Ages:

Ash--> 21

Misty --> 20

“...” Spoken Words

italics Thoughts

~~~~~~ Scene changes / flashbacks / change in P.O.V

(...) Author’s Notes

Disclaimer
: None of the following characters used in this story belong to me, k? Only the plot is mine, the rest....belongs to good ol’ Japan ^-^

Links to the Past

Last Chapter review:

Ash continued to stare at her when he smiled.

“I’m in...I’ll do anything to find out what happened to me...”

Chapter 3: Answers?

Misty looked at Ash and sighed.

Poor guy, she thought he doesn’t even know how he got here, that’s gotta be rough.

“Well Ash,” she started, breaking the silence between them, “I guess we should begin our search; do you think we’re ready?”

Ash stood from his chair and looked out the window at the wide, open sea.

“I’m ready of you are.” he said simply.

Misty smiled weakly and rose from her chair as well.

“All right then, let’s go.” she said, walking to her door, keys in hand.

Ash followed her to the door and out of it.

Once they had made it outside, Ash found it almost impossible to tear his gaze away from the frothy ocean’s waves. Misty had to physically drag him to her car and place him in the passenger’s seat.

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At the Police Station...

Misty quickly pulled up into the Station’s parking lot and easily found an open spot.

“C’mon Ash, let’s get some info.” she said, smiling as she turned off her silver VW Jetta (sorry, I had to put that in here...I LOVE Jettas ^-^) and opened the door.

Ash half-smiled and opened his door.

They quickly hurried into the station and began looking for a place to start interrogating.

“How about that guy, he looks like he’d give away valuable information.” stated Misty as she pointed at a young, shy-looking man at a desk in the corner of the police station.

Ash simply nodded and followed Misty over to the young man.

“Hello, I was wondering if you could help me with something.” Misty said, smiling brightly.

The shy, young man blushed wildly and nodded.

“Ok, what can I help you with, Miss?” he responded quietly, not looking at her.

Misty smiled cleverly and proceeded her interrogation.

“Well, my friend here,” she started pointing to Ash, who waved in response, “has a, uh, “family member” that was a victim of that terrible ship accident that took place a couple of weeks ago. You know the one I mean?”

The man nodded, again without looking at her.

“Good. Well, anyway, we need some information about that “only survivor” you all found...could you, possibly tell us an address, a name, maybe a phone number?”

The young man thought for a moment then looked around.

“I’m not really supposed to do that, Miss. It’s against company policy.”

Misty frowned slightly.

“Oh, well, you see, my friend really needs the information because his “family member” might be the person that you found. So just the name would be fine...It’s enough information to know whether or not the person is related to him.”

The man reluctantly looked around again and took out a small piece of paper. He scribbled something down quickly and handed it to Misty.

“Please don’t tell anyone where you got this information from. If you do, I could be fired.” he whispered to Misty nervously.

Misty smiled brightly and took the paper from him.

“Thank you so much --” she paused shortly to look at the man’s name tag. “Bob. We really appreciate it.”

Misty smiled again and grabbed Ash by the hand.

“That was easy enough,” he said, as he staggered under her grip.

“Yeah, I know. I’m good at getting info outta people.” she said, smiling and winking at him.

Ash blushed as he continued being pulled out of the station by Misty.

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“Misty, we’ve been driving around for hours; I thought you said this was going to be easy!” Ash cried, exasperatedly.

Misty sighed as she continued to drive.

“First of all, Ash, it’s only been ONE hour and secondly, I’ve never heard of this person before, they must’ve just moved here.”
Ash sighed once again and looked out the window.

“I thought you said you knew everyone here.”

“I do! Just not the people the just moved here. How was I supposed to know that this was going to happen?! I’m not psychic, Ash! And I don’t even have to be helping you! I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart, and this is the thanks I get! I know that you want more information, but I’m doing the best that I can, isn’t that enough?”

Ash pulled his gaze from the window and looked over at the frustrated Misty. His frown deepened as a wave of guilt swept over him.

“You’re right...I’m sorry...You don’t have to be helping me, I realize that...I’m really sorry...Thank you Misty, I really appreciate all that you’re doing for me...without your help, I’d probably still be laying on the beach getting eaten alive by seagulls.”

Misty calmed down a bit an listened to his apology; he was being sincere. She smiled at his last comment and pulled over her car.

“No, Thank you, Ash...”

Ash looked at her surprised.

“For what? I didn’t do anything for you.”

Misty smiled at him.

“Yes you did. You helped me more than you’ll ever understand or know...and for that, I’m thankful. Whoever your mother is did a good job at raising you. You’re a very considerate guy.”

Ash looked away from her and blushed immensely.

“Thanks a lot Misty...I really appreciate hearing that from you...”

There was an awkward silence that followed their conversation. Both Ash and Misty sat nervously, wishing the other would say something. Suddenly, Misty’s cell phone rang.

