Breathe in, breathe out … come on girl, I know you can do it. The moment Chichi opened her dark eyes, light came pouring in, temporarily blinding her. She tried making out the white dressed, smudged humanoid figured standing around her, but the throbbing in her head and the aching behind her eyes thwarted all her efforts, as she dropped her head back down, welcoming the feeling as it came into contact with a soft pillow.

She felt a warm hand caress her sweaty forehead, brushing away clumps of black hair from her face. "You're gonna be okay, mom," a young but slowly maturing voice said softly. Chichi's pale lips curled slightly into a smile upon realizing that her son was there with her. Again, she opened her eyes and this time, they focused on him. His youthful face was twisted into a frown of concern, dark sleepy eyes just like his mother's, were filling slowly with tears, his jet black spikey hair lying matted messily on his head.

"What happened to me, Gohan?" Chichi asked.

"You don't remember at all?" her son asked. She shook her head, wincing as she felt the dying pain come back to life again inside. "I found you lying on the floor in the middle of the night in the bathroom in your own blood, mom. So I took you here and they've been taking care of you."

A short and pudgy middle aged nurse took Gohan's hand and patted it with the other reassuringly and said softly, "Your mother will be fine, dear. But if you don't mind, there are some questions I'm going to need to ask her."

He acknowledged the nurse's polite request and stepped aside for her. The nurse took his place alongside Chichi's bed and began stroking her face affectionately, hoping to make her feel comfortable. Chichi wasn't aware of the nurse's intentions but she was feeling the effects. It had been awhile since she'd felt this comforted in a desperate situation.

"Now Chichi, dear," she began, "what was the last thing you remember before passing out?"

Chichi thought hard for a moment, staring off into space despite her state, trying to come up with an answer. "I remember walking to the bathroom to dry my hair. I'd just taken a shower. I reached over for a towel, but then felt something nauseous in my stomach." She paused, trying to recall the events after that. "I … I think … I remember I sat on the toilet for a second, waiting for the feeling to pass and then … I'm sorry, that's all I remember." The nurse scribbled some notes on a pad she took out from the breast pocket of her uniform.

She then looked up through her glasses for a moment at Chichi and asked, "So how long have you been expecting this baby?"

"It should be due anytime now," she replied. "I've had it for around eight and a half months."

"This baby is hurting you," a tall dark man said, interrupting the conversation. He walked towards the bed, motioning for the nurse to step aside. He held a clipboard in his giant, hairy hands and sat down on the stool to face Chichi, forcing a soft breeze to blow at her face as he sat. His motions were dynamic, like the movement of what any man in power should have. "Excuse me, nurse."

The nurse made room for the doctor, who judging by the glasses and the white overcoat, Chichi could tell he knew what he was doing. It was a shallow conclusion, but it comforted her nonetheless.

"The fact that the fetus is causing you to black out isn't something natural. The only thing you should be feeling is your water breaking." Her eyes widened in fear as she reached for Gohan's hand, and in response, he took it and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"What do you mean, doctor?" he asked. "Is my mom gonna be okay?"

"At this point, we don't even know," he said running his fingers through his short brown hair. He sighed outwardly, releasing the stress, unsure of how he would tell the boy.

"We need to give her an X-ray to check out what's going on inside her. I've already arranged an appointment. We are to proceed to level 1 in the west wing in half an hour. That's where the tests will be held and we'll find out what's wrong." The doctor got up silently and after giving Gohan a sympathetic look, patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the room.

The pudgy middle aged nurse put her hand on his arm and said, "Come on honey, let's get to the waiting room. I need to prepare your mother for the X-ray, ok?"

                                                                *              *              *

 Gohan hated the smell of hospitals. The combination of floor cleaners, latex gloves and medicine produced an artificial smell that made his head throb. Sitting on a cold, black plastic seat alongside the hallway, he was hunched over, his hands covering his eyes. He would feel the occasional breeze of bodies walking by briskly, in a rush to go save another dying life.

"One of those people could be mom," he said silently to himself. The thought suddenly occurred to him, making him tremble and break out into cold sweat. What if Chichi died giving birth to the baby? That would mean he had to take care of it himself, a responsibility a 9-year-old boy was not ready to take. Gohan clasped his hands tightly together in prayer, hoping someone out where would help him in his plight.

"Gohan, we're finished the tests," a man's voice said. When Gohan looked up, he recognized the doctor from the observatory room just awhile back. "If you could please come with me."

He was led to an office where a number of potted plants contrasted the blinding whiteness of the walls. Over on the far end of the office, behind a giant oak desk with a computer to the side, various plaques and degrees adorned the wall. "Have a seat," he said to Gohan, motioning to a giant, leather swivel chair.

After the boy got comfortable, the doctor took out some X-ray pictures from an envelope lying on his desk. Gohan's first impressions were that it looked exactly like the kind they show on TV, with all the doctors running around, holding them in their hands.

"The baby seems to be growing healthily," the doctor explained, "but it also seems to be affecting your mother mysteriously. We did some checkups on her and physically, she's fine. Her body just seems to be rejecting the baby for some reason, most likely because it's ready to come out of the womb. So she's getting a caesarian right now. But don't worry about a thing. They will both be just fine."

                                                                *              *              *

A few hours had passed by the time it was okay for Gohan to see his mother. The nurses took him to her room on the third floor to her room where he saw her lying peacefully in a giant tangle of sheets, looking as pampered as ever. However, despite her pale face covered in a thin layer of sweat, and her wispy hair falling whichever way over her shoulders, she had the most peaceful look, smiling contentedly. It was then that Gohan saw the baby in her arms, fast asleep. Chichi was rocking it back and forth, humming an elated tune. "Mom?" Gohan asked upon seeing her. "Is everything okay?" Chichi took her eyes away from the baby and looked at her young son and smiled. "I'm just fine, honey. Come over here and see your baby brother." Gohan walked over to the baby shyly, seeing its round face and half-closed eyes. Its tiny, chubby pink hands, no bigger than Gohan's own palm, open and closed with its steady breathing. Gohan took his index finger and put it into the child's hand, smiling as its small hand wrapped around his finger, much bigger than its whole hand. "What's his name, mom?" he asked. "I think I'll call him … Goken," she replied.

        *              *              *

Outside the room in the hall, the pudgy middle aged nurse scratched her head nervously, ignoring the hordes of co-workers and patients alike who walked briskly past her.

"I don't know if this is such a good idea, doctor," she said. She looked at the doctor with wide eyes, the guilt inside of her eating away at her heart. "I'm not sure if I'm actually capable of keeping a detail like this from the mother. Isn't this illegal? Don't we have to tell the mother?"

"Look, what happened in that X-ray room is confidential," the doctor said. "We don't know how it affected the baby or the mother, but as long as they are both physically healthy, then we've done out part."

"For god sakes, doctor, no fetus glows like a light bulb when in a mother's womb! The light coming from it nearly blinded us all! Aren't we even going to look into it??" She was beginning to get restless now, pacing back and forth with small, rapid steps. She put a well manicured finger in her mouth and began chewing nervously on her nail.

"Of course we will," the doctor replied, "But imagine what the mother would feel knowing her baby let off some kind of beam of light. It would crush her, thinking her baby was some kind of freak. We can't say anything until we've determined what exactly we're dealing with. We're going to have to pay special medical attention to this family just to make sure the baby grows up fine."

The doctor's words were not enough to soothe the nerves of the nurse. She wrapped her arms around herself simultaneously holding her head with a white knuckled grip and shaking her head.

"Oh god … if anything happens to this family because of this, I'll never forgive myself …"