Last time:

"Who's gone?" Bulma barely recognized her trembling voice.

"Trunks…"

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"Bulma. Bulma wake up. Come on. Wake up damn it!" Vegeta yelled, shaking her almost violently; she'd passed out nearly five minutes ago, falling like a brick to the floor. "Maiko, tell me everything." He didn't look up.

The trembling babysitter looked up at him through her fingers and messy bangs, tears no doubt clouding her vision. She didn't answer, only sobbed even louder.

"Maiko, tell me now!" he snapped, nearly dropping Bulma in the process, obviously not in any mood for her crying; it was his son that was gone.

"I-I-I…" She broken off, blowing her nose. "I p-p-p-put Trunks down in his playpen f-f-f-for a m-minute while I w-w-went t-t-to the b-bathr-room. I was only gone f-f-for a minute…"

"Uh," he groaned, turning from her and back to the unconscious Bulma that lay limp in his arms. "It's not your fault." He'd wanted to scream at her, beat her pretty little face in 'til she was as lifeless as Bulma looked, but, with expert restraint, he managed to produce calming words and unclenched fists. "Did you call my parents?"

"I did." It was one of the female officers that answered, her hat hanging from her fingertips; she looked positively petrified, but seemed to hold it back well. "They're on their way."

"Did you get any fingerprints, anything?" Obviously they'd already done this before he and Bulma arrived, but he was running out of things to say to keep himself calm. Trunks was gone, his son, their son, gone. What was he going to do? What were THEY going to do?

"Yes. Prints on the door handle, and the crib. I sent another officer with them to the lab, should have a call with results any time."

"V-V-Vegeta?" Bulma groaned, finally coming to, her eyes slowly fluttering open. "What're you doing in my house?"

"B-"

"I had the weirdest dream. Trunks was-" Her eyes suddenly snapped completely open, darting frantically around; when they fell on the officers, she couldn't keep from screaming. "Holy kuso! My baby! My baby! My baby's gone!" She clung to Vegeta's shoulders immediately, though soon turned her attention to the sobbing blonde on the couch. "You! You did this! It's all your fault! You lost my baby!" she cried, pointing a rigid finger at her, trying to get up, only to be held back by Vegeta's powerful arms.

"It's not her fault and you know it," he said, trying to calm her. It only fueled her anger more.

"You don't even care about him, do you!?" She pushed him back, and ran at Maiko, though, luckily, was intercepted by one of the officers. "Let go of me! She's gonna pay for this! My baby's gone! My baby's gone…" Her tears soon won her over, and she was again placed in Vegeta's arms, where she sobbed into his shoulder until his parents came home.

"Oh Kami," Mrs. Ouji cried, wrapping her arms around her son and her would-be-daughter-in-law. "I'm so sorry."

Mr. Ouji immediately went to the officers, asking any and all questions he could think of. Vegeta could only stare off as his mother tried to console Bulma, not being able to get the thought of his son tied to a rock at the bottom of a lake somewhere, or slit from ear to ear and not being able to even cry. He tried his hardest to keep these thoughts away, but the more he pushed them, the more they pushed back, and more violently each time. And throughout it all, the only conclusion he could come to was, "My son is gone, my son is dead, I'm never going to see him again."

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Bulma lay scrunched in a ball on a couch in the Ouji's living room, having fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion hours ago; Vegeta stayed by her, playing absently with her hair, forcing his brain to figure everything out. All but one officers had left, gone to solve their case; the male officer that was left, sat hunched over the kitchen table, leafing through all the papers he had; he'd come across almost nothing.

"Vegeta, dear, would you like something to eat?" Mrs. Briefs asked, who had been there for some time now. He shook his head; he wouldn't eat a single morsel before his son was back in his or Bulma's arms. "Do they have any leads?"

"No," he sighed, not taking his eyes off the sleeping form of Bulma.

"Have you called any of your friends, yet?"

"No."

"Would you like me to?"

He glanced up at her, wanting to smile for her courtesy, though only managing to flinch his lip slightly; he wondered how she could seem so calm when all this was happening, but then he looked down at Bulma and instantly knew why.

"Sure," he finally said, then laid his head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes.

