The Song of an Angel

By ssj Kinara

Disclaimer: I still don't own DBZ.just Jackie and her family.

A/N: Sorry again for taking so long! But I always know it's about time when nightmarelover starts to ask me about it. Loads of thanks to her! Oh, and thanks to those of you who always review for me!

Recap: Trunks and Jackie are a definite couple now. But what's going on that's rocking the whole Briefs household out of place? Read to find out!!!

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Chapter eight: Decisions

It was almost hard to believe that Jackie had been living with the Briefs for three days. But time passed quickly and three days easily turned into three weeks. They became like family in that time.

Jackie was getting better at using her crutches, and if Bulma hadn't have made her, she wouldn't have even used them. They were always having fights about "those stupid things" as Jackie put it. She said they just got in the way. Bulma said she wasn't healed yet. Bulma always won, but Jackie would stick out her tongue when Bulma wasn't looking.

Bulma was still waiting for the doctor to call back for Jackie's appointment. "'Not an emergency' he says," she'd mutter. "Pheh!"

Trunks was just happy that he and Jackie were still together. Every morning he woke up hoping that she hadn't been a dream. When he'd see her at the breakfast table, he's decide to live this day like it would be the last day they'd be together.

Those days were all wonderful.

Until the Androids decided that they'd let the peace go on for too long.

Jackie and Trunks were sitting next to each other reading from the same book. Bulma walked into the den, back from grocery shopping and looking rather upset.

"What's wrong, Bulma?" asked Jackie as the older woman plopped into a chair.

"I just saw the news in town," she said, resting her head on her hand as if she had a migraine. "The Androids attacked again," she said gravely.

Silence echoed in the room. Jackie pulled her knees up to her chest in childish protection.

"It's like I always say," Bulma murmured through clenched teeth. "'The longer the quiet, the louder the roar.'" She slammed her fist into the arm of the chair. "Why can't they just leave us alone?!" she screamed.

"Hey, Mom, calm down," said Trunks rising to his mother's side.

After a minute Bulma was reasonably calm again. "How bad was it?" Asked Jackie.

"Pretty bad," she replied. "It's been a while since they'd caused some real damage, so they really let loose.

"Oh, I'm sorry Jackie!" exclaimed Bulma suddenly. "I forgot, I mean."

"It's all right," replied Jackie. "Don't. You told me the truth. That's what I wanted."

For a while no one spoke.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," said Trunks, "but I think that we should go see what we can do. I mean, if nothing else, we can find some junk parts we can use."

Bulma nodded. "I'll get the car ready. You and Jackie get the crates."

"Right." Bulma left the room.

As Trunks helped Jackie up, she asked him why they wanted junk parts.

"Oh." He handed her the crutch. "It's so we can use them to rebuild. Good plastic, metals, alloys, petrol, none of that's easy to find anymore. If Mom or I can ever find anything useable, we collect them in crates to take home and cannibalize."

In the lab, he stacked a few of the boxes and gave them to Jackie under her arm. He took the rest. In a matter of minutes they were ready to head out to the destroyed city.

There they spent the next few hours sorting through the rubble. They didn't find any survivors - they hadn't expected to. Amazingly enough, though, they were able to find some long steel bars and a few plastic containers full of gasoline that were buried underground. Those alone were enough to make the trip a success.

The threesome came back home in fairly good spirits. In an attempt to cheer them up, Trunks had been telling really bad jokes. They walked in, still laughing at an extremely stupid rhyme about Santa Clause and a slumber party, so it took a moment for Bulma to realize the phone was ringing.

"I've got it," she called and ran into the den to pick it up.

Trunks wondered who it could be. Hardly anyone ever called. It was usually too expensive, or there was just no one to talk to. He shook off the subject and decided that Bulma would probably tell him about it, anyhow.

"Let's take these crates down to Mom's lab and then I'll play you in a game of cards."

"Okay," Jackie agreed. "I'm getting better at Hearts now. I just might beat you."

