| Communication Breakdown Chapter 7 |
| Author: Valeyard Rating: R Disclaimer: She doesn't own, so don't even bother. |
| "Bulma, Bulma!" Chi Chi furiously shook the prostrate Bulma. "Are you okay? What is Goku talking about?" Bulma came to, in Chi Chi's arms as Chi Chi propped her up into a sitting position. Bulma took one look at Chi Chi and then ran into the bathroom, just making it to the toilet before she disgorged her breakfast. "You are pregnant!" Chi Chi said with amazement. "How?" Bulma said bewildered. "How could Goku know that?" "Oh," Chi Chi said blushing. "I think it is a Saiya-jin thing. He always had an acute sense of smell. He knew I was pregnant right after . . . " Chi Chi broke off and turned even more red. "Plus," Chi Chi added, "Goku said something about feeling a new ki. He said it sort of changed my ki, as well." "Oh my god!" Bulma gasped, clutching her head. "This cannot be happening!" "What are you upset about?" Chi Chi asked. "Now Yamcha will finally have to settle down and marry you!" "Chi Chi, you don't understand," Bulma started to cry. "The baby isn't Yamcha's. He has been cheating on me. We haven't been together for two months. There is only one person that could be the father." "Kurillin?" Chi Chi said aghast. "No, Chi Chi! The Father is Vegeta." Bulma drew her knees up, hugging herself and crying. "Vegeta!" Chi Chi turned white in horror. "Oh my God, that bastard raped you? Bulma, why didn't you tell me?" "No, Chi Chi, Vegeta didn't rape me!" Bulma started to laugh, but it was half out of hysteria. "I was willing. Believe me, Chi Chi, I was completely willing." "But how?" Bulma shook her head dazed. "We were together last night. How could I be feeling these symptoms already?" Chi Chi turned red, again. "Oh, same thing happened to me. I guess it is because human and Saiya-jin, well the pregnancies are not easy. I started getting sick right away." "And watch out for when the baby starts kicking!" Chi Chi smiled remembering. "There were a couple times, Gohan kicked me so hard . . . " Chi Chi laughed, "well, it scared Goku to death. He thought Gohan had killed me." Chi Chi blanched, realizing this was not the time, to talk about memories. "But how, Bulma? How could you sleep with that monster? He has killed more people than you could ever conceive existed! It was bad enough letting him stay with you!" "Chi Chi, he was a slave to Furiza. Can't you see Goku might have been just like him, except for a twist of fate?" Chi Chi looked at Goku and then turned angry. "You take that back Bulma!" Chi Chi yelled at her. "You take that back right now. Goku would never harm anyone that wasn't trying to harm us!" "It's true Chi Chi!" Bulma stood up and shouted in her face. "Can't you see there are parts of Vegeta that are good, even if Vegeta can't see it himself? He had plenty of chances to kill us all, after Furiza was killed and he hasn't tried to harm a soul." "He would have, if Goku wasn't there to stop him!" Chi Chi clenched her fists turning red with anger. "That's not true, Chi Chi, and you know it." Bulma turned away looking at Goku. "When Goku was missing, Vegeta didn't do anything. He could have killed us all easily. Vegeta even went looking for Goku." Bulma started pacing wondering why she was saying these things. "I know he's angry and he seems cruel, but he's had a very rough life, and he's hurting. And dammit Chi Chi, I love him!" The anger drained out of Chi Chi's face. She gasped trying to contemplate what, was for her, the inconceivable. "You can't! You just can't love a monster!" "Maybe he is a monster, Chi Chi." Bulma shook her head, certain of what she said next. "But, I do love him, and I am carrying his baby." Something dawned on Bulma as she gazed at Goku. "Acute sense of smell. That's it! That's why he stormed out and has been acting funny ever since!" "What are you talking about?" Chi Chi demanded. "Chi Chi, Vegeta knows I'm pregnant and he's not happy about it. Matter of fact," Bulma looked down sadly. She hesitated with what came next as a tear slid down her cheek, "He's been so upset ever since, I think he wants to kill me." "Oh my god!" Chi Chi put her hand over her mouth in horror. "Are you sure?" "Yes!" Bulma forced the words out between heaving sobs. "He stormed out right after we made love and ever since, he gives me looks of pure hate. You should have seen him this morning, Chi Chi. I was so afraid that is why I came here. I was truly afraid he would kill me." "How can you love a man that wants to kill you?" Chi Chi pleaded desperately. "I don't know. Part of me tells me, he couldn't do such a thing, but how he looks at me, today." Bulma fell to the ground sobbing. "Oh, Chi Chi, it scares me to death." "You are not going home, Bulma! Do you hear me?" Chi Chi said in her most authoritarian tone. "You are staying right here. Goku will get better, I just know it. And if you have to have the baby here, I don't care. But you are not going back to where that monster can harm you!" "And what about my parents?" Bulma sobbed. "What happens to them if I don't return?" Bulma rose from the floor and walked over to the now peacefully sleeping Goku. She put a loving hand on his forehead, as if she still considered him an innocent child. "What