Bulma didn’t leave her room for the next two days. She spent her time crying, cursing herself for crying, then cursing Vegeta for turning out to be the lying creep she’d known he was all along. When her mother checked on her, Bulma would only say she wasn’t feeling well. This was the wrong thing to say since her mother decided to "mother" her even more—popping in every couple of hours with soup or liquids or medication. Bulma finally feigned sleep in an effort to keep her mother at bay. She just wanted to be left alone with her abject humiliation.

After two days, Bulma decided her one-person pity party was over. She got up, got dressed and went back to work. She had lunch with friends. She went shopping. She told jokes and laughed at those told by others. She encapsulated the gravity room and stuck it in a bottom drawer. She almost destroyed it, but decided that the money and resources she had poured into it far outweighed any immature satisfaction she might get out of smashing it. Besides, Goku or Gohan might want to use it one day.

When the television reports started about Kathleen Revenant, the world class opera diva who suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving several production companies and her record label in the lurch; Bulma knew where she’d gone. Somehow, she knew Kathleen Revenant was with Vegeta and Bulma gave herself a huge pat on the back that the thought didn’t make her jealous at all.

Eight weeks later Bulma decided that she had done a fabulous job of getting over being suckered into being Vegeta’s plaything. After all, she was the only one on the planet who knew that she’d slept with him. It wasn’t like anyone else would ever find out—Kami knows she’d chew off her own arm before she’d admit it to anyone else. Occasionally she would wonder what would happen when Vegeta came back—and he would come back, she was certain. Goku was here and the one thing she knew he didn’t lie about was his obsessive need to kill Goku. She didn’t worry over the confrontation though; she had faith in her friend. Goku would win. Goku always won. There wasn’t anything to worry about.

So all in all, Bulma was in a good mood when Chi-chi stopped by one afternoon to borrow her mother’s good vacuum. It seemed Chi-chi wanted to do some heavy-duty cleaning and her mother’s vacuum was far superior to Chi-chi’s older model. So good was Bulma’s mood that she even invited Chi-chi to stay for some tea and conversation. The topic, as usual, was Gohan’s studies.

"So do think we should have Gohan take the advanced math placement test?" Chi-chi asked.

Bulma was at the counter getting the cups and spoons together for the tea.

"Oh, definitely," she answered. "The earlier he gets exposed to higher math the better."

She turned and one of the spoons she was holding slipped to the floor. Bulma bent over and grabbed the spoon, but when she stood back up an attack of lightheadedness seized her and she grabbed the counter for support.

"Are you all right?" Chi-chi asked.

"I feel fine most of the time. It’s just when I stand back up too quickly I feel like I’m going to faint. And in the afternoons, I’m dead tired. It’s everything I can do not to go crawl into bed at four o’clock. I feel great in the morning, but I’m just so sleepy in the afternoon. I suppose I should drag myself into the doctor. I’ve probably got low iron or something."

"Maybe," Chi-chi said thoughtfully. "Are your breasts tender?"

"What?" Bulma asked, alarmed. "You don’t think I have cancer, do you?"

"No, no, nothing like that. It’s just. . . Bulma, please forgive me for this personal question, but. . .could you be pregnant?"

"Chi-chi, please!" Bulma laughed. "I said I was tired, not puking up my guts every morning."

"I never had morning sickness," Chi-chi said. "But I got lightheaded just like you when I stood up suddenly and I took a nap every afternoon for the first three months."

Chi-chi’s word sunk in slowly and Bulma suddenly felt like a deer caught in someone’s headlights—she couldn’t move.

"No," she breathed. Then more forcefully, "No!" She was NOT pregnant. She wasn’t.

"When was your last cycle?" Chi-chi asked.

"No! I am not pregnant! There are lots of reasons for your period to be late! I’ve been under a lot of stress and obviously there’s something wrong with me but I’M NOT PREGNANT!"

"Bulma, calm down! I’m sorry I upset you."

But it was too late. Chi-chi could see the signs of panic in Bulma’s eyes and knew regardless of what Bulma said, she could indeed be pregnant. Chi-chi tried a different approach.

"Bulma, it’s not the end of the world if you’re pregnant. Maybe this is the thing you and Yamcha need to get off the fence you’ve been on for the last ten years."

"It’s not Yamcha’s," Bulma said quickly. Her eyes were filling with tears. In a few moments she’d probably be wailing.

"Then who. . .?" Chi-chi asked.

Bulma couldn’t say the name, but her eyes darted out the window to where the gravity machine used to stand.

Chi-chi covered her mouth, appalled. "Oh you poor thing! Vegeta raped you?"

