Chapter 6, hope people are enjoying it so far, I promised this would be less angsty over time didn't i? Oops. As always, opinions welcome!
Chop x

Trunks' mother left his father in the following week. She was almost business-like about it, she gave him a capsule house, a gravity room and told him never to come back. Trunks didn't see this, in truth he couldn't remember the last time he'd been in the same room as his father, and he had to say he was glad. He'd asked his mother not to do it, and the next time he saw her she had. He had no idea how a conversation like that would go down. He knew his father wouldn't beg, he doubted he'd even seem upset, but Trunks knew he would be. His mother meant a lot to him.

Bulma wouldn't say too much, he didn't want to press for details, he asked her once since then, and knew that would be the one and only time.

'What happened?' He'd asked her, when she mentioned calmly that he'd gone.

'I told him to leave. He asked why.'

'Did you tell him?'

'Yes.'

That was as far as she'd been willing to go, and over the two months that had followed, Trunks hadn't been willing to push it any further. He wondered how she was really coping, Trunks knew himself that it didn't get any easier, but it was liveable. You get used to being constantly unhappy if you're committed to it, and he really was, he wasn't sure he'd ever forgive himself for what he did, but the hurt was something to hold onto, it drove him to bury himself in work, which was good at a time like this.

It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon and Trunks was giving a talk at a conference, he'd been notified of this fact the day before. It was originally his mother's venture, but she'd been unable to come to work, she'd been sick on and off lately and in almost constant pain. She wouldn't go to the doctor, and she wouldn't stop working. Trunks had told her and told her and told her, but she wouldn't listen and now he had to stand up in front a room of 200 people at a conference and talk about something he felt almost entirely unprepared for. It was times like this he missed Goten most, the nudge and encouragement and knowledge that there was one person who thought you were great no matter what. He felt a pang in his chest and pushed unwelcome feelings to the back of his mind.

He was sweating profusely and pacing on the spot as he waited to be introduced, he heard his name and walked to the podium as if in a dream, his phone persistently buzzed in his pocket and he tried his best to ignore it and think about the task at hand. He read from his cards nervously and heard the dead silence in the room. He made an awful joke that no one laughed at and sped on from that point. People seemed vaguely engaged by his figures, projections and development plans, but on the whole he was pretty sure that it went terribly. People clapped and he stepped off the stage like an idiot (in reality he walked off the stage like anyone else, but in Trunks' mind, everything he was currently capable of was idiot-like.)

He was relieved and also sort of angry at himself for not being slightly more interesting while he was up there, he wasn't himself he was just talking a million miles an hour to get it over with, 'next time', he thought to himself. His phone was still buzzing and he remembered he should probably try to call his mother anyway and tell her he managed it, he slipped out of the room before the next person could take to the stage.

His first thought when he pulled his phone out was that somebody must have died.

20 missed calls, 30 messages and the names of everyone close to his family littered the screen. Trunks felt a pang once more upon seeing Goten's name among them. He didn't bother opening any of them however, their presence told him all he needed to know; something was wrong. Trunks broke into a run in his effort to get out of the building, searching frantically for the energies of those he loved. He located their panicked ki's and was just about to take to the sky when Goku materialised in front of him. Trunks skidded to a halt, kicking up pebbles, just about managing to stop before he careered into the larger man.

'Goku! What the hell is going on?'

'Trunks, it's your mother, son.' Trunks heart dropped out of his stomach and he grabbed Goku's arm, who took this as his cue to stop talking and start transmitting.

When Trunks reopened his eyes he was in a waiting room, a number of people he didn't have time to take in sat in chairs around the room, he knew vaguely that they were biting their nails and tapping their feet and doing other things that nervous people do.

'Where is she?' He said immediately as they looked up at him in surprise, Gohan pointed him through a set of double doors, 'we've been trying to get a hold of you man.'

Trunks didn't respond and ran off in the direction he'd indicated. He felt like he'd entered an alternate reality as he saw a glimpse of his strong, independent mother through the curtains that surrounded her bed. She was sleeping, hooked up to wires. He looked at her with pure sadness, he pressed his lips together in an effort not to cry, a defiant tear fell anyway as he walked forward to take hold of her hand.

