"I was supposed to be getting better!"

Goku winced, approached and laid his hands on her shoulders. "Chi, it's okay. You're tryin'."

"Tryin' and failin'," she mused though she did lean into his grip. "Heck, I've snapped at you more since I started this therapy than before!"

"Same with me, Mom."

She turned at the small voice. Gohan crept into the kitchen, cautiously as if making sure a dangerous predator were subdued and that broke her heart. All the same though, he came to the table and sat down, taking her hands. "Ms. Naoru told me and Dad—" he paused, considered then pushed on, "She tol' me that when you start to look at things you hafta change, when you start changing them, when you look at some of the things that hurt you...you're gonna hurt more for a little bit before you get better."

Gohan had nearly wept at that; the prospect of feeling worse than he did now was heart breaking. Naoru had explained though...trauma and emotional pain was similar to an infected wound. Removing the cause or even locating it involved digging that hurt and made you bleed. Then, you had to drain the infection which would hurt. But once all was said and done, healing could begin.

Gohan understood it but he also hated it. In a way, maybe Mom having undergo something similar would make him feel less isolated with it. Healing together was a nice concept. He gave his mother what he thought was an encouraging smile, trying to push her previous outburst away. It had not been directed at him but it hurt all the same.

She was trying though.

Sighing heavily, ChiChi nodded, "I was tol' the same. Just didn't think it would work like this." She sighed, looked up at Goku, "I'm sorry, Goku."

The Saiyan gave her a smile, nuzzled her head a bit. "Eh, it's okay, Chi. It's gonna be a little tough for a bit but that's okay. Whatcha supposed to be doin'? Can I help?"

Smiling, she replied, "Well, last visit, she helped me break down when I get upset. Minute by minute, second by second. So I'm 'posed to speak out when I first notice I'm getting mad."

"Oh, well, that sounds easy."

Gohan shook his head. "I mean, it should be Daddy but it's not."

Goku eyed his son. "Oh. Did Naoru give you somethin' like that too?"

"...kinda. Mom has to work on her impulsive anger and reacting. I'm supposed to work on not letting my self doubt build up. She gave me exercises to do. On that, on what happened with the Saiyans...she gave me a lot but tol' me to just focus on what I could do." Gohan pouted, but I'm also supposed to tell you when it starts to get bad." He lowered his head. "I...don't always do so well on that."

Goku considered, thought, scratched his head. "Well, so you and your mom hafta know when to talk so it doesn't get all built up. You'll both look like a puffer fish at this rate!" Scrunching up his face and puckering his lips, Goku made a light gurgle in his throat.

ChiChi giggled.

Gohan laughed.

The baby kicked.

Goku beamed. "That's better!" He leaned over, gave ChiChi a peck on the nose then reached out and ruffled his son's hair. "We'll hafta make it easier for you guys to tell me...us...when you're gettin' all bottled up."

The two nodded. "That's the hard part." Gohan confessed. "I guess...I'm so used to wanting to keep it to myself."

ChiChi sighed. "And I'm so used to just lettin' it build." She shook her head. "I thought the physical things...the fists and teeth clenched and red face, I was so sure it'd be easy to spot. But it ain't."

Goku scratched his head then smiled "Well, duh. You two have anyways been alike in that way. When you get sad or mad or whatever. It always starts inside." He considered a longer moment. "Do you notice the feelings first then?"

Gohan and ChiChi exchanged glances. "...maybe." Gohan answered. "I mean, sometimes I think I do. I guess." He frowned. "Guess I haven't thought about it." He stood, ran back to his room a moment then cane back, a paper in hand. "She gave me this chart to try and find my signs." He unfolded it and there was a large chart I Know I'm Feeling —with Gohan's crisp handwriting filling in "Self Doubt" in the blank spot—When:

There was room to right or draw below and much like ChiChi had described, he'd put a few little statements down—"I try to be by myself," or "I don't want to eat as much."

"I guess we could add how we're feeling too." Now that his father had brought it up, it seemed silly to have neglected it. When he was beginning to feel overwhelmed (that was another sheet) he'd feel a sense of foreboding. He'd feel very anxious, twitchy even—to use a word Daddy used sometimes.

