It had not been a good day. The chemotherapy had left Jenny weak and feeling sick. Instead of being immediately released, she had to stay a little bit extra while the doctors ran a few more tests to see how the cancer was regressing. She felt horrible by the time Piccolo finally got her home, so much so she didn't even want to smoke so she could eat. Her body was aching, her arms, her jaw, her chest. Her nausea seemed to be intensified as well. She curled up on her side on the bed, closing her eyes tightly.
Piccolo stood in the doorway, frowning as he looked at his wife. She looked like she was in so much pain, more than normal. He watched as she curled in on herself, her breathing becoming labored. Startled, he went to her side. He'd never seen her react to chemo like this. "Jenny?" he asked, gently setting his hand on her shoulder. "What is it? What's wrong?" He could see the sweat breaking out over her face, the pain in her eyes.
Jenny winced and cracked her eyes open to look at Piccolo. "I don't know. Everything's hurting. I tried to sleep, but it's too hard. My chest hurts, feels like I smoked way too much but I haven't had any today."
He frowned, trying to figure out why she was hurting so bad. "Do you want to go back to the hospital?" he asked. He really didn't want to spend any more time there than he had to, but if she needed it, he would take her there without hesitation.
Jenny was about to respond, but she fell silent, her eyes going unfocused. Her breathing sounded unnatural, gasping to nearly there.
"Shit!" Piccolo cried and scooped her into his arms. "DENDE!" he bellowed as he ran outside with his wife. "No, no, no," he gasped as he looked down at her. He didn't know if he should take the time to let Dende figure out what was happening or if he should just fly to the hospital as fast as possible. "Tell me what to do," he barked at his brother.
Dende turned, running over to him, looking down at Jenny. "Oh no." He laid his hand over Jenny, his hand glowing as he tried to figure out the problem. "She's having a heart attack! We have to get her to the hospital! Is she breathing?" He looked her over and listened to her, nodding, "She is, go! As fast as you can! Rose and I will be right behind you with the girls. GO!"
Piccolo didn't hesitate, a fear for his wife curling around his own heart. "You call everyone else and tell them what's happening!" he ordered as he took to the sky. He remembered being warned about this when Jenny had first started her chemo, but he'd prayed that she'd be spared that one thing. That somehow, after all she'd been through, that she wouldn't suffer more. It seemed his prayers had fallen on deaf ears.
He flew as fast as he could, faster than he ever had in his life, cradling her to him. "Stay with me," he begged her, even though she was unconscious. He could feel her struggling for breath. "You can't leave me, Jenny. You can't." He was shaking by the time he landed in front of the hospital and he kicked the door open, rushing inside. "Help!" he barked at the nurses standing near the desk. "She's having a heart attack! Do something!"
He watched as they flew into action and he carefully laid her on the gurney that they wheeled out to him. He felt like he couldn't breathe as they rushed her down the hallway and the space around him fell silent and he suddenly found himself completely alone. He dropped to his knees, his face screwing up against the fearful tears that burned his eyes. "Don't take her," he whispered. "Dear gods, please, don't take her from me."
Dende and Rose arrived soon after, the Guardian taking Rose's cell phone and making the calls out to their friends and family. Alice looked almost pale and it worried him. Even Paige was rather quiet. He called Bulma first, knowing that they would want to be there first. "Bulma, you need to get Vegeta and the kids and come to the hospital. Jenny's had a heart attack. We don't," he paused and swallowed, "We don't know if she's going to make it."
Bulma felt the blood draining out of her face. "Be right there!" She hung up, running out of her workshop to the gravity room. She could hear her husband, Trunks, and Catie training inside. She reached for the panel, punching in the emergency override code. She winced as she heard the gravity switch off suddenly, followed by three loud thunks as they hit the ceiling. She threw open the door, spotting them rubbing their heads as they landed back on the floor.
"Dammit, woman!" Vegeta snarled at her, wincing at the pain in his skull. He cracked open an eye to look at her. "What in the hell is so damn important?!" He froze when he saw the look on her face, how pale and frightened she appeared. He got to his feet, his heart starting to beat faster. "Bulma, what is it? What's happened?" he asked, his tone softer.
"We have to get to the hospital. Dende just called. Jenny's suffered a heart attack." She bit her lip, "He says that this… She might not survive this. We have to go now!" she insisted, looking at Trunks and Catie as well; their shocked looked pained her.
It was strange to him how calm he felt in that moment as Vegeta took in her words. "Catherine, you and I will take your mother to the hospital. Trunks, you go get Kakarot and his mates and meet us there. Move!" he barked. He rushed to Bulma and hauled her into his arms with Catie hot on his heels as they ran for the door, Trunks taking off towards the North. They made it to the hospital in record time, seeing as it was only a short distance away.
