Chapter 12

A/N: Ok, getting closer to the end…I think the next chapter will be the last. This is, after all a Pan and Vegeta fiction so I'm going to have to bring them altogether somehow so it all works. Hmm, a challenge indeed. Well, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far, I have appreciated all of the reviews. – funkypunk.

She was in the operating theatre for a total of eighteen hours and by the time Vegeta was allowed to see her she was completely asleep, the drugs had sedated her heavily. Her hair was messy, there were scratches over her face, neck and arms but they had been tended to with dressing to clean and speed up the healing process. There was a mask coving her face, a tube leading from inside her arm to a large machine and bag beside the bed, Vegeta assumed it was food. He was told by the doctors that she was going to be okay, the she would recover though the process would be slow. He remembered the time when he had injured himself when he blew up the entire Gravity Room that Bulma had personally built for him, he had been in hospital for no more than twenty four hours, yet she had remained by his side the entire time. Such a simple respectable gesture had toughed his heart, it was how he knew that she was beginning to fall for him though she was with Yamcha at the time. He pulled up a chair close to the bed and sat down, there was nothing more to be done. He just have to wait until she woke and then maybe she would give him a chance to explain himself, maybe not explain himself away from the problem but maybe just shed enough light on what he had felt really happened between himself and Pan.

A doctor entered the room, a young man. Vegeta ignored him completely. Doctor Maddison had a look at Bulma's vital signs, her heart rate was spot on and her breathing had settled back to normal but he felt that she would still need the oxygen mask for a few more days just to be safe. He loved looking at her, the doctor was mesmerised by her beauty, he could have cared less about her age, and she was just a magnificent woman, a genuine person. Doctor Maddison turned to leave but Vegeta stood up and blocked his way.

"She is not yours to glare at. She is my wife!" The prince snorted. The doctor merely smirked in his response, as though he could care less.

"I think you should be reminding yourself of that Mister Vegeta Sir. You were virtually unreachable when we found your wife. Would a husband make himself available for contact with his wife in case of emergencies?" Doctor Maddison knew he was provoking the prince and he also knew that the prince had an extremely short temper but he didn't care, his concern was only for the patient, he had more important things to attend to than angry spouse. He pushed past Vegeta and left the room, closing the door gently behind himself. Vegeta grunted and then sat down beside Bulma again. He reached over and took Bulma's hand into his, it was so small and soft, he loved how she was such a tiny creature in many respects. He had been attracted to the human woman for as long as he could remember; maybe it even began all the way back in the days of the Frieza battle on planet Namek. She was amusing, loud, boisterous, and arrogant and completely gorgeous. He loved to remember her like that. Yet, here she was now, laying bed at General Hospital after driving into a tree. He wondered if the collision was deliberate, and that like Pan, refused to continue in the suffering state of being alive.

"My Bulma, I am so, so sorry…" Vegeta mumbled, caressing her hand with his hands, his thumbs brushing across her skin gracefully. She was warm, that to him was a very good sign. Suddenly the thought of Pan's cold skin flooded back into his mind and then he began to worry about her safety. Vegeta tried not to think of what had happened to her, because unlike what he had shared with Bulma, he had never emotionally connected with Pan and couldn't even sense if she was still alive. He stood up, the thought of her in danger was scaring him, and the thought of leaving Bulma alone was also unbearable. One of them will die, he thought, and it will be because I chose to love only one for one reason. He walked over to the window and opened it, and then pushed his head out to get a breath of fresh air. The air was sweet but full of regret and guilt; he could feel it each time he inhaled. It was all around him, the guilt was killing him inside. He didn't want to be a murderer but today, that seemed to be his destiny.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Bulma gasped, she could turn her head but she was surely awake, the drugs losing their sedative effect on her. Vegeta pulled his head back inside and closed the window. He turned to face her then walked over to her, her eyes were open and they were quite watery. Were they tears, he wondered.

Her gorgeous blue eyes were staring up at him directly into his own black orbs.

"I love you" Vegeta could find nothing else more suitable to say, he look around the room, he felt uncomfortable. She was judging him, he knew it.

"This stopped being about love when you left after you told me about the kiss you shared with Pan" Bulma continues, "perhaps if you had stayed I would have forgiven you but then, you took it further and I know, while you were in bed with her and her legs were wrapped around your body you knew it was wrong. But why did it feel wrong Vegeta? That's what I want to know…"

"I thought it was obvious" Vegeta mumbled.

"The point I'm trying to convey is this, if neither me or your son were in the picture, you would have no regret about continuing your affair with that young girl, would you? It's only because of your family that you feel the shame that you do now. I don't know if I should just let you go…" She tried to turn her head away and it was clear to him that she had finished talking for the day.

Vegeta hated himself, but inside there was still love. He leaned over Bulma and kissed her on her cheek, it was a slow lingering kiss, and conceivably even a goodbye kiss but Bulma wasn't entirely sure. She never fully understood him; he was very random and moody. Vegeta stood back and headed towards the door but before he left he turned around to face her one last time.

"It was inevitable Bulma. I don't want to blame anyone. Pan has Saiyan blood and that's all it took for me to make the decision I have now made", Vegeta stared into her eyes, "This stopped being about love a while ago…" Vegeta sighed. He would now go to her, and somehow, he would leave her behind. He did love his Bulma, very much, she was the woman who had made him become the sort of man he was today, she had helped in train, and she had given him a home and family.

His life was going down another path, one she could not follow because she was human, and though he thought that didn't mattered when he first mated with her, now with Pan at sexual maturity he knew that it did. His mind, his body was being drawn to her, Pan thought she had cast a web of deceit to catch him but it wasn't so, it was just her scent, the scent of a Saiyan female, a warrior whom he had trained and cared for. His body had found its match, its true match.

He left the room and closed the door gently behind him then slowly exited the hospital. He somehow felt that the bond with his wife was still there, in the back of his mind. He could feel her pain, her sense of loss and as much as he wanted to get rid of the connection he decided to keep it. He loved her, and she loved him and he knew that somehow it was important that both knew how the other felt. It was a comforting feeling to know that it had been about love from the moment they had first met and that Vegeta's betrayal was simply what he was destined for. He knew he would now have to take to the air and locate Trunks, and he hoped that Pan was alive and well. He also hoped that she still wanted him and not Trunks but maybe it was too late. Maybe she would go back to arms of his own son; maybe what he felt so deeply for her was not really reciprocated from her. Dread was beginning to rise in his body; he wanted her now more than anything he had ever wanted before. He tried to sense her but her energy was still far too weak to pickup, well , he hoped that was the reason. He then tried to focus on his son's Ki which he picked up with ease, Vegeta could tell that Trunks had lowered his power back to an average state but maybe it was because he didn't need to intimidate Pan anymore, maybe he had done the unthinkable.

"Pan" Vegeta breathed as he launched his body into the sky and directed himself to where his son was, "if he has hurt you, I will kill him!"