Author's Note: This is the first real chapter. What you see here can be expected in later chapters as far as style.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gary Oak, any of his family, or Pokemon in any way, shape or form.

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Chapter 1: Lullaby

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She was beautiful woman in her early thirties, with long blond hair and a winning smile. The body of a model and the laugh that could draw fun-loving men like flies to honey. She had big, beautiful blue eyes and red lips. Tonight she was wearing a long, midnight-blue gown, a matching clutch in her hand. The woman she was talking to was the same nanny she talked to every night, Nanny Mo.

He liked Nanny Mo: she read him stories when it was time for bed and sometimes she let him go to bed a little later then she was told to put him in bed by. Daddy liked Nanny Mo, too, but mommy didn't know about that.

But no matter how much he liked Nanny Mo, nothing stopped him from running down the stairs, still clad in his play clothes from that morning. His hands clutched the fabric of his mother's pretty dress, and she looked down at him, confusion on her features. She shouldn't have been confused: every night it's the same...

"Can I go, mama?" His hands tugged lightly on the silky fabric. If he wasn't so worked up, he would have been fascinated with the silk. Instead, his big, green eyes stared up at her.

Nanny Mo watched wearily. Oh, yes, she was used to the procedure, by now. She didn't understand why Isaac and Karen had to leave every night, before Daisy Mae and Gary's bedtime. She hated how they brushed off their parental duties so easily onto her: while she loved the kids, she wished that their parents would show them a little more love and attention. Gary always took it hard when they left, and tonight was no exception. No doubt they'd leave anyway, leaving Mo to pick up and calm the sad child they would leave behind.

Karen was already reciting her lines: "Now, honey, this is a grown-up party..." Both Gary and Mo hated when she said that. Gary was far from stupid, and she obviously hadn't figured this out. "And little boys can't go to those. They're WAY past their bedtimes." And she smiled that fake smile. All she wanted to do was leave the little spawn: she hadn't asked for motherhood. Daisy Mae she put up with: she was her spitting image, after all. But this one...she hated Isaac for knocking her up with Gary. "My father insists we have a son...And frankly, Karen, I agree. This won't be the end for our family line." For his, she'd told him, and he'd frowned. "Don't get angry with me: I'd rather not deal with your horrible attitude again, but I will have a son, Karen. Do you understand that?"

She hadn't wanted Gary. Hell, she hadn't even breast fed the little brat: Once she separated him from her body, she held him only once before allowing the nurses full rein over him. Isaac was also stiff: just because he needed the boy didn't mean he was going to coddle him.

And any other time, she would have told Gary to get the hell back to his room...but Mo was there. People talked, and she didn't want to think of the looks she'd get if word got out about how she treated her 'precious baby boy'. And her stupid father-in-law would make sure she'd never hear the end of it, she was sure. She hated Samuel Oak: she wished the old bastard would have his heart attack and die, already, and she'd be free again. It was HIS fault she'd been forced to marry Isaac, after all, and give birth to Daisy Mae. His fault, as well, that she'd had to have Gary, as well.

The old man, his son, and now this little snot got on her nerves. She didn't WANT to be tied down, and then, at that moment, she also didn't want the boy's filthy hands on her new dress.

"Honey, please, don't pull on mommy's dress that way..."

But he clung to her. Of course, she was determined to be cold to him, and he seemed to have an unconditional love for her, one she couldn't do anything about. Sometimes she wanted to break down and forget it all, and just be his mother, like she was supposed to be. There was no doubt in her mind that she could, if she wanted to. Some part of her loved her children, after all.

"Please, mama..." And his voice...his voice was so soft when he asked, so pleading, so sad that...that...

"Gary, that's enough."

Isaac Oak was, in fact, good for something. The boy only had to look at his imposing father once before he let go of the woman, every night. As far as she knew, Isaac never beat the boy. Gary certainly didn't seem like he'd ever been beaten, but she supposed it was that layer of ice in the man's tone that kept their son at bay.

Tonight was different. It shouldn't have been. If it hadn't have, perhaps they wouldn't have ended up the way that they had.

