Lindsey felt like she'd been hit in the stomach with a sledge hammer. "What? What do you mean?"
"Well," Catie started nervously, "Leelee and Seventeen are going on that big trip."
Lindsey nodded, "Yeah I know about that."
"And, well, Trunks and I have decided that we'd like to go visit my family," Catie said. "Maybe spend the summer on the west coast."
"The summer?" Lindsey gasped. "But, that's like another eight months from now before summer ends. It's only New Years!"
Catie nodded, looking apologetic. "I know."
Lindsey was feeling panicked and slightly angry. "But… but…" she stammered. She rounded on Sabriena. "What about you?"
Sabriena chewed the corner of her mouth for a second. "I'm staying here."
"Really?" Lindsey asked, looking like she was going to deflate.
"I didn't enjoy Japan," Sabriena answered. "I really like it here."
"Jenny," Lindsey said, turning to her. Jenny was cradling Paige in her arms. "You…"
"I'll be there," Jenny nodded. "We're leaving first thing in the morning, too."
Lindsey heaved a sigh of relief. She turned to the other three girls. "This feels like an eternity."
"Nah," Leelee answered. "We'll be back in Japan to annoy you before you know it."
Lindsey swallowed a hard lump in her throat, then stepped forward to hug her friends. Gohan had been shaking hands with his groomsmen, saying goodbye. Then he turned to the bridesmaids as Lindsey stepped towards Piccolo, Seventeen and Trunks.
"So I guess this is goodbye for now, huh?" Gohan asked.
Catie nodded, tears starting to brim in her eyes.
"Hey, don't be sad," Gohan said, stepping forward and wrapping Catie in a tight hug. "We'll all be together again soon."
She pressed her face against his chest, nodding and trying not to cry on him.
"Thanks for being with us," Lindsey said.
"Wouldn't have missed this for the world," Seventeen answered, a gleam in his eyes. "And it doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon, with or without you guys."
Lindsey gave Seventeen a quick hug and turned to Trunks. "And you…"
He held his hands up innocently, "Everything was Kolya's idea."
"You know, you won't always be able to blame everything on Kolya," she teased.
"I'm really happy for you guys," Trunks said and gave her a long hug. "I promise, we'll come back home soon. Okay?"
Lindsey nodded and turned to Piccolo. A sudden thought struck her. "You know, I don't know if I ever said this to you, but thank you."
"For what?" he asked. He really hadn't participated in much of the wedding, other than simply being present.
"You were the first who tried to save me from myself," she answered quietly. "I really do owe you something for that."
"No," Piccolo answered. "We're even. You held my hand when I thought Jenny was dying and I couldn't do anything for her. I think we're square."
Lindsey nodded and hesitated for a moment, then hugged Piccolo tightly. "Take care of those girls while I'm away."
"I will," he promised.
She released him and smiled up at him.
"Ready to go?" Gohan asked.
"Just a minute," Lindsey said, looking upwards at the balcony that surrounded the great room. "I have to say goodbye to someone else first."
Tapping nervously on the door, Lindsey creaked it open, despite the fact that no one had bid her enter. Yorgi looked up from his desk, looking absolutely miserable. A full, unopened bottle of vodka sat next to a glass of half-melted ice. "Little Dove," he said slowly.
"Yorgi," she whispered and knelt next to him.
"Don't leave," he said quietly.
She searched his face, finally capturing his eyes, which looked tired and sad. She touched his cheeks as she stared at him. "I have to," she answered in a soft tone.
He heaved a sigh, leaning his face into the soft touch of her hands.
"I owe you so much," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "You have been everything to me for so long. But I just can't stay here. It's not you, Yorgi. It's this place. Too many bad memories."
He nodded. "I know." He sniffed and rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand. "You haff always been more than my employee, Little Dove. Since the first day you came to me…"
"I know," she answered. She'd been lost for two years without a father when she found Yorgi. She had been full of fire and anger and wildness – he channeled that into something he could use and teach and form. At the time, she had become the youngest member of Anarchy 99. He'd watched her grow over the past few years, gave her everything money could buy, and would have bought more had she only asked. But he understood now. It wasn't money that she needed. And it angered him that the one thing she needed most was the one thing he couldn't buy for her.
He reached and took her hands in his, removing them from his face, and held them in his lap. "You are always welcome here."
Tears brimmed in her eyes as she stared at him. She was starting to doubt returning to Japan. She felt that she was needed here, with Yorgi, bad memories be damned. She'd lost her father; could she just freely walk away from the man who had taken her in? Deep down, she knew Yorgi was bad news, knew his empire would fall one day, but behind it all, behind the cold exterior, there was a certain vulnerability that pulled at her heart.
