Author's Note: Whew! Finally all caught up! From now on you'll be waiting a little bit longer for chapters, unfortunately. :(

Frieza and his father spent only a few days there, and thankfully Kale was unbothered for almost the entirety of it. She saw little of Borea, but it was a fair enough trade-although seeing King Cold cooing over a baby had to be the number one oddity of it all. The women assured her that this was normal behavior for him, but it was still...

She shook the thought off as she stood in the landing bay. Frieza had strangely insisted on her being there, and as always, the order had been obeyed. She busied herself with reading over the discharge papers that the doctor had sent her for Borea. It included some warnings about keeping her temperature stable, something about the importance of scheduling feedings properly...all things that the women had happily been informing her of already.

"Hey, you know, he's not going to be here for at least half an hour," said the minion at the console, "You don't have to sit around waiting."

"I'd rather be early than a minute or two late. I think you know what he's like when you keep him waiting or aren't there when he wants you to be."

"Yeah...my brother got wasted a few years back...anyway-"

"Excuse me, I'm here to do a once-over of the area before Lord Frieza gets here." Ginyu appeared rather suddenly, and spoke evenly to the minion at the console, "Take a smoke break or something, I've just got to make sure you haven't put any bombs on the platform, or anything like that. I'll cover for you if he makes a complaint."

"Sure thing, Captain."

As Ginyu was checking through the commands in the console, he started talking again. "Kale, you told me a story a few days ago..."

"Yes, I did."

"...would you like to hear the other half of it?"

"The other half?"

"The knight's side." When she didn't interrupt or leave, he went on, still scrolling through menus and orders on the console. "The knight spent a long time comforting the slave-girl, to the point where he was afraid that his attention would become dangerous for her. Because..."

He sighed, and took a deep breath, steadying himself for what came next. "Because the knight had fallen in love with the slave-girl, and knew that if he spent much more time around her, something could happen. And that something could become known to the emperor, who would surely have had her killed. So he stabbed her with a blunted blade, doing the only thing he could to save her life."

"I can venture to say with confidence that she would rather have died."

Neither of them could find the words to say more.

Frieza entered the landing bay a few minutes later, spoke a word or two of farewell to her-with some hints about the time of his next visit-and boarded the ship. Ginyu followed soon after, and did not look back.

Frieza left, and once he did, the months seemed to pass quickly, like grains of sand slipping through my fingers.

Before I knew it, Borea was turning seven.

The child is a marvel, to be honest. She always wears a smile, always wants to be of help, and despite being so much smaller than the other women, and even me, never seems to have a problem with it. When her father does actually deign to visit her, she greets him with the same grins as everyone else. Then, of course, there's the matter of King Cold, and honestly-it brings a much needed laugh when I see her climbing up the back of his cape and his squirming to grab her before she reaches the top of his head and declares herself the winner.

I'm really not sure what I would do without her. There are so many nights that just thinking of her saves my life.

But as I write this, I've looked in the mirror, and the thought occurs to me...

Has it really been over a decade-I know it's more, but I refuse to count exact years-I've had to suffer him?

Has it?

The time isn't even what scares me the most. Those years...I could almost get through this, if it weren't for being afraid of the next time-because every time I have a lengthy absence from him, I begin to heal. I begin to grasp the meaning of what I lost, and then I try to look forward to the future, or perhaps find a way off-planet, just long enough...

And that's always when he visits.

"Mama, why hasn't he come out yet?"

Borea stood impatiently beside Kale, holding her hand, and waiting as the ship continued to just sit there.

"He's just waiting for all the procedures to be finished. You know he's very important, and they want to be sure no one's trying to hurt him."

"No one can hurt papa," the child said proudly, "He should hurry up and come on out."

"Just be patient, he's-"

"There he is!"

Frieza was emerging from the ship in his hoverchair, and Borea was practically bouncing by the time he made his way over to them.

"Papa, why'd they take so long? I wanted to see you, and mama said they were checking for in case someone was trying to hurt you-"

"No one can hurt me."

"Then why do you let them do the checks and all that?"

"Because it's easier to travel in a ship that hasn't been blown up, child."

"Ohhh, okay."

"Has your mother been behaving herself?"

"Mmhmm."

