*sigh* I'm a little stuck on this one…we'll see how it goes I guess. Hopefully it won't be too horrendous. ;)

~

       Having just arrived home from a shopping expedition, Bulma's mother traveled the short distance to her daughter's corner of the complex. She frowned worriedly at the capsule situated between the two living areas as it hummed loudly from use. Vegeta had been training himself near to death, and it bothered the bubbly woman.

       Bunny opened the door to the main room of Bulma's apartment, her tray of sweets in hand. She found her daughter sitting glumly in a large cushioned chair, staring blankly at the wall. She startled at the sound of the blonde's high voice.

       "Bulma dear, look at al the sweets I got for us, aren't they gorgeous?" She set the tray on the low coffee table between them, pushing it slightly in Bulma's direction. "Won't you try one?"

       "No thanks Mom, I'm really not that hungry." She responded absently, still halfway lost in thought.

       "But think of the baby! You need to eat and keep your strength up honey." She insisted, handing Bulma a slice of her favorite cake. The younger woman took it hesitantly, the scent of strawberries and butter itching at her nose. Dr. Briefs wandered in, following the scent of sweets…and his wife's heady, over-powering perfume. He grumbled something about Vegeta and cards, took a seat, and promptly devoured a small plate of cookies.

       "Well, maybe just one…" She conceded, and promptly had her face shoved into the dessert as the whole house, indeed the entire complex heaved, a gigantic rumble accosting their eardrums. She cried out into the mashed cake when a sensation of burning heat and horrific pressure hit her full force.

       Things quieted quickly, after a few vases fell and broke, and Bulma opened her eyes slowly, expecting the entire room to be burning, or leveled. The feeling of heat and force abated somewhat and she pushed it to the back of her mind, realizing at once that these were originating from Vegeta and not the destruction of her abode.

       From Vegeta…

       She rushed outside, running full out towards the demolished gravity simulator. The entire top half had been blown off and lay in rubble over the bent bottom half. The Saiyan was nowhere in sight. She failed to notice Yamcha following her towards the wreckage and they stopped together a few feet short of the mass of metal.

       Her heart was pounding, the sound echoing through her whole body. She attempted to calm herself by focusing on that, and discovered a second heartbeat, slower, more forceful, but growing more faint by the second. This in turn made her aware of a third heartbeat, this one quiet, and pattering quickly. She took another deep breath. I have to calm down.

       "Vegeta?" She called, stepping forwards into the heap of rock and twisted metal. She dropped to her knees and began moving the debris piece by piece away from where she sensed movement. She paid no attention to the burns the hot material left on her hands, nor the scratches and cuts her fingers endured from the sharp edges. Mere moments passed before a hand shot out of the pile, startling her backwards into Yamcha, the two collapsing into the ground as Vegeta pulled himself free. Bulma quickly moved away from the warrior, watching the Saiyans progress closely.

       "Are you okay?" She questioned of the bloodied man before her, who scowled.

       "Of course I am," he growled, managing a standing position, his knees shaking noticeably beneath his battered form. She sighed, half in relief and half in annoyance. Then a menacing light entered her eyes as she raised her gaze back to the Saiyan.

       "You idiot! You almost leveled my house!" She raged. All at once he collapsed, landing heavily on his back.

       "Oh my god…" She rushed forward, pulling his heavy upper torso onto her lap. She ignored the tingling of her fingers where she touched him. "What did you do to yourself this time…" She whispered in exasperation.

       "I'm…fine. I don't need your…help," he managed, eyes narrowed. With a mighty effort he pulled away, only to collapse again before her.

       "Go get my dad, Yamcha. Have him get a stretcher down here with four bots." He hesitated for a moment before seeing the determined, displeased look she bore, and then hurried away.

       They rushed Vegeta to the medical ward, where Bulma was forced to wait outside as his wounds were dressed and burns tended. She sat in a chair right outside with her head in her hands, shivering in agony as the lack of anesthetic applied to the unconscious man took its toll on her. Unable to bear it any longer, Bulma entered the room against her father's insistence that she stay out. Preparing an adequate dose of morphine, she handed it to the nurse to administer. After all, who knew when the injured man might awaken?

