Chapter 6! Phantomness grins tiredly…
I ought to mention sometime, in this part, Ash is almost 14, and Catelyn is 19…
Het championshipping (Ash x Lance) you all do know that Catelyn is Lance, right? I thought that was clear…
Chapter 6
It was a long process… the bullet had gone in much deeper than he’d initially thought, and he had rather made a mess of things, but finally, the lead was gone and Catelyn had been stitched up again, albeit a bit crookedly, and one of the Blisseys had hooked her up to an IV with glucose and saline solution just in case anything happened. Luckily, she hadn’t lost that much blood…
Now, he was standing in the shower, eyes closed, furiously trying to suppress his pain and nausea. It hurt so much….
He had to get better! What if this happened again? Luckily, she’d only been hit in the shoulder but still!
If it had hit a lung or her heart… he shuddered. He might have killed her with his clumsy surgery!
He stepped out of the shower tiredly, accepting the Stamina+ drink Blissey gave him, and despite his feelings, fell asleep…
He woke up at noon the next morning and panicked. Had Catelyn survived the night? He rushed downstairs, only to find her healing a junior trainer’s Rattata and Pidgey, dressed immaculately in a white lab coat over her blue-and-white nurse joy outfit. She was alive!
“Catelyn!”
“Hi, Ash.” She grinned.
“You’re alive!” He hugged her tightly, ignoring the trainer’s odd look, and seeing her wince slightly when he touched her right shoulder.
“I have to thank you… what happened to the intruder?”
“I think your pokemon took care of him.”
“I see… there’s a letter for you on the desk, arrived by Pidgey this morning.”
“All right.”
He suddenly realized how inappropriate his earlier actions had been and blushed, apologizing, but Catelyn waved him off. He opened the letter, finding it to be from the League. Who else would write to him?
“For your heroic endeavors, we raise your trainer level to 80? Big deal.”
“Look at the back, Ash.”
Ash did. “Oh! Extenuating circumstances… they’re offering me a scholarship to Saffron Pokemon Academy when I finish my intern term!”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Catelyn, I’m grateful, but are you hurt at all?”
“I heal fast.” She replied. “And I won’t be able to operate for another week. Do you think you can take over?”
“Wha? But I’m not supposed to!”
“Correction – you’re not required to know surgical technique during your internship, but I can teach you. You’re a fast learner, Ash, even if you’re absentminded.”
Ash blushed.
The junior trainer left, not wanting to intrude.
“Teach me!” He said, when his brain finally caught up.
“Of course…” She grinned as she gave him two more disks. “Here…”
Ash groaned. But he had to study to learn more. He’d learn. And he’d make her proud. He had never forgotten his initial promise.
However, he was halfway through reading how to reattach a stomach to the small intestine when a panicked cry caught his attention.
“What’s wrong, Squirtle?”
Bulbasaur’s water just broke! She’s going into labor!
“Oh no! And Catelyn can’t do surgery now!”
“You’ll have to do it, Ash!” Catelyn said, as she carried Bulbasaur into the delivery room. Ash hurriedly changed into surgical gown and mask and gloves and followed, worriedly.
She barked several orders to the two Blisseys, who ran off quickly. Ash’s Chansey watched, standing by in case something bad happened.
“Morphine feed!”
Check!
“Oxytocin, in 10cc doses?”
Check!
“Good. Patient secured?” Catelyn turned back to the table and found that yes, Bulbasaur was secured.
“Her contractions coming at five seconds apart, this is a fast one. Seems normal, Ash. Just get ready to get the babies.”
Ash gulped nervously, watching and waiting… Bulbasaur panted and shuddered on the mattress, before finally, finally, a bloody shape emerged from the birth canal.
“Hurry, clear the mucus from the face.” Catelyn called, as she reached over and injected Bulbasaur with 10cc of oxytocin. There was one more to be born, and the contractions were slowing down, not a good sign…
Ash grabbed a clean towel and wiped the mucus off, sighing in relief as the baby took its first breath.
“Incubator is standing ready. Your Chansey knows how to work it. You can come back, Chansey will take care of the rest.”
Ash nodded, and watched in morbid fascination as Bulbasaur slowly brought her second child into the world. This one was an Squirtle.
“Interesting, one of each. I wonder how that worked out? No matter, do the same thing you did for the Bulbasaur. Blissey! Raise the temperature of the other incubator twenty degrees. Different species. And lower the oxygen feed by 5%.”
The healer pokemon quickly had both babies settled. Bulbasaur and Squirtle stared at each other with love in their eyes.
They threw out the soiled linen, burnt it in the incinerator actually, and then both went to shower.
Well, that was a new experience…
Catelyn winced as she stepped out in a bathrobe. “Blissey? I need…”
The pokemon rushed over and used Soft-boiled on her trainer. The nurse sighed. * I’m more worn out than I thought… *
True, she hadn’t been Lance for weeks, but the additional weight of all the extra center work was getting to her.
Blissey patted Catelyn on the back and went to get her some Moomoo milk to help. She gratefully drank an entire bottle.
This was so hard…
And there were two more left… two more holders of memory to take from before she remembered everything…
So tired…
Ash stepped out of the shower, feeling refreshed and glad that he had been able to witness this event. Even though it had been kind of scary…
Wow.
New life was so precious…
Now I know why I wanted to help pokémon… it’s so they can be happy…
Ash?
“I’m fine now, Pikachu.” It was true! He liked being here… and he did feel better here. Yes, things were turning out for the best this way…
He would become a nurse, and everything would be better. He would help pokemon and be happy.
End Chapter
Completed 4/26/05