Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ You're What?! ❯ Only Eight Months Left ( Chapter 5 )

You're WHAT?! Chapter 5: Only Eight Months Left

Trunks, remembering what his mother had taught him, tipped Maurice, their loyal grocery deliveryman. The man had been delivering the Briefs groceries for years now, and had made himself a pretty penny by doing so. Needless to say, the Briefs went through a lot of food in a year. Chatting casually about how his summer vacation was going, Trunks escorted Maurice back to the main entrance of Capsule Corp. Once the man was gone, the young boy sprinted back to the kitchen to see if his mother had bought anything good. Pulling the stepstool up to the counter, so that he could see into the brown paper bags, Trunks started emptying out the contents. He was actually kind of surprised that there were only a couple of bags. Normally, there were enough bags to cover every available space in the kitchen.

The boy's face scrunched up in disgust and confusion at the items he was pulling out. There were a couple of bottles of ginger ale, some boxes of herbal tea, saltine crackers, pretzels, potato chips, pasta, a freshly baked loaf of bread, peanut butter, a bottle of vitamin B-6, ground ginger, and a prescription of doxylamine. Where was the red meat, candy, ice cream, pizza, and soda pop? Ginger ale, in Trunks' mind, did not count as pop. Who really liked that stuff anyway? No self-respecting kid would ever own up to liking such a drink. It was all about drinking a beverage with the most sickening sweet and sugary taste: like Mountain Dew.

Trunks looked over the items that lay strewn around the countertop and rolled his eyes. It was a very disappointing shopping trip. The boy only hoped that his mother wasn't going on some silly diet again. She was constantly worried about gaining a few pounds or looking old. Trunks thought his mom was the most beautiful woman on the planet. He didn't understand why she always felt like she was less than perfect. Dad thought she was, so why couldn't she see it. Trunks shrugged and guessed that this was the type of confusing things women did that his father was always warning him about.

Not bothering to put the groceries away, Trunks hopped on down from his perch on the stepladder and left the kitchen. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard his mom and grandma walk into the living room. Turing back around, Trunks started to descend the stairs and see how his mother's doctor appointment had gone. He stopped and kept his presence hidden as he heard his mom speak in a grave voice. Trunks could tell that something was wrong, and he knew that the adults would never tell him what was going on if he walked in on them now. Therefore, it was best to play secret agent. Situations like this called for some good old fashion spying!

"Remember Mom, I don't want you to act like anything is wrong, and don't tell anyone about what the doctor said today. You promise?" Trunks stuck his head around the corner of the wall to see his mom and grandma walk into the kitchen. Levitating off the ground so he wouldn't make any sound, the lavender-haired child floated on over and landed at the wall adjoining the kitchen and the living room, being sure to stay completely hidden from view. "Well, at least we know the groceries got here." He heard his mother say in a slightly amused voice. He heard the crinkling of bags and the opening and closing of cabinets, as the two women started putting away the items they had purchased earlier that afternoon.

"So sweetie, when do you plan on telling Vegeta and Trunks? You can't wait forever. You don't have that much time." His grandmother said, her voice not quite as chipper as normal. That put Trunks on high alert. Things were serious if his grandmother wasn't acting like a total Valley Girl.

"I don't know. I guess I might as well tell Vegeta first and get his reaction, and hopefully his support, before I spring the news on Trunks. Perhaps over a nice dinner tonight would be the best option. I could see about Trunks spending the night at Goten's." He heard another cabinet close. "Yes, that's what I'll do. The sooner I tell them the better." Due to the fact that Trunks was hidden behind the wall, he did not see his mother turn to his grandmother with her hand over her belly. "Can you believe I only have eight months left?!" She said in wonder and Trunks quickly placed his hand over his mouth, trying to stop the gasp from escaping his lips.

"I know dear. And the time will fly by. Enjoy it while you can, and remember, I am here for you if things ever seem to rough and you don't think you can live through another day." Trunks heard his mom sniffle and carefully peeked his head around the corner. The two women were locked in an embrace, his grandmother stroking his mom's hair in a comforting manner. Trunks eyes filled with tears. He couldn't believe what he had just heard! Without a sound, Trunks literally flew on down the hall and into the corridors of Capsule Corp. The boy slowed down as he reached his destination: the Gravity Room.

Practically sobbing, Trunks engaged the override and shut down the gravity. A string of curses was heard as Trunks opened the door, but the boy paid the words no heed. Trunks raced in and slammed into his father.

"Thank you Mom. You don't know how much that means to me." Bulma expressed as she pulled away from the embrace Trunks had witnessed. She wiped away the tears that she had shed and hugged her mother one more time. With her emotions back under check, Bulma started walking her mother to the back door.

