DISCLAIMER: Akira Toriyama owns Dragonball Z and all the characters.
He wanted to leave. But he knew that he couldn't.
Not only because he'd miss her but because he was afraid something
would
happen to her while he was gone and he wouldn't be able to get back in
time.
I'm getting too soft. It's ridiculous. I
hate her and myself
for it. But I can't really hate her for anything, I let her do
this
to me. And as much as I've been trying to avoid her (an utterly
cowardly
act in itself) I've still noticed that even the simplest things seem
more
difficult than usual for her. She hasn't gotten any bigger.
But she can barely walk at this point. Every time I see her she's
on the couch with that pained expression on her face. It's
driving
me crazy.
He woke instantly as he heard her moan his name. She was standing
in the doorway holding her swollen belly in one hand and the door frame
in the other.
"What?"
"Something's wrong." She groaned and he jumped out
of bed. He
felt an engulfing wave of panic ascending. What the hell does she
want me to do? "Take me to the hospital." She rasped, answering
his
unspoken thoughts. He gently lifted her, slightly amazed at her
weight
and quickly walked to the double glass doors in their room. He
kicked
them open and they shattered. He hoped she didn't get cut, but he
couldn't do anything else as he sped towards Western City. Her
soft
moans were torturous to hear and he could feel warm blood on his arm
from
the child within. If she dies and the brat lives, so help me I
will
kill it before it draws its first lungful of air.
They got there in record time and he kicked in two
more sets of automatic
doors, because obviously they weren't "Automatic" enough.
"My baby." She whimpered. He could feel her
trembling, or was
it him? He wasn't sure, but he could feel her ki slowly
weakening
as her blood continued to seep out.
"She's having her baby!" he shrieked to a woman
behind the desk.
"She's bleeding all over!" The woman behind the desk looked startled,
but
quickly lifted the phone and he heard her over the speakers requesting
doctors.
"Vegeta.." Bulma moaned again, and finally her eyes
opened. He
grimaced at the pain he saw in them.
"What?" he asked, softly.
"Stay with me." She pleaded.
"I will." He promised.
It was hell. The pain was the most intense I'd ever felt.
Poor Vegeta, I could tell he was ready to freak out. He'd been
Kami-knows-where
when I had Trunks. The doctor told him to go to the waiting room
and then Vegeta's hands were around the man's throat, choking the shit
out of him.
"Vegeta!" I bellowed as a contraction hit.
"Stop it!" I
could have stopped at calling his name. He dropped the doctor as
soon as he heard it. I glared at the nurse through the haze of
pain.
"Let him come with us." After she nodded in acceptance I ignored
everything else. All that mattered now was the life within,
struggling
to come out.
He ignored the nurses that insisted he put on scrubs. When they
handed them to him the disintegrated in his hands. After that
they
left him alone. He didn't say a thing. But merely stared at
Bulma as she weakly panted and grunted as she tried to expel the child
from her womb. One nurse noticed his face growing whiter and
pushed
a chair up behind him. She'd seen husbands pass out cold before
and
while it was amusing, they needed all the room they could spare.
The last thing they needed was to be tripping over him.
Finally they stopped the bleeding but a cesarean was
necessary.
Bulma immediately agreed. Vegeta remained silent and
stone-faced.
She was prepped immediately and moved to another room two flights up.
Vegeta came out of his daze as a nurse shook
him. He realized
they were the only ones still in the room and jumped to his feet.
She quickly explained where they were and pleaded with him to go to the
waiting room. He ran out the door, totally ignoring her and found
Bulma's room in seconds.
He wished he would have taken her advice when he saw
the doctor slicing
Bulma's huge belly. His eyes bulged and his knees gave out.
"Get him out of here!" the doctor roared.
"No.." Vegeta and Bulma moaned simultaneously.
He staggered back
to his feet, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was unthinkable
that
the sight of her blood should make him feel ill. But it
did.
The huge gash in her abdomen was horrifying. He wished he knew
how
regeneration tanks worked to avoid all the hideous stitches that would
cover her after it was over.
"She's hemorrhaging." He heard one doctor say.
Suddenly the air
was filled with a loud, sharp cry followed instantly by a strange, high
pitched whine.
"Flat line, flat line!" one of the nurses
cried. Vegeta blinked
in confusion as he felt Bulma's ki almost vanish. He powered up
immediately
sending the Doctors scurrying.
"What are you doing?" one cried. Vegeta
ignored them and concentrated.
He'd never done it before, but prayed it would work. He could not
lose her. Not now. He placed one hand on her head and the
other
over her heart and the aura surrounding him concentrated in his hands
and
then disappeared.
Bulma's eyes opened and she blinked in confusion.
