#rip gil

Then, he heard the buzzing of cars and faint music outside. A low rumble of feet on pavement. No birdcalls. No howling snorunt.

 He jerked upright—swum, for a moment. Gasped in breath like he’d been smothered.

 There was an IV stuck in the back of his hand. The heart rate monitor had slipped of his finger and was flatlining in the background, so a nurse would be in soon.

 Gilbert held still just long enough for his head to stop floating three feet above his head, threatening to drop him back into unconsciousness. When it was firmly back between his shoulders, he reached out for the IV stand and checked to see if it had wheels. Gripping the pole of the stand, he slid out of bed, nearly busting his kneecap on the bedside table in the process.

 How long had he been out?

 An IV stand with wheels was not an ideal crutch by any stretch of the imagination, but between it and the bedframe, Gilbert crossed the room without any more trouble and gazed out the window.

 Jubilife.

 Not Snowpoint.

 Not Snowpoint, like he’d first thought when he woke. Not a hospital in Snowpoint to spend another overnight, not a hospital in Snowpoint because he’d never been anywhere but Snowpoint, not a hospital in Snowpoint like he’d thought it was when he first woke up and saw the pale ceiling and walls, with only two windows on the left side of the room and a clock directly across from the bed, television mounted in the corner— the same setup he’d seen a hundred times before.

 He was in Jubilife again. The air tasted like fast food, not ice, and he was still free.

 The opening of the door jolted him out of his shock. He didn’t jump, but he was already surprised enough by his location that he spun around to see the perpetrator quickly enough that he knocked into his IV stand and almost lost his footing.

 The nurse automatically attained A+ grading, because she didn’t shout at him being out of bed and stumbling all over himself. She just hurried over, made sure he was steady, and calmly stated that she was very glad he’d finally woken up. She silenced the still-whining heart monitor.

 “How are you feeling?” she asked. When Gilbert tried to pull away from her hands, she let him sit back down on the bed unassisted.

 “’M fine,” he said, sitting and rubbing his temple with the hand that didn’t have an IV. “How long’ve I been out?”

 “You were admitted two days ago, sir. You’d been unconscious for a concerning amount of time,” she said, moving quickly to check his vitals and pick up a clipboard. “How are you feeling? Any tightness in your chest or numbness in your limbs?”

 “Nothing unusual,” Gilbert said. “I mean, I feel way shittier than normal, but…”

 When Gilbert failed to complete his sentence, she nodded and gave him a polite smile, “We recommend taking it easy for a while. The Sandgem nurses weren’t able to find your ID or license, so we weren’t able to reach your emergency contacts or look up any pre-existing conditions. They also weren’t able to tell us how you’d gotten in your condition, except that you’d been conscious on the floor of a pokemon center for three days and been refusing to move or to be treated.”

 “Oh. I don’t really…remember much of that. It’s all kinda a blur after laying down,” Gilbert said. He tapped his head and wiggled his fingers a bit for effect.

 She did not appear amused by the wiggling fingers. Instead, she pursed her lips and frowned a bit. Snowpoint nurses officially were better than Jubilife. This one was still doing okay though. Gilbert stamp of adequacy.

 “I see,” she said, and made a note on her clipboard. “We’d like you to rest a while longer, but if you feel up to it, the police requested to be contacted when you woke up. They want to speak with you about what happened, when you’re feeling up to it. First, though, we’ll need your name to access your previous medical records and alert your emergency contact.”

 “Uh,” Gilbert said, “Sure. But I don’t have an emergency contact. The one listed is outdated.”

 The last thing he needed was his father swooping down to Jubilife to snatch him up, or

 Ludwig. Gilbert rememberd.

 He could only imagine the reaction if Ludwig discovered Gilbert had been—something. Something. For a week. Though, it wouldn’t be terrible if Ludwig knew, he could work to keep their father out of the picture, but—

 But that was a terrible thought and he really shouldn’t have even considered it?

 Ludwig was absolutely not going to know about this. He’d flip his shit. He would never stop panicking if he found out something like this had happened.

 The nurse spoke again. He missed the words. He stuttered a moment before giving his name.

 She hurried off and alerted the doctor, leaving Gilbert a few quiet minutes to wonder how he’d ever managed to forget his little brother, even if only for a few moments. After waking from a coma. Couldn’t comas give you brain damage? He did not need brain damage on top of everything else. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have done something that would have potentially given you brain damage,’ he could already hear Ludwig’s voice say, as if Gilbert had known that was a possible outcome, because of course.

 He lay back on his pillow for a few long minutes and tried to relax.

 It took a while to chase his little brother’s voice out of his head and start talking to himself, again. He wasn’t going to be in top condition, he told himself, but he’d always managed just fine as long as he was conscious of his condition.

 He took a few seconds to just breathe and pay attention to any physical aches or pains, taking inventory of his body, gently bending all his joints and wiggling his fingers and toes before starting down a different mental checklist.

 Gilbert didn’t have an ID or license for the police to find. It was fine as long as he didn’t use the trainer-only section of the pokemon center or try to claim he’d been on a pokemon journey. If they wanted to know why he’d traveled the whole way across the region without any ID, he could always say he’d lost it in the woods. Or. Or?

Ivan. They’d been jumped by a mugger with a powerful pokemon. Ivan was holding the bag with their licenses and IDs. Gilbert escaped. Ran—he couldn’t remember how long, so saying half a day would have to do. The police would try to find Ivan for him. They would be able to find Ivan better than Gilbert would ever be able to manage on his own.

 The police would be able to find Ivan, as long as he wasn’t a corpse in the mud in that cave.

 (Gilbert’s elbow went numb. He rubbed at it.)

 What else? What else.

 Make sure no one called his family. Go along with whatever treatment. It was a mugger and exhaustion. The effect of a strange pokemon. Yeah, Sinnoh had a very safe route system, but even Kanto had theft on the routes sometimes, so it could happen—he was forgetting, though, he was forgetting—

 “Oh,” Gilbert said as the nurse entered once again, a cart of medical supplies in front of her and an officer in blue behind. “Hey. Where’s my pokemon? S’a chatot. Frumpy little guy. I’d’ve thought she’d demand to watch over me?”

 The nurse blinked at him before glancing over her shoulder to the officer. Their faces grew tight. “There weren’t any pokemon with you when you were admitted, sir.”

 000

 Of all the regions, Sinnoh’s routes are some of the safest. The crime rate is relatively low due to the collaboration of the region’s many small towns forming a crime watch ring, and most of the towns are close together or have several rest-stops between them which can easily be reached after a day of walking for an able-bodied person. Therefore, the minimum age for a trainer’s license in Sinnoh is twelve—the roads are considered safe enough for a twelve year old with a partner to travel independently. Theft on the routes and dangerously violent pokemon attacks are considered very rare occurrences.

 Kanto and Jhoto are considered the safest regions to travel in, and their minimum age is ten. Kalos is considered the most dangerous, with the minimum age set at sixteen, but most trainers waiting two more years before setting out, if they set out at all.