A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews and responses to my G/B/M question! Here's the next installment.

:*: The Building Winds :*:

The girls carpooled in Bra's car to Nagoya, barely making it on time as they scrambled to find the large gymnasium where registration was being held. The building was filled with fit, and some extremely attractive, college adults ranging from freshmen to seniors. Since the lines were separated by last name, the girls split up to find their designated areas. While walking to the end of the "S" line, Pan's arm was grabbed and pulled to her left.

"Goten! You could've given me a heads up first. Are you sure I can cut?" She almost whispered, gazing down the long line of people.

Goten scoffed. "Pan, we are all adults here. Anyone tries to mess with us, I'll just tell on them."

Pan laughed at her uncle's dumb joke. After ten minutes of waiting, the two Sons were registered and found a seat in the bleachers. Goten introduced her to some of his sports buddies as they accumulated around them.

"Renji, this is my niece, Pan. She's a freshman now."

Renji was a unique looking male. From what she could see in his t-shirt, his arms were tatted, and she thought she could see a chest tattoo as well. He had long, dark red hair and wore it up in a pony tail.

"You're Trunks' girlfriend, right?" He asked her. Pan nodded, wondering how he knew. "He brags about you all the time. Sucks he won't be playing football this season. Welcome to Nagoya."

"Brags about me?" Pan inquired.

"Yeah, you know like about your athletic reputation. From the sound of it seems like you're bringing Nagoya some gold this year. No pressure." She caught his playful smile before his attention was redirected to his buddy nearby.

Watching from the bleachers, Pan flagged down Marron and Bra once they were done with their registration. After sitting through an hour of welcome speeches from various coaches,a run through of the sports program, and the purpose of the conditioning camp, the students were instructed to jog out to the field and to take a lap around the perimeter.

"Ladies, try to keep up." Goten sneered as he and his buddies took the lead. They just rolled their eyes and kept up from behind amongst themselves.

Towards the end of the day, Marron couldn't help but notice how withdrawn her two friends were all morning. Pan seemed to be in her own world with such a queasy and concerned look on her face. Bra was just too quiet. Maybe they were just adjusting to having to be up so early. Goten seemed to be keeping his distance as well. She figured he was too occupied with the many friends he already had at this university, which seemed plausible based on the group of men constantly surrounding him.

The conditioning camp consisted of three fitness components: flexibility, strengthening, and cardio. The hundreds of students met out on the field every morning for their morning yoga-like session. Stretching was the key in flexibility to protect your joints and muscles. Strengthening involved resistance exercises. Pushups, weights, lunges across the field, basically anything that hurt. Then there was cardio, the aerobic workout where endurance was key. For them this included running long distances and circuit training.

For the most part the girls took the camp well. Being the least athletic of the three, Marron struggled like many of the students there, but it was all part of the conditioning curriculum. Since they were burning calories three days of the week, the girls took it upon themselves to eat however they wanted, knowing they'd burn it off. With her mind occupied and stomach full, Pan noticed her nausea subsided. The days in between her training she spent running errands with her mother and helping her around the house. She never had a dull moment to dwell on the man she missed in her life or her father's absence.

It was mid august when they reached their final week of training. Exhausted and drenched in sweat, Pan dragged her feet into her house, stopping in the living room in the presence of her parents and an unknown female sitting opposite them. She looked to be in her mid fifties with short brown hair that touched the tops of her shoulders. She pressed the bridge of her glasses against her nose as she smiled pleasantly at her.

"And this is our daughter, Pan. She's the one I was telling you about." Her mother introduced her boastfully. The woman rose to her feet and paced over to shake Pan's hand.

"Hello, miss Son, your parents speak so highly of you. You must be plethoric with emotions with college starting next week!"

Pan waited for the woman to stop shaking her hand, her confused eyes settling on her parents for an explanation.

"Pan," Her mother began. "This is Shorh Satou. She's interviewing to help me around the house while you and your father are away." She smiled, speaking as if she had just bought a new car.

Pan's expression didn't budge. She targeted her father's glazed eyes, his demeanor quite the opposite of her mother's amiable air.

"You're hiring a maid?" She asked more angrily than she had meant. Her father was supposedly having financial troubles as is, why would they hire a maid?

"No, honey, she's not a maid." Videl laughed, trying to lighten the situation. "She's a nurse, lots of experience under her belt."

Pan's stare went blank as her mother went on about this particular nurse's background. "Whatever, I'm going to shower and take a nap." Actually she was going to shower, wait for Trunks' call, then take a nap.