"Piccolo!" Catie cried when they entered the building, seeing him still sitting on his knees in the middle of the waiting room. "What's going on? Where's Jenny?"
He looked up at them, feeling a little better that they were there with him. "They said something about surgery," he answered dully. "Putting in a stent or something to help her heart. They don't know if it's going to work or not, but they're trying." He felt numb inside. This had to be some sort of a bad dream. This could not be real.
Vegeta carefully set Bulma down, his blood turning cold in his veins. This couldn't be happening. After everything she'd been through, this wasn't fair. She'd come so far. The first surgery, all the treatments, everything she'd endured. Would the insanity never stop? He was getting tired of it all. Just for once, couldn't things be in their favor? Just once?! He growled in fury, a wave of gold flashing over his hair. If he lost his daughter now, he thought he might lose it.
Bulma reached out and placed her hand on his arm. "Dear, blowing up the hospital isn't going to help Jenny now." She pressed her lips tightly together, glancing over at Dende as he was on the phone with Gohan. "I'm going to give Tora and Eighteen a call, they need to know as well," she said as she went over to the side and dialed them up.
Dende hung up the phone and sighed, rubbing at his head before he looked over at Rose, "I cannot stand these hospitals. There is so much agony here. So much death."
"I know, my love," she whispered to him, taking his hand and stepping closer to him. "Try to block it out. I know it hurts, but we have to be strong for our family. Your brother needs us right now." She wrapped her arms around him, trying to provide what comfort for him that she could. She was afraid for Jenny. All along she had been hopeful that Jenny would survive this and now it looked as though she was about to lose her battle.
Leelee and Seventeen were the next to arrive, followed shortly by Gohan and Lindsey with their children. Goku appeared next with Tien, Sabriena, and Trunks in tow. Everyone looked shocked, frightened, as if none of them could believe this was happening. No one spoke as they settled themselves in the chairs there. They didn't know what to say. The silence was deafening.
Seventeen looked up when his sister rushed in with Marron on her hip. He could see the look in her eyes, it was the same look everyone else had. "We don't know anything yet," he whispered to her. "Come sit with me and Leelee." He smiled at his niece and took her from his sister, holding her close. "Hey Squirt," he teased. "You need to come stay with me and Leelee some night soon. We'll order pizza and stay up all night watching Disney movies. That sound like fun?" he offered, trying to ease the tension in the room for her. She'd been through enough herself lately.
Marron looked at Seventeen, an innocent, sad look in her eyes. "Can Tora come over too? I miss him," she said sadly, not looking up at her mother when she asked. Her mom didn't like it when she brought him up, it usually would make them both cry.
"Uh, well, I haven't seen him in a long time," Seventeen said uncomfortably. He sat down in a chair and cradled her to his chest, sighing and looking over at his sister. He held up his hands and shrugged, clearly telling her that he didn't know what to say to Marron. He wished his sister would change her mind about Tora. He was good for her.
Eighteen bit her lip, trying not to think about it. She just shrugged at her brother's look; she knew that dismissing Tora was a mistake. One of the biggest she had made, but it was too late to fix it. Wasn't it? She looked over at Piccolo; he looked devastated, holding his head in his hands while Tien stood by his side. Goku looked serious and quiet, holding Goten tightly as he fixed his eyes on the emergency room doors, hoping a doctor would come out soon.
"I'm here," Tora gasped as he appeared in the emergency room. His eyes were wide and he looked frightened for Jenny. He ran a hand over his scratchy face, looking to Vegeta, who only shook his head and shrugged. Tora gave a weak nod and moved to sit down next to Trunks, muttering, "It really IS always something with you all, isn't it? Not one goddamn moment of peace…" He looked up and his heart stopped at the sight of Eighteen across the room. It was the first time he'd seen her since she broke up with him that night. He swallowed harshly and forced himself to look away from her as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Marron's eyes went wide at the sight of one she still remembered and she squirmed out of Seventeen's grasp and was in front of the Saiyan before her mother could stop her. She reached up for him, climbing up onto his lap and looking at him, "Tora, I miss you. Why don't you come by the house anymore? My faery garden is sad, I need your help."
Tora stared at her for a good long minute, trying to decide what to do. Dear gods, way to put him on the spot. "I think your mother can help you with your garden," he said in a low voice as he tried to hide the emotion in it. He didn't want to tell her that her mother had told him not to come around anymore. He chewed the inside of his lip as he looked at her in his lap, wanting so badly to hug her. He leaned closer to her, speaking softly, "Listen to me, Little One. There are… grown up reasons why I can't come around anymore. I'm sorry. But I want you to know it's not your fault."
Eighteen felt her heart aching as she listened to the way he spoke so gently to her daughter. She had to do something. She had to make this right. Her legs felt like lead as she walked over to them, clearing her throat, trying to speak around the lump that was there. He looked a little worse for wear, much thinner than she remembered him being and obvious stubble showing around his jaw. "Tora," she started, not sure what to say, but she had to try.
