Anyone ever wonder what it was like for the Sons after Goku left with the dragon at the end of GT? I did, and this is what came of it...
Pan stood on the debris ridden ground, clutching the ragged pieces of her grandfather's clothing in her hands and watching in disbelief as, yet again, Goku left them all on the back of Shenlong, flying to who knew where... leaving them all alone. She'd been able to face it the first time with a straight face, but having the scene repeated over and over again in her subconscious like this was beginning to break her.
Tears trekked down her smooth, round cheeks as she reached out naively, as if simply extending her hand would summon her grandfather back to her side, but, as always, that speck of green completely vanished, and something inside of her broke...
"GRAMPA, GRAMPA NO! DON'T LEAVE! COME BACK!"
Pan's shrill cries pierced the veil of slumber around Gohan's mind, and the worried demi-saiyan father rolled out of bed and phased down the hall, knowing all too well what the problem was. A slowly simmering pit of ire burned low in his gut as he pushed his daughter's door open and hurried to the sixteen year-old's bedside.
Three months had passed since his father had rode off on the back of Shenlong, and his departure had completely wrecked Pan. She'd been straight-faced and stoic when he initially left, but that soon changed when she went to bed that night and was assaulted by nightmares. Gohan couldn't remember the last time Pan had slept through the entire night with no issues.
"Pan-chan," Gohan whispered, gently stilling her thrashing body with his hands, "Pan-chan, come on, wake up. It's just a dream."
"Grampa..." the petite quarter saiyan whimpered, a few tears trickling down her flushed cheeks, "Grampa... I still need you..." Her deep brown eyes fluttered open as her mother entered the room, and she lunged into her father's arms, seeking comfort. Gohan gave it readily, hugging her close as she wept into his shirt front.
Videl took a seat on Pan's other side and rubbed her back slowly, murmuring quiet comforts. She stifled a yawn and sighed sleepily. This was the third time that they'd been awakened by Pan's night terrors, and, while she knew her daughter was hurting, the constant waking wasn't good for any of them.
"This isn't fair to her," Goten grumbled, glancing towards the ceiling as Pan's cries rang out, "how could he just up and leave again? Mom and Pan are a mess..." Videl darted up the stairs to attend to Pan, leaving her husband and brother in-law standing in the living room. Gohan took his glasses off and began massaging his temples with his thumb and forefingers, a deep, morose sigh escaping his lips.
"I don't know what to do, 'Ten," the father of Pan admitted softly, "nothing we've tried has gotten ridden of her nightmares. She's just going to have to ride this out on her own. Videl was talking about getting her a sedative earlier and... I really don't know."
"Mom's on sedatives now," the younger Son replied, "they work on her, but I don't know how well they would work on Pan, with her being part-saiyan and all. How long does she sleep before they start?"
"Not long, maybe two and a half hours at the most," Gohan uttered, "then the screaming starts. She's too young to be losing all this sleep. We might be used to Dad leaving at the drop of a hat, but this only the second time he's done this since Pan's been born. The first time, she was young and she moved past it fairly easily. Now that she's old enough to understand... she's just not taking it well."
"He said so himself... he doesn't know if he's coming back." Goten clenched his fists, "I just don't get it. How can he just leave and not have any problem with the fact that he's hurting his family every time he does?"
"If I knew, I would've told you by now, Squirt," the elder son of Goku muttered, smiling wanly, "it makes him happy, so who are we to argue? I'm going to see how Videl's handling Panny, are you going to head back over to Mom's or are you going back to your place?"
"I'm going to spend the night at Mom's, make sure she doesn't hurt herself or something. She hasn't been herself lately. Good luck with Pancake."
"Alright, Squirt," Gohan ruffled his brother's hair lovingly, "take care, and feel free to come over if you have trouble with Mom. See you later."
Pan's soft sobs quieted to near-silent whimpers and mewls, and she still clung tightly to her father, who cradled her lovingly. After a few more moments, the petite girl pulled her face away from her father's chest and peered up at him with wide, tearful eyes, reddened and swollen from both her crying fit and the lack of sleep.
"I-I'm sorry," Pan stuttered, "I'm trying to sleep, honest, but it's so hard..." Her voice shook slightly, and Videl scooted closer to her husband and daughter, wrapping her arms around her child, "shhh... baby girl, we know you're hurting."
"Why did he have to leave?" the daughter of Gohan questioned, voice heavy with tears, "why couldn't he just stay for once? You guys talk about how he wasn't there for the first seven years of Goten's life, how he left us to train Uub, and it just feels like he doesn't even care about us... We're his family, what's wrong with him?"
"Pan-chan..." Gohan trailed off, unsure of how to answer his daughter. She coughed and rubbed at her eyes in an agitated manner, leaning back into Videl's chest. Her mother squeezed her a little tighter and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, rocking from side to side. After a few moment, Pan's eyes began to flutter closed, and her father gently caressed her cheek before she completely succumbed to her slumber.
"Do you think we should try a sedative?" Videl questioned, "she can't go on like this, it's been three months and her nightmares have only gotten worse. Gohan, we need to do something."
"I know, I know," the Son gently grasped one of his daughter's hands, turning the small appendage over in his hands, "we'll take her to the doctor in the morning and have one prescribed for her... I hate this," he placed Pan's hand back in her lap, "I hate that she got so attached to Dad. I knew that he was going to leave us again, deep down inside, and now he's gone and rode the dragon off into the cosmos and left us to deal with the mess he left behind. It's not far to Mom, to Panny, and to the rest of us... I just can't understand how he can just leave and come back like no time has passed and everything's just the same, with that stupid grin on his face."
"I don't get it either, Gohan," Videl shifted so she was cushioned by Pan's pillows, still cradling her daughter in her arms, "but if he comes back, I'm not letting him near my child again. I won't have her hurting and upset like this over his antics, and I don't care that he's her grandfather, it still doesn't give him the right to do this to her." Pan whimpered softly and cuddled deeper into her mother's embrace.
"I understand, Vi," Gohan moved so he was lying back on Pan's pillows and gently took the petite teenager from his wife, "let me hold her for a while." Videl smiled and kissed her husband's cheek, "she always sleeps a little better when you're holding her, love." Upon laying her on her father's chest, Pan immediately curled up into a ball and laid her head in the crook of his neck. Videl cuddled into his other side and laid her cheek against the side of his chest.
"We're going to get through this, love," the son of Goku spoke firmly, "it's going to be rough, but we're going to make it." Videl didn't respond, and Gohan chuckled quietly to himself when he realized that Videl had lapsed into sleep, curled against him. A heavy yawn slipped through his lips, and he squirmed a bit to get a little more comfortable before allowing his own eyes to slip closed. Holding two of the most important women in his life protectively close, the eldest son of Goku slept peacefully for the first time in what seemed like ages...
It always irked me that, after Goku left, they skipped over all that time, and then, next thing we know, Pan's an old lady, and everyone else is dead... I know I'm probably not the only one who was disappointed by that, but still. We've had time skips before, the three years training for the Androids, which we got to see some parts of, the seven years after Cell, the ten years after Buu, and then ten MORE years after Goku left to train Uub. We ought to be used to it, but a HUNDRED years is a bit much. I'm well aware of the fact that DBZ's not the most sentimental show, but I would've loved to see a little bit of what happened after Goku left with Shenlong.
~CloudSpires1295~