Chapter Two - The Wedge


Once the door had closed behind them, the trio stopped in the hall and Jessie slumped against a wall. She was in utter disbelief. James turned to look at her, and saw something that he very rarely saw- tears streaming from Jessie's eyes. He walked over to her and put his arms around her cautiously.

"Oh, James," she sobbed, "How could this happen? How could we be split up?" She looked up at James, hoping to find the answers in his eyes as she had so many times before, even if she had never told him that.

James just looked at her sadly. "I don't know, Jess." He replied softly. "But it'll be all right… you'll see…"

Jessie's eyes welled with tears again, and she buried her face in his sleeve as she continued to sob. "Who could have been making reports about us? We try so hard… and we don't have any enemies in Team Rocket… Not even Cassidy would be cold enough to do this…" Her words broke off as she continued to cry uncontrollably. James could only hold her and try to comfort her. He had known that the split would hit her hard, but he had no idea it would be this bad.

Meanwhile, Meowth was angrily pacing in a circle. "Oh, quit your whining." He snapped. "At least you two still get to be agents. I gotta stay here and play court jester to amuse his stupid Persians!" He suddenly noticed his paddle ball lying where he had set it before entering Giovanni's office, and gave it a hard kick. It flew through the air and hit Giovanni's door with a loud bang. From inside, they heard the growl of an angry Giovanni demanding to know what that noise was. Not wanting to make Giovanni any angrier, they quickly darted down the hall and around the corner.

Jessie stopped and started to cry again. "I think we could all use something to eat." James said, unsure of what else to say. Jessie nodded, and the tree started to walk toward the elevator to go to the headquarters cafeteria.

The cafeteria was about half full today, with Rockets in black, white, and even the occasional red uniforms scarfing down food between missions. Jessie and James each bought a soda from the vending machine and sat down at a table in the corner, with Meowth still fuming. They looked around at the others in the room, and realized that nobody looked half as down as they did. At one table sat Butch and Cassidy, Cassidy eating a salad and Butch puffing away on a cigarette. At another table, Mondo sat alone, trying to scarf down a sandwich as he looked at his beeping pager. Across the room, Reuben and Joanna were just getting up to walk out, grinning from ear to ear.

Jessie slumped in her seat, just wanting to keep her head down and not be noticed by anyone, especially Cassidy. God, if Cassidy knew what was happening... well, there was no knowing what she'd do.

James looked at her with a mix of sadness and pity on his face. Jessie just looked down at her cup of soda and watched the bubbles rise. Finally, Jessie looked up to face James. The look of sadness still remained, but it was now accompanied by a look of anger. "I swear, James, if I ever find out who's responsible for this, I'll destroy them.... they'll be so sorry they ever tried to mess with us! Hey, do you think it could have been Ash and those twerps?"

James shook his head. "I don't think so. How would they know how to contact the boss, anyway?" he replied.

"You're right." Jessie replied, the wheels in her mind turning. "Had to be another Rocket, but who? Butch? Cassidy? Reuben? Wyatt? Hollie? Joanna?" One by one, Jessie ran over the names in her mind, but knew that none of them could have been responsible for this. She idly even considered Mondo, but knew that despite some of his faults and over-zealous nature, he would never split up his two heroes. Finally, her anger and frustration hit the point where she could take it no more, and she just looked up at James again with her sad eyes.

It was more than James could take. "Jess..." he began. Jessie's eyes locked on his, hoping he would have the answer, the solution, the way out of all this. "I know who's been submitting those reports. I know who's gone to Giovanni."

Jessie's eyes shot wide open. Why hadn't James told her this before? Meowth's ears perked up as well, as he stared up at James. As soon as he found out who it was that had done it, he had a special delivery of some painful fury swipes planned for that person...

"Who was it, James?" Jessie asked, her eyes narrowing in anger. Beside her, Meowth popped his razor-sharp claws out into the open position and smiled malevolently.

James swallowed hard. How could he tell her the truth? He looked at her, and said, "Jess- Jessica, it was me." The words burned as he watched her reaction.

Jessie's mouth dropped open, and her tightly narrowed eyes went wide again. Meowth was so shocked he fell right off his chair.

