Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ. You guys know the rest of this disclaimer as well as I do so let's get on with it.

Author's notes:

"Double quotations indicate conversations."

'Single quotations in italics indicate thoughts.'

Glossary :

Ohayo: Good morning

Baka: Idiot

Kuso: (Generally) damn or shit.

Hai: Yes

Otousan: Father

Katana: literally a Japanese sword, generally refers to the typical samurai sword.

The warm light fell across the room in soft, faded gold ribbons. Filtered by its passage through two sheer, vaporous, curtains that whispered and rustled against the floor. They reached out, two questing hands that floated in a strange accompaniment to the subdued notes of the wind chimes. Propelled on the cold breeze that seeped through the open French doors. Maya lay submerged in the deep dreamless sleep of exhaustion. Sprawled on her back across the bed, with her hair half on the floor. A single ribbon of light fell on it, glinted off each strand that swirled down to the floor. The rest of Maya's body lay in the shadow, motionless. On the window seat Socrates rolled lazily and exposed his coffee cream belly to the soft light and beguiling warmth. He yawned, revealed a quartet of worn canines and a rough neatly coiled tongue. The large cat stretched each of his chocolate paws languidly and dropped to the floor.

Jerked from the multi layered depths of her subconscious. Maya stirred, aroused by the grating pain of her broken ribs. She was loath to leave the small pocket of warmth and safety but the pain did not relent. It reminded her that she was still alive. Her eyes flickered open and an ocean of vivid blue filled her vision. Socrates pressed his dark nose against Maya's and looked deep into her eyes. She stifled a yawn and put out a single finger to massage his cheek. They regarded each other as Socrates' deep throaty purr filled the room.

At length Maya sighed and sat up, the stiffness in her body rose to a relentless searing ache. She swept the large cat up into her arms, rubbed her face against his soft, creamy fur. Memories of the previous day assaulted her mind. The bitter frustration intermingled with something else. Everything ached, her heart most of all. Maya was still unwilling to remove her self from the warm sanctity of her bed 'but soon the animals will be calling for their breakfast.'

Her feet padded silently over the ancient blue Oriental rug. Maya yawned repeatedly as she went through her morning ritual. Socrates sat in the warm patch on the bed where Maya's body had been, he regarded her suspiciously from one half open eye. As Maya went past her bed she picked the cat up and walked out the French windows on to the balcony. 'Exactly what time did I get to bed last night?' Socrates stretched his neck up and placed his chin on Maya's shoulder. Maya sighed she paused on the balcony. Maya raked a hand though her hair before she returned to stroking Socrates fur. From her airy eyrie, she could see Saffron as the mare paced the fence line. The buckskin snorted, her ears pricked as she tried to watch the balcony and the back door. Saffron greeted Maya with a soft throaty whicker. The air was surprisingly cold. It sighed, a mirror of her emotions even as it teased at the hem of her night gown. Far away, from the sun and sky the survivors of the previous day began to wake.

The young spiky haired man lay very still beneath the neat white sheets. His mind a jumble of disorganised thoughts, of disturbing worries. They circled useless and unanswered draining the last of his energy. 'If … I'd been faster… stronger …got there sooner.' Gokou's silence and pale exhausted face reproached those in his presence. His point blank refusal of the offered sensu beans left his friends and family feeling helpless. He kept his eyes closed feinted sleep. Though the half closed door he could hear the high agitated voice of his wife and the deep slightly frustrated tones of his father in law.

Ox king regarded his daughter, partly frustrated with her rising hysteria but mostly worried. In the time since they had left Gokou's room, Chichi's voice and mood had become increasingly agitated. 'I can hardly blame her, everyone's worried about Gokou not to mention Gohan, and Gokou is Chichi's husband.' His daughter's voice however, carried there was no way Gokou could have failed to hear her. Ox king tried to draw Chichi away from Gokou's room. She had barely been out of it since her arrival the previous evening and even then, it had only been to check on her son. Gokou sighed Chichi was really tying herself up in knots over this. He wished she'd calm down.

