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Behind his curtains, Alba only half listened to the individual conversations going on around the larger room. It wasn't like there was much else for him to do, after all, other than sit his recently reacquainted wheelchair, try not to doze off, and-- he flexed the fingers of a hand that had started to lift from its armrest-- resist the urge to scratch at his bandages. He couldn't really remember the last time he had ever needed stitches. Sure, his leg had needed a few after the museum, but before Team Rocket he had done pretty well at not needing medical care.

Occupational hazards, indeed.

A distant, familiar sound interrupted his internal musings. Something that sounded like... a bell- Uh oh. He fumbled for the locks on his wheels, and managed to unlock the second wheel about the same time that a clearly distressed Chingling flew into the recovery room and landed with a light tap in the middle of all the beds. "Ching-ling!?"

"Please come back! You don't know where you're going- Oh!" Another member of the medical staff came hurrying in after Spook, carrying a tray with three Pokeballs and a fourth that had opened. The attendant dropped her voice and stopped just inside the door. Fortunately, Alba managed to roll himself out to just past his curtain walls about then. As soon as she spotted her human, the bell Pokemon squeaked and launched through the air, barreling straight into his chest and eliciting a gasped "Oof!" The wheelchair itself was even knocked back a couple inches by the force. When Alba could see more than the burst of stars in his vision, though, he loosened his arms around his small friend and pet her fondly on the top of her... head? body? He never had really figured it out, but it didn't really matter right then.

Paul rather wanted to sit somewhere on his trainer, but given he looked rather terrible the purple bug settled for scuttling up to the pillow and settling down next to his head. It wasn't that Claire hadn't looked after him well - she had been very kind - but he had missed Aulus, and hadn't liked the frayed tempers his absence had caused amongst the others at all.

"Paul," Aulus smiled slightly, "you did a good job with all the... y'know, webby bandages and tying Deimos up and stuff. Well done." He'd missed his shy spider, snappy Tortie, steadfast Char and gallant showoff Red.... Discord. He did hope the serpent hadn't caused too much trouble while -

Alex was going?

That was bad, very very bad.

Looking uncertain and abruptly worried again Aulus glanced between the two people sitting beside his bed. He had missed Claire. He wanted to spend some time with just her, yes, but he didn't want to be away from Alex. This was a dilemma he wasn't sure he was capable of resolving. "Well... well I do want to catch up with Claire," he glanced at her, "but you can't go because," he glanced at Alex, "because... uh...." He didn't have a way to end that sentence. It was crazy. He knew it was crazy, even pumped full of drugs he knew it. Alex probably had stuff he wanted to do himself anyway like catch up with Faleen. "....Though... I guess if you've got stuff to do...."

Hayes hesitated at the expression Aulus put on. "Well-" he started, and was interrupted by a growl from his midsection.

"Cafeteria. Fifteen minutes," the blond promised, shuffling his free hand through his fluffy, freshly-washed hair with a hint of a sheepish grin. "You can time me - and I'll bring you something from the grill." That probably wasn't completely within the rules of a hospital stay, but if there were issues he could have Jell-O as a backup. Unless the nurses would object to foreign Jell-O.

At being pet by the blonde stranger, Lindsay stared up at him with amber eyes before pushing her head up against his hand. It was only a brief gesture, though; as much as she found the other grunt's fond show of affection flattering, she only had eyes for Shadow. This other human wasn't going to butter her up so easily.

Regarding Rory a minute, Shadow laughed. "It's ironic, isn't it? Talking about things not feeling 'right' when we're part of a criminal organization. I mean, are we supposed to have morals, or aren't we? It's so confusing." He wasn't even sure what his own morals were anymore. Sure, he guessed he knew what Rory was talking about, but outsiders who knew nothing about Rockets...would they understand? Hardly likely.

"Hahaha, she really loves you," the grunt snickered at the mention of Pinkie's anger. "At least she listens to you, though." This caused the Jolteon at his feet to whimper for some reason. Shadow spared her a glance and smiled before lifting the eeveeloution onto his lap. Lindsay blinked. This was new. And precious. Her trainer had never let her be so close to him before. What had changed? Something was definately different about him. It was like he was a whole different person.

Not noticing his pokemon's curious expression, Shadow continued to stroke Lindsay's spikey fur. "Say...if you need her healed up, I can go take her to a healing PC or something. I'll bring her right back, too. Least I can do, since I can walk."

"And yeah, I think we're more than prepared for next time," the teen agreed, both impressed and glad that Rory hadn't been too intimidated by his first raid to speak about going on future ones. Even while he lay in bed with burned legs. That was true Rocket determination right there. "Maybe we can go together next time. Y'know. Look out for each other. And make sure that stupid fire moth keeps its flames to itself."

He paused a minute before replying to Rory's last comment. "Y'know...truth be told, I think a lot of our group was injured mentally more than physically, if you catch my drift." The kid sighed, his shoulders slumping. "We were in really poor spirits before you guys found us. You have no idea. The Galactics are way more ruthless than they seem. Especially that woman with the blue hair - I think she gave us all the creeps."

Shadow laughed at Rory's hypothetical example. It was true; they were a team. They couldn't just leave each other behind. Even if it was them against the world, at least they all had each other.

"Hmm? Oh," he glanced down at Lindsay and smiled. "Yeah...it's weird, too. She hasn't even known me long like Pinkie's known you. No idea why she's so well-behaved." He shrugged. "Maybe she's like that for all Rockets. She was a part of this team before I was, at least. One of the stock pokemon they had."

Giving Lindsay a final scratch behind the ears, he reached out to take Pinkie's pokeball. "Got it. I'll have her back to you in no time." As he made to stand up, the Jolteon on his lap leapt off, looking mildly perturbed, but tolerant. As long as that Pinkie didn't make eyes at her Shawn, everything would be fine.

"Mmm...you're probably right," the teen agreed. "But like you said, that's what we've got each other for." He held out a bro fist with a good-natured smile. "I should probably go heal your girl up and let you get some rest. Take it easy, man. And get well soon. We need to hang out more often."