A/N: Alright, I lied, this story is only 18 chapters. Lol. I might do a sequel if I'm up to it but for now this is it. I deliberately left it open-ended. Thank you SOOO much for all the amazing reviews and messages I've received! I really loved reading them. I'm hoping to start a new story this week, either Gh/V or maybe another G/V fic. For now, I'm watching some DBZ Abridged.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

Neglected

18: Wishes

Rude awakenings had become routine in my life, but I was still never prepared for the sudden rousing into awareness. This wasn't the worst way I had been awoken after passing out; it was gradual and soothing, like when my father would wake me up for school as a child. A hand gently stroked my hair and my eyelids pulled tighter in response, fearing what they would witness if I risked letting them open. If Goku was staring down at me, I had a terrible feeling I would just faint again. That would be absolutely humiliating. If it was Gohan… that would be even worse.

"Videl, I know you're awake. Look at me."

The worst possibly had come true and there was nowhere for me to run. I carefully opened my eyes to see my husband sitting in a chair next to my bed, which appeared to be the same one I used at Bulma's. He was holding my hand and caressing my hair with the other, running his fingers through it to the ends. Gohan didn't look angry, thankfully. There was sadness in his smile I couldn't quite place. My hands flew up to my neck and I grimaced when I felt the bite wounds from Goku. They were still tender.

Embarrassment made me pull the sheets up higher on my neck so the mark was less visible. What a way for him to find out about his father and I. Where was Goku when you needed him? Probably off training somewhere with Vegeta, ignoring the problems he faced back home. Tears welled up in my eyes and I dropped my head in shame to avoid Gohan's heartbroken gaze. I had hurt him in the most gruesome of ways: I struck right in his heart, where his tremendous love and loyalty to my resided. I was a monster.

Gohan pulled his hands away from me and removed his wedding band with painful slowness. He placed it on the nightstand beside my head and also took off my golden band, letting it fall on the table beside his. My heart was in real physical agony watching him show me without saying a word that he knew everything and wanted nothing to do with me. I felt my chest tighten and had to tell myself to breathe or risk going unconscious once again. It wasn't that I blamed him or thought he was being unfair; I just had never imagined it actually happening.

"We've both lied to each other," Gohan said after a long silence. "Goku was right. I did sleep with Bulla. It was a few months before I suspected the two of you were up to something. A moment of weakness on my part I've been regretting ever since. I should have told you the truth. Then again, you should have told me that Goku was possessed by Baby and trying to break us apart."

"He's…cured?" I asked, unwilling to address the matter of Gohan's infidelity.

"Yes. It was a group effort to hold him down and force him to drink it, but he did. Even after the parasite was flushed out he chose to leave my mother. I guess that's another thing you two have in common, besides being immature and irresponsible. Hosting Baby opened his eyes, though. He wants to leave Earth with you and settle down. Now that you're mates it doesn't make a difference. You two can be happy somewhere else and Vegeta can take over his role as Earth's protector."

"Please, don't leave me. I want to work things out. I don't want to go anywhere with your father—"

"He is not my father," Gohan interjected coldly. "Piccolo is the closest thing I've ever had to a dad. He trained me as a child and was there when Goku was too busy training or remaining dead for the sole purpose of improving his own strength. I have no sympathy for you, Videl. You chose this path."

When he tried to stand up, I grabbed his arm. "We've both made mistakes! Look, I lied to you about Goku and you lied to my face about Bulla just a few days ago. Our marriage needs work. Problems don't solve themselves and we both need to put effort into things. Ask any of our friends if I wanted Goku to make me his mate; they'll all tell you the same damn thing: no. I didn't ask him to, never, and the only reason I felt a draw to him was because he put the idea in my head. Granted I did genuinely want him the first time, but it was the same between you and Bulla.

"Through the whole thing I kept worrying about you and about us. I never wanted to leave Earth with him and I still don't want to. Goku and Chichi's relationship was already on the rocks. I don't want to end up like them when we're old. I want to be happy with you forever. No more lies, no more cheating, and no more week-long meetings in another city. You're going to quit your job so we can live deep in Mount Paozu near your mother. She'll need all the support she can get right now."

"That changes nothing," Gohan said, "you still have a mark. Even being in the room with you is almost unbearable. This goes beyond Dende's powers. If Goku wasn't fused with the Dragon Balls, we might be able to wish it away, but there's no chance of that happening now. I'm sorry."

"The Namekian Dragon Balls would work, wouldn't they?"

My husband's eyes opened wide and he pushed his glasses further up on his nose. "Yes, that's possible. I can talk to Bulma right now and ask her to make a ship that will get us to New Namek in no time at all. Hopefully the Grand Elder won't mind us borrowing the Balls for such a simple wish, but if he understands the implications he may agree. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I've never been more certain of anything in my life. But tell me… why Bulla?"

"We'll have plenty of time to discuss that on our way to New Namek. For now, rest. I'll tell the others what we've decided upon." Gohan leaned down to kiss my forehead. "I love you, Videl."

"I love you, too."

After he left, the door was only closed for a brief second. A pair of blue eyes peered inside and stared at me nestled on my bed near the window, then Pan fully entered the room. My daughter was growing up fast. She looked a lot like I had at her age, with her long hair in pig tails and her favorite orange bandana tied around her head. She stood away from me for a few minutes, gauging my mood, and ran forward to wrap me in a bone-crushing hug. For being a quarter Saiyan, she was powerful.

It had been a very long time since I last hugged her. Pan cried for a while on my shoulder, leaving me to pay her back and act as her rock. Finding out that her parents didn't have the perfect marriage she expected must have been difficult, especially when it led to Goku and Chichi separating. She had always looked up to her Saiyan grandfather and he let her down in a terrible way. When we finally broke apart, both of us were crying and laughing at the fact that we had been brought together by sadness.

