Chapter 21: The past comes a knocking (Natalie)

AN: If you want to understand why I have Natalie in italics, listen to the song Natalie by Bruno Mars.

She was the epitome of what men dared to dream for and only a few who were lucky enough could ever land if on a chance in the deepest of hells. She was shapely, somewhat tall but no taller than any man in the room. Her bust line looked as if it never saw gravity and her waist—Chi-chi and Videl deliberately didn't look. She wasn't paying them any mind. Her jade colored eyes were on Sierra sitting stiffly in that chair and Yamcha already up on his feet and growling?

Never in the existence of knowing Yamcha had anyone ever heard him growl like he was at this very moment. It was loud and threatening, like that of a feral dog desperate enough to risk his neck for what was his to own even if it was menial. Technically it wasn't a far stretch from the truth. If he stood there long enough they were sure that they were going to find a version of Yamcha they'd never seen before. The whole scene was so unsettling that Pan didn't even feel Sierra's hand grip her own hand in a death hold. She was too busy being rooted to her spot, gaping and willing her heart to stop jackhammering in her chest as she tried to regain some composure. She didn't know what was more frightening; Yamcha like this or the fact that both of Sierra's parents were in the room without killing one another.

"Chi-chi…is the floor shaking?"

Chi-chi didn't answer Videl. She was too busy trying to ignore why the floor was shaking. If he came here now, there was going to be hell on earth. "Goten, go to your father's room and STALL him," she ordered. "I'll take care of this."

Goten quickly rushed to do as he was asked, slipping by the woman without a backwards glance. She appeared startled by it, but not enough to keep her attention off of Yamcha steadily growing more irate with every passing second. She ignored the sharp shift in power coming from somewhere else in the building, but she couldn't ignore the sudden increase she felt coming from the man that wanted to snap her neck.

Chi-chi was the only one keeping him from it. She stood between the two with her hand pressed against Yamcha's chest and the other one warding that woman from coming any closer.

"I suppose…you want answers."

Answers? Supposed? Yamcha didn't keep the glow from his eyes as he stared her down. "What could you possibly tell me to make any of this shit right?!" he roared. "You've kept my DAUGHTER from ME, had me BELIEVE HER TO BE DEAD for YEARS…and NOW YOU BRING ME ANSWERS!?"

His voice was enough to shake the walls and further entice the power coming from the other side of the hospital to visit quickly. Yamcha ignored it. If he was to come he would come and he'd deal with it then. Right now his focus was on keeping close the tight knot in his chest that grew hotter the longer he was forced to keep some of his sanity.

She had the good grace to look away but not enough sense to be quiet. "I hoped I'd never have to do this…because I really didn't want to ever see your face again." The soft honest retort didn't help matters any and neither did the way she casually looked over at her daughter frozen up in absolute terror. "But I suppose I didn't have a choice on either front."

"Nerys—"

Let it never be said that Chi-chi didn't know how to keep her cool. She hadn't moved once but to keep Yamcha from doing something stupid. However, the same couldn't be said about Videl who caught the reference as clear as day and proved WHY her daughter was her daughter when her own temper erupted. She was across the room and in Nerys's face, shoving the busty woman out of the room and onto the floor with a shove that could have easily put her through the wall. She didn't know that, but the others did which is the only reason Trunks scrambled to keep Videl from reminding everyone whose daughter she was.

Nerys, clearly shocked from being accosted, could only stare up at the woman looking down at her in contempt. "How dare you—"

Videl shut her up with a finger pointed directly in the center of her face. "Listen here bitch, and listen GOOD," she growled, "The last three days have been trying and I've just about reached what little patience I have for anyone who is an IDIOT. Do you NOT know the laws?! Do you not FEEL it coming to wring your neck!?"

"I've NO ALPHA—"

"But HE DOES. You're in HIS territory and CHALLENGING his SECOND IN FRONT OF HIS MATE WHO JUST GAVE BIRTH TO AN ALPHA and a DOMINANT BETA. Are you fucking insane?!"

"You don't know me bitch!"

"I don't WANT to know you! But I'll be damned if you think about causing any trouble for my family without getting a fist in your pretty face!"

