Rose leaned over the keys of her piano, the music filling the Lookout as Dende calmly made his rounds along the edge of the tile. She looked over at him and gave him a smile from her spot inside the temple. He wasn't nearly as stressed as he had been; peace was settling over the world at last. Even she herself found her workload a little lighter and she finally had time to play the piano again. It had been a wedding gift from Dende.

Despite everything that was going on, it was a relatively peaceful day at the Lookout. The scent of the food Rose had in the oven wafted out to them, nearly ready for lunchtime. Jenny was resting in her bed, trying to recover from the latest round of chemo. Alice, as always, was Dende's little shadow. And Paige was laying beneath the piano bench, coloring pretty pictures for her mommy. Even Piccolo seemed to enjoy the soft music as he meditated. But the peace and quiet was to be short-lived.

Rose paused in her playing as she noticed a capsule car approaching the Lookout. It was rare for their friends to use a car to visit. Most of them would just fly there. Or Goku would pop in, laughing when he scared them at his sudden appearance. "Who is that?" Rose asked curiously.

Jenny groaned as she rolled over in bed, sensing the familiar energies approaching the Lookout. She had specifically told them to NOT visit, but here they were. She was still ill, the recent round of chemo seemed to be stronger than the last, but she had to get up. She forced herself up out of the bed, stumbling once or twice on her way to the door. Her nausea hit full force and she collapsed near the bedroom trashcan and dry heaved. "Piccolo," she gasped between breaths, "Help me up. It's my mom, my sister."

"Oh gods," Piccolo deadpanned as Jenny's words reached his ears all the way outside. He had never met Jenny's family and he had no desire to. Of all damn times for them to show up. He hurried into the bedroom and helped Jenny to her feet, letting her lean against him as he wrapped an arm around her. "You should get back in bed. Let me deal with them. I'll let them know they're not welcome. You don't need this stress."

Jenny was sorely tempted by her husband's offer. "That's a good one, thinking that you can keep them away from me." She leaned against him heavily, enjoying his strength, his warmth. She wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and go to sleep. She had only a day since her last chemo. It had taken her days to recover from her last treatment. "I would love to go back to sleep, but you'll learn. They don't have time for sleep."

Piccolo growled as they slowly made their way down the hall and outside where the car had landed on the Lookout. Thankfully, Jenny's biological father wasn't there. He despised the man. But he wasn't exactly a fan of her sister, either. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold my tongue," he warned as he watched the two women get out of the car. He cast a look over at Dende, muttering under his breath, "You might have to hold me back."

Dende muttered under his breath, "Please, brother. Restraint." He walked over to the two women getting out of the car. He could see the obvious relationship to Jennifer, the physical attributes matched his sister-in-law perfectly. He bowed to them, "Welcome to the Lookout. I am Dende, Guardian of the Earth. Your sister is doing just fine, my brother has been looking over her tirelessly since her treatment has started." He looked over at them as they emerged from the building.

Jenny's mother's eyes widened as she saw her daughter, frail and a shadow of what she used to be and she rushed towards her daughter, enveloping her in a hug, holding her tight. "Oh my, Jenny! Why didn't you tell me it was this bad? We would have come sooner if you said you were having problems. You said that you were feeling better after the surgery!"

Kacie walked over, looking at her sister. "She's not that sick. I'll bet she's just had one too many painkillers, huh?" she asked. She didn't want to be there. She was missing her work for this when clearly her sister was just fine with her green husband and family.

Jenny sighed and hugged her mother back as much as she could, "I didn't want you to worry, Mom. I know you have things going on. It wouldn't have made any difference. You are here now and that's what counts. Piccolo's been really great and Dende with his wife Rose have been helping us watch the girls."

Piccolo's eye twitched at Kacie's comment. Not that sick? She looked half-dead! She was still battling this fatal disease, struggling to eat anything, sleeping most of the time when she could because her body was so worn out, losing weight by the minute, and her sister had the audacity to say that she was not that sick? He crossed his arms firmly over his chest to stop himself from reaching out and slapping the younger woman who looked so much like his wife.

But where Piccolo would exercise restraint, his daughter would not.

