Author's Note: A thousand apologies! But I have a very good explanation! Our computer was taken away to be upgraded and has been gone for weeks! Honestly, I feel like my throats been cut! But it's back now and I promise I'll get on top of this story quickly. OK, a lot of people were uncomfortable with that scene last chapter, even I was writing it. So I apologize if it doesn't seem the sort of thing Vegeta would do, but it will have relevance in the story. Never fear! I know what I'm doing! R&R!

Chapter 14: Aftermath

"Hello? Mrs. Briefs? Can I please speak to Bulma?"

"Chichi dear? Is that you? No sorry honey, Bulma's not coming out of her room. She hasn't at all I wonder what's wrong?"

"Oh, don't worry I'm sure she's fine. Probably just hung over or something."

"Yes, you're probably right Chichi. I'll get her to ring you if she comes down."

"Thanks Mrs. Briefs." Chichi hung up the phone and looked at Goku, 18 and Krillin, who were spread out in various places of Chichi's room.

Chichi shook her head. "Her mum said she hasn't come down yet. I told you we shouldn't have left her last night," she snapped angrily at Goku.

Flashback

"Bulma are you alright? What happened?" Chichi asked as they sat her down on her bed. 18 sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. Bulma sobbed on 18's shoulder.

"Ssh," 18 comforted. "Bulma, you need to tell us what happened." Bulma looked up at her friends. Goku and Krillin were seated in chairs opposite the girls.

"V-V-V-Vegeta," she choked out. Goku and Krillin jumped up, Chichi frowned and 18 felt her stomach tie itself in a knot.

"What about him Bulma? Did he do this to you?" 18 asked. Bulma didn't say anything else, only she kept crying. Chichi grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Bulma, what does Vegeta have to do with this?" she asked seriously.

"He, he, he tried to, to, to," she broke off and started crying again.

"Bulma," Goku snapped. Everyone looked up. Goku never spoke like that. "What did Vegeta try and do? Tell us."

"He, he, oh Chichi, he tried to rape me," Bulma cried and she collapsed again against Chichi. Krillin's eyes widened, 18 growled and Goku glared, looking murderous. Chichi's expression didn't falter.

"Bulma, are you sure?" she asked. Vegeta didn't strike her as someone who would force himself onto a girl, he had too much pride for that.

"Y-yes. H-he took me into the living room, a-a-and he, he," she broke off again. "H-he'd been doing drugs, I-I-I-I could smell them."

"Oh, fuck," 18 groaned, and leaned over to hug Bulma. Goku growled and collapsed into a chair. Chichi had the sudden urge to be sick.

"I thought he gave them up," Krillin mumbled dejectedly.

"We all did," said 18 icily.

"Bulma did he actually do anything?" Chichi asked, terrified for her friend. Bulma shook her head.

"N-n-no I stopped him be, be before he did." Bulma was shaking and Chichi hugged her tighter.

"Bulma-"

"No Chichi. I think we'd be best just to leave Bulma now," Goku spoke.

"Goku! How can you say that! She needs us now!"

"No, she needs to be alone and she needs to sleep. Come on B. Hop into bed, we'll come and see you tomorrow. And don't worry about Vegeta." An angry expression crossed his face. "18 and I will take care of him." Bulma nodded, still shaking and climbed into bed.

End Flashback

"Chichi, what could we've done? We should go and see her now though," he added, as Chichi's blood visibly boiled. She calmed down a little, and nodded at that.

"Then we can go and see what Vegeta has to say for himself," 18 added coolly.

"I wonder what he took," Krillin asked as they grabbed their stuff and headed for Krillin's car.

"Probably Meth," 18 told them.

"How d'you know?" Krillin asked.

"17 took it once. I tell you, it wasn't the best experience of my life."

"But you're his sister," Krillin argued in disgust.

"Nothing like that matters to them any more, and they don't remember what they did, so Vegeta's going to be totally oblivious to what he did. I know it was wrong, but I reckon you guys should go a little easier on him, considering he didn't know what he was doing." They all sighed, but nodded. If what 18 had said was true, Vegeta would be in about as bad a state as Bulma.

They clambered into Krillin's car. He'd dropped Bulma off, and then they'd rung their parents from Chichi's house and said they were staying there because it was closest to Bulma's.

