Rantings:

Ok, I said I would update last weekend.

What are my excuses?

#1 Didn't have enough reviews…

or maybe I should say GOOD reviews

#2 Comments like this:

Sara

silly me thinking that since this story was published in '01 it'd be done by now, hehe. All I have to say is that this story is awesome, that alien needs to die, and please please please update soon!! Goku and Chi-Chi!!

And this.

From: Jessica C

Finally you update. Oh and since you usually don't update until a year later, and even though you say you'll update, I'll say happy birthday right now before March 13th comes up. And another thing just because your almost an adult doesn't mean you have to use such big words. Liability. What the heck does that mean. I mean I'm only 15 and in english 9 learning little words that are too complicated for me. So if you use big words like that put the definition or something next to it, it would be helpful to us illiterate peoples. Oh and I really love this story, it's one of my fav G/CC fics left, if only you'd update quicker I'd love it even more. well got to go, update soon.

To start off, I should say that even tho' ya'll think you're being cute, all this does is hurt my feelings, make me depressed and then I don't update. I honestly thought about giving this story up for good. Apparently these people don't read my Rantings and Ravings to see what I've been up to. I've read so many stories where people have just given up on them, I'm at least proud of myself for not doing that.

Why did I finish?

Because of comments like these:

NansJns

Hey there, girl! This is a good story, you know! OOh, poor Chi-Chi! This is why eavesdropping is bad! At the very least, listen to the whole thing so you get the entire picture! Well, clearly the next chapter isn't out yet, but I hope it will be soon! I want to know what happens! Oh, and I'm pretty sure that "nothingness" and "overprotectiveness" are real words! I've seen lots of other people use them, and I use them to!
*~*NansJns*~*

And…

super saiyan4 chichi

this is a really great fanfic, i hope you write the next chapter soon. ^_^ its one of the best i've read. so please write chapter 15 and hopefully more.

And..

Carrie

I have been following this story with great interest and glad to see you were able to update. This was a great chapter and I hope you be able to update again real soon. I love G/CC.
So keep up the great work!

And..

Noname

it was great am glad you had finally updata keep it up

and…

Snowstalker of MC

ok.. here's another review.. NOW FINISH! Please ^_^

This chapter is dedicated to you sweet people, you helped this story not die. AS FOR THE REST OF YOU, if you're going to be anal, leave your email addy so I can write you in private instead of shredding your review in front of everyone.

And now, let the roast begin… (by the way, this next section was written about a week ago…)

REOW! Jessica C I am very sorry but that review seemed kind of... harsh? Maybe it's just me because I'm having a bad day or maybe that's just how you meant it, but I'm really hurt. Thanks for the Happy Birthday and the comment about my story, and I'm sorry if I update slow, but ya know, I gave my excuses, that's all I can do. High school is fairly hard, not to mention dealing w/ this other stuff I have with dance and all of these issues with my friends, etc. I know many people that just stop working on the story all together, and I was thinking of doing that, but I stayed for all my other wonderful fans out there who have reviewed before you. Also, I honestly don't think I use big words. I don't even realize that I do write them. I just talk out of my normal vocabulary, and I'm sorry if it's a little wider than normal.(even though I don't think it is. Does anybody else not know any words I use besides the ones I make up?) I believe that everybody else can read it tho'. Liability? Where did I use that? I'll go look it up after this, but it means that you're responsible for something. I really don't want to insult anybody's intelligence by putting the definition of a word beside it, plus I wouldn't know which ones they wouldn't understand, but I was always taught that if you didn't know what a word meant to read the entire sentence and you'd figure it out. That's what you have to do in SATs. I really don't want to think of myself as "almost an adult." I like being a kid. I thought adult was 21? I could be wrong, well if so, then I'm not having a birthday. lol. But that's off the subject. Thanks for the birthday wishes and the compliments, oh, there's where I used liability. It kinda means she'd be in the way, etc. But please don't make reviews seem mean. They make me sad and then I don't update. By the way, Congrats on being so young and in English 9. I don't even think our school has an English 9, except for maybe a different name for Freshman English which I took in 8th grade. The last one I took was English 101 and 102, college classes that I aced and got out of the way so I don't have to take them later. They were hard and time consuming too, another reason why I updated so slow. Come to think of it, I believe that I learned liability a few times.... Well, I really hope that I'm not being mean, or that I lose you as a reader, because that was honestly your opinion. It just hurt, and I apologize that my life does not focus totally around my story. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started it. If it bothers you that much, I can just stop writing it, but anyways thank you, and God bless.

