Note: Well, it seems my little story's more popular than I'd realized! While I knew that I wouldn't be able to please everyone, I was shocked at how many of you guys are rooting for the book to see print! And for them's that want to help, please swing by my website (you can find the address on my profile page) and add your names to the petition and the guestbook. If even a tenth of the people who visited my site each month would add their names, I'd hit my goal in no time flat! Spread the word! (Ironically enough, as a little side note, somehow my site got mentioned on a forum where they absolutely crucified me… but I got a TON of people visiting to see what all the fuss was about, and actually nabbed quite a few signatures! I guess it's hard to deny destiny sometimes…)

I really do wish I could put the lyrics on here, but I don't want to get banned again, so Chapter Three's lyrics are from Earshot's WAIT.

And the Greatest of These

Chapter Three

Goku appeared at his small home near the mountains, where he saw ChiChi weeding the garden and Gohan chopping firewood. Both looked up as he appeared.

I knew it, I just knew that he was going to take off and ignore his responsibilities! ChiChi thought furiously as Gohan eagerly approached his father. Well, if he thinks he can just go running off like that again, he's got another think coming!

"So what happened, Dad? Did you find out who that woman is? Is she staying with Bulma now, or is she coming home with us?" Gohan's questions came rapidly, and Goku held up his hands to slow his son down. But before he could answer, ChiChi angrily stepped toward him.

"You've been gone over two hours, Goku! Gohan and I have been working our backsides off around the house. This woman is not a stray dog, and you're not going to be the one running around to help her. She can find someone else to solve her problems. After a year and a half gone, it's time to spend time with us. We're your family! And you have chores around here to do!"

"But, ChiChi, she needs our help. I'm not asking for her to live here, she's staying at Capsule Corp with Bulma. But she's alone and frightened, ChiChi, and it simply wouldn't be me to leave a person like that stranded."

Goku's face was resolute as he turned to Gohan. Gohan's going to hate me for this… "Gohan, while I'm helping her, you're to help Mom with whatever she needs, unless it's homework time. No backtalk. Only one of us is going to get involved with this, and strong as you are, you belong here with Mom."

"What!" Gohan cried incredulously. As Goku had feared, his son looked indignant that he couldn't get involved.

As much as the Saiyan wished he could have had Gohan's help, he was trying to placate his wife, knowing full well that she didn't want Gohan training any more than he already was. "No, Gohan, this woman is in serious trouble, and I won't have you getting mixed up in this. Besides, it's bad enough as it is with me getting involved, your mom would kill me if I dragged you into this. If I need help, I'll get the others to help me."

"But Dad, come on, I can help," Gohan pleaded, but Goku shook his head. "Why not?"

ChiChi broke in. "Because you have studies to attend to, Gohan, that's why not! I'm just glad to see that your father finally has enough sense to keep you home where you belong!" Then she glared at Goku. "Although he shouldn't be getting involved with this woman, either…"

Gohan tried not to mope, but a part of him, the adventurous part that ChiChi tried so hard to suppress, wanted to join his father in helping Kurenai. I'll find a way… I'm not going to be kept from doing the right thing just because I'm a child.

Goku turned back to ChiChi, who was working her way up to a serious slow burn. "ChiChi, please try to understand. Imagine if this were you, or Bulma. You'd never live with yourself if you hadn't done all you could to help."

ChiChi glared at her husband, a nagging thought coming to mind. "Gohan, go inside and put away the dishes."

Gohan knew he was being sent away to avoid hearing something, but he went inside and closed the front door, leaving Goku and ChiChi alone.

"Okay, tell me the truth, Goku. Why are you so anxious to help this girl?"

Why is ChiChi so hung up on the subject? "She's alone in the world, she's got someone after her who clearly wants her dead or worse, and it'd be heartless to just abandon her," Goku explained. "What's the big deal, ChiChi? You think that I'm lying to you or something?" It hurt that his wife didn't think that he was telling the truth, when it had always been his nature to be honest to a fault.

