A/n Hey there people! I'm feeling good. I have 11 reviews and everyone really likes this thing. BTW, the last line of Chapter 4 is my all time favorite.

Chapter 5: Thank you?

It had been a while since he had last been here. To the eye of the beholder nothing had changed, but for him everything was different somehow. He would never dare to say that he once belonged, for the truth was that he never belonged anywhere. He had always changed scenery and even so that fact had never bothered him before. His perception on such matters had changed because of one person- presently she was seriously ill.

He was in his usual stance, never changing, never shifting. Vegeta was leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed, his usual frown plastered on his face. Nothing was left untouched by his scrutiny. The woman was safe in her bed and now was the time for him to interrogate her parents. He narrowed his eyes at her father, never leaving him out of sight. Dr. Briefs was currently talking to a doctor to get further information about his daughter's health. The concern was etched in his face. At the moment the fine lines around his eyes were more visible than what the Saiyan could remember. He suddenly turned on the doctor to approach Vegeta. "Son, I want to thank you for bringing her home. You know how she is..." he was trying to side-track the conversation.

"What's wrong with your daughter?" he disrupted sharply, never leaving his eyes.

"What- what do you mean?" he wasn't going to let it slip and feel Bulmas wrath when she awoke. He knew that the affair between his daughter and the man standing in front of him wasn't looked well upon, though he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"Old man," he said, stepping closer to intimidate the pair in front of him. "Don't you dare taking me for a fool. You know as well as I that she is ill. Let's start from the beginning: When did she contract the disease?" What was wrong with him? He shouldn't care. True, they had shared the intimacy of their bodies, but it was nothing more than that, was it?

Dr. Briefs shifted under his intense observation. The air around Vegeta vibrated with the ki emitting from his hand, indicating that he would not tolerate nothing less than a decent answer. "I don't think I am the one to tell you that. If you want some answers you have to talk to her, though I'm not sure if she wants to talk to you. She needs some rest... " He didn't get a chance to finish before Vegeta walked out on him, his wife, and the medical crew. He was nowhere to be seen.

She lay in the bed, the warmth slowly lulling her to sleep. But sleep was something she wasn't ready to indulge in. What was she going to tell him? More important of all: how was he going to react? Somehow she didn't fear the confrontation, it would be a relief to tell him, yet she didn't want his pity. She was Bulma Briefs, successful businesswoman and the beautiful heiress of the well-known Capsule Corp and nobody would dare pity her, and she meant nobody!

Her thoughts were put aside when she heard footsteps outside her door. With every step taken her heart beat louder and the anticipation or fear, she didn't know which to choose, was becoming unbearable. She wasn't surprised to hear his loud growl when the door burst open. Her back was against him. The silence was whispering of the impending doom, which was yet to come.

"I know you're not asleep", he stated confidently.

"So do I," she answered coldly, still not turning around.

"What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" She was obviously very aggravated, "What's wrong with me?" she repeated with emphasis on "me". "The real question is: What's wrong with you? I thought that I was not to expect anything from you. Surely you must remember."

"Answer the damn question!" He sounded thoroughly angry now. "What kind of a disease have you contracted, you foolish woman?" For the first time he noticed her eyes, they had lost their brilliance and the fire they had formerly known. Her hair didn't glisten in the sun streaming from the window. She had always been pale, but her skin was far more sickly greyish now. She looked like a tattered doll, used and left to its own deplorable destiny to rot away with herself as her only companion.

She sighed, giving up, her tone flat. "No one really knows for sure. But one thing is certain: It isn't anything from earth." She turned in her bed, now facing the wall, her knees under her chin, her arm snaking up around her legs to keep them there. "The x-rays show that my internals are slowly being digested by my own immune system. But the doctors still can't explain the blue gore I am coughing up. I think that I might have contracted the disease on Namek." She paused and added to lighten the atmosphere "The caves weren't exactly a five star hotel," a smile faintly gracing her tired face. She breathed out heavily. "But anyway: There is no cure." She had made up her mind not to seem depressed about this whole ordeal and she was going to stick to her resolution, no matter the price.

She was always the strong and determined person, whom everybody else turned to if they were in trouble of any kind. At the moment her facade was the only thing that kept her from crying her heart out and she was going to keep it that way. Yes, indeed, she wasn't devastated; she had come to terms with her illness the moment the truth was revealed. Then again: maybe she was in denial?

Vegeta at first didn't know what to say to that revelation. When the situation dawned on him, his blood began boiling with rage. "You are such an idiot" he hissed under his breath. "How can you call yourself a genius, when you couldn't even see what's right in front of you?! Are you really so blind that you can't look past your hate and ask for help?"

"What are you talking about?" she seemed too shocked to register the insult.

"The cure. That's what!"

...And there are times when words fail us all. Unutterable words such as 'thank you' or even a whisper of gratitude will fail us all. What can I say? The human mind sometimes seems too much of an enigma for a simple scientist or a genius. It cannot be defined by mere words.