Ash POV

"I'm sorry."

Those were the first words Sere uttered when she stepped tentatively into the ward I was laid up in. Dr. Brock told that I would be under close observation in the hospital for a couple more days before I could be moved to a private room on the neurogical floor. Personally, I was looking forward to that, but I still felt weak as hell and even though my vision was incredibly blurry I couldn't remember a lot of things, I really just wanted to lie down in a bed that didn't have curtains around it.

My heart started thumping loudly as I propped myself up in bed, gazing at Sere for the first time since I had woken up. She hovered by the door, wringing her hands and staring in a close distance at me with those big sapphire eyes of hers like she was scared to come any closer. Well, I know I had lost some weight and I probably looked like I warmed over, but I wasn't too sure why Sere was still standing by the door.

Grunting at the sudden pain shooting through my head as I opened my mouth to talk. "Don't, Sere. Please don't apologize for anything. Just- come closer. Please."

Her lips quivering, Sere moved closer to me, infusing the air around us with the clean scent of her strawberry fragrance as she sat down in the chair by my bed, her eyes glued on my face. "I missed you so much, Ash," she whispered, a tremor in her squeaked voice. I reached out to take her sleek hand in mine, squeezing softly as tears rolled down her cheeks. How did I always manage to make the girl I loved cry? Wiping the beaded tears from her cheeks, she continued bravely. "It was so horrible, not knowing what was happening."

"I'm here now, Sere," I softly murmured, running my thumb over her knuckles as she tried to regain her composure, the adoring look in her teary eyes making my heart skip a couple of beats. "It's okay."

She shook her head, her shorten haired-curls flying around her face. "No, it's not okay! I kept wondering what would happen if you- if you didn't come back, all the things I said during our last meeting..." Her voice trailed off and she sighed, the sound tugging at my heartstrings. "I felt so guilty, Ash."

"You don't have to, not anymore." While my memory was still very fuzzy on what had been said during the conversation Sere was still tore up over, I knew we had both probably said some very hurtful things we didn't mean. "I forgive you. And I'm sorry too," I was quick to add, lest it seem like I was actually blaming her for the way things had gone down. Because I wasn't.

Eyes widening from my responce, Sere exclaimed, "For what?"

"For everything," I replied simply, gazing at her beautiful face and wondering if my eyesight was really as screwed up as I thought it was, because were those bruises on Sere. Breathing through my nose to calm myself before I went off the handle, raging about something that potentially wasn't there, I continued. "I was such a dick to just put everything out there like that." Reaching up, I gently caressed Sere's cheek cupping upon my palm. She flinched for a spit second before relaxing into my touch. "I didn't mean to hurt you... I love you."

In an instant when I said those words. Her whole redened face glowing with happiness, Sere whispered, "I love you too."

And s***, she really did have bruises on her face. Multiple bruises. I squinted, honing in on the fading but visible marks as my hand tightened around hers. Alain. He'd done this to her. I felt sick to my stomach as I stared. Before I could ask what had happened, what she had done to Alain to warrant such vicious payback, a nurse came bustling in, signifying that our all too short visit was over.

"I'm sure that you've had fun catching up, but it's time for you to leave, miss. Mr. Ketchum needs his rest," the nurse told Sere as she fiddled with the various machines I was still hooked up to. I felt like a computer with all these wires plugged into me.

"I'll come back tomorrow, Ash," Sere said quietly, standing up from her seat. She frowned slightly as she intercepted my pure 'WTF' expression from seeing her face clearly in the light. Okay, what was Alain on? Why did he hate his cousin so much that he had resorted to making her his own personal punching bag? Dude needed to get over his anger about Maria and join a boxing class to get rid of his aggression.

I sank back against the pillows, resting my back against the soft cushion as the nurse skillfully injected something in my arm. And I didn't even wince as the needle went in. Well, maybe that only happened because I was caught up in watching Sere leave the hospital and I only noticed that she was injecting me after she pulled the hypodermic out. Those bruises, though...

As my mind went foggy with the medicine, I decided to ask Sere what the deal was with all the bruises next time I saw her.

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Sere came to visit me every day after that initial, first visit. With my family and her around me, my condition improved so rapidly that even Dr. Brock was amazed.

"What, the fact that you're an awesome doctor surprises you?" I quipped when he mentioned his surprise to me.

