Hello :P It is not Wednesday but I am back with a new chapter. I didn't upload when I should have because I just wrote the night before and was still concentrating on the one I just wrote and didn't want to judge another chapter. And then I was working yesterday. But I'm back now! And I thought that this one was only alright at the time of writing it but after reading it, I really quite like it. It deals with a lot of feelings between James Morgan and Ash and Misty's twins, Ben and Katie, and emotions that happen after Ash runs off due to darkness when Rey is born. I watched Finding Neverland right before writing this so a lot of the emotions were pulled from that film. I hope you enjoy!

Ages:

James: 37

Ben: 10

Katie: 10

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned :3

I bit my lip and remained on James' shoulder and studied him as he paused outside the Ketchum living room door before going in. His shoulders rose and he took a deep inhale of breath but before he let it out again, he paused. He swallowed. His eyes flickered sadly. He paused. I continued studying him. I was about to hold onto his shirt material tighter to offer him some form of comfort when he exhaled that breath that he had previously taken. He swallowed a second time but that time, it was different. He held his head up higher. He composed himself. He left behind all of the vulnerability that he felt. As his hand moved onto the living door knob and he twisted it and went inside, he left every worry behind. He left every concern. Every doubt. And every vulnerability too. He left it all in the hallway. And he headed on inside.

With his head held high, he walked into the Ketchum living room and he got ready to greet who was inside with a smile but neither of them were looking at him. He hadn't expected that. He assumed that they'd be like him, and desperate and curious to know what every noise was – and desperate to know who each visitor was too, in case they had any more news. But they were not him, thank goodness for that. They were themselves. They were Ben and Katie. And they continued what they were doing.

James' walking pace slowed and quietened down even further as he received no reaction from either of the twins and he shut the door practically silently behind him as well. He tilted his head subtly on one side. He watched. He waited. He watched and waited for a reaction, any reaction. But he didn't receive any. He didn't receive a single one.

Katie was sat in the arm chair that her mother usually sat in and she had one of her legs crossed over the other like the older orange haired woman would have done too. In her lap was a journal and in her hand was a ballpoint pen. She had her head bowed down towards the pages and despite her secret worried and flickering mind, her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth with determination as she wrote words into the diary.

James found himself smiling just a fraction to himself when he noticed what exactly she was writing into but he didn't let his thoughts wander and float to there. They were too close to home. They might have leaded him to thinking deeper and darker things. He didn't want that. Like he and I both knew, he had decided to leave all emotions at the door. He had to be strong. He had to be brave. He had to be Uncle James. For the children and for himself.

So as I delicately hopped onto the window sill to keep warm, James decided to leave Katie alone for a moment and he moved over to Ben instead. As soon as he had entered the room, he noticed that the ten year old boy was sat on the rug in front of the television screen and his games console was plugged into the large screen. The raven haired male hadn't made a sound when he entered the room and neither had the older male. James finally decided to break all silences. He did so when his foot hit the wrong part of the floorboard and made it squeak as he approached Ben further and he did a second time by purposely clearing his throat.

I watched. Ben still didn't look up but Katie did. Her head slowly looked up from focusing hard on her writing and even though her eyes didn't light up for him the way that they used to do before, she couldn't stop herself from giving him a small smile. It was a tiny smile but it was a smile nonetheless. And after James gave another one back to her, he lightly raised his eyebrow at Ben and moved to stand over him. He jokingly tweaked on the back of the boy's neck as he looked down at him.

"Have you been playing that thing all day?" he asked Ben about his video game habits lightly but almost paternally and after my best friend's raven haired child simply nodded his head and kept his tongue poking out of his lips as he played his console like his sister had been doing before, James continued. He had tried to keep his tones light and airy but he couldn't stop his parental side kicking in. he poked the back of his neck once again and that time, Ben shook his body to shake him off. "Do you think that's a good idea? Don't you think that it's time you stopped that?"

I noticed Katie's eyebrow beginning to slowly rise like she had a fishhook in it but luckily for James, he didn't see it. He would've been very surprised and perhaps even very hurt at that gesture coming from his Katie. She was never like that with him. But despite her change in expression, she remained quiet.