"So you and dad are going to New Namek?" Pan asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Yes. We'll be back in a few months, I hope. Maybe less. I'd like to take a while to bond with your father again. We've been through a lot and vacation is what we need more than anything. I'm sure you won't mind staying with Bulma, right?"

"Well I don't talk to Bulla…" My daughter looked away. "Grandma said I can stay with her. We're both going to be lonely when grandpa leaves."

Kami, why was I so stupid? Of course Pan didn't want to stay with Bulma; it meant she had to be with her best friend who had slept with her father. I stroked my daughter's face and pulled her into another tight hug, trying to communicate how awful I felt through the gesture. She returned it tenfold, almost bursting my lungs in the process. We sat together for a while and talked about what marriage was supposed to be; how you should never take it for granted. I was happy.

Pan left and I was alone with my thoughts once again, still finding it hard to believe that Gohan and I were going to work on making things right in our marriage. We had both made mistakes and needed to correct them. It wasn't strange for two married people to have issues like we did. But thinking of Goku actually leaving Chichi was hard to stomach. They had been together for so long, through so many things, and he threw it all away on a dream of shirking his responsibilities.

"Videl. What are you doing?"

I opened my eyes to see Goku standing beside my bed with a depressed expression on his face. He reached out to touch my arm and I started screaming, but his hand quickly clasped over my mouth. For being immortal, he looked extremely haggard. He scratched at his black hair and sat next to me on the bed, ignoring my furious glares and sighing heavily. What the hell did he think he was doing? If anyone walked in right now, he'd be dead. Gohan wouldn't be merciful this time around.

"It was Gohan who found us," Goku said, beginning to play with my fingers. "Vegeta and Piccolo showed up with the Sacred Water after he started pummeling me. But I didn't fight back too much. I knew he was right and I was wrong. Still, that doesn't mean I'm going to let him win. I did what you said—told Chichi I was leaving and had other things to worry about besides being home by my curfew. But you didn't come through on your end. You're my mate now. We're together forever."

Goku grabbed my wrist and placed two fingers to his forehead.

We appeared in a huge, lush field of teal grass, underneath a beautiful blue sky that extended for eons. I sat up and rubbed my head before shrieking at Goku, demanding he bring me back to Earth or I would never speak to him again. He sat beside me and closed his eyes, smiling vaguely. As far as I could tell, we were completely alone and no one in my family would be able to find me. He wouldn't have been stupid enough to transport us somewhere easily discovered.

"We're in Other World," Goku said, answering my unspoken question. "No one can find us here. Normally mortals aren't allowed here, but now you're immortal just like me because we're mates." He laid down in the grass and put his arms behind his head, clearly pleased with himself. "We can start our own family and no one will bother us anymore. Just you and me forever."

"I want to go home!"

"Maybe you can go for a supervised visit in a few years when they've all come to terms with us leaving. But for now, let's sleep. I'm exhausted."

"You can't be serious."

But the Saiyan had no intentions of returning me to Earth. I stared blankly at the sky, trying to imagine how my trip with Gohan would have been. We were going to explore the universe together, see Porunga, visit the Namekians… it would have been the adventure of a lifetime. Now I was trapped on a planet outside the realm of Earth with no way to contact him. If we did go back in a few years, what would Gohan think of me? Would he blame me for disappearing? Pan and I had finally spoken again for the first time in so long. Now it was all for nothing.

'Videl, can you hear me?'

A voice was speaking to me telepathically, tugging at the corners of my mind. It sounded strangely familiar. I latched on to it and said 'yes' in my head, hoping I wasn't going insane. The thought of being separated from Gohan and Pan for any amount of time was enough to make me crazy.

'I am the King Kai and I'm communicating with your husband right now. He wanted me to tell you he knows this isn't your fault and that he will find you. Which is going to be next to impossible, but you can't blame a guy for trying, right?'

'Yes… thank you. Please tell him I'll be waiting and trying to keep in touch. There isn't much I can do.'

'He knows that,' said the Kai, 'and he doesn't want you to worry. Goku will come to terms with what he's done in time. Until then, Gohan is heading to New Namek with Pan to wish away your mark. Take care, Videl. I'm always here if you need to speak to your husband again or if needs to speak to you.'

The connection was lost and I felt some relief knowing that Pan and Gohan weren't upset with me. If Bulma gave them a fast enough ship, the mark would disappear from my skin within a few weeks. And because Porunga granted several wishes, they could wish for Goku to never mark me again. The last wish could be used to bring me back to Earth. Unfortunately, the Dragon Balls on Earth were fused inside Goku and couldn't be used again after the terror of Omega Shenron.

I laid back in the tall grass, closed my eyes, and tried to relax. Everything was going to be fine. Goku couldn't keep me trapped in Other World forever. When I turned to look at him, I felt a pang of pity. He was fast asleep and still had a smirk planted on his face. After Gohan reached New Namek and found the Dragon Balls there, he would be completely alone.

Why did the thought of never seeing Goku again make me want to cry?

Reviews/comments/questions

WithoutWingsX- Yeah, I feel like the whole "savior of the Earth" thing must come with a lot of stress.

super saiyan 4 chichi- Good call! Lol. Goku was starting to devolve at that point because he wasn't getting his way. I figured he acts childish in all matters of life besides fighting, which even then he sometimes acts like a kid.

TruthWinters- Yep, I wrapped their relationship up since they barely spoke in the whole story. But in my defense, they weren't supposed to!