Author's Note: Thank you, all of you, for your support!

To clarify, because Bulma is not able to talk (momentarily), her communication has to be written. I have chosen to display it as :WORDS GO HERE: because I thought it was, well, let's just say that in my own strange mind it makes perfect sense.

/\/\/\

Bulma groaned softly as she woke up. Her vision was still a little blurry, and it took her a moment to remember where she was and what had happened, but after a deep breath she relaxed. She glanced to her right, and her eyes widened when they locked on to Krillen.

She opened her mouth to talk, but immediately began coughing. "Whoah, Bulma!" Krillen cautioned as he rushed to her side. "Relax! Your breathing tube only came out a few hours ago, and the doctor told us that it was going to leave your throat too raw to talk for a while! But don't worry, Chi-Chi left the whiteboard. Now, what do you need?"

As her coughing subsided, Bulma grabbed on to the pen on the side table. :YOU HAVE HAIR!:

Krillen blinked in surprise, reading the words over and over again before he finally burst out laughing. "Yeah," he chuckled. "I grew it out a few years ago. I don't look as badass as I used to, but what the hell."

Bulma smiled at him. :LOOKS GOOD. LADIES MUST LOVE IT:

The small fighter laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Well, at least one does." He paused for a moment, considering something. "Actually, two!"

The heiress looked curious as she wiped off the board. It was not an easy task, given that only one of her arms had any real mobility, but even in her battered state she didn't want to have to rely on someone else for something so small. :TWO WOMEN?:

Krillen turned beet red. "No, not like that!" he defended. "Family! They're family!"

Bulma's expression changed slightly. She knew that Krillen didn't have any siblings, and that he had no knowledge of his parents. That didn't leave a lot of options for what family there could be. :YOU MARRIED?:

The former monk blinked in surprise again. "Wow, I didn't think you'd figure it out so fast. You always seemed to think that the mere concept of me having a girlfriend was too far fetched to be real, let alone me having a wife. But yes, I am married."

The scientist smiled softly at her long time friend. :KIDS?:

"One," he beamed. "Six year old daughter who's as beautiful as her mother is."

:PICTURES?:

Krillen enthusiastically nodded as he reached in to his wallet. "Yeah, dozens of them!" he exclaimed as he whipped it open and a dozen pictures flipped down. "That's my girl!"

The two slowly went through picture after picture of an adorable blonde child. She was a child of many interests. There were pictures of her playing in the sand, swamped in adult clothing as she played dress up, read through a stack of books, stirred cookie dough while standing on a step stool to reach the table, brushed her dolls hair, chased a butterfly, danced in a tutu, dribbled a soccer ball, jumped down four steps, tried to catch popcorn in her mouth, watched TV, and seemed to win a checkers game against a very familiar child.

When they got to that final picture, Bulma narrowed her eyes as she got her whiteboard. :WHY IS GOKU A KID?:

Krillen wasn't sure what she was talking about, and had to give it a second look. "Oh, that's not Goku," he clarified. "That's Goten."

Bulma's eyes lit up. :HAD ANOTHER SON!: she reasoned with a smile.

"Yeah!" Krillen replied, his eyes just as bright. Wow, this is fantastic! She's able to figure so much of this out on her own, and she's taking it so well, that we might not even have much of a problem! "Goten's eight years old now. He's such a Goku clone. I mean, everyone and their uncle can tell that they look identical, but they act the same way, too! They both have that naïve spirit. They're both so nice to everyone, and they both eat like vacuum cleaners. I mean, yeah, Gohan eats just as much as they do, but most of his food goes in his mouth, not on it. Also, while he'll play any game with anyone, he doesn't always get it and he loses the first few rounds of everything, he's always a good sport."

Bulma smiled at her friend. :SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD KID:

"He is," Krillen answered.

The two sat in silence for a moment before Bulma decided to ask more questions. :WHY ARE YOU THE ONE HERE?:

The former monk smiled softly at her. "We wanted to make sure that at least one of us was around when you woke up from your nap. You've had a hell of a last few days, and we thought it would suck if you didn't have a good buddy nearby to look after you. I mean, yeah, sure, the doctors and the nurses are here to take care of you, technically, but they can't taunt you about things like the time you accidentally flashed Roshi because you didn't know that Goku had taken off your panties, so where's the love?"

