The next morning, Ash gently knocked upon Aya's door, hoping for a better response than the night before, but not expecting it. "Honey, it's time for school."

"I'm not going," his daughter shouted back.

"Come on, you have to."

"No!"

Ash sighed heavily. He couldn't make her go, especially after what had happened. She needed time to think about what was going on. "Ok, but me and mum have to go to work and we're going to drop Kai off at your nana's, so you'll be alone." There was no response. "We'll be back later. Goodbye." Again, no response. Giving up, Ash walked away.

Aya lay upon her bed, her sheets pulled up over her head, so that only her eyes were uncovered. She had spent most of the night in that same position, sleep never finding her. Her mind was in chaos, thousands of contradictory messages rushing past in the blink of an eye. How could her mother do something so heartless? Did she not love her father enough to stay with him? Did she not love her own daughter?

No, she loves us. I know she does. Then...why did she do that?

She wiped away the tears that were again assaulting her cheeks. Her face was so raw from the past few hours. Normally whenever she cried, she could turn to her parents to comfort her, to rock her like she was still a baby. Within minutes, they would calm her down, make her forget what had made her so heavy-hearted. But now she had no one to turn to for solace. She had never felt so lonely. She looked out into her room. It seemed so large. So void. Her countless number of cuddly Pokemon could not even detract from the feeling of isolation.

After a moment of commotion from downstairs, she heard the front door close, signalling that the house was now empty apart from her. She pulled her weary body from the mattress, and stood slowly upon her weak legs. She didn't want to leave the comfort of her bed, but her stomach begged for sustenance.

She sat down upon the sofa, and after a few moments noticed a yellow creature sitting beside her. "Pikachu!" she yelled in surprise, almost spitting out a mouthful of corn flakes. "What are you doing here? Didn't you go to work with dad?"

"(Ash asked me to stay here and look after you)."

"I can look after myself. I'm ten-years-old and am about to start out on my journey. I'm a big kid now," she said a little angrily.

"(Ash and Misty are just worried about you. They're your parents)."

"What parents they are too," she replied sarcastically.

This instantly infuriated Pikachu. "(Aya, don't say that)!"

"Why not? They deserve it after what they have done," she returned.

"(After what they did)?" Pikachu muttered to itself. "( But, Aya, it was Misty who left, not Ash. Why are you angry at him, too?)"

"Because he was the one who told her to keep it a secret," she shouted, clenching her fists in rage. "At least mum wanted to be honest, but he wanted to hide it from me!" Her fierce anger brought tears to her eyes. She ran upstairs, forgetting her hunger. She was too depressed to think of food.

She got into bed again, pulling the sheets over her head entirely. She just wanted to be alone. She didn't want to have to explain her emotions to anyone else when she did not even understand them fully herself. She just knew she had this incredible feeling of loathing within her.

As the hours passed, she lay in that one position, never moving. Her mind constantly ran through everything that had happened the previous few days, and even before her life had been turned upside-down. How could she not have seen the evidence? She could notice certain instances now in retrospect, however. Times that the adults in her life, her parents, her grandmother, Uncle Brock, had acted strangely when she came into the room, how they would suddenly stop talking, or sometimes change the topic when a conversation came close to the path to the truth.

She looked up at her desk, once more staring at the photograph of her and her parents on their wedding day. How could she not remember the years before that event when her father wasn't in her life? How could she not remember such an absence? And how could she not remember the day he finally came into her life?

As she contemplated her new circumstances, she began to feel her eyes attempt to close. She still felt hurt, but after hours of painful reflection, her anger had settled a little, replaced more and more by a need for proper answers. She wasn't sure whether it was her weariness or her love for her parents that was winning through, but the fatigue caused by the almost sleepless night before meant that she didn't care.

Aya constantly watched the clock in her room. Her parents were normally home at around five, and it was now one minute too. She watched the minute count down, the second hand seeming to go at a snail's pace, and after it passed, she watched the next do the same. Over and over again she followed the clock's movement until the gentle ticking lulled her into a much-needed slumber.

The noise of the front door closing awoke her from the nap. She glanced up again at the clock. It was after six. They had arrived home more than an hour late. She stood and listened at the door for a moment. She heard someone excitedly running up the stairs and into the bedroom next to her. Kai, she guessed. After she was sure the hall was empty, she opened her door and quietly walked towards the small balcony, peering through the spindles of the staircase towards her parents.