Trunks wrestled her from the doorway and back into the room. She went kicking to get back at Nerys, promising to do some serious rearranging to her face without the help of a doctor. It went without say that she was unwelcome, not that she didn't realize it or acknowledge it. She got up again and brushed off her jeans, glaring into the room and at her daughter tentatively coming to stand next to Yamcha.

"So…you wanted to find him so bad that you'd run away from home." Sierra flinched and backed away, ducking her head as he nervously wrung her fingers in her hands. It didn't stop Nerys from coming back into the room, ignoring the pressure at the back of her skull and before her. She'd always been defiant in nature, even when it came to the natural order of things. She was a trespasser in a room that was clearly pack, but her blood was mingled within it so she had some right to march through and take what was hers. "I told you leave it alone, but you just wouldn't listen!" She did just that, snatching her daughter by the wrist and yanking her forward. "WHY are you so damn disobedient?!"

Nerys half expected Sierra to keep quiet, but she wasn't prepared for her daughter to yank her hand right back. "Maybe because you're a fucking LIAR MOM!" The words were like knives, stabbing her to the point of uselessness and staring openly at her daughter snarling at her with the same glow that belonged to her father. "All this time…all this time you lied…you told him I was dead! WHY? Why can't you just tell the fucking truth for once?"

"Don't you dare—"

"What mom? WHAT?! This is NOTHING different than what we always DO…only you're SOBER this time."

"Yeah? Well guess what? You're MY DAUGHTER. NOT HIS. You don't get to choose who you stay with because you aren't of age, and I sure as hell am not letting you stay with him!"

"I never said—"

"Then why would you seek him out?! What other reason is there to leave home? Did you ever think that maybe I didn't want him knowing about you for a reason!? You didn't need him growing up and you sure as hell don't need him now!"

The argument that should have gone on died with the fire in Sierra's eyes. Terror returned and she was behind her father and pressing her face into his back as she fought not to tremble. Yamcha deflated and let his ire linger in the back of his head. The tight hot knot in the base of his stomach loosened itself a little but not enough to reign in everything he'd unleashed. He reached behind him and tried to calm Sierra, taking his eyes off of Nerys and what triumph she held in her eyes. She was so full of her short lived victory that she never felt the pressure of what stood at her backside until it was too late to move from the hand that yanked her shirt back and tossed her forward.

"Are you kidding me right now!?"

Nerys stumbled but kept herself from hitting the floor again. She straitened and turned, and found herself face to face with another female, a doctor, one that ripped off the glasses from her face and held nothing but contempt in her eyes when she took on the scene for herself. Sharon stepped into the room, not as a doctor, but as a woman who had just about enough of the strange shit that was going on and of the people who were upsetting what should have been a happy occasion. She had yet to have words with that blue haired menace but this woman…this person glaring at her like she was competition…she was in such deep shit that she didn't even know how dead she was.

"I thought that other woman was an imbecile," she growled softly, "but you…you my dear, have to be the stupidest person in the entire fucking world right now." Nerys snarled at her for that and Sharon snarled right back. "I'm going to tell you this ONCE. LEAVE."

"You have no ownership of me!" Nerys spat. "I'm here to claim what is mine by right!"

"You are here to claim ownership of a daughter that you've kept from her father. She's not property."

"She's MINE and I am NOT leaving here without her!"

Sharon's biting words sitting on the end of her tongue remained where they were. She quickly looked back and sidestepped, swept up into the arms of her mate rushing in to keep her out of harm's way while another doctor darted in and yelled for everyone to get out of the way with Goten skidding into the room seconds before everything came to a head.

Nerys didn't know what slammed into her face until it was much too late to avoid it. She wasn't accosted physically, albeit she was hunched over as if someone had slammed their fist into her gut. Her face remained upright, eyes trained on the red furred monster standing in the doorway breathing like fire would erupt from his mouth if he spoke. He wasn't the one that she backed away from. Her arms wrapped around her like a vice and her knees weak like gelatin on a hot day, she wobbled and dropped to her knees when the smaller of the two powers in the doorway walked into the room.

