I do not own either DBZ or M*A*S*H this is simply a piece of Fan Friction that will go absolutely no where in terms of helping me pay through college *sigh*
A quiet had seemed to settle over the 439 mountain region in the weeks after the Cell games. The explosions that the areas few residents had eventually attributed to Goku Son's continuing training had disappeared and the Son house hold itself was a lot quieter than usual as well, all seemed to fall silent with the loss of Goku Son. This is where our story begins.
"Gohan, can you come down stairs for a minute?" The voice of one Chi Chi Son called out.
"Sure mom." A tired Gohan Son, responded, closing the book full of college level mathematics and physics. Energy was a rarity for him after the Cell Games, their full cost striking home just a bit too hard with him.
When Gohan finally entered the living room he found his mother waiting for him.
"Now Gohan I need you to run an errand for me, I need you to see if you can get some medicine from Doctor Potter, I am absolutely tired of this bout of morning sickness!" She started calmly but finished irritably, while refraining from Martial Arts since after Gohan's birth she still preferred actual activity over sitting in bed sick, and she wanted this taken care of before it got out of hand.
Gohan scratched the back of his head in the trademark sign of confusion that he and his father possessed, "Doctor Potter? Who's he?"
Chi Chi was confused for a moment until she started chuckling a little, "That's right you wouldn't know where he is, we haven't been to him since you were born, you were always so healthy. He's was the doctor who delivered you!"
Gohan was shocked, "Really?"
"That's right, me and your father went there on the Nimbus right after my water broke and you were born in his house, your dad was so thankful he gave him one of those massive fish he always catches-"
She stopped realizing just who she was talking about, and noticing the look of sorrow that appeared on Gohan's face, and she herself was starting to feel it sink in.
In an attempt to prevent the mood from getting any worse Gohan asked "Where does he live?"
"His house is only about five miles to the south of us, you can't miss it, its' the log cabin with the horses grazing nearby."
"Horse hockey!"
Doctor Potter was not a foolish man, he may have been only a few gray hairs away from being entirely bald but his grey matter had not deteriorated whatsoever since his days when he'd been in the army, not in any way, shape, or form. So when he was watching the news of Hercule's "triumph" over Cell he took it with a grain of salt, or rather a full shaker of salt.
"Now Sherman! How many times have I told you to watch that tongue of yours?" His wife exclaimed from the kitchen.
Doctor Potter, just scowled, "Mildred, you know as well as I do that this clown couldn't have defeated Cell, not even Pierce could make that alibi of his believable, and yet somehow the world buys it, what is this generation coming to! Have they forgotten Goku! I still remember how he defeated King Piccolo when the East Kingdom fell, and hardly a boast in the world!"
"Well that's the problem then isn't it he didn't care if people knew in fact they seem to like avoiding the high life, you know technically there royalty and yet there living a commoners life!" Mildred countered.
Dr. Potter finally loosened his scowl into a small smile, but shook his head, "true enough but at least with that crisis nobody arose to steal credit!"
"Well if you're so worked up about it why don't you do what you always do when the stress starts to get to you?" Mildred responded handing over his painting equipment, eliciting a chuckle from the vet. (AN: veteran people not veterinarian.)
"Good Idea!" And on that note the former surgeon quickly changed into garments he could accept getting dirty and set up near his horses grazing areas, humming "Give My Regards to Broadway" as he painted.
His work however was interrupted as he heard a jet like sound, then he saw the source, a gold light streaking across the strike headed toward… his house?
"What in the name of Sam Hill…" Dr. Potter started until the streak was revealed to be a relatively short boy with wild black hair, wearing a dark blue martial artist's gi, riding on top of a yellow cloud.
It took him a few moments to collect himself and realize he'd seen that cloud. "Howdy stranger, Dr. Potter here, though maybe I shouldn't call you stranger, there's only one family here that owns a magical cloud…"
The boy chuckled a little, "I guess so, I'm Son Gohan."
"Ah Chi Chi and Goku's boy, haven't seen you since my wife fainted into the fish when she caught the sight of you having a tail! How are the folks?" Sherman asked.
At this Gohan's face darkened, "Well that's kind of why I'm here you see Mom's got some morning sickness, and dad well, dad died…"
Dr. Potter paled when he heard this, "Oh, well I'm sorry son, I wish you had gotten to me sooner, I might have been able to do something…"
Gohan started shaking his head, "Oh no, it wasn't a sickness, you see he went to the Cell games and well, he didn't come back…"
At this the old colonel bowed his head, "Damn, you mean that thing was stronger than him?"
Gohan nodded, "yes sir… but…."
Colonel Potter raised a hand, "Say no more, I understand it's probably hard talking about it but at least he took Cell with him when he died, but then why are you letting that clown Hercule take the credit for your fathers deed, he died for the whole planet and he damn well deserves to be honored for that!"
