Chapter Text
"Who's it from?" Friede asked anxiously.
"My older sister Rilie." Chansey perked up at the name.
"Were you two close?" Murdock asked.
Mollie shook her head. "I barely knew her. I'm surprised she wrote to me."
"Was she rude to you like some of your other sisters?"
"No, never. If anything, she was nice. She told me she'd get me the pain medicine if my arms were ever hurting. The closest any of my other sisters got to disobeying Mom was-argh, Hillarie! Was when Julie said she'd help me heal wild Pokémon, but-"
"Wasn't Julie one of the main bullies?" Orla asked, confused.
"Yeah, after the pond."
"You weren't allowed pain meds when your arms hurt?" Friede asked.
"I deserve the pain. My actions, after all." She laughed bitterly. "I mean, if I wanted it so badly, soreness should be welcome. They're pretty different types of pain though, really."
Talking openly about her experiences was still foreign to Mollie, but she was starting to get used to it.
"May I ask," Murdock began quietly, "could you describe the pain from the burns, and why you-not liked it, necessarily, but, ugh, how do I put this?"
"What about that feeling made you come to repeat that action." Ludlow supplied, walking through the doorway. Mollie jumped at his sudden arrival.
She nodded, showing that she processed the question, but stayed quiet for a moment. How do you begin to explain something like that?
"I guess there was so much going on inside my head that feeling it physically instead felt like a break from all of that. Sometimes it even lessened it a little.
"The physical marks and pain also made it feel less made up, and more real.
"Another thing, I wasn't allowed to even think of doing anything besides work at the Pokémon center and live by the rules Mom set. It was just something I had control over."
"Why would you want your pain to seem more real?" Murdock asked, genuinely curious.
Mollie absentmindedly pet Chansey' head. "When there's so much inside and nothing outside, it feels like it doesn't actually exist. Like I'm making up this pain and could just get rid of it if I tried. Feeling it made it feel like I'm not making it up."
Murdock nodded. "Thanks for explaining."
"So what I did felt like a break. The aftermath just hurt."
"Why couldn't you get the meds yourself?" Friede asked.
"Hillarie was afraid I'd overdose."
"Oh, that-" Friede started.
"I don't blame her." Mollie interrupted. Giratina dung. That was meant to be an inside thought.
The room went silent and Mollie froze, cheeks tinting pink in a mix of shame and embarrassment.
"Is that something you'd thought about?" Friede finally asked.
"Maybe once or twice."
She looked down, ashamed and embarrassed.
"Why?" Murdock's voice was gentle.
"Was this before or after your attempt?" Orla asked.
"After." She whispered.
"Living there, living, really, was even worse than before." She continued.
"Chan Chansey." Chansey confirmed. Mollie pet her Pokémon's head
"It's was nothing more than a possible last resort." She tried, hoping to clear the awkward silence.
"What's Rilie's letter about?" Orla was just as desperate to clear the awkward silence.
"She just asked if I was doing well and gave me her phone number in case I want to contact her."
"Will you message her? You can borrow my Rotom phone." Orla offered.
Mollie nodded. "Thank you. I think there's more to this than her letters say."
"I do too." Orla agreed. The other adult members made concurring noises while Orla passed over the phone.
"You don't have to stay in here if you don't want to." Orla offered.
"Thanks." Mollie headed towards the bow of the ship, Chansey trotting beside her, sat against the railing, and realized she had little idea as to how to work a phone. She returned to the kitchen.
"Back already? What's wrong?" Orla asked.
"Could you please help me? I don't know how to use a Rotom phone very well."
"Sure. I'll add your sister's number real quick, then I'll show you how to text." Orla entered Rilie's number quickly, then opened her contact before handing the phone back to Mollie.
"You'll want to tell her it's you first, she won't automatically know. You'll hit that bar and a keyboard will pop up and you can type out your message. When you're ready for her to read it, you hit the send button. Got it?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"Anytime."
Mollie and Chansey returned to the bow of the ship.
Mollie: Hi, it's me.
Rilie: Mollie?
Mollie: Yeah. I got your letter.
Rilie: Good I was scared it was to late
Rilie: How are you doing
Mollie: Better. Why did you want to talk to me? We never really talked before
Rilie: Ik, I wanted to change that
Mollie: What does ik mean?
Rilie: It's an abbreviation. It's short for I know
Rilie: I should have talked to you. I should have been a better sister
Mollie: You were the nicest
Rilie: Sooo that's a problem, because I've talked to you like 3 times in the last year, not counting now
Mollie: You never made fun of me. You even got me the pain medication when my arms were hurting. You weren't supposed to do that.
Rilie: I did one right thing. I should have talked to you. I knew Mom was being horrible to you and I did nothing. I'm really sorry.
Mollie: Thanks. I forgive you. I'd never held it against you anyway.
Rilie: I'm glad you escaped.
Rilie: I couldn't put that in my letter because I had to email it for it to reach you in time and someone could see.
Mollie: Thanks. I am too
Rilie: You don't have to tell me if you don't want, but where r u now?
Mollie: I have a new family now and we travel around together. It's pretty fun.
Rilie: cool! I'm glad i can still talk to you. I want to try to get to know you
Mollie: Me too. So you know, I'm on Orla's phone, so when you text me she'll see it first
Rilie: got it
Rilie: Who's Orla?
Mollie: She's one of the adults I'm traveling with. She's really nice
Rilie: I'm glad you're with nice people. I have a shift soon so I gtg
Mollie: gtg?
Rilie: got to go. Bye Mollie
Mollie: Bye!
Mollie walked back to the kitchen.
"Hey Mollie. How'd it go?" Murdock asked.
"It went really well. She wanted to know if I'm doing better, and she wants us to have a relationship, and she wanted to apologize for not reaching out to me when I lived with her. I'm really glad to be back in contact with her, and that I have a chance to actually know one of my sisters!"
"That's amazing!" Murdock gushed.
"Thanks for lending me your Rotom phone." Mollie said to Orla, smiling.
"Of course! I'm glad you got to talk to Rilie! High five?"
"Yeah!" Mollie passed the phone over and the two high-fived.