Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or the characters.
I have to take the time to thank the reviewers of the story from way back when I originally posted the chapter. So, if they're still around, thank you su, KimiruMai, iluvveggie, and hey-sasstiel.
Thank you, also, to everyone who has reviewed since :D I always love seeing new reviews.
Vegeta had been right in his deduction; the nearest planet had been about a day's travel. When the ship had landed, he planned to order Kakarot to leave the ship to get food and water, as well as something for the girl, Bulma, to wear (though for the moment, the palm tree-haired warrior was nowhere to be found). He knew bringing her to his home planet in her current state was not an option. Though the members of his race would not do anything out of turn in his presence, he was still unsure how anyone would react to him bringing back a stranger. It was usually unheard of to bring a "prisoner" back and then giving them luxuries, which is what his plans were for this girl, at least until his questions were answered. After that, he did not know what would happen to her. Prisoners of purges, depending on their skills, would sometimes end up in the dungeon or as slaves. Neither sat well with him for the broken girl. That was one of the reasons for the pretense he was bestowing on her. It was for her safety.
He decided to go check on her and found her in a deep sleep. His eyes followed the rising and falling motions of her chest as she breathed lightly, and it caused something warm to stir inside of him as he observed her weak form curl up in the blanket. Frowning, he was reminded yet again why he sent Kakarot for clothes. Despite not being able to see her form beneath the blanket, he had back at the dome-shaped building. He had not been exaggerating when he said that he found her attractive, though the fact that she had gone through what he assumed she had had left him distract. As she cringed in her sleep, Vegeta reached out to run his calloused hand through her blood-caked hair. Under all of the blood and grime, she was beautiful, gorgeous even, and he knew that he might have to fight many men on the planet to keep them away from her. Vegeta smirked at the thought of confrontation. Yep, that would just be so terrible.
The girl sighed in contentment, most likely lost in a safer dream world, as he attempted to free some of the strands from the blood. There was a small smile on Bulma's face. She leaned into his hand causing him to pull away as if she had burned him. Truthfully, his own actions shocked him. He had never been so...tender, at least not to a mere stranger. Her soft sighs and snores freed him from the tumultuous train of though. At least she seemed to be calmed. Maybe whatever she was dreaming would ease the trauma that she felt.
"Hey, Vegeta," Kakarot whispered surprising the prince where he stood. Vegeta sent him a glare, for startling him, though Kakarot had obviously not understood. "What, the mission's over now, right?"
Vegeta thought about his words for a second and nodded his agreement. The other warrior did not need to know he had taken the prince by surprise. "What?"
"Shouldn't one of us stay with her in case she wakes up?" Vegeta hadn't thought about that, and he realized that his subordinate had made a good point.
"Yes," Vegeta replied. "I will stay." He reached into his armor's breastplate, pulling out a metal card. "Here." He threw it to Kakarot who was able to catch it with ease. "Get the girl some clothes."
Kakarot smiled. "Sure thing, buddy." He sped out of the ship with his usual goofy grin on his face. Vegeta couldn't help but shake his head at his friend's childlike manner.
Vegeta tilted his head back to the unconscious girl and started to study her. If you took away the blood, her skin was ivory white bringing out the blue of her hair. She was sleeping on her left side with her left hand closed in a fist resting by her head. She had her bangs parted to her right and they stopped right above her eyes. Her lips were parted as she breathed lightly in her sleep, and Vegeta found the sound relaxing. In all honesty, he could tell she was young in the way she curled into herself as if that would give her protection.
Then all of that peace vanished as her face contorted in pain and fear. The girl began crying out weakly as she tossed and turned. She kept struggling in her sleep occasionally whispering "no" over and over again. Vegeta lightly touched her shoulder in attempts to wake her, avoiding her fist, but the girl was not all that responsive to it. Her eyes shot open and she pressed herself against the wall. Whatever she had been fighting, she was trying to get away. She looked up at Vegeta with fear in her eyes, though her eyes seemed distant, as if she were reliving a memory rather than seeing the man that saved her.
