A/N: Surprise, surprise! Instead of making all of you wait until later… I updated today! XD For some reason, I just had some sudden inspiration and finished this chappie up! And here's the moment I'm sure many people have waited for… Goku's visiting Bulma and Vegeta!

Disclaimer: Read a previous chappie—there should be one on one of them…

Coming Back Home

Chapter Nine: Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

The night had gone as well as could be expected at Kami's Lookout. It was quiet, not even the sounds of crickets were in the air—but then again, that was understandable. They were hundreds of miles up in the air…how could any crickets get up there? It was a little bit on the chilly side, but Goku was used to that from sleeping in the mountains and in space. The only time there were any serious problems was when Piccolo had started looking around, claiming he felt a strong ki in the Lookout. The Namekican had stared at Goku's spot for awhile before finally walking off, murmuring to himself before going back to meditating.

As stated before, last night was good.

But now, he only had two days left. Goku knew he had to spend them wisely.

"I wonder how the rest of the gang is doing?..." he wondered and decided to pay them all a second visit, since he had already seen Piccolo, Yamcha, and Krillin twice.

After seeing that Master Roshi, Oolong, Tien, and the others were okay, Goku remembered two people he hadn't seen yet: Bulma and Vegeta.

"Hey, I wonder if Vegeta has even stayed with Bulma?... Trunks never mention if he did or didn't in his timeline… Oh well, time to find out!" he thought and teleported himself over to Capsule Corp.

"I know it must be hard, Chi-Chi," Bulma said over her phone, tinkling with a new invention.

Chi-Chi sighed heavily. "I just don't know what to do anymore, Bulma… Goten looks so much like his father that it almost hurts to look at him, I see him everywhere I go… And now guess what? Gohan was just asking me today if I believe the dead can communicate with the living…"

The blue-haired genius nearly fell off her chair at shock at the statement. She straightened herself out and cleared her throat before sighing tiredly. "Chi-Chi, you know there is no way the dead can contact the living," she reprimanded her friend.

When she was younger, the daughter of the Ox King used to believe that they COULD in fact, but after years of no word from her departed mother, Chi-Chi's belief in that theory began to fade; but she NEVER was fully flat-out convinced that it never could or did happen. And after hearing Gohan's question, Chi-Chi couldn't help but wonder. However, she didn't want to start up a fight with Bulma and be mad at her only girl friend for a week.

"Yeah, you're right," Chi-Chi lied. Just as she opened her mouth to talk, Goten's loud wailing could be heard over the phone. "Bulma, I'll call you back; it's time to feed Goten," she replied.

"Okay, Chi-Chi. Take care," Bulma responded; she knew that sound all too well.

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

Bulma put the phone down and sighed heavily, looking down at her experiment. Suddenly, she just didn't have the motivation to finish it right now.

She knew the woman must be going through a hard time; she remembered how it was it was like when Vegeta left her and Trunks to go train for the upcoming fight with the Androids, but at least he was ALIVE. She couldn't imagine what she would have done had Vegeta been dead.

Shaking her head, she pushed back from the table and stood up from her chair. With one last glance back at her unfinished experiment, Bulma turned and left her lab, locking the door behind her.

Her mind was filled with thoughts about Chi-Chi and her plight, and for once, the blue-haired genius was at a lost of how to help the poor woman. However, as she passed by the nursery, Bulma stepped in to check up on her son. Granted, usually the nanny was the one who looked after him while Bulma worked, but right now, she need to hold her son, remind herself that things were different for herself, reassure her that things would never be like that.

"Hey there, Trunks…" Bulma cooed, picking up the boy, cuddling him close to her chest.

The baby boy looked up at his mother with tired blue eyes, having been just woken up from his nap. Having no clue about his mother's turbulent emotions at the moment, he merely yawned, snuggled next to his warm mother and fell back asleep.

As Bulma looked down at her son, her eyes stung with tears, and she held him closer, almost nuzzling her cheek against the top of his head. She began slowly pacing around the room, occasionally gently rocking Trunks. "Oh Trunks…" she whispered to her slumbering child, "You have no idea how much Mommy needs you in her life…"

Goku teleported in at that moment. He stood behind Bulma and watched her cradling her young son and smiled sadly; it reminded of him when Chi-Chi used to do the exact thing with Gohan when he was baby. The Saiyan missed those times and regretted that there would never be anymore times like that, but he was still happy for his old friend. A laugh almost escaped his lips as he thought back to all his travels with Bulma. Who would have ever thought she would be married to the second most powerful man on Earth and have a son?

Bulma sat down in a rocking chair, still holding her son. "Trunks…" she began in a soft, cooing voice, "Today, I want to tell you about a special friend of Mommy's…" Her smile turned sad as she gazed down at her son, who was finally awake and staring up at his mother with wide eyes, curious to know what was going on. "I want to tell you about an old friend…named Goku," she finished, having no clue that her said friend was actually standing in the room with her.

