Goku sat in that hard, plastic hospital chair, rocking back and forth. His hands were clenched with one another and resting just beneath his chin as he stared at his girlfriend's pale, motionless body. The entire day had just been so surreal to him he was having a hard time believing that it was actually real.

Chi-Chi lay in a critical state. Her fever had broken a hundred and three degrees, and her body had certainly gone into the first stages of premature labor. Medication was flooding her system, simultaneously trying to save both mother and child. Labor had been stalled, but it would not likely hold long. The odds of Chi-Chi giving birth within the next few days were extremely high.

The odds of both mother and child surviving were extremely low.

Tears were quietly running down the tall teenager's face. "Oh, Chich, you have to be okay," he quietly said. "I don't know what I would do without you. You've been there in my life since we were kids. You've always been there for me. You have to be okay now."

Goku reached forward and grabbed his lover's hand and held it gently in his own. Tenderly, he gave it a kiss and rubbed his cheek along it. "Do you know that we're having a son?" he asked, chuckling through his tears. "I know that you were hoping for a girl, but I think you really will love having a boy. I mean, what could be more fun that having a little boy to play with? We could go play with him in the park, and we can get him little sneakers for him to run around in, and I can teach him how to play sports…I know you'll spoil him rotten, sweetie. He's going to be Mommy's special little guy."

Another chuckle escaped his throat, and he held on to the pale hand with both of his own. "You know, there are times that I think that you won't even let me hold him," he joked. "I know you, Chich. I know you're going to get one look at our little boy, and you're just never going to let him go. You've just got so much love in you that I doubt anyone else is going to get any time with him."

He looked longingly at the girl he loved and held her hand even tighter. "You're going to be okay," he firmly stated. "You're going to be just fine. In just a few days, you and me and our son are going to be sitting at home, and Bulma's going to have that camera fixed, and we're going to take a million pictures of our family."

Goku pulled the uncomfortable chair he sat in closer and leaned his forehead against Chi-Chi's. "I know you'll be fine," he whispered. "You're the strongest girl I've ever met, and I don't just mean how, you know, freakishly strong you are when you're mad. I mean that you're always willing to put up a fight for the right thing, and you never, ever lose. That's how I know you'll be fine."

A few more tears trickled quietly down his cheeks, but Goku smiled, keeping his forehead against hers.

"You'll be fine."

/////

Krillen sighed and rested his chin in his hands. The benches in the waiting room were extremely uncomfortable, but it really was the least of concerns at the moment. Chi-Chi's condition was a secret to none of them, Goku would clearly not be going back to work as long as she was in that state, and as every minute passed he could not help but think about how much money the entire hospital stay was going to cost.

It was going to be more than they would ever have.

He also could not help but notice just how agitated Vegeta seemed to be. The taller of the two was leaning against a wall, quietly clicking the nails from his thumb and middle finger together over and over again. Krillen had known Vegeta long enough to know that it was a sign that he was stressed about as far as he could go without actually snapping.

Bulma came over and sat next to him. She, too, sighed as she tried to get comfortable. "How's it going?" she softly asked.

"Craptastic," he answered. "You?"

"About the same." The girl pulled the rubber band out of her long blue hair and shook it out. She ran her fingers through it a few times before sitting back against the wall. "I talked to a couple of the nurses. They normally don't let people sleep in the waiting room, but they're willing to make an exception since we're the closest thing to family Chi-Chi seems to have."

Bulma looked down at her hands, suddenly finding her knuckles very interesting. "I know you guys may not like this suggestion, but we may have to call Chi-Chi's parents."

Krillen shook his head. "Bulma, they made it very clear that they didn't want her to go home again. If they don't want her to live there, why would they come help her now?"

"Because she wasn't pregnant when she left," Bulma softly pointed out. "And I hate to say this, but don't you think it might be possible that when her parents told her to leave, it was one of those moment of passion things? Like, maybe they overreacted at the time, but they didn't really mean it?"

Again, Krillen shook his head. "Doubt it. No one lives like we do if there's a chance that there's going to be a place to actually live."

Bulma sighed and closed her eyes. "Damn," she whispered.

"I know." The shorter of the pair stretched out his legs. "I actually thought of that one about an hour ago when they told us how bad it was. I mean, there's no way we're going to be able to afford this."

"And even if we could afford the hospital," Bulma sadly pointed out, "there are a thousand expenses that a preemie racks up. Special medications, special sleeping equipment, special clothing…that list just goes on and on and on. And in our little apartment, in the cooling months…" She swallowed, trying to keep herself from crying. "I really don't know how the hell we're going to pull this off."