That night, the boy shut his eyes tight and clung harder to his mother. "Please, papa! PLEASE let me go! I'll be good! I won't do anything but sit in the chair, I really, REALLY mean it!" He was begging, desperate. It was times like these Mo wished SHE was the Oak childrens mother. How could they simply allow themselves to leave when their child, only five, was so upset?

Karen sighed. She was breaking, little by little. "Gary..."

"No, Karen, I've had enough." Isaac was a dark-haired man with icy-gray eyes, and he focused those eyes on the boy who cowered behind his wife's skirt. "Gary, either you stop this whining or I will MAKE you stop!" He ordered, causing the boy to whimper, "I didn't raise you to whine!"

"But papa..." The same sad, soft voice protested, the voice's owner twisting the fabric in his five-year-old hands nervously.

"Isaac, don't be that way." That surprised Mo and Isaac both, and they stared at Karen like she'd grown another head. Her hand, with perfectly manicured nails, came down to rest in the boy's hair. But her husband shook off his momentary shock within seconds.

"Don't be that way?!" He gaped at her, flabbergasted and enraged. "I am TIRED with having to put up with this night after night, Karen!"

The little boy from behind his wife spoke up, in a rare fit of child-like anger. "But you ALWAYS go out! Why don't I ever get to go?!" He cried. Karen's eyes darted from Isaac to her son, sensing the trouble brewing.

"Gary, honey, please-"

Her son looked up at her, then, eyes a mixture of anger, sadness, and slight fear. "Mama, I want to-"

"ENOUGH!" Suddenly, the man yanked Gary up by the arm, hauling him upright before dragging him off to an adjacent room. "I am going to whup this behavior out of you right NOW, god DAMN it!"

"ISAAC!" But even Karen had no control over the situation, and she knew it. She took a couple steps before she heard the first hard, resounding THWACK!, and then she stopped, frozen with her hands over her mouth. Nanny Mo came to her, clutching her arm. The women were powerless to listen to each horrible sound of the man's merciless belt as it struck its target over and over and over...

"Ow! Papa, I'm sorry!" Both sets of eyes didn't waver as the small voice started to sound choked, as the boy started to cry. Isaac's belt struck again with a cracking sound, and the boy yelped. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

They simply stood there, Karen close to tears out of shock and Nanny Mo silently mourning for the boy.

"Waaaaahhhhh...Please, papaaaaaa...Pleaaaaaassssseeee..."

But his pleas weren't answered. When the satisfied Isaac left the room, then the large, expensive house, shell-shocked Karen at his side, Nanny Mo all but ran into the room he'd left: Gary hadn't emerged.

She found the boy lying on the couch, on his side, curled up into a little ball and sobbing into his hands. The babysitter didn't say a word as she picked up and cradled the child to her breasts, running a hand through his hair and willing him not to cry. Her eyes were still wide, tears running unchecked down her own cheeks as the boy in her arms shuddered and moaned. "Mamaaaaaaaa..."

And oh...oh how she hated those people...Never more had she wished for the death of another like she wished for the death of Karen or Isaac. After a few moments, she took the boy upstairs to the bathroom, hoping to put him to bed, where he could sleep and dream away the horrible nightmare he'd been forced to endure. She could understand disciplining a bad child...but not only was she convinced that Isaac had gone over board, she hadn't seen anything very wrong with what Gary had done. All she could connect the two with was the assumption that, perhaps, Isaac hadn't liked having the truth pointed out by a boy who was in preschool.

"Shhh...it's all right, now, baby..." But her voice wavered. It hurt him when she undressed him, and she could see why: there were deep welts left in his backside from the unforgiving leather of his father's belt, some bruising like ugly, purplish blue flowers and a couple even bleeding where the skin had broken. He let out a pained cry when she lowered him into the bathwater, and couldn't sit, so he was forced to kneel uncomfortably. "Hush, now, it's all done."

But the wounds ran deeper then the bruises now on the boy's bottom, straight to his heart. "D-Daisy..." He hiccuped, and the woman paused in washing his hair in her gentle fashion. "Daisy s-said..."

"What, honey?" Mo asked, softly, in a soothing tone. "What did she say?" She thought he was getting his mind off the incident.

"She...she said..." He burst into tears again. "Mama and papa don't love meeeeee..."