At this Gohan started to pale a little, "Well you see Dad wasn't the one that took Cell down for good, it was, me…" and with those words he ascended to the Super Saiyan form.
Sherman stared wide eyed at the site, "You were the delivery boy? Let me here this from start to finish." He could tell that this boy needed help and something from his years in the service was telling him the boy felt guilty about something.
After Gohan had finished his recap of the events of the Cell Games and everything leading up to it Dr. Potter bowed his head. "Listen, Gohan it is not your fault your father died out there, mistakes were made prior to that and if any of them had corrected your father would still be alive. Yes you did wrong by stalling with the monster to torture him, but that makes you no guiltier than everybody else involved."
Gohan stared at him as if he had just said the Earth was flat, "What are you talking about, If I had destroyed Cell when I had the chan-"
"Stop right there son." Potter interrupted, "Tell me what if that, er, Vegeta character hadn't let Cell get to that "perfect form" would the Cell games have happened? And what about Krillen, if he had deactivated that Android 18, would Vegeta's mistake have even have mattered?"
"But but…"
"The fact of the matter is son, that no one person is ever responsible for any one event, any event is the result of multiple peoples actions, you are no more to blame than either of those two at least, but battle is always a dangerous risk, and if you worry about all the what ifs and who's guilty for them you start to wrap your head around, but in the end the only one you can blame for killing your father is Dr. Gero and his want for revenge on your father for destroying the red ribbon army. Heck the fact he survived is technically your father's fault, so even he's responsible for his own death."
However these words had little effect on Gohan, "Then why do I feel so guilty!" he raged.
It was time for Colonel Potter to deliver his coup de grace, "Because you survived, whenever you go into battle it's the survivors that feel the guilt of what happened to the dead, I know the feeling myself, I spent well over 30 years in the army and got to experience too many times."
Potter knew the argument was run because in stead of anger and guilt in Gohan's face he saw solely depression.
"Does the pain ever go away?"
Sherman was also familiar with this question, "With time yes, you'll still miss him, and you'll still at times think it's your fault, but the pain gets easier and easier to bear."
Gohan finally gave something of a light smile, "Thank you sir."
He was a bit surprised when Dr. Potter chuckled, "Been a while since I've been called sir, now then let's move on to somewhat less depressing thoughts, your mother, you said she was experiencing morning sickness right?"
Gohan nodded, "That's right."
"Any particular symptoms she's exhibiting?"
"Actually she gave me a little list of them right here, in case I forgot sir." Gohan handed over a piece of paper to him.
"Let's see here, ah ha, ah, well than started a few weeks after then, and, hmm I wonder" Sherman started mumbling to himself, "Ah I think I've got it, I'll just have to grab some things from inside, you mind grabbing us a meal? Consider it the doctors bill." He turned back to Gohan.
Quickly catching on Gohan quickly went to a nearby lake to grab one of the enormous fish that lived in it, by the time he returned with his catch Dr. Potter was back with a few small boxes.
"Even bigger than the one your dad brought when you were born, how the heck do we still have those?" (AN: Seriously you think they'd have run out by now the way the Sons goes through their numbers)
"Beats me?" Gohan shrugged, examining the medicine, "huh, why is this here." He asked as he eyed a box containing a pregnancy test.
"Tell your mother that Dr. Potter said and I quote 'Humor a senile old army man who still happens to have some medical know how.'" Colonel Potter said with a straight face.
"Um, if you say so sir…" Gohan shrugged. "I better go back and deliver this, NIMBUS!"
Dr. Potter watched as the cloud came to Gohan, "Not gonna stay for the fish banquet? Oh well, seeing as I can't fish as good as I used to a long period of the stuff should do some good, say hello to your mother for me and tell her when I'm right that I'm still in business!"
"I will, and thank you!" Gohan replied flying off on the Nimbus cloud.
Once he was a fair distance away Sherman returned to the house hold just in time to see Mildred watching something on the news.
"Hercule Satan has just been taken by emergencies crews to Boston General after breaking his arm during one of his displays of strengths to prove he beat Cell."
"See Sherman there is karma in the world!" Mildred started but when she caught a mischievous grin on his face she knew something was up, "Sherman? Sherman? What are you thinking about?"
"Oh nothing at all, Mildred nothing at all, just thinking about a few old friends of mine in that area who might want to pay him a call."
Meanwhile said old friend, one Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester, the third, experienced a massive sneezing fit.
Thus ends this one shot, I always felt that Gohan put to much blame on himself for what happened and needed to be shown that. And I figured that who better to tell him than the head of the Four Oh Double Seven. I may continue it if people request, however it will move from this to more of a, "The old staff of MASH mess with Hercule Satan" so it would be for parody, comedy, and Hercule torture purposes.