Dee and Ash watched as Nurse Joy, aided by her ever faithful Chansey, brought the Jolteon into the Emergency room. They sat by and waited, knowing that they couldn’t help anymore. They had helped set up the room for Nurse Joy so she could find the problem with the Electric Pokèmon. She watched Jolteon’s breathing for a minuet, then brought down a small syringe from a cabinet in the room. She took a small sample of blood, doing her best to comfort the cringing Pokèmon in the process. Joy took the sample over to a different machine  and put a drop of blood on a Petri dish. She looked at the sample and almost immediately pushed her chair back and ran to the cabinet again. She took down a small bottle from the very top and a small needle with it. Joy stuck the syringe into the top of the bottle and pulled the fluid into it with a quick motion. She walked quickly, but carefully to the Pokèmon on the examination table and stuck the needle into Jolteon’s neck. The electric Pokèmon stiffened for a second, then relaxed as the antidote put her to sleep.

Joy came out of the room with a very hassled look on her face.
“I don’t know what got to her, but you can be damn sure that it wasn’t a hunter’s trap,” Joy said, “A Pokèmon got to her. My guess is that her original trainer abandoned her.”

Dee looked at the Pokèmon lying on the table and asked, “Would it be alright if I went and sat with her?”

“Of course, but after she’s had time to rest on an actual bed,” Joy said watching the Jolteon.
-------------

An hour or so later, Ash, who had gone back to the lobby to talk with Lucario and Ryun, looked up to see Dee walking back to the trio with a thoughtful look in her eye.

“What’re you up to now, Dee?” Ryun asked.

“Thinking up a name for Jolteon,” Dee said simply.

“Hit on any good ones yet?” Ash asked.

“A few, but they don’t seem to fit…” Dee said slowly.

Ryun thought for a while as Dee walked away, then decided to go visit Jolteon. He walked into the room and found the Pokemon stirring feebly on the bed that Joy had made up for her. She tried to look around, but laid her head back down.

“Don’t try to move,” Ryun cautioned, “You’re still hurt pretty badly.”
“How did I get here?” Jolteon asked weakly.
“My friend, Denae brought you here. We found you in the woods ready to pass out. You would’ve died if it wasn’t for her…” Ryun responded.

Jolteon closed her eyes, then said, “Thank you… but I didn’t need your help.”

Ryun looked curiously at the cat lying on the bed and wondered what had really happened in the forest.

“My friend would like to speak with you later if you feel up to it,” Ryun said.

“Don’t you mean master? I know what you are,” Jolteon said, “Fine, whatever. I’ll see her.” Jolteon put her head down on the bed and closed her eyes and said as an after thought, “My name is Apria…”

“Mine’s Ryun,” Ryun said as he left the room.

The next morning, Dee went to see Apria in her room. Apria was awake and sitting on her haunches on the bed looking out the window. She twitched her head a little in Dee’s direction. Then went back to the window.

“How are you feeling?” Dee asked.

“Better… I can’t believe that I got brought here though…” Apria said.

“How so?”

“I hate humans… they’re greedy, selfish and always thinking of themselves. To even think about being helped by a human….  It’s a weird concept to me…” Apria said.

“Not all humans are bad,” Dee said, “Nurse Joy is an example of a good one. She helps out because she genuinely cares about the Pokèmon around here.”

“My former trainer was horrible…” Apria said coldly, “How can I  be sure that you won’t treat me the same way?”

“Because I haven’t captured you yet,” Dee said simply, “If I had wanted to catch you, I would’ve done it back in the forest.”

Apria turned and looked at Dee for the first time during their conversation. She had no idea that Dee was a hybrid and was a little shocked by her appearance.

“You’re…. Half Pokèmon?” Apria asked.

“Yep,” Dee answered, “My father fell in love with his Ninetails apparently… She loved him too I guess… I don’t really know who they are and all that stuff… I’m an orphan, like the greater majority of other hybrids…”

“I…I didn’t know,” Apria said slowly.

“Don’t worry about it, I  don’t,”  Dee said.

“Why did you help me?” Apria asked suddenly.

Dee took a few minuets to answer, then said, “Because… It should just come naturally to help people, or Pokemon. We shouldn’t go looking for a reason to help people because that’s it’s own reward… at least to me that is.”

Apria looked thoughtfully at Dee then said, “I’ll come with you…”

Dee looked at Apria and said, “You sure?”

“Yeah,” Apria said, “I want to see how your story plays out in the end.”

“Alright then… You can come along, Ryun and I would be glad to have you on the team,” Dee said holding out her hand. Apria thought for a moment, then held out her paw to Dee and they shook on it.