Chapter 17 – Still Here
Deino was awake when Ryan came in.
His head was slightly raised, tracking the sounds of the room. Physically better than yesterday that was clear. But when Ryan sat down on the floor beside him Deino didn't shift closer, didn't make his rumbling sound. Just lay there with his ears not quite flat but not relaxed either.
Waiting to see what happened next.
Ryan knew that feeling. He'd had it often enough himself.
"Hey," he said quietly. "You don't have to do anything. I'm just going to sit here."
Deino's ear moved slightly.
Ryan leaned his back against the wall and stretched his legs out and looked at the ceiling. The equipment hummed. Voices somewhere at the front desk, carrying faintly through the walls.
He sat there for a long time without saying anything because there wasn't anything useful to say and Deino didn't need words right now. He just needed to know Ryan was there and wasn't leaving.
Piplup came in after about twenty minutes pushed the door open and walked. It looked at Deino. Looked at Ryan. Sat down on Ryan's other side.
Nobody said anything.
At some point Deino shifted. Just a small adjustment, his breathing slowing down to something less careful. Less like he was braced for something that might still be coming.
Small things.
Ryan stayed until Joy came in to check the equipment and gave him the look that meant go eat something and he took that as his cue.
At the door he stopped and looked back. Deino's head had turned toward him. Ryan kept moving.
---
Rowan opened the lab door before Ryan knocked.
"I saw you coming," he said, stepping back. "Come through."
The lab was quiet. One researcher at the far end, the Chimchar asleep on its workbench, tail flame low. Everything exactly as it had been the first time Ryan had walked in here. He was aware of the stain on his jacket sleeve as he sat down across from Rowan dark, not quite gone after washing, there every time he moved his arm.
"How is he?" Rowan asked.
"Physically better. Otherwise" Ryan paused. "He's back to how he was at the beginning. Not as bad but close."
Rowan nodded like he'd expected that. "It'll take time. What happened on that route was a specific kind of trauma not just the injury. Those people, that situation. He's been through something like it before."
Ryan looked at the table. "Yeah."
"Tell me something," Rowan said. "When Deino followed you out of the forest when you first arrived did you know where he'd come from?"
Careful. "I had an idea."
"But you didn't say."
"No."
Rowan held his gaze for a moment. Not accusingly. Just taking the measure of it. "I'm not going to push on that. But what I'm about to tell you is partly connected to it. So if there's anything you want to add"
"There isn't."
Rowan accepted that. "Alright."
He folded his hands on the table.
"I spent yesterday making quiet inquiries. People I trust, people who know what moves in Sinnoh below the surface." He paused. "There's a network not large, not particularly organised, but active. They trade in rare Pokemon. Not common species things from other regions, things people here have never seen and will pay significant amounts to own." He looked at Ryan. "Deino fits that exactly. To them he's not a Pokemon. He's money they lost."
Ryan said nothing.
"These aren't professional criminals. They're opportunists. When something escapes they look for it." Rowan unfolded his hands. "I went out yesterday evening. The forest east of town, the route south, the main road. I spoke to people who notice things." He looked at Ryan steadily. "Nothing. No one unusual, no activity, nothing out of place."
"But they know he's here."
"They know he was on Route 204 two days ago heading toward Sandgem. Whether they've connected that to you specifically" Rowan paused. "I don't know. What I can tell you is that as of yesterday evening there was nothing obvious."
Nothing obvious. Not the same as nothing.
"What do I do," Ryan said. Not quite a question.
"You stay aware. You don't take Deino out until he's recovered and even then you're careful. You tell me if anything feels wrong." Rowan paused. "And you don't run. Running draws attention and you have no reason to run yet."
Yet.
"You think they'll come back."
"I think they want what they lost," Rowan said. "Whether that outweighs the risk of coming into this town I genuinely don't know." He looked at Ryan directly. "But you're not handling this alone. I want you to know that."
Ryan looked at him for a moment.
Two weeks. This man had given him money without mentioning it, registered a Pokemon that shouldn't exist in Sinnoh without pushing too hard, and had spent his evening walking the forest looking for people who might come after his Pokemon.
"Thank you," Ryan said.
Rowan waved it off like gratitude made him slightly uncomfortable. "Come back tomorrow. We need to talk about your training while Deino recovers." He stood. "Piplup needs work. You need to keep moving. Stopping helps nothing."
Ryan stood too. "One question."
Rowan waited.
"Deino when he's ready to train again. Is it going to set him back? Pushing him too fast?"
Rowan considered that properly, the way he considered everything. "Let him set the pace. You'll know when he's ready because he'll tell you not in words but you'll know. You've been reading him since the beginning." He looked at Ryan. "Trust that."
Ryan nodded.
"One more thing," Rowan said, at the door. "What you did on that route. Picking him up, running an hour back here." He looked at Ryan directly. "Deino knows you were there for him. Whatever he's working through right now he knows that. Don't underestimate what that means."
Ryan walked out into the cold.
---
The street was quiet. Mid-afternoon, a few people moving between buildings, a Starly on a fence post watching him with the blank curiosity of something that had no stake in anything.
He walked slowly.
Thought about the stain on his sleeve. About Deino lying there with his ears not quite flat but not relaxed either. About the sound he'd made when the Golbat hit him, that sharp cry that was still right there any time Ryan got too close to it.
Thought about how he'd called Dragon Breath a full second too late. How he'd kept walking when Deino stopped on the path even though something had told him not to. How many times in that fight his hands had moved before his brain had caught up and every single time it hadn't been enough.
He stopped in the middle of the street.
Two weeks. He'd been here two weeks and he'd been treating it like an adjustment period learning the world, finding his feet, taking things one step at a time. And that had been right, that had been what he needed, but it wasn't enough anymore.
Deino was in a recovery room with two broken ribs because Ryan hadn't been fast enough or sharp enough or ready enough.
That wasn't going to happen again.
Not because he was angry he was, underneath everything, but that wasn't what this was. It was simpler than anger. It was just a decision.
Get better. Train harder. Be ready.
For this world and Never let something like that happen to my Pokemon again."
He started walking again.
The Pokemon Center was at the end of the street, red roof visible over the buildings, automatic doors catching the flat winter light. He walked toward it with his hands in his pockets and the cold coming in off the sea and the decision sitting quietly in his chest like something that had always been there and had finally found its place.
Joy looked up when he came in.
"He ate a bit more this afternoon," she said.
Something loosened in Ryan's chest.
Small things. Still small things.
But they were adding up.