To be honest, I was kinda shocked at how quickly I was bouncing back myself. The only side effects that I appeared to have was the eye issues and the short term memory loss. I forgot where I put stuff all the time, but that wasn't a big issue. I was still alive, I wasn't going to lose any sleep over knowing I might have to wear glasses for the rest of my life and always piss people off by saying I couldn't find my keys when they were in my hand.

After a couple more days in the hospital, they moved me into my own room on the neurological floor. Within a day or so, the floor was littered with Leaf's toys and I couldn't have been happier. Hope had decided to send her to the daycare while I was still in the hospital and Leaf loved it. She was now best friends with the most troublesome kid in the daycare and was driving Hope crazy asking if William and Helen could come over to the house to play. The way I saw it, Hope better hide all the breakables before she said yes.

Mom was spending most of her time with me, reminiscing over my childhood, showing me old photos that I couldn't get enough of and telling me about her work in Kanto. I was so proud of her. Sure, she'd had to leave me behind to get to where she was, but I don't think I would have changed a thing. If dad hadn't treated me the way he had for most of my life, I wouldn't have almost hit the bottom and worked my way up to be the person I was today. Hell, I was proud of me too!

On one occasion Sere brought Dawn and May along with her to visit me, which was nice of them. None of my so-called friends from Lumiose had shown up to see me since I woke up, not that I was waiting with bated breath. After telling me over and over again not to get angry, Sere hesitantly told me about what Alain had done to her the night my aneurysm had ruptured. Luckily, I was so doped up on whatever medicine that the doctors were pumping me with or I would have blown a fuse, but, as it were, I was pretty happy with Alain's punishment.

When Sere told me she was going to Hoeen to visit her dad for the summer, my heart sank like a stone.

"That blows," I groaned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her closer to me as her body pressed against mine.

She nodded in response, resting her head on my shoulder. "I know." She spoke in a low tone which perceived me.

I slowly moved my head and planted a soft peck on top of her head, inhaling her sweet perfume. Damn, was I ever going to get tired of how perfect, how right Sere felt in my arms? A small smile turned up my lips. Probably not, but I was cool with that.

"I was looking forward to spending the summer with my girlfriend," I griped playfully, massaging her small shoulder with one hand.

She looked up at me, mirth shining in her beautiful eyes. "I was looking forward to spending the summer with my boyfriend," she smiled widely.

As I glimpsed from her eyes to her parted lips, I leisurely leaned in and kissed her slowly, teasing her lips with my tongue until I had her gasping for breath. Damn, I guess I still had it in me, huh? Some things you just don't forget.

"I guess we'll have to come up with something," I whispered huskly, my wetted lips brushing hers as I kissed her again.

As it happened, dad beat me to the punch. He came striding in to my room that same night, just as I was prepping myself for bed. I had my milk and cookies by my bedside table and my iPod was plugged into the dock, playing the sounds of Ed Sheeran. The vibe I was going for was relaxed. Dad stormed in and ruined the whole atmosphere. At least that wasn't a surprise.

"We need to talk," he all but growled, hands gripping tightly on a dossier as if he was ripping it in half.

Deciding that I needed to be seated for this one, I perched on the side of my bed, looking up at dad with a somewhat cynical look on my face. "Okay?"

He stood near the door nervously, shifting the dossier to one hand and pulling at his tie with his other hand. Crap, I was nervous too, come to think of it. I couldn't remember much of what had happened before the rupture but I knew we'd exchanged some harsh words. Filled with anticipation, I gripped the underside of my bed, hoping that he wasn't about to restart that argument. We hadn't been alone in the same room together since I woke up and I wasn't sure if his coming to visit me when mom, Hope and Leaf had long gone home was a good thing or a bad thing. But I knew I was about to find out.

What dad ended up saying shocked the hell out of me.

He threw the dossier onto my bed, evidently going for the theatrical approach. That type of bull didn't sit right with me. Couldn't the man just tell me what was up? I was already feeling slightly groggy, I didn't need to try and process what message dad was trying to send me as he stood in front of me, waiting expectantly for my input.

Trying to hide my yawn behind my hand, I asked, "What's this?" as I gestured to the dossier.

"Your new school documents. Pamphlets, your transcripts and everything you need to know about your new school."

Sighing, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Oh, great. When am I starting?"

"In two weeks."

Yup, dad definitely looked nervous. His eyes kept darting from one thing to another, never resting on me and never staying still. I wondered briefly what was up before focusing my attention on what he had just said. I started school in two weeks.

