Hi there!

It's not an April Fools' joke! It's really here: the next chapter! Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!

And to answer on your Reviews:

Hako27: No, I don't study medicine or have I ever worked in the medical world. I'm just a good bluffer, I guess. I think someone studying medicine is probably laughing out loud at my story right now. I'm just trying to tie up loose ends with information I find in the online encyclopedia - and since Bulma is a scientist - I throw in some jargon I found while researching the topics. I'd never heard of phlebotomy before I wrote last chapter. I do have advanced knowledge of how a body works however, since I studied Biology. But I specialized in ecology and mainly work with bats... So that's kind of a completely different field. I'm also an illustrator.

Guest (02/30): I found it necessary enough to write 'Saiyan proof needles', otherwise it wouldn't be there. I'm sorry you hate it, but that's the way it is. I do want to point out that there is a huge difference in power level between the Goku we saw in the hospital and the levels the Saiyans have at this point in time. And the consequences of breaking a needle during use would be bad, so better save than sorry. However, I will not go into further details on this subject. And to warn you in advance, it will be mentioned later on in a future chapter as well. (See also the footnote at Chapter 2 & my own review on 02/27). I do hope you would forgive me, and still enjoy the story nonetheless.

Chapter 11: The Awakening

It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon and Yamcha was flying nervously over Satan City disguised as Saiyaman. He had been looking for this 'fangirl' for over two days. Why didn't she gave him her contact details? Did she think he was clairvoyant or something? How on Earth could he get in touch with her without it? He just hoped he wasn't too late.

He decided to fly over the park one last time. And finally, after all this time of searching, he found the girl he was looking for. She was sitting on the grass with straight legs, her upper body resting on her hands, next to two blond teenagers. Without any announcement, he landed in their midst.

"Hello there, Miss – uh, what's your name again?" Saiyaman turned his attention to Videl.

After recovering from the initial shock of his sudden appearance, Videl pretended not to be impressed. "I've already filled out the charges," the raven-haired teen said coolly.

"Come on! I've been searching for you for the past two days!" the hero protested, but was interrupted by a scream of ecstasy.

"O MY! Are you for real?!" Erasa jumped up to get a better look at the local celebrity in front of her. "This is so exciting! You were at my front door last Monday!"

"Um, apparently," Saiyaman replied indifferently, though he immediately returned to the conversation with the girl he came for. "Please, that's not fair!" he pleaded.

"I said before Wednesday, and since it's already said day, you're too late," Videl said bitterly, looking up to the costumed man standing in front of her. "But I'll spare you for now, if you have something interesting to say."

"You almost gave me a heart attack, you know that?" Saiyaman breathed a deep sigh of relief when he realized she hadn't gone to the police yet. "Alright, I came here to tell you that he has been found and has undergone immediate care. He is out of the woods and at it looks like he will be taken out from his coma by the end of this week."

"You're talking about Gohan, aren't you?" Sharpener joining the conversation.

Yamcha was horrified. Did that guy really say Gohan? The one whose identity he tried so hard to protect? How on earth did this guy know about him? And how will that girl with the dark pigtails react to that information? As far as he knew, she was on the assumption he was talking about the real Saiyaman, of whom he also knew she didn't know his identity. Yamcha looked nervous from the long haired blond jock to the girl in front of him and back. What was he supposed to say now?

"Yeah, he's talking about Gohan," Videl said, looking straight into Saiyaman's visor with a smirk. She really enjoyed to see him being cornered. It was kind of sweet revenge. However, he did gave her new information about the current status of her friend's recovery, so she was actually glad that he kept his word and reported back to her. "Thank you, you may go now. You are welcome to report back to me, but I don't make it obligatory anymore. You're a free man now," releasing the hero from his pledge. "Except of course, you'll still behave yourself," she added just to be sure.

Without a word, Saiyaman nodded and placed his hand next to his head in a salute. Then he flew off, caught up in his own inner struggle: Shit, that girl knew too much, how did that happened? How will this turn out in the future? He only had one job, and he managed tot screw everything up big time.

###

It was Sunday morning and Videl was lying in her bed after a restless night. She thought back to the events of past week. After Saiyaman had left her at the park, her two best friends started to questioning her. She had to cover up some details as she still needed to protect Gohan's real identity. But they were her friends, so she couldn't leave out all the details. So she told the truth about her impendence in suing him after he 'tried' to kiss her without consent. This was tough, because Erasa really wanted all the juicy details. She then added some fictional details to the story about Saiyaman's involvement in finding Gohan. And to her luck, both her blond friends where satisfied and so the conversation trailed off to some other topics.

