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Purgatorial Merry-Go-Round
"Conscience is no more than the dead speaking to us."
–Jim Carroll
Misty drifted back into consciousness feeling light and shaky. She was acutely aware of how chilled her body was and the sweat that seemed to have soaked through her sheets, but at the same time, she felt like she was floating out of her body. Her body was heavy in bed, but her mind was above, untethered and disconnected. Was this what ghosts felt like? Was this why they couldn't control their emotions?
Her head lolled to the side as she kicked at the wet sheets, trying to untangle them from her limbs. They clung to the dampness of her skin and fought their removal, leaving Misty winded by the end.
She lay in bed for a moment, catching her breath. She must have caught a cold from being in the cave. She needed some medicine, and maybe a can of soup from the kitchen. She'd need to tell the girls so that they could take over the Gym for the rest of the afternoon. It was still light out—the Pokémon needed to be fed dinner at some point. Maybe she should do that.
Misty stumbled out of bed, immediately disoriented by how light her head felt compared to very heavy feet. But she lifted them, one cinderblock at a time, as she made her way to the door. She leaned heavily against the wall as she trudged her way down the hallway and then down the stairs.
The kitchen. Her mind barely remembered she was heading there, but she took the appropriate turns and made it. If she could just get a can of soup or maybe a piece of fruit, then maybe she would be able to feel properly in her body again.
Reaching up into the cabinets pulled all of the blood from Misty's arms like water. They were light with the lack of it and too heavy to hold up anymore. When she managed to find a can of low sodium soup, she fumbled for it. Her fingers wrapped but didn't grip. The soup tumbled to counter and landed dully on the ground. For a moment, Misty couldn't imagine bending down for it. The impulse crossed her mind, but the idea of doing it felt no more actionable than catching Suicune to clean the pool.
Then she went for it. She bent down and her hip knocked noisily into a cabinet door and when she was down, getting up seemed even more unlikely. So she crouched, head spinning, and feeling all the blood pinch at her knees.
"Misty?"
The voice sounded distant. Like when someone spoke to her while she was underwater. She looked up blearily and saw a body floating and glowing and her chest squeezed. That was bad. She couldn't be caught unawares by a ghost like this. She'd have to fight back, but she just didn't have the strength. She moved one foot behind her but couldn't manage to push herself up and instead leaned on her left hand as it fell to the floor with a smack.
"Oh my God, Misty."
The form floated closer to her and Misty recognized the voice. Ash. He wouldn't hurt her. The clenching of her heart lessened, but she felt herself tipping even more to her left.
Then her arm wasn't holding her up anymore and instead she felt spots of warmth through her damp shirt. She felt herself being lifted up, her consciousness once more feeling like it was floating above her body. The words around her were water, flowing into her ears and making them feel wet and heavy. But she heard the word poison and thought that couldn't be good.
She was being carried somewhere. She felt herself falling asleep again and only came back when she felt something cold being put in her hand. She was incredibly cold and began shaking in this new, cold space. Her wet shirt was smothering her. But the spots where she was being held were warm. A hand was around hers and her fingers were tight around something papery. Then she felt it being pressed against her mouth. That part felt like smooth skin.
"Eat."
She opened her mouth and bit, chewing slowly and tasting wet sweetness. It was good so she bit again and again.
Her head was being held up so that she could swallow and she was sitting on something uneven. Her sitz bones wiggled unevenly on two rounded forms, but her back was secure against someone's chest and an arm was wrapped around her middle. Her hand was moved again and she picked up another berry by its thin, slightly dried leaves and ate it too.
She wasn't sure how much she ate, but the shaking never stopped and the cold only got worse. She couldn't feel her fingers or her toes. Then she felt herself going horizontal again and the air became warmer, but the shaking continued. She didn't know if it ever stopped, because then she passed out.
The next thing Misty knew could have been a dream or reality or both. She felt like her eyes were open and looked around blearily. She thought she saw Ash and Pikachu and that felt clarifying. Dream or not, it felt real, and it felt safe. So she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
Next was Phoebe. She was pretty sure she was awake this time, because she felt a glass of water being raised to her lips. She managed to wet her mouth, but some dribbled down her cheek and onto the bed. She was in her bed again.
The world was eaten by something purple and black and swirling. She thought she saw Noir somewhere in it in brief flashes. She was transient and Misty's mind couldn't follow her but in fragments. By the time she was spotted, she was gone, and Misty was left confused and hurt.