"Now remember, if Trunks can't stay the night at Goten's feel free to send him on over to see us! Your father and I just love having that young man over." Mrs. Briefs instructed as she exited the house to walk on over to the other side of the compound where their retirement house was located. Once Capsule Corp.'s ownership was transferred over to Bulma, her parents had decided it was time to leave the main house. Bulma had been grateful. It was nice to have a house where only her family resided. But, it was always a comfort to know that if she ever needed anything, her parents were only a few minutes walk away. "Now take care of yourself Bulma, dear. I'll give you a call in the morning to find out how things went. Good bye, sweetie." Bulma returned her farewell and smiled as her mother started on her walk.

Walking back into the kitchen, Bulma decided that she needed to call Chi-Chi to see if Trunks could possibly stay there for the night, then she needed to get the robots programmed for dinner. While, it was true that Bulma's cooking had improved greatly over the years, she was not taking any chances tonight. Things needed to be perfect when she sat down with Vegeta. Grabbing her purse, Bulma walked upstairs and into her bedroom. Bulma glanced over at her bed. She couldn't remember a time when it had looked so inviting. It took all of her willpower not to go and lie down on the bed and take a nap. So truly felt drained, and it was depressing to know that for the next couple of months she would be experiencing that feeling a lot. Perhaps she could sleep in a little bit, but she had a few matters she needed to clear up first. Picking up her phone she dialed the Son household.

"Hi! Son residence, this is Goku speaking." Bulma heard the cheerful voice of her friend. Bulma couldn't help but laugh as she answered.

"Hello Goku, this is Bulma. I see Chi-Chi has been working pretty hard to teach you how to answer the phone properly!" She jested with her friend. Goku let out a hardy chuckle. She could just picture him standing there with his hand behind his head in his trademark pose.

"Yeah. Chi-Chi is bound and determined to get me comfortable with using technology. I don't see what the big deal is though. I get along fine without lots of fancy gadgets." Goku responded with his normal innocence.

"I guess she just wants you to keep up with the times. A telephone after all isn't exactly a 'fancy gadget'. Perhaps if you used a phone one every once in awhile, you would be able to stay in touch with your friends!" Bulma said, hinting at Goku's lack of correspondence with her. She always made sure to make some sort of comment about her friend's lack of effort when it came to keeping in touch with everyone. It annoyed her to no end that the man could never find the time to at least say hi.

"Oh, come on Bulma! It's not my fault. I've just been busy training, that's all. I'm sorry. I'll try and be better, I promise." Goku practically whined, knowing that it was only a matter of time before Bulma called him out.

"Sure Goku. Whatever," Bulma replied with a roll of her eyes. This conversation was getting her nowhere, and fast. "Anyway, I was just calling to see if perhaps Trunks could come over to spend the night. I have something important to discuss with Vegeta and I would really like it if Trunks wasn't here to accidentally overhear."

"Well, let me just make sure with Chi-Chi, but I don't think it would be a problem if he was to come on over. I know Goten would love to have
Trunks over for a sleepover. Hang on just one second." Goku placed his hand over the receiver, but Bulma could still hear her friend yell the question to his wife. Bulma smirked. Goku would always be that little boy she had found in the woods. "Hey, Bulma?" He asked; making sure she was still there. Bulma answered. "We would love to have Trunks for the night. Just send him on over whenever!"

"Thank you Goku, and thank Chi-Chi for me too. I really, really appreciate this, especially given the short notice."

"No problem. I'll talk to you later then, ok?"

"Sure thing. Bye Goku." After Goku had said goodbye, Bulma hung up the phone. Well at least that was one thing out of the way. Looking over at her bed longingly, Bulma left her room and entered her son's to pack up an overnight bag. All she would have to do after this small task was get dinner rolling. Bulma looked at her watch. She still had plenty of time; perhaps she would be able to take a nap yet. Something was telling her that she would need all her strength tonight.

Vegeta hit the floor of the Gravity Room with a thud. Muttering every known curse in his vocabulary, Vegeta started to rise. Who dared to interrupt his training? Whoever it was, they were going to wish that they had never been born when he was through with them. Vegeta had just gotten up off the floor when his distraught son tackled him, sending them both to the floor. Vegeta growled and pushed the boy off of him.

"What are you doing boy?" The Saiyan Prince hissed. His tirade stopped before it truly even began as Trunks once again latched onto his father, holding him as though his life depended on it.

"She's dying!" The young half-Saiyan sobbed. Vegeta roughly pulled the boy off of him, holding him at arms length.

"What?" Vegeta asked annoyed. What was the boy talking about?

"Mom! She's dying. I heard her talking to grandma in the kitchen." He started hysterically, everything rushing out all at once. "Mom didn't want Grandma to say anything to us. She made her promise. Then mom was worried about how she was going to tell us and she only has eight months and grandma said that she would help her if she ever felt like she wasn't going to live another day." Trunks managed to tell the last part of his story all in one breath, making it hard to fully understand what exactly the boy was trying to express.

