James's POV~
"Goodnight, darling," Jessie said, leaning down to kiss our son on the forehead. He was snuggled under his covers, eyes already closed as he whispered a goodnight back to us. Meowth was curled up next to him despite his own bed on the floor of the living room. Our son rolled over, one arm hugging the Pokémon as we exited the room quietly. As I closed the door softly behind us, I noticed the worried frown tugging at my wife's lips.
We brushed our teeth together, and Jessie changed into her night gown, already in bed when I came into the bedroom. The lamp was on beside her, and she had her hair tied up in a bun and glasses on the bridge of her nose, a book entitled How To Be A Good Parent in her hands. She had her eyes narrowed while she read it, glancing up at me before licking her thumb and flipping the page. I climbed into bed, propping my head up with one hand and staring at her for a few moments.
"What?" she snapped, flipping the page again.
"What, I can't look at you?" I asked, reaching out a head to pinch her cheek. Her lips pursed. "My beautiful wife." She only rolled her eyes at this, going back to her reading. We laid in silence for a few minutes before I spoke again. "What's wrong, dear?"
"Nothing," she answered, and I didn't know what I expected. Even after all these years, Jessie was a tough nut to crack. She had softened up a bit, though. At least, for me she had.
"Come on," I said, reaching out to take her book, folding the corner before closing it and setting it on the nightstand. "Talk to me." She hesitated before sighing.
"It's just been bothering me lately," she admitted, and I waited for her to continue, but she didn't.
"What has?" I prompted, and she met my eyes. I was alarmed to see tears forming in hers, and I sat up. Jessie hardly cried. She didn't shed a tear on our wedding day while I was a blubbering mess, hardly able to get through my vows. Jessie was an emotional person, she just didn't necessarily like to show her emotions. Except anger. She had no problem with that.
"What if he finds out about us?" she asked, a frown on her face. "About how we used to be?"
"He won't," I assured her, reaching out to place my hand over hers. She pulled it away, taking off her glasses and putting her face in her hands.
"And what if he turns out like us?" Her voice cracked, muffled under her hands, and she began to cry.
"We've changed, Jess," I said, and it was true. We had made the decision before we started a family to turn over a new leaf. We packed up our things, moved to another region, and started a new life together.
Meowth came with us, of course. I think he realized he needed to stop working for Giovanni's love when ours was right here.
We were married six years before we decided to have a son, Julien. He was more of an incentive to be good than anything. He was only five years old, but he was already set on becoming a Pokémon Champion with Meowth at his side.
"We're good people," I said. We were. We were kind to our neighbors, we took good care of our son, and our criminal past was long behind us. "Good people don't worry about being bad."
"He's a good person," she said, wiping the tears from my eyes and reaching out to hold my hand again. I rubbed my thumb soothingly over hers.
"How do you think he got that way, hm?" I brought our hands up to my lips and placed a kiss on hers. "We're good parents. We don't need a book to tell us that."
Our heads turned as the door to our bedroom cracked open, a tired Julien waddling in, holding Meowth's hand.
"I tried to stop him," Meowth yawned, and Julien looked sheepish.
"What are you doing up, bubba?" I asked.
"I heard mommy crying," he said, a frown on his lips. He climbed up onto the bed, getting under the covers in between us and curling up next to Jessie. Meowth followed curled up at the foot of the bed, closing his eyes. "You okay, momma?"
"I'm okay, darling," she said, a sweet smile on her lips. She poked at his tummy, and he gave a sleepy giggle. "Nothing for you to worry about."
"Did daddy do something?" he asked, and Jessie nodded seriously. I gasped, offended, as Julien rolled over to hit be weakly in the arm. "Bad daddy, say you're sorry."
"I did not do anything," I said. "Mommy's just worried about some grown-up stuff is all."
"I'm okay," she said again, tucking a bit of Julien's purple hair behind his ear. "You can sleep with us tonight if you'd like."
But he was already snuggled in close, eyes closed shut and thumb in his mouth (a habit we were trying to break). I looked to Jessie, mouthing an 'I love you' that she returned.
I wondered how I got so lucky. All the poor decisions I had made in my life had led me here. They had given me a happy, loving home that I had never had, even as a child.
I couldn't have been more thankful.
I reached over to turn off the lamp, and we all drifted off to sleep.