ChiChi was almost afraid to ask. She'd seen the young woman, saw how attractive she was, and she knew that Kurenai would always stay young and gorgeous even as she herself aged.

No, he wouldn't leave me, he loves me… doesn't he? What if he… he doesn't want me anymore? What if he leaves me for her?

"Goku, I just… I just want to know that you're not getting involved in this for… the wrong reasons." Goku stared at his wife, and suddenly realized what she meant.

"You're afraid I'm going to leave you for her? That's great, ha ha! That's a good one, ChiChi, wow, you had me going there for a minute! If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were jealous!" Goku laughed so hard that he fell over.

But ChiChi wasn't convinced. Even being able to read her husband's face like a book, she still wasn't entirely sure that he was serious.

"Are you sure, Goku? I mean, she is young and attractive, and well, she's going to stay that way forever…" ChiChi faltered, but Goku took her hand in his.

"ChiChi, I promised you that it was forever." He lifted his wife in a hug and swung her around, then set her down on the ground again.

She beamed at him. "Oh, Goku, I'm going to make something extra special for dinner tonight!" she giggled and disappeared into the house.

But Goku stayed outside and looked up at the sky for a while. Well, I guess I can understand why ChiChi might be concerned, any red-blooded man would be attracted to a beautiful immortal. But when I married her, it was 'til death do us part,' and death did part us once, and I still came back to her. So why in the world would ChiChi think that I'd leave… or worse, betray her?

It was almost ironic; had ChiChi not said anything, he wouldn't have even considered the potential problems that Kurenai could cause in his marriage.

'I've been alone all these mind-numbing, wretched years.' Kurenai's words in Bulma's lab came back to him.

He sat leaning against a tree and listened to the wind in the trees, trying to get the bitter taste of ChiChi's jealousy and doubt out of his mouth. But as he reflected on the aching loneliness he'd seen in her when he'd held her hands in his, Goku had a hard time trying to keep his mind off a pair of haunting blue-violet eyes.

▲▼▲

That evening, Kurenai joined Bulma, her parents, and Vegeta at dinner.

"Mom, Dad, this is Kurenai. Kurenai, meet my parents." Kurenai and the Briefs exchanged bows. "I invited her to stay with us for a little while."

"Yes, we noticed the house set up on the side lawn," Dr. Briefs said dryly, and Bulma and Kurenai blushed.

Dr. and Mrs. Briefs were curious about their daughter's new friend, but she seemed nice enough, and any friend of Bulma's was a friend of theirs. Not to mention that their compound was certainly large enough that one more person was hardly a problem.

"Vegeta, this is Kurenai. Kurenai, this is Vegeta," Bulma said politely, before adding almost as an afterthought, "the prince of Saiyans. Don't expect him to bow, he's above things like common courtesy."

Vegeta glared at Bulma, looked Kurenai up and down once, then held out his hand to her. When she took it, he bowed briefly over it, then released her and turned away without a word.

"Oh, I cannot believe him sometimes!" Bulma said in irritation. "I swear he does that just to be even more aggravating than he usually is!"

"I see what you mean about the attitude problem," Kurenai murmured, laughter in her voice.

As Mrs. Briefs brought out platter after platter of food, the others sat and began helping themselves to dinner. Kurenai savored the taste of the fresh, hot food as only one who has known intense hunger could, but she had to remind herself not to eat too quickly, since it had been quite some time since her last meal and to eat too fast would make her sick. My God, how long has it been since I had real food? A week? Two weeks?

"Thank you, Mrs. Briefs, this is absolutely delicious!"

Mrs. Briefs beamed at the compliment. "Why, thank you dear! Now eat up, there's plenty more!"

"You'll have to teach me how to cook like this-"

A loud thump nearly made Kurenai jump out of her skin, and she whirled around to see a large beast go ambling by, peacefully chomping on a mouthful of grass. As she let out a shrill shriek, the beast momentarily paused, poking its long swaying neck into the room to see what was going on before turning and clomping off again.

