Chapter 4

"Pregnant?" Gohan asked incredulously as he gawked at Piccolo's bowed form. "No way!"

Piccolo nodded solemnly, without looking up. It was the day after, and the boy had just arrived for training. For some odd reason Chi Chi hadn't told him, and Piccolo felt that he needed to know, if only to understand that her recent outbursts weren't his fault.

"Wow…" Then Gohan did something totally unexpected. He burst out in laughter and tackled Piccolo to the ground. "I'm gonna have a baby brother…or sister! WOO-HOO!" With that he leapt off and started doing summersaults in the air.

Piccolo watched him, stunned. He'd been so immersed in the terrifying concept of a pregnant Chi Chi that he'd neglected to realize that this just might be good news to young Gohan who had spent his entire life around adults. The boy could use a comrade, and truth be told, his merry reaction was a great deal more appropriate than Piccolo's own. It was almost humbling.

Gohan's honest delight rubbed off on him, and Piccolo found himself smiling internally as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position from Gohan's playful attack. What a kid. This baby couldn't ask for a better older brother.

Finally the boy settled, his face threatening to split in two from the grin that stretched all the way to his earlobes. He descended next to Piccolo. "She doesn't even look pregnant," he said. "Maybe it's because she doesn't let it slow her down any."

Piccolo perked, alarmed. "She should. The doctor said-"

"Pssht!" Gohan rolled his eyes. "Like mom will listen to a doctor. She just took off into town again to run some more errands."

"She's supposed to be resting!" Images flitted across his mind of finding Chi Chi half-dead like the night before, and valiant efforts to fly her to the lookout only to lose her on the way there. He thought of what would happen to Gohan if his mother died, along with his potential sibling. It would ruin the boy. Foolish, inconsiderate woman… Piccolo jumped up. "Start training. I'll be back."

With that, he burst off without waiting for Gohan's bewildered protest.

It only took him a few minutes to track her down. She was standing in line outside a building with a big plywood sign that said, 'La Caridad de San Lucus'.

Better stay hidden until she's done, he thought grumpily, hoping that Gohan was training while he was wasting his time babysitting the boy's mother. He hovered in the air behind the nearest building.

The line shortened, and he watched curiously as Chi Chi took several items over the counter, and plopped them in her basket, cloth and food rations being the bulk of them.

Something about the scene bothered him, and it was more than just the sadness in her eyes, or the sag in her shoulders… But try as he may, he was unable to put his finger on it.

Her basket overflowing with goods, she thanked the lady behind the counter and started to take off down the street. Shaking himself, Piccolo flew over to her and plopped down in front of her, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

She gawked up at him, her face open in naked surprise. "What are you doing here?" She was even too stunned to throw her usual bite in her tone.

"You're supposed to be resting," he growled, trying his best to keep his lips from snarling up over his fangs. "And you're supposed to ask for help!"

She shook the shock from her frame and scowled up at him. I'm pregnant, you dolt. Not handicapped!" She stormed past him. "Now get out of my way!"

Piccolo grabbed her wrist, and she spun on him, appalled. "I did this before without any assistance. And I'll do it again!"

"Last time you had Goku!"

She snorted. "What makes you think he was any help? That man wouldn't know someone was in trouble unless they had a machete sticking out of their head."

Without further ado, Piccolo yanked the basket from her with one hand.

"HEY!"

Then he bowed down and threw her bodily over his shoulder with the other, bracketing his arm across the back of her knees.

"What are you doing!" She screamed, her words muffled in the material of his cape.

"I'm taking you home." Just as he was about to ascend in the air, a big yellow truck rode by and stopped in front of the building where Chi Chi had purchased her goods. On it, in big sepia brown letters read 'The Goodwill'.

And the thing that had nagged at him earlier about the scene made itself manifest now. "Chi Chi…" he said, more disturbed than molested. "That place you were just at. It's a charity…"

She slugged his back with her fists as she tried to break free. "Of COURSE it's a charity, you numbskull! How else am I going to provide for my family? It's not like my husband ever bothered to get a job!"

That bothered him. It bothered him a lot, but he kept tight-lipped as he ascended into the air with the furious woman slung heftily over his shoulder.

"Dammit, Piccolo," she grunted. "This pressure can't be good for the baby, you know!"