"Oh, really?" laughed Trunks. "We'll just see."

But the pair didn't even make it to the stairwell.

"Jackie?" Bulma poked her head in on them.

"Yes?"

"The phone's for you."

"What, me?!"

Bulma nodded. Jackie took the phone from Bulma and limped into the den.

Trunks was worried. He had never seen such a look on his mother's face: shocked and vacant and almost scared all at once.

"Mom?"

Bulma looked at her son and motioned for him to come with her to the den. He followed her in.

"-what?!" he heard Jackie cry as he entered the room. She was sitting on the couch, looking as if she was going to drop the phone, her face somewhere between extreme happiness and stricken fear.

"Jackie, what is it?" Trunks rushed to her side, worried for her.

She looked in his eyes, her own starting to well up with tears.

"It's.They're."

"It's okay, Jackie, just say it," encouraged Bulma from the doorway.

Jackie took a breath.

"It's my grandparents. They say they can take me to live with them."

* * * * * * * *

Jackie had no family left. They'd all been killed in the Android attack three weeks ago.

Or that's what Trunks thought. Yet there was Jackie, sitting on the couch, just like when she'd told them about the videotape of his father, telling him that her grandparents had just called. Somehow they'd survived the attack and had been searching for any other survivors since. Then, yesterday they'd received a phone call long-distance. Jackie was living in Capsule Corp with the Briefs. They'd called as soon as they'd gathered the courage to believe it.

".and then they asked me if I would like to live with them."

As Jackie spoke, the rage and even fear that had been bubbling up inside of Trunks boiled over. He leapt out of his chair, nearly knocking it over.

"How can you trust that?" he yelled. "How can you be so sure that's really them? You said your whole family was killed!"

"Trunks!" scolded Bulma.

Jackie had a solemn look on her face. "I.I kind of remember that they might've been going on a short trip that morning. Besides," her mouth twitched into a tinny smile, "Grandpa's the only one who ever called me by that nickname, and that man said it: 'Torinoaka-chan'." *

"Baby Bird?" inquired Bulma.

Jackie nodded, smiling sadly.

Trunks wasn't convinced. "So where are they staying? Their house got blown up, remember?"

Bulma glared daggers at her son.

"They had a house farther north," said Jackie.

"How far north?"

She let her hair shadow her face. "Too far to come and visit here."

That broke him. "It's not fair! Why would you want to leave us? Leave me?!" He didn't wait for an answer. He raced up the stairs to the safety and comfort of his room. She couldn't see him cry there.

After a few minutes there was a knock on the door.

"Go away!" He knew he was being childish, but he felt like his adulthood had been completely swept away.

Though his face was buried in his pillow, he could hear the door open and the unmistakable sound of Jackie's footsteps crossing the room. He felt her sit beside him on his bed and place her hand on his back.

"Trunks?"

He didn't look at her.

"Trunks, it is only an offer. I get to decide who I want to stay with."

He turned his head, partly because the air between his face and pillow had begun to taste old, but mostly because he wanted to get a good look at Jackie. She looked as if she had been crying, too.

"So who're you going to stay with?"

She shook her head. "I don't know yet. I really want to stay here, but they're my family, Trunks, and I want to stay with them, too."

Trunks was silent, but nodded almost invisibly.

No one made a sound for a while. Eventually, Jackie stood up to leave.

"Wait." Trunks put a hand on her side to keep her from leaving. He paused for a moment, not sure what he wanted to say. "Um." He sighed. "Whoever you chose, be sure they're who you want to be with."

She smiled. "I will," she assured him, brushing his hair out of his eyes. She kissed him gently on his forehead. "I love you."

He smiled weakly as she left the room and decided to do something he'd never thought to do before: pray.

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Everything was dark. Trunks couldn't see but somehow he knew what was happening. He was in a wormhole of some kind. He could feel the movement coming from the walls and small particles of something brushing past him.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light in front of him, and a figure stepped towards him with her hands extended towards him.

Jackie.