There were times everything vanished and things were still for Misty. There was a brief flash of white at one point and Misty felt a searing pain down her arm. But in tandem with the pain receding, the swirling came back, swallowing the world of white and Misty herself in one bite.
There were other splinters here and there that felt like figments as her mind remained dizzied by the purple, so much purple. She saw Daniel and Fay speaking but there was no sound. Or if there was sound, it was garbled. Or if it wasn't garbled, there was something keeping her from hearing it. She could see a body of pink, dizzying as it seemed to flow in tandem with the swirls in the world. The body floated and had one speck of red that Misty's eye was drawn to, something to spot as the world spun around her. But the body faded and was gone.
Her sisters were there. Sometimes all together, sometimes one at a time. Their plucked brows were always furrowed, sometimes in concern, sometimes in anger. Their voices popped out from time to time, but she couldn't quite make out their words either.
Brock was the most comforting of all. His voice, wordless, was familiar, his face kind and knowledgeable. But even in her twisting mind, she knew that he wasn't there. She appreciated his visits though, and was happy to see his face.
The world spun a bit even when not consumed by murky blacks and purples. She could see her bedroom, only slightly blue with shadow, spin one or two rotations and then she'd close her eyes and feel like her bed was on a turntable. Then the spinning would stop, only for the world around her to take over the rotation while she stayed still, like the sun in the solar system.
She clenched her sheets hard and it felt real. Her eyes were squeezed shut for a moment before they opened and the spinning slowed. She felt nauseated for a moment before the world stopped altogether and she saw her sisters and Ash and Pikachu just behind. She tried to rasp something—she didn't know what—and Daisy, who was closest, reached for her water. Misty released her grip on the sheets and the muscles in her fingers unwinded painfully. She could barely grip her water, but Daisy helped her and Misty gulped thirstily. As soon as she was done, a peeled banana was shoved in her face and, automatically, she took a bite.
"Misty?" Daisy asked uncertainly as she lowered the water and scooted to give Lily room to feed Misty the banana.
Misty looked at Daisy and tried to give a bit of a grunt as she slowly chewed the fruit, but it came off as more of a pained whine. It seemed to show relative coherence to Daisy, though, who continued.
"It seems as though that Crobat poisoned you," she said. "Phoebe told us that Ash told her. He fed you some Pecha berries and we used an Antidote on your arm."
Misty remembered the Pecha berries. She shivered at the cold of the memory—Ash must have brought her into the cold storage where the perishable Pokémon food was kept. Her eyes had closed again and she opened them to notice that Phoebe wasn't there. She rasped the girl's name and Violet said, "She's helping us, like, take care of things downstairs."
"She doesn't seem to like sitting still," Daisy said with a soft smile.
Misty smiled. Phoebe could sit still, be still and listen to someone's story with astonishing grace, but she definitely preferred taking a task by the horns to anything that resembled waiting.
Wait, poison? It took a moment for Misty's brain to fully chew the word, and it was shocking to hear, despite the echo of Ash's voice saying it in her mind.
Misty tried to bring mental awareness to her right arm. The upper part was totally numbed out, either from the poison, the medicine or both. She figured she should probably be grateful for it. If it weren't numb, it probably would have ranged from a tingling itchy discomfort to constant burning pain.
"Okay," Misty breathed, and Lily fed her another bite of banana.
Misty couldn't exactly gauge how her stomach felt. Overall, she felt weak, both overly light and overly heavy at the same time. Her head was clinging onto the sensation of spinning, especially when she closed her eyes, and that made her feel like she was standing right beside nausea, ready to join it at any moment. But she wasn't quite there, so she focused on chewing the sweet fruit, for health if nothing else.
"How do you feel?" Daisy asked gently.
Misty swallowed and said, "A little bit sat on by a Snorlax. A little bit caught in a whirlpool."
"Could be worse," Lily said.
Misty supposed so. Really, whatever she was feeling wasn't much worse than a bad case of the flu. The Pecha berries were likely to thank for that. Mostly, she just felt exhausted. But she wasn't eager to go back to sleep, where she was stuck on a purgatorial merry-go-round of her subconscious.
"Why are you here?" Misty asked as Lily pushed the banana at her again. She cringed internally as she realized how mean that question probably sounded and she tried again. "I mean, why are you helping me?"
"You're poisoned, Misty," Violet said matter-of-factly. "Like, we can put grudges and hurt aside for that."
"Of course we would," Daisy emphasized. "There's nothing you could do that we wouldn't put aside for this."
