A small sensation of astonishment swept through Ash’s body as his father smiled affably at him, raising his eyebrow in a friendly ‘are you gonna stand there all day?’ gesture, as he leaned casually on the frame of the door.

Misty and Brock were also drawn back at this, but they had noticed him there almost right after Ash had leapt into Delia’s arms. They knew immediately that it was Ash’s dad, recognizing him from photos that Ash had shown them and that hung in various places of the house. In an instant, Misty fell head over heels for this mysterious man standing there, his crystal brown eyes and gentle, bright smile soaking into her.

After the surprising impact finally seeped its way into Ash’s system, a wide smile of ecstasy spread across his face. Like a bolt, he rushed instantly to his dad, unable to breathe, unable to speak, unable to notice anything but him.

"Dad!" Ash repeated, only this time in utter glee, as he collided into his dad’s arms.

"Ashton! Hey-hey, come ‘ere, you!" said Jacey Ketchum with a laugh, accepted Ash into his arms, raising him several feet above the ground and swinging him around. Although Ash was a lot heavier then he had been, it didn’t matter as he held Ash in front of his face to get a good look at the son he hadn’t seen in three years.

For a moment they just smiled at each other, after which Jay brought him closer to engulf him in a tremendous bear hug. Ash clutched his arms tightly around his dad’s neck, squeezing gently. His feet dangled at his dad’s knees, knocking into them ever so softly.

"Dad, you’re home! You’re home!" Ash cried benevolently, not attempting at all to break from the hug.

As they hugged, Misty, Brock, and Delia looked on, their mouths slightly agape in awe and emotion. Delia finally smiled sincerely, tears coming to her eyes at the sight of the reunion. She fought them as hard as she could, wrapping her arms tightly around her body. It struck her dead-center in the heart to see Ash finally with Jay again, something she wished she could have provided him with for a long time.

Misty and Brock, in the meantime, couldn’t believe the event that was unfolding in front of them. Misty especially found it touching, tears coming to her eyes, as well, as she watched Jay sway back and forth with his backpacked son in his arms, eyes clenched shut in bliss. Brock understood well, the reunion with his own father coming back to him at the moment, though it was not as nice as this one was.

Jay pulled Ash away from his slowly, groaning jokingly as he placed him gently on the floor. "My God, you’ve gotten heavy!" he laughed, kneeling down to Ash’s eye level. He turned to Delia with a grin. "What’ve you been feeding this kid?"

Delia chuckled, bringing her hand up to brush some hair out of her face. "Ten months out of the year, I don’t feed him anything!"

Misty and Brock smiled huge toothy-grins, not feeling a bit out of place as they imagined they should, nodding in truthful agreement.

Jay turned back to Ash and rubbed his hands up and down Ash’s arms. "Well, he must be eatin’ something. Pokémon trainers need eat to keep up their strength. Right, Ash?"

"Believe me, he eats plenty," Brock said, laughing. "I feel like I’m cooking for four sometimes!"

Ash laughed at Brock’s statement. He was glad that one of his friends had spoken up, partly because in the spur of things he had forgotten they were there. As soon as the realization of their presence came to him, he turned to his dad.

"Dad, this is--"

"Misty and Brock, right?" Jay finished, looking at them standing in the entranceway of the house. He smiled welcomingly at them. "Delia’s told me a lot about you two. Help keep Ash out of trouble, I hear."

Misty and Brock giggled.

"We do what we can, Mr. Ketchum," said Misty, Togepi squealing in her arms.

The baby Pokémon caught Jay’s attention, and he got up to examine Togepi more closely. Misty looked down at Togepi, who cried happily as Jay tickled the Pokémon’s face.

"Cute little critter ya got there," Jay told Misty, looking up into her face. "Seen a couple of these myself."

Misty’s eyes widened. "Really? Ya have? This is the only we’ve ever seen."

Jay nodded, standing upright again. In an instant, Misty saw a older version of Ash flash in front of her. It was almost scary, in fact. It was quite evident now that Ash got all his looks from his father, and if Ash were to grow up to be this handsome . . . Misty shook her head, laughing to herself about her crazy thoughts.

"Hey, Dad! I was the one who found Togepi!" Ash announced, rushing to Jay’s side once again.

