Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dragonball series

Chapter 15

Kabu

Gohan's head dropped sharply and he instantly woke up. He'd been drifting in and out of sleep for the last ten hours but couldn't sleep sat up in the chair. He blinked and rubbed the back of his neck. He looked up and saw Appura looking at him. She was lying on her side, one arm around her stomach, the steady beeping of two heart monitors behind her. As soon as his dad had returned the night before, they'd raced to Satan City hospital. The doctor's had immediately started pumping Appura full of drugs in an attempt to keep the baby inside for as long as possible but Appura's labour was still advancing albeit much more slowly. She couldn't sleep. Not knowing that her transformation had caused this, that her transformation had traumatised her unborn baby so much that he wanted out. "You should sleep," Appura mumbled, barely conscious from exhaustion and the drugs that were still being pumped into her.

"I can't, I won't," Gohan mumbled, still rubbing his neck, "I want to stay here with you."

"I'm sorry, Gohan, I couldn't stop it, I just wanted to hurt them so bad..." Appura started. Gohan quickly stood up and walked over to the bed. He stroked her short hair gently.

"Don't be sorry," Gohan said, "I watched my dad make the transformation. It can't be stopped."

"I'm so tired," Appura half-moaned, her eyes closing. She looked exhausted.

"I know, try to sleep, you'll need your energy," Gohan said.

"Ok," Appura mumbled, her voice slurred, "I love you." Gohan didn't say anything but bent over and pressed a kiss to her head. He listened to her breathing even out and knew she'd dozed off. He didn't have long. He pulled away from her and left the room.

Outside the room, there was a long bench of seats. His dad was asleep, his head resting against the wall, one leg bent, bringing his foot up onto the seat with him and his arms folded. Bulma was on the seat next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. His mother was on the other side. Goten and Trunks had gone back with Krillin and 18. Vegeta was leaning against the wall by the door. "She asleep?" he asked. Gohan nodded.

"I need a smoke," Gohan muttered.

"Really, thought you quit with Appura?" Vegeta smirked. Gohan ignored him and headed out of the hospital with the Prince just behind him. As soon as they reached outside, Gohan ferreted around in his pockets for his cigarettes. He found an old half-crushed packet in an inside pocket along with a disposable lighter that still had a little fuel in it. He lit a cigarette and took his first drag in four months before slumping backwards onto the wall and siding down to sit on the floor. "She's not going to last much longer," he muttered, "Sooner or later, those drugs are going to stop working and she's going to get the urge to start pushing, Vegeta, I'm scared that the baby isn't going to survive, that, it'll be too weak." Vegeta said nothing but looked at the boy, the father of his grandchild, out the corner of his eye.

"Do you even care? This is your daughter and her child we're talking about, your own flesh and blood, their lives are in danger and you haven't said a word since we got here!" Gohan snapped.

"Don't you dare talk to me that way, boy," Vegeta spat, spinning around to face Gohan fully, "Of course I know those drugs aren't going to work for long, and, yes, I know it's my daughter in there. But this stopped being my problem the minute she stopped listening to me. It stopped being my problem the minute she crawled into bed with you and conceived your brat."

"Don't," Gohan warned the older man, "Don't start with that brat nonsense, not with my kid! Things are going to change Vegeta, I'm sick of the way you look down at me and my family. Yeah, ok, so maybe my dad's family weren't very high up the social ladder back on Planet Vegeta, but the fact of the matter is, without us, you'd be homeless right now. Do you honestly think Bulma offered to take you in out of the kindness of her heart? No! She took you in as a favour to my dad, you were the only other Saiyan left and she knew that he'd want you to be ok, no matter how much of jerk you were. And not only did she take you in, but she bent over backwards to help you train for the androids AND she had your kid and not once did she complain about how you treated her. You may not have fooled around with other women like Yamcha did, but you weren't exactly the most supportive guy either. So here's how this is going to go down, over the next few hours or days or however long Appura is in labour, you can still treat me and my dad like dirt, but the second my kid is born, you put one toe out of line, one snide remark about our family and I will take you down." Vegeta stared at Gohan, incredulous. Where the hell had that come from?

"You think you can threaten me boy? You honestly think you can beat me in a fight?" he spat.

