AN: Thank you, reviewers! Much faster update, in case you didn't notice. Gotta get back into my habit of quick updates. I kinda lost that habit when school started. Oh well. Onwards! Mesa no ownsie da DBZ.

Chapter Four—Two Gentlemen Callers

And after all is said and done

You're still you

After all, you're still you

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It had been a pleasant, sunny afternoon, and that pleasant, sunny afternoon had faded into a comfortable twilight. It was even nicer because according to the weatherman, they were going to have rain the next day.

Videl looked out the window, which was closed and locked, and sighed. It had been two weeks since…it happened. Two days ago, she had finally forced the doctors to let her leave the hospital. It had taken nearly everything she had to get them to agree. Finally they had acquesied, but only after extracting a solemn promise from her that she would stay in bed for a few days more. They were already baffled at how it was possible that she was making such a quick recovery from injuries that could have—and for all intents and purposes, should have—been fatal.

But Videl thought she knew. Gohan probably had something to do with that. He had been inside her head, and called her back out of the darkness. He'd probably done something to help her healing along as well. That was typically Gohan, though. Helpful to a fault.

She dropped her eyes to where her hands were folded in her lap. Gohan. Now that was a problem.

Videl knew full well that Gohan had absolutely nothing to do with what had happened to her. No way, no how. He definitely wasn't that kind of guy in any way, shape, or form, and one of the things she really liked about him was that she knew he would never hurt her. If he did, he would probably tear his own heart out with guilt over it. Gohan was her best friend, and he meant the world to her. Even after this, she knew he wouldn't blame her or abandon her.

So why did the very thought of him—or any other guy, for that matter—make her start shaking like a leaf in a storm? Why did she involuntarily start to panic when any male came near her, even the men on her father's staff? She'd known many of them her whole life, and they were like fathers and brothers to her. Yet when one of them, a long-time employee, had patted her on the shoulder and asked how she was feeling, she had very nearly burst into tears. And she didn't know why.

It bothered her, but she didn't quite know how to deal with it. So she had closeted herself up in her bedroom, allowing only Hannah in to see her. Hannah, she knew and trusted. Hannah was safe.

Her eyes drifted back out the window. She had stalwartly refused to go back to school until further notice, using the doctor's orders of bed rest and as little stress as possible as her arguments, and after a few heated discussions over the matter, the issue had been dropped. But it was only a temporary respite. As Hannah had been so kind to point out, she couldn't hide from the world forever.

As if the thought had summoned her, the familiar knock came on the door. "Videl?"

Videl turned her head to look at the door. "Come in."

The door opened, and Hannah stepped in. She seemed to have aged about ten years in the last couple weeks from worry alone. "You have two visitors, Videl. Two young gentlemen callers. They said that they know you." The older woman's eyes were dancing.

Videl managed a smile, but her whole body started to shake. "I don't know…"

"Trust me on this one, Videl," Hannah smiled knowingly. "You want to see these two. I think you'll feel better once you know who it is."

Realizing it was a losing argument, Videl sighed dramatically. "Okay…but just for a minute." Hannah's smiling face disappeared down the hall.

A few minutes later, two very familiar faces came bobbing into the room. And Videl could have laughed from relief.

"Hiya Videl!" Goten ran across the room and jumped onto the bed to grab his 'almost sister' in the biggest hug the chibi could muster up. A second later, Trunks also scampered in and across the room.

"Hey, what's up?" Trunks asked.

"Not much," she answered, giving Goten another tight squeeze before releasing him.

He sat back and looked up at her. "Were you sick or something?"

"What?" she looked at him in confusion.

"Gohan said you were in the hospital," Goten said importantly. "Were you sick or did you get hurt or something? And are you better now?"

After about a nanosecond's hesitation, Videl nodded. "Yes, Goten. A little of both, I guess."

Satisfied, Goten jumped back off the bed and fished into the pocket of his gi. "Oh, oh, oh! I have something for you to make you feel better!" After a minute, he finally pulled a folded, slightly crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and proudly handed it to her.

She unfolded it, and her heart all but melted. It was a childish crayon drawing—more of an organized scribble, really—in several eye-blinding colors. At the bottom, in Goten's barely legible scrawl, was her name next to a big heart. It was definitely an amatuer piece of artwork, by even the most generous standards, but Videl was genuinely touched.

"Oh, Goten, it's beautiful!" she said, and found she really meant it.

"It's a get well soon picture!" Goten beamed, exceedingly proud that his artwork was so appreciated. He clambered up next to her and jabbed his finger at the paper. "See! There's me and you and Gohan, and you're all better, and everybody's happy!"