Paige looked up from her coloring and narrowed her eyes at the woman who claimed that her mother wasn't sick. She'd seen Mommy puking in the bathroom herself. People didn't puke when they weren't sick. She slapped her crayon down on the paper in front of her and wiggled out from beneath Rose's piano bench. "Hey!" she shouted, marching across the Lookout with her shocking pink curls bouncing behind her. "You don't talk about my mommy like that!" She came to a stop in front of her parents and put her hands on her hips as she glared up at the unfamiliar woman who looked like her mother.

Jenny felt a groan trying to work its way out of her throat and she reached out, gently tugging her daughter close to her, sliding her hand into her daughter's hair. "That's okay baby. Do you remember your aunt and grandma?" she asked. "You were just a baby when they last saw you."

Kacie snorted, "She probably doesn't remember us then. Doesn't remember any manners it seems, either. Haven't you been teaching them anything? Or do they actually go to public school like that?"

Piccolo frowned at his sister-in-law. "They're not old enough for school," he reminded her firmly. "And as far as manners go, it seems that you are lacking in that department as well."

Paige blinked up at the adults, screwing up her face as if trying to remember. "Nope," she finally answered. Family or not, she decided she didn't much like her aunt. Grandma was still up for debate at this point. She looked at Kacie again. "I learn lots of things! Like flying, punching, Final Flash…" she counted off on her fingers before Piccolo clapped a hand over his daughter's mouth. She glared up at him as if scolding him for interrupting her.

Kacie shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, teaching her all the essential stuff. Great work. And why do you let the other one walk so close to the edge! She's going to fall off and then what?"

Jenny was already starting to feel exhaustion set in and she ran a hand over her face. "She's not going to fall and even if she did, Dende taught her the basics of hovering, she'll be fine." She reached out, taking her daughter's hand, "Come on, you both must be hungry. It's about lunch time and Rose makes some really great vegetarian fajitas."

"Vegetarian?" Jenny's mom asked with a wrinkle of her nose. "Jenny, are you sure they're getting all the nutrients they need from that? You should be more careful about what you feed your children. You don't want them to end up malnourished!" She paused and frowned over at how close little Alice was to the edge. "Your sister's right. You might want to think about not letting her get so close. I'd hate to think of what could happen if she fell! I know you said something about flying, but what if she forgets? Oh, that would just be horrible!"

Jenny bit her lip to keep herself from saying something she might regret. "Then Dende will jump after her and bring her back safely," she said as she led the way to the kitchen and helped Paige to sit at the table. "And my girls get all the nutrition they need, Piccolo makes sure of it. They don't eat vegetarian all the time, but Dende and Rose are vegetarian and I'm not very hungry, so that's what lunch is going to be today."

Karen huffed slightly, "Well, whatever you want to do, dear. They're your children. I just hope you're making the right decisions for them. I just worry about them. That's all."

Rose fixed plates for everyone and set them on the table. "Jenny's a very good mother," she said gently. "Believe me. I've seen bad parents day in and day out at my work. She does an excellent job of raising her girls. Piccolo, too." She helped Alice into her booster seat at the table and ran her fingers affectionately through the little namek's pale hair. "And Dende would never let anything bad happen to his little shadow." She set a plate in front of Jenny and gave her an understanding look. "It's okay if you don't want to eat it. I'm still not a very good cook," she said quietly.

Jenny chuckled, "You are getting better, but don't be offended if I can't get much down. Your cooking isn't the reason I can't eat." She looked down at the steaming plate of the skillet vegetables, wishing that her stomach would growl in hunger, but a small wave of nausea washed over her instead.

Kacie frowned down at her food, wanting to speak up and say that she and mom didn't travel this far to have some pathetic helping of vegetarian fajitas. She wanted a steak, something that was more substantial than this. "You are really living the life aren't you, sis?"

"That's not very much to eat," Karen said as she looked at the small portion on Jenny's plate. "Jenny, you're not trying to diet while you're on chemo, are you? You're too skinny now as it is. That's not healthy for you. You should try to eat more, keep up your strength so you can be a good mom to your girls. They need you."

Jenny shook her head, wanting to bang her head on the table. "No, I'm not trying to diet. I just had chemo the other day and it's hard for me to keep anything down after the sessions. Why waste perfectly good food when I'm just going to throw it back up?"

