Look up. Big machine with whirling blades on top that send too much vibration. Look around. Lights everywhere, flashing or shining. Confusion. Another machine that rolls along the ground with a big scoop on the front. Rain coming down everywhere. The sky keeps flashing. Run!

Those where the thoughts going on in Tategoto's mind as he dashed un-noticed through the clean-up crew that was trying to get rid of the arsenic in the water. Everything was frightening, especially the helicopters, since they slammed their intense chop-chop vibrations into Tategoto's breastbone with such force that it felt like someone was punching him in the chest.

Daddy would be brave for me if I was sick. Tategoto thought, steeling his nerves to make another run for it. The rain continued to pour down, millions of ropes hanging from the sky that battered anyone unfortunate enough to walk among them. But Tategoto didn't let the rain stop him. His feet splashed through puddles and mud as he dashed towards the city at a speed even he never knew he could run.

Less then an hour after Tategoto had started his trek across the valley, Yasmine was awakened from a sound sleep by someone pounding on her door. She threw on a wine-colored satin robe that flowed around her like water and hurried to the door. The person pounded again, harder and faster this time. When Yasmine opened the door, she was faced with a small rain-soaked and sobbing green figure.

"Tategoto?" What are you doing here? Where is your father? Yasmine signed quickly.

I told him not to drink the water! Tategoto signed back, sobbing so hard that he could barely move his hands properly. Now he is sick.

Tategoto nodded and imitated the way his father had doubled over and fallen, pointing to his stomach and signing that the pain must have been there. He also imitated the way Piccolo had been panting a little, then stood up and shivered from being wet and cold.

Come inside. I will get you a towel and then we will go find your father. Yasmine signed quickly, holding her hand out to the little Namekian boy. Tategoto nodded and placed his small hand into her large, delicate one and let his fingers curl around her thumb. She led him inside and signed for him to stay put, then went into her bedroom for a towel. It sounds like arsenic poisoning…good Lord…I hope Piccolo is still alive when we find him…

Tategoto just shivered, wiping tears off his small face with the back of his hand as a whine escaped his throat. Yasmine returned with the towel and put it around him, gently hugging him as she did so. In spite of herself, knowing he couldn't hear her, she still whispered, "It'll be OK, Tategoto…" She drew his attention to her hands and signed, Can you take me to your father?

Tategoto made a fist and moved his hand up and down, signing the word 'yes'. Yasmine nodded to him, got her keys and led him to her sleek black hover-car. As soon as he was in the car, Tategoto pointed in the direction that his father was, his breath fogging up the window since he had his nose pressed against it. She followed where he pointed, and they reached the site of the spill in about ten minutes. Tategoto only caught a glimpse of the sign this time, but Yasmine had seen it soon enough to read what it had said.

"Buh!" Tategoto started hitting the rain-speckled window with his finger as he pointed to the pile of rocks and group of trees where he and Piccolo were camped out. He grabbed Yasmine's arm and signed, Father is in there.

Good job. Yasmine signed back, reaching into her glove compartment for her flashlight. Tategoto had already shoved the car door open and was splashing through puddles as he ran towards where Piccolo was. Lightning flashed, but it was so far off that no thunder followed, and shimmering silver streaks of rain passed Yasmine's flashlight when she flicked it on. She managed to get the light on Tategoto long enough to see where he was going, and sprinted past him as the rain pelted her brown skin and plastered her sable hair to her face and arms.

The splashing stopped as Tategoto stopped running, and Yasmine could hear him panting. She turned the flashlight to the left slightly and could see Tategoto bending over a larger doubled-up form.

He won't wake up! The little Namek signed and started to cry, the rain washing away his tears before they could fall very far.

Yasmine hurried to Piccolo's side and handed Tategoto the flashlight, showing him where she wanted him to point it. Then she grabbed Piccolo's shoulder and rolled him onto his back. Piccolo was like a pile of rags, easily moved. White foam had formed in the corners of his mouth, and some of it had formed in a small puddle under his head. She touched his neck just below his jawline with two fingers as she brought her cheek near his mouth. This isn't good…he's not breathing and there's no pulse! He could have been this way for a long time, there's no way to know. I have to try!

Tategoto whimpered quietly as he watched Yasmine tilt Piccolo's head back, pinch his nostrils shut and place her mouth over his. She blew into his mouth, then strategically placed her hands on the center of his chest and pressed down three times.

"One, two, three!" Yasmine said aloud as she performed three chest-compressions, then pinched Piccolo's pointed nose shut and breathed into his mouth. "C'mon Piccolo! Your kid needs you!" She repeated the entire CPR process, but wasn't having much luck. Just as she was about to call it quits, she felt Piccolo's chest twitch and quickly felt for a pulse. She sighed in relief and looked at Tategoto. Your father is OK.

