Ash was tired, confused, and really hungry, which only added to his inability to understand the situation that he suddenly found himself in. He must have stood there for a whole minute before other people in the room took the initiative to make something happen.

Serena slowly approached him. She didn't look him in the eye, but she stood up straight and walked confidently up to him. He swallowed a giant lump that seemed to suddenly appear in his throat and looked down at her and the small orange haired infant that she held.

"Ash," she said softly, finally jerking him out of his stupor and placing the baby into his arms, "this is your daughter."

Ash's ability to process information suddenly stopped as he stared into the blue orbs that were his daughter's eyes. He gazed breathlessly at her curious face as everything else around him seemed to stop. But a hand on his shoulder and a soft voice jerked him out of his moment of bliss.

"And this," Serena had taken the other baby from Clemont and handed it to Ash so that he had a child in each arm, "is your son."

Ash had to find a chair, partly because it was a little awkward to hold two babies as he was, but mostly because he felt like he was going to faint.

It took some time, but Ash finally began to become lucid again after the emotional shock of being introduced to not just one, but two children. His children. The feeling welling up inside of him after the shock wore off was one of giddiness. He suddenly jumped out of the chair, children in his arms, and rushed over to his wife and kissed her deeply. She chuckled through the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I love you so much," he said after pulling away.

"I love you," she responded.

"We will need to talk about you stealing my plane and flying to another country, though," he said half-jokingly.

Ash suddenly remembered the other two people in the room. He looked over at Clemont and Serena, who were standing next to each other. Clemont had his arm around her and she was leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Oh, uh…" Ash started, not really sure how to talk to them. The last time he'd seen them he'd broken her heart, and Clemont had almost broken his face.

"Ash…" Serena acknowledged him.

"Hey," Ash responded, "So, uh, this is not exactly what I expected."

"Serena helped deliver our children, dear," Misty said.

Ash stood there stupefied for another moment, "Really!?"

"Yep, she helped deliver our coffee shop babies."

Ash wasn't sure exactly how he was supposed to react to that, so all he could manage was a meager, "Thanks!"

Serena chuckled and responded softly, "You're welcome, Ash."

"Look," Ash said as he handed the children to Misty, "I guess there are some things that we left unsaid. I am truly sorry for how I handled things. You didn't deserve that, Serena."

Serena sighed and nodded, "You know, it was really hard. But on the other hand, if you hadn't done it, I'd have never figured out who the man I was truly supposed to be with was. So in some weird, twisted, should-have-been-handled-differently sort of way, I guess we should thank you too."

"So," Ash started carefully, "is it too optimistic to think we could all still be….friends?"

Clemont took a few steps toward Ash, who shrunk back a bit, and placed his hand on Ash's shoulder, "You know, you're still a dick for how things went down. But I ended up with the Kalos Queen because of you, and you were always like a brother to Bonnie and me, Ash. I think, given the way things turned out, we can put the whole messy business behind us."

And the group embraced. Ash sputtered out more apologies that were muffled into his friends' shoulders, and Misty smiled as she snuggled with the two newcomers in the hospital bed. She couldn't have been happier with how things had turned out, even if it hadn't been exactly how she'd planned.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop right there, because this is either the funniest thing I've ever heard, or the most ridiculous. Or both. You're telling me, the chick you cheated on helped deliver the babies conceived in that betrayal? And then the guy who defended her honor, and the girl you cheated on, became the godparents for your bastard babies!?"

"I don't know that that word really applies, Gary," Ash responded as the young researcher threw his head back in laughter, "but yes. I guess that's what happened."

"Call my kids that again, Oak, and see where it gets you," a miffed Misty said as she rocked a double stroller back and forth next to her seat within the pokemon researcher's living room.

"Oh come on, Red," Gary said as he wiped the tears of laughter away from his eyes and placed his glasses back on his face, "I'm just joking with you. And I thought it was going to be Leaf and me who had the most screwed up relationship stories here, but that takes the cake, right babe?"

"Shut up, Garebear," the brown-haired woman replied as she elbowed her husband in the ribs.

"Well," Brock said from the seat across from Ash with his arm around his smiling wife, "all's well that ends well, right?"

"I think we'll see if everything ends well tomorrow, Brocko," Ash replied, "one way or another."

Rudy sat nervously in the large ornate meeting room in the eastern wing of the Indigo Plateau complex. He'd received a summons from the league the week before, and he was having trouble imagining what he could have done wrong. Typically they left the Orange Island gyms largely to their own devices since the league only had a tangential interest in the Orange Island league given its minor league status. The last time a gym leader had been summoned to the league offices, they'd been summarily fired and arrested for cruelty to pokemon. But Rudy was never cruel to pokemon. He prided himself on the highest standards of gym leadership, and was training his sister to take over for him. He just had no idea what to expect. He just hoped he didn't have to see the champion.

