Not Who She Expected

Chapter Ten: Make Up Your Mind

Disclaimer: Characters and settings are the property of Akira Toriyama, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit romance.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong Puar," Yamcha declared as he threw himself down on his couch. "We're getting married, Bulma's having a baby, but she just seems to get more distant everyday."

"She was too tired to shop for a ring again?" Puar asked.

"Yeah," Yamcha said. "We still haven't set a date either. I thought she'd want to be married before the baby was born."

"She still has four months right?" Puar asked.

Yamcha made a strangled sound halfway between despair and anger.

"What did the doctor say?" Puar asked hesitantly.

"He revised his estimate for the due date again. At least I've got black hair," Yamcha said fatalistically. "I wish she'd just admit it's Vegeta's."

"You're sure?" Puar asked.

"I called Goku, asked him how long a pregnancy lasts. He said six months," Yamcha replied. "Bulma's doctor hasn't noticed a tail yet but I don't need to be clubbed over the head with the truth to get it."

Puar patted Yamcha's shoulder sympathetically.

"I don't even care," Yamcha said. "After Missy, Misty... whatever her name was, I don't have a whole lot of room to throw stones. We've both made mistakes. I just want her back."

Puar looked troubled. "Yamcha, don't, well maybe, do you think Bulma might have, well, feelings for well, you know..."

"She doesn't love him!" Yamcha exploded. He leapt off the couch and glared fiercely. "Vegeta's a cold-blooded murderer, a monster! She can't love him! He's all wrong for her, for any decent person. Hell, I'd say he was a horrible human being except he's not even that. According to him Goku makes a lousy Saiyan and that says a whole lot of bad about Saiyans."

Puar wrung her hands together.

"Bulma made a mistake, now she knows it. She's gonna have a baby, she's gotta think about the future. She had a fling with Vegeta but there's no way she wants someone like him as a permanent part of her life," Yamcha declared forcefully.

"Bulma! Look who came to visit!" Bunny chimed as she showed Puar in.

The little feline looked unusually serious. Bulma found she couldn't bring herself to make eye contact.

"I'll just leave you two to chat," Bunny excused herself.

"Stop it Bulma," Puar said quietly. "Stop stringing Yamcha along, he deserves better than to be your safety net."

Bulma bit her lip and stared at the floor. "I- I'm-"

"Just stop," Puar said then left.

As Yamcha drove Bulma to her doctor's appointment he knew something was wrong. She was quiet and pensive, staring out the window and chewing on her lower lip.

"Hey Bulma, don't worry," Yamcha said. "I know the baby's development is unusual but the doctor says he's healthy."

Bulma smiled weakly at his attempt to cheer her up and wondered if he and Puar knew.

When they arrived at the office Yamcha helped Bulma out of the car. They had just started walking toward the entrance when Bulma cried out and her knees buckled. Yamcha caught her before she could fall. He held her as she doubled over cradling her stomach.

Yamcha counted backwards it had been four months since Bulma had told him she was pregnant; he'd heard of human babies being born over a month premature. "Are you going into labor?" he asked worriedly.

Bulma gave a sickly laugh. "Don't be silly, I'm no where near due," she said. "The baby just kicked."

Yamcha's mouth tightened unhappily. "Could I feel?" he asked quietly.

Bulma nodded and guided his hand to the spot where she'd felt the last kick. After a few moments her whole body jerked. Yamcha picked her up and walked into the office. The kick he'd felt would have done a five-year-old proud.

"We have an appointment," Yamcha yelled to the receptionist as he carried Bulma past the front desk.

"But the doctor's running late" the receptionist protested.

Yamcha kicked the doctor's door open and marched in much to the shock of the doctor and the other couple. "This is an emergency!" he announced.

"Dammit Yamcha!" Bulma exclaimed. "Put me down! I told you, the baby just kicked!"

Yamcha hesitated.

"Put me down right this instant!" Bulma shouted.

The doctor fought to keep a straight face. "She seems alright at the moment. Perhaps you could wait a few minutes while I finished up here? I promise it won't be long."

Bulma rolled her eyes and started dragging Yamcha back to the waiting room.

The other men waiting with their wives gave Yamcha amused but understanding looks as Bulma forcefully shoved him into a chair.

"First time?" one man asked Yamcha with a smile.

Yamcha forced himself to reply civilly but his face was set in a fixed expression.

When their turn came he escorted Bulma into the office then announced, "The baby kicked and she collapsed. Do you remember what happened to East City a few years back?"

"Yamcha!" Bulma protested.

