To AiteanE: Well, it's kind of too bad you don't like it, but it doesn't matter to me, because I really don't feel like going back and changing my entire story. I know a lot of it wasn't exact courtroom details, but I can't help it, I'm just writing it, I have no idea what really goes on in a courtroom. Originally, the courtroom was only supposed to be like a chapter or a chapter and a half, but I wanted to put in so many different points of view that the courtroom stuff got really out of hand. Anyway, don't be picky about the jury because I did say in my Authors notes in one of the previous chapters that they weren't there and to ignore them. That's why the jury was only mentioned in one chapter. Also, I know that raped people don't want people telling them they love them like Trunks did to Pan, but she was comforted because of the bond they have. That's why I kept going back to the bond thing. I didn't want anyone to think that raped people are okay with that. A lot of the stories I have read with Saiyans in it show how they have a tremendous bond between each other, even before they mark their mate. That's what I wanted here. But thanks for the criticism, I'll remember all that for any other story I write if I decide to get into courtroom stuff again.
Oh just a word of warning to you guys, I don't know what they do when they put people in protective custody, but here I put them in apartments, so…yeah…don't kill me. :)
~Lady Branwen~
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Disclaimer: DBZ and DBGT aren't mine…
Girl of My Dreams
Chapter 22
Charles paced through his apartment.
"I can't believe that they took their word," he muttered to himself.
A look of intense anger was written on his face. Sometimes he would tear at his hair, at others he would clench his hands futilely.
"I'm going to lose the case. They'll find out everything."
He squinted his eyes and stopped pacing. His mind was working and he stared at his window. All at once he walked over to it and looked out.
The sky was dark, perfect for his escape. The street below was virtually deserted. Only one person was walking down the alleyway beside the building. They were walking briskly, as if trying to get away from something. This wasn't the greatest neighborhood in the world and Charles, in his insanity, believed himself better than any scum in the streets, even though he was just as ruthless as any of them. In his twisted mind, he placed himself on a higher level, as if he were an aristocrat, more refined than others. Unfortunately, he believed himself to be an aristocrat of the world, not the underworld of crime and lies and of the society in the world of lawbreakers where he really belonged.
"No one can stop me. One way or the other, I WILL win." He faintly snarled as he continued to think of Pan slipping from him. "How dare she? She's not going to leave me so easily. She thinks that she has gotten out of my reach. If I have to wait twenty years to get her, I will. She's mine."
He went back in the room and looked at the clock. He would have to wait a few more minutes for the cops to check up on him, then Charles would be able to attempt his escape.
"Mr. Miller, are you in there, sir?"
"Of course I'm here," he answered irritably, "I've been in here since you guys brought me here."
"Just checking, sir," the officer answered. "It is my job."
"I don't care about your fucking job. How am I ever going to get some sleep or do anything while you are bothering me every fifteen minutes?"
"Sorry, sir. It's orders. We've been through this before." The officer was obviously losing what little patience he had for Charles.
Charles mumbled to himself and walked back to the window after the officer closed the door. It would be twelve more minutes until they checked on him again. He cautiously opened the door that lead to the fire escape and took a glance to the floors below him through the grating. Now there was cop guarding the bottom of the fire escape, but not taking notice of Charles up above at all. Charles swore under his breath and took off his shoes to minimize the noise. He climbed out of the window and soundlessly stepped onto the grating. Below, the officer still didn't notice what was going on above him and Charles thanked Lady Luck for that. Finding his escape route blocked, he quickly created another escape plan. Instead of climbing down the fire escape, he climbed to the top of the building.
Once there, he put on his shoes and walked to the door, then walked down the long flights of stairs to the street. His heart was thumping from the adrenaline and was extremely pleased with the ease in which he had gotten away from the police.
"What a bunch of morons," he sneered as he walked away from the building. No one took notice of him as he left as they all thought was a tenant.
He walked and walked until he got to another building and saw something peculiar that made him smile with some devilish glee. What had first gotten his attention was that a few police cars were parked outside the building. He chanced to look up and to his delight, saw a person with purple hair fly away from an eighth story window. How many people have purple hair and can fly? He immediately looked to the room and saw Pan watching the now distant figure fly away, then went back inside her room. Charles continued his grin and went to the fire escape that led to her room and began to climb up.
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Pan sighed and walked back to her room.
"Miss Miller?"
"Yes?"
"Okay, I was just checking on you."
Pan walked to the front door of her apartment and opened it. "Thanks, officer," she said. "I'm so glad all of you are here to protect me."
Officer Korban smiled at her sincerity. "Just doing my duty, ma'am. You should get some rest."
Another officer came down the hallway and stopped next to Korban. "How are things here? Everything all right, ma'am?"
Pan nodded and smiled. "I'm going to sleep now, I'm so tired."
"Okay, but just so you know, we're going to have to check on you from time to time," the other officer said. They stepped into the room.
