Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)

A Legendary Search

28. I Am Here

A day at a time was precisely how they all had to deal with it. Eventually, Mr. Graham called in a few favours and got GNN a place where they could air a very limited number of shows; it was better than nothing. He did his best to keep on as much of the staff as possible, and those he ended up having to let go were promised a re-hire if they wished after the building was rebuilt and all got back to normal for the TV station. After the Mayor expressed his horror and dismay on the news channel they were able to get up and running again, a few other businesses even stepped up and offered temporary positions, if they were able to find enough work for another person.

There was cleanup to do, as well; most of GNN had come down, and what little of it still stood had to come down. A few other buildings nearby had also been brought down in the incident, there was a lot of destruction, and a lot of rebuilding.

Several funerals, as well. The damage had been minimized, and would have been far worse had Tim not managed to remove the R stone- which was eventually located and turned in to the police- but he had unfortunately not saved everyone.

Tim's father, Harry, seemed to have a little awkwardness fitting back into a routine with three months missing. Occasionally, he would be caught muttering something, not even all that quietly, and be surprised when the target of his muttering flared up in anger. Mr. Baker once shook his head and said that Harry had often had something to say, but normally waited until the other person was out of earshot.

Once the doctors deemed it safe to move Tim out of recovery, he was placed in the intensive care unit. He was never alone; this hospital, after hearing about Tim's case, made an exception to the visiting hours for him. Either his father or Emilia was nearly always there, often both and sometimes others. On the very rare occasion that there were no humans in his room, the Absol still stayed, over in one corner out of the way of the many people and Pokemon that checked on Tim every day, stoic and unmoving. Emilia began bringing him food on the second day, when it became clear he wasn't going anywhere; the Absol would wait until no one's focus was on him, then eat as quietly and politely as he could. A couple of times, before he started eating, Emilia could swear she saw him spit something out, but she wasn't positive, and it wasn't like she could ask the Pokemon about it, so she let it be.

Tim woke sporadically, sometimes lucid, sometimes not. Even when he carried on a short conversation that mostly made sense, his eyes were still unfocused. The topic occasionally would change without warning or reason, but no one minded.

The second time he woke and was coherent, his father and Emilia were both there. For the third, Meiko was present instead of his father. For the fourth, the room seemed to be empty.

"H'lo?" Tim called. His head still felt thick and it was hard to think, but he didn't like that everyone had left.

"I am here." A deep voice sounded. Tim had trouble placing it until the speaker came into view.

"Absol…"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Your father and the others have to work occasionally. I have nowhere else to be, however, and I seem to have become rather fond of you. So, I am here."

"Oh…"

"The others should return soon. Once you are able to speak clearly enough, I suggest you let the others know that you do not believe that the situation with R is over. They have stopped being on their guard for it, and your father cannot say anything. It would mean he would need to explain everything without Mewtwo being present, and at best, I think it would simply get him admitted here again to scan for brain damage."

Fuzzily, Tim realized Absol was right. The head person, H, was still out there, and it was likely that whoever it was still had Tim on their radar as a threat to take out. Which meant he certainly would need to alert others, but there was no way he would tell Emilia. As hard to think as it was, he still knew he didn't want her to be worried.

"I will remind you. For now, it would be best if you continued resting. It looks like your hand is healing from the outside, but it's hard to tell what the inside is doing, and the process seems to be very hard on your body. The doctors are rather worried about it."

Tim sighed. Absol's presence kept him from feeling lonely, but he still wished his father and his friends were here; it would have been nice to all be together. He closed his eyes.

It took another few days. As Tim healed, the painkillers were slowly reduced; he became more alert as they were. Meiko, Emilia, his father and, as luck would have it, Inspector Holiday were all visiting when Absol reminded him again.

He was a little annoyed with Absol at first; he'd been happy having everyone together. Then he realized that Absol had a point- until he told someone that the problem with R wasn't over, it could strike again at any time and cause real danger, again.

He had, however, one thing he needed to make sure of first. Waiting until he saw his father open his mouth to say something to him, he reached for the cup of ice chips on the tray next to his bed. When his father spoke, Tim turned to look at him, and used the chance to accidentally- on- purpose knock the cup over, spilling the chips on the floor.

"So, Tim, the other day I was- oh!"

"Ah!"

"Oh, my gosh! Here!" Emilia and Meiko both rushed over to scoop up the ice.

Come on… both of you, go…

The ice cleaned up, Emilia took the cup and said, "I'll go get more for you."

Come on…

"I'll go too." Meiko added.

Relief flooded Tim. "Oh, thank you! I'm so sorry…"

"Oh, no, don't be! It happens."

