Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Majik ❯ The Healing ( Chapter 11 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ.

~*~ Chapter 11 ~*~

She was hanging suspended in a horrible thick liquid, fighting and struggling to swim her way to the surface of the glistening pool of darkness that she had sunken into…but it was so hard. There were things in the darkness with her, their hands were caressing her gently, tugging on her clothes and trying to hold her down as she fought free of the suffocating evil that surrounded her.

Eyes.

There were two pairs of eyes floating in front of her, weaving steadily back and forth. Forgetting about her struggle to break free of the darkness Bulma hung still in the liquid as the eyes came closer and she was able to make out two figures entwined around one another. One pair of eyes, the glowing red eyes, belonged to a huge black serpent that was almost indistinguishable from the darkness, what it made it stand out from the pitch black liquid was the luminescent white skin the tiny baby which it was coiled around. The child had eyes as blue as a spring sky, eyes which Bulma had seen in the mirror a thousand times.

They were her eyes…

~*~

Bulma jerked back into consciousness with a start, awaking to a gentle, rhythmic beeping sound - a heart monitor she realised dimly. She felt strange, almost detached from her own body. With a grunt of effort Bulma managed to open her eyes a crack, but quickly closed them again, her breath escaping form her lungs in a painful hiss as the bright light stung her sensitive eyes like a thousand sharpened needles. Her body shivering with fear and shock her eyes fluttered open again, long lashes shielding her eyes from the stark fluorescent light hanging above her.

Everything was a blur - not just visually but psychologically. It was impossible to make out anything but vague shapes, as her eyes seemed to be refusing to focus properly. It was disorientating, and her muddled memories were only adding to her confusion. What had happened? She could remember hearing the screeching of metal like a thousand screaming voices as the car had skidded along the road on its roof…she could remember the crash, the horrible flash of light behind her eyelids as the car had hit the ground with a thundering sound.

She could remember Eighteen dragging her out of the car, telling in a soft voice that it was going to be all right. There had been blood all over Eighteen and she could remember closing her eyes so as not to see the horrible red liquid. The next time she had forced her eyes open she could remember hearing loud sirens wailing close by. She'd been confused when she had opened her eyes to focus on a young man bent over her, a concerned expression on his face as he yelled "This ones pregnant - lets get her moving!" She'd been confused because he shouldn't have been able to tell that she was pregnant…she had only been with Goku for a few days…

Then there had come more darkness, seeping across her vision like blood from a wound. She could remember seeing the same young man with her in the back of an ambulance telling her that everything was going to be okay, that she was safe…she had seen Vegeta next to her in the ambulance. The paramedics had been trying to stop his bleeding and stabilise him - he'd been so pale that Bulma had thought him to be dead, but she had seen and heard his heart monitor beeping erratically as his heart faltered but continued to beat.

That had been the last thing she had seen before she had fallen into the liquid darkness that filled her mind.

"Oh, you're awake!" A chirpy voice exclaimed nearby. Bulma closed her eyes and opened them again, trying to force them to focus but all she saw was a big white blur bustling dizzyingly around her. "How are you feeling, Sweetie?" The voice chirped again as the blur loomed over her, filling her entire vision.

"Fine. My baby?" Bulma whispered hoarsely, acutely aware of how weak she appeared, lying in the bed like an invalid as the heart monitor beeped - a constant reminder of how close she had come to being taken by Death.

"Your baby is fine." The blue soothed her, moving away and gently taking her hand to feel for a pulse. "You were very lucky, most women in your condition wouldn't have been so lucky. You must have an angel looking after you" The white blur came to a halt near her head. "How are you feeling, Love? Nauseous at all?"

"I can't see."

An angel? Try two! Bulma thought as her mind slipped to Goku and Vegeta. Despite her discomfort and fear she could feel Goku's presence in her head like a steady pulse and oddly enough she could even sense Vegeta's presence tingling along her skin like electricity. He was alive and well - he and Goku both were.

"The general anaesthetic can affect your eyesight - it will pass. You were in a lot of pain when you were brought in, we had to operate on you straight away and had no choice but to put you under general anaesthetic to operate - you were bleeding internally." The white blur reacher up and took her wrist again. "As I said, you were very lucky your baby wasn't injured in that awful crash."

"What about the others in the accident?" Bulma abruptly grasped the nurse's hand with surprising strength; afraid she would disappear with out telling her the truth. For even though she could still feel Goku, something felt wrong about his presence. It was as though something was shielding her from feeling what was wrong with him properly. "What happened? Are they okay?" Her voiced rose to a hysterical high and the nurse pulled away.

"I don't think you should worry about that right now dear…"

"Please!" Bulma begged. "Please tell me."

