The Song of an Angel

By ssj Kinara

Disclaimer: The same basic disclaimer applies as in chapter 2, only now I must add that Jackie and her grandparents are my own original characters.

A/N: Wow, it's been five months since I last updated! I am so sorry for taking so long, but I hope this chapter is good enough to make up for it. Thanks for all of your patience!

Recap: Jackie has just revealed to Trunks that she has decided to live with her grandparents. How will he take it all?

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Chapter nine: Goodbye to you

It was a solemn day in the Briefs household. It was unusually quiet in Capsule Corp and the atmosphere was tense. Bulma had helped Jackie pack a few outfits she swore that she never wore anymore and she was sure would fit Jackie, and her grandparents were on their way.

In only half an hour Jackie would be leaving.

Trunks had been trying to avoid the subject of Jackie leaving for the past two days, to the point of being cold, ignoring her. Today was just too much for him, as it was all becoming a too-real reality. He'd been hiding in the kitchen with a book since breakfast, but he wasn't reading it. His mind was too full to concentrate on a book today.

For some reason, Jackie and Bulma had been in the lab for the past few hours. Trunks figured that they were getting in a few last "girl talks" before they had to say goodbye.

For Bulma, these past weeks with Jackie had been like having a daughter or sister. Maybe she was reminded of the times when ChiChi used to come over to visit. Trunks knew she missed those times. He did, too. Only.

A certain thought had entered his head since breakfast, and he wasn't sure that he liked it.

He'd been going over the past few weeks he had with Jackie: his finding her, her lullaby, her first words to them, the home video, their date, that fateful phone call, and now this. Something had occurred to him then: if it hadn't been for all the destruction going on around them, he never would've met Jackie. The Androids had forced her out of her home when she was a child and made the reason for him to come to where she was next.

Trunks didn't know anymore if he wanted to thank the Androids or destroy them for it.

He knew he didn't want the Androids to kill anymore and just trying to destroy them wasn't working. Look where it got Gohan. Well, maybe it was time for a new strategy. He would thank them. He was sure that they'd never been thanked before.

Then another part of him got serious. Yeah, thanked for what? Destroying our planet? You're just going to go up to them and say "Oh, thanks for killing all of those people, you brought me and my girlfriend together and now, by the way, she's leaving with her only living relatives-"

Oh, yeah, Jackie's leaving.

He felt his cheek twitch and he clamped his teeth together. "I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry." He white knuckled the arms of the chair. "I'm a man, I'm not going to cry, I'm not."

He leaned forward and nested his face in his arms on the table and sobbed.

Trunks wasn't sure how long he stayed there. He cried for a while, then he might've fallen asleep, but he was shocked into reality when he heard a car door slam and footsteps coming from the street.

He blinked a few times, wiped his eyes and tried to sort out what was happening. He froze, then raced to the window. Two elderly people were coming up the walk.

Jackie's grandparents were there. In a few minutes, she'd be gone. Forever.

Slowly, as if he was in a funeral march, he approached the door, preparing himself for the hardest thing he'd ever have to do.

* * * * * * * *

".And then you just press this button and it's done." Bulma was showing Jackie how to work some of her inventions and machines in her lab. She wanted to, partly because Jackie had never seen much technology and because Bulma liked to show off, but also to get in a little more quality time with her.

She studied the younger woman, who was staring wide-eyed at a computer screen. It was almost comical to Bulma; she spent nearly every day around that computer.

"I never knew," said Jackie, "that one machine could do so much!" She looked up. "Besides the Androids, I mean. And I've seen plenty of gadgets that can do only a thing or two, but this."

Bulma chuckled. "When I was your age, I was so immersed in technology that I couldn't imagine how anyone could live without computers or Dinocaps." She shook her head. "It just shows the gaping differences between our generations, besides the wrinkles," she laughed. Jackie smiled. Her nose wrinkled when she did, in her young, attractive way. Bulma looked at her for a bit, then brushed an invisible hair from Jackie's face.

"I'm going to miss you."

Jackie smiled shyly again and looked at the floor. Bulma kept talking.

"You've been staying in my house for weeks, dear. You've become like family. Trunks and I both love you. As far as I'm concerned, you are family. Jackie, I don't care who you're staying with or how far away you are, you are more than welcome to come and stay with us whenever you like."