"I love you," she whispered to him.
Yorgi looked at her as if the words were foreign to him. How long had it been since someone had said that to him? He swallowed and nodded, not able to express the same to her.
"Lins?" Gohan asked, sticking his head in the room. He spotted her and stepped fully into the room. "Everything okay?"
A tear slid from her eye as she looked from her husband to Yorgi. Yorgi drew a long breath through his nose, then got to his feet, pulling Lindsey up with him. He did not release her hands. "Come," he said to Gohan.
Gohan stepped closer to them, his dark eyes meeting Yorgi's nearly bloodshot hazel ones. Yorgi dropped Lindsey's right hand and took one of Gohan's. "I give you my Little Dove," he said, placing Lindsey's hand in Gohans, then placing both of his hands around theirs. A knot was forming in his throat. "You take care of her." He squeezed their hands tightly, staring intently at Gohan and blinking several times, his jaw clenched.
"Always," Gohan promised sincerely, keeping his eyes level with Yorgi's. They stared hard at each other for a long moment, as if sealing the promise between them.
Yorgi gave one sharp nod, then slowly released their hands. He turned back to his desk, slowly unscrewing the top to the vodka bottle. Gohan and Lindsey walked to the door, but she hesitated on the threshold and looked back at Yorgi. He looked positively miserable, staring at the desk top. Steeling herself, she hitched up her skirt and ran back to him, thudding against his chest, hugging him tightly. He stared down at her for a moment, then melted into the hug. He realized in that moment that Kolya was not the only one unafraid of him. It had never been fear that tethered Lindsey to him. And that realization made it hurt ten times as much.
"Never lose this," he said softly against her ear. "This compassion you have for people. You are a rare thing, Little Dove. Stay this way forever."
She nodded, squeezed him tighter than ever, and without another word, released him and disappeared through the door with Gohan.
They walked silently down the hallway, hand-in-hand. It all seemed very surreal in that moment. This would be the last time they walked this hall, the last time they were in this house. Lindsey blinked back bittersweet tears. She wanted out of this life, to escape all the bad memories and poor decisions that had happened here. But it hadn't always been bad. In fact, there were lots of happy memories here too. They played in her mind as she walked the halls. The memory of Kolya rolling off the bed in laughter about fish drowning. Trunks dragging Seventeen into a closet during a game of hide and seek. She and the girls sitting on her bed, screaming at the tops of their lungs over a huge pile of cash. Viktor teaching her dirty words in Russian. Tumbler and Kip setting a booby trap for Kirill that ended in him covered in a bucket of pudding. Dancing with Sophie and Sam and Danica and all the other girls in Anarchy 99. She and Xander jumping and screaming like idiots when they repaired his car. Yelena fastening a black diamond necklace around Lindsey's throat. Memphis showing her the proper way to hotwire a mustang. Yorgi smiling at her and calling her "Little Dove" in his heavy Russian accent.
"You okay?" Gohan asked softly.
She nodded. "I'm fine."
"We don't have to go if you don't want to," he said.
"Yes, we do," she answered. "I'm ready."
"There's one more person to say goodbye to," Gohan told her.
Lindsey looked at him, her eyes questioning.
Gohan stopped outside a bedroom door and knocked.
"Yeah?" came a deep voice.
Gohan opened the door to an electric blue walled room. "Do it properly," Gohan told her. "I'm going to go get our bags."
Xander was sitting on the end of his bed. He'd changed from his suit back into his favorite red, black, and silver pants and a sleeveless black shirt. A cover of "The One that Got Away" was playing from his computer. He looked up at her.
"You look really beautiful," he told her.
She walked to him. "We're getting ready to go."
"I know," he answered, looking back to his boots.
They stayed that way for a moment, each lost in their thoughts, the slow, sad version of the song playing over the computer speakers.
She laughed suddenly. "You know, I think I danced with every person here except you."
He snorted softly. "Yeah, well, I didn't want to make you look bad."
"Oh, that's just silly," she said, reaching for his hands. "May I have this dance?"
He looked up at her. "Oh stop, you're making me blush." But he got to his feet, taking her left hand in his right, resting the other hand on her waist. Her fingers wrapped around his tattooed bicep; his arm trembled slightly.
The pretty soprano voice of the unknown singer rang out over the speakers.
"In another life,
I would be your girl,
We'd keep all our promises,
Be us against the world."
They revolved slowly on the spot; Xander never had been one for slow dances. He knew she wasn't his anymore. He'd known that for a long time now. But they had a long, intense history together and that isn't something you just walk away from.