The girl had problems. Nanny Mo noticed this, of course: she was hiding a lot of things, Daisy Mae. In some ways, she was just as bad as their parents. So the woman tittered at the little boy despairing in the tub. "Now, you can't think such things...they love you very much, they...they just don't...know how to show it."

"Noooo..." Gary moaned, rubbing one of his eyes, still hiccuping. "No they don't! Th-They don't..." And even though Mo tried her hardest to convince him otherwise, he continued to shake his head and tell her the opposite.

It was when he stood up to get his body washed that the woman saw, in the corner of her eye, the girl standing in the doorway.

Daisy Mae was a quiet girl, and thirteen years old. She looked like her brother, but had a darker shade of red in her hair that made it seem almost cherry-colored and malice already shining in her eyes. The pin-pricks of cruelty were now settled on her brother, who also noticed her and was looking at her hopefully. When she realized the boy was looking at her, a smirk curled on her lips. Years later, that same smirk would find its way onto Gary's face every time he looked at his rival, but neither of them could have guessed that.

"You deserved it." She murmured, tone conveying her glee at the sight before her. "I wish he could have hit you more."

Nanny Mo's eyes widened. It was true, Daisy Mae didn't get on with her baby brother, no matter how hard he tried...but she'd never heard such a thing from the girl before.

Stepping into the room, the older Oak sibling leered down at the smaller one who was cowering in the tub. "When are you gonna learn? When are you gonna stop?" She asked, a twinge of anger resonating in her voice causing Gary to flinch. "They don't care about you: they don't WANT you. Daddy only keeps you around so that you can grow up and take our name."

And her brother just sat there and took the abuse. She sneered, continuing past the shocked Mo and leaning into his face. "You're not special. Mom says you're from hell, and Daddy says you're a pain." Her smirk dropped, then, replaced with a raging fury. Gary shrieked as she grabbed a fistful of his wet hair. "WHY DON'T YOU GET IT?! JUST DIE!"

It was only with the resounding crack of her palm on his face did Mo finally grab Daisy Mae, slapping her much like the girl had just done to her brother. "Enough!" The girl stared up at the nanny in shock as the woman advanced. "That is your BROTHER! I don't know what the hell they've been raising you to think, but in most families, we protect and LOVE our brothers and sisters!" Behind her, she could hear the frightened child whimpering in the steadily chilling bathwater. "How DARE you?! HOW DARE YOU treat another human being this way, let alone your own brother?!"

Daisy Mae rose to her feet, sneering up at the woman. "It's all true: You baby him too much, you stupid bitch."

"That's...Th-That's a bad word..."

"SHUT UP!" Came the girl's scream, and Gary shrank away from her. Satisfied, she turned back to the enraged Mo. "And who are YOU to lecture me on proper behavior? Aren't you screwing our father?"

A pin could have dropped and made noise like a waterfall, then. "...And...WHERE, exactly..." Mo asked, softly, "Did you get THAT idea?"

"I'm not stupid." Came the murmured reply, "I've seen you here when Mom isn't home. You think you're slick...you want to replace her. You want to be BETTER then her...and you can't EVER be. Because you're attached to THAT." Her finger pointed straight at Gary, who lowered his head. "So go to hell, whore."

The door to the bathroom slammed as Daisy Mae left, and her foot steps faded away as she stomped back to her room. Nanny Mo stood still for a few moments, shaking with rage, before she closed her eyes and calmed herself. She then allowed herself to sink to the floor, picking up a towel.

"...Here, sweet-heart..." Gary looked up as she spoke in a soft voice. "Come on. You'll catch a cold if you sit in the water much longer..." She tried a smile, but the boy didn't smile back. He climbed out of the tub, bundling himself into his towel. His eyes seemed dull...too dull for a child his age. Children at five were supposed to have tons of energy, tempers higher then the sky, and a need to avoid bedtime.

But she barely got a chance to dry his hair before the youngest of the Oaks wandered dazedly from the bathroom to his own room. By this point, his thumb found its way into his mouth, and he was sucking on it absently. It was a habit she'd seen a couple times: when he was scared of a storm or upset about something. He dressed quietly in his pajamas, and she watched from his bedroom doorway as he winced. That night, he didn't ask for a story, or a song. Gary simply crawled under his blanket, curled into a ball, and lay there simply sucking on his thumb. A couple times, Nanny Mo tried to talk to him, but he never even flinched to let her know he'd heard.