"Slow down boy. Breathe," he instructed to the practically hyperventilating youth. Trunks took his fathers advice and started taking deep breaths, swatting away the tears as he did so. He hated to cry in front of his father, it made him feel weak but he just couldn't help it in this situation. He didn't want to think about losing his mother! Vegeta noticed his son regaining his composure, the only sound in the room was Trunks' hiccupped breathing due to his sobs. "Now, calmly tell me what has happened. You're mother told you she was dying? That's what the doctor told her?" Vegeta asked, his voice devoid of emotion. He wasn't going to go flying off the handle until he got all the facts straight. There was no way his mate could be dying. At least that was what the majority of his brain was telling him; however, there was that one nagging doubt that maybe his son spoke the truth. No! He wouldn't believe it until he heard it from Bulma's mouth.

"No. Mom didn't tell me directly. I heard Mom and Grandma return from the doctor's, and they were talking very seriously. I heard Mom telling Grandma that she couldn't tell anyone about mom's condition. I knew then that Mom would never tell me what was wrong so I stayed in hiding and listened in to their conversation. It was then that Mom talked about how she was going to tell us the news. She plans on sending me away to stay at Goten's and telling you over dinner tonight. She then said, 'can you believe I only have eight months left?'. That was when Grandma said that she would be there for her and that things would be rough, but she should just make the most of the time she has! Then Mom started crying and grandma held her. I left after that." Trunks finished, his head hanging low. He then looked up at his Dad, and never had Vegeta seen such fear in the boy's eyes. "I don't want Mom to die!" He whispered, fighting off the new batch of tears that threatened to spill.

Vegeta sighed. There had to be some explanation for all of this. His mate was not dying. She couldn't die. What would he do without her? The proud prince growled. He did not need to get hysterical like his son. The boy had only overheard part of a conversation; who knows what valuable information he had missed. "Trunks, I need you to settle down. The way you are acting is unbefitting a prince. I'm sure your mother is not dying."

"How can you be sure? You don't know any more than I do." Trunks lashed out, breaking free from his father's grasp. Vegeta stood up and looked down at his son with an icy stare.

"Precisely. You don't know everything either, you just said it yourself. You heard part of a conversation, that's it. Who knows what your mother was talking about. I know the parts you heard could lead someone to believe that your mother may be dying, but I won't believe it until I hear it directly from your mother's mouth. And even then, I will want a second opinion. Who knows how much of a quack this doctor she went to really is. Now, I want you to put these thoughts out of your head. You must be strong son. Until we have solid proof of what is going on, don't jump to conclusions. Got it?" Vegeta asked his son harshly, pleased to see him nodding his head and looking ten times better than he had when he came storming in.

"And what are you two doing in here? I was surprised to see the gravity turned off." Both Trunks and Vegeta spun around to see Bulma entering the training chamber, the smile she was wearing quickly disappearing as she saw Trunks' red puffy eyes. "Sweetie, what's wrong? Why have you been crying?" She asked in concern, shooting an accusing glare at Vegeta. Vegeta put on his best innocent face, which was not all that innocent looking, and shrugged his shoulders. It would figure that Vegeta had actually done something rather fatherly and Bulma missed it all.

"I'm fine Mom. Dad was actually helping me." Bulma looked up at her husband in amused shock, a grin on her face.

"He was, was he? Good job daddy." She said with a playful wink. Vegeta glowered, which just made Bulma grin even more. "Well come on honey, I have a special dinner planned for your father and me. You get to go stay with Goten tonight, how does that sound?" Bulma asked her son as she came to put an arm around his shoulder to lead him out of the room.

"Sounds great mom," he answered, less than enthused.

"What's wrong?" Bulma asked, concerned that her son wasn't falling over himself at the chance to hang out with his best friend.

"Who cares? You can talk about this elsewhere. I need to train and you two are just wasting my time." Vegeta practically snarled, his patience wearing thin.

"Fine!" Bulma yelled, ushering Trunks out of the room before turning back to Vegeta. "You are an asshole! There is something wrong with our son and you could care less."

"I was doing just fine before you came in! But did you see that? No. Now get out of my face. You want me to come to your stupid dinner, then let me train." Vegeta yelled, angry at Bulma's scolding. Bulma huffed and bristled at his response, but bit her tongue. She did not need to get into a full-blown argument with Vegeta.

"I'm out of here. Enjoy your training. You just better be at dinner." Bulma stormed out of the Gravity Room. "Six o'clock sharp," she called over her shoulder and then slammed the door to the room. Vegeta sighed, finally he'd have some peace and quite. Outside the room, Bulma smirked as she reengaged the Gravity, slamming Vegeta, who was unprepared for the sudden shift, to the ground. As she walked on down the corridor she heard the door open and Vegeta step out of the room.

"Blasted woman!" He screeched angrily. Bulma didn't even turn around at his outburst but kept on walking down the hall. Enraged even further, Vegeta clenched his fists and then entered his gravity room to finish his training and keep his mind off of his mate.

Poor Trunks! I guess it is true that nothing good ever comes from eavesdropping. So, what did you guys think? I'm glad that so many of you are enjoying the story as much as I enjoy writing it! I'll have the next chapter out soon, and it should be a good one. Vegeta will finally find out about Bulma's condition. I can hardly wait!

Until Next Time…