Vegeta was not a happy camper. He let the entire world—everyone in the room really—know that he was not amused by the disturbance within their group with the slow unraveling of his tail from around his waistline. He was not the threat, however. He was the mediator, the one that held the tight leash on the blind rage that was his mate standing so still in the back that it would be easy to believe that he was a furry prop meant to be a joke. Props didn't breathe. They didn't shift uneasily or threaten bodily harm to anyone who was threatening the sanctity of their pack and their family. They didn't keep an array of doctors and wary officers at bay with waiting tranquilizers because those people didn't know what would set off the Alpha. They certainly didn't snarl at the main cause of disruption within their short lived peace either.

"What…the hell…is going on?"

Everyone clamored to answer the question but stopped short when Vegeta held up his hand and pointed at the one face that didn't expect his attention. Sierra made a noise of protest, shocked beyond reason, but Yamcha's calming hand on her shoulder kept her from freaking out completely. She timidly stepped out of his shadow and into the limelight of Vegeta's unwavering attention and demand for an answer that technically stemmed from her arrival yesterday.

Vegeta listened. To the whole horrid tale. Sierra managed to get the gist of it out between stammers and bouts of silence, but the tale was still the same when she finished and ducked back behind her father. Yamcha thought she had been dead. This woman, Nerys, thought it best to run from him and hide their daughter under the guise of death. Sierra had come here, on her own—a sure sign of her forced independence—and sought out the father she'd never known and confirmed for herself that her mother had played the strings in this orchestrated tale that would see no resolution until someone was dead.

It rubbed Vegeta wrong in so many ways that his silence was unnerving to everyone in the room. Even Nerys was nervous, but she stood up anyway. The cold fact was that she was in the middle of this weird group of people, a pack within their own right conformed of a sure were and another species that dominated the pack. She didn't know what the Alpha was, didn't understand it, but he was powerful, unyielding, and pissed off. Rather than wait for the inevitable mauling, she reached to grab Sierra again.

"Do…you know…what it is like…growing up…without knowing your mother or father?"

Her hand stopped shy of her daughter. His words were so soft that she almost didn't hear them but the weight under them froze her in her spot.

Vegeta wouldn't look at her. He didn't want to. She turned back to him and realized in horror that the Alpha had come closer. His attention was all on his mate, the same one that kept talking as if she weren't there but was well aware of her presence. "Do you know…what it's like to grow up without a mother? Without a father? To think you were unwanted…that someone who is supposed to love and cherish you has ultimately declared you to be worthless? A mistake?"

"...I don't…understand…"

"You don't understand? How fucking simple are you? You're the bell of the ball, right?" She flinched. Her discomfort did nothing to make him look at her. His jaw was tight, set to the side, a memory fluttering upward from a painful place that sunk knives into the air and stabbed everyone with the sharpest points. "The one who is always WANTED by everyone, the one who never lacks for company…you're the one who is the center of attention and you never want to be unnoticed. Unnoticed makes you weak…worthless…and then you're another face. Someone who isn't worth the time or effort…kind of like your parents want you to believe."

"I never—"

"My parents didn't do that to me. My father wasn't a loving man, but he cared enough to die for me…and I forgot that when some asshole played mind games with me…and I was and still am a broken fucked up mess…but," Vegeta said looking up at the concerned features of his mate, "At least I don't have to prove anything to anyone anymore. I'm really fucking lucky...and I think you were, too, at one point. You were just too stupid to see it…and now your daughter is suffering."

It felt like her lungs were on fire. She took one breath, and another, and then another when she couldn't find the words to undo the ties around her neck. "All I want is to leave with my daughter."

"I know."

"Then—"

"Because you're a shitty parent…and from one shitty parent to another, just let her decide what she wants." He looked briefly at his son and daughter hanging in the background. His son understood it a little too well and his daughter, she forgave him despite his short comings and still called him father. They still loved him, and that was a lot more than he would ever ask of them considering their history. He wasn't even supposed to have sired them, but they were here and willing to adapt to his circumstances…as fucked up as they were before. Their silent support told volumes, and it was easier for him to say, "Chances are that she probably has learned a thing or two about life without you, and from watching you."