"Um…" Pan stepped away from them hesitantly.
Korban and the other police officer looked at each other. "Why don't we radio in for a female officer, hm?" Korban asked for a woman to come and check on Pan instead. "Now, Miss Miller, don't go to sleep until she gets here, all right?"
Pan nodded and they receded back into the hallway.
She crossed the room and sat on the couch in front of the TV, but did not turn it on. Instead she thought of her feelings for Trunks.
"How can I feel this way about him?" she wondered. "I find myself recoiling from nearly everyone else, but not Trunks. Why is that?" She lay down on the couch and closed her eyes in thought.
Memories flooded back to her of all the times Trunks had saved her: the first when she was escaping that small hut in the country, again when she had been kidnapped, saved her from being found when Charles came to find her by getting her into the secret room in her father's house, plus all the other times he had been there for her in her thoughts through that bond he kept telling her about. She smiled as she thought about him. Whenever her thoughts strayed to Trunks, remembering the love and all the emotions in his eyes when he looked at her, the sorrow of not being able to make her happy sometimes, the look of joy when he did, Pan felt warm and comforted. She didn't know what it was that made her love him, cling to him like a lifeline in an ocean of uncertainty and fear, but she did it gladly because he was the only one she felt that she could trust. Her parents, yes, she could trust, but how well did she know them? She knew Trunks much better. He was, after all, the boy who she had seen in her dreams so many times.
Sometimes it had only been brief glimpses into his life, other times she could hear him speak to a woman with blue hair or a boy with black hair and a cellphone at school. When she had contacted him for the first time, she was surprised at how he had been so worried about her. He had mainly wanted to know who she was, but as she read his mind she found out that he did want to help her. Her sobs had torn his heart and he wanted to help her get over whatever it was that was making her cry. This had convinced her more than all the years of him being the sweet boy in her dreams that he would be the one she could trust to help her.
"That must have been when our bond started to form…" Pan thought.
She opened her eyes and was shocked to see a figure standing over the couch in the reflection of the TV. Pan was frozen, not believing that there really was something in the room with her. She was facing the door to the room, she would have noticed someone coming in. Then, she realized that she had never closed the window she had come in through… Her dropped open to scream, but she couldn't. Pan tried to attribute the image to her imagination; too much stress was probably making her hallucinate. Slowly she turned her head, telling herself that she was going to find herself looking at air, nothing would be there, but her heart still beat wildly in her chest. Then she saw Charles there, his nostril flaring. She sat staring at him in mute horror. She was immobile from her fear.
"What is he going to do?" She dreaded finding out as her mind came up with all sort of hideous answers to her question.
Suddenly he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the window. As soon as she had been moved, she found herself free of whatever restraints had kept her from screaming, her instincts kicking in to help her fight for her life. Pan let out a short yelp before Charles managed to cover her mouth with his hand.
Soon enough, Pan found herself being carried by him down the street. Charles was running much faster than Pan thought he ever could. His hand was still covering her mouth. Again all the different situations that she could be put through by him starting popping up in her mind. The farther away she got from the room she had been in, the more she began to panic.
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Korban heard a short yelp come from inside the room.
"Pan?" he called through the door.
There was no answer.
Hesitating no longer, he rammed the door down and stepped into the room. Several other policemen had joined him and they looked around the room, trying to find some sign of Pan. One of them found the open window and motioned for the others to look out.
When he looked out the window, Korban saw a pair of legs kicking the night air that were being carried by a hulking figure.
"Radio in some back ups," he ordered before flinging himself out of the window onto the fire escape to follow her. The others followed him, but ran to the parking lot to get the police cars.
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Trunks stopped himself in mid-flight. He was gripped with a sudden rush of fear.
"What's this?" he asked himself. "I'm not scared of anything, there's nothing out here to scare me right now…" then he suddenly remembered his link to Pan and realized that she had to be in trouble. Sudden flashes in his mind showed him Charles' leering face, his hand covering a mouth.
He quickly turned around and headed back to the apartment, trying to lock onto Pan's ki.
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Charles ran. In the distance he could hear the sirens of police cars, but they were getting ever closer. His mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do next; he had not planned this far, he had made a quick and easy plan to get Pan out of her room. The wailing sirens and Pan kicking and punching him was distracting him from coming up with any kind of plan.
Suddenly the path in front of him was lit from behind him and there were people shouting at him. He looked over his shoulder as he ran and saw that there was an unmarked police car following him.
"Shit."
He swerved into a narrow alleyway and ran as fast as he could.
"It's too narrow here; they won't be able to follow," he said to himself with a smile.
Unfortunately for him, he miscalculated. The car continued to follow him down the alleyway, barely able to fit. Sometimes the mirror on the car would hit the brick wall, but the driver and passenger didn't pay it any attention, instead focusing on Charles and his movements. Suddenly, the lights shown on a brick wall right in front of Charles. He had reached a dead end.
