Author's Note: Yes, this story will ultimately focus on the Briefs' household, but we are not quite there yet. We will be, soon, and believe me when I say that there's still a long way to go on this tale. I just need a little more background work in before I think we can really move on to that. I hope that it will pay off in the end. Thank you all for your wonderful and helpful reviews so far!
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Gohan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, groaning as his back cried out in pain. "Damn, these things are uncomfortable," he grumbled, trying to straighten out his spine.
"I agree whole heartedly," came a feminine voice from behind him.
The half bred Saiyan whipped around, ignoring the pain in his back. "Mom?" he loudly asked.
The dark haired woman nodded, a half smile on her face. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," she responded with a soft chuckle.
Gohan rubbed what little sleep was left out of his eyes. "When did you get here?"
"About three and a half hours ago," she replied, coming around to take a seat in front of her son. "You were completely asleep, and it's been such a hard day on everyone that I thought you could use the nap."
"Three and a half hours…" the teenager whispered. "So Bulma's been out of surgery now for…seven hours, right?"
"I don't know, honey," Chi-Chi softly replied, placing a hand on her eldest child's shoulder. "I came to check up on you, and I don't know what time it was that Bulma got out. All I know is that she was already in her room by the time I got here."
Gohan blinked twice at his mother. "How did you know?" he asked. "I mean, about Bulma. How did you know she was here?"
Chi-Chi once again gave her son a half smile. "There's been this wonderful new invention, Gohan, called the telephone. See, with it, someone in one location can send a signal, or 'call', to a person in another…"
Gohan laughed as he cut his mother's sarcasm off. "All right, all right, I get it. Someone called you."
"Krillen did," the mother clarified. "And I'm sorry that it took so long to get here to see you. When Krillen called, he sounded very stressed. He told me what he knew about Bulma's situation, which wasn't much and certainly wasn't good news, and then told me that your father was…having a few issues…"
The teenager once again shifted in his chair. "Dad?" he asked. "Issues? I don't think I've ever known about him having a problem with anything before. Seriously, I haven't seen him actually get upset since, like, Namek, and even that seemed to be fairly come and go."
His mother sadly nodded. "Well, he's never done this before," she pointed out.
"It's not like I have!" Gohan protested, jumping to his feet. He didn't know why, but he had a sudden urge to defend himself and seek pity at the same time. He didn't know why his father was allowed to fall apart while he, the son, had to work to keep everything together.
Chi-Chi very calmly pulled her son back down to his chair. "I know this is very hard for you, Gohan," she patiently started. "You've done so much already, and if it weren't for you and your wonderful intelligence, Bulma would never have made it this far. You've put so much of the burden on your shoulders, and you've stood up under it very well. However," she continued, "you are very different from your father."
Still feeling agitated, but calm enough to sit still, Gohan simply nodded at his mother's statement.
"Your father is an interesting man," she went on. "Like you said before, he's never really had issues with anything. That's because he's never known anything to have an unhappy ending. Everything, everything, in your father's life has always ended in a way that he has found acceptable. It's always been a happy ending. And he's never been in this position before. You have, and that's why you are dealing with all of this so much better than he is."
"What do you mean?" the teenager asked, his hands folding in his lap.
Chi-Chi sighed, turning her eyes away from her son. "You and I…we've done this so many times before," she started. "We've been in this position where we know that someone we love might die, and that there's nothing we can do but stand there and wait for the outcome. When you were so little and that evil uncle of yours took you, all you could do was wait for your daddy to either save you or die trying.
"The same thing happened with Namek. You were wished back here, and your father chose to stay and fight. You knew that he might end up getting killed, and all you could do was sit, wait, and pray for his safe return."
Gohan took his mother's words in, realizing that it was true.
"I've done it more than either of you," she pointed out, still avoiding her son's gaze. "When that green monster…"
"Piccolo," Gohan corrected.
"…whatever. When he took you away from me, and all I could do was wait and pray for one whole year, I thought that I was going to die from the pain I was in." Her voice softened to a whisper. "You were my baby, Gohan, and I didn't know if you were even alive."
The teenager couldn't even begin to form words. He had not thought about what his family had been through in years. In fact, he had deliberately thrown himself into his training and his studies to make sure that he would never have the time to dwell on it. Their little family had been torn apart and put back together so many times that he had lost count. And he couldn't remember having ever thought about what his mother had been through.