She didn't and couldn't possibly know what he spoke about, but most of the others did and grew quiet at his admittance and acceptance of his life, his regrets, and his failures. He was not a role model. He was not the saiyan of the year. He wasn't a person without his scars, and he still had a lot to work through…but he could do that now, freely, because of a right handed shove to his head three months ago from a loveable idiot that still messed up now and again as well. They'd mess up again, and he was sure than their fights would be extraordinary, but he was willing to take that and everything good that would come before and after.

It was a point that was driven home in such a way that Nerys forgot she was supposed to breathe. The first instinctual inhale of air for the sake of survival startled her so much that she didn't even realize the world was a blurred mess and she was bowing her head in submission. It was a little too late to undo the damage. In that type of a world, bowing meant submission, and while that didn't mean she was pack—not that anyone here would allow it—she had conceded defeat to the alpha's mate and by proxy, the Alpha.

The red fur and sharp yellow gaze fell away like water on ice. With Goku no longer a threatening menace of fur and sharp teeth, the doctors outside and the officers sighed in relief. Vegeta knew him a little better than that. He was still pissed, but he was relatively calmer in sight than he was inside. Nerys had made the mistake of walking into the lion's den uninvited and she had to answer for it.

It was the way things worked in his community, no matter what species one happened to be.

Gohan groaned in discomfort. His hands flew to his chest and he winced at the tenderness of his chest telling him in no uncertain terms that it was time to feed the babies. Yamcha didn't need to be told. He motioned to Sharon to get the babies and wordlessly told everyone else who wasn't welcome to get out.

Dorian took it upon himself to escort Nerys out of the room. Had it been his wife…well, she had a lot of misplaced anger to vent and as much as he disliked the woman, she didn't deserve to be the ultimate outlet for his mate. Nerys went with her head bowed, but she made the horrible mistake of glancing backward before the doorway was shut.

Sierra hadn't left. She'd stayed and was yanked into Yamcha's embrace to sob quietly as he tried his best to calm her nerves. She was a sobbing blubbering mess that didn't know how to stop rubbing her face red with her hands, but he didn't scold her for that or warn her off of red eyes or puffy cheeks. He pulled away to kiss her forehead, dried her tears with caring hands, and said something so low that it was impossible for anyone but them to hear…but it made Sierra laugh and hug him all over again.

She didn't remember the last time Sierra had hugged her.

She didn't remember the last time her daughter…had even…smiled like that at anyone…let alone her.

The sickening drop of her stomach was amplified when Sharon came back several minutes later with a bassinette pushed behind her by another nurse. There were not one, but two babies in that crib actively fussing from the disturbance in the air. Once they were inside the room, the Alpha closed the door, meeting her gaze for a flicker of a second and dismissing her as an Alpha would in a situation like this.

She sat heavily on the bench outside of the room.

Dorian sat next to her and handed her a tissue. "So…should I state the obvious, or are you going to come clean to him about Sierra?" She snatched the tissue and wiped at her face, cursing silently about running mascara. "There's only two reasons a mother would keep their child from their father…and I'm pretty sure it's not because she's an omega…is it."

"She's a beta," she muttered. "I…I had her tested. She's not an omega…but her brother was."

"…was?"

The door opened again, and this time she didn't have the energy to get up and run from the person in front of her now. Sharon sidestepped out of the way of the Alpha accompanied by Yamcha, staring at her like she had committed the ultimate sin. In a way, in many ways, she had. Drinking herself stupid didn't erase it, and trying to take her daughter back wasn't going to undo the damage of years of trying to forget it all.

She swallowed thickly, wiping her face again and ignoring the irritating urge to scream aloud. She never could stop herself from inhaling the scent of him…or keep her eyes from his burning ones when he lowered himself to her level and urged her to stop being a jerk about this. It was a nice way of telling her to stop being an asshole, one she laughed at bitterly as she rubbed her nose with a loud sniff.

"…when I found out…when I found out that I was…expecting…I didn't…I didn't want it." The truth from her lips tasted like rancid curdled milk sitting in the sun for days. She didn't like it, and she hated that she couldn't change the way she felt or that Yamcha's face fell. "I didn't…know how to tell you…and I couldn't just…end the pregnancy. You were…really happy…and I found myself hating it…hating her. THEM."