"I hope it's not in the boonies," I joked. While I knew that hardly any private schools in Lumiose would take me on, I wouldn't put it past dad to not even try to get me into a private school and just ditch me.

Finally looking at me, dad deadpanned, "It's in Kanto. Near pallet town, to be exact."

As soon as he said those exact words, my eyes felt like they would pop out of my sockets, they were that wide. "What?" I exclaimed, my voice coming out as an almost whisper because I had to have heard him wrong. Yeah, I had to have heard him wrong.

"Your plane tickets are in there too," dad continues, pointing at the untouched folder that still lay on my bed. "Don't lose them."

I stared up at him, trying to read his expression, to figure out if he was just messing with me. "You're sending me to a school in the Kanto region?" I objected.

Forget about the culture shock, I just wanted to know if he was actually serious.

"I warned you about acting up at school," dad started, his hands clasped behind his back as he settled into the whole pacing thing. "You didn't listen. No private schools in Lumiose will take you, Ash." He stopped, looked at me, a holier-than-thou look on his face. "I had to look elsewhere, Ash. Believe me when I say that I have your best interests at heart."

I wasn't buying the lines he was spewing. My mind was going a mile a minute as I tried to find faults with his master plan. Almost immediately, a major flaw popped into my head and I glanced up at him, an 'aha!' expression on my face.

"But school's out in June! Why send me off now when I'll only be there for a couple of months before schools out over there?" I asked, a plaintive note seeping into my voice as I got more worked up. "Why not send me there in September or something? And why in Kanto?"

Not that I had anything against Kanto, after all, my mom was from there. But dad knew as well as I did that their schools were completely different to ours. Why the hell didn't he just send me to coumarine?

His eyebrows bunching together, dad said, "Ash, I told you that you needed an attitude adjustment."

"Not in those words," I grumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

Continuing like he hadn't heard me, Dad said, "Your erratic behavior in the past six months have made me decide that time away from Lumiose will do you good."

"But I've changed," I cut in softly, running a hand through my hair as my shoulders slumped dejectedly. "Can't you see that?"

No matter what dad and I talked about, we always ended up having this same conversation about how I was changing for the better but he was too busy thinking about number one to realize.

A compassionate look in his eyes, dad said, "I know you may think that you've changed for the better ever since you got expelled, but I've had more experience with people than you have, son. And I know full well that personality wise, people don't change just like that." He fixed me with a level stare. "Especially you."

"What do I need to do to prove myself to you?" I asked in a small voice, all the fight trickling out of me.

Sighing, dad told me, "Ash, I don't want to argue with you, especially in your condition."

"Dad-," I cut in, but he was on some kind of roll and he just talked over me, nose pointing imperiously into the sky.

"I need to get you away from your influencing factors."

Now running both hands through my ravened dried hair, I was that frazzled, I asked, "What are my influencing factors?"

I didn't party all night or do hangover anymore, hadn't for over a year, not since Gary died and I realized I had to reevaluate my life. So I was as curious as hell to hear what dad deemed to be my 'influencing factors'.

"Calem and company. That blue haired barbie girl. Miette."

I let out a laugh which didn't have a shred of humor in it. "I thought you loved me hanging out with people with money," I said, rubbing his snobbishness in his face.

"They are bad influences on you, whether they have money or not,"dad replied, trying to act like what he was saying wasn't hypocritical.

"I don't even talk to them since I got expelled! What makes you think that I'll start hanging out with them again when I get out of the hospital?"

Solemnly, like he had a PhD in figuring all this out, dad said, "I don't want you succumbing to temptation."

I rolled my eyes, glad that the meds I was on were strong enough to dull all the righteous anger I would have otherwise been filled with from hearing dad churn out all his self-righteous bull shit. My blood pressure didn't need to soar any higher, thank you very much.

"Why in Kanto region?" I asked quietly, staring at my hands as I tried to come up with a loophole. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.

"That's your mother's decision."

Quickly, I looked up at dads words. "Huh?"

"She'll be opening a practice in Pallet town and keeping an eye on you at the same time."

Frowning, I said, "What? But she hates it there!" Something was going on. Why would mom suddenly decide to leave behind her calling to set up an office in suburban Kanto? "And she's going back to Pallet when I'm better."

Dad shook his head, a grim expression on his face as he resumed pacing. "Not anymore, she's not. She'll be taking care of you."