She was only gone five minutes, when she returned with the cordless phone, pressing it to Vegeta's ear; he figured she would hold it for him if he wanted, but chose, naturally, to grab it.

"Yeah?" He didn't care who it was, and even though he wasn't in the mood to speak with anyone, regardless of who they were, he still answered the call.

"Vegeta it's 17 oh Kami I can't believe what happened I'm so sorry but I really need to tell you something that I know you're going to want to hear." He took a deep breath before continuing on another tirade. "Urako called me after our date the other night and was complaining and that's not important, she said that there was this guy and his girlfriend that you had a fight with after leaving and Kami Vegeta, do you think he took Trunks?"

Vegeta dropped the phone, jaw open, eyes wide; he was absolutely right, he had taken Trunks.

"What is it?" Mrs. Briefs asked, grabbing up the phone.

"I know who took him." Without a second to lose he was in the kitchen, and practically gave the officer a heart attack when he grabbed his collar and demanded that they get to the station and ID the "jerk-off from the club".

"What makes you think it was that guy?"

"Shut up and do as you're told!" he screamed, running back into the living room to get Bulma. He didn't bother waking her, simply gathered her into his arms and ran out the door after the officer.

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Bulma awoke next to the sound of screaming, and, thinking of her son, immediately grabbed around the floor for his bottle/diaper bag. When she realized the bag wasn't there, and that she was in fact in a police station, her memory quickly kicked in. She bolted out of her chair in an instant, looking around frantically; before her was a glass wall, where eight or so men stood starring at her, all looking rather bored; Vegeta, who the yelling was coming from, was arguing with an officer, who looked to be the chief. She ran to them immediately, demanding to know what was going on.

"Your boyfriend here doesn't seem to think we're doing all that we can to get your son back!" the chief snapped, though immediately regretted it as Vegeta's fist collided with his jaw; he had to use all his restraint to keep himself from retaliating on the college freshman.

"How dare you yell at her when her son is missing! Who the hell do you think you are!?"

"Forgive me miss," he sighed, rubbing his cheek, wondering how such a short and seemingly powerless person could pack so much. He would have noticed the rippling muscles had he not been wearing a jacket. "Now-" He turned back to Vegeta, flames in his eyes. "-as I was saying, we have all the man power we can afford on this case, and these are the only people in our data base that fit the description that you described to us!"

"Well maybe that's because he's in another station's data base! Did you ever think of that!?"

"Of course we have! And those people are being escorted here as we speak!"

"My son could be dead right now and you wouldn't care," he spat, trying to speak softly enough that Bulma didn't hear. Thankfully she hadn't, and was feet away, looking through the two-way mirror at the men; she wondered if any of them had taken her son, for she hadn't heard a word of Vegeta's argument, and if not, if they had done something that could land them there in the future.

"Why are we here?" Bulma suddenly asked, silencing all the yelling. Vegeta was by her side in a heartbeat, arms wrapped securely around her shoulders, as if to protect her; she really didn't seem to notice, let alone mind the obvious affection he was showing her that he rarely showed when they were dating. The chief answered her.

"Your boyfriend thinks he knows who took your son," he said calmly, though wanting very much to scream at Vegeta some more. "We're bringing in any person who fits his description of who he thinks took him." She turned to Vegeta, instantly collapsing into his arms, tears beginning once again to well in her cerulean eyes; she didn't notice when he almost dropped her, not ready for her to fall as she did. "We're doing all that we can."

It was an hour at least before the three other stations in the vicinity had trudged in the men who fit Vegeta's profile. One by one they filed into the glassed-in room, in front of a stark white wall, lights seeming to blind them. Vegeta glared at them all, not caring whether they were innocent or not, all resembling that man from the club in one way or another, but none fitting the description. But there were still more to come. Bulma took all this in silence and with little responsiveness, only glancing at the men every now and then, not knowing at all what Vegeta was looking for and too tired to listen to him describe the man yet another time. It wasn't that it wasn't important to her to find the man, just that with Vegeta there, she didn't need to have that information, she'd just get in the way of the officers and everyone who was trying to help them. The last thing she wanted to do was screw up her chances of finding Trunks because she was too nosey and got in the way of the people that were doing their job. Besides, she had no clue what to do or make of the situation, other than she was petrified to the core that something horrible was happening to her son and she couldn't stop it. She would go to Vegeta if she thought it would calm her, but her fear that he was thinking the exact same thoughts kept her quiet; if he had no faith in finding their son, then why should she? He was the one who had so much faith in them ever having a solid relationship again, but if he didn't have it for this, then everything truly was hopeless and Trunks would be gone forever; no use in trying to find him.

