"WHAT!" Pan heard the scream from the kitchen door and immediately recognized it as her mother's. Running silently down the halls, at human speed for the sake of the servants roaming the halls, Pan headed towards her mother's ki. As she neared the courtyard, Pan recognized Bulma's diminutive ki signature and slowed to a sneaking pace as she crouched at a window within hearing range of her mother and auntie. Hopefully Videl was too caught up in whatever they were talking about to notice Pan's ki signature…
"Vegeta-sei? Sure, I agree that I have to let go Bulma, but let her go off-planet to a planet full of psychotic monkeys?"
It took all of Pan's will not to jump up and scream "I resent that!" at the top of her lungs. Bulma and Videl were talking about her future and chances were that this would be the deciding conversation.
"If Pan heard you say that Videl, fists would be flying. The saiyans are just beings like any other. Even if Pan wasn't as strong as each and ever one of them, the saiyans can still be manipulated. Trust me, I know."
"It doesn't matter! Panny's too young!"
"Don't call her that. She hates it. Videl sweetie, she's had knowledge and wisdom way beyond her age for years now. Pan's all grown up."
"She doesn't know enough to be assigned to a role as important as this one!"
Pan could hear her mother's voice growing more and more strained as she tried to find reasons to deny her daughter the chance to go to Vegeta-sei.
"Sweetie, Pan's lived here as long as you have. She grew up in the middle of politics and knows as much if not more about diplomacy and making negotiations as you do. Not to mention that she can shield her emotions exceedingly well, I skill required for any ambassador," Videl frowned, mulling over Bulma's words. Bulma continued, "There's all that and the fact that Pan does happen to be a ¼ saiyan, already knows as much as anyone on this planet can know about saiyans, and is becoming fluent in saiya-go."
"But, but, she's my daughter."
"We talked about this Videl. Pan isn't your daughter, she's Pan."
Videl shook her head violently. "I don't mean it like that Bulma. I know that Pan is Pan. But Pan happens to be my daughter… and I love her."
Bulma gave Videl a hug, "I know Sweetie. I know."
Pan left then, not wanting to intrude on their privacy. It was evident that the battle had been won and, along with it, the war.
Pan closed and locked the door to her room behind her. She frowned, as she always did when she saw her room. It was perfectly tidy and little bits of personality were scattered about the room. The only problem was that these 'little bits of personality' were not hers, they were Little Panny's. Pan's room was a favorite place for people giving audio tours of the castle to stop at. So Margie had carefully designed her room, making if according to her image of what Little Panny's room would be like. It was a dark pink with posters of butterflies and puppies. Pan shoved the pile of stuffed animals off her bed and unlocked the drawer in her nightstand. Pan pulled out a pad of paper and her portable cd player (Pan could not even express her choice of music in her room, people liked to flip through her cds when on the tours. So the cd collection that sat on her purple boom box strictly featured pop—the classic rock that Pan preferred to listen to had to be kept in the drawer in her nightstand that only had one key, which she alone was the possessor of). Slipping the headphones on, Pan visibly relaxed as the roaring music blasted through her ears, blotting out all other sound. She flipped through the pad of paper and opened to a page in the notebook that had her list. She had already started her list of things to bring. The list was surprisingly long. Pan owned only a few things that she considered part of herself rather than Little Panny. Most of the stuff she would have to buy, mementos of Earth so that if Pan got homesick, she could pull a bag of potato chips out of a capsule and watch old movies, imagining that she was lounging at CC with Bulma.
Reaching further back into the drawer and pulled out her scrapbook. The pictures in her scrapbook were ones that no one in the media had copies of. Videl had originally been the one to organize the pictures and the first page of the scrapbook had pictures of a smiling Videl in the hospital, holding her newborn little girl. Gohan was absent from these pictures and sometimes Pan wondered if he had been absent from her birth. The next few pages had pictures of young Pan playing with her Grandpa Hercule, 'helping' Grandma Chi Chi with the cooking by licking bowls of cookie batter clean, in dress up clothes with Bulma, and sitting at her mother's large desk. The following pictures featured Pan at the junior martial arts tournament, smiling gleefully as she defeated opponents. Then there were the pictures of an older Pan: Pan and her grandpa playing video games, Pan and Chi Chi covered with flour after cooking a feast, Bulma and Pan wearing silly wigs in preparation for a day at the mall, Pan and Videl sprawled on the couch as they watched a movie and did papers.
Pan had many other photos too that sat in their envelopes rather than the display in her scrapbook. Most of those were scenic photos and candid shots of the people she loved. Looking at those photos, one would think that Pan was a perfectly ordinary girl except for the absence of one thing: a father. Gohan graced none of Pan's photos.
Sighing slightly out of regret that in a few days the photos would be all that Pan had of the people she loved, Pan capsulized all of her pictures and crossed them off the list. She then moved on to packing her clothes…
(A/n: I know this transition is kind of abrupt, but this is where I just picked up writing this story again recently…)
Videl gently wiped away a tear that slipped down her cheek and sniffled loudly. This was it. Her little girl was leaving, or rather this beautiful young woman who had been Videl's little girl was leaving. At this moment Videl just wanted someone to comfort her. There was no one. Bulma was in the prepping the ship, Chi Chi was sobbing over Pan, and Gohan, well, Gohan was standing next to her, but he had offered no support or comfort. He was stoically studing the horizon, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his only child was leaving, possibly for years. But then again, he had never cared about Pan. Videl could not understand it. With her, he was so gentle and loving, but with their child, he was impassive. Videl had tried to get Gohan to spend some time with Pan for to know her was to love her, but he resisted her attempts and refused to talk to her about Pan at all.
Videl's thoughts were interrupted as Pan wrenched herself out of her sobbing Grandmother's arms and walked over to Videl. Pan's face was dry, but Videl thought she saw tears welling up the corners of her eyes…
"Well Mom. I guess this is it. Bulma says the ship's ready. What did you decide to call it anyway?"
Videl offered her daughter a sad smile. "Hope, of course."
Pan laughed. "You and Bulma are so hokey! It's bad enough that that has to be my middle name." Engines roared loudly in the background. Pan looked over her shoulder at the shuttle. "Well. That's my cue. I love you Mom."
Pan leaned in and hugged her mother.
"I love you too Pan." Videl blubbered.
Bulma and Chi Chi walked over and gave Pan hug's, kisses, and last minute instructions, but Videl was too busy crying to hear.
"Alright. Bye." With those final words, Pan walked into the ship and blasted off. She had not said a word to her father.
Alright. Next chappie up later. The first t/p meeting….
-pd
