Feeling apprehensive about leaving Todd, she kept glancing over her shoulder as she left the hospital, like she was expecting some random nurse to come running after her to alert her that Todd needed her back. Getting into her car, she peeled out of the lot, dreading the passing moments.

It didn't take her long before she was turning onto Goten's street and into his driveway, next to a large, shining SUV. She felt inferior and grabbed her bag quickly, getting out of the vehicle's shadow, as though it might overpower her if she stayed there long enough. She walked the quaint pebbled footpath to his front door with a wreath of pure ivory jasmine flowers and rang the doorbell. She heard shrieks coming from inside.

A small girl answered the door, calling "Goten?" loudly. Bra surveyed the child. She wore a patterned red banana over her raven-black hair in little pigtails. When she saw Bra, she called "It's not Goten!" into the depths of the house.

There were footsteps and a woman came out. She had black hair like the girl, as though the child had inherited it from her, but the woman's hair was flecked with gray. She had a cheerful face and she was wiping her hands on the navy-blue apron around her waist.

"Can I help you?" She asked politely. The little girl disappeared behind her leg.

"Yes, I'm looking for Goten." Bra told the woman. She expected the woman to scoff and say her perfect son had no friends that dyed their hair and poked holes in their shirtsleeves, but quite to the contrary, she was warm and friendly, as though freaks appearing on her doorstep was a usual occurrence.

"He told me his friend would be stopping by. I'm Goten's mom." She told her, sticking out a hand for her to shake, which Bra did. "He went out but he'll be back soon. Won't you come in?" She asked motioning towards the house. The little girl ran off into the kitchen, her little steps pitter-pattering on the wood floor. Bra walked inside. It was homey and warm since the majority of the house seemed to be made from wood. In the entry hall, there were pictures of Goten and another boy who was older, assumingly Goten's brother, a young woman with the assumed brother and the young girl who had answered the door. Goten's mother followed her gaze and said the names of the occupants of the pictures.

"This is Goten and his older brother, Gohan. This is Gohan and his wife, Videl." She said pointing to the picture of the couple and then the next with the girl. "And their daughter Pan."

"You have a lovely family." Bra told her, still looking from picture to picture. They were all of the same people: Goten and his parents and brother, his sister-in-law and niece. She followed the pictures, as they got earlier and earlier, to Pan's baby years, Gohan and Videl's wedding, Gohan's graduation; all the way back his parents wedding.

"Thank you," she said happily. "Please make yourself at home." But Goten's mom was walking into the house now and she followed, not wanting to be left alone and awkward. They walked through the kitchen to a wooden table where Goten's niece was coloring. She beckoned Bra over to color with her. She was very excited the Bra had the capability to stay within the lines. Pan began to like Bra very much.

Fifteen minutes or so had passed when they heard the door open and shut. Pan jumped up and ran into the front hall.

"Goten!" She squealed.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," laughed Goten's voice from the kitchen. He sounded so different, not the way she usually heard him, but happy and kind.

"Come meet my new friend!" Pan said, dragging Goten into the kitchen to meet Bra. He had three or four grocery bags on his wrist and he was laughing with Pan until he caught sight of her and looked shocked that someone like her had actually dared enter his house.

"What are you doing here? You weren't supposed to be here until-"he had glanced at the clock. "Ten minutes...ago." She tried not to look surprised that he'd forgotten.

They persuaded Pan to go help her grandmother back cookies while they worked. It was slow. The first day they had been assigned to brainstorm for their project, which was certainly the easiest part. Goten didn't want to use any ideas of his own and kept picking Bra's, but Bra quite liked his instead. They just needed to fine-tune them a little. They kept arguing back and forth about it until he finally said, "Oh this is stupid. I don't care."

So they were full steam ahead on his idea for the project. Pan had come in and was coloring in the table next to Bra, showing her periodically the achievement she had made in coloring the different areas. Bra pretended to pay attention to Goten rambling on, but she was staring at the tip of Pan's purple crayons, stroking the paper back and forth...back and forth...back and forth... They had just finished checking off the items on the guide sheet when the front door slammed. Bra snapped out of her trace and tore her eyes from the crayon's trail. Goten didn't look up from stuffing his things in his backpack.

"Hello?" They heard a voice say. Pan's ears pricked.

"Daddy!" She yelled, sliding off her chair and running out of view, to the front room

"Hey sweetie. Oh - wow - you're getting heavy." He said, lifting her up and walking in. Bra saw Goten's brother for the first time. Lean and muscular, Bra couldn't help but see that he was the tall dark and handsome one of the family. He said hello to Goten and looked over at Bra as though she didn't belong. He, like his mother, stuck out his hand with no difficulty even though he was holding Pan with one arm.

