This Chapter is brought to you by ShadowMajin
This wasn't home. That was the first thought that went through Gohan's head as he stood in front of a house he had never seen before. Why would Daddy bring him here and not home? Was Mommy here too?
Gohan clutched his father's leg as he took in the sight of the cement steps leading up to a wooden door. The housefront was made entirely out of dark wood panels with a couple of windows placed at an equal distance on either side of the door. It looked lonely and nothing like what a home was.
His father's hand then touched his head and gave him a comforting rub. "Here we are, Gohan. Our new home," he said as he too stared at the house.
Gohan tilted his head up, Daddy's hand still resting on his head. "What about our old home? Where's Mommy?"
His father looked down at him and immediately Gohan felt scared. He didn't like the look Daddy was giving him.
Daddy let out a sigh before he knelt down before the young boy, placing both of his hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Gohan, but something… Mommy isn't coming."
"What! Why?!" Gohan cried out with alarm.
"There was… your mom had to go somewhere else. It's very far away and she can't be with us right now. So it's just the two of us for now."
Tears welled up before Gohan's eyes as he sniveled. "But I want my mommy."
"Hey, don't cry," Daddy said, lifting one of his hands up and wiping away the gathered tears with a finger. "Everything is going to be alright, okay? We have to be strong. Mommy would have wanted it that way."
The boy hiccuped as he moved forward, pressing his face into his father's chest. "Okay," he whimpered.
Gohan opened his eyes. Everything around him was dark. There was something heavy on top of him and something soft beneath. For a moment, he was confused until he remembered what had just occurred minutes earlier. He had been running out of Flappe's house, Videl in his arms, when a guy outside of the house blew it up. That meant the soft thing under him had to be Videl and the heavy thing was what was left of the house.
The young man's first instinct was to get out of there, but that was quickly crushed. There was no telling if that man was still up there. He could still remember the sight of the man who had done this. The dark suit, the hair, the way he carried himself—he was a man that didn't care for appearance, that was for sure. He wasn't afraid of making spectacles in order to get his job done. Piccolo and Hatchi had at least tried to limit the publicity of their attacks unless there was no other option. This did not bode well.
It was awhile before he began picking out faint noises. If he wasn't mistaken, they sounded like people. More than one person meant that people in the neighborhood were close by, which could mean the assassin had left. Taking that as a good sign, he began pushing up, trying to move whatever was on top of him.
At first nothing happened. Relaxing himself, Gohan then pushed up again, harder this time. That time it felt like something shifted. Steeling his face, the young man began to repeatedly relax and slam his body up. It took several of those blows, but ultimately the piece of house on top of him was pushed off and landed off to a side with a loud crash, letting in a flood of cool, fresh air.
Immediately, Gohan closed his eyes due to the sudden glare of the sun. The light was too bright and for several moments, the young man stood there, slowly opening and closing his eyes until they were adjusted. Once they were, he began looking around him.
The house was nothing more than a pile of debris. Pieces of wood, sheetrock, and aluminum littered the neighborhood, though most of it was concentrated in the hole that once had been the basement. The front and backyards were barely visible due to the wreckage and bystanders staring at the mess. There were a few people digging through the mess, looking for survivors, though nothing seemed forthcoming.
Gohan found himself standing somewhere that used to be the backyard. A quick look to his person showed he had clearly seen better days, but at most he had scratches on his skin and dirty clothes.
Shaking his head to clear it, Gohan glanced around him to make sure there were no other threats around. He did not need to be attacked so suddenly after just surviving an explosion. Seeing that nothing hostile was eminent, the dark-haired youth looked down to Videl to make sure she was alright and grimaced.
Below him, the young woman had gathered herself into the fetal position, her face twisted in pain and eyes shut tight. There was a small pool of blood gathering beneath her, but due to her being on her side, Gohan couldn't tell what the source of it was.
Cautiously, the young man touched the dark-haired woman's shoulder, receiving a whimper in return. Faintly, Gohan could hear people calling out to him, but he was completely focused on Videl. Slowly, he began moving around her until he was facing her back. Lowering himself towards her, he moved one of his hands to her skyward shoulder and the other towards her legs. "Videl," he said softly to her ear. "I need to move you."
Gohan wasn't sure if she heard him or not since she didn't give a response. Doing his best to not cause her additional pain, he nudged her shoulder towards him, causing her body to turn towards him. A weak cry tore from her lips as her back touched the ground, something that made Gohan wince. Though he didn't like hearing her moan, he at least had a better look at her injury, finding a large shard of glass protruding from her abdomen.