Her thoughts then jumped forward to the end of Friday afternoon. She got a call from Bulma Brief, with the best news in weeks. Gohan had woken up from his coma the previous evening and was doing well under the circumstances. They had given him two sets of treatments by replacing his blood with that of a donor and between those sessions he had been treated with some antidotes. The toxins were almost out of his body, but not all of it. Overall, he was well enough to be out of immediate danger.

Videl didn't want to intrude, so she decided to distance herself from the whole situation. Gohan's family and friends were probably eager to visit him, and as she had learned form Bulma, Gohan didn't have much energy. But he had now been out of his coma for nearly two and a half days, and she felt the urge to jump in her copter and fly to Capsule Corps.

"Oh, why the hell not," she said to herself and jumped out of bed. If she left now, she'd be in West City sometime after dinner. She just had to see him so she could see for herself that he was doing well. She really wanted to shake that horrific image of him being nearly dead out of her head. It gave her sleepless nights and she was done with those damn sleepless nights. And a quick visit wouldn't do any harm, right?

And so, after more than an eight hour flight, she stood in front of the immense entrance of Capsule Corp. She pressed one of the many buttons on the display next to the gate, hoping she'd picked the right one. The call went through, so, so far, so good.

"Hello, who is this?" a young boy's voice asked through the speaker.

"This is Videl Satan, I'm here to visit my friend Son Gohan."

"Ah, I didn't know Gohan had a girlfriend?," the boy replied teasingly.

A deep blush appeared on Videl's cheeks. "I'm not his girlfriend!" she exclaimed, "I'm just a friend from school."

In the background came a recognizable voice of a certain woman, "Trunks, let the poor girl in. Can you please escort her to Gohan's room? I'm too busy to do it myself."

"Thank you Bulma," spoke Videl into the microphone, letting her know that she was grateful that Bulma intervened.

Not long after, the gate opened and the lavender-haired boy she saw at the park appeared at the entrance. Of course, she should have known that the little boy was Bulma's son. The hair colour was a death giveaway. Videl greeted the boy and followed him inside. The boy remained silent all the way. Somewhere two floors up, the boy stopped so abruptly that Videl nearly fell over him. She looked at the door next to her and saw that it had the word 'Gohan' on it. She reached for the handle, but hesitated, afraid of being confronted by a very ill-looking Gohan.

"Are you going in or what? He doesn't bite," the boy said, crossing his arms behind his head as he waited for Videl to make a move.

She took a deep breath and opened the door. But oh man, she wasn't prepared for what she saw next.

At the sound of the door opening, Gohan looked up to see who entered his room. At first he was taking by surprise, expecting it to be Bulma, but then he turned bright red with embarrassment. His classmate, at the other end of the room, had the same reaction. Videl couldn't help but stare. Gohan sat on his bed with his back resting against a pillow. His bed had been adjusted so that he could sit up slightly while watching some television. In his hand he still had the controller pointed at the device. Videl thought back to the photo on her dashboard, where she first noticed that Gohan was respectfully muscular, but that was the understatement of the year.

Gohan coughed into his fist as he tried to get himself back together. "Sorry, if I'd known you were coming to visit, I'd have dressed appropriately," he apologized, trying to reach for his shirt. It was clear that he lacked energy, as he struggled to complete the simplest of tasks. He had managed to pull one of his arms through his sleeve, but failed to pull the rest over his head. At that moment, Videl snapped out from her staring and rushed to help him. She guided his head through the slit of his shirt and pulled his other arm through the other sleeve. Her eyes slid uncontrollably over the contours of his muscular upper body as she did so. When his baggy shirt was on, she was glad the huge distraction had been obscured, though was also a little disappointed.

"Thanks," Gohan said softly, looking forward with a broken expression. He hated feeling so helpless.

"You're welcome, how are you doing?"

"Given the circumstances, I'm doing fine I guess," he tried to give Videl a confident smile, though his habit of scratching the base of his neck betrayed that he was still a little insecure. Then his expression grew a bit more determined, "Before you say anything, Bulma told me how much you've done for me since I went missing, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for that."

Videl couldn't help but feel terribly downhearted by his expression of gratitude. It didn't feel fair, especially after she once hoped Saiyaman would rot in the gutter, which he almost did because of her. "Please, don't thank me, it's because of me you ended up being poisoned in the first place. I -."

"Did you ask me to help you?" Gohan interrupted her.

"No, but -"

"So you are not to blame. I'm accountable for my own actions, so the blame is on me for being too reckless." He looked at Videl, who wanted to say something in return, but continued anyway. "I've been there, so I know how you must feel right now, but everything will be fine. You don't have to feel guilty about anything."

