Answers

Author's Note: Content Warnings are spelt backwards below. If you view CWs as spoilers scroll past them.
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“When I asked him to leave, he swore that it would be different. Unfortunately, I believed him. I wasn’t over him, I wanted to believe him. It would all be different now, but back then.”

“He’s good with Daisy,” you tell Maddie. She just eyes you while sipping her tea. “I mean it, you guys should come over for dinner. You’ll see.”

“I don’t know if Paul will go for that. Sessile, we love you, but Tom is dangerous.” She sets down her cup. “You’ll tell us if he hits you, won’t you?”

You swallow, “Of course.” But he won’t, Tom’s changed.

Maddie gives you a tight hug when it’s time to go home. “If you need ANYTHING, don’t hesitate to come to us,” she says, before pulling out of the hug. “I mean it, Sessile, we love you and Daisy.”

“Thanks, I love you two too.” He’s been so good this past week, and doesn’t Daisy deserve the chance at a loving father. Isn’t that chance worth giving Tom a second chance?

You sit at your desk checking the data that your algorithm processed during lunch. You grab the nearest notebook to make a note, but when you flip through the pages you pause. What is this? The pages are filled with hectic scribblings, ink scratched furiously across every page. Odd symbols forming, twisting spirals, avian figures surrounding a figure. Then a passage on the other page.

A child of Ketchum
Marked by destiny
A darkness forged by man
A POWER never seen

What is this? You flip through the pages, more of the same. Disturbing sketches of swirling birds, a huddled form, spirals everywhere, like DNA. The word power is scribbled everywhere.

The front door opens, “Mommy!” Daisy cries as her and Tom enter the living room. You put the notebook down on your desk and meet them.

Your stomach drops and your heart stops when you see Daisy. Her shirt is stained with blood, a bandage covering left cheek. “What happened?” Images of your own cuts at Tom’s hand cross your mind, a beer bottle shattering against the cabinet by your head. Stray shards slicing your forehead.

“She fell on some rocks down by the creek,” Tom says, bringing your attention from Daisy. You could see it, Daisy is getting better at walking but falls still happen. But your stomach knots itself with suspicion, could Tom hit a child? His child?

You hug Daisy close to your chest, “You know what will help with that?” Daisy nuzzles against your chest, and you just whisper, “Ice cream.”

Her tears dry in an instant, and she rushes off to the kitchen. Chanting “Icream. Icream.”

You stare at Tom, unsure of what to say to him. “She fell,” is all he says again, heading down the hallway to the bathroom.

You see Daisy touch her jawline, the nearly invisible scar that never quite healed. “What was that notebook?” she asks, “Do you still have it?”

“Maybe? Let me go check my filing cabinet.” You find the notes from that year, and sure enough there it is.

“My grandma is a seer, it sounds like a prophecy. Wait! Do you think Gammy being a seer is why he slept with my mom?” Paris is saying as you return.

They flip through the pages. “Do you think your grandma would look at this?” Daisy asks.

“Her vision isn’t so great, but we can talk to her about it.”

They flip through the pages a little, pointing at a couple drawings before Daisy closes the notebook. “Sorry, we’ll look through this later. Where were we in the story?”

“Um, oh,” you gather yourself, “Like I said, it wasn’t unheard of for you to fall from time to time, but maybe it was just because of Madison begging me to be careful so I gathered some old cameras from your grandfather’s lab and set them up around the house.”

You tuck the final camera behind some books on the top shelf. You obviously won’t be able to catch every second of Tom being with Daisy. Over the next week, Daisy has a couple more ‘trips’ in the woods. “She was chasing a Butterfree and tripped over a root.” Or, “She was running too fast and tripped on a rock.” “Arceus Sessile, she’s a kid you can’t protect her from every scraped knees.”

You don’t push the issue, Daisy falls all the time. And you’re afraid if you accuse Tom outright, he’d get mad, your body tenses at the thought. Then it happens, a rainy day so Tom and Daisy stay in the house while you work in the lab. When you get home, Daisy ‘fell’ again, this time on a toy left out, her eye was already turning purple.