Gohan wasn't a doctor by any stretch, but he knew that was not a good thing. He also knew that if he tried to remove it, he could cause more damage than simply leaving it in. Regardless, Videl needed medical attention or she was going to die.
Steeling his features, Gohan forced his hands and arms underneath the woman's body—one beneath her back and the other below her knees—and lifted her off the ground. Another pain-wracked gasp came from Videl, but this time the young man ignored her. Standing on his feet, he turned towards the street and began walking towards it, finding several people staring at him from the sidewalk and a couple of middle-aged men stumbling through the wreckage as they tried to get to him.
"Hey man, are you alright?" the closest one called out to him. Gohan merely ignored him as he marched over the broken pieces of wood and sheetrock. "Hey! Can you hear…" the man tried again, trailing off this time. He must've seen Videl in his arms and the large bloodstain on her shirt. "Oh Lord, she needs help."
Yeah, no kidding. Reaching the street, Gohan headed for Videl's car, which was beat to hell from piece of debris. There were even clumps of bricks lying on top of the vehicle. Knowing his luck, the car wouldn't be operational, which was not what he needed at the moment. Paying them no mind, Gohan walked around the car and reached the rear driver's side door. However, before he could even think of how to open it, one of the bystanders immediately appeared next to him and opened the door for him. Nodding his head in thanks, he maneuvered himself to fit Videl on the back seat, all the while hearing her hiss of pain. Once he had her down, he rummaged a hand in her pockets one at a time until he found the car keys.
As he leaned out of the car, the young man paused as he stared down on Videl's frail form. "Don't worry, Videl," he said in his most reassuring voice. "I'm getting you help, so just hang on a little longer."
Closing the door, Gohan moved to the driver's door and opened it. Before he could climb into the seat though, a voice in the house wreckage shouted out "We found someone!" A small silence followed before "I… I don't think he made it."
Gohan closed his eyes for a moment. Flappe was dead. Just great. Opening his eyelids, determination shown from his eyes. He wasn't going to let there be two victims this day. Sitting down in the driver's seat, he slammed the door behind him and stuck the car key into the ignition. With a turn, the engine roared to life, relieving the young man. That was one thing helping him out.
As the sound of sirens wailed in the distance, Gohan put the car into drive and hit the gas pedal.
"Excuse me, young man. Are you the one that brought in that woman with the glass?"
Gohan looked up from the tiled floor and at a rather tall, older man. The man was groomed from his combed white hair to his bushy white mustache. The white coat hanging over his dress shirt and pants signified he was a doctor, though what his name was the dark-haired youth didn't know since he couldn't see a name tag. "Yes, I am," he answered.
The doctor held out a clipboard in front of him and read what was on it through his eyeglasses. "It was a good thing you got her here when you did. Any later and she would have bled out. The glass didn't puncture any organs, so that was fortunate. We're expecting a full recovery."
A weight lifted from Gohan's shoulders. Considering everything that had happened to him so far, he had half expected Videl to die as well. It didn't really help that he had been in a hospital lobby filled with other hurt patients. "Thank you. Thank you very much."
The doctor gave him a kind smile. "You're welcome. Just make sure she gets plenty of rest. It's advisable she doesn't do any strenuous exercise for the time being."
"Yes, of course. When can she leave?"
"It would be best if she stayed here for a few days. We'd like to keep her here for observation."
Gohan nodded his head. "Okay, whatever you think is best."
The doctor turned his attention to the clipboard and pulled out a pen. A scratching sound was made as he wrote something down on the form there. When he raised his head, he asked "May I ask what your relationship is to the young woman?"
Gohan blinked his eyes owlishly at that. "What do you need that for?"
"For our records," the older man answered. "This is her first visit to Orange Star Hospital, so we don't have any information on her. No prior medical history or emergency contacts and the like."
"Oh, I see. Umm, I'm a—"
A loud, screeching wail rang out in the room, causing Gohan to stop what he was saying to search for the source and finding a little baby. Staring at it distractedly, the young man heard the doctor ask something, to which he replied "Yeah, sure."
"Alright, so if you would just write down your name and the best way to contact you, we'll update her record." Glancing back, Gohan found the doctor holding out the clipboard and pen. Taking the items, the youth stared at the form on the clipboard, finding several lines with writing above them, small boxes with words next to them—most of the boxes being blank while a few had X's marked through them. Towards the bottom there were two blank lines under a subheading EMERGENCY CONTACT. Gohan quickly wrote down his name and a phone number, a part of him wondering where his cell phone was currently. He was gonna have to get it replaced eventually.