Even tho Sara's wasn't a full insult it still hurt. Silly me thinking that since I've had a bad and stressful 2 years and put my excuses in my story that I figured ALL my reviewers would read it and understand how I felt before putting an anal comment in. Do ya'll think that'll make me update faster by insulting me? I don't understand…

For the rest of ya'll, what's up? I'm at the school library not working on a project that we had 2 DAYS to do, because I pulled an all nighter last night to do it. Honestly tho', 2 days on a project? Isn't that kinda silly? My depression was acting up horribly last night, I was so upset. Does anybody else out there have depression? It sucks, and I want to get rid of it, it's like I'm eternally unhappy and little things just make me catatonic. (a state of mind where you practically freeze up. I'm not being serious tho') Ugh, I don't like doing that, it would disrupt the flow of the story. Blech. Oh, the bell's going to ring soon, let me get started.

Skylor paced across the deck of his bridge angrily.

'How did I let this happen? How did I let her slip out of my grasp again?'

He stopped his anxious steps as he turned to look out the window. He had let her go twice. He wasn't going to let her go again. After a brief moment, he nodded to himself and then turned to press a button on his consol. Within 2 minutes, hundreds of men had filed into the room, all standing silently at command, awaiting what he had to say. He inhaled, formulating what he wanted to say in his head before opening his mouth to speak.

"I say he raid the planet. We are strong warriors! We can take what we want! Why are we hiding up here?"

He could feel them thinking, 'Because you told us to,' but wisely, his army kept their mouths shut.

He proudly looked down upon his army, his men that would follow him into the sun if he even thought of the idea. They were so loyal, he was so lucky…

And he was about to become even luckier.

"Everyone, go take a short nap, change into your battle gear and meet here in 3 hours.  Raid the planet, take whatever you want, but, if you see a young woman, with black hair, dark eyes and a fiery spirit…" he paused, his breath taken away just from the memory of his new object of affection.

"She's mine."

Chi Chi lied on her side on the far edge of the bed, as far away from her husband as she could get. She closed her eyes willing herself not to cry in front of him. Even though her back was to him, she could feel his "worried" eyes scanning her body, debating over whether or not he should ask what was wrong. She looked towards the wall, silently trying to calm herself into sleep before Goku got the nerve to talk to her. She didn't want to talk to him.

'I don't even want to be in the same room as him.'

She could just picture him now, sitting up in the bed beside her, worriedly glancing over her form, trying to recall what he did wrong because he didn't know what she had heard. It annoyed her.

'He has the nerve to be concerned for his 'liability?'' For the woman that is always in his way, nagging and crying and-"

Her thoughts were interrupted when a hand grabbed her waist and pulled her backwards until she was spooned against her husband's body. After realizing the action that had occurred,  she began to struggle, already knowing that it was useless but not willing to go down without a fight.

"Goku, let me go," she growled none too softly under her breath.

Goku held on, intent on letting her wear herself out and internally knowing that she wasn't going anywhere until he let her. He tightened his arms around her, relaxed into the mattress, and prepared his ears for the yelling that he knew was to come.

Chi Chi arched her back and kicked her feet, sucking in a deep breath of air so she could scream, "Let me go now!"

"Aw, Cheech, it's so cold all alone on that side of the bed, don't you want to come over here near me?"

"No!"

Goku took a deep breath, he knew something was wrong, and he figured it was also somehow his fault, but since he didn't know what these were or how to apologize for it, he planned to feign ignorance until he got some answers.

"Aw, come on Chi Chi! Don't you like me anymore?"

"No!"

Chi Chi continued to kick, flail and scream as she felt her energy slowly drain. She wasn't planning to let that stop her though.

"Chi Chi, what's wrong?"