You ice her eye while letting her watch some cartoons. After bedtime, Tom asleep on the other side of the bed, Daisy curled up at your side, you sneak out of bed. You check the cameras and your worst fear plays out on the screen. Daisy did hit her eye on a toy, but the falling wasn’t an accident. You replay the instant again and again, Daisy running up to him, “Daddy. Daddy,” she calls out. Tom looks annoyed, and pushes her away, she falls landing on her toys. She lays there crying, and your heart stabs itself unable to hold her. And Tom ignores her for minutes, Daisy crying on the floor. You can’t stomach any more and close the video.

You walk back to the bedroom. Daisy and Tom are still asleep. You fight the urge to grab a knife from the kitchen. Instead you pick your daughter up in your arms and carry her out of the room. Out of the house. You knock on Maddie’s door. It takes a minute but the lights eventually come on, and Maddie answers the door wiping sleep from her eyes, “Sessile?”

“He hurt Daisy.”

“What!” Paul says from where he’s just entering the room. You bundle the blanket around Daisy on their couch. Paul is just finishing tying his shoes when your realize he’s barging out the door.

You follow after him, “Paul wait.” You don’t want him to get hurt. “I’ll call the police in the morning, I have video.”

But he doesn’t stop, Paul is too mad. He opens the door to your house and rushes to the bedroom. “What the—“ Tom says half asleep as Paul throws him out of bed. He’s barely on his feet before Paul’s fist connects with his throat. Tom gasps for breath.

“You think it’s funny to hit children? You a big man Tom? Have to pick on women and children? Why don’t you try hitting me, Tom?” Paul grabs Tom’s shirt throwing him out the bedroom door into the hallway. Tom is still gasping as Paul drags him into the yard. He splashes in the mud from the earlier rain. Paul’s fist crunches against Tom’s face, “I don’t want to EVER see you again, understood?” Tom grins and spits, his bloody saliva drooling down Paul’s face. Paul throws him back into the mud, and kicks him hard in the ribs. Tom coughs, and rolls in pain.

Paul walks you back to his house, you look back to see Tom pulling himself upright. You’re scared for a second that he’s going to come after you, but instead he hobbles towards Route 1.

Maddie holds you while you stroke Daisy’s hair while she sleeps. Paul makes a few calls, letting the Viridian police know about Tom. You’re not sure when but eventually you manage to slip into sleep.

“I found out I was pregnant with Blue not long after that. And Paul and Madison were pregnant the month after.”

“And that was the last you saw of him?” Daisy asks.

“Yes, we think he showed up a few years later, when the Eevee showed up. Kloo and Blue’s Eevee. But none of us actually saw him.”

“Why the Eevee?” Paris asks, “I got one too.”

You shrug, “They were a family tradition. He had said that his dad gave him his Eevee. And his grandfather gave his children one. And so on going back generations.”

They ask a couple more questions, but eventually move on to telling you about the Tournament. Daisy hugs you tight when it’s time for them to leave. You kiss the top of her head, holding her tight, never wanting to let go.

You breath heavy once you’re alone. You grab a bottle of wine and throw it in your purse, you’re going to need to go drink with Madison… Except she’s still on a cruise. You grab a pair of glasses and make your way outside, to the outskirts of town.

You pour the glasses leaving one on the tombstone. “Your daughter won the Rookie Tournament. She’s spectacular, you’d be proud.” Not that it was ever in doubt, Paul loved all the kids. “Daisy found Tom,” you let the words hang heavy in the air, wishing that he could respond. That he was there to scare Tom off, to protect your children.

You’ve asked the question too many times in the past, never an answer, but with Tom in your mind again, it bubbles to the surface, “Did he kill you?” Images of Paul’s body riddled with Beedrill stings, nearly unrecognizable. They had been swarming that year, but it still feels unreal that Paul would fall to wild pokemon.

You wipe the tears away, finishing off your glass of wine. “I have a shipment of Tepig and Lechonk coming in,” you go on about your research, ignoring everything else. Paul was always a great listener.

When the sun starts to set, you pour Paul’s glass out. You pat the cool stone, “Thanks, for everything.” You hate to think how Blue and Daisy would’ve turned out if Tom had stayed.