FicWad

“Welcome to Melemele General Hospital. Is this visit for General, Surgical, or Emergency?” The voice box speaker crackled to life, the words coming out in an attempt as pleasant, but a feeling of boredom echoed in the male voice.

“Emergency.” The woman standing outside stated promptly, having been through a similar routine for many years across countless hospitals. A few strands of her gray-streaked, dark brown hair whirled out of their fastening at the blow of a warm breeze, but she barely seemed to notice, just twitching her green eyes to the sudden movement, then returning them to the locked doors of the facility.

“Please state the nature of your Emergency.”

“Visiting Doctor Melanie Gomez for the care of current patients.”

“Has your badge been misplaced?” The voice queried, a hint of sarcasm edging it.

“I don’t have a badge for this Region’s hospitals. As I stated, I am a Visiting Doctor, from another Region, here for patient care.” The woman spoke cautiously, keeping her voice neutral and calm even as a flash of annoyance whizzed through her mind. I don’t have time to stand here fighting with a box on the wall, she thought with frustration, but then spoke once more with the same careful tone, “Please call Doctor Ōpūnui and he will explain the situation.”

“Very well,” the man didn’t even attempt to hide his own annoyance this time. Why couldn’t I just have a quiet day for once?

The Doctor rolled her eyes at the unspoken comment, letting out a slow push of breath through her nose to calm the raging emotions that swelled within her.

Impudent human. Another, stronger mind growled. A Gallade glared from beside the woman, pulling out an arm and swishing it angrily through the air, the blades on its elbows, missing the voice box by a hair.

“Patience,” Mel spoke aloud, glancing a sidelong look at the tall green and white Psychic and Fighting-type, and realizing her emotions would be affecting it as well. “We must both have patience. Our minds will need to be calm for the battle ahead.”

The Pokémon closed its eyes and cleared its thoughts away with practiced ease.

“Thank you,” the woman spoke again as she felt the mind beside her quiet. She took a few more breaths of her own, letting them out with slow pushes through her nose.

“A noisy mind will power every direction, but the correct one.”

Mel could still hear the voice of her old mentor as he spoke his favorite line. As a young Psychic, who could barely control her powers, she’d hated his phrases, but as she grew, she learned to put them to heart, even using the sayings herself when training her own pupils.

“The Doctor is on his way,” the male’s voice finally returned after what felt like an eternity, interrupting the memories flowing within the brunette. I don’t get paid enough for this. The mind grumped from behind the wall.

Another, much shorter pause followed, but this time, the silence was broken by the opening of the front doors. A slightly older, plump man in a long white coat stepped outside to usher the two newcomers in. His pepper-colored hair was brushed back with care, and his face was cleanly shaven. The spectacles on his face magnified his clear gray eyes.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Doctor Gomez. I am Doctor Ori Ōpūnui” the man said with his own practiced calm.

Even so, Mel could feel the storm of emotions raging in his mind as well. She felt a pang of sympathy and painful understanding for the situation he was in, being in the same one herself. Both of them were here for their own sons, and they both feared the worst, having seen it many times themselves, in their respective fields.

Oh, thank Arceus she’s finally here. She’ll know how to heal him. Please, she has to know. The male Doctor’s thoughts spoke loudly, as if magnified by a megaphone, and she found it hard to pull her own away from the fright she felt in him.

As they walked swiftly down the sterile corridors, Mel distracted herself by listening to a few of the minds around, trying to get a feel for what this hospital was like. The usual mumbles of a medical mind flooded around; medicine calculations, diagnosis runs, and practiced speeches for the delivery of bad news. Normal business thoughts flashed around too; what to have for lunch, grumbling about a coworker, and wishes for breaks or naps.

As she observed, she made a careful wedge to avoid the mind of the Doctor silently leading them on. After a short time, she finally snapped the voices off, cutting her link, and severing her mind from the outside world.

A room loomed up ahead. It looked just like any other standard hospital room. The automatic doors were shut to allow privacy and quiet for the patients within. Curtains were drawn over two large windows. Nurses and other doctors hurried around, their Partner Pokémon quietly trailing behind. Still, Mel felt a prickle of uneasiness crawl up her spine as the doors began to slide open.

Ori Ōpūnui had told her the circumstances that led her son, Kabir, into the hospital over the phone before she had left for Alola. And though the conversation had been swift, the Psychic had been allowed plenty of time to think upon the events with the long, nearly two day travel it had taken her to get here.

A gentle prod of concern pressed against her closed mind and she shifted her gaze to the Pokemon beside her. Are you alright? It questioned, knowing her emotions would be swelling, even without having access.

