"Shit, shit, shit!" Vegeta frantically muttered, trying desperately to feel a pulse under his fingers. "Come on, woman, you can't do this to me!"

Gohan tore his shirt off and quickly turned it into a series of bandages. "Vegeta, does she have a…"

"She has to," Vegeta snapped. "She has to!"

The teenager quickly leaned forward, placing two of his fingers on Bulma's neck. He could feel his own pulse pounding in his fingers, and grunted as he tried to slow his own heart rate enough to feel any sign of life in the woman.

He felt nothing.

"Bind her wounds, now!" he shouted, pressing onto her chest.

For the first time in his life, Vegeta did not question what he was being told, nor did he object in any way at the fact that an eighteen year old had just given him a direct order. All he cared about was keeping his wife alive. Disregarding her injured legs, he immediately began tying the makeshift bandages on a particularly disgusting wound on his wife's side. By the time he had that one area covered, he had used Gohan's entire shirt.

Without hesitating, he ripped apart his own clothing, trying desperately to stop the bleeding that was coming from her head. As he finished up, he instinctively pushed Gohan aside, starting to attempt to start the woman's heart where the teen had left off.

Gohan only hesitated for a moment before remembering the cell phone in his back pocket. He quickly flipped it open and called for help.

"There's been an accident," he said, his voice oddly calm for the given situation. "Through a guard railing, off the side of a small cliff. One woman injured, in her early forties, and she doesn't have a heartbeat…"

"Yes, she does!" Vegeta snapped, the barest hint of a grin on his face. "Feel that!"

Thank Kami, the teenager thought. "We do have a heartbeat…our location?" He paused for a moment, trying to figure out the best possible explination for what his actual plan was, but quickly gave up on the notion. "Don't worry, we'll come to you…"

/\/\/\

From high up in the sky, Goku realized what the next step was going to be. Still holding Trunks roughly against his chest with one arm, he reached out with his other arm for his youngest child. "Hold on tight, Goten," he whispered. As soon as his child was firmly attatched to his side, the warrior teleported to Krillen's house.

"Do not, under any circumstances, let them leave until one of us comes back to get them," came his only command to his old friend before disappearing again, leaving the children behind.

Poor Krillen didn't have a chance to really process what was going on before Trunks bolted for the front door. If not for the lightning fast reflexes of his wife, Krillen would have been helpless against stopping the boy from getting away.

"Stop that!" the blonde commanded, violently jerking the boy back inside. "Now I don't know what's going on, but I do know that when Goku gives and order like that, it is for a reason!"

"I don't care what Kakarot said!" Trunks howled, thrashing in the woman's arms. "She needs me! She needs my help!"

/\/\/\

"She needs your help," Gohan calmly told the orderly at the hospital.

However, having just seen three powerful looking men and a bloody, unconscious woman appear as though from nowhere had seemingly made her brain cease functioning. "How…where…how…"

"Damn it, get off your fucking ass and show us where we need to take her!" the shortest of the three yelled.

"I'll take care of this," called out a matronly looking woman, rushing to the scene. "I'm Akiko. I took the call," she gently said, shoving a gurney passed the unnerved orderly. "The operating room is set up, our top surgeons are standing by, and we're ready to do everything we can to help."

The woman helped guide the victim onto the gurney, and she barked out orders to a group of nurses, getting them to rush the half mutilated woman to surgery. As they rushed her away, she turned back to the blood soaked men, hating the moment that she was in. This was when the family would be at their most desperate, when they needed someone to be calm and reassuring, to let them know that everything would be alright.

It was the moments like this she hated, when there was nothing to reassure about. She could not tell them that everything was going to be fine.

Especially since it probably wouldn't be.

/\/\/\

"I can't believe that you did that," Krillen said, his voice a combination of awe and horror.

"He was out of control," the blonde coolly replied. "He was hysterical, and we both know what happens when a half Saiyan kid gets that emotionally worked up."

"Well, yeah," the diminuative man hesitantly agreed. "I mean, I was there for the bulk of Gohan's developing years, and I'd be lying if I said that his mood swings didn't scare the hell out of me once in a while. But," he went on, "did you really need to do this?"

Eighteen shrugged. "I wasn't willing to risk having an absolutely hysterical, overly emotional nine year old with enough power to annihilate the planed running wild in my house."

"But Goten wasn't…"

"Can't do it to one without doing it to the other," the blonde quickly countered. "You know was well as I do that it I do something to 'calm' Trunks down, Goten will get worked up and become just as much as a hazard.

