to tools long enough ...

~ I ... the soldering iron ... ~ she sent incoherently to her companion. ~ Can ... not ... ~

Her last thought, before the black fainting got the better of her, was about her child and his safety.

She didn't wake up again until six hours later, in a strange environment. When her eyes adjusted, she realized that she was in a hospital.A single room ...

A throat clearing made her head snap to the right. "How are you, Bulma?"

"Thanks, Dad," she smiled weakly in the direction of her father, who looked almost like a doctor himself in his lab coat. "What ... what happened?"

"Vegeta ... found you and brought you here ...", Souichi muttered. "But what interests me: What did you think?", Bulma winced at the tone, "How could you be so careless? How often have I explained to you ..." He was interrupted when the door swung open and a dark-skinned young doctor came in, studying the visit carefully.

"I think you should go now," said the doctor firmly, whose sign reads him as' Dr. Isha 'expelled. "My patient now needs as much rest as possible and I have to get her that."

Souichi took a quick breath and tried to smile at his daughter. "Your mother and I will come back tomorrow, but whether ..." With a shrug, he turned around and left his daughter's hospital room.

"How are you ...", Bulma began hesitantly when the click of the handle announced that Souichi had left the room. "Is everything ...?"

"You will soon be back to health one hundred percent, Ms. Briefs," assured her doctor and looked through the documents again. "The burns on your abdomen shouldn't leave any scars."

"And ... how is ... my baby?" She asked a little more directly, as Dr. Isha apparently hadn't noticed the allusion. “Is it healthy?”

“Please?” He screwed up his eyes in confusion. "There is nothing in their records that you were pregnant."

“What ?!” That was always a good word when you needed a little more time to digest what you had just heard. "What did you just say? I ... my baby ... is ..." The word didn't come out of her lips.

Dr. Isha sat down at the foot of the hospital bed and took the barely noticeable glasses from her nose. "You didn't get me right, Ms. Briefs," he informed her as calmly as possible."You weren't pregnant. So you couldn't have lost your child either."

"But ... but ..." the scientist stuttered helplessly.

"Did you consult a gynecologist or ..."

"A home test ... I did a home test and ... it was positive ... How can that be ...?"

“These tests are not entirely certain. Are you okay?” His voice was so calming and soothing. But not that deep and rough ...

"Yes ...", Bulma assured slowly. After all, it wasn't a dream baby. Now everything was back to normal, the game could begin again. "I'm fine."

* _ + _ * _ + _ * _ + _ *

"It's been so long since we met, Vegeta ..." a cloaked figure whispered into the silence of the night. "Somehow ... you don't seem to have aged at all. You are just as young and ... strong as you were then."

Rough hands pulled the hood further over its owner's forehead to protect him from the coolness of the night.

"As far as I know so far, you are already stronger ... Much stronger, but ... also strong enough? The threat is close, but I am much closer." A low chuckle escaped the person before they each other again could collect. "You damn bastard! What's the matter with being a Saiyan? What's so great about that? Hm ... Nothing!"

Another breeze blew the mysterious figure's short hair into the forehead, briefly depriving her of sight.

"Once too often ..." it murmured. "One too many times you disappointed me, betrayed me ... left ... I can't forgive you."

A sudden headache made the figure flinch in its hiding place, and the surrounding foliage began to rustle.

"Maybe ... it was ... not such a ... good idea," it burst out pained. "But I'm ... far enough away. Here ... he can't control me .... No ... impossible ..."


Preview: Unexpected turn of events ... So Bulma wasn't pregnant at all? How will she deal with the 'loss'? And who is this new person who - again - seems to know Vegeta? A fellow prisoner on Freezer's ship, an ex-girlfriend? ... * eg *



SMSS - Sailor Moon SuperS

Nihon Soba - Japanese noodle soup

Yakitori - fried chicken

Isha - doctor



Cut-outs

"Well done, Marron," Fynn praised squeakily, but immediately urged them to leave.

The demons didn't know a holiday.

Bulma: But of course demons also have a holiday. Halloween. Then the border opens up and the dead and cursed can go back into the realm of the living to see them ...

Director: Cut!

Bulma: ... That's why the children dress up as ghosts so that the real ones ...

Vegeta: Just let her keep talking. It always works for me too.

Director: Hmm, good. Lunch break!

Bulma: ... and the trick or treating thing is also whole ...