"None?" Bulma asked as Vegeta took a heavy seat beside her, face tense and lids heavy; he needed sleep, desperately.

"They won't let us leave the station, you know," he sighed, repressing a yawn.

"Can they do that?" She was beyond crying at this point, her eyes dry and sore.

"Apparently. We're a hazard in the case." He glanced at her a moment, wanting to kiss her, but fought the sensation; Trunks, Trunks was gone. "Plus, I think the pigheaded chief thinks I'll hurt the stupid son of a bitch that took him."

"Would you?" She laid her head on his shoulder, though picked it back up immediately, pulling his head to hers; she'd already slept too long, it was his turn.

"Of course I would. That asshole deserves what I'd give him."

"You know," she began, but then let her voice drop, starring at the tiled pattern on the floor that really didn't make a regular pattern; she forced her eyes to see one.

"What?" He yawned, not being able to hold it any longer.

"You need some sleep."

"What were you going to say?"

"Well, if the police hadn't been at your house from ten minutes when we got there, then whoever took Trunks can't be that far, probably not even out of the city. If the news station-"

"Chief said publicity only makes things worse. The guy would flee the city to not get caught."

"Are you sure it was that guy? I mean, what motive did he have to commit such a crime? I don't think anyone is that stupid to risk prison just because they were yelled at by someone."

"Bulma," he sighed, stressing it. "I'm telling you it was that jerk-off. Who the hell else could it be? He knew my name and he knew who you were, so chances are that he knew where we lived and that we had a child together. It has to be him."

"Ok. All I'm saying is that all those officers are looking for that guy you described, but what if it wasn't him? What if it wasn't a man at all?"

"What're you getting at?" By now they were both so immersed in the conversation that neither noticed the troop of new men that were being herded in behind the glass.

"What do you think, Vegeta?"

"Bulma, this is no time for games. Our son is somewhere out there with a stranger and you're playing head games with me!"

"I am not!" she snapped, wanting to slap him. "Listen! I don't think it was a stranger, and I don't think it was even a man! Open your eyes Vegeta! It was Arisa!"

He didn't waste a second, not even enough time to say, "Holy Kami you're right!" He raced over to the chief, quickly describing Arisa and giving several possible addresses and phone numbers as to where she could be; Bulma listened in half relief and half disgust; he knew way too much personal information about that woman to be natural.

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"Vegeta, you need to get some sleep. You being dead tired isn't going to help anything," Bulma yelled, pulling him from his chair. There were cots set up in another room; they were required to stay the night; if there was no news of their son by tomorrow, they could go home.

"I am not even closing my eyes until I've seen my son again," he snapped, shrugging her off, but as he spoke his eyelids were already beginning to drop.

"Vegeta, I know you love our son, and I love him too, but our lack of sleep isn't going to help matters. They promised they'd wake us as soon as they heard even the tiniest bit of information about Trunks."

"How can you be so calm?" he asked blatantly, allowing her to escort him to their room; two cots, appropriate.

"Because," she sighed, almost painfully, pushing him onto his cot, then sitting on her own. "If I acted how I really felt inside I'd die from exhaustion, or insanity, which ever came first." She pulled her shoes off, throwing them across the room. "I can't afford to waste energy on crying anymore, or being worried. I have to focus everything of figuring out where our son is." She sighed, heavily, and laid down. "I can't live without him."

"Me neither," he whispered, eyes closed. He didn't care that he wasn't "acting like Vegeta", and really, no one seemed to notice. "And I know you hate hearing this, and believe me, its not easy to say-"

"I know Vegeta," she all but whimpered, turning away. "I know."

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---Chapter 18! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! How was that? Depressing? I know. Short? I know. Sad? I know. But hey, I updated, and I have ideas for the next chapter already.

Updates are slow because of my busy-ness (not business). SORRY! L

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Next time: Who took Trunks!?