Yay!  I got this one out like a few days earlier than the last chapter!  Yay, right?  Ah, oh well.  But hey, this is the longest chapter I've ever written, throughout all of my stories, so that should make you happy.  The story itself is over 3,000 words!  Okay, I'll leave you alone now….

~Lady Branwen~

Disclaimer:  You know I don't anything, don't you?

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Girl of my Dreams

Chapter 19

"So how did you come to meet Pan's foster father, Charles?"

"He came to the house one night and woke Videl and I up.  We let him in the house and he accused us of having his daughter."

"What happened?"

"We told him that Pan wasn't there, that she was with friends.  He didn't believe us so he wanted to search the house.  He said something along the lines of that it would be better if he did it rather than the cops getting a warrant to search the house."

"He was threatening you, then, in your own house?"  Bulma asked in disbelief.

"Yes."

Bulma raised her eyebrows and looked over at Charles, then turned back to Gohan and continued, "And what did you do?"

Gohan sighed inwardly at the mess he had made by allowing Charles even into the house, especially because of what happened next.  "I let him look around the house all he wanted until he was satisfied."

 "Why did you do that?"

"Because I believed that it was the right thing to do and I would rather have had him looking around than getting the police to search my house.  Now I'm not so sure I made the best decision."

"And why is that, Mr. Son?"

"I think he kidnapped Pan when she came back."

A murmur erupted throughout the court at hearing Gohan's accusation.

"Order!" Judge Swartz yelled above the noise.

When things settled down, Gohan continued.  "Pan was kidnapped not long after Charles visited the house.  It was the next night I think."

"Is that all you have to go by?  Just the fact that he came into the house?"

Gohan shook his head.  "No, there's more.  I hate myself for having did this, but by letting Charles explore the house, he would probably be able to remember where Pan's room was and where our bedroom is.  He would be able to know where everything was positioned in the house and would be able to kidnap Pan if he really wanted to, which is what I believe."

More murmurs were heard, but they died down as Bulma began to speak.  "Mr. Son, do you really believe that such a supposedly good person such as Charles would break into your house to kidnap his child?"

"Yes.  I definitely believe it, especially after the things that Trunks and Pan have told me about him."

"Oh, so did Trunks know him?"

"No, Pan told Trunks and he told me."

"I see, and what exactly did they say?"

"They told me that Charles had hurt Pan repeatedly.  He would burn her with cigarettes, rape her, cut her, hit her.  Anything that would hurt her."

"Did Pan ever say these things to you herself or was Trunks the only one who ever told you about these things?"

"Yes she did."

"So, she obviously didn't like Charles very much, did she?"

"No."

"Did she ever express any interest of going back to be with the man who had raised her?"

"Not at all."

"Thank you, Gohan.  No further questions."  Bulma smiled kindly at Gohan and walked back to her seat.

"Your witness, Mr. Hahn."
Mr. Hahn had a gleam in his eye as he strode up to Gohan.

"Mr Son, you have made some serious allegations towards my client.  Let's go over each one.  When you saw Mr. Miller on your doorstep, that very first night you met him, how did he strike you?"

"I didn't like him."
"That was your first impression of him.  And so why did you let him into your house."

"Well, it was late and I thought he was one of our neighbors at first, but then I realized that it wasn't our neighbor.  Then he started saying that we had his daughter."

"Did you believe that he was talking about Pan?"

"Yes, that's why I let him him."

"So you let him in even though you didn't trust him."

"Right."

"You look like a pretty strong man, Mr. Son.  Did you believe that if Mr. Miller tried anything that you could 'take him on' as it were?"

Gohan shrugged.  "That wasn't my thought, but if he had tried to hurt my family I certainly would have stopped him.  But I would never have let him into the house if Pan had been there."

 "Why is that?"

Gohan looked at Mr. Hahn as if he were stupid.  "Why?  He was some strange person who I didn't know or trust.  I don't let people in my house that I don't trust.  I shouldn't have let him in at all."

"Where was Pan all this time?"

"She was with my mother and father."

"You also said that you would rather have had him snooping around than letting the police do it.  Why is that?  Were you worried about them finding something?"

"No.  I'm just one of the many people who would be embarrassed if the police had to come and search my house for no reason.  I don't know about you, but we are a prominent family.  We are so much in the spotlight, we enjoy our privacy.  Do you have any idea how much of a scandal it would have been to let the police search our house?  Do you realize how out of hand this trial has gotten?  My family is going to be the center of attention for a long time, Mr. Hahn.  We will be in the news and won't be left alone, all because I want my daughter back."

"Yes, but be that as it may, Mr. Son, you are in court now, and you are on trial.  I would think that this would be much worse than letting the police search your house."

"It is, but I didn't think that things would get to this point."

"Anyway, what were you doing over Mrs. Maktahi's house?  Did you know that she is Charles' mother?"

