Eventually Carita had indicated she could go. Hailey avoided her face, the dragon focused on her notes.
It was fine, it was all fine. They'd had plenty of those before, this would be no different. Back in the hospital routine would prevail, as always. It would all fade eventually, it always did.
The Center was a lot quieter than it had been around dinner, all but the night Noctowls were heading home or getting ready for bed. Some tittering groups roamed the back halls, slipping into their rooms, while the night nurses had taken over the front desk. Lights down dim, it gave her a similar feeling to when she occasionally rolled around the hospital at night, seeing how long she could dodge the night guards.
The room was right where she left it, though it still felt weird going back to a room that wasn't her room. Still, it felt a little more home-y when the door clicked shut behind her and the green light didn't turn red.
"So, you're still here then, but Pomona's once again flown the coop?" It was true, Gem was still lolling on the chair, looking horrifically bored, but tall, purple, and floaty was once again nowhere to be seen. Unless she was possessing her sheets or something. Hailey resolved to give them a shake before getting in. "You could just take her lead you know. I'm here now, no reason to stick around when you could getting back to hunting."
"Ugh, I don't want to even think about it. After… after the whole JJ thing, hunting doesn't feel like a 'thing' I should be doing. Thought about trying to chat up one of the nurses but… vibes didn't feel right tonight, you know?"
"Hey, don't let me stop you. You're a wild Pokémon, gotta be free and all that. I'll be gone in the morning."
"Oh I think Pomona's going to be back, she just said she wanted to run some errands. Dunno what the hell'd be open this time of night but eh, Ghosts."
"What does a Ghost even buy anyway? Spooky groceries? Possessed tourist Chachkeys? Goth call girls?"
"Hey, don't knock it, that sounds pretty good right now, especially if they've got black lipstick to leave marks all over you!" Gem laughed.
"But seriously, you think you're bored here, you'd be climbing the walls in hours back at Our Lady. I've got a TV, shelf of old paperbacks, and shit all else. If you want a ride back to the city to look there Carita can probably do that but…"
"Jeez, a girl could feel like she was unwanted." Gem shot back. "And speaking of tall, orange, and terrifying, I still haven't gotten to talk to her yet so… there!"
Hailey threw up her hands. "Just trying to look out for you, dunno what you think you're going to get out of her anyway. She is like a mountain, dense and immovable."
"Ah, but I bet you've never tried sucking her dick, eh, eh?" Gem said as she lightly elbowed her in the ribs."
"I think I just felt my vomit reflex trigger, and I've seen it by the way, you'd be more like a bauble hanging on the edge of a Christmas tree to her."
"Oh, you don't say." Gem didn't seem discouraged, instead she was rubbing her hands together, now familiar sparks jumping between them. "You really have no idea what a determined Mon is capable of, just pay attention, you'll learn some new tricks."
"You try that anywhere in my sight or hearing range and I'm smothering myself with my own pillow." Was her flat response. "Besides, haven't both you and Pomona described her as quote unquote terrifying?"
"Yeah." Gem said, in a far too dreamy tone of voice for Hailey's liking. "Doesn't that just get your blood pumping?"
"If my bloods pumping it's cause I'm currently flopping on the floor like a Magicarp." Hailey said flatly.
The riveting discussion was brought to sudden stop by a knock at the door.
"It's unlocked!" Hailey called, fully expecting Carita again. Instead Pomona floated through the door. Well not literally through the door, which she could do, but through the doorway, a bag held in each hand.
"Surprised you didn't just float through the wall again." Gem chirped, saying what they were both thinking.
"Well, I generally have better manners than that." Pomona replied, "besides, you might have been in the middle of something."
Gem just giggled while Hailey snorted. "What, poker?"
"Hmm, it has been to long since my last game of cards. We had to ban them at the manse." Pomona said, while laying her bags on the small table. Brown paper, no logos, no hint on their contents.
"Need to go on a grocery run before heading back? I can't imagine what that places grocery bill is."
"Neither can I Hailey, most of it is just stolen from the fridges of one night stands. I did get a bit of food though." Reaching in to the first back she pulled out a small clamshell, something vibrant yellow, with flecks of blue. "Aspear flavoured, there wasn't much selection this time of night, but who doesn't like a bit of sour citrus?"
"Never turn down free food, but what's the occasion?" Gem said as the Ghost pulled other things out of the bag. Paper plates, flimsy wooden cutlery, picnic stuff.
"Well, Hailey made it, didn't she?"
"Made it?" Hailey echoed.
"Your big project, travelling all alone to the Meadows. You made it even further! That's worth celebrating, I think."
Hailey could only laugh as Pomona started cutting slices. It wasn't a very big cake, but then, there was only three of them.