"Totally," Lily said. "And, like, we hope the same from you."
Misty hoped so too. Well, now she knew that it would, but would it have been the case a week before? She thought so. But the only way to deal with the wicked uncertainty was to ignore it. She'd never know.
"Thank you," Misty breathed.
"Of course," Daisy said again.
Misty sat in that warmth for a moment, enjoying a kinship that she couldn't relate to any other experience she'd had with her sisters. She closed her eyes and felt herself sinking back into sleep rapidly. Her breath was evening out and her focus on the room narrowed. It thinned to a black pinpoint and then suddenly she was spinning again and her eyes flicked open, stilling her almost immediately.
"You okay?"
"Mhmm." Misty nodded her head at Daisy.
"Do you need anything?"
A shake of the head.
"Alright," Violet said. "Then we should go help Phoebe with feeding the Pokémon dinner."
Violet stood up to go, and Daisy followed a moment later. Lily said, "I'll go once this banana is gone. And some more water."
"Totally fair," Violet said, and Misty saw her walk through Pikachu into the hallway. Misty wondered if, to Violet, it felt like a cold spot or nothing. Daisy missed Pikachu and followed her out.
Misty finished the last few bites of the banana, barely tasting it, save for a vague sweetness. She washed it down with water, with Lily's help, and then Lily, too, was gone. A few moments passed and Misty could take in the heaviness of her stomach from just one banana. It would likely be days before she could eat much more than that again in one sitting.
"Um…how are you feeling?"
Misty watched Ash approach, coming to the side of the bed where her sisters had just been. Pikachu sat on her stomach, giving her a loose embrace that Misty received warmly.
"Better. Bad, but better. Which, I guess, is thanks to you."
Ash rubbed the back of his head and turned away. "Nah, I mean—"
"No, Ash, it was. Thank you."
"You're welcome," he said to the floor.
Misty shook her head and smiled good naturedly while his eyes were off of her. Moving her head didn't feel great, but it wasn't terrible either. Better than when her eyes were closed.
"Do you want to go to sleep?"
"Ugh, I need to," Misty groaned. "But the world spins."
"Like how?"
"Sometimes the world around me, and sometimes it's me. I don't know, maybe it's even both."
"But right now it doesn't?"
"Nope. But I'm too tired to keep my eyes open."
Suddenly, Ash took Misty's hand and held it tight.
"Try closing your eyes now."
Misty closed her eyes and focused on the sensation of Pikachu resting on her belly and Ash's hand around hers. It was centering. She wasn't sure if she would feel it once she slipped into unconsciousness.
"Have I told you the story of how I met Pikachu?"
"Mm-mm," Misty hummed.
"Well, it was the day I started my Pokémon journey. I was ten, and the night before I was so excited I could barely sleep. Naturally, I woke up late, so next thing I know I'm running to Professor Oak's in my pajamas…"
As Misty slipped, she could feel the weight of the bodies touching hers, anchoring her to her bed, and to this world that they were no longer free to inhabit, the weightless words tying knots in her brain to where she was and who she was. As she slipped, Ash and Pikachu stayed, and as she slept, she didn't dream, save for a few sparkling images of the boys in her room.
Misty managed to sleep through the rest of the day and night. There were bouts of consciousness here and there, mostly from a dry throat screaming for water, but there were also one or two stumbling bathroom trips and breaks for food. Her sisters managed to get the can of soup warmed up, and she ate about half of it over multiple sittings, mostly cold.
But the world spun less. She felt it at times, but not nearly as much when Pikachu and Ash's weight and warmth were there to keep her tethered. She wondered if that was what she and Phoebe felt like for them. If they had been untethered for the past few decades and only now felt a connection to the world again.
When she woke up the next morning, Pikachu was still on her belly, now curled up as if sleeping. Ash's hand was still holding hers, and he was very much awake.
"Have you been awake this whole time?"
Her voice went on and off, pitch, sometimes a weak rasp, sometimes a whisper. She reached for the water with her left hand.
Ash nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, I wasn't just looking at you, though, promise. I was thinking about, you know, Battles in my head and stuff. I've had to get good at imagining stuff over the years."
"Mm, that makes sense."
She hadn't been too concerned about him just watching her sleep. In such simple words, that was definitely off-putting, but just having him there was…comforting. It helped.
"Are you feeling better?"
Misty nodded. "I think so."