"No!" Bulma blurted out. Then more softly, "No. He didn’t. . . I was willing." Every goddamn time. She sat down helplessly. The tears were falling now, streaming silently down her cheeks.

"You mean you. . ." Chi-chi was about to lay into Bulma about how incredibly stupid she was to sleep with that murdering monster, but one look at Bulma’s pale, drawn features stopped her. That won’t help now, she thought.

"Look, no need to panic yet. We don’t even know if you are pregnant. Like you said, there are lots of reasons you could be feeling this way. How about I run to the store and get a test, hmm? Let’s find out for sure and then you can decide what to do."

Chi-chi grabbed her purse and ran to the store to get the test. When she came back she saw that Bulma was still sitting in the same chair, but she had buried her face in her hands. Chi-chi helped her to the restroom and gave brief instructions on how to use the test. Bulma wordlessly took the test in and shut the door.

Chi-chi didn’t hear any noise from the bathroom for a long time. Then finally she heard the test being opened and used. Another eon passed. Chi-chi was about to knock on the door when Bulma opened the door and held the stick out to Chi-chi, displaying the positive result.

"Oh god, Bulma! What are you going to do?" Chi-chi asked.

Bulma’s face twisted into a mask of misery.

"Looks like I’m going to have a baby," she said and then she collapsed crying into Chi-chi’s arms.

*************************************************************

Bulma waited until her physician confirmed that she was indeed pregnant before she told her parents, who took the news with their usual aplomb.

"A baby! Bulma, how wonderful!" Bulma’s mother hugged her. "It’s a pity Vegeta’s not here to share in the good news!"

It was on the tip of Bulma’s tongue to ask her mother just how she knew Vegeta was the father of her child, since supposedly no one even knew they’d been sleeping together. Well, that hardly matters at this point. Now everyone’s going to know, she thought. I don’t think I can keep a half-alien baby a secret, especially if he’s born with a tail like Gohan.

Bulma’s mother rattled on with plans for the baby, the nursery and maternity clothes.

"You know, we should get that young man who did Patricia’s niece’s nursery to do your baby’s! He did such a lovely job. It had little zebras all over the place and was just adorable! I guess you’ll want to use that bedroom next to yours for the nursery. I’ll get to work tomorrow on getting it cleared out. . ."

"Mom, that’s the other thing I want to tell you. I . . .I’m moving out."

"Moving out? Bulma, surely you’re not serious! Now is when you’ll need me the most."

"I know, Mom, and it would be so easy for me to stay here and let you handle everything; but I think it’s time I grew up, Mom. I think I need to do this for myself."

"What did you have in mind?" her father asked.

"I thought I’d just put a house out by our country house. Nothing too big since I don’t want too much to take care of, just room for me and the baby."

"But what about when Vegeta comes back?"

"Mom, we don’t know for sure that he IS coming back." And if he does, she added silently, it would probably be to kill us all. "I’ll worry about that if it happens."

So Bulma put a Deluxe Capsule House SE on the property in the country. It was a cute two-bedroom and at first, she had fun fixing it up since that involved lots of shopping. As her pregnancy progressed, however, Bulma began to feel less and less excited and more apprehensive about her future. She was extremely fortunate that when she started to show a celebrity couple’s breakup was making the headlines, so the unwed pregnancy of the heir to Capsule Corp. was all but ignored. Even if the rest of the world wasn’t paying attention though, Bulma knew that eventually one of her friends would call or stop by and then her pregnancy—and the unlikely father—would get all the attention it deserved.

She was seven months pregnant and visiting her mother when Yamcha finally took a break from his desert training and stopped over at the family’s quarters at Capsule Corp. Even though she’d been mentally preparing herself for this moment for months, Bulma wanted to run and hide before her mother could show Yamcha into the room. Kami, this just isn’t fair!, she thought for the millionth time since she found out she was pregnant.

"Hey babe—" Yamcha started. "—y. . . "

His smile faded as looked at Bulma’s belly. Bulma watched his face as he mentally counted months and came to the conclusion that the baby was not his. He would not ask the question that Krillin might have asked because he knew Bulma better than anyone. He knew without asking that Bulma had done what he’d always teased her about, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier to take.

"No fucking way," he said.

Bulma’s faced burned red and he knew he was right. Well, he’d known all along, but her embarrassment confirmed his suspicion. He was about to speak when Bulma’s mother entered the room.

"Here’s your iced tea, Yamcha! Oh, I see you’ve seen Bulma’s big surprise! Isn’t it exciting?" Mrs. Briefs asked.

"That’s one word for it," Yamcha said. "’Unexpected’ also comes to mind."

"Well, the best things in life are usually surprises, I always say!"

"Mom. . ." Bulma tried to interrupt her mother.