Karen made a face. "Don't talk about that at the dinner table," she scolded. "You'll ruin everyone's appetite if you talk about that."

Rose had to turn away, pretending to mess with something in the sink for a moment. Good gods, no wonder Jenny moved to the other side of the world. These women were insufferable. Didn't they understand what Jenny was going through? She silently prayed that their visit would be short. As in, within the day. She forced a smile on her face and turned around to them again. "So how long are you able to visit?" she asked politely.

Kacie sighed heavily as she poked at her food with a fork, "Mom wants to stay for a few weeks, just so we can 'help' Jenny through the chemo, you know. However long that takes." She looked over at her sister, "Stop being so dramatic and eat up! There's no point in putting on a show for us, we can see right through it."

Jenny sighed, feeling an unease rising up in her as she nibbled at her food, "I'm not putting on a show. Why would I joke about this? I can't eat because I'm so nauseated from the chemotherapy." Her stomach gurgled at her as if trying to reiterate her point. She put a hand to her mouth and pushed back from the table, dashing for the restroom.

Dende could hear the commotion and the rise of emotions were high on both sides. The negativity he could feel from Jenny's mother and sister was nearly palpable. Did they really not trust their daughter at all? He shook his head and continued walking around the edge of the Lookout, afraid that if he got involved, the earth would suffer for it.

Rose sighed and picked up Jenny's plate to put in the refrigerator just in case her appetite returned later. There had to be something Jenny could eat. Maybe she needed to go through a cookbook with Dende and find something a little milder for Jenny's stomach. "You know," she said as she turned towards the table again, "your sister really is trying to do as much as she can. This isn't easy on her at all. Perhaps you could be a little more understanding of her situation, Kacie."

Kacie rolled her eyes. "No, she's fine. She's just milking the situation to get sympathy," she said as she finally pushed her half eaten plate away from her and looked at the little green girls who had cleaned their plates. "She's always done it to get what she wants. I mean, she's been on chemo how long now and she's still not used to it? Seems fishy if you ask me." She leaned on her hand and looked at her mother, hoping that they wouldn't have to stay up there in the middle of nowhere while they visited her "sick" sister.

Rose grabbed up a clean washrag and wiped Paige's and Alice's faces before she sent them out to play. With an irritated huff, she threw the cloth into the sink. "I don't think anyone ever 'gets used' to chemo. It's extremely invasive and it's hard on anyone who has to go through it," she said firmly as she began to wash the dishes. "And I've known Jenny for some time now. I've never known her to actively look for sympathy. Quite the opposite, to be honest. She usually shoulders more than she should."

Kacie snorted and crossed her arms leaning back, "Well, that's the first I'm hearing about it. Look at you, she's got you cooking, washing dishes, taking care of her children." She shot a look around the Lookout, noticing her sister's husband had disappeared as well. "Yeah, that's typical. I'm sorry you seem to have been drawn into her little ploy."

"Maybe Jenny really isn't feeling well, dear," Karen said, trying to pacify her daughter. "We don't know just yet. We just got here. It could be that she really doesn't feel well. Don't be so judgmental. Remember, 'judge not, lest ye be judged'," she recited. " I think what she needs is an old fashioned home cooked meal to make her feel better."

Rose closed her eyes, feeling a muscle tic in her jaw. If it was that simple, didn't they think that she and the others would've taken care of it already?! She scrubbed harder at the glass in her hand, grinding her teeth. Jenny was one of the most independent people she knew. She knew how hard it was for her sister-in-law to ask and accept help from others. And yet here they were, acting like she was playing a victim.

She was so angry, she thought she could spit nails. The next second, the glass in her hand shattered, she'd gripped it so hard, and she hissed in pain as it sliced through her palm. "Dammit," she whimpered and turned on the faucet to rinse away the soap. She pulled the shard of glass from her hand and wrapped it in a towel. "Excuse me," she said hastily to Jenny's mother and sister as she headed straight for Dende.

Dende turned to his wife as she neared him, his hands already glowing a soft golden light as he took her injured hand and soothed away the cut. "Trying to pull a Goku on me, hmm?" he teased softly, watching carefully as the flesh knit back together. "I know it is part of my job to respect all living creatures, but I believe these two are trying my patience. They cannot stay here. I fear for the earth if they do. Perhaps we do not have any free rooms, yes?"

