Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wages of Sin ❯ Chapter 1

Wages of Sin

Chapter 1

The building loomed in front of her. Bulma wanted to turn the car around and go home, forget the whole mess, but she knew she couldn't. With a sigh, she shut the engine off and started through the cool night to the prison.

"What is a nice girl like you doing in an awful place like this?"

The familiar voice startled her and she spun around, cheeks burning, "I, umm, I was just…" she stammered, then smiled quickly changing the subject, "I didn't realize you worked here, Sixteen."

He chuckled, "I don't. Just transporting a prisoner. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I wish I wasn't" she murmured. "If I'd known you were here, I would have brought you a coffee," she joked. He was a frequent visitor to the restaurant she worked in. They were acquaintances, not friends and she was too embarrassed to tell him why she was there.

He seemed to take the hint and with a kind pat on the shoulder told her, "I'm sure things will get better for you." He grinned, "Gotta go back to work. Coffee for me tomorrow?"

"Of course," she laughed, relieved there were no more questions.

He tipped his hat and was out the door.

The smile fell from Bulma's face and she started through the checkpoints to enter the prison.

He was at a table in the visitor's room waiting for her, staring at the worn table. His fingers traced the graffiti carved into the scarred wood, and Bulma knew he was trying to find a way to explain.

"Didn't I tell you to be careful, Yamcha?" she asked, sitting across from him. She was too tired to even yell, and it came out more of a sigh.

His head snapped up to look at her, his eyes pleading, "I'm so sorry, Bulma, really I am." He tried to take her hand, but she pulled it away and removed a pack of cigarettes from her pocket instead.

"You're always sorry." She lit a cigarette and without thinking slid the nearly full pack across to him. "You know, most people tend to get better at things with practice, not worse."

He flinched, "I was doing it for you. I know how you hate working at that stupid restaurant." He reached across the table and caressed her cheek; "I was trying to take care of you."

"And it was too much to ask for you to get a real job?" she couldn't help snapping back at him.

"Where? There's nothing out there and you know that. I tried that remember?"

He was right, and they both knew there was no arguing the point, "You realize they won't go easy on you this time? How many times has it been?" She bit down hard on the inside of her lip to hold back the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"I know." He sighed, "but with the right lawyer…"

"How are we going to do that?" she cut him off. There was no way they could come up with the money they would need for a good lawyer. It was on the tip of her tongue to spit out a biting comment about his pathetic attempts at thievery, but she thought better of it.

He seemed to read her thoughts. "This time it's for real." He took the pack of cigarettes from the table and helped himself to one, sliding something in it as he did. He slid them back to her and leaned toward her for a light. "Take that to Goku, he'll know what I'm talking about." He whispered, accepting the light, before he sat back.

"I don't want to involve him in this!" she cried. "And you know it's not the first time you promised me something like this!"

"I'd ask you to trust me, but…" he trailed off, looking away for a moment, "Please, just take that to Goku."

She looked into his pleading eyes, and found herself unable to say no. "All right," she sighed, standing. "I'll be back soon."

He caught her hand before she could get too far away from the table, and pulled her toward him, catching her face between his hands. "I'm so sorry for all this. I will make this up to you one day, I swear!" he gently kissed her. He rested his forehead against hers, so he could look into her eyes. "I love you so much," he whispered, his voice choked with emotion.

"I know." She answered, covering his hands with hers. The hurt look that flashed in his eyes forced her to say, "I love you, too." She gently pried his hands away from her face and pulled away, unable to meet his eyes for fear he would see the doubt in hers. Instead she watched his hands clutching at hers until her fingers slipped through his as she walked away. She turned once when she was at the door, and looked at him, sad and alone, and blew him one final kiss. Once she was away from the door and he could no longer see her, she fled to the safety of the car. She was barely able to close the door before she broke down. Burying her face in her hands, she sobbed.

She wasn't sure how long she sobbed, alone in the car, but when she was done, she was exhausted. Her eyes were swollen and burning and her throat was raw and sore from the barely contained screams. She sat thinking of where to go. Home was out of the question; she couldn't face the empty house. Her parents? There was no way she could deal with that either. As a fresh batch of tears threatened to overcome her when she realized just how alone she really was. She thought of Goku and Chichi, they would be the easiest to face right now. She turned the car down the long, dark highway and wondered how her life had turned out so badly.

There were plenty of people and situations she could blame it on, but in all honesty, she knew she was the cause of most of it. Her poor decisions had lead her to this place in her life, and she didn't know if she would be able to get herself out of it.

The country was not the best place to live right now, hell, the whole world seemed to be ending some days, but that was nothing new. It had been going on for as long as she could remember. It was the wars that truly devastated everything. Even with all that, she had still had a chance, but she'd thrown it away when she'd left school and gotten married.

Everyone had warned her against it, but she was young and in love. Yamcha was so sweet and yet so dangerous. She'd thought she'd known what she was getting into. He could make anything seem possible and he loved her so much! Even now when she doubted her own feelings, she knew he still did.

Things had been good for a while. He'd even gotten a "real job" working long hours in a factory, just to make her happy. With the war, factories were working over time to keep up with the military demands. Then ironically, things had gotten bad for them when the war ended. As horrible as the war had been, it had had its advantages too. When it was over, the factories began to close and people lost their jobs, their homes, everything.

Yamcha had been lucky for a while, keeping his job, but not at nearly the money he had been making before. Bulma had gone to work; it was just suppose to be temporary, until things got better. They didn't; the factory had closed and there was nothing else out there. He'd gone back to stealing.

Unfortunately he wasn't the only one. Things had changed while he had been legit, and with so much crime, androids had been hired as Peacekeepers. They were far better than normal humans at finding and arresting criminals and it wasn't as easy for Yamcha to slip back into the life of crime he'd led before he and Bulma had settled down. He'd been arrested so many times, Bulma had lost count, but he refused to give up. He was always telling her "Just one more time, this one will be the big one, I know it" and then he was off and she would get a call that he had been arrested. She should have been used to it, but she'd decided she'd had enough. They had fought about it earlier, and she had told him if he was arrested again it was the end.

He'd gone anyway. She knew he would, but she had thought the threat of her leaving would make him more careful. It didn't, and now she was left to try and figure out what she would do. He'd been right about a good lawyer. The prisons were overcrowded and with the right argument anyone could be let off, but they didn't have the money for that. Even if they had the money, she had her doubts as to whether she would use it for a lawyer or not. Did she really want to be back in the same situation yet again?

That thought still fresh in her mind, she pulled into Goku's driveway. Steeling herself for the onslaught of questions to come, she started toward the house.