Maya cradled the coffee cup in her hands pointedly ignoring Yajarobe's wrinkled nose. The smell of very strong coffee smothered everything with the exception of Socrates fishy breath. 'How can she drink that sludge? Maybe I shouldn't have come so early? Hmm. She's procrastinating, if she keeps this up it will be after lunch before we get to the hospital.' The samurai sighed; he watched Maya carefully and sipped his tea in silence. Maya was coiled on a lounge chair with Socrates safely ensconced on her lap. Yajarobe failed to see what she was being so quietly stubborn about. She could not escape from the dark recesses of her mind, the dark and ugly corners were fear, and doubt crouched. And waited to pray upon the unwary. Quiet spectres that loomed in the inner soul of all human kind. Maya sighed, 'well it's probably time to go'. She didn't particularly feel like going anywhere. There wasn't any shortage of work to. 'The yearlings need their manes and tails pulled before they go to the sales next week. And the accounts need doing. Oh who am I kidding? . . .' Sheran a hand through her hair and sighed again. There was no escaping it. 'Any way I owe it to them.'

Yajarobe glanced at Maya, tried to hide his surprise.

"What is it?" Maya snapped irritated by Yajarobe's covert glances. He looked over at her his eyes wide, ' Get a hold of yourself Yajarobe it's not as if there's anything obscene about a blouse and skirt. But. . .'

"Nothing." Maya glared at him as if she was perfectly aware of what he was looking at. In the end, she merely huffed in response as her fingers fiddled with her gold necklace. Bruises had come up on her arms where Nappa had held her and on her abdomen and back, she found it uncomfortable to stay in any one position for long. She was surprised at Yajarobe's apparent lack of injuries. Even more so as Kuririn and Gohan were in hospital with Gokou. Maya could vaguely recall the sensu bean Yajarobe had given her, there was a connection there, but her brain was too tired to care. The air car swept on to its destination as steady as an automaton.

Sharp and unpleasant, the lingering after smell of a constant battle against bacteria. The smell was strong enough to knock you off your feet, it was the first thing you noticed and stayed with you long after your departure. Maya steeled herself in order to enter this place, but her lingering hate remained. 'I don't know why they don't just wack a mortuary sign on the place and be done with it.' She matched Yajarobe's stride head up, arms folded as they traversed the corridors. He moved purposefully, confidant that he knew where he was going. They moved rapidly past the quiet wards filled with the moaning and the silent, all miserable and most in pain. Down hall ways, that never saw the sun, forever in a perpetual half light under flickering fluorescent lights.

Yajarobe slowed a little as Chichi's voice became audible over the soft click of the fluorescent light. He glanced at Maya and she gave him a rueful little smile.

"I guess that means we're in the right place then." Yajarobe grinned a bit at that, but it faded as they moved closer to the sound. Chichi was defiantly unhappy. As they rounded the corner, a small group came into view. Master Roshi, Ox king and Chichi, who was in full spate as she told the older men exactly what she thought of them. 'Not much apparently.' The samurai and the woman approached cautiously, both waited for Chichi's outburst to turn on them. It was Maya however who bore the bunt of the younger woman's rage.

"You! This is all your fault!" Maya sighed, 'what fun.'

"How is it my fault?"

"You let Gohan fight, and now he's hurt! You're a woman you should know better. If you hadn't come here none of this would have happened." Maya said nothing. 'Ahh Touché.' Chichi's shrill voice grated on Maya's nerves. She sought to remain silent and understanding but the young woman's words galled her. Ox kings plaintive entreaties to his daughter were little more that annoying. Maya forced her ill will aside. Chichi had been through a lot. It had evidently left her a little unhinged, and worried. She was inconsequence lashing out. 'I just happen to be convenient'.

"You can stop pretending to be so understanding! It's not as if you've got a family." Yajarobe held his breath, he tensed and waited for Maya to yell back. Chichi gasped.

"You're not married and you're not a mother. You haven't got the faintest idea!" There was a deafening silence as Chichi's outburst began to wind down. Her eyes lost some of their wildness, her hands cessed to move with such agitation.

"Are you finished?" Chichi's mouth dropped open to retort but she'd run out of things to say. Maya's voice was soft but her eyes were hard and sharp.

"Right, then I think you and I are going to go find something to eat." Before Chichi could argue, Maya guided her past Master Roshi, Yajarobe, and Ox king and down the hall.

When the two women were out of sight, the three men let out a sigh of relief. They filed into Gokou's room. They each tried in their own way to cheer Son Gokou up. Gokou was grateful for the break as much as he loved Chichi he found her fussing tiring. The men sat about talking and wondering how long the two women would be gone.

Maya steered Chichi down several corridors before they came upon the hospital cafe. They stared through the curved glass. A collection of sad looking cakes, pastries and several wilted salads populated the glass covered counter. The only thing that looked remotely edible where a group of slightly less wilted sandwiches. Maya paid for two sandwiches, a cup of tea and a weak coffee. She chivvied the young woman outside and found them a table, plonked the tea and sandwiches down in front of her.

