"I'm sorry."

It was such a seemingly small thing but there was so much emotion behind those words that it fell like a punch. Yet, not. No, a punch hurt and this did not. This was the opposite of hurt. It felt good, it felt warm and it felt...

Safe.

Safe. What an odd feeling to have. Gohan had not even realized over the years how alien that feeling had become. Not out of any fault of his parents but simply by nature of their lives. Yet here, wrapped so tightly in his mother's lap (a much more tight fit than it once was)and father's arms that he felt more cocoon than boy, he wept from relief.

"Not your fault, Daddy." Gohan felt inclined to offer. "Not yours either, Mom."

"Our job was to protect you." ChiChi's voice cracked. "Our job has always been to protect you. And we've failed at that." She stopped herself a moment then stroked his hair. "All this time and not once did I think about how many times you've been left—by no fault of your own."

Gohan looked up at her and while there was pain in his eyes, there was also relief. Not the usual type of relief but a relief that was born from being heard and the knowledge that your pain was not dismissed. An odd thought maybe but there was power in simply being told 'I see your pain now.' For Gohan, there was also power in knowing what it was. Faced with the influx of all his emotions, he felt oddly drained but accomplished. One wouldn't think that digging through your feelings could be so utterly exhausting but it was. He felt like curling up into a ball and just sleeping. But no, not yet.

The big question remained. They found the problem, the source, the lie. So now what?

Daddy hadn't really said much since the outburst but he was obviously thinking. The ruffled brow, the narrowed eyes, the tapping fingers—that was his thinking face. Not just a usual thinking face but a really in-depth thinking face. It wasn't something you saw on him very often.

"Gohan, I'm sorry." His voice sounded heavy, weighed down. "All this time. I can spot a battle wound a mile away but I never thought about how the coming, going and no explanation...never thought about how that would play games with your head." He knelt in front of the bed, taking his son's hands in a tight grip. "Can't undo that. Much as I want to, I know I can't. But I can try to fix this now. 'Member what your therapist says?"

Gohan smiled. A genuine smile. "What is learned can he unlearned."

"Right." Standing again, Goku remarked "Maybe we oughta talk to her all together. Now that we've figured this little bit out. This is that big lie she was talkin' 'bout." He met his son's eyes. "If you want to."

Nodding in agreement, Gohan said "I think we should. Maybe she can help us figure out things to do besides just the stuff I'm already doing." He knew that what he was doing still needed to continue but he also knew there were other options too. Other methods of tackling his misthinking. That's always what it boiled down to—the way he thought influenced his emotions. Emotions you could not change. Thinking you could. So change one to change the other.

And he'd noticed the biggest change when his father and mother started using those charts and they would challenge his thoughts together. They would challenge Mom's beliefs together. They would adjust together. They would tackle triggers together.

While, yes, he was the one that had the disturbing and intruding thoughts, it was his family that was the client, the patient. His therapist had mentioned that once.

"It's a spider web, Gohan.

He looked at her, eyes baffled. "A spider's web?"

"Yes." Reaching into her drawer, she withdrew a series of colored rubber bands that she intertwined and twisted on her fingers until they did resemble a spider's web. Holding it out to him, she said, "Let's say the red one is your mother. The green is you and the blue is your father. Pluck the red one."

He did so.

The entire collection of strands vibrated.

"See? One affects the other. That's why I'm so glad your parents are actively involved. It's not just a matter of correcting your thinking. It's a matter of addressing the whole family." She smiled. "So many people initially resist it. They don't want to hear things they should have done or that their way needs help. But that's how you fix this. To fix one strand, you address and strengthen the whole web."

Goku stood, looked over at his wife, "I'll call tomorrow and we'll see if we can get in this week and see what we need to do." Reaching down, he ran his fingers over Gohan's tail, as he used to do so often when he was small. "We'll fix this, I promise."

Nodding, Gohan replied and took his father's hand. "It's not your fault, Daddy."

"But it's not-not my fault either." He gently pulled away. "Not your fault, not Mom's, not mine then whose is it? Who do I blame? Who do I..." Goku sighed, flopped on the ground, pressing his back against the bed, looking utterly defeated. "This isn't an enemy I can punch."

Looking up at his mother a moment, Gohan slid from her lap and landed on the floor where he forced his way into his father's lap, flopping down like a tired puppy. Looking up, waving his tail slightly, Gohan said. "No, it's not but that's okay, Daddy."

"It shouldn't be." Goku argued. "My job is to make sure you and your mom are happy and safe. To make sure you don't hurt. But I can't make you stop hurtin' from this right now. I can't make it go away. But if I can't do that, I can usually make whatever hurt you hurt too." His eyes fell. "But I can't do that neither. Because it's not a person, it's just...lots of things. Lots of things and places and people made you hurt. I couldn't stop them then and I can't stop it now. I'm...powerless." A sudden realization came over him. One that filled his heart with guilt. Guilt so thick he nearly choked on it. "And I'm sorry you ever had to feel this way, Gohan."

Gohan nuzzled his head into his father's chest. "Daddy. My mind got a little scrambled. But remember what YOU told. I'm not broken. Just need a little help. And don't we all need a little help sometimes?" He looked up, met the man's eyes. "And I'm lucky enough to have a Mom and Dad that love me enough to help me." Hugging himself close to his father, he took comfort in the familiar smell, the strong arms around him. The safety. Yes, it was possible to be safe, no matter what his frantic mind had become convinced of. It was and he just needed to remember that. Needed to learn...re-learn it.

Forget the false facts.

"What's learned can be unlearned."