Author's Note: Thanks to Cappucine, TorankusuGohan, LoveOfASaiyin, Thomas Drovin, and SSJ-Spiderfan for reviewing! Your reviews are greatly appreciated!
Chapter 5 is finally here! And you guys are so lucky, because I'll be posting Chapter 6 the Friday coming! And then, as always, the next chapter will come the following Monday! Basically, you're only waiting, at the most, five days for each chapter!
Chapter 5: Bulma's Extremely Thoughtful Baby Shower
A few months later...
Bulma woke up a little too early for her own liking, and for once, it didn't have anything to do with her morning sickness. Giving a fleeting glance towards her husband's still-sleeping form, she stared irritably at her alarm clock, scowling as it revealed the time to her- three thirty-seven in the morning.
Furiously squinting to become accustomed to the darkness of their bedroom, Bulma silently rose from the bed, careful not to stir her husband. Vegeta merely turned over, emitting a loud snore as she made her way out of the room.
She raised a slightly trembling hand in the darkness of her house, anxiously feeling for the nearest hall light. Successfully finding one within a few seconds, she flicked it on at once, flooding the hallway immediately with light.
Slowly, she crept downstairs into the living room, where she promptly collapsed rather tiredly on the sofa.
The baby was going to be born soon; she could tell. Leaning her head over the arm of the sofa, she sighed deeply and closed her eyes.
It was about time. She simply could not wait to give birth to this baby, no matter how strange it sounded. However, she was already secretly dreading the numerous hours of labor that the baby, being a Saiyan of course, would give her.
Slowly but surely, she gave in to rightly deserved slumber, something she had not achieved since the baby had first begun to kick.
Many hours later...
Chi-Chi met Bulma in the living room, still snoozing exhaustedly. She sighed, resting a hand on her hip. This simply wouldn't do.
"Bulma... You have to wake up now."
An unceasing moment of silence gave her reason to believe that Bulma was not planning to rise any moment soon. "It's two o' clock, Bulma."
No answer.
"In the afternoon."
She abruptly forced her eyes open, and stared at Chi-Chi in shock, and, for a few seconds, resentment. "How could you let me sleep for that long?"
Chi-Chi shrugged, holding an outstretched hand to help Bulma to her feet. "I didn't want to bother you. Besides, you need to be well-rested for the baby shower-"
Bulma groaned loudly, stretching her limp limbs and stifling a yawn. "That's today, right?"
She nodded. "Now hurry and take a bath. Then come back downstairs, okay? I want to make sure this shower goes perfectly."
Two hours later...
Bulma was seated rather uncomfortably at the dining room table, staring anxiously from the wall to her many guests, as Goku reached over for the fourth time to retrieve the bowl of scalloped potatoes. She quickly averted her wandering gaze as Chi-Chi promptly smacked her husband's knuckles.
"That was incredibly rude of you, dear. Apologize at once."
Cowering under his wife's penetrating gaze, Goku mumbled a quick apology to Bulma, who nodded absentmindedly.
"It's okay. I only hope everyone's enjoying themselves..."
Videl nodded from her place at the table. "The food's wonderful, Chi-Chi. Good job."
Bulma simply tuned out her comments, along with everyone else's. Staring from Trunks and Goten, who only seemed to be shoveling in food at a remarkable rate; to Eighteen and Krillin, whose faces showed a battle of mixed emotions, she could tell everyone else was oblivious to how she was currently feeling.
She'd overlooked two people, however. Vegeta and Gohan, strangely enough, had left their overflowing plates untouched, and were gazing at Bulma skeptically. The latter of the two could not help but glance from Bulma's significantly large stomach to her now pale, sweaty face. Was it possible that...?
"I simply can't wait until the eighteenth of next month!" Chi-Chi, unbeknownst to her, snatched her son from his reverie, and he now stared at her curiously.
"What's so significant about February 18th?" wondered Goku, taking a sip of his drink. At his query, Krillin and his wife looked up as well.
"The baby will be born, of course!"
Bulma shifted uneasily in her stiff seat.
"That's an approximate, I thought..." Gohan finally spoke, wrinkling his shirt dreadfully with two antsy hands.
"Yes, but what the doctor says goes, you know. You, Goten, and Trunks were all born on the day the doctors said you'd be," Chi-Chi told him.
He smiled a bit uncertainly, and finally picked up his fork to eat. 'Somehow, I don't think this particular doctor was right...'
Vegeta, finally deciding not to eat after all, listened to the conversation half-heartedly while still staring at his wife. She was a little more than eight months into the pregnancy, and it would be at least three more weeks until the baby would be born, according to Chi-Chi. He gazed at Bulma almost sympathetically, as she leaned over the table, resting her head on it. 'Kakarot's woman must be mad. Doesn't she know babies can be born premature?'
Videl unknowingly restated his thoughts out loud, though in a more polite manner.
"Of course I know that! I was born late myself, you know!"
