A/N: Aww, I have to seriously say that even though this chapter's short, it seriously makes me want to go, awww, again. I have to say that the story is starting to come to an end. Slowly, but surely it's ending...and when it does, I don't know what I'm going to do. As always, I love the comments that you all give me, and inspires me to continue to write this story. Sorry about the short delay of getting this up. I was in a mild slump for a few days, and my work shifts are insane. Yet again, another incredibly sweet chapter between father and daughter...and I promise, there won't be too many more but how can you resist such serenity? Such devotion to extinguish personal agony? Almost there my pretties, and with each chapter, it pulls us closer and closer to the finale. How will we cope! Woe is me. It's so short because I had a spare couple hours before going to work and decided that you all needed to have some more aww in your life. Enjoy. I know I did.

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Breaking

His eyes were starting to burn and he could feel the muscles in his back starting to freeze from having to hold the same position for more than a few hours. Lifting his hands from the flat surfaces of the keys of the laptop in front of him, Vegeta lifts his arms above his head and laces fingers together. Scratching the back of his head, he turns in the hard wooden chair he had been sitting on until he could no longer feel his bum and looked outside. Inky black met his vision and looking once more at the laptop computer screen, he heaves a sigh and pushes himself out of the chair.

Flexing cramped fingers, Vegeta blinks and then runs a hand over his eyes to rub out the fatigue that had seemed to crash over his shoulders. "I thought you'd never get off that thing."

Turning to look over his shoulder, Vegeta stared at a moment at his blonde friend who held out a steaming mug for him to talk. "Yeah, well someone's got to work around here."

She blinked and took a step back. "Oh, you're not going to get grumpy with me young man. Just because you decided that you had to stay up until 4 in the morning all by yourself to play on your little computer doesn't give you the right to take your anger out on me. So take the coffee, or I'm going to dump it on your head."

He reached for the warm black mug and had to catch it as 18 let it go once his fingers were close enough not to drop it all over the hardwood floor under their feet. "God you can be a bitch sometimes!"

"Hardy-freaking-har-har!. I've had enough of your short temper with me lately Vegeta, and if you don't seriously cut it out, I'm going to stop helping you and return home."

That comment seemed to have registered, if anything could register at 4 in the morning, with Vegeta and he quickly buried and crude remarks in a long swallow of coffee. "Sorry." He muttered and tilted his head back, dark eyes closed. The warmth from the cup spread from his digits and worked its way up his arms.

"Next time Vegeta..." 18 sighed. She knew that this was hard on him, but that gave him no excuse for taking his anger out on her. Running a hand through her blonde locks, she turned and walked through the doorway and into the kitchen to turn out the light that she had left on. "Now, if you don't mind I'm going to bed."

She left him there standing silently with on comfort other than a cooling up of black coffee. A pain raced through his chest and constricted around his stomach, squeezing tightly and almost choking him. No one was around, the house was completely dark, and for a few moments he knew what it truly felt like to be utterly alone.

Vegeta didn't like the feeling.

Setting down the half-finished mug of coffee, he turned off the screen to the laptop and made his way up the stairs, feet dragging slowly over the hardwood flooring. Careful not to wake the sleeping ladies under the same roof as him, he pushed open the door that was left slightly ajar and walking in. A soft golden glow came from the star shaped nightlight at the end of Rayne's wooden crib; leaving him with enough light to look down at his daughter. His mouth went instantly dry and his heart started to pump a bit faster.

What was happening to him? Why couldn't he get a hold of himself, of his emotions?

Before he knew what was happening, his eyes were burning and he looked out through a haze of liquid. Blinking quickly, he shook his head and turned it away from the golden curled angel sleeping in the crib. Digits curling around the wood under his hands, he gripped tightly, knuckles going white as he bit back a sob that wanted to break from his lips.

Why hadn't she contacted him? Why hadn't she let him know that she was alright, that she was still alive, that Jade hadn't found her?

Rayne whimpered softly in her sleep, little arms coming up from the blanket they were resting on, fingers working, grasping at the air. "Da..." she gurgled.

Vegeta removed a hand from the crib railing and placed his index finger into the grasping digits of the child and she instantly calmed down. Heaving another sigh, he leaned forward slightly and very carefully picked up Rayne. She didn't stir at all, other than to move her hand from the digit to the white shirt that Vegeta had been wearing all day.

Slowly, he moved to the rocking chair that was positioned in an empty corner of the room and sat down. Settling his head against the high backing of the chair, his free hand dipped to the floor and plucked up the soft blanket that had fallen there from earlier that morning. Draping it over his legs, pulling a corner of the fuzzy fabric up over his shoulder, Vegeta then carefully tucked it around Rayne, leaving her torso almost completely uncovered. But he couldn't find sleep.

I see you Bulma. Don't get too comfortable with him. I can dispose of him just as easily as I did the last one. You're mine.

Those words, read so long ago, kept circling through his head, and like always he wanted to scream in rage. How dare someone think about touching his woman? How dare someone even think about his woman in ways that were anything but pleasant? In fact, how could anyone not love Bulma?

Now only if she'd let him know that she was alright?

Woven around his wrist was a red, black and light blue bracelet made out of soft fabrics, fabrics sliced from her clothing that had been braided by his own hand. He felt as if she were with him always.

And a part of her was.

Nestled in the crook of his arm was her daughter, their daughter and he wanted nothing more than to have Bulma back with him where he could keep her safe from the people that were hell bent on making her life miserable. But that wasn't going to happen. Doubt started to beat at his mind like it always did when he had a few spare moments to sit down and think.

If I'm alive, why does it feel like I'm dying inside? If I'm dying, why is it that every time I think about you, I'm a live?

Tears slid from the corners of his eyes and rolled smoothly down his cheeks before dripping onto the blanket. He fought to close his eyes as he wanted nothing better to do than drown in the tears that were wetting his face. But his eyes closed and yet the tears still did flow.

And sleep over took his exhausted body.

But what he didn't realize, that while he was sleeping with his daughter in the crook of his arm, that the email he had desperately wanted had just entered his inbox and would sit there until he remembered to check it in the morning. And what he didn't know what that the words written in it would cause him not only unexplainable pain, but unrelenting happiness as well.