I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM Pokemon.

A/N: This is an A/U fic; it does not continue from the series on TV, I am just borrowing the characters from Pokemon.

This is an AAMRN you have been warned! I know these type of plots and story lines have been done before, so if this is similar to another fic you have read or written your self, I am not copying okay!?!.

This is my first fic, so please be nice!

TO LOVE? OR NOT TO LOVE?

By A*MON

These (* * *)things in between the text mean different scenes

‘ italic’= Peoples thoughts

Ash/Duplica (17)

Misty (18)

Brock (20)

Nurse Wendy/Joy (25)

CHAPTER 1: The Accident

“Come on Misty!, Lets not wait for the boys to catch up lets go already!” shouted Duplica as she grabbed Misty’s arm dragging her toward the new Pokemon Reserve that had opened near the small town of ‘Skye'.

They had meet up with the imate’ trainer when they had seen one of her shows advertised in ‘New Bark Town’ and had gone to see it, she had decided to tag along with Ash, Misty, and Brock for a while.

“Not so fast Duplica!” Misty tried to resist but failed.

“Misty, I can't wait any longer, the quicker we get there the better, we will be able to see the great views and all of those cool Pokemon, if we are the first people to get there we get in free!” Duplica shouted back, excited to finally get to see the new reserve.

***

“Oh! Look Misty, it's so beautiful don't you think?” Duplica beamed at the view ahead of the two friends.

The view was beautiful; the many grass plains were filled with different kinds of Pokemon all living in their natural habitat. With greens and browns from the different kind of trees and growths, the sky was clear and crisp of the colour blue, with the odd few clouds hovering over the many mountains that brought the scenery together.

“Come on, let's go!” Duplica said, while pulling Misty by the arm deeper in to the reserve.

***

"Ash wait up will yah! Not so fast” panted Brock as he tried to catch up to Ash and Pikachu who were both running to catch up to the girls who had obviously beaten them to the reserve.

“Brock, you are such a slowpoke, they beat us. Now we will probably have to pay to get in!” whined Ash to his now beat friend who was just coming up the path toward him.

“I…. I…water…need…water…” Brock panted as he feel toward the ground totally spent from the run.

*THUD!*

Ash and Pikachu looked down at the poor Pokemon breeder wannabe, he was breathing heavily and sweat poured off his face.

“God Brock, are you Okay down there? You look kinda sick”, chuckled Ash.

Pikachu just stared at Brock, “Pi ca Pi Chu!” (Yeah Brock, your kind of out of shape!) it added.

“Come on Brock, let’s catch up with the girls!” Ash exclaimed and then thought of something and broke with a massive grin, before continuing, “besides look on the bright side Brock, I think you lost a few pounds here and there!”

“What?” Brock asked Ash a little confused, Pikachu just stared at his trainer, he sweatdropped, a little confused to.

“Come on Fat Boy get your butt in gear and move! Lose a few pounds here and there and I’m sure you will eventually get that date with either Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny!?!” Ash snickered.

“Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny do not think I’m fat Ash! They just cannot resist my charm and grace, you’ll see” Brock replied while getting up and running toward the reserve.

“I knew that would get him moving! Come on Pikachu race yah!”

***

“Sshh! Be quiet Duplica, do you want them to hear us?” Misty whispered to her over excited green haired friend. She turned to the red head next to her.

“But I can't see anything, can't we get any closer”. They where in the spy hut just on the third arena in the reserve.

“You should know as well as I do Duplica, that Tauros are unpredictable and are easily startled by other Pokemon and people”

“We are not scared of Tauros are we Ditto!” she said to her purple/pink Pokemon, “Ditto!” (Nope!)

“Duplica!” Misty yelled, as Duplica and the pink Pokemon headed toward the Tauros field.

*Sigh* “come on Togepi we had better catch up to them” she told her egg Pokemon.

***

She could see them, but wanted to get nearer; as she crept behind bushes and trees to get a better look, she could hear footsteps behind her. Ignoring them, she turned to her Pokemon.

“Come on Ditto, let's see you try and transform in to a Tauros” she whispered to it.

