Enough

Chapter 20

Gohan dreamed. Which was unusual. Maybe they had given him some sort of drug to sedate him that caused side-effects... It was a good dream though. He was flying. Flying that fun flying that was just having mastered it as a child. Well maybe not quite "mastered" - now he was falling. It was a strange fall though, snippets of his recent trauma, memories he wished he could just forget, rushed by him as he rushed towards the ground. Goten and Trunks were there in some of them, his Dad's and Vegeta's concern for him coloring the flow of them in a way he hadn't been able to sense as they were happening... Funny. Funny that he cared again... He was plummeting toward the ground. He was almost there. Just as he felt like he should be smacking into that unyielding surface, he bolted upright in bed, sweat pouring out of him. Wait? How was he sitting up? Where were the restraints? He wasn't in the make-shift psych ward that Bulma had set up for him, he was back in his own room! This must still be part of the dream then. It looked so real he could practically taste it, except there was no comforting hollowness of the bond he used to have. Adrenaline still pumped through him hard from his "fall" - and he pinched himself, feeling the twinge of pain and wondering if he should be able to feel so alive in a dream, when he couldn't awake...

The door swung open, no knock, and Vegeta barged in, his Dad close behind him. They looked so fucking real - he really did not want to re-live this fucking memory right now. Goten stopped Vegeta, said the words.

"This doesn't seem right" Goten said with an accusing tone.

"Of course it's not right - this whole situation is FUCKED" Vegeta swore. This was the part where he sat up and told them to leave him alone, except, he was already up - he wondered if he could make it out the window in this part of the dream, go back to flying again - when they heard crack and an explosion come from the front yard.

"You boys stay here, Kakarot and I will check it out" Vegeta issued orders. They left the room, and Trunks and Goten milled around, waiting for any news or more explosions. Goten got a strange look on his face, and walked over to Gohan, sniffing the air as he went. Gohan just watched him, curious... at least he wasn't stuck in a drug induced haze that made him relive everything exactly as it had happened... Goten sniffed the air right in front of him - his eyes clouding.

"What?" Gohan finally asked, more playfully than he had expected to, "do I need a shower?"

"No," Goten couldn't help grinning at him, "you smell normal. You smell, sane, now - what happened?" Gohan frowned at him, but the playfulness was still in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" he said. Goten backed up a little, looked at him with a hard gaze. Trunks was standing beside him now.

"What's the last thing you remember Gohan?" he asked, concern filling his voice. He thinks I've forgotten again, Gohan thought to himself. The memory of originally losing it brought back other memories that he was trying to not re-live right now, which made him sigh out loud.

"You don't want to know" he said, trying to laugh at this dream-Goten, but sounding kind of broken instead. Trunks and Goten exchanged a look, then pressed him further.

"No, seriously Gohan, if you know what I'm talking about you better answer me straight, 'cause I am seriously worried right now" Goten chided him. Gohan sighed again.

"Well, lets see, I was waking up in a psych ward after my own father held me down so the Prince of All Saiyan's could mark me, does that about cover it?" he said sarcastically - he was annoyed with this dream now.

"What? Vegeta hasn't marked you yet... What are you talking about, psych ward? I thought that it was supposed to make you better!" Goten was turning red in the face, his anger spilling out of him in a wave of ki that felt SO REAL. Damn it.