"…so you…decided to up and leave?" Yamcha asked tiredly, "And just let me think whatever I want?"

"…It…was easier. I didn't want…and I still…don't want your attention on anyone else but me. I thought being away from you would…rid me of that want…but then I had sierra…and her twin died in utero….and all I could do then was hate you…because you didn't come after me."

Yamcha shook his head. "So it's my fault then?"

"…No, but…I couldn't….I couldn't just come back…"

"Yeah, you could have…once." Nerys thought her chest would burst from that small admission and then sink in itself when Yamcha averted his gaze back the partially open door where they could hear the gushing praise over the two babies being fussed over properly by the ones that would care for them and protect them when he was no longer able to. He had lost so much once…but he had much to gain from his loss, much more than he'd hoped to believe.

"You could have come back…but there's no room for you here now, even with Sierra here."

Anything he could have felt for her was gone, and she couldn't help but see it in spades. He'd slammed the book shut on that which was them a very long time ago, and found a mate that made him look the way he had once felt towards her. The ice of realization dropped in the bucket of her misery and left her cold, tired, and disgusted that she wanted to find the closest liquor store and drink herself to death.

"I think I've heard enough for one day." He stood up again and brushed his pants absently, no longer interested in the rest of the explanation, the who, the where, and the whys. He was still angry. He still had that knot settled in the center of his chest…but it wasn't quite as pressing or as big as it had been moments ago. "We'll talk about this later…and you're not going to fight me on this."

"She can't. Even if she wanted to," Dorian supplied. "Honestly, what she did is a crime in the community, and as she has no Alpha, she has no standing ground to contest the conditions under which she hid Sierra from you. Unfortunately, she's one of those narcissistic mothers who can't stand the thought of their children gaining more attention from their partners than themselves…" She sneered at the implication, but did not deny it. She didn't have a drink in her hand to deny it for a little while and she's had sixteen years to accept it. Dorian dared her to do otherwise. She turned her head away from his. "It's too common of an issue with underlying causes, but I'm not a shrink or anything of the like."

"Then why are you explaining this?" she snapped.

"Why? So the Alpha in front of us doesn't snap your neck."

"I'm not going to snap her neck," Goku groaned as she stiffened. He really didn't have a problem dressing a woman down when she was in his face—current situation with Bulma unresolved but pending—but he wasn't some jerk faced Alpha that would smack a woman for the hell of it, or snap her neck. If she were a male, a punch to the face would suffice, but she wasn't, and it looked as if Videl had given her a run for her money from what he'd heard briefly back in the room. "Frankly, I don't want her here."

"You act like I wanted to be here!" Nerys growled. "All I wanted was to leave with Sierra!"

"The same girl you didn't want and now want to take back because you can't share like a grown up or act like one? Please, don't make me sick," he sighed. "It's unbecoming."

"You're not my alpha!"

"No, but I am Yamcha's Alpha." He clapped his second's shoulder with his hand. "I couldn't ask for a more loyal man to be my second, and my mate is right. You were too stupid to see a good thing when it was in front of you…and my son benefited for it. In a weird way…I should thank you."

"You…you fucking bastard! What right do you have to speak of anything?!"

She was expecting him to bark back something, but she was utterly unprepared for the twin stares settled on her as if she was the stupidest person that had ever graced their senses. Even Dorian groaned like his IQ was rapidly dropping. "I swear…my brain can't take this shit."

"What the hell are you going on about?!"

"You, submitted to the Alpha's MATE you idiot," Sharon snapped. She'd remained quiet long enough for her tastes and she was two steps away from slapping some sense into someone today. "It's a secondary way of submitting to an Alpha and you've already walked into his territory uninvited. You damn well know that if you had done so with those babies in the room, your life would have been forfeited and he could have killed you. Because you submitted to someone in his pack, you no longer have a right to declare what is private business and what is public knowledge."

"He just denied it though!"

"Because he's right. He isn't YOUR alpha…by choice."

