried to extend it for as long as he could after witnessing the way Solana was chewed out by Lunick's mother Elvera, but there was only so much he could do in his position before his bosses and nurses started cracking down on their policies. Just because Solana was a renowned heroine and savior of the region didn't mean she had the privilege to always get preferential treatment. In fact, his bosses were thoroughly against that. So after four days he had to give her the news that she could only visit from now on.

Though Lou was saddened by this, Elvera was minimally affected. She maintained that Lunick's condition was her fault, condemning and crucifying Solana for abandoning him both as his work partner and girlfriend. Lou tried his best to mediate between the two emotional women but often got caught in the crossfire as Elvera redirected her anger at him, cursing him for allowing their son to take on such a dangerous career path in the first place when she had always been against it. Everyone knew she was speaking from a place of deep concern for her son, grief and pain, but only her husband had the backbone and authority to confront her about the way she was treating Solana.

"You act as if she pulled the trigger herself, 'Vera." Lou argued.

"She may as well have! What good of a partner is she if she can't even defend him? She wasn't even there! She left him all alone!"

"She's on-leave, 'Vera. That's not something to ignore. And you're wrong to be spouting the things you do about her, with your holier-than-thou attitude."

"I am holier than that, seductress! That girl is no virtuous woman. Why Lunick chose her, I'll never understand. She's never treated him right. Always believing she was better than him. Well, now, look where that has landed him!"

She clasped her hands to her face as she cried. Lou rubbed his wife's back and shook his head sadly. "You're wrong, 'Vera. You owe both Solana and Lunick an apology when he wakes up. I'm sure he doesn't appreciate the way you're talking about his girl."

"If he wakes up."

"He will, dear. He will."

Leilani sat quietly in the visitor's chair beside Lunick's bed watching his placid and stoic face as Lucario meditated in a corner of the room. Murph had maintained his promise to walk her to and from work in Lunick's stead in an effort to protect her from Alejandro. But it didn't matter. Once she was inside the confines of her house, she was battered with his beatings. He bashed her skull two nights ago, giving her a hairline skull fracture, leaving her with a lot of physical symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, vomiting, disorientation, and severe bruising on her head that she masked with her braids. She tried her best to hide the physical symptoms but nearly everyone at this point knew, including Percy who had his suspicions from the very start. But no one could convince Leilani to go to the police nor were they going to strongarm her into doing it either. She had been through enough already. But it was clear Alejandro's beatings were getting more and more severe and that if they didn't intervene soon, they may be left with the worst possible outcome.

Leilani didn't care, however. She was numb to it. Apathetic. Her fate was sealed as far as she was concerned. It was only a matter of time. She gave up fighting a long time ago. She was just barely surviving at this point, like Lunick, though he seemed to be gradually improving, albeit very slowly.

"You always manage to pull out of every hardship you've ever endured and come out on top," she said to the unconscious Lunick. "However beaten and weakened you are, you always win. Or at the very least, come out smiling. How do you do that? How do you keep smiling all the way through even while you're in so much pain? Even when you might lose. How do you do it, Kaneko?…You're a beacon for us, Lunick. Your smile tells us everything is going to be all right, whether you believe it or not, you have us convinced. You are our hope, our future. We can't lose you. So, keep fighting, like you always do. Wake up. We need you. Solana needs you. And I do too."

"You do, do you?"

Leilani tearily looked up from Lunick's relaxed countenance to see Solana's strained, pained, and hardened one as she stood in the doorway of the room, cross-armed, leaned against the frame. Her eyes were heavy and pink, like she hadn't slept and had been crying for weeks, and she was noticeably thinner. Her once toned and muscular body seemed frail and to almost crumple upon itself and she stood hunched eyeing her best friend with hurt tears dripping down her face.

Leilani shook her head. "That's not…that's not how I meant it, Sole."

"No, I suppose not. You'd know better," she uttered as she stepped into the room with Plusle trailing behind her. Her words stung but her appearance was nearly just as jarring.