"We'll be right back." Meiko assured him. The two went off.

Tim sighed, but knew he had to be fast; he was pretty sure the ice station wasn't all that far.

He looked at the two men. His father was shaking his head.

"That was unusually clumsy, Tim." He teased.

"I have to tell you something." Tim said, looking at Holiday and ignoring his father's jibe.

"Oh… so you did that on purpose?" His father caught on. Tim nodded.

"I didn't want them to hear. But… I think there's someone else behind all of the problems caused by R. I overheard two scientists when I was in that lab before… well, before that incident at GNN. It sounded like they were talking about someone behind everything that was funding all the research… someone who was manipulating people to make them think that developing R was a good idea. I know I heard them talking about how long it took to get the doctor who seemed to have started the disaster with the R stones to get him to plan this and think he was the one engineering it all."

"What? You're sure? The one notebook that described the experiments did talk about someone they called "H", but the last name of the doctor we arrested began with an H. You're sure he wasn't the one in charge?" Holiday looked at him sharply.

"I'm sure… I have no idea who's behind it, but… there's still someone out there trying to work with R. I'm sure of it. And those researchers also talked about something they sent to someone else for a second part."

Holiday sighed. After a moment of silence, he said, "Very well. I'll look into it. But I'll have to warn you, I'm not sure I can convince the rest of the investigators that it needs to be an open case, still. They're all pretty sure we've caught everyone behind the mess. But I'll look into it. I… have been wondering, because the remote we recovered from that doctor's car doesn't actually seem to be sending out the right kind of signal to connect with the one R stone recovered at the laboratory that seems to function correctly. The technicians weren't sure if maybe it had just been too badly damaged to emit the proper signal, but there was something in me that wondered if that was true or not. If there was someone else behind it, and trying to set up our Doctor Hurdelts, then it would make sense if they had the real remote and set him up with a false one. It would be ridiculously complicated, and this is starting to sound like a conspiracy that most people would just shake their head at, but I trust your judgement. And you will need to be very careful. You've stopped two of their attempts to cause serious mayhem, now… you're sure to be something they'll want to take care of."

"I know. That's why I didn't want them hearing." Tim gestured at the door Emilia and Meiko had left through.

"Nothing will happen. If anything starts, I'll sense it, and I'll stop it." Absol declared from his corner of the room. Tim shot him a smile and lay back a little in the hospital bed.

"We're back!"

"Sorry for the wait."

"Oh, thank you. I'm sorry about that."

It was completely uneventful while Tim was in hospital. No unusual incidents happened inside or outside of it, and as they had predicted, Tim was discharged shortly before the start of college, thanks to Pokemon abilities speeding the healing process drastically.

Not that everything was perfectly healed by then.

Tim found that his right wrist frequently gave spasms of agony, something he'd been told by the doctors was normal while it healed and might eventually stop- they weren't too sure on that, though.

It was also weak. He could barely move it or hold a pen; with his university classes looming, Tim had no choice but to start practicing his writing with his left hand, which was atrocious. He was terrified that once classes actually started, he wouldn't be able to read his own notes. His father, catching Tim at a moment of frustration when Tim, normally even-tempered and hard to anger, threw his pen across the room, his frustration bubbling over into anger at himself.

His father, though, neither admonished him nor joked about it nor told anyone else, for which Tim was grateful. Instead, a couple of days later, Tim found a small, wrapped gift from his father sitting next to his bedside. It turned out to be a small recorder, a sticker on the wrapping written in his father's scrawl- for use in classrooms.

He didn't have words to express his gratitude, but the glance he exchanged with his father that morning over breakfast spoke enough volumes for both of them.

Tim told no one about the painful spasms, though they were impossible to hide when they happened in front of someone at first. As university edged closer, he found that they were less frequent and a little less intense, making it a little easier. He worked with a physiotherapist, as well, to work on regaining the use of his right one; the man that he saw wasn't sure if he would ever get many of the fine motor skills in it back, but felt certain that Tim could likely get at least some use in it with time and effort.

He didn't really tell anyone about his struggle with writing, either; he was pretty sure only his father had figured it out, as Tim made sure to stop writing and hide his notes whenever anyone else approached him.

One thing that was harder to hide, though, and that Tim hated, was the trembling. Sometimes, his hand was steady; other times, it trembled, often violently. The doctors told him that this, too, was normal, and that it might- or might not- stop in time.

