"In The Future"
Chapter 21: Reconcile—Not Done Yet
Vegeta waited patiently for Goku's "thumbs up" before he strolled in. Pan wouldn't be expecting him at all and he feared that she might not be able to handle it. He silently contemplated just simply leaving, but decided against it—it would only make things worse anyway. He felt for her ki and saw that it was almost as weak as his which meant that she hadn't improved at all since he died. She had just been hanging on to dear life for all those lonely months. Nobody had been there for—
"Oh my goodness! It's you! I can't believe it!" said a very excited voice.
Interrupted from his thoughts, Vegeta did not expect a full grown woman to pummel into him with hugs and kisses. Needless to say, Vegeta was knocked to the ground by the sheer force.
"Bra? What are you doing here?" Vegeta asked breathlessly.
Bra put an index finger to her lips with a grin, "I ask the questions now, Dad. What have you been doing since my birthday!? Nobody called so I had to find out about your death via Pan who just happened to be pregnant—with your kids! Explain yourself."
"It's…a long story."
"I bet it is," Bra said climbing off, "Pan already told me part of it."
"Sh-she did?!"
"Oh, don't get all worked up—I completely understand. I'm a big girl, you know."
"Quite."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean," she cried as she watched him climb back to his feet.
"Whatever you want it to," Vegeta finally said back.
"You were in a fight recently, weren't you?"
Vegeta had forgotten how perceptive she could be. It was nearly impossible to keep things from her as if his mind were an open book.
"Yeah, I was."
"Why am I not surprised? I probably could have just guessed what you were doing for all this time—so predictable."
Vegeta noticed that Bra towered over him. She was as tall as Goku, perhaps even taller. Her stance was nearly identical to his own—confident and straight. He wondered how she had nabbed a husband along the way. Seeing as she was partially intimidating to him, to humans she would have been terrifying. She didn't seem very approachable at all.
Vegeta looked towards the door when it opened. Goku closed the door gently and looked at Vegeta with saddened eyes.
"She seems…unconscious. I couldn't wake her for the life of me."
"She's still alive," Vegeta stated bluntly.
"Yeah…I think she is," Goku said hesitantly.
"She is," Vegeta said with sudden confidence, "I can still sense her ki."
"I can't," Bra finally spoke up looking at Vegeta full of concern, "I don't sense anything."
Goku looked at Bra crossly. She really knew how to put things lightly. Vegeta pushed passed Goku to finally enter the room. Goku and Bra looked on as he moved slowly to Pan's side. He pressed two fingers against her neck.
"She's not dead," Vegeta said quietly.
Bra walked into the room boldly despite Goku trying to pull her back. "Dad, I've never known you to cower from the truth even if it is a harsh one. Her vitals are completely gone—you know that. Notify the doctors already."
Vegeta looked at Bra angrily, but she did not flinch. "Notify the doctors about what? The fact that she's alive?"
"She's not!" Bra cried.
"She is!" Vegeta yelled back.
His hand moved to her heart, he still felt it pumping blood through her whole body. He looked up towards Bra and advanced on her with surprising swiftness.
"Let go!" Bra shouted as he grabbed her hand.
"Feel this," Vegeta ordered as he yanked her across the room to Pan's bedside.
He pressed her hand gently against Pan's chest. Then a reluctant look of surprise crossed her face.
"Well? Do you feel it?"
"It's faint, Dad, near nonexistent. You're pulling for straws."
But Vegeta heard it as clear as day. He was about to push the button to call a nurse in when a doctor came into the room panting.
"Everyone step away from her. She's due for a C-section."
"C-section?" Vegeta asked stepping directly into the doctor's way, "Explain yourself."
"She won't be able to have the babies on her own so we have to extract them."
"At what cost," Vegeta demanded.
"She will die either way. Now we're wasting precious time!" the doctor said urgently.
Vegeta reluctantly stepped out of the way and the doctor proceeded to rolling the nonresponsive Pan out of the room. When Vegeta began to follow, two other nurses told him that he wasn't allowed into the surgery ward. He was going to backhand them both had Goku not put a firm hand on his shoulder. Vegeta looked back up to Goku who shook his head. He pulled away from the other's hold roughly and stalked off in the opposite direction.
"Hey, Dad, you gonna` start crying like a baby now?"