They'd both come to Anarchy 99, lost and needing something that was missing in their lives. They found that in each other, in their friends, and in Yorgi. There had been a point in their lives where they had been inseparable. Young and stupid, they both threw themselves into a relationship neither had been prepared to handle. It had been rocky and overwhelming, both of their personalities too big for the other to contain. They were too stubborn, too selfish, too naïve for it to have ever worked. But when it was good, it was the best. They could work side-by-side, practically reading each other's minds, knowing the other's next move or word or impulse. No one could pull a boost as quickly and flawlessly as they could, each a shadow of the other as they worked. No one could fuel and tame Xander's temper as easily as she could; no one could pull her head out of the clouds and set her straight without damaging her ego like Xander. Maybe it could have worked, Xander wondered, if they both hadn't been such hotheads.
A man's voice sang the next lines.
"In other life,
I would make you stay,
So I don't have to say
You were the one that got away
The one that got away."
He knew he wouldn't see her again after this. This was it. The ride was over, the crash and burn after the big rush. He was going to have to move on to the next stunt, the next thrill and walk away from this one. Not everything always worked out the way you wanted it to. But there was a calm peacefulness about it. He knew she was safe. And she was happy. Now all he had to do was find the thing that gave him that same contentedness.
The final notes to the song played and drifted to a stop.
"The limo's waiting for us," Gohan said, stepping into the room.
Lindsey nodded to him.
"I guess this is it, huh?" Xander asked.
"Yeah," she answered.
"Gohan…"
"I'll take care of her," Gohan answered.
Xander shook his head. "Naw, I was gonna say, I still hate you." But Xander smiled as he said it.
Gohan laughed. "Hate you too, bro."
They stared at each other, both with a slightly amused look on their faces at annoying each other. Lindsey looked from Xander to Gohan several times, then finally threw her hands in the air. "Will the two of you ever stop it?!"
"No," they answered together.
She shook her head, her shoulders slumping.
"You kids be good," Xander said casually, as if Lindsey and Gohan were doing nothing more than going to the movies. He threw himself into his gaming chair, picking up a controller.
"Bye, X," Lindsey said.
He waved without looking away from his TV.
There was a thundering coming from every direction as Lindsey and Gohan made their way through the house and they looked around curiously.
"What on earth?" Gohan asked.
"I don't know," she answered.
They reached the formal living room where the fire still crackled merrily, the five Christmas trees twinkling in the semi-darkness. They crossed the room hand in hand, Gohan reaching for the door and opening it against the freezing, blustering night. As they walked across the freshly shoveled walk, screams and shouts erupted behind them and they spun on their heels to look up at the house. The windows were full of their friends and family who had thrown the windows open and were leaning out, shouting their goodbyes, waving and smiling.
"Gohan," she breathed, smiling. "Look."
He smiled too, waving back at everyone.
"WE LOVE YOU!" Sophie screamed from a third-story window.
"BE GOOD TO HIM, LINDSEY!"
"KEEP HER IN LINE, GOHAN!"
Tears brimmed in Lindsey's eyes again as she pressed her fingers to her lips, blowing kisses back at her friends and family with both hands. Gohan had one arm around her waist, waving widely back at them. Booming cracks echoed over the grounds as the sky exploded in showers of brightly colored sparks. Kolya and Viktor stood on the roof, setting off fireworks.
"Come here, you," Gohan growled, spinning her harshly against his chest, covering her mouth with a passionate kiss.
More cheers rang out from the house windows. The limousine driver opened the door for them as they broke their kiss and Gohan led her by the hand as she looked over her shoulder, waving and blowing more kisses. She looked at the top most floor and saw Yorgi standing there. He raised a glass to her as if in toast and she blew one kiss directly his way. From his place on the roof directly over Yorgi's room, Kolya pretended to catch the kiss, slammed his hand against his chest and toppled over backwards on the rooftop. She laughed as she slid into the seat of the limo and scooted across the bench seat. Gohan turned and waved one more time, then slid into the seat next to her, closing the door behind him. She spun in her seat, staring out the back glass, one hand pressed against the cool pane, staring for the last time at the house. Gohan turned with her to look back at them. The limo lurched and began to roll down the long drive, then turned down the highway and the house faded from sight.
They sunk back into the seat, both heaving a sigh and looking at the floor of the limo. Their eyes flickered towards each other and simultaneously, without a word, they threw themselves at each other.
Author's note: This chapter was hard for me to write. It's a funny thing, how attached you can become to a fictional character. Yorgi is a character I have really fallen in love with and I love writing. It has been a challenge for me to write him – to balance the truly dark aspect of his character, but giving him a humanness at the same time. Letting go of a character is a hard thing to do. I actually cried a bit when I wrote this. (And if you want to listen to the music I listened to while writing this, look up Tiffany Alvord on youtube and listen to her cover of "The One That Got Away.")
