[Fin] Peaceful Afternoons

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yes," she agreed, her expression darkening just a tad, "they can be." Setting that aside though, she shook her head a bit to clear the thoughts and offered the man a smile. "That's nice of you, though hopefully you won't have to wait too long. Yes, she stayed back there - one of the nurses in the back understands psychic-types, so I put them both in his care in case she needed to relay something important."

Indeed, Dith needn't wait long. A short while later a young man emerged from the door to the back, Yulia in his arms and the familiar pokeball in hers. "They're all set now," he announced quietly as he set the Ralts down on the counter, and looked up at Dith. "She said you're the one that helped her trainer, and that you could take her back to the hospital," he informed the much taller man in soft tones, "so could you please let him know that we, um, we removed a bullet from the gunshot wound in his shoulder and dressed it up so he's good to go now.. He needs to try and stay off of it - preferably laying down - so he doesn't make it worse or anything, and he should take him to the pokemon center nearest him in a couple days to make sure it's healing properly and doesn't get infected. Would you mind letting him know?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Thank you," Dith smiled and nodded to the nurse, "we really appreciate your help." Thanks was something that could be a bit sparse in their line of work, people often meant it but were too worried to remember niceties and so on.

When a young man appeared with the Ralts Dith got up from the couch where he had been relaxing and smiled in greeting. "Ah, good, thank you," he replied when the young man finished speaking, though he frowned as he said it; they'd been armed then? He'd had no idea. His mother kept telling him he had to learn to shoot, preferable a shotgun or assault rifle apparently.

Dith smoothed a hand back over his hair and banished the thoughts of what could have been if they'd reached for their guns instead of running away; thank hells for Ada attacking them directly.

"I will pass that on," Dith continued after a couple of moments' silence, giving a serious nod to emphasise his words. "I'll make sure everything is properly taken care of." With this assurance given he turned to Yulia with a slight smile. "So this is why you wanted to bring me here; well done with the charades мой друг... ah, my friend." His own pokemon were used to listening half in English and half Russian but he couldn't expect the same from Ion's.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Both nurses appeared pleased with Dith's words; both offered smiles of varying brightness, though the young woman nodded and said, "Thank you for helping them all, I'm sure they appreciate it a great deal."

"Good-bye," the other nurse said as he reached a hand out to Yulia; she smiled brightly and put her small hand in his for a moment, "and tell your trainer to take care."

The Ralts made a noise of agreement as she nodded her head, then turned to Dith with a smile. While she wasn't used to hearing Russian - not that she had any idea what language it was that he had spoken - she was used to hearing French occasionally, and thus thought little of the unfamiliar words. Now that they seemed more or less ready to depart, Yulia awaited Dith's lead on heading back to the hospital.  

[TawnyAngel]

After farewells to the pokemon centre staff Dith headed back outside of Yulia, climbed up onto Dolly's back, and headed for the hospital once more.

Once they had arrived and thus charades would be easier again Dith asked; "Have you known your shiny friend long?" Perhaps it was a disputed catch? "I don't understand why they would shoot him... Unless perhaps they weren't aiming for him?" Perhaps they'd thought to get rid Ion rather more thoroughly than they seemed to have been attempting by the time he ran across the situation. Not a pleasant thought.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Yulia shook her head at Dith's question - no, they hadn't known him long at all - but his second statement gave her pause, so she gave him an uncertain shrug.

Once they were back inside the hospital, the young woman from before spotted and approached them. "Ah, there you are," she said once she was close enough. "Ion's awake now, if you'd like to go see him?" The end was a question rather than a statement, and she gestured behind her down a nearby hallway in case Dith did want to see him now rather than wait a while first.  

[TawnyAngel]

Humm. Well maybe Ion would be able to tell him more? He miiiight go easy with the questions though, the last thing he wanted was to upset the poor kid more after the day he'd had.

"Yes, thank you," Dith replied with a nod and a smile to the young woman. "I've got news to give him about his pokemon, I expect he'll be keen to have it."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"All right," the nurse said with a brief nod. She led him down the hallway she'd previously gestured to, and after a couple of turns she stopped in front of one room in particular, its door open halfway. Inside Dith would find Ion laying on a stretcher that had been set in a corner of the large room - a room that lacked many permanent fixtures besides some curtains hung from the ceiling to offer patients some privacy if they so desired it. Most were pushed back, as the room only had one occupant at the moment. There were no machines of any kind nearby, and Ion lay awake on the stretcher, his eyes half-lidded and a quiet, apologetic smile on his face as he looked to his Braixen, the fingers of one hand curled around her paws. A lightweight chair had been placed near the stretcher, and it was there that Jozette sat, her anxiety still present in her tense posture but it had greatly diminished compared to earlier, now that she knew her trainer was all right. Albiore had found a stable metal bar on the stretcher to perch on, and was busy looking this way and that around the room.