Krillen just shook his head. "I still can't believe that you just drugged the sons of the two strongest men in the world…"

/\/\/\

Vegeta just stood there, unable to do anything. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he could barely even breathe. The entire day up until the crash had been so regular. He had done the same things that he had done almost every day for the past few years. He woke up before dawn, trained as hard as he could until mid morning, got something to eat, spent some time with his wife, trained harder for a few hours, got his son, spent some time training with him…it had all been so normal.

There was nothing to indicate that he would find himself standing there, in the harsh and bright hallways of a hospital, soaking in his wife's blood, wondering if his woman would even survive the hour.

"This isn't happening," he whispered. "This is all just a nightmare. I'm asleep right now, I know I am. I'm going to wake up, roll over, and see that she's right next to me. Probably snoring louder than a truck with a faulty transmission."

With a worried look on his face, Goku opened his mouth, ready to say something, but a hand on his shoulder and a glance from his son told him to save his speech for a later time.

"I'll go check on the kids," the tallest warrior softly said, backing away from the group slightly. He slowly placed his fingers to his forehead and vanished from the scene, not saying another word.

Gohan turned to his prince, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "There's going to be paperwork that needs to be filled out," he calmly stated. "I'll go grab it from the woman at that window over there, and then you can get started on it."

Vegeta simply nodded, refusing to move a muscle. He still couldn't believe that any of this was happening.

/\/\/\

Goku appeared in the bedroom of Krillen's daughter, Marron. He was slightly confused until he looked to his left and saw all three kids sleeping soundly on the bed. He gazed down on the three sleeping figures, a sad smile on his face. Goku ran his large hand through Trunks' hair, feeling a sharp pang of sympathy for the boy. He couldn't even begin to imagine how hard this all had to be for the sleeping child,

Trunks was a boy who was extremely intelligent for his age, and had already experienced more in his short life than almost anyone else his age. But this experience was more than almost any child could bear. To have your first real experience with pain and suffering come from seeing your own mother in a half mangled heap…

"Do I even want to know how you got him to take a nap after all of this?" the Saiyan asked, knowing that his friend had just entered the room.

Krillen stiffened slightly before answering, "Probably not."

The two of them stood in silence for a minute, watching down on the youngest, most innocent members of their little group. At moments like this, it was hard for either of them to think about the fact that these children, these innocent beings, were created by them.

After a quiet moment, Krillen looked up at his oldest friend. "Goku, what's going on?" he quietly asked. "I feel Vegeta's power level spike, then all of you suddenly do the same thing, and before I can figure out what's happening, you show up with the boys, and Trunks is so hysterical that we had to knock him out to keep him from going totally ballistic. What the hell is going on?"

The docile Saiyan suddenly looked like he might just cry. "There was an accident," he croaked out. "Bulma's car flipped off of the edge of the road and fell down a cliff side."

"Kami almighty," Krillen whispered. "Is she alright?"

Goku's shoulders shuddered slightly as he shook his head. "I don't know, Krillen. I don't know!"

The shorter man gave his friend a reassuring pat on the back. "I'm sure everything will be fine, Goku. If it was that bad, you'd be there, not here."

But Goku just shook his head again. "No, you don't get it. I'm here because I don't know how to do this!" Seeing the confused look on his friend's face, Goku tried unsuccessfully to take a calming breath. "I've never dealt with anything like this before, Krillen. I…I've never had to know that someone was about to…I mean, that she could…"

Krillen pulled on his friend's arm, guiding him out of the room. "It's that bad, huh?" he whispered, getting his large friend to sit down.

Goku nodded. "There was...the blood was everywhere…"

"You've seen that before," Krillen reasoned. "It happens sometimes. You've seen most of us go down in battle, and if something is really wrong, we just use the dragon balls and…"

"Six months," the Saiyan interrupted. "It'll be six months before we can use them again. And this is different, Krillen. Bulma isn't a warrior, she wasn't in a battle, and this wasn't something that she was ready for! This isn't supposed to happen! She doesn't do stuff like this! I wasn't ready for this! I…I…"

That was as far as the warrior got before the pressure finally got to him, he broke down, and he cried.

/\/\/\

Gohan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wishing that he'd been able to find a shirt that had fit him better. After getting Vegeta the paperwork, he had managed to scrounge up a couple of scrub tops for the two of them. After all, they had both sacrificed their shirts to try to stop the bleeding.

As surreal as the entire event was, he was more than a little impressed with how well Vegeta was handling it thus far. He hadn't screamed or yelled at anyone, he hadn't made anyone cry or soil themselves, he hadn't had a complete emotional breakdown yet…he had actually managed to keep it together. He had very calmly filled out all of the papers, handed them in, and quietly sat down in the waiting room.