"I'm Bra."

"I'm Gohan. I'm his older brother." He said, laughing, and ruffling Goten's hair with his hand. Their mother came out.

"Hello." She said, kissing his cheek. "How is Videl feeling?"

"Better. She's going to the doctor tomorrow morning before work-"

"She's going to work?" Goten asked, surprised.

"Videl? She wouldn't miss a day of work we all dropped dead tomorrow." Her mind began to wander away from the conversation. He could still hear the words, talking of hospitals and doctors...She thought of Todd. She wanted to be with him.

"Bra?"

"Huh?" She jerked back to the present.

"We're done," Goten said rather harshly.

"Oh...right." She gathered up her things. Gohan had put Pan down, talking to his mother. Pan ran over to her.

"I want you to baby-sit me." She told Bra. Everyone in the room stopped talking and stared at her. Bra stopped moving in their accusatory stares.

"What did she just say?" They all asked at the same time. Bra didn't know who to answer to since they were all staring at her.

"Uhhh..."

"I said I want Bra to be my baby-sitter!" Pan repeated happily, putting her hands up indicating she wanted Bra to pick her up. Goten was positively glaring at her from his standpoint behind his mother and brother. His mother seemed to be trying to comprehend the fact that her granddaughter wanted to be baby-sat by someone the complete opposite of her son. Gohan was trying to comprehend that Pan wanted to be baby-sat at all. This revelation of Pan's had rendered him speechless. We he came to his senses, he burst out, "When can you start?" Pan was dancing around, longing to be picked up but Bra was petrified that Goten's eyes would soon be capable of murder.

"Well, it's alright with me." Said their mother happily but catching the look on Goten's face, she added, "But maybe you should check and see if Videl is okay with this." Pan sat down at Bra's feet, tired of waiting for her to pick Pan up.

"You're right." Gohan said, feeling Goten's evil eye on his back. "I'll ask her. How about you come on over...oh let's say tomorrow night? You busy?" She knew that if she accepted to baby-sit, Goten and her would probably see a lot more of each other than entirely necessary.

"Well, uhh, I uh-"

"No, she's got practice," said Goten for her, his voice trembling with rage. She sucked in the air surrounding her very suddenly as his eyes flashed furiously.

"Oh? Practice for what?" Said his mother, now very interested to learn more about her. But Bra didn't know what she had practice for because Goten had just made it up. She wasn't on any teams and she certainly wasn't part of any organizations, as far as she knew...

"Uhhh...actually I'm skipping practice tomorrow." She told them, matter of factly. "My friend is in the hospital and I'm visiting him tomorrow night." She said, throwing in a hint of truth. She would honestly be at the hospital the next day, at Todd's side as much as she possibly could be. But before his mother could repeat her question upon what it was exactly she practiced for, Gohan pressed on about her coming over to meet Pan's mother.

"What about the next night?"

"I have a study session with Goten." She said quickly, pointing at him with a bangled arm, which felt good even if she wasn't blaming him for anything.

"Great! So after that, you can just come over with Goten. Videl will be thrilled." Gohan said quickly, as if she would try to back out if she hadn't agreed quickly enough.

"Sure." She said reluctantly, still noticing Goten's angry eyes. There was a long awkward silence. "Well, I better be going." She told them, stepping towards the door.

They saw her to the door and she began down the driveway. She could hear Goten shouting the second the door closed behind her. She walked faster down the driveway, tears forming in her eyes. She got in the car and drove off as fast as she could, tears spilling out. She pulled over to the side of the road, into some shopping mall parking lot and cried her eyes out on the steering wheel. She had no idea why she was crying...maybe for Todd, that she couldn't be there for him, that she'd chosen some stupid project to do over spending time with him while he was in the hospital...or maybe Goten's eyes gleaming out from the dark, telling her without words to stay away from his family...

"Stop crying Bra!" She shouted at herself, trying to wipe the tears away. "You knew Goten Son would hate you no matter what!"

She shook herself a little and decided to go for a long drive. They always helped her clear her head.

Four hours later…

Brrrrrrrring! Brrrrrrrring! Brrrrrrrring!

She grabbed the cell phone off the passenger's seat.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" She heard her brother, Trunks's, voice ask. She looked around.

"I'm in my car."

"That's not what I- Bra!"

"I'm on Route 14."

"What're you doing out there?"

"Just driving…"

"Oh okay. Mom just freaked out because she didn't know where you were. It's ten till midnight. Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I'll turn around. Tell her I'll be home before one."

"Okay," then he hung up.

She raked her fingers through her hair and kept driving. Her mom never stayed up past one. She would be safe coming home later than that.