Bulma chuckled softly, but it made her cough for a bit. After she had a moment to calm down, she couldn't help but ask :YOU GOT FIRST SHIFT?:

Krillen just nodded as he folded his pictures back in to his wallet. "Yeah, the others spent a lot of time looking over you while you were out, and I was at home with the kids. Goku and his family are back at their place getting some rest, and my wife is looking over the little hell raisers, so I'm here with you. I got the fun job!"

The heiress smiled back at her friend. :I DO ROCK, DON'T I?:

"Yes you do," Krillen agreed. "Yes, you do."

Bulma squirmed slightly before bringing up a subject that had been on her mind since she had figured out where she was. :IS YAMCHA ALIVE?:

Krillen could feel the sweat forming on the back of his neck. He'd had several hours to think about what Bulma likely could and could not remember, and a lot of his time had been occupied with what to say when the heiress brought up the ex that she didn't know was an ex. "Yeah," he slowly began, "we brought him back to life right after we got back from Namek."

The battered woman's eyes lit up. :WHERE IS HE?:

"The last time I saw him, he was in my living room having an emotional breakdown because you weren't doing well," he honestly answered. Crap, why did I say it like that?!? he thought. I could have just told her that he was worried about her like the rest of were? Why the hell did I tell her that he was having an emotional breakdown because he was so worried about her? Aargh! I just ruined everything! Now she's gonna ask about her relationship with him!

Just as predicted, Bulma's next question was :ARE WE TOGETHER?:

When Krillen didn't answer right away, Bulma just smiled sadly. :FIGURED 50/50 CHANCE. WE BREAK UP ALL THE TIME:

"Oh, thank the gods!" Krillen said with a grateful sigh, slumping forward in his hair. "I was so worried that I was going to have to tell you, and that you…wouldn't take it well." Again, his eyes grew wide as he waved his hands defensively. "Not that I thought that you can't handle things! It's just that, well, no one takes news of a break up well, and the stories the two of you would tell sounded like you had an epic battle every time it happened and…and I'm babbling and really need to learn how to shut up!"

Bulma smiled at him again. :CHILL: she wrote. :ALREADY FIGURED IT OUT: Her eyelids began to droop, and the pen slipped out of her hand. She tried to say something again, but she was too weak to even make a real effort. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before closing completely. Within moments, the heiress was completely asleep again.

Krillen nodded slightly as he wrung his hands together. "Okay, okay, I think that, all things considered, that went pretty well." He slouched down in his chair and sighed. "So far, so good."

/\/\/\

Gohan sat on his bed and stared at the stars in the night sky. He knew that he really needed to get some rest, but he just could not relax enough to sleep for more than a few minutes at the time. He knew that all of their lives were about to change radically, and all of the things that could possibly go wrong kept playing through his head again and again and again. Even though he was still one of the youngest members of the group, he knew that a lot of the problems ended up as his to solve.

Will we really be able to hide her old life from her? he wondered. How can we ensure that none of us accidentally bring something up? How can we make sure that no one outside of the group brings anything up? She's going to go to board meetings with people who know she has a son. How do we make sure they don't say anything about that to her? Oh, hell, what do we even do about Trunks and Vegeta? How are they going to deal with this? They're going to have to move out of Capsule Corp. They're going to have to start new lives. How are we going to explain that Vegeta has a son, but that none of us can tell her anything about his mother? How are we going to keep Trunks from doing something irrational and go running to his mother? Hell, Goten's got the biggest mouth in the group and he doesn't know how to keep a secret! How do we shut him up?

The teenager sighed and lowered his head, leaning against his window. "What the hell are we going to do?" he whispered. The window felt cool on his forehead, and he relished the feeling. It was only a mild comfort to him, but at that moment, any comfort was more than welcome. "I have got to get some sleep," he muttered, placing his palm on the window. "Maybe if I could get a few hours of rest, I could think clearly."

