And… chapter 4!
Disclaimer: Don’t own pokemon, it belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me. Do not steal my work!
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks!
Chapter 4
“Say, Ash, why did you decide to come here of all places for your internship? Why not Vermillion or even Viridian? I heard the Nurse Joys there talked highly of you.”
Ash paused. They were up on stepladders, washing the windows. Apparently the Nurse Joys had to keep the entire Pokemon Center shipshape. There were no janitors or maids to do the work, so…
Well, now he felt more in awe of the healers than ever “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? I’ve never trained anyone before…”
“I know, but I like you.”
Catelyn blinked.
Ash blushed. “It’s not like that!” He nearly dropped his bucket of soapy water as Pikachu laughed from on the other side of the glass-paned window. “It’s just that… I feel like I belong here.”
“How odd…” If she looked carefully, she could see Camille and Brock kissing in that bush over there, but she chose not to.
Ash furiously scrubbed at the window, hoping the soapy glass would erase his Pikachu’s smiling face on the other side “You know how sometimes you feel perfect?”
Yes, she did… nights out dark when she was Lance and had just completed her kill and collected her memory crystals…. She knew.
However, Ash would not be interested in those times.
She thought back… how about the time when she had labored eight hours over a pregnant Dragonite and finally, finally a single baby Dratini had been born?
That was more like it…
A small caesura stretched between them as Catelyn reopened golden orbs. “Yes.”
“Then you know why I’m here.”
“Perhaps it is because this way you can stay close to your friend, Brock?”
“That might be it.” Ash nodded absentmindedly. He paused. “Catelyn?”
“Yes?”
“Um… if there are breeding centers, why do nurses need to learn how to deliver live young?”
“Because, Ash, pokemon are not normally oviparous. They are viviparous animals. However, breeders give pokemon special injections, destroying their wombs and promoting parthenogenesis, not true reproduction, and so they now bring forth eggs instead, for the convenience of trainers.”
“How horrible!”
She nodded. “Wild pokemon often come to Pokemon Centers pregnant, and thus, we must learn to deal with them.”
“I see…”
He shuddered. How horrible!
Bulbasaur looked at Squirtle worriedly. At least they hadn’t gotten the injections, but… she didn’t want to have eggs… well, she would not have minded it before, but now that she knew the truth…!
How horrible…
Squirtle reassured his mate that he wouldn’t hurt her.
“However,” Lance continued on blithely, almost, “Our Centers do carry the necessary toxins should a trainer wish for his pokemon to receive them.”
“No!”
“I did not mean you, Ash. As nurses, our pokemon are exempt from official medical requirements, as we can more than adequately care for our own pokemon, wouldn’t you agree?”
Ash set the bucket, now only half-full of suds, down on the windowsill and moved on to the next window. “I think I see.”
She nodded as she finished with her windows and climbed down the ladder re-folding it.
Ash was dressed, to his embarrassment, in a pink short-sleeved shirt, pink shorts, and a white apron, a little white hat with the red-cross symbol on his head. Apparently male nurses were a rarity – there were only two others, one in far-off Houen, and another who wandered the Safari Zone, taking care of the wild pokemon there.
Maybe the clothing requirements had made the applicants quit? Nah…
He had eight other identical outfits in his closet at the Pokemon Center. His room was next to Lance’s, located next to the ICU and the operating room as well.
It had only been a few weeks since he started, but he was learning so much. Unhappily, much of his new knowledge hurt.
He saw a male trainer come in with a badly beaten Lickitung and abandon the pokemon at the Center. Catelyn had spent nearly an hour trying to explain the situation, but the pokemon only grew more distressed as time progressed and at last, it had overcome natural instinct and attacked her.
Pikachu had barely gotten there in time… as it were; Catelyn had sprained her elbow and was unable to perform surgery for the battered Raticate that wandered in the next day. Ash had been forced to call Saffron Pokemon Center, transfer the pokemon, and explain what had happened to the specialist.
He still shuddered. The gleaming green and blue tiles in the waiting room were so bright, but if he thought hard, he could still see the stains from the blood… it had taken an hour with very strong cleaner to get the blood off.
“Ash?”
He snapped back to reality. “Yes, Catelyn?”
“I’m ordering pizza for us tonight. What topping do you want?”
“Pepperoni!”
“Pepperoni it is.” She nodded as she dialed the pizzeria. Twenty minutes later, the deliveryman showed up with two individual pizzas, pepperoni and mushroom and Canadian bacon. She paid him and then went to find Ash.
Ash was busy putting three poke balls in the Healing Machine. He was humming, but he seemed preoccupied.
“Stop!”
Ash froze. “Catelyn?”
“You were about to hit the wrong dial.” She carefully put the pizzas on the front desk; then turned to him. “Remember the dial settings?”
“The Healing machine has six settings, level one ranging from minor injury to six, which is as critical injury as it can be without surgery.” Ash repeated from memory.
“Yes… and you were about to hit six. How bad are the pokémon?”
Ash brought up their stats on the main screen of the healing machine as they watched. Catelyn immediately took two of the poke balls out.
“These two pikachu need surgery, Ash. Internal hemorrhaging can’t be cured with some nice healing waves.”
Ash paled. “Oh no!”
“Oh yes… didn’t you read that section? I shouldn’t have left the Center unattended. You’re still a novice.”
“No! I’m sorry! I could have made the situation worse!”
“Indeed, Ash… and the other pokemon in there only need a healing factor of three. Although wandering trainers expect us to heal all their pokemon in one shot, the truth is, we don’t. Rarely does it happen that all the pokemon in a team need the same healing level, unless they are all healthy and the trainer only wishes for superficial touches, in case we use healing level one.”
“Oh…”
“For example, when I healed your pokemon, I noticed that although four needed healing level 1, your Charmander required level three to assist its system in escalating the recovery of old injuries.”
“I see….”
“Well, I hope you’ve learned something today. Enjoy the pizza.” Catelyn said grimly, as she took the two pikachus into the operating room.
Ash ate them in silence, morosely. * I can’ do anything right, can I? I’m just a stupid kid… but I promise, I will get better! I want Catelyn to be proud of me… *
End Chapter
Completed 4/25/05
Shoyko: Dark!
Phantomness: Least its purposeful darkfic
Kairo: Well, it was funny in parts at least
Ash: *sighs*