"That's… that's a…" Kurenai stammered, pointing.

Bulma giggled. "A dinosaur, I know. One of the family pets." I guess I should have warned her…

Kurenai stared in amazement, then glanced back at the Briefs who were calmly eating. "Um… right."

She and Dr. Briefs were soon in an animated discussion comparing science versus magic, but she felt an odd pang of sorrow as she talked to the scientist. I don't know why, but he… he reminds me of someone I know… knew. At least I think so… That passion for learning, that same curiosity about the nature of the world… She grinned to herself as in mid-sentence, Dr. Briefs began scribbling an idea for an experiment on his napkin. That same tendency to forget what they were talking about when an idea came to them.

Mrs. Briefs was sitting near her daughter and Vegeta, and she leaned over to whisper, "Oh my, she's quite the intelligent one, isn't she? And she's so pretty! Look at that smile! And those eyes… I wonder if she has a steady boyfriend. Gee, Vegeta, you're single, you should ask her out sometime!"

Bulma agreed with her mother. "Yes, she is lovely. When I first saw her, she was all dirty and in rags. You should have seen Goku's face when he saw her cleaned up and dressed well! It's amazing she hasn't married by now, I'm sure there are a hundred guys out there who'd love to marry her. Don't you think so, Vegeta? You can give us a guy's view on her," Bulma teased him.

Vegeta had been staring at Kurenai since the moment she walked in the door with Bulma, then he'd spent most of dinner trying to hide it. It'd made his heart skip a beat when she had taken his hand and smiled at him, and he could still feel the warmth of her fingers on his skin. When she looked at me, it was like she was looking right into my soul… like she was searching for something there…

She almost made him forget to eat, a major accomplishment with a hungry Saiyan. He couldn't take his eyes off her, when he suddenly realized that Bulma was speaking to him.

"Well, she's not that bad looking… not up to Saiyan standards, and certainly not that of a prince, of course, but for a human, she's… decent," he grumbled, lying through his teeth, and returned his attention to his food.

She's a study in contrasts… ugh, listen to me, I'm becoming sentimental.

Vegeta shook his head and clutched his chopsticks tighter. He would get through this dinner as quickly as possible, then go back to the gravity room and train until all thought was out of his head. It was bad enough that Bulma haunted his days and nights; he didn't need another woman roaming through his dreams.

No… I will not let myself become distracted. I am here on Earth to train, so I can defeat these androids and then Kakarot, I am not here to do something so exceptionally stupid as 'fall in love'!

He could just imagine the havoc it would wreak on his life to have not one, but two beautiful women around.

Unaware of the path of the prince's thoughts, Bulma continued quietly talking to her mother. "Well, Goku brought her here to try and find a way to help her…" Bulma filled her mother and Vegeta in on what she had learned in the lab with Kurenai and Goku, but she didn't tell them that Kurenai was actually immortal. "I don't know what it is, but something about all this seems very important to Goku."

She checked to make sure that Kurenai wasn't listening, but the immortal was deep in conversation with Dr. Briefs. "I mean, he almost wouldn't let go of her, he was so reluctant to leave."

Vegeta nearly choked on his food.

Oh this is just great! Bad enough that I find this woman attractive, but Kakarot does too! And he's even married, the idiot! At least I haven't been so foolish as to settle down like he has!

He looked at Bulma who was laughing at something her mother had said. Although… maybe… one of these years…

No, he thought firmly, Saiyans do not waste time on such petty things. Romance and love are for poets, not warriors. We mate to carry on the family bloodline.

Then he found himself imagining about taking Kurenai or Bulma as a mate, and both his body and his soul responded with such fire that his hands shook.

He growled and stood so quickly that he knocked over his chair, threw his napkin on the table, turned on his heel and left the room without a word. The Briefs and Kurenai all stared after him in surprise, then they all looked at one another.

"Does this mean he doesn't want any dessert?" Mrs. Briefs asked.