He frowned when Bulma mentioned him. "Oh no, Bulma…" he murmured. "Not you too…" Did he really make such a bad choice? He thought people would understand that his death was necessary to save the world and his loved ones…

Instead, all it had appeared to have done was upset EVERYONE.

Shaking his head out of his doubts, to save them for later, Goku turned his attention back to his old friend and her child.

"Goku…Goku was a very kind man…" Bulma began, looking up and away from her child for a moment, then looking back down to him. "You would have liked him, Trunks. He…he was funny…a little bit on the goofy side some times, but he was the best friend anyone could ask for…" Her voice almost cracked, due the lump in her throat that started forming when her tears did. She swallowed hard and continued. "He…he was completely selfless… He died so we could all live in a safe world… Wasn't that nice of him?" A heavy sigh escaped her lips. "Yeah…Goku was always that kind of guy…"

Poor Goku felt like he couldn't hear anymore. So, with one sad look at Bulma, he teleported out of there. Deciding it was now time to visit Vegeta, he went to see his former rival.

Surprisingly enough…he was in the Gravity Chamber.

Well, except it was labeled Gravity Room, since it was now inside Capsule Corp. Goku smiled as he watched him for a moment.

"Well, I'll be darn…" Goku said aloud, "He DID stay with her after all!"

And as usual, Vegeta was training. Curious, Goku looked over by the machine's panel and saw that he was working in 300x Earth's normal gravity.

"Eh, that's not too bad," he thought, remembering how he himself almost trained in that much gravity. Seeing all that he had wanted to see, Goku was about to leave when he heard Vegeta talking.

"Gah!...Damn that Kakorot!" he growled as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"What?" Goku asked, turning around to face him again.

"Always so…damn…confidant…" he grumbled, continuing his training. "Always having to…show…me…up…the bastard…"

At this point, Goku grew a little annoyed at Vegeta now. After he died to save him and his son AND his wife…this was all the man could do? God, he had to get over this. Deciding to have some fun, Goku smirked for once in his life sadistically and walked over to the gravity machine…

And turned up the dial to 450x Earth's normal gravity.

Vegeta didn't know what hit him.

One minute, he was performing a flying kick just fine… The next, he fell onto the floor on his chest roughly, groaning in pain.

Bulma decided to check up on Vegeta and turned on the monitor that was connected to the camera inside in the Gravity Room. Originally, she was going to just tell Vegeta that dinner would be ready in two hours. Instead, she only gasped in horror and started screaming when she saw her lover lying on the ground, writhing in pain.

She shut off the machine with the external power switch in her lab, resetting the gravity back to normal, and ran into the Gravity Room.

"Vegeta! Oh my God!" she exclaimed, coming to his side. "What happened!"

The Saiyan prince just laid there, grumbling something under his breath in reply. Bulma ignored his grumpy mood, something she did quite often, and helped her injured love onto his feet.

"What were you thinking, training in 450x Earth's gravity!" she demanded.

Hearing her question, Vegeta looked at her confused. "I didn't—I only had it set at 300!" he argued.

"Vegeta, don't lie to me!" Bulma snapped, now starting to drag him out of the room. "I saw the computer; it read 450!"

"Impossible! How can that be?" Vegeta now questioned. And as he was being led out of the room, Vegeta could have sworn he heard something, but couldn't make out what it was…

Little did he know that it was Goku laughing.

Though Goku had enjoyed his little prank, he went into the infirmary with Bulma to make sure his former rival was okay. He didn't think it would have caused him any harm, but he still wanted to make sure.

"Well…looks like you're fine, Vegeta," Bulma commented, looking at the results from the tests she ran.

"Of course I'm fine!" Vegeta snapped at her. "I'm the Prince of all Saiyans!"

Bulma just rolled her eyes tiredly as Goku laughed.

"Yup," Goku began. "Same old Vegeta."

"Dinner wasn't originally going to be ready for almost another hour," she began, "but, in light of things, I think I'll have the cook have it ready in twenty minutes."

"Keh, whatever…" the Saiyan prince grumbled.

"Why you, ungrateful monkey!" Bulma snapped, glaring at him.

Vegeta twitched slightly before jumping up on top of his bed, glaring back at her. "I AM NOT A MONKEY!" he bellowed.

The two continued arguing back and forth as Goku just watched with embarrassment, smiling nervously. "Umm…I think this is where I leave…" he replied as he placed his two fingers onto his forehead and transported himself back home.

When Goku arrived at his home, Chi-Chi was just settling in for bed, and he smiled as he crawled in with her and began rubbing her back gently through the blanket to help her fall asleep, as he did himself.


A/N:
Yay! Only one chapter left! And wow…THIS was my longest chapter in this fic—FIVE pages without the author notes.

And in the next chapter… Goku's final day… How will he spend it? What will happen?

So, do you like? No? Maybe? Drop me a review!