'Boy.' He heard from his left, he wasn't really surprised, he just hadn't had time to wonder about his father yet.

'Dad.'

Trunks stood stroking her hand for a second before asking.

'What happened?'

'I felt her energy fall suddenly. I went to see why.'

Trunks frowned at him, 'It was lucky that you were looking.'

'I'm always looking.'

Trunks couldn't help a small smile. 'Do they know what it is?'

'No. If someone doesn't tell me soon however they may find themselves with fewer arms than they would like.'

Trunks released his mother's hand. 'I'm going to find the doctor, if he comes back before I can find him, don't frighten him to death, being dead won't make him a better doctor.'

'How about if I kill him to death?'

'He'd still be an unhelpful amount of dead.' Trunks replied, shaking his head on the way out of the room.

Goten sat in an uncomfortable chair in the waiting room picking at loose threads in his jeans, he sat sideways with his legs hanging over the arm and his heart hammering in his chest as he waited to hear news about Bulma.

It had been so stressful trying to get hold of Trunks, his grandfather said he'd had some conference and he'd probably turned his phone off. It had been Trunks' grandfather who'd notified them, he said Vegeta had burst into the house looking for Bulma, Mr Briefs told him she was in bed, in response to which Vegeta had literally propelled himself through the ceiling. He'd stuck his head back through the hole seconds later, informed him his daughter was unconscious if he'd bothered to check, before clutching her firmly to his chest and flying towards the hospital. They'd rushed to follow not long after, Goten had called Trunks what felt like 80 times, he'd then insisted his father go and get him, Trunks would be raging if no one tried.

Trunks came back out what felt like an eternity later, 'the doctors are running tests but she's stable, they don't know how long it's going to be, you guys might as well head home, I'll call you as soon as anything changes.'

'Trunks honey, we want to stay with you.' Chi-Chi stated earnestly.

'Honestly guys, if someone could go and check the house is locked up, and Gohan if you could take care of stuff at work for a couple of days.'

'Yeah sure man, whatever you need.' Kisses and hugs were exchanged and everyone trooped out. Goten was the first to exit the ward, without saying anything.

Trunks looked after him longingly, and Gohan hung back for a second. 'Put a call in and I'll head up to your office first thing, don't think twice I'll take care of it.'

'Thanks Gohan. And thanks for coming, tell everyone I said so.'

'Don't be ridiculous, you don't have to thank us, where else would we be?'

'Still, thanks.' Trunks hesitated for a second, 'I thought you hated me.'

'I'll never hate you, I was just looking out for my baby brother.'

Trunks nodded in understanding.

'He still cares about you, you know.' Gohan said quietly.

Trunks looked at his feet. 'I don't think so, Gohan' He sighed.

Gohan looked at him for a moment, he seemed to be wrestling with whether to speak. He rolled his eyes as if annoyed at himself for getting involved but began talking anyway.

'My dad didn't really want to come drag you out of the conference before, he said Bulma wouldn't want everyone talking, and he didn't want you worrying while we didn't know what was happening.'

'…Okay.' Trunks said, confused as to why this was relevant, 'He came though, your dad. He didn't have to drag me out as it happened, I'd already realised something was wrong, but he came.'

'Well yeah, Goten kind of lost it, he said there was no way we were going to 'wait', he said it was bullshit as we might as well be lying to you if we don't do everything in our power to try and reach you. He stood up and challenged my dad, I mean he's been training more but there's no way he could have won if it would have come to it, and then my dad kind of gave in and came for you.'

Trunks looked sort of confused and smiled. 'Wow. That was cool of him.'

'Yeah, it was.' They both stood in silence.

'Will she be okay?' Gohan asked after a moment.

Trunks sighed, he wasn't going to burden his friend with this but it was eating him, 'shit Gohan, the doctor's running some tests, he said he thinks it might be cancer.'

'Fuck.' A heavy silence fell between them before Gohan spoke again, 'Listen we're all here for you guys, whatever you need, we'll work it out'