Introspective the sequel...pt.18

I don't own DB/Z/GT or its characters, etc.

Introspective...the sequel Part 18

Roughly a week after their return home, things were returning to 'normal.' Trunks returned to his work thus allowing his mother her time back in the labs. Pan was interested in completing her final year at school and was preparing her transfer papers. The hens met at Bulma's for their usual weekly roundhouse chat.

"So dear, Trunks is being the perfect husband?" Bulma inquired.

"He sure is. I couldn't ask for more."

"Oh dear."

"What? Isn't that a good thing?"

"If Trunks is being too perfect, he's likely covering something up."

"Like what?"

ChiChi and Videl both stared closely at Pan causing her to become annoyed.

"WHAT?! You look at me like the plague."

"She has the glow don't you think Videl?"

"I think she does. You concur Bulma?"

"Saiyan sperm, single shot." Bulma muttered. Trunks had indeed talked to his mommy about their honeymoon.

"Say WHAT?! Will you all kindly inform me as to what you're talking about? You're creeping me out!"

Videl smiled. "Pan, you haven't sensed any ki fluctuations with your own ki?"

"Why would I try to read my own ki?"

Bulma stood. "I have another solution. These new models work even the next day after. Drink that water Pan." Bulma said as she entered a bathroom and returned with a box and handed it to Pan.

"A pregnancy test?!" Pan gasped in disbelief but gave in anyway.

Moments later the test was verified. The other ladies squeeled in joy, but Pan had other ideas.

"Excuse me a moment." she muttered as she departed.

Pan stormed through the sky and entered Capsule Corporation's main building. She made a direct line for Trunks' office, ignoring the questions,etc. from employees. She stopped upon reaching Trunks' secretary.

"May I help you?"

"I need to see Trunks."

"He's not in his office at this time Mrs. Briefs. He's in the conference room in a meeting with several other presidents. You may wait in his office if you like?"

"No thanks. This is extremely important." Pan said as she turned and directed herself towards the conference room.

"Mrs. Briefs, you can't---"

It was too late, Pan had already departed before the secretary could finish. She tried to buzz the conference room, but nobody answered.

The conference room doors swooshed open and interrupted the speaker. Trunks spat his coffee in shock as Pan marched her way over to him.

"Excuse us. We have an important issue to discuss. I'll give him back later." Pan said to the other stunned executives as she grabbed her husband by the tie and dragged him out.

Once the doors had shut she looked about. The hallway was free of people.

"I'm pregnant."

"I know...err, I mean, you are?"

"You know---Trunks, I'm going to kill you."

"I thought you could read kis too. I thought you already knew."

"I don't read my own ki on a regular basis since I already know my state of being."

"Pan, can we please discuss this at home? This really isn't the place for such talk. The walls have ears."

Pan growled, but knew that it wasn't wise to feed the rumor mongers otherwise their life would be world knowledge. "Fine. You'd better be home ON-TIME tonight. Got it?"

"I'll even try to be early. I promise."

"I still can't believe you did this to me already."

"ME? It takes two."

"Don't start." Pan gruffed then sucker punched her dear husband in the gut once again before departing.

*******************************************************************************

A few months passed as everyone began to settle. Gohan accepted his daughter's adulthood as best as a father could and was ever supportive of the new couple. Pan was trying to cope with her pregnancy and still thwapped Trunks several times for not wearing a 'thingy' and a few more times for good measure for not telling her when he already knew, and Vegeta began his preparations for the next of his bloodline. The 'hens' were also busy preparing for the newest saiyan additions.

"This is annoying! Can't I do this myself?!"

"Pan, take it easy." Trunks pleaded as he tried to coax her away from the kitchen counter.

"Trunks, don't give me that crap! You did this to me!" she shot back as she pulled away from him and trudged into the other room, still holding a head of lettuce.

"I didn't see you stopping me."

Pan growled and flung the head of lettuce at her loving husband. He caught it just before it smacked the cupboards. "Damn you and your sperm!" Pan yelled as she realized she'd flung her intended 'hostage.'

"Pan, sit. I said I'll prepare and cook dinner tonight." Trunks said softly and calmly ignoring the urge to laugh and gently placing head of lettuce on the counter.

Pan began to sob. Trunks rolled his eyes. There were going to be many rough days ahead. Pan was already showing well beyond the months and her moods were shifting faster than Bulma with PMS. Add to that, poor Trunks was joining her with his own version of her morning sickness and body aches. To top it off, he had to deal with the company as well. There was no way Pan would be able to assume her role there until well after her pregnancy. Bulma, anxious to become a grandma, assisted Trunks at the office, allowing him to work shorter days and be home for his wife. She was with Pan when Trunks was at work. They simply switched places at a certain point each day.

The next day, Trunks had elected to join Pan on her doctor's visit. This would be the day they would find out exactly what was brewing within Pan.

Pan and Trunks glued their eyes to the monitor that revealed what the ultrasound was reading. Trunks of course, was looking for extra appendages both in the front and the rear.

"Well Mr. & Mrs. Briefs, it looks like everything's going well. Pan, you need to eat a little more however. These tikes are sapping the nutrients out of you faster than your taking them in."

"I am taking them in, but I'm also spewing them right back out. When is it going to stop?"

Trunks nodded. He too, was getting tired of the nausea. In all his life, he had never felt so ill as he did each morning in the past weeks. It was also hard on the employees at his company. He already hated being there in the mornings and now he was an even worse grump than before. They used to call him "Dobie" (short for Doberman) and now he was "rabid Pit Bull."