"Honestly no, but I will always prove to my kid that I won't take your shit lying down, and I'm damn sure Appura won't either," replied Gohan, "We're going to be one big family very soon Vegeta, and it's about time you started acting like you're a part of it. My grandfather means the world to me, and I'm sure you and my dad will be my son's heroes. But I will not have him growing up, wondering why his dad lets his grandfather walk all over him." Gohan paused to stand up and drew himself up to his full height, towering over Vegeta.

"I won't tell my son what you did before Namek, the murdering, the destroying of planets," he said, his voice softer now, "But I will tell him of the few times you've done the right thing, like sacrificing yourself against Buu, charging headlong into Cell after he hurt Mirai Trunks. You are a good man Vegeta, you just need to show it a little more." With that, Gohan stubbed his cigarette out and walked back into the hospital, leaving a stunned Vegeta by himself.

"ARGHHHHH!" Gohan froze halfway down the hallway at the sound of Appura's scream. No, no, those drugs should have worked for at least a few more hours. He bolted down the hall, thankful for his Saiyan speed for the first time. He turned the corner and ran into his father. "Gohan, where have you been?" Goku said, grabbing hold of Gohan's shoulders, "Appura went into full blown labour about ten minutes ago!"

"I just went outside for some fresh air," Gohan replied, pushing his father to one side and racing towards Appura's room. He threw open the door to her room. She was up on her feet again. The drips she had been attached to were now lying forgotten on the floor, it looked as though she had ripped them out herself. She clutched the side of the bed, her knuckles white and Gohan could hear the metal frame beneath them groaning in protest at being squeezed by a labouring Saiyan. "Where have you been?" she snapped before launching into another groan of pain. Gohan didn't answer as he moved over to her. The poor doctor and midwife were stood to one side, looking absolutely terrified. "He's not coming out today," Appura grunted, bowing her head, "I'm crossing my legs, I won't allow it. He's staying in there until I say so!"

"I don't think he's going to listen babe, remember who he has for a grandfather," Gohan said quietly as he tried to guide her back onto the bed.

"Miss Vegeta, I'm very sorry," said the doctor, who looked like he was trembling, "But the drugs are obviously no longer working, we may have to deliver your son now."

"No, he has to stay in, he's not ready," Appura moaned.

"Well, he seems to think he is," replied the doctor, "We have a very good NICU here, we will be able to take care of him." Gohan could tell Appura didn't have any strength left to argue with both the doctor and her unborn son.

"Fine," she moaned as she settled back onto the bed, "I'd much rather be stood up to do this though."

"I understand, but I will not be able to help you deliver if you are standing," stuttered the poor doctor.

"Fine," Appura spat again before turning and smacking Gohan on the shoulder, "That's for disappearing on me."

"Ow," muttered Gohan as he took hold of her hand, "It'll be ok."

"I hope so," Appura muttered.

Six hours later…

Gohan was pretty certain his hand was going to break so it came as a huge relief when the midwife said, "Just one more push now." Appura had her head bowed and had been muttering in a language Gohan didn't recognise but assumed was Ancient Saiyan. She let out a scream, almost broke his hand and then…time seemed to slow down for a moment. The midwife and the nurses and the doctor seemed to slip into slow motion. He saw the doctor pulling something and then a high-pitched crying brought time back up to speed. The doctor held in his hands something red and wrinkled and screaming, something with a thick black furry tail and flame-shaped hair. His son. He was perfectly formed and by the sounds of things had a set of healthy lungs to say the least. The doctor quickly placed the baby on Appura's chest as he dealt with the afterbirth and cutting the umbilical cord. Gohan stared down at the baby on Appura, who was clicking her tongue and murmuring at the child. He had the round face of the Son family, but Vegeta's tall hair. "Look, Gohan, isn't he beautiful?" Appura cooed.

"Errr," Gohan hesitated. The baby wasn't what he'd call beautiful, in face at the moment it looked like a cross between Cell in his first form and Jeice. Appura elbowed him in the stomach as the nurse took their son away. "Doesn't matter, I still think he's beautiful," she said, barely audible over their son's crying. "Fascinating," the doctor said, "Miss Vegeta, you said all your medical tests were undertaken at Capsule Corp by their private doctors?"

"Yes," said Appura, "Why?"

"Did they indicate that your son had a tail?"