Chi-Chi moved into the chair next to her son. "But your father has never done this," she said. "Everyone he's ever known who died, he had some sort of warning about. And most of them died in battle, and for someone like your father, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, he would rather keep his friends alive, but when someone is going off to a life or death fight, there's a little part of you that's always prepared for death to win.
"And we also need to take into consideration that he's never known anyone who died from something like this," she pointed out. "It's always been with a fist or a ki blast or something. It's always been in battle. Never an accident. And because it's always been a battle, and he usually has those beans with him, he's always been able to at least help out."
Gohan looked at his mother, finally starting to feel the tears in his eyes that he had been holding in for over a day. "He's never just had to hope," he concluded. "He's never had to just wait."
Chi-Chi nodded. "Exactly. That's why you called for help, patched up wounds, somehow kept Vegeta from going completely ballistic in this hospital…"
"Actually, he's done most of that on his own," Gohan pointed out. "He's been almost disturbingly calm through all of this."
His mother nodded again. "His tension level is probably through the roof, though," she thought out loud, "which was why I told Krillen to keep everyone at his place."
Gohan raised an eyebrow at that last statement. "Everyone?" he asked. "Who is 'everyone'?"
Chi-Chi sort of shrugged one shoulder at the question. "It's, well, everyone. Krillen, Eighteen, and Marron, obviously, since it's their home. Roshi, your father, your brother, and poor little Trunks were there, all of them having been subdued in one way or another. Tien and Chaotzu, I think, were meditating outside. And Yamcha…"
The teen felt a sudden pang in his heart. He hadn't even remotely considered the scarred baseball player. It was no secret that Yamcha never actually got over Bulma, and that if Vegeta hadn't been so infinintly powerful compared to the human and with such an extreme history of violence, the Earthling would have fought much harder, and he might have won.
"How is Yamcha taking it?" Gohan asked, his voice extremely serious.
Chi-Chi shook her head. "Not well," she admitted. "He was literally pulling his hair out, and he wasn't making a lot of sense in his ramblings."
Gohan cringed, hissing in slightly. "Is it really good idea to have him that close to Trunks? That can't be a good idea. Those two…"
"Trunks is asleep," Chi-Chi assured her first born. "And Yamcha will be following shortly, if he isn't out already."
"Eighteen slipped them some of her 'meditating juice'?" Gohan asked with a laugh.
"Of course she did," Chi-Chi calmly replied. "Of course, she's almost out of it now. It took a fair amount to take down the kids, it took most of what she had left to take down your father."
Gohan just shook his head. "For the first time, I actually understand why Bulma made Eighteen the caretaker of that formula. I thought she was insane when she made it." He laughed quietly to himself. "I mean, the very idea of making a sedative powerful enough to take down the most powerful warriors our planet has…it just seemed like something that we would never need. And for the last five years, I've been right."
The mother pulled her hair out of its bun and shook it out, running her fingers lightly through it. "This was exactly what she had in mind when she made it," she calmly said, shaking her hair out. "This was one of her fears."
The teenager nodded along, already having known this. "That is true," he conceded. "But somehow, I think that she was going to be dosing Vegeta with it, not everyone else on the planet."
"I know," Chi-Chi agreed. "She's always been kind of worried that something would happen to her, and that Vegeta was going to lose it."
Five years earlier, Bulma had been adamant about making sure that Krillen had what she had deemed "The Earth's Backup". Vegeta had always had a legendary short temper, and was more than a little prone to acts of extreme violence when stressed. Bulma had admitted years ago that one of her greatest fears was that something would happen to herself or to Trunks and that Vegeta would become so emotionally destroyed that he would revert back to his old ways. So, just to hedge her bets, she had created a liquid that could knock out even the strongest of Saiyans. She had openly told her husband that Krillen had something, just in case.
She had casually let the fact that both Gohan and Chi-Chi had their own kits go unmentioned.
Neither Chi-Chi nor Gohan had thought about the irony before that moment. The simple fact, that when Bulma Briefs was put in a life threatening position and her outcome looked bleak, Vegeta would be one of the only ones not needing to be subdued, was almost amusing.
"So, how is everyone else?" Gohan asked, stretching out his ever growing body. Even though he was eighteen, he found himself hitting what seemed like another growth spurt.