"Vegeta is just going to be beside himself when he gets back, you know, "Mrs. Briefs continued.

"Mom!" Bulma finally got her mother’s attention.

"Yes, Bulma?"

"I’m suddenly famished and I’m sure Yamcha’s starving too. Could you go make us a couple of plates of those fabulous finger sandwiches you do?" Bulma smiled prettily.

"The chicken salad ones with the cucumber? Oh, but I’m out of cucumber. . ."

"Then go get one at the store." Bulma rubbed her belly for effect. "Please?"

"Of course, dear! We can’t have that baby starving, can we?"

Bulma turned to Yamcha after her mother left the room. "Sorry. Mom’s a little more over the top than usual these days."

"Vegeta’s not here?"

"No, he left Earth months ago."

"And he doesn’t know about the baby?"

"No."

"Really? I’m surprised you haven’t contacted him with the good news," Yamcha said. "I’m sure the arrogant bastard will be thrilled to know he’s sired an heir." He knew he sounded childish, but he didn’t care. The reality that Vegeta had had her—his Bulma—was beginning to gnaw at him. He felt jealous and cheated somehow. He refocused on what Bulma was saying.

". . . so I’ve just concluded he’s either broken or disabled the communication system or that somehow he’s gotten out of range of his transmitter. Although how he could do that so quickly is beyond me—"

"Why, Bulma?" Yamcha asked. "Why did you have to give yourself to that prick-bastard? Does being treated like shit appeal to you that much? If I had known that I wouldn’t have caved into you for ten years, that’s for damn sure! Do you know how it makes me feel to know that you went into his arms after mine? Nobody likes to think about their ex-girlfriend with someone else, but you’d like to think it won’t be the man who killed you!"

"Vegeta didn’t kill you, you know that! It was Nappa’s—"

"Well, pardon me if I don’t see the fucking difference. I guess a year of DEATH kind of clouds the issue!"

This was exactly what Bulma had expected, that her friends would feel betrayed, that they would feel as if their deaths and suffering meant nothing to her. Hearing it from Yamcha’s lips was more than she could take though, and she began to cry.

"I’m so sorry, Yamcha! I was stupid and blind and foolish. I can’t blame you if you hate me, Kami knows I hate myself, I hate my life, I hate this baby. It’s everything I deserve for being so stupid, but it’s not fair! It’s not fair!"

Yamcha was stunned. He’d seen Bulma in virtually every emotional state he thought possible, but he’d never seen her like this—helpless and hysterical. He did the only thing he knew to do; he put his arms around her.

"Shhhh, Bulma. Don’t cry, I don’t hate you. It’ll be OK, I promise." He felt her calming as he stroked her hair. "Your mom seems to think Vegeta’s going to be thrilled with the baby."

Bulma pushed herself out of Yamcha’s arms and wiped her eyes. "Since when do you take my mother as an authority on anything?" She sat down and Yamcha sat down next to her. "He won’t care. He doesn’t care about me and he’s certainly not going to care about. . .how would he put it? ‘Some mewling half-breed infant’ Yeah, I think that would probably sum up his attitude."

"That sounds like something he would say," Yamcha said. "But how on Earth did you ever wind up in bed with him anyway? I know I accused you of having a thing for him, but that was mostly teasing. You can’t tell me he suddenly turned into a nice guy, because I won’t believe it."

"It’s a long story, but one night we wound up in a kiss and after that all I could think about was him. . .and he seemed to feel the same way. We, uh, spent about three weeks having this affair at night and then one day he told me he was bored with it and that the only reason he treated me like he liked me was so I go to bed with him. Oh, and he told I’d make a great whore."

"That bastard! I bet you gave him hell for that!"

"Well, uh, I was a little too shocked by the entire conversation and he left for space before I could compose myself to let him have it. He took the newest capsule model too. Asshole." She sighed and rubbed her belly. "So here I am. The biggest secret I ever had has become public in a way I can’t avoid. I can’t imagine what Krillen and Tien will think. I’ve avoided poor Gohan so much he probably thinks I don’t like him anymore, but I just can’t tell that little boy the man who tried to crush the life out of his dad is the father of this baby."

"You don’t really hate the baby, do you?" Yamcha asked.

Another sigh. "No. I just. . . .It’s not supposed to be like this, you know? You’re not supposed to dread announcing the birth of your baby. You’re not supposed to be alone."

"You’re not alone, Bulma. I’m still your friend and I’m here if you need me."

"Thanks, Yamcha. You have no idea how much that means to me." She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don’t deserve you."

"Yes, you do, babe." He kissed her forehead. "Yes, you do."

***************************************************************************

As always, extra-special thanks and hugs to beta-extraordinaire, Ember! *applause*