ChiChi nodded. "You're doing very well with that." She looked up at Goku. "I'll start adding that to mine too and we'll get this all figured out."

Goku grinned. "I'll be thinkin' too. We'll figure out a way that we can start tacklin' these problems, you'll see."

ChiChi grinned and gave him a gentle kiss before turning to her son. "Your dad and I'll be headin' to the doctor 'fore too long, Gohan. We'll bring back some dinner, okay?"

He nodded. They'd been talking about this appointment for a bit. "Okay, Mom. Just lemme know if I need to do anything—if you start running late or something."

"Doubt that'll happen." Goku turned to his son. "But we'll let you know." He paused, considered a moment then said, "You sure you wanna just wait at home, Son?"

Gohan almost answered immediately but then caught himself. Assumptions. Don't ever respond before you were done listening. It was a hard habit to break—especially for him. Not for the same reason as most people though. He always wanted to jump ahead to please. Even now, the prospect of saying yes was tempting if only to see his father's face light up.

No, though. He didn't think he could. Not yet. He and Ms. Naoru were making progress…he was working on himself, working on how he saw himself, working on how he judged himself, working on how he valued himself. He was making strides but much like his mother, there was much to undo and much to learn for the first time.

Maybe he no longer dreaded the baby—his brother—coming but he didn't think he was ready to face it, in true up-front fashion, just yet.

Taking a breath, Gohan shook his head, "Not yet. I…I'm sorry. I was hoping that maybe I would have changed my mind but…"

Goku just smiled, that warm smile of his and gently reached out, ruffling the boy's hair. "You're workin' on a lot, son. I was just offerin', seeing if you maybe were ready yet."

ChiChi smiled, "We'll bring home some pictures and we can start with that, okay?"

Nodding, if a bit reluctantly, Gohan remarked, "One step at a time." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Wish I could take larger steps but…I'm tryin'."

OOO

Gohan stared at the paper in front of him before slowly pushing it back. He had been working since his parents left for the appointment on his journaling, on his counseling worksheets. It had seemed only right until as he worked through his latest exercises, he paused to think about WHY he was focusing on the counseling right now.

He felt guilty.

Because he hadn't gone with them, even though he truly didn't think he was ready for that and he was perseverating on disappointing them, on making them feel sad, on making them feel rejected. It was that emotional fortune telling thing Ms. Naoru had talked about.

Sometimes, our minds jump to conclusions. Conclusions that have no basis in reality but it's easier for our minds to cope by pretending they do. We call them cognitive distortions. When you imagine you know exactly what someone is going to think and say and feel and do, we call that fortune telling.

Gohan had identified that he did that a lot. Almost as much as he did another one—discounting the positive. Finding reasons why something he had done that he might be proud of "didn't count" in his mind.

It was exhausting.

Well, he wasn't going to feed that distortion. He had recognized it and that was good. That meant he needed to distract himself, get his mind focused on something else, anything else. The mountain certainly did not like the resources for activities but he needed something that would keep him focused yet was not forcing him to be super calculative.

A strong knock at the door surprised him.

His mother and father would have just come in. And it was way too early for them to be back already. They didn't exactly have a lot of neighbors up here. The prospect of it being Grandpa crossed his mind briefly but no, Grandpa had to deal with his kingdom a lot more now and he always called before he came over, since they could be anywhere on the mountain.

Curiosity won and Gohan bounded out of his room and towards the front of the house. He felt out with his ki and after a moment of prodding, a grin spread over his face. Grasping the door handle, he pulled back and was met with a beaming Yamcha.

"Heya Kiddo. Just you?"

"Mom and Dad went to an appointment. What are you doing here, Yamcha?"

The martial artist grinned, tossing a baseball up and down in his left hand. "Need me a partner to help me work on my swing and my pitch. Kinda hard to find at the League. Most of the time my throws will knock them out if I really try. THAT'S no fun. Think you can spare me a half hour?"

Well, ask and you shall receive, apparently.

"Count me in!"