"We will find a way."

They both looked over to Vegeta, a little surprised that he had commented. "How?" Bulma asked.

The clicking of Vegeta's nails got louder. "I've only had an hour, you idiot. I don't have it figured out yet. But we have always managed to overcome every problem we've had. There is always a solution."

Bulma wanted to argue with him, to say that sometimes, there was not an answer. But for once, she just could not bring herself to fight with him. The entire day had been so exhausting that she honestly did not have the strength.

"I asked one of the nurses if she could make sure we were up by five," she opted to mention. "That way you guys won't be late."

Krillen's eyes grew enormous. "Oh, God, the job…"

"We just have to work harder tomorrow," Vegeta firmly stated. The pace of the clicking picked up. "We'll just have to prove that we can do the job with the two of us. He's going to be in no shape to do anything tomorrow."

That was going to be no easy task. Goku was the biggest and the strongest of the three of them. A lot of the jobs that involved heavy lifting were left to him because his size made him the only one who could do them alone, leaving the other two free for other tasks. Vegeta certainly possessed the strength to do most of them, but he was so much smaller than he could not always get a good grip.

Without him on the job, there was virtually no way for them to get all of their work done by the deadline.

Vegeta pushed himself away from the wall. "I'm going back to our place. I'll meet you here in the morning." Without waiting for any form of response, he left the sterile halls of the hospital and went home.

Bulma blinked in surprise. "Well that was odd," she stated.

"Not really," Krillen assured. "I'm actually surprised he lasted this long." He looked over at Bulma, a serious look on his face. "Vegeta is not what you might call a fan of hospitals."

"Lots of people hate hospitals," Bulma pointed out. "They're not exactly a place people go if they can avoid it."

Krillen sighed as he crossed his legs underneath his little body. "Yeah, but the last time Vegeta was in one was when he got put in the system."

That definitely caught Bulma off guard. "What happened?"

Krillen opened his mouth, paused, and closed it again. He took a deep breath before responding, "You know, it's really not my place to say. If he wants you to know, he'll tell you. If he doesn't, he'll kill me for telling you." Once again he stretched out, trying to work out the fairly intense soreness that ran through his body. A full day of physical labor followed by hospital chairs did not do wonders for one's comfort level.

"It could be worse," he went on with a laugh. "He could be scared to death of needles like Goku is."

Bulma raised her eyebrow. "He's that scared of them? Why?"

"Mystery of the universe," Krillen chuckled. "Big strong Goku is, for no known reason, beyond terrified of needles. That's why any time you see a nurse or doctor or something go in that room, it's your job to make sure Goku isn't looking as they do whatever they do."

The eighteen year old girl swallowed hard. "I need to come up with a way to distract Goku every time someone checks on her? How…"

"Don't worry," Krillen assured her, "he'll know that you're distracting him. He's the first to admit that it's his big fear, and he also knows damn well that he'll have a meltdown if a needle is pulled out anywhere near him. You don't need to make up a story or anything. You just need to get in before the nurse does and make sure he's facing the wall. Maybe say something nice to him. You don't need to put on a show."

At that moment, a nurse began to approach the door. "I'll get this one," the tiny teen said, quickly hopping to his feet. "I'll let him know that you'll be here if he needs you, too." He scurried in front of the nurse, gave her the short version of the needle situation, and slid in to the room.

Out in the hallway, Bulma lay down on the bench and stared at the ceiling, contemplating their situation. Knowing that Goku needed to be distracted ruled out the only other potential plan she'd had: offering to go in his place to the work site. She was not nearly as strong as the boys were, and she was not experienced with all aspects of that work, but if the family needed things like a heating system fixed or they needed programming done, she could get it set in a hurry.

Perhaps she could talk with the nurses again about staying on Goku duty. They had been more than kind to her since she had brought Chi-Chi in, and if they knew the situation, they might be able to help. Maybe she could free herself up and see if the family would accept technical work in exchange for slower manual labor. Then, if nothing else, they could still get the money…

Money…even if they really did earn three thousand dollars at the end of the job, there was no way it would cover the costs of what was going on. Just spending the night in the hospital would cost at least twice that.

She shook her head. Even if, by some miracle, everything in the hospital turned out alright, they were still screwed. There were too many factors that they just would not be able to accommodate. There were too many ways things could go wrong. There were just too many things that needed to be done that they would never be able to pull off.

How were they possibly going to make everything alright?