about Goku, Chi Chi? If Vegeta should come looking for me and should see Goku helpless like this, what will he do? Right now, I consider him capable of anything." Chi Chi's eyes filled horror as she looked between her best friend and the only man she ever loved. Bulma knew she couldn't put them in danger for her choice. She chose to let Vegeta stay there. She chose to make love to him. She knew she was going to have to live with those choices and their consequences. She had no right to put her parents or her friends in danger. "I have to go home, Chi Chi, don't you see." Bulma stood up, the tears drying on her face with the acceptance of what she was sure was her fate. "If he wants me, there is no place on this planet I could go to be safe, anyway. So, it will make no difference whether I am here or home. At least if I am at home, he won't know Goku is ill." "Oh, Bulma!" Chi Chi hugged Bulma, starting to cry, but Bulma knew this was Chi Chi letting her go, because she knew Bulma was right. Chi Chi walked over and sat on the bed beside Goku. "I'll call you, Chi Chi. I'll be all right." Bulma said, not sure if she really meant it. Bulma walked over to also stand by the bed. "His color is much better. I think he is going to be fine." Chi Chi tried to smile, but she looked stricken as if this would be the last time she saw her best friend. Chi Chi placed a hand on Goku, shaking her head sadly. "It seems we were in time." Chi Chi said looking down ashamed. "You saved his life, Bulma, and I don't know if we can do the same for you." Chi Chi sobbed into her hands. "This was of my own doing." Bulma said, putting on a brave face. "Whatever happens, remember that and never feel bad about it. I chose this for myself." Bulma ran out, refusing to heed a protesting Chi Chi who screamed for her to come back. Bulma jumped into the two-seater and sped off, trying hard to watch where she was flying through the tears. Chi Chi looked down at Goku who was smiling. He shifted in his sleep. "Bulma," Goku's words were half murmured, barely above a whisper, "Vegeta isn't angry with you. He's half crazy out of his head over you. He won't hurt you. Bulma, don't worry. He loves you, in his own way true, but he does love you." Goku smiled falling back asleep. "He's delirious!" Chi Chi said out loud as she ran to get a cool cloth for his head. Musical Interlude Every Breath You Take by the Police Every breath you take Every move you make Every bond you break Every step you take I'll be watching you Every single day Every word you say Every game you play Every night you stay I'll be watching you Oh can't you see You belong to me How my poor heart aches with every step you take Every move you make Every vow you break Every smile you fake Every claim you stake I'll be watching you Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace I dream at night I can only see your face I look around but it's you I can't replace I feel so cold and I long for your embrace I keep crying baby, baby please Every move you make Every vow you break Every smile you fake Every claim you stake I'll be watching you End of Musical Interlude. While Bulma flew back to the Capsule Corporation, bravely facing what she thought might be her fate, Vegeta was also contemplating fate, but with a slightly different expression. 'I'll find you, woman.' Vegeta told himself. 'I don't care what I have to do. I will find you.' "Vegeta!" Yamcha yelled as if still stinging from his argument with Bulma of the day before. "What do you want, you prick?" Yamcha said, squaring off for a fight. "Get out of here, or I'll make you wish you had." Vegeta had flown over to Yamcha's house, comforting himself with thoughts of slow torture and overly long restrained murder. Yamcha's words had only wetted Vegeta's appetite for such indulgences and his smile told of that fact very clearly. "You just had to say that, didn't you?" Vegeta said as his dangerous smile spread even wider across his face. "Count on a baka like you to say the exact, wrong thing." Vegeta advanced on Yamcha, as Yamcha threw a punch that Vegeta easily dodged. Yamcha's eyes went wide when he saw a ball of fire forming in Vegeta's left hand. Vegeta grabbed Yamcha by the shirt, putting the ball right up into his face. Vegeta's eyes were half-crazed with jealousy and the joy of what he wanted to inflict on Yamcha. "Small little ball, isn't it? Hardly worth the effort." Vegeta watched with satisfaction as Yamcha's eyes filled with fear. "I could make an energy ball 10 times this size without even trying." Yamcha screamed as Vegeta put the ball so close, it almost touched his nose. "It won't destroy a world or even do much damage to a building, but it will burn that pretty face clean off your head. Then what will those girls I've smelt on you for months say?" Vegeta enjoyed the small cry of pain from Yamcha as he grabbed him by the hair pulling him up until his toes barely touched the ground. "Do you know what it is like to want a woman like Bulma? A woman who should have anything she wanted. Who should be queen! Then, watch you make a fool of her day after day, knowing there's nothing I could do about it? You should die. I would love to see you die." "Vegeta! God's sake, don't kill me." Yamcha begged