His father had seen the trembling, and so had Emilia and Meiko. During visits, Mr. Graham, Inspector Holiday, Mr. Baker, and Amanda had all seen episodes of the trembling too. No one laughed or commented, but Tim hated it. A clear, visible sign that something was wrong with his hand. He could cover the ugly scars the surgery left on his wrist with his sleeve, could even- and usually did- wear a brace hidden by a long sweater sleeve that helped bolster his wrists' weak strength a little, but the trembling was not so easy to ignore.

When Tim was discharged from the hospital, the only one there that day was his father. Emilia and Meiko were both at work, in a way- a large part of Rhyme City had been destroyed by Lugia, and everyone who worked or lived in that area were pitching in in some way to help with the cleanup. Tim counted himself among the lucky; his father's apartment building sustained extremely minor damage, mainly a couple broken windows and a few lost shingles. The building was quickly cleaned up and deemed safe to stay in. Emilia, too, had avoided losing her apartment; Meiko, on the other hand, was temporarily taking up residence on Emilia's couch. She stayed, however, in good spirits, only remarking that "It could have been so much worse… I'd rather be here than not be anywhere anymore."

The undamaged part of Rhyme City- which included the universities- set about providing the resources needed the rebuild the damaged part. Everyone who could pitched in.

Leaving the building for the parking lot, Tim hesitated. Part of him didn't want to leave. Wanted to go back to his hospital room and stay there until the world was normal… until Rhyme city was rebuilt and everyone forgot about the incident and forgot about Tim, because Tim had seen the news since then, and the topic of the boy who'd rushed the legendary Lugia and freed it from control, stopping it from spreading destruction, was a popular one still. Tim didn't want to be popular. He wanted things to be normal.

And one normal that he was missing was… it felt so weird. As Tim's father was moving ahead of him, walking to the car, the little Pikachu with the detective hat followed behind him, happily scampering after him on all fours, chirping away in a voice much more high-pitched than Tim was used to. Until recently, that Pikachu had walked beside him, his sarcastic and sometimes annoying but always loyal friend. And even though, logically, Tim knew that that was not the same Pokemon/person that followed him, and that Pikachu was his father's partner and not his, it still felt… lonely.

Until movement behind him had a large form pressing against his side.

"I am here." Absol told him. Tim looked at him, then turned and brought his left arm up, burying his face and fingers just for a moment into the neck of the Absol next to him that was just a little taller than Tim himself.

"Tim?" His father called, concern in his voice.

"Coming!" Tim let go of Absol and both of them headed over to join his father.

By the time Tim was discharged from the hospital, he found that one good, familiar normalcy had returned in his absence; the Hi Hat Café, which had been far enough from GNN to remain safe from the aftermath of Lugia's attack, had been rebuilt, and both the café and the detective agency above it had been able to return to business as usual. It was a few days after returning to his father's apartment-now set up for two people- that Tim first visited the repaired shop, but Pablo had sure been happy to see him, shocking him by coming around the counter to pull him into a hug.

"Ah, Tim! I can't even tell you what a relief it is to see you! I kept up with everything going on, but I wasn't sure if I would ever see you walk back in here again!"

"Of course." Tim smiled. "Nowhere makes coffee as good as yours."

Pablo grinned. "Don't I know it! Your Pikachu has come in here even without you, as well as your father. It's incredible- I've heard the story of you finding him! Whoever would have thought he was in the hospital of the next city? This really has been an unbelievable time for you, huh? And speaking of unbelievable," he added, "Who's your, uh… very tall friend?"

"Oh, this is Absol. He helped me with Lugia. When Pikachu went back to my father, he decided to stay with me. I figured that for the first time getting out since getting back, I would show him the best café around. Don't worry, he may be big but he's very careful."

"An excellent choice! Very well, to celebrate, two coffees on the house." Pablo announced.

"What? No, I can't do that! I'll pay for those."

"Tim." Pablo regarded him solemnly. "Not only did you save the city from being leveled, you found the people responsible for making the device that caused a Feraligatr to destroy my café. You gave me the answers you promised. I could never thank you enough. The coffee is on the house. I won't take no for an answer." Pablo stared at Tim a moment longer, raising his eyebrows in a way that emphasized what he'd said, then went back around the counter.

"Thank you." Tim murmured softly. Pablo poured the coffee and set it in front of them; a mug for Tim, a bowl for Absol.

Tim wrapped his left hand around his mug. "What do you think, Absol?"

"I have not had one of these before." Absol leaned forward, giving it a very careful sniff before lowering his head to taste it.

After a couple of laps, though, Absol lifted his head, his nose wrinkled.

"Quite bitter."

"Not a fan?"

"I'm afraid I have a naïve nature. Bitter is a flavour that does not work for me."

Tim frowned.