When he turned towards the woman, his eyes shined fiercely.
"No, I'm going to convince myself that I'm not going to throttle my only daughter—spoiled brat."
"You take that back! How dare you!"
"How dare you speak to me in such a way!"
"I can speak to you however way I want."
"You have a lot of nerves."
"Stop treating me like a child."
"Stop acting like one!"
"I'm not the one impregnating anybody who comes along and looks halfway decent."
"I'll destroy you!" Vegeta spat, "No daughter of mines would dare think of me in such a way."
"Oh yeah, well you come and try. You don't know me at all!" Bra cried with tightened fists. "You're all talk, but no bite."
Vegeta growled at the other, "I don't need this!" He turned as he said this.
"Fine, just walk off—just run away. Nobody needs a big baby here!"
"Bra," Goku said finally interjecting himself, "That's enough. You're just making things worse. Pan is in there dying and all you can think about is petty arguments with your dad. We all care about her and whether you like it or not she's about to conceive three babies all at once—all of them…Vegeta's children."
Vegeta looked over to Goku with a shocked expression. How long had he known? How long had he hated him?
"You're right," Bra said apologetically. Then she looked towards Vegeta but said nothing.
"C'mon, Bra," Goku said tugging at her, "Vegeta, we'll be in the waiting room."
Vegeta, who was momentarily speechless, watched them leave through another set of doors. He was soon left to himself. There was nowhere to sit so he began to pace, his mind going in a million directions. One thing was for sure, Pan was going to die—or maybe she wasn't. But the chances were extremely low for her survival and her ki was becoming harder and harder for him to sense. Perhaps Bra was right; maybe he was going to have to face the harsh truth.
If only the dragon balls still existed, there was never a wish he had wanted more than this one. He felt her slipping further and further away from him. She was unreachable now. He felt himself moving towards the surgery room as time itself began to slow. The sounds of his steps began to intensify as he moved closer and closer. It was all he could hear. The nurses` warnings fell on deaf ears as he trudged on. His arms came out in front of him to push open the double doors.
"Pan, where are you?"
He didn't hear the small, shrill noises of babies—he couldn't hear anything. The only thing that seemed to be working right was his eyes, but they only saw one thing.
"Pan—please don't…"
"Get him out of here. He's not supposed to be in here," a surgeon cried.
No one could stop the Saiyan Prince's approach.
"Pan…I can't do this alone. Please…"
"Sir."
Her stomach lay exposed and opened and her eyes glassy and still. She seemed so mutilated that Vegeta wished he hadn't come in at all.
"Sir, you have to go. You've seen enough."
The back of his hand slid tenderly down the side of her face. Her skin was icy cold to the touch. There was no life left in her. He felt hands trying to pull him away, voices saying that he had seen too much. Maybe he had, but it made no difference to Pan's ultimate fate. After a moment more of looking down at her still, marble face, he allowed the pulling hands to take him out. He no longer had enough energy to resist.
"Are you okay, sir, do you need something?"
"No…I'm fine."
He had broken out in a cold sweat and he held his hand firmly in the other to stop them from shaking. For good measure, he leaned against the wall for support. Another nurse came to him and guided him back to Pan's room—currently empty.
"Do you need anything, sir?"
For a moment, the nurse didn't think he would answer, but in a painfully slow manner his eyes found hers.
"Some water," he said finally.
The nurse nodded and left quickly. He let his eyes close as exhaustion began to take its course, but he wouldn't allow himself to truly fall asleep. He knew that he couldn't afford to at the moment. The darkness was familiar to him; he felt that he had returned to a place that he had grown used to. He could picture the world around him just by listening. His ears heard when the nurse came back in as the water sloshed around in the cup and a dull snapping sound as ice ran into one another. Before the nurse could say anything, he opened his eyes and accepted the small plastic cup from her. With great effort, he steadied one of his hands and took one large gulp to finish it all instantly. It was refreshing to say the least. Did water have some top secret energy boosting ingredient? He was able to sit up in his chair and it became easier to steady his hands. The water, however, could not cure him emotionally…
"Sir, are you ready to see the babies?"