As he handed back the clipboard and pen, the doctor said "Thank you very much. If you would like to see your girlfriend, she's in Room #194. She's being medicated at the moment, so I can't guarantee you that she'll be awake."
And with that, the doctor walked off, leaving Gohan to stare after him. Girlfriend? Where did he get that impression? Shaking his head, the young man began making his way out of the lobby and into the hospital hallways. The least he could do is check up on Videl before he left.
It wasn't long before the dark-haired youth found himself standing in the doorway of Videl's room. It was a plain room with a bed, table, chair, and various medical equipment. Videl was lying on the bed, buried in a thick blanket. You wouldn't be able to tell she was wearing a hospital gown if it weren't for her arms being on top of the comforter. There was a paper wristband around her wrist to identify her.
Slowly, he began approaching her, the steady beeps of the heart monitor filling his ears. The closer he got, the more of her he saw, such as the oxygen tube feeding her air into her nose. Her eyes were closed, so he assumed she was asleep. That thought was dispelled when her face frowned and she made a groaning sound.
Weakly, her eyes opened, though they remained in a squint. Videl seemed disoriented for a moment, completely lost as to where she was until she found Gohan standing a few feet away. She tried to say something, but mumbled sounds were the only thing that came out.
Glancing to the chair, and finding it next to the bed, Gohan took a seat in it and stared at Videl as she craned her head to keep looking at him. "Don't worry, you're in a safe place," he said soothingly, trying to placate the woman.
"Wha… what happened?" she finally managed to say.
"We were attacked," Gohan replied simply. "Flappe's dead and the only thing left of his house is a crater. We were lucky enough to be blown out a window, but you ended up having a large piece of glass in your stomach."
"Is that why… I hurt?" Videl said weakly. Turning her head to look towards the roof, she added "I feel like crap."
"It could be the painkillers. The doctor said they were doping you."
Videl merely grunted at that. "Generics. Too cheap for… morphine."
The young man gave a wry smile. This was a bit awkward for him. It wasn't often he visited a person in a hospital, much less someone he hardly knew, so he had no idea how one was supposed to act in this kind of situation. Feeling it would be best to make his exit, he pushed himself up and turned to leave.
"Where are you going?"
Gohan came to a stop and looked over his shoulder. He found the dark-haired woman looking at him, her eyelids higher than they had been previously. "There's work that needs to be done."
Videl seemed to know what he was talking about instantly. "No… you can't. She winced as she tried to sit up, giving up a few moments later as she figured out she wouldn't be getting up. "It's too dangerous. Not on your own."
The young man shook his head in the negative. "No choice. You're hurt and can't move. And we can't just sit here until you're better."
"But you'll be killed!" Videl's voice was stronger, but fortunately not loud enough for the people in the hall to hear.
Gohan diverted his eyes. He was silent for a moment before he said "No, I don't think so."
"You don't know these people like I do. They're not going to let you just stroll up to them and talk. They want your head!"
"You're right, talking is useless." Looking back at the young woman, Gohan could see his comment caught her off guard. "This is going to end, one way or another."
Videl's eyes were their widest yet. "You're… you're going after them," she said softly as realization dawned on her. Then a desperate look appeared on his face. "No, you can't! Not alone!"
"Can't be helped. You need to get your rest now." Gohan was very tempted to walk out of that room right then and there. However, as he stared at Videl, a thought entered his head. Since this might be the last chance he'd get, there was no point in ignoring it. Fully facing the young woman, Gohan strode over to her, Videl tilting her head up to follow him. Once he stood over her, be bent down and kissed her. It only lasted for a second—or longer, he wasn't keeping count—and Videl didn't respond. Once he had his fill, Gohan pulled away and looked at the girl, seeing her staring at him stunned, probably the reason why she hadn't responded. "Goodbye, Videl," he whispered softly to her before straightening out his posture and turning to walk away.
"Please, don't leave," he heard Videl say—no beg behind him. There was a touch of desperation in her voice, not something he was used to hearing. "You don't have to do this. Don't go, please."
Gohan didn't give her a reply, just simply moved his legs forwards as he made his way out of the room.
The desperation disappeared from Videl's voice then, being replaced by something the young man couldn't quite describe. "I'll find you."
That made Gohan stop once more. Again, he looked over his shoulder and towards Videl, taking in the sight of her for the last time. "A part of me hopes you do."
And with that, he left the room. Behind him, he continued to her Videl shout at him, her voice growing louder with every word. "I'll find you, you hear me? I'll find you!"