The shortest fanfic I've ever written-and possibly ever will write. Taking a break from the Family Feud A/U to work on other stuff. I started this yesterday and finished it today. Read and Review, please! Happy reading!

**I do not own Dragon Ball or any characters. Just borrowing them for some non-profit fun.**

The empty, wide hospital corridor echoed with my quiet footsteps. The soft golden glow of the beginnings of dusk shining in through the evenly spaced third floor windows gave the ordinarily stark white walls some much-needed warmth. I paused to shift the large, heavy picnic basket to my other arm and continued toward the long-term care wing Goku was in.

I had been regularly 'smuggling' food in for Goku since he was first admitted, knowing the hospital wouldn't feed him nearly enough. He'd have to eat very, very well to make a full recovery. The man could probably eat enough food for every patient on his entire floor and still not be satisfied. And I was tired of hearing him whine incessantly about the poor taste.

He was always so happy to see me lug that huge, heavy picnic basket through his door. His stomach would unleash a mighty rumble and he'd stare at the basket as I unloaded it with a tendril of drool rolling down his chin. For a while there, he couldn't feed himself owing to being in that fully-body cast so I fed him like a baby. He didn't care. He was getting good food – and a good amount – so he was happy.

The looks he gave me after he had his fill were so sweet and tender that I couldn't help but kiss him. The quickest way to that man's heart was through his stomach. I didn't mind having to feed him because it meant him staying in one place for more than five minutes – even if it was because of severe injury.

As badly as he was hurt, he had a very long way to go in his recovery, so I knew there would be plenty more of those little moments and I found myself very much looking forward to them. That day was no different.

I sighed wistfully – and a little tiredly – as I continued down the long, empty hall, but the end was in sight. Finally reaching the nurses' station, I handed them a dozen of my made from scratch cookies as was my regular peace offering for letting me bring Goku food so often. A nurse took the box with a smile, which I returned.

Turning a corner, I trudged down another long corridor – that one broken up by evenly spaced doors leading into patient rooms. Fortunately, even though the hallway was long, my walk was not, as Goku's room was only a few doors down.

I was relieved when I finally pulled his door open because I was sure my arms were about to break off at any second.

Stepping into his room bathed in the golden light of dusk, I let the door close softly behind me and lifted the basket onto a small table with a chair next to it with a tired grunt. "Hi, Goku. Dinner time."

"Hi, Chichi."

I lifted an eyebrow and glanced at him as I unloaded the massive amount of food. No rumbling stomach. No drool dribbling down his chin. No starved stare at the basket. Since he was finally out of the full-body cast just a couple of days prior, he'd even jump out bed fast enough he'd hurt himself as soon as he smelled his food. I got on his case for that.

But there was no reaction. He didn't seem to notice. At all. He was on his back staring blankly at the ceiling with one arm in a cast and his less injured arm behind his head when I walked in the room. He hadn't moved.

Gohan and the others left for Namek around the same time he got his full-body cast off. Goku must have been disappointed because he couldn't go and – between that and not being allowed to train – the boredom must have been suffocating.

I rolled the tray piled high with all of his favorites over to him and patted his arm. "Come on, Goku! Sit up and eat!"

Finally, his blank stare met my insistent one. He sighed as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed and positioned the tray over his lap. Instead of shoveling his food like he always did, he just poked at it – only taking a small bite every now and then.

I didn't miss the little sighs that slipped out of his lips as he poked unenthusiastically at his meal much longer than it would have taken him to inhale every crumb.

My eyes narrowed and I put my hands on my hips. It was time for desperate measures.

The basket had been completely emptied save for just one thing. A treat I was going to surprise him with when he was done eating. Something he always went crazy for. I pulled the box out, the sweet smell filling the small room before I had even opened it. I lifted the lid and carefully placed the giant slice of my made-from-scratch chocolate cake on a plate and grabbed a fork.

If there was anything Goku couldn't resist, it was my chocolate cake.