“Ditto” (ok) it replied to its trainer.

“Duplica no!” screamed Misty.

That was the last thing that Duplica herd before every thing went wrong. She could see the Tauros stampeding toward her and Ditto, but she could not move, she froze, with fear. She could barely hear Misty call out Starmie to help ward off the Tauros, but what happened next was a nightmare, she never ever wanted to be reminded of.

“Starmie!” She heard Misty scream as the herd of Tauros hit it.

*THUD*

Darkness was threatening her over as one of the Tauros bucked her high in to one of the trees, the last thing she could see before the darkness took her was Misty in the middle of the stampeding herd all curled up in a ball desperately covering Starmie and Ditto using her body as a shield.

***

She awoke in a bed, as she started opening her eyes, she could see the room that she were in. It was a cream colour with one chair and a window. She was covered with bandages around her waist and upper chest, she could feel the bruising as she attempted to move, then pain hit her and she started to feel nauseous so decided to stay still.'I'm in a Hospital room' she thought.
She groaned. Then like a rush of old memories it struck her ‘The reserve, Tauros, Ditto, Misty, O my God ‘ she remembered.
Her head hurt and the rush of nauseous hit her again, the door started opening and she turned to see whom it was.

“Duplica” It was Brock “how are you feeling?” he asked as he sat next to her.

“What happened?” she whispered to him.

“Well, I don't know exactly, but we could see medics every where in the reception when we got there, then we saw you being carried out on a stretcher you were bleeding and unconscious, then we saw Misty and well….” He trailed off when he heard Duplica start to cry.

“Oh Brock is she going to be Okay? I…. I saw her before I was knocked out, she was right in the middle of the herd trying to cover Starmie and Ditto” she sobbed out.

“Duplica, Misty knows not to go so near Tauros, what happened?”

“It was all my fault, she followed me, she warned me about going so near the Tauros, but I didn't listen Brock. Please tell me she is going to be all right?”

“I don't know Duplica, she was still in the ER when I left Ash and Pikachu to come to see you” At that she burst in to tears as Brock held her hand to try to comfort her.

***

Ash didn't know what to do, Duplica was still in recovery suffering from a few broken ribs and bruises to her head and arms, the doctor had said that they would keep her in case of delayed concussion or any other symptoms from head injuries that would effect her. There was no word on Misty’s condition, she was still in the ER; all he could do was stay calm.

Pikachu had been crying ever since he had seen the state that Misty was in. Ash tried to reassure the Pokemon hoping it would calm down a bit. ‘If I lose her, I don't know what I would do’ he thought to him self. ‘If only I had got there sooner, maybe I could have done somethingto prevent this from ever happening, it's all my fault’

Pikachu looked up at Ash. He could see that Ash was worried for Misty and new how much his trainer/best friend cared for the red head, Pikachu loved Misty to; she was special to the electric mouse Pokemon. Ash always’ blamed him self, for what ever happened to his friends. He was that kind of person. In addition, Pikachu knew that Ash would take the news pretty badly.

***

The door opened and the doctor approached the young trainer. “Mr Ketchum?” he asked.

Ash immediately got up and spoke anxiously to the doctor “Is she going to be all right?”

“She has suffered quite a lot of injuries, Mr Ketchum, we don't exactly know the extent of damage that has been caused. She is still unconscious, but stable. We have done a few tests and will be going to scan her lower part of her body. Her bruises and cuts are at this moment being taken care of, we will be able to tell if she has suffered from any paralysis of the spine when she is conscious”

Ash gasped at the word ‘Paralysis’ “do you mean Misty may not be able to walk?” Ash asked the doctor.

“It's a possibility, the injuries to her lower back indicate there could be *temporally* paralysis, but we don't have the scan results as of yet to support our theories”

“Can I see her?” Ash asked him.

“Not right at this moment, the nurse will tell you when you can see her” Ash thanked the doctor and sat back down to where Pikachu was sitting on one of the chairs in the corridor.