"Yes, it seems to be a genetic quirk on both sides of my family, and on one side of Gohan's," Appura replied, her tone breezy in an attempt to throw the doctor off any suspicious scents.

"Oh, well, Dr. Briefs may want them to be retrained," said the doctor, "Your records stated that you were only six and half months pregnant but he looks like he was carried to full term."

"Possibly," said Appura, "But my family have always been quick developers. So the doctor may only have been off by a little."

"Yes, pregnancy does vary from woman to woman, an inprecise science sometimes," said the doctor before returning to where the nurses were weighing the baby.

"Think he bought it?" Appura whispered to Gohan.

"Yep," Gohan replied.

"Wow," said Goten as Gohan carefully placed Kabu in his arms, "He's so little."

"He's a baby, stupid, we were all that little once," Trunks said in a sulky manner. He'd been disappointed that his turn had been cut short by Kabu wanting a feed and then Goten asking for a turn. "Gohan wasn't," Chi-Chi laughed but with tears in her eyes, "He was twelve pounds if he was an ounce!"

"Really? Wow, Trunks was just over ten," said Bulma, "And wasn't Goten ten on the dot?"

"Yes, he was, but he was wider than Gohan was," said Chi-Chi, "How much did Kabu weigh again, Appura?"

"Err, six pounds two," Appura said, quickly looking at her son. Despite all the pain she had felt pushing him out, he did seem rather small, even for a human baby. And he had more Saiyan blood than Gohan and Goten so she had expected him to be just as big as they were. The short hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Something was up. The door opened and her father finally showed up. Kami knows where he had been for the last several hours! "Hey, Gohan, he's making a funny noise, is that normal?" Goten's voice made her swing her head back again, "It's like he's panting."

"Goten, you dummy, you're holding him wrong!" Trunks barked.

"No, he's holding him fine," Gohan said as he crouched down in front of the chair his little brother was sat on and gently placing his hand on the baby, "His hearts beating really fast, even for a Saiyan…he can't breathe!" In one swift movement he had scooped Kabu out of Goten's arms and stood up. Appura tried to get out of bed but was still in too much pain. "Dad, go find a doctor, a nurse, somebody!" Gohan said as he walked over to Appura, "He's not breathing right." Appura stretched her arms out as Goku hurried from the room. Bulma and Chi-Chi looked worried but Vegeta just looked relaxed as Hell started breaking loose around him. Goku returned quickly with a doctor in tow who rushed over and started listening to Kabu's chest with a stethoscope. Appura's breath caught in her throat as she saw his frown deepen. "Your son is not breathing properly," the doctor said, "I'm afraid I will have to take him to the NICU after all." He reached for the intercom that was next to the bed and took the receiver off. He began repeating codes as Appura looked up at Gohan, his face marred with worry. She looked over to where her father had been stood. She wasn't all that surprised that he was gone.

He didn't plan to stay long, he didn't anyone to see him here. But the longer he stood there, the harder it was for him to leave. Why did he feel like he was the failure? Why did he have the feeling of guilt in his gut? It was not his son lying there in the incubator, a machine breathing for him, but still, it was his grandson. Kabu, son of Gohan, was lying in an incubator, an affront to Saiyan pride, an affront to Vegeta's pride. Vegeta frowned down at the sleeping child. He was stable. The doctor's seemed to think it was adrenaline that had kept Kabu breathing normally and now that it was wearing off, he was struggling. So they'd put him on the machine. Vegeta sneered. This was what happened when the Royal family mated with third class dogs. Weak offspring, barely able to breathe.

Vegeta's pride was still stinging from Gohan's verbal assault on him earlier that day, mere hours before the boy's birth. Vegeta hissed. Gohan had threatened to kick Vegeta if he put so much as one toe out of line. So, heeding the warning, an empty threat as it was, Vegeta had chosen to say nothing as the child was rushed to the NICU but stood there with his usual smug look on his face. He knew he looked like an uncaring bastard but that was who he had always been and now that his family was getting bigger, he needed to try even harder to keep up that appearance. Lest someone, somewhere think that he, Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, was going soft. He frowned and searched for his grandson's ki. An even greater insult, it was a weak as the other babies in the NICU.

Kuda smirked as he looked down on the hospital. This was all too perfect. With the child so weak, it would weaken their defences when it came to attack. Soon, soon it would be time for him to strike. The plan was falling into place.