"Vegeta?" she said, and turned just in time to see
his eyes roll up
in his head as he collapsed. The doctors gaped in awe.
Somehow
he'd just saved her life.
"Is he ok?" one of the nurses asked as they moved
closer to Bulma and
began to stitch up her gaping wound.
"My baby?" Bulma whimpered.
"Your baby is fine." The doctor said. "Keri,
make sure the husband
is ok." Keri walked around the bed and gasped.
"He's having a seizure!"
"No!" Bulma cried, but was still unable to move.
"Shit." The doctor cursed. "Call
emergency." The nurse
scrabbled frantically to a little trucker-type radio and called for a
stretcher
over the intercom.
Suddenly Bulma heard Vegeta groan.
"Vegeta!" she cried, the nurse ran back over.
"Don't move!" she cried, but he pushed her away as
he sat up.
"I'm fine." He muttered.
"No you aren't, you just had a seizure." The nurse
admonished, trying
to keep him from standing. Dizziness assailed him and for a
moment
he was inclined to agree with her. But he had to be sure of one
thing
first. He stood on shaking legs, ignoring Keri's protests and
peered
at Bulma.
"Are you alright?" he asked. She stared at him
with wide eyes
that were shining with tears.
"Yes." She said with a smile.
"Good." He said, and sat down quickly as another
wave of dizziness
hit. He took several deep breaths to calm to nausea that
instantly
followed. But it didn't matter. Bulma was alive.
Nothing
else mattered to him.
He woke hours later, feeling much better, but as soon as memory
returned
he shot out of the strange bed and instantly searched for Bulma's
ki.
It was a little bit away, but strong as ever. He sighed in relief
and searched for her.
But then he remembered something. An old fear
had been horribly
realized. Bulma was far more fragile than he'd originally
thought.
And the thought of her dying before him sent tremors down his spine.
What would he do once she was gone? If they
were bonded it would
most likely kill him. He was beginning to doubt if he should take
the next step. Because for him, it was one step closer to the
grave.
Besides, it wasn't as if she even knew of his plans, so it wasn't like
she could be disappointed that he didn't follow through with
them.
He knew he was being a coward, but he couldn't help himself. One
of his main learned instincts was to protect himself from pain at any
cost.
And he was already defying those instincts by remaining with her.
He opened the door to the stairs and took them two at a time.
Either way he went he seemed to be on the losing
end. If he bonded
her, her death would probably kill him and if not, he could be so
insane
over the loss of her he might even try to kill himself. It was
the
most disgraceful way to go. It was one option he'd never allowed
himself to think of in a serious manner.
And if he kept things the way they were, he would
always know he was
missing out on something. It reminded him of the human quote
Bulma
had said after her breakup with Yamcha, when he'd asked why she'd
bothered
in the first place. 'It's better to have loved and lost to have
never
loved at all.' She'd said. At the time he thought she was a moron
spouting stupid human sentiment. But now he was beginning to understand
a little.
But at the same time, wouldn't he be better off if
he'd never met her?
He stopped in the stair well. He really should see how she was
but
he could tell by her ki. And besides, he needed to figure this
out
before he saw her and made a rash decision.
What would he be doing now if he'd never met Bulma? Wouldn't
he have the entire planet under his thumb? Wouldn't he be able to
fuck any woman he wanted? He'd seen girls who were just as
beautiful
as her. Sure, they wouldn't have the same fiery
personality.
But if he was just going to use them for sex, it wouldn't really
matter.
But they wouldn't care for him. He'd have no
one to give a shit
if he lived or died. Bulma did. He would have no one to
talk
to, to end his bitter loneliness. Bulma had done that. He
would
have no one to challenge him, at least intellectually. Bulma was
his equal in that area, if not superior to him (except sometimes when
it
came to common sense).
And another thing that endeared her to him was her
lack of fear of
him. He loved that about her. She was only a weak little
female,
but she stood up to him as if she had the power to back her
words.
No one else did that. Even Kakarotto, when he'd been alive, never
had the balls to talk shit to him. And he was the only other being on
the
planet of equal strength.
Now that he thought of it, there was a lot she'd
done for him, and
with no ulterior motive other than to make him happy. That was
what
killed him. When he'd first come to live with the Brief's he'd
been
mean and cruel to her every chance he got. He knew he'd hurt her
many times. He cringed at the memory. But for some reason
she
never gave up on him, even when he felt sure she was doing it only out
of pity. But it had never been pity. For some weird reason,
she.. liked him.
Who else would do that even if he'd let them?
Who else would
want to try? Who else gave a shit if he was content or miserable?
No one.
Except Bulma.
Yep, this
one's kinda short. But I figured that was a good place
to stop.
TBC…