Disclaimer: Please, just read the disclaimer of the last 17 chapters, okay?
A/N: First of all, again, thank you all for your reviews! Just seventeen chapters and almost 450 reviews! This is just… wow! I love you guys, I really do. *wipes tears away* But what I can't believe is that the great AMCM74 is reading and reviewing my fic! *bows* You should all read her fics! They are really great! I love them! Hey AM, I just wanted to tell you that your stories inspired me and gave me ideas to this fic! I hope you don't mind!
Okay, I had planned to post this chapter tomorrow, even though I had this finished about one hour ago, but I just can't be so mean… Well, sometimes I am, but I repeat: SOMETIMES! But I have to tell you that you have to wait until Thursday, maybe even Friday until I've finished chapter 17, because I have to write a test tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon a friend is coming over so that I have time again on Thursday to continue the chapter I start today!
@ Eris Queen of the Shadows: Two words: Just read! *g*
Chapter 16: Expecting
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Three weeks. Three weeks had passed since the break-up and Pan still hadn't told him. She had tried a few times to talk to him, but Trunks always shrugged off everything she was saying. He always interrupted her, before she could say something that hadn't to do with work. He was just shutting her out. She had never seen him acting as cold and indifferent like this before. Never. And it was hurting her, more than she imagined it would. Trunks being upset about the break-up - that she could live with. But Trunks hating her and the fact that he treated her like a stranger was a whole different story.
This break-up had changed him completely. Over night the young kind and loving man, who had always been able to make her laugh, no matter how bad she felt and who had always helped her in all kind of situations, became cold-hearted and distant. The new Trunks was now focused on his work, not letting anyone or anything getting near him. He was the first one who arrived at the office and the last one who left at night. He constantly yelled at his co-workers and accused Pan, still not knowing that it was her, of not doing her work correctly. He made her life a living hell and she knew that it served her right. She was the one, who had caused this change. It was her ignorance and selfishness that had made this new Trunks.
She could be glad, if he ever looked at her again without this hatred or indifference in his eyes.
Every night Pan went to bed with the teddy bear in her arms, in memory of the few happy days they had together and cried herself to sleep. If she had just told him before… If she had just avoided him that night... If she hadn't started this huge lie in the first place… If, if, if,… She should have known that something goes wrong. Something does always go wrong! Vegeta was right. She was stupid. She didn't deserve the diploma that she had in a frame in her closet, so that no one would find it. She hadn't deserved the whole scholarship, when they had known at that school how stupid she was.
She could be glad if anyone would still look at her without hatred or disappointment in their eyes, after she finally revealed herself.
But those weren't her sole problems. This whole stress really affected her in the strangest ways. She had terrible mood swings. One moment she could be happy, well, as happy as she could be in her situation, and the next moment she burst out into tears or felt the need to destroy something. And then there were her stomach problems. In the morning she felt nauseated when she just looked at something that in any kind resembled food and emptied her stomach on a regular basis hanging over the toilet.
Finally, one morning after Pan again spent half of the morning in the bathroom, she decided that she had to tell Trunks. It couldn't go on like this. She had to get this weight off of her shoulders. Carrying it so long just couldn't be healthy. Today he would find out that she was Pan.
After quickly getting dressed she left for the office building of Capsule Corporation with one main goal - Explaining everything to Trunks.
Striding through the corridor to the office, she threw the door open and shut and just stopped directly in front of Trunks' desk, where the President was again sitting with his back to her. "You're late, again…" he stated with a voice that could let the North Pole freeze all over again.
"I know," she said, her voice not wavering a bit. She had to do this! Now! "And I don't care." The chair turned around and as she saw Trunks indifferent eyes staring at her, her hands began to tremble a bit. "Trunks, we need to talk."
"I don't think that there's something we have to talk about, Miss Shen!" he told her. When had his eyes become so dark? "When you don't like working for me anymore, then I recommend you to quit."
