Disclaimer; I still don't own the rights to DBZ, maybe I can buy them on E-bay.

A/N;. Hi everyone, hope you all liked my last chapter, I personally didn't think it was that good, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to even after I re-wrote the stupid thing 4 times, but thanks to everyone who reviewed. OK, this chapter mainly deals with Krillens past, there was a little bit about it in chapter 5, but it goes further into it this time. Anyway, tell me what you think, since this is just one of my opinions on what his childhood might have been like. ~Deadly Beauty

A Helping Hand

Chapter 11

18 tossed and turned in her sleep. Letting out a murmur here and a whimper there, it was obvious she was having a bad dream. She began to thrash her arms and legs out and a few tears ran down her face.

"No, keep away. Leave me alone," She begged "no don't hurt me, I did nothing to you". 18's bad dream was quickly becoming a horrific nightmare, which she was powerless to stop. Suddenly she sat up and screamed.

Less than 5 seconds later 17 burst into the room. His sister's whole body was shaking and she was crying and gasping for air at the same time.

"18, what happened?" asked 17 as her sat down beside his sister.

"Gero" she gasped.

"You dreamt about Gero?". 18 nodded her head. "It was so real, I could feel him and smell him, it was horrible". 17 put his arm around his sister and gave her a hug.

"Hey, it's alright, it was just a dream. Gero's dead remember?". 18 wiped some tears off her face.

"I remember"

"Are you going to go back to sleep?" asked 17.

"Not here" replied 18

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm going back to Kame House," said 18 "right now".

"Right now. Why?"

"I need to be with Krillen, I hope you understand" said 18.

"I don't understand, but if you need to go I won't stop you" said 17 and he left the room.

18 got changed out of her pyjamas and headed downstairs to say good bye to her brother.

***

Krillen wasn't asleep. He had hardly any sleep in the 3 days 18 had been at her brother's house. Right now he was pacing back and fourth in the bedroom, gently rocking Marron at the same time. Poor little Marron wasn't feeling well, she had a cold and it was preventing her from getting much sleep, which also ment Krillen spent the night up with her. He came to a stop in front of the window and looked out. All he could see was stars, as far as the eye could see there were stars it really was beautiful.

***

18 sped across the sky at her top speed. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible, to her family. So she could tell them how sorry she was. 18 took care not to fly to low to the ocean, she didn't really want to get wet. Soon Kame Island came into view. The light was on in the bedroom she shared with Krillen.

"Good, he's up" she said to herself.

18 landed in the soft sand and looked around. It felt good to be home, back where she belonged. She stood on the sand for a few more minutes before she headed inside.

Krillen didn't even notice that 18 was back. He was to busy changing Marron's nappy. 18 stood in the doorway and watched. Krillen turned around and saw her standing there. At first he didn't believe it, but when after a few minutes, she was still standing there like a statue, he knew it had to be true.

"Hi" she said.

"18!" exclaimed Krillen and he ran over to his fiancee and gave her a big hug.

"You're back" he said.

"I'm so sorry I left" said 18, making no attempt to break free of Krillen tight embrace. When she was in his arms she was happiest.

"You don't need to apologise babe" said Krillen. 18 pulled away from Krillen and walked over to the bed, which was where Marron was lying.

"She's got a cold" said Krillen. 18 bent over and picked Marron up. She began to sway from side to side and soon Marron dozed off.

"She looks bigger than before" said 18.

"Not really" said Krillen. 18 put Marron in the bassinette and went to lie down on the bed. Krillen turned the light off and joined her.

"So what on earth possessed you to come home at 2.30 in the morning?" asked Krillen.

"Well I had a bad dream and I just really needed to be close to you" replied 18

"What did you dream about?"

"Gero".

Krillen wrapped his arms around 18 and pretty soon they fell asleep.

***

The next afternoon 18 was wandering around the house with nothing to do. She came to a stop in front of Marron's room. Of course Marron was to young to sleep in there yet, but soon she would be old enough. 18 walked into the room, she could see something under the draws. 18 walked over and picked it up. It was Krillen old toy dog. What had he called it again? Ruff, was it? 18 sat down right where she was and studied the toy. Something about it intrigued her.

18 were pulled away from her thoughts by the sound of Marron crying. She quickly got up and ran down the hall to tend to her daughter.

18 lifted marron out the bassinette and waved the toy around in front of her.

"Look Marron, its daddy's old toy. I don't think he would mind if you had it" said 18.