Misty sighed and tsk-tsked, amused at the way Ash was instantly groping for his dad’s attention. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that, though, but Misty found it to be the same old attitude Ash always portrayed.

Jay glanced down at Ash. "Is that so?"

Ash nodded. "‘Cause, he was only an egg at the time. When he hatched, he took a liking to Misty, so I just had to give him to her."

Misty huffed in shock, though she smiled. "You little sneak! I had to practically battle you all day for Togepi!" She pointed accusingly at Ash. "Don’t believe him!" she laughed.

Jay found it funny, though, grabbing Ash and shaking him gently and playfully. Ash laughed, and Jay stopped to look at his son again. Ash returned his gaze right back to his father’s eyes as Pikachu found it the perfect opportunity to hop onto Ash’s shoulder. In the excitement of the event, the Pokémon had been overlooked, feeling he needed to make his appearance now.

Ash snickered as he felt the familiar impact of Pikachu landing on his shoulder. "Hey, Dad, I’m sure Mom’s told you a lot about Pikachu, huh?"

"She most certainly did," Jay replied, reaching up to stroke Pikachu’s soft head. "My little boy’s first Pokémon. He’s beautiful. Raised him very well."

"Thanks," Ash said. "He’s my best buddy, right Pikachu?"

"Pikachu!" answered Pikachu pleasantly. He still had his eyes shut as Jay petted his head smoothly and scratched under his chin.

"I’m glad," Jay answered. He pulled his hand from Pikachu, then brought it up again to snatch Ash’s Pokémon League hat off his head.

"You still wearing this old thing?" he said, turning it around in his hands. "I remember when you got this."

Ash looked at it proudly. "Never a moment goes by without it being on my head."

Delia shook her head. "I know. I keep telling him he’s gonna go bald."

Jay plopped the dirty hat back onto Ash’s head. "Oh, let ‘im wear it," he said. "Probably brings you all that good luck, doesn’t it?"

"It sure does!" Ash answered with a chuckle.

Ash breathed in deeply, finally allowing himself to fully digest the moment. In all the years he had been traveling and returning home, he had prayed that his father would have been there to greet him. It didn’t bring him much disappointment when he wasn’t, however, because deep down Ash knew he wouldn’t be. It was just a small desire he craved. But Ash felt it was an unfair desire.

He hadn’t seen Jay in three years, and now that Ash’s excitement was finally being calmed, memories he could never seem to purge were flushing back into his head again. Things he didn’t want to associate with Jay were there whether he wanted them to be or not, and it was killing him. As he looked into his father’s face momentarily, Ash could feel pain coming back to him.

When he was eight, Ash felt his family was perfect. To him, they were perfect; there was no doubt about that. But things had suddenly taken a drastic change, and an unfortunate Ash was caught in the middle. He didn’t have to be, though, but he found himself there anyhow. His parents barely argued . . . ever. Of course, they did sometimes, but they were so harmless, so insignificant that they never scared or upset Ash.

Soon, however, Ash started becoming upset. The mere arguments had become fights, fights he couldn’t ever tolerate listening to. The first real fight came one evening out of nowhere, after Ash had gone to bed.

He was awakened near two A.M., hearing the voices of his mom and dad clearly and loudly from being his wall. For a moment, he was relieved to hear his dad’s voice, and he became overjoyed. Jay hadn’t come home that night, and Ash had gone to bed worried. His mom soothed him to sleep, telling him not to worry, that his dad was just working late. Ash nodded his head, though the look of doubt in Delia’s face frightened him. She looked even more worried and sad then he himself felt.

When he heard the yelling, he was tempted to get up and see what was happening, but he felt glued to his bed. He pressed his ear up against the wall, making out various words and sentences his parents were emitting. That’s when he heard his mom asking where Jay had been. Ash’s eyes had widened, recalling Delia telling him that she knew where he was.

The next couple of days had proven to be Ash’s worst. An unshakable fear filled him when he noticed that his parents were not speaking to each other. A couple of times, Ash would ask what was happening, but neither of them seemed to want to talk about it. He knew somehow that their silence just had something to do with that fight, but he had had no idea what the fight had been about.