Bulma sighed loudly in her fatigue, but none of her guests seemed to take notice, with the exception of Eighteen. Holding Marron in her arms, she struggled to feed her, all while giving fleeting glances toward Bulma. 'This is outrageous. Shouldn't she be resting on a proper bed?'
The Briefs woman rose her head abruptly as Krillin and Gohan nervously changed the subject to business. Tucking a wilted strand of hair away from her eyes, she tried her best to keep up with the conversation, but to no avail.
Now it wasn't only the men and Eighteen who were becoming aware of Bulma's exhaustion. "Mom..." Trunks started, but a tiny glare from abovementioned woman kept him silent.
"So, did you like the gifts?" Even Goten tried his best to avoid the overt truth.
"Uh-huh." She took her untouched glass of lemonade and sipped it quietly. 'Why the hell are they all acting like this? They're usually silent when they eat...'
Little did she know that they were all mentally panicking at the moment, except for Chi-Chi and Goku, who seemed more than happy to either keep up the conversation or continue to devour the slowly-abandoned feast.
Sitting herself up straight again, she sighed wearily and began yet another attempt to satiate the uneasy feeling she had in her stomach.
Twenty minutes later...
A little while later, Bulma was now stuck with the task of holding an over-excited Marron in her lap, much to her displeasure. Eighteen, becoming a little too queasy for her own liking, had insisted Bulma hold her daughter for her. "She keeps shifting around," the android had said. "It would be nice to have you hold her, if you don't mind." 'Honestly, if I hold her any longer, I might drop her...'
Bulma raised an eyebrow, but took the girl all the same. 'And what makes you think she'll be slightly calmer on my lap?'
It was quite a struggle to hold even a small child on her lap, as her rotund stomach already occupied most of the little space Bulma had, but she accomplished the small task successfully. "You want me to feed her, too?"
"That would be nice." Eighteen passed a small bowl of food along the table, and Bulma grudgingly accepted it.
'What kind of baby shower is this? Feed your own baby; I'm already going through the process of having one right now...'
Right now. Bulma's eyes dilated noticeably, and even Chi-Chi and her husband paused from their socializing to gaze upon her in terror. A suddenly abandoned fork fell to the floor with a resounding clatter as Bulma's breathing became ragged and a bit more labored. "G-Get her off... Now..."
Eighteen immediately complied, grabbing a now-bawling Marron and whisking her away from Bulma's lap.
Gohan sat still in horror. Earlier, he had been anxious about Bulma's sudden weariness... but now he was positive that his worst fears were about to come to life!
"She's having contractions..." Videl whispered the obvious to no one in particular. She sat at her seat and began wrinkling her blouse fretfully, flushing dreadfully. 'What are we going to do? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God...' She fearfully removed her eyes from Bulma's pallid, apprehensive expression to the woman's dress. 'Oh, my God, her water's broken... Oh, my God...'
Trunks and Goten seemed to be horrified. The former rose to his feet abruptly, hurrying over to his father, who still sat at his seat, frozen and emotionless. Giving an ephemeral glance towards Chi-Chi, who seemed ecstatic, he exclaimed, "I don't get it! What's happening?"
"What are you, stupid?" Vegeta seemed to come back to life, and he rushed over to Bulma frantically, grabbing her trembling hand. "She's having the baby!"
Eighteen stood, bouncing a wailing Marron gently in her arms in a feeble attempt to silence her.
Krillin stood beside his wife, still deciding on whether to mentally panic or show his fear out loud. 'I really, really don't want to be here right now...'
Gohan unwillingly left his wife's side to try to comfort Bulma, who, by now, had raised her voice up to a deafening, pained scream. 'Why here? Why now? Why couldn't this have happened when we left?'
Chi-Chi merely held her hands together tightly, positively thrilled out of her wits, and trying not to let out a pleased shriek.
And Goku... Poor Goku...
Attempting to leave the room, he was caught by Vegeta, who grabbed his shoulder rather painfully, unknowingly adding to his apprehensiveness. "And just where do you think you're going?"
He sighed in submission, knowing just what his fellow Saiyan wanted. "Let's get to the hospital, then. Everyone get connected, please..."
Author's Note: There you have it! I hope you enjoyed this one, unlike a couple of people in this chapter… Ah, poor Videl! Why the sudden anxiousness? She seems to be overreacting even more than the men are! Is there something that she's hiding from the rest of the party? Hm, I wonder… Bye for now! (By the way, if you have any ideas or questions about upcoming chapters, I'll be more than happy to receive them! Just don't expect me to tell you exactly what happens… You'll have to wait to see!)
Ladii-Chocolate (Ladii… LC… Whatever you want to call me! :D)
…Okay! Fine! I can't hold it anymore! In the next chapter, trouble arises as soon as the gang arrives at the hospital… What will happen? Will Vegeta and Chi-Chi learn to work their problems out? Will Videl finally tell Gohan what's on her mind? Will Bulma actually deliver in this next chapter? And will Krillin and Goku catch a few winks of sleep before the baby's finally born? Find out this and more in the next exciting installment of The Strangest Thing!