Note: I realize that the timeline for my story is different. I didn't want poor Bulma to be nearing fifty when Bra was born, so I made them both a little younger. This is an AU people. That stuff happens. Do you really want them to be old? I don't. She'll be old in the last chapter, so don't worry. Fo now, I'm say she was 40 when Bra was born instead of the controversial 46/48. That way she's about 43 now. Good? Good.

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Chapter Three
One Month
By Silent Hanyou

Bulma's POV

It was the sound of unfamiliarity that woke me that morning. Usually all that could be heard throughout the house was a shower kicking on. Mom puttering about in the kitchen. Maybe the kids in the gardens. And in all honesty, to anyone else, there wouldn't seem anything different. But I could feel it. There was a shifting in the atmosphere of the house.

The first thing she realized was that she wasn't in her room. Because Vegeta was there. How strange that she had wanted him there, needed him there for over a year. And she hadn't been able to.

Rising from the bed, Bulma made her way through the house. It was odd for her to be up this early. She hadn't been awake before mid-afternoon in months. It wasn't even nine yet.

"When are we going, dad?" Bulma heard Trunks ask as she reached the kitchen door. He sounded excited about something. She peered around the door frame into the kitchen at them. Vegeta stood with his back to her at the kitchen counter, Trunks next to him and Bra sitting on the counter. Bulma's mother was wrapping something up by the stove. She handed it to her son-in-law and he moved enough for Bulma to see what he was doing: packing a picnic basket.

"We'll leave as soon as your mother is ready to join us." he responded, closing the basket and lifting his daughter from the counter, "We'll spend the day out in the country. Kakarot and Chichi live out there and Goten wants to take you and your sister hiking and fishing for the afternoon with me and your mother."

I leaned back against the wall. What was he doing? Why wasn't he upset or afraid? He would die in a month! And he was going on a picnic day trip?

"Bulma." he whispered in her ear, making her jump. He had one side of his chest leaned forward against the door frame and the rest of his body hanging lazily. He lifted a hand and tugged at my hair lightly, "Are you up for a picnic, woman? Kakarot and his wife have invited us to stay over up there for the night."

I backed up slowly away from him to clear my head. Gad, but he could effect me so. Why was he doing this? I closed my eyes and tried to regain some semblance of order. My mind was working much better now than it ever had while he was gone. I could think again. I didn't feel helpless anymore. And that frightened me all the more.

All my re-found logic said that to go would be unwise. To be near him, to feel and think again, would be unwise. Because she could easily grow used to him, to seeing him and smelling him. Feeling him. And then when he was taken from her again... I would fall right back into that dark abyss of not existing. Of eating, sleeping, and dreaming.

I opened my mouth to say no, but there was something in the look he gave. As though he was afraid I was thinking of leaving him. Of abandoning him. Like he knew that every fiber in my being was trying to block him out. And it hit me. Right where it hurt the most.

"Yes. I can go.." I rasped out hollowly. My body was fighting the cause of all its pain. My mind was screaming for this to stop while it reclaimed sanity. But my heart, even surrounded by the six foot wall of solid numbness that I had built up, was having its say. Funny how after such a long absence, the heart could still be so much stronger.

Vegeta's POV

So Chichi was right and wrong. It was now clear to me that she was afraid of these rapid changes in her spirit. But I had also seen the fear she held for me. Directed at me. I couldn't really blame her. Not after everything I'd put her through.

Trunks was also slow in accepting. A wariness was always right there. He was eleven now. Nearly twelve. It was an awkward age for him. And it occurred to me that my new life was confusing to him. As my death would be confusing to him.

I wanted to help them to understand. I needed them to know that without me, the world does move. Life does pass. And I was afraid that, as a human with short years, Bulma was passing too many of hers up. Most humans lived no older than seventy-five. And she had passed the half-way mark a little after Trunks was born. I didn't want her to spend the last thirty two plus years in mourning. If she even lasted that long.

We drove up to the country with Kakarot and Chichi about an hour later. The kids were goofing off in the backseat of the ship. I got the feeling that they had visited Kakarot's home quite often over the passed year when their mother had had her "fits." It was good that Trunks still had that childlike demeanor. He hadn't completely lost his childhood.

Bulma had insisted that she fly the craft, despite protests to the contrary from Kakarot. She had also insisted that Chichi sit beside her. That left the children in the very back, out of their seats now and chasing each other around, and Kakarot beside me.

Have you any plans specifically on how to reach her?

The question slipped across my mind and held. It was Kakarot. I glanced at him sideways and his eyes full of the question he'd posed. I looked out the window as I answered, Not just yet. At this point I'm just trying to make her want to be near me.

I could feel his mind working. He wanted to help. That was obvious. He was worried, it poured from his mind into mine. But, like me, he wasn't sure what could be done.

Bulma will have to either accept this and open up on her own, or there is nothing to be done.

She trying to protect herself. She thinks that when I die this time, she'll follow suit more completely than she did before.

So then the question is still, how are you going to reach her?

How the hell can I reach her if she doesn't want to be reached?

I'm not sure, Vegeta. But for her sake, I hope that you do. I think that, as you said, your first task is to gain her trust. You can't teach someone when they don't believe in what you are trying to teach. It just won't sink in as well as if they are trying for the same thing.