Thank you. Was all Tategoto could think to sign back as he scooted closer to where Piccolo was and put his tiny hands down on his father's large chest. The rain had turned from a deluge to a light shower by then, and the blackness of the night was starting to turn gray as morning approached.

Piccolo was starting to come around, but was so far out of it that he didn't even know where he was. He was moving around, however, and Yasmine knew that this might be her only chance to move him. She grabbed his arm and threw it over her shoulder, then struggled to get him to stand. Through clenched teeth, she said, "C'mon Piccolo. It isn't too far."

The large Namekian man seemed to comply, just barely, and the progress was very slow. Even still, Yasmine managed to walk him to her car. Tategoto ran ahead and yanked the door open, allowing Yasmine to half-shove, half-drop Piccolo into the passenger's side. She motioned Tategoto to get into the back seat and climbed into the driver's seat when he did as she asked.

The sleek, ebony black hovercar turned around and sped off, disappearing from view in a short few moments.

Most of the nightmare was over. Yasmine had managed to get Piccolo out of his soaking wet clothes and made him comfortable in her bed. Knowing he would be out of it for awhile, she went into the living room to see how Tategoto was doing. When Tategoto saw Yasmine's tall, willowy dark shape exiting the hallway, he ran towards her and was just in time to be caught up in her long arms for a hug.

You were very brave. Yasmine signed, whispering the words at the same time. "Very brave…"

Tategoto smiled with a small grunt and yawned, his small mouth gaping far enough that his gleaming fangs were visible for a moment. He rubbed his eyes with a small fist and signed, I want to sleep.

Yasmine nodded, carried Tategoto into the bedroom and settled him down on the bed next to Piccolo. Tategoto murmured quietly without knowing he was making sounds, and hung onto Yasmine's shirt for a few seconds to keep her attention. When she turned back to him, he bent his head up, kissed her cheek, then giggled and settled down to sleep. Before he was totally asleep, he signed, Tategoto loves Yasmine.

Smiling, Yasmine brushed his antennae back and kissed him between his brow ridges, deeply touched by what he'd said. She signed back to him, Yasmine loves Tategoto too.

Tategoto grinned, turned over and fell almost instantly to sleep. Yasmine just smiled and looked at his little face as he slept. He looked so innocent and delicate when he was asleep, a cute little doll among the sheets. She carefully got up, walked around the bed and checked on Piccolo.

The older Namekian was breathing a lot better then he had been when he was brought in. His powerful-looking chest rose and fell slowly as he breathed, the sound of the air rushing in and out of his nostrils coming in a steady rhythm. It reminded Yasmine of the sounds waves make when they crash onto the shore and recede. Her eyes came to rest on Piccolo's face, and she couldn't help but stare in a mix of awe and another feeling she couldn't put her finger on at the moment.

In sleep, Piccolo's face had lost all the intimidating lines and wrinkles. His brow ridges, instead of being drawn together into a perpetual frown, rested like two smooth sloping plateaus on his forehead where his antennae were gently draped. Without a sneer to form wrinkles and folds in it, his pointed nose seemed almost delicate, and Yasmine could guess that when he was a child that it had been as tipped up as Tategoto's presently was. Her dark eyes continued to study Piccolo's sleeping face, admiring it for the first time. She had never seen his lips really, since they were always pressed tight together until his mouth was only a straight line across the bottom of his face. So it surprised her that they curved so beautifully, seemingly sculpted by a talented hand. All in all, Piccolo looked almost childlike when he slept, the only time when the innocence that had been taken from him in the past was allowed to show through.

Without thinking, Yasmine reached her slender hand out and slowly brushed her knuckle down the slope of his nose, then turned her hand over and gently traced his surprisngly soft lips with her fingertips. Piccolo didn't move, except to turn his head away from the touch. She moved her hand away slowly, watching to see if he was starting to wake up or not. All Piccolo did was shift his position slightly and exhale noisily though his mouth. Yasmine, figuring that she should just let him be, quietly got up and headed into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee.

Two seconds after she had left the room, Piccolo raised his hand slowly to his mouth and brushed his pointed white nail along his lips where her fingertips had caressed. His antennae slowly took a more erect position and his large black eyes slid open, giving only a flicker of annoyance to the vague pain in his abdomen before shifting look around. He didn't know where he was, or how he'd gotten there, but he had the strange feeling that everything was OK. More relief came when Piccolo turned his head and saw Tategoto sound asleep. He had thought that he had lost the child, and had begun to realize how much he really did care for the boy. It no longer mattered to Piccolo that Tategoto was deaf.