"I think he would" came a voice from behind 18. 18 turned around and saw Krillen.

"Why?" she asked.

"Didn't I already tell you the story behind where that dog came from?" asked Krillen.

"You told me about you parents, but that was it" said 18

"At the time that was all you needed to know" said Krillen.

"So there is more to the story?" asked 18. Krillen looked his beautiful fiancee in the eyes, he had to tell her the rest, not that there was really that much to tell.

"Well my father was the type of guy you didn't want to mess with. You know the kind that was in a gang and on several different drugs at once. He was also an alcoholic," explained Krillen, "Then there was my mum, she was studying to become a doctor. She was so beautiful. She had long brown hair and the greenest eyes you've ever seen, her name was Kira. Anyway one night she had to stay back late at the uni to do some research, and by the time she left it was dark. She didn't even make it half way home before she ran into my fathers stupid gang." Krillen stopped talking, it was obviously very hard for him and 18 was beginning to regret asking him.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" said 18.

"No, it's good to talk about things like this" said Krillen and he continued on with his story. "Anyway, my father raped her. Not once, but 3 times. Then he left her for dead on the side of the road. Someone found her and took her to the hospital. Luckily she was fine. Anyway as you can probably guess, nine months later I was born. My mum loved me, and I can still remember so much about her, you know just the little things like the sound of her voice and the smell of her hair," Krillen smiled at the happy memories of his mother. "But she alway seemed worried about something. Then one night, when I was about 3 or 4, she woke me up and told me we had to go. So we packed up the few things we had and left to begin our new life. That's when she was happiest, when we were in our new home, she never worried then. And then on my fifth birthday she gave me this," Krillen waved the dog around, " I loved it. But 3 days later, my father showed up demanding to know why we had skipped town. Mother told him to leave me alone and she told me that she loved me and to run as far away as I could. But my legs just wouldn't move, and so I was forced to watch as he stabbed my mother to death." Krillen had to stop again, tears were flowing down his cheeks now. 18 was in much the same state, even though this was Krillens story she felt so sad, she was crying just as much as Krillen. "After that he tried to come for me, so I ran. I just grabbed the dog and ran. I must have run for 3 or 4 hours straight that night. I was just to scared to stop. I finally collapsed out side a big building, which happened to be the Orin Temple. The monks took me in and looked after me, but I refused to speak. For the first 15 months I was there I refused to speak. The other boys there all hated me and picked on me, so eventually I ran away from there to, I had been there for almost 5 years. I learnt a lot of valuable lessons. Eventually I met Goku, and you know the rest from there" concluded Krillen, he wiped the last of the tears away and looked at 18. "I'm sorry I made you cry" he said.

18 shook her head, she felt so stupid. Even no the story was over she was still sobbing. Krillen reached over and held her close, being careful not to squish Marron, since she was in-between the two.

"You can stop crying now" he said as he stroked the back of her head.

"No I can't," said 18 "You went through so much and you were so young".

"But I wouldn't change it, not now" said Krillen.

"Why not?" asked 18

"Because if things had of happened differently I might never have met you and I might not have a beautiful daughter and the best friends a guy could ask for," replied Krillen. "And it's not like I won't ever see my mum again, we'll meet again in other world some day. And I know she's looking down on me, she's always been with me. She was there when I celebrated my 18th and got totally wasted, she was there when we were up against Nappa and Vegeta and Cell, she was there when Marron was born and I know she'll be there when we get married. She's been there at all the most important moments in my life, just not in person, in spirit" said Krillen.

"Don't you ever miss her?" asked 18

"All the time, not a day goes by where I don't miss her, but she doesn't want me to be sad, she wants me to live a happy life with the women I love," replied Krillen "and that's exactly what I'm going to do". 18 felt tears threatening to fall down her cheeks again but she blinked them back. Krillen was so positive about the whole thing. If it was her she would hunt down the bastard who murdered her mother and kill him slowly and painfully.

"What about you're father, where's he?" questioned 18. Krillen shrugged his shoulder.

"I don't know and I don't really care. I hope I never see him again, but at least if he comes after me again I'll be able to defend my self". 18 almost laughed. "Defend your self? You could kill him with a flick of your wrist" she said.

"I probably could couldn't I. To bad I refuse to kill people who are weaker than I am" said Krillen.

"What if they were trying to take over the world?" asked 18.