"Trunks, please… Listen to me…" Pan now almost begged, feeling tears in her eyes.
"When it's about us, I also have to tell you something. 'Us' doesn't exist, had never existed and will never exist."
"No, it isn't about us… It's about me…" she whispered. "Trunks, I'm…" At that moment a new wave of nausea hit her. „... going to be sick..." She fell to the floor and held her stomach.
Trunks stared at her and grabbed the first thing handy, his waste-paper basket, and gave it to her just in time before she vomited on the floor. He didn't know what was happening to him, but as he saw her sitting on the floor, looking so… weak, his expression softened and he knelt down next to her, rubbing her back. They sat there like this for about ten minutes, until Pan began to feel better again. But as soon as she looked up at him, his face grew hard again. He got back up and handed her a tissue. "Here."
She gratefully took it and wiped her mouth. "Thank you…" She also got up again, but Trunks was about to leave the office. "Where are you going? I still need to talk to you."
Instead of answering her question, he just stopped in the door. "You should go to a doctor. I don't want any of my employees becoming sick. But first take care of the mess you've made. I'm going home now. It's smelling here. We'll talk at another time." Without saying more, he left the office.
Pan stood there in shock, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall. First a few minutes later she grabbed the basket and went into the bathroom to wash it out. She had again messed up a chance to tell him the truth. One more word and then it would've been out. Just one word!
But maybe Trunks was right. She should go and see a doctor. She needed something to calm her stomach to prevent something like that from ever happening again. Something must be seriously wrong, when a Saiyajin had to vomit at the sight of food.
After cleaning the basket and opening the office window, Pan also left the office. And after she was finished at the doctor, she had to confront Trunks. From now on no more hide and seek.
~*~
As Trunks arrived home, his parents were already waiting in the kitchen for him, after Vegeta had felt that Trunks was on his way home. He'd rather be in the gravity room now, but Bulma was extremely worried about their son and he didn't want to let her talk alone to him. He had no idea what was going on in the boy's head and he'd rather not let his wife alone with him, when he didn't know what the boy was capable of in the state he was right now.
"Trunks? What are you already doing here? Shouldn't you be at the office?" Bulma asked him, as her son walked past her to the fridge without even looking at her.
"My personal assistant caught some stomach flue and vomited in my office and I can't work there with the smell. But don't worry, I told her to take care of it," he said.
"Trunks, what's wrong with you?" she wanted to know. "You haven't been the same for three weeks. Are you fighting with Pia? Did she say no to your proposal?"
"Something like that. Nothing big. She just broke up with me," he told her nonchalantly, as if he didn't care at all.
Bulma got up and soothingly laid a hand on his arm. "Oh Trunks… I didn't know… I'm so sorry…"
Angrily Trunks jerked the hand away. "Let go of me, woman!" he yelled. "I'm so sick of everyone telling me that he's sorry!"
Slap!
Trunks absently touched his cheek, staring wide-eyed at his mother. She had hit him. It was the first time in his life that his mother raised her hand against him. And it actually stung a bit. "Don't talk to me like that, young man!" she screamed at him. "I'm your mother for Dende's sake and not just some woman!"
Not really registering what his mother was screaming at him, something in his mind had made 'click', as she slapped him. The walls he had built around his heart to protect himself began to crumble. Tears sprung into his eyes, as everything he had bottled up in the last few weeks wanted to get out. "Mom…" he just managed to whisper, before he broke down.
Vegeta stared in disbelief at the scene in front of him. His son was lying in his mother's arms, crying like there was no tomorrow. The whole time he had been ready to step in, in case something got out of hand. But this turn of events came really unexpected for him.
Bulma didn't know what was going on with her son. She had been way too angry to see the walls crumble and was torn out of her anger, as she heard him whispering and saw the tears in his eyes. All the words he had thrown at her immediately forgotten, her mother instincts kicked in and she pulled her son, who was about a head larger than her, into a comforting hug. She took a quick glance at her husband, expecting a scowl or a look of indifference on his face and she was honestly a bit surprised to see something that resembled concern. At least in his eyes. Turning her attention back to her son, she began to stroke his back, trying to calm him down.