The sincerity in his voice was unnerving, even the underlying note of sadness broke her heart, but she wasn't going to buy it…

He had no idea how much he hurt her…

She felt all of her energy zap away from her as she stopped fighting, letting her legs rest against his and turning her head to the side. She tried to fight the liquid that pooled at the bottom of her eyes, knowing that if she blinked, they would fall, but if she kept them open, they would fall anyways. She shook her head infinitesimally and looked towards the ceiling,  overcome with so much sadness that she barely thought she could breathe.

Goku shifted her, feeling the sudden drop of her mood. He turned her on her stomach, looking down to him. As he turned her, her tears finally grew too large to be cupped in her eyelids and spilled over before dropping onto the bedspread. He watched it fall, his heart breaking as he did so.

"Chi Chi?"

She looked up at him. Their eyes held on to one another's for a seemingly long time. Chi Chi's eyebrows crinkled down in misunderstanding. She slowly shook her head as she slowly and tearfully said, "Goku, I loved fighting, I really did."

Goku drew his eyebrows together, his mind rushing to understand what Chi Chi was about to say.

"You know I gave it up for Gohan, I was not going to cause any mental disabilities or health defects in our child because of a stray kick or punch. Those months were slightly agonizing, knowing that you were outside training and I just got to sit there. I threw myself into cleaning… I guess that's how I really became such a neat freak, because I had to do something to keep myself moving. I hated feeling my muscles atrophy while watching you get stronger each day. I figured that after Gohan was born, we could go back to training again… I never knew how much work a child could be."

Tears were falling freely now, her eyes long since moved from her husband's to down, not really staring at the bedspread… but then again not really staring at anything. Goku raised his hand to wipe her tears away.

"I knew, every day of my life from then on, that I would never get back to sparring equally with you. Especially after you found out that you were saiyan, I just knew that those times were gone. I never did like being weak. I was always the different girl, the strong one that was never a damsel in distress and could always take care of herself."

Goku opened his mouth to remind her that that's what she still was, but she continued before he could speak.

"I tried so hard to go through life, cleaning, and trying to raise Gohan to be the best he could be, I tried so hard to be useful since I wasn't in fighting anymore…"

"Chi Chi…"

Her pain stricken eyes shot up to him, and his words ran from him, feeling inadequate and unable to soothe the pain in her eyes.

"Just finding out that I'm nothing but… a liability- that you don't want to bring me with you because I'll get in the way… just hurt."

Goku's eyes softened. He suspected that Chi Chi was upset about not being able to fight, but he never knew that she was this upset. He also didn't know that she was listening.

"Chi Chi," he sighed softly as he pressed her against him in a comforting hug as she finally gave in to her sobs.  "I didn't mean it like that. I just don't want you anywhere near the alien that hurt you. They might take you from me or try to use you against me… I couldn't deal with that."

Chi Chi looked up at her husband. Rivers of tears ran freely down her cheeks. Goku's heart constricted seeing his wife upset, and even more so knowing that he caused her this pain. He reached up and gently wiped away her tears with the pad of his thumb.

"I don't think you're useless in any way Chi Chi. I think you're the most useful and wonderful person I know. You're a great wife, a great mother, and a great person. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me, or perhaps I just used the wrong word. Chi Chi, I love you, too much for me to say, I just don't know what I'd do if I lost you, and I don't like not knowing anything about why this guy came after you. You're not useless… I'm just trying my hardest to be a good husband and protect you."

Chi Chi's heart lifted as he said his words. She didn't want to melt back into his arms so easily, but it was just so hard not to. She smiled through her remaining tears. She wasn't done arguing, but she at least felt better about herself and confident of her husband's love for her. She leaned up while staring into his hopeful eyes and pressed her lips against his. They both closed their eyes, slowly mending their souls together and getting lost in the moment. That is… until Bulma's alien alarm went off again.

They broke apart and sighed as a loud "GOKU!!!" echoed from the other end of the hall.

Ravings: Ok, everyone can blame the next person that flames me if the story comes out late or doesn't come out at all. I really don't mean to tick off anyone, but I honestly am not going to take insults from anyone when they don't know what I'm going through. Sound reasonable? I turn 18 Friday. :'( My friends are having a surprise b-day party for me, it's a shame that they're such bad liars and I have good hearing. Ha ha, anywho, I've got homework to do. I did this chapter in between a lot of stuff so ya'll take it and cherish it. I'm outtie! Bye!