Nearly a week passed before Vegeta would go back for a second ultrasound. He was not particularly interested in what the sex of the child was, but more so how many there would be.

I had the feeling that we were going to have more than one, because his stomach had grown substantially by now. He had probably put on twenty pounds in just a week.

This time I was awake to go with him. Bulma had agreed to do the ultrasound, mostly out of curiosity. But she said this would be the last one she would do for us.

In the medical wing of Capsule corp., deep under the main building, Vegeta lay on his back (as I had been so used to seeing him on most nights).

As Bulma did the ultrasound, an awkward silence arose. Unable to stand it, I started up some small talk. “Uh… so… how are you?”

“Fine.” She answered shortly.

I could feel Vegeta’s anxiety rise.

I finally thought of something else to say. “How’re Goten and Trunks?”

She didn’t answer at first, distracted by the screen. “Comparing him to Vegeta, I would say he’s not pregnant.”

Those words filled me with such relief. There was so much less I had to worry about now. “You’re sure?” I asked shakily. It would be terrible to find out that she was wrong.

“Yes, I’m sure. He’s around here somewhere, if you want to see him. He’ll be going back to live with Chi-chi soon-” She stopped short of her sentence. She leaned in close to the screen.

“What?” Vegeta asked, his head jerking towards her nervously.

She began to count. “I see… four heartbeats.”

“Four heartbeats?” I asked dumbly.

“Look for yourselves.” She turned the screen around.

The picture was in black and white, and very fuzzy, but there were spots of pulsing black scattered throughout the screen. Two rested at the side of the screen, while one was up farther near Vegeta’s own heart. The last rested low by his hips.

“Four…?” I asked my mouth nearly falling open.

Vegeta raked one hand through his hair.

The initial relief for Goten I had previously felt had now been replaced by sheer panic. How were we going to care for four tiny babies? How where were going to survive with six fully-blooded Saiyans in the house? What were going to do?

It would have been bad enough if there had been twins, which I had been largely prepared for, but quadruplets?

I put my head in my hands to think.

Vegeta sat up and ventured over to me. He sighed.

That one night of fun had become the bane of my existence. I was going to be paying for it for a long time.

I suddenly wanted nothing to do with these children. I wanted to leave and never come back.

But I would never be able to bring myself to leave. I had started a family, and like it or not, I was going to have to step up and deal with them.

Even though I knew these children would be the death of us both, I was not going to let Vegeta know that.

“I guess we have a few more than we thought.” I gave him a lopsided grin, which he did not return. His face did not twist into a scowl or a sneer, but more like a look of saddened agreement.

Bulma continued to look at the pictures she had taken. “There is at least one boy. The other three are too cloudy for me to tell. The one up in the corner might me a boy too, but I’m not sure.”

So we had at least one boy. And if the other three were girls, we were sure to be broke by the time they hit sixteen.

I took a shakily breath. “Okay. Thank you, Bulma. We appreciate it.”

Vegeta glanced at her. They had a moment where their eyes met. I could see the unbelievable sadness in hers, and the numbness in his. They each wanted the other still, but could not bring themselves to say so.

I did not want to accept that I was responsible for their separation, and I did not want to let Vegeta go back to her.

I had never loved anyone this much. Even when I had still been with Chi-chi, I had never loved her like I love him. Even if he was hesitant to love me back, I could live with that, as long as we could be together.

Sometime I wished I knew just how he was feeling, what he was thinking. Sometimes I wished he was easier to read.

We left Capsule corp., unable to find Goten or Trunks. I was no longer eager to see them anyway, now that I had a brand new thing to deal with.

We reached the house, but did not go inside. There was a long silence.

We were both thinking.

“So… are you hungry?” I asked.

That night, Vegeta and I lay together, asleep. I was awoken by a screech on the window. I half-rolled to see what it was. When I discovered it was just a tree branch, and went back to Vegeta’s side to fall back asleep.

Vegeta rolled away from me, and sat up quickly.

“Kakorot,” his voice was strained, almost like he was scared.

I sat up on my elbows. “What’s wrong?”

He looked at me in the dark. I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he seemed upset. “We can’t care for four children.”

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to be fine.”

His breath was coming out in short almost sob-like gasps. “How are we going to feed them? Do you have any idea how much food a growing Saiyan needs?”

He was talking very fast, his sentences coming out all jumbled.

“I know that you’re worried, but you have to relax. It’s going to be all right,”

He was hyperventilating. “Kakorot, we can not do this. It’s going to be impossible,” he went off into a tangent of Saiyan, speaking even faster.

I didn’t react until I realized he was having a panic attack. “Vegeta, breathe,” I said gently.

He got out of bed, the silhouette of his round little belly reflecting the night starlight.

“They’re going to die,” He said in between the words he said in other languages.

I stood up as well to catch him just in case he freak out completely.

“Don’t,” He said and stepped back. His chest was heaving violently, “I can’t breath.”

I grabbed his shoulders in time to stop him from hitting the floor. I carried him back to the bed and lay him down on his back.

“Shhh…. Breathe… relax.”

His chest slowed it’s heaving until it moved at a normal rhythm.

“Are you okay?”