"I'm sorry…" he said between the sobs. "Mom… I-I loved her… so much… I still do… How could she… just do that? How could she… hurt me like this?"
"Hush…" she tried to sooth him. "Everything will be okay…"
Bulma had no idea how much time passed, as they were standing like this until Trunks finally calmed down. But as he did, she made a cup of tea for him and sat with him down at the table, were Vegeta was still sitting. "Are you better now?" she asked softly, after Trunks drank a bit.
Even though his eyes were still red and puffy, a small smile was tugging at his lips. "Yeah… I think…"
"Trunks," Bulma began and threw another look at Vegeta, who now just stared at them indifferent, like always, "I really don't want to upset you, but there's something you need to know…"
~*~
Pan glanced at the clock in the waiting room of her doctor, nervously fidgeting with her hands. She had been waiting for half an hour and the nurse still hadn't called her inside. Half an hour ago, she had already been inside. She had told the doctor about her problems and he had examined and made some tests with her. After that he had told her to wait until he had the results of the test.
Why did waiting always have to be so bad? She looked again at the clock. Wow, she thought sarcastically, another minute has passed. She then looked at the magazines next to her and decided that time would maybe pass faster, when she was reading. But just at the moment she wanted to pick one up, a nurse appeared in front of her. "Miss Son? The doctor is waiting for you."
Pan nodded and followed the nurse to the doctor's room, where he was already sitting at his desk, looking at her files. She sat down and looked at him expectantly. "Well, Dr. Isaacs, did you find something?" she asked, still being nervous. She absolutely didn't like going to the doctor or to a hospital.
"As a matter of fact, yes," he answered with a serious look on her face.
"Okay, good… Or not? I mean, can you give me some medicaments to calm my stomach?" Pan wanted to know.
"Miss Son, I don't think that a medication would be good in your condition…"
"In my condition? What are you talking about?" she asked confused.
"Miss Son, you're pregnant. Almost one month along."
"Pregnant," Pan stated dumbfounded. "As in I'm-carrying-a-baby-in-my-belly-and-going-to-be-a-mother-pregnant."
"Exactly," Dr. Isaacs confirmed her statement, but Pan didn't directly listen to everything he said next. She was too confused at that moment. "You're still pretty young, I guess just out of college and in case that the child is unwanted there are still abortion or adoption. I could give you some information about both possibilities, but you should decide soon." He put some papers on the desk, but then he noticed that Pan was somewhere else with her thoughts. "Miss Son?"
"What?" She jerked her head up and looked at the papers on the desk in front of her. They all said something about abortion or adoption at the top, sending her shivers down her spine. "No, thank you, Dr. Isaacs… I don't need it."
"Are you sure?" he asked, as he put them back. Pan nodded firmly and got up. "Okay then, you should make a new appointment with my secretary."
"Goodbye Dr. Isaacs." She shook his hand and left the praxis, without making a new appointment.
Pan wandered through the streets of Satan City without knowing where she was going. Soon, she spotted a bench and sat down on it. Unfortunately the bench was at a playground, so Pan could see many happy kids playing and mothers with baby carriages talking to each other.
She absently stroke over her belly.
Pregnant. A small child was growing in her. She was going to be a mother. And Trunks a father.
Suddenly she started crying again. She should be happy, but she couldn't. She still hadn't told him who she was and now she also had to tell him that she was carrying his baby. How could she do that? He would hate her even more now!
She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her shirt, as suddenly someone gave her a tissue. Startled she looked up and saw a young man with short black and spiky hair, wearing sunglasses and dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a white T-shirt sitting next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked her softly.
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Dun, dun, dun… Who could that be?
I know you hate me again. Another cliffie, but I swear, I can't help it!
But please review, okay?
Eternally yours
ChibiChibi