Finally one night, Ash found his mom crying in her room. Immediately, he rushed to her side, wrapping his arms around her. Her crying caused him to start crying as well, and Ash sobbed for her to tell him what was wrong. Delia looked at him nervously, streams of tears running down her cheeks. Ash yearned to know what was happening, and the look of demand he’d given her at that point made her realize that she had to tell Ash, better now than ever.

Delia looked dead-set into his eyes. "Daddy likes another girl, Ash," she told him simply, her voice cracking in sobs. Ash could remember her telling him this perfectly, word for word, for it implanted itself into his memory. At that moment, Ash suddenly understood. He asked for no explanation, for he didn’t need one.

After that, Jay came around less and less. He came home a few times a week, usually coming to see Ash or to get some things. All communication between him and Delia had ceased. Well, Delia’s end at least. Ash caught them together occasionally, but all it consisted of was his father’s apologies and hopes to make things right, to start over. When Ash was alone with Jay, he asked with optimism if he was coming home soon. Jay would hug him, and say he hoped, but that was all. This caused Ash to become angry with his parents.

Soon after, despite Ash’s pleas with his parents to stop this stupidity, Jay had stopped coming around. Delia moped around the house endlessly, making Ash wonder if she really wanted Jay to leave at all. She gave more attention to him, however, promising him ceaselessly that he didn’t have to worry. Everything was going to be okay.

But that was it. Everything went on, the only times Ash ever communicating with his dad was via phone, and even that was a heartache for him. He had no idea where he was, what he was doing, wondering if he missed them at all. Jay hadn’t stepped foot in their house since that time, and seeing him in front of him -- in person -- right now, Ash couldn’t help but ponder.

"So, Dad . . ." Ash said softly, being as inconspicuous as he possibly could, "why ya home?"

There. It came out. Ash braced for the reply.

"Um," Jay uttered, looking nervously at Delia. Once again, Delia brushing another stand of her auburn hair out of her face, and raised one eyebrow nervously. Jay looked down at Ash again, and smiled. "Just a visit."

"Just a visit?" Ash replied.

"Yeah," Jay shrugged. "You know, I was in the neighborhood and all. I, uh, remembered that the other day was your mother’s birthday and all, so I came by to, ya know, wish her a happy one and all."

"Oh," was all Ash said.

Jay could feel the uneasiness coming from Ash. He knew that his reason for coming was still confusing Ash no doubt, so he smiled reassuringly at him.

"But that doesn’t matter, now, does it?" he asked. "I’m home, you’re home . . . and you . . ." he pointed at Ash with a grin, ". . . have to tell me all about your training. All I know is that I see a couple of awesome trophies in your room that need explaining."

Ash laughed, becoming mesmerized once again with his dad’s comforting, friendly face. "Did you see my cool Orange Islands League trophy?" he asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Jay nodded. "Sure did," he replied, crossing his arms proudly. "Hear those are hard to come by, huh?"

"Well . . . " Ash said, scratching the back of his head embarrassingly.

Just then, Delia came by to rub Ash’s shoulders. "Tell ya what," she said, planting a motherly kiss on his head, "why don’t you guys go upstairs and get settled, and we can talk all about that stuff at dinner time. Okay?"

"Oh, okay," Ash agreed, signaling to Brock and Misty to follow him upstairs. "We won’t be long."

"Okay!" Delia said with a smile, folding her arms around her again.

Ash, Misty, and Brock hopped up the stairs, trudging their heavy backpacks full of fresh supplies from New Bark Town behind them. As they went up, Ash gave them a shocked ‘can you believe this?’ face to them, which in turn they widened their eyes excitedly at. This was going to be one interesting break from training.

As the kids disappeared up the stairs, Jay found himself looking nervously at his wife. Delia felt his eyes on her, and looked up at him with a small, apathetic grin.

"So?" Jay asked, his wild and friendly tone turning serious in one word. "When are you going to tell him why I’m really here?"

Delia took a deep breath and looked up at the stairs sadly. She thought intensely about her son, wondering just how he was going to take the news.

"Not yet," she replied, moving toward the kitchen in hopes of starting supper. "Just -- not yet."

TO BE CONTINUED . . .