Baby Days   
        Chapter 1
               


“Delia, please?”
“I don’t know, a Pokemon Convention? Me?” a twenty-something Delia Ketchum
questioned the handsome researcher uncertainly.
“Why not? You always used to go to them before.”
“Yeah but that was when Jake-”
Sam took hold of Delia’s hand and lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. He
spoke comfortingly and lovingly to her. “Look, just because Jake isn’t around anymore
doesn’t mean you can’t still go. Besides I know you love Pokemon just as much as he
does,.....maybe more. Plus, I need somebody to keep me company during all those boring
lectures.”
Delia giggled playfully. “I believe you’ve participated in a couple of those boring lectures
yourself, Prof.,” Delia teased while pulling at his lab coat.
Sam scratched the back of his head embarrassed.
“Also, I thought your son and your daughter-in-law are going to be there,” Delia pointed
out.
“They are but they’re not the kind of company I need.” Sam stated suggestively.
“Saaam!...Well, what about Ash, he’s almost 4 now and you know him, he is not going to
be able to sit still for one second with all the Pokemon around. I can’t be chasing after
him everywhere, and I’m definitely not going to leave him here with some stranger.”
“You don’t have to leave him here, my son is bringing Gary along.”
“Really?”
“Yes, they have a very impressive daycare facility at Indigo Tower. There will be plenty
of other children for Ash to play with and you can check up on him whenever you want.”
Delia thought about this for a moment as Sam gave her his infamous puppy dog pout.
“Pleeeeease,” Sam pleaded one more time.
Delia’s smiled childishly. “Sam, anything for you.”
Sam scooped Delia into a big bear hug, burying his face in her long brown hair while
Delia giggled happily.
“You know, sooner or later that puppy look you give me is going to stop working.”
“Maybe, but it will probably be later than sooner,” Sam said with a sly grin as he brought
Delia’s lips to his in a loving kiss.
“Mommy!” Delia quickly separated from Sam as she ran up the stairs.
“Ash sweety, what is it, what’s wrong?” Delia called back worriedly as she ran through
the hall. Sam followed closely behind, stopping suddenly as he almost bumped into Delia
who was standing in the doorway to Ash’s room.
They both looked around the room that was decorated with several Pokemon stuffed
animals. The walls of the room were light blue with a border of baby Pokemon lining the
ceiling. A small bed sat in the corner of the room with a oak dresser to the left of it. On
top of the dresser there was a empty pot that once housed a plant. A trail of soil was
scattered around the room, leading to a little black haired toddler sitting in front of an
open playpen, a lily in his small hand. The little boy smiled radiantly at his mother and
Prof. Oak as he held up the flower for all to see.
“Ash you scared me, how did you get out of your playpen again, the Pikachu lock was
supposed to be baby proof.” Delia said as she picked up the lock from the floor.
“Your son is very clever Delia.” Sam crouched down to Ash’s level as Delia tried to
figure out how Ash got the lock open, observing the many baby teeth marks on the plastic
lock.
“With his intelligence and his love of Pokemon he may grow up to be a Pokemon
researcher like me....Well, either that or he could use his lock picking abilities to be a
Pokemon thief for Team Rocket.”
Delia looked at Sam angrily, showing she didn’t approve of his joke.
“Heh, heh, or not.”
“Honey, what did you do?” Delia asked as she examined the flower that had been pulled
out by the roots, that her son was holding. “You have been waiting over a month for that
flower to bloom."
“I know, but I shaw it-the flowor opened and I wanta give it to you because it’s pwetty
like you mommy,” Ash said as he offered his mother the lily with the roots still attached.
“Awww, thank you honey.” Delia took the flower from her son.
Sam watched as Delia was overwhelmed by the cuteness of Ash’s offering, when just a
few seconds ago she was upset that Ash had made a mess and broke out of his playpen.
“He is quite the charmer isn’t he?” Sam commented as he looked at Ash’s innocent smile.
“Well it is all in the genes,” Delia stated proudly.
“So true,” Sam agreed as Delia smiled warmly at him.
Delia turned her attention once again to her son who was about to stick some of the soil
from the plant into his mouth.
“Ash.” Ash looked up at his mom as she took the soil at of his hand.
“How would you like to go on a trip?”
“Huh?” Ash stared, perplexed at the question.
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Delia, Sam, and Ash all were in Sam’s car as they drove to Indigo City.
Ash sat in the back, strapped into his car seat as Sam and Delia sat in front chatting about
what they would do when they got to their destination.
