The phone call ended and Ash stood very still for a moment.
Sabrina, who had been reading on the other side of the room, looked up at his expression and said nothing, waiting.
"Lorelei is pregnant," Ash said.
The room was quiet.
Sabrina set her book down slowly.
"Three weeks," Ash continued, as if still processing the number. "She only just found out. She wanted me to be the first to know."
He sat down on the edge of the bed, not dramatically, just needing to sit.
He was seventeen. Or at least that was what his body said. The part of him that carried two lifetimes of experience was considerably older, and even that part had never held this particular thing before. Not in the Naruto world, not here. He'd quietly stopped expecting it to happen.
"Nani." The word came out quiet and honest.
Sabrina crossed the room and sat beside him without a word. She didn't try to fill the silence. She just put her hand over his and stayed there.
After a while, Ash exhaled slowly.
"She was worried I wouldn't want it," he said.
"Did you tell her you did?"
"Yeah." He looked at his phone. "She cried a little. I could tell even though she was trying not to."
He stood up, mind shifting into motion now that the first wave had settled. He dialed his home number. No answer. He tried Professor Oak's number and got through on the second ring.
He said six words: "Oak. Lorelei. Pregnant. Three weeks. Tell Mom."
There was a three-second silence on the other end, then a sound that suggested Professor Oak had knocked something off his desk.
"Nani!!!!"
"She's in Kanto. She needs someone with her."
"Yes, yes, of course, we'll leave immediately, Ash, congratulations, this is, I need to sit down—"
"Tell Mom first. Then sit down."
He could already hear Delia's voice in the background asking what was wrong.
By the time he hung up, they were already packing.
...
In the stands the next morning, Sabrina had quietly passed the news to Jessie, who had told James, who had told Meowth, who had somehow told half the people within earshot within forty minutes.
Nathan Glacienne heard it from his cousin and turned to Sam with wide eyes.
Sam was already nodding. "Apparently."
"He's seventeen."
"He is."
"That's..."
"Yep."
Nathan pushed his glasses up and looked out at the arena where Ash was warming up below. "He doesn't look any different."
"He wouldn't," Sam said.
...
The news had spread to the major Kanto families by morning through channels nobody officially acknowledged. Quietly, carefully, the information was sealed within trusted circles. Ash had enemies in Johto, and a pregnant Lorelei was not something that could be left unprotected.
Delia arrived at Lorelei's door within four hours of the phone call, Professor Oak slightly behind her, still forgetting which bag he'd packed.
Lorelei opened the door and found herself wrapped in a hug before she'd said a word.
She cried properly this time. Nobody mentioned it.
...
Ash stood at his hotel window late that night, looking at the conference venue lights below, and felt something in his chest that he didn't have a clean name for.
Team Rocket. The Rowan family. The Alliance playing politics. He let each one settle. None of them are going to be a problem for much longer.
His eyes were cold and certain in the reflection of the glass.
I will not allow anything to threaten my child.