I have to be. She answered it psychically, taking one last breath of air and releasing it before stepping into the room that would hold her adopted son, lying once more in a hospital bed.

~~~

“What are your thoughts?” Doctor Ōpūnui pressed, forgetting to make an effort to control his outward appearance now that they were away from prying eyes.

They had been in the room for some time, the beeping of machines keeping careful monitoring on the two young men lying under their watchful, mechanical gaze. The male Doctor rubbed his hands together anxiously, looking like a Kriketune warming up for a song. Mel moved about the room, scanning pages and readings spat out by the machines with a well practiced eye.

“So far everything is normal, as you’ve stated, Doctor.” She commented, flipping through the notebook he had given her with handwritten, careful observations of his own. “There’s no explanation for this in the readings. It’s not even possible to tell when he slipped into this coma between the time when he was merely sleeping.”

The man’s gray eyes swam with emotion as she spoke, fear and pain vying for a chance to be seen first. It was like watching his mind through a window. There wasn’t a need to try searching him psychically, Mel could see everything right there, as clear as glass.

“Those are your findings from the medical standpoint, am I correct?” He questioned, sounding hopeful that she would have more to say on the matter.

“Yes, medical.” She confirmed softly.

“I have come to the same conclusion.” He muttered in disappointment, casting his eyes towards his son, Kukui, and staring for a long moment. Then he shook himself and continued. “Very well. I’m going to step out of the room and allow you to continue in silence. I’ve worked with Psychic Doctors before, and I know having me in here staring and rushing about with my emotions out on a pedestal will give you no help.”

“Alright,” She stated simply, taken aback by this knowledge that he held. He wasn’t wrong, about other Psychics, perhaps. While at first Mel had been swamped by the thoughts and emotions of the man, she had quickly grown accustomed to it, and was now able to easily close her mind off from him.

“And I’ll be sure no one bothers you either. If you need me, I’ll be just outside this door.” He pointed to the one and only door in the room, then seemed to realize the impertinence of the action with an embarrassed flush on his face.

“Thank you, Ori. That will be most helpful.” She said, placing a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of solace and meeting his eyes carefully. It was clear the man was on edge, not knowing how to help. He returned the sympathetic look, stealing a glance at Mel’s son, Kabir, who laid unmoving in his own bed next to Kukui’s.

With the room cleared, Melanie grabbed two chairs and moved them close to the bed of Ōpūnui’s son. She took a seat, the Gallade setting down in the second one. Two sets of eyes closed in careful concentration as two minds began searching another.

The man’s mind was open, one that had clearly never had any training to push away Psychics, yet as she and her partner delved deeper, she felt a pulse pushing outward. As they moved closer to it, she realized it wasn’t just a pulse, but a wall. And a strong one at that.

They split up and moved about, looking for a crack or crevice, any small imperfection in this strange defense that could be taken as a weak point, but as time ticked by, dragging on further and further, one could not be found. With an unspoken command, she reconvened with her Pokèmon, in the physical world. They took a small break to regain their focus and think about this issue silently. Then, they closed their eyes once more and started up again.

This time, instead of splitting up, they joined their strength and pushed once more at every inch of the closed-off mind, hoping that their redoubled and combined efforts would show results. Still, nothing appeared. After some time she felt the mind of her partner slacken from the search and constant battle against the still pulsating wall.

Opening her eyes, she sighed in frustration at the futile hunt. They had been searching for several hours, and the darkening light from the white curtain-shaded window showed the long passage of time.

Mel rose to her feet and scanned the reports of the machines from the last few hours, hoping to at least find a point medically of a crack, but even that proved empty. She rubbed her sore muscles, trying to push the cramps out of her body from sitting still for so long.

We will try again, but I believe rest would be prudent for me. I am sorry. The Gallade stated with a weakened mind, looking frustrated as well and glancing at Kabir. Then it turned to face its unconscious friend and closed its eyes, but only for a short time.

Mel did not join her Pokémon this time and instead looked at her son while it worked. She already knew what unreachable state the man would be in, having glanced at it swiftly before they entered the room, but she also didn’t want the pain of failure from this as well, so she merely stood, watching.

Nothing. Gallade’s mind spoke after a moment. It seems to be a state of severe exhaustion. Its red eyes looked over at its Trainer apologetically, filled with worry and sadness.

“I know,” she shook her head slowly. “I felt it too. Only time will tell if his mind can recover.” Mel closed her eyes as memories flashed through her head. She’d worked on cases just like this, of Psychics far over-spending their powers. The recovery chances for this grievous mistake was often very slim.

They returned the chairs to their original places in silence, then stepped outside the doors of the room.

Doctor Ōpūnui was sitting on a bench in the hall, a preteen girl Mel hadn’t met, on his left. The girl had curled her thin legs under her and her head rested on the man’s shoulder, the slow breathing of both signifying their exhaustion-fueled slumber.

Melanie felt bad for rousing him, but she knew he wouldn’t thank her if she left without reporting back, even though it didn’t hold any good news.

“You’ve had a long ways to travel though,” The male Doctor said, echoing her previous words. “I can bet you will have an easier time with you both rested up well.”

“And I’ll try to use more Pokémon next time too. With more minds, we should be able to find some weak point.”

“Yes.” He said, attempting to sound jovial, “That’s the spirit!”

“Doctor,” Mel said, hopeful that he would have an answer to her next question. “I’ve been having issues reaching Sashi Ashoka, Kabir’s wife. Do you know if she’s staying at her home, or is she somewhere else at the moment?”