Nanny Mo resigned the next day, and from there, things started careening towards disaster.

-

"Honey, have you seen your brother?"

At the table, the next day, three of the four members of the household were eating lunch. Gary's chair was empty beside his sister's, an unusual sight. Most days, he was the first one at the table, stomach growling loudly, and eager to tell everyone just what he'd done so far that day.

Daisy Mae shook her head, biting into her sandwich. "No, Mom."

Karen frowned, looking down at her salad. She'd barely touched it. After last night's incident, she'd been unable to have any sort of fun. Isaac had finally given in and taken them home early...only to have Mo hand over a note of resignation silently before leaving. She didn't take her payment, even. The note said that she was tired of dealing with the obviously emotionally abused children that she constantly had to pick up the pieces for.

'The job of the parent is to nurture the child. I refuse to shoulder your duties anymore: you are both despicable people who don't care about anyone but yourselves. One day, I hope your children repay you for the damage you've done to them, Gary especially.'

That struck Karen hard: she WAS a bad parent. She'd been dancing around admitting it for years, but having it thrown into her face by another woman, and a nanny, at that, stung. After that, she'd wandered upstairs to her children. Daisy Mae had been up doing homework, the hand print on her face alarming the blond woman, but her daughter assured her it was nothing.

Gary was asleep. She sat beside him on his bed for a long time, that night, blue eyes gazing down at the boy she'd given birth to five years ago. And...she'd realized, reaching over to stroke his hair, that'd been about all she'd ever done for him as a mother, to bring him into this corrupt world. The next day, she'd vowed, she would be better.

But her son didn't show up the entire day. So as she gazed into her salad, she wondered if perhaps this was the point of no return...

"I'm sure he's fine, Karen." Isaac told her, but even he seemed unsure. The three of them ate in uncomfortable silence, eyes all taking turns glancing from the plate with a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, grapes, and Magikarp-Crackers that lay untouched. They also kept glancing at the door, hoping for the little boy to burst in smiling, forgetting the night before and eager to share with them all his adventures outside in the backyard.

Gary, however, never showed. It was fifteen minutes after they'd all finished their food that Karen finally stood.

"...I'm going to go check on him." She murmured. The other two looked at each other and then her with questionable expressions, but she was too dead set on her decision to notice. Worry creased her face as she left the dining room and headed towards the stairs: Suppose the boy was sick? Maybe he'd run away? She wouldn't be able to live with herself if he ran off just when she was determined to change.

Lightly, she rapped her knuckles against her son's door. "Gary, honey? It's mommy...aren't you hungry?"

She didn't expect an answer, so she was surprised at the flat, tone-less voice that replied: "No ma'am." From behind the door.

"Are you sure? It's your favorite..." Vaguely, she wanted to smile at how easy the boy was to please, but she quelled it, frowning with concern.

"Yes ma'am."

The formality hurt. No longer was she 'mama' or 'mommy', but 'ma'am'. Some part of her knew she deserved it, however. "...May I come in?"

"...Yes ma'am."

Her hand gripped the doorknob, and she entered.

Toy and model planes hung from the ceiling, alongside models of Flying-Type Pokemon. There were more Pokemon models around the room, along with bedsheets depicting them. The boy loved Pokemon, a trait that Samuel shared, apparently. With a start, Karen thought her son was packing, at first, and was prepared to get hysterical. It took her only a second, however, to realize that he was only cleaning, something she always had to fight with him over. One hand was up to his face, thumb in his mouth, and the other was easing books back into their proper places on a little shelf. Sighing, she walked over.

"Honey, we don't suck our thumbs..."

He made no motion that he'd heard her, and carried on with his organizing. Frankly, it scared her, and the way the boy's stomach growled was no help. "Baby...are you sure you're not hungry?" Then, to be playful: "Your tummy seems to disagree with you."

She was shocked at the same flat, uncaring tone the boy used as he popped his thumb out of his mouth: "It can disagree all it wants, ma'am."

