For Life and Death

For Life and Death
By: Kichi

DISCLAIMER: Akira Toriyama owns Dragonball Z and all the characters.

Chapter 1 – Your Driving me Crazy

He wanted to leave. But he knew that he couldn\'t. Not only because he\'d miss
her but because he was afraid something would happen to her while he was gone and he
wouldn\'t be able to get back ime. me.
I\'m getting too soft. It\'s ridiculous. I hate her and myself for it. But I can\'t really
hate her for anything, I let her do this to me. And as much as I\'ve been trying to avoid
her (an utterly cowardly act in itself) I\'ve still noticed that even the simplest things seem
more difficult than usual for her. She hasn\'t gotten any bigger. But she can barely walk
at this point. Every time I see her she\'s on the couch with that pained expression on her
face. It\'s driving me crazy.

He woke instantly as he heard her moan his name. She was standing in the
doorway holding her swollen belly in one hand and the door frame in the other.
\"What?\"
\"Something\'s wrong.\" She groaned and he jumped out of bed. He felt an
engulfing wave of panic ascending. What the hell does she want me to do? \"Take me to
the hospital.\" She rasped, answering his unspoken thoughts. He gently lifted her, slightly
amazed at her weight and quickly walked to the double glass doors in their room. He
kicked them open and they shattered. He hoped she didn\'t get cut, but he couldn\'t do
anything else as he sped towards Western City. Her soft moans were torturous to hear
and he could feel warm blood on his arm from the child within. If she dies and the brat
lives, so help me I will kill it before it draws its first lungful of air.
They got there in record time and he kicked in two more sets of automatic doors,
because obviously they weren\'t \"Automatic\" enough.
\"My baby.\" She whimpered. He could feel her trembling, or was it him? He
wasn\'t sure, but he could feel her ki slowly weakening as her blood continued to seep out.
\"She\'s having her baby!\" he shrieked to a woman behind the desk. \"She\'s
bleeding all over!\" The woman behind the desk looked startled, but quickly lifted the
phone and he heard her over the speakers requesting doctors.
\"Vegeta..\" Bulma moaned again, and finally her eyes opened. He grimaced at the
pain he saw in them.
\"What?\" he asked, softly.
\"Stay with me.\" She pleaded.
\"I will.\" He promised.

It was hell. The pain was the most intense I\'d ever felt. Poor Vegeta, I could tell
he was ready to freak out. He\'d been Kami-knows-where when I had Trunks. The doctor
told him to go to the waiting room and then Vegeta\'s hands were around the man\'s throat,
choking the shit out of him.
\"Vegeta!\" I bellowed as a contraction hit. \"Stop it!\" I could have stopped at
calling his name. He dropped the doctor as soon as he heard it. I glared at the nurse
through the haze of pain. \"Let him come with us.\" After she nodded in acceptance I
ignored everything else. All that mattered now was the life within, struggling to come
out.

He ignored the nurses that insisted he put on scrubs. When they handed them to
him they disintegrated in his hands. After that they left him alone. He didn\'t say a thing,
but merely stared at Bulma as she weakly panted and grunted as she tried to expel the
child from her womb. One nurse noticed his face growing whiter and pushed a chair up
behind him. She\'d seen husbands pass out cold before and while it was amusing, they
needed all the room they could spare. The last thing they needed was to be tripping over
him.
Finally they stopped the bleeding but a cesarean was necessary. Bulma
immediately agreed. Vegeta remained silent and stone-faced. She was prepped and moved to another room
two flights up.
Vegeta came out of his daze as a nurse shook him. He realized they were the only
ones still in the room and jumped to his feet. She quickly explained where they were and
pleaded with him to go to the waiting room. He ran out the door, totally ignoring her and
found Bulma\'s room in seconds.
He wished he would have taken her advice when he saw the doctor slicing
Bulma\'s huge belly. His eyes bulged and his knees gave out.
\"Get him out of here!\" the doctor roared.
\"No..\" Vegeta and Bulma moaned simultaneously. He staggered back to his feet,
wiping the sweat from his brow. It was unthinkable that the sight of her blood should
make him feel ill. But it did. The huge gash in her abdomen was horrifying. He wished
he knew how regeneration tanks worked to avoid all the hideous stitches that would cover
her after it was over.
\"She\'s hemorrhaging.\" He heard one doctor say. Suddenly the air was filled with
a loud, sharp cry followed instantly by a strange, high pitched whine.
\"Flat line, flat line!\" one of the nurses cried. Vegeta blinked in confusion as he
felt Bulma\'s ki almost vanish. He powered up immediately sending the Doctors
scurrying.
\"What are you doing?\" one cried. Vegeta ignored them and concentrated. He\'d
never done it before, but prayed it would work. He could not lose her. Not now. He
placed one hand on her head and the other over her heart and the aura surrounding him
concentrated in his hands and then disappeared.
Bulma\'s eyes opened and she blinked in confusion.
\"Vegeta?\" she groaned, and turned just in time to see his eyes roll up in his head as he
collapsed. The doctors gaped in awe. Somehow he\'d just saved her life.
\"Is he ok?\" one of the nurses asked as they moved closer to Bulma and began to
stitch up her gaping wound.
\"My baby?\" Bulma whimpered.
\"Your baby is fine.\" The doctor said. \"Keri, make sure the husband is ok.\" Keri
walked around the bed and gasped.
\"He\'s having a seizure!\"
\"No!\" Bulma cried, but was still unable to move.
\"Shit.\" The doctor cursed. \"Call emergency.\" The nurse scrabbled frantically to a
little trucker-type radio and called for a stretcher over the intercom.
Suddenly Bulma heard Vegeta groan.
\"Vegeta!\" she cried, the nurse ran back over.
\"Don\'t move!\" she cried, but he pushed her away as he sat up.
\"I\'m fine.\" He muttered.
\"No you aren\'t, you just had a seizure.\" The nurse admonished, trying to keep him
from standing. Dizziness assailed him and for a moment he was inclined to agree with
her. But he had to be sure of one thing first. He stood on shaking legs, ignoring Keri\'s
protests and peered at Bulma.
\"Are you alright?\" he asked. She stared at him with wide eyes that were shining
with tears.
\"Yes.\" She said with a smile.
\"Good.\" He saidd sad sat down quickly as another wave of dizziness hit. He took
several deep breaths to calm to nausea that instantly followed. But it didn\'t matter.
Bulma was alive. Nothing else mattered to him.