"Bulma," Vegeta whispered.
"Stay back," Bulma replied quietly.
Vegeta ignored her and walked closer. He expected her eyes to follow him, but they were focused on the spot where he was originally standing, which indicated that she was reliving her experience and that, for the moment, she was not in the room.
"Please don't come any closer," Bulma pleaded, tears streaming down her face. "No, stop. Please, don't do this."
She threw herself back down to the bed, screaming and crying the entire time. Vegeta would have tried to help her snap out of it, but unfortunately he didn't know how. All he could so was let her relive it and the entire time he watched in disgust. He was not disgusted with her, but what had obviously happened in her room. Hearing her whimpers at what he could only assume was the end of the ordeal, Vegeta reminded himself that this was the reason he was opposed to rape.
Bulma finally calmed down and opened her eyes, searching her surroundings. She realized she wasn't in her room, like she had thought. Her expression grew both frantic and curious, a strange combination after what he had just witnessed. "Where am I?" she asked out loud.
"On my ship," Vegeta replied.
Bulma jumped and looked over to Vegeta who was standing at the edge if the bed. She looked down and gasped when she realized she was only wrapped in a blanket. She pulled the blanket tighter around her and grew fearful, staring at the stranger in front of her before she remembered the last twenty-four hours. She relaxed slightly, but still looked terrified.
"Don't worry about your attire," Vegeta told her. "Kakarot went to get you some clothes as well as more food and water. You look like you haven't eaten in days."
"Last week," Bulma replied quietly. "They came sometime last week."
"Who?"
"I can't say," Bulma answered looking down at the blanket with a blank expression. Her mind was starting to piece things together. "I think I remember you now. Vegeta right?" He nodded. "Why did you help me?"
"Didn't you hear what I told Kakarot?" Vegeta questioned defensively.
"For information, I guess," she admitted. "And for something else that I didn't buy. I could tell that you weren't saying any of that to be malicious. Those things you wore over your eyes…communication devices? Was someone listening?"
"How did you-?" Vegeta cut himself off. "Never mind. You're certainly more coherent than you were yesterday."
"I guess," Bulma said while laying back down, gripping her blanket tightly. "I miss them."
"Who?" Vegeta asked.
"My parents," she answered. "When they came, my father did everything in his power to stop them and protect mom and me. He and I co-owned the world's biggest engineering and weapons company, but they were too powerful."
Vegeta looked at the young girl in shock. There was no way she could have owned and run a company like that at such a young age. It then dawned on him that he did know her true age, just that she was young. "How old are you, girl?"
"Bulma, and I am sixteen…well, maybe seventeen. I lost track of the date after I…after what happened. Depending on how many days it has been, my birthday has probably already passed."
Only a year younger than me, Vegeta thought in silent amazement. Then he frowned. She was still a child and she had lost everything and around her birthday, too, not that he really knew what a "birth day" was. He could only assume that the race kept track of their age by some temporal component.
"I feel dirty," Bulma mentioned pulling Vegeta out of his thoughts. Bulma looked down to her bloodied arms. "Oh…"
Vegeta walked back around to the side of the bed and held a hand out to Bulma. "I'll take you to the washroom. Kakarot should be back with clothes by the time you are finished cleaning up."
Bulma looked at Vegeta's hand and hesitated. She looked back up to his face and searched for any deceit or malice and found none. She moved her hand to his slowly, but didn't take it. Vegeta could tell that she was still debating on whether or not he was safe. He couldn't blame her. He too was going to her planet to destroy her race. They were strangers that had but a chance meeting and now were stuck together after one of them went through something tragic.
Vegeta sighed. "I mean you no harm, Bulma," he grumbled while looking away from her. He was letting his guard down for the moment, Bulma could tell. She didn't know this alien, but for one to let their guard down in the presence of someone they didn't know…well, even for her that was a difficult and challenging thing to do. She figured she'd meet him halfway in this. After all, he had rescued her, though she wasn't stupid enough to believe that, if the situation had been different, he wasn't dangerous. She stared at him, remaining cautious, as she placed her hand in his.