It was very typically Goten. Even though thinking about Gohan made her shake like a washing machine on spin cycle. But the gesture was wonderful. "You know what? I'm going to hang this right here so I'll always be able to see it." A couple of thumbtacks was all it took to hang Goten's "get well soon" picture on the bulletin board above her desk. "There. Now everyone can see it."

"Yay!" Goten jumped up and down, cheering, before turning to Trunks. "See? I told ya she would like it. So there!" He stuck his tongue out at his lavender-haired friend.

Videl rolled her eyes. It was quite a strain to keep act like there was absolutely nothing wrong in front of the two children, but it was worth it. Hannah had been right. Talking to these two had been a very good idea. "So, what else is going on in your lives?"

This took any possible burden of conversation off of Videl's shoulders, as the chibis were full of talk and gossip about the latest happenings in their respective worlds. She just sat back and listened while they jabbered on with seemingly endless tales. It was definitely an amusing way to spend her afternoon.

All of a sudden, Goten stopped talking and looked at her with an odd expression on his little face. "Videl, Gohan's really worried about you."

Videl was taken aback at the sudden change in topic. "What? Why?"

"He said you were in the hospital," Goten answered. "And you haven't been at school or anything. And I think there was something else bothering him, but he didn't tell me anything else, except one thing. He said to tell you that Saiyaman could really use his sidekick back."

Trunks rolled his eyes, and Videl managed a smile. "Sidekick, huh? I'm insulted!"

"You should be!" Trunks nodded fervently.

"So what has Saiyaman been up to lately?" she asked in an obvious attempt to get off the subject of Gohan. Apparently, the two children weren't paying very close attention, because they missed the obviousness of the subject change, and immediately launched into complicated descriptions of Saiyaman's latest adventures against the forces of evil. There was one particularly amusing story, in which the hero of Satan City, the Great Saiyaman, somehow managed to accidently get dumped into the fountain in the park. She missed most of the activity that led up to that occurrence, but by the end of that little tale, she was lying on her back, laughing her head off.

Thinking about Gohan scared her half to death, but for some reason, Saiyaman was a lot less threatening. Maybe it was just because he was…well…an idiot!

After a while, the chibis began to wind down. And after they'd been visiting for an hour, they announced that they had to leave. Videl emerged from her room for the first time that day to walk them downstairs to the front door. Not that they needed to leave through a door. It was more of a formality than anything else, since they could have just as easily gone out a window or some such thing. When they got to the front door, she stood there and waved goodbye as they started off. But they had to keep going back because Goten kept wanting to get another hug from the girl he had sort of adopted as his big sister.

"Hey Videl…" Goten asked during what he swore would be his last hug.

"What's up, sweetie?" she looked down into those huge dark eyes, and had the sudden feeling that she wasn't going to like whatever was coming next. She was right.

"Why don't you want to talk about my brother?" the chibi asked innocently. So he had noticed. Surprising, coming from Goten. "Every time we said something about him, you started acting funny, and then you would talk about something else."

"Yeah, he's right," Trunks joined in. "Whatsa matter?"

"Oh…umm…" Videl actually stuttered. "Well, I…" her voice trailed off. Why did Goten have to choose the worst possible times to be perceptive?

"Did something bad happen, Videl?" Goten asked again, showing an intelligence that was rare indeed for him. "Does it have to do with you being sick?"

By sick, she realized, he meant her stay in the hospital. "Sort of…I tell you…later…"

"Okay!" Goten chirped, back to his normal self. He gave her one last squeeze, and finally, the two terrors took off, headed for destinations unknown. Videl actually found herself wondering how much damage and destruction they would manage to cause before they arrived at their homes or wherever they were going. Shaking her head, she closed the door and dashed back up to her room, meeting no one on the way there. She dove into the safety of her bedroom and collapsed back into bed, feeling emotionally drained and physically exhausted.

It was nice to see the children again; she wasn't afraid of them at all, and they were definitely amusing. But keeping up any semblance of a normal front in front of them was just plain tough! It took a lot out of her, and they'd still noticed that something was wrong. Goten's occassional perceptiveness was just…unnerving.

Another knock on the door. "Videl?"

"Come on in, Hannah."

The door opened, and the older woman poked her head in through the door. "Judging from the amount of noise I heard in here, I'd say that I was right in telling you to talk to those nice boys."

"Don't you dare say 'I told you so,'" Videl rolled her eyes and pulled a pillow over her head.

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Hannah said with a touch of melodrama. "So what were you talking about in here? Sounded like fun."

"Goten brought me a get better soon picture. It's on the bulletin board."

