Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Dark Heart ❯ A Decision ( Chapter 8 )

Dr. Briefs sighed and he removed his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. It had been a long night indeed, he thought as he finished his third cup of coffee.

He stared at the results of the tests that he held in his hands: it was official, the stones and the metals the pendant was made of were not from this planet. Not only that, but the test he run in order to try to find out how old it was, told him it was approximately 320 years old, give or take. Of course, he couldn't be entirely sure, given that the materials weren't even from Earth, but he was pretty sure that it was an ancient jewel.

“Oh, dad…” Bulma sighed tiredly.

The doctor looked at her daughter, convinced that he'd never seen her like this before. He was used to the blue haired woman being brave and confident, and yet here she was, looking sad and insecure. He patted her hand softly, trying to offer some comfort.

She'd told him everything about her conversation with Dende and Piccolo, from Vegeta's whereabouts to Piccolo's theories on Trunks and their special “bond”. The whole thing seemed crazy, and yet, when she tried to put all the pieces together, certain things made sense.

“So, have you made your decision?” he asked patiently.

“I don't know dad… There's a big part of me that wants him back, you know?” she said softly, almost in a whisper.

“Then, what's stopping you, child?”

Bulma exhaled in frustration, staring at the pendant his father held in his hand. It was hard to believe that her Prince had been capable of making a gift to her. And it wasn't a small present either; her instinct told her that the beautiful jewel had some kind of special meaning to him.

“Honestly, dad? I'm confused. I just…”

“You just, what?” he prodded her, trying to encourage her to continue.

“Well, how do I know he even wants to come back to me? We don't know much about his current situation, but what we do know is that he's out there, and he still seems to have some kind of thirst for power…”

“Or so he believes”, her father said, thoughtfully.

“What do you mean? Are you trying to imply that he doesn't actually want to take Frieza's place?”

“Bulma, all we can do right now is to speculate but, perhaps we should consider the possibility that the young man has gone back to his old goals simply because it was the choice he felt the most comfortable with”.

She listened carefully and she nodded. If someone could offer her a different perspective, that was her father.

“Change is always hard, right? Even if it's a positive change, simply because change implies a new situation and new things are always scary…”

Bulma chuckled.

“Vegeta scared? That's a new one…” she said mockingly in disbelief.

“I'm serious, Bulma. You said yourself that he lost his mind when your boy from the future died, right?”

“Yeah, he did…” she replied sadly.

“Then, we know that he's not some heartless monster…”

“Of course he isn't, dad!” Bulma said, offended.

The doctor snickered, happy to see his daughter defending his son-in-law.

“He kissed him, daddy…” she whispered, in a voice so low that the old man had trouble hearing her words.

“What?” he replied, confused.

“Trunks, dad, I saw him in the video from the security cameras. The night he left, Vegeta… He went into the baby's room, he whispered something to him and he kissed Trunks before he left…”

“Well, I'll be dammed…” the doctor said, genuinely surprised this time.

Dr. Briefs had never fully understood Bulma's relationship with the Saiyan Prince. Yes, he'd always believed that there was something else behind the impenetrable façade the young warrior constantly displayed but, he hadn't witnessed any kind of warmth exuding from him either. For all he knew, her daughter's relationship with Vegeta had been purely physical, based on sex alone. When the blue haired girl had announced her pregnancy, both he and his wife had been extremely supportive of the heiress, mostly because they were excited about the idea of finally becoming grandparents, but also, because in spite of Bulma's crazy adventurous nature, he'd always trusted his daughter's intelligence and, especially, her intuition regarding the people she'd brought into her life through the years. He strongly suspected that Trunks had been the result of an unplanned pregnancy, but his girl had always been confident, almost proud, of the fact that she was carrying the Prince's child. Perhaps all this time, she'd known something about the warrior nobody else knew.

Dr. Briefs cleared his throat before he continued.

“Well, there you have it. You know that he cares about you two… Maybe… Maybe he's just afraid of these new circumstances and he doesn't know how to handle it.”

Bulma nodded.

“So, what you're trying to say is that he's simply going back to the only thing he knows?” she asked. `How terrible' she thought to herself, her heart breaking at the thought of pain being the only thing Vegeta had ever known, both inflicted by him and to him.

“Perhaps he doesn't even believe he deserves happiness, Bulma”, he said, staring at the ground, still deep in thought.