The nurse sighed as though the news was terrible. "The woman known as Eighteen Gero is in intensive care, she suffered horrific head injuries and while she is remaining stable at the moment we don't know how much internal head trauma she suffered." The nurse paused. "The man, Goku Son, has a severe concussion and a broken leg, collar bone, fractured ribs and a punctured lung. He's been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last two days." The nurse paused then, as though she was hoping that Bulma would forget that she had left someone out.

"Two days…" Bulma gasped, her mind whirring shock at the amount of time she had been out for. "What about the other man?" She asked suddenly, zeroing in on the one person who the nurse had left out.

"The other man…Seventeen Gero. I'm afraid…" The blurred nursed sighed sadly and continued. "I'm afraid that he didn't make it. The main impact of the crash took place directly in front of him and he was killed instantly." The nurse shook her head as Bulma let several tears slip out, her breath sobbing in her throat.

"What about the other car?" Bulma tried to stop the tears, tried to sound normal and in control. "What happened to them?"

Please let them be okay! Vegeta and Yamcha were her childhood friends, it didn't matter that they'd been lying to her their entire lives - she still loved them.

"You knew them?"

"Knew them?" Bulma repeated hysterically, choking on a sob. "Oh God, no…" The pain of losing friends welled up inside of Bulma like a giant wave, threatening to wash over her.

"No, Sweetheart! Calm down, its okay!" The nurse shushed her, stroking her face with cool fingers. "Vegeta has a compound fracture in his leg as well as severe flesh wounds. He was suffering from extreme blood loss, but he pulled through." The nurse made to walk away but once again Bulma stopped her.

"What about Yamcha?"

The nurse paused again and Bulma knew what was coming. "I'm afraid that your friend Yamcha is deceased. He was thrown from the vehicle and died from blood loss and internal trauma on the way to the hospital." The nurse went even quieter as Bulma began to hyperventilate, the loss of Yamcha slashing through her like a knife. "I shouldn't be telling you this," The nurse continued, her voice dropping to a small whisper. "But you have a right to know. Your friend Yamcha's body went missing from the morgue last night." There was something in the nurse's voice that made Bulma tense up. "I've seen people survive some horrific crashes in my time, but what you and your friends survived…" The nurse paused. "You should have seen what was left of your cars. No one should have been able to walk away from that. No one." There was another pause. "I'm going to give you a sleeping sedative now to help you rest, no arguing please.

Bulma choked on a sob as the nurse stood up and began to fill a syringe with a clear liquid. Even if she had wanted to argue she didn't think she had the strength - everything just was so horrible and overwhelming. She felt a prick in the side of her thigh, and then a warm soothing feeling, which seemed to sink into her skin, enveloped her a moment later. All the pain and fear slowly sank back into the depths of her mind and Bulma slipped into a drugged and dreamless sleep.

~*~

Vegeta lay awake in his bed, his troubled ebony eyes focused blankly on the ceiling as he listened to the nurse explaining to Bulma what had happened. His stomach twisted as he heard of the death of Yamcha, but he soon calmed himself down as he remembered that Yamcha was immortal and has most likely escaped from the morgue and was healing himself. Eventually he heard the nurse inject Bulma with a sedative, he waited until she had left the room before he sat up in bed and pulled the aside curtain that separated his bed from Bulma's. His heart was beating like a jackhammer in his chest as he mulled over the unexpected news of Bulma's pregnancy.

Pregnant.

She was pregnant.

His Bulma was pregnant.

He didn't want to believe it…but he had no choice - he'd heard it from Bulma's own lips when she'd voiced her concern for her baby. As Vegeta peered across at the slumbering Bulma he noticed that there was already a lump on Bulma's once flat stomach - the baby was growing fast. All demonically spawned children generally grew faster then normal, but even he had never seen anything like this. At the rate at which her child was growing it would be only a few days time before it would be born, and he couldn't let that happen. He owed to all of humanity to stop the evil that threatened the safety of heaven and earth alike.

Vegeta looked at his leg disdainfully. The wound had healed already, but the cast was cumbersome and would no doubt prove a nuisance if it wasn't removed. Shrugging, Vegeta reached down and with one hand he tore the cast free. For a moment his leg stung from the sheer force with which he had removed the cast but then as he stood up, wobbling a little as the blood flowed back into his leg, the pain faded to nothing.

Moving as quietly and lithely as a jungle predator, He sauntered over to Bulma's bed and peered down at her. She was fast asleep thanks to the sedative. She looked so angelic in her sleep, so peaceful. It was hard to imagine that she was the devils lover and theoretically just as evil as the devil himself. Vegeta gently traced her lips, then scooped her into his arms, pulled the drip out of her hand and turned away from the bed.