When she nodded everything in her head was rooted in place. Nothing was swimming, nothing was falling. She moved to sit up and that sent Pikachu tumbling to her lap.
"Oops, sorry," she said as a disgruntled Pikachu floated up and looked at her with a grumpy expression. He floated back to Ash and rested on his shoulder.
Sitting up made everything in her body settle into a new place. All at once, Misty felt empty of sustenance, and she probably had to pee again. Her legs were stiff and toes extraordinarily cold. Her arm was still pretty numbed out. Probably a good thing.
Misty reached for the cold soup remaining on her nightstand and took a few sips. Spending the last ten years with sisters who knew next to nothing about cooking and never having become a good cook herself meant that Misty had gotten used to eating all kinds of subpar foods. Hours' old canned soup wasn't the worst thing she'd eaten before—it would do in a pinch. There were also some cut apple slices that her sisters must have delivered. Misty ate a few of those too.
When she'd eaten about as much as her stomach would be able to handle for the moment, Misty swung her wooden legs over the side of the bed. She wiggled her toes and kicked her knees a bit; she'd had enough stiff days after working out to know that every little thing she could do to grease the gears would help her when she moved to stand up.
Ash helped her up. She probably could have made the walk to the bathroom by herself, but in this moment, it seemed more reasonable to accept humble assistance than to reject. She decided to draw a bath while she was in there—the layers of cold sweat on her were sticky in their aftermath, but standing through a shower seemed like tempting fate; she'd be begging to renew her concussion by passing out and knocking her head on the porcelain tub.
Twenty minutes later, she felt like a new person. Her hair was dry and brittle as ever, but the removed layer of sweat and oil made her feel light and refreshed. She walked back to her room by herself, leading with a hand against the wall. When she made it back to her room, Daisy was in there laying out an outfit. Sweatpants, fuzzy socks, a tank, and a cardigan.
"High fashion," Misty commented, taking note of Daisy's full face of makeup and skirt and sweater combo in comparison to the schlubby outfit on the bed.
"I heard you turn the water on and thought I'd help out," Daisy said. "I figured you being warm and comfortable was the priority."
"It usually is," Misty said. "That or being cool and comfortable."
"C'mon. You used to like playing dress up and stuff with us."
Misty turned away from Daisy and untied her robe before slipping some panties on and reaching for the sweatpants.
"I did," Misty agreed, finding it easier to talk while she was turned away. "While we did those things together."
"I would have kept doing those things," Daisy said as Misty slipped off the robe and put on the tank by itself. Her chest hadn't yet reached the size of her sisters'—if it ever would—so a sports bra wasn't strictly necessary. "We were happy to take you shopping with us the other day. Before things got messed up."
"Things were kinda always messed up," Misty said, turning back to her sister and sitting to put on the socks. She kept her eyes firmly on the task of slipping one on then the other. "It's just that you guys only just found out."
"They weren't always messed up, Misty, were they? I'm just confused…I'm so confused why you kept everything to yourself. Mom, yes, but also everything else. We're family."
Misty sighed. She was still tired. Her brain still was crowded with a world that was different from the one she was currently inhabiting.
"I'm sorry," Daisy said. "You're still sick. You should get some more rest."
"No," Misty said, standing again and looking at her sister. "It's 8am and I've been in bed for almost twenty hours. I don't think I could sleep more right now if I tried."
"I just don't want you to overwork yourself."
"I might not be able to work, but I'm well enough to speak."
Daisy nodded. "Okay, if you're sure."
"Yeah, but I want to talk to all the girls," Misty said. "Might as well talk to everyone at once."
"They're downstairs feeding the Pokémon."
"That's good," Misty said. "Can you help me down the stairs?"
Daisy smiled. "Of course."
Misty had to wait while Daisy helped the girls finish up the most pressing morning Gym duties, which was mostly just feeding the Pokémon. Everything else had less of a true time constraint.
While she waited, she thought about what she wanted to say. It would come out smoothly, then she would jump back to insert something she'd forgotten and that would wrinkle the whole story, push it all slightly out of place. It wasn't clean and it wasn't simple to figure out her own wrongdoing versus where she'd been influenced and try to be true to all of that while taking her sisters' feelings into account. She wasn't practiced at any aspect of that, and it made her more and more nervous to talk to her sisters. But now they were expecting her. She'd have to do the best she could.
Like in her dreams, her sisters swept in front of her with little warning. A moment later, Phoebe showed up with a steaming cup of tea. She gave it to Misty and said, "It has honey, ginger, and lemon."
