Lindsey awoke suddenly in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Tears poured down her cheeks – she'd been crying in her sleep. She was shaking all over as flashes of the nightmare ran through her mind again. She didn't know what to do with herself. When she was awake, all she wanted to do was to sleep and escape from the world. When she was asleep, all she did was dream about that cellar.

Gohan gave a loud snore and rolled over in his sleep. Lindsey jumped and choked back a scream. She'd forgotten he was there. She quietly slipped out of bed and wandered down the hallway, scratching at her scalp as she went. Those damn dreadlocks were tight and terribly heavy.

The house was silent. Every tiny noise she made was amplified tenfold. The creak of the stairs, the click of a light switch – she was convinced that she was going to wake everyone at any moment. That was the last thing she wanted right now. All she wanted was to be alone.

The glow from the refrigerator was blinding. Shielding her eyes and blinking furiously, she scanned the contents. She wasn't hungry.

Finally, her eyes landed on the pint of whiskey Shayne had tucked in behind the milk and sodas. She hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the bottle and headed for the front porch.

She sat on the porch swing and stared miserably at the bottle in her hands. What was she doing? Everything had gotten so screwed up. She was supposed to be planning a wedding, not trying to escape from her life. Gohan didn't deserve this. He hadn't signed up to be with someone who was losing control of her life. She felt broken and dirty. A couple months ago, she was happy and silly with her biggest concerns being what shoes to wear or what party to attend. It all seemed foolish to her now. None of it mattered. It was like she'd suddenly awoken to find herself an adult with a haunting past. She felt old.

She unscrewed the top and took a big swallow of liquor. It burned her throat and warmed her chest from the inside out. God, she hated whiskey. It made her mean.

She rocked gently back and forth, pushing the swing with her toes. Her eyes roamed over the front yard. Everything looked different now. Dull and foreign. This was where she'd grown up. She'd played in that yard with her brothers, read books on this very porch. Yet she felt uncomfortable and out of place. Those happy memories seemed ages ago. So long ago, in fact, she almost wondered if they were real at all.

She sighed and drank deeply from the bottle again. Half-gagging, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Something sitting on the porch railing caught her eye. A small blue box had been left there by someone. It was a pack of cheap cigarettes. She flipped open the top and pulled out a black lighter and a smoke. She lit it and inhaled, the harsh, dry smoke filling her lungs. She leaned her head back on the swing and exhaled a long stream of white smoke.

"Those things will kill you, ya know," said a deep voice.

Lindsey half-screamed and choked on the smoke, nearly falling off the swing. She whipped her head around to see Piccolo standing there. "You scared me," she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Piccolo walked around the swing and stood before her, staring at the burning cigarette and half-drunk bottle. "What are you doing?"

"Couldn't sleep," she shrugged and dragged on the cigarette. There was no use hiding it from him. He'd already seen her.

"I'm not so sure Gohan would like that."

"Yeah, well, we all have things in life we don't like." She knew she was being harsh, but the liquor was taking over and she didn't much care. She swigged on the bottle again.

"Gohan loves you. It would be a shame to see you throw that away," Piccolo said quietly. He knew what she was doing, he just didn't understand why.

"Not much left to throw out, is there?" she replied, drinking again. Why couldn't everyone just leave her alone?

"I think you've had enough to drink," he said sternly and reached for the bottle.

Lindsey held the bottle over the back of the swing with her left arm, her right extended towards Piccolo to keep him from reaching it. He paused for a second, then leaned over her, pinning her between himself and the swing, wrenching the bottle from her hand.

"NO! NO! GET OFF!" she screamed, kicking her legs out and propelling herself backwards over the swing. She landed hard on the porch on her back, knocking the air from her lungs.

Piccolo stared at her, dumbfounded, as she scrambled backwards away from him until her back hit the porch railing. Gasping, she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs and began to cry, rocking herself back and forth.

"Lindsey, I. . ." he started, "I didn't mean to. . . are you okay?"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she shrieked frantically. She sobbed loudly and clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming, the hot tears flooding her eyes.

Startled and confused, Piccolo turned and went back into the house. He knew she'd been beaten by those men who'd abducted her, but this reaction was extreme. There was more to the story than he or any of the others knew. He wondered if Gohan knew.

He put the open bottle of whiskey back in the refrigerator, then quietly climbed the stairs to the room he and Jenny shared.

Drunk and frightened, Lindsey sat on the porch floor, sobbing loudly and taking shaky drags off the cigarette, trying to console herself. She choked and coughed, wiping away the tears and snot that streamed down her face.

She smoked two more cigarettes before she had calmed herself enough to go back in the house. The floor seemed very uneven and she leaned against walls and furniture to make her way to the kitchen. She wrenched open the refrigerator door, grabbed the bottle Piccolo had replaced, and polished it off. She put the empty container back behind the milk, slowly and deliberately closed the door, and headed for the stairs. She stumbled several times and finally resorted to crawling up the stairs and into her room. She hauled herself into bed and almost immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Had they awoken fifteen minutes sooner, Catie and Jenny would have found Lindsey in her drunken stupor. They each dressed in their rooms and met at the top of the stairs.

"It's too early for this," Catie yawned as she trudged down the stairs.

Jenny nodded and rubbed her eyes.

"You want some breakfast?" Catie asked, pulling open the fridge and grabbing the milk.

"No," Jenny answered. Her stomach was churning as it was. "I'll get sick if I eat this early."

Catie nodded. "Why is there an empty whiskey bottle in here?"

Jenny shrugged. "Dunno."

Catie tossed it in the trash thoughtlessly and grabbed some cereal. She poured herself a bowl and sat at the table, munching away and wondering what the day would hold. God only knew what Vegeta had planned for them.

Jenny rested her head on her arms, nearly falling back to sleep on the table.

Catie had just finished her breakfast when Vegeta walked in the room. "Ready?"

The girls nodded and followed him outside.

"Hey, wait up!" came a voice.

Vegeta spun on his heel. "Kakarot? What are you doing here?"

Goku grinned. "I heard you guys were going to train. It sounds like fun!"

"Fun? You think this is fun?" Vegeta growled. "This isn't playtime, Kakarot. This is work."

"Relax, Vegeta. You need to lighten up," Goku answered, tightening his belt. "Just let me come with you guys."

"Fine," Vegeta huffed as he turned and walked away.

"Ready, girls?" Goku smiled at Jenny and Catie.

"You want to train. . . with us?" Jenny asked.

Goku blinked. "Well, sure! Why not?" He stepped closer to the girls and put one hand up by his mouth, lowering his voice, "Besides, Vegeta said something about finding a tiara in his suitcase. I wanna make sure he's not too hard on you guys."

Catie's eyes went wide in horror as Jenny started slapping her again. "I TOLD YOU!"

"Are you coming or not?" Vegeta shouted over his shoulder.

With a jump, Goku, Catie and Jenny hurried to catch up to Vegeta.