The three adults downstairs dismissed Pan's snub and carried on with the interview. As the meeting reached its end, Gohan and Videl escorted nurse Satou to the front door and told her to expect a call within the next two days.

"I like her. I think she's the one." Videl grinned, looking from the door to her husband.

Gohan still held that absent look in his eyes. "Are you sure you want to go through with this? The doctor said you could have five years-"

"Gohan, stop." She commanded sharply. "Without surgery, I could have about five years left. That seizure was a sign, Gohan. I need to do this, or else I won't last five years. Our chances of successfully removing this tumor in my head can increase from five percent to thirty percent with this treatment-"

"With a 70% chance of you not making it out alive!You may be willing to risk it but God damn it, Videl, I'm not! I'm your husband, don't I have a say in this?"

"You're not ready for me to die now, but five years from now you will be?" She shot back, panting with the flurry of emotions in her voice. They stared into each other's eyes, trying to gain a grip on whatever sanity they could snatch in this harsh reality they were living. She spoke softer now. "Gohan, if I don't have this surgery, I am going to diewhen my baby is in her early twenties. My husband will be a widow. Without this surgery, this tumor is going to kill me. My chance of survival is less than 30% right now, I am well aware of that. But I'd rather die trying than live wondering if today will be my last."

Her mind was set. Gohan couldn't look her in the eye anymore. He wasn't upset with her, and she knew that. He was upset with any higher power that existed. Any higher power that allowed this to happen to the love of his life. He marched out of the kitchen to head upstairs for some time to think to himself. Atop the stairs was his daughter, sitting on the top step like she did when she was just a little girl, eavesdropping on her parents.

He froze for a moment, their reddened eyes locked for a long moment before hers dropped to her fumbling fingers. He continued his way up and sat next to her, pulling her against him with an arm, neither of them exchanging a word.

No matter how independent and strong she tried to be, life had a funny way of making you feel powerless and wanting nothing more than the comfort of your father.

They could hear the pots and pans clanging in the kitchen, suggesting that Videl had begun cooking lunch, her method of relieving stress. She kicked on the kitchen radio and sang and seasoned away to the tunes.

Pan sniffled as she lifted her head from her father's shoulder, but remained close to him. "How long has she been considering the surgery?" Pan had been present during the briefing with the doctor shortly after she found out about he mother's diagnosis. With the location and size of the tumor, surgery was almost a death sentence, if not putting her into a permanent vegetable state.

"It's always been on the back of her mind. Ever since the seizure, she was researching it more and finally brought it up. She has a point though. Without it she'll die inevitably. With surgery we have a chance."

"Yeah, a small chance." She huffed.

"But it's her chance. Her only chance of getting rid of this thing for good. She's in pain, Pan. Every day. She hides it well, but not well enough. She'd rather die than live with the cancer."

His last statement lingered as they both slowly absorbed it. They sat there a while longer, listening to the only sounds that filled the house from the kitchen.

Gohan gave her shoulder a couple squeezes at the sound of her ringtone from her room behind them. "I think that's for you."

Pan gradually rose to her feet and headed to her room for her expected phone call. "Hey."

"Hey, Pan. What's wrong?"

Her voice was still shaky. She had fought back the tears with her father, a few escaping as she rested on his shoulder. She wasn't about to release them now, but found it extremely hard to hold back. She took a few slow breaths, causing his concern to grow.

"I'm sorry, Trunks. I can't talk right now." He could hear her breathing grow ragged, followed by her voice cracking with her last three words, "I love you." Before he could say anything she hung up. He called her back, but she ignored it.

He decided to leave her a message. "Pan, please tell me what's going on. I'm not going to sleep until you do. I'll call you every minute until you answer. Please, Pan."

She listened to the voicemail, a small laugh escaping as his calls started pouring in. She ignored them and switched over to her text messaging.

I'm sorry for hanging up on you. I just need some time right now. She knew the message was too vague, but she didn't want him to know. She wasn't a pro at this girlfriend thing and their situation didn't make it any easier, but this was her way of dealing with things. It was her way and he hated it.

Can I at least know what it's about?

Just my family.

Did something happen to your mom?

Yeah. Everything's okay for now, don't worry.

Trunks was beyond frustrated at this point. He wanted nothing more than to fly back home and talk about this face to face instead of reading her humdrum texts after hearing her crying just moments ago.

Talk to me when you're ready. I'm not going to blow up your phone because I know how stubborn you are. This distance thing sucks and you don't make it any easier when I know you're hiding stuff from me.