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Pan's eyes grew wide as she realized what this meant. The police would catch Charles for sure. She would finally be free. There would be no way that Charles could sweet talk himself out of this one, no one would believe any story he told. They would only be able to see the fact that she had been taken from the apartment and had screamed. Surely Officer Korban had heard her?
She watched as the two officers got out of the car with their guns pointing at Charles, screaming at him to let her go. But he did no such thing. His grip on Pan was tighter than ever.
"If he won't let me go, just shoot us both," she thought. "It's no use living if I have to be with him." A tear rolled down her eye and she looked at the policemen pleadingly as Charles still had her mouth covered. "Suicide was my other option. If Trunks had not helped me, I would have done it."
With a swift move, Charles let her mouth go, but his arm now encompassed her neck in a chokehold.
"Let her go!" one officer shouted.
"Take one more step and I'll kill. I swear I'll do it." He said this calmly and with a deadly tone. He meant it.
"Let her go," the other said.
Pan began kicking at him, unsuccessfully trying to get him to release her, but it was to no avail. He tightened the chokehold and forced Pan to give up her efforts in order to try to breathe.
More police cars appeared and more policemen pointed their guns are Charles, but he still didn't give up his fight. News crews appeared also much to Pan's and Charles' surprise.
The police continued trying to convince Charles to let her go, but he wouldn't listen and continued to hold onto Pan, never loosening his grip. Pan looked up at the sky, and noticed a figure floating above. Her heart leapt as she realized that it was Trunks. He lowered himself to the ground, behind a building and a few seconds later he had walked to the scene. Trunks pushed past the reporters and managed to get by a few policemen before Charles noticed him and began yelling and threatening to kill Pan then and there. An officer held Trunks back.
"Don't be afraid. You may not know it, but I can move faster than anyone here. You'll be far away from Charles before he even has a chance to kill you," Trunks thought to her. "The only thing is, I don't know whether I should act now or wait until he tries. I'm not supposed to bring any undue attention to any of my abilities unless the situation calls for it."
"Well," Pan thought, "I think the situation calls for it."
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"Oh my gosh, Videl, look at the TV," Chi-Chi called to Videl from the living room of Videl's house.
Goku, Chi-Chi, and Goten were over to help calm Gohan and Videl's nerves. Videl was in the kitchen getting everyone a drink, Gohan was taking a shower, and all the rest were in the living room. She walked in and nearly dropped the drinks she as carrying when she looked at the television.
"It's Pan!" She sat the drinks down on the coffee table and sat on the couch, her hand covering her mouth. She could barely stand to look at the sight before her.
"Why is he there!" she screamed, jolting everyone's attention away from the screen. "Those stupid policemen were supposed to protect her!"
"Shh, Shh..." Chi-Chi said, gently pulling Videl back to her seat. "You should do anything stupid right now, Videl. I'm sure that the policemen have seen the error of their ways. They can see that you all haven't been lying about trying to protect Pan now. Look at her, she's so scared. I can see it in her eyes…but you can't do anything right now. That restraining order still stands and you could be thrown in jail. What good would it do if you protect her this one time, but don't get a chance to protect her for a very long time?"
Videl nodded and clenched her hands while watching the TV.
Goten let out a breath and said, "Well, at least Gohan is taking a shower and isn't seeing this. I don't think he would have even stopped himself from going out the door to listen to you, Mom. He doesn't listen to reason when it comes to his kids."
"I don't blame him," Goku said. "When you have kids, Goten, you'll understand. Your mom was only able to think and say all that because it isn't her kid on the TV being held captive by some sicko. When your own kid is in danger, it's very hard to do that."
They heard the water being turned off and a few minutes later Gohan was walking down the stairs. They all looked hesitantly at each other, preparing themselves for when Gohan found out. Goten jumped up and bolted to the back door and Goku blocked the front door. Chi-Chi and Videl both stood up in front of the television and waited for Gohan to enter the room. As soon as he did, Videl said, "Gohan, honey, don't get mad."
"About what?" His tone was serious. He sensed her uneasiness and saw the sadness on her face.
"Something is going on," she replied. "You're not going to like it…"
She bit her lip and looked away.
"What?" He took a step closer to her. "Videl, what is going on?"
Chi-Chi stepped away from the TV, Videl also moving away and Gohan saw Pan being held up by a meaty arm around her neck. He gasped and walked closer to the TV, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. Holding her up in a chokehold was Charles and Gohan's blood began to boil.
Videl put her arms around his waist and whispered, "Gohan, I know you don't want to, but we should stay here. We-"
Suddenly a very familiar person stepped in front of the camera.
"It's Trunks," Goten said from the door way.
"See, we don't have to go. Trunks is there. She trusts him more than us anyway. We'll only make things worse if we go, Gohan."
He sighed and sat down on the couch, with his head in his hands, attempting not to destroy the house.
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