At that thought, the double doors to the room swung open and in walked the champion, his red cape flowing behind as he confidently took his place across from Rudy. He sat and opened a folder that he had carried into the room and began scanning it, not once looking at the agitated gym leader.

"You!" Rudy growled.

"Mr. Trovita," Ash began, "under several prestigious recommendations, I have been reviewing your files. Your record as a gym leader is quite impressive. Especially for one of our minor leagues."

Rudy was speechless all of a sudden. He gaped at Ash, who finally raised his eyes and looked at him.

"Rudy, what would you say to becoming a member of the Elite Four?"

"I…I…what?" Rudy stammered.

"One of our members is looking at retiring in the next several months, and I need a replacement. Your record is impeccable. I have witnesses that vouch for your character. You'd be a perfect candidate. What do you say?"

Rudy took a moment to process the information, but then his eyes narrowed. "I know what this is," he said, "and I do not need your charity, Mr. Champion."

Ash shook his head, "Rudy, look, this isn't like that. Yes, I did think of you because of what happened, and yes, this is an attempt at an apology, but the reason I'm choosing you is because you truly are an exemplary candidate. Trust me, we looked at other candidates too, and there were plenty of reasons to choose you over them. This is up to you, but I really want you on this team."

"What makes you think I want to work with you!?" Rudy yelled, slamming his hands on the table.

"Because I think you want to be the one to challenge me. Question my ideas. Call me out when I'm being an idiot. I also know you'll do it with integrity, which is something we need around here. If that doesn't convince you, here's your salary," Ash pushed a piece of paper across the table which caused Rudy to audibly gasp, "and here are college benefits for immediate family…such as siblings…hint hint."

"I…don't know…" Rudy hesitated.

"What more do I have to do? League car? Meal allowance?" Ash laughed, but then said seriously, "Look Rudy, this is a great opportunity for you. Don't let this pass you by because of me. I'm not worth it."

Rudy looked at the benefits and was blown away. He could send Mahri to college! She wouldn't have to take over the gym after all. They could pay off all their debts. And he could fulfill a dream he'd had since he was a little boy. He looked up at the champion and studied his gaze. He found it serious and sincere. Rudy reached out his hand to Ash, and they shook on it.

The sound of screaming infants pierced his ears as he entered the small Pallet Town abode. He smiled as he observed his mother and his wife, both with a baby on the floor in front of them, changing their respective diapers.

"They sound pleased with their current circumstance," Ash said as he gave all four people in the house a kiss.

"Here," Misty said as she shoved their raven haired son into Ash's arms, "I have to feed the other one."

She grabbed a shawl and threw it over her front so she could feed the baby girl modestly. Ash smiled and rocked the boy as he began to try to see what Ash's finger tasted like.

"I'll get some dinner ready," Delia said after she'd spent some time admiring all of the new additions to her family. She'd finally gotten those grandkids she wanted.

"So?" Misty probed.

"So what?" Ash teased.

"You know, smartass," she stuck her tongue out at him, "did Rudy accept?"

"Yep."

Misty nodded. She was happy they were in a position to at least try to make amends where they could. She knew nothing they did fully would cover up what they'd done, but they could at least offer olive branches where possible.

Ash, for his part, finally had a chance to just sit and rest. It had been a hell of a year and a half, but it finally seemed like things were starting to slow down and normalize. Maybe they could live a normal life after all.

A sudden knock at the door pulled him out of his thoughts and he softly placed the sleeping baby he held into his cradle and began to make his way to the front door. "I've got it!"

As soon as he grabbed the handle, the door burst open knocking him back a few steps as three overly enthusiastic women suddenly burst into their house.

"We heard there were babies here!" Iris, Dawn, and May announced as they blew by Ash without so much of a 'Hello' and made their way into the living room and began cooing over Misty and the two babies.

Well, Ash thought to himself and chuckled and stroked the small yellow mouse pokemon that suddenly jumped onto his shoulder, maybe nothing will ever be totally normal.

And that was just how he wanted it.

The End

A/N: Well I hope everyone is pleased with the ending. I had fun writing this short and quick story full of all the dramas. This has actually been more popular than my long-chaptered main story, The Championship. I hope you'll give it a read as well as it still has quite a bit more to go.

I want to thank my reviewers (in no particular order) such as Cake0108, Mrs. Nose, Korrasami 88, UnbreakableWarrior, and anyone else who left a review here.

For more good Pokemon stories, I recommend anything by NINT, Skylight Sparkle's series of movie rewrites and her epic original story that plays off of those, In Love and War by legionaireofthe10th, Rising from the Ashes by TheCriticalHit, a great high school AU fic, The Space Between Us, by superstarmie, and a relatively new epic fic, A Heart So True, by tinybabyleafs.

Thanks again! Let me know what you think of this story!