"Not a coffee drinker? Pokemon can be tricky, sometimes, I should have asked before I served- what nature does he have? Do you know? Their nature affects their tastes."

Tim did know that about their natures, but he hadn't given it any thought before. Trusting that Absol had spoken the truth, despite how odd it sounded, he answered.

"Um… naïve?"

"Ah, that would do it. That nature hates bitter flavours. Hang on a moment, I know the perfect thing." Pablo took the bowl away, and moved to get something else; Tim looked at Absol.

"A naïve nature? You? That's hard to believe."

"I am not so naïve now. Several years of suffering from intense compulsions to stop thousands of disasters that I was powerless to do anything about has very effectively wizened me to the harshness of the world. But simply because I am no longer naïve does not mean that my nature has changed, and my tastes have not changed either. I dislike bitter, and I prefer sweet."

"Ah…" Tim fell silent for a moment as Pablo mixed something at a far counter. "It… sounds like your life has not been easy."

"It has not. But there is one lesson I have decided to take from my nature."

"Oh? What's that?"

Before Absol could answer, Pablo returned with another bowl of a frothy, tan- coloured liquid.

"Here we go! Caramel hot chocolate- this should appeal much more to your new friend's tastes, if he has a naïve nature." The man smiled, setting it in front of Absol.

Absol glanced at it, looked at Tim, and answered,

"Try not to let the bitter overwhelm you, and instead enjoy the sweet when it comes."

Looking back at the bowl, he sniffed it a little, then tried it. This time, when he lifted his head, he gave an expression that Tim could only call a smile.

"Much better."

Lowering his head again, he drank from the bowl, and Tim smiled first at Absol, then at Pablo.

"He likes that one for sure."

Pablo grinned.

The second place Tim went, he took not just Absol, but his father and his father's Pikachu with him. They drove down to the cliff that both father and son had, at different times, been pushed off of, and brought Skarmory not one, but three weeks worth of bread crumbs. Skarmory was delighted and grateful, and excitedly told Tim that she could hear rustling inside her eggs; they would hatch soon, and she hoped he would come by sometime when they had so she could introduce them. Not right away, perhaps, as newly hatched Skarmory had soft, wet feathers and were very vulnerable, but maybe he could come meet them in a month or two when their feathers had hardened to steel and they were learning to fly?

Tim happily told her he would be glad to. Returning home after the visit, there were no other trips that took him farther from home than the Hi- Hat Café; he put the rest of his effort in training his left hand to write more legibly.

The first day of university came with seemingly unceasing whispers and stares. Given that they only had one car, Tim's father dropped him off on campus, and Tim got only about thirty seconds to look around before he started attracting looks. A couple people started approaching, looking excited. Tim sighed.

Movement behind him had him glancing back as Absol, who'd Tim had spotted jumping from rooftop to rooftop during the drive, came up behind him.

"No one will bother you." Absol said simply. "I will make sure of it. Outside, at least. Pokemon are not allowed inside the building without specific exemptions, but I will wait outside the nearest exit. Where is your first class?"

Tim smiled and pulled out his schedule and the map of his campus. "Oh… over there."

"Then let's go."

Tim put both pages away, glancing up to see that the people who had been approaching had stopped, giving Absol either nervous or shocked looks.

"Thank you." He murmured.

"No need. I like you. We are partners now."

Feeling very humbled, Tim headed towards the building that housed his first class, right hand in his pocket and Absol never more than arms' length away. They attracted a lot of looks and whispers still, but they seemed easier to ignore with his friend by his side. His mind turned instead to his courses.

Before Tim's experiences in Rhyme City, he'd never had any experience with solving cases. His father hadn't spoken to him a lot about his work, only giving Tim a couple tips back when he was small and playing Detective as a game- "Look at all the details, Tim, every detail is important. You never know what might blow your case wide open."- but he'd always looked up to his father, always cheered when the man had announced solving another one, though the memories were a little embarrassing now. He'd wanted to follow in his father's footsteps for a long time. He'd looked into what courses were recommended for private detectives like his dad. Forensic Science was his first class, and he hoped it would be really interesting. It sounded interesting, anyway. There were a couple others he didn't think looked like they would be as interesting- Paralegal Science and Political Science, to name a few- but he hoped the Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement classes would be more up his alley. If it came to it, he might even be able to ask Inspector Holiday some questions about those, although he'd rather not trouble the man and the idea wasn't one he really wanted to do, anyway.

Stopping at the door, Tim took a deep breath.

"Good luck. I'll wait on the rooftop and jump down when I see you come out- I'll be watching this door. Remember, if you need me, I am here."

Tim nodded. "Thanks, Absol."