His sensitive sense of smell could detect that a mile away and he always came running. He had to have noticed it but there was still no reaction.

Stabbing a fork-full of cake, I held it an inch in front of his lips and smiled expectantly as I held the plate out toward him. My rule regarding dessert was none until Goku and Gohan finished their plates and yet there I was, offering Goku chocolate cake before he had even eaten more than a few bites.

He leaned forward slightly to take the offered bite as he gently took the fork and plate out of my hands. That was a start. He would usually be gushing incoherent praises with his mouth full, but he was… quiet.

And then he put the plate and the fork down with a miserable sigh and my jaw dropped.

I knew in that moment whatever it was he was dealing with went far deeper than boredom and I was bound and determined to find out what.

I rolled his mostly untouched tray away and got in his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes. "You've never refused your food before! What's wrong with you?"

Startled eyes darted up to meet my gaze and then down toward his bare feet hanging a several inches above the floor.

After giving him a minute, I put my hand under his chin, tilting his face up to mine and stroked his cheek. "Goku… talk to me, Sweetheart. What's on your mind?"

The look in his eyes was… heart-wrenching and his expression was the last thing I expected to see on that face. He looked… shaken and troubled – and even a little lost. I had never seen that expression on him before. Nothing really fazed him, but apparently something really got under his skin. Not even my chocolate cake got his attention!

A small part of me felt a little bad for pushing him, but I had to know what was on his mind with his expression as heartbreaking as it was. I was bound and determined to get it out of him. Seeing my Goku like that was… harder in some way than seeing him in physical pain.

I climbed up next to him, took his hand in mine and watched him intently but patiently.

He fidgeted with his free hand but still I waited with no idea what to expect. The longer he was silent, the more nervous I grew.

He finally took a deep breath but his troubled gaze never left the floor and when he spoke, his tone was so soft and so serious and I had never heard him sound quite like that. "What do you know of the man who showed up at Master Roshi's and kidnapped Gohan from me?"

My lip curled and I forced out my answer through gritted teeth. "Master Roshi told me he was from outer space! He told me he was so strong, the only way to save Gohan and kill him was to sacrifice yourself!"

Looking away, I fought angry tears welling up – the too-fresh memories of that long, awful year alone surging into my mind.

How hard I fought to stay busy, going about my daily routine like a robot just to keep myself from irreparably falling apart. And how much I missed them. Their smells, their voices, the messes, everything that made them my boys. How much I cried when I found out Goku was… dead and Gohan was kidnapped by that demon Piccolo and how helpless I felt.

A gentle squeeze of my hand pulled me out of the painful memories of that long, awful year alone and I looked at him to see a change in his expression. His eyes were squeezed closed, his lip curled. I was a little bit confused to see the sheer disgust.

He had fought extremely strong evil and wasn't fazed by those battles. He didn't seem shaken after his battle with Piccolo, either. Not even after sustaining injuries every bit as bad as what landed him in the hospital. Meeting whoever that evil guy was couldn't have been what shook him up so badly, could it?

I whispered, "Goku…?"

His next words hissed through his teeth. "He was looking for me, Chichi! He said… he was my brother!"

My eyes narrowed. "You're a human. He's from space! He was mistaken! He can't be your brother!"

Suddenly, he growled and yanked his hand out of mine and ran it through his hair, hiding his face from me in the process. "My tail! My power! He had all of that! And so did the others! I… I-I'm… one of them."

Unbidden, tiny memories of him flitted into my head one by one as my gaze roved unseeing about the room…

His power and his brown, furry tail as a child.

The immense power he used while fighting Piccolo at that Tournament when he was eighteen.

All the times I had watched him carry home entire, massive logs and chop them with only well-placed blows by his bare hands right there in our front yard.

All the times he came home with impossibly huge game for our meals – carrying the massive fish twice his size, large elk, and even entire dinosaur legs from time to time all like they were nothing.

His massive, almost insatiable appetite – far larger than even my father's.

All followed by our son's tail.

My mouth fell open. It couldn't be true! Not my sweet, naïve Goku!