For a moment, Karen was at a loss. She was vaguely aware that he was kneeling and avoiding having to sit on his bottom. and that he had a smaller version of Daisy Mae's slap mark on his own cheek. His green eyes were dull and lifeless...almost aged, and certainly nothing like a normal child his age's should be.

"...Gary...honey..." She knelt by him, stopping his hand as he reached for another book. "...Whatever's wrong...you can...you can tell Mommy, okay?...That's what she's here for."

She jumped when he whipped his head around, slowly drawing his thumb out of his mouth once again. "'Mommy' wasn't there when 'Daddy' was hurting me." He snarled, softly, eyes now gleaming with hurt and rage. "'Mommy' never wanted me. 'Mommy' hates me. Why does 'Mommy' want to listen to me?"

Silence fell.

"I...I, well..." Her eyes wavered as she stared at the unblinking, unforgiving face of her son. "You...you have to understand...Mommy was...Mommy was very surprised at what Daddy did, honey..."

"You left me." Gary accused, voice barely above a whisper. "You saw him hurt me, and you left me."

"Honey-"

"Abandoned me."

That really did frighten her: where had he learned THAT word, and how did he even know what it meant? She reached out to him, to touch him, and he moved his gaze to her hand...she saw a spark of fear in his eyes. She could only imagine what he was thinking, then: She's going to hurt me...they're going to hurt me again. It broke her heart to see it there, and she drew back.

"...Okay, honey..." The blond woman used all her control to keep her from crying and taking him in her arms. Maybe if she had...maybe... "...If you're hungry, later, we'll save your plate, okay?" But he didn't say anything. His eyes faced away, then, back on the incomplete line of books in front of him. His mother rose to her feet, moving back to the door. She paused, there, looking back, but he didn't move, didn't give any indication that he was doing anything more then looking at his bookshelf. With sad eyes, Karen left the room of her son.

-

Gary didn't come down to play in the sun-room that day. He didn't run back and forth from his father's study to his mother's spot out by the pool, like he always did, making airplane noises. There was no laughter from the little boy to be heard; no cries to be watched as he dove off the diving board, no pleas for help with his readers, no whines that he was hungry. Even Daisy Mae seemed concerned when he didn't come into her room with some game to persuade her to play with him.

Little Gary was done vying for their attention. Once he was finished straightening his room, he stayed at his desk, working silently on his readers. If he didn't understand a word, he didn't get frustrated: he simply sat there until he got it right. After he was done with those, he sat on his bed, hands folded, eyes dull.

Dinner came. The youngest of the Oaks was again a no show.

"He hasn't eaten a thing all day..." Karen stated, mournful, blue eyes glued to her son's empty chair. "He MUST be hungry. He HAS to be..."

Isaac nodded. Not even he could eat without the boy's chattering going on in the background. Daisy Mae also stared at her brother's plate, at his untouched chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes. He used to make a fuss when it came to peas. Was that what it was? Was he afraid that, if he made another fuss about how he didn't like something on his plate, he'd get spanked again? His older sister, sighed, chasing peas and potatoes around her plate silently. The collective appetite of the family seemed to have vanished, along with the baby of the family.

"...I can't go, tonight, Isaac, I just can't...There's something WRONG with him, now!" Karen finally admitted, putting down her silverware and placing her fingertips to her forehead.

"Karen, we can't just-"

"What the hell do you mean we 'can't just'?!" The blond's head shot up, and her husband stared at her in shock. "That's our son refusing to eat! OUR son stuck in his bedroom, probably terrified of tying his shoes the wrong way! He's been in there ALL DAY. How can we go off and leave him that way?!"

Isaac was silent, placing his own knife and fork down on the table. He folded his hands, elbows on the table. "...We can't allow this to make a difference, Karen. This is a little phase he's going through: we've never disciplined him before, and now he's realized that we can and we WILL put our feet down if he misbehaves."

"But he wasn't misbehaving, Isaac! Jesus, he just didn't want us to go!" A pause. "Because he LOVES us! And you BEAT him for it! How is that teaching a child anything?!" Tears gathered in Karen's eyes, and her daughter looked from one parent to the other, unsure of what to do, or if she should do anything at all.