He reached for her and held her close in his arms. They didn't need words. The sound of each other's heartbeats was enough.

Then a hand reached out from the darkness behind Jackie and took her hand, beginning to lead her away.

"No!" pleaded Trunks, reaching for Jackie's hand. Tears were filling his eyes, mirroring Jackie's.

Everything was moving slowly, but somehow the hand pulled Jackie too far out of his reach. She collapsed into nothingness.

"Noooo!" he yelled.

"No!" He sat up in bed, the sheets knotted around him, dripping in cold sweat.

It had been a dream. It was over. But the screaming hadn't stopped. Orienting himself, he realized it was coming from down the hall.

Jackie's room.

"Jackie." Trunks untangled himself from the sheets and began to scramble down the hall. "Jackie!"

Bulma was already there. Jackie was on the floor, screaming in pain, holding her right leg. Bulma kneeled over her, trying to calm her down and get a good look at her ankle at the same time.

"Mom! Jackie, what happened?" he cried, clueless to what had happened.

Bulma whipped around. Trunks! Call Dr. Strouss!" she instructed him. "If this isn't an emergency, I don't know what is."

Confused but obedient, he turned to run downstairs, but not before he got a good look at Jackie's face. She was flushed and panicked, still gripping her ankle and tears were filling her eyes.

Why? He asked himself while dialing the phone number. Why does everything seem to happen to this poor girl?

"Hello, Dr Strouss speaking," said an irritatingly calm voice.

"Dr. Strouss! It's Trunks Briefs! Get the ambulance over here quick! Jackie's.I don't know, but she's hurt badly! Hurry!"

"Whoa, calm down, Trunks," he said but with a sympathetic tone in his voice. He knew, along with most of the tight-knit community, of Trunks and Jackie's relationship. "I'll get over there right away. Just hold on for about fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?!" Trunks cursed into the phone. "You get over here now or answer to me!" He slammed the phone on the receiver.

Bulma came down the stairs. "Fifteen minutes is too long," she told him. "Her ankle won't stop swelling. Quick, get an ice pack!" She turned and rushed back up the staircase as Trunks grabbed the ice pack from the freezer.

He rushed back upstairs in time for Bulma to instruct him to put Jackie on the bed. Jackie's face was wet with tears and twisted in pain, He gently lifted her and placed her there.

Immediately, Bulma was shoving him out of the room. "Wait outside for the ambulance. I can't do any good with you in here."

"Wait!" cried Trunks.

"I'm sorry," Bulma whispered as she shut the door on him.

"Jackie." Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks. What was happening? Was it really that bad?

He couldn't support his own weight anymore. He leaned his head against the wall and slid to his knees. Frustrated but weak, he hit the wall. It hardly left a mark.

Why? He thought again. Why always her?

* * * * * * * *

Dr. Strouss's office was no big building. In all truth, the whole thing was his downstairs floor and basement as an operating room. The doctor dreamed of having a nice office building to work in, but with the constant threat of the Androids he made due with what he had.

It was early in the morning and Trunks was sitting in a stiff chair in the doctor's den, his waiting room.

Just three hours ago, the white van arrived in front of Capsule Corp. Dr. Strouss and his eldest son ran into the house with a stretcher, led by Trunks. Bulma had made a makeshift cast to keep Jackie's leg still, but it wouldn't last long without professional care.

Trunks hadn't gotten any sleep that night. He was too worried about Jackie. Bulma guessed that she'd been having a restless sleep and had fallen out of bed. She didn't know if her already-injured foot had been caught in the sheets and pulled too roughly, or if she'd kicked something in her fall, or something else. She just knew that it was probably broken.

Bulma'd gotten tired of sitting and fretting while Jackie was in pain downstairs. She'd gone for a long walk, leaving Trunks alone.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed since Bulma'd left; he kept running the same worrisome thoughts through his head.

Finally, Dr. Strouss emerged. Trunks jumped up to meet him. "How is she?"