***

*1 hour later*

She was still unconscious, her face was pale and covered with cuts and bruisers, bandages were wrapped around her, he moved closer to her still form as it lay in the bed, with only the beeping from the monitors surrounding her. His face lacked emotion as he stared at her. He raised his arm to her face and touched it slightly, it still felt soft, then lent down and gently kissed her forehead and spoke lightly in her ear.

“Misty I know you probably can't hear me, but I just wanted you to know that I will always be here for you and I am not going to leave here until your all better, you know I…. I care about you….” He closed his chocolate brown eyes when he felt a lump at the back of his throat his voice cracking a bit. “Please Misty be Okay... I...I don't know what I would do if I ever lost you, please Miyst. I… I love you, don't leave me”

Pikachu had curled near Misty’s head; he could hear Ash talking quietly to Misty. Pikachu knew that what Ash was telling Misty had come from the heart and knew that it must have been hard to say those things to her, even if she were sleeping.

Brock stared through the glass window at the young trainer and Pikachu which where asleep, Ash's head was resting on the far corner of the bed Misty was in, his hand firmly clasped in hers, Pikachu was curled in between them. He smiled at the cute scene. ‘I hope she is going to be all right for her sake and Ash's’ he thought as he turned to go back to Duplica’s room.

***

After a few days Duplica had been realised from the hospital into the local Nurse Joy's care, the Doctor had ordered that she was to take it easy and have plenty of rest. They were all staying at the centre, one room occupied all three friends, Duplica had the bed, Brock had the sofa, and Ash had the floor, being used to camping it did not bother him much.
Ash had been up most of the night; he was having trouble sleeping and had decided to go down early to see Starmie and Ditto in the Pokemon hospital.

“Morning Ash, sleep well?” asked the chirpy Nurse at the desk.

“Yes thank you Nurse Joy, could I possibly see Starmie and Ditto this morning?” Ash replied and added to the question.

“Yes certainly Ash” said Nurse Joy, she turned to the large pink Pokemon, which was administering medication to a sick Cubone.

“Blissey, could you stay and watch the desk for me?”

“BLISSEY” (Okay) it replied.

Nurse Joy took Ash to the back room where many sick and injured Pokemon were residing, Starmie and Ditto were injured when Duplica and Ditto had startled the Tauros; they were in the intensive care unit.

“They are healing well and should be able to leave in a day or so Ash,” said Nurse Joy to the young trainer.

“Great, thank you Nurse Joy”. ‘At least when Misty wakes up, she will be relieved to know Starmie will be fine’ he thought to himself.

***

It had been 5 days since the accident, and Misty was still unconscious. The doctors that were reviewing her case had told the trio that Misty could have more damage than they originally thought, she may be going in to a deeper coma they had said, but they were positive it would become clearer once they had done more tests.

Duplica looked in to the bathroom mirror, she felt horrible and guilty, when the doctors had told the three of them about Misty, she had felt sick to the stomach and the look on Ash's face; she could see the tears brimming in his beautiful brown eyes, Brock seemed to remain calm which was a good thing.

Her cheeks were stained with dry tears, her brown eyes were red, and puffy ‘the effects of crying half the night’ she thought to herself. She turned the tap on and let the water flow a bit before washing the stains that marked her cheeks.
She had been having nightmares ever since the accident and trying to convince her self that Misty was going to be all right. ‘This is all my fault, but I didn't know what to do, but I could have helped her, but I just froze’ she thought.
New tears were now fallen down her freshly washed face and she sobbed in to her hands not wanting to remember what had happened and the fact one of her best friends could possibly be paralysed because of her stubbornness.

*KNOCK KNOCK *

“Are you all right in there Duplica?” came the gentle and caring voice behind the door.

“I'm fine thank you Brock” she called back, while drying her tear stained face.

“Okay, just thought I check up on you, I'm going over to the hospital, if you see Ash tell him I've got Togepi and Pikachu with me”

"Okay, will do Brock” she replied trying to sound normal as possible.

***

to be continued~ Okay, not much of a cliffhanger, it is just the next chapter skips ahead a bit. However, I know this jumps from different scenes and may be confusing, but that is why I would appreciate reviews.