When the not-quite-strangers approached Albiore's head jerked up, and he flapped his wings a bit with a squawk. He announced, and Jozette shot him a brief look of annoyance. Yulia happily teleported away and onto the stretcher itself, rather than on the floor, and for the moment she sat down near Ion's feet.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hey there," Dith smiled encouragingly at Ion as he crossed the room, "how're you feeling? Heh, great décor in here no? I always think they could stand to brighten these places up a little bit. Or a lot." It was the same in every hospital he'd ever worked in, as though there was some kind of unwritten rule that everything should be as boring and, well, clinical looking as possible.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion offered a weary smile first to Yulia and then to Dith, and he endeavored to sit up a bit to see him better, but with an annoyed huff and a twist of her ears Jozette leaned forward to push at his arms to prevent him from doing so. "Much better now, thank you," he responded with as much feeling as he could muster at the moment, his voice quiet and tired. He spared a brief glance to the room before replying, "Ah, it isn't that bad..."

The green-haired teen hesitated a moment or two before turning a deeply apologetic look to the older gentleman. "Thank you for bringing me here," he began gratefully, "and I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you so."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, no need to apologise," Dith replied with a smile and a shake of his head. "I'm glad I was able to help." What would have happened if the Pidgey hadn't flown into them?... Probably better not to think about that, Ion's pokemon might have been able to fight the men off - he had no way of knowing that one way or the other - but he did know that Ion would have had no easy way to get here.

"Your Ralts here and I went to the pokemon centre with your Ponyta," Dith continued, assuming that Ion would want to know about that sooner rather than later. "First of all he will be fine; there was a gunshot wound to his shoulder but they were able to remove the bullet and dress the wound cleanly. He will need to stay off it - lying down really - and he'll need a check up in a couple of days at any pokemon centre but from what I was told the prognosis is very good, he should be fine once the injury has healed." It was always good to be able to give good news, bad news often seemed in far too great a supply but that was mostly because it stuck in your mind a lot more than when things went well.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I'm glad too," Ion replied, both his voice and his expression grateful. Things would've ended quite differently if he hadn't helped.

"Oh," he said curiously, glancing between the pleased-looking Yulia with the ball in her hands and the gentleman that had so kindly helped him, "you did? Thank you," the teen said with another tired but grateful smile, though he nodded and listened with a more serious expression to the details. It was good they were able to get the bullet out, and if he healed properly he'd be just fine - that was wonderful. He made a mental note to bring him to the pokemon center near his apartment once he got back to Camphoreon. "Thank you," he said again, his smile reappearing, "I'm sure he'll be glad once he's better. Ah," his expression faltered for a moment as he remembered himself, "I'm sorry; we weren't properly introduced before," for obvious reasons, "but my name is Ion. You've met Yulia," the Ralts offered Dith a happy little wave as Ion gestured to her, then gestured to his Braixen and Pidgey, "and these are Jozette and Albiore."

While Albiore did nothing aside from tilt his head this way and that, Jozette huffed a bit as she hopped off her chair and gestured Dith to it with a white paw. "Bwurr," she said eloquently.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Once he's better, until then he'll probably be rather ratty," Dith agreed with a sympathetic smile, pain never put people in the best of tempers.

"Ah, and my name is Dima - or Dith - pleased to meet you all properly!" Still smiling softly Dith shrugged. "It was not the best of circumstances, though I did gather your and Jozette's names from Ada, Ion. Ah, thank you Jozette." Nodding at the Braixen he sat down in the chair very carefully, it creaked very slightly but didn't seem inclined to fold up underneath him thankfully; you only had to have that happen to you once to be forever paranoid about it.

Talking about what had just happened didn't seem like the very best idea, at least not right now, and so Dith decided to try to sate a different curiosity. "How did you meet Ada? Ah, Lovelace?" Given she knew Ion by name he assumed he knew her by one or the other too.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion looked bemused for a moment. Ratty? Ah, maybe he meant he'd be rather ill-behaved until he healed more. To be sure, he hadn't seemed too friendly when he'd been shot, so he could understand completely if that continued until the pain subsided.

"Dima," Ion repeated, testing out the unfamiliar name before offering him a smile. "Thank you again for helping us, Dima."

Jozette nodded her head at Dith before she hopped up onto the bed to join her trainer; he obliged and shifted his legs over to give her more space. Dima's question drew his attention again and he puzzled over it a moment before he said, "Ah - Lovelace, yes. We met... I think it's been nearly two years ago now, almost." Had it really been that long ago? But he hadn't forgotten her. How could he have? "We met her near the edge of the forests. We were having a picnic there when she came out to speak to us, so we invited her to join us. May I ask how you met her?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Well, as I recall the first time I met her was in an abandoned mine I guess... three years ago? Or so. Some," Dith thought a rude word but said; "people were keeping pokemon captive including a couple of legendaries, Lovelace among them. My friends and I went to investigate after a Jirachi managed to escape." Dith scratched his chin and shrugged. "Anyway the short version is that we freed them and Lovelace went off about her own business, she was not keen to linger around humans. I met her again just about two years ago; she had been living alone in the forest and we struck up a friendship over some months, now she's my roommate!" There was no need to go into the sorry state Ada had been in when he'd found her - or rather she'd found him - that was her business not his.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah," he replied, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. That was... not really the kind of meeting he'd expected, but then again he wasn't entirely sure what he had expected. Not that it mattered, of course. Those poor captive pokemon... He was infinitely glad to hear they'd managed to escape, and hoped they all had happier lives since then. It seemed Lovelace had, at least. "I can't blame her for not wanting to be around them after that," he said, sympathy replacing his usually apologetic expression. That expression grew more serious as he asked, "Were they part of Team Rocket?"