They were both smiling at each other, sitting as close as possible upon the sofa. Her father was gently stroking her mother's abdomen with his thumb, the rest of his hand against her side. Why did they look so happy? Last night they had looked as devastated as her.

"At least we've gotten a little piece of good news amongst all this," Ash said to her.

"Yeah," Misty replied, placing her forehead upon his. "Guess we've got another thing we need to tell Aya about."

"We'll tell her when we sort out this situation, okay?" Misty nodded. "I'm gonna go up and see if she will talk to me."

As her father stood, Aya rushed to her room again. What more did they have to tell her? Was there more to this story?

She stood with her back to the door, awaiting her father, unsure what to do. Should she talk to him, or turn him away once more? After a moment, he knocked her door lightly again. "Aya, could we talk?"

She wanted to tell him to leave her alone, to treat him like she had the previous night and morning, but being alone for that day had made her yearn for some company, and she knew she couldn't be couped up in her room for the rest of her life. She had to talk to him eventually, and it would be better to get it out of the way. And at the moment she did not have the full story. She knew that there must be more to the truth. "Okay." She opened the door, allowing her father into her room.

"Thanks, honey," he replied, awkwardly.

The two sat upon her bed, silent for a long while. Ash had no idea how to even start the conversation, though he had planned it all out several times just in case it was required. But as luck would have it, he didn't even need to. Tears began to run down Aya's cheeks, and her body began to shake under the heavy sobs. She almost jumped into her father's arms, crying even harder than she had the previous night. Ash pulled her tightly to him, wrapping his strong arms protectively around his daughter. He didn't realise he could miss her so much in one day.

"Why would she...do something...like this, dad?" she sobbed.

He began to comb her hair with his fingers, rocking her gently. "Because we were very young when your mum became pregnant. It was something we hadn't planned or talked about at great length. She didn't know how I would feel about it, and was afraid that I wouldn't want to keep you."

"How could she think that?"

"She was scared, and fear is a great motivator. Your mum wanted to leave for a little while, to come to terms with what was happening, and planned to come back to me...but the longer she was away, the harder it got for her to return. She thought I would hate her.

"Also, I was getting closer to becoming a Pokemon Master, and your mother didn't want to ruin my career. But when she left, I quit training. "

Aya stared at him in shock. She knew that the only thing in her father's life more important to him than training was his family. She couldn't believe he could have even contemplated giving it up.

"I didn't have the passion to start again until after we got married. Without her, training just seemed so...empty.

"In those three years, I never stopped loving your mum, not for one minute. When we met again, I tried for months to stay angry at her. I told myself I had to punish her for what she did to us. But in the end, my feelings won through." He was smiling by this point, confusing Aya.

  "But, how could you forgive her...after all the pain she put you through, even if you did love?"

"Because, I didn't want to live a life without her by my side. If I hadn't forgiven your mum, we would have joint custody of you, I wouldn't have returned to training, and Kai would never have been born. I realised that we could all have such a better life if I just did that one little thing. I wanted us to be a real family. I know it was worth it. I will never forget what she did, but my love for you and her gave me the ability to forgive. But also..." He stopped abruptly.

"What?"

He shook his head heavily. "Your mother has put herself through so much since then. She has punished and tortured herself for what she did, and I feel that she has went through enough." Aya looked up into his face. She had never seen her father so distraught, so worried. "She has paid the price for her crime ten times over, and I want our family to move on past this. I know it will take you a while, and I'm not going to rush you, but I know you will forgive her. You love her, just like I do."

Her father was right. Although it was impossible at the minute to fathom, she knew that her love for her mother would out, and she would forgive her fully, just as her father had done. "I know, but I'm not ready quite yet."

"I understand. Are you at least ready to come down for dinner, or would you like me to bring it up to you?"

She thought for a moment. Could she truly face her mother yet? So soon? No, she wasn't ready for that yet. "Could I eat up here, and...tomorrow maybe...I'll try to eat downstairs?"

"Okay, sweetheart. I'm not going to push you."

"Thanks, dad." She gave him a last hug before he left, promising to be up soon with some dinner.