“Huh? Oh, that’s me, hold on, Ok, Ash?” she said, searching for the little black phone.

Ash simply nodded and turned his attention back to the window.

“Hello? This is Misty speaking.” she said, finally finding the so-called “missing phone”.

“Hello Misty, I’m Carl Mack, I’m responding to the call you made to the “Missing Persons Bureau” a few months ago, sorry it‘s taken us this long to get back in touch with you.”

Misty’s eyes grew wide as she listened to the man speak. She was feeling a panic attack coming on.

Oh no...I totally forgot I called them...I-I can’t talk to them *now*! Not with Ash here in the car sitting *right* next to me. She thought, frantically trying to think up a good excuse to get them off the phone.

“Um, Mr. Mack? I’m not going to be able to hold up this conversation at the moment. Could you do me a favor and call my home, please? You could leave a message and I’ll get back to you sometime later. I’d talk more now but I’m in the middle of something extremely important and I’m not near my house. Would this be too much trouble?” she stated, nervously shaking, unbeknownst to Ash.

Mr. Mack’s end of the line was currently silent as he thought about Misty’s suggestion.

“Well, Miss. Waterflower, you’ve been waiting for this information a while, are you positive you don’t want it now? It would only take a few minuets to give you all of it.”

Misty was getting more and more nervous by the second. Luckily, though, Ash wasn’t paying too much attention to her at the moment.

“No, please Mr. Mack, I’d really be extremely appreciative of you and your bureau if you’d just call my house and leave a message. I’ve waited this long for your call, I’m sure I can wait a few more hours. But please, I’m really in a, um, hurry.”

Mr. Mack’s line went momentarily silent again.

“Very well, Miss. Waterflower. We hope to hear from you soon...This is some pretty revealing information. It should help you immensely in your investigations. I hope to hear from you soon.”

Misty breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“T-Thank you very much Mr. Mack. I’ll be getting back to you soon. Good-bye.” she concluded, pressing the “end” key on her cell.

Misty warily returned her attention back to Ash, who apparently was daydreaming about something at that moment.

“Ash? Ash? Are you all right?” she said worriedly, waving a hand in front of his glazed brown eyes.

“Huh?” responded Ash, returning to the world of the living.

“Are you all right? You looked kinda, spacey there a second ago. Do you want to go back to my cottage and lay down or something?” she offered, reaching for her keys in the ignition.

“As temping as that is, I’m gonna have to say ‘no’. I’d much rather be looking for this person...By the way what was their name again?”

Misty reached into her jean pocket and removed the small piece of paper with the name on it.

“The name is ’Gary Oak’.”

Why does that name sound so familiar to me? I don’t think I’ve ever even met anyone named ‘Gary’ let alone a ‘Gary Oak’...thought Misty, as she senselessly stared at the name and it’s letters.

Ash, meanwhile, was in the middle of another “flash back”:

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** He was in the same room that was in the first vision, only the girl wasn’t there this time, it was someone else...A young man who looked to be around Ash’s age was sitting across from him in a light brown arm chair. Ash noticed the two men (him and the other guy) were laughing about something. The man across from him had dark, brown hair that was a pretty good length for a guy. It stood up on his head a few inches and then sort of ‘shot’ out to the left a little. His eyes looked to be a sort of brown, but they were closed so he wasn’t sure. **

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suddenly, the flash back ended and Ash was left with a look of entrancement from the waving of Misty’s hand going up and down. He could faintly hear a feminine voice calling his name from the left but couldn’t comprehend who it was coming from.

“ASH!? What the heck is wrong with you? Stop ignoring me and come back to reality!!” Misty was getting agile and frustrated now and was pushing Ash up against the car’s door, hitting him on the shoulder and shaking him furiously.

“OUCH!!! Why in God’s name are you hitting me?!” cried Ash, as he returned to reality once again.

Misty halted her hitting brigade and looked at him worriedly.

“Ash, what happened? Did you have another one of those ‘flash back’ thingies?” she asked in a childish tone that Ash couldn’t help but smile at.

“Yeah I think so, but this time...there was no girl...there was only this guy and I was sitting in this room with him talking about something. Then we started laughing...and that was it...”

Misty was silent momentarily.

“Ash, I think you need some rest...C’mon, I’ll take you back to the cottage, this search can wait, all right?”

Ash sighed heavily, signaling he was surrendering and agreeing to return to the cottage for a short nap and hopefully a meal.

I wonder what these flash backs are trying to tell me...thought Ash as he and Misty sped their way back to the beach cottage.

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Ok, so I’m guessing a lot of you are confused now? Don’t worry, everything will be clarified in later chapters! Please R + R!!

Questions? Comments, Advice or Suggestions?

Email me: silverserenity2000@yahoo.com

Storyline © Angel: da Newsies fan