Tora looked up at her, his heart hammering painfully in his chest. He felt his stomach flip, his throat tighten. All this time of going without seeing her, trying to erase the memory of her and Marron and now here they both were right in front of him. It was almost too much and he nearly regretted coming to the hospital. He gently moved Marron out of his lap and gave her a tiny push towards her mother. "I'm sorry," he said roughly. "She just came over to me." Why did she have to look at him like that with those cold blue eyes that he loved so much? His jaw clenched and he looked down at the floor, not able to look at her anymore for fear of breaking down in front of her.
Eighteen opened her mouth to say that it was fine, but the sudden commotion occurred as the surgeon came out into the waiting room and called for Jennifer's family.
He looked around at everyone waiting there. "Talk about big families, she's lucky she has so many people looking out for her." He looked down at his notes. "Just to let you guys know, we are still touch and go, but for the most part we have her stabilized. We moved her up to the ICU, so if you want, you can start migrating up there. We got the stent in and opened up the valves, now we are running her on a few different medications to make sure that there are no blood clots and that she doesn't have another heart attack."
Goku frowned and looked at the doctor, "You mean she still has a chance that she might not walk away from this?" His face fell at the doctor's nod and he looked to Piccolo, wishing there was more they could do to ease this pain.
Eighteen felt horrible, even after all of that, she still wasn't in the clear. Though, she did have them, their large family looking out for each other.
Piccolo numbly got to his feet, shaking his head when Tien offered to help him up, and forced his legs to move as they followed the doctor. His mind was spinning with the information he'd just heard. How could she still be fighting for her life after this? Shouldn't the surgery have fixed it? He could feel his hands shaking as they entered the room and he saw his wife laying there. More damn tubes and monitors surrounding her body. She looked deathly pale as she slept. "Jenny," he gasped and went to her side, tears burning his eyes. He could feel how dangerously low her life force was. "Gods, no," he choked out.
Eighteen stopped short outside the window to the room, seeing the reality of the situation. She really could die. Piccolo would be devastated at her loss, though, he had his daughters and a short time full of memories of her. She remembered everything they had been through, the time Jenny thought Piccolo had died. They didn't think about death and rather focused on life. Pain was inevitable, she realized, but a good relationship with someone you loved would lessen that pain. Life was too short to just pass up something good. She turned her head, looking at Tora, holding her daughters hand, or rather, she was holding his. "I am such an idiot," she said softly.
Tora blinked and looked at Eighteen, trying to understand her soft words. He glanced through the window again; most of their friends had stayed outside the room. Only Piccolo, Vegeta, and Bulma had entered. He could see Piccolo's shoulders heaving as he held his wife's hand, Bulma trying to comfort him. He frowned bitterly. He thought that maybe he could understand the pain Piccolo was in, thinking he was losing the person he loved the most in this world. He himself had felt that way for a very long time now. "No," he answered, his voice rough, "You're not an idiot. I am. You were right, Eighteen. Letting someone get too close only ends in pain."
Eighteen shook her head. "Not forever, not when you are surrounded by your friends and family. Not when you have good people around you, willing to go out of their way to make you smile again, take care of your children as if they were their own. Tora, I am an idiot because I hurt you, I hurt Marron, and myself. I just couldn't see past my own selfish wants. I didn't want to hurt again. I loved so fiercely it tore something inside of me and I didn't want to lose you. I didn't want to hurt again like I hurt for Krillin because if you died, I would have to suffer again. It would hurt so much to lose you, Tora."
He turned to her, barely daring to hope that there was a future for them. "Eighteen, I never wanted to hurt you. Trust me, I didn't want to get hurt either. But that's all I've done since the night I left. There wasn't a moment when I didn't think about you and Marron. I never knew I could hurt like this," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. He felt the knot in his throat and tried so swallow it, but didn't quite succeed. "I tried to stop caring about you. I tried to stop loving you. But I can't. And I know that if something happened, if I lost you or royally fucked this all up somehow that it would hurt even more. But I can't stop thinking about how happy we COULD be, even if it was just for a little while."
Eighteen nodded, trying to fight the tears in her eyes, wiping at them as she spoke quietly, "I want that. I want it so much. Please, Tora, can you forgive me for what I did to you? I don't want to hurt any more, I'm so sick of it. I can't sleep at night, I can barely function. Marron and I need you. More than I ever thought possible. Please. I don't deserve your forgiveness, but please."
"Darlin'," he rumbled, "I already forgave you a long time ago." He wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her deeply, a triumph swelling in his chest, erasing the pain he'd felt for so long. None of it mattered now. He had her in his arms again. New tears burned at his eyes and he realized they were from how impossibly happy he was in that moment. He didn't care how he looked and he didn't try to stop them as they slipped from his eyes as he kissed her fiercely.