Goku dropped his hand from his hair and clenched his fist in his lap so tightly veins popped out of the top of his hand. "Raditz told me Saiyans–" referring to the race by name the first time that night, he just about spat the word "–transformed into giant apes during full moons and that I could, too, but I didn't believe him. When I was fighting Vegeta, he transformed into a massive, raging ape! It was just like what Grandpa told me about when he warned me to stay indoors during the full moon! Chichi… I killed Grandpa!"

The crack in his voice at the end made my head snap up just in time to see the quiver in his lower lip and the first jerk in his shoulders. And then the first tear escaped, quickly followed by others. The strongest man in the world dissolved into real tears.

I was so shocked to see him break down like that it took me a moment to realize I needed to comfort him. I wrapped my arms around him as he wrapped his around me and I rocked him, instinctively humming the melody of Gohan's favorite lullaby.

When the song was over, I ran my hand through his thick hair, my fingernails grazing his scalp because I knew he loved that. "Goku… you've saved so many lives. You're nothing like them. Human. Saiyan. It doesn't matter to me. I love you! Don't you ever forget that."

Goku squeezed me a little bit tighter.

I was quiet for a second before an old memory surfaced in my mind. "Remember when we met Grandpa Gohan at that magical furnace inside Mount Five Elements?"

He nodded with his face buried in my shoulder.

"Don't you remember how happy he was to see you? I don't think he was ever angry at you, Sweetheart."

Abruptly, he pulled back to stare at me, his red, puffy eyes wide and his mouth slightly open. And then a smile blossomed on his handsome, tear-streaked face, one of pure gratitude.

I wiped his cheeks and gave him a soft, loving smile in return and – with our faces only inches apart – the temptation to kiss him was irresistible, so I did.

When we parted, his cheeks were slightly flushed and his eyes were big and shining. He put his palm on my cheek and pulled my face to his, wanting another kiss – that one a little bit deeper and a lot longer.

The door opened and a throat cleared and we instantly pulled apart both a little embarrassed to be caught making out like teenagers.

"Visiting hours are over in five minutes."

I moved to a chair as the stern old nurse who had been tending to him that day looked over Goku's bandages and the cast on his arm, took his vitals and left us be. I got up and shut the door behind her. I rejoined Goku on the bed where we picked up where we left off.

That was until there was another interruption by way of a rumble.

I pulled back and raised an eyebrow at him.

He rubbed the back of his neck, an even deeper flush on his cheeks. "I don't suppose you still have that tray handy...?"

I sighed half-heartedly as I walked to the tray and rolled it up to him, but I couldn't stop my smile as he shoveled his food, starting with dinner first. "There's the Goku I know and love!"

He smiled happily at me the best he could with his mouth stuffed full of food and crumbs and thick smears on his face. He ate it all, saving the chocolate cake for last and devouring that in just a few bites, succeeding in getting frosting all over his nose and mouth.

I shook my head with a slight eye-roll as I cleaned his face, but was delighted he was back to his old self.

I meant every word I said. Saiyan or human or whatever, I'd always love him no matter what. He knew that, but something told me he would really need the company that night. The full moon was due to rise just an hour later and I had absolutely no intention of leaving him by himself – hospital rules be damned.

End.

Chichi may be rather conservative about things, but she clearly knew Goku was special even before learning he wasn't human and loved him anyway. She knew all about his power, seeing some impressive feats from him. She had witnessed other people with similar power at the 23rd World Tournament (Tien and Piccolo), but none were quite as strong as Goku. Still, she loved him anyway. She wasn't scared away by his power and was quite accepting of it in Dragon Ball (a conservative, unusually strong woman becoming a housewife of a very unusual man). I'd wager instead of being scared away by learning Goku's true heritage, it explained a few things about her husband to her and helped her understand him in a new light. (Follow me into head-canon territory for a moment for something I didn't explore so much in this little oneshot: I'd even wager that-on some level- she knew he couldn't be human.) So yeah... I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, guys!