It wasn't Misty's favorite way to drink tea, but it was a good recovery drink. She took the first scalding sip and it was invigorating for her throat. "Thank you."
Phoebe then settled next to Misty on the couch, which Misty saw her sisters eyeballing strangely.
"She can stay for this," Misty stated.
"Aw, thanks!" Phoebe exclaimed, as though she hadn't been expecting it despite having thoroughly inserted herself.
Phoebe, for all her wackiness, was a steadying force. She was so clear in her convictions that it sharpened Misty's morality. Phoebe would also call Tauros shit on Misty if she tried to weenie out of anything.
"First of all," Misty began, her palms beginning to sweat. It was almost comforting, though, that the sweat felt warm and familiar with anxiety instead of the cold sweats she'd suffered through the day before. "Thanks for helping me while I was sick. I probably won't be of much help with the Gym today, so thanks for picking up the slack."
"We just want you better, Misty," Violet said.
"We'll, like, kick your ass if you get yourself sick again by not taking enough of a break too," Lily added.
Misty smiled. "Noted. And I just want to say again how sorry I am that I didn't tell you about mom."
"Like, thanks for the apology, Misty," Daisy began. "But I can't comprehend why you would keep it from us in the first place. I mean, if I could, like, speak to our mother, the first thing I would do is let you girls know."
"Okay, I just have to say, it's not like I spoke to her every day," Misty explained. "More like a few times a year. And I have no idea when it's going to happen, and she's usually not around for long."
"Long enough that you could have run and gotten us?" Lily bit back.
"Or at least relayed a note?" Violet added.
"Yes!" Misty exclaimed, frustrated. "And I'm sorry!"
"I just," Daisy started, clearly trying to hold back from completely blowing up, "do you know how it looks to have made the stink that you made every time we visited mom's grave and then to come and tell us this?"
That was another thing Misty hadn't thought about, and hit a blow to her already tightened gut.
"It makes you look fucking heartless," Lily said.
She couldn't deny that. "I had reasons," Misty defended weakly.
"Ghosts seem to be most drawn to their body's final resting places and they're drawn to people like us," Phoebe explained calmly, pointing between herself and Misty. "Going to a cemetery is just asking for a ghost to bother you. Which your sister isn't a big fan of."
"Oh," Daisy intoned before dropping her face in her hands. "Ugh, I wish you would have just told us that."
Misty had nothing to say, so Phoebe turned to prompt her. "Why don't we all let Misty start from the beginning? Then maybe everything will make a bit more sense."
Daisy already seemed exasperated, Lily mad, and Violet suspicious. But Phoebe was patting Misty's leg in some semblance of comfort. She took a breath to start. "Remember how I mentioned that I'd befriended a Banette?"
Synchronized nods across the couch.
"Right." Misty took one last steadying breath. "Well, we've been friends for a while. Since around the time I first got Staryu. Actually, Violet, you almost caught us once way back then."
Violet shook her head. "I don't remember."
"And I'm failing to see how this is relevant?" Lily inserted.
"Shh, let her finish," Daisy said.
"Thanks. I just have to start at the beginning for this to make sense," Misty said to Lily. "Not that I'm sure it can make sense. But I just point out that time because, well, when you and Mom saw Noir—that's her name—you reacted like it was a bad thing. But I liked having her around, so I decided it was better to keep her a secret. And around that time I was realizing that I was seeing people that no one else was seeing. And that felt like it had to be a secret too. And Noir was the only one I could talk to. So, before I knew it, everything was a secret."
"Okay, like, time out," Violet said. "Where even is this Banette? Is she, like, hiding from us right now?"
"No…" Misty began, looking to Phoebe for help. "Do you think you can explain to them what you said to me the other day?"
Phoebe smiled genially, no tension anywhere to be found on her face. No evidence that she was sitting in on the first family meeting between estranged sisters. "Of course! Just the same?"
"Just the same."
As Misty heard for the second time the lore behind Banette, her stomach soured, just like the first time. She could feel that her sisters wouldn't forgive her. The story was just crazy enough that it wouldn't make sense that she'd taken part in it. That she'd fallen for it. That she'd only just realized days ago that it was wrong. It wasn't so much the decisions she'd made at five but the fact that she'd kept doubling down on those decisions for the past eleven years. That would be impossible to forgive.
"Okay, let me get this straight," Daisy started once Phoebe had said her piece, free of the theatrics she'd thrown in the first time around. "A Banette was, like born of hatred towards us because we stopped playing with a toy as preteens?"