"Solana, what's…happening to you? You look –"

"Oh, I'm sure I'm quite a sight. Haven't been able to maintain any level of self-care since my beloved was shot, no thanks to you, no?" she said as she brought the second visitor's chair close to the bed beside Lunick and Leilani and sat down.

Leilani blinked and drew in her breath. "Solana, that wasn't my fault…You can't keep blaming me for that."

"I can do whatever the hell I want." She retorted evenly. "You froze up…leaving yourself vulnerable and open and Lunick had to dive to protect you, getting almost fatally wounded in the process."

"I…You know why I froze."

"Yeah, which is why I'm so freaking mad," she cried as she ran her hands through her unkempt hair, "You refuse to get help for yourself. You refuse to help yourself out of your situation. You just sit there and take it and endure it and expect the rest of us to keep holding you up. Well, I'm tired! And Lunick almost died because of it! Get your shit together!"

Leilani gasped deeply, her mouth agape before closely her mouth slowly and turning away from her.

"You're hurting…You're hurting…And you're trying to hurt me more because you're in so much goddamn pain. Well, you can't. I'm already broken…Anyway, I know you don't mean any of that. Yeah, maybe you are tired, but you don't blame me this deeply. You don't hate me. You can't. You're all I got left."

"Whose fault is that?"

The venom in Solana's words just seeped deep into Leilani's veins. But she wouldn't allow it to show.

"You're hurting…" she repeated as she slowly stood up from her chair and moved it back a little further. "Let's go, Lucario," she called quietly to her Partner Pokémon, glancing at Solana one more time before they both left the room.

Solana held her forehead and rested her elbows on the bed beside Lunick's right arm and Plusle hopped on the bed and joined Minun at the foot of the bed.

"I'm such a bitch, right?" she chuckled dryly. "I don't need you to tell me how wrong I am for what I said to Leilani, Baby. I can hear you; I can already hear you chastising me. She's right, I am hurting. We all are. Our world just isn't the same without you in it."

She looked up and held her face up with her hands as she looked at her comatose boyfriend. "Why did you do it, Lunick? Leilani's right, it's not her fault. You chose to dive and push her out of the way. There were better ways of handling that. You know that, right? I know you do. You're not the same little reckless kid I met seven years ago. You've matured so so much since then, in so many ways…So, why did you do it? You knew he'd take the shot. I know you saw it coming. Why didn't you disarm him? Why didn't you stun him? Was your mind just in overdrive from the stress? That couldn't be it. You're a lot better at handling situations like this, even more than me. I don't understand. Help me understand, Baby. Or at least, open your eyes. Say something. I need to see that there's still life…in you…Please…"

Solana's eyes were once again filled with tears.

"It's been eight weeks, Lunick…Why haven't you woken up?…Don't you know how stressful this is to everyone? To me? I haven't gotten my period in over two months now. Do you know what that means?"

She clasped her hands together and pressed her knuckles into her forehead. "I don't know for sure. I can't say. I haven't gone to the doctor or done any tests or anything…But you know it's a possibility…I most definitely cannot do this without you…Please, Lunick. I don't know what's going on in your head, but I need you to wake up. I can't stay on leave. The missions are piling up at the base, more amalgamated pokémon have been seen and captured. We need you back."

She then dropped her head on the bed and folded her arms in front of her as she buried her face in the crook of her right arm.

"Please, Lunick. You can't go yet! You need to help Mr. Lamont with his school. You need to become Area Leader. We're supposed to get married and have a family together. You haven't forgotten, have you? The promise you made. The one we made to each other. And Nate. I know you haven't forgotten him. I know you don't even want to think about him but…He's still at it. He won't stop. And nobody in my family knows about what happened to me and I don't blame them, it's all on me, but…Damn it, Lunick!…I need you! I know I'm being selfish. I know I am…but I can't, or rather, I don't want to live without you. I'll bargain if I have to. I promise I won't give you any grief anymore. You can do and eat whatever you want. I'll get better. I'll get heathier. Somehow…I don't know yet. But I will…I'll do anything for you! I love you, Lunick! And I know you love me too! So, you can't leave yet! Please! Not yet! Come back to me, Baby, please! Wake up! Wake up, please!"