"Hardly much of an accomplishment, your average trainer or, hell, even just some lady on a weekend could do better without breaking a sweat." It was really more of a meringue than a cake, tart but pleasant, Hailey had always liked sour things, though jokes about matching disposition had gotten old quick.
"Oh, you mean the people with working legs, and roads actually designed for them, those people?" Gem poked at her with her fork.
"Still needed help getting out of the Ravaged path even when there was another way around."
"I'm sure you would have gotten it eventually, besides, everyone needs some help now and again." Unlike her 'cousins' Pomona seemed to be taking great care not to let any of the food drop through her body.
"I doubt it, would have just become a new archaeological site, and that's not even counting the other stuff. Should have frozen to death in the meadow, I didn't know summer could get that cold."
"Yeah, I still can't believe you did that." Gem laughed, "never letting you do that again!"
"Probably would have if you hadn't pushed me up 205, no way I would have made it to the lodge on my own. Hell, I didn't even know it was there!" So strange that it had been just one night before.
Gem waved her off, sending crumbs flying. "Least I could do for putting up with me."
"Listen, I appreciate it, but the point is, there's no way this little trip should have worked for me!" She tried to pull it back, but Hailey found a note of irritation creeping in to her voice. "No way I'd survive doing it alone, just goes to show that as annoying as she is, Carita is right to keep me locked down."
"But you weren't alone." Pomona was tilting her head again.
"No but I should… I mean, there was no way to anticipate that! I fully expected to be invisible to Pokémon the whole time, and I deliberately wasn't talking to other Humans in case they turned me in out of concern or some shit. And I was! I was invisible to most of them, and still am! I don't know what's up with you weirdo's! I've got no bond energy, but I have some, but only to some people, it makes no sense!"
"Well…" Pomona said slowly, as Gem raised an eyebrow. 'We could try an… experiment." Reaching into the other bag, the ghost pulled out two small handfuls, red on top, white on the bottom. Binding Balls.
Hailey's heart was beating again, cascading out of control. "There's no reason for…" the excuse was literally cut off by Gem reaching over and gently, but forcefully, pinching her lips shut.
"Actually, there are several reasons we could give, curing you of that self deprecation could even be one of them." Gem giggled.
"It's been a very long time since I've had a partner." Pomona said. "By choice alone. I could be out with my sisters tonight, or innumerable nights in the past. Raising hell and flipping skirts, but it hasn't felt right. So, I focused on my work. Watching, drifting, but I never lied to you Hailey. Seeing you come alive in the morning, even as it must surely have been painful, it was beautiful to me. The struggle…"
"Pomona" Gem said in a deadpan tone, "I've barely gotten to know you, but I already know you weird me out. Still, I can't say she's completely wacked off Hailey. I… look, words are hard, especially nice ones. After what you did… jeez, was it only this morning? Well, after that, and don't you dare say it was only one thing. I'm sick, lot of people would say in the head, but I'm sick and tired or being alone, so thinking that after all this bullshit you'd just go back to being by yourself in that room or whatever…"
Gem's fingers finally came off Hailey's mouth, rubbing the back of her head.
"So it would be better to be stuck with me there? I can't believe that." Like hell she was going to let some others throw away their life for her.
"Who says we would be stuck? Certainly after all this I expect Carita will be keeping a closer eye on you. But if you had friends, companions, why should you have to stay in the hospital all day? I do not know much about Jubilife, but being the biggest city in the region I'm sure there are innumerable things to discover there. Perhaps even further if you did not need to exert yourself to get there." Pomona chimed in.
"Yeah, Ghost face here already stared the big bad dragon once, I'm sure she could do it again!" Gem smirked, Hailey didn't feel so sure with how Pomona seemed to drift lower even at the thought, though she quickly righted herself. Still, there were still some cards that could be played.
"O-ok, b-but, why do we need the balls then? You could just come back to Jubilife with us, see what it's like. Then you can go as you please and…" Once again Hailey was cut off by laughter, this time from both of them.
"Oh, I had almost forgotten how stubborn humans could be."
"She gets it from the bloody soap operas is what it is. They're all about the big, dramatic bindings, declarations of love for life and beyond, and all that jazz." Gem was laughing so hard she nearly fell over, resorting to leaning on Hailey's legs. She could almost feel the pinch this time. "Listen Hailey, Binding Balls aren't magic, it's not some Hatterene curse that keeps you from getting more than a 100 feet from each other. They just amplify what's already there, give it a kick in the rear. You're not locking us into anything." She punctuated the point by flicking the girls nose.
Her mouth moved, but words didn't form. This wasn't right, wasn't natural. Finally, she choked out "This isn't supposed to happen to me." Weak, pathetic.
Pomona drifted closer, while Gem took up position on her other side. Both were holding a ball now.
"Well, now it could be so, if you wanted." Pomona said.
Carita rubbed her eyes. The burning had only been getting worse, same with the aches and pains. In her shoulders, in her tail.
