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'Tis an Angel under Cover production.
Written by Dewin Duvae.

Disclaimer: I own all the characters mentioned.
Nintendo and Gamefreak own the name Joltina, and this
is a completely different universe from the one
described in Gregg Sharps Pokegirls & Wild Horses.
(Except of course that it's just like it.)

Pkgrl - Family matters 3
An undisturbed family line
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The room was sterile. A little light shone in from a
couple of windows at the far end but the room lit up
anyway. Not a speck of dust in the air.

Tim glanced nervously at the bed as he approached. It
was a long time since he'd seen Ruth last. Around the
time when he'd become a tamer and joined the league. He
almost turned around but his Joltina gently twisted him
back to the bed.

"I'm not sure we should..." He looked worriedly at the
Joltina. Harry'd been with him in bad scrapes before,
heck she had been around for his whole life. She'd have
forced him to leave if she thought there was any
danger.

Instead, she looked at him angrily. "You will talk to
her Tim." She said in her most stern voice.

He gulped again and stepped closer. "Come, come
children. I'm not dead yet. There's still a little life
in these old bones." The old woman in the bed smiled a
crooked smile and waved him over.

"It is good to see you, both." She looked down, at her
knees. "I was afraid I'd never see you again." She
coughed.

Harry moved to help but the old woman waved her off.
"I'm alright child. I'm alright..."

Tim shuffled his feet then scoffed. Twenty-one and
being afraid of Aunt Ruth. Not a good thing. Nervously,
he straightened himself out. "I'm sorry about--"

"No! Don't be sorry. You should never need to regret
anything you do. I've had enough of that in my life,
you don't need it in yours." She held out her hand
shakily and both Tim and Harry took it. "I wan't you
two to know how much you mean to me. To do that I need
to tell you a story. If you've got the time that is."
He looked at Harry who nodded back and sat down on the
bed. "I suppose," Ruth started, "that I should start at
the beginning." She cackled mirthfully. "It will be a
good a place as any."

Tim moved a chair up beside the bed and listened
intently. Just as he had when he was a kid visiting her
during the summers.

"Life is pretty unfair sometimes. Not just for normal
women or for pokewomen." She spared a sad glance for
Harry. "But for true women as well. I know this, deep
in my heart."

Ruth looked up at the ceiling as if looking for
something specific. "There was a burden placed on me at
a very early age. As early as in my mothers womb. I was
a trueblood you see and it would be expected of me to
marry another trueblood." She sighed.

"But then, not many people have unlimited choices."
Ruth looked at Harry for a moment and then quickly
looked over at Tim. "Don't get me wrong, it was not bad
being trueblood. It was great when I was a child, for I
was the apple of everyones eye. I could point and it
would be given to me. A magnificent thing for a child.
It spoiled me rotten."

She nodded, checking something mentally, then
continued. "When I became a teenager, it got even
better. Every boy in the neighbourhood wanted to date
me. It was a happy and magical time in my life. One I
will always treasure." She closed her eyes and her voie
became heavy.

"Then, one day I fell in love. With a perfectly
ordinary boy," The heaviness got lighter and the tip of
her lip curled into a smile. "Living in a perfectly
ordinary house with perfectly ordinary parents.
Unfortunately," She frowned "to be 'perfectly
ordinary' one has to have pokewoman ancestry somewhere
along the line, preferably four generations back. That
was the case with Mack."

Tim glanced nodded. "Your boyfriend"

Ruth cackled again, it was a happy sort of cackle. More
a combination of coughing and laughing than actual
cackling. "Of course my boyfriend. Oh, how we loved
each other. But," her voice again turned heavy. "It was
not supposed to be. My family were very influental and
soon his family could not afford to live in the same
town as us and so they had to move.

We were very much in love however and would not be
swayed. So," She looked up at the two. "We ran away."

"We used the normal roads for tamers and camped
together with them." Ruth seemed to gaze at something
in the distance. "It was strange, lying beside Mack
while hearing the activity in the other tents. If it
wasn't for his restraint and my request that we wait
until I was married. We would have rivaled them in
noise.