"She's doing just fine," the doctor said in his irritatingly calm voice. "We finished setting her ankle a long time ago. She just desperately needed to sleep. She was under a lot of stress."

"I wonder why," Trunks grumbled inaudibly.

"She asked for you when she woke up," Dr. Strouss continued. "She wants to talk to you."

His heart did a somersault, but he only nodded "yes" outwardly.

Dr. Strouss led Trunks down into the basement hospital. He opened the door for him, indicated Jackie's bed and told him to come on up when he's ready.

Trunks nodded again and Strouss left the room.

There were about six beds squeezed into the basement. Two weren't being used and three others were surrounded by a curtain, but not Jackie's.

She was propped up against a pillow smiling at him from across the room. He returned the smile weakly and made his way to Jackie's bedside. He kneeled next to her and took her hand.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hey yourself."

Trunks looked her up and down. Besides looking tired, she looked almost like she always did. The only thing was the cast on her foot. Maybe it was just that he was suffering from a lack of sleep, maybe it was the stress that'd built on them all in the last day, but for some reason, he absolutely hated that cast. To him it represented all of that stress. He'd spent the last three hours worrying franticly and couldn't take it anymore.

He looked Jackie in the eyes as his own began to well up. "I don't want you to go," he said through his shaking voice.

"Oh, Trunks." Jackie couldn't help but to tear up at the sight of him crying. She'd always thought he'd seemed so strong, like he couldn't cry, or wouldn't, but she'd made him cry twice in one day.

"Jackie." He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. "I don't want you to go," he said again.

She placed her hand on his cheek and wiped away his tear. "Trunks, I-"

"I know I said it didn't matter," Trunks said holding her hands in his, "but I do care. I've gotten so used to seeing you everyday. I want to always wake up and see you. I know you said you hadn't made up your mind yet, but I have to say it, I love you, Jackie. I can't-"

"Trunks, you're not making this any easier on me!" She pulled away from him, fully weeping into her hands.

For a moment Trunks couldn't move, trying to sort out what she'd said and knowing all too well what she meant.

"Jackie.Jackie, no!" He took her face in his hands. "Please, look at me!"

She turned to look in his eyes, still weeping. "Trunks, I've made up my mind. I've really thought about it. Trunks, I'm going to live with my grandparents. I'm too much of a burden for you and Bulma, and don't bother to deny it!" she said, predicting Trunks' interruption. "These are hard times and you don't want to have to care for me when you don't have to. Besides, I'm the only family they've got, too."

Tears were spilling over for both of them. Trunks still was holding her face in his hands gently, and she was running her fingers through his hair.

"I don't think I can say goodbye to you," he wept.

"Then you don't have to," Jackie whispered to him. "We can write letters to each other and even call each other sometimes."

Trunks shook his head. His heart hurt. "It's not the same."

Jackie stopped and took a ragged breath. She knew what she had to say.

"Trunks, if you love me.you have to let me go. Trust me.please. I love you too much to let you go this easily."

No. He didn't want to believe it. But he knew she was right. He did trust her. He had to let her go be with her family. It wasn't his place to stop her.

With fresh tears running down his cheeks, he nodded.

Jackie pulled him close in a sudden hug, her tears reflecting her gratitude and love. "Thank you," she said into his shoulder.

Trunks returned the hug, holding her tightly, never wanting to let her go. But he knew he'd have to all too soon. His heart felt like it was breaking, torn up into little pieces, like he didn't want to take his next breath.

So, he thought, this is what it feels like to die.

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*Note: My Japanese grammar isn't too great, so it's probably not an accurate translation. Please bear with me or correct me if you're fluent in the language!

A/N: I know, it's sad! But she had to pick someone. I think she felt like her grandparents might need her more. We're drawing to a close! There's only two chapters left! Remember, the more reviews I get, the more I'll be encouraged to get to writing! Thanks again!

Next Chapter: It's a chapter of sad good-byes, readers. How will everyone take it? Stay tuned to find out!