Her brother was indeed her twin brother and despite their same birthday, they were very different people. So needless to say, Ben reacted very different. He let out quite the obvious sigh at the lavender haired male and briefly looked up at him. He spoke to him and he replied to him, though he didn't pause his video game and his fingers didn't stop frantically clicking buttons.

"Why are you here?" he asked his Uncle and he had tried to be rude to him but he found himself shaking his head at himself when his tone came out completely wrong. It sounded more curious than irritated like he had first intended. I shook my head at him too. I didn't like his attitude but in that moment, I let it slide. He had a lot on his plate at that moment in time; they both did. They all did, in fact. And I knew that Ben's choice of tone was the least of James' worried. The brown orbed young man continued grouchily and slightly hurriedly to make up for his previous words. "What do you expect me to be doing with my time? Grammy wants us to stick close to the house and Gary wants that for Eddie too. So the only way that we get to hang out is by battling online."

Ben told James and with that, he resumed clicking buttons on his controller even more frantically than before and his tongue stuck out even further as well. I let out a sigh and James did too. There was nothing really that could be said to argue or counteract the raven haired male's words but the lavender haired male replied to him even so. He ran a hand through his shorter hair before sticking both of his hands in his pockets, choosing his words slowly.

"Speaking of your Grandmother, she asked me to come and sit with you two while she has some time with the other two. So, Ben, that answers your question as to why I'm here." James told his 'Nephew' calmly but despite his airiness, the younger male found himself blushing that his previous rudeness had been noticed and addressed. But James didn't say anything further about that particular subject. Instead, he quietly came to sit on the floor next to Katie's armchair before he began saying what he really wanted to say.

Like I mentioned before, the Ketchum children had a lot on their plate. They were going through so much. After their newest little sister had been born, their father's darkness had returned and it caused him to run off, fearing being a father all over again. And this in turn made their mother very poorly. It made Misty very poorly indeed. She had been slipping in and out of consciousness for weeks and even though at that point she had started to stabilise, things still hadn't gone back to how they were. Of course they hadn't. How could they? Things might have never gone back to the way that they were.

Ben and Katie were under a lot of stress and because of this exact reason, the orange haired ten year old reacted very peculiarly for her when her Uncle James sat near to her. While the lavender haired male and her twin brother had been conversing, she had been cracking on with her writing. But as soon as her Uncle was near to her. She stopped. She almost dropped her pen. She very subtly but somehow obviously tried to hide her words from him. The ex-rocketeer noticed right away and before going back to talking to Ben, he reassured Katie.

"Don't worry, I'm not looking." He told her worriedly but collectedly and he simply moved a fraction away from her and leaned his back against the side of the arm chair so his back was to her and her writing as well. Katie normally would have been appalled by the lack of attention but that day, she appreciated it. She felt bad that he had noticed her obvious behaviour but she focused on the fact that he reacted in an unbothered way. She gave him a small smile and continued her writing as James went back to speaking to her twin brother. She even let me hop onto the back of her arm chair but despite her invitation, I didn't dare read what she was writing. Of course I didn't. That was for her and for her alone.

"Have you seen your mother today?" James asked outwardly but gently and needless to say, his words were met with a lingering silence. Katie's pen stopped scratching against her journal. Ben actually paused his video game. James understood. He continued as caringly as he could. He didn't even need to try. He cared about those children so much and he cared about their mother as well. I swallowed sadly. We all did. "Have you seen her? And even if you have, would you like to go see her again? I-"

"We've seen her." Ben suddenly replied to him and un-paused his video game, speaking for both him and his sister before she even had a chance too. James glanced at Katie upon hearing her swallow and she just responded by wordlessly nodding her head and pretending to read through what she had written. "And seeing as you follow Grammy's instructions so well, we'd all better stay in here. After all, she did ask you to come and watch us."