He groaned slightly as he pushed away from his window. "Sleep, sleep, sleep," he repeated, hoping that if he said it enough, it might actually happen. The teenager flopped loosely on to his bed, dropping like dead weight and bouncing twice from the impact. "Sleep," he commanded himself as he slammed his eyes shut. "Damn it, Gohan, sleep!" he hissed. He draped his arm over his eyes as he growled to himself. "You can't think clearly if you're sleep deprived, and it's been days since you got any real rest. Now just let it all go and be asleep!"

"Tell yourself that all you want, it won't help you at all."

Gohan sat bolt upright in his bed with ki forming in his hand, though it quickly dissipated. "Geez, Mom, you scared me to death!"

"Not true," Chi-Chi countered as she walked all the way in to the room. "If I had scared you to death, then you would not have been able to say that to me, now would you?"

The teenager wiped the sweat from his brow as he scoot back on his bed, his back resting against the wall. "You know, for a woman whose reputation and known behavioral patterns all suggest that she's prone to hysteria and overreacting, you just took my reaction to you a little too calmly."

His mother shrugged as she sat down on the edge of his bed. "I said this earlier, but I can't remember if you were there when I said it. This whole experience was a real eye opener for me. We have no idea what is going to happen to us on any given day. We don't know when what precious things we have could be taken away. While I was waiting at the hospital for any news on Bulma, I had more than enough time to really think about life. I know that I scream and cry over every little thing. It's always been how I've handled things, ever since I was a little girl."

She pushed herself back, leaning against the wall next to her eldest child. "I've always been worried about what the future held, and you know that. I worry about if we're going to have enough money to pay our bills. I worry about whether or not I'm going to have enough food to feed three Saiyans. I worry about what would happen to you and your brother if, like your father, you don't learn any real world skills. I worry about whether or not I've saved up enough money to pay for your college tuition. I worry about whether or not I'm going to get grandchildren while I'm young enough to really enjoy them. I worry about how much the kids at school used to pick on you. I worry about whether I'll actually manage to teach Goten academics well enough for him to succeed. But mostly, I worry about my sons."

Chi-Chi reached out and cupped her son's cheek. "Worry never fixes anything, though. Everything I ever worried about didn't get better because of worry. It got taken care of because of work. Hard work, sometimes, but work nonetheless. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that all of that worrying I did not only didn't help, but that it was actually slowing me down and making it so I couldn't work on my problems. And that just made things worse."

Gohan smiled down at his mother. "Life lesson time?"

"All time is life lesson time," Chi-Chi calmly responded. "Though some are better than others. The point is, I wasted countless hours of my life by just staring off into the distance, worrying about the future. And if I catch you losing what little is left of your childhood by making my mistakes, you will be grounded for a week. Have I made myself clear?"

Gohan chuckled and shook his head. "Fine, I get your point, Mom. I'll try to stop worrying so much."

"See that you do," she said, hopping off the bed and getting on to her feet. "Oh, and Gohan?"

"Yes?"

"If you ever charge up a ki blast at me again, you're grounded for two weeks."

/\/\/\

Dr. Briefs slid the final capsule into the case. It had taken a few hours and quite a bit of help, but he had managed to pack up all pieces of evidence of Vegeta's life at Capsule Corp. He was sad to do it, but he knew he had to.

He was far more hesitant with his grandson's things. Trunks' room still looked the same it had on the day of the accident, but the good doctor was not in as much of a hurry to clean that out. All of the boy's pictures, papers, and projects had been removed from all the other rooms in the house, and there was no reason for Bulma to venture in to what, as far as she knew, was just another guest room.

Moving that boy out was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done. For nine years, that child had been the life of their home. The old man wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen without that boy running through the halls and asking a thousand questions a day, but he knew that it would not be nearly as cheerful. And he didn't even want to begin thinking about how the boy was going to take it.

Dr. Briefs' watch made a small beeping noise. "Damn," he muttered, running from the room. He sprinted up the stairs to the guest room that held his son in law. "Oh, this isn't going to bed good…"

Vegeta's energy level was skyrocketing, and his eyelids began to flutter. His eyes snapped open, and he sat up straight, a panicked look on his face. "Bulma?" he asked, looking around his environment.

"Vegeta, you need to listen to me," the doctor calmly began. "Bulma's still in the hos…"

That was as far as the poor old man made it before his son in law disappeared in a brilliant gold flash.