Yamcha read the situation for what it was and shook his head at Goku. "I draw the line at her being anywhere near my family."

Goku nodded in agreement. That would be a pain and unnecessary drama like that black makeup staining Nerys' cheeks. "I'll extend an invitation for Sierra to visit when she likes," he said instead of the barb itching to be free of him. "And you two can decide what you want to do to keep in touch. Her mother won't be allowed to accompany her unless everyone in the pack is all right with it, and that's if Sierra extends that invite."

Nerys reeled back in shock. "Don't I get a say in all this?!"

Goku silenced her in the same manner he tended to silence everyone with. He let a piece of that beast out, irritated to the point of cracking something ominously with his tail. The wall didn't thank him for it.

"Oh my goodness, look at how big he is," Chi-chi cooed as she tenderly took her napping grandson into her arms. He wasn't as hungry as they thought he would be, going to sleep right away when he was in the company of his mother and his surrounding family. Chi-chi just about vibrated out of her skin when they wheeled the babies into the room. She was in instant grandma mode, grabbing the hand sanitizer and whatever else she needed to clean her hands before she was falling in love at the twins snoring or gurgling up at her. The nurse handed Gohan his daughter, and then handed Chi-chi her new grandson.

She might have shed a tear or three as she laughed at his uncaring attitude as he slept on. "He's looks so much like his daddy," she laughed. "I'm sure Yamcha is thrilled to have a little clone."

"Yamcha's totally going to spoil him rotten," Videl grinned. She leaned over and couldn't keep herself from reaching out and fingering all those curls on his sister's hair as she greedily sucked down her meal without premise. "His sister's a little cutie pie! I'm sure he's never going to let her see the light of day when she's grown up. She's going to be a real beauty."

"Like her sisters."

It took a moment for Sierra to realize she was included in that statement. She blushed, smiling bashfully at Chi-chi's outright acceptance despite having known her for only a few moments. An arm snaked its way around her shoulders. Pan grinned, a light blush on her face as well. "I'm not used to being called a beauty," she admitted. "I'm more of a tomboy."

Sierra grinned as well. "Me too."

"I think any father is like that about their daughters," Gohan chuckled. "Yamcha gets this funny look on his face when I mention Pan going out on dates. It's like I'm telling him the world is on fire."

"You may as well have said that instead," laughed Goten. "Although I think he's got his hands full now with being a father four ways, right Trunks?"

The purple haired youth belatedly looked up. "Huh? Yeah, yeah sure." He put his hands back where they were, as a resting post for his head as he looked outside at the clear day that did nothing to lay claim to the craziness that had occurred several moments ago, a few hours ago, and possibly a few weeks ago. Goten waited for the rest of his monologue, his joking, or something else to come from Trunks, but the slightly older male settled deeper into his silent funk and ignored the looks thrown his way.

Vegeta wasn't a stranger to a brood when he saw one. He'd been the poster child for them, and temper tantrums amongst a host of things, and while he denied that his son was anything like him in regards to several aspects of life, one thing he had inherited, unfortunately, that was ability to sulk in the open in silence as if he was sitting in all seriousness. It was a telling sign that something was troubling the youth, but it couldn't have been the celebration of the babies. Babies had this obnoxious sixth sense about these things, especially saiyan babies. They would have been screaming their heads off. Vegeta remembered that much about his own race if anything. Saiyans didn't tolerate ill will in their presence at a young age. They tended to do one of two things…and thankfully there was no moon.

If it wasn't the babies—Vegeta turned to his daughter trying her best not to look too concerned about her brother. She met his gaze. A single digit pointed to a word in a magazine she held loosely in her hand. Girlfriend. Trunks didn't have a girlfriend. The boy was so smitten with Gohan at one point unknowingly and then again with Goten—which was so obvious it hurt. He felt bad for his son in that respect. The Son sons (why did that even exist?) were a bit like their dad when it came to being damn near annoyingly irresistible.

She flicked her gaze toward Goten easily and shoved her finger at the word again.

It made sense…and he was not about to slap his forehead.

Vegeta? What's the matter.

Vegeta covered his open snort with a soft cough. What was the matter? Really? Besides having his mate in his head so openly? Oh, nothing much. My boy is sulking because Goten has a girlfriend.