Solana released a guttural cry that erupted from the depths of her stomach out of her throat like a wounded pokémon on its last leg of life. Even Plusle and Minun were tearing up from her cries. It was filled with so much anguish and pain, not that they didn't feel their own about the seemingly grim situation. There was no telling how long Lunick would remain in a coma, or how long the doctors would be willing to keep him on support. They could pull his oxygen at any point, and he could go in an instant, just like that. He may have been breathing on his own now, but there was always a possibility that could fluctuate and change at any given moment. There was never any indication Lunick was out of the woods of becoming or being brain dead. His brain activity alone proved that. His results were unnatural. The minimalist of brain activity while also being enough to sustain his battered body – it was unheard of. Lunick was always a spiritual person, so there was no telling if he was battling the spirit world to stay afloat or if he was slowly drifting away from them. Two months could become two years if treatment was continued.

She just needed one. One sign, one wonder, one event or indication that Lunick was going to live. No, not just live. That he was going to fully recover. If he was immobile, bedridden, or paralyzed in any way where his quality of life dropped, he'd be miserable, and he may as well have been dead. No, he had to do more than survive. He had to overcome, endure therapy, and become whole again. Was that realistic given his grievous injuries? Was Solana praying for too much?

In that moment, she got her answer.

"Am I in Heaven?" a voice croaked throatily.

Solana's eyes snapped open. Did she hear right? Or was she hallucinating? Either could be true. She was heavily sleep deprived, starving herself, and self-medicating for weeks if not months before Lunick was injured. Was she losing her mind?

"I must be," it uttered hoarsely.

There it was again. Solana suddenly sat up.

"I must be. I must've died and gone to Heaven because I'm witnessing and beholding God's most beautiful angel."

Solana's eyes shimmered. Tears continued to stream down her face as she looked her BF squarely in his face. His head was angled awkwardly towards her as it lay against the pillow, his eyes were very barely open and heavily glossed over but she could see it. His dark blue eyes and pupils. But what got to her was the trademark goofy grin he was wearing as he, enervated and languidly met his dazed, stupefied gaze with her flabbergasted amazed one.

"Lunick?" she whispered, her voice almost equally cracked.

Lunick's eyes were still barely half-open, but he wore one the largest, most endearing smiles Solana had ever seen on him.

"Hey, angel." He wheezed.

Overcome with emotion, Solana threw her arms around Lunick but instantly regretted it and let him go when he screamed out in pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she squeaked as she held her hands to her lips.

All she got in response was a wheeze-filled chuckle.

"Hey, I may not be in Heaven, but I've still got my angel," his delivery was as smooth as his smile goofy and face disoriented.

"Oh, Lunick," Solana cried. "I thought you were lost to me forever."

"Forever and ever the princess of my heart, Babe," he slurred. "Not goin' anywhere without you."

Solana covered her mouth as it quivered as squeaky moans and cries burst from her throat as both their Partner Pokémon saddled up beside Lunick and rubbed their sparky cheeks against either side of his face, the electric charge causing his hair to sprawl out wildly in all directions.

But Lunick was too high to notice or even care. He didn't know how he ended up from the battlefield to this hospital bed, but one thing was certain. He owed the man upstairs one for pulling him through like he did.

A/N: Finally, Chapter 31 is posted. I know it's short and the story is heavily rushed but I really wanted to get this out ASAP. I have no idea how much longer I have my files with me, so my number one priority is backing up all of my files and data to an external hard drive by tomorrow evening before my laptop completely crashes.

Hope you all were able to enjoy! As promised, I will be delving into each character's individual stories, arcs and struggles from this point up to maybe the major points of the subplot, hopefully at a much more regulated pace. Leilani, Solana, Murph, and even Aria will get some focus in the coming chapters ahead.

Anyway, as always everyone, please do not forget to review!

Always Do Everything with Love.

XyKPfan