Ash woke up to an annoying beeping noise pounding at the back of his mind. Opening his eyes he looked down and was confused by what he saw. He was lying in a bed with guard rails on either side, an IV and heart monitor were hooked up to him, and he had a number of bruises and bandages on his body along with a cast on his right arm. Ash tried to sit up but quickly found that to be a bad idea as his body was flooded with pain and forced a sharp gasp past his lips.

His gasp didn't go unnoticed and was questioned with a timid, "Ash?" from somewhere to his left. Turning his head towards the source of the question, Ash saw Serena sitting in a chair with his Pokémon and a blanket on her lap. He smiled wearily at the honey blond girl, "Hey Seren- AHHH!" Ash yelped as Serena tackled him in a hug, forgetting about his injuries.

"Sorry sorry sorry. I'm just really glad you're alright." Serena said in response to causing his pain, and dislodged herself from her injured friend.

"It's alright." Ash said, wincing as Serena got off him. "I'm just a little roughed up, not really sure why though." Ash said, his brows furrowing as he tried to remember what had happened.

Serena pulled her chair closer to his bed, picked up his pokemon, apologizing to them for causing their fall during her dash to get to Ash. "You don't remember, do you?" She asked looking at him with piteous eyes.

"No, what happened?" Ash said his own concern starting to grow.

Serena took a deep breath and told him about two days ago when he'd gone to the Devon Corp. building. How the building had exploded, and how Sceptile had saved Ash and Joseph from becoming pavement pudding after they'd jumped from the burning building. She had barely finished telling Ash about Devon Corp. when his memories started to flood back. His meeting with Joseph, the trouble with Team Rocket, the gifts he'd gotten from Joseph, and Sceptile saving them not once but twice.

"Then you passed out in my arms and we took you to the hospital, " Serena said, wrapping up her story.

"Oh, well I guess that explains that," Ash said as he looked around at his hospital room. "I just have one question. How's Sceptile doing?"

Serena frowned and looked away from Ash's eyes, unable to look at him as she told him about his Pokémon. "Firstly Sceptile is alright, he's not in any danger right now and the doctors think he's going to pull through. He just broke half the bones in his body and suffered second degree burns along his backside. Right now the doctors have him in a weird futuristic tank filled with some liquid that is supposed to help his body heal faster. They say he might even be back to normal by the end of the year."

Ash took all this in without batting an eye, when Serena finished he asked her where they were keeping Sceptile. She hesitantly told him they had his Pokémon in the I.C.U. wing. And as she had expected, he immediately tried to get off of his bed to check up on his friend. Serena, Pikachu, and Eevee were having none of that though and gently forced him to lay back down.

"I have to check on him, he's my friend. I need to see that he's okay for myself," Ash said in protest to his confinement to his bed.

"Ash just calm down, you're in no condition to be moving around," Serena said as she held his non broken hand firmly and comfortingly. "Sceptile will be fine. I'm sure he's a lot like you, strong and resilient. And I doubt he'd let something as trivial as this be the thing that did him in."

Ash relaxed a little and even cracked a smile, "You're right he'll be fine. It takes more than a fall, or an explosion, to get rid of us," Ash said confidently, earnings him a smile and a cute giggle from Serena in return.

"That's the Ash I know." Serena thought happily, glad to have him back and smiling after such an ordeal.

Ash became even more Ash like a second later, when his stomach rumbled expressing its desire to eat. Ash chuckled and turned to Serena sheepishly. "I don't suppose you have any food on you."

Serena couldn't help but laugh at Ash's appetite, barely a minute after he woke up and he was already hungry. "I'll go get us something from the cafeteria." Serena said as she made her way to the door. "You just stay there and rest up. I'll be back in a minute."

"Yes ma'am." Ash called after Serena.

Ash sat patiently for about a whole of sixteen seconds before getting bored and turning to his Pokémon. "So what did you two do while I was gone?" Ash asked his partners, hoping to pass the time with conversation.