"Even though we're going to go easy on him, Vegeta's not gunna know what hit him when I'm through with him," Chichi told them. They all nodded in agreement.

"Oh shit," Vegeta groaned, as he rubbed his head. He opened his eyes and took a glance at his surroundings. "Where the fuck am I?" he asked himself. "And why can't I remember anything?" He thought back to the night before and groaned again. He remembered going outside with Marcus, snortin some meth and everything after that was hazy and unclear. "What the hell?" he asked, as he felt a giant lump on his head. "Shit I hope I didn't do anything stupid," he mumbled as he tried to stand himself up. As he got to his feet, the mother of all headaches hit him and he collapsed again. "I wonder why the others left me here?" he asked himself, not really caring. He laughed when he realised that he probably didn't want to go with them when he was wasted.

Vegeta stood again, more slowly this time, wincing as the pain shot through his head. Stumbling, he opened the door to the lounge. Bodies littered the floor, some unconscious but most just sleeping. Vegeta picked his way through the bodies until he found Marcus. He was on the kitchen floor, arms sprawled out and some ditzy blonde with her head on his chest. He kicked Marcus awake.

"What? Oh! 'Geta! You're still here! I thought you left with your friends last night!" Vegeta shook his head and helped Marcus up. The woman slid off him and went back to sleep in the middle of the floor.

"Marcus, what the hell happened last night?" Vegeta asked as they took seats on the back porch. Vegeta winced. The sun was hurting his eyes. "I can't remember anything. And what's the time?"

"Erm, I can't really remember either. Oh yeah! We took some meth! Wooohooo! Man that was legend. Oh, and it's quarter to nine."

"P? You sure?"

"Totally man, it took me ages to get that stuff, but hell! It was worth it. Oh, and you'll need to pay up for your share," he added, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. Vegeta grumbled, but reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money, handing it to Marcus. "Thankyou Vegeta, hope I do business with you again soon." Vegeta grumbled but said nothing more.

"Do you have any food in this place?" Vegeta asked. Marcus nodded.

"Help yourself, it's in the pantry. But watch out for the chick on the ground. I don't want a screw as good as that injured." Vegeta screwed up his nose but headed inside.

After piling several plates as high as the laws of gravity allowed, he walked back out to Marcus, giving the girl on the ground a kick, not hard enough to wake her up but enough to annoy Marcus.

"Oy!" he said. "I thought I told you to watch out for her!" Vegeta sniggered.

"Exactly," he answered, and sat down to begin his meal.

Bulma groaned and opened her eyes. She was in her room.

'How did I get here,' she wondered. All of a sudden, the events of last night came running back to her. She moaned and buried her head as she remembered Vegeta. She pulled her knees up to her chest.

She felt sick, right down into the pit of her stomach as she remembered his actions, the way he'd touched her.

Bulma choked and pulled her duvet around her shoulders. She shuddered and looked out the window.

It was a clear day, and the sun was quite high in the sky. A few birds were twittering in the background. She could feel the heat through her open window and a few white clouds drifted lazily across the periwinkle sky. A gorgeous day not at all reflective of her mood. She coughed and climbed out of bed.

She was still wearing the clothes she'd worn to the party. She stepped into the bathroom, and pulled them off in disgust, before turning on the water and taking a long hot shower.

When she got out, she still felt disgustingly dirty. She glanced at her digital alram clock. Nine o'clock. Right. Bulma took a deep breath and started to look at things rationally.

She needed to talk to Vegeta, as scary as the prospect of being in the same room as him now was, and find out what the hell had happened. And whether, she gulped, he was sorry.

In a few moments she was dressed and downstairs. Her father was in the lab and her mother was cooking breakfast.

"Hello, Bulma dear. Chichi rung for you before, I told her you weren't up yet. You might want to ring her."

"Thanks Mum," Bulma muttered. From the way her mother was acting, Bulma guessed she didn't know about last night and Vegeta.

'Best not to tell her, she'll totally flip,' Bulma thought, as she took a seat, but touched none of the food.

"Something wrong dear?" Mrs. Briefs asked. Bulma shook her head.

"No, I just don't feel like eating, I'm a little hung over." Mrs. Briefs smiled and nodded.

Bulma had just stood to ring Chichi, whenshe, Goku, 18 and Krillin came bursting through the door of her house. She smiled at them, though it was a smile that didn't reach her eyes and Chichi noticed this straight away. She shot a nervous look at 18.