Never in his wildest his dreams did he think that he was going to be having children at such an old age. After Bra, he thought that he was through with children. Now here he was with three more children to his name and he had absolutely no knack for being a father. He would either ignore them or spoil them—he couldn't find a happy medium between the two. Another reason why he knew he was going to screw things up. Pan had no business dying if she wanted her kids to come out even partially normal.
He followed the nurse down the hall to the room where the newborn babies were kept. There were at least an entire row of crying and sleeping babies yet Vegeta could tell right off which ones were his, but he allowed the nurse to take him to them—all three of them. Each one had a noticeably high ki level for the age that they were. One of them was a little lower than all the rest and this one just happened to be a girl—the faint heartbeat that he had heard in Pan's stomach. All of them had a bit of a widow's peak, but whether they would have spiky, gravity defying hair was questionable.
Vegeta supposed that they should have been wailing and making earsplitting noises, but they did no such thing. In fact, Vegeta was caught off guard when they looked up at him all at the same time as if they knew that he was their father. One of the boys had dark blue eyes—a trait that Vegeta found surprising. He stepped a little closer to this one to see him more clearly. Then the baby responded by raising his arms towards him. The other two, as if the blue eyed one was the leader, started to do the same thing.
"It's okay, sir, you can hold them."
Vegeta glanced towards the nurse and nodded. He took a chance and did just that only to realize that he had forgotten how to hold a baby. He held the cherubic baby under its shoulders. It must have been uncomfortable because at that very moment, he began crying hysterically and, of course, the other two followed in suit. Such strong lungs—it all added up to him receiving a terrible headache and a sudden desire to drop the baby.
"No, no you're holding him wrong," the nurse said coming over to him.
"I know," Vegeta grumbled.
"Here." The nurse took him from his hands and demonstrated her cradling arms.
"Alright, I got it," Vegeta said quickly.
This was never going to get any less embarrassing to hold a baby, but these days he was finding it easier and easier to swallow his immense pride. He took the baby from her grasp gently and the crying stopped almost immediately.
"You're a natural," the nurse commented with a bright smile, "So what are you planning to name him?"
"I don't know," Vegeta answered honestly. Between dying and fighting Oden several times, he had completely forgotten about the naming part. "But I'm sure Pan had something in mind. All that time she had…I'm sure she has something clever." Then his tone became quieter, "Maybe I'll ask her."
The nurse looked at him curiously, but Vegeta did not return the gaze.
"Hey, Dad," said an interrupting voice.
Vegeta looked up quickly to see Bra peeking inside the room.
"What is it now, Bra?" Vegeta asked with unmistakable wariness.
"Oh! Are these the babies?" Bra asked rhetorically as she came over to them, "They're so cute! Like little chibi Vegetapans."
Bra started tickling the blue-eyed baby in Vegeta's arms and he began to giggle playfully.
"Looks like he doesn't take after you in the ticklish department," Bra commented.
"Is there another reason you decided to show up here?" Vegeta asked with a little impatience.
"Well, I did want to see my half-siblings, but there was something else." Bra eyed the nurse with an unpleasant expression.
"Oh, I'm sorry—am I intruding?" asked the startled nurse.
Vegeta glanced over at Bra and then addressed the nurse, "No, you're not. Bra and I will just step outside for a moment."
Vegeta placed the baby back into its small bed and with Bra following went out to the hallway.
"Now what is it?"
"Goku thinks he can bring Pan back."
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AN: Yeah, I know, the wait was terrible, but I hope you like this chapter as much as I liked writing it. I'll try to come out with the next chapter sooner.
And, of course, the wonderful reviews that keep me going:
xzavx: Oh really, you're sick as well? I hope this update will make you a smidgen better while you're at home getting better. And yes, Vegeta is unappreciated compared to Goku. Naruto? Yeah, I've watched that anime since it first came out, but as of recent…not anymore. I love Naruto/DBZ crossovers…when done successfully.
Debido: Oh thank you! Yeah, I have to say, that was the most dialogue I've managed to put into one chapter. Dialogues are easier to write than narration for me.
CHECHE: Well, I see you're excited about that chapter.
intrinsic: I guess that's why you call yourself intrinsic. At first, it started out as something very simple: "I think Vegeta's cooler than Goku and here's why…" But I knew I had to add something else to that like something semi-controversial—Vegeta/Pan. It was just going to be in Vegeta's point of view, but then I started experimenting with Pan's and Goku's.