       Moments later relief was granted to her, and Bulma went back to wait with her parents.

       Three hours passed with agonizing slowness, and finally Vegeta was moved to a hospital-like room where the Briefs could visit him.  Bulma knelt by the side of the bed, trying hard to calm herself further for the sake of the distressed child within her womb. Mrs. Briefs clutched her husbands arm, weeping. The doctor himself made note of the resilience of the Saiyan, and how amazing it was that Vegeta had survived. The older couple left after a few minutes had passed, and Bulma rose also, leaving a small kiss on the Saiyans oxygen mask.

       She seated herself at the desk beside the bed, laying her head on her forearms. Almost immediately sleep claimed her exhausted mind.

~

       Not more than an hour later she drifted back into consciousness, awakened by groans and mumbled words originating from the sleeping Saiyan. Frowning, she settled her head and arms back on the desk and fell once more into slumber.

       Vegeta's eyes snapped open, eyes staring at the ceiling for a long moment while he calmed his breathing. Tiny movements tickled at the edge of his vision, and he carefully turned his head to the side, face twitching into a scowl. His mind tried to puzzle out her presence, but failed. 'What is she doing here,' he thought, quietly sitting up and planting his feet on the floor. He stood, leaving the sheets on the bed as he crept out of the room in search of clothing. Bulma had obviously kept it in another room, as if the lack of covering would keep him in bed longer.

       As if.

       Clad only in the various bandages wrapped around his body, he gimped from the room, frowning as blood trickled down his leg from a wound near his hip. Looking back towards the hospital room, he rolled his eyes at the bloody trail of footprints staining the white tile. A stray though made him pause in his travel, blinking slowly.

       White tile.

       No part of Capsule Corp that he had been to had white tile, aside from the kitchen and bathrooms. Just where the hell was he? A sign to his right read 'MEDICAL WARD' in large dark letters. 'Well obviously,' he sneered, 'but it doesn't help me any.'

       He proceeded down the hallways, disliking the feeling of complete disorientation this place was giving him. The place was like a maze, and he was about to return to the room with Bulma when he turned another corner and a door to the outside presented itself.

       "Finally," he grumbled, reaching for the bar that would unlatch the door.

       Locked.

       Signs surrounding the door marked it as an emergency exit, and warned that it was connected to an alarm.

       "Like I give a shit." Balling his hand into a fist, he thrust it through the glass in the door, grimacing as the wire within crisscrossing the pane aided the broken glass in shredding his hand. One hundred feet down the hallway, Bulma skidded around the corner, stopping to stare at him. He glared back as his hand continued to clear a hole large enough to fit through. His vision grew dim momentarily from blood loss, but he forced himself awake, and rose to hover just above the ground.

       "Vegeta," she called warningly as he began to carefully pull himself through the opening. She took off towards him at a run, unsure of what to do when she reached him. If she even arrived in time.

       Her footsteps echoed through the silent corridor and stopped as she halted at the door, glaring through the mangled window at the smirking Saiyan.

       "You're not well enough to be out of bed. You've left a river of blood in my medical ward and I know that glass shouldn't have left a scratch on you," she gestured to his hand, now bleeding profusely.

       "Your attempts might have kept your bitch-slapped friends in there, but I have better things to do than lie about like an invalid. Leave me alone."

       "Vegeta!" She cried out peevishly as he stalked away. "You're…you're still naked! And you're outside! I can't believe you!" She was shaking with anger and, though she refused to allow it to register, worry. He was limping, his hip still gushing blood, and now his entire forearm was covered in it. Bandages wrapped his chest, helping to heal the broken ribs beneath his darkly bruised skin.

       "Shit shit SHIT!" She turned on her heel, stalking at the nearest intercom to summon cleaner bots and unlock the mangled door. It was going to be a long recovery.

~

Alrighty then, I finally got a chapter out! I promise the wait won't be so long on the next one, seeing as I already have it started.  Thanks for your patience!