Videl nodded but stayed quiet. The silence lasted a few minutes, until Gohan broke it.

"You probably have a lot of questions right now," he said, though he was dreading the answer.

"I've been filled in for the most part by Bulma. Let's put those questions off for a while. I guess you are still pretty exhausted," she looked at his tired-looking facial expression.

Gohan looked at her in surprise. This was nothing like the Videl he knew. Normally she would've tried to get every little piece of information out of him. Especially as it had to do with him being Saiyaman. He could tell that the past 1.5 week did had a number on her. She too looked very tired. However, he was very relieved that he didn't had to endure endless questioning. "I really appreciate that," he said truthfully, lowering his exhausted body back into his pillow.

Again a brief silence filed the room, neither knowing what to say to the other. "Well..." Videl began uncomfortably to break the silence, "I think I'll go home and let you rest. I'm glad that you are doing okay."

Gohan raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You've flown almost 2.5 hundred miles... And you want to leave already?"

"I had to see if you were alright, and I did, so..." she paused and looked away from the boy. "I know you need your rest and I don't want to be a burden."

Gohan looked at the screen in front of him that he had muted. He smiled when an idea occurred to him, "I actually had a healing session right before you came to visit and I was about to watch a movie. Would you like to tag along?

Videl's face brightened. She didn't feel like going home so soon, and since he was already planning to watch a movie, she didn't feel like she was invading his space. Also, she always felt comfortable being in his presence, even though they didn't have much to talk to each other. "I wouldn't mind, but are you sure you have the energy for it?"

Gohan looked at her and smiled, "Not sure, but there's one way to find out, right? And to be honest, it's nice to have a little distraction." With great difficulty he slid to one side of his bed, away from Videl.

Videl looked at him with a questioning look, "What are you doing?"

"Make room for you, or were you planning to stand next to my bed for the entire movie?" he couldn't help but chuckle at her facial expression.

Her eyes went through the room. The bed, TV and a wardrobe were the only items that reminded it to be someone's bedroom. Videl suspected that his desk and accompanying chair, as well as some other belongings, had removed to house machinery used to monitor Gohan's well-being. There was indeed nothing else to sit on. With a light blush she surrendered to the situation and sat down next to her classmate. He was so innocent that he probably hadn't even thought that her stepping onto his bed may be something sensual. "What kind of movies do you like?" she asked.

"To be honest, I haven't watched much movies," he said, a little embarrassed, "My mom doesn't allow it at home because it can have a bad influence on my studies."

Somehow Videl wasn't surprised. She had picked up on more than one occasion that his mother was very strict with the boy. "Okay, maybe I can help you pick one." Videl thought for a moment. She knew the boy loved the outdoors, science and probably also would enjoy some action, and she hadn't seen the movie herself in a long time. "Do you like dinosaurs?"

His face lit up, "Yeah! You know, back home, one of my friends is a Saurian pterodactyl. His name is Toh Toh and he and his wife are expecting a baby soon. I can introduce you to him if you w-" His eyes grew big, terrified at his own slip-up. Why did he said that? Normal people weren't friends with dinosaurs!

"I would love to." At this point, Videl knew she could expect everything form the guy. After all, a dinosaur wasn't that far from a green demon-like creature. Of course she had a lot of questions, but decided to let them go for now. Gohan tried his best to be hospitable, but all the signs were there that he wasn't doing well. "Then you'd love this movie," she continued with a soft smile, taking over the controls of the TV. As she expected, it had access to a streaming platform and was able to find what she was looking for: Jurassic Park.

When the movie started, Gohan relaxed again, glad she chose to let his slip-up go for what it was. He looked carefully in her direction. Was this really happening, or was he hallucinating again? Since when did Videl Satan pass up a opportunity to pestering him for information? Oh well, breaking his head over it wasn't going to help his state of mind, so he decided to focus on the movie. He hadn't seen it, and although the story was based on outdated science, the movie was quite entertaining. But, not far into the movie, he felt a tiredness come over him.

A sudden movement pulled him out of his sleepy trance. Videl had turned on her side and rested her head against his torso. Gohan froze and looked wide-eyed in her direction. She was fast asleep. After the initial shock of her closeness was over, he felt empathy for the girl. Knowing Videl, she probably hadn't slept much the past 1.5 weeks because she was very involved in his case. So he tried to ignore the situation and focused on the movie again. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn't follow it anymore. And not much later, when her warmth covered him like a blanket, his too dozed off.