The woman felt her eyes burn again, and she swallowed another of those damn lumps she'd been feeling in her throat lately…

“I suppose it's possible, dad… I mean, I've always believed that Vegeta's had a hard life, but Dende pretty much confirmed it to me today, and apparently, it's been even worse than I thought… He also…” she paused, almost afraid of talking about such things… “He also did some pretty bad things under Frieza's service…”

Dr. Briefs remained quiet, trying to refrain from judging the young man. On one side, he didn't want to even try to imagine what kind of life the Saiyan had lived before he'd entered their lives, but on the other hand, he was proud of the fact that someone capable of such evil deeds could still have a chance to redeem himself, here on Earth, with his brilliant daughter and his gorgeous grandson.

“If he is capable of feeling emotion”, Bulma continued, “then he must have a conscience too… I mean… He is a proud man, dad, and I doubt that he'll ever apologize about any of the things he's done. In some ways, it wasn't even entirely his fault… I really believe he was almost like a slave to Frieza, although he'll never want to admit that either…”

“If that young man has a conscience, then…” the doctor continued, following his daughter's train of thought, “then he must certainly know the difference between good and evil, especially after having spent some time on Earth, with us. If a man knows he's done terrible things, how could he possibly believe he deserves something good to happen to him?”

“Do you think he believes Trunks and I are something good to him?” she asked shyly.

Bulma's father felt something tight in his chest at the sight of seeing his child so insecure about her value in Vegeta's life. His daughter was a proud woman, and even though she'd never discussed her feelings towards the Prince before, he was starting to believe she truly and deeply loved him, especially after having witnessed her behavior ever since the warrior had left the planet. He took a deep breath and he stood up in front of her, he stretched his arm, silently asking her to take his hand and to stand up in front of him, which she did.

“Baby, come here…” he walked through the lab, with a silent Bulma following him, still holding his hand. He stopped when he reached a mirror that hung on one of the laboratory's walls. He turned towards her and he gently grabbed her by her shoulders, moving her until she was standing in front of him, looking at herself in the mirror.

“How could a man not miss someone like you?” he asked her with a proud smile.

Bulma felt her chin tremble, and a rebellious tear fell down her cheek.

“Daddy…” she whispered…

Dr. Briefs took the pendant that he'd been holding in his hand the entire time, he opened its clasp and he lovingly hung it around his daughter's neck.

“Wherever this comes from…” he whispered back “it must be extremely valuable to that man… Besides,” he smiled again, “it matches your eyes… It's almost as if it had been designed just for you…”

That made Bulma laugh through her tears, a good, honest to God, laugh.

The old man fatherly kissed her cheek and he whispered in her ear.

“Go get him, princess…”

She smiled and she turned around, giving her father a fierce hug.

“Thanks, daddy…” she whispered again.

Dr. Briefs hugged her back, until he finally let go, he nodded and he said, “Everything will be alright in the end, you'll see… Now go get some rest, tomorrow we'll start preparing your new ship, alright?”

Bulma nodded, almost feeling like a little girl in front of her father.

“Alright dad,” she said, kissing him again on the cheek.

“Goodnight”, she said as she walked towards the door.

“Goodnight, Bulma”, the doctor replied, stifling a yawn and scratching his little black cat almost absentmindedly, already thinking about tomorrow's work. There was much to be done…

Bulma walked through the hallways towards her bedroom, thinking that talking to her father had been the right choice. Even though their personalities were so different, his being the calm, quiet scientist type, and hers the loud and passionate kind, she'd always had a special connection to her dad and he was quite good at helping her sort out her ideas and think clearly. She stopped when she reached her baby's room and, despite her exhaustion, she couldn't help but enter it one last time to see that everything was all right.

She stood by the crib and she gawked at Trunks, smiling softly and shaking her head as she saw that he'd managed to remove his blanket once again. As she reached for the baby blue blankie, the memory of Vegeta doing the same came back to her, and she felt those damn tears come back again. She tucked in her son and she knelt by the crib, carefully touching one of his little hands with her finger and gasping softly when the baby grasped it firmly. She simply stared at him, allowing her tears to fall once again.

She cried for her child, for she knew that, if Piccolo was right about the bond and about the baby's intuition, Trunks was probably going to have a really hard time with both of his parents gone. She cried for Vegeta, and the possibility of her man really believing that he didn't deserve to live a normal, peaceful life with his mate and his son. And she cried for herself, because for the first time since she could recall, Bulma Briefs was afraid, and she had no idea what kind of difficulties she'd have to face.

Suddenly, she stood up and she wiped the tears from her face with newfound determination. She took a deep breath and she softly clutched the pendant that hung from her slender neck. And at that moment she made her decision: the Gods help her, she was going to find her Prince and bring him back home, where he belonged.