The park was typical of hospital parks everywhere, clean and clinical. A man made waterfall as a centre piece and a few stunted trees all enclosed and smothered by a never ending sea of dull, brown pavers. Enclosed by towering walls of brick, cerement, iron and glass that effectively cut out the wind, there was no sign of the outside world. 'Not,' Maya thought 'the sort of place conductive to good health.' Her eyes trailed across the upper story windows each with their steel bars. They brought to mind the cages that man kind had for ages used to confine those, whose minds had been permanently shattered. Maya wondered at the stubbornness of humanity, a race who damaged their sick by confining then to white boxes devoid of emotional warmth.

Maya looked back at Chichi whose restless hands twiddled with her styrofoam cup ceaselessly. Her dark eyes were clouded with worry and unshed tears. There was no resemblance in this anxious woman, to the one who had once asked Maya to dinner.

"I'm sorry." Chichi glanced up at the older woman, she tried to gauge her reaction.

"So am I." Chichi reacted to Maya's earnest tone with a quick spark of anger.

"I know that, but you don't understand not really, how could you it's not as if you're married or have children." Chichi's voice was tense and defensive. Maya regarded the younger woman doing her best not to look hurt or offended. She read between the lines Chichi wanted someone to understand, she wanted it very much. Still the bald statement pricked at Maya's already frayed patience.

"As you say." Maya groaned inwardly. 'Now you've done it.'

"What's that suppose to mean?" Chichi snapped eyes burning. Maya sighed, 'really this whole thing is getting out of hand.' Still her feelings were hurt 'but, I don't want to start world war three better make that four.' Chichi glared at her balefully.

"Well! What do you mean by that!"

"Nothing just forget it."

"NO! Tell me what you meant." Maya sighed the whole conversation had spiralled out of control. A dull flicker of frustration made her snap.

"I was married once, Chichi and I had a daughter once too so next time you might care to think before you assume any thing about me!" Maya regretted her words instantly. Chichi stared at her, barely able to believe her ears.

"But, but you can't have? I mean I didn't know."

"No, I know just forget it."

"I can't."

"Well just try." They sat very still. Maya stared into her cup of coffee mournfully furious at herself for losing her patience so quickly. They finished the impoverished meal and headed back to Gokou's ward.

Chichi went straight to Gokou's room, she left Maya to visit Kuririn and Gohan. Chichi was unusually quiet, Maya's words echoed in her mind. 'I was so rude to her!' She felt dreadful. Gokou paused he watched Chichi for a moment. 'What did Maya do to her?' Chichi looked up to find everyone staring at her, she smiled weakly. Their eyes hovered on her for a moment, before their attention was drawn else where. Maya paused on the threshold, uncertain, she half expected the group of men to rise up and turf her out. Instead, they looked at her, then back at Chichi like a pack of curious dogs.

Maya was tense her usually soft voice was filled with strange unexpected hard edges. She found her self playing cards with Gokou. Her concentration was poor her eyes kept sliding over to Chichi. Several pairs of eyes bored into her increasing her discomfort. She threw the game just so she could escape. Yajarobe a little bothered took her home.

The air was bitter, it came off the ocean like a twin edged blade. Pulled and flung her skirt around her legs sent her hair spiralling out around her face. The trees groaned in sympathetic harmony with the in coming sea. There was a stillness to this place despite it's exposure it soothed the turmoil of her mind. Maya freed her feet from her shoes and buried her them in the grass. It was cool and soft revived her aching feet, she padded silently into the dip in the centre of the trees. She looked out between the trees to the blue swell of the sea. Maya knelt down with her feet coiled under her skirt.

The sea held her attention for some time. Before she slid down onto her back with her hair sprawled out on the grass. Her thoughts turned inward, lingered over the strong memories that her earlier conversation had stirred. She remembered her husband's quick sharp mind and his dark bright eyes that seemed to be perpetually laughing at some private joke. She had loved him, such feelings did not fade. He had not deserved his fate, to bleed to death on the dirty bitumen of a deserted street. Very few people deserved to die and he was no different to the thousands of people who had died on the same day. Her husband had been the first person she had seen die. She had been unable to help him. The memory of his blood seeping through her frantic fingers had remained lodged in her mind. It had driven her to learn what she could so never again would someone die in the face of her ignorance. She closed her eyes some times she could almost hear him.

(2002)