Day 185

Piccolo filled a third water bottle for the day with boiling water. Sealing it, he walked back to where Tessa laid curled in her bed. They exchanged the warm bottle for one that had cooled, and she sighed as the heat sank into her tense muscles. This was far from the first time Piccolo had been present to see this, but the past four months had become increasingly worse for her.

Sighing, he took the empty chair by her head, their eyes meeting as she smiled uneasily. "Is there anything else you need?"

Tessa shook her head. "No, thank you. The heat is helping, and this shouldn't last more than another day, I hope."

He studied her; his dark gaze unyielding. "Perhaps you should see a doctor."

Tessa laughed, her eyes finally regaining some of their sparkle. "I already have, one of the best in the world in fact, Bulma set it up."

Piccolo rolled his eyes, of course having Bulma's resources was a blessing at times but the woman was into everything. "And?"

She rolled onto her back on the pillows, eyes still seeking out his own. "Long story short. I have scarring that effects the way my body natural performs. Most likely from years of training, fighting, surviving, keeping up with power ambitious men…" She shrugged with a smirk. "…the usual things a girl from South City would be doing at my age."

A smirk spread across his own face. "And we both know your family is sooo proud."

Tessa laughed. "Yeah. They're just gleaming with joy, they're so proud."

Goku's House 31 months before…

Piccolo had been standing on the ground watching as Goku and Tessa sparred above him when ChiChi came from the house, phone covered by her hand. The expression upon her face with enough to concern the usually uninterested Namekian. "What's wrong ChiChi?"

She sighed, holding the phone further away from them. "It's Tessa's sister, Kirsten I think, and she's insisting she speak to her now. Between you and me, she's actually been extremely rude."

Nodding, Piccolo shot into the air and caught fist from both Goku and Tessa, their expressions puzzled as they met his gaze. He turned to Tessa. "ChiChi has your sister on the phone, and apparently she's been practically rude."

Sighing Tessa met both their gazes before descending and thanking a worried ChiChi as she took the phone, stepping away.

As Goku and Piccolo joined ChiChi a few feet away they could hear part of the one-sided conversation.

"You know why I'm here, Kristy."

"Well as usual, if I don't fall into the family's mode you don't have much use of me."

She laughed sadly. "Why do you think I don't answer the phone very often."

They watched as Tessa stumbled, holding the phone tighter now. "He's what?!"

"How long?"

"You've done this on purpose, there's no way I'll make it!"

"Kirsty…no don't hang up! Take the phone to him, please! Please!"

All eyes were locked on Tessa as she fell to the ground still holding the disconnected phone. Rushing to her side, ChiChi knelt in front of her. "Tessa, hey, what's wrong."

Blue eyes flooded with tears as she met ChiChi's gaze. "My grandfather is dying, probably won't live past the next few hours and they waited until the last to call." She collapsed into her arms. "He's asked for me!"

Goku and Piccolo exchanged nods before he laid a hand on Tessa's shoulder. "The in the hospital in South City, right Tess?"

Wiping away her tears, Tessa nodding, standing with ChiChi by her side. "I'll never make it, if I left now it would take me hours to fly home." She met Goku's gaze. "Kirsty said it could be any time now."

Goku glanced at ChiChi and then smiled. "I can get you there."

Tessa's eyes widened, she stared at the face of three people who would do anything for her. "Thank you."

She looked down at her clothes which were torn and sweat stained; her face falling again. "Oh, I can't go like this."

"You won't have too."

All eyes turned to Piccolo as he held his hand in front of Tessa. "Aaahhh!"

When his power received, Tessa was standing in a new knee-length yellow dress with thin straps and two-inch wedge sandals. She met his dark gaze with more tears at his generous gift. "I don't know what to say."

The Namekian warrior smiled. "You'll be making this up to me later, now go."

Nodding she took Goku's offer hand and the next moment they were gone…

Present time, still by Tessa's bedside…

Tessa sighed, rubbing her inflamed lower stomack. "My family showed their true colors though all that. They treated Goku like the plague and when Tien joined me for the funeral, they treated him worse."

Piccolo shrugged, his dark eyes watching her intently. "I wouldn't worry about it, Goku and Tien know how to handle crowds like that."

She nodded. "I still have that dress, it's beautiful."

A smirk spread across his face. "ChiChi gave me hell over that, you'd better have kept it."

Tessa laughed full heartedly for nearly the first time in three days with her smile meeting her eyes. "I always will."

Piccolo could feel a blush begin to warm his checks as his attention moved out into the void. 'I should have been mediating hours ago, why do I find it so hard to leave your side?' "And there is nothing else the doctor can do for you?"

Tessa sighed, her blue eyes joining his own out in the vast nothingness of their surroundings. "No, not at this point." His attention her back to her own with a quirked brow. "Surgery is my only option and there isn't a doctor that will consider removing my uterus at my age. Even though they've all but confirmed the chances I can carry a child are next to impossible."

His eyes softened. "And that doesn't bother you? Why have you never asked Shenron to correct the damage?"

She shrugged. "I've just never seen the need to be so selfish, we've usually had more important wishes to cast at any given time." He couldn't really argue with that. "Or maybe it just fate, and my tastes in men. After all, Tien didn't want children with me after he died, and we can't create a child together."

A frown formed on his chiseled face as his attention moved away again. "There have been others…"

"Yeah…" Tessa folded her arms across her chest. "…and of those three I've dated in the past four years, not one of them was comfortable with this lifestyle. Everyone of them wanted to change me drastically." She sighed, allowing her arms to loosen. "The only good relationships I've had were Tien, and the year I had with you."

Suddenly uncomfortable, Piccolo moved to stand from the chair, and she caught the slightest glimpse of something in his dark eyes; though she couldn't tell if it was disbelief or something else. His usual static expression fell upon his face as he turned towards her. "I'll check on you again in a few hours."

Nodding, she watched him turn and pickup his weights and turban, and move out into the vast void before her eyes drifted closed again.