In his arms Bulma murmured softly, her lips moving wordlessly against his chest as she dreamed. Vegeta glanced down as he started walking out of the ward but paused when he came to the bed in which Goku lay. The devil lay there unconscious, his pale skin looking paler then usual against the white sheets. He looked so ill that for the briefest if moments Vegeta was tempted to put Bulma down and pull the plug on Goku - end his miserable existence before he could recover and once again hunt for Bulma - but he didn't.

It wouldn't be honourable to kick Goku while he was down. Devil or not, Goku had been one of his closest friends while they were in heaven together. Killing him now while he was unable to fight back and defend himself was the cowardly thing to do.

Besides, he could never kill his brother.

Not even for his God.

~*~

Vegeta stopped the car outside of a hotel and got out. Grunting with the effort, he pulled Bulma into his arms and carried her into the building. Although he was fully healed, his strength was not yet back to it's full power and he was finding it hard to stay awake. His body was urging him to sleep again so he could recharge all of his powers but he had more important things to do then to sleep at this moment. He had to take care of Bulma and the thing inside of her.

"Goku?" She muttered, shifting in his arms as though frightened. "Goku where are you?" Her eyes strayed firmly shut but Vegeta had the distinct feeling that Bulma was not as unconscious as he had first thought. Physically she was out for the count but mentally he was picking up strange vibes from her that sent his own senses reeling. It was as though she was emanating with some strange power that he couldn't properly feel.

Vegeta felt his chest tighten as Bulma whimpered and murmured Goku's name again. How he longed to hear Bulma say his name like that, with such longing and…love. The angel swallowed down his anger and walked towards the counter in the hotel lobby, where an old man sat smoking a cigar and reading a paper. He'd get a room and wait for the woman to wake up - then he'd decide what to do with their little problem.

"I need a room for about two weeks." Vegeta slapped money down on the counter and took the key that the old man offered with out even looking up.

"It's number Seven, Sonny. Don't you go messing it up." The old man rustled his newspaper as Vegeta left the room with a slight smile on his face. Seven was his lucky number. Perhaps it was fate, perhaps all that was happening now merely the foreshadowing of the horrible events that had been prophesised by Goku all those years ago. It was neither a pleasant nor welcome thought, but Vegeta couldn't help but wonder if perhaps all his efforts were in vain and it was true that nothing could forestall the apocalypse.

"Goku?" Bulma muttered fervently in his arms, clearly trouble by some vision in her sleep. Vegeta held Bulma close to his chest and drew in her scent, feeling tears well up as she tried to pull away and cried for Goku again. Dejectedly, he opened the door to their room, kicked it shut behind him and carried Bulma over to the bed. Gently he set her down and ran his fingers through her hair, his eyes feasting on her every feature.

"It's okay, Bulma." He soothed her. "I'm going to help you." Vegeta gently ran his fingers over the stitches that marked where the doctors had operated on her; saving her life and the life of the thing inside of her. "Now this might hurt a little," He spoke to her as though she were awake and could hear his every word. "But it will heal you." Bulma's eyelids flickered as though she was seeing something in her sleep. Vegeta took a deep breath; it had been a long time since he'd used his ability to heal people. Carefully, fearful of causing Bulma pain, he snapped her stitches one by one and re opened the horrid wound. Being careful not to cause Bulma too much discomfort he ran his finger along the lips of the wound, flinching when Bulma whimpered fretfully in pain.

"Shhhh." He soothed hee once more. Vegeta bent down and ran his tongue along the mouth of the wound, under his tongue he could feel the skin melding together as though by magic. Pulling awake he licked his lips before returning his mouth to her wound - all it took was his saliva to knit her skin together. Vegeta drew away and admired his handiwork; the skin was smooth and flawless once again. He jumped when he saw her stomach move ever so slightly from the babies kicking inside of her.

Vegeta shook his head as he pulled her gown down again. It was still hard for him to believe that in only four days the demon spawn inside of her had matured enough to look as if Bulma were at least seven months pregnant. It was horrid to think of what the thing inside of her might be doing to Bulma. Perhaps it was influencing her with it's evil - polluting her blood. It didn't really matter though, soon he would put an end to all of this and Goku would once again be forced to wait until Bulma's next life to impregnate her.

Soon.

~*~

A/N - Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I was kinda busy this week with a whole host of things - but that isn't really a good excuse. All I can say is that this week this fic took priority over all f the others! Anyhow, let me know what you think of this chapter and any thoughts you might have on Bulma's child and how it might be affecting her would be good. I'm interested in knowing where you think I'm going with this whole 'demon child' thing.