He nodded, his muscles relaxing.

I didn’t know if he’d ever done that before. I knew he would often wake up and be in a state of complete terrified shock, but I had never seen him overreact like this while he was awake.

I went to get him some water, but he wouldn’t let me leave the room.

So I lay back down with him.

“Has that every happened before?” I asked him.

“When I was younger it used to happen a lot. I didn’t have them as often once I left Freeza’s ship.”

It was dead silent after that. I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t want to say anything stupid.

I placed my hand over his stomach. It was firm, stretched. I traced his cute little bellybutton.

“We should think of names for them.”

“Vegeta Jr.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s… great… but there are four of them.”

“How about we just give the rest of them numbers?

I rubbed my face. “No.”

“Prince Michael Jackson?”

“No.”

He looked around the room. “Chair… Window… Bed… Door. There, done.”

“You’re not even trying.”

“How about we wait until their born so we know how many boys we have and how many girls.”

I sighed. “Okay, fine.” I really wanted to think of names now, but I could wait a few more months.

Sleep came soon after.

I woke up with the worst head-ache I ever had. It was like having a million brain freezes one after another.

I lay in bed all day, uninterested in getting up; not even to shower.

Vegeta had been awake for hours, busying himself around the house. He was apparently in the nesting stage of his pregnancy. He kept moving things all around the house; it was almost like an obsession.

He had changed the position of the bed twice already; he didn’t even bother to tell me to get off it first.

I was afraid to leave the room; fearing that he would make me do something.

I rolled over, glancing at the clock. It was noon already. I had never slept in this late.

I decided that, head-ache or not, I was going to get up and see if I could help him, even if I didn’t want to.

I shook my head so my hair would retain its shape. Then I left the room, pulling on my pants and a T-shirt as I went.

I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I reached the kitchen. I noticed that the oven was missing.

I asked Vegeta what happened to it.

“It was dirty, and I couldn’t get it clean. So I threw it outside because it pissed me off.”

I looked outside, and sure enough, there it sat on its side, all lonesome.

I sighed and put the oven back inside. I told him just because it wouldn’t get clean doesn’t mean he can punish it by throwing it outside.

It took me a long time to get the oven working again, mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought it was going to explode before I could get it.

When I could finally make some food, I had no interest to even use the oven any more. I made myself some toast and cereal instead.

I found Vegeta asleep on the couch, one arm strung over his eyes to keep out the sun.

I took up a seat on the floor, shoveling cereal into my mouth as I watched him sleep.

After a few moments he muttered something in his sleep.

“What?” I asked.

He repeated it. It was not in any language I had heard.

I simply stared at him.

“Un di mallon, gi alla; It means ‘Stop staring at me, you pervert’.” He said clearly.

“How long have you been awake?”

He shrugged. “I was awake long enough to hear you stuffing that into your mouth.”

I hadn’t realized I was that loud.

His arm dropped from his face. He had a beautiful face; perfect eyebrows, high cheek-bones, an angular jaw, almond-shaped obsidian eyes. If he were taller, he could easily be a model.

One of the things I liked about him was that even though he was cocky, he was largely unaware of how gorgeous he really was.

“I’m bored.” He said finally, trying to draw my attention away from staring at him. “And my stomach hurts.”

I stuffed the rest of my toast into my mouth and swallowed. “Like what kind of a hurt?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know; like I swallowed something sharp and it’s cutting me.”

“Did you swallow something sharp?” I found that to be an honest question, but he rolled his eyes with sarcasm.

“Yeah, I swallowed a bunch of needles while you were asleep.” He stretched one leg off the side of the couch; the other he bent at the knee. Then he tried lying on his side.

“Do you want some Advil?” I asked, getting up to put my dishes in the sink.

“No,” He began to say. He curled sharply, arms encircling his stomach. “Ahhh…”

I looked back into the living room in time to see him roll off the couch and onto the floor.

I hurriedly went to him, kneeling at his side.

He was screaming, becoming louder.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” He spat in between groans of agony, “I think it’s a breech,” There was fear in his voice, unmasked.

I wasn’t sure what ‘Breech’ meant to him. I asked him to elaborate.

“A…” He couldn’t think for a word to describe it. “What do you call it when it dies?”

I thought about it. “A miscarriage?”

He grit his teeth. “I don’t know the word. We need to get to Bulma.”

I nodded. I scooped him up into my arms, carrying him out the door. There was panic everywhere it seemed; the air itself seemed to go around us if only to hasten our trek to Bulma’s.

I could feel my heart pulsing in my ears. Fear like none I had experienced overwhelmed me. The thought that we could loose all of the children inside him all at once seemed unbearable.

I wasn’t sure how I had managed to get inside the house, but I had. I went to the basement, expecting to find Bulma there. She wasn’t.

Hesitant leave Vegeta on his own, I called to her. Eventually, I had no choice but to leave him in the basement and go look for her.

I looked al around the house for what seemed hours, but ended up being about ten minutes. She finally pulled into the driveway.

She began calling to Trunks to come help her carry in the groceries.

Before she could do anything, I grabbed her and took her to the basement. When we arrived there, we found Vegeta sitting in a pool of blood.