James' mouth opened to speak but it soon quickly shut again. Katie remained quiet and pretending to read through her words on her page. I couldn't stop myself from raising my eyebrow. I loved Ben with all of my heart but sometimes – actually a lot of the time – I disliked the way that he was with James. It was so silly. It was so pointless. He was allowed to feel how he felt. But he bordered on being very rude. He was in pain. He was hurt. His whole world had been turned upside down. But mine had as well. And you didn't see me going around talking to people how I liked.

After a good few moments of a harsh silence, I noticed that Katie started to open her mouth and I could tell by her slight frown that she was about to tell her brother off. But before she could do that, Ben spoke again. James braced himself as soon as he heard his voice.

"Besides…" he began with an attitude and paused to launch an attack with his Pokémon on the game that he was playing before going back to speaking, his eyebrow raising more and more. He shrugged. "Besides, I'm not sure Mom would be interested in seeing us a second time. After all, we have nothing really to tell her since we had to give up our Pokémon Journey after a few months and have been stuck in this place."

My eyes widened at his words. Katie dropped her pen and went open mouthed. I hesitantly looked over at James and expected his eyes to be filled with hurt or concern or even irritation. I expected them to be filled with something other than what I was shown. He looked barely unaffected. He looked very collected. He looked very calm. He shrugged back at Ben and once again, his parental side took over. He gave the raven haired boy a light nudge and spoke to him in a way that was respectful but very firm. His eyes didn't look away from him.

"I'm very glad you brought that subject up because I've been meaning to talk to you about that. So I'd appreciate it if you could shut off your game so we could talk about it. Now."

The lavender haired male was very very fair but sometimes, he could be firm. And when he was firm and calm, it resonated with Ben the most. He clicked to select a move on his game and pressed a few more buttons but after proving a point, he did pause the game. James waited for the ten year old boy to look at him before he spoke.

Katie's pupils were flickering at the subtle tension between the two males but her attention was on the lavender haired male too. Mine was as well. And because of this, James got started. The second time he spoke to the Ketchum twins, he was filled with a lot more weariness and hurt than the time that he'd been so very calm.

"I'm just going to come out and say that I really feel like you're blaming me for the fact that you came home from your Pokémon Journey early and I don't think I'm wrong in my assumptions." He began and after, on a rare occasion, Ben remained silent and Katie commonly did too, James continued. He continued with a shake of the head and a slight sigh. He began playing with his hair absent-mindedly and this made Katie nudge closer to him a fraction. "I don't really know what to say about that. I guess I should just ask you, did I do the wrong thing by telling you about your mother? I'm pretty certain that you chose to come back home but even so, would you have preferred I didn't tell you? Would you have preferred to not know that your Dad had run off? Would you have preferred to not know that your Mom was very sick? Would you have preferred to not know that I'm temporarily taking care of your baby sister in the hospital? Would you-"

"Stop it." Ben interrupted James with a fiercely emotional shake of the head and even though I had disagreed with his attitude towards the lavender haired male, I was agreeing with him then. I hopped off Katie's arm chair and moved onto the raven haired male's lap instead while he faced his Uncle. His chin jutted out stubbornly and with hurt. "Stop it. Just shut up!"

Once again, I found myself almost nodding my head at Ben's words but instead of doing that, I nuzzled into his belly instead. He needed that more than I needed to show off how I felt. James swallowed while Ben blinked back his tears and Katie tried to hold back any shakiness herself. I could already tell that he regretted his words and course of actions but I couldn't stop myself thinking to myself.

I breathed out. James was right to think all of those things but he wasn't necessarily right to say all of them. They were just children after all. Ben and Katie were merely just kids. And they had to go through so much. Like James had said, they had to deal with their father running off and their mother slipping in and out of consciousness. They were living in their family home with their Grandmother rather than their parents. They wanted to quit their Pokémon Journey for the time being. Of course they did. What sort of children would they have been to their parents and what sort of siblings would they have been to their little brother and sister if they had stayed away? They wouldn't have been able to live with themselves. They wanted to be at home, they really did. Even though it was sad and difficult and painful and sometimes dark, they wanted to be near their family. That was such an adult decision to make. But they were just kids. And because of this, sometimes they felt resentment even though they didn't need to. Especially Ben.