Ash was extremely bored, he hated being stuck in the car. He preferred to take walks,
simply because he liked being outside. That way he was able to look at all the flowers
and trees, and occasionally see a few Pokemon running around. In the car everything
went by too fast, so he really couldn’t appreciate the view. Ash couldn’t wait till they got
to wherever it was they were going. He wasn’t quite sure about the destination because of
all the big words that were used by his mother when describing the trip. He definitely
heard the word Pokemon which led him to think that they were going to the Pokemon
World theme park that he saw advertised on TV. Just thinking about seeing all of the
Pokemon made Ash squirm with excitement.
‘Fwirst I’m goin to wide da Kingdwa cawasel. Then I’m goin to see da Pokemon
Safawi...Cookie cwumb dirt, yeah, I bet they have cookie cwumb dirt in Pokemon Word.
I hope mommy wets me eat it this time.’
Delia turned her head to check out what Ash was doing. He seemed extremely hyper for
some reason. She had told him that they were going to a Pokemon Convention and she
tried to explain what goes on there but she was pretty certain Ash didn’t get most of what
she was saying.
“Honey, are you having a good time?”
“POKEMON COOKIE CWUMB DIRT!” Ash shouted with glee as Delia burst out in
laughter.
“What did he say?” Sam asked, a little baffled.
“Does it matter?” Delia said while still giggling.
“I guess not,” Sam chuckled as he took a peek at Ash who was now bouncing up and
down in his car seat in delight.
Delia turned her attention back to Sam, who was driving.
“I’m really glad you talked me into coming, I’m having fun already.”
Sam stared lovingly at Delia. “I’m really glad too.”
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“Here we are Ash.” Sam, Delia and Ash all walked into the huge building that dominated
most of the street they were on. Indigo Tower was the place where all the league’s elite
trainers worked. Any league business was conducted in this building. Once a year a
conference was held to discuss new discoveries dealing with Pokemon, training, and
recruiting new members into the Pokemon league board of directors.
Ash observed the many professional looking people passing in and out of the rooms, and
there were a lot of rooms. ‘I wonder which suity man has the key to the Kadabwa
funhouse,’ Ash thought as they entered a extremely colorful room that was filled with
various toys. Ash looked in amazement at a huge slide shaped like a Lickatung with the
tongue being the part you slide down. There were several other things to play with such
as Mankey bars, a Sandslash box, and a Squirtle swing scattered around the room. It was
like an indoor playground, but cool as that was, that’s all it was. It wasn’t anything
compared to Pokemon World which actually had Pokemon.
“Mommy, where are all the Pokemon?” Ash asked sadly.
“Aw honey, I told you, you aren’t going to be in the area where they keep the Pokemon.”
Ash was very disappointed with this news. “No Pokemon?”
“I’m sorry sweety, but look at all the cool toys and all the other kids you get to play
with.” Ash looked around the room at the all the children having a good time.
“Yeah but I wanted to go to Pokemon World.”
“This may not be Pokemon World but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have Pokemon.” A
young women with blue hair stated as she walked up to Ash, Delia and Sam.
“Hello, I’m in charge here at this daycare center and I overheard your conversation. I just
wanted to clear up any confusion that you might have. I promise you that we will be
bringing in some Pokemon later in the day that you can play with.”
“Weally? I’ll get to see some weal life Pokemon? Yippee!!!” Ash said as he danced
around in a circle.
“Thank you so much, my name is Delia Ketchum and this is my friend Sam Oak.”
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Ms. Krissy. I’m glad I could help. Besides, what kind of
Pokemon Convention would this be if the kids didn’t get to join in on the fun? Wait, Sam
Oak, Samuel Oak the Pokemon Researcher?"
“Yes I’m Samuel Oak, I suppose you’ve heard of me.”
“Well actually I-”
“It’s quite all right, don’t be embarrassed. I’m always happy talk to people who are fans
of my work,” Sam said as he tried to act modest but anyone could tell that he was failing
miserably at the task.
“Actually I heard someone ask just a little while ago about where you are because you’re
supposedly late for a lecture that is being held on the 3rd floor. The person sounded pretty
upset about it. I just thought you should know.”
“Oh. Well you heard the woman Delia, let’s get going.” Sam stated as he blushed from
embarrassment.
“All right, Ash come here.”
Ash ran up to his mother so she could kiss him goodbye.
“Now be a good boy and listen to Ms. Krissy while I’m gone okay?”
“Okay Mommy.” Ash said as Delia kissed him on the forehead and exited the room with
Sam.
“So, when da Pokemon gonna be here?” Ash questioned while smiling brightly at Ms.
Krissy.
“In a few hours, in the meantime why don’t you go make some new friends.”