Pan drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly knowing he was right. She wasn't doing it for Bulma. She was doing it for him. Even though they only spoke to each other once a day, she still failed at protecting him from worrying and getting... distracted, as Bulma put it.

I'm sorry. Just give me some time, I'll fill you in when I'm ready. I'm gonna take a shower.

She decided that text would give him some peace of mind, so she finally slid into the shower as planned. She closed her eyes and rotated her head from side to side as the warm water rained over her. She could taste the dirt and sweat rinse from her face. She thought of the last morning she saw Trunks. They woke up to his alarm and held each other for several minutes, making small talk. They knew they had only a couple hours left together, but still they were able to smile and laugh in each others presence in his bedroom, his mother's house, and the shower before they headed out. In the shower together they were able to see each other in full light. She felt weird about it at first, but he had a way of making her feel at ease. They shampooed and conditioned each others hair and got lost in each other's warmth holding each other skin to skin while in a heavy kiss.

Her heart dropped. She missed him. She wanted him to hold her, just to take her away from this reality like he did every minute they were together.

After shedding her tears in the shower, she stepped out and eyed her naked body in her bathroom mirror for the first time in a couple weeks. She had been so caught up with training and helping her mother she didn't take the time to check on herself. Her dark orbs were scared. Sad. Angry.

Apprehension soon made the air stand still as she eyed the unopened box of tampons still sitting on her counter. She counted in her head. "I'm over a month late..."

"Pan," Her father's voice came from outside the door. "Lunch is ready."

It took her a moment to remember how to speak. "O-okay, dad. I'll be down in a bit." She observed her body, mainly her abdomen, for a moment, assessing it for any abnormal growth. She felt bloated, but that came normally with the period, the period that she was way over due on. Other than that, she couldn't see any protrusions that would cause her suspicion. "See, Pan. You're just freaking yourself out. He's been gone for..." She counted again. "Ten weeks now, you'd be huge."

Before heading downstairs, she did some brief research on her laptop on possible causes of a missing period. Lifestyle changes, nutrition, reproductive organ disorders, and stress were the main factors other than pregnancy. She took a moment to consider the idea that she could have cervical cancer or a sudden hormone imbalance, but the most likely factor was stress.

Brushing off her pregnancy worries, Pan joined her parents in the kitchen for some much needed lunch.

xXxXxXx

"Okay, Trunks. If I find anything out I'll let you know. Bye" Bra placed her phone on the table as her mother set a plate of food in front of her. She had noticed that Pan was a little out of it these past few weeks but didn't think it was a big deal. They were all working their asses off at the conditioning camp so generally everybody was tired and grumpy in the heat. Her brother was worried about her, and left it up to her to find out what was going on with her best friend.

"Trunks called? How is he?" Bulma inquired, joining her daughter and husband at the table. Trunks emailed her once a week as she requested about his weekly updates.

Bra glowered. "He's worried about Pan. I feel like an awful friend for not seeing it."

"Not weeing what? What's wrong with Pan?" Bulma questioned further, sounding concerned for different reasons.

"He called her today and she was crying. Something's going on with her mom but she won't tell him about it."

Bulma sighed audibly. "Bra, I didn't want to say anything but since you're her best friend you should know. Pan's father is having financial difficulty due to Videl's treatments. I wouldn't ask her about it, it'd just embarrass her." Bulma suggested.

"Can't we help them?" For Pan to be crying, it must be taking quite a toll on her, she thought.

"Of course, Bra. I've been doing my part, helping him finance everything and pick up hours. Until we can snag a deal with the states our company is going to be struggling as well. We need to save what we can." It was true. Capsule Corporation was struggling, and without a breakthrough export contract to the US, the Briefs would be riding the bell curve downward with the company.

"So that explains why you're always up that boys' ass." Vegeta spoke for the first time that meal.

The blue haired women averted their attention to him. "What?" Bulma asked, confused.

"You heard me. You need him to make a deal with those American bastards."

"Really?" Bra redirected her attention to her mother. "Why did they reject you?"

Bulma cleared her throat. "Because I am a woman. American business has come a long way, but for the business women there's always a glass ceiling that will forever keep us below the men in that country."

"So, Trunks charms the pants off these American businessmen, graduates college, jumps into Capsule Corp and snags a deal with them."

"And saves our family name." Bulma added.

Vegeta simply grunted in distaste. His wife was getting green in the eyes, that he could see. She raised two smart kids though, that he gave her. She made them smart, he made them strong.