No time to rest though, not until she was done.
In one of the small offices of the Centre she went over her notes, pausing only to take a swig from a lukewarm mug. She'd probably halved the places store of coffee just by herself, she'd need to do something about that.
After she puzzled things out.
Halcyon Wolters, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she knew the girls body better than she did herself, outside and in thanks to modern diagnostic equipment. Her mind was a bit more of a mystery, but only a bit. Despite her condition being largely a black hole, she herself was largely predictable. That was why she'd survived so long.
While not every attack had a obvious cause, most did. Exertion, anger, anything that got the blood pumping, so the triage was clear. Calm down, cool off, stay tranquil, keep her schedule regular and (though it wasn't great to think it) boring, and she'd get through with a minimum of issue.
Predictable.
Same with the condition itself. How it exactly had manifested wasn't known, though Carita had more than a few hypothesis, it was a shame she'd never been able to question or test either of her parents. Why a lack of bond energy present should be connected with a nervous system disorder was also a mystery. Just like the triggers though, the aftermath was largely predictable.
Once an episode had subsided Hailey would be unconscious for a time, when she woke she would be extremely weak, even moreso than usual. Her physiotherapy would have to be dialed back, to avoid over-stressing her torn muscles. Eventually, she would work back up to her modest baseline, perhaps even slightly higher than before, as the shallow upward trend Carita had been tracking since she started working on her showed.
And then, at some point, there would be another attack. Every centimetre of improvement on her graph was preceded by a drop off a cliff.
Which was why her latest exam didn't make any sense.
She wasn't cured, that was clear. No magical legendary power had blasted the mystery from her bones the moment she left the city, the proof was in her own account. Four attacks in three days, an event that hadn't been seen since she was six years old, if Carita could remember the old files right.
And yet.
And yet, the other half of the pattern wasn't adding up.
Hailey should have been incapacitated right after the first one, incapable of pushing herself down to the end of a hallway, let alone a nature trail. Exhausted, agonized, but Carita hadn't seen that when she'd finally caught up.
Sure, Pomona had been pushing her out of the forest. Sure, she'd had a attack right after, but she was going to blame that one square on herself. Frustration and impatience, not a good combo in anyone, but especially not in a Dragon. She'd been to aggressive, too fast.
And yet, despite that one knocking her out, it was only a few hours later that she gave back test results that Carita normally only saw in the weeks after a fit, after recovery.
Her vitals… well, they weren't great compared to a single other member of her species that wasn't on their deathbed, but by her standards? They didn't imply she'd been pushing herself through the wilderness for literal days.
There was no telling the exact condition of her muscles without sticking her in a MRI, but she wasn't moving like they were all torn to hell.
All in all, she was… fine, but not fine, as if she'd just rolled out of the hospital 10 minutes before the exam, but that was still far to fragile to be roaming around willy nilly. Her charts would need some serious updating, there had clearly been changes, but were they improvements or a kind of stasis?
Carita rubbed her eyes one more time, there was an annoying buzzing in the back of her head and she had been sitting so long that her legs we bouncing. She wasn't getting anywhere.
The Center was pretty quiet, the night nurse idly flipping through a magazine. The two briefly locked eyes, but Carita kept going. Even if she wasn't in professional mode (and worried about disabling key medical infrastructure) she just wasn't feeling it tonight. Head pounding, body aching, eyes jittery, it was rare she was this much of a mess since med school.
The thought of a flight came, but quickly passed, she was still worn out, and she didn't want to get to far from Hailey. Sure, she might seem to be doing well, but who could really say with that girl, what if she needed help?
In fact, speaking of her little sunbeam, Carita found herself in front of that particular door.
"Well, might as well check." She murmured.
The door slid open relatively quietly, the low night lighting of the hall spilling in. The lights were off, hopefully a sign that Hailey was actually sleeping instead of staying up. Still, there was always the chance…
Not moving from the doorway, Carita focused her eyes. She might not have the night vision of a Flying or Dark type, but it was still something to be reckoned with. Wheelchair still propped up in the corner, it was amazing she'd managed to get so far on that heavy, clunky thing. Some bags and… plates on the table? Where had those come from? Still, the most important thing was the bed, a great big lump on it, slowly rising up and down so it couldn't just be some pillows stuffed under the covers.
Actually, the lump was weirdly big.
A dark shape rose up from the back of the lump, slowly, silently. Two red lights appeared, eyes. Instantly, Carita found her fight or flight reflex snap on. Still, the shape didn't move to her, as it resolved more she saw a single, plush arm rise up, before holding a finger in front of her mouth. The Ghost?
As Pomona sank back down beside the lump Carita forced herself to unclench, relax. She still wasn't sure about these newcomers, but there was no danger to her ward, not right now.
She needed sleep.