Vegeta let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding. He couldn't get over how foolish that sounded. Something about this girl made him stir and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. "Let's go, girl."
Bulma's nervous expression became one of contempt. "It's Bulma."
Vegeta smirked at her. He was certainly glad she was out of her catatonic state. It was so much easier to deal with her now that he could actually communicate with her. It also helped that she was so much brighter than he originally thought. He had to give credit where it was do. A young woman being so involved in a company as she had been was impressive. It was clear she had high intellect in addition to the information he needed for his father. Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to help him in a way he rarely dared to think on. Maybe she could help them take out his tyrant of a father.
Vegeta brought Bulma to the wash room and filled the bath with warm water. He took out a drying cloth for her and handed it to her. Bulma took it with slight apprehension, but took it nonetheless. "I will wait for Kakarot and bring you something to change into when he gets back. Enjoy." Then he left her alone.
After leaving, Vegeta was thinking a few things. One, who the hell wiped out Earth's population before them and why did they leave one survivor? Two, did they know there was a survivor? If not, what would happen if they had returned and found her like he had? Chances are she wouldn't have survived another assault. It angered him to think that if they had shown up any later, she wouldn't be with them now. Three, why did he care so much? It was so unlike him.
"Hey, Vegeta, I'm back," Kakarot greeted. "So, where's that girl?"
"Her name is Bulma," Vegeta told him. "She's taking a bath. Did you find clothes?"
"Uh-huh," Kakarot said while grinning. "In this bag, here." He handed Vegeta a paper bag.
"Thanks," Vegeta muttered. Kakarot and his brother, Tarble, were probably the only two alive to whom he would ever express gratitude other than his mother, the queen.
"No problem. I'll go put the food away."
Vegeta eyed his friend and then smirked. "Don't eat it all this time."
Kakarot laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, I won't. See you in a bit."
Bulma felt like she was in heaven. Maybe she really had died and this was her reward. After scrubbing herself down with a soft cloth, she lied back in the tub and felt all of her muscles start to relax. She didn't even hear the door open when Vegeta came in.
Vegeta smirked when he saw the peaceful expression on her face. He really didn't think something s small as a bath would cause such a profound effect on the girl. And now that she was no longer covered in blood, she looked even more beautiful than he had thought beforehand.
After catching himself staring, Vegeta looked away and cleared his throat. That caught Bulma's attention and she sat up quickly to cover herself with her arms. When she saw that it was Vegeta, she relaxed a little. Normally, she'd still be freaked out by some strange man being in a room with her while she was this vulnerable. Her rational mind told her that since he had already seen her at her worst when they met, this wasn't nearly as bad.
"I brought clothes for you," he said, still avoiding her gaze. He put the clothes down on the counter of the sink.
"Thank you," Bulma replied.
"It's nothing," he told her.
"Not just for the bath or the clothes, Vegeta," Bulma said pointedly. "I mean for everything. You didn't have to bring me with you. You could have left me there. You didn't even have to let me bring anything. It…it means a lot."
Vegeta looked over to her, ignoring her nakedness. "Like I said, girl, it's nothing."
He turned to leave when Bulma called out, "If you say so, but I'm still grateful. Um…I'll be out soon."
Vegeta nodded and left the washroom, leaning the back of his head against the door. Something was up with him. He was usually calm and collected, he was usually cold and cut-throat, but add some random girl into the mix and he was falling all over himself. She was thankful? Thankful… No one had ever shown him gratitude like she had, honest, pure gratitude. For some reason, it made him feel better about himself, but he was a ruthless killer. She had to have known that he was planning to perform the same task as this other band of aliens. He didn't need her thanks to make him feel whole, right? What the hell is going on with me? he asked himself as he pushed himself off the door. Unfortunately for him, that question was left unanswered.