He glared at her, "I'm not going to stand by and watch you get hurt because you won't stop lying!"

"It was destroyed by aliens," the doctor said. "But what does that have to do with this?"

Yamcha scowled. "The baby's real father is a super-powerful alien."

"Chichi was fine with Gohan," Bulma argued.

"Chichi was the top female martial artist on the planet when she got pregnant," Yamcha pointed out coldly. "You're not Chichi."

"I think we'll need some additional tests," the doctor said.

Yamcha nodded then walked out of the office. Bulma ran after him. "I'm really sorry," she said.

Yamcha closed his eyes for a few moments then pulled Bulma into a moderately secluded corner.

"You- you don't have to wait. I'll call my mom," Bulma said.

"I just want to know one thing," Yamcha said quietly. "Do you want to marry me or not?"

A silent tear trickled down the side of Bulma's nose. "I am so sorry Yamcha," she repeated.

"You'd rather be with that psychopath?" Yamcha demanded angrily.

"When I told him about the baby he ordered me to get rid of it," Bulma said. "He doesn't care about anything but what he wants."

"Then why not?" Yamcha exclaimed.

Bulma stared at the floor. "Because it's never worked out between us before," she said. "Why would a baby change that? He's not even yours."

Yamcha turned away from her, "I'll call your mother," he said in an icy voice.

Several days later Bulma wasn't certain she'd done the right thing by cutting Yamcha loose but what was done was done and regardless the baby was going to need a room fixed up for him.

Bulma had found a shade of paint she liked, some decals and a few toys that looked sturdy enough to survive being run over by an eighteen-wheeler, Bulma thought they might withstand an infant demi-Saiyan. She'd found a crib she liked bu the mattress that came with it was not acceptable.

Bulma was almost at the top of the mall staircase when the baby's kick caught her off guard. The kick hit her squarely in the kidneys. Bulma doubled over in pain and fell backwards. Her skull cracked viciously against the marble steps on the second bounce. She tumbled the rest of the way down like a rag-doll.

There was a moment of dead silence as the other shoppers stared at Bulma's still, awkwardly contorted body and at the pool of blood slowly forming around her head then someone cried, "Oh my god! I think she's dead!"

Yamcha was blazing with anger when he landed just outside of the Gravity Room. Without a moment's hesitation he yanked the override switch by the door and stormed inside.

Vegeta cursed irritably as the sudden change in gravity caused him to bounce off the ceiling when he overcompensated. His power was already pressed to it's limits and there was murder in his eyes when he turned to see who had interrupted his training.

"She's dying because of you," Yamcha accused. "The least you could do is go to hospital and pretend you care."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vegeta demanded but subconsciously he was already reaching for Bulma's ki.

"It's your fault!" Yamcha raved. "If you'd just stayed dead like you were supposed to this wouldn't have happened. Bulma and I'd be married and we'd be happy and she'd be carrying my child not yours and they wouldn't be asking me if they can kill the baby to try to save her."

Vegeta grabbed Yamcha by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the wall. "You were supposed to take care of her!" he snarled.

"She doesn't want me taking care of her!" Yamcha yelled right back.

Even as they fought Vegeta was straining to sense Bulma. During last few months he'd become accustom to having an almost effortless awareness of her. Where was she? What had happened.

"You took her away from me," Yamcha continued ranting. "You tricked her into thinking you weren't a monster! So prove it!"

Vegeta found the child's ki first. The unborn infant was radiating waves of distress, his ki was overpowering his mother's. Bulma was so weak the child's instinctive fight for survival had to be wrecking havoc on her battered body.

//Settle down brat!// Vegeta ordered mentally. //You're making things worse.//

There were no thoughts in the infants' response, just raw instinct. Vegeta realized the child would keep fighting until he had killed both himself and Bulma.

Vegeta's power leapt upward and the GR was simply blown apart around him. Yamcha was sent tumbling head over heels to smack into the ground hard enough to be knocked unconscious by the blast.

Vegeta leapt into the air. He had out raced the sound of speed before he'd cleared the roof tops. //Kakarrot! The woman needs one of those beans! Now!//

//On it!// Vegeta snarled at the uncalled for cheerfulness underlying Kakarrot's mental voice.

Then he was at the hospital. Vegeta didn't need the receptionist's directions, not when all he could feel was the infant's panic and Bulma's rapidly fading ki. They led him to an operating room. A nurse blocked his way. "Are you the father?" she demanded urgently.

Vegeta considered backhanding her out of his way; but she had the same fearlessness that he'd come to associate with Bulma and he found he couldn't touch her.

"Are you the father?" the woman repeated.