Being Pokémon Eevee and Pikachu weren't very fluent in human speech and couldn't have a verbal discussion with Ash. But that didn't stop them from telling their story, for what they lack in words they more than make up for in acting. The two Pokémon put on a, rather well thought out, two Pokémon play explaining what they'd been up to since Ash had left them with Cal. Each segment of the play told Ash more and more about what they'd been through.

From being used as decoys for Cal's escape, to being unable to fight Serena. They confirmed Serena's story of how he'd gotten injured, adding in a part where Serena gave him CPR and mouth to mouth when he'd stopped breathing, which explained why his chest felt it had been crushed and why his lips had a faint vanilla taste to them. After hearing about Serena giving him mouth to mouth his lips seemed to tingle a bit and he pressed his fingers lightly against his lips, almost as if feeling for where Serena's lips had been.

When he turned back to his Pokémon he saw a smirk on Pikachu's face that he didn't understand. "What?" Ash asked cluelessly, not realizing something that Pikachu had picked up on day one of their travels with Serena. Pikachu just shook his head sadly at his trainer, pitying him for being unable to see what was so obviously there.

Eevee decided that he'd had enough of Ash's blindness to reality and continued with the play, acting out a scene where a doctor came in and checked Ash's reflexes only to get punched in the face by his sleeping patient. Ash snickered at the deed he'd done, finding it funny and not funny at the same time. Pikachu then took over the play and orchestrated a masterpiece of the comings and goings of their friends in Ash's room while he'd been unconscious.

Based solely on his Pokémon's acting, Ash gathered that Serena had barely left his side in the past two days, and would only leave if one of their other friends stayed with him while she was gone. He also learnt that Joseph had recovered quicker than he had, and that the man had insisted on paying for Ash's medical expenses in thanks for saving his life. The police had also been around, and had questioned and documented everyone involved before issuing a bounty for information leading to the arrest of the criminals responsible for a list of crimes including trespassing, kidnapping, arson, and attempted robbery.

As Pikachu and Eevee were nearing the end of their performance, they heard some familiar voices getting louder and closer. Knowing they had very little time left the two Pokémon acted out only two more events. The first one took Ash less than a second to understand; apparently Dena and Diana were going to participate in an upcoming Pokémon contest, which really wasn't that surprising. The next and final act took Ash a bit longer, not because he didn't understand what his Pokémon were telling him but because he couldn't wrap his head around what they were saying.

"What do you mean she's not going ?" Ash exclaimed as he finally managed to process what his Pokémon were telling him.

Right after his revelation, the door to his room opened up and admitted Dena, Serena, and Aura. Each one of them carrying an armful of food with them. They had barely taken three steps into the room before Ash confronted Serena.

"Serena are you really not competing in the Pokémon contest?" Ash asked as he tried to look as disapproving as he could.

"Who told you that?" Serena asked as she Dena and Aura set their haul of food on a table.

"They did." Ash answered seriously, pointing to Pikachu and Eevee, as if having a conversation with two Pokémon was something not out of the norm for him.

"They told you." Dena said skeptically, disbelieving what she was hearing.

"Yes they did, but that's not important. Serena are you or are you not competing?"

"No I'm not. The contest is in two weeks and the doctors say your recovery will probably be rather painful for the first three weeks, so I'm going to stay here and help you through the pain." Serena stated as she began to open up some of the food.

"Why can't you do both?" Ash asked innocently.

"Because no one knows when your pain will flare up and I don't want to be enjoying myself while you're suffering." Serena said with a hardness to her voice.

"Well, what if one of us was with him while you're competing. Then he wouldn't have to deal with his pain alone and you could complete in the contest." Aura said helpfully. "The person watching him could even fill you in on how he's doing so you wouldn't have to worry about him."

Serena looked at Aura thoughtfully, as if actually considering to go along with this idea. Ash and Dena both saw Serena's resolve wavering and gave it a shove to push her over the edge. "Your performances are always so amazing Serena, I'm sure watching one would help distract me from the pain." Ash said smoothly.

"You hear that Serena, if you don't complete you'll only be adding to Ash's pain. You wouldn't want to do that now would you?" Dena said wickedly.