James knew that he had been wrong with his words but he knew he hadn't been wrong with his loyalty. He had to defend himself seeing as no one else was, not even Katie. Not even myself. I prided myself in being very strong and very together but in that moment, I was very drained. Things affected me too. Everything affected me too. I just wanted my best friend. I just wanted everything to go back to normal. I just wanted him to come home.

"I will not shut up." He responded to the raven haired male and the boy's chin jutted out even more, the lavender haired male shook his head. He breathed out and remained kneeled on the floor but he seemed to be far taller than us all as he emotionally and wearily stood up for himself. "I can handle you giving me a hard time every other day, Ben, but not today. Not now. Not while everything is going on. I don't get it. I don't get what I did wrong. Do you think your Mother would be glad to see all of this? Do you think she'd want you to blame me? Do you-"

"And you wonder why I hate you." Ben couldn't stop himself from responding coldly yet in a heated way at the same time. I gulped. Katie's eyes widened so much that you could see the whites surrounding them. His words were like a knife to James' skin. They made him tingle hot but at the same time, they made him run cold. His ears seemed to ring as Ben hurriedly corrected himself. He was stubborn. But he never wanted to lie. "And you wonder why I act like I hate you. You just come in here and act like that! You act like you're trying to be nice and trying to do good but you don't! You can't hide what is clear to me! All you want to do is walk in here and act like a father but you're not! You're not my Dad! So just go away!"

And with that, as the ten year old boy started exhaustedly and confusedly sobbing, I didn't hesitate to try and comfort him by nuzzling further into his belly. And on top of that, Katie stopped sitting in her mother's arm chair and she ran around to offer her twin brother a comforting hand too. He didn't hesitate to take it. He didn't hesitate to hold it and he didn't hesitate to hold me. He held onto us both as he sobbed. He cried and he sobbed. He felt empty. He felt so very empty.

James did as well as he kneeled with his hands in his lap helplessly. He gulped loudly. Ben's words of hating him hurt him a lot but what hurt even more were the young boy's sobs. Even though they didn't see eye to eye. Even though the raven haired male gave the older male a very hard time. They were God-Son and God-Father. They were basically related. They were basically family. It hurt James to see a young child in so much pain. He knelt in front of the two twins and found himself defending himself back to him.

"I'm not trying to be your father, Ben, I'm really not. I'm just being a friend. I-"

But before James could defend himself properly or put his side across, the teary chocolate orbed Pokémon Trainer interrupted his Uncle. He held onto his sister and me for support and he continued half glaring at the older male despite his emotions. He wiped his tears with his sleeve roughly and snorted.

"I do not want you to be my friend!" Ben found himself telling his Godfather and even though Katie didn't like his words and she didn't agree with them for herself, she kept quiet. She kept so quiet. She didn't have the energy to speak and if she had, every single word of hers would have come out a stutter. "You can't help yourself! All you do is try to make things better and you make them worse! You just tell us to come and play make believe with you or make up stupid stories until it all goes away! We're not stupid like you! We know everything might end horribly! We know it! All you do is tell us to pretend and imagine them differently! No! Just no!"

I don't even need to say that Ben's words were like a massive bruising to James' heart. He gulped a second time and he even looked over at Katie for her opinion or perhaps he looked over at her for her support. And for once on a very rare occasion and on a very sad one, she didn't give him it. She finally broke her silence. As she continued holding onto her twin brother's hand, she found herself tearfully and slowly nodding her head. She swallowed at the same time as her Uncle.

"I… I-I agree with him, James, I'm sorry…" she told him as truthfully and as bravely as she could before all the emotions caught her throat. Her voice cracked. Her face crumpled. She started to cry just as much as her twin brother. They were both so very vulnerable. I held them both as Katie hiccupped past her sobs. "I-I try… W-We try… But it's so hard to believe. T-Things might not go the way that we want this time. I… I know you try your best. But… But you can't always pretend. Pretending isn't going to get our Dad back. And it's not going to make Mom okay either. So… So just… Just stop."