Rose was surprised at Dende's willingness to lie. And she was sorely tempted to go along with it. "I don't know," she muttered as she looked down at her hand, heaving a sigh of relief as it healed. "Thank you, my love," she said softly and curled her fingers, grateful that the stinging sensation was gone. "How can they be so cruel to her? Questioning her illness, criticizing her parenting skills. That was just a downright insult what they said about Alice falling over the edge. Even with as clumsy as I am, I've never fallen! And if someone ever did, you could save them. They're acting like they understand all of this when in reality they're completely clueless."

Dende reached up and cupped his mate's cheek. "That, my dear, is what most of humanity already thinks of themselves. It is just the way of things. Perhaps Jenny's past life is what they are going off of, but that woman is long since gone and so much has changed. They have not bothered to keep up, to know the real sister we love so dearly."

Rose looked down at her freshly healed hand again and shook her head sharply. "They don't deserve to know her. She's too good for them," she said fiercely.

He sighed and rubbed at his face, "I am not sure what to do. It would probably be in their best interests to seek lodging elsewhere. While I will not harm them, I fear my brother and Paige just might. Paige really has been spending too much time with Vegeta. Gives her just the worst ideas."

She looked up and met her mate's dark, understanding eyes. "Let Paige at them. I wouldn't stop her. Serves them right for being rude like that. Let her do that Final whatever-it-is." She waved her hand around as she spoke, then looked back down at the tile, a frown still on her face.

"Paige, don't," Piccolo growled in a low, warning tone. He knew his daughter had heard Rose's words and was no doubt planning some sort of attack on her aunt and grandmother. He crossed the Lookout to his brother and Rose. "I agree that they should stay somewhere else. Jenny doesn't need to be around them any more than the bare minimum. I'm not sure what to think of Karen just yet, but Kacie is quickly becoming a thorn in my side."

"That's probably the nicest way you could've phrased that, Piccolo," Rose said as she looked up at the taller namek. She usually wasn't this protective of their family; she trusted Piccolo to keep them all safe. But there was something in her that just longed to march back into the kitchen and really give those two women a piece of her mind. She really couldn't stand a parent who mistreated their child. And now it seemed it didn't matter what the age of that child was. "I am just never going to understand people. If I had a daughter who was sick and the other was saying things like that…" She trailed off and shook her head again.

Dende wrapped his arms around Rose. "I think we have had a daughter who was sick like that, but we were both too caring enough to warrant that." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I need to finish my rounds. There is still half a day left, but it feels like an eternity now."

Rose frowned, but nodded. "Of course, my love," she said softly. She looked back to her piano once again. "Perhaps some soothing music will calm everyone's emotions. I don't know what else to do." She pressed a kiss to his cheek before she turned and went to her piano, hoping that the soft melody would ease the tempers flaring all around her.

"I'll leave you to it then," Piccolo said to Dende and went back inside. Jenny had stopped being sick it seemed, but she was still in the bathroom. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. "You can't hide in there forever, you know. They'll come looking for you eventually."

Jenny managed a weak laugh before she pried herself off of the cool tiled floor and went to open the door. There was a peace between them now, something that hadn't been there before. An understanding that they loved each other no matter what happened. She leaned her head against his chest, drawing comfort from his powerful form a moment before she leaned back and looked up at him, smiling faintly at the way his antennae twitched in the air. "I hope we can make it through their visit. Maybe if I act like I'm well, they'll leave. Chances are though, mother will want to stay until my next chemo treatment in two weeks." She felt sick even thinking about it. She wished the medicine was stronger, or that it would actually work, but she might as well have been eating M&Ms.

Piccolo gave a long sigh through his nose as he wrapped his arms around his wife. "I'm not sure what to think of your mother just yet," he admitted. "But don't hold me accountable if your sister gets too close to the edge and accidentally… slips." An amused chuckle escaped his throat as a short daydream filled his mind, one in which he picked Kacie up by her hair and flung her over the edge of the Lookout. He gave another sigh and leaned down to rest his forehead against Jenny's. "I'm going to Hell."

Jenny laughed and nodded, "I'll drive the bus."