Sleep well, my son. Piccolo said silently as he passed his hand over the child's forehead. Then he got up slowly and realized that all of his clothes were draped over a chair next to the bed. He wasn't too embarrassed; after all, Piccolo didn't really have much to see down there anyway. But for the sake of decency, the tall Namekian man slowly climbed into his gi bottoms, too tired to put anything else on, and staggered out into the living room. He paused in the doorway and noticed the couch where he and Yasmine always sat for the sign language lessons. Knowing where he was now, Piccolo tiredly leaned his head against the doorframe and sighed, his antennae seeming to become a pair of wilted, drooping plant stems.

Yasmine was coming out of the kitchen with a steaming mug of coffee when she noticed Piccolo in the doorway. She was so surprised that he was up so soon that she almost dropped what she was carrying. "Oh! You're awake. How do you feel?" Good Lord! This guy has one hell of a body! She put a hand near her face to hide the fact that she was blushing.

Piccolo rubbed the back of his large hand over his face as if to wipe away the sleep, the same way Tategoto had done to wipe away tears. His deep voice came out more in a whisper, "Like shit."

Chuckling, Yasmine's satin robe flowed around her legs as she strode to the couch and sat down, placing her mug down on the end table. "Well then sit yourself down. You look like you're gonna fall over again any second."

"Thanks for noticing." Piccolo snorted sarcastically, but he complied because he was still pretty shaky on his feet. The couch sagged slightly when he sat down. "How did I get here…for that matter…why am I still alive?" His voice lowered slightly, "Arsenic can kill a Namek in hours if nobody takes care of it…"

"Don’t thank me. Don't even bother." Yasmine smiled into her coffee mug and lifted her slender eyebrows as she took a drink.

"Wha…?" Piccolo leveled his eyes with hers and frowned at her choice of words.

"I said, 'don't thank me'." She tilted her head to the side for a moment, brushing her hair over her shoulder as she set her mug down gently. Meeting Piccolo's confused gaze, she said, "Thank your son, Piccolo. He showed up on my doorstep in tears and showed me where you were."

Piccolo's protruding brow-ridges went up and his antennae seemed to stand straight out briefly as a look of genuine surprise came to his face. He composed himself quickly as a sly smirk drew a corner of his mouth up. "That damn kid…" The look on his face showed that he was being sarcastic though, and Yasmine couldn't ignore the glow of pride in his endlessly black eyes. "I thought he'd taken off on me."

"I think he loves you too much to abandon you." Yasmine paused briefly, looking down into her coffee mug and smiling as another slow blush darkened the chocolate-brown skin on her cheeks. Her lips parted and she added on in an undertone, "Just like you love him too much to abandon him…"

Piccolo jerked his head to look at her again while she was looking down at her coffee mug. For a moment, his eyes traveled down to her hands as the memory of her fingers gently caressing his lips came back to his mind. He pushed the thought away, not wanting to face this odd feeling that he had no name for. However, Piccolo could not deny what Yasmine said, because it was as true as if someone had painted a bull's eye over the statement and shot it dead center with an arrow.

Yasmine raised her eyes to look at Piccolo again and said, "I'm glad you're OK. You did almost die, you know. When Tategoto brought me to you, you were in total cardiac arrest." She lowered her eyes again to her coffee mug as she took another sip.

Blinking once, Piccolo unconsciously touched his chest as if to see if his heart was still beating. Feeling stupid that he did so, he curled his fingers into a fist, quickly moved his hand and let it come to rest at his side. "Is Tategoto OK? I mean…the kid must have freaked."

"He'll be OK. I took care of him while you were recovering."

Piccolo nodded silently, almost to himself as he got up to go back into the room and get the rest of his clothes on. He paused for a moment while his back was to Yasmine, feeling comfortable enough to speak to her when they weren't making eye contact. "Hey."

Yasmine replied, "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Yasmine was a bit surprised to actually hear Piccolo say that word. The way he'd said it, it wasn't growled or snapped. Just a whisper and nothing more. She looked up just in time to see his broad green back, with muscles that rippled with each graceful movement of his arms and shoulders, disappear into the room where his clothes were. She could barely see into the room, just catching glimpses of a green arm or hand as Piccolo wriggled his gi top over his head and stepped into his shoes.

"You're welcome." Yasmine whispered. She caught herself staring at him again and rolled her eyes at herself, wandered back to the couch and flopped down with a sigh. The memory of Piccolo's face while he slept suddenly came to mind, and she smiled. As she brushed her long hair back with a sweep of her hand and picked up her coffee mug to take a sip, Yasmine quietly said to herself, "Piccolo…I think I'm falling for you…"