"No, I just found out about that.  I wanted to talk to her because she is a neighbor and maybe she had seen Charles hitting Pan.  Or maybe Pan might have gone over there and Mrs. Maktahi might have seen bruises or Pan might have confessed things to her."

"Was that your only reason for going over there?" 

"Here we go," Gohan thought.  He knew that he would get hell for this.  "No, I went there to talk to Mr. Miller.  I just wanted to reason with him."

"As I recall," Mr. Hahn said as he walked back to his desk and looked at a notepad, "that was the same night that Pan as kidnapped from her home."

"From Charles' house, yes, but she wasn't kidnapped."

"Really?  Tell us what happened."

"I went there to just talk with Charles.  I wanted to explain to him about how much Videl and I wanted Pan back.  Pan wanted to be with us and I figured that he could see her from time to time if he wanted to and if Pan agreed to, but that she could live with us.  Pan wanted to be away from him and I didn't want her to be around him any more than she had to be.  And if she never wanted to see him again, that would be her choice.  In my opinion, if I were in her shoes, I wouldn't want him to be around me.  Who wants to be around someone who beats you?"

"Was he there?"

"No.  I knocked on the door, but no one answered it.  Then I heard Pan yelling from the other side of the house and I went to see if she was okay.  She wanted to get out of the house through the window, but it was stuck.  She said something about the window being glued shut and she wanted me to help her open it."

"So you're saying that she wanted you force the window open?"

"Yes."

"Interesting…" was all Mr. Hahn said. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Trunks, honey, I want you to do Mommy a favor…"

"What Mom?" he asked suspiciously.  He knew that when she used this tone of voice that she knew he wouldn't like it.

"Well, I would like to use your journal in court.  It would prove that Charles tried to kidnap her…"

Trunks looked at her in shock, "Mom, besides the fact that I don't want my business told to a courtroom full of people and having it all be PUT ON RECORD, I did mention about flying and that would mean we all lied about me flying…plus, how do you know any of it would be useful to you?  Have you been looking at my journal?"

"No, no!  Of course not!  It just fell on the floor and opened when I was putting your socks away," she answered, trailing off at the end.

"Mom.  I don't keep socks in my desk drawer.  I keep my journal and other kinds of papers there."

"Bulma, for once the boy is right," Vegeta butted in as he sneaked up behind Bulma.  "You can't put that entire journal as evidence.  To him, writing about his father training all day in a gravity chamber and going Super Saiyan isn't a big deal.  But how many other humans do you know can become a Super Saiyan?  Either they would investigate further until the reporters or the police found out what I am and that I'm not so-called 'normal,' or the media will.  And you know how I hate them."

He opened the refrigerator and took out an entire jug of milk and drank it all. 

"Well, then I'll take out only the pages I need."

"If I were the other lawyer, or anyone in general who heard about it, I would think that either you or he," Vegeta pointed to Trunks, "is hiding something."

"I guess you're right," Bulma said, defeated.

"Thank you, Dende," Trunks said under his breath.

"Hey, it wasn't such a bad idea," she argued.

Vegeta snorted and walked back to gravity room.  "Glad you're not my lawyer," he muttered.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I don't know how to feel about this entire situation.   I really want to be with my real parents, but I can't help but not want leave the person who raised me.  I at least feel pity for him.  He has never been a good father, but I just don't want to leave him all alone.  This must be a side effect of living with someone for so long.  I can't believe I feel sorry for him after everything he's done, but I definitely want to get out of here. 

I feel Trunks and his feelings.  He is so worried about me.  I guess the one good thing, if nothing else in this trial is that Charles hasn't hit me, even though I have made him mad a few times.  Trunks just wants all of this to be over so that he can hold me.  Oh, and I want him to, but I just don't know if I want to get too close to anyone for right now.  Maybe Charles will kidnap me again and I'll never see my family again.  Maybe he will just get so jealous that he'll think that if I can't be his daughter, then I won't be anyone's daughter and he'll kill me.  If he's going to jail anyway, why wouldn't he?  He wouldn't be able to keep me locked up in there with him and he wouldn't be allowed near me.  I don't know what would be worse: being killed, or living with the fear that one day he'll get out of jail and hunt me down.  I wouldn't put it past him.  I think that if I tell the truth about the kind of life I have had with him, and if I confirm that he was the one that kidnapped me, Mom and Dad will win and hopefully I'll be able to live with them.

I wish I could really talk to Trunks or my parents.  I want to hear Trunks' voice and hear him telling me that everything will be okay.  The police have kept Charles and me here in a secure apartment with someone guarding the door incase Dad or Trunks or anyone tries to get to me.  That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  They are locking me up with the guy that I need to be protected from!  Why doesn't anyone listen to me?  I don't want to stay here!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"What are you doing?" Charles asked when he walked into the room and saw Pan sitting on the floor, writing in a book.