Goku's thoughts paused at that. Wow…Okay. He's getting good at keeping things to himself.

Of course he is. He's your son.

The mark on his neckline warmed. It was damn near impossible not to smile at the pride beaming from that overgrown softie outside of the room now. They would talk about this later. Right now the remaining doctor in the room was making a show of cooing over those babies just as badly as Videl and Chi-chi and it had the rest of the room in quiet hysterics that involved Sierra giggling uncontrollably in her seat with Pan's face dropped on her shoulder in an effort not to laugh as hard as she wanted. The tears in her eyes were proof enough that it was becoming a futile attempt to keep quiet, and it was much too much when that doctor all but squealed like a girl meeting some boy band in person.

Vegeta still didn't understand the screaming girls did when they liked something. But it was funny enough to make him drop his stoic face for a moment.

"I told my sister these babies would be the most adorable things ever," the doctor laughed. "I should have bet her money! I would have totally WON money from her and I could have died happy."

"Your sister?" Chi-chi asked. "She's a doctor here?"

"She just walked out of the room. Oh, pardon my rudeness." He stuck out his hand for her to shake with her free one when she shifted her grandson to lie in her left arm. "My name's Tyler Grant. I'm Gohan's regular OB/GYN, and my sister is Sharon Reed. Why we're in the same field, I don't know…but I suppose it might be owed to being twins."

"Sharon is…your twin?"

"Hard to believe right?"

No. Not really. Sharon was a smaller petite thing that had a mess of brown hair that she tied back in a bun and dressed like she was going to a business meeting under the lab coat she wore. She was feisty—they'd seen as much in her rants—and she was a sure match for any male that tried to challenge her through the art of words. This guy…this guy who had run into the room right before Goten and stood near Dorian and Sharon during the dressing down of that woman Nerys…he was a dark haired lanky man in a suit that needed a press, a shave from the five o'clock shadow making its way into a beard, and very laid back.

He was also a dominant Beta, one that was very at ease with everyone else in the room despite the other two male betas. They were dominants within their own rights, Goten more so now since he sought the company of a female, but Trunks didn't notice or care really.

Vegeta sucked at this kind of thing…the open comforting…but he attempted to do so anyhow. He reached out and patted his son on the shoulder and got an armful of his son snuffling into his stomach. He wasn't crying (thank the heavens), and he wasn't upset. He was snatching comfort where he could get it and he'd deemed Vegeta worthy enough to give that comfort. It was a testament to their relationship as it stood now…and Vegeta was not entertaining the thought of wondering what it would have been like to be Trunk's mother. His life was already strange enough, thank you!

"Your boy?" Tyler asked.

Vegeta nodded once. "He's usually…not like this."

"Is he upset about something?"

"….kind of?"

"Well then, we're going to have to take care of that with a sure fire cure."

There was no warning. Had there have been, Vegeta was sure that he would have been an anchor to hold onto. One moment he was patting his son on the back of his shoulders, the next he was watching his son being hauled to his feet by a smiling exuberant doctor who looked like he needed several hours of sleep but ran like a man well rested. Trunks—speechless from the sudden displacement—yelped at the hands taking his own and the sudden fragrant smell of male making it hard to think.

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes. You. You're coming with me to get coffee."

"Coffee?!"

"Yes, that magical drink that is awesome in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night when people like to give birth because babies hate you."

"…babies hate you?"

"Yes. Because they come at night and I don't sleep in my bed."

"….I'm confused."

"All the more reason for coffee. Let's go."

Trunks had no choice but to go, because Tyler was dragging him out of the room with a firm, "We'll be back!" drifting backwards as they vanished.

Sharon peered into the room. "Why is my brother dragging that guy behind him? Did something happen?"

They didn't know and they didn't want to ask. As far as everyone was concerned, it was just another weird thing to add to the list of odd shit that happened in the past day.

No, I don't know where I'm going with this. (lies)

I totally do not have a plan about this. (truth)

If you want more...well, I need inspiration. (lies wrapped in truth).

And yes...I do not apologize for popping some hopes. (lies)