Eighteen felt a relief wash through her as she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him kiss and kissing back in return. She reluctantly pulled back and rested her forehead against his, looking into his warm, dark brown eyes. "Thank you," she said, reaching up and cupping his cheek. "Come on, let's go sit down. I just want to be near you now." She led him over to a chair, gently pushing him to sit before she sat in his lap, wrapping her arms around him. She relished the comfort, the peace of mind. This was silly. "How can it be this simple to be happy?" she asked. "Happy and sad at the same time," she said as she looked over across the hallway at Jenny's room. Life was hardly fair.
"I don't know," Tora answered softly, not knowing whether he wanted to sob with relief or purr with contentment at the feel of her in his arms again. He secured his arms a little tighter around her as if he was afraid she'd somehow slip away from him again. He nuzzled into her silky blonde hair, inhaling her scent. He kissed softly at her neck, hugging her, just content to hold her like this for as long as she would let him. "I'll never leave you," he swore quietly, speaking softly into her ear. "For as long as you'll have me, I'm yours. I never want to be apart from you again. All I want is to wake up next to you every morning. I just want to make you happy, baby."
Eighteen nodded. "Please. Stay at the house the next time you come over," she said as she leaned against him, running her hand through his hair. She watched as Marron came over, looking up at them before she climbed into the seat next to Tora.
"You are going to come by now right? After Miss Jenny is all better, we can all go home right?" she asked, half pleading as she looked between the Saiyan and her mother. She still couldn't remember people, but she was going to try, she hadn't felt like trying after Tora had suddenly left her life.
A watery smile lit up Tora's face. "Yes," he choked out and pulled Marron to sit in his lap, too. He pressed a firm kiss to Eighteen's jaw before he turned and kissed the top of Marron's head, holding them both close. A million thoughts and plans for their future swirled through his mind, but he couldn't seem to grasp onto any of them. He was too happy in that moment to just sit and hold them. His tail flicked and curled behind him happily as he leaned into Eighteen. "Of course I want to stay. You'll have a hard time getting rid of me now," he murmured in her ear. He was almost scared to hope that this was real. But maybe, just maybe, he finally had the family he'd always wanted.
Inside Jenny's hospital room, Piccolo clung desperately to her cold hand as tears poured unchecked down his cheeks. His breathing was ragged as he cried, staring fiercely at her, fear clutching at his heart. "Wake up," he begged through clenched teeth. "Jenny, wake up. You can't leave me now. You can't…" He choked on his words and fell into a coughing fit, fighting the urge to get sick. He held her hand in his own, pressing his forehead to their joined hands, his face screwing up.
Vegeta felt his own eyes burn, but he stood still as a statue, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression as stoic as always. In his head, he was pleading with the mother Goddess to spare his daughter. She'd fought so hard for so long, it didn't seem fair for her to lose the battle now. He cursed the disease that had done this to her. His once vibrant, beautiful, happy daughter was a mere shell of her former self, laying helpless in that bed, her every breath a struggle, every beat of her heart weak and possibly her last. He couldn't stand it. Imagining a world without her was unbearable. How Piccolo would recover from that, he didn't know. He didn't think the Namek would, to be honest. And what about her girls? He shuddered to think about what would happen to Paige and Alice without their mother. Something like that could change a person, losing a parent at such a young age. He didn't want to see that happen to his granddaughters. He may have spent much more time with Paige than he did Alice, but they were both important to him. He loved them both just the way they were.
Bulma couldn't stop the tears flowing down her cheeks as she sat next to Piccolo, rubbing his back as she looked at her daughter. She had asked if they could use the dragonballs to revive her, but according to Dende, doing so would just bring back the cancer if she didn't defeat it on her own and she was going to be damned if she made both of them go through this again. She reached out with her free hand, resting on Jenny's leg, "Wake up baby."
Piccolo tried to take comfort from Bulma's presence, but somehow it almost made it worse. Made it all the more real because he wasn't the only one feeling this pain. He looked up at his wife again and pressed his lips to her knuckles. "What do I do?" he whispered. "What am I supposed to do without her?" He'd always prided himself on his strength and his ability to keep his emotions at bay, to think with a clear head no matter what the situation. But this time he just couldn't do it.
Bulma didn't know what to do, she was at a loss and looked back to her husband. She had never seen him so restrained before. She could see it in his eyes that he was fighting tears, his face slightly red and his tail curled tightly around his waist. She opened her mouth to say something to him when a sudden, high pitched beeping began and she whipped her head around to the machines connected to Jenny that had suddenly come to life. Her heart dropped when she saw the monitor.
Jenny had flatlined.