"Yes." he snarled.

"About damn time," the nurse muttered too quietly for a human to have heard. "The baby is over three months premature. It will not survive but we need your permission to abort it so we can save the mother."

//Kakarrot!! Stop fucking around!// Vegeta shouted both mentally and verbally.

The nurse stumbled backward in shock when the younger Saiyan appeared beside Vegeta a second later. As Goku pressed a senzu bean into Vegeta's hand he stared into Vegeta's eyes, whatever he saw there brought a smile to his face but Vegeta didn't have time for Kakarrot's inanity.

Vegeta pushed past he younger Saiyan and walked into the operating room.

The first thing he saw was Bulma's leg, the knee cap was twisted off to the side, the whole leg was swollen and covered in bruises. The leg was ignored by the doctors as they focused on the life threatening injuries. Bloody sheets hid the incision in her torso but Vegeta could sense the child's wild rage at the intrusion into his sanctuary.

Vegeta moved one of the doctors working around Bulma's head aside and froze for a moment, half her face was purple with bruises, her hair had been shaved away and her scalp laid open to bare a long crack in her skull, greyish matter seeped out of the jagged wound. There were -things- drilled into her skull holding her neck stationary. Vegeta had both inflicted and suffered much worse injuries than these but somehow seeing them on Bulma made them uniquely disturbing.

People were shouting at him, telling him he couldn't be there. Vegeta didn't even hear them. He carefully opened Bulma's mouth and inserted the Senzu bean. Nothing. //Swallow!// he ordered. The force of his anger at feeling helpless manifested physically and knocked everyone except Bulma several feet back.

Bulma's throat moved. Vegeta watched in fascination as her wounds healed before his eyes, even her hair grew back. The baby calmed and after a few moments Bulma's eyes opened. She looked around with a puzzled expression then saw Vegeta and smiled. "You did it," she said.

Vegeta started to ask what she meant. Then he caught sight of his reflection in a stainless steel panel: teal-green eyes stared back at him from the reflection, he had become a Super-Saiyan. The shock was enough to knock him out of his ascended state.

Almost in a daze Vegeta walked out of the operating room and into Goku.

"What are you smiling about?" Vegeta snarled.

"You really care about Bulma," Goku replied delightedly. "I was worried it was just a sex thing. Bulma might act like she's okay with that but I don't think she'd really be happy and I'm sure Trunks would have been disappointed if his parents weren't in love.

Vegeta stared at Goku in horror as the younger Saiyan went on about it being good for Vegeta to have someone to care about. For a moment he wasn't seeing Goku, instead he was seeing Radditz as the teenager fought against Nappa's restraining hold. Radditz's eyes had glowed with madness, he dislocated his own shoulder while trying to get to his mate. Vegeta could feel the girl's neck snap under his hands and he saw Radditz's sanity breaking in front of him.

He glanced back toward the room where his Bulma had almost died and fled.

Just over two month after the accident Dr. Briefs opened the car door for his daughter then helped her get the new baby out of his car seat. "Look Trunksie! This is your home," Bulma cooed.

"You're home!" Bunny exclaimed as she rushed outside. "Let me hold him!"

"Careful Mom," Bulma said as she let her mother take Trunks. "His strength is closer to a ten-year-old's than a newborns."

Bulma glanced toward where the GR sat. "He's not here is he?" she said.

Dr. Briefs shook his head. "No one's seen Vegeta since your accident."

Bulma nodded. She started walking toward the GR.

Her parents exchanged a look. "Maybe we should let her have a few minutes," Dr. Briefs said.

Bunny nodded. "We'll get this little one settled then I'll check on my baby."

Bulma shut herself in the GR. For several minutes she just stood there then she yanked one of the panels off and hurtled it across the room with a scream of frustration. She started pulling out components and sent them flying at the far wall. After the first one a steady stream of profanity accompanied the bangs.

When Bunny opened the door twenty minutes later she found Bulma kneeling head down in the center of the mechanized carnage, completely spent.

"I knew he was going to leave," Bulma said. "I didn't know how much it would hurt when he was gone."

Vegeta stared across the harshly barren landscape; the most inhospitable the plane had to offer; for a long moment. Then he screamed and his power levels started spiraling upwards.

He knew he could become a Super Saiyan now but he had to be able to trigger the transformation at will. He didn't have time for any distractions from his training, that was the only reason he hadn't returned.

Once he mastered the transformation he'd defeat the Androids and his debt to the woman would be gone. Then he'd defeat Kakarrot and leave this planet in the dust.

There was no reason to stay and every reason to go.