"Oh, Bulma!" Jackie hugged Bulma. "Thank you. You know how much I love you all. You've been especially nice to me, Bulma. You're like a sister or a moth-"

Jackie caught herself. Bulma could tell from the look in her eye that she was thinking of her own mother.

"Aw, Jackie," Bulma hugged the girl. Tears were starting to brim in her eyes. "It's okay. I don't want you to compare me to your mother. We're very different people. We're very different people and you ought to keep a special place in your heart for her. I think we'll make better friends anyway, hmm? Like sisters?"

Jackie smiled through her tears and nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Sisters."

The two women looked at each other and smiled. Bulma wiped a tear from Jackie's cheek with her thumb and winked.

"So, do you think it's done yet?"

Jackie watched the woman stand and approach her table of machines. "I don't know," she replied. "You're the expert."

"Yeah, but it's been a while since I've made one of these." She pulled something from a rectangular slot in one of her machines and placed it in a small, brown box. She handed it to Jackie, who closed it. "It should work," she said.

Jackie nodded and pulled out a bright green string to tie decoratively on the box.

"Where'd you get that?" asked Bulma.

"Found it." Jackie winked at Bulma. "Don't worry; it wasn't from anything important. Lend a finger?"

Bulma placed her index finger over the crossed ends for Jackie to finish the bow.

"I think it's really sweet that you're doing this for him," stated Bulma as Jackie pulled the strings tight.

"I know," Jackie said softly. "I just feel like it was right for us."

Bulma smiled and Jackie mirrored the gesture.

From behind them, a knock came from the door of the lab.

"Mom?" Trunks called from behind the door.

Bulma glanced at Jackie before answering. She knew what was coming. Call it woman's intuition.

"Yes, Trunks?"

He opened the door enough to fit his head through. He took a deep breath before speaking, and even then he choked on the words.

"It's Jackie's grandparents. They're here to take her.home."

* * * * * * * * *

Jackie took the last step carefully into the main area of the Briefs' house. Funny; she'd been calling this place home for so long. she began to wonder if she would ever see it again.

Trunks came up behind her. "They're in the den."

Jackie nodded, not daring to look at him. He placed a hand on her shoulder, though, and she couldn't help but turn and look up at those crystal blue eyes.

"Trunks-"

They're waiting for you," he said rather coldly. It left a hollow spot in her stomach to hear him like that, but she knew him well enough to notice how his eyebrows knitted together as he tried to hold back. She didn't want to push him, so she took a breath and continued through the door.

Two old people, a man and a woman in their seventies, were sitting on the loveseat, their hands clapped nervously together between them. Jackie knew them well enough to know that the woman's hand was slightly arthritic.

For a long moment, they looked at each other, almost to be sure that the others were real.

Slowly, the woman stood and walked towards Jackie, arms outstretched. "Jackie," she said, "my granddaughter!" She sniffed back tears and wrapped her arms around Jackie's neck.

"Grandma!" Jackie returned the hug. "It's really you!" she cried, tears running familiarly down her face.

"Yes, it's me, baby, it's us," she said.

"We're all here again!" said the man, with the joy and energy of someone thirty years his younger. His wrinkles on his face only added to the evident happiness in his heart. "Grandma, Torinoakachan and me! My crying girls!"

"Yeah, that's where I got it from," Jackie agreed, wiping her eyes. "Grandma. We're always the ones crying."

"You bet, Jackie dear," she was still holding her. "You and I, we could-"

"--Fill the Atlantic Ocean!" Jackie finished, saying it with her, "while Grandpa watches in his raincoat."

"Aw, glad to be included," he said. The smile seemed to be stuck to his face. "C'mere! All of us together!" He gathered them into a big hug.

A flash went off behind them. All three jumped and Jackie's grandmother yelped.

Bulma pulled a camera away from her face. "Sorry," she said bashfully. "It was such a tender moment. I couldn't help but take a picture."

Jackie laughed. "It's all right, Bulma. We're just jumpy. Y'know, with the Androids and their bombing.or whatever."

Regaining her composure, the old woman spoke to Bulma. "So you're the one who's been taking care of my grandchild all this time."

"Well, technically, yes."

"Thank you so much." She took Bulma's hand in gratitude. "I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't saved her. She's all we have now."