As it was, we had gotten nowhere on the third day and
both of us were feeling regrets swell up. Mack was
always so optimistic though. He wanted us to be happy
together. I was more realistic. On the night of that
third day, I packed my bags and before Mack woke up, I
left. I found a pokeball in the place where a tamer had
been the night before and put it just inside the
entrance to the tent, figuring that he'd take the
hint." She blinked away a tear. "I was more cruel in
those days."

"Walking home that next few days was the hardest thing
I've ever needed to do. I still had my camping
equipment and enough food, but there was a heavy weight
in my stomach the whole way. Still. I would have done
the same thing if I'd needed to do it over."

Tim held Harrys hand tightly, he could never imagine
leaving her.

"When I got home, I found my family climbing the walls
in worry. They yelled at me for weeks. But I weathered
it out and I married the one they picked out.

It wasn't a happy marriage, but we were content.
Gabriel was kind to me. I at least liked him, if not
loved him and would gladly have stayed with him the
rest of my life. If he hadn't died. They told me it was
from an unkown sickness." Her gaze drifted from wall to
wall, listlessly, lost in memory.

"He gave me two kids, Gabrielle and Mark. I think
Gabrielle is married to some bigwig somewhere, forget
his name. Mark is a lawyer and very succesful. You'll
like him Tim."

"You're not dead yet Mistress Ruth. Please don't speak
as if you are."

Ruth looked at Harry and barely held back the tears.
"I- I would have grieved for him, but someone in the
family considered themselves a matchmaker and so, after
Gabriel I married Frederick. He was a brutal man. He
sent Mark and Gabrielle to a bordingschool and was
constantly on my neck for some imagined slight. Oh, he
allowed me the freedom given all trueblood women,
wouldn't have dared do anything else. But..."

Harry squeezed her hand and she sighed.

"He had a real aversion to me, never quite knew why.
Even so, I tried anything in my power to please him.
Not that it stopped the beatings or the threats or the
fact that he would never leave his precious harem of
pokewomen. Not even to save his life."

She grabbed Harry's hand tightly. "Harriet came out of
that marriage. You should have seen her. The most
precious child you could ever imagine. She had locks of
yellow more shiny than gold. Her eyes were the color of
the sky and her laughter chimed like belldrops. Oh, I
loved Harriet. She was my one ray of sunlight during
that entire time.

But I never let Harriet out of my sight. I sent her to
a local school just so I could have her near me. She
was my sanity when Frederick was at his worst. That's
why it tore me up so much when it happened."

Suddenly she let go and brought her hands to her mouth.
"I remember how much I denied it. At first I claimed it
was a flu, then a spill of headaches. Then, when
Harriet layed on her bed, I noticed how her ears were
becoming pointy and slowly moved upward, to nestle
amidst the hair." Ruth got a harried expression and
continued on, lost in her thoughts.

"I cried hard that night. Most of the day as well. By
the time Harriet had gotten through the threshold,
preparations had been made. Frederick had divorced me,
claming I had pokewoman blood in my veins. My family
saw to him. But," she gulped, "they also saw to
Harriet. I had barely had time to say hello to Harriet
in her new form before she was taken from me. They sent
her to some breeding farm, like some common
pokewoman." She spat.

"It took me years to find Harriet again, with the help
of Mark. You remember, he'd become a lawyer. By the
time Harriet was found, there was little I could do.
Her memory had been wiped, completely blank and she was
the pet of a loving family."

Harry blanched and started shaking. No matter how much
Tim tried to hug her she wouldn't settle down. Tim
looked despairingly at her, and Ruth. Ruth continued on
as if her life depended on telling the tale.

"I visited them from time to time. Discussing things,
like the weather and pokewomen and how the world was
worse than in their youth. But never did I mentioned my
relation to Harriet to them, I just smiled when I saw
how they treated her. Far better than any pet I've
known. Their eldest son, the owner of Harriet was
apparantly infatuated with her and had her in his room
every night. He said he intended to get a breeding
liscense, but he was barely fourteen yet."