He grabbed Pan by her hair and pulled the journal out of her hand.  His face turned red with fury when he looked at the entry and knew that if the journal fell into Bulma's hands, it would ruin his case.  He glared at Pan, but remembered that it wasn't in his best interest to hit her and so instead took the journal, ripped up the entries and burned them on the stove.  Then he went back to his room, the journal with him so that she wouldn't be able to write anything else.

Pan looked sadly after her journal and then looked at the stove where all of her thoughts had been incinerated in just a few seconds into ashes.  Without saying a word, Pan got up and went to her room to cry.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Mom!" Trunks rushed into his parents' bedroom later that night.  "I have an idea."

Bulma raised her eyebrows in a gesture for him to go on after looking up from her book.

"I gave Pan a journal," he continued. "Maybe we can use that…"

Bulma thought for a moment then nodded.  "That would work, as long as she hasn't said anything about you flying or things like that."

"Okay," Trunks smiled at being able to help.  "I'll talk to her and we'll see if she can do it."

"Awwww… my precious little baby Trunksie Wunksie has a mate!"

"Mom!"

"Bulma!  Stop your coddling!" Vegeta interjected as he heard her cooing when he walked into the room.  He was already annoyed with the robots in the gravity room that broke too easily, he didn't need to be bothered with Bulma's incessant babbling.  "He's a warrior.  Do I really have to hear you babying him every time you are in the same room as he is?" 

"Thanks, Dad," Trunks mouthed as he quickly got out of the room.  "I can't believe that he's been defending me lately, but why does he always have to walk in at the worst times?"  Trunks ran to his room to get out of his parents' way.  Most likely, Bulma would rage back at Vegeta and in the end, he would be forced to sleep on the couch.  No one ever wants to be around either of them when that happens, especially the person who was the subject of their argument.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Trunks sat on his bed looking at the ceiling.  Pan never answered him when he tried to talk to her.  Through their bond, he felt her filled with anger, pain, and sadness.  It made him want to talk to her even more, but she just wouldn't let him through.

"She would talk to me if Charles is hurting her again, wouldn't she? Maybe he did and she doesn't want anyone to be around her or to talk to her."

Trunks winced as he thought about the last time Pan hadn't wanted anyone around her.  It had been after Charles had raped her.  Trunks had wanted so badly to hold her and keep her safe, but didn't want to intrude upon her and make her feel uncomfortable. 

"No wonder she is feeling so terrible; she has to live with the man who raped her and who has ruined most of her life.  Especially after she has found out that life isn't so terrible and that there are nice people for her to live with…and also people who love her."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Trunks found himself in a white room with hardly any furniture. Pan was sitting on the bed, her eyes were red from crying, but she was calm and not crying now.

"How are you?"

"I'm okay I guess."

"Why haven't you answered me?"

Trunks walked over and sat by her on the bed and put his arm around her. 

"Is this where they are keeping you?"

She nodded.  "Trunks, I've missed you.  I wish you could really be here with me.  I want to hear your voice; I want you to hold me."

"Well," he said in a comforting tone, "pretend this is real.  This is the closest we will ever get to holding each other.  At least until we win the trial."

"Do you really think we will?"  Pan lifted her head up from his shoulder and searched his eyes for the answer.

"I think so.  I have an idea.  Have you been writing in your journal?  If you have, can you give it to my mom and we can use it to win."

Pan broke down into tears.

"Pan?  What is it?  Did I say something wrong?  Oh, gosh, I'm sorry."  He squeezed her and kissed her forehead.

"He burned my journal today!  He saw me writing in it and he read it and burned it!" she cried.

Trunks' heart sank.  "Then," he said solemnly, "you'll have to actually say all these things in court.  Especially talk about how he raped you.  And tell how he burned your journal today.  It will make him look like he doesn't want the court to find something out, which means, he has something to hide.  That will definitely make him look bad."

He kissed her forehead again.  "Everything will be okay as long as you tell the truth on the stand.  Don't even look over at him when you're up there.  Don't let him intimidate you.  Don't be afraid.  Nothing bad will happen to you if you tell the truth.  I know it's going to be really hard to do, but you have to do it if you want to get away from him and be with us.  Otherwise, you'll never be able to see your mom or dad ever again.  You won't even be able to see me again.  Gohan, Videl and I might even end up going to jail if you don't tell the truth."  He kissed her again.  "Just gather up some courage and let it all out.  We'll win when you tell about how he hurt you all these years.  No one will ever let you go back to him if they knew that you were mistreated."

"Thanks, Trunks," Pan said as she wiped away a tear.  "I have to go now.  I can't keep the dream up anymore.  I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay.  I love you, Pan."

"I love you too."  She smiled and waved just before the dream turned to darkness and Trunks was left to sleep.