Each time that the Ketchum twins spoke, it got harder for the lavender haired male to hear. It was so hard for him to hear. But he was hearing it. He really was hearing all of their words. They were sinking into his brain. He was taking them on board. He knew they were true. Even though they were painful, they were true. In fact, that's why they were painful. He knew they came from a place of truth. He nodded his head. He almost went numb. He breathed out. He replied to the twins after most of their crying died down.

"You're right, I don't know who I'm trying to kid." He mumbled but he didn't cry. And because he did this, maybe it got Ben and Katie to listen even more. Despite their adversities and what they had been through, they knew him very well. They knew that when he was in the greatest pain, he shut down. And that's what he was doing then. He was talking and he was moving but his eyes were distant. He wasn't crying. He was just shrugging. He was breaking. "You want me not to pretend? So I won't pretend. But you need to know that half the time, I don't just pretend and make up games for you kids but I do it for me too. I need it. I've always needed the mind-set of someone else to make it all okay. But it's time to stop. And it's time for me to let you know that I'm sorry and I hate that all of this is happening to you guys and I just want it to go away. I just want your Mom back and okay. I love her. I miss her. I just want her back."

These were the words that made my eyes pool with tears. Ben and Katie's too but they had done most of their crying so it didn't affect them as deeply as it did me. I was moved. I was hurt. It felt like my heart had ripped open. I wholeheartedly agreed with James' words. I openly cried. I wanted Misty back too. I wanted her safe and well. I wanted my best friend back around as well. I wanted to know that he was safe and well. And I wanted Rey to be in her real home, not in a hospital next to her Mother's bed. I wanted it to be so so different than it was. Ben wanted to stop pretending but in that moment, I wanted to pretend more than ever.

As soon as the raven haired little boy could sense my emotion, he tugged me tight and he didn't let me go. I cried even more but it was somehow a good cry. It was good to get it all out. It was good to get it out against someone that I could love and trust. Katie gave me a pat on the head too but now that she and Ben had expressed themselves a little, part of her true self started to come back. She started to focus on James again and she started to worry about him too.

Even though his expressions were blank and he was staring at the wall distantly, she could somehow read every emotion that he felt. She could somehow understand every thought as if she was reading it in a bubble above her head. She felt bad that she had previously told him that his pretend games no longer worked but she pushed all of this away and sidled up to him. She rested her hand lightly on his leg. For once, it took her a good while for him to stop being broken and to glance in her direction. She swallowed.

"What are you thinking about?" she settled on asking him. She had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask and lots of things she wanted to say as well but she settled on that. She watched him move into a more sitting position rather than a kneeling one.

He was still seemingly very numb. But slowly and after a while, he turned his head. At first, he shook his head as if he didn't want to talk but after he sensed even Ben inching towards him, he knew that he had to speak to the children. Both for them and for himself too.

"I… I'm thinking of your mother. I love her." He told them and even though he had stopped looking at Katie and was looking at the orange haired woman's picture on the wall, he could sense the brown eyed Pokémon Trainer scrunching his nose up. He then looked at him and clarified his words with a slight sniff. "No, not that way. Ben, I'm telling you the truth when I say that I never want to replace your father and never intended to. But if I acted like that or made you feel like I did, then I am sorry."

James' apology to the young boy was so honest and unbiased that after a few seconds and after Katie gave him a light side glance, even Ben found himself slowly nodding his head. His jaw clicked and clenched. He wanted to say something, but he didn't. He wanted to actually apologise for his outburst but he didn't since he felt better after doing it. Even if he thought that his words were a bit too much, he needed to go through all that to feel a bit better. He didn't think James would understand but I knew he would've done. My tears started to dry as the lavender haired male continued quietly and wistfully.

"I love her very much. And when I think of her – when I think of your mother – even after everything, I see her smiling. I imagine her smiling and with her family and with Ash. The reason that she smiles so much is because of him. It's because of your father. And I wish that I could tell him that I respect him for that." James paused. I couldn't have imagined what was coming next. "I wish I could tell him that I love him for that. I love him for looking after my best friend the way that he does. And sometimes I get scared that he'll never come back and I'll never get to tell him that. Actually, that's one of the things that scares me the most."