Harry hugged the old woman and cried like never before.
Somehow, Ruth didn't seem to notice.

"Life went on. I lost contact with Gabrielle and barely
held it with Mark. But life was still bareable. No one
forced me to marry anyone else, not since I'd been
tainted, birthing a pokewoman.

A time later, one of the families younger sons had
gotten quite ill and I helped the family in getting a
doctor." She stopped and actually looked around her.
Hugging the crying Harry to her. Over the Joltinas
hair, she looked liddedly at Tim.

"But the doctor lived far away and couldn't come every
day as he'd wanted. So I built him a clinic. Somewhat
large for the small community, but there where no
complaints. It was planned to be a big building
intended for three doctors and twice that number of
Nurse Joys. In the end, it had one doctor with seven
Joys and room for a family. It seems to be a bit
roomier than that." She noted looking around.

"When the clinic was finnished, you were was as healthy
as you'd ever been before and all was well. Until,"
Harry had stopped crying and started whispering momma
over and over. "I noticed Harriet here walking with a
curious limp. I was so nervous that I didn't even ask
for permission. I took her to the clinic at once and
had her examined. I remember I had forgotten to take
her pokeball so they had to use a temporary one." She
smiled. "Funny detail. But it seemed important at the
time. What I found though--"

She looked gravely at Tim. "What I found chilled me to
the bone. Harriet had bruises all over her body. The
only reason no one had seen them was all the fur. Then,
when I confronted Jake about it, he told me that
Harriet just didn't listen and required punishment and
all that other garbage that I'd heard before from
Frederick. Your brother beat her up. Whenever she did
something just a little bit wrong or when she won
against him in some game, he punched her."

Tim gaped, he knew something had happened, but he
hadn't thought...

"It took me very litle time, I got Harriet from your
parents and severed my ties with your family. Well,
except for you Tim. I couldn't give up my favorite
nephew. I didn't know then what I know now." Tim
gulped. He had been dreading this. It wasn't fun
hearing it repeated to him.

"Every summer. Wasn't it? I took you into my house. I
don't regret it, it was good to have you there. Harriet
was so happy when you were around. Then, a few years
ago, the last time you stayed over. Harriet disappeared
just up and dissapeared. I got the fright of my life.
Nearly had a heart attack and died right there. I
searched high and low. Sort of figured she'd gotten
stuck in her pokeball and that it'd rolled under
something. But I never found it.

I had to look in the newspaper to find out. The article

talked about this wonderkid that had taken the leauge
by storm, taking three badges with nothing but an older
Eva. Beside the article was a picture of you two. I
felt quite relieved when I saw Harriet snuggled up
beside you Tim. At the time, I didn't know wether to
cry or laugh from relief. I knew where Harriet was. But
I thought I would never see her again."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't ask--" Tim began but
Ruth interrupted him.

"Don't say you're sorry. I told you not to regret
anything. Ever. All I ask, is that you take care of
her." She hugged Harry close. "And get a breedig
liscense. I don't wan't to die before I see grandkids.
You hear me?"

"Yes mam!" Tim stood up giving salute.

"Good, good." She waved him away. "Now, I think the
doctor prescribed me some rest." She pulled on Harry's
vicelike grip. "It's okay sweetie. I'll see you
again." She turned to Tim. "Won't I." It was a
statement, not a question.

"Err, yes mam. We'll live with you until you die."

Ruth grunted and finally pulled Harry off of her.
"There, there. There'll be time to talk later." Harry
nodded and sobbed a bit, but left her mother.

After Tim closed the door. He sighed. "That whent
better than I thought, right Harry. eerr, Harry?"

"Momma want babies, Harry want to start right away.
Roowrr." She rubbed herself against him very
erotically. Yup, Tim thought, there will be children
before Ruth dies.