Serena groaned in joyous defeat, having secretly wanted to compete, but not wanting to leave Ash to suffer while she had fun. She knew that both Ash and Dena were only saying those things in an effort to convince her to go, and was grateful for their stubbornness to convince her to do something she already wanted to. "Alright, I'll sign up for the contest first thing in the morning. Until then I'm going to stay by your side and nurse you back to health, alright?"

"No objections here." Ash said as Serena fed him a spoon full of some sort of hospital pudding that was unworthy of the name pudding.

"Good. Now I'll probably be training from six till eleven so I'll drop by around lunch to check up on you, before heading back for another hour or two of training followed up by some shopping, you can tell me anything you need me to get at lunch, and I'll probably get back here around six or seven for dinner."

"Okay, I'll make sure to cook us up something nice." Ash said jokingly, causing a few snickers and laughs.

"Alright wise guy," Dena said smiling, "Aura and I are going to get going. We have to find Cal and Diana and tell them you're alright, and work out your babysitting schedule with them."

"Oh no, we are not referring to this as babysitting. I am way to old for a babysitter." Ash protested with the same resolve as an eight year old.

Dena's smile grew even wider and she couldn't help but get in one last jab at Ash before leaving. "Of course you are buddy. Now do you want Cal to bring you applesauce or oatmeal?"

"Bye Dena... and have him bring the applesauce." Ash said seriously, causing a snort of laughter from Dena as she and Aura walked away.

Serena wanted in on the childish nonsense as well and held up a spoon full of pudding between her forefinger and thumb, smiling as she said, "Command, are we clear for landing?"

Ash broke down into a fit of laughter at Serena's messing and responded with, "Aye Captain, you are cleared for landing." Ash opened his mouth to allow the airplane into his mouth, and cringed at the nasty taste.

"You know I still have one arm that works." Ash said, after the spoon had been removed from his mouth, implying that Serena didn't have to literally spoon feed him.

Serena shrugged and offered him another spoonful of pudding. "I know, I just like taking care of you. Now eat up, you'll need all your strength if you want to get better."

"Alright, but do you have anything more palatable, this stuff is awful." Ash said as he forced himself to down another spoonful.

"Yes, I've got a bunch of stuff that tastes a lot better, but you have to finish this first. It's got a lot of proteins, vitamins, and minerals that you need, and the doctors said you should eat at least two a day."

"Uhhhg, I don't think I can eat another spoonful let alone another cup." Ash said glumly.

"I never thought I'd see the day where you were bested by food."

"That, abomination, is not worthy of being called food." Ash said, raising a disdainful finger at the cream colored goo.

"Ash eat the pudding." Serena said firmly.

"Fine, but on one condition. I need you to bring me my phone."

"Deal. Where'd you leave it?"

"In my backpack, if you could just bring the whole thing over to me that would be great."

"Okay here you are." Serena put his bag next to him and let him rummage through it.

She waited until he had found his phone before presenting the rest of the pudding to him, making him finish it off before he could use his phone. Ash groaned but traded his phone for the pudding, scarfing it down as fast as he could, hoping to avoid as much of the taste as he could. Unfortunately the continuous supply of the foul food created a layer of the goo that stuck to nearly every corner of his mouth. He had to ask Serena for six glasses of water before the goop was completely out of his mouth and his tongue was once again liberated from the terrible taste.

After Ash finished his sixth glass he reached his hand out for his phone. Serena handed it over to him and watched keenly as he began scrolling through it.

"What are you doing?" Serena asked just as Ash found whatever it was he was searching for.

He looked at Serena with a witty smile and held the phone up to his ear. "I'm calling an old friend."

-------------------------------------------------------
So sorry about how late this chapter is I had a lot of difficulties writing it, including the chapter title which usually comes to me within the first ten minutes of the chapter. I even had to rewrite this chapter eight times because of how... different it was from what I wanted it to be.

Anyways I'll try to write faster but I can't make any promises because I've got finals next week and need to be studying. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time.

Shoutouts:_Olek_ RedTheBaka saltycalem amirahtravel & AmourAndEgo5ever