"It's really our pleasure. She's a truly lovely girl."

"Oh, where are my manners? My name's Rebecca and this is Don, my husband."

"It's nice to meet you both."

As the adults exchanged pleasantries, Trunks listened behind the closed door.

"So this is it," he thought. "They're in there saying 'Hi, bye, nice knowin' ya' and Jackie's leaving just like that. Some world I live in." He placed one hand over his eyes and his other arm around his middle. "I wish Gohan was here."

He stood there, losing track of the conversation in the other room, lost in dismal memories about Gohan, his mentor and best friend. He always knew what to do in a tight spot. Gohan often told him it was because of his dad and the other Z fighters. Trunks had heard so much about them all that he felt like he knew them, at least enough to miss them.

He felt a hand touch his shoulder. He knew even before he took his hand away from his eyes that it was Jackie. He had been so caught up in his memories that he hadn't sensed her coming.

"Hi," she said feebly.

"Hey." His voice was colder than he'd intended. The disappointment showed on Jackie's face.

"Sorry."

"No you're not," she stated, surprising Trunks. "You don't want me to go, so you've decided to separate yourself from me to spare yourself the pain of yet another loss, like your father and Gohan. You're cutting yourself off from emotion now so you won't fell anything later. You're tired of that cutting, raking pain in tour heart every time someone you love leaves you."

"Jackie. I-"

"It's almost sundown," Jackie said, looking past him and through a window. "That means twilight's coming." She moved past him towards the window. She leaned on her crutch and pulled the shades completely out of the way. Trunks stood next to her and looked out the window. He waited for what she had to say next.

"Look at it," she said. "See the sky? You know how vast it really is, but doesn't it seem like a painting just for us humans? All the pinks and oranges and blues and purples, they all blend together so nicely. The sun does that, you know.

"In a few minutes the sun is going to move out of sight and the moon will come out. It'll get dark, but that velvet black is just the backdrop for the moon's play. The stars all come out and twinkle, but the moon is the one that shines. It shines with the sun's light. But, I don't think either feels contempt for the other. They exist in perfect harmony with each other, neither one trying to take the other's place. One is in the night and the other is in the day. They hardly ever cross each other.

"But, sometimes the moon visits the sun in the daytime. I think it's more of a reunion than a competition. The moon doesn't bother to outshine the sun, and they exist together in a pretty picture, but they go back when the time is right.

"They live far apart most of the time. Still they live in happy harmony together.

"Why can't we do that?"

Jackie finally turned to look at Trunks, the sinking sun casting a radiant glow onto her face and making her tears glitter. Yes, tears had again entered her eyes and it was his fault. His fault that she was crying yet again.

He pulled her close to him and she cradled her head on his shoulder.

"We can, Jackie," he told her. "We can because I am not going to lose you because some land is between us. I'll see you again even if I have to fly there in ten years!"

"Well, until then we can still try sending letters. I don't know how good the post is yet, but we can when we can. And we can all each other."

Trunks smiled and placed a hand on Jackie's cheek. "Right."

A flash went off behind them.

"Sorry," Bulma sniffled again, "but I couldn't help myself."

The pair laughed and took a small step away from each other.

"Jackie," Don, her grandfather stepped out from behind Bulma. "We're ready to go now. Are you all the way packed?"

Trunks watched Jackie's head and smile fall a bit as she nodded.

She walked gingerly up the stairs with her grandpa, helping each other take each step.

Bulma quietly approached Trunks.

"Are you going to be able to do this?" she whispered to him. He nodded.

"But it's all ending too fast," he thought, but he couldn't say, not with Jackie's grandma right there.

Within a minute, they were back down the stairs and putting Jackie's bag in the trunk of their small car.

Trunks and Jackie stood in the doorway arms around each other, trying to figure out how to say good bye.

"I'll miss you doesn't seem to sum it up, does it?" said Trunks.

"Hey, don't forget that you promised to fly and visit me in ten years," Jackie reminded him. "That's if I don't beat you to it.

"Oh." She suddenly reached for her pocket and pulled out the brown box with the green string. "This is for you."

He blinked and stared at it as if he'd never seen a box before.

"You.bought me something?"

"Well, no. I sort of made it, with Bulma's help. Take it."