He woke hours later, feeling much better, but as soon as memory returned he shot
out of the strange bed and instantly searched for Bulma\'s ki. It was a little bit away, but
strong as ever. He sighed in relief and searched for her.
But then he remembered something. An old fear had been horribly realized.
Bulma was far more fragile than he\'d originally thought. And the thought of her dying
before him sent tremors down his spine.
What would he do once she was gone? If they were bonded it would most likely
kill him. He was beginning to doubt if he should take the next step. Because for him, it
was one step closer to the grave. Besides, it wasn\'t as ie eve even knew of his plans, so it
wasn\'t like she could be disappointed that he didn\'t follow through with them. He knew
he was being a coward, but he couldn\'t help himself. One of his main learned instincts
was to protect himself from pain at any cost. And he was already defying those instincts
by remaining with her. He opened the door to the stairs and took them two at a time.
Either way he went he seemed to be on the losing end. If he bonded her, her
death would probably kill him and if not, he could be so insane over the loss of her he
might even try to kill himself. It was the most disgraceful way to go. It was one option
he\'d never allowed himself to think of in a serious manner.
And if he kept things the way they were, he would always know he was missing
out on something. It reminded him of the human quote Bulma had said after her breakup
with Yamcha, when he\'d asked why she\'d bothered in the first place. \'It\'s better to have
loved and lost to have never loved at all.\' She\'d said. he the time he thought she was a
moron spouting stupid human sentiment. But now he was beginning to understand a little.
But at the same time, wouldn\'t he be better off if he\'d never met her? He stopped
in the stair well. He really should see how she was but he could tell by her ki. And
besides, he needed to figure this out before he saw her and made a rash decision.
What would he be doing now if he\'d never met Bulma? Wouldn\'t he have the
entire planet under his thumb? Wouldn\'t he be able to fuck any woman he wanted? He\'d
seen girls who were just as beautiful as her. Sure, they wouldn\'t have the same fiery
personality. But if he was just going to use them for sex, it wouldn\'t really matter.
But they wouldn\'t care for him. He\ave ave no one to give a shit if he lived or died.
Bulma did. He would have no one to talk to, to end his bitter loneliness. Bulma had
done that. He would have no one to challenge him, at least intellectually. Bulma was his
equal in that aref nof not superior to him (except sometimes when it came to common
sense).
And another thing that endeared her to him was her lack of fear of him. He loved
that about her. She was only a weak little female, but she stood up to him as if she had
the power to back her words. No one else did that. Even Kakarotto, when he\'d been
alive, never had the balls to talk shit to him. And he was the only other being on the
planet of equal strength.
Now that he thought of it, there was a lot she\'d done for him, and with no ulterior
motive other than to make him happy. That was what killed him. When he\'d first come
to live with the Brief\'s he\'d been mean and cruel to her every chance he got. He knew
he\'d hurt her many times. He cringed at the memory. But for some reason she never
gave up on him, even when he felt sure she was doing it only out of pity. But it had
never been pity. For some weird reason, she.. liked him.
Who else would do that even if he\'d let them? Who else would want to try? Who
else gave a shit if he was content or miserable?
No one.
Except Bulma.



Yep, this one\'s kinda short. But I figured that was a good place to stop.
TBC…