1 Chapter Thirty: How much are they worth to you?

Authors Notes: I'm sure a lot of you are still pissed about my hella late update, but I told you I was busy. I hope none of you lost faith in me. I made a promise that I would finish this fanfic, and I'm going to keep my promise.



Bulma turned her head when she heard the door opening. It was Vegeta, coming to collect any Roctorns that had sneaked away while he'd been cleaning. She was just finishing drying her hair; her shower had done wonders for her. Feeling rejuvenated and goofy, she stepped out of the bathroom, letting her towel carelessly hang off her hips, and she sauntered up to Vegeta.

"I hope you're feeling better." He growled sarcastically. He was about to say more when he finally let his eyes take a good long look. "I thought you were going to take a nap…"

She shrugged. "I needed a shower. I…still had some blood to wash off."

This brought Vegeta back to reality. Reaching out a hand he gently touched the ugly black bruises that covered her shoulders. "That Tajil…he really did a number on you, didn't he?"

Bulma lifted her chin. "I stood up to him. And I got a couple of good hits in, too."

"You know, with that attitude of yours, you would have made a great Sayajin." He smiled surprisingly gently, and then drew her into an unexpected embrace. "Are you feeling better?"

She leaned into him fully, letting her body relax in his strong grip. He smelled so good, despite the fact that he was all sweaty and had just been cleaning up Roctorn shit. She sighed into him. It felt so good she didn't want this security to end yet. When he pulled away she frowned slightly but nodded to his question.

"I'm tough." She said simply. "The bruises hurt a little, but besides that…" she shook her head as if to dismiss the issue and took his hands in her own. "It doesn't matter." She said. "I just want to forget about everything for a moment."

When she started to lead him backward toward the bed, Vegeta felt his pulse jump accordingly. Does she want me to make love to her? He wondered silently. The look on her face betrayed her seriousness; she looked absolutely driven wild. And he couldn't deny that he wanted to throw her down and take her right then and there, but she was still wounded, and they had things to do…

Bulma noticed his wary look and stopped. A million thoughts and worries raced through her head. "What's wrong?" she said, her forehead creasing with apprehension. "You don't…want me?"

"Bulma," Vegeta said, trying to smile, but it came out more a frown, "Don't get me wrong…you're…" he struggled briefly with the words. "You're beautiful, even with these wounds, but…" he swallowed. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Vegeta, I'm all right." She whispered. "Really. It doesn't hurt. I just want you can't you understand that? I've wanted you since the day we came here. Please, just grant me this."



And then somehow he was overpowered by a weak human female. With her soft, small hands she took him and harnessed him with her perfumed scent and her never-ending eyes and he was being led toward the soft place where they could both forget everything for a moment. Never before had he allowed himself to be taken by the hand and led like a child, and yet here he was, and…and he was enjoying it.

When Bulma slowly inched onto the bed, shuffling backwards on her behind, Vegeta straddled her as she lay herself down on the sheets. When he gently pressed his weight into her and looked down into her flushed face, however, he instantly caught it. Oh, she had tried hard to hide it, but it was like looking through a sheet of cellophane. He saw the faint cringe of obvious pain as pressure was applied to her bruises. Instantly he sat up, taking her gently with him, and they sat, forehead to forehead, just staring at each other. Neither had to say anything, they knew what was wrong. A moment passes before Bulma broke the gaze and looked away, obviously embarrassed.

"I guess I lied." She said flatly. Her fingers twisted horribly in her lap as she battled with her conflicting emotions. She wanted to bolt, to run from this enigma of a man who only tormented her with such sweet pain. But she couldn't. He was her savior, after all.

So let's put a smile on, ok? She told herself silently.

"Are you all right?" he grumbled, obviously a little disappointed himself. But she nodded and continued smiling. "I'm fine. We can…" she took his hand in her own again. "Finish this some other time, right?"

He nodded uncomfortably. "Sure."

It was a funny thing that when they both stood up the same words came out of their mouths; "Wait a second…where's Spider?"

* * *

Bulma wasn't too sure that the plan she and Vegeta had worked out was the greatest, but so far it was the only one that would work.

Nursing her cup of coffee (she had recently begun to feel ill) Bulma stared down into its depths and frowned. Spider was still missing. Both Bulma and Vegeta were equally upset, and Bulma could tell from the strange, perturbed look in the Sayajin's eyes. He cared for Spider; there was no denying it. He seemed to do a lot of caring about things he swore he hated lately. She smiled at the thought, but quickly frowned again when she thought of her two missing pets. Ghost was still at large. What would happen to him if a Storkrin found him all by himself? Would they kill him? She assumed they knew her well enough by now that they would simply return him. She hoped so.