"Yeah, but that's nothing," Phoebe said. "You should hear the lore behind Yamask."
"I don't wanna know," Lily said swiftly.
Before Phoebe could accidentally derail things, Misty took back over. "Look, I don't know how much of Phoebe's story is factually true, but Noir never liked you. I—God, I don't know how to describe it, because I always knew that, but I didn't understand it like I think I do now. Like, it was rational at the time, because you and I weren't getting along and I thought it was a reflection of that. Like, she was just siding with me, which, of course, I loved. But now I realize that it might have been more than that. And that she influenced our relationship negatively."
The girls didn't say anything, but Misty could see the thoughtfulness behind their eyes. They were actually listening to her. She'd been frustrated so many times over the years by them brushing off the things she said, the things she'd thought. And those feelings had always been validated by Noir. Which…wasn't totally wrong, was it? It didn't seem wrong, but Misty's intentions had also never been malicious. She couldn't necessarily say the same of Noir.
"So…" Daisy began slowly. "You're saying that you think that Noir influenced your thinking more than you realized?"
"Yeah, basically," Misty said. "Not like I'm trying to blame someone else, though. I still should have told you about mom."
"No, that's not what I'm saying," Daisy said, concern coloring her voice, taking the usual bouncy frivolity out of it. "I'm just clarifying. So, like, you felt like you didn't have anyone else to rely on but her?"
"After mom died, at least." Misty caught Lily narrowing her eyes at her and she instantly realized how that sounded. "Sorry. And, yeah, I had Brock, but it was mostly Noir. She was the only one here every day."
The girls were silent, but Misty could see words behind Daisy's eyes. "That sounds…like…not awesome."
Misty sighed. "Yeah, I know it's not. So we talked and I said I needed some time apart while I tried to work through this with you girls. So that's why she's not here."
"No, I mean, it's definitely not awesome for us that she, like, hates us or whatever," Daisy said, talking slowly. "But I mean…it doesn't sound great for you? Like, sorry, Misty, but that sounds lowkey abusive."
Misty was frozen. She heard Phoebe jumping to her aid, extolling Noir's virtues, but Misty barely heard it. Daisy's words had stuffed her ears with water, trapping the idea in her brain, unable to spill out.
Abusive? Misty shook her head. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. It just sounded…unthinkable.
Phoebe had trailed off, looking at Misty with concern. Misty clocked in on that and tried to rejoin the conversation.
"I'm sorry, Daisy. I just—What do you mean?"
Misty could see that Daisy wasn't eager to talk about this. She wasn't happy about vilifying Misty's best friend, and that made it worse. If she'd seemed callous or vengeful then Misty could have thrown it away. Ignored the idea. But the reluctance lent Daisy an air of credibility that Misty couldn't disregard.
"Just that…isolating you from the people around you? You know, we're the people around you. Making you think toxic things about us, keeping you from trusting us. Her becoming, like, your sole means of support…that sounds emotionally abusive to me."
Daisy's face was scrunched in a way that usually the girls would say caused too many wrinkles. Wrinkles on the forehead, right around the eyebrows, a little scrunching around the Murkrow's feet, downturned mouth. But she also looked steadfast. She wasn't reaching for what she was saying—she knew it.
Misty looked at Violet and Lily, who were also looking back and forth between herself and Daisy. They didn't seem to have anything to add, but they didn't look confused either. They looked sympathetic. In agreement.
The idea sapped Misty of all the strength she'd managed to get back. The fatigue poured all over. She was done.
"Okay," she said listlessly. Then she pushed herself up. "Phoebe? Help me up the stairs?"
Phoebe leapt up and grabbed Misty's arm. "Sure!"
She was going to sleep.
For a long time.
A/N: Okay, another really clunky one :sweatdrop: I kind of feel like this one needs a total rewrite, but you know? That's just not where I'm at. I think these chapters are feeling like this because at this point in the fic, originally, another character arrived in Cerulean that I had to scrub out in this draft. And Brock also came to Cerulean and he's been scrubbed out too. So, likely, all that rearranging and rewriting without doing a total rewrite just left things a little bit messy and patchworked. But that's okay. It's kind of interesting to see the surgery wounds in this story, haha. Plus, Misty's really disoriented for a lot of the chapter, so there was some level of intentionality in the murkiness of some of the writing. So that's okay. Hope you enjoyed it anyway!