which Vegeta found very enjoyable. "I don't want to kill you, Yamcha." Vegeta laughed in such a ugly way as to convey he was lying right through his teeth. Vegeta turned his hand down, and the let the energy ball drain back into his hand. "I just want to know one little thing." "What? Anything!" Yamcha screamed. "Just don't hurt me!" Vegeta's expression turned from false pleasantness to complete fury. "WHERE IS SHE?" "Where's who, Bulma?" Yamcha said then screamed as Vegeta backed him up against his house, putting a hole through his house close to his head. "That could have been your head." Vegeta's expression went from enraged fury to half-crazed frenzy as he put another hole in Yamcha's house. "That one could have been your spleen. Each one a killing move. I've trained a very long time, Yamcha, while all you've done is play ball, play the pretty boy, and whore around. You disgust me! I could kill you in so many ways, you could not imagine and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it." Vegeta drew his fist back as Yamcha closed his eyes and began to silently pray. "I'm only going to ask one more time. After that, I won't miss again. I saw Bulma leave, I know she was coming here to see you. Now tell me where she is, and maybe I'll let you off with only another scar for your experience. Who know? Maybe those whores you love so much will like it." Vegeta let go of Yamcha's hair with an expression of total contempt as Yamcha fell to his knees before him. Yamcha tried to keep the tears out of his eyes, but wasn't doing a very good job. "Vegeta I swear to you, I haven't seen her since, she dumped me yesterday. She was my first and only love." Yamcha began crying freely. "It's true I saw other women, but I never loved them. Bulma is the only woman I ever cared about. I lost my world when she cut me loose." Vegeta grabbed Yamcha by the throat sickened by his pathetic crying, and not believing a word he said. He hauled him up, putting Yamcha's face even with his own. Then through his fury, Vegeta was confronted with the unavoidable fact that Yamcha had to be telling the truth. Her smell simply wasn't on him. Even if Yamcha had taken a shower right after, Vegeta would still have been able to smell some trace of her. He could smell other women, but not Bulma. He dropped Yamcha, standing over him. Vegeta had wanted nothing but to kill Yamcha, when he had flown to Yamcha's house. Now, he felt disgust for him, and something else. Yamcha seemed truly sad to have lost Bulma. The fool may have been totally undeserving of her trust-trust which he lightly esteemed as he made a fool of her with other women. Yet, some part of Yamcha was truly sad to have lost her. Vegeta understood what it was to lose what you value the most. 'Is this that thing Bulma said I needed? Is this pity?' Vegeta wasn't sure. It was an emotion totally alien to this entire experience. 'Has this woman changed me that much?' It was beginning to scare Vegeta, fearful he would lose his edge. There was a time, he would have killed Yamcha without feeling the slightest bit troubled. Now he couldn't sift through all the new emotions he was feeling to understand them, he just knew he somehow identified with Yamcha and that was enough to spare his life, but not enough to spare Yamcha more terror. "I will only make this clear once and once only, Yamcha." Vegeta said as he clenched and unclenched his fists. "Bulma is mine. MINE, DO YOU HEAR! You even think of going near her." With that Vegeta grabbed him by the shirt, bringing him up to this face again. "I even think I smell you on her, or her on you and play time is over." Vegeta dropped Yamcha for the last time, stepping back. "Next time, it will be for real." With that, Vegeta left a prostrate Yamcha to fly off. 'Damn you, woman!' Vegeta thought as he flew back to the Capsule Corporation. 'Where are you?' Yamcha lay on the ground. His stunned mind tried to take in what had happened. He broke up with Bulma yesterday. The next thing he knew the man, he hated the most, was trying to kill him. Yamcha lost what he thought was his future when he lost Bulma. He did love her, but he couldn't ignore that she was rich. A marriage with her would have set him for life. He wasn't ready yet to marry Bulma, but he always figured it was in his future. Now Yamcha felt like he had no future, and it was all Vegeta's fault. How he hated him for that. Yamcha walked inside his house, examining the two new holes in his wall. He went into the bathroom to wash his face, checking carefully to make sure Vegeta had not scratched his face. Yamcha thought of how crazy Vegeta had behaved. 'Perhaps, there is a way I can turn this to my advantage. If Bulma finds out how he behaved, maybe she will dump him and I can get her back!' 'No,' he thought. 'If Vegeta even suspects I've talked with her, I'm as good as dead.' Then a wicked thought crossed Yamcha's mind. 'Which means I have to get someone else to talk to Bulma.' 'Goku?' He thought. 'No, Goku is so clueless he would louse it up. Besides, he's so nice, he's even nice to Vegeta.' Yamcha smiled evilly, as he thought of the perfect person to do the dirty work for him. Checking his appearance again, he headed out, knowing exactly where he wanted to go. |