"Hey Bulma. Erm, I think we need a little talk. Come on," Chichi told her, indicating to the lounge. Bulma nodded, knowing what Chichi was talking about and, with the feeling of dread growing in her stomach, followed her friends into the lounge.

They all seated themselves on various couches, and Bulma got the feeling of déjà vu.

'Of course. It was just like this when we first found out about Vegeta's drug problem.' She gulped and looked at her friends, and fresh tears sprung to her eyes as the events of last night began to replay themselves in her head.

"Bulma, are you alright?" 18 broke the silence. Bulma's nod turned into a shake and she breathed unevenly.

"I-I-I just can't believe he did it. I mean, I know it was the drugs, but….." Bulma trailed off and started crying. The others nodded understandingly.

"B, is there anything you want to do? Say?" Krillin asked. Bulma made to shake her head, but then stopped and nodded slowly.

"I-I-I want t-t-to go and see Vegeta. C-confront him." Everyone drew back in their seats. 18 sucked in her breath.

"Bulma, I don't think that is such a good idea," Chichi told her.

"Why not?" Bulma snapped. "Would you have me sit here and do nothing and be a vulnerable piece of mentally unstable crap?" she asked without thinking. Chichi was shocked at that. "I'm sorry," Bulma told her. "I-I-I just think I ought totalk to him and get it over with."

"Fine then. He's probably still at Marcus's. Oh, and Bulma. Before we go over there there's something you should know."

"Hn?"

"Vegeta won't have any memory of it. It's a side effect of the drug." Bulma sighed and gulped. That was going to make everything a lot more complicated. But she nodded and walked outside, climbing into Krillin's car and folding her arms stubbornly, ignored the tears in her eyes and the feeling of disgust and abuse that was burning in every inch of her. She was scared.

18 shrugged.

"It's her choice. Come on, we'd better go with her." They all nodded and followed Bulma's track outside and into the car.

"So, Vegeta my man. I'll catch you later bro. Try get us some more Ice! Man, that was some freaky shit!" Marcus laughed as he clapped Vegeta on the back. Vegeta was seriously starting to wonder if the effects of the drug were still affecting Marcus. He shook his head and waved Marcus goodbye, before climbing through the mass of bodies and opening the door to-

"Hello, Vegeta," came an icy voice. He grinned.

"18. Howzit? What're you lot doing here?" he asked, as he stepped outside and his view widened to include Goku, Krillin, Chichi and Bulma.

"We came to see you Vegeta," Krillin told him. Vegeta cast an amused glance around the group and was shocked when he saw Bulma.

She was standing quite a way back, looking nervous and scared. She was biting her nails.

"Why would you want to see me?" he asked, not shifting his gaze from Bulma. She made eye contact with him, then choked and turned away, hiding her face from view. He frowned. What was her problem today?

"We need to talk to you about something." 18's voice was cold, and there was something strange about it.

"Well, hurry up. I haven't got all day you know," he grumbled, moving towards his car. Chichi stepped forward and placed her hand on his chest, shoving him back roughly. "What the hell was that for?" he growled. Chichi glared at him.

"Chichi," Goku warned, stepping to her side. She swivelled around to face him.

"Be quiet, Goku. Now hurry up and explain to this piece of shit," she shot a dirty look at Vegeta, "what we're doing here." Goku sighed.

"Vegeta, I think you'd better come with us," he spoke. Vegeta raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I want to do that Kakarot?" Vegeta asked, folding his arms.

"Because I told you to," 18 snapped, and Goku grabbed Vegeta by the shoulder, throwing him roughly into his car. He growled. "Right I'll drive Vegeta, the rest of you go with Krillin," 18 told them.

"Where are we going?" Krillin asked. It was then that Vegeta realised Bulma hadn't spoken the whole time, which was very rare for her.

"Let's go and take a walk in the park," she told them, with a false tone of happiness. She climbed in, closed the door, and headed, with a grumbling Vegeta next to her, to the Centennial Lagoon.

Next Chapter: Confrontations, Bulma talks to Vegeta, and the truth comes out. How will Vegeta take it and what effect will it have on Bulma?

Author's Note: Well, there it is. Chapter 14 and I'm so sorry it took so long to get out but like I said up the top I will now be a frequent updater. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Kaibun