He startled. His shoulder was digging into her gut, after all. He quickly shifted her to his front, positioning her against his chest with his forearm. She squirmed.

"This…isn't very...comfortable...either..."

"Then help me out and hold onto me, you obstinate female!" he reprimanded. "I've only got two hands and your basket is in my other one!"

Scowling, she did as he said, and clasped her hands securely behind his neck. It put her face awkwardly close to his, and he glared ahead, growing increasingly uncomfortable with her proximity.

After a minute of strained silence, he flicked a glance down only to see her staring up at him in scrutiny. Her mouth was still frowning, but her eyes were crinkled with amusement.

"What?" he growled.

A slight pause. "You," she mused. "You fight back."

He snorted. "I'm not Goku."

Piccolo half expected her to get emotional again, like the first day when he'd called her a beast. Instead, the smile in her eyes finally caught up to her mouth and she looked absently at the passing ground below. "No," she said. "You're definitely not Goku."

She'd never looked at him without that hard edge before. It caught Piccolo completely off guard, and he felt a flush begin to tinge his cheeks. Thank Kami they were already at the house. Landing softly on the grass, he plopped her down and dropped her basket.

He headed in the opposite direction of his training grounds with Gohan, and quick on the uptake, Chi Chi called him on it. "Hey! Where are you going?"

Piccolo paused and looked over his shoulder. "I'm going to run an 'errand'." With that, he hopped into the sky and shot towards his next destination.

Hercule City.

Hercule was busy hanging the most recent media poster of him in his trophy room, when the balcony doors burst open, sending shards of glass splintering across the floor.

He jumped back as a tall green fellow with pointed ears, and a white cape appeared in the room. The low-drawn brow was easily recognizable, as was everything else about him.

He was one of the fighters…the REAL fighters that destroyed Cell that fateful day seven weeks ago. It was a victory that had saved the world…a victory that Hercule had stolen from them and used to his own advantage.

"I'd heard you turned our win into a money pit, you slovenly coward," he grated in a deep, demonic voice. "But naming the city after yourself?"

"Oh…shit…" Hercule stumbled backwards, tripped and farted when his butt hit the floor. The green man grimaced, and snarled his disgust. Hercule continued to stammer. "Please don't kill me! No one saw how Cell was defeated, and I thought it w-w-would be a grand opportunity for my career-"

"You sit here living like a king while the real hero has to get his sustenance from a charity." The powerful fighter suddenly appeared at Hercule's side and lifted him up by his afro. "A charity!"

Hercule cried out in pain. "I'll give you whatever you want! I'll confess it wasn't me!"

"We don't want your fame, you pathetic weakling. You can keep that." He dropped him none-too-gently and Hercule rubbed his head vigorously where his hair had been ripped out. The mysterious warrior continued, "I was thinking more along the lines of a deal…a business deal."

Hercule timidly met the stranger's narrowed eyes, daring to believe for the first time since the warrior burst into his trophy room that he just might survive the encounter after all. "I…I'm sure that whatever it is," Hercule stammered stupidly, "Something can be arranged…"

Chi Chi was leaning over the sink, washing the dinner dishes when Piccolo swung open the front door. She turned around and frowned at him. She'd just put on a new yellow sundress, and shredded her heavy black clothes. But the last thing she wanted the egomaniac to think was that he'd influenced her decision to stop wearing widow's garb...

Even though he had.

"I was going to stop mourning around now, anyways. It was nothing you said," she huffed. "And just where have you been? I let Gohan go play with Icarus-"

Her words caught in her throat as he dropped a heavy, black duffle bag on the wooden table.

"What's that?" she asked, stepping away from the sink.

Without excuse or explanation, Piccolo turned to leave when she noticed a small metallic gizmo latched onto the Namek's belt.

Chi Chi choked. "Why, Piccolo… What on earth are you doing with a cell phone?"

He stopped in the doorframe, and said quietly without turning around, "The strongest being on the planet should not have to live off the charity of others." Then he looked over his shoulder and met her stare, his expression rueful, if not kind. "And neither should his mother."

With that he swooshed out, closing the door behind him. Stunned, Chi Chi turned her focus to the bag in front of her, clumsily struggling with its zipper until it peeled open. A small cry escaped her mouth.

It was full of money.