And following those words was a great but a comfortable silence. My mouth hung open and then my eyes filled with tears. I found myself shaking my head and I wasn't surprised when my heart started aching. I wished so badly that my best friend had been around to hear that. He reason that he left was that his darkness had taken over and he had feared being a father all over again. He thought that he wouldn't be good enough for little 'Rey'. He didn't know that he was good enough, and he was better than anybody else ever.

And he didn't know either that the lavender haired male thought that way about him or even felt that way about him. It would have come as a great shock. It would have been a great big shock. But a good one. Ash had no idea. And Ben didn't have an idea either. He didn't realise that one thing he and James secretly had in common was an admiration for the raven haired man. He learned that in that moment, however.

As Katie didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around her Uncle and hug him tight, that was almost enough to melt half of his troubles way – along with being open and honest with the two young ones. But it was what Ben did next and what he said next made everything move forward. And it made everything seem like it was going to be okay.

The raven haired young man went about it very casually. He subtly moved closer to his Uncle James with me on his lap. He paused. He tilted his head. He shrugged. And then he spoke. And when he did, his chocolate brown orbs were filled with genuineness and they were filled with positivity. And for once, it was directed at the lavender haired male.

"You will get to tell him." Ben told James and because he didn't address him by name, the ex-rocketeer thought Katie was being spoken to at first. But it wasn't directed at her. It was directed at him. He soon listened. He soon listened, his own eyes glistening back. "You will get to tell him. And Mom will be okay. We just have to stick together. We just have to keep believing. We don't have to keep pretending. Pretending means something isn't actually going to happen. We are going to make it happen. We are going to make it happen. And as long as we stick together, everything will be alright. We're all family in a way. And everything is going to be okay."

And that day, I couldn't put it any better than Ben had. And James couldn't either. So he just nodded his head and he held onto Katie and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He thought about giving the raven haired young man a hug too but he didn't. He didn't want to push it too far!

So instead, he gave me a look and I knew exactly what that look meant. I gave Ben a great big hug and a great big kiss too. And even though the words hadn't been said, Ben somehow knew that it was from both myself and his Uncle James too.

Those two really didn't often see eye to eye. They were far too different. They didn't think the same. They didn't act the same. They weren't the same. But they had things the same. They both loved Misty. They both respected Ash. They were both child-like. They were both sweet. They were both lovely. They both loved me. And most important of all, I loved them both. And it was the power of all of our love together – mine, Ben, Katie's, James' and everybody else's too – that made it all okay in the end.

Everybody pulled through. Everybody came through. We were family and that's exactly what families do. They love each other. They encourage one and other. They survive together. And they never give up on one and other. Ash didn't give up. Misty didn't give up. None of us gave up. And most importantly, none of us gave each other up either. We would always be family and sometimes it wasn't even that way by blood. It was by loyalty. It was by dedication. It was by choice. And one day, James and Ben would end up seeing eye to eye too. Some day. Some moment. Eventually. And that moment and that instance was one of the most special moments of them all.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 So yeah, I hadn't written about Ben's skepticism of James in a good while when I wrote this but last week actually, I came up with another one that made me realise maybe why he feels that way. And it's not just worrying that his Father will be replaced and James has romantic feelings for Misty. You'll see :P I think that the "darkness saga" as I like to call it is really an important point in all the characters lives because like it focuses on here a bit, it's where Ash finally understands how James feels about him. James likes to act like almost a father-in-law (especially following his friendship with Jordan) and act like he's watching his every move and because Ash whines about it, he plays up to it even more. But in reality, even though it's hard for them both to say, they respect each other a lot. They both love Misty. That little trio is an old but gold one. Ben, Katie and James was fun to write about too :3 Thanks again and I will be back next Wednesday with another chapter of this story so see you then!

AmyBieberKetchum signing out :P