"Come on 18, how many people do you know that are weaker than me and want to take over the world?" asked Krillen. 18 didn't reply and Krillen stood up. He kissed 18 on the forehead and left the room.

18 scooped Marron up off the bed and followed Krillen down the stairs. He was out on the beach sparring with an invisible partner. 18 sighed, it had been ages since Krillen had done any sort of fighting what so ever, and it had been even longer since she had. 17 could probably wipe the floor with her now. She would have to start training again if she wanted to stay in peak condition.

"Krillen" called 18 from the front step. Krillen stopped mid kick and turned to look at 18.

"What?" he asked

"Get over here right now" demanded 18. Krillen walked over to where 18 was standing

"What?" he asked again.

"I want you inside right now" said 18.

"Why?". 18 pointed up at the sky, there were thick black clouds rolling across the sky and the wind was picking up. "I've already got one sick person to look after and I refuse to have you out here in a storm" said 18.

"But it's not even raining yet" complained Krillen.

"I don't care," said 18 "Inside now or else you're sleeping on the couch tonight". Krillen gulped, he didn't want to sleep on the couch, so he followed 18's orders and went back inside the pink house.

***

The kitchen door swung open and Master Roshi walked into the room. He opened the fridge and began to search for something to eat.

"You know Roshi, if you wait a while dinner will be ready" said Krillen without looking up from the potatoes he was peeling.

"But I'm hungry now" whinged Roshi.

"Will you shut up and wait for you're goddamn dinner" hissed 18. Master Roshi quickly shut the fridge and disappeared out the room.

"Nice work 18" complimented Krillen. 18 smiled at Krillen then turned her attention to Marron. She was lying in her bouncer, which was resting on the kitchen table.

"18, are you still in there?" Krillen waved his hand in front of 18's face and she blinked a few times.

"What?" she asked

"That's gonna burn if you don't stir it" Krillen pointed to the pot of rice on the stove. 18 picked up the spoon she had rested on the bench and continued to stir the rice, it wasn't a very hard job and she was determined not to screw it up.

***

"Well I must say you two, that was certainly worth waiting for" said Roshi and he pushed his plate into the centre of the table.

"Is there anymore?" asked Oolong.

"You Oolong, should be grateful you got any at all" said Krillen.

"And since you both enjoyed it so much, I assume you won't mind doing the washing up" said 18 and she got up and left the table. Krillen sniggered at the man and the pig, both of which were several years older then he was, then he also walked out the kitchen.

18 was sitting on the floor feeding Marron a bottle. Krillen sat on the couch behind her and began to massage her shoulders.

"Mmm, that feels good" said 18. Krillen smiled and continued to work his magic. .

"Babe" said Krillen a few minutes later.

"Yeah" said 18.

"I wouldn't feed Marron that whole bottle at once, she'll probably bring it all back up again, she did it to me last night" Krillen informed her.

"Alright then" said 18 and she shifted Marron's position so she could burp her. Sure enough Krillen was right. Marron brought it all back up again.

"Yuck," said 18 "there's puke all over my shirt".

"It's alright. You clean Marron up and I'll get something for your shirt" said Krillen. 18 layed Marron down on the rug and grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table. Krillen came back in with a wet cloth and wiped 18's shirt clean.

"Maybe we should give her a bath" suggested Krillen.

"That's a good idea" agreed 18 and they both headed off upstairs to the bathroom.

***

18 yawned loudly and rolled over. The early morning sunlight forcing her to shut her eyes. She had been sleeping a lot better since Marron had been moved into her room down the hall. 18 snatched the baby monitor off the bedside table and looked at it. There was no noises coming from it but she thought she should check on Marron anyway. 18 got out of bed and headed down the hall to check on her 2-month-old daughter, who was still sleeping peacefully.

"Why are you out of bed?" asked Krillen as he came up beside 18.

"Why are you?" asked 18.

"I was seeing where you went" replied Krillen

"Well I was checking up on Marron" said 18.

"Ok, well now you know she's fine, let's go downstairs and have something to eat" as if on cue, Marron began to cry.

"Ha, I knew she was going to wake up" said 18. And she lifted Marron out her cot.

"Bring her downstairs too" said Krillen.

18 looked at the clock, it was almost 9 and Bulma was coming at 10. 18 and Bulma had a lot to do today, it was going to be very busy day.

A/N; Poor Krillen, but at least he's not sad anymore. But just wait to see what I've got planed for him at the wedding, it'll be great, I promise, and not what you'd expect either. ~Deadly Beauty