"Did you even talk to The Council?" she looked up at him. "I mean, how the hell are they even dealing with the death of Treskor and Tajil?"

"They have no choice but to deal with it." Vegeta scowled. "There is no 'dealing with it' they must only accept that I've killed them. What's done is done."

Bulma shrugged. She wasn't sure how –she- felt about the whole deal.

"They deserved to die."

She was silent.

"Don't you agree? I would think you foolish if you didn't." he leaned forward across the table. "After all, Treskor is the one who made The Dungeons possible, and Tajil beat the living snot out of you."

She nodded. "I suppose. But…it's just so abrupt. I mean, do we really want to auction off this little guys after such a lot of stuff has happened? Don't you think some of the Storkrin's are in shock?"

Vegeta only frowned. "Look, they're getting bigger every day." He said. "We can't keep putting this off."

"I didn't say we had to put it off. I suggested we give them some time."

"You know, for a scummy race that's given you so much shit the past few weeks, you'd think you wouldn't be so quick to consider their personal well being." He said accusingly.

"And you'd think that for a girl who's given you so much trouble lately, you'd be a lot better off to forget about her." She countered.

A thick silence filled the air around the two. Vegeta stared hard at the blue eyes that tried so hard to stare back at him, but kept faltering and wandering off.

"Don't try to turn this around." Vegeta said slowly. Bulma recognized the tone of voice he was using; it was the same sort he used when he was close to anger.

"Why do you say things like that?" he shook his head while he said it.

"Because I tend to make a great big satire out of everything I don't understand." She sulked.

"No, it's because you're afraid of everything you don't understand."

Bulma lifted her head. "Excuse me? –I'm- afraid of everything I don't understand? Correct me if I'm wrong, but for the last few weeks that we've started having these little confrontations, my memory tells me that –you're- the one whose the master at avoiding all my questions!" she blurted.

"Whatever." Vegeta shrugged.

"See, you're doing it right now."

A half-smile. "So maybe you're right. Although that would be a miracle." He snorted, giving her one of his typical smirks.

"Shut up." She put her head down and moaned when her stomach churned suddenly.

"So is this why you're all moody and jumpy for an argument all of a sudden? Because of Spider and Ghost?"

"Vegeta, as much as you can't understand it, I love both of them." She muttered. "And yes, to answer your question, that's probably why."

"All right then." He stood. She realized that he had let her off the hook easy, with none of his usual snappy remarks or cutting comments. He hadn't even made an effort to continue their argument. She knew something was up, and she could tell that he knew she knew.

"Ok, out with it." She said.

Vegeta considered feigning confusion for a moment but decided to instead just cut to the chase.

"I was waiting until you felt better to tell you this, but I guess that's not going to happen."

"Just tell me!"

"When you were sleeping and I went to see The Council, they told me that Koru and the other Storkrin women are being put on a recovery plan immediately."

Bulma stood up, a smile slowly spreading across her face. "Really?"

"Yes." He replied. "Now come on, we have to get these guys together. We can stop by Strifelon's on the way and see how it's working out."

"Let me change first." She said as she began heading out the kitchen. When she got the hallway she stopped and turned, her face suddenly sad again. "Wait…what about Spider and Ghost?"

Vegeta sighed. "My guess is that Spider went looking for him."

"What?" Bulma cried. "Spider hates Ghost!"

"I know," Vegeta shrugged, "But can you think of another reason why he would wander off wounded?"

"No…" she said softly, "I guess I can't. But…you don't think he'll hurt himself even more, do you?"

"I can't answer that." Vegeta said. "Look, if you think they're more important than anything else right now, we can go looking for them."

"I think we should." She said after a moment's pause. "Do you? I mean…we can deal with the rest of these guys tomorrow. I really won't be able to sleep knowing they're both out there somewhere, especially with Spider being wounded."

"Then for Kami's sake, if you're going to be like that for the rest of the night, then yes, let's go look for them!"

Bulma stuck out her tongue.

"Woman, do you think going out there is such a good idea?" he asked, ignoring her rude gesture. "I mean, you're feeling like shit, what if you suddenly get Forae or something?"

"I'll be fine."

"Are you really that worried about them?" he frowned. "Think about it…I mean, your health is more important than them."

"Who says?" she said. "Look, I'll dress warmly. I'll be ok."

Vegeta shrugged. He didn't want to argue.

"All right. Then hurry up before it gets any darker."