“Kay!” Ash walked over and sat down near a few children who were playing with some
blocks. All the blocks had different pictures of Pokemon on them. Ash picked up a
Bellsprout block as he observed a brown-haired boy building a tower out of blocks.
“Can I put the last one on top?” Ash asked shyly.
“Sure, it’s otay with me.”
“Thanks.” Ash placed the Bellsprout block on top of the block tower, being careful not to
knock it down.
Ash let go of the block as he and the brown-haired boy stared at it proudly.
“That’s a nice tower.”
“Yup.”
“I’m Ash.” Ash held out his hand as the other boy shook it.
“I’m Wichie.”
“Wanna be my fwend?”
Richie shrugged. “Why not.”
“Kay.”
“Tay.”
“It’s not fair, why do Daisy, Lily, and Violet get to stay home.” A little red-haired girl
whined from the doorway of the daycare center.
“We told you Misty, Grandma and Grandpa are taking care of them.”
“Yeah but they said that they are gonna go to Pokemon World with Gwanny and
Gwampa. I want to go too!”
“Misty we brought you with us because we thought you would have fun here. Anyway,
three children is already too many for your Grandparents to be taking care of at their age.
Besides, what does it matter where they are going, look at where you are!”
Misty looked around the room as she saw a little girl crying for her mother, a boy eating
his own snot,  and another little boy that was doing something very disturbing with his
pants.
Misty finished looking around the room as she once again was staring at her mother in
misery.
“Okay look, we will be coming to get you as soon as we can, all right?”
“aw wight.” Misty said, giving in.
Misty’s mother kissed her on the cheek and began to leave, stopping for only a moment
to ask...
“Misty, let me have it.”
“Have what?” Misty asked innocently.
“You know what.”
Misty reached into what seemed to be midair and pulled out a small, plastic, squeak toy
mallet and gave it to her mother.
“That’s a good girl. Have fun.” Misty’s mother exited the room.
Misty looked around wearily and noticed two little boys by the Squirtle swings. One had
brown hair and he had just gotten off the swing and the other black-haired boy got on the
swing that the other one left. Misty walked over to the two boys.
“Hey I wanna ride on the swing.” Misty said snottily.
“So, you have to wait your turn,” Ash said as nicely as he could to the demanding girl.
“I wanna ride now!”  Misty shouted.
“Too bad, I was here fiwst.” Ash began to ignore Misty.
Richie was crawling on the floor in search of the extra special tasting cookie crumb dirt
that Ash had told him about.
“Yeah well, I come from a water Pokemon gym and Squiwtle is a water Pokemon so I
have to wide it. It’s the law.”
“Says who?”
“Says me that’s who now get off!”
“No!”
Misty, angry at Ash’s refusal and upset about being squeaky malletless, tackled Ash to
the floor as they began to roll around trying to pin each other.
“Ow, your pullin my hair!” Misty screamed.
“I know!” Ash admitted as Misty got even angrier.
“Hey! Ow! You bit me!” Ash said referring to his hand that had just been chomped on by
Misty.
“I know!” Misty said smugly.
They continued to wrestle around on the floor until Ms. Krissy came and broke them up.
“Stop it the both of you.”
“He/She started it!” they said in unison.
“I did not!” they both said while glaring at each other.
“That’s enough, I don’t care who started it. If you two don’t behave there wont be any
Pokemon for you to play with later.”
Ash and Misty both quieted down at this threat.
“I want to see you being nice to each other.”
“If I’m nice to her then I’ll get to see the Pokemon?”
Ms. Krissy smiled. “Yes Ash. If your nice...yes.”
“Kay!”
Ms. Krissy walked back over to the little girl who was crying for her mother before, and
started to read her a story.
Ash turned his attention to Misty.
“Okay, listen you, I weally want to see the Pokemon, so I can’t fight with you anymore.
That’s why we should be fwends cause fwends don’t fight. So? Fwends?” 
Ash held out his hand for Misty to shake in friendship. Misty looked at Ash skeptically.
“I don’t have any fwends,....just my sisters who are mean to me,” Misty said sadly.
“Well now you have a fwend because I’ll be your fwend.”
“You wont be mean?”
“Fwends aren’t mean, fwends are nice, but you have to be nice too. Kay?”
“....Kay!” Mist took Ash’s hand as she smiled, happy to finally have a friend.
“Broooock! Come back here we just want to play nurse!” a little pink-haired girl shouted
at a squinty-eyed little boy about the age of 8 who was running around the room.
“Yeah, stop in the name of the law!” a blue-haired girl called while also chasing after the
little boy.
“No way, girls have cooties, yuck!”