It was actually a little too contained for the demi-Saiyan's comfort. The Vegeta he knew how to deal with was an absolute wild card with a fuse shorter than grass and the ability to move anyone in the universe to tears.

This overly contained mode just made the teenager nervous. There was every reason in the universe for Vegeta to be blowing up, and if he was holding it in now, it was going to be catastrophic when that finally came out.

After twenty minutes of sitting in absolute silence, Gohan suddenly figured out why the man wasn't flinching. He was keeping a constant watch on his wife from afar. He was so focused on Bulma's life force that he honestly didn't care what the hell the rest of the world was doing. As far as the prince was concerned, there was only one other person on the planet.

Nothing existed but his wife.

/\/\/\

Seventeen hours. That was how long Bulma Briefs had been in surgery. Most of her major organs had been seriously damaged, her skull had been cracked in three places, and she had nearly bled to death in the minute and a half it had been between the accident and her arrival at the hospital. Her prognosis was grim at best.

A tall surgeon came out to the waiting room, slowly removing his mask. "Are you the family of Ms. Briefs?" he asked.

"Yes," Gohan answered, figuring it was better that Vegeta not get directly involved. "How is she?"

"She's alive," Vegeta flatly said.

The surgeon blinked in shock for a moment before going on. "Yes, she is alive," he confirmed. "However, she is in a coma, and the trauma was extremely severe. I am honestly surprised that she lived long enough to get to the operating table. While she is not technically brain dead, the odds of her surviving the night are slim at best."

"She'll be fine," the Saiyan prince snapped, jumping to his feet.

The surgeon drew a deep breath, shaking his head. He hated dealing with irrational family members. "Sir, I'm not trying to be cruel. But you need to understand the reality of this situation.

Ms. Briefs was in a very traumatic accident. She has a chance to pull through, but it is not a good one. We had to do major reconstruction on almost ever major organ in her body, and the damage that was done to her head is fatal in ninety percent of cases."

He took a step toward the two men, a somber look on his face. "Even if she does wake up," he quietly continued, "the damage that was done was so severe that there will likely be permanent damage."

"What kind of damage are we talking about?" Gohan hesitantly asked.

The surgeon shook his head again. "There's no way to know until she wakes up, if that ever happens. It could be a loss of hearing, loss of vision, memory loss, inability to speak properly, the inability to think in a linear fashion…it could be one of them or all of them, or any of a hundred other possible long term effects. She may not even be able to walk again."

"She'll be fine!" Vegeta shouted again. His hair shot to gold and he lunged forward, lashing out at the man.

Gohan barely caught the prince in time. "Calm down!" he shouted. "It's not his fault!"

Vegeta shifted his weight, whipped around, and slammed his fist into the teenagers face. "Get the hell off of me!" he roared. However, that little bit of release was enough for him to stop try to kill the doctor again. "How long until she wakes up?" he snapped at the now terrified man.

Shaking in his scrubs, the doctor stammered out, "Sir, like I said earlier…"

The prince slammed his fist into the wall, tearing a hole straight through it. "TELL ME!"

"What is the earliest possible time that she could get up?" Gohan rephrased, coming back into the room.

The surgeon looked at the disheveled teenager. "Um…twelve hours at the earliest…"

"What room is she in?" Vegeta snapped.

"Um…327…"

That was all the prince needed to hear before he was off like a shot, leaving Gohan behind with the doctor. The teenager turned to the surgeon, a grim look on his face. "How many people know that Bulma Briefs might not last the night?"

The other man thought about it for a moment. "A rotation of seven surgeons total, fifteen nurses to support, one head nurse, and anyone else you might have run into when you first arrived."

Gohan took several slow steps toward the doctor, closing the gap between them. "I need to make sure that every single one of them keeps their mouths shut about this, and I promise you that we, her friends and family, will hold you personally responsible for any and all security leaks about it. No one knows. Got it?"

It didn't take much convincing for Gohan to be assured that the doctor would do everything in his power to keep the entire incident under wraps. He was more than a little concerned that too many people knew about it, and that the story could have already leaked. If that had happened, it could be disastorous.

If Bulma Briefs, the heiress to the world's largest fortune and the president and CEO of the single most powerful company in the world, died in a hospital, it would be all over the news. And if that happened, they couldn't bring her back.

The rest of the world could not know about the dragon balls, and they would have to if she came back. There was no way to bring that large a figure back from the dead without someone figuring out how it had happened.

If Bulma Briefs died, and the world knew about it, she had to stay dead.