"Good." He glanced briefly at Kale as he passed, and as had become the custom, the two of them followed him out to the overlarge courtyard.

"I've been getting stronger, papa," Borea piped up.

"Oh? I suppose your mother has told you about your saiyan blood, then?"

"Is it because of that that I want to be strong?"

"You...could say that."

The conversation moved on. Frieza asked after a lot of things that Borea had done, or would be doing. Kale, on his other side, could only cringe at the excitement in Borea's voice.

Well, he certainly must ensure that he is her favorite.

After an hour or two's walk, Frieza asked one final question.

"I imagine you're hungry, aren't you, Borea?"

There was a pause as she considered the belly that she had forgotten was growling. "Uh-huh..."

"Why don't you go and eat with your mother's friends, then. We have a few things to discuss. No need to worry, we'll be along in a couple of hours."

"Aww, I wanted to eat with both of you!"

"No, no, you know the rules."

"Grown-up time. I know." She pouted briefly, but ran off.

Once she was out of earshot, Frieza turned the hoverchair around and headed back for the station. "Children and their endless questions. I can't imagine the bother she must put you through."

"It isn't...as bad as you might think. She just has more questions for you since you're here so rarely."

"Perhaps I should visit more often."

"You must have better things to do."

"More pressing matters, on some occasions. But my schedule has cleared up of late, you know. I could simply spend a few weeks here...or bring the both of you along with me. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Give the child the feeling of a proper family?"

"I'm sure she would love to have that."

His eyes narrowed briefly, but he said nothing more until they were in his quarters.

"There's something I think you need to understand," he growled, his tone having shifted to ice.

Borea had certainly intended to go and have lunch with the women, but on her return to the kitchens, found that they weren't there. Maybe they'd gone shopping? It was all the reason she needed to turn around and head back, though. If they weren't there, her father could hardly blame her for coming back and wanting to have lunch with him, and with her mother. Could he?

She was practically skipping down the minion-less hallway and was about to tap the door-panel to enter Frieza's quarters when there was a sudden THUMP from the other side of the door.

She put her ear to the door, curious.

"I ask so little of you," came her father's muffled voice, "So very little. And you can't even show simple courtesy in return for all I've given you."

"I can't keep doing this!" came her mother's voice-almost clear as a bell. Was she standing just behind the door? "I can't keep pretending this is all normal!"

"You will keep doing whatever I tell you to do." There was the sound of footsteps, and then a strangled gasp.

And then the sound of a fist meeting flesh.

"How many times must we go through this? I don't enjoy doing this. Yet you keep making me. You refuse to be even the slightest bit grateful."

"Grateful for what?!"

Again, the sound of a fist meeting flesh, but this time, it was accompanied by a cry of pain.

"Who paid for the clothes on your back? The food on your plate? The wine in that glass of yours? WHO?!"

Fist. Cry.

"ANSWER ME!"

"Y..."

Borea kept listening, unable to tear her attention away, as her mother's voice sounded off again. It was tearful, it was afraid...

...it was everything she had never heard from her mother when her father was around before...

"You."

"Exactly. Exactly. Do I ask much in return, however? Do I really require so much of you that you can't give?"

Choked sobs.

"I expect an answer."

"N...no. I'm...I'm sorry."

"No, you aren't."

It was a dark and unforgiving tone. The kind of voice she imagined he used when he was putting down those disobedient minions he always talked about.

"Not yet."

"Please, don't..."

"Don't what? Hit you again? There are far better ways for me to hurt you than that."

"W...what are you...?"

"Maybe I should simply take her, instead of the two of you...perhaps send her off...a proper education is completely necessary for one of my children, legitimate or not."

"No! You-please don't, please, just-"

"Kale, Kale, Kale...begging just doesn't become you..."

There was a pause, and Borea heard a ragged breath from the other side of the door.

"W-what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to give you one last chance. Defy me again in even the slightest way, do anything, anything to challenge me...and you-"

There was a yelp.

"...and you will never see her again. Is that understood?""

"Y-yes..."

"Good girl."

Kuriza was right...

Papa's a bad man. He took mama away for a week or two, and she came back...different. She still loves me. She says it all the time.

But...she doesn't smile like she used to.

And she cries at night...

She thinks that I'm sleeping, that I can't hear her.

But I can.