Chi-Chi half shrugged. "To be honest, the only one I was paying a lot of attention to was your father. He was…" The mother took a moment to form her words carefully. "I didn't understand just how addicted your father was to being, well, helpful. Even when he was half subdued, he was still trying to get back over here. It took me hours to get him to stay put. That's part of what took me so long. Well, that, and the eight hour drive it was to get to Krillen's house in the first place, and then the six and a half hour drive to get from there to this hospital."
Gohan chuckled softly. "Don't take this the wrong way, Mom, but you're taking this surprisingly well."
"Oh, you say that like I overreact to everything!" the mother said with a joke of a scowl on her face.
"You do," Gohan simply replied.
Chi-Chi smacked her son playfully on the shoulder. "You know, if you people would just teach me how to fly, I could have been a lot more useful up to this point."
"Well, I think we probably should have taught you how to fly long ago," Gohan agreed, "but I'm not sure how much more useful you could have been. Dad and Trunks would have been worked up either way, Krillen and Eighteen would still be trying to keep everything in check, I'd still have come here to make sure that everything was okay, and it's not like any of us can get physically near Bulma right now."
Chi-Chi sighed, shaking her head. "You know," she thought out loud, "I have never liked that man."
Gohan raised an eyebrow, silently asking who his mother was referencing.
"Vegeta," she clarified. "I've always thought that he was a jackass who didn't deserve another chance and would always be the monster that he was when he first came here."
"Don't you think the same thing about Piccolo?" Gohan asked, not sure where the conversation was going.
Chi-Chi nodded hesitantly. "Well, yes, but at the same time, I don't. I always have, and always will, bear a grudge against him. I know he has saved your life, been there as your friend, and done good for years, but he is still the one that took my baby away from me. No mother forgives that. And yet, because I know about how close the two of you are, I could at least be somewhat at ease over his presence. Not completely, but somewhat."
The mother paused for a moment before going on. "Vegeta, on the other hand, I have never felt even a little bit comfortable around. He has always seemed like a threat to us in my eyes. And before you interrupt, I already know that he's 'not the same', as you and your father love to point out."
"As long as you acknowledge that," Gohan quietly said.
Chi-Chi snorted lightly. "The two of you have that overly forgiving nature, and I swear that it's going to be the death of me." She shook her head slightly as she tried to get back on track. "Vegeta has always been rude, aggressive, disrespectful, and obnoxiously arrogant. He's never once shown affection for Bulma or Trunks. At least, not in front of me. I always thought that he was with Bulma out of convenience."
She laughed quietly to herself for a moment. "He's been here, in a place we both know he dislikes, on a planet he can't stand, sitting in a small, confined room and watching over her. He's held himself in check, in spite of everything that's happened, and it's obvious that he's doing it for her. As horrible as this might sound, sometimes it's the moments like this that let us see who we truly are and what we truly love."
Gohan smiled at his mother. "Does that mean that you finally agree that Vegeta's a good person?"
"Let's not get carried away," his mother chuckled. "I said that he really does care about his family. I still think that overall he's an ass, but at least he does have a heart and he does have love in it." Chi-Chi ruffled her fingers through her son's hair. "Now, I know that you've been here for a day, and you look quite silly wearing your blood stained training pants and a scrubs top. I packed you a change of clothes, and there's enough food in the third capsule to appease even the most ravenous of Saiyan appetites."
"Woo hoo!" Gohan cheered, jumping to his feet. "You are the greatest mother ever!"
The woman laughed, handing over the capsule case to her first born. "You have more than earned a break, Gohan. Change, eat, and then get out of here for a while. I'll call you if there's any news before you get back."
Gohan raised a brow at his mother. "Are you sure? I mean, if Vegeta finally does have a meltdown…"
"I brought the frying pan, I'll be fine," she interrupted. "Now you get out of here, Gohan Son, and you take a break from this right now!"
The teenager smiled at his mother as he turned down the hall to walk away. He stopped when his mother called out his name. "Yes?" he asked, looking back at her.
Chi-Chi smiled softly at her son, remaining in her seat. "I am very, very proud of you."
Gohan smiled back at her before disappearing down the hallway. He took a longer route, stopping by Bulma's room on his way out. Ever so softly, he rapped his knuckles on the door. "Can I come in?" he asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper.
When he heard no answer, the teenager gently pushed the door open slipped in.
He almost cried at what he saw.