Uncontained

We found Spirit cut and bleeding halfway in a trench. Her strawberry blonde hair lay in a blanket around her. Her leg was twisted under her.

"Oh shit," I breathed. She looked at me and tears streamed down her face. "Here, let me help you up. I've got you. Easy now."

Isaac reached over and held her hand, and for the first time, I saw tears in his eyes. I dropped my bag and looped my arms under her armpits from behind and steadily lifted her up. She made squeaking noises in pain. Florence moved to my shoulder so I could lean Spirit against me. Her foot hung uselessly beside the one on the ground. "Thank God you were here," she whispered.

"Thank God," I agreed. "Can you stand? Never mind, I'll carry you. I'll turn around and get you on my back. Okay? One, two, three."

I did so and lifted her onto my back. She was light, but then again, I'd also gotten stronger by traveling. I'd never been able to do that before. "Isaac, Czeslaw, Summer, can you grab my things? I'm going to find a relatively flat spot to settle down."

Isaac took it upon himself to grab my things. Uriah had come to some sort of acceptance about the situation and flared his light. I trekked up the trench and clambered to a small plateau. I kicked away the loose rocks and rested Spirit on the ground. "Isaac, can you get my sleeping bag?" Spirit was only wearing jeans and a sweater. Her backpack was gone; she'd probably lost it.

Isaac gave the sleeping bag to me and I unrolled it. "What time is it?" she whispered.

I checked my watch. "4:43," I said.

She smiled wryly, despite her pain. "I think your watch is broken," she said. "When I came in it was 6:30."

"Oh." I felt stupid. I wasn't in a time-warp after all. "Then right now it must be time to sleep. Here, lay on this. I'm going to check on your ankle."

I unzipped the sleeping bag and laid it out for her. Spirit winced and leaned down on it, her face pale in Uriah's firelight. She was wearing sneakers and the laces were tight around her left foot. Her ankle was swollen nearly twice its size. "Damn," I said. "You really twisted it."

A few tears rolled down her cheeks. "I figured. I can't walk on it. I thought I was going to die out here and I kind of freaked out."

"Good thing you did, we wouldn't have heard you."

The Pokemon watched her and Summer extended a vine toward her comfortingly. I untied her shoe and tried as gently as possible to loosen it. I wasn't going to take it off because her toes would get frostbitten. "I see you caught more Pokemon," she said, wincing as I shifted her foot.

"Actually, I didn't catch any of them. They were all given to me."

"Mr. Popular, eh?"

"More like 'oh, you look strong, let me give you all my Pokemon.'"

We were silent for a moment. She smiled at me weakly and I smiled back. She was beautiful, even though she was in pain.

"You can sleep in my sleeping bag," I said. "I think we should wait it out until the swelling goes down. I'll sleep out here."

Spirit frowned. "It's cold out there. You'll freeze."

"I'll be fine. Look at me, I look like a marshmallow."

She stared at me. "I trust you."

Her words struck me. I flushed red. "I... I trust you too."

But seeing me blush made her blush. "Now you're making it all awkward. I care about you and I'm being kind, I'm not, uh, making it all... uh..."

Before I could back down I scooted next to her and zipped up the sleeping bag. Isaac giggled and I hissed at him to shut up. The sleeping bag was small with the both of us in it and Spirit ended up squishing against me when we laid down. Now all the Pokemon were giggling except Uriah. I'm surprised humans don't have adequate heating systems in their bodies, he growled.

My heart was going to explode out of my chest. My eyes met her blue ones. "Am I still making it awkward?" I whispered.

I felt her warm breath on my face. "It's okay. I've probably already died and this is just an illusion of the afterlife."

"Yeah, I've already gone insane in this cave."

Uriah's light flickered. He was settling down and his tail dimmed. The Pokemon were rustling. Now I could barely see Spirit, and it was like my sense of touch intensified tenfold. There was barely any space between us. I hoped she couldn't feel my jitters because it felt like my skin was going to fly off.

"Why did you leave like that in Cerulean?" I asked softly.

Spirit was silent. My heart twinged in pain.

"What did I do? Did I offend you?"

"No, it's not like that. Beau, you couldn't offend me. It's..." She searched for the words. "It's my job. I can't be around you because of my job and I don't want you to get hurt."

"What is this job?" I asked. "I keep hearing about it and I don't know what you mean."

"I can't tell you. It involved dealing with criminals."

"What are you with, the Global Police?" I frowned. It made sense, though. She could've been sent to investigate Team Rocket. "Are you some kind of investigator?"

Spirit laughed. "I can't tell you."

She must have been, then. "Well, shit. I won't judge you for where you work. I thought it was something I did. I thought we were kind of friends."

"We are friends." She chuckled. "I was... I was afraid you'd get hurt if you were around me too much."

"You just got yourself hurt and look now, it's pretty good I'm around you."

"That was my own fault. I was trying to get to Lavender Town..."

She trailed off. I had a sudden urge to pull her near me, but I didn't. What would she think? My face heated up and I thought back on my delusional ideas about ghosts before I found her.

Did I...

No, I was pretty certain I had a crush on her.

"Were you heading to Lavender Town too?" she asked.

"Actually Celadon, but Saffron's closed off so I have to take the long way. I'm going to battle the gym leader there."

"I'm sorry," Spirit said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" I was surprised.

"I'm sorry, this is kind of unrelated to what you were saying, but I'm sorry." Her voice shook. I was stunned into silence. "I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly like that. I thought of you every day on the road since then. I thought you'd be mad at me."

More like depressed, I thought. "It's alright. I figured I'd see you on the road and ask you what happened. I thought you were mad at me."

Spirit sniffled. My heart was going to burst out of my chest but I dared myself to wrap my arms around her and pull her closer. I couldn't breathe. She was going to push me away. She was going to slap me. She was-

But she slipped her around around me in return and buried her face into my chest.

"I forgive you," I murmured.

"Thank you." She trembled.

I only ran my fingers through her hair and tried to believe what was happening.