Hannah turned to study the brightly colored crayon drawing, and smiled indulgently. "Oh, how lovely! Who is it a picture of?"

"You can tell it's people?" Videl lifted her head from under the pillow and looked at the maid with a raised eyebrow. "I couldn't until Goten explained it to me!"

"You used to draw pictures like that when you were little. I learned to tell a long time ago," Hannah answered matter-of-factly. "So who is it?"

Sighing, Videl rolled out of bed and crossed the room. She pointed to each scribble in turn. "That's me, that's Goten, and that's Gohan."

Hannah turned a measuring eye on Videl. "Gohan? That name sounds familiar. A friend?"

"Yeah, he's a guy from school. Goten is his little brother," Videl answered shortly. After a minute, she became aware that she was getting Hannah's patented raised eyebrow glare. It was a look she didn't receive very often anymore. It very clearly read, 'There's something you're not telling me. Now talk.' It was a glare she had gotten as a child when she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have been. "What? What's with the Look?"

"Tell me more about this Gohan," Hannah asked innocently.

Videl wasn't fooled. "Hannah, it's not like that! Gods above and below!" she protested, feeling her hands start to shake again. Damn it all, why was this happening to her.

"All right, all right!" Hannah held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, I believe you. But I'm really worried about you, sweetling. You seemed pretty nervous when I told you there were two young men here to see you."

"You're being silly," Videl said. She received another one of Hannah's raised eyebrows, and sighed, defeated. She sat down on the edge of her bed and put her face in her hands. "I don't know what's wrong with me! I can't even think about any of my guy friends without getting panicked!"

"It's all right, dearling," Hannah sat down on the bed next to Videl and put a consoling arm around the teenager's shoulders. "You've been dragged facedown through hell about five times in the past two weeks, and now it's time to recover. It will take time."

"How long?"

"However long you need."

"I feel bad," Videl mumbled. "Gohan really came through for me."

"What do you mean?" Hannah was honestly intrigued. Of course Videl had mentioned this guy before, and Hannah had just been teasing earlier, but now she was starting to wonder if maybe there was really something there.

"We…we have this weird mindlink," Videl admitted, wishing desperately that she didn't have to talk about it. "We can talk telepathically. When I was out, he used that link to pull me back and wake me up, and I think he might have had something to do with the fact that I'm healing so fast. And so what do I do when I wake up? Start shaking like a scared rabbit. And he hasn't tried to talk to me since then. Why? Because he knew! And I don't know why it's Gohan that gets me the most freaked out." Videl felt like she was stretched to her very limits; it would take only the slightest touch to make her snap into pieces.

All through this admission, Hannah remained silent, keeping one arm around Videl's shaking shoulders. When the teenager's voice finally trailed off, Hannah spoke. "Are you afraid to speak to him?"

"Why?" Videl looked perplexed.

"This…mindlink you said you have? Could you talk to him, do you think?" Hannah ventured, beginning to see the situation for what it really was. "Or would you?"

"I could try…" Videl shrugged noncommittally.

"You should. Prove to yourself that there's nothing to be afraid of. It'll help."

"Do I have to do it now?"

"No. When you're ready. Not before. I remember you mentioning this guy. If he's as great as you say he is, then it should be just fine."

"Yeah…"

Hannah took a risk. "How special is this guy to you, Videl?"

To her surprise, the teenager blushed a little, and she answered in a hushed whisper. "Pretty special…but he doesn't know it."

"Hmm," Hannah murmured, not letting anything show any judgment. Having gotten that much out of her young friend, she decided to change the subject, for Videl's sake. "Heavens, dearling, you look exhausted. Go to sleep!"

"Yes, ma'am," Videl flashed a mock salute, but without much emphasis behind it. Then she crawled into bed and waited for Hannah to shut off the lights. Finally alone, she pulled the blanket up to her chin, stared into the darkness, and wondered if she would actually ever be able to leave this room again.

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"Whenever we said anything about you, she got a really weird look on her face," Goten said seriously around mouthfuls. "And then she started talking about something else. But she seemed to like hearing the stories about what Saiyaman's been up to." The chibi paused. "Did something really bad happen to Videl?

"I think so."

"Oh," Goten looked down at his plate. "I hope she feels better soon. I want her to come over again so we can play hide and seek and fly and stuff."

Gohan nodded, but didn't respond.

AN: Yes, I know this whole concept has been done before. But tell me truthfully—could you see it happening to anyone else? I can't. That's why I picked Videl. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's too late to change it now. Thanks for reading.

Next chapter: at Hannah's urging, Videl finally leaves the house…and runs into someone…