The kids were more than excited when we arrived. They practically flew out of the ship, did in fact, with little Bra between them, each holding an arm. My daughter giggled and screamed as the boys dropped her, tossed her, caught her, and flew high up. It occurred to me that nobody minded in the least. Bulma would have had a fit had Trunks tried that before I died. But he seemed faster, stronger. Both he and Goten were confident and careful. And the adults ignored them.

We laid out the blanket by the lake. Chichi and Bulma sat on it while Kakarot and I made a small energy sheild in the water that would only allow small fish inside. This was where we could let Bra fish. I glanced back at Bulma and smiled at her. She gave a hesitant return smile. All things considered, I was confident that I could make her see.

Bulma's POV

"What's the matter with you?" Chichi demanded beside me.

I snapped my head back to her and smiled weakly, "What do you mean?"

"You know damned well what I mean. Your poor husband finds out that he has been dead with no memory of it, has only this small window of life remaining, and is still trying to live." she replied bluntly, "You, on the other hand, seem to have been more dead to the world in the passed year than he has and still can't grasp happiness for the short amount of time you'll have it."

I glared at her, "You know why Chichi. You said it yourself! He isn't here to stay. I'm not going to have him forever. So why should I grasp anything now when it will all be ripped away from me in less than a month!"

We spoke in hushed tones. We had to. Our husband's were close enough for a Saiyan to here if we spoke to loudly. Were they humans, that wouldn't be the case. It was sad to think that Vegeta should be 46 this year.. I was only 43. We were young! So young still, yet.. He had died at 44 and then come back to die once more. Would I die at 44 as well? Was this my last year on Earth?

"But he's here now, B-chan." she told me gently, "And I hope that you realize that sooner rather than later. We've both dealt with losing them before. It's the choice we make when we marry a saiyan. They are fighters. They count on our strength when they are gone."

"It's different and you know it, Chichi." I whispered, "A death in battle is restorable through the Dragon balls. But he died of an aneurism. Natural causes. I think that the battles were easier to deal with because in our hearts we knew that they could and would come back to us. It was a comfort. I just don't want that to happen to me twice, Chi."

Chichi wrapped her arms around Bulma. She knew that Bulma was fighting this. Would fight it with all that was left of her. But she also knew that without that flame in her soul, the one that had been locked away with Vegeta's death, Bulma wouldn't survive much longer.

I just didn't know it yet.

"Come on. Let's go help the boys. Bra's never fished before."

Vegeta's POV

I tried everything for the next two weeks. Hiking, camping, fishing, swimming. We took an extended vacation at Kakarot's. And everytime I got close to her, she threw up those damnable walls of hers. Half my time was up here and the minimal amount of progress that I had made was frustrating, but it was there. I saw it in the way she watched me when I wasn't supposed to notice. I saw it in the way that she laughed and joked with Trunks. The way she played with Bra again. But to me, it wasn't enough.

I needed to know that when I left, she would be able to live on. To be alone, yet know that she had a family and friends who loved her and cared about her. Who needed her.

That first day in the country, we'd fished out dinner. Chichi cooked it with a little of Bulma's help over a fire and we slept outside. I had tried to sleep beside her, but she hadn't let me. There was so much to do.. and no time to do it. That was how it felt and seemed in my eyes.

Now we were back at Capsule Corp. Trunks stayed behind with Bra for an extra week to give Bulma and I some time with only each other, but they'd be home day after tomorrow. Her parents were still there, naturally. But they generally left us alone. I sat on the balcony outside our room. Bulma was in the gardens below. She was just walking, as apparently she often did. One thing that was different about her routine in particular, was that she never visited my grave. It was her way of denying that I would leave her again, I knew.

I leaned against the railing with my head in my hands for a long moment. I needed something.. anything to reach her. Backing off to let her adjust wasn't helping. Forcing my attentions hadn't either. Giving her a day alone with Trunks hadn't worked. It seemed nothing would.

I watched her weave through the gardens, making her way to every plant and every path, save for one. Beyond the small lake, there was a section of the garden that she went no where near. But it seemed to me that it wasn't from conscious thought. As though it was a habit to avoid their place. Inside was a wide path with water on either side and at the end was a pavillion. One that Dr. Briefs had built just for them. It was where they'd gotten married.

The gardens in this place were still well kept. The path and the pavillion in perfect condition. Both facts, I suspected, were do to some demand that Bulma had made after my death. I had the feeling that that was the one place the children and the animals were forbidden from entering. That tiny island where our lives began together.

I stood slowly as a thought occurred, my mouth curving into a grin. That was it. The way to reach her. To make her understand that even in death, I would always be right where I belonged. Turning from the rail, I hurried from our bedroom and from Capsule Corp. There was a lot to arrange and I had only two days to see that it was done. I would give Bulma the most that I could. And I would make sure that she never forgot!

It was my last shot at reaching her.. Our one last chance.

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Sorry for the short chapter, everyone. I just decided that instead of putting Vegeta's last chance in this one, I'd give you guys a little cliff to dangle from hopelessly. Maybe I'll end it right here so you guys never find out what happens. Yes. I think that sounds good. You don't mind, do you?

Just joking, naturally. Come back for Chapter 4: One Last Chance.