The man gripped his hands tighter, mouth a thin line. When he finally relaxed, he leaned his forehead against his clasped hands. "It isn't..." He murmured.

The family looked at their laps, then, in total silence. The truth that something wrong had been done ended their conversation.

The only question still hovering around was if it changed things any.

-

Isaac and Karen actually did stay, that night. They took turns watching over the boy: When he left the room to use the bathroom, he more often then not found one of them standing near his door. When he bathed, he did it by himself, locking them out of the bathroom, but when he emerged, there they were, offering him a meal they were sure he needed. He declined, and went straight to bed. Even then, they sat beside him on his bed and watched over him while he slept.

"I didn't know he had nightmares..." Karen later said, sitting at her mirror and brushing the curls out of her hair for the night. Behind her, Isaac was buttoning up a nightshirt for bed.

"Neither did I...and Mo never said anything about them." He replied.

The blond looked at her husband's reflection in the mirror. "It's...just so scary, seeing him shiver and cry like that when he sleeps...maybe he didn't have them before...?"

The man sighed, sitting on the edge of the large, King-sized bed, placing his face into his hands. "Or maybe he's never wanted to bother us with them...don't most kids get up after nightmares and go to their parents' room?"

"I suppose..."

They were silent. Eventually, Karen rose, dressed in a short nightgown made of green silk. She sat beside the man she married, looked at his distraught expression, and took his hand. When he looked at her, she gave him a faint smile. "We're going to do better, now." She murmured, softly, and he was silent before nodding.

"We are."

But they never got the chance.

-

When Daisy May awoke the next morning, the police were banging on the front door. Terrified, she scrambled out of her pink, frilly bed and ran to her parents' room.

"Mom! Dad! What's-..."

The bed was empty. It was even made up nice and neat. Her confused eyes looked at the clock beside her father's side of the bed. It read that it was only a little past ten in the morning. The banging persisted, and, left without a choice, she slowly made her way downstairs to the door. For a while, she stood in her nightgown, shivering and shaking in her bare feet, before calling out: "I can't let in strangers!"

At the sound of her voice, the banging stopped. "This is the Viridian Forest police, miss."

Now more confused then ever, Daisy May shifted nervously in place. "...Are we in trouble?"

"Miss, we have some news."

After debating for some time, the girl unlocked the door with shaking hands, pulling it open. The man on the door step wore a suit without a tie, and beside him were several police officers.

"Are you Daisy?" The Officer Jenny beside the strange man asked. When she nodded, the blue-haired woman looked sadly up at the man, who stepped into the house.

Daisy May backed up, and unbeknown to her, a small face was watching with dull eyes from the top of the stairs. The man in the suit knelt before her, showing her his badge. "Honey, I'm sorry to say this...but your mother and father have...had an accident."

Her green eyes widened, and she looked at the floor. "...A-...Are you here to take us to the hospital, mister?"

"...I'm sorry, honey..." His eyes held genuine remorse. "But...your parents aren't coming back." When she failed to show that she understood, he took a deep breath before dropping the bomb:

"They...died."

She screamed and screamed for hours on end, until she had lost her voice and collapsed out of shock at last. As she began to scream, the man looked up and noticed the small shadow of a child slowly making its way down the upstairs hallway.

-

So it became that Daisy May and Gary became orphans. Karen and Isaac had apparently been found dead upon the scene, in their car. The gruesome discovery revealed that the car's engine had somehow spontaneously combusted and burst into flames. Police investigating the scene concluded that Isaac must have been surprised by this and had swerved into a tree on the side of the road, which caused the car to wrap around it. Isaac died instantly. Karen, however, was apparently still alive for a short period after the accident. The coroner was quite sure before she was brought in that she had died of smoke inhalation. However, the large shard of glass found jammed in her throat said otherwise.

An unfortunate accident, and it was only the beginning. The orphans were forced to pack their things and live with their closest relative: their grandfather, the great Pokemon Professor, Samuel Oak.

Merely only the beginning.

Sing me a lullaby...

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End Chapter 1: Lullaby

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Author's Note: This is what you can expect in later chapters as far as the style goes. Let me know what you think.