"It's hard to say when. It varies from woman to woman."

"Oh."

"Say doc?"

"Yes Mr. Briefs?"

"What are they?"

"They're babies."

"I know that. Geesh. I mean, what sex are they?"

The doctor looked at the couple as Pan and Trunks looked at each other. Pan lightly thwapped her husband on the cheek.

"We prefer to wait until their birth doctor." Pan replied.

Trunks groaned in disappointment and tried to stare even closer at the ultrasound in hopes of figuring it out for himself. Pan took her pillow and smeared it onto his face. "Trunks, stop."

"But Pan--"

"No."

"Just one of them. Please?"

"See what I get doc. It's not enough to have these babies in me. I have another whining right here behind me."

The doctor and Pan chuckled as Trunks blushed in embarrassment.The doctor than suggested a solution. "Well, perhaps I can tell you the type as a compromise instead?"

Pan nodded that she'd allow that much.

"They're fraternal, not identical."

"See Pan it IS your fault. You had too many eggs down there to begin with! There should've only been one. My boys were just doing their job.It wasn't their fault they found more than one prize in there."

That line of course sent Trunks sinking to the ground by a quick elbow to his unprotected groin.

"Your boys probably aren't liking that very much now, are they?" Pan spat back.

The doctor took several steps back. These Briefs and their friends were all very dangerous. He had personally attended to Bulma during her pregnancies and then Videl. Now he was assisting Videl's daughter in her own and her coupling was part Briefs on top of it. Getting through this bout was going to be the most challenging in his entire career.

The next morning...

"Truuunnnkkksss! Get your butt up, you're going to be late!" Pan yelled in his ear. It didn't matter that they were sleeping right next to each other.

Her yelling registered twice the volume to Trunks' sensitive saiyan hearing. He yelped then realized all too late that he was teetering on the edge of the bed. Pan's stomach was already beginning to claim the middle space between them. He smacked the cold floor with a solid thud.

Pan was about to laugh, but instead, covered her mouth and trudged as fast as she could for the bathroom.

Shortly after, Trunks sought out yet another bottle of stomach soother.

"Two teaspoons for...what the hell, this is a crisis!" Trunks muttered to himself as he read the label then guzzled the entire contents of the bottle of pink liquid. He then knocked on the bathroom door.

"Honey? You okay? Um, if it's not too much trouble, I need to take a shower?"

The sounds from the bathroom indicated that she wasn't relinquishing her reign on that particular room just yet.

"Uhhh, well...uh, I'll just use the one down the hall then." Trunks mumbled as he trudged off scratching his head and dragging a towel.

An hour later, both appeared 'civilized' and normal once again...well almost.

Trunks was nursing a cup of coffee and reading the latest stock quotes when Pan came sobbing into the kitchen.

"Trunks, I'm soooo fat!"

Trunks knew this was a dangerous topic. *Never agree with a woman when she says she's fat. Even if it's obvious.*

"No honey. You're not fat. You're just carrying the newest additions to our family."

"Oh yeah. How could I think otherwise." Pan replied sarcastically as she glared evilly at Trunks' groin.

Trunks followed her eyes before catching their meaning. "Pan dear, we're not going to have this 'it's your fault' discussion again are we?"

"It's not your fault. It's that damn thing between your legs' fault."

Trunks cringed. She loved that particular part of him until now. And the way she said it made him guilty for simply being a member of the opposite sex. "Uh, I'm sorry." he said as he stood and tried to hug her.

"I'm FAT Trunks! I'm not even into the final trimester and I'm TOO FAT!"

"I would be too if I was carrying those things in me."

Suddenly Pan's eyes lit as an idea formed. "Hey, I got it. Since the dragonballs are back, how about we gather them and wish that."

Trunks gasped. "Eeeeeeehh! Uh, Pan, uh no, I mean, I have to run the company and all. You don't have the experience yet to--"

"Your mom could run it. As chairwoman, she technically still does anyway."

"No really Pan. We shouldn't mess with nature like that. The female is meant to bear children. Males aren't designed physically or mentally to handle such a task."

Then another idea popped into her mind. "I got it. I'll ask the doc for one of those sympathy pillows that guys can wear that simulate a pregnancy. I'll just add ten bricks to it to simulate the added weight I bear. Then you can share the feelings."

"But Pan dear--isn't it enough I share your morning sickness? That's scary enough."

"But you'd look so cute wearing that thing."

"It won't fit with a suit like this and what would the employees think?"

"That you care deeply enough for your wife that you'd be willing to share in her incoveniences."

"I'd be laughed out of the conference room. Those other presidents are like wolves. They look for morsels to gnaw at. If they find a weakness in me such as that, not only I, but the entire company will feel their purge. Strength and assertiveness are a must in the game of higher business. Weakness is a sign of potential profit for others."

"So blast 'em. Having a stomach doesn't hinder ki blasts one bit. Wanna see?"

"No thanks, I'll take your word for it. See, Pan, if I'm wearing that, it may limit my ability to take care of you properly."

"You saying I can't take care of myself?"

"No, no, not at all. I'm saying that I---well, thatI'mlateforworkandIgottarun. Love ya!" Trunks rattled as he quickly stormed out of the home.

"TRUNKS, YOU'RE A COWARD!" Pan yelled out the door.

In the limo ride to the office, Trunks began thinking about sneaking out and personally ringing the Namekian guardian of the Earth for giving him one pitfall after another. *Dende, you hate me. You really, really do.* he thought as he looked back at his home that was fading in the distance.

tbc...