Slowly, almost gingerly, he took the box out of Jackie's hands. With a quick look at her smiling face, he pulled off the string and removed the lid. What he found in the box wasn't what he'd been expecting.

"A cassette?"

Jackie nodded. "For you to remember me by. It has some of my favorite songs on it, and I even recorded that lullaby on it. Just the way my mother would sing it," she said, leaning close to Trunks' ear as she began to sing.

"I don't know What words I can say. The wind has a way To talk to me. Flowers sleep A silent lullaby. I pray for reply. I'm ready. Quiet day calms me. Oh, serenity, Someone please tell me Oh, mmm, What is it they say? Maybe I will know one day. I don't know What words I can say The wind has a way To talk to me. Flowers sleep A silent lullaby. I pray for reply I'm ready."

By now, Trunks was weeping into Jackie's shoulder. It wasn't just because of the song, though. It was the whole picture, the song and how clear it was now that Jackie was leaving. Her suitcase was in the trunk, and Rebecca was settled into the front seat, waiting.

It was the point of no return, the hand pulling Jackie away from him.

He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. Wiping his eyes quickly, he turned to see Don, who gave him a weak, sympathetic smile.

"Are you ready to go, Jackie?" asked the old man.

Trunks took a step away from them, and Jackie looked at the floor and nodded.

As Jackie reached for her crutch and her Grandfather led her towards the door, Trunks felt like his insides were being ground out by a mortar and pestle. He couldn't take it. His eyes burned and he turned, racing up the stairs at a superhuman speed.

"Trunks!" His mother called up the stairway. He couldn't hear. He only heard the pounding in his ears as he flung himself onto his bed and wept, wept in a way that would have shamed his father, but he didn't care anymore. Not anymore.

When he began to feel his limbs again, he looked at the cassette still clutched in his hand. Without thinking, he got up and put it in his player. The soft music began to play and he sat on his bed, absorbing the music.

Of all the things I believed in

I just wanna get it over with Tears form behind my eyes But I do not cry Counting the days that pass me by.

At the mention of tears, Trunks remembered his own and wiped them away, only managing to burn his eyes more.

I've been searching deep down in my soul The words I'm hearing are starting to get old Feels like I'm starting all over again The last three years were just pretend And I said

Goodbye to you Goodbye to everything I thought I knew You were the one I loved The one thing that I tried to hold on to.

The grinding in his stomach began to hurt again. He clutched his pillow to himself and listened to the words. It almost sounded like Jackie singing.

I used to get lost in your eyes

It seems like I can't live a day without you Closing my eyes and you chase my thoughts away To a place where I ain't blinded by the light But it's not right

Goodbye to you Goodbye to everything I thought I knew You were the one I loved The one thing that I tried to hold on to.

Trunks felt frozen, even though it was mid-summer. Had Jackie picked this song first on purpose? It sang goodbye-then he remembered: He hadn't said goodbye to Jackie.

Oh

And it hurts to want everything And nothing at the same time I want what's yours and I want what's mine I want you But I'm not giving in this time

Goodbye to you Goodbye to everything I thought I knew You were the one I loved The one thing that I tried to hold on to Goodbye to you Goodbye to everything I thought I knew You were the one I loved The one thing that I tried to hold on to.

Full to the brim, and not caring what anybody thought, he jumped up and ran to his window. He flung it open and reached his head out as far as he could go. HE looked towards he road leading away from Capsule Corp. There, humming away from the building, from him, was a lone car. Even from where he was, with his Saiyan eyes he could see Jackie in the backseat.

"Jackie!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "This isn't 'goodbye'! This is 'I'll see you soon'! Remember me! Never forget us, or this month, Jackie! That keeps me right next to you wherever you are! I love you, Jackie!! Forever and ever, I'll love you, until the day I die!"

Oh And when the stars fall I will lie awake You're my shooting star.

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Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics to that last song. It's Michelle Branch's song called "Goodbye to You".

A/N: Aaaaaaaaaah! I know, I know! I want to cry when I picture it all in my head, and I've been picturing this ending for, wow, almost a year. But don't hate me yet! I still have an epilogue to write. Then you can hate me.

Next (LAST!) Chapter: Unfortunately, time keeps passing and things keep changing. What has happened in the ten years after Jackie left? Well, be patient and find out in the Epilogue of The Song of an Angel!!