Words Aren't Enough {Pokemon Watties 2016 1st Place in Misc.}

Chapter 1

Kate Hartmann stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to her husband Seth. The two of them had been married for over ten years now. Kate with her shoulder high dirty blond hair, her slightly bony build, and her soft, unspoken brown eyes gazed at him with an air of delight and bliss. Seth, the art professor that was making quite the name for himself with his strong jawline, silver rimmed glasses, and longer than average brown locks looked back at her.

"Seth, I'm pregnant!"

He lit up with excitement. After all these years of wanting a child, they would finally have one! He walked over to her and hugged her, even picking her up in his arms and swinging her smaller frame around.

"I'm so glad honey, that's great!"

"We better start coming up with a name now, or we'll be stuck with your indecisiveness when the baby comes," teased Kate.

"Oh come on now! I'm not that bad! I need to start preparing Chinese lessons for the child though. I'm going to raise this kid right, and start preparing them for life right away!"

She laughed quietly, then a minute frown twisted at the ends of her lips. "If you're not always working that is."

"Now now, don't be like that. I'll wean myself off of teaching classes so that I can have more time at home. I promise."

-----

9 Months Later

Seth sped in his car all the way through town to reach the hospital. He had had his phone on silent for the duration of his lecture, and only afterwards had he received the sudden news. He jumped out of his car and rushed into the building, flying up the stairs impatiently. He came to the room that his wife was staying in panting and gasping for air. He took a deep breath, then knocked on the door.

A doctor clad in blue scrubs answered. "Come right in Mr. Hartmann."

He sweated from both physical and emotional exhaustion. His heart was also racing and almost running off of its beat for the same two reasons. He placed his foot forward and took his first step into the room.

There, in the hands of his beloved, was a newborn child swaddled in a blue towel. She was rocking him back and forth, and he did not cry.

He had missed it: his own son's birth. It was completely over before he knew it began. He stammered forward, disappointed in himself.

"Oh, you're here. Meet Brian, your new son." Kate stopped rocking the baby and held him out to his father.

Seth gently accepted the treasure wrapped in fabric and looked into his big blue eyes. The babe smiled and reached out towards him, grabbing his shirt and tugging on it with the miniscule amount of strength that he had. "Why hello Brian, nice to meet you."

"He has your eyes, doesn't he?"

The professor looked inquisitively at the creature looked back at him, stealing his attention. There was something a little strange about his figure, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "I wouldn't quite say that. They have a little bit of a slant to them."

The doctors and nurses silently communicated to each other, leaving the room in a rushed manner.

"Why is everyone leaving?" asked the man.

She didn't answer until the last one of them exited and the door clicked shut. She took a deep breath, but couldn't hold it back any longer. She bit her now trembling lip, and tears streamed down her face. She put his hands up to her face to hide her sorrow.

"What's wrong?!" He felt a tugging at his heartstrings, a falling in his stomach.

The mother continued to sob uncontrollably.

The father tried to comfort her while still supporting the child in his arms, but it took several minutes for her to collect herself.

She wiped her tears away and gloomily looked him dead in the eyes. "Brian has been diagnosed with Down's Syndrome."

It hit him like a brick wall. All sorts of thoughts flew through his mind. Thoughts of regret for waiting to have kids for so long, as that definitely contributed to the predicament. Thoughts of disappointment that his somewhat selfish dreams of a child just as brilliant as himself fluttered away without a sound. Thoughts of sadness of what was to come for the child. Thoughts of anger that this wasn't avoided. "Why didn't they catch this earlier on?!"

She shook her head. "I don't know, sometimes things just slip under the radar I guess."

Seth Hartmann was a ball of confusion, quickly deflating into a puddle of disappointment. Raising a child would not be at all like he intended it to be.

-----

5 Years Later

"I'm home." Seth put his jacket on the hook by the door. It was already 8:00 at night: he had been working late again today. Very rarely was he home these days. It seemed like he only came home to eat and sleep, but sometimes he wouldn't even come home for that, passing out on his desk after grading too many papers.

"Daddy!" Brian ran around the corner with a little bit of a waddle in his step. He was almost always a happy child, but the sight of his father filled him with excitement and energy.

"Hello Bran." He gave his son a pat on the head then kept on walking, the child following him like a fish to a lure.

"Bran" was Brian's nickname, one that came about when he had trouble pronouncing his name. It was a sweet nickname for a sweet boy, so it stuck.

Seth walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch. He threw his head back and stared at the ceiling. Brian pulled at his pant leg a little, but gave up when he was sidetracked by his mother walking into the room.

"Hello Seth. Another hard day at work?"

"You bet. My kids wouldn't listen at all today. They're panicking about finals like chickens with their heads cut off."

It drove her nuts when he referred to his students as "my kids." He didn't take care of his own kid hardly at all, so he had no right to refer to them with such an endearing term. She decided to change the subject and focus of the conversation. "Hey Bran, why don't you show daddy what you got today?"

The toddler's face lit up and he made a roundtrip to his room as fast as his legs would take him. When he returned, he held a blue plush toy in his hands. It was a funny looking creature, one with four legs, a fin atop its head, and strange orange feelers on the sides of its head that was too big for its body. He held it out in front of him. "Daddy, daddy! Look!"

He picked his head up and looked at what the child had. "You got yourself a doll? Where did you get that?"

"Sale!"

"You took him garage saling?"

Kate nodded "yes." "I took him this morning. You should've seen him when he saw this toy though! He immediately was drawn to it. The owner even had a name for it..."

"Mudkip!" screeched the boy happily. He hugged the toy with every muscle in his body. "I love Mudkip!"

Surprise appeared in the mother's face, and Seth noticed. "What's wrong?"

She started smiling. "He remembered the name! I only think we heard it once too!"

"Hm?" He looked at his son, interested in this new development. Rarely did Brian learn a word after hearing it once: that's just how it was with his condition. The fact that he learned the name of the creature so quickly must've had some significance, and Seth knew that, but chose to ignore it. It did make him the slightest bit curious to what on Earth the identity of this "Mudkip" was however. "Interesting..."