"James? How could you?" Jessie sputtered. "How could you do this to me, to us? Don't you know what the team means to me?" Jessie was too hurt to be angry. She had been expecting to hear any number of names of other Rockets, but she had never been expecting the traitor to be her own James. How could he turn on her after all they had been through together... Pokemon Tech, the Bridge Bike Gang, Team Rocket, a million attempts to capture Pikachu, his comforts to her when she lost the princess festival to that little snot Misty, the way he gave up all that wealth to get back to her and Meowth instead of just taking a place with his family and Jessebelle... it was just completely unfathomable to her how or why James would do such a thing to her, to them.

James just looked at her sadly. "Oh, Jessica..." he began, as Jessie realized James was using her full name, something anyone hardly ever did. "I'm so sorry... Of course I know what the team means to you... and what it means to me, but it runs deeper than that."

Meowth was listening with great interest, despite a growing anger and resentment for his former partner. He had never known James to have this much of a backbone. His eyes flashed over to Jessie. He had been expecting nothing less than white-hot rage on her face, and was ready to duck the inevitable swing of her mallet that she could always seem to pull out of nowhere. However, this was not the case. Jessie simply sat there, stunned by the news, looking like an empty shell of the tough girl he had come to know.

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked, not believing what was happening to her. "It runs deeper how?"

James squirmed in his seat. "I owe it to you to tell you the truth, Jessica. For some time, I've.. admired you in a.... more than professional or friendly manner. I've never told you because... well, because I know you don't feel the same way. I mean, how could you? I'm such an idiot, and I always seem to mess up when you need me the most. That's why I've always tried to keep it a secret." Jessie stared at him with stunned eyes. If only she had known... if only he had known...

James' voice interrupted her thoughts. "But I couldn't keep up the lie, Jessie. I just couldn't ... couldn't keep telling myself I didn't like you like that, that I didn't... love you." He paused. "Oh, I know how strange this all must sound to you, Jess. I just want you to know how sorry I am that it all had to end like this... I never wanted it to happen the way it did. But I also knew I couldn't go on like that either. And... and maybe it's best if we just go our separate ways for at least a while. What do you think?"

Jessie wanted to cry out, to scream at James that she had felt the same way for so very long, to confess to him that she would have done the same thing one day, to tell him... everything. But she couldn't do it, no matter how hard she tried. She suddenly became aware of James' sad voice once again. He had lowered his head, and quietly said, "I understand. I'll leave you alone, Jessica.... but please, let's not let our friendship end forever... If I lost our friendship, I'd never forgive myself." James could feel the tears running down his face, and he turned to run out of the cafeteria and back to his quarters to be alone.

Jessie and Meowth sat there stunned. Jessie simply stared ahead, hurt and confused. "Unbelievable." Meowth said. Jessie looked at the catlike Pokemon. Meowth looked back up at her, feeling pity for perhaps the first time for Jessie. For the moment, even his outrage at his new position as Persian's play pal seemed to have been pushed aside. He put his arm around Jessie's shoulder. "Ahh, it'll be all right, Jess. You two will be put back together when the boss realizes nobody else wants to work with you." he snickered.

"Go away, Meowth." Jessie said softly.

"Hey, Jess... I'm sorry... I was just tryin' to make you feel better..." Meowth began.

Jessie quickly turned her head to face him. Meowth realized that she was now wearing the expression of rage he had been expecting. "I said go away!" she snapped angrily. "Now get lost before I toss you into a tank full of Gyarados!"

Meowth was stunned and angered. "Maybe you deserved what happened!" he snapped back, and stomped out of the cafeteria, all pity for Jessie forgotten and pushed out of his mind by her outburst.

Jessie watched the retreating form of Meowth. That was just like him... someone's heart is broken, and he wisecracks about it. As she fumed, she suddenly realized that her outburst had drawn the attention of some other agents in the cafeteria. Cassidy was looking at her wearing a look of shock on her face, and holding a fork with a bite of salad in midair. Butch was staring at her so intently that he hadn't even noticed that his cigarette had burned itself out in his fingers. Wyatt and Hollie, whom she had hardly noticed when she had walked in with James and Meowth, were both looking at her with a confused expression on their faces. Jessie looked around, only wanting to get out of there. Without a word, she got up and walked quickly to the door, ignoring the bewildered looks of the agents around her. Once in the hall, her eyes welled with tears again and she took off running for her quarters.

Criminal Chapter Three: Jessie's Room