*Chapter 25: A chat with Gohan*

Standing on the Son's front porch, Trunks had no idea what he was going to say, but at this point he had nothing to lose, and his natural sense of order made him want to put Pan's life back together, even if she and the baby were thousands miles who knew where and she hadn't texted him a single word in more than several weeks, and probably wouldn't appreciate him butting into her family business, especially since he was just a friend. Maybe he simply missed her, and talking to her parents was the next best thing to being with her.

Bulma thought it was a lousy idea. "You really shouldn't meddle, dear. Pan will deal with her folks when she's good and ready," Bulma scolded gently.

"Mom, really? You're always sticking your nose in other people's business, trying to fix things." Of all people, Trunks had thought his mom would understand what he was trying to do and support him.

"I know, Trunks, the pot calling the kettle black and all that, but I'm trying to control those urges myself, and I don't want you to spend your life trying to solve people's problems when you have plenty of your own issues to work on."

"But I am working on mine. If Pan makes up with her parents, she'll be able to focus on her relationship with me…maybe." Needing his mother to put her seal of approval on his idea, Trunks argued his case. "Anyway, doing nothing is making me antsy."

"I don't know about that. But if you do decide to go over there, keep your guard up. Gohan and Videl have gotten a little nutty, who knows what Gohan might do to you," Bulma said clearly worried for her only son. Pan's parents had really become unstable in the last year, and Bulma was scared if Gohan was angered enough, he could really hurt Trunks.

Now Trunks tried to peek through the gap between the drawn curtains. It didn't look like anyone was at home. Suddenly a rush of footsteps was getting louder, and Gohan threw open the front door. Bulma was right—Gohan looked like a lunatic, his hair was standing in every direction, making him look like a mad scientist. His shirt half-untucked.

"Yes?" Gohan's eyes widen when he saw who it was and instantly regretted opening the door without looking through the peephole. "Trunks...? What are…? I don't have time for this."

Before Gohan could slam the door, Trunks stepped forward to block it. "I need to you Gohan."

Gohan stared at Trunks. He had gotten back late that night before from South City, and he was too wiped out to think clearly. Spending the last two month going from lecture to lecture in various colleges, he hadn't had a conversation that wasn't work-related since early March. "What do you want, Trunks?" Not in the mood to waste his precious time playing guessing games with Bulma's kid, Gohan took a deep breath and waited. Trunks had five seconds to state his case.

"I've come to talk to you about Pan, sir," Trunks said putting his respectful face on. He hoped someday that he would be asking Gohan for his permission to marry his daughter—assuming Pan ever spoke to them again, and assuming he could somehow figure out how to make her fall in love with him—Trunks wanted to stay on Gohan's good side.

Gohan just stood there, eyebrows arched. The fatigue was overwhelming; his brain was struggling to understand what Trunks was taking about. "Is she okay? Did something happen?"

So lost in his own little world, and so determined to block out his daughter's inappropriate behavior, he hadn't been keeping track of the calendar. Why wasn't Videl here to help him with this? The day before he'd left for South City, Videl had gone to North-West City to stay with her old friend, Erasa, who was recovering from major surgery after a bad car accident. She had called the hospital in Satan City where she worked at and said she was taking a leave of absence, and that was it. A year ago at this time they were the ideal family, and he had no idea how to fix things.

"She's gone, Gohan," Trunks answered.

Before Trunks realized that the word gone could be interpreted in multiple ways, Gohan fell to his knees, gasping for air, tears coming down freely. "Omigod! She's dead!" Gohan gasped out before he started breaking down. He couldn't believe it, his daughter was dead, gone forever and there was no going back, he would never see his little girl again.

"No, Gohan. I'm sorry. I didn't mean…Pan is fine. She's not dead. She just went away with the baby after he was born."

"W-what?" Gohan asked looking up, "She's alive? Trunks, you really should be more careful about your wording. I nearly had a heart attack." Only when Gohan believed he might have lost his precious baby girl did he realize how much he loved her. It was hard to imagine how he had gotten to this point where the only information he had about his only child was being provided by his little brother's best friend. "Is the baby healthy?" Gohan lay back on the floor and stared at the ceiling, trying to slow his galloping heart, letting the blood return to swirling brain.

"Pan is well. She had a little boy. His name is Goku Jr. and he really dose look like his name's sake, except he's got really dark blue eyes. I have a picture of him I took a few months ago, if you'd like to see, and Pan went away somewhere, I have no idea where. She said she needed to get away from here for a while." Surprised and relived that not only hadn't Gohan done anything that could be consider insane, but that he seemed truly interested in and concerned about Pan and the baby. Trunks waited for the information to sink into Gohan's shocked system.

"He really dose look like my father," Gohan said, he had taken the picture Trunks had handed to him and looked at the smiling face of Goku Jr. in his crib, his tail lazily resting at his side, toys displayed at the corner, and a Cat in the Hat book by his feet. This is really my grandson? I can't believe it. Gohan thought as he handed Trunks the picture back. "Wait, you said Pan went away with the baby? What about finishing high school? How will she graduate if she's who knows where out there?"

"She already took the GED. She's very responsible." Maybe not totally true, since she had gotten pregnant, but except for that single mishap, Pan was the most together girl Trunks had ever met. "Your daughter is an amazing person, Gohan, but you already know that."

Gohan grunted. Of course Pan was amazing—she was his daughter. Suddenly it occurred to Gohan that Trunks might be more than just a friend. Had Pan sent her new boyfriend over to see which way the wind was blowing? Noting the ten-thousand-dollar driver's watch, the Cole Haan loafers and not to mention the fact that he was the heir of the Capsule Corporation, Gohan had to admit that Trunks seemed far more capable of taking care of Pan than the teenage Casanova who had talked her out of her virginity in the back of his truck and then disappeared like Houdini.

"Dose Pan know you're here, Trunks?"

"No, sir, she would be furious with me if she knew I was here, but I just thought you would want to know how she and the baby were doing. I know this whole situation has been really hard on her, and I imagine it's been the same for you."

Trying to diplomatic, trying to win this man's trust, Trunks didn't give a shit about Gohan's emotional state. Anybody who could kick his daughter out of the house, and not only not go after her but continue to reject her for the better part of a year, had to be one missed, fucked up father.

Not knowing how to respond to that, Gohan said, "Videl is out of town. I don't know when she'll be back."

As soon as Trunks left, Gohan was going to call Videl. It was time to put aside their Plans A-Z and finally do something to fix their capsize ship of a family. Goten had warned him this day would come, the day he would regret everything he did in hurting Pan and boy was it crashing down on him. Even his father had force his way into it and tried to reason with him about forgiving Pan, telling him that she had done nothing wrong but bring another life into the world and if that was really a crime punishable by rejecting his only child his love. He had lashed out at his father and told some very hurtful things about how Goku had never really been there for him and that he had abandoned him mutable times as a child. But Gohan regretted saying that the moment he said it. He knew his father never tried to leave him or his mother on purpose. Goten and his father were right about everything and he'd come to realize it. Things were out of hand, and he and Videl were the ones who needed to set things right between them and Pan.

"Pan and the baby are supposed to be coming home sometime in the next couple of weeks." That would give Pan's parents plenty of time to work out a plan to mend the mile-wide rift between them. Gohan's tears had spoken volumes, as long as he could hang onto that emotion now that he knew Pan was neither dead nor in danger.

"Videl will certainly be home by then. By the way," Gohan said as he got to his feet, "Where did Pan decide to go to college?" How odd it felt to be so uninformed about such an important decision.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me," Trunks said.

Definitely not the boyfriend then, Gohan thought. Pan wouldn't keep that information a secret if she loved Trunks. "Oh, I see. Well, thank you for stopping by, Trunks. Is there a way to get in touch with Pan?"

When Videl got home, they were going to have to come up with a way to say how sorry they were, maybe even outright beg Pan for her forgiveness.

"I don't think so, she said she wouldn't be answering calls or text messages while she was out there, saying she needed that time to think and get things straighten out for herself before talking to everyone again."

"Make sense." Gohan opened the front door. "It was nice to see you, Trunks. Send my regards to your mother for me."

"Nice to see you too, Gohan. I'll tell my mom you said hi." Trunks could barely keep a straight face until he was down the driveway and in his car. Sending his regards to the woman he had threaten to charge with trespassing after she demanded that he put Pan back in the insurance policy? Gohan definitely had a few screws loose, but he seemed pretty harmless